Showing posts with label White House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White House. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
The Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.
Greg Krasovsky: When you see the level of corruption and pay-to-play that Wikileaks exposed by publishing DNC, Clinton and Podesta emails, it's no wonder that the Clinton camp and its allies in mass media have tried to shift the blame from their exposed corrupt misconduct by blaming the messenger as "Russian State Actors" working with Russian Hackers!
Don't fall for this blame game using Russia as the boogeyman.
This type of reaction is well-known and typical of exposed white-collar criminals - they immediately try to discredit the victims, witnesses and whistle-blowers as being criminals themselves.
Even the FBI has refused to confirm allegations that Russian Hackers or security services are responsible for obtaining these Clinton/DNC/Podesta emails and forwarding them to WikiLeaks.
What's more important is the type, depth and pervasiveness of corruption that these emails have exposed in the Clinton camp.
Do we want these people in The White House? This may be worse for America that electing President Frank Underwood from "House of Cards" Netflix series! Talk about life being scarier than fiction!
Should anyone be surprised why the Clinton campaign has been demonizing Donald Trump in every possible way?
This is simply a part of the rigged two-party "We have to vote for the lesser of two evils!" charade.
Unless Donald Trump is the Devil incarnate, how would any rational, intelligent and honest American vote for Hillary Clinton after all that Wikileaks have exposed?
This presidential election has confirmed the need for Americans to stop falling for corporate main-stream media propaganda paid for by special interests (who often own major media outlets).
Given the 20 Trillion dollar federal debt and similarly disturbing debts and ongoing budget deficits on state, county and municipal levels, Americans cannot afford to keep the pay-to-play politicians that are bankrupting our country for the sake of special interests that fund their election campaigns and also bribe them through jobs and other sweetheart deals for the politicians and their families.
Especially when these corrupt politicians are supported and paid (i.e. owned) by the military-industrial complex which makes billions from our defense & intelligence budgets that are justified by never-ending military & political interventions abroad.
These interventions and undeclared wars -- always conducted in the name of spreading freedom & democracy and ensuring security -- not only create terrorists who will kill American citizens but also kill, injure and ruin the lives of millions of innocent civilians abroad (women, children and senior citizens who we conveniently call collateral damage).
So when you go to the voting booth today, please think about whether your still want to be a hostage viewer in the current American political puppet theater.
Not only have the producers and puppet-masters of this show have gotten you to buy the tickets to this truly "Greatest Show on Earth", but they also expect you to leave the theater satisfied with the performance that the actors, directors and producers have put on just to keep you a satisfied, obedient and docile voter, tax-payer and consumer.
As a result, many Americans will grudgingly pay for this show about 40% of their income in taxes (federal, state & municipal income, property and sales taxes), will continue to tolerate poor-quality public education, expensive higher education, high medical costs (even with insurance) and some true patriots will lose their lives trying to protect our country in foreign wars primarily waged to protect economic interests of major US corporations and financial-industrial groups.
Is this what we want? Is this what honest, hard-working and patriotic Americans deserve?
The only way out of this political circus is to boycott the existing major parties (both Democratic and Republican) as hopelessly corrupted and to support honest, competent and independent candidates for elected positions in our three branches of government (executive, legislative and judiciary) on all levels - municipal/county, state and federal.
Any other suggestions?
See https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/posts/1513454918668642
*******
The Empire Files: Abby Martin Exposes John Podesta.
"With the Wikileaks release of thousands of emails belonging to John Podesta, very little is known in US society about Podesta himself.
While he’s maintained a low profile, John Podesta is actually considered one of Washington’s biggest players, and one of the most powerful corporate lobbyists in the world.
In this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin explores John Podesta’s political rise, his vast network of corporate connections and his think tank "Center for American Progress."
Learn why the Podestas and the Clintons are a match made in ruling class heaven."
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fat63bqvG8
*******
Secret World of US Election: Julian Assange talks to John Pilger (FULL INTERVIEW)
Whistleblower Julian Assange has given one of his most incendiary interviews ever in a John Pilger Special, courtesy of Dartmouth Films, in which he summarizes what can be gleaned from the tens of thousands of Clinton emails released by WikiLeaks this year.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbT3_9dJY4
*******
The Podesta Emails.
"WikiLeaks series on deals involving Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta.
Mr Podesta is a long-term associate of the Clintons and was President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001.
Mr Podesta also owns the Podesta Group with his brother Tony, a major lobbying firm and is the Chair of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington DC-based think tank."
See https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
"Meet The Grifters In Chief" - The Cold Clinton Reality & The Clinton System.
Greg Krasovsky: I agree that "This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow."
But what's more dangerous is a corrupt public official who can make more money for himself and his sponsors from war and regime change around the world. After all, war is one of the most profitable ventures, aside from illegal drugs, prostitution and slavery.
So please don't fall for the demonization of Donald Trump and don't believe the outright lies, innuendo and scaremongering that the Clinton camp has put out there through mainstream media outlets controlled by The Clintons' supporters about Trump's supposed ally/spymaster V.Putin and Russia's alleged secret involvement in this presidential campaign.
This is not an endorsement for Donald Trump - he has lots of issues on his own.
This is a pre-election last warning to all voters: don't fall for the "I have to vote for the lesser of the two evils" junk or the "a vote for an independent is a vote for the enemy" spiel.
Please consider voting for an independent, competent and honest candidate that's not an egoist, madman or on the payroll of scary domestic & foreign special interests.
"Meet The Grifters In Chief" - WSJ Lashes Out At Hillary Scandals
"In an election season that has been full of surprises, let’s hope the electorate understands that there is at least one thing of which it can be certain: A Hillary Clinton presidency will be built, from the ground up, on self-dealing, crony favors, and an utter disregard for the law.
This isn’t a guess. It is spelled out, in black and white, in the latest bombshell revelation from WikiLeaks. It comes in the form of a memo written in 2011 by longtime Clinton errand boy Doug Band, who for years worked simultaneously at the Clinton Foundation and at the head of his lucrative consulting business, Teneo.
It is astonishingly detailed proof that the Clintons do not draw any lines between their “charitable” work, their political activity, their government jobs or (and most important) their personal enrichment. Every other American is expected to keep these pursuits separate, as required by tax law, anticorruption law and campaign-finance law. For the Clintons, it is all one and the same—the rules be damned.
...
The obvious question is where are the prosecutors? (For that matter, where is Lois Lerner when you need her?) Any nonprofit lawyer in America knows the ironclad rule of keeping private enrichment away from tax-exempt activity, for the simple reason that mixing the two involves ripping off taxpayers. Every election lawyer in the country lives in fear of stepping over the lines governing fundraising and election vehicles. The Clintons recognize no lines.
Here’s the lasting takeaway: The Clintons spent their White House years explaining endless sleazy financial deals, and even capping their exit with a scandal over whether Bill was paid to pardon financier Marc Rich. They know the risks. And yet they geared up the foundation and these seedy practices even as Mrs. Clinton was making her first bid for the presidency. They continued them as she sat as secretary of state. They continue them still, as she nears the White House.
This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow.
...
Hillary and Bill Clinton are asking for a third term in the White House, and voters who want to know what this portends should examine the 12-page memo written by a Clinton insider that was hacked and published Wednesday by WikiLeaks. This is the cold, hard reality of the Clinton political-business model.
...
The Band memo reveals exactly what critics of the Clintons have long said: They make little distinction between the private and public aspects of their lives, between the pursuit of personal enrichment, the operation of a nonprofit, and participation in U.S. politics."
To Read the Full Story: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-28/meet-grifters-chief-wsj-lashes-out-hillary-scandals
The Cold Clinton Reality
Why isn’t the IRS investigating the Clinton Foundation?
Main Street Columnist Bill McGurn on how the former president used his foundation as a vehicle for personal enrichment.
"Hillary and Bill Clinton are asking for a third term in the White House, and voters who want to know what this portends should examine the 12-page memo written by a Clinton insider that was hacked and published Wednesday by WikiLeaks. This is the cold, hard reality of the Clinton political-business model.
Longtime Clinton aide Doug Band wrote the memo in 2011 to justify himself to lawyers at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett who were reviewing his role and conducting a governance review of the Clinton Foundation at the..."
To Read the Full Story: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cold-clinton-reality-1477608696
The Clinton System
"On January 17, in the final Democratic debate before the primary season begins, Bernie Sanders attacked Hillary Clinton for her close financial ties to Wall Street, something he had avoided in his campaigning up to that moment: “I don’t take money from big banks….You’ve received over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year,” he said.
Sanders’s criticisms coincided with recent reports that the FBI might be expanding its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails to include her ties to big donors while serving as secretary of state. But a larger question concerns how Hillary and Bill Clinton have built their powerful donor machine, and what its existence might mean for Hillary Clinton’s future conduct as American president.
...
Among the most striking and troubling aspects of the Clinton System are the large contributions corporations and foreign governments have made to the Clinton Foundation, along with Bill Clinton’s readiness to accept six-figure speaking fees from some of them, at times when the donors themselves had a potential financial interest in decisions being made at Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
An investigation published in April 2015 by Andrew Perez, David Sirota and Matthew Cunningham-Cook at International Business Times shows that during the three-year period from October 2009 through December 2012, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, there were at least thirteen occasions—collectively worth $2.5 million—when Bill Clinton received a six-figure speaking fee from corporations or trade groups that, according to Federal Government records, were at the time engaged in lobbying at the State Department.
...
The record of the Clinton System raises deep questions about whether a Hillary Clinton presidency would take on the growing political influence of large corporate interests and Wall Street banks.
The next president will need to address critical economic and social issues, including the stagnating incomes of the middle class, the tax loopholes that allow hedge-funders and other members of the super-rich to be taxed at lower rates than many average Americans, and the runaway costs of higher education. Above all is the question of further reform of Wall Street and the banking system to prevent a recurrence of the behavior that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-2008."
To Read the Full Story: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/01/30/clinton-system-donor-machine-2016-election/
But what's more dangerous is a corrupt public official who can make more money for himself and his sponsors from war and regime change around the world. After all, war is one of the most profitable ventures, aside from illegal drugs, prostitution and slavery.
So please don't fall for the demonization of Donald Trump and don't believe the outright lies, innuendo and scaremongering that the Clinton camp has put out there through mainstream media outlets controlled by The Clintons' supporters about Trump's supposed ally/spymaster V.Putin and Russia's alleged secret involvement in this presidential campaign.
This is not an endorsement for Donald Trump - he has lots of issues on his own.
This is a pre-election last warning to all voters: don't fall for the "I have to vote for the lesser of the two evils" junk or the "a vote for an independent is a vote for the enemy" spiel.
Please consider voting for an independent, competent and honest candidate that's not an egoist, madman or on the payroll of scary domestic & foreign special interests.
*******
"Meet The Grifters In Chief" - WSJ Lashes Out At Hillary Scandals
"In an election season that has been full of surprises, let’s hope the electorate understands that there is at least one thing of which it can be certain: A Hillary Clinton presidency will be built, from the ground up, on self-dealing, crony favors, and an utter disregard for the law.
This isn’t a guess. It is spelled out, in black and white, in the latest bombshell revelation from WikiLeaks. It comes in the form of a memo written in 2011 by longtime Clinton errand boy Doug Band, who for years worked simultaneously at the Clinton Foundation and at the head of his lucrative consulting business, Teneo.
It is astonishingly detailed proof that the Clintons do not draw any lines between their “charitable” work, their political activity, their government jobs or (and most important) their personal enrichment. Every other American is expected to keep these pursuits separate, as required by tax law, anticorruption law and campaign-finance law. For the Clintons, it is all one and the same—the rules be damned.
...
The obvious question is where are the prosecutors? (For that matter, where is Lois Lerner when you need her?) Any nonprofit lawyer in America knows the ironclad rule of keeping private enrichment away from tax-exempt activity, for the simple reason that mixing the two involves ripping off taxpayers. Every election lawyer in the country lives in fear of stepping over the lines governing fundraising and election vehicles. The Clintons recognize no lines.
Here’s the lasting takeaway: The Clintons spent their White House years explaining endless sleazy financial deals, and even capping their exit with a scandal over whether Bill was paid to pardon financier Marc Rich. They know the risks. And yet they geared up the foundation and these seedy practices even as Mrs. Clinton was making her first bid for the presidency. They continued them as she sat as secretary of state. They continue them still, as she nears the White House.
This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow.
...
Hillary and Bill Clinton are asking for a third term in the White House, and voters who want to know what this portends should examine the 12-page memo written by a Clinton insider that was hacked and published Wednesday by WikiLeaks. This is the cold, hard reality of the Clinton political-business model.
...
The Band memo reveals exactly what critics of the Clintons have long said: They make little distinction between the private and public aspects of their lives, between the pursuit of personal enrichment, the operation of a nonprofit, and participation in U.S. politics."
To Read the Full Story: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-28/meet-grifters-chief-wsj-lashes-out-hillary-scandals
The Cold Clinton Reality
Why isn’t the IRS investigating the Clinton Foundation?
Main Street Columnist Bill McGurn on how the former president used his foundation as a vehicle for personal enrichment.
"Hillary and Bill Clinton are asking for a third term in the White House, and voters who want to know what this portends should examine the 12-page memo written by a Clinton insider that was hacked and published Wednesday by WikiLeaks. This is the cold, hard reality of the Clinton political-business model.
Longtime Clinton aide Doug Band wrote the memo in 2011 to justify himself to lawyers at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett who were reviewing his role and conducting a governance review of the Clinton Foundation at the..."
To Read the Full Story: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cold-clinton-reality-1477608696
The Clinton System
"On January 17, in the final Democratic debate before the primary season begins, Bernie Sanders attacked Hillary Clinton for her close financial ties to Wall Street, something he had avoided in his campaigning up to that moment: “I don’t take money from big banks….You’ve received over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year,” he said.
Sanders’s criticisms coincided with recent reports that the FBI might be expanding its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails to include her ties to big donors while serving as secretary of state. But a larger question concerns how Hillary and Bill Clinton have built their powerful donor machine, and what its existence might mean for Hillary Clinton’s future conduct as American president.
...
Among the most striking and troubling aspects of the Clinton System are the large contributions corporations and foreign governments have made to the Clinton Foundation, along with Bill Clinton’s readiness to accept six-figure speaking fees from some of them, at times when the donors themselves had a potential financial interest in decisions being made at Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
An investigation published in April 2015 by Andrew Perez, David Sirota and Matthew Cunningham-Cook at International Business Times shows that during the three-year period from October 2009 through December 2012, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, there were at least thirteen occasions—collectively worth $2.5 million—when Bill Clinton received a six-figure speaking fee from corporations or trade groups that, according to Federal Government records, were at the time engaged in lobbying at the State Department.
...
The record of the Clinton System raises deep questions about whether a Hillary Clinton presidency would take on the growing political influence of large corporate interests and Wall Street banks.
The next president will need to address critical economic and social issues, including the stagnating incomes of the middle class, the tax loopholes that allow hedge-funders and other members of the super-rich to be taxed at lower rates than many average Americans, and the runaway costs of higher education. Above all is the question of further reform of Wall Street and the banking system to prevent a recurrence of the behavior that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-2008."
To Read the Full Story: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/01/30/clinton-system-donor-machine-2016-election/
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Is the U.S. trade embargo risking lives in Cuba?
Is the U.S. trade embargo risking lives in Cuba?
A man carries a gas cylinder on the back of his bicycle as he passes a billboard that reads in Spanish "Blockade: The longest genocide in history" in Havana on Jan. 26, 2016. Desmond Boylan AP
“WASHINGTON - Despite the improved ties between the United States and Cuba, the United Nations is expected to again condemn the American trade embargo against the communist island.
For the 25th year in a row, Cuba has called for the United Nations to issue a resolution against the U.S. “blockade,” as the Cubans refer to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
We hope again – we cannot anticipate the vote, we will see on Oct. 26 – that the international community will be on Cuba’s side and call for an end to the blockade,” Josefina Vidal, who heads the U.S. Department at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, told students last week during a conference at Havana University.
In what is expected to be a telling display of the international perspective on the United States’ continued application of the embargo, the U.N. General Assembly is expected to overwhelmingly pass a resolution Wednesday calling for end to the U.S. policy that restricts trade between the countries.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article110245497.html#storylink=cpy
...
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the embargo the “most unjust, severe and long-lived system” of sanctions ever applied against a country.
The U.S. government has sought to end the embarrassing ritual against the United States, but the Cuban government has declined to stop or even tone down its scathing account of how the island has been affected.
The Cuban government estimates the U.S. embargo has cost the island more than $125 billion over the half-century that it’s been in place. Cuban leaders document the impacts in great detail, from the somewhat trivial to life-threatening, in a blistering 42-page report.
They raise questions as to whether the U.S. government has put Cuban lives at risk because of sanctions that restrict access to diagnostic equipment for leukemia patients and devices crucial for pediatric heart surgery."
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article110245497.html
Cuba: Rejecting Sanctions, Sending a Message
"Sanctions continue to impede imports of critical goods and equipment from the US just as Cuba is prevented from exporting products and services to the US. Cuba has no direct banking relations with the US. US corporations cannot invest in the Cuban economy, except in the telecommunications industry.
...
It has been estimated that the sanctions have cost Cuba billions of dollars just in the course of the first six months of 2016. The impact upon the public health sector — the comprehensiveness and affordability of public health care being one of the greatest achievements of the Cuban Revolution — has been dire. Between April 2015 and April 2016, the accumulated monetary repercussions of the sanctions policy amounted to some 82.7 million dollars. Cuba is compelled to purchase medicines, “spare parts for diagnostic and treatment equipment, medical instruments and other supplies necessary for (the health) sector to function” from distant markets when it would have been so much cheaper to obtain them from the US itself.
It is not just the health sector that has suffered from sanctions. The food sector, education, sports and culture have all had to pay the price. Even biotechnology, a field in which Cuba has registered excellent progress, has had to bear the adverse consequences of the unjust and vicious US policy.
...
It is widely known that it is the US Congress more than the White House that is determined to perpetuate sanctions against Cuba. While some members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives feel that the sanctions should be lifted, the lobbies and special interests that want to continue to punish Cuba remain formidable. It is significant that Congress has received 51 legislative initiatives that seek to reinforce the sanctions. Obama cannot afford to ignore this. Nonetheless, he has executive powers that can circumvent some of the hurdles erected by the pro-sanctions groups.
This is why pro-justice citizens’ groups in the US and from around the world should intensify their efforts to persuade the powers-that-be in the US to eliminate the sanctions totally. Voices from within the US are critical; more human rights advocates, academics and representatives of the different religious communities should speak up. They should also counter the untruths, the half-truths and the outright lies about Cuba, the sanctions and the “security of the American people”.
People outside the US should also play their role. They should remind their governments to stick to their anti-sanctions position when the issue comes up again before the UN General Assembly on 26 October 2016. For the last 24 years, the vast majority of UN member states have voted to end the US sanctions regime. The last UN General Assembly vote on 27 October 2015 was the most convincing ever. 191 out of the 193 member states of the UN demanded that the sanctions be lifted. The only two states that voted against the resolution were the US and Israel."
Read more here http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/21/cuba-rejecting-sanctions-sending-a-message/
For the 25th year in a row, Cuba has called for the United Nations to issue a resolution against the U.S. “blockade,” as the Cubans refer to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
We hope again – we cannot anticipate the vote, we will see on Oct. 26 – that the international community will be on Cuba’s side and call for an end to the blockade,” Josefina Vidal, who heads the U.S. Department at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, told students last week during a conference at Havana University.
In what is expected to be a telling display of the international perspective on the United States’ continued application of the embargo, the U.N. General Assembly is expected to overwhelmingly pass a resolution Wednesday calling for end to the U.S. policy that restricts trade between the countries.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article110245497.html#storylink=cpy
...
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the embargo the “most unjust, severe and long-lived system” of sanctions ever applied against a country.
The U.S. government has sought to end the embarrassing ritual against the United States, but the Cuban government has declined to stop or even tone down its scathing account of how the island has been affected.
The Cuban government estimates the U.S. embargo has cost the island more than $125 billion over the half-century that it’s been in place. Cuban leaders document the impacts in great detail, from the somewhat trivial to life-threatening, in a blistering 42-page report.
They raise questions as to whether the U.S. government has put Cuban lives at risk because of sanctions that restrict access to diagnostic equipment for leukemia patients and devices crucial for pediatric heart surgery."
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article110245497.html
Cuba: Rejecting Sanctions, Sending a Message
"Sanctions continue to impede imports of critical goods and equipment from the US just as Cuba is prevented from exporting products and services to the US. Cuba has no direct banking relations with the US. US corporations cannot invest in the Cuban economy, except in the telecommunications industry.
...
It has been estimated that the sanctions have cost Cuba billions of dollars just in the course of the first six months of 2016. The impact upon the public health sector — the comprehensiveness and affordability of public health care being one of the greatest achievements of the Cuban Revolution — has been dire. Between April 2015 and April 2016, the accumulated monetary repercussions of the sanctions policy amounted to some 82.7 million dollars. Cuba is compelled to purchase medicines, “spare parts for diagnostic and treatment equipment, medical instruments and other supplies necessary for (the health) sector to function” from distant markets when it would have been so much cheaper to obtain them from the US itself.
It is not just the health sector that has suffered from sanctions. The food sector, education, sports and culture have all had to pay the price. Even biotechnology, a field in which Cuba has registered excellent progress, has had to bear the adverse consequences of the unjust and vicious US policy.
...
It is widely known that it is the US Congress more than the White House that is determined to perpetuate sanctions against Cuba. While some members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives feel that the sanctions should be lifted, the lobbies and special interests that want to continue to punish Cuba remain formidable. It is significant that Congress has received 51 legislative initiatives that seek to reinforce the sanctions. Obama cannot afford to ignore this. Nonetheless, he has executive powers that can circumvent some of the hurdles erected by the pro-sanctions groups.
This is why pro-justice citizens’ groups in the US and from around the world should intensify their efforts to persuade the powers-that-be in the US to eliminate the sanctions totally. Voices from within the US are critical; more human rights advocates, academics and representatives of the different religious communities should speak up. They should also counter the untruths, the half-truths and the outright lies about Cuba, the sanctions and the “security of the American people”.
People outside the US should also play their role. They should remind their governments to stick to their anti-sanctions position when the issue comes up again before the UN General Assembly on 26 October 2016. For the last 24 years, the vast majority of UN member states have voted to end the US sanctions regime. The last UN General Assembly vote on 27 October 2015 was the most convincing ever. 191 out of the 193 member states of the UN demanded that the sanctions be lifted. The only two states that voted against the resolution were the US and Israel."
Read more here http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/21/cuba-rejecting-sanctions-sending-a-message/
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