2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumCorruption
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A more blatant example of apparent quid pro quo between an individual and the Clinton Foundation is the complicated web spun involving Canadian energy billionaire Frank Guistra. Guistra has donated $131 million to Clintons Foundation, and is now a Board member, but clearly not out of the goodness of his heart. In 2005 Clinton and Guistra took an MD-87 jet to Kazakhstan, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, where Clinton inexplicably endorsed that countrys bid to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which verifies the legitimacy of elections of member states, a position desperately coveted by the Kazakh President. Just as inexplicably, the US then backed their bid. But why?
Well, Guistra hadnt been riding on that plane for the fun of it. According to the New York Times:
Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstans state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.
The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the worlds largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra, analysts said.
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clintons charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month.
Heads article also details how Bill Clinton helped Guistra lobby the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, for a 250 km oil pipeline and ultimately gain control of Colombias largest oilfield. Uribe was described by the US Defense and Intelligence agency as a close friend of Pablo Escobar and ha[d] worked for the Medellin cartel. He was also described in a report by Human Rights Watch as leading an Administration:
[R]acked by scandals over extrajudicial killings by the army, a highly questioned paramilitary demobilization process, and the national intelligence service's illegal surveillance of human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians, and Supreme Court justices.
Hillary Clinton visited Uribe in 2010, knowing about his record. Nonetheless, and against her own embassys warning, she praised him effusively, also touting his support for a U.S.- Colombia free trade agreement, from which her husbands private jet-setter pal Guistra stood to benefit handsomely. Although she was representing the Obama Administrations policy (which Head doesnt point out), this still constituted a marked reversal from her 2008 campaign position, in which she expressed opposition to such an agreement due to Colombias terrible human rights record. Since Guistras takeover, according to a Colombian opposition party, the oil fields he now controls are run like concentration camps," with sixteen-hour shifts, inadequate sanitary facilities and third-party anti-union hiring policies.
It is reasonable to infer from Heads relatively straightforward article, which succeeds in collecting in one place a great deal of information that has been reported elsewhere, that anyone running against Hillary Clinton is also, in a manner of speaking, running against the richest and most powerful corporations in the world, the entire US defense and financial services industry, and even the interests of foreign billionaires and governments. The question is if she is elected, would ordinary Americans be competing against similar odds.
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http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/30/1477278/-The-Clintons-Really-Are-Out-Of-Our-League
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)... cause the Hillary, like FDR, knows people who have money meme is getting boring no?
tia
cali
(114,904 posts)You are free to conclude from the facts whatever you wish. You are not free to deny the facts.
ErisDiscordia
(443 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)sorechasm
(631 posts)Corruption thrives on deception fed by gullibility and acquiesence to authority.
By contrast, the 50 state-Occupy-Bernie movements thrive on social media fed by thirst for justice and a hunger for truth. I think the latter will succeed. The planet has never been more connected and tuned in.
The former may seem more 'powerful', but the latter is more ubiquitous as it moves by perpetual waves of heartelt emotions of millions. Corporations who are trying to distort, deflect, and dissect these waves are throwing sand at a tsunami.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention cali!
cali
(114,904 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, cali.
cali
(114,904 posts)pattern of corruption. The behavior described and the facts presented cannot be explained away.
floriduck
(2,262 posts)Much like an alcoholic denies they have a drinking problem. And the rest are enablers.
Bern on!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)This has been well known to many who do not have perpetual political earplugs. The Foundation could be called a cesspool or influence. Part of the well-known Poverty to Riches Miracle for the Clintons.
There are more examples available and you may be sure, that if the Democrats don't out this spectacular misbehavior, the Republicans surely will. This, unlike Benghazi, is more than a he said--she said and she said it longer-type affair.
Ino
(3,366 posts)The dailykos article is well worth reading in full. Thanks, Corruption!
Truth.
cali
(114,904 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)"corporate directors have a fiduciary duty to shareholders to operate in their interests. Every one of these donations has a corporate purposeand the overwhelmingly logical conclusion is that they are made to buy influence."
True. Of those who make the investment, those who give it and those who take it. We live in the most democracy Wall St shareholders cannot themselves, individually, fund the blocking of.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)People need to remember the SOS as a matter of normal operations puts corporate interest in front of the american people's interest since WWII. Even Eisenhower complained of them. We finally have a candidate that has the best chance to overthrow this or at least give us a chance.
sorechasm
(631 posts)Everyone here is familiar with the millions in speaking fees the Clintons have earned over the past fifteen years. Most of these fees have come from corporations and banks, since corporations and banks are essentially the only ones who can afford them. These have accounted for $125 million in the Clintons income since 2001, and include six and seven-figure fees amassed from Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. Another, even more startling number is the amount contributed directly to Hillarys campaigns for Senate, for President in 2008, and now for President in 2016. That figure has now reached $712.4 million as of September 2015, and is presumably significantly higher now. The goal of Hillary's SuperPAC is to amass $1 Billion, and there is no suggestion that they are behind in their efforts. Finally, though it is not characterized by Head as political largesse, there is the $2 Billion paid by various individuals to the Clinton Foundation for the sole purpose, in most cases, of gaining access to Bill Clinton, engaged in promoting what Head acknowledges are unequivocally good causes, such as African forestation, farming in depressed, economically backward regions, and public health.
Thank you sir, may I please have another?
cali
(114,904 posts)JudyM
(29,274 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)JudyM
(29,274 posts)the voting public to have a list of all these conflict of interest matters gathered in one document, maybe an infographic that's easily digestible. In case anyone reading and with interest and capability, might be interested in pulling it together.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)they will be hounded, attacked and rendered politically neutralized. If the person is a normal human being, the response will be..."Who are they...what do they know"...just an attack ad.
Truth that's inconvenient can't get any momentum in this campaign. That's why I'm focused on getting Bernie elected.
Agony
(2,605 posts)Clinton Corruption, the use of a toxic combination of public trust and philanthropy, will have to be rejected in order for Democracy and justice to prevail.
Thanks for the heads up, I was only aware of part of this information.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)Jarqui
(10,130 posts)while she was Secretary of State heading for a 2016 run.
It frightens me because I do not know how she makes it through November with this coming up.
Evidently, there must be other political minds in the know who do not anticipate this as a big problem. Maybe they have dirt on the other side ??
Years ago, you couldn't run with this baggage. Now, maybe people are getting numb to it.
cali
(114,904 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)BTW, as an aircraft enthusiast, the MD87 is a GREAT plane, not many of the MD-80 Series left flying. American Airlines flies more MD-80s than any other airline. So Hillary was lucky to get to fly on one.. well... I don't really mean that, ok. :> )
My last MD-80 flight was from Sanya, Hanan, to Shenzhen, Guangdong in China.
GO BERNIE !!!!!!!