Hillary, The Clintons And Their Foundations: The Falling Out

[Hervé]

Wow... somebody woke up!

No point for pay to play: Australia halts all Clinton Foundation funding (https://sputniknews.com/us/201611241047774465-australia-cuts-ties-clinton-foundation/)

Sputnik (https://sputniknews.com/us/201611241047774465-australia-cuts-ties-clinton-foundation/) Thu, 24 Nov 2016 00:46 UTC


https://www.sott.net/image/s17/359327/large/1046984494.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s17/359327/full/1046984494.jpg)
© REUTERS/ Brian Snyder


Following Hillary Clinton's US presidential election defeat, it has been announced that Australia has cut all official ties with the Clinton Foundation.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced to the joint party room that agreements with the Foundation previously set up by the Rudd-Gillard government had not been renewed.

"[Former Prime Minister Julia] Gillard also donated $300 million of our money to the Clinton-affiliated Global Partnership for Education," Australian newspaper the Herald Sun wrote in an October article titled, "Why have we donated to Clinton's foundation?"

The Foundation, set up by the former first family of the United States, has received large amounts in donations from foreign governments, leading many to question whether it was part of a pay-to-play scheme during the former first lady's tenure as US Secretary of State.

Disparities in the amount of funds given to the Foundation by the Australian government have raised eyebrows. Reports from the Clinton Foundation list the Commonwealth of Australia and the Australian Agency for International Development as having collectively donated somewhere between $20 to $50 million. The Foundation also has a sister company called the Clinton Health Access Initiative however, which appears to have also received funding from Australian taxpayers. "Since 2006, Australia has contributed $88 million to [the Clinton Health Access Initiative] and its sister organization, the Clinton Foundation," Bishop said in a statement on September 22, 2014.

Documents released in July by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provided a different number from both, however, listing 11 separate grants to the Clinton Foundation, and a "China Clinton Foundation" that totaled almost $71 million.

These disparities prompted Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the vice-chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to bring the issue to the attention of the IRS. In July, she told the Daily Caller that "reports have shown that the Clinton Foundation has failed to accurately report tens of millions of dollars in foreign government grants, including some while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state."

"This should be troubling to all Americans as it gives the appearance that there could be a pay-to-play arrangement between the Clintons and foreign governments while the interests of the American people were pushed aside. The tax-exempt status of the foundation should be reviewed immediately," Blackburn said at the time.

[marique3652]

Glad to see that other governments are seeing what the Clintons are up to with the foundation...Hoping that soon all contritutors will stop giving money to the fund. It seems obvious to me that bilking is going on large scale. Hope justice is served.

[Shannon]

Yey, Australia!...who's next? I'm looking at you Saudi Arabia:/

[3(C)+me]

Yey, Australia!...who's next? I'm looking at you Saudi Arabia:/

Canada...or France

[7alon]

As an Australian and somebody who knows about who Julie Bishop is as a politician, I'm quite surprised to hear she did this!

[Hervé]

Lock her up: Former Wall St. executive describes Clinton Foundation as illegal slush fund for tyrants and despots to get access in Washington (https://sputniknews.com/us/201611051047098332-clinton-foundation-tyrants-financing/)

Sputnik (https://sputniknews.com/us/201611051047098332-clinton-foundation-tyrants-financing/) Sat, 05 Nov 2016 22:23 UTC


https://www.sott.net/image/s17/359834/large/1033843902.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s17/359834/full/1033843902.jpg)
© AFP 2016/ TIMOTHY A. CLARY


According to a former Wall Street hedge fund manager and financial analyst, the Clinton Foundation is used by tyrants and despots worldwide to get an access to Washington.

The Clinton Foundation is a service offering corruption and slush funds for the use of tyrants and despots around the world on a scale never before seen in history, former Wall Street hedge fund manager and financial analyst Mitch Feierstein told Sputnik.

"The Clinton Foundation is an international illegal slush fund for despots and dictators used to sell favors and gain access to Washington, Feierstein, author of "Planet Ponzi" and a hedge fund manager who has spent 37 years working in the financial markets in London, New York and Tokyo, said.

"It is a cover up unequalled in history and none of the US media wants to cover it," he added.

Feierstein said younger US voters remained ignorant of the decades of earlier documented scandals that had plagued former President Bill Clinton and his wife, current Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, throughout their careers.

"Younger voters do not know the Clintons' track record or their 30 years of criminality; which explains the push to get out the millennial vote," Feierstein said.

Clinton enjoyed the powerful support of the US financial leadership because of her willingness to do whatever they wanted, Feierstein stated.

"Wall Street backs Hillary Clinton because Wall Street wants 'certainty' or a 'rigged game'. In our lifetime, no other politicians (other than Clinton Incorporated) have made pay-to-play available. Hillary Clinton has a career track record of doing whatever the banks pay her to do," he said.

Feierstein pointed out the WikiLeaks revelations of the texts of speeches Clinton had secretly given to top New York bankers exposed her dependence on them.

"How can anyone believe that Goldman Sachs paid Hillary Clinton $250,000 for a speech and expected nothing in return?" he asked.

Feierstein noted that Clinton also benefited from the support not just of moguls controlling the main broadcast and print media outlets in the United States, but also from the commitment of popular satirical entertainers to her.

"Most Americans regard Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah as legitimate news sources rather than obvious propaganda bullhorns they are," Feierstein explained.

Clinton, working closely with her husband, expressed the terminal corruption of the US political system and its disregard for the wishes and needs of the American public, Feierstein insisted.

"Hillary and Bill are terminal forms of cancer, dredged out of Washington's cesspool of corruption. While [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump may not be perfect, he's a better option than terminal cancer," Feierstein added.

The United States remained deep in a structural economic crisis and claims of economic recovery under President Barack Obama were just empty propaganda without any truth or substance, Feierstein further stated.

"Obama has lied, again, to America about a fake economic recovery during his eight years in office. Obama's claims of 14 million jobs created are simply untrue. There are millions of 'bread winner' jobs that will never came back," he said.

The low level of labor participation in the US work force has not been as bad since 1977 when President Jimmy Carter was in the White House, Feierstein recalled.

After eight years of Obama's presidency, Wall Street remained untouchable and not a single financial executive had ever been tried or convicted for their role in causing the 2008 financial meltdown, the worst since the 1929-32 Wall Street Crash and Great Depression, Feierstein pointed out.

"Wall Street remains above the law. Zero bankers went to jail for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. My book 'Planet Ponzi' identifies the need for transparency and accountability — we do not have either in Wall Street," he said.

The US financial structure remained a 'rigged' regulatory system functioning freely within Washington's partisan dysfunctional pay-to-play swamp, Feierstein explained.

Obama has repeatedly said he has reduced the exercise of unaccountable presidential power by reducing his use of executive orders issued from the White House, but this was just another falsehood, Feierstein observed.

"Obama's claim that he has cut down the number of executive orders being issued is yet another material misstatement because he never mentions his Presidential memoranda that do not require the same reporting," he said.

Presidential executive decisions include not only the formal executive orders, but also executive memoranda, Feierstein noted.

"It is likely that Obama has issued more of these than all the 43 presidents who preceded him combined," he added.

The US corporate mainstream media is trying hard to protect Hillary Clinton from the exposures of her many scandals involving claims of corruption and failed policies, Feierstein remarked. "We have never witnessed this extent of media bias in our lifetime," he said.

It was another objective of Team Clinton to conflate issues in peoples' minds such as undermining the Benghazi hearings into the murder of US Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and his guards while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, Feierstein commented.

Clinton's record of public service spanning more than three decade s had been consistently filled with outrageous scandals, mistakes and claims of corruption that had never been properly probed, Feierstein insisted.

"Hillary Clinton's 30-year resume in Washington (and Arkansas) scandals, bungles and corruption allegations that were never adequately investigated: The list is almost too long to count," he said.

Those scandals included Whitewater, File-Gate, the death of Vince Foster, Sniper-Gate, the Pork Bellies scandal, pay-for-play in the State Department, the use of private server for official business, erased official emails, the Benghazi controversy and the way in which most prosecutions over these issues were avoided, Feierstein continued.

"It just doesn't stop," he stated.

Obama and Hillary Clinton approved a record $1.4 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia while she was secretary of state, Feierstein went on.

"At the same time Hillary and the Clinton Foundation were filling their pockets with Saudi Arabia's 'contributions.' Saudi Arabia is her biggest contributor and it is a country that throws homosexuals off buildings, where women and minorities have no rights," Feierstein said.

Clinton's four year record as secretary of state under Obama should have disqualified her from running as a presidential candidate, Feierstain maintained.

"A secretary of state that sells favors to global despots and dictators with impunity is not acceptable, it's criminal. In a country with 'a rule of law' that person should be disqualified from running for president and prosecuted," he said.

The Clintons had proven highly successful for decades in blunting or diverting legitimate criticisms and preventing any serious scrutiny of their personal financial dealings, Feierstein demonstrated.

"The Clinton playbook, for the past 30 years, for dealing criticisms and exposure of their scandals, has largely remained the same; Bill and Hillary or their proxies accuse their accusers of the very things they themselves are guilty of but do it louder and in a more arrogant manner," he described the Clintons' approach.

Feierstein described this technique to avoid accountability and prosecution a "Four Ds" strategy.

"I call this Clinton scheme the four Ds — Divert, Deflect, Deceive and Deny. Accuse your accuser of exactly what you are doing," he said.

Hillary Clinton stated during the third presidential debate with Donald Trump on October 20 that everything she did as secretary of state was in furtherance of American interests.

She also noted then that she is proud of the work of the Clinton Foundation and characterized the organization as a world renowned charity with highest ratings given by foundation watchdogs. She pointed out that the Foundation has enabled, among other pursuits, treatment for 11 million people infected with HIV/AIDS.

[neutronstar]

Glad to see that other governments are seeing what the Clintons are up to with the foundation...Hoping that soon all contritutors will stop giving money to the fund. It seems obvious to me that bilking is going on large scale. Hope justice is served.

I would say that because she will not be President, they will now not see a return on their investment. That is what that tells me. I think Gov's knew what was up all along, that's why they gave them money.

[Hervé]

'Insane' WaPo Russian propaganda story slammed by Greenwald & others as disgusting smear (https://www.rt.com/usa/368214-greenwald-washington-post-russia/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/usa/368214-greenwald-washington-post-russia/) Fri, 25 Nov 2016 22:57 UTC


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© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters


Glenn Greenwald, along with other journalists, has unleashed a torrent of criticism at The Washington Post over a piece about Russia leading a "fake news" campaign during the US election, calling it a "disgusting" smear and "supremely sh*tty" garbage.

The Washington publication, at one time hailed for its role in exposing the Watergate Scandal, has now been rounded on by a number of well-known figures from the media industry for publishing the article.

Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, significant in bringing Edward Snowden's US security revelations to the public, labeled the story "total journalistic garbage".





https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/659383028771364869/G9HHnjiI_bigger.jpg Glenn Greenwald Verified account ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald)

Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Max Blumenthal
More astoundingly, the Washington Post published this black list while concealing the identity of the "researchers" who compiled it:

Glenn Greenwald added,
Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal
Washington Post treats sloppy blacklist that includes major progressive outlets as a serious resource on fake news: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html … https://twitter.com/maxblumenthal/status/801870185451888640 …
In a series of tweets, Greenwald said the websites listed by chief source PropOrNot were smeared without any evidence by a group hiding its own identity.





https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/659383028771364869/G9HHnjiI_bigger.jpg Glenn Greenwald Verified account ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald)

Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Trevor Timm
Funniest part: the ones who spread this thought they were exposing "fake news" when they themselves were exhibiting all the hallmarks of it.

Glenn Greenwald added,
Trevor Timm @trevortimm
Embarrassing how many reporters breathlessly tweeted this without clicking through to the really shady site featured https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html …


Previous Tweet (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/802240201955250176) Next Tweet (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/802228603987644417)



https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/659383028771364869/G9HHnjiI_bigger.jpg Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald) 19h19 hours ago (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/802228603987644417)
Remember how many 1000s of people - including journalists - instantly tweeted the Slate story of a Trump server to a Russian bank: total BS.

0 replies 509 retweets 913 likes

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/659383028771364869/G9HHnjiI_bigger.jpg Glenn Greenwald Verified account ‏@ggreenwald (https://twitter.com/ggreenwald)

If you're genuinely worried about the proliferation of fake news, it's definitely a good idea to start with your own Twitter & FB feeds.

Greenwald also indicated that the Washington Post piece is an example of how it has become "100 percent permissible - bordering on obligatory - to spout the most insane, evidence-free conspiracy theories if they involve Russia & Putin."

Key criticisms levelled against the article are that it was based on a Cold War think tank source and a report by dubious, anonymous researchers. It's also been slammed for a failing to critically evaluate a blacklist (http://www.propornot.com/p/the-list.html?m=1) of publications that supposedly comprise a "sophisticated" Russian propaganda machine.

New York based journalist Adam Johnson scolded the Washington Post for "uncritically" publishing the story without asking "who's behind it".

In the piece, journalist Craig Timberg reported how 200 websites had been implicated by a group called PropOrNot in propagating fake news. These websites included RT.com, Truth-Out.org, WikiLeaks.com, ZeroHedge.com and the site for the Ron Paul Institute.

The article also incorrectly suggested RT had used the hashtag #CrookedHillary on Twitter.

The Washington Post has since retracted its statement regarding RT using the #CrookedHillary hashtag.
"A previously published version of this story incorrectly state that Russian information service RT had used the "#CrookedHillary" hashtag push by the then-Republican candidate Donald Trump. In fact, while another Russian informations service Sputnik did use this hastag, RT did not," the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html) said.
In a statement, RT responded to the article built on "false, unsubstantiated claims".
"It is the height of irony that an article about "fake news" is built on false, unsubstantiated claims. RT adamantly rejects any and all claims and insinuations that the network has originated even a single "fake story" related to the US election. It is telling that in publishing such outrageous and slanderous allegations, the article failed to provide a single example - via a hyperlink, a headline, or otherwise - to substantiate its case against RT."
It continued:
"Likewise, RT has never used #CrookedHillary hashtag in its coverage of the campaign - this is another fabrication that was neither fact-checked, nor challenged by the Washington Post. It is important to reiterate that these claims have not been presented as an opinion, but as unquestionable fact. In what is a particularly troubling development, RT was not contacted by the Washington Post prior to the publication of the article. In effect, RT was refused the right to respond to these absolutely absurd claims prior to their publication - claims that now have been reprinted by dozens of international media outlets."

[Hervé]

Trump to pressure foreign govts to investigate Clinton Foundation – report (https://www.rt.com/usa/368406-trump-foreign-governments-clinton-foundation/)

Published time: 28 Nov, 2016 09:47
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/7w9i)


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© Joshua Roberts / Reuters


While President-elect Donald Trump earlier announced a U-turn on investigating Hillary Clinton, he is now reportedly planning to pressure foreign governments to look into the finances of the Clinton Foundation.

During one of the campaign debates, Trump said once he is in the oval office he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s alleged misgivings, including the use of a private email server and involvement in the Clinton Foundation.

“You'd be in jail,” he warned (https://www.rt.com/usa/362193-trump-clinton-debate-jabs/) his rival if he were to win the election.

After his election victory he made a U-turn on the threat. But according to the New York Post, the Trump administration would pressure foreign governments to investigate the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation.

“Haiti and Colombia will be key diplomatic posts for this because of all the money involved,” the newspaper cited (http://nypost.com/2016/11/27/trump-administration-will-pressure-foreign-states-to-probe-clinton-foundation/) a source in the Trump transition team as saying.

In Haiti “friends of Bill” Clinton may have been given priority from the US State Department as it distributed some $10 billion worth of aid after the impoverished island nation was hit by a devastating quake in 2010, according to emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In Colombia, the foundation’s close relations with Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra are under scrutiny. The businessman pledged $100 million to the foundation in 2005. One of the companies he holds a stake in later acquired large swaths of land in the country to cut down forests and extract oil, with watchdog groups saying (http://fusion.net/story/357169/hillary-clinton-foundation-victims-colombia/) it was on the back of the foundation's charity work.

Over the decades the foundation received millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments, including Arab monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Critics claim the foundation offered a ‘pay-to-play’ arrangement to donors, receiving donations for lobbying favorable policies in the US government.

Hillary Clinton resigned her position in the Clinton Foundation in April 2015 to campaign for the presidency. Her husband Bill and daughter Chelsea remain on the board of directors.

Since Trump’s victory in the presidential race, several foreign governments reportedly decided to scale down or cut financial ties with the Clinton Foundation or investigate such ties in the past. The list includes France, Australia and Norway.


Related:
Emails show State Dept. helped Clinton Foundation donors get contracts for 2010 Haiti quake — report (https://www.rt.com/usa/362446-clinton-foundation-haiti-emails/)

Clinton foundation admits receiving $1mn donation from Qatar that it previously hid (https://www.rt.com/usa/365442-clinton-foundation-qatar-emails/)

===============================================

It seems to me that, indeed, before Hillary can be prosecuted and sent to jail, the whole of the US "Justice" system needs to be dumped and replaced... a single lone prosecutor even if very special can do very little in the face of such a colossal apparatus, I think.

[norman]

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Who..... Me......

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[Hervé]

‘German funds given to Clinton Foundation should be returned and used to keep illegal migrants out’ (https://www.rt.com/op-edge/368578-german-hillary-payoffs-clinton-foundation/)

Published time: 29 Nov, 2016 15:24
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/7wea)


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Former U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton © Carlos Barria / Reuters



They should just alert us to the nature of politics, why we don’t want political decisions being made in these kinds of areas, why we don’t want bribes being paid. I am glad for the exposure...

Lew Rockwell, Editor of LewRockwell.com, told RT.The Clinton foundation could face scrutiny when Donald Trump becomes president as his administration reportedly plans to pressure foreign governments to probe the group's financial dealings.

This comes following claims that the foundation received money from the German government prior to the presidential election.

RT: What’s your take on these recent?

Lew Rockwell: … Trump was right about Hillary being crooked, about the Clinton foundation being crooked, and I don’t think we’ve begun to see how much money was actually paid. So we know from the Department of the Environment and from this other German agency – millions of Euros – they got much more money than that from all different governments. The question is: why politics are corrupt. It is not unusual for politicians to be paid off. They thought they were buying - probably the most benign explanation - they thought they were buying preferment from the future Clinton administration. This proves what the Clinton Foundation actually was – a way to bribe Hillary Clinton and her aide Bill Clinton.

But I think maybe there is other stuff going on too. This was obviously not German government agencies giving the money, even though it was the poor taxpayers footing the bill. But it was individuals determining this to happen. Were these guys going to personally profit; what kind of crookedness is there on the part of the German politicians and German bureaucrats, as well as the Americans? They should just alert us to the nature of politics, why we don’t want political decisions being made in these kinds of areas, why we don’t want bribes being paid. I am glad for the exposure… And how about getting it back since they didn’t get the favors they expected, really shouldn’t the Clintons give this money back to the German people? Maybe [the German people] could use it to keep some of the migrants out. That would be a nice change.

RT: Why do you think one provided these so-called donations to the Clinton Foundation? Did they expect something in return?

LR: Yes, and we don’t know what the quantity of these so-called donations were – the payoffs, the bribes. Of course it was an attempt not only to influence the future Hillary administration, they must have assumed it would help her in the campaign too, because of shared staffer and that sort of thing - but maybe much more than that, we don’t know. All we know for sure is that it is crooked; it is a criminal act against the German people, against the American people too for that matter – payoffs from one politician to another using other people’s money. Let’s bring it all out, expose it, let’s do what we can to try to stop it in the future. And I would hope that Trump never sets up a ‘Trump Foundation’ of such a crooked nature.

RT: Would you agree with the statement that there are double standards in the American political system, as well as in the mass media?

LR: I do have to note that since the Washington Post has dubbed me a ‘Russian propaganda agent’ take that into account with what I’m about to say. They wanted to string Donald Trump up by the heels. They would have wanted to beat him with a stick like one of those Trump piñatas.

These people just blow it off – the American press, but perhaps, it is not a big deal to them. If it would’ve been Trump, they would have introduced impeachment articles against him the minute he was inaugurated. That would have just been the beginning of the trouble. I don’t say that would not have been wrong, because it would have showed he was crooked; he was in the pay of people who should be in not customers of his businesses, but politicians...

Double standard is not quite the phrase – it’s the unbelievable two-faced nature of the American political system and everything Hillary does - no matter how criminal and how crooked, how lying – it’s perfectly ok, it’s not a problem. If Trump looks at somebody crooked, it is a world-class hate crime.

German govt. was certain of Clinton's victory

Petr Bystron, Alternative for Germany (Afd,) told RT that "the political establishment was the whole time sure that Hillary Clinton will win the elections."

RT: What’s your take on the Trump’s actions in order to encourage foreign governments to investigate the Clinton Foundation’s finances?

Petr Bystron: Well, this is for us a great scandal. It is absolutely unbelievable. We see that the political establishment, how far it is from the sorrows of ordinary people. We see also the second point – how sure the political establishment was the whole time that Hillary Clinton will win the elections. We have proofs that, for example, the Minister of Defense, [Ursula] von der Leyen, said one day after the election that they have absolutely no contacts to the Trump teams. So all was focused on Hillary Clinton – the whole German government was expecting Hillary Clinton to win the election, and it explains how it was possible that the German ministry was spending money for Clinton.

RT: According to some reports, Clinton’s charity received the cash to develop a number of projects in several African countries. Could you comment on that?

PB: The ministry said that the money was for forest and re-cultivation projects in Kenya and in Ethiopia. This is a joke. Why should the money go around the world from Germany to the US just to arrive back in Africa then? There are many German organizations who could do it better than The Clinton Foundation.

RT: Why do you think countries like Germany are often engaged in incidents like this?

PB: Well, the answer is quite clear and short: those countries are the closest allies and the strongest followers of the USA.