Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Hillary Clinton's Blood Money

Crouching Bernie, Hidden Hillary by Jaeil Cho
www.jaeilchoart.bigcartel.com



Hillary Clinton's Blood Money
by Cindy A. Matthews

In the first Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton asserted that Bernie Sanders wasn't tough enough on guns and claimed she was an "enemy" of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Sanders correctly replied that he'd received failing marks from the NRA and was no friend of theirs. Bernie Sanders was rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record, while Hillary Clinton has flip-flopped on the topic of gun control as this video demonstrates:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33906-focus-hillary-clinton-should-apologize-to-bernie-sanders

After recent mass murder events in California, Georgia and Colorado, Senator Sanders spoke from Capitol Hill about these recent tragedies and gun safety legislation that should be passed. The following short video gives a good overview of his gun control proposals:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4564606/sanders-calls-common-sense-gun-safety-legislation
 
Bernie Sanders proposes ten ways to eliminate gun violence in America, including expanding background checks, renewing the assault weapons ban, closing the "terror gap" and insuring mental health treatment for those who need it when they need it. (To read more about his proposals, please click on this link or click on the "Bernie Sanders on Gun Control" page link listed on the sidebar.)

Mrs. Clinton has been fairly quiet since the latest shooting in San Bernardino. She issued the standard Twitter statement like most political candidates do, but she's not made any particular big fuss over the recent massacres or denounced the NRA and demanded more stringent gun control laws. Why is that? She claims she isn't a friend of the NRA--and they probably agree with her-- but could Hillary Clinton's silence indicate guilt over her family's foundation taking money from other countries and groups which have killed indiscriminately?
The following links and article quotes show a worrisome pattern of behavior. They indicate that the former secretary of state has readily accepted large sums of money from foreign powers and others with blood on their hands.
…the Clinton Foundation failed to report tens of millions in foreign donations in their tax documents, a revelation that has forced the organization to re-file at least five years' worth of returns. … Some of those many undisclosed donations (which violated Hillary's transparency pledge) were related to a troubling transaction in which (a) the Russian government obtained the rights to a large chunk of US uranium interests, (b) investors and magnates connected to the deal profited handsomely, (c) the Clinton Foundation (and the Clinton themselves) pocketed millions, and (d) Hillary's State Department signed off on the whole thing -- before "repeatedly breaking" promises to mitigate national security concerns.
Particularly troublesome is that the Clinton Foundation--a charitable organization created by Hillary and Bill Clinton--isn't always forthcoming as to the names of their supporters.
Trump states that Clinton Foundation not very open about who actually does give it money. Trump has also repeatedly criticized Clinton for the lack of public transparency on her charitable foundation’s dealings.
“If this was a Republican sitting right there, this would absolutely be considered illegal,” Trump said in April of the organization’s activities...
During Mrs. Clinton's time as secretary of state, several Middle Eastern countries with abysmal human rights records were very generous supporters to the Clinton Foundation--and rewarded in turn with lucrative arms deals.
The Qataris denied the Guardian report, while the Clintons said that philanthropy shouldn’t sit in judgment on its benefactors. That’s probably what they hope voters will think about politics too, but the problem for the Clintons is that all of these corrupt relationships cross traditional liberal constituencies. It’s tough to be pro-LGBT if you’re enabling regimes that throw gays off of rooftops, and it’s tough to be pro-worker when you’re shaking hands with people who are killing them by the dozen to build sports stadiums as monuments to their rule.
In the years before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, Saudi Arabia had contributed $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, and just two months before the jet deal was finalized, Boeing donated $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to an International Business Times investigation released Tuesday.
The Saudi transaction is just one example of nations and companies that had donated to the Clinton Foundation seeing an increase in arms deals while Hillary Clinton oversaw the State Department.


If you're hoping against hope that foreign governments and big corporations donating large sums to the Clinton Foundation can't possible influence Mrs. Clinton's decisions while  in office, this Washington Post article will put that hope to rest:
The Washington Post reported last week that foreign sources, including governments, made up a third of those who have given the foundation more than $1 million over time. The Post found that the foundation, begun by former president Bill Clinton, has raised nearly $2 billion since its creation in 2001.
Foreign governments and individuals are prohibited from giving money to U.S. political candidates, to prevent outside influence over national leaders. But the foundation has given donors a way to potentially gain favor with the Clintons outside the traditional political limits.

Hillary Clinton also claims that she is an "enemy" of Big Pharma and the Health Insurance Industry, and yet health insurance and drug companies have been some of her biggest financial supporters. Who's to say her "enemy" the NRA and related gun lobbyists aren't donating to her campaign or to the Clinton Foundation as well? As previous article links demonstrate, the Clinton Foundation isn't always forthcoming about the name of their donors and their accounting practices.
In 2008, Clinton was among the three biggest recipients of campaign cash from pharmaceutical-related companies, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics... The center reports that Clinton also raised more than $1.2 million from the insurance industry -- which includes health insurers.
On top of those campaign contributions, the Clintons and their family foundation have benefited from their ties to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.
In 2011, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) -- the primary trade association representing drug companies -- paid Bill Clinton $200,000 for a speech, as the organization was lobbying the Hillary Clinton-led State Department. Last year, the Drug Chemical and Associated Technologies Association, a trade group whose members include major pharmaceutical companies, paid her a $250,000 speaking fee.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/14/hillary-takes-millions-in-campaign-cash-from-enemies
Since her first bid for Senate in 2000, Clinton has accepted nearly $1 million from drug and health companies and more than $2.7 million from the insurance field and its related sectors, according to an analysis of public records from the Center for Responsive Politics. 
More recently, the Clinton Foundation has also benefited from these groups’ donations. Donors and grantors who have given between $1 million and $5 million include Pfizer, the Procter & Gamble Co., Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and Humana Inc.
A handful of the Fortune 100 corporations were missing lobbying disclosures from one or more years of Clinton's tenure, suggesting more may have lobbied the agency during that time. The Clinton Foundation did not return a request for comment.
How do we know the NRA or other gun lobbyists weren't among these corporations? We don't. We must take Hillary and Bill Clinton's word for it. We can trust them, right?  It's not like the Clintons have made millions from their foundation and their lobbying efforts, right? Oh, yes, they have... They have made millions. Hundreds of millions of dollars.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31474-hillary-clinton-s-wall-street-address
 ...While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, her department “approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation, according to an IBTimes analysis of State Department and foundation data…
Those nations include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, each of which “gained State Department clearance to buy caches of American-made weapons even as the department singled them out for a range of alleged ills, from corruption to restrictions on civil liberties to violent crackdowns against political opponents.”
Further, American defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed who sold those arms and their delivery systems also shelled out heavily to the $2 billion Clinton Foundation and the Clinton family. According to Sirota, “In all, governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by Clinton’s State Department have delivered between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family, according to foundation and State Department records. The Clinton Foundation publishes only a rough range of individual contributors’ donations, making a more precise accounting impossible.”
 
Is it any wonder Hillary Clinton never spoke out against Citizens United until after she'd received large sums of money for her Super PACs? The Clintons' support of Big Business over the best interests of ordinary Americans has been well documented. She may pretend to be a "progressive" and attempt to imitate Bernie Sanders' positions on the issues, but her actions prove otherwise. Further evidence of her pro-Big Business/pro-Wall Street agenda can be found in these articles:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33869-hillary-clinton-s-ghosts-a-legacy-of-pushing-the-democratic-party-to-the-right

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/33875-clinton-super-pac-donor-is-former-goldman-exec-and-foreclosure-crisis-profiteer
 

How "progressive" of you, Mrs. Clinton!

 
So much money--so many lives lost or permanently harmed by wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. So much money--so many lives cut short because health care isn't a universal right in the US and pharmaceutical companies are free to charge astronomical prices. Remember Martin Shkreli's recent 5000% price hike of an AIDS drug? We'd likely see more of this abhorrent activity in a Hillary Clinton administration.
Donations for arms deals... Donations for legislation favoring the billionaires over the working poor... All this "blood money" has touched the hands of Bill and Hillary Clinton through their Clinton Foundation.
To quote Sen. Richard Lugar, a ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Hillary was secretary of state: “The Clinton Foundation exists as a temptation for any foreign entity or government that believes it could curry favor through a donation."  Sen. John Kerry, current secretary of state and the committee's chairman at the time, called Lugar's concerns over the Clinton Foundation a "legitimate question." (Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/foreign-governments-gave-millions-to-foundation-while-clinton-was-at-state-dept/2015/02/25/31937c1e-bc3f-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html)

Hillary Clinton accuses Bernie Sanders of not being tough enough on gun control?  It's laughable when you consider how much money she's taken from cold-blooded killers.

Vote for a candidate you can trust to put ordinary Americans' health, safety--our very lives--before pleasing billionaires and instead of lining his own pockets with immoral multi-million dollar "donations" from foreign governments and Wall Street to a family-owned foundation with questionable accounting practices. Vote Bernie Sanders.


(Special thanks to Denise Silva, Scott Galindez and A.J. Matthews for providing links, video and memes.) 

4 comments:

  1. An excellent article. HRC's supporters cry 'Hillary bashing!' if anyone dares mention her record on so many issues, yet the facts are there to see. The US election process is long drawn-out for a reason - it's so the public has the chance to see what the candidates have to offer and to check on their background and past records. HRC is so tainted by big money she should've been dropped long ago. Only Bernie Sanders doesn't have ties to Wall Street and the super PACs. Only he has worked in an open and consistent manner for the ordinary people of America.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, AJ. One does wonder why the Clinton Foundation hasn't been more thoroughly investigated. Charities are often investigated to see if the money coming in and the money going out match (and how much is considered "overhead costs"). No one in Washington seems to have the backbone or the desire to look too deeply into Bill and Hillary's foundation for some reason. You wonder what would happen if someone did. It seems to work similar to a Super PAC.

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  2. Terrific article. Love the Bernie Blog.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, Jane. If you're inspired, please consider submitting a piece to The Bernie Blog. We love to hear from Bernie supporters of all kinds.

      #FeeltheBern and have a great holiday season!

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