Why did Kamala Harris let Herbalife off the hook?

Why does Kamala do anything? Because there’s always something in it for ‘herself’. If it isn’t keeping poor and minorities in prison for free labor she’s accepting money from a company that is nothing more than Ponzi scheme represented by ‘well-connected’ people with some very familiar names.

Why did Kamala Harris let Herbalife off the hook?

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But as the attorney general of the nation’s largest state — and therefore one of the most powerful law enforcement officials in the nation — Harris declined to investigate Herbalife, the nutritional supplement company that has been accused of fraudulent marketing practices. Documents exclusively obtained by Yahoo News show that in 2015, prosecutors in the San Diego office of the California attorney general sent Harris a lengthy memorandum that argued for an investigation into Herbalife and requested resources in order to undertake such an investigation. Similar investigations into Herbalife were already taking place elsewhere.

About three weeks after the San Diego letter was sent, Harris received the first of three donations to her campaign for the U.S. Senate from Heather Podesta, the powerful Washington lobbyist whose ex-husband Tony’s firm, then called the Podesta Group, had worked for Herbalife since 2013. Heather Podesta’s own lobbying firm, Heather Podesta and Partners, would soon be hired by Herbalife, too.

Harris did not pursue an investigation, even as the Federal Trade Commission proceeded with an investigation of its own, which had been opened the previous March and which suggested that sufficient grounds for such scrutiny did exist. In fact, the San Diego letter had meticulously laid out those grounds, pointing out that Herbalife presented itself to the public as a lawful enterprise, but that it could nevertheless be “engaged in less obvious conduct” that potentially harmed both Herbalife distributors and Herbalife customers. Allegations of such conduct, by 2015, had become commonplace in media reports.

“It’s disgusting,” says Julie Contreras, a Chicago-based activist whose “Afuera con Herbalife” campaign sharply criticized the company for preying on Latino communities. Contreras says that her Spanish-language nickname for Harris is “Que Mala,” a play on “Kamala” that translates to “how bad.”

But despite Johnson’s efforts to add corporate sheen, critics maintained that Herbalife’s profits came not from sales of its weight loss products, but in the aggressive recruitment of new members, each of whom was expected to buy large amounts of inventory from the company. The new recruits quickly realized, according to Herbalife’s detractors, that the inventory of pills and powders itself was largely worthless and that the only way to make money was to attract new recruits.

Herbalife has long denied such accusations, portraying itself as a company that provides access to wealth to people who, for one reason or another, are unable to find success in traditional employment. The company declined to speak on the record for this story.

https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/kamala-harris-herbalife-accused-of-exploi...

“How bad”. That’s the perfect name for Harris.

What, in the name of everything sensible, makes people think she’s fit to be Prez?

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makes people think she’s fit to be Prez?"

1. Presidential politics are not "sensible," as we commoners understand that word.

2. I'm not sure "people," as we commoners understand that word, are the ones making decisions about Presidential candidates. More and more, I am having trouble seeing Wasserman Schultz, Brazile, Schumer and their ilk as "people." Animated caricatures of politicians, maybe. Pod people, maybe. Human beings? Color me uncertain.

3. At some point, Democratic politicians were painted as being "soft" on crime. I'm not sure if it started with Lee Atwater and Dukakis or before that. In any event, Democrats since have loved them some DA's, AG's and others who are readily identifiable as "law and order" Democrats. Kamala Harris is a former AG.

4. Democrats have grokked that their most loyal demographic, at least since the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, are people of color and immigrants. Harris has roots in two minority groups, Jamaicans (of color) and Indians and.

5. Immigrants and their kids and grandkids have long been inside the Democratic Party's big tent. Harris's near ancestors were immigrants.

6. Democrats have portrayed themselves as the party of women, and still do; even though Hillary said that she would consider a Constitutional amendment to, in effect, overrule Roe v. Wade, as long as the mother's health were a consideration. Subject to the paragraph above that is numbered 2, Kamala Harris is a woman.

See? Harris is not only law and order Democrat (even if in name only), but she also tics many identity politics boxes. She's the perfect Democratic candidate!

If she becomes the Democratic nominee, she will very likely be defeated, unless people vote Anybody But Trump, which they well may this time. Either way, it doesn't much matter: The uniparty nation will slog on.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@HenryAWallace

2. I'm not sure "people," as we commoners understand that word, are the ones making decisions about Presidential candidates. More and more, I am having trouble seeing Wasserman Schultz, Brazile, Schumer and their ilk as "people." Animated caricatures of politicians, maybe. Pod people, maybe. Human beings? Color me uncertain.

Has any trustworthy person ever submitted direct evidence that any of the "people" of this ilk, well, poop??

Or are they all androids who need to be destroyed?

[video:https://youtu.be/kQTW7Pd1vqc]

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides

Has any trustworthy person ever submitted direct evidence that any of the "people" of this ilk, well, poop??

If they pooped, would they still be "full of sh*t?"

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thanatokephaloides's picture

The new recruits quickly realized, according to Herbalife’s detractors, that the inventory of pills and powders itself was largely worthless and that the only way to make money was to attract new recruits.

The inventory of pills and powders itself was worse than worthless; it's fucking toxic. It damn near killed my mother. Ephedrine and its derivative compounds -- the principal active ingredient in Herbalife -- are controlled for a quite valid medical reason. To wit: they kill people!

My response to these Ponzi-scheming frauds, in the immortal words of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson:

"I don't care what you do, I wouldn't want to be like you!"

[video:https://youtu.be/ONoi86Zyj3k]

Reading this Essay made me very proud indeed to be a c99er, Amanda! This is some excellent work you've done here!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Amanda Matthews's picture

@thanatokephaloides @thanatokephaloides
I’m already sick of the ‘campaign’ and almost everyone involved. But I was thinking last night that maybe it’ll work out in our favor. There’s time and opportunity for them to stick the knife in their campaign with ‘scandals’ both old and new.

But I seriously resent clowns like her and de Blasio and Booker collecting a paycheck to take care of business in DC or NYC but are mainly concerned with auditioning for the job the really want. Working the. campaign is NOT what they were elected to do.

P.S. As predicted, my ‘Get your asses back to work’ petition went nowhere.

EDIT: NOTehat/NOT what

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Que Mala.

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EdMass's picture

From the Herbalife Website

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
From how we do business to the commitment we make to our communities to how we treat our employees and independent Distributors, our Corporate Social Responsibility program is best summed up by our value, ‘We do the right, honest and ethical thing.

Kamillary knows that when HL says "Purity is a virtue, and that's us!" Y'a gotta let them go.

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