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| 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:
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.)
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.
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.)
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.
ReplyDeleteThanks 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.
DeleteTerrific article. Love the Bernie Blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks 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.
Delete#FeeltheBern and have a great holiday season!