Isn’t this fucking special:
The Clinton Foundation’s vague timetable to limit its involvement with overseas programs, and its insistence that Chelsea Clinton remain on its board, raise red flags for ethics watchdogs even as the charity vows to avoid conflicts of interest in a Hillary Clinton presidency.
Foundation President Donna Shalala suggested Tuesday that reorganizing the $2 billion enterprise could not happen overnight. The charity pledged last week not to accept foreign or corporate donations if Clinton is elected.
“This kind of unraveling has to be done with a scalpel so that we just do not hurt people, and do not interrupt the very good work that’s being done,” Shalala said in an interview with NPR.
But Richard Painter, former ethics counsel in the George W. Bush administration, said that if the Clintons really wanted to separate themselves, they could do it tomorrow.
“That could be done in one board meeting — change the name, have the board members resign and be replaced with people with no ties to the Clintons. No one in the Clinton family should be there. … That’s an easy step to take. It could be done in an afternoon,” Painter said.
You know, I would have really liked Painter to flex his fucking ethical acumen during the reign of C+ Augustus, because maybe they wouldn’t have locked people up in Gitmo, perverted the military into a bunch of sadistic inquisitors, had lawyers draft excuses for torturing children, and all the other unconscionable bullshit they did during that eight year middle finger to decency. So go fuck yourself, Dick.
So here is the deal. Before I read one fucking more critique of the Clinton Foundation by journalists or “scoffing ethicists” from the fucking Bush administration, they need to show me their plan to get oligarchs to fund Aids drugs for millions of people and all the other good stuff the Clinton Foundation currently does. Until then, go pound sand up your ass.
catclub
Or ask him who was on the Points of Light foundation while his boss was president.
charluckles
This sh*t infuriates me. What’s going to come of this? Hillary Clinton will still be elected President, so the only outcome will be the politicians will now be discouraged from participating in charitable endeavors. Way to go media and Republicans, way to go.
redshirt
Does it even matter anymore? Anything the Clinton’s do is suspect and needs to be investigated. Anything Republicans do is…. well, did you hear about Hillary’s gay lover?
Alce_e_ardilla
I can’t quite discern your attitude here.Tell us how you really feel.
The Ancient Randonneur
Let’s make the same rules for Trump. Remove his name from all businesses and prohibit his children from working for any of them. Goose, gander, sauce, etc …
dmsilev
I always assumed that position was held by one of those “see no evil” monkey statues.
Patricia Kayden
Well said, John. This is how Clinton surrogates need to push back on attacks on the Clinton Foundation. Frame it as an attack on the poor people (many of whom are Black or Brown) who benefit from the Clinton Foundation rather than an attack on the Clintons. It won’t be the Clintons who suffer if the Clinton Foundation is hounded out of existence.
PPCLI
There is a lot that’s wrong with that article. Begin with the headline, that says “Ethicists scoff at Clinton Foundation transition plan”. Note “Ethicists”. Meaning at least two. But the article has precisely one who scoffs at the transition plan. That Bush hack. Then there are a bunch of others stating variations on “Well, these things are complicated, and you want to do it in a way that doesn’t interfere with the good work they do.”
Second, since Bush’s dad was running his Points of Light foundation when Bush Jr. employed the esteemed ethicist Painter, the author might have thought to ask why the Clinton Foundation is different. That’s the kind of basic journalism that seems to be beyond Ms. O’Donnell
shomi
As he has proven many times before, Libertarian curious Cole will turn on Clinton on a dime. This has been his mantra all along. Oh noezzz….Clinton is blowing it…blah blah….time to clean up dog poop…bye for now.
Way to support the cause…..pffft. His spineless support of the Democratic cause is almost non existant.
Quoting Poltico no less. Lol. Clinton foundation is a non-profit. Meanwhile Trumps for profit and mostly scams businesses have conflicts of interest out the ying yang hundreds of times worse.
Joyce H
I propose another new rule. That the news media, when reporting on Trump’s calling Hillary ‘crooked’ or talking about her ‘crimes’, or demanding a prosecutor, would add “Said the man whose FRAUD TRIAL begins three weeks after election day”. Some context, folks!
Scout211
@redshirt:
And those 5 millions emails that were “lost” during the Bush administration? And the emails that were sent to and from private email accounts regarding government business?
Nope, they don’t count. Because . . . reasons.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: And with that, the thread has been won. Way to do it in under 10 comments!
redshirt
@The Ancient Randonneur: I can’t wait to watch Trump’s businesses crumble as a result of his run. The only way he’ll be able to make money after this is to run in the Conservative Grifting Circuit. And while there’s good money to be made there, it’s not billions, and there’s a lot of competition.
Patricia Kayden
@redshirt:
No, but I heard that Trump may have to stand trial for child rape in September. At least that’s what they’re saying on the interwebs and you know everything on the interwebs is true.
redshirt
@Scout211: But what about the tragic loss of those 4 brave men at Benghazi?!?! (Ignores the thousands killed and maimed in Iraq).
JR in WV
It’s all projection.
The things that the White-Wing make into sorta accusations of wrong-doing, but which aren’t really wrong, are always frauds or ethical lapses they themselves have committed, but escaped any blame for doing.
They can’t help themselves.
It’s an inbred reflex they all suffer from, to accuse others of things they either want to do as soon as they amass the power necessary, or things they have done in their own past and got away with. This is the only way they know about the potential fraudulent actions. Experience.
Peale
Yep. I’m sure it would be easy in an afternoon to replace a board with people without ties. You know, all those people you don’t know and have never heard from before now who you can’t call because you don’t have their number and really aren’t certain that they are committed to or even understand the mission of the foundation, but who’d willingly sit at 10-12 meetings a year to discuss these things they don’t care about. I’m sure it would be easy to find 12 such people today.
NorthLeft12
John, those media asshats and their trained “experts” don’t give a shit about the people that the Clinton Foundation is actually helping. Their attitude seems to be that those people will get help from somewhere else. Whether those people actually get that same level of assistance or not is not their concern. They will just be collateral damage in their war against Hillary.
They are just horrible and awful people who have one goal in mind…..bring down Hillary.
slag
@dmsilev: That statue refused for ethical reasons, so they had to get this guy instead.
TK
Sort of amazing how much smearing of the Clinton Foundation has been done because they took money from Saudi Arabia (one of our allies in the middle east like it or not) whereas I think clearly the reason they’d give that money would be to boost their own image, not to hurt the Clintons. If offered should the Red Cross refuse to accept Louisiana flood relief donations from abroad also?
Anoniminous
@redshirt:
I’m beginning to agree with the notion Trump is only doing this to launch his own vertically integrated RW media empire soon after he gets his ass handed to him in November.
pamelabrown53
Maybe some one already said this but I think other than turning the charity over to its board, with Chelsea continuing to be an unpaid board member, they leave it as it is. CGI, is doing important work on a global scale and f*ck the optics people for trying to damage the charity and the people it serves.
Eric U.
I guess the story of how Trump raised $6mil for veterans and passed on $100k is a nothingburger
The Ancient Randonneur
@redshirt: It appears to have begun as a small scale trial when they raised the rent on the campaign office once the outside donations started coming in.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I serve on a board of directors and helped set it up. He is lying.
redshirt
@Anoniminous: That would be one way he could make money after this. And I agree, it seems likely.
But didn’t Glen Beck try something similar? How well did that turn out?
slag
@TK: Everyone I know who runs a non-profit draws a different line on who they take money from. It’s a hotly debated issue, and people in the biz seem to acknowledge there’s no good answer.
Theoretically, we take taxes from everyone in this country to support the common good. I doubt people from other countries denigrate us for taking money from the likes of Donald Trump to help support the common good. (Again, we’re assuming we take taxes from the likes of Donald Trump. Maybe we don’t, but either way, we would consider not taxing him to be the problem—not the solution).
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
No, those statues are just ignoring the evil. The ethics watchdogs during the Bush administration were actively encouraging it.
Anoniminous
Right Wing is doing their standard practice of throwing a bunch of bullshit at the Democratic Party nominee and then polling to see what sticks. The Swift Boating of Kerry in 2004 is The Example. This year the problem seems to be they can’t get anything to resonate so they keep coming up with more outlandish accusations in their desperation.
Peale
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Yep. I like how now the board has to resign because it is too close to the Clintons and somehow must be too corrupt to appoint new directors and officers following whatever procedures they now have in place. You need to appoint people who the right wing finds appropriate. People who the right will now feel obliged to vet to make sure they aren’t “insiders.” Romney has board experience. I hear he’s available and his foundation probably isn’t doing anything at the moment.
cervantes
Still, why not just do it? Change the name and let Chelsea find some other good work to do. Then we can talk about something else. I’m not sure why they don’t do this, actually.
Raven
I’m so bored that I’m watching the first baseball game of the year! The Olympics and all that soccer and I have to do post op after they are over!
Ben Cisco
The usual suspects are pissed that the foundation 1) is associated with a Clinton, 2) takes money from rich people, 3) uses it to benefit poor largely brown people who 4) aren’t Republicans and 5) don’t show up at DC cocktail parties.
Hits every “sweet” spot these degenerate bastards have.
Patricia Kayden
@Anoniminous: Just like they tried everything with President Obama back in 2008. We were regaled by tales of his links with a racist Reverend and several questionable lefties like Bill Ayers and Saul Alinsky. Ooga booga!!
Didn’t work then and won’t work now.
Anoniminous
@redshirt:
Beck is small time. I think Trump is looking more at Murdoch’s media empire and how much money it has made.
Patricia Kayden
@cervantes: So every time the Rightwing says jump, we should ask how high?
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: Do I get a trophy of some sort? Knowing this place and what sort of trophies it would come up with, God I hope not.
gwangung
@cervantes: Why do it?
There’s no good reason.
one_particular_harbour, fka Botsplainer
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
He’s a conservative and doubtlessly identifies as Christian. Lies are how they roll.
In a just world, Hillary would be the tyrant of their most fever-dreamy mental caricatures. Sadly, she’ll turn out to be nice and competent, like that sellout Obama.
Anoniminous
@Patricia Kayden:
Ultimately it’s the problem of basing your party on old bigoted white people: they die. If the voter demographics of 2012 had been even remotely like 2000 we’d be talking about how we are going to defeat President Romney right now.
ETA: because Engrish? How work it does?
Roger Moore
@cervantes:
Because they aren’t being asked to do this stuff in good faith. The moment they meet one set of demands, the people making them will change their minds and ask for more. The goal isn’t to avoid conflicts of interest or improve the governance of the Clinton Foundation; it’s to find a stick to beat Hillary with.
Chyron HR
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s not fair, but the fact is that Hillary has to roll with the punches and get with what’s real.
Calouste
@cervantes: You don’t realize that if they do that the right wing is a) going to use it as “proof” that unsavory things were going on, and b) move onto the next fake Clinton scandal in less time than it takes to say “Clinton Global Initiative”?
Nicole
Yglesias did a good piece on how the AP story on Clinton’s meetings with donors while she was SoS is b*llsh*t. He, unfortunately, still thinks the foundation should be shut down, but, well, this is Yglesias, after all. The piece he wrote is still solid, and justifiably harsh on AP.
piratedan
@shomi: adjust your meds….. seriously, see a doc.
Trollhattan
Good thing Amy Carter isn’t running because they’d probably yell at Jimmy and Roslyn to go tear down all those “free” houses and go release some Guinea worms into the wild.
Corner Stone
Fuck that. Don’t make a single fucking change other than HRC having no involvement. This is what happens when you appease these baying hounds. They come after another bite, then another and then another.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the CGI or Foundation. Nothing will ever be enough.
catclub
@charluckles: Are you lunaticllama at lgm?
misterpuff
@Eric U.: Plus the fact that all the donors were Billionaires looking to curry favor with the Donald – possible (at that moment) POTUS. Shameless, these people are shameless.
Corner Stone
@cervantes: I commented before I read this. Perfect example of NOPE!
moonbat
Tell it, J.C.. Tell it.
D58826
@TK:
and a country with deep ties to the Bush family fortune.
randy khan
@cervantes:
In addition to the other good points that people have made (notably that there’s no reason to think that there’s anything to do that would stop the right wing and certain reporters from the foundation as a stick for beating the Clintons), it’s a terrible idea:
(1) Fundraising would dry up very quickly if the foundation no longer were associated with the Clintons. Believe me, the name matters.
(2) Wholesale replacement of the board would be a disaster. First, undoubtedly a lot of the board is involved in fundraising, and you’d lose all of those contacts. Second, it takes a while to get up to speed as a new board member, so there’d be a lot of time and effort spent on the transition for no good reason. (I sit on the board of a much, much smaller non-profit and it took me about a year to understand everything I needed to know.) Third, a brand new board likely would mean changes in priorities and direction or, put differently, a bunch of wheel spinning rather than continuing to do the good the foundation is doing.
(3) Also, it’s really hard to put together a good board. The odds the new, hastily-assembled board would be as good as the old one are small.
amk
ethics counsel in the George W. Bush administration.
the entire sentence is an oxymoron.
Patricia Kayden
@Trollhattan: Lol. Laughing but you’re right. Conservatives don’t care about helping poor people. They’ve made that clear with the policies they push right here in the good old USA.
redshirt
@Anoniminous: True, but I don’t think Trump has a prayer of reaching the level of Fox News – what cable operator will jump at the chance of adding his channel? – and it seems on a superficial read that entire media wing is withering away. Limbaugh is a shell of his former self. Beck failed. Fox news itself is undergoing unprecedented turmoil.
The market does not seem to be there for a new, successful conservative propaganda media empire.
Beck seems like he’d be more the example Trump would reach rather than Murdoch. Sad!
Patricia Kayden
@randy khan: Agree with all of your reasons and add that there is zero reason to capitulate to the Rightwing demands. Secretary Clinton would be handing them a victory if she gives in to their demands when the Clinton Foundation is an A-rated charity and has done nothing wrong.
Betty Cracker
@TK: The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald is all over that story:
So there!
EuniceCycle
@randy khan: Exactly. I was going to make similar points about replacing a board, but you said it well. And why isn’t The Media insisting that Donald’s kids step away from their businesses if he wins, and turn over the workings to a brand new board?
Brachiator
Oooh. Another impeachable offense. NOT!!!
I know that media idiots and the GOP will keep trying to swiftboat Clinton over this and the goddam(tm) emails. But the only thing I want to see are Trump’s tax returns.
Also, Trump contributed $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. What benefit did he get from his contribution? Shouldn’t he step down as presidential contender because of his influence peddling?
redshirt
@Patricia Kayden: Right? Like when Democrats gave up ACORN, that certainly stopped Republicans from complaining.
Calouste
@amk: Ethics council in an administration that approved the use of torture.
Barbara
And yet, no one has said one word about how Trump plans to dissociate himself from his businesses or not leverage his status to profit from a public position, not to mention his upcoming fraud trials, and his bribery of at least one public official. Two scenarios: they don’t bother because they know Trump will never be president, or, they desperately need a horse race. Publications like Politico must be especially distraught right now. All they want is a nice, normal, establishment Republican, anyone would have done but no, instead the voters had to go and nominate a lunatic. They make fun of liberal elites, but for rags like Politico, the country might as well stop at the Beltway.
charluckles
@catclub:
I am not, but I certainly share her/his incredulity and fury.
hueyplong
Next thing you know donations will be “suspect” because motivated by the desire to give money only if it is subject to tax deductions. Never mind the use to which the money is put.
Greenwald can go perform seemingly impossible acts of self gratification.
Peale
@Betty Cracker: Says the guy who formed a PAC, took donations, and then was accused of not supporting any candidates. Please give to Accountability Now! Eventually it might spend another few hundred thousand in donations to find a worthy enough candidate to get a $5,000.
Chyron HR
@Betty Cracker:
Why can’t they they receive millions of dollars from bastions of liberty like Russia, or Russia (f/k/a Ukraine)?
piratedan
well… here’s a question… who green lighted this story? Then upon essentially finding nothing amiss, decided to publish it anyways but spin it in such a fashion as to imply the lack of evidence itself as damning?
Who the fuck are these people? Why do they get to remain anonymous?
gwangung
@Betty Cracker: I’ve worked in the non-profit world for 30 years.
That’s one of the stupidest statements I’ve ever heard about donors.
piratedan
@Chyron HR: another case of people throwing glass at stone houses…..
CONGRATULATIONS!
@cervantes: You’re out of your fucking mind. If Hillary ate rat poison at a rally, these same people would be bitching at her for letting Bill and Chelsea get away with living. I cannot honestly believe that anybody who’s watched what the right in this country has put Obama through for the last eight years could even write such a post as ignorant as yours.
scav
@Betty Cracker: So, can we drop the pretence that all that pious international do-goodery is just a transparent feint to get a special tax-exempt status for all those Sunday morning coffee-klatches and indoctrination circles? Because they’re not only over there, some are also helping write the oppressive foreign laws.
Corner Stone
Actual chyron on MSNBC now during Trump’s speech:
Trump: Clinton is in hiding (speaking next hour)
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker:
Well isn’t Greenwald special? It’s not as if his friend at Wikileaks hasn’t outed and endangered gay men.
http://www.joemygod.com/2016/08/23/saudi-arabia-wikileaks-outs-gay-men-and-rape-victims/
Was Greenwald outraged when his pal Assange released information which endangered the lives of gay men in Saudi Arabia? Or is his outrage only saved for Democratic politicians?
? Martin
The problem is that the Clinton Foundation is precisely how conservatives think that social problems should be solved – through charitable organizations rather than through government.
The reason they oppose it is because Democrats are doing it better than Republicans are.
Corner Stone
Trump making a speech about African American suffering to an audience in Manchester, NH. They fell quiet, oddly enough.
sigaba
@Barbara: I feel like we’re at the point where nothing Trump is or does constitutes “news” anymore. He’s basically laughed off any suggestion that he’d disassociate himself or his personal interest from his business empire, he doesn’t apologize for it, so for the press it’s no longer relevant.
bobbo
There was actually a guy called “ethics counsel” in the Bush Administration. Cushy job.
Patricia Kayden
@CONGRATULATIONS!: You can never please your enemies. Never. I’m sure Secretary Clinton, as a target of Rightwing hatred for decades now, knows that all too well and will act accordingly.
bluehill
@Patricia Kayden: I do like his point about corporate lobbying and therefore Citizens United. Of course, hypocrisy has never stopped repubs before, but maybe the media could make a connection here and note that lobbying is paying for influence.
Patricia Kayden
@Corner Stone: They’re probably trying to figure out why the hell their racist hero is talking about N-clangs. I’m puzzled too.
@bobbo: Right. Talk about money for nothing.
nutella
@? Martin:
Well, that’s how they say social problems should be solved. But really they don’t want the social problems solved at all. Keeping the 99% poor and sick is what they really want.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: Glenn Greenwald went off the deep end a long time ago. He is the ultimate purity pony. There is always a risk of conflict of interest. There is the independence of the CGI itself — is its mission overly influenced by who makes donations, and the answer to that appears pretty clearly to be no. Then, there is the idea that donors will be able to use the fact of their donations to CGI as a way to influence Clinton’s official actions. Because the Clintons don’t personally benefit from CGI and will not be running it, this worry is reduced but not eliminated. There is probably some small risk, but it’s of the same kind as knowing — for instance — that a person or entity made a huge donation to an organization you really support but didn’t actually found. Let’s say Nike made a huge donation to Yale, which both Clintons attended. Does that mean they might be predisposed to benefit Nike in some way?
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
It’s about 240 miles from Manchester, NH to Harlem, NY. Maybe Trump got lost on the way.
What is this, the 20th speech he’s given about black people to a crowd devoid of black people?
dexwood
@bobbo:
He just had to keep his mouth shut.
dmsilev
@Corner Stone: CNN is on the monitor where I’m eating lunch, and the chyron has read ‘Trump: my supporters and I aren’t racists’ and ‘Trump to minorities: what do you have to lose?’
Peale
Has someone found a list of the most tyranical regimes that the Clinton foundation took donations from? Just curious.Is it a long list?
sukabi
@Eric U.: yes, big nothing burger…THIS is how the repubs have been s” for decades and everytime they’re exposed as a con, you get maybe a tiny mention in the news and then it’s on to the next shiny thing….Tom Delay was actually having seminars at one point to “teach” fellow travelers how to set up non-profit charities.. “non-profit charities” that they’d then use to enrich themselves and their friends.
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
According to Mornin’ Joe, that push back is bullshit. Everyone knows the foundation does good, and if the Clintons want to continue that work, they should just allow all the functions of the charity to be folded into the Gates or Bloomberg charities. But they won’t do that because they want their name on it so they can get the glory, and continue to profit off of it by raking in massive speaking fees.
Clinton rules. Last time I checked even Rudy makes ridiculous money for giving speeches, so the idea that their speech money would dry up without the CGI is ridiculous. Oh and St. Ronnie was paid $2 million by the Japanese for speech, so put that in their pipes and smoke it.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub: I think it’s much simpler than that: it’s “anything done by Clintons is somehow wrong.”
Barbara
@Corner Stone: Does Trump know anything about America? I mean, seriously, outside of NYC, does he know anything about what makes one state or region different from another? A few weeks ago he came to Loudoun County, VA and talked about the tragedy of all the lost factories. Loudoun is among the wealthiest counties in America and more likely to be up in arms about lost horse farms. And he wonders why he is trailing in Virginia.
Matt McIrvin
@Corner Stone: Back in Manchester, eh? That’s the same place where he fretted about being buzzed by the Mexican Air Force and reassured the lady he was looking into getting the hibbie-jobbies out of the TSA. (Manchester, NH being an airport town.)
hovercraft
@Scout211:
Faux News had “heck of a job Brownie” on to discuss the Federal response to the flooding. Blah, blah blah, golf, blah.
Irony, RIP.
Corner Stone
@Barbara:
He’s not trailing in Virginia. He’s doing very well in the polls. Have you read the polls? He’s doing very well in them.
D58826
@Betty Cracker:
And I’m sure that the parents of the kids getting polio shots will check the Dunn and Bradstreet rating of the person who gave the money. If they don’t meet Greenwald’s moral standards then they will reject the shot and take their chances on the polio virus. With luck a set of shots from a more morally superior donor will show up before the polio virus comes to call.
dmsilev
Woohoo! ‘Trump: Mexico will be paying for the wall’. He must be taking requests from the audience to do some of his classic bits.
Lizzy L
@Betty Cracker: Holy fucking shit.
GG is (I think) saying that One) the CGI should have rejected millions of dollars which could help people because the motivation of the donors is not pure, and Two) good works are Not. An. Excuse. for accepting money from impure sources, and Three) How DARE the Clintons or their defenders or you or me or anyone wave those good works in the face of the Pure of Heart who criticize this world-shaking impurity. Whaaaaaaaa! Ma, the Clintons are being mean to me!
I had intended to write more, but my fingers are being flattened on the keyboard even as I type by a herd of galloping purity ponies.
JCJ
@charluckles:
OK fine, but you denied neither being a lunatic or a llama.
Gelfling 545
Trump has a foundation too but I guess nobody cares since he never did anything actually charitable with the money.
Adam L Silverman
New post up with live feed embeds to both Secretary Clinton’s just starting speech/rally in Nevada and Donald Trump’s speech/rally in New Hampshire. Fair and balanced, both sides, shapes of earth, etc, etc…
sigaba
@Barbara: I’m sortof unclear on how the Clintons are personal beneficiaries of CGI donations. Like campaign contributions are one thing– you take the money and then you spend it on various activities to keep you in office.
But the CGI isn’t a political campaign, it’s not like the Clintons can take donations and just go buy cars and houses, or use the money to fund Hillary’s campaign. It’s money, and it goes to causes the Clintons care about, but it’s pointed not their money.
The Ancient Randonnuer
Trump just now said that the wall will indeed be built and Mexico will pay for it! The whole speech sounds like a white nationalist call to action. Definitely being coached by someone.
dmsilev
@Lizzy L:
It’s ok, you can just add in updates I through LXII once your fingers recover.
JCJ
@Peale:
Maybe he took money from the Worlds Worst Tyrant. You know, Barack Obama.
catclub
@dmsilev:
so without even trying, Clinton is pretty far along on the ‘Who knows, But I want to get him to deny it’ aspect of LBJ politics.
Peale
@gwangung: It’s jumping all over the place. The worry usually is that the donor will influence the receiver in some way. That’s the whole quid prop quo. Donors usually are the ones with the strings. In this case, Greenwald, due to lack of evidence of donor influence over charity, wants to complain that the charity hasn’t had influence over the donor. So before Saudi Arabia would give its gift, the foundation needed to ensure that the donor changed its ways. I don’t know many quid pro quo arrangements that start that way.
FlipYrWhig
@Betty Cracker: Isn’t Glenn Greenwald’s entire career funded by a billionaire philanthropist? I know unreflective and accusatory sanctimony is kind of his “brand,” but, for fuck’s sake.
hovercraft
@pamelabrown53:
The repubs hate that CGI has been lauded as a great success, whereas as James Carville pointed Shrub is in the bathtub painting his toes. The media and the republicans have been scrubbing the foundation financials for years searching for wrongdoing, and have come up empty. So now the cry has moved onto the possibility of the appearance of corruption. Fuck em, CGI has done great things and Bill and Hillary should not allow it to be wiped away. The media and the GOP would claim for the rest of time that it was shut down amid a corruption scandal, which is not true.
No One of Consequence
Was I wrong to expect/anticipate:
“New Rule: No Shitting in the Subaru”
Because you finally got the cleaning/detailing bill?
– NOoC
Calouste
@Peale: Really hard to find, that list, it’s completely hidden in plain sight on their website
Norway, Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia all contributed more than $5 million. Wondering why we never hear about the first 4.
Chyron HR
@sigaba:
But they could! They demonstrably haven’t, but hypothetically they COULD! I think for the sake of optics both of them should abandon their worldly possessions, move to Tibet and subsist entirely on a diet of yak butter.
chopper
@Patricia Kayden:
every time the RW says jump, clinton should ask “how high…would i have to be to take an order from you?”
Michael
The Ethics Counsel to George W. Bush should be disqualifier enough.
FlipYrWhig
@Lizzy L: Are Pierre Omidyar’s intentions pure? Is there a level of fuckfacery so high even Glenn Greenwald cannot reach it?
Peale
@The Ancient Randonnuer: So the meeting with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce created the more thoughtful, nuanced, Trump for 72 hours.
Zinsky
Can someone fact-check something for me? I had heard that Bill and Hillary did not collect one dollar in salary or wages from the Clinton Foundation. Is this true? If it is, then WTF? It’s kind of a non-issue if the scenario is that Bill and Hillary granted access to former or current Foundation donors, and they got exactly doodley squat in return! Or am I missing something?
Trollhattan
@Lizzy L:
One wonders how the freedoms in Brazil are, these days. I’d invite Greenwald down from his holy perch but am afraid what an adequate oxygen supply to his beautiful brain might create.
grandpa john
@Corner Stone: At the risk of repeating my self, The so called MSM in this country will be the death of the US as a functioning First class world power if something is not done somehow to reestablish the principles of integrity , honesty, and truth seeking and speaking within the media of this country
lafcolleen
Here are the underlying assumptions in the “Clintons should shut down the Foundation” argument–
(1) Wealthy people donate money to the Foundation to obtain access to the Hillary Clinton;
(2) Trying to gain access to Hillary Clinton is inherently corrupt;
(3) Donating to a Foundation AND talking to Hillary Clinton is corrupt even if you are talking to Hillary Clinton about your life work (and your personal security when you are at risk in your home country) and your life work is otherwise worthy of praise;
and
(4) Donating huge sums of money directly to a non-Hillary Clinton presidential candidate and obtaining access (through say a $1000/plate fundraiser) is perfectly fine and not at all corrupt.
So — the solution is to just cut out the Foundation middleman and figure out how to give your gobs of money directly to the candidate of your choice?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@FlipYrWhig: Nope, he’s the ninja master of that particular skill.
MazeDancer
@randy khan:
Everything you said about fundraising is the truth.
As it seems you also know, getting rich people to cut giant checks for zero glamor causes is nigh onto impossible. They only do it when cajoled. The Big Dawg can cajole.
It has been infuriating and heart-breaking to watch pompous idiots who have no clue what it takes to get the money to change the world on the extremely not glam level of fighting malaria or AIDS drugs in not well-known parts of Africa bloviate about how easy it would be to keep this great work going.
No, children will die. People with AIDS will not get tretment. Bad things are going to happen around the globe.
But all those cocktail parties for the Villagers and Conspirators are going to be so much more ethical. Wonder when they’ll get around to discussing the ethics of the NRA’s cold cash for votes, or Clarence Thomas’s wife, or the Bush Foundations.
I hope Hillary Clinton never gives another press conference. Not even as POTUS. Or if she does, the only journalist allowed is Joy Reid.
bk
@shomi: Did you even read the fucking post, moron?
Albatrossity
Dick Painter?
The jokes just write themselves these days.
Calouste
@Zinsky: Clinton has the tax returns since 2007 on her website. The 2015 returns list $100 in salary and wages.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
Okay, I have to ask — what in the hell are “hibbie-jobbies”?
Hurling Dervish
George W. raised, as I recall, something like $100 million for his library – while he was still sitting as president. I wonder. Do you think there’s any chance those donors tried to get any favors? Do you think there’s any chance W. met with any of those donors? Lock him all right, but not for that.
JustRuss
Is this a good time to bring up Dick Cheney, Haliburton, Iraq, and no-bid contracts? Just wondering.
No One of Consequence
@Mnemosyne: It’s what the wimmin’folk wear in Oooze-Becky-Becky-Stan.
– NOoC
laura
Mr. Cole, I like your new rule.
And your critters.
aimai
@cervantes: Why should they? I mean really, why should they? Should Bill and Melinda Gates change the name of their foundation? Should Olin change its name? The John D. MacArthur foundation? what the every loving fuck?
Lizzy L
Question: has Greenwald always been this much of an a**hole, and I am just now recognizing it? Or was he once saner?
lofgren
Not being especially familiar with Balloon Juice, for a second I thought this was going to be critical of the Clinton Foundation and I was all prepared to leave an angry comment. Not only do I find that to be unnecessary, I am happy to have the words stolen right out of my mouth.
In other words, go fuck yourself, Dick.
redshirt
@Lizzy L: I’d say always, but maybe Cole will answer how awesome Greenwald used to be.
Chyron HR
@Lizzy L:
“Because my loyalty is to my country, I gave the [Bush] administration the benefit of the doubt.” – Glenn Greenwald
(Mysteriously, this courtesy was only extended by Mr. Greenwald to white male presidents.)
Peale
@Chyron HR: Like all Liberals with money, the fact that they still wear clothing is considered to be hypocritical.
hovercraft
@Zinsky:
That is correct, the allegation is that the compensation came in the form of paid speeches.
hovercraft
@lofgren:
Welcome to BJ, we are not shy here, and have many lively debates, sometimes profanity laced, but mostly just a good back and forth.
Mnemosyne
@Lizzy L:
He was an asshole during the Bush years, too, but people gave him a pass because he was anti-Iraq War. He pretty much wants to tear the US government down from his comfortable home in Brazil where he won’t have to suffer the consequences.
Peale
@Calouste: Millions of dollars from the most inhumane dictatorships on earth. I was expecting a longer list. Maybe there are just fewer inhumane dictatorships than there used to be.
FlipYrWhig
@Lizzy L: AFAICT, like Keith Olbermann, he was always an asshole, but he fell in love with his own image of truth-telling righteousness, which managed to amplify his preexisting asshole tendencies. Like my mother said about a family friend who went to Brown in the ’90s, rolling her eyes as she said it, “it made him more of the person he already was.”
ruemara
It really doesn’t matter. The CGI helps the poor and the brown worldwide. Which means left, right or center, we aren’t what media pundits and experts give a shit about. Many people on the pure left side would be fine with a few million of us dying as a result of their bullshit conspiracy reporting about CGI. See your beloved Greenwald in the Intercept. Helping is suspect and letting people die in misery is an outrage. When outrage & mistrust is your bread and butter, there is no downside to destroying an organization that does real good.
Angrifon
@shomi: no offense intended, but do you have reading comprehension issues? Cole’s post says almost exactly the opposite of what you seem to think it says. Also, it’s yin-yang.
Barbara
@sigaba: Well, they do not personally benefit. They don’t take a salary, and in the future they won’t sit on the board and won’t have any expenses paid. They have an interest in the success of the organization presumably because they founded it and they care about its mission. There is an assumption that perhaps they care about CGI more than the Bushes cared about the Points of Light Foundation. But still, once they are no longer in the position of soliciting donations, it really should not matter. A quid pro quo comes before the donation not after.
Lizzy L
@Peale: Millions donated to the CGI to be spent on AIDS prevention and water treatment plants and medical supplies are millions that are not being used to buy armaments.
Just sayin’.
Barbara
@Lizzy L: He was once upon a time saner. Or at least he seemed saner or discussed things that didn’t make him go insane. But he was also always on the edge of being self-righteous about whatever he was writing about.
Sicilian Dish
Every damn day I think about Haliburton and the paper bags full of money Cheney handed them while simultaneously orchestrating ‘energy policy’ with lies to start wars and collecting a pension. And the presidency of GHW Bush as a member of the Carlisle Group.
The Ancient Randonnuer
BTW Trump didn’t say god bless America at the end of his speech. Clearly Trump doesn’t really loves Jesus or America.
cervantes
@Patricia Kayden: Point is it wouldn’t make any substantive difference compared to what they are doing.
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@Lizzy L:
And that from an asshole who’s been taking money from the Koch brothers for years.
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@Lizzy L:
Greenwald’s ALWAYS been an asshole. It’s just that some people were fooled by him for a looooong time. Hell, some on the left still are.
Ian
@Lizzy L:
His douchebaggery was easier to swallow in the Bush years because it was actually directed against people worthy of it.
Dmbeaster
Clinton Foundation makes public its audited financials, and its IRS filings. It gets an A rating from Charity Watch because it is free from any abuse and gives 88% of its funds to charitable causes. The whole issue is bs and just another example of the Clinton Rules in action.
As if its terrible that politicians make friends and develop useful relationships by running a completely legit charity that does great good.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
Wait, Greenwald went to Brazil because he considers American politics just to corrupt? huh?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Did Pappy Bush and Jeb stop investing with the Saudis via the Carlyle Group while W was Preznit? Because I don’t recall anyone being concerned about the ethics of that back in the aughts.
randy khan
@FlipYrWhig:
At least Olbermann generally is entertaining. And he knows his baseball history, always good for a couple of extra points in my book.
Felonius Monk
@bobbo:
Obviously a no-show.
Felonius Monk
In other news, Bernie bought himself a new vacation home on the lake. He’s being real cagey about where the money came from, but there is lots of speculation that it came in $27 increments. Welcome to “Our Revolution”.
sherparick1
@Brachiator: I would like to ask Painter why he did not give the same advice to the Bush Family Foundations or is this another case for the Village Media that IOKIYR and the “Clinton Rules? See http://occupydemocrats.com/2015/04/30/bush-foundations-accepted-unlimited-secret-donations-from-foreign-countries/
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/bush-foundation-clinton-foundation-jeb
One of the problems with the lazy asses who love to push narratives in the MSM today as opposed to the 1990s is this thing called “Google.”
agorabum
Can I just say that combining “go pound sand” with “shove it up your ass” to “go pound sand up your ass” is amazing, and it is that quality of writing that keeps me coming back?
Carolyn Kay
Where were all these oh-so-concerned ethicists when George H.W. Bush was running around to heads of state all over the world suggesting they do business with him at the Carlyle Group because he had influence with his son, the President of the United States? – http://bit.ly/2blghJJ
The Bush family business is PROFITING from their prominence. The Clinton family business is benefiting themselves AND OTHERS by way of their prominence.
I prefer the latter intentions in my elected officials.
MomSense
A fucking men, Cole. A fucking men.
Karen Bidwell
Yeah it all matters. I am a 57yr old die-hard Democrat, old enough to know better and vote for a Republican now and then when he or she turned out to be a better person. There was a chance that some actual reform could be inching its way into this country. But no. You and I will get what we deserve after all the angst and Bernie Bro bullshit clears. Clinton is as Clinton does and she will dismay you. Trump is an idiot with a big mouth, but he is also a convenient fade for the luck of Bill and Hill. She’s as authentic as my ass. So get over yourselves. You got what you wanted.
JGabriel
Politico via John Cole @ Top:
That would be the same Richard Painter of whom I said here in 2010:
SiubhanDuinne
@bluehill:
LOL, ROFL, LMAO and also HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
You so droll.
Coin operated
@Karen Bidwell: I’m guessing somebody didn’t get their purity pony?
SiubhanDuinne
@sigaba:
I can’t imagine why not. If it’s good enough for Trump….
Karen Bidwell
@JGabriel:
You want more war? You got it. You think the above will stop the stupid? Melinda Gates, really? Also, I read Elie Weisel’s book back in 1970, have you? Never, ever go there — it is just too easy. Get your facts together.
Karen Bidwell
@Coin operated:
thanks for the smile
Karen Bidwell
@Coin operated:
Some John Prine does the trick