HRC's top 20 campaign contributors make up 33.5% of her total campaign funding. But wait,

[Playinghardball]

there's more (much, much more)....

This page shows contributions grouped by contributor to the candidate's campaign committee plus any super PACs or hybrid PACs working on his or her behalf:

Donor

Amount

1. Soros Fund Management $7,039,800
2. Laborers Union $4,000,250
3. Euclidean Capital $3,502,700
4. Pritzker Group $2,814,343
5. Saban Capital Group $2,531,995
6. Paloma Partners $2,505,400
7. Herb & Marion Sandler/Sandler Foundation $2,502,700
8. Women's Self Worth Foundation $2,502,700
9. Priorities USA/Priorities USA Action $2,151,000
10. Newsweb Corp $2,013,500
11. Renaissance Technologies $2,010,950
12. Operating Engineers Union $2,010,000
13. Fair Share Action $2,010,000
14. Center for Middle East Peace $2,008,100
15. Plumbers/Pipefitters Union $2,005,000
16. Barbara Lee Family Foundation $1,749,604
17. DE Shaw Research $1,552,950
18. Carpenters & Joiners Union $1,505,400
19. Bohemian Foundation $1,252,700
20. American Federation of Teachers $1,065,755
Total $48,734,847

Source

This makes up 33.5% ($48,734,847/$145,412,945) of the Clinton campaign's funding. What's the meaning though right? A lot of these funds really don't look like the kinds of interests the Sanders campaign has been talking about. "Women's Self Worth Foundation", "DE Shaw Research", "Center for Middle East Peace", "Renaissance Technologies". No big money interests here right? WRONG. Almost all of these innocuous sounding foundations represent the interests of a very select few extremely wealthy or politically aspiring people. Let's dive in shall we!

We'll start with the most insidious sounding one. #3 on our list: Euclidean Capital. Sounds kinda shady right? What's even more shady is that Euclidean was founded by the exact person who founded Renaissance Technologies, James Harris "Jim" Simons:

James Harris "Jim" Simons (born 1938) is an American mathematician, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist.

For more than two decades, Simons' Renaissance Technologies' hedge funds, which trade in markets around the world, have employed mathematical models to analyze and execute trades, many automated. Renaissance uses computer-based models to predict price changes in financial instruments. These models are based on analyzing as much data as can be gathered, then looking for non-random movements to make predictions.

Sounds innocent enough right? Well think again:

On July 22, 2014, Simons was subject to bipartisan condemnation by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the use of complex barrier options to shield day-to-day trading (usually subject to higher ordinary income tax rates) as long-term capital gains. “Renaissance Technologies was able to avoid paying more than $6 billion in taxes by disguising its day-to-day stock trades as long term investments,” said Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), the committee’s ranking Republican, in his opening statement. “Two banks and a handful of hedge funds developed a complex financial structure to engage in highly profitable trades while claiming an unjustified lower tax rate and avoiding limits on trading with borrowed money,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) in his prepared remarks.

Not exactly the most admirable of business operations. Together, Euclidean and Renaissance contributions comprise 3.8% ($5,513,650) of Clinton's total campaign. Even if the average American's political contribution was $200 (it's far, far lower), that's still 27,568 times the average contribution amount.

Next let's tackle the Women's Self Worth Foundation. What could possibly be questionable about this foundation right? Well, let's take a look:

Cheryl Saban, founder of the Women's Self Worth Foundation:

Playboy included her in a pictorial titled “Disco Queens. She later divorced her second husband and struggled to provide for her children.

In 1986, she accepted a job as an assistant for Israeli-American Haim Saban. Haim was an Egyptian born Jew who was raised in Israel and later moved to France where he became a millionaire selling recordings of television theme music.

Not to take anything away from Cheryl Saban but she is clearly not a self-made woman. The Women's Self Worth Foundation would not exist without Haim Saban, who just happens to be the founder of #5 on our list, Saban Capital Group.


Haim Saban is an Israeli and American media proprietor, investor, philanthropist, musician, record, film & television producer.

Saban has been a generous and consistent donor to the United States Democratic Party according to his mandatory Federal Election Commission filings. Mother Jones, in an analysis of the major donors to the campaigns of 1998 election cycle, ranked Saban 155th among individual donors. Amy Paris noted that Saban's Clinton-era "generosity did not go unrewarded. During the Clinton administration, the entertainment executive served on the President's Export Council, advising the White House on trade issues."The New York Times reported that Haim and his wife "slept in the White House several times during President Clinton's two terms." Saban remains close friends with the former President. Clinton described Saban as a "very good friend and supporter." Saban contributed between $5 million to $10 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation.

My, my, my. That's a pretty cozy relationship the Saban's have with the Clintons. Together, the Sabans contribute 3.46% ($5,034,695) to the Clinton campaign. Nothing like having friends in high places! Mr. Saban also just so happens to fund this little thing called The Center for Middle East Policy, which hosts this little thing called The Saban Forum):

On December 4 to 6, the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings hosted its 12th annual Saban Forum, titled “Israel and the United States: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” The 2015 Saban Forum included webcasts featuring remarks by Israel’s Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon, Chairman of the Yesh Atid Party Yair Lapid, National Security Adviser to President George W. Bush Stephen Hadley, Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (via video), and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

If this isn't an incestuous political relationship I really don't know what is.

This leads into our next specimen, The Centre for Middle East Peace:

It was founded by someone named S. Daniel Abraham (the creator of SlimFast):

Abraham was born and raised to an Orthodox Jewish family in Long Beach, New York. He is frequently included in Forbes 400 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

He is a long-time donor to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation. He gave $1.5 million to the party and ranked as the number one contributor of soft money to the national parties in 2000.

Abraham is the author of the book Peace is Possible, with a foreword by President Bill Clinton. Abraham also published his memoirs in 2010, entitled Everything is Possible: Life and Business Lessons from a Self-Made Billionaire and the Founder of Slim Fast.

Look at that... more cozy Clinton relationships.

Closing out or group of contributors with ties to Israel we have the Pritzker Group (#4 on our list), owned by the Pritzker Family:

The Pritzker family is an American family of entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America, being near the top of Forbes magazine’s “America’s Richest Families” list since the magazine began listings in 1982.

The family is most famous for owning the Hyatt hotel chain, and the Marmon Group, conglomerate of manufacturing and industrial service companies which has since been sold to Berkshire Hathaway. Other holdings have included the Superior Bank of Chicago, which notably collapsed in 2001, the TransUnion credit bureau and the Royal Caribbean cruise line.

The Pritzker Group isn't tied to any specific institutes or centres I could find but I just thought I would note them since they are literally one of the wealthiest families in America. Oh and because of this this:

J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation. The philanthropic fund of the Chicago-based Pritzker family, owners of the Hyatt hotel chain. In 2014, the Pritzker foundation donated between $5-10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Penny Pritzker is one of Obama’s strongest supporters, serving as his campaign finance chair in 2008 and his unofficial liaison to the pro-Israel community. For her efforts, Penny currently serves as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Penny’s brother J.B. Pritzker served as the national finance chairman for Citizens for Hillary’s 2008 campaign. J.B. Pritzker’s chief of staff is Lee Rosen, who doubles as the chairman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The family has been criticized for building one of their hotels in occupied east Jerusalem following the 1967 war.

If we look at all the contributors with strong ties to Israel (including Soros), they make up 11.62% ($16,896,938) of Clinton's campaign funding.

Let's go a little farther down the list this time shall we? Sitting at #17 is DE Shaw Research. Seems innocent enough right? Well this research group has ties to #6 on our list, Paloma Partners founded by Donald Sussman, as well as JP Morgan and one of Sussman's hedge funds. Here's where things get all kinds of incestuous:

S. Donald Sussman (born June 8, 1946) is an American financier and philanthropist, the Chairman of the Board of Trust Asset Management, the founder of the Paloma Funds and New China Capital Management LLC, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Hall. Sussman has also served on the Board of Trustees of Skidmore College, the Center for American Progress and the Portland Museum of Art.

Sussman's career in finance began in 1958, when, at the age of 12, he made a 6x return on a $300 investment in the stock of Michigan Sugar, by correctly predicting that the Cuban Revolution would disrupt sugar supplies and drive up the price of sugar commodities. Sussman went on to found Paloma Partners in 1981, a Connecticut-based hedge fund with over $3 billion in assets under management. Paloma’s middle and back-office operations were acquired by JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services in February 2006 for an undisclosed sum.

Following the sale to JPMorgan, Sussman has acted as a serial investor and backer of new hedge funds such as Naseem Taleb's Empirica Capital and David Shaw's D.E. Shaw & Co.

You guessed it. D.E. Shaw & Co. is the global investment management firm behind DE Shaw Research. But wait, that's not the really incestuous part. Remember the Center for American Progress (CAP) that Sussman was on the Board of Trustees for? Well they just so happen to have had a few interesting people work for them in the past:

The president and chief executive officer of CAP is Neera Tanden, who worked for the Obama and Clinton administrations and for Hillary Clinton’s campaigns. The first president and CEO was John Podesta, who served as chief of staff to then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Podesta remained with the organization as chairman of the board until he joined the Obama White House staff in December 2013. Tom Daschle is the current chairman.

That certainly is one talented Centre.

Our next guest is Patricia A. Stryker, founder of #19 on our list, the Bohemian Foundation. Nothing to see here right? "Bohemian Foundation is committed to the care and enrichment of our local, national, and global communities." Sounds innocent enough. But Stryker isn't new to politics. It seems her other company, Stryker Corporation, has had a little trouble when it comes to donating to Democratic candidates in the past:

Following fraud allegations in November 2007 involving Stryker Corp. overbilling for Medicare in South Dakota, Republicans called on Democratic organizations to return donations they had received from Stryker and her brother, Jon Stryker.

Jon Stryker is another rich, rich guy:

Jon Lloyd Stryker (born ca. 1958) is an American architect, philanthropist and activist for social and environmental causes. He is a billionaire stockholder and heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortune of grandfather Homer Stryker alongside sisters Pat and Ronda. In 2015, his net worth was estimated at $2.1 billion.

Cross another innocent sounding foundation off the list.

Our second last subject is #20 on our list, the American Federation of Teachers. How, you ask, could this possibly be questionable. Well here's the answer. The president of the American Federation of Teachers is Randi Weingarten:

A lifelong Democrat, Weingarten is a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She was an early and critically important supporter of Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC. She is a superdelegate who was pledged to Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential primary. In January 2009, she was mentioned as a possible candidate in the appointment process to replace Clinton's U.S. Senate seat.

Another cozy Clinton relationship. Those Clintons sure are popular!

Finally we have the Barbara Lee Family Foundation. I've left the least shocking for last (sorry to disappoint). Barbara F. Lee is very, very pro woman politician:

Since 1999, her foundation has studied and published non-partisan research about women gubernatorial candidates. The following titles are part of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation’s Governors Guidebook Series: Keys to the Governor’s Office (1998), Speaking with Authority (2001), Cracking the Code (2002), Positioning Women to Win (2006), Leading with Authority (2008). Turning Point: The Changing Landscape for Women Candidates will be published in June, 2011. Barbara has helped elect every sitting Democratic woman governor and U.S. Senator by providing strategic advice, candidate training, direct support, and voter mobilization. Barbara frequently hosts events to raise the profile of women elected officials and candidates, such as Women’s Senate, a biennial fundraiser that provides support for progressive women Senators. In 2008, she served as the Co-Chair of the Martha Coakley for Senate Campaign and in 2004, Barbara convened Revolutionary Women, which was held in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just found it interesting.

What's the point of all this? Well, it's simple. A whopping 17.9% ($26.0M) of Hillary Clinton's campaign contributions come from entities that are controlled, funded, owned, or otherwise heavily influenced by just 10 people (if you include Soros) and represent a very limited part of the economy (mostly hedge funds and financial sector related). And these are just the ones I had time to look into (didn't bother with Newsweb Corp because that one kinda speaks for itself in terms of sounding corporate). These 10 people directly or indirectly contribute about 961,964 times the amount of the average Bernie Sanders supporter collectively.

Oh but that's right, Hillary isn't funded by corporate interests... or Israeli for that matter.

Clinton’s transformation has been going on for the better part of two years. In August of 2014, in the midst of renewed violence in Gaza, she gave an interview to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in which she came off as a staunch defender of Israel and, at times, as a Netanyahu apologist. She made it clear that Israel could not be expected to pull its forces out completely from the West Bank in the near future. “If I were the prime minister of Israel, you’re damn right I would expect to have control over security,” she said. This amounted to backtracking not only from the official Obama line but from the parameters for peace set by Bill Clinton, which called for a withdrawal of Israeli forces within three years of an agreement. On Monday, Clinton again sought to distance herself somewhat from Obama when she said that she would “vigorously oppose” a unilateral solution put forth by the U.N. Security Council, an option that the President is said to be exploring.

DISCLAIMER: In no way am I trying to promote negativity towards the Israeli community. There is simply too great a connection here to be ignored. These donors with ties to Israel are abiding by the law and have every right to promote those who they believe will best represent their interests. Aside from how screwed up campaign finance is right now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my eyes.


https://www.reddit.com/r/POLITIC/comments/4d2d4y/clintons_top_20_campaign_contributors_make_up_335/?

[tonyt53]

1. Several are labor unions. Most notably building trades unions as they represent millions of voters

Bernie's supporters will have a rude awakening in Philly when they start attacking those people - and they will be out in large numbers in Philly. Women's Self Worth Foundation and Middle East Peace Foundation, American Federation of Teachers (again representing millions) - odd you'd bash them too.

[Shemp Howard]

3. I am a member of one of those unions listed.

Don't be so sure that those donations represent the feelings of the membership.

No one has asked me anything about donating to any political candidate. There has been no discussion about this. No open meetings, no votes, no solicitation for opinions, no nothing.

But I'm only rank-and-file. So my opinion doesn't count. Until election day, that is.

[AzDar]

2. K & R

[eastwestdem]

4. Sounds like she is doing exactly what needs to be done to play this game given the current rules.

Just because you don't like the rules, doesn't mean that it is wise to ignore them. She needs to beat the repubs at their own game before any of the issues regarding money in politics can be addressed.

Remember, you don't take a knife to a gun fight.

[Doctor_J]

6. Sporting of you to admit she's part of the corrupt system

That's what we've been saying all along. And if you believe that electing a poster child for dc corruption will somehow end that corruption, I have a bridge to sell you.

[Joob]

5. K & R TMYK