canada goose black friday sale Even more sleaze from Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation Why Evolution Is True canada goose black friday sale
Canada Goose Jackets Even more sleaze from Hillary Clinton and the Clinton FoundationThe double standard of today politics is instantiated in those people who are so willing to call out Donald Trump for his malfeasance and lies (and there are many), and even laugh at naked statues of the man, while at the same time excusing Hillary Clinton numerous ethical breaches. with her! the saying goes. Well, my stand is especially in light of the continuing revelations about Hillary shady behavior vote for her, but that about it. I not going to talk about the email business, though I think she dissimulated there, but want to discussthe Clinton Foundation (CF), about which there are increasing revelations of of interest behavior. In particular, there are new reports that Clinton, while Secretary of State, gave preference, both in terms of access and favors, to CF donors. There are further reports (see my post from two days ago) that the CF broke its promise to identify donors, as well its promisesto restrict canada goose outlet mississauga foreign donations and get State Department approval for all of them.Last week Bill Clinton announced that he step down from the CF board were Hillaryelected as President, though we now know from NPR that Chelsea will canada goose jacket outlet not. In the meantime, donors can still pump money into the CF anticipating, based on the new reports (see below) that they might get favors or meetings if Hillary were elected. Further,if Hillary wins,the CF won accept any corporate or foreign donations. But until she does, in November, the donors can keep swelling the $2 billion coffers of the Foundation. Bill should get off the board now, and then, if she loses (unlikely), he can get back on.Before I summarizethe latest Associated Pressanalysis of donations, let me add that there is absolutely no question that the CF does great things. Although theirstructure of charity work is unusual (they don take grant requests, but disperse the money on their own volition), the money canada goose shop uk is largely used for good things education, eradication of disease, clean water, and so on and most of the money does go to this work. canada http://www.canadagoosecanadaoutlet.com goose outlet price The question is not about the Foundation work itself, but how donations to it may have bought donors access to Hillary Clinton, even when she wasSecretary of State.Now the defenses of Hillary (and Bill) on this issue run along fourlines:Every politician does stuff like this; it just business as usual. My response: no they don Obama doesn have the long, shady history of mendacity that plagues both canada goose jacket outlet toronto Hillary and Bill Clinton. Besides, are we really going to lower our standards for politicians every time there some shady dealingrevealed by a politician we like?It a right wing conspiracy against Hillary. She being singled out!I have no doubt that some of the opposition to Clinton is based on sexism, canada goose parka outlet uk just as some of the opposition to Obama was because he half black. But that doesn explainwhy a) Trump is being vetted (and excoriated) even more strongly than Clinton, and b) the organs that have investigated Clintoninclude not only a Democratic Justice Department, but, more important, liberal news medialike the New York Times, NPR, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. If you think those are part of the wing conspiracy you nuts. The main focus on Clinton derives from one thing: her long history of questionablebehavior, when, probablybecause of the Clintons feelings of entitlement, Hillary oftenskirted ethical norms. (I mention only once her repeated lies about being under fire in Bosnia. Brian Williamswas fired as the anchorman canada goose outlet forNBC News for making a very similar false claim, as NBC thought the lie had permanentlydamagedhis integrity.)Clinton hasn done anything illegal, so it all okay! Seriously? The Justice Department admitted that Clinton behavior with respect to her email was wrong, but didn rise to the standards of a prosecutable offense. The pattern of donations to the CF being associated with Hillary giving face time to or doing favors for donors (see below) is deeply suspicious, though none of that is a tit for tat prosecutable offense, either. But again, is this the hill you want to die on for Hillary? The whole issue of of interest in which politicians are supposed to behave in a way that minimizes conflicts between their personal interests and their political behavior, is one of abiding to high standards, not just breaking the law. In my view, everymember of the Clinton Family Hillary, Bill, andChelsea should have stepped off the board the minute Hillary formulatedplans to run for President. That not the way it worked: only Hillary did that, and only because the public outcry had she not would have been a serious stain on her candidacy.The Clintons don benefit personally from the CF, so what the big deal? A canada goose outlet us claim like this is based on ignorance. First of all, the Clintonsget power: the ability to get people to do canada goose outlet store near me what they want. Second, they get people sucking up to them for political access. Third, they get public promotions, the kind of high profile presence that brings them big private income, and travel expenses. As NBC reports, Bill Clinton earned 17.6 million dollars in only five years as chancellor of the world biggestfor profit education company, Laureate Education, Inc. Apparently all he had to do was travel the world extolling the company, giving speeches. (Remember, too, that Hillary continues to criticize for profit universities.) And the money wasn for the Foundation, but for the Clintons themselves. The high profile of the Clinton Foundation certain enhances that kind of moneymaking ability. I not suggesting, of course, that the CF was set up just as a way for the Clintons to make personal income; just that the Foundation gives them cachet that they wouldn otherwise canada goose parka uk have, and contributes to their high profile.Finally, if you don buy any of my counterarguments, ask yourself this: Why, if everything copacetic, did the Foundation suddenly announce that Bill wouldstep off the Board if Hillary is elected, and that they take no more foreign or corporate donations?There are two answers: the first is they realized whatthey should have done all along: avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. The second is that Hillary and/or Bill realized that this would hurt her candidacy if they didn do it, and, believe me, Hillary wants the Presidencymore than a starving lionwants a zebra.But on to the latest reports from that important organ of The Right Wing Conspiracy: The Associated Press. After investigatingdonors to the CF and lists of people who got to talk to herwhile she was Secretary of State, the AP notesa disturbing pattern of people getting access to Hillary while she was Secretary after they made big donations to the Foundation. (This puts the lie to the claim that she doesn who gives money to the Foundation). The AP report says this in part:More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was canada goose outlet jackets secretary of state gave money either personally or through companies or groups to the Clinton Foundation. It an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.Donors who were granted time with Clinton included an internationally known economist who asked for her help as the Bangladesh government pressured him to resign from a nonprofit bank he ran; a Wall Street executive who sought Clinton help with a visa problem; and Estee Lauder executives who were listed as meeting with Clinton while her department worked with the firm corporate charity to counter gender based violence in South Africa.They are among at least 85 of 154 people with private interests who either met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton and also gave to her family charities, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. federal employees or foreign government representatives.The AP findings represent the first systematic effort to calculate the scope of the intersecting interests canada goose outlet uk of Clinton foundation donors and people who met personally with Clinton or spoke to her by phone about their needs.The meetings between the Democratic presidential nominee and foundation donors do not appear to violate legal agreements Clinton and former president Bill Clinton signed before she joined the State Department in 2009. But the frequency of the overlaps canada goose outlet store toronto shows the intermingling of access and donations, and fuels perceptions that giving the foundation money was a price of admission for face time with Clinton. Her calendars and emails released as recently as this week describe scores of contacts she and her top aides had with foundation donors.Now one person canada goose outlet 80 off wrote on my FB page, half the donorsdidn access to Hillary. That fatuous, of course. First of all, a lot of donors probably didn for access to Hillary. The realquestion to be answered is this: Amongall people seeking access to or favors from Clinton as Secretary of State, was the proportion of CF donors who were successful higher thanthe proportion of non donors who were successful? My guess is that the donors gotan advantage.The Clinton campaign has of course fought back, denying that there was any tit for tat here, but of course theywould say that, wouldn they? They can hardly say canada goose outlet in toronto otherwise. (The State Department has also said it not aware of any illegal acts performed by Hillary as Secretary of State in conjunction with the Foundation.) But of course imagine canada goose outlet online store review how difficult it would be toprove tit for tat! That why we have to avoid its appearance, pure and simple.You can read the AP report yourself, and dismiss it if you One of Those, but it disturbing to anyone who not off the rails. The AP also gives several examples of potential tit canada goose outlet toronto address for tat behavior by Hillary as Secretary of State. Here one:In another case, Clinton was host at a September 2009 breakfast meeting at the New York Stock Exchange that listed Blackstone Group chairman Stephen Schwarzman as one of the attendees. Schwarzman firm is a canada goose outlet canada major Clinton Foundation donor, but he personally canada goose outlet nyc donates heavily to GOP candidates and causes. The next day, according to Clinton emails, the State Department was working on a visa issue at Schwarzman request. In December that same year, Schwarzman and his wife, Christine, sat at Clinton table during the Kennedy canada goose uk Center Honors.Blackstone donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Eight Blackstone executives also gave between $375,000 and $800,000 to the foundation. to the Mideast. Blackstone officials did not make Schwarzman available for comment.Do you seriously think there no connection here? The problem, of course, is proving that there was a direct relationship between donations and access. That would be very hard to do without a paper trail. I think the data suggest that strongly, but of course diehard Hillary fans say, was never proven to have done anything illegal. That a pretty low bar for supporting a Presidential candidate,n pas?In my view, every Clinton should get off the board now, even though somedamage has already beendone. They should have nothing to do with the Clinton Foundation until no Clinton holds public office. I don think the CF should be shut down, as some have suggested, forit does good work. It should simply become a charity, having no connection with the Clintons except in name, until Bill, Chelsea, and Hillary once again become private citizens.I have always felt that the Clintons leave themselves vulnerable because they consider themselves to be the ultimate altruists. This belief tends to blind them from such things as potential conflicts of interest, the niceties of full disclosure, and how their actions may project the appearance of impropriety.While my own view is that Hillary craves power and money, I don think she is evil. I will vote for her but only because her opponent has a personality disorder and would destroy the Supreme Court for perhaps the next two canada goose kensington parka uk decades if elected.Everything said about the Clinton foundation stinks of conflict of interest. There is little doubt about this and when we concentrate just on this and the Clinton it looks even worse. But ask yourself this question of the general operation of our government and specifically inside the beltway we call Washington DC. Nearly all canada goose outlet reviews of the 535 members of congress and their thousands of staff members work closely with canada goose uk site and do the exact same thing with thousands of lobby firms every day. And it also is perfectly legal and constitutional. Also, in the case of Congress persons, they are not raising money for any charity unless you want to say charity begins canada goose outlet england at home. This money goes into the big campaign chest to get themselves re elected time and time again. It also helps them all get very nice high paying jobs in the lobby firms.Influence peddling and canada goose outlet ontario quid pro quo canada goose outlet seattle applies to them all. It is the name of the game in politics. Special favor for special interests. As I have mentioned before, we most remove the money before we can begin to fix the game.Randy, you’re quite correct that money is the lubricant that greases the political system. To run for Congress, particularly the Senate or a contested House seat (of which there aren’t many) costs a small fortune. Members spend a great deal of their time fund raising. It would be nave to think that big donors don’t expect favors. Thus, the system actually encourages what I would call legal corruption. Public canada goose outlet woodbury financing of elections with strict limitations on private donations is the only way to restore faith in the system. Unfortunately, through the Citizens United case the Supreme Court has bought the conservative argument (often articulated by George Will) that spending money to influence an election is a form of free speech. Unless Citizens United is overturned by a future court, the inherent corruption of the current system is likely to remain in place Canada Goose Jackets.