Dr. Stein, Investments, and Ethics
The other day, the website DailyBeast published a story hit piece about Jill Stein's investments. The gist of it was that she takes public positions on environmental issues that are contradicted by her investments. For instance:
Stein has invested $995,011 to $2.2 million in funds such as the Vanguard 500 fund that maintain significant stakes in Exxon and other energy companies like Chevron, Duke Energy, Conoco Phillips, and Toho Gas, a Japanese company that engages in the sale of natural gas, tar, and coke, a fuel made from coal.
Wow. That's pretty damning, right? Or is it? Let's take a look. First, we have Jill's response:
“If Mr. Ali is truly interested in conflicts of interest of political candidates and their families, where is his disclosure on the conflict of interest posed by Chelsea Clinton's position as a director of the corporate owner of the Daily Beast, IAC? He has created an imagined conflict of interest, perhaps to distract from the very real, harmful conflicts of interest in the Clintons’ pay-to-play schemes, back-room fundraising, and quarter-million dollar speeches for the predatory banks, health insurance industry, and fossil fuel tycoons, who have directly benefited from Hillary Clinton’s policy record as Senator and Secretary of State, as well as from Bill Clinton’s actions as President.”
So that's pretty interesting, Chelsea owns the Daily Beast. Hmmm. I wonder what other Clinton conflicts of interest there are in this story.
According to CBS Marketwatch, in 2015, Hillary had all of her investment portfolio wrapped up into just one mutual fund. A fund which Warren Buffett suggested for his wife to choose. That fund is the Vanguard 500.
Returning to Dr. Stein's statement:
Mr. Ali has failed to show a conflict of interest in Dr. Stein’s investments, as her policy positions have consistently opposed the interests of the companies that form a portion of most index and mutual fund profiles.
The Beast hit piece insinuates that there is an inherent conflict of interest in Dr. Stein's investments, or at the very least a serious ethical misjudgement.
Dr. Stein's financial interests are completely at odds with her policy positions.
On the other hand, Hillary is invested in the *same* fund but has policy positions that endorse fracking and an incremental approach to climate change. One works against her own self interests and the other works for them. Now where is the conflict of interest and ethical lapse, really?
I'm not saying Jill shouldn't be criticised, it's just that this article does a piss poor job at disclosure. Significant information was omitted, and frankly it kind of reeks of desperation.
Comments
The actual response, Index and Mutual funds blah blah blah
from your link:
I didn't even know there WAS a reply!
Unsurprisingly, her response is superb. In my own feeble way, I touched on some of it when I commented "What would you have her do?", and "This is the world we live in". Also unsurprisingly, another commenter got vociferous in their disdain for my comment (the term "fucking hypocrite" was used). Funny how people deride Stein supporters for being "purity" nuts, then attack her for not being "pure" enough.
Similar to Sanders
For years, the so-called centrists derided the left for allegedly being fixated on one issue--though I never figured out what that one issue was, since I have at least 20 on which I'm focused. Then Sanders runs and the only thing they can think about is his F to D- rating from the NRA, which supposedly made him too pro-gun for them. Funny, though: they still love Park Avenue Howard Dean, who got himself an A rating from the NRA as Governor of Vermont.
Yep...
That unwitting, unfortunate creature, Chelsea has been the chief honcho of The Daily Beast for quite some time. The Daily Beast is owned by these people: http://iac.com/about/overview
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
and the Chair is ... ding ding ding! Barry Diller
http://iac.com/about/leadership/board-directors/barry-diller
Uh-huh, thanks for that? No, just no. Stop these people now please stop the madness. mmph
Peace
If Investing In A Mutual Fund Is The Worst "Scandal"
the DailyBeast could come up with, that confirms to me that Jill is one of the rarest of politicians -- an honest person.
Most people only focus on the mutual funds historical returns, not on the fund portfolio which constantly churns through companies. Now if it was the Vanguard Oil & Gas Fund, I might be inclined the think about it.
And Chelsea is on the DailyBeast's parent company board -- ding ding ding , we have a winner. More Clinton propaganda. The Clinton's have more tentacles than the Great Vampire Squid.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
Ha ha repetition is good.
I just posted a very similar ding dang comment, who directs Chelsea? Fox News guy.
whiskey tango foxtrot
It's an index fund.
It owns proportional shares of the five hundred largest corporations in the USA. It's hard to imagine a fund less concentrated.
It's a set it and forget it investment.
Every Clinton is scum!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Agreed, this is a stupid line of attack
Agreed, this is a stupid line of attack, its extremely hard to find a mutual find built around a diversified growth portfolio that doesn't have oil stocks in it, Even if you do find one, their is no guaranty that it stays that way as the fund manager can change its investments at any time without notice.
Finding "clean" funds is difficult
Part of the problem is that "clean" is in the eye of the buyer. The Calvert group used to have a site called "Know what you own" for checking the contents of mutual funds. I finally gave up on purity and settled for a low level of filth (I had a small coop and we were looking for pension plan components).
It's all the old "purity" argument that they used to throw at Bernie. Formally it's a fallacy called "false dichotomy". This is why everyone should learn classical rhetoric - not only is this stuff not new, but the frigging Greeks had names for it all.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
They are going after their donor pool
From a campaign email this morning:
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Unlikely
I expect the drop is a coincidence: many people are done with the election and donating to a campaign at this time seems rather pointless.
Yeah, you may be right
Which is too bad - they have to keep campaigning until the bitter end.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Looking forward to the Daily Beast's
take on the financial arrangements of the Clinton Foundation.
Should be quite a read.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
ha!
HRC "rally" in FLA: I've seen more people at HS basketball games
Was just looking for article with mention of Chelsea's concerns of impropriety at the Clinton Foundation and came upon this WaPo article, "Inside ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’: Hacked memo reveals intersection of charity and personal income."
Holy shit, the second video, which I'm sure is as closely cropped as possible for the desired effect of showing the biggest possible crowd, just reminds me of how little support there really is for Her, how stilted the appearances truly are and how Emperor's New Clothes this whole thing really is.
What a Great Fraud being perpetuated on the American people. It's a week and a half out and she still can't draw an impressive crowd, while Bernie was routinely packing stadiums with little effort at all. They're forcing her into the WH, because too much money to be made by too many grifters rests on the outcome.
A fucking sham.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Watching The Corporatist Propaganda Machine At Work
Manipulating impressions and manufacturing consent is what the media has done since at least 1968. The job of the media is to convince us to see things the way TPTB want from us. Can there be any doubt that the job of the media has been to sell us on electing Hitlery? (She does want to invade Russia just like he did!)
There was a recent "news" piece claiming that over 90% of Trump's media coverage was negative, yet he mopped the floor with the 16 other losers the GOP put up as candidates. Maybe Michael Moore's interpretation of the motivations of Trump supporters is accurate after all? An observation which Jimmy Dore expands upon?
There has to be an explanation as to why the media has miserably failed in their assigned task of stopping Trump and strewing rose petals for Her to assume the Presidency. I think that the Moore/Dore observations are close to the reality.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
Here's a good read
Whilst I loathe to share a link to Vox, this article is well worth the read.
http://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/25/13384528/donald-trump-women-...
“He may not have gotten the words out but the thoughts were great.”
BFD
I invested directly in oil companies in 2003 because I correctly guessed we would fuck up the occupation and the price of oil would skyrocket.
That doesn't make me a hypocrite. It makes me a realist.
Nonsense
If you believe sincerely in single payer you have a moral obligation to cancel your health insurance. (I don't think a snark tag is necessary. But these days you never know.)
You are my hero!
It is morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money...
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Chelsea Clinton
Seriously? Chelsea Clinton?
Chelsea Clinton is criticizing someone who is the most ordinary American running for president because she has a mutual fund?
The same Chelsea Clinton who made $600K to intervew the GEICO Gecko?
The same Chelsea Clinton who had a $3Million wedding?
The same Chelsea Clinton who married a hedge fund manager?
She's a monster, just like her mother.
With parents like Bill & Hill...
It would have been a minor miracle if she wasn't. One can't expect the poison apple to fall very far from the toxic tree!
inactive account
Three Cheers for Yashar Ali!
Yashar, author of the Daily Beast piece, bravely chose to pass up much easier targets, such as Wikileaks' favorite villainess de jure Hillary Clinton, or the cartoonishly inept Donald Trump, in favor of that shifty-eyed faux environmentalist Jill Stein, rightly dubbed by some of her detractors as the "Tofu Palin."
Who is Yashar (you may ask)? According to the Good Man Project website, which features his writings, "Yashar is a Los Angeles-based blogger, commentator, and political veteran whose writings about women, gender inequality, political heroism, and society
are[were] showcased on his website, The Current Conscience."Alas, it appears The Current Conscience is no more, but fortunately TGMP provides Yashar, a self-described gay Iranian, a platform on which he can boldly expound on such incendiary topics as "Stuff We Should Stop Doing: Calling Women Cougars", or "Men May Never Understand a Day in the Life of a Woman. But Shouldn't We Try?" Sheesh! To tackle subjects that controversial, and then to bravely go after a political behemoth of the stature of Jill Stein, I can only conclude the guy must have cajones the size of beach balls.
And my God, the stuff that Yahsar came up with - absolute dynamite! I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it: Jill criticizes oil companies, and yet her investment portfolio is invested in index funds, which in turn invest in oil companies. The sheer, jaw-dropping, mind-numbing, almost-too-horrific-to-be-fully-believed hypocrisy of it all! It literally makes all the inconsequential little spitballs being thrown at Hillary - election rigging, de facto bribery, serial dishonesty, corruption, war-mongering, undermining national security, committing multiple felonies, blah blah blah blah blah - fade into sheer nothingness by comparison.
So let's all raise our glasses and toast a gutsy, uncompromising journalist that Joseph Pulitzer himself would be proud of - a man blessed with that unique combination of courage and independence necessary to resist the temptation to join all the tedious moles in his profession who spend all their time ineffectually attempting to raise their microscopic little hills into mountains. Thanks, Yashar! I have to confess I don't actually have any gay Iranian friends, but if I did, you would surely be one of them.
inactive account
Good one. (nm)
In fairness, if I were a gay Iranian, I, too,
might be fiercely protective of the woman who becomes uncontrollably gleeful at the prospect of nuking Iran.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npzN3dZR6JM]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDqMWhkEm8]
[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJe-Yelp-I]
BTW, I don't buy the "but Bill is nice" stuff. It's a lot easier to be cordial and easy going when a life partner or business partner who terrifies people runs interference. I've seen such duos socially and in business again and again. My analogy/metaphor is the friendly, laid back stage coach driver in Westerns.© Only when the shot pans out do you see the guy "riding shotgun," seated very close to the driver.
Game Change is clear that the ones who always wanted to go most negative throughout the 2008 primary campaign were Mark Penn and Bill Clinton.
Great post, mouselander. I enjoyed it.
... BTW, I don't buy the "but
Successful psychopaths are typically successful because they can seem so very charming and warm that they can con you - even experts - right out of your shorts. In Bill's case, that specifically seems to be one of the aims...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
So, this smear piece points
So, this smear piece points out one thing,,,,,,,Investment portfolio companies try to get you more "bang for the buck" which means sadly, investments in some nasty companies. It also points out that the Clinton Campaign is worried enough to smear attack Dr. Jill Stein, to do what they can to discredit her as they are very, very worried. Ph now the FBI is reopened the E-mail investigations. Her Heinous is in mega trouble!
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Yup, Jill is doing waaaaay
Yup, Jill is doing waaaaay better than the rigged polls let on. And Indies are the largest voting group in the US.
We might just survive this yet.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
It's not over by a long shot.
Stein - Baraka
2016
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast's Origin and Ownership
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Diller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAC_(company) PLEASE LOOK AT IAC's WIKI IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE KIND OF THING WE ARE CONSTANTLY UP AGAINST. THIS, TOO: http://sorosfiles.com/soros/2011/12/soros-funded-journalism.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek
The Daily Beast's Editor in Chief
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Avlon (Smells like No Labels, aka, No Principle$.)
Relationship of the Daily Beast with the Clinton Campaign
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Beast
(The connections with the Clinton campaign section doesn't even mention Bubba's lovely review of a book written by the editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast.)
Any questions, Beloveds? Or are we crystal?
*Isn't it amazing how a political publication doesn't seem to know the difference between (1) a vote in a Democratic primary for the guy who was doing much better than Clinton against Trump--and every Republican hopeful-- in head to head polling and (2) a vote for Trump in a general election? Or was that just Mrs. Hedge Fund talking?
Word: A vote for Sanders in the Democratic primary was a vote for Sanders (the guy who would be trouncing Trump now, instead of asking angrily "Why am I not fifty points ahead?" .
A vote for Stein in the general is a vote for Stein (and possibly also for greater ballot access in 2020 than just the two oldest, played out political parties). The only kind of vote you have is a vote. I know that because I checked: no state in the U.S. entitles anyone to a protest vote, only to a vote.
you nailed it. thanks.
Now we wait for crushing rebuttal to the truth...
Stein - Baraka
2016