2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumMeet the lobbyists, donors and bundlers behind Hillary's $157 million juggernaut
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1251<The superlobbyist brother of John Podesta, Clintons campaign chairman, he runs Podesta Group a powerhouse firm for defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Bechtel), pharmaceutical and health insurance giants (Merck and Blue Cross-Blue Shield) and banking and private equity firms (Well Fargo, Credit Suisse Group, KKR). Podesta has used his D.C. mansion, famously decorated with expensive modern art, to host a Clinton fundraiser (offering fine Italian cooking by him and his brother) as well as a book party for Clinton super-PAC attack dog David Brock (co-hosted by Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias and Clinton email pal Sidney Blumenthal.) Another branch of Podestas portfolio: foreign governments, including several Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Burma and the Maldives accused by the State Department of human rights abuses. A new senior partner working on the firms new $1.68 million a year Saudi account: David Adams, former assistant secretary for legislative affairs while Clinton was secretary of state.>
<Two of his McGuireWoods colleagues, Andrew Smith and former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, are also bundlers who have raised $240,000 for the Clinton campaign while lobbying for clients that include Smithfield Foods (now owned by the Chinese-based Shuanghui Group) and Dandong Port Group, a Hong Kong-registered port and grain importing firm owned by secretive Chinese billionaire Wenliang Wang, who has donated $2 million to the Clinton Foundation.>
<After serving as Hillary Clintons deputy secretary of state, Nides returned through the Wall Street revolving door to become vice chairman of Morgan Stanley. A top Clinton bundler, he has helped raise $205,198 from the investment banks executives and employees, including donations from the firms chief operating officer, its chiefs of fixed income and wealth management, two managing directors and four members of its board of directors. Morgan Stanley, which last year agreed to pay a $2.6 billion fine to settle U.S. government claims over its role in the 2008 financial crisis, has donated $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation. It also paid Hillary Clinton $225,000 for a speech in 2013, two and a half months afar she stepped down as secretary of state.>
<He is the chairman of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street colossus that last month agreed to pay a $5.1 billion fine to settle a Justice Department investigation for its role in marketing subprime mortgage bonds in the runup to the 2008 financial crisis. Among the Goldman executives who helped Blankfeins firm profit from the crash: Donald Mullen, the former chief of its credit department, who last year made a $1 million donation to Clintons super-PAC, Priorities USA Action. Sounds like we will make some serious money, Mullen wrote in an email in the fall of 2007, after learning the subprime mortgage market was about to crash, according to a 2011 Senate report. The firm has also been the single biggest source of funds for Hillary Clintons post-government speaking career, paying her $625,000 for three speeches since she stepped down as secretary of state in 2012.>
<Goldman Sachs ties to the Clintons have been personal and political: Goldmans executives and employees have contributed $750,000 to Clintons political campaigns, including $100,616 to this years run. The firm itself has donated at least $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation and paid $1.2 million to Bill Clinton for speeches dating back to 2001. Blankfein, who has described himself as a friend of Hillary Clinton, has lent a helping financial hand to the Clinton family: He (along with two other former Goldman executives) is among the investors in Eaglevale Partners, the hedge fund founded in 2011 by Marc Mezvinsky, husband of Chelsea Clinton, and the former secretarys son in law.>
<An insight into Soros thinking was revealed in a State Department email in which a Clinton ally described a conversation in which Soros said he has been impressed that he can always call/meet with you on an issue of policy and that he regretted backing then-Sen. Barack Obama over her in 2008. >
And there is so much more in the article, these are only some lowlights.
polichick
(37,152 posts)A political power player selling access and a corporate power player buying access.
Oh yippee - which one should I vote for?!
BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)Trump is going to beat Hillary over the head with this in a general election campaign. He can easily defend buying influence. "Of course I did it. Every smart business person did it because you got a big return on investment. And I'm the one who knows how to stop it. I don't need to sell influence to get rich because I already am rich."
Response to polichick (Reply #1)
PonyUp This message was self-deleted by its author.
polichick
(37,152 posts)with the words "END CRONY CAPITALISM."
CharlotteVale
(2,717 posts)BeanMusical
(4,389 posts)BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)That is a horrifying image. I'm going to have a hard time getting that one out of my head.
polichick
(37,152 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,361 posts)Thanks for the thread, BernieforPres2016.
vintx
(1,748 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 20, 2016, 12:14 PM - Edit history (1)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/us/politics/clintons-reportedly-earned-30-million-in-the-last-16-months.html
BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)Which is still a pretty impressive time period for pulling in $30 million for "speeches". Of course, Hillary wasn't sure she was running for President in 2016 at that point, and I'm sure the people paying for the "speeches" weren't either.
amborin
(16,631 posts)BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)as corrupt as either one of the Clinton's?
BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)But he was only a member of the House of Representatives and had to conduct his graft on a smaller scale. When you have a couple that have been President and Secretary of State and their Rolodex includes virtually every rich business person, government official and foreign despot in the world, the sky is the limit.
The Clintons are selling the entire government the way they once sold nights in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... are also lobbyists for the worst of the worst in America ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511258679
BeanMusical
(4,389 posts)Lone_Wolf
(1,603 posts)...not powerful corporations. These DINO's like the Clinton's and Debbie Wasserman Schultz should just become Republicans.