Corruption American Style:
Bill Clinton scored paid speeches while Hillary made official State Dept. visits
Kent Cooper, a former federal election regulator and respected political ethics analyst, said the blurred lines between State and the foundation in the Clinton world validated the axiom that “there are many pockets in a politician’s coat to line.”
“There are the official pockets, the political pockets, in this case the foundation’s pockets and then their own private pocketbooks, and you can see how special interests subtly work all of them with invitations, pressure and money to try to get what they want,” he said.
“There seem to have been no ethical boundaries or double checks on conflicts of interest between the activities of the secretary of state as a government official, the fundraising of a private foundation, the fees of a private consultant, and the personal income of a former government official, that being the former president.”
It is axiomatic that if government is run by criminals then law enforcement hunts down innocent people to make it look like they are doing something. Government officials cannot go after real criminals or they would have to put themselves in jail first.
Of course, it is important to keep one’s nose as clean as possible when coming up the ranks: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/06/16/justin_trudeau_offers_to_pay_back_all_public_speaking_earnings.html
Let’s watch to see if Stephen Harper starts receiving huge payouts to give speeches at the Canadian Banking Association or other financial industry venues.
Of course there was also Penny Pritzker who neglected to report $80 million in income due to a “clerical error.” Her penalty? She was appointed Secretary of Commerce with the support of both Dems and Repubs.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324659404578499951071913328
Sure but Penny is a billionaire. 80 million is indeed a rounding error for a billionaire, LOL.
Trudeau’s collecting for speeches is troubling. Should a sitting MP be allowed to collect money for speeches at all? And if one is the leader of one’s part to boot?
The technical term for collecting on one’s political position is “influence peddling”. It seems that it has become normal in politics today and that is one reason that our countries are now so steep in very real corruption. The other form of corruption is the revolving door between industry and government bureaucracy: Where will Stephen Harper work next? It will likely be a pay-back job with no real responsibility and a six to seven figure salary.
I wonder why so many people would pay so much to hear a ex-politician “gasbag” for an hour. ~lollipops n’ donkeys I guess~.
If I’m going to go listen to someone tack for an hour or more it’d better damned well benefit me in my career of choice. Industry conferences and seminars are worth paying for; listening to a political gas-bag blow wind n’ hot air for entertainment is not.
The Clintons represent the 1%, but they pay pretty good lip-service to the 99.
@The_Animal, they pay the Clintons that much to speak because the Clintons are peddling their influence–i.e., it is not for the speech that they hire Clinton, but for the influence that Hillary had as Secretary of State. Your comment about their not being worth that much money to hear speak proves my point. No one is worth that much per hour as a speaker. They are only worth that much if they can get the US government to provide you favours, to back your position, etc.
In my opinion, politicians, especially those currently in office, should accept a modest fee plus expenses. They have their government pension to pay their salary. They do not need more than that. We taxpayers look after them. They do not need banking associations, drug companies, Monsanto or any other crony to line their pockets. The reason for good pensions and relatively high salaries for government leaders is so that they do not do what Blair, Geithner, Trudeau, the Clintons, etc. do.
A modest fee would be, let’s say, between $500-1000 per day (including travel days). But if they want to branch out and get jobs in the private sector, then let them lose their gold plated government pension. Why should we the taxpayers provide their salary when they have been in the hire of their cronies all along?
When the straightforward approach doesn’t work, hire the English Gay Fart for a speech or two
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/18/tony-blair-advising-serbian-government
And not all expats are equal. Marc Rich got a nice pardon from Clinton at the end of Clinton’s presidency while he was a fugitive from justice. The charges against him were tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering, and trading with various enemy countries, so he fled the country. The Guardian a few months ago had an expose on the tax affairs of an U.S. citizen who is a supporter of phony Tony, Cameron and Bill Clinton who was moving millions cash between Swiss bank accounts in suitcases and saying that the British government couldn’t do anything about it because he was a non-dom. Will be interesting to see if he gets dealt with at all considering how well connected he is.
OK, so now we have a post showing that Sanders is a demagogue and one suggesting Clinton is corrupt.
Had Biden run would we have another one suggesting his jokes aren’t funny?
How is it then that the Democrats continue to appear as relatively rational, competent and credible? And electable (at least Clinton).
Thank the tragicomic horror show that is the GOP field (special mention for the top 3: Carson, Trump and Cruz — wtf?). This ensemble flushes out any hopes of the Republicans regaining the WH (what, charismatic Jeb is going to jump ahead, get the nomination and shine in debates against Clinton?). The occasional vague anti-tax utterings that may please or amuse us, and Rand Paul’s tepid support of his own lawsuit, don’t seem to be amounting to much, not even in the form of campaign promises.
I have almost no hope that the Democrats will do anything meaningful concerning FATCA and CBT. But even with my nose firmly pinched I cannot imagine voting for the current GOP, not only because they are even worse demagogues, and even less competent, but because I don’t feel any significant will in getting the tax system (including our own concerns) in order.
Democrats invented FATCA–and they have hardened CBT. It would be unreasonable to expect the Democrats to change FATCA.
It is only slightly less reasonable to hope that Republicans will do anything about FATCA, etc. The fact is that they are, most of them, Homelanders whose parochialism and sociopathy make it impossible for them to emphathize.
For the first time in, my nearly 80 years, we have a majority of politicians, from both parties who are primarily interested in re election and to hell with the rubes who keep sending them back for another two years. There is one way the congressmen and senators gets money. A lobbyist comes to see them and tells them what he needs the repreaentatives to do for his client and tells him or her that he is giving the campaign for re election a generous contribution….thereby reassuring his or her re election. They then sponsor another D.C. Puke to help them get re elected.
The only way to stop this theft and extortion is the FairTax, a sales tax on all goods sold in the U.S. only.
We must do this to help the EXpats and get real representation of the people in D.C.
The Clintons have never had real Jobs. When they stopped representing the Black Panthers and the Communists of their youth, Bill went to work in an Arkansas government job and was soon elected Atty General.
A well connected law firm in Little Rock hired Hillary, and here is how it worked. If you wanted a favor from Arkansas government you had to hire The Rose law Firm for big bucks. She would always do the billing and if you paid the high fee, Bill would help the supplicant. The cost of Legal representation went higher, when Bill became governor, but the system was the same. Want a favor, hire the Rose Law Firm and tell Hillary, pay the fee and the favor is fixed ; He becomes President with only 22% of the popular vote. (Bush the first got 21% and Perot got enough to stop the re election of Bush the first)
The Clintons solicited money from China, and every other despotic government and built a massive re election fund. They used that money to live like royalty.’ Now come Sec of State Hillary Clinton. They already knew the Baddest M.F.’s around the world so when one wanted a favor from the U.S. Gov. The two foundations set up by Bill Clinton, one in Canada to hide the identity of the bad man who was paying and on in the U.S. to receive the donation from the Canadian Foundation. When the money was in the foundation Hillary would impose on the U.S. official to do her bidding and the president was afraid to cross her because of what has happened to anyone who did cross her. The Foundations with all the money in the world spent it for private Jets and expensive resorts wit less than 5% going to whatever charity the money was collected for. These people are the heart of evil in the world and she wants to be president to left of Obama and extort money for their private use and she is half way home even now.
@All
https://twitter.com/JimJatras/status/657738928645152768
#Obama #IRS uses #FATCA to crush middle-class #Americans while Bill-Hill #Clinton rake it in http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/10/22/the-us-government-hunts-down-expats-to-pay-taxes-meanwhile-the-clintons-are-cashing-in/ … #JimJatrasVeep
Yhe Clintons have never had a real Job. Hillary got a law lic. finally in Arkansas after failing the bar in 3 states. The Rose Law firm was strong armed into giving her a partnership after Bill became the Atty General. That position was how the money flowed in to the Clintons. Want a political favor…hire the Rose law firm and get Hillary as your lawyer. She rarely went in and billed more hours that there are days every month. She became the highest paid female lawyer in the country and while Bill was Atty Gen and Governor she never litigated even one case. The lawyer billed hours were a fraud and several people knew it and most of them ended up dead or in jail (Vince Foster, Ron Brown, McDougal and on and on.
Bill is out of office so he cashes in on Haiti, then she got a job where she could strong arm the world. Traveling the world demanding a contribution to the ”Clinton Foundation”. If the were really bad people and they wanted to hide the source of the money, they routed it thru Canada, where the source is not required to be revealed. The Canada foundation then made the contribution to the U.S. foundation which the clintons have used as a private ”piggy bank”, traveling the world in chartered Jets and staying in palatial surroundings. Only 3% has been used for charities they say they support.
The Clintons are the ”low lives” of the civilized and the uncivilized world and if she becomes president, she will rival Eva Peron as the second in line to have the destruction of America, as a policy. (Obama was the first) Only 20% of Americans are socially educated and smart enough to run America, like Washington, Jefferson, madison and Hamilton envisions. When the Supreme Court ruled ”one man one vote” with no restrictions and the Socialists got the constitution changed with the 16th and 17th amendments it was over for us.
We are the next Argentina and the ”progressives” are elated. We will all be equal–equally poor and powerless to resist government.