Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Access

Clintons selling of access
Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now Attorney-General designate, appeared on Fox & Friends on August 25, 2016, condemning contributions to The Clinton Foundation and the buying of access to American leaders. Here is video

Hillary Clinton has lost the Presidential election, the Clinton Foundation's inventory of access has been substantially reduced, and the Foundation is shutting down its Clinton Global Initiative. Michael Sainato, in this OBSERVER article The Clinton Foundation Shuts Down Clinton Global Initiative, writes this:
The Clinton Foundation’s long list of wealthy donors and foreign government contributors during the 2016 elections provoked critics to allege conflicts of interests. Clinton partisans defended the organization’s charitable work, and dismissed claims that it served as a means for the Clintons to sell off access, market themselves on the paid speech circuit, and elevate their brand as Hillary Clinton campaigned for the presidency.
But as soon as Clinton lost the election, many of the criticisms directed toward the Clinton Foundation were reaffirmed. Foreign governments began pulling out of annual donations, signaling the organization’s clout was predicated on donor access to the Clintons, rather than its philanthropic work. In November, the Australian government confirmed it “has not renewed any of its partnerships with the scandal-plagued Clinton Foundation, effectively ending 10 years of taxpayer-funded contributions worth more than $88 million.” The government of Norway also drastically reduced their annual donations, which reached $20 million a year in 2015.
* * * *
The Clinton Global Initiative was created in 2005 to serve as a networking platform for the Clinton Foundation. Both the initiative’s mission and its own definition of what it seeks to accomplish are vague. “Rather than directly implementing projects, CGI facilitates action by helping members connect, collaborate, and make effective and measurable Commitments to Action—plans for addressing significant global challenges,” states the CGI website. The Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Foundation director of media relations have not responded to requests for a comment.
WikiLeaks revealed several criticisms of the Clinton Foundation were true, as pay-to-play schemes and the foundation’s corrupt management were exposed. On October 26, The Washington Post reported a memo detailed how the Clinton Foundation was used to boost Bill Clinton’s income.
“The memo, made public Wednesday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, lays out the aggressive strategy behind lining up the consulting contracts and paid speaking engagements for Bill Clinton that added tens of millions of dollars to the family’s fortune, including during the years that Hillary Clinton led the State Department,” reported The Washington Post. “It describes how Band helped run what he called “Bill Clinton Inc.,” obtaining “in-kind services for the President and his family—for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like.”
The Clinton Foundation‘s downward trajectory ever since since Hillary Clinton’s election loss provides further testimony to claims that the organization was built on greed and the lust for power and wealth—not charity.

Trump and access selling
Trump is now miring himself in charges that everyone who wants to get close to Trump and the Trump family to get access will do so by striking up business with the Trump organization.

Trump is getting his guns lined up on on behalf of the Trump Presidency being used to enrich the Trump organization and the Trump brand name.

First, after the Office of Government Ethics chief, Walter Shaub, announced at a press conference last Wednesday that President-elect Trump’s “fix” to his ethics and emoluments clause problems didn’t fix anything, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent Shaub a letter accusing him of unprofessionally blurring politics and ethics guidance, and demanding that Shaub make himself available for the Committee  to “interview” him. The letter slams Shaub for attempting to engage in “public relations” and raises at the end of the letter Congress’s need to reauthorize the OGE.

Then, Sunday, on ABC's "This Week". Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff, warned the director of [the] federal ethics office to “be careful” about criticizing President-elect Donald Trump.


Update 1/18/17
[Embedding of below tweet puts "media" ahead of tweet]
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