Thursday, November 26, 2015
Clinton Foundation Influence Peddling
As noted at Harper’s,
the Clinton Foundation — overseen by Hillary, Bill and Chelsea — has
released its 2014 tax return, as well as amended returns for the
previous four years, and an audit of its finances. What is already
evident, says Ken Silverstein, is that “the Clintons have used the
foundation for crass profiteering and influence peddling.”
Money-laundering is a crime, and the Justice Department has the authority to close the foundation, as well as to indict the Clintons for financial records that are according to Silverstein, “deliberately misleading”. Laundering large donations through a Canadian charity by Bill’s close friend Frank Giustra, the Clinton Foundation has evaded scrutiny for what has been described by one expert as “a professionally-structured money-laundering operation”.
As Silverstein observes, “Under Treasury Department money-laundering rules, the Clinton Foundation is required to disclose every financial account it holds abroad”, which it has failed to do on its last eight tax returns. Treasury, the IRS and the FBI have known about this for months.
Money-laundering is a crime, and the Justice Department has the authority to close the foundation, as well as to indict the Clintons for financial records that are according to Silverstein, “deliberately misleading”. Laundering large donations through a Canadian charity by Bill’s close friend Frank Giustra, the Clinton Foundation has evaded scrutiny for what has been described by one expert as “a professionally-structured money-laundering operation”.
As Silverstein observes, “Under Treasury Department money-laundering rules, the Clinton Foundation is required to disclose every financial account it holds abroad”, which it has failed to do on its last eight tax returns. Treasury, the IRS and the FBI have known about this for months.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
The Real KXL Story
In the wake of the KXL suspension, fantasies about political power
abound in liberal media, promoting false hope about the non-profit
industrial complex, and serious delusions about grassroots political
influence. The real KXL story is more complicated, in particular that the NGOs were
all funded by Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers, and ‘bomb train’ mogul
Warren Buffett, who profited handsomely from the KXL distraction while
Tar Sands oil continued to flow, despite the much-hyped media charades
by 350.
Read more.
Read more.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
No One Listening
The American aristocracy has always lived well off the theft of land and labor, but in the 21st Century, the game has changed. Dissatisfied with merely profiting handsomely from investing their inherited wealth in productive enterprise, the aristocracy today uses their publicly-funded privileges to gut American enterprise. Through hostile takeovers using private equity trading firms, they buy profitable corporations, sell off the assets, pocket the cash, and close them down. When that doesn't work, they get bailouts from the U.S. Treasury.
The growing numbers of unemployed, hungry and homeless in the United States is testimony to the success of the largely unregulated private equity trading in securing the aristocracy's power and influence into the future. As owners of the media, as well as the financiers of most federal political candidates, the aristocracy pretty much rules unopposed.
As for civil society NGOs and academic institutions, they have mostly succumbed to the aristocratic paternalism of philanthropic foundations, now functioning for the large part as public relations agents for privatization. Some might want to lay all this at the feet of a genuine American aristocrat by the name of George W. Bush, but it was Barack Obama who announced to us eight years ago that his ideological idol was Ronald Reagan, the epitome of American fascism. Was no one listening?
The growing numbers of unemployed, hungry and homeless in the United States is testimony to the success of the largely unregulated private equity trading in securing the aristocracy's power and influence into the future. As owners of the media, as well as the financiers of most federal political candidates, the aristocracy pretty much rules unopposed.
As for civil society NGOs and academic institutions, they have mostly succumbed to the aristocratic paternalism of philanthropic foundations, now functioning for the large part as public relations agents for privatization. Some might want to lay all this at the feet of a genuine American aristocrat by the name of George W. Bush, but it was Barack Obama who announced to us eight years ago that his ideological idol was Ronald Reagan, the epitome of American fascism. Was no one listening?
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
The Political Correctness of 350
The political correctness of 350 groupies is amazing. Still promoting fossil fuel divestment -- two years after it was openly known that public disinvestment only enabled privatization of publicly-traded shares. Now these idiots engage in divestment shaming as self-congratulatory entertainment. Meanwhile, 350s sugar daddy, Warren Buffett, and his pal Bill Gates continue to make a bundle from railroading Tar Sands bitumen and Bakken Shale crude.
Divestment by universities and pension funds, it should be noted, did not change behavior on either Wall Street or Main Street. North Americans, including Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben's mindless followers at 350, still guzzle fossil fuels like nowhere else in the world. All those SUV trips shopping, electronic kilowatting, and 747 flights eco-touristing really add up!
Maybe that's why 350 is so popular with privileged North Americans and Europeans. It's always somebody else who has to live a life of deprivation. Not them.
Divestment by universities and pension funds, it should be noted, did not change behavior on either Wall Street or Main Street. North Americans, including Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben's mindless followers at 350, still guzzle fossil fuels like nowhere else in the world. All those SUV trips shopping, electronic kilowatting, and 747 flights eco-touristing really add up!
Maybe that's why 350 is so popular with privileged North Americans and Europeans. It's always somebody else who has to live a life of deprivation. Not them.
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Give a Little; Change a Lot
Indigenous Media for indigenous peoples. It’s a matter of survival.
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
In Your Dreams
Will homeless children and families on the streets of American cities motivate Congress to act as generously as they did to the investment banks of Wall Street? In your dreams.
