Revisiting Multi-Millionaire Hillary Clinton and Millionaire Bernie Sanders' Post-2016 Election Campaign Books: Part 1

After the November 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, both 2016 and 2020 Democratic Party primaries' presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton apparently received a lot of money from corporate media conglomerate book publishing subsidiaries--for writing post-2016 election campaign books.

The Simon and Schuster book publishing division of the CBS corporate media conglomerate, for example, published a book in 2017, titled What Happened, in which Multi-Millionaire Hillary Clinton wrote the following:

"...We can't understand what happened in 2016 without confronting the audacious information warfare waged from the Kremlin...

"There's nothing I was looking forward to more than showing Putin that his effort to influence our election and install a friendly puppet had failed...In 2016 OUR DEMOCRACY was assaulted by a foreign adversary determined to mislead our people, inflame our divisions, and throw an election to its preferred candidate. That attack succeeded because OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM had been slowly eroded over years...

"Now that the Russians have infected us and seen how weak our defenses are, they'll keep at it...Their ultimate goal is to undermine--perhaps even destroy--Western democracy itself...

"In a series of memos, I warned President Obama that...America would have to take a harder line with Putin...During the campaign, I asked my team to start working on a more AGGRESSIVE STRATEGIC APPROACH TOWARD RUSSIA...BY JULY 2016, the FBI 's ELITE NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION in Washington had STARTED INVESTIGATING...the TRUMP CAMPAIGN..."

Most U.S. antiwar and anti-imperialist left Movement activists, however, don't believe that: 1. the 2016 Hawk Democratic Party nominee failed to win the popular and electoral college votes in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin because of some alleged Russian government/"Russiagate Conspiracy;" 2. that the U.S. government should threaten world peace by "working on a more aggressive strategic approach toward Russia;" and 3. that it was morally and politically ethical for the Democratic Obama administration's "FBI elite National Security Division in Washington" to have apparently been used "by July 2016" to start "investigating" the campaign of the GOP opponent in the November 2016 presidential election of the 2016 Democratic Party's presidential nominee.

Yet in the book that the Thomas Dunne-St.Martin's Press-Macmillan Corporate book publishing subsidiary of the Germany-based Holtzbrinck media conglomerate (which was apparently founded by a German Nazi Party member and publisher of books for the German imperialist army during World War II, named George von Holtzbrinck) published in November 2018, titled Where We Go From Here, Millionaire Bernie Sanders wrote the following:

"...I received an invitation to speak at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on September 21, 2017, when I would also receive an honorary degree. This tiny university has a unique place in history as the site of Winston Churchill's famous `Iron Curtain' speech...

"Here is the speech I delivered:

"`...We now know that the Russian government was engaged in a massive effort to undermine...the integrity of OUR ELECTIONS and our faith in OUR OWN DEMOCRACY.

"`...Today I say to Mr. Putin: We will not allow you to undermine American democracy...'"

And although most U.S. antiwar and anti-imperialist left Movement activists reject the validity of the Democratic Party's "Russiagate Conspiracy Theory," later in his 2018 Where We Go From Here book, 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries candidate Sanders wrote the following:

"...Every U.S. intelligence agency...has made it abundantly clear that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton...The intelligence committees of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate reached the same conclusion, as did the entire Senate and House...

"In other words, the debate over Russian interference in OUR 2016 election, as well as their meddling in the elections of many other democracies around the world has long been over. Everybody is in agreement--except Donald Trump.

"The New York Times reported that Trump was shown highly classified intelligence two weeks before his inauguration that indicated that Putin had personally ordered complex cyber-attacks to sway the election...

"On July 17 [2018] I went to the floor [of the U.S. Senate] and remarked:

"`My friends today we face an unprecedented situation of a president who...refuses to acknowledge the full scope of the threat to American democracy...He is under Russian influence because of compromising information they may have on him, or because he is...more sympathetic to Russia's...form of government than he is to American democracy...'

"...On July 19 [2018], Chuck Schumer and I went to the floor and presented a resolution that called for a course of action containing the following directives:

"`1. The Congress must make it clear that we accept the assessment of OUR INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY with regard to Russian election interfering in OUR COUNTRY...

"`2. The Congress must move AGGRESSIVELY to protect OUR ELECTION SYSTEMS from interference by Russia or any foreign power...

"`3. The Congress must demand that the sanctions against Russia passed last year be fully implemented...'" 

Is 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Really Seeking A `Revolution' In USA?

2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders endorsing Hillary Clinton for U.S. President in July 2016

In 2019 some U.S. left activists have apparently been urging folks who want to see a socialist revolution in the USA to work as unpaid volunteers in politically liberal Democratic Party Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont's 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries campaign.

Yet in her 2018 book about Bernie's unsuccessful Democratic Party presidential primaries campaign in 2016, titled Crashing The Party, a Fordham University professor who also worked as a volunteer researcher and organizer in Bernie's 2016 campaign to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, named Heather Gautney, observed:

"...Bernie used the slogan `political revolution'...but leftists were understandably opposed to his use of the word `revolution' in that context, as his campaign was not calling for a radical social and political restructuring of power and authority in the United States, like modern revolutionary movements had in Cuba, Bolivia, and elsewhere. Bernie did not associate himself with anti-capitalist politics or seek to nationalize major industries...

"...Bernie endorsed Hillary [Clinton] for president on July 12, 2016...Bernie's decision to endorse Hillary...drew ire from some of his movement-based supporters who argued that he should shun Clinton and the Democrats entirely. Why unify with the same party elements that tried to fix the primary process and defame Bernie's...progressive program?...A Clinton administration...would have put him at the front of the line for prominent committee assignments...

"Some of Bernie's delegates were disappointed in him for having conceded the nomination prior to the convention and endorsing Hillary. Bernie or Busters couldn't bear to vote for her, and some, like [Cornell] West, supported the Greens...

Bernie Sanders and AIPAC and Wall Street Banking Industry-Backed U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer

"In the wake of Trump's election...Chuck Schumer recruited Bernie to a leadership position as outreach chairman...Bernie himself appeared in Michigan with Schumer...

"In late April 2017, Bernie and [Democratic National Committee Chairperson Thomas] Perez launched a `Unity Tour,'...For leftists...the tour looked like an attempt to herd them into the fold of the establishment..."

Hillary Clinton's 1990's White House Years Revisited: Part 3

If 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is elected on November 8, 2016 to become first wife of a former U.S. president to win a U.S. presidential election, and she moves into the White House for four years on January 20, 2017, it won't be the first time that Clinton will be occupying the White House. As she recalled in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary): 

"Webb [Hubbell] had resigned from from his job at the Justice Department...In his own memoir, Friends in High Places, Webb [Hubbell]...admits that the charges against him were true and that he had stolen from the [Rose] law firm in a futile attempt to get out from under a crippling debt that he had hidden from his family and friends...Hubbell would plead guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion. He confessed that between 1989 and 1992, he submitted more than 400 doctored bills to cover personal expenses, cheating his clients...at the Rose Law Firm of at least $394,000.

"...Webb [Hubbell] had been a trusted colleague...He was a dear friend. I had spent more hours in his company than I could count...In March 1995, I took my first extended trip overseas without the President...My companions included...Jan Piercy, my friend from Wellesley and U.S. Executive Director of the World Bank...In late July [1995], I began a weekly newspaper column...

"Welfare reform had been debated by Bill [Clinton]'s staff since the presidential campaign, when Bill [Clinton] promised to `end welfare as we know it.' I agreed that the system was broken and needed to be fixed...During my book tour I spoke at my alma mater, Wellesley College, on January 19, 1996, and spent the night at the gracious home of its...President...

"...Bill [Clinton] and I were anxious about our...State Dinner for French President Jacques Chirac and his wife...in February 1996...Bill [Clinton] worked hard to win French cooperation...most notably in 1999 when he persuaded France to go along with NATO air strikes...in Kosovo despite the lack of a specific U.N. resolution...The State Department had asked me to go as an emissary to Bosnia-Herzegovia...Gains on the ground by the Croat-Muslim coalition that the U.S. had helped support, coupled with the NATO airstrikes that Bill [Clinton] had advocated...forced the Serbs to negotiate...The United States had sent over 18,000...troops...

"As part of his foreign policy agenda, Bill [Clinton] supported the expansion of NATO eastward from the Atlantic...There was significant opposition to NATO expansion within the United States and Russia, which did not want to see NATO at its own borders...I spoke at Radio Free Europe headquarters...I applauded the role Radio Free Europe had played...I said that......sustaining a free society is like a three-legged stool: one leg is a...government, the second is a free market economy...I favored NATO expansion...

"...Welfare reform became a success for Bill [Clinton]. I strongly argued that we had to change the system...In 1987 and again in 1988, Bill [Clinton] was the lead Democratic governor working with...the Reagan White House on welfare reform...The third bill passed by Congress...cut off most benefits to legal immigrants, imposed a 5-year lifetime limit on federal welfare benefits, and maintained the status quo on monthly benefit limits, leaving the states free to set benefit limits...

"The President [Bill Clinton] signed this third bill into law...I agreed that he should sign it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage--though he and the legislators were roundly criticized by...liberals, advocacy groups for immigrants and most people who worked with the welfare system...Bill's decision and my endorsement of it, outraged some of our...supporters...They...believed the legislation was shameful, impractical and harmful to children...By the time Bill [Clinton] and I left the White House, welfare rols had dropped 60 percent from 14.1 million to 5.8 million..."

(end of part 3)

Hillary Clinton's 1990's White House Years Revisited: Part 2

If 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is elected on November 8, 2016 to become first wife of a former U.S. president to win a U.S. presidential election, and she moves into the White House for four years on January 20, 2017, it won't be the first time that Clinton will be occupying the White House. As she recalled in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary): 

"...On October 26 [1963]...the Hillaryland gang invited over a hundred of my family members and friends to come from around the country for a surprise 46th birthday party at the White House...I was ushered upstairs and told to put on a black wig and hoopskirt--the Colonial look...and an attempt to replicate the fashions worn by Dolly Madison. Then I was led down to the State Floor, where I was greeted by a dozen staffers in blond wigs...Bill [Clinton] was disguised as President James Madison (with white wig and tights)...

"On Halloween 1993,...I learned that...the Resolution Trust Corporation [RTC]...had recommended the criminal investigation of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, owned by Jim McDougal. McDougal and his wife, Susan, had been our partners in the Whitewater Development Company, Inc....RTC investigators were looking into allegations that McDougal had used his S&L to funnel money illegally to political campaigns in Arkansas, including Bill [Clinton]'s gubernatorial reelection campaign in 1986...

"...Our personal lawyer, Bob Barnett, recused himself from Whitewater because his wife, Rita Braver, was a CBS correspondent assigned to cover the White House...Bob became my counsel and adviser in 1992, and I could not have asked for a better friend in the years that followed.

"Bob recommended David Kendall, his colleague at Williams and Connolly, to represent us in the Whitewater matter...David...had experience in corporate law...He represented clients in several S. and L. investigations in the 1980's...David took over the files from Vince Foster's office...

"By the mid-1980s McDougal...had bought a small thrift called Madison Guaranty...He...used the Whiteewater Development Company to buy property near a trailer park south of Little Rock that he...named Castle Grande Estates...In 1985, Rick Massey, a young lawyer at the Rose Law Firm...worked for McDougal...Because McDougal had been negligent in paying a previous bill from Rose for legal services, the firm insisted that he pay a $2,000 monthly retainer...My partners asked me to request the retainer from McDougal and to become the `billing partner'...I arranged the retainer...Federal S. and L. regulators took over Madison Guaranty...and initiated an examination of the S. and L.'s transactions because of allegations that McDougal had engaged in a pattern of self-dealing...

"...In 1986...I asked McDougal to take our names off the [Whitewater Development Company] mortgage...Whitewater...had failed to pay property taxes...

"My brother [Tony Rodham] had...become engaged to Nicole Boxer, the daughter of Senator Barbara Boxer of California...We were planning a spring wedding [in 1994] for Tony and Nicole at the White House, so I invited Nicole, her parents and her brother, Doug [Boxer] to join us for Thanksgiving dinner at Camp David [in 1993]...

"NAFTA was ratified on December 8, 1993....As more of our financial records were released...they generated additional stories...In mid-March [1994], The New York Times ran a front-page article...The story accurately reported the profits I had made in the commodities market in 1979...Our close friend Jim Blair...was generous enough to share his expertise in trading commodities...With his help, I...turned $1,000 into $100,000 in a short time...

"...In the early spring of 1993, [Richard] Nixon...sent Bill [Clinton] a letter...Bill [Clinton] invited the former President to the White House...and Chelsea [Clinton] and I greeted him as he stepped off the elevator on the second floor...

"...Paula Corbin Jones...accused Bill Clinton of sexually harassing her by making unwanted advances...On May 6, 1994...Paula Jones filed a civil suit against the President of the United States, asking for $700,000 in damages...In early June 1994, Bill [Clinton] and I traveled to England...Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had invited us to spend the night on her royal yacht HMS Britannia...

"As we moved toward the midterm elections in November [1994], Bill [Clinton]'s political advisers assured us that the Democrats were in relatively good shape. But I was worried...I also knew that some core Democratic supporters felt disillusioned by our failure to reform health care or betrayed by the Administration's successful push for NAFTA...

"Two weeks before Election Day [in 1994], Bill [Clinton] and I took a brief break...and traveled to the Middle East...And I celebrated my 47th birthday...On October 26 [1994], I saw the Pyramids at Giza in the morning light, and...President Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, hosted a birthday breakfast, complete with cake, in a dining room overlooking the Sphinx.

"Hosni and Suzanne Mubarak are an impressive couple...Like other Arab leaders whom I have met, Mubarak recognizes the dilemma he faces in governing...

"I began my schedule Election Day [in November 1994] much as I would any other...Bill [Clinton] and I...wanted to be alone as we absorbed the election returns...The Democrats lost 8 Senate seats and an astounding 54 seats in the House--ushering in the first Republican majority since the Eisenhower administration. Democratic incumbents were routed everywhere...Defeated and disappointed, I wondered how much I was to blame for the debacle..." 

(end of part 2)

Hillary Clinton's 1990's White House Years Revisited: Part 1

If 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is elected on November 8, 2016 to become first wife of a former U.S. president to win a U.S. presidential election, and she moves into the White House for four years on January 20, 2017, it won't be the first time that Clinton will be occupying the White House. As she recalled in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary): 

"...Throughout the [1993] inaugural festivities, Bill [Clinton] received security briefings...He was already shifting his attention...to news of U.S. planes that were bombing Iraq...The [Secret] Service uses code names for its protectees...Bill [Clinton] became `Eagle,' I was `Evergreen.'...

"...I wanted to put our personal stamp on the White House...I hired Walter Scheib, an experienced chef...In early February [1993], Bill [Clinton] and I invited Vince Foster, now Deputy White House Counsel; Bruce Lindsey, also in the Counsel's office and still one of Bill [Clinton]'s closest advisers and traveling companion; and Webb Hubbell, Associate Attorney General, to a...dinner in the second-floor dining room...Bruce, Vince and Webb were among my closest friends...I can still close my eyes and see Vince at that table...

"On January 25 [1993], Bill [Clinton] invited me...to lunch in the President's small study near the Oval Office...and our old friend Ira Magaziner,a...business consultant...Ira...had private sector experience as the owner of a consulting business in Rhode Island that advised multinational companies on how to become...profitable...

"...As the wife of a...President, I didn't have to worry about my family's access to health care...Bill [Clinton] announced that I would chair a newly formed President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform...Several of Bill [Clinton]'s key lieutenants heartily endorsed the idea, including [then-Goldman Sachs executive] Robert Rubin, Chairman of the National Economic Council and later Secretary of the Treasury. One of my favorite people in the administration, [former-Goldman Sachs executive] Bob [Rubin] is fabulously...successful...

"...Bill [Clinton]...had won the [1992] election...with less than a majority of the popular vote--43 percent...Bill [Clinton]...rejected the single-payer and Medicare models, preferring a quasi-private system...that relied on private market forces...

"In...Yugoslavia...I was disgusted by the failure of the United Nations to intervene...I was convinced that the only way to stop...genocide in Bosnia was through...air strikes against Serbian targets...Bill [Clinton] met with his advisers to consider American involvement...

"...On July 20 [1993]...Vince Foster was dead; it looked like a suicide...Bernie Nussbaum...had been with Vince the morning of his death...Two days after Vince's death, Bernie Nussbaum went to Vince's office and, with representatives from the Justice Department and the FBI, reviewed every document there...In the course of this first search, Bernie discovered that Vince had stored in his office some files containing work he had done for Bill [Clinton] and me when he was our attorney in Little Rock, including files that had to do with the land deal called Whitewater. Bernie gave these files to Maggie Williams; and, soon after, they were transferred to the office of Bob Barnett, our private attorney in Washington...

"...By late August [1993], [then-Treasury Secretary Lloyd] Bentsen, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and economic adviser [former Goldman Sachs Director] Bob Rubin were adamant about postpoining health care reform and moving forward with the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA. They believed that...NAFTA warranted immediate action and creating a free trade zone in North America...would...create jobs..."

(end of part 1)

Did Hillary Rodham Clinton Seek To Enrich Herself When Husband Held Arkansas Public Office?

Most Democratic Party voters don't think that the wife of a public official should seek to personally enrich herself and her family when her husband is supposed to be serving the public interest as a state attorney general or state governor. Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former Arkansas Attorney General and Governor Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"...We lived in the Governor's Mansion [in the late 1970's] and had an official expense account that covered meals...But I worried that...we needed to build up a nest egg.

"...My friend Diane Blair was married to someone who knew the intricacies of the commodities market...Jim Blair was...lawyer whose clients included the poultry giant Tyson Foods...Jim had developed a system of trading that was making him a fortune...By 1978...I was willing to risk $1,000 and let Jim guide my trades through...broker...I walked away from the table $100,000 ahead...

"...In the spring of 1978...a businessman...named Jim McDougal approached us with a...deal: Bill [Clinton] and I entered a partnership with Jim and his...wife Susan, to buy 230...acres on the south bank of the White River in...Arkansas. The plan was to subdivide the site for vacation homes, then sell the lots at a profit.

"...Bill [Clinton] had...made a...real estate investment with McDougal the year before that had turned a...profit...We took out bank loans to buy the property, eventually transferring ownership to the Whitewater Development Company, Inc....in which we and the McDougals had equal shares...

"...I kept my name after Bill [Clinton] was elected to state office partly because I thought it would help avoid the appearance of conflict of interest...

"I was helping...defend a company that sold and shipped...logs by railroad. As a shipment was unloaded at its destination, the logs came loose...and injured some employees of the company that had purchased the logs...

"...In early March [1992]...[1992 Democratic Party presidential primary candidate and California Governor] Jerry Brown went on the offensive against Bill [Clinton], focusing on my law practice and on the Rose Law firm, where I had been a partner since 1979...The Rose Firm...provides...services to the Arkansas state government.....

"...Brown accused Bill [Clinton] of steering state business to the Rose Firm...

"...I was [1992 Democratic Party presidential candidate] Bill [Clinton]'s principal surrogate on the campaign trail. I wanted to support his campaign and to advance his ideas. I had taken leave from my law firm and resigned from all of the corporate boards on which I served. That meant leaving the board of Wall-Mart, on which I had sat for 6 years at the invitation of Sam Walton, who taught me a great deal about corporate...success...

"I proudly cast my vote for Bill [Clinton] to be my President...Robert Rubin, the Co-Chairman of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, accepted Bill [Clinton]'s offer to become the first head of a soon-to-be-created National Economic Council...

"...Bill [Clinton] couldn't appoint me to an official position, even if he had wanted to. Anti-nepotism laws had been on the books...But there were no laws to prevent me from continuing my role as Bill Clinton's...advisor and, in some cases, representative..."

Did Clintons' Use Foundation Money To Pay Clinton Family's Travel Expenses and Excessive Executives Salaries?

Most Democratic Party voters don't think that the funds of a tax-exempt, non-profit, "philanthropic" foundation should be used to pay for charter flight or first-class flight seat travel expenses of the family members who created the "non-profit" and tax-exempt "philanthropic" foundation; or to pay inflated salaries to the top executives of that tax-exempt and "non-profit" foundation. Yet according to the Form 990 financial filing for 2013 of the Clinton Foundation, "the board" of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation "recognizes that...William J. Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton may require the need to travel by charter or in first class..;." and in 2012, the following amounts in total annual compensation were paid-out to Clinton Foundation executives:

1. $484,257 (including a $249,999 bonus) to Clinton Foundation Director of Marketing Frederic Poust;

2. $394,856 to Clinton Foundation Chairman of the Board Bruce Lindsey;

3. $295,525 to Clinton Foundation CEO, CGEP Mark Gunton;

4. $274,341 to Clinton Foundation CEO Eric Braverman;

5. $243,757 to Clinton Foundation CEO,CGI Robert S. Harrison;

6. $236,885 to Clinton Foundation CDG Dennis Cherg;

7. $215,684 to Clinton Foundation CEO, CGER Scott Tartel;

8. $207,955 to Clinton Foundation CFO Andrew Kessel;

9. $201,023 to Clinton Foundation CEO Virginia Ilrdich;

10. $183,958 to Clinton Foundation Sernior Adviser Laura Graham; and

11. $169,749 to Clinton Foundation Executive Director Stephanie S. Streett.

Most Democratic Party voters also don't think that a tax-exempt, "non-profit" foundation should be allowed to make a profit from its annual activities. Yet in its Form 990 financial filing for 2013, the Clinton Foundation noted that in 2012 "our 3 entities show a $7 million surplus of revenues over expenses."

Did Hillary Clinton Represent Arkansas Corporate Clients When Husband Was Arkansas's Attorney General and Governor?

Most people in the United States during the 1970's did not think it was ethical for a state attorney general or state governor's wife to enrich herself by providing legal representation and legal services for corporate clients in the same state, and at the same time in which her husband was supposed to be representing the public interest as a public official.

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former Arkansas Attorney General and Governor Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"We were married...on October 11, 1975...He is still the most interesting...person I have ever met...Bill Clinton's first election victory as Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976 was anticlimactic. He had won the primary in May and had no Republican opponent...

"With Bill's election assured, we both felt free to get involved in [Jimmy] Carter's [1976 presidential] campaign when he became the Democratic nominee...Carter's staff asked Bill to head the campaign in Arkansas and me to be the field coordinator in Indiana...Carter did not carry Indiana...

"Bill and I had to move to Little Rock...Fayetteville was too far to commute, so I couldn't continue teaching at the University...I began to...consider joining a private firm...Representing private clients...would help us financially...The Rose Law Firm was the most venerable firm in Arkansas...I had gotten to know one of its partners, Vince Foster...After 1976, Vince and another Rose Firm partner Herber C. Rule III, came to see me with a job offer...In the first jury trial I handled on my own, I defended a canning company...

"...Bill...was elected Governor in 1978...In 1979 I was made a partner at the Rose Law Firm..."

How Hillary Clinton Obtained Her U. of Arkansa Law School Teaching Job Revisited

During the 1970's, most people in the United States did not think that a teaching job at a publicly-funded state university law school should be given to an applicant with no previous law school teaching experience on the basis of nepotism--or just because the applicant's partner had local, state and national Democratic Party political connections and was a pal of the law school's dean.

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former President Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"...One night, Bill and I ended up in the kitchen talking about what each of us wanted to do after graduation [from Yale's Law School in Connecticut]...Bill was absolutely certain: He would go home to Arkansas and run for public office...After the [1972 Democratic National] convention, Gary Hart asked Bill to go to Texas, along with Taylor Branch...to run the McGovern campaign in that state. Bill asked me if I wanted to go, too. I did. Anne Wexler...offered me a job heading up the voter registration drive in Texas...It was obvious to all of us that Nixon was going to trounce McGovern in the November [1972] election...

"After completing law school in the spring of 1973, Bill took me on my first trip to Europe...Bill was coming home to Arkansas and taking a teaching job in Fayetteville, at the University of Arkansas School of Law...We agreed that I would come down to Arkansas after Christmas 1973...By the time I arrived for New Year's, Bill had decided to run for Congress...

"That spring [of 1974]...I went with Bill to a dinner party where I met some of his law school colleagues, including Wylie Davis, then the Dean. As I was leaving, Dean Davis told me to let him know if I ever wanted to teach...I decided to take him up on the idea...I asked what I'd be teaching, and he said he would tell me when I got there...On a hot August [1974] evening, the day I arrived, I saw Bill give a campaign speech in Bentonville. The next day I attended the reception for the new law school faculty...I'd be doing what I could to help Bill in his campaign...Bill Bassett, President of the bar association, took me around to meet the local lawyers and judges...

"Classes started the next morning. I had never taught law school...and was barely older than most of my students..."

Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1960's Work For GOP Politicians Revisited

During the late 1960's most Democratic Party voters who are now over 60 years-of-age did not work for Republican Party politicians like the then-Republican Minority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives (and later Republican Vice-President and Republican President) Gerald Ford or the then-Republican Congressional Representative (and later Republican President Nixon's Secretary of Defense) Melvin Laird.

Nor did most Democratic Party voters who are now over 60 years-of-age support the unsuccessful campaign in 1968 by the pro-Vietnam War, billionaire plutocrat and then-Republican New York Governor (and later Republican Vice-President) Nelson Rockefeller to get nominated as the Republican Party's presidential nominee at the 1968 Miami Republican National Convention.

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon & Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former President Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"By the mid-1960s...I had been elected President of our college's Young Republicans during my freshman year...My Vice-President and friend, Betsy Griffith...stayed in the Republican Party, along with her husband, the political consultant John Deardourff...

"I had applied for the Wellesley Internship Program in Washington, D.C....Professor Alan Schechter, the program's Director...assigned me to intern at the House Republicans Conference. He knew I had come to college as a Republican...I...ended up reporting for duty to a group headed by the Minority leader Gerald Ford and including Melvin Laird of Wisconsin and Charles Goodell of New York, who befriended and advised me...

"...Goodell was later appointed to the Senate by Governor Nelson Rockefeller to replace Robert Kennedy...Toward the end of my internship, Goodell asked me...to go with him to the Republican Convention in Miami to work on behalf of Governor Rockefeller's...effort to wrest his party's nomination...I jumped at the chance and headed for Florida...We staffed the Rockefeller for President suites, taking phone calls and delivering messages to and from Rockefeller's political emissaries and delegates...I...didn't leave the Republican Party as much as it left me..."

Did Hillary Rodham Clinton Campaign For GOP Opponent of 1964 Civil Rights Act in 1964 U.S. Presidential Campaign?

Most Democratic Party voters who are now over 60 years-of-age were glad to see the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed by the U.S. Congress. And most Democratic Party voters who are now over 60 years-of-age were glad to see that the 1964 Republican Party presidential nominee who voted in the U.S. Senate against passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Barry Goldwater, was not elected in November 1964 to be the U.S. President.

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon & Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former President Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"...My father, Hugh F. Rodham, owned a small business...He started his own print plant in a building on the North Side [of Chicago]. He employed day laborers...

"...My dad was a rock-ribbed...conservative Republican and proud of it...By the Fall of 1960, my world was expanding and so were my political sensibilities. John F. Kennedy won the presidential election, to my father's consternation. He supported...Richard M. Nixon...Betsy Johnston and I...heard about a group of Republicans asking for volunteers to...uncover vote fraud...Betsy and I decided to participate...Betsy and I separated and went off with total strangers. I ended up with a couple who drove me to the South Side [of Chicago]...and told me to knock on doors and ask people their names so I could...find evidence to overturn the election...When I finished, I stood on the corner waiting to be picked up, happy that I'd ferreted out proof of my father's contention that `Daley stole the election for Kennedy.'...

"I was interested in politics from an early age...I...ran for student council and junior class Vice President. I was also an active Young Republican and, later, a Goldwater girl, right down to my cowgirl outfit and straw cowboy hat...Paul Carlson...a very conservative Republican...encouraged me to read Senator Barry Goldwater's...book, The Conscience of a Conservative. That inspired me to write my...paper on the American conservative movement...I liked Senator Goldwater...Years later, I admired his outspoken support of individual rights...When Goldwater learned I had supported him in 1964, he...invited me to come see him. I went to his home in Phoenix in 1996 and spent a wonderful hour talking to him and his dynamic wife, Susan..."

Would Hillary Clinton's Election As U.S. President Violate 22nd Amendment To U.S. Constitution?

According to the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "No person shall be elected to the office of the President MORE THAN TWICE, and no person who has held the office of President, OR ACTED AS PRESIDENT, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President MORE THAN ONCE..."

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in a book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon & Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former President Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"About...8 years I spent in the White House...with Bill Clinton...I walked into the White House on January 20, 1993...

"By the time I crossed the threshold of the White House, I had been shaped by my family upbringing...as the daughter of a staunch conservative father and...Bill's wife...

"Since leaving the White House I...embarked on a phase of my life as a U.S. Senator from New York...This memoir illustrates how my success as a candidate for the Senate arose out of...White House...

"My husband assumed the Presidency...I supported his agenda...He left office in January 2001...

"My 8 years in the White House tested...our nation's Constitution...This book is the story of how I experienced those 8 years.." 

Revisiting The Clintons of Arkansas's Pre-2016 Presidential Campaign's Pre-1996 Political Record: Part 2

In 2016 the Clintons of Arkansas are campaigning for a third term in the White House after January 21, 2017. Yet the Clintons' political record when Bill Clinton was Arkansas's governor (at the same time that his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, represented Arkansas corporate establishment clients as a corporate lawyer for Arkansas's Rose Law firm and sat on the board of directors of the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Corporation)--was apparently not considered to be an ethical political record by the Center for Public Integrity. As Charles Lewis and the Center for Pubic Integrity's 1996 book, The Buying Of The President, recalled:

"...The point of Whitewater and Bill Clinton's public service career in Arkansas is that long before the presidential election of 1992, his political identity as an accommodator of the largest, most powerful monied interests was well established. While he was governor, millions of dollars in private favors at public expense accrued to various companies and individuals, and Clinton's professional career as a politician wasa supported by the Arkansas financial and political elites.

"Bill Clinton...has always understood the political importance of raising substantial campaign funds. What is most striking about his first campaign is how a 28-year-old assistant professor of law in Fayetteville, Arkansas, running for a seat in the Congress for the first time, could raise more money than the incumbent four-term Republican congressman. During that 1974 election Clinton raised $178,000, about $20,000 more than John Hammerschmidt, from traditional Democratic party sources.

"In 1974 as well as 1992, candidate Clinton has actually embraced powerful corporate interests and much of their agenda despite his rhetoric against them. When Clinton ran for Congress in 1974 the largest employer in the Third District of Arkansas was Tyson Foods, based in Springdale, which was well on its way to becoming the nation's largest poultry producer...

"The chairman, Don Tyson, is a colorful figure who in the late 1970s designed his corporate office as a replica of the Oval Office in the White House, with doorknobs shaped like chicken eggs. Tyson was estimated to be worth $800 million. He supported Clinton in the 1974 race and according to author David Maraniss, the Tyson family donated a campaign telephone bank which was operated from an apartment near the University of Arkansas, although it should be noted that no such `in-kind' contribution was reported by the campaign to the Federal Election Commission. Clinton never talked much about the company itself publicly, but, instead spoke empathetically about the plight of chicken farmers.

"The Tyson-Clinton relationship continued in Washington, of course, and it grew out of a special culture. Probably no one has better captured the real essence of the political-financial nexus in Arkansas than journalist Michael Kelly, who wrote that Arkansas:

"`...has been ruled for almost all of its existence, and is largely ruled still, by a thin upper crust of Democratic party officials and Democratic legislative leaders and important landholders and businessmen. This elite, bound together not by party or even ideology but by mutually advantageous relationships, holds sway over a small and politically disorganized middle class and a large but well-beaten population of the poor. The contradiction is that Arkansas voters, in a class-based reaction against this condition, perpetually favor politicians who are `common' in touch, populist in theology, and reformist in policies.'

"To be plausible and acceptable to the political and financial elite of Arkansas, a politician certainly cna and must relate well to the people. But he or she must not substantially interfere with the daily commerce of the state, the business status quo. Every candidate in Arkansas instinctively knows this or learns it the hard way. Such is the theater into which Bill Clinton's political career was born." 

Revisiting The Clintons of Arkansas's Pre-2016 Presidential Campaign's Pre-1996 Political Record: Part 1

In 2016 the Clintons of Arkansas are campaigning for a third term in the White House after January 21, 2017. Yet the Clintons' political record when Bill Clinton was Arkansas's governor (at the same time that his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, represented Arkansas corporate establishment clients as a corporate lawyer for Arkansas's Rose Law firm and sat on the board of directors of the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Corporation)--was apparently not considered to be an ethical political record by the Center for Public Integrity. As Charles Lewis and the Center for Pubic Integrity's 1996 book, The Buying Of The President, recalled:

"There is probably no case more instructive of private and public interest and the incestuousness of Arkansas business and political elites than that somewhat complicated affair known as Whitewater. When Clinton was attorney general of Arkansas in 1978, he and Hillary Rodham [Clinton] got into a real estate deal with James B. McDougal and his wife, Susan, to develop 230 acres along the White River in Madison County. An unsecured loan of $20,000 was made by a Little Rock bank to Hillary Rodham as a down payment, and Governor Clinton later hired fellow investor McDougal onto the public payroll. To add conflict upon conflict, McDougal purchased a thrift, Madison Guaranty, represented by Hillary Clinton before state regulators.

"In what might be the clearest quid pro quo for McDougal, Governor Clinton apparently cleared the way for state agencies to move into a building owned by the S&L, for which they paid an estimated $200,000 in yearly rent. The Associated Press discovered an April 23, 1987 memo that recounted allegations made by Greg Hopkins, an attorney working for former Madison official Charles Peacock III. The memo said, `Mr. Hopkins stated that a portion of the loan proceeds made to Dixie Continental leasing [Mr. Peacock's company] went to Bill Clinton's campaign, and that in return for the substantial campaign contribution, Bill Clinton assured Jim McDougal that a state agency would lease space from Madison at its headquarters on Main Street in Little Rock.'

"The Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA), headed by longtime Clinton aide Bob Nash (who served as director of presidential personnel in the Clinton White House), subsequently moved into the building despite protests from within the agency. Other state agencies were also housed in the building.

"No one in Arkansas officialdom or the news media noticed anything peculiar about any of these dealings. As Arkansas columnist John Brummert observed, `Bill Clinton's Arkansas was a place without an opposing party, with a press that was...lax for years in coverage of the underlying financial angle of politics, with politicians and business people who had overlapping and sometimes intimately curious associations.'

"President Clinton declined to be interviewed for this book or to respond to written questions submitted by the Center for Public Integrity..."

Revisiting 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' Pre-2000 `Outsider In The House' Book

During the 1990's, when he held a seat inside the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. as Vermont's congressional representative, 2016 Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote a book that Verso published, titled Bernie Sanders: Outsider In The House, in which Sanders stated the following:

"In 1976, as the now `perennial candidate' of the Liberty Union, I ran for governor again....I ended up with 6 percent of the vote....

"After that campaign I decided to leave the Liberty Union Party....

"....With politics behind me, I...began building, reasonably successfully, a small business in educational filmstrips. I wrote, produced, and sold filmstrips on New England history for elementary schools and high schools....

"In 1979, after discovering that....college students I spoke to had never heard of....Debs, I produced a 30-minute video on his life and ideas....The Debs video was sold and rented to colleges throughout the country, and we also managed to get it on public television in Vermont. Folkways Records also produced the soundtrack of the video as a record....

"....I now had a business career....The Debs video was a success and I was now beginning to think about a video series on other American radicals--Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Paul Robeson....My media production career came to an end in 1980....

"....In Congress, I chair the 52-member House Progressive Caucus which has 51 Democrats and me, people with whom I have an excellent relationship....

"....Forward now to 1996....Bill Clinton is a moderate Democrat. I'm a democratic socialist.

"Yet without enthusiasm, I've decided to support Bill Clinton for president....I will vote for him, and make that public....A Clinton victory could give us some time to build a movement, to develop a political infrastructure to protect what needs protecting, and to change the direction of the country....

"The problem with a third-party or independent candidacy, as I had learned back in my Liberty Union days, was that although people will often agree with the candidate's position, they are skeptical of his or her `electability.' So it was of major importance that, shortly before the election, the Burlington Patrolmen's Association endorsed my bid for mayor. They did so because I promised to listen to the concerns of cops on the beat and open serious labor negotiations with their union...

"Vermont is a rural state in which tens of thousands of people enjoy hunting....During hunting season thousands of kids go out with their fathers and mothers to hunt....I am pro-gun, and pro-hunting...."

NYU's Michael Steinhardt, Wall Street and Golan Heights Oil Connection: Part 8

NYU Trustee Steinhardt’s Historic Bill Clinton-DLC Connection

Although Steinhardt supported right-wing Republican presidential candidates like Barry Goldwater during the 1960s, in the mid-1980s’ he “got seriously involved in the…Democratic Leadership Council” [DLC] that promoted former Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign for the Democratic Party nomination, according to No Bull. As Wall Street speculator Steinhardt recalled in the same 2001 autobiography:

“…The phrase `moderate Democrat,’ `centrist Democrat,’ and `new Democrat’ all evolved from the DLC. I soon became, by far, the DLC’s largest financial contributor, donating a minimum of $250,000 per year for nearly 10 years. Early on, I became its legal chairman…I also became chairman of the DLC’s think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute…The Board of Trustees of the DLC held regular meetings in Washington, D.C. which I chaired…”

“I met Bill Clinton for the first time in my apartment…Not too long after that first meeting, Clinton began calling me from time to time, late in the evening…We would talk about contemporary issues impacting either the Democratic Party or the DLC…”

(end of part 8)

Bill de Blasio and New York City's Clintongate Scandal: A Tale of Three Phonies--Conclusioin

(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)

Democratic Party professional politicians like the Clintons have apparently been eager to cash in big when they finally vacate their government offices. Yet most publicly-funded New York City government officials still are paid more annually than what the average individual worker in the Big Apple is allowed to take home each year. As long ago as 2007, for example—despite the alleged budgetary problems of New York City’s government—the following annual salaries were being paid to local city government elected and appointed officials:

1. CUNY Chancellor: $350,000;
2. NYC Dept. of Education Chancellor: $250,000;
3. NYC Mayor: $225,000;
4. NYC Deputy Mayor for Operations: $204,866;
5. Queens College President: $196,000;
6. CUNY Medical School President: $192,000;
7. NYC District Attorneys/Prosecutors: $190,000;
8. CUNY School of Law Dean: $189,740;
9. NYC Comptroller: $185,000;
10. College of Staten Island President: $183,113;
11. NYC Deputy Mayor for Policy: $177,236;
12. NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Development: $177,236;
13. NYC Deputy Mayor for Administration: $177,236;
14. NYC Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs: $177,236;
15. NYC Housing Authority Chair: $177,038;
16. Queensborough Community College President: $176,580;
17. Hunter College President: $175,000;
18. NYC Mayor’s Chief of Staff: $171,038;
19. NYC Mayor’s Press Secretary: $171,038;
20. NYC Dept. of Citywide Administration Services Commissioner: $172,038;
21. NYC Office of Emergency Management Commissioner: $171,038;
22. NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection Commissioner: $171,038;
23. NYC Financial Information Services Agency Executive Director: $171,038;
24. NYC Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner: $171,038;
25. NYC Dept. of Social Services Commissioner: $171,038;
26. NYC Office of Labor Relations Commissioner: $171,038;
27. NYC Corporation Counsel: $171,038;
28. NYC Office of Management and Budget Director: $171,038;
29. NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation Commissioner: $171,038;
30. NYC Office of Payroll Administration Executive Director: $171,038;
31. NYC Police Commissioner: $171,038;
32. NYC Probation Commissioner: $171,038;
33. NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner: $171,038;
34. NYC Off-Track Betting Corporation President: $171,017;
35. NYC Public Advocate: $165,000;
36. NYC Mayor’s Director of Research: $147,000;
37. NYC Mayor’s Special Advisor for Government: $126,072;
38. NYC Mayor’s Senior Advisor: $125,246; and
39. NYC City Council Members: $112,500.

Yet despite their inflated salaries, New York City government officials have still apparently not been able to reduce the official unemployment rate in the Big Apple to below 4 percent in 2013 or provide many union wage jobs for New Yorkers who still have jobs. In August 2013, for example, the official jobless rate in New York City was 8.6 percent, while wages for most workers in the Big Apple have dropped by about 7 percent after adjusting for inflation, since 2002.

In addition, the median rent in New York City has increased by almost 9 percent since 2007 and the number of rental units affordable to low-income families in the Big Apple has dropped from 40 percent to 25 percent since 2002. So, not surprisingly, the number of homeless families economically compelled to live in city housing shelters has increased by 73 percent since 2002, although “more than one out of four families in shelters, 28 percent, include at least one employed adult…and 16 percent of single adults in shelters hold jobs.,” according to the Sept. 17, 2013 issue of the New York Times.

So substituting an apparent phony from Cambridge, Massachusets (who is a Democratic Party politician backed by special business and real estate economic interests) for a Republican Party plutocrat from Medford, Massachusetts (who was also backed by special Wall Street upper-class economic interests) in City Hall ain’t likely to bring much economic equality, political freedom, apartment rent rollbacks or adequately-paid 30-hour workweek jobs to most New Yorkers and New York City tenants in 2014.

And substituting one phony female Clinton for one phony male Clinton in the White House in 2017 ain’t likely to finally create a radically democratic multi-racial society in either the Big Apple or the United States in 2017.

Neither another Republican administration headed by former Mayor Giuliani’s Deputy Mayor—former Paine Webber and Cablevision Executive Joe Lhota—nor a Democratic de-Blasio-Clintongate administration headed by a Clinton “wanna-be/Clinton clone Democrat" will likely liberate the multi-racial working-class “Slaves of New York” in 2014, given the undemocratic political, economic and mass media manipulation/media censorship System that still exists in the United States in the 21^st-century.

All Mass Media and Wall Street Economic Power To The People!

(end of article)

Bill de Blasio and New York City's Clintongate Scandal: A Tale of Three Phonies--Part 13

(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)

Bill de Blasio’s Clintongate Scandal Connection

In an Aug. 13, 2013 Politico website article, titled “Hillary Clinton’s Next Act: The family foundation,” Maggie Haberman also indicated how Hillary Clinton will apparently also become more directly involved in the New York City-based philanthropies empire of the Clintons (at the same time her 2000 U.S. Senate campaign manager de Blasio will likely be occupying the mayor’s office in New York City):

“Hillary Clinton’s next phase of life — the co-leader of a family foundation — has officially begun.

“She’s coming in to her husband’s signature foundation, which has been renamed for all three Clintons — their daughter has an increased presence…. Hillary Clinton’s new office at the foundation’s Manhattan headquarters is slowly taking shape as the chiefs of staff to all three Clintons hold a standing meeting every Monday to arrange schedules and events — three offices staffed with people who have worked together for years….Clinton is joining the foundation launched by her husband and a coterie of former White House aides and advisers...And the foundation is also the structure that has provided sustenance for the extended Clintonland for over a decade…Hillary Clinton’s staff at the foundation is just under 10 people — seven in her current Washington-based transition office and two recent hires…Teneo and some of its clients are also still involved in supporting the foundation’s work, one official said.”

Not much of the money that Bill Clinton has been collecting since 2001 for his tax-exempt “philanthropic” activities (from the ultra-rich folks and special corporate interests who profited most during the 1990s from his administration’s economic policies) has apparently been redistributed to either the families of the children who died in Iraq as a result of his administration’s economic sanctions policy or of the civilians in Serbia who were killed after he ordered that country bombed.

Yet according to a May 23, 2013 Celebrity Worth website article by Brian Warner, since 2001 the presidential candidate whose 1996 re-election campaign in New York was directed by Bill de Blasio has earned over $106 million in speaking fees—despite the Great Recession of the post-2008 years which the Clinton administration’s late 1990s repeal of FDR’s Glass-Steagall Act (that mandated the separation of commercial banking and investment banking) helped create. As Brian Warner observes in his Celebrity Worth article:

“…As a private citizen, Bill was finally able free to cash in… One of the first big windfalls came when the Knopf Publishing Group paid him $15 million for the rights to his memoir My Life. That $15 million is still the largest book advance of all time…. In the 12 years since Bill Clinton has left office, he has given 544 paid speeches all over the world. His fee has ranged from $28,000 to $750,000. The average fee for a single speaking engagement has been $195,000. In 2012, Bill earned $17 million and in 2011 he earned $13.4 million. In total he has made $106 million off speaking engagements since 2001… Out of all of his earnings, $57 million came from outside the US…. “

The same article also indicated how the U.S. senatorial candidate whose campaign Bill de Blasio managed in 2000 has also apparently cashed-in since the Clintons first vacated the White House in early 2001:


“Before Bill Clinton entered the White House…His wife Hillary was the real breadwinner of family at the time, bringing home a salary of $188,547 as an attorney at the…Rose Law Firm in Little Rock…Hillary Clinton earned $8 million for her 2003 biography Living History…Earlier this year Hillary Clinton re-entered private life after stepping down as Secretary of State. Hillary quickly earned a cool $14 million advance for future book with publishing company Simon & Schuster. She is also starting to hit the privates speech circuit and earning six figures for her time…If Hillary and Bill continue to cash in…it's likely that their combined net worth will pass the $200 million mark in the next 3-5 years….”
(end of part 13)

Bill de Blasio and New York City's Clintongate Scandal: A Tale of Three Phonies--Part 12

(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)

Bill de Blasio’s Clintongate Scandal Connection

In an Aug. 28, 2013 article, titled “The Press Scrutinizes the New Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation”, that was posted on the Philanthropy website, Rick Cohen noted that “the intersection of the Clintons’ foundation and Hillary Clinton’s presidential run has generated a spate of articles suggesting that the renamed and expanded foundation is really now a `pre-campaign organization’ for the campaign and is becoming `the command post for all things Hillary. The same article also observes: 

“If you were someone who wanted to get in good with someone with a decent shot of becoming the next president, you might show up at one of the upcoming fundraisers associated with Hillary or Chelsea, such as the scheduled November 9th `Millennium Network’ event, with top-tier $15,000 donors getting themselves photographed with Hillary herself…The association with a possible future president’s name probably makes the foundation nearly irresistible to donors….The ex-president has attracted some raised eyebrows due to the character of occasional donors (notably Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra, who received some personal benefits from his association with the former president) and questions about some of his foundation’s initiatives…

“The new foundation with Hillary on the nameplate has garnered new scrutiny, including an in-depth article in the New York Times co-authored by Nick Confessore and Amy Chozick. The NYT reporters wrote about the ever-increasing size of the foundation (now with 350 employees), a constantly changing board of various Clinton intimates, $50 million in travel expenditures since 2003…and hints of conflicts of interest concerning [Doug] Band, who has left the foundation to start a private consulting business—not to mention Hillary Clinton’s expanding `nerve center’ of staff, which occupies two floors of the foundation’s Midtown Manhattan offices…

“There are plenty who are plying the foundation for access to the Clintons and their associates..The business and political overlaps show up with Band’s company, Teneo, which seems to have employed Huma Abedin while she was a `special government employee’ at the State Department while Hillary Clinton was secretary…

"The investigative journalism story...is the news that it is now officially being co-managed by the former president and the former Secretary of State. `I think having a place such as this for a platform gives her a great launching pad into 2016,’ former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told Politico. `It gives her, quite frankly, a great place with which to create or begin to create the message she would use should she decide to run….”

Yet as the New York City Public Advocate since 2010-whose public office website claims to be holding both corporations and tax-exempt “non-profit” organizations like the Clinton Foundation/Clinton Global Initiative accountable to the public--Bill de Blasio has apparently failed to adequately monitor or investigate the apparently self-serving and unethical way the Clintons have been operating their New York City-based Clinton Foundation/Clinton Global Initiative.

But around the same time that the Clintons’ former 1996 New York campaign director, Clinton-appointed HUD official and 2000 U.S. Senate campaign manager began his term as the New York City Public Advocate, the Washington Post observed in a Jan. 2, 2010 article:

“Foreign governments, longtime Democratic fund-raisers...gave money to President Clinton’s…foundation in 2009, according to a list of donors the foundation released yesterday under an agreement with President Obama to prevent the appearance of conflicts with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s role as secretary of state.

“Some foreign governments…had been multimillion-dollar donors in the past, including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar…, Other governments continued their giving, including Norway, which has given $10 million to $25 million over the past several years, and Oman, whose donations have totaled $1 million to $5 million.

“Also among the 19,047 donors from last year are Slim-Fast founder and billionaire Democratic donor S. Daniel Abraham, who has given the Clinton Foundation $5 million to $10 million; Canadian mining tycoon Frank Giustra, who has given more than $25 million; and Scottish financier Sir Tom Hunter, whose foundation has donated $10 million to $25 million. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also gave money in 2009 and ranks among the top donors, having given more than $25 million...Some…Clinton Foundation supporters did not give money last year, including Hollywood magnate Stephen Bing and upstate New York businessman Tom Golisano, each of whose past donations total $10 million to $25 million. Citigroup, the banking firm that has received federal bailout money, is a past supporter…Richard Scaife, a conservative media baron… has given the Clinton Foundation $100,001 to $250,000…

“The foundation…financed the construction of Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock…. Clinton resisted revealing his foundation’s donors during his wife’s presidential campaign, but he agreed to do so in late 2008 when Hillary Clinton was negotiating with Obama’s transition team to join the Cabinet….”

In a Sept. 22, 2013 article in The New Republic, titled “Scandal at Clinton Inc.,”  Alec MacGillis also wrote the following in reference to the tax-exempt Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative “philanthropies” and their apparent connection to the for-profit Teneo consulting firm of Clinton Global Initiative Advisory Board member Doug Band:

“Bill Clinton now leads a sprawling philanthropic empire like no other…It has formed partnerships with multinationals and wealthy individuals… In July 2001, the former president had established the William J. Clinton Foundation....In 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) was born.

“CGI is not a traditional charity…It is a series of collaborations with corporations or individuals…CGI was the perfect vehicle for Clinton…. It placed him at the center of a matrix of the ultra-wealthy and the ultra-powerful, the kinds of people Clinton has always taken a special pleasure in surrounding himself with…


“Teneo has its headquarters on the forty-fifth floor of the former Citigroup Center tower in Midtown and employs more than 200 people in 13 cities…It describes its raison d’être as `integrated counsel for a borderless world,’ offering investment banking, restructuring advice, and `business intelligence’” on dealing with `global disruptors.’… From the beginning, Teneo resembled an outpost of Clintonland more than an independent entity. Clinton and Blair came on as paid advisers…. Nancy Hernreich Bowen, director of Oval Office operations under Clinton, works in the Hong Kong office…. A number of key Teneo clients were also closely involved with Clinton’s charitable work. One month before the Rockefeller Foundation presented Clinton with an award for philanthropy, it gave Teneo a $3.4 million contract…Other Teneo clients include the big hospital chain Tenet (which is a lead partner in the new Clinton Health Matters Initiative) and UBS Americas (which launched a Small Business Advisory Program with the foundation). (According to The New York Times, Teneo’s monthly fees can be as high as $250,000.)… In February 2012, Bill Clinton’s office announced that he would no longer take payment from the firm. The page listing an `advisory board’ headed by Clinton and Blair vanished from its website….”
(end of part 12)