Corruption

[cali]

<snip>

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 Clinton’s 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 country’s 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 hadn’t 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 Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.

The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s 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. Clinton’s 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.
Head’s 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 Colombia’s 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 embassy’s warning, she praised him effusively, also touting his support for a U.S.- Colombia free trade agreement, from which her husband’s private jet-setter pal Guistra stood to benefit handsomely. Although she was representing the Obama Administration’s policy (which Head doesn’t point out), this still constituted a marked reversal from her 2008 campaign position, in which she expressed opposition to such an agreement due to Colombia’s terrible human rights record. Since Guistra’s 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 Head’s 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.

<snip>


http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/30/1477278/-The-Clintons-Really-Are-Out-Of-Our-League

[uponit7771]

1. Should one file this under Benghazi like, CDS or full of nothing but hard sourced facts?

... cause the Hillary, like FDR, knows people who have money meme is getting boring no?

tia

[cali]

4. This has nothing to do with benghazi. This is about documented facts. Period.

You are free to conclude from the facts whatever you wish. You are not free to deny the facts.

[ErisDiscordia]

2. How many such anecdotes before the blow-up?

[cali]

5. The blow up will not happen. Corruption is acceptable if done right

[sorechasm]

15. What used to be acceptable, before the age of social media, is different now.

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]

17. You're very welcome. I hope you're right

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cali.

[cali]

6. I find it shocking that so many people are fine with the Clinton's

pattern of corruption. The behavior described and the facts presented cannot be explained away.

[floriduck]

27. It's called denial.

Much like an alcoholic denies they have a drinking problem. And the rest are enablers.

Bern on!

[Enthusiast]

7. Kicked and recommended!

[chknltl]

8. KnR nt

[cali]

9. If this makes democrats uncomfortable, it damn well should

[libdem4life]

29. At least a certain segment of Democrats.

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]

10. Which mansion is Hillary's?

The dailykos article is well worth reading in full. Thanks, Corruption!

[RiverLover]

11. ...

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.

Truth.

[cali]

13. Frightening and depressing but yes, the facts add up to that

[raouldukelives]

16. As well as.

"corporate directors have a fiduciary duty to shareholders to operate in their interests. Every one of these donations has a corporate purpose—and 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]

12. meh.

[Mbrow]

14. K&R

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]

18. Please help the Big Dog become a Billionaire so that he will then have time to help us little people

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, Barclay’s Capital, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. Another, even more startling number is the amount contributed directly to Hillary’s 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]

19. Greed.

[cali]

20. Kick.

[cali]

21. Kick for stripping off the polite fiction

[JudyM]

22. Personally, I'd like to see a comprehensive & concisely written list of all these documented issues.

[cali]

24. Why not address the issues put forth here?

[JudyM]

25. I find them informative. Thank you for posting the piece. I think it would benefit

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]

31. I agree, except it's not Democratic PC...so not going to happen. If the person is believable,

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]

23. this is how money in an economy rises to the top, leaving ordinary people struggling.

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]

26. Very informative post. Thanks. nt

[Jarqui]

28. I'm dumbfounded by why they would get mixed up in this stuff

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]

30. They are that arrogant and that sure if their grip on the party

[pangaia]

32. Another very good, informative post, as all of your are, Cali..depressing as this one may be.

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. :&gt )

My last MD-80 flight was from Sanya, Hanan, to Shenzhen, Guangdong in China.


GO BERNIE !!!!!!!

[amborin]

33. Guistra also owns tar sands in Utah, etc.

[cali]

34. Guiatra is but one example