Archive for the ‘Foreign Policy’ Category
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016
Today’s big Clinton corruption news is the FBI dropping a lot of Clinton-related documents.
The weird thing is, the report about the Clinton Foundation investigation is more than 90% redacted, while the first Hillary EmailGate report seems less than 10% redacted.
Other Clinton corruption links:
Assistant attorney General Peter Kadzik leaked details of the EmailGate investigation to the Clinton campaign team.
Kadzik has also made numerous donations to the likes of Clinton, vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, and John Podesta’s daughter Megan Rouse. Oh, and his wife is Amy Weiss, who served as White House deputy assistant and deputy press secretary to Bill Clinton. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Newly FOIA-released FBI docs (see above) show that Kadzik worked with then Bill Clinton Chief-of-Staff John Podesta to obtain pardons for Mark Rich and Pincus Green.
Why the FBI announced the Weiner laptop emails when they did:
According to The Wall Street Journal, the New York agents notified FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe of their blockbuster findings on October 3.
But they couldn’t access the emails they found because searching through them wasn’t covered under their existing warrant for Weiner.
They needed a new warrant. So what did McCabe do?
Nothing. He sat on his hands. He never requested one. And nothing happened for weeks.
Why is this so important?
Well, McCabe is the FBI official who oversaw the initial Clinton email investigation.
He’s come under fire recently because his wife received $500,000 while running for the Virginia state senate from the political action committee (PAC) of longtime Clinton ally and current Virginia governor Terry McAullife.
Clinton herself headlined a major fundraiser for that same PAC shortly before the group steered the cash to McCabe’s wife.
So Mrs. McCabe received a huge sum of money from a close Clinton ally around the same time Mrs. Clinton was under an investigation led by Mr. McCabe.
The whole episode smells awful.
It’s therefore no shock to anyone who hasn’t had a full-frontal lobotomy why McCabe was in no rush to request a warrant for access to emails that may derail Clinton’s ambitions before Election Day.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the only reason why a warrant to was eventually requested in recent days was because “a member of the [Justice] department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant.”
Look, Comey’s not stupid. The Washington Post reported that he was only notified of the discovery of these new emails last Thursday.
He knew the guy running the Clinton investigation was likely dragging his feet until after election.
He also knew that if he did nothing given this new discovery and it turned up damning evidence against Clinton, Republicans would rake him over the coals for taking part in a conspiracy.
So he did what any bureaucrat would do in that situation: He covered his you know what. He notified Congress of the new discovery, which let the cat out of the bag.
Another 1,134 Podesta emails released.
“You know what’s most surprising? Carlos Danger has forced The New York Times and NBC to pay attention to Hillary’s criminal character.”
“For twenty years, I worked undercover in the Central Intelligence Agency, recruiting sources, producing intelligence and running operations. I have a pretty concrete understanding of how classified information is handled and how government communications systems work. Nobody uses a private email server for official business. Period. Full stop…Anyone else who did such things in the government would long ago have been tried, convicted and sent to jail.”
Leaked emails show that Hillary wants the Clinton Foundation to keep receiving foreign donations even if she gets elected President. Well, of course she does… (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Victor Davis Hanson wonders “What was the Clinton telos? The end point, the aim of all their lying, cheating, criminality, dishonor, and degradation?”
The Clintons suffer from greed, as defined by Aristotle: endless acquisition solely for the benefit of self. With their insatiable appetites, they resented the limits that multimillionaire status put on them, boundaries they could bypass only by accumulating ever greater riches. The billion-dollar foundation squared the circle of progressive politicians profiting from the public purse by offering a veneer of “doing good” while offering free luxury travel commensurate with the style of the global rich, by offering sinecures for their loyal but otherwise unemployable cronies, and by spinning off lobbying and speaking fees (the original font of their $100-million-plus personal fortune and the likely reason for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to put all her communications, mercantile included, on a private server safe from government scrutiny). Acquiring money to the extent that money would become superfluous was certainly a Clinton telos — and the subtext of the entire Podesta trove and the disclosures about the Clinton Foundation.
Snip.
As in the quest for lucre, the Clintons’ appetite for high-profile authority is endless. Just as $150 million seemed as nothing compared with the billions and billions raked in by their friends and associates, so too eight years in the White House, tenure as governor, senator, or secretary of state were never enough. In between such tenures, the Clintons suffered droughts when they were not on center stage and in no position to wield absolute power, as they watched less deserving folk (the Obamas perhaps in particular) gain inordinate attention. A Hillary presidency would give the Clintons unprecedented Peronist-like power, in a manner unlike any couple in American history.
Of course, the Clintons are not only corrupt but cynical as well. They accept that the progressive media, the foundations, the universities, the bureaucracies, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley honor power more than trendy left-wing politics; they well understand that their fans will, for them, make the necessary adjustments to contextualize Clinton criminality or amorality. Sexual predations, the demonization of women, graft, and unequal protection under the law are also of no consequence to the inbred, conflicted, and morally challenged media – who will always check in with the Clinton team, like errant dogs who scratch the backdoor of their master after a periodic runaway.
The Clintons have contempt for the media precisely because the media are so obsequious. They smile, that, like themselves, the media are easily manipulated and compromised — to the extent of offering their articles, before publication, for Clinton approval (as the New York Times’ Mark Leibovich did; leaking debate questions to the Clinton campaign (as Donna Brazile did); or saying (as Politico’s chief political correspondent did), “I have become a hack. . . . Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this Tell me if I f**ked up anything.” The Clintons view such sycophants not with affection, but with disdain, given that they are moochers no better than the Clintons, with the same base desires, albeit better camouflaged by their pretense of objectivity.
Read the whole thing…assuming NRO’s ad blocker blocker allows you to do so.
Podesta emails: Always go full Godwin. (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Trump opens up an 8-point edge in honesty. That’s how corrupt Hillary Clinton is: she makes Donald Trump look honest by comparison. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Hillary falsely claims she was in New York on 9/11. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
The Onion: “Clinton Staff Readies EMP Launch To Disable All Nation’s Electronic Devices.”
Time to post this, as I’m sure another ton of Clinton Corruption revelations are coming down the pike…
Tags:2016 Presidential Race, Amy Weiss, Anthony Weiner, Clinton Foundation, Crime, Democrats, Elections, EmailGate, FBI, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, John Podesta, Mark Rich, Megan Rouse, pardon, Peter Kadzik, Pincus Green, Tim Kaine
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 28th, 2016
A huge Clinton Corruption update this week! And who knows how much bigger next week’s will be?
Newly leaked memo maps cash flows between the Clinton Foundation and Bill’s for-profit activities:
We have written frequently in recent weeks about a feud that erupted between Chelsea Clinton and Doug Band back in 2011 after Chelsea raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest between Band’s firm, Teneo, the Clinton Foundation and the State Department (see here, here, here and here). The feud ultimately resulted in Band being forced to draft a memo spelling out, in vivid detail, the many entangled relationships between himself, Teneo, the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. Fortunately, today’s Wikileaks dump included that memo which reveals, for the first time, the precise financial flows between the Clinton Foundation, Band’s firm Teneo Consulting, and the Clinton family’s private business endeavors.
The memo starts with a brief background on Teneo, which was created in June 2011, shortly after Declan Kelly resigned from his position as “United States Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland,” a position to which he was appointed by Secretary Clinton.
In June 2009, DK Consulting was founded by Declan Kelley. Mr. Kelly served as COO of FTI Consulting until June 2009, when he stepped down and established DK Consulting. At that time, he also became the United States Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland. Pursuant to the terms of his exit agreement with FTI and consistent with the ethics agreement of his uncompensated special government employee appointment at the State Department, Mr. Kelly retained and continued to provide services to three paying clients (Coke, Dow, and UBS) and one pro bono client (Allstate). In late 2009, Declan retained me as a consultant to DK Consulting to help support the needs of these clients.
Stop right there. Who takes Allstate, a Fortune 100 company, as a pro bono client?
Here’s a copy of the document Zero Hedge is relying on (though alas, whoever put that up through some encoding bullshit to keep you from copying from it). Band goes into detail about just how much scratch is involved in scratching the Clintons’ backs:
“Cognizant of the Foundation’s significant fundraising needs as well as my role as the primary fundraiser for the Foundation for the past 11 years, as a partner in Teneo, Mr. Kelley [sic] and I have asked and encouraged our clients to contribute to the Foundation,” Band wrote. “Through our efforts, we have brought new donors to the Foundation and garnered increased giving from existing donors.”
And let’s look at the donors (all amounts for the period 2004-2011 except where noted):
- The Coca-Cola Company: Total giving: $4,330,000
- The Dow Chemical Company: Total giving: $780,000
- UBS: Total giving: $540,000
- The American Ireland Fund: Total giving: $350,000 (all 2010-2011)
- The All-State [sic] Corporation: Total giving: $265,000 (with an additional $500,000 pledge)
- Barclays Capital: Total giving: $1,100,000 (2008-2011)
- Indo Gold: Total giving: $100,000
- BHP Billiton Limited: Total giving: $20,000
- Teneo: Total giving: $100,000
There’s a further list of Teneo clients (GEMS Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Laureate International Universities) who were already donating to the Clinton Foundation.
Even the Washington Post was forced to notice:
The memo, made public Wednesday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, lays out the aggressive strategy behind lining up the consulting contracts and paid speaking engagements for Bill Clinton that added tens of millions of dollars to the family’s fortune, including during the years that Hillary Clinton led the State Department. It describes how Band helped run what he called “Bill Clinton Inc.,” obtaining “in-kind services for the President and his family — for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like.”
That’s called “quid pro quo.” Also this: “Emails show that Cheryl Mills, who at the time was serving as Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department, was deeply involved in the foundation’s proceedings.” Yeah, I think that’s been pretty well established at this point. (Hat tip: Powerline.)
And remember: Huma Abedin was working for Teneo while she was working for the State Department. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
The Wall Street Journal wonders: Why isn’t the IRS investigating the Clinton Foundation?
More Clinton pay to play: “The head of a for-profit university that donated up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation was rewarded with an invite to a high-profile State Department dinner at the request of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
The five most disturbing donations to the Clinton Foundation. Including the Saudis, the Russian uranium deal money, and Indonesian tobacco magnate Putera Sampoerna who “donated and worked with the foundation before he got the U.S. government to underwrite millions in loans offered by the foundation and secured high-profile support for its activities from Sec. Clinton and other senior federal officials.”
“Five mega-donors and their wives are responsible for one in every $17 dollars that have been spent on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Funny how right when Hillary Clinton came under FBI scrutiny:
The political backers of a longtime Clinton crony and fixer, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, made $675,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to the election campaign of the wife of the FBI official who later ran the investigation of Mrs. Clinton.”
As the Wall Street Journal reports, the contributions went to the 2015 Virginia state senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, the wife of then-associate-deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe. McAuliffe had recruited Dr. McCabe to run. After her campaign ended unsuccessfully (Dr. McCabe lost to incumbent Republican Dick Black), Andrew McCabe was promoted to deputy director, a role in which he assumed oversight of the Clinton e-mail investigation.
And Hillary headlined a fundraiser for her. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“The fact that Hillary Clinton’s inner circle was raising substantial funds for Gov. McAuliffe’s PAC and this same PAC gave close to a half-million dollars to the campaign of the wife of the senior FBI official involved in the Clinton investigation sure looks like a payoff – a major payoff.”
It’s not just the FBI. Department of Justice employees as a whole are hevaily backing Clinton:
Employees of the Department of Justice, which investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State, gave Clinton 97 percent of their donations. Trump received $8,756 from DOJ employees compared with $286,797 for Clinton. From IRS employees, Clinton received 94 percent of donations.
Which brings up the question: Why are federal government employees even allowed to make campaign donations?
Speaking of the FBI, a retired agent slams James Comey’s non-indictment of Hillary. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Watch Clinton campaign staff take an illegal $20,000 donation on camera.
The Clinton Foundation was set up to be corrupt. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Clinton State Department IT official John Bentel takes the Fifth Amendment 90 times. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Was EmailGate buried to protect Obama rather than Clinton?
Maybe that’s why the Clinton campaign coordinated with both the White House and the media on how to conduct the coverup.
More emails emerge of how Hillary’s secret private server was causing problems at the State Department. More emails that, yet again, Clinton failed to turn over to the FBI.
Despite all this, could all 33,000 emails from Hillary’s private serve still exist someplace? (Hat tip: Legal Insurrection.)
Yes, Donna Brazile did feed debate questions to the Clinton campaign while working for CNN. Of course, CNN is an extension of the Clinton campaign, so I don’t see how anyone can be surprised.
The Clinton campaign is coordinating with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Maybe that’s why some Facebook employees tried to remove a Trump post on Muslims as “hate speech.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
The Clinton Clan’s hunger for foreign campaign contributions goes back to at least the 1990s. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Scott Adams endorses Trump for all the bullying Democrats carried out against him and other Americans:
I’ve been trying to figure out what common trait binds Clinton supporters together. As far as I can tell, the most unifying characteristic is a willingness to bully in all its forms.
If you have a Trump sign in your lawn, they will steal it.
If you have a Trump bumper sticker, they will deface your car.
if you speak of Trump at work you could get fired.
On social media, almost every message I get from a Clinton supporter is a bullying type of message. They insult. They try to shame. They label. And obviously they threaten my livelihood.
We know from Project Veritas that Clinton supporters tried to incite violence at Trump rallies. The media downplays it.
We also know Clinton’s side hired paid trolls to bully online. You don’t hear much about that.
Yesterday, by no coincidence, Huffington Post, Salon, and Daily Kos all published similar-sounding hit pieces on me, presumably to lower my influence. (That reason, plus jealousy, are the only reasons writers write about other writers.)
Joe Biden said he wanted to take Trump behind the bleachers and beat him up. No one on Clinton’s side disavowed that call to violence because, I assume, they consider it justified hyperbole.
Team Clinton has succeeded in perpetuating one of the greatest evils I have seen in my lifetime. Her side has branded Trump supporters (40%+ of voters) as Nazis, sexists, homophobes, racists, and a few other fighting words. Their argument is built on confirmation bias and persuasion. But facts don’t matter because facts never matter in politics. What matters is that Clinton’s framing of Trump provides moral cover for any bullying behavior online or in person. No one can be a bad person for opposing Hitler, right?
More from Adams: The Crook vs. the Monster.
Clinton campaign staffer: So, how are we going to handle all this Bill Clinton/Bill Cosby comparisons? Response: [Silence] (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Erica Garner rips Hillary for trying to make political hay out of her father’s death.
“Hillary Clinton campaign aides had a frantic email exchange in August 2015 over who should call the candidate to ‘sober her up some’ at around 4:30 in the afternoon.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Another story on Hillary’s health:
Sources close to Hillary tell me that her doctors have discovered she suffers from arrhythmia (an abnormal heart beat) and a leaking heart valve. They have recommended that she consider having valve replacement surgery, but Hillary has refused because she does not want to risk the negative political fallout from stories about such a serious operation.
In addition to the arrhythmia and leaking heart valve, Hillary suffers from chronic low blood pressure, insufficient blood flow, a tendency to form life-threatening blood clots, and troubling side effects from her medications.
(Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine attracts all of 30 people to a rally in Florida. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
And just before I clicked the Publish button, Wikileaks dropped another 1,400 Podesta emails. With the Clintons, corruption never takes a holiday…
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Allstate, American Ireland Fund, Andrew McCabe, Barclays, BHP Billiton Limited, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Cheryl Mills, Clinton Foundation, CNN, Coca-Cola, Crime, Democrats, Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Donna Brazile, Doug Band, Dow Chemical, Elections, EmailGate, Facebook, FBI, Florida, Foreign Policy, fraud, Hillary Clinton Health, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Huma Abedin, Indo Gold, Indonesia, IRS, James Comey, Jill McCabe, John Bentel, John Podesta, Laureate International Universities, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, Putera Sampoerna, Russia, Scott Adams, State Department, Teneo, Tim Kaine, UBS
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Obama Scandals | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2016
Certain factions of the Washington establishment (here’s a good example) are demanding that Obama “do something” to stop the fighting around Aleppo in Syria, the “something” in this case being the threat of force, or even actual use thereof, to stop Russian airstrikes and prevent a “humanitarian disaster.” And Hillary Clinton is calling for a no-fly zone.
To which I reply: Why?
We can’t back the good guys in the Syrian civil war because there are no good guys. Assad’s ruling faction are scumbags. The Russians backing Assad are scumbags. Hezbollah, fighting on Assad’s side, are scumbags. The Iranian mullahs backing Assad are scumbags. Turkey is currently ruled by Erdogan’s Islamist scumbags, and Turkey is more interested in attacking the Kurds than the Islamic State. The Free Syrian Army is riddled with Islamist scumbags. The al-Nusra front are scumbags. The Islamic State is made up of the very worst scumbags in the region (and world). The only notable faction that aren’t scumbags are the Kurds, who, as an ethnic and geographic minority, are in no position to rule Syria, or even a significant fraction of it.
To the extent that Obama’s imaginary red lines and desultory, ineffectual backing of Syrian rebel groups have harmed America’s reputation for competence in the region, the damage has already been done. (Indeed, the Obama/Clinton/Kerry strategy for fomenting regime change in the hope that things would turn out better, like a liberal funhouse mirror distorted reflection of George W. Bush’s far more limited regime change goals in Iraq, have made things worse across the region.) We have no pressing national interest at stake in the Syrian civil war, there’s not a contending faction (outside the peripherally-involved Kurds) worth backing, and it’s not apparent what such an intervention might reasonably achieve.
All of which makes me incredulous when I read pieces that suggest that Obama is considering military actions in Syria.
Even some on the right have been agitating for the United States to “do something” in Syria, and S. E. Cupp’s Twitter timeline has gone to an “all heart-tugging photos of Syrian children” format without saying why it is the United State’s interest to intervene in Syria or proposing anything concrete as to what form that intervention should take.
A large part of the current push to intervene in Syria seems to be coming from an interest group called The Syria Campaign. Who is behind it?
From that Zero Hedge piece:
A careful look at the origins and operation of The Syria Campaign raises doubts about the outfit’s image as an authentic voice for Syrian civilians, and should invite serious questions about the agenda of its partner organizations as well.
A creation of international PR firms
Best known for its work on liberal social issues with well-funded progressive clients like the ACLU and the police reform group, Campaign Zero, the New York- and London-based public relations firm Purpose promises to deliver creatively executed campaigns that produce either a “behavior change,” “perception change,” “policy change” or “infrastructure change.” As the Syrian conflict entered its third year, this company was ready to effect a regime change.
On Feb. 3, 2014, Anna Nolan, the senior strategist at Purpose, posted a job listing. According to Nolan’s listing, her firm was seeking “two interns to join the team at Purpose to help launch a new movement for Syria.”
At around the same time, another Purpose staffer named Ali Weiner posted a job listing seeking a paid intern for the PR firm’s new Syrian Voices project. “Together with Syrians in the diaspora and NGO partners,” Weiner wrote, “Purpose is building a movement that will amplify the voices of moderate, non-violent Syrians and mobilize people in the Middle East and around the world to call for specific changes in the political and humanitarian situation in the region.” She explained that the staffer would report “to a Strategist based primarily in London, but will work closely with the Purpose teams in both London and New York.”
On June 16, 2014, Purpose founder Jeremy Heimans drafted articles of association for The Syria Campaign’s parent company. Called the Voices Project, Heimans registered the company at 3 Bull Lane, St. Ives Cambridgeshire, England. It was one of 91 private limited companies listed at the address. Sadri would not explain why The Syria Campaign had chosen this location or why it was registered as a private company.
Along with Heimans, Purpose Europe director Tim Dixon was appointed to The Syria Campaign’s board of directors. So was John Jackson, a Purpose strategist who previously co-directed the Burma Campaign U.K. that lobbied the EU for sanctions against that country’s ruling regime. (Jackson claimed credit for The Syria Campaign’s successful push to remove Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad’s re-election campaign ads from Facebook.) Anna Nolan became The Syria Campaign’s project director, even as she remained listed as the strategy director at Purpose.
From The Syria Campaign’s own website:
The Syria Campaign is a non-profit organisation registered as a company in the United Kingdom as The Voices Project—company number 8825761. (You can’t be a registered charity in the UK if most of your work is campaigning.)
We have a Governing Board who are legally responsible for the organisation and oversee strategy and finance for The Syria Campaign. The board members are Daniel Gorman, Ben Stewart, Sawsan Asfari, Tim Dixon and Lina de Sergie.
Jeremy Heimans co-founded “a campaign group in the U.S. presidential elections that used crowd-funding to help a group of women whose loved ones were in Iraq hire a private jet to follow Vice-President Dick Cheney on his campaign stops, in what became known as the “‘Chasing Cheney’ tour” among other leftist activism.
Daniel Gorman heads “the UK’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture.”
Ben Stewart is a Greenpeace activist who has a grudge against Russia for detaining 30 of his fellow travelers.
Sawsan Asfari is “active in various charities that help Palestinians across the Arab world” and is the wife of Syrian-born British billionaire Ayman Asfari.
Lina de Sergie seems to more commonly go by Lina Sergie Attar. “She is a Syrian-American architect and writer from Aleppo. She co-developed Karam’s Innovative Education initiatives: the creative therapy and holistic wellness program for displaced Syrian children and the Karam Leadership Program, an entrepreneurship and technology program for displaced Syrian youth.” Yes, I’m sure “holistic wellness” is a big priority for Syrian refugees. Karam’s Mission Statement: “We develop Innovative Education programs for Syrian refugee youth, distribute Smart Aid to Syrian families, and fund Sustainable Development projects initiated by Syrians for Syrians.”
Tim Dixon has quite an extensive resume, being a former speechwriter to two Australian Labor Party Prime Ministers and involved in a large number of causes:
– a large-scale initiative to help change hearts and minds on the global refugee crisis;
– The Syria Campaign, to move the world to action on the humanitarian crisis in Syria;
– Everytown, the movement to tackle gun violence in America
Etc.
So, to summarize: It’s run by international left-wing activists in favor of Europe accepting more “Syrian” “refugees”, soft jihadis, and gun banners.
These are not the sort of people I want driving American national security decisions.
The situation in Syria is horrible, but outside territory held by the Islamic State, it’s the same type of horrible that has plagued the Middle East pretty much constantly absent control by a ruling power with sufficient force to keep the endemic ethnic strife under wraps. Wars there are fought under Hama rules, not those of the Geneva Convention.
It is not in the best interests of the United States to intervene militarily in Syria. We have no compelling national security interest in Syria right now, there’s no faction worth backing, and trying to “create safe areas” or “establish no-fly zones” would be dangerous, cost-prohibitive and unlikely to succeed.
Sometimes the best choice is doing nothing at all.
Tags:al-Nusra Front, Ayman Asfari, Everytown for Gun Safety, Free Syrian Army, Guns, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jeremy Heimans, Jihad, Kurds, Lina de Sergie, Lina Sergie Attar, Military, Purpose, Russia, S. E. Cupp, Sawsan Asfari, Syria, The Syria Campaign, Tim Dixon
Posted in Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 6th, 2016
Another week, another bumper crop of links on Clinton corruption:
That amazing thing about the Clinton web of corruption is that there are tentacles of the Clinton Foundation you’ve likely never even heard of, including the Clinton India Foundation:
Three months after leaving the White House in 2001, former President Bill Clinton arrived in India to cheering throngs to help those who had just lost a million homes in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that killed 20,000 and injured 166,000.
In classic Clinton style, he solemnly promised that his new nonprofit — called the American India Foundation (AIF) — would rebuild 100 villages. Rajat Gupta, his millionaire co-chairman, pledged $1 billion for the victims.
It never happened. Years later, AIF’s annual reports were reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation and show only seven villages were partially rebuilt by Clinton’s group, and a mere $2.7 million of $53 million raised over a decade went to the earthquake victims.
It gets worse:
The sheer number of AIF executives who ran afoul of the law is dramatic. Clinton’s handpicked AIF co-chairmen — Rajat Gupta, then head of McKinsey & Company and Victor Menezes, then Citibank chairman — were both convicted of insider trading. Gupta served 19 months in federal prison and Menezes was fined $2.7 million.
Gupta was close to the Clintons. He hired Chelsea Clinton right out of college for a six-figure salary to work at McKinsey and he donated between $10,000 to $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Raj Rajaratnam was perhaps the most notorious AIF trustee. He was convicted of 14 counts of security fraud in one of the largest and most spectacular Wall Street prosecutions in decades. He is currently serving serving a sentence of 11 years in prison. Gupta passed on insider tips to Rajaratnam.
Then there’s Vinod Gupta, an AIF director who the Securities and Exchange Commission helped remove as CEO of InfoUSA because he used company funds to support a lavish lifestyle. He was forced to resign and pay $9 million in restitution.
Vinod also bestowed large financial rewards to Clinton. He paid Bill $3.3 million and gave him 100,000 stock shares of his company without prior approval from the board of directors. Vinod allowed the Clinton family to use the company’s jet, also without board approval. The Clintons got $900,000 worth of air travel. And Vinod gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Vinod had spent a night in the White House Lincoln bedroom when the Clintons opened it up to donors.
Sant Singh Chatwal, another AIF trustee, pleaded guilty in 2014 to funneling more than $180,000 in illegal contributions to candidates for federal office, including Hillary. The Times of India reported the close relationship Chatwal had with the Clintons.
“Chatwal and his wife Daman were regular visitors to the White House during the Clinton presidency. A fortnight after the Clintons left for their new home in Chappaqua, New York, Sant Singh Chatwal and his elder son, Vikram, dropped in to meet them,” the newspaper wrote.
Naveen Jain, an AIF trustee, was accused of buying and selling stocks with insider knowledge as CEO of InfoSpace. He eventually paid $107 million in a civil suit over insider trading.
Ajay Shah, another trustee was forced to pay $14.8 million for contributing to the collapse of the Trust Bank of Kenya. He fled the country to avoid the Kenya High Court decree.
Sudesh K. Arora, president of Natel, entered the criminal plea for a major Department of Defense fraud investigation. He settled and his company paid a $1 million fine.
How Hillary Clinton’s State Department shared insider information on Greek bonds with Chelsea Clinton’s husband, bond trader Marc Mezvinsky. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
New emails show how Clinton’s State Department staff went out of their way to perform favors for Clinton Foundation donors:
A new batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s time at the State Department offered fresh evidence Wednesday of the pains Clinton’s staff took to accommodate her husband’s paid speeches and her family’s foundation — just hours after Sen. Tim Kaine dismissed the possibility that the Clinton Foundation had wielded influence over his running mate.
Emails showed Clinton’s aides teamed up with the foundation to perform donor maintenance, craft messaging on key policies and put together guest lists for both diplomatic and philanthropic events. State Department staffers were often asked to advise Clinton’s husband on how to handle politically-fraught speaking engagements or foundation events, such as an effort to bring the new Libyan president to a Clinton Global Initiative meeting that was held less than two weeks after the 2012 Benghazi attacks.
The trove of roughly 200 pages of records made public Wednesday was just the latest and most convincing indication that, rather than operate as an independent organization, the Clinton Foundation leaned heavily on the State Department to expand its global reach.
How the Clinton Foundation corrupted Charity Navigator with payola:
But the four-star rating had hardly been announced before the Associated Press reported that Charity Navigator was a member of the CGI from 2012 to 2014. The CGI is one of the Clinton Foundation’s best-known programs, as it regularly convenes glittering gatherings of celebrities, government officials and philanthropic stars.
The $20,000 CGI membership fee was waived for Charity Navigator, which reported it as an in-kind contribution, according to the AP. The news organization said Charity Navigator chairman Michael Thatcher claimed his group joined CGI “to mingle with world leaders and promote its ratings.
Hillary Clinton deleted nearly 1,000 emails exchanged with David Petraeus. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
How the FBI treated former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell vs. the kid gloves approach they took with Hillary Clinton.
The Obama Administration lifted sanctions on Burma after Chevron donated to the Clinton Foundation. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
“Hillary failed as secretary of state — why would president be any different?”
Did the DOJ drop prosecution of a man dealing arms to Libyan rebels beause he might expose Hillary? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Ten Hillary Clinton debate lies debunked. (Hat tip: The Bull Elephant.)
More on the same theme.
Some have complained about how Donald Trump treats people. Fair enough, but have they not noticed that Clinton treats underlings like dirt?
Photograph evidence suggest that Hillary Clinton suffers from permanent double vision. On the bright side, that means she’s probably not a shape-shifting reptoid. Probably. (Hat tip: Dircetor Blue.)
More Hillary health issues.
Hillary Clinton avoided taxes the same way Trump did.
How New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is abusing his office to help the Clinton campaign.
Five more tidbits from hacked Clinton staffer emails. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Twitter shadowbans Dilbert’s Scott Adams for no apparent reason, except backing Donald Trump.
Tags:2016 Presidential Race, Ajay Shah, American India Foundation, Bill Clinton, Burma, Chelsea Clinton, Clinton Foundation, Clinton India Foundation, Crime, David Petraeus, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elections, EmailGate, Eric Schneiderman, FBI, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Health, Hillary Clinton Scandals, India, media bias, Media Watch, Naveen Jain, New York, Raj Rajaratnam, Rajat Gupta, Sant Singh Chatwal, Scott Adams, shadowban, Sudesh K. Arora, Victor Menezes, Vinod Gupta
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Media Watch | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 2nd, 2016
Happy Labor Day Weekend, everyone!
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a statistical tie.
Ditto Rasmussen: Trump 40%, Clinton 39%. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
538: Don’t Assume The Electoral College Will Save Clinton.
Let us celebrate the fall of Alan Grayson with a look back at his greatest hits.
Huge food stamp fraud bust in Baltimore. More than half those arrested have names like “Mulazam Hussain.”
How the New York Times lies about red state vs. blue state prosperity.
Milo Yiannopoulos decries the Islamicization of London and declares he’s leaving.
“After a lengthy period of deliberation, the Brazilian parliament has formally removed from office President Dilma Rousseff, the corrupt left-wing populist who has been trying to do for Brazil what Hugo Chávez and his epigones did for Venezuela.” This is at NRO, which has recently installed an AdBlocker blocker, so good luck reading it. If it’s a choice between turning off my AdBlocker or giving up on reading NRO, I’ll give up on reading NRO, even though I subscribe to NRODT. Though I am still trying to figure out which combination of RefControl, GreaseMonkey and cookie deletion that will block the AdBlocker blocker…
Would you bite the hand that feeds you? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Is this Indonesian man really 145 years old? He does sort of look it…
Lefty science fiction writer John Shirley (who I workshopped with at a Turkey City many moons ago) has penned a piece on why science fiction needs conservatives at Tangent Online. And I’m accurately quoted. The big caveat is that Shirley doesn’t understand modern conservatism at all, doesn’t know what they’re trying to conserve, and doesn’t make mention of constitutional rights or limited government. But at least he’s recognized how Social Justice Warriors are poisoning the field.
“Alabama ACLU sues government, claiming pro-Muslim discrimination.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Are Austin’s red light cameras illegal?
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.
Newly hired woman explains how she got screwed out of her paycheck by a Silicon Valley startup. She also ignored several early warning signs…
Great story from Charles James II on how he made the Texans. “If you need a story to give you hope, I want you to lean on mine. As long as your most valuable measurable is your work ethic, there’s no reason you can’t be successful at whatever you wish to do.”
“Everyone was loving Montreal’s family-friendly puppet festival until the prison rape part.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Looks like your creepy Halloween stories are starting a little early this year: “At the edge of dark, dark woods in South Carolina, children have been telling adults that a group of clowns have been trying to lure them into the cluster of trees. They say the clowns live deep in the woods, near a house by a pond.” (Hat tip: Althouse.)
Workers tear up sidewalk to free a dog. With heart-tugging photo.
Tags:Alabama, Alan Grayson, Apple Computer, Austin, Brazil, California, Charles James II, Crime, Democrats, dogs, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, John Shirley, London, Media Watch, Milo Yiannopoulos, red light cameras, science fiction, Social Justice Warriors, South Carolina, weird news, welfare, Welfare State
Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 19th, 2016
Too much Clinton Corruption news to put off a roundup this week, so enjoy this rather than the usual Friday LinkSwarm:
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the man who took down New York Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, is investigating the Clinton Foundation.
“The Clintons are Grifters, and America is Their Mark.”
Where did the Clinton Foundation end and the State Department begin?
At no time did the U.S. State Department ever say to Bill Clinton that any of his unbelievably lucrative speaking gigs represented a conflict of interest – even if there was reason to believe a foreign government or entities closely allied with a foreign government were paying. Recall the State Department praising the progress of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan as the president’s ally invited Bill Clinton to give two speeches in exchange for $1.4 million dollars. The State Department’s generous assessment of Jonathan’s human rights record stopped after the last speaking gig for Clinton.
Five Clinton cronies who got special favors from Hillary’s state department. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Huma Abedin is the walking, talking, emailing embodiment of the conflict of interest between Hillary Clinton working as secretary of state while the Clinton Foundation laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign donations. Let he who has never triple-dipped while pulling down a six-figure government consulting income cast the first stone…
Washington Post: “A porous ethical wall between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.” Yeah, there was a “wall” there in the same sense there’s a wall between the grill and the front counter, with a nice big hole in the middle where things patrons have paid for can be passed through…
Mention uncomfortable facts about Hillary Clinton on CNN? Get your mic cut off. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
More sudden Clinton death syndrome?
Indeed, Gavin McInnes at Takimag has a more comprehensive roundup:
Hey, guys, if you’re looking for murders, check out anyone who has ever crossed the Clintons. There are about 100 cases where some intern has slept with Bill or some lawyer knew too much or some investigator got too close and boom—he shoots himself in the back of the head at the top of a mountain at four in the morning.
The media cared about the sheer number of cases when 57 women said Bill Cosby raped them. If we brought the Hillary kill list down to 57, you’d be dealing with only the really, really spooky ones. Like the one last month where a DNC staffer, who may very well have supplied Julian Assange with the classified emails that brought massive embarrassment to the party, was shot in the back of the head in the middle of the night.
Seth Rich was talking to his girlfriend on the phone when a gunman came up behind him, shot him to death, and left without taking anything at all. Rich was in a nice neighborhood that I’m told hadn’t had a murder in six years. The Assange link got eye rolls from the left until he personally offered a $20K reward for any information leading to an arrest. A Dutch TV host pressed Julian on this and asked if it was a murder accusation directed at Hillary and the subject quickly died.
The list of victims goes on and on and on, and Google is happy to tell you how serious the accusations are and how tenuous the link is.
Some of the Clinton Body Count stuff is just stupid speculation (like random people killed near the Mena Airport, which ties into the whole CIA drug running/Octopus/Clinton conspiracy theory). But others do indeed make you go “Hmmmm.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Flashback: Hillary’s crooked cattle-trading deal. (Hat tip: Zero Hedge.)
How Hillary could destroy gun rights. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Hillary: Colin Powell said my emails setup was A-OK! Powell: Which part of non-classified was unclear? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
More on the same theme:
(Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Ken Salazar, Hillary’s thug. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
You can’t expect the graft queen and her aides to take federally mandated ethics training, no can you? When is she supposed to find the time when there are all those favors to do for foreign benefactors? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Tags:2016 Presidential Race, Bill Clinton, Clinton Foundation, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Gavin McInnes, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Huma Abedin, murder, Nigeria, Preet Bharara, State Department, Sudden Clinton Death Syndrome
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy | No Comments »
Monday, August 15th, 2016
Welcome to the return of this week in jihad! (And by “this week” I mean “since the last time I did a roundup.”)
“Man harpooned in brawl over photo of women in burkinis in Corsica.” (Hat tip Instapundit.)
91 killed by suicide bombers in Baghdad in July.
Two teenage Muslim “refugees” rape a five year old girl in Idaho while a third films the attack.
“Germany’s migrant rape crisis has now spread to cities and towns in all 16 of Germany’s federal states.”
Eleven Muslim separatist bombing attacks in Thailand in one day.
Could France be facing a civil war between natives and Islamic immigrants? Maybe, but it’s hard to put much credence in this article when he says “Benoit, a local olive farmer who owns more than a dozen rifles, pistols and shotguns, as well as an AK-47 assault rifle, admitted to me this weekend something much darker.” Fully automatic rifles are illegal in France last I checked, so I rather doubt “Benoit” has one, much less shows it to random Brits swanning about. Cue the journalists guide to firearms identification. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
“Muslim migrants want Islamization of Europe.”
“Sharia Police” patrolling Hamburg?
Authorities in Norrtälje, Sweden are asking wealthy homeowners to give up their summer homes for “Syrian refugees.” (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)
Islamic State in Libya loses control of Sirte.
Tags:Corsica, Foreign Policy, France, Germany, Idaho, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Libya, rape, Sirte, Sweden, Thailand, This Week in Jihad
Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016
Another week, another roundup of Clinton Corruption links:
“Shut It Down: The Clinton Foundation Is Too Corrupt to Exist.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, the one used to funnel some $100 million of undisclosed donations to the Clintons, spends 72% of donations on “overhead” and only 28% on charity.
French company LaFarge, of which Hillary Clinton was once a director, may have helped fund the Islamic State. (I would insert a Madame Defarge reference here, but I’ve actually never made it all the way through A Tale of Two Cities.)
Former acting CIA Director criticizing Trump is up to his ears in Clinton ties.
“Clinton Chooses Black Lives Matter Over Law Enforcement Support.” Well of course she did! My working hypothesis is that Hillary has been running Black Lives Matter since the very beginning as a desperate attempt to get black voters to the polls for a non-Obama candidate in November.
Feeble 68-year old Hillary needs help getting up a flight of seven steps. (Hat tip: Austin Bay at Instapundit.)
What’s wrong with Hillary? I know, the full answer to that question would take hours, if not days. So let’s rephrase that: What’s physically wrong with Hillary?
And who is Hillary’s handler?
The return of #SuddenClintonDeathSyndrome.
The New York Times lied about Clinton’s lies. Says who? The public editor of The New York Times. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
This falls more under “reported as a public service” than “here’s something I really believe”: Odds Hillary Won Without Widespread Fraud: 1 in 77 Billion Says Berkeley, Stanford Studies.” The problem with this sort of thing is that all the previous times I’ve seen similar reports, the methodology was seriously flawed. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Hillary cheated her way to the Democratic nomination, but no, it’s not “scientifically proven.” Though I’m hardly going to march in the streets to debunk this one…
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Canada, Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, Crime, France, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Media Watch, The New York Times
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Media Watch | No Comments »
Monday, August 8th, 2016
This is what happens when a “socialist paradise” enters its terminal phase.
Venezuela children are dying from malnutrition:
Malnourished children who faint in class. Children who, in the worst cases, die from hunger, their bodies nothing but skin and bones, the outlines of their ribs visible.
Images like those have become common in Venezuela, where critical food shortages are pushing hundreds of thousands of children under a blanket of misery and hunger more often seen in the poorest countries in Africa.
“We are seeing cases not seen for 40 years,” said William Barrientos, a physician and part of the opposition bloc in the legislative National Assembly who produced and posted a video on YouTube to highlight the issue of malnutrition among Venezuelan children.
It’s like something out of the French Revolution:
A mob of starving people advanced on the presidential palace chanting, “We want food”. They were met by soldiers and police dispatched by the tyrant from his lavish palace decorated opulently with a golden sun, giant rock crystal mirrors, sparkling chandeliers and towering oil portraits.
The scene wasn’t 19th century France, but 21st century Venezuela.
And if you are wondering why you haven’t seen it on the news, it’s because Venezuela is a Socialist disaster area that was once being used as a model by the left. Now it’s a place where the vast majority of people can’t afford basic food staples and a third are down to two or fewer meals a day.
Snip.
Venezuela, once a wealthy oil state, where the doctors offering “universal health care” have no medicine and starving people loot government stores looking for food, is yet another example. 50 people are dead in the latest food riots. Their graves are yet another “grave error” of the left.
Snip.
Venezuela needs 10 billion bank notes in its new inflationary economy, more than America, and it can’t pay for them. Or pay for anything else. It can’t afford to import food and it refuses to pay fair prices at home. Meanwhile eggs, at the official exchange rate, run to $150, McDonald’s fries for $126 and a pound of coffee for $85. Socialists may not believe in inflation, but inflation believes in them.
No wonder the people are starving.
Teachers sell passing grades to students in exchange for milk and flour. Lines at government stores are endless and an entire economy has been built on buying and trades spots on food lines. Fingerprint scanners are used to enforce milk rations. And a heavy military police and military presence is required to stop mobs of starving people from grabbing the food as soon as it arrives.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Venezuelans who are able cross into Columbia to buy food, at least what little their worthless hyperinflated Bolivars will buy.
How many children will have to starve to death until the Venezuela’s socialist ruling class reverses course?
Tags:Foreign Policy, socialism, starvation, Venezuela
Posted in Communism, Foreign Policy | No Comments »
Friday, August 5th, 2016
Enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm! A lot of plane and weird news links this time around:
Aetna is losing $300 million a year on ObamaCare. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Air Force Declares F-35 ready for combat. (Hat tip: Borepatch, who is more than a little skeptical…)
Islamic State Sinai leader Abu Dua al-Ansari killed in Egyptian air strike.
Is there any greater bastion of 1%er elitism than New York Times wedding announcements?
How is it actually acceptable for an ostensibly liberal newspaper to conclude that wealthy, well-educated people’s lives are more interesting and worth more attention than non-wealthy, less-educated people? Everyone laughs about the Weddings section, even the Times itself. But joking aside, isn’t it morally indefensible to treat people as newsworthy in accordance with their elite social status… a paper run by liberals, who would profess themselves averse to inequality, openly treats most of the population as insignificant.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Cahnman’s Musings has a really solid review of Jane Jacobs’ classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities and how central planning screwed everything up.
Clint Eastwood on various liberal whining over Trump: “Just fucking get over it.”
Frau Merkel ist nicht sehr beliebt.
Austin’s toy trains are a monument to government waste. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
What Pokémon Go Teaches Us About Capitalism.
#BlackLivesMatters is all in against Israel. So what do George Soros and Tom Steyer have against Israel? (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“A point of view should be based on its own merit, not dismissed by a lazy appeal to privilege.”
Funny or die mostly does the latter. (Funny or Die still has 95 staffers? Really? It takes that many people to produce mediocre comedy?)
Things you never knew about the World’s Strongest Man competition.
“An Exciting History of Drywall.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Who would have won the battle between a Bismarck-class battleship and an Iowa class battleship? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Butthurt level: Epic.
Airplane trick.
Feel good dog story of the day.
Behold the legendary crime spree of Dickface Johnson.
“Oh no! Not the bees!”
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, Abu Dua al-Ansari, Angela Merkel, Austin, Crime, Democrats, Egypt, Foreign Policy, Funny or Die, Germany, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Pokemon, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, The New York Times, Tom Steyer, weird news
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | No Comments »
