2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary, Rubio and Cruz all get foreign advice from the same consulting firm
Consultants affiliated with a small Washington, D.C., firm called Beacon Global Strategies hold the unique privilege of providing high-profile foreign policy guidance to Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, among others.
The bipartisan firm was founded in 2013 by former senior officials from the State Department, Department of Defense, and Central Intelligence Agency, and quickly had more than a dozen clients, primarily defense contractors, according to Defense News.
Philippe Reines and Andrew Shapiro, both considered part of Clintons inner circle of foreign policy advisers, are founders of the firm. Reines served as a longtime spokesperson for Clinton and Shapiro served as her assistant secretary of state for military affairs.
Eric Edelman, a former Bush administration Defense Department official, is an advisory board member to Beacon Global Strategies and a leading foreign policy adviser to Marco Rubios presidential campaign. Its mostly about defense, but Ive talked to him about the authorization of military force. Ive talked to him about the campaign against ISIS, about Russia and Ukraine. Theres not a shortage of issues right now, Edelman told Reuters. The news wire noted that that Edelman regularly briefs the senator.
The Beacon Global Strategies advisory board, which includes retired Adm. James Stavridis and CNN contributor Fran Townsend, was established to provide guidance to the BGS team on the full range of the firms activities, from particular projects to larger strategic initiatives, the firm announced in 2013.
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https://theintercept.com/2015/12/18/beacon-global-strategies/
On a lot offoreign policy, republicans and dems are closely aligned.
monmouth4
(9,709 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)find out that Whirlpool owns Maytag and Frigidaire. It's all coming from the same HQ, just the brand names are different.
Truprogressive85
(900 posts)must be nice from getting foreign affair advice from the same people that give Rubio and Cruz
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)The bizarre thing is that people support Mrs Clinton and claim to be liberal. Those two things don't go together, at all.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)..except it isn't really funny ha-ha, it's downright deceitful and an outright lie.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)"CNN contributor Fran Townsend" too?
Thanks to The Intercept for this very revealing information.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Let alone with Clinton.
Sanders is obviously better than all 3, but we already knew that.
treestar
(82,383 posts)If it provides them with facts, then this who is who stuff doesn't matter so much. And Hillary may get advice from a lot of different providers for all we know. So I think this is weak sauce to indicate it means she will let them "advise" her to take right wing positions. Certainly she will not take the same positions as Cruz and Rubio do. I would imagine Hillary makes up her own mind after the receipt of the "advice."
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)is apparently very poor at building an internal, independent, reliable, well-informed campaign staff.
Hat tip for good spin tho
treestar
(82,383 posts)and a lot happens every day, so that's not a really good argument.
Facts are facts, no matter where they come from.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)this is routine stuff that is silly to use as a battering ram. This OP makes no specific arguments against any specific foreign policy position of Hillary.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)which is why it's so laughable to suggest that "Bernie should have them too".
This consulting firm is an emblematic microcosm of how our so-called "2 party system"
is fast becoming a tweedle-dumb v. tweedle-dee extravaganza to mesmerize the masses
into believing they still have a real democratic form of government.
Beacon was hatched by "former officials from the State Department, Department of
Defense, and the CIA"; and "quickly had more than a dozen clients, primarily defense
contractors". Many of it's principles are former Bush Administration spooks and
war-hawks.
There's an inherently unsavory agenda here, i.e. influence peddling for endless-war profiteering;
with no indication of any countervailing interest in peacemaking, conflict-resolution, or 'war
as a last resort'.
treestar
(82,383 posts)nothing is perfect, but people who worked at the State Department will be the experts.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)i agree to a point, but doesn't that mostly depend on the political agenda and/or the financial ties of who hires or appoints State Dept. "experts"?
Think GWBush's Department of State.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)And are yelling about Cruz and Rubio mixing with an organization that gives information to Hillary.
It's a small world after all.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)then fine.
Are you seriously suggesting Hillary is gaming the Beacon bevy of war-profiteers to
advance a "Progressive" foreign policy agenda?
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Those players were at State doing PNAC's business, chums of Bush, not Obama.
Our woman in Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, is married to PNAC co-founder Robert Kagan
Robert Kagan's brother is Frederick Kagan
Frederick Kagan's spouse is Kimberly Kagan
Brilliant people, big ideas, and a lot of PNAC channeling Cheney at State and out of the the pirate sektor. And the PNAC approach to international relations means more wars without end for profits without cease, among other things detrimental to democracy, peace and justice.