Divernan
Divernan's JournalWhat!?! No one's alerting on Politico as a source?
Try posting a link from Politico which includes negative facts about either Clinton or their foundation's finances and you'll be flamed from here to Sunday with scathing remarks about what a right wing rag Politico is.
If it's a good enough source for Babylon Sister, and for Earl G. to give it pride of place on the Home Page, then it's hypocritical to trash it as a source when you don't like the message. Disagree with the author of an article based on the content of the article, not the fact that he/she was published in Politico.
Now at Port of Seattle, hundreds of activists blocking entrance to Terminal Five
Source: Investigative Reporter John Ryan, KUOW Seattle
"I'm now at the Port of Seattle, where hundreds of activists are blocking the entrance to Terminal 5, where Shell's Polar Pioneer drill rig is moored. Here's my NPR story on Saturday's protest. More to come."
Hundreds Of 'Kayaktivists' In Seattle Protest Shell's Arctic Drilling
Seattle will be home port to a large Shell Oil Arctic drilling platform when it's not up in the Arctic Ocean. But the city and many residents aren't happy about it.
npr.org
Read more: Link to source
This is a FB post I just received within the past hour from investigative journalist, John Ryan, covering this event for KUOW, Seattle. It included a link to his NPR report on Saturday's protest. NOTE: This is a NEW protest, so kindly don't dump this as not current enough!
Shell Oil defies Seattle Port Commissioners - brings big rigs into port
Click on this link to see photo of one of these huge monsters being towed along the Seattle waterfront. Kayakers are Kayactivists and there's a battle in Seattle to stop arctic drilling.
http://kuow.org/post/shell-oil-rig-arrives-port-seattle
Shell Oil Rig Arrives At Port Of Seattle
By John Ryan • 14 hours ago
Environmental activists in kayaks paddled into the middle of Seattle's Elliott Bay on Thursday afternoon to meet -- or, as they say, "un-welcome" -- a huge Shell oil rig.
The arrival of the Polar Pioneer could raise the stakes in the battle over Shell's oil exploration plans in the remote Arctic Ocean.
Seattle City Council member Mike O'Brien said this is a key moment in the fight against drilling in the Arctic.
"If they had other alternatives that were good alternatives, I imagine they would be there, but they're not," he said of Shell Oil. "Yes, I think there is a chance that when Seattle draws the line and says, 'You are not going to use our port,' this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. This may be the end of Arctic drilling. This fight that's happening in Seattle could be the end of it."
And an earlier report on KUOW:
http://kuow.org/post/foss-ceo-arctic-drill-rigs-coming-seattle-despite-city-port-objections
Foss CEO: Arctic Drill Rigs Coming To Seattle Despite City, Port Objections
By John Ryan • May 13, 2015
The Seattle Port Commission has voted to delay the arrival of Arctic drill rigs on the Seattle waterfront, but Shell Oil’s contractor is vowing to bring them here anyway.
After a contentious five-hour meeting Tuesday, the Port Commission decided to tell Shell and contractor Foss Maritime that bringing the rigs to Seattle would be illegal, at least for now.
Foss CEO Paul Stevens rejected that. "We're sticking to our plans,” he said. “The oil rigs are coming down this week."
Last week, Mayor Ed Murray announced that the port's permit for cargo ships doesn't apply to oil rigs, so Foss and Shell would have to get a new permit. Such a delay could make it difficult for Shell to get its two rigs up to the Arctic in time for the summer drilling season.
Shell has been planning to bring the two rigs to Seattle, before sending them up to Alaska.
On Tuesday, port commissioners said they didn't want a protracted dispute with the city.
Signed Jan. 21, 2009 - the times, they've been a-changin'
Bill Clinton: "It depends on what your definition of "is" is. For Obama, it all depends on what your definition of "transparency" is.
Words and deeds, baby, words and deeds. I always vote based on the latter, not the former.
Or as the Marlon Brando character in the old film, One Eyed Jacks said, "Talk is cheap, Jack. Make your play."
http://govfresh.com/2009/12/white-house-transparency-and-open-government-memorandum/
Starbucks is Moving Its Bottled Water Business Out of Drought-Stricken California
Source: Think Progress
Last month, Starbucks came under fire for its bottled water business. An investigation by Mother Jones magazine found that Ethos — the Starbucks-owned water brand created “to help fix the global water crisis” — was sucking groundwater out of a California county in exceptional drought, and making a lot of money doing it.
Now, ostensibly in response to that criticism, Starbucks has announced that it will stop doing that. The company said it would move the sourcing and manufacturing of Ethos water out of California and into Pennsylvania. Moving the entire West Coast operation cross-country would take about six months, it said.
As Mother Jones pointed out in its investigation, the area where Starbucks has been sourcing and bottling its Ethos water for the West Coast has been in severe drought for years. “Placer County, where Ethos’ spring water is drawn, was already declared a natural disaster area by the USDA because of the drought back in 2012,” the article reads. “Merced County, where the bottling facility is located, declared a local emergency due to drought more than a year ago, as ‘extremely dry conditions have persisted since 2012.'” Last month, Placer County declared a water shortage emergency.
Now, Starbucks says it will move its California operations to Pennsylvania, which currently provides the East Coast with its Ethos water. But Pennsylvania also has a drought problem. While nowhere near as bad as California’s, the state Department of Environmental Protection recently issued a drought watch for 27 counties, including the one where Ethos operates.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/11/3657262/starbucks-dumps-california-bottled-water-drought/
Good luck to Starbucks in finding and utilizing springs not at risk of ground water contamination from Pennsylvania's fracking operations!
HRC's problem? There is no "there" there. She's a shape-shifter.
What is so astounding is that she can get up and categorically deny her actions, speeches, meetings, etc., in support of NAFTA, when there is so much video and documentary evidence giving the lie to those denials.
Her attempt at historical revisionism does not survive the internet.
Reminds one of the classic line from the adulterous husband caught in flagrante delicto, whining "Hey, Baby! Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?"
(In flagrante delicto is a Latin phrase defined as someone being caught during the act of a crime or sexual act.)
Clinton Foundation "facilitated" $45 million luxury hotel in Haiti.
so potential corporate investors cough/boodsuckers/cough looking to take advantage of cheap labor could visit in comfort. Those damned ungrateful, greedy Haitians (do I need a sarcasm emoticon?) expected the Clinton Foundation to direct the "donations" cough/bribes/cough to replace housing destroyed by the earthquake. But that $45 million was used to build a 500 room hotel. That works out to $90,000 per room. Way to go, Clinton Foundation! ! !
Once all of the carnage was assessed, more than 100,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people were left without homes and Haiti's government put the death toll at 316,000, according to ABC News.
Five years later, after billions of dollars of aid and donations, many are still living in abject poverty created by the earthquake. NBC News notes that while some $13 billion went to the country, more than "85,000 people still live in crude displacement camps and many more in deplorable conditions."
NBC News does note that while many of the roads destroyed by the earthquake have been repaired and some businesses have been rebuilt, very few people displaced by the massive quake have acquired permanent housing.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/01/_5_years_after_massive_earthquake_where_is_haiti_now.html
Ten facts about Haiti’s housing crisis from Amnesty International
12 January 2015, 00:00 UTC
Amnesty International’s new report: “15 minutes to leave” - Denial of the right to adequate housing in post-quake Haiti documents the tragic lack of progress made rebuilding the country since the 2010 earthquake five years ago and finds:
1. More than 2 million people were left homeless after the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010.
2. According to the latest data (September 2014) 123 camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) remain open in Haiti, housing 85,432 people.
3. Conditions in many IDP camps are dire. A third of all those living in camps do not have access to a latrine. On average 82 people share one toilet. (Compare to 500 toilets at the luxury hotel Clinton "facilitated" - used by 1 or 2 people each.)
4. Forced evictions from camps are a serious and ongoing problem. More than 60,000 people were forcibly evicted from their shelters in makeshift camps since 2010. About a quarter of those remaining in camps are at risk of forced evictions. Amnesty International has documented six cases of forced evictions from IDP camps and informal settlements hosting IDPs since April 2013 alone. More than 1,000 families were affected.
5. Around 37,000 houses are known to have been repaired, rebuilt or built. However, less than 20% of the housing solutions provided as a response to the disaster could be seen as long-term, or sustainable. Instead most programmes have simply provided temporary measures, such as the construction of temporary shelters and the allocation of rental subsidies.
6. Rental subsidies are a common method used by the government and humanitarian organisations. Subsidies of US$500 are handed out to help people pay rent in private accommodation. However, a 2013 survey found that nearly half of those that had been receiving grants had to move out of their homes once the grants ended. Three quarters were forced to move into sub-standard accommodation.
7. Canaan, a large area in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, has seen its population grow exponentially since the area was declared for public use in March 2010. It is now estimated to be home to around 200,000 people. Many of the residents are people made homeless by the earthquake. In the absence of state interventions in the area, people are building their houses as best as they can and have created their own, often inadequate ways to cope with access to water, waste management and security. Many people in Canaan live under threat of being forcibly evicted.
8. Several infrastructure projects are being undertaken as part of the post-earthquake reconstruction. However, hundreds of families have been forcibly evicted from downtown Port-au-Prince in May 2014 in order to clear the area for the construction of public administration buildings.
9. There was a crisis in the housing sector even before the earthquake. Then Haiti’s national housing deficit was estimated at 700,000 units. At least another 250,000 houses were destroyed or badly damaged by the earthquake. Housing was the sector most affected by the earthquake, with a total damage of US$ 2.300 billion (approximately 40% of the overall damage of the earthquake).
10. The problems in Haiti persist despite the US$13.34 billion pledged by the international community and financial institutions in humanitarian and recovery funding during the post-earthquake response.
Other topics
https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/01/ten-facts-about-haiti-s-housing-crisis/
Privatizing welfare (Clinton Foundation) lets him skim off the top
Although "skim" is too mild a description of the vast funds collected but never quite making their way to actually helping those in need. Millions spent on private jets/5 star hotel at glitzy help-the-poor international conferences, etc. And only 9 to 15% of Foundations' funding actually donated to charity - depending on which source is reporting. Is there a term for the inverse of skimming? The relatively small amounts actually distributed to charities are more like skimming, with the vast majority of the funds tightly clutched to the Clinton Foundation bosom.
Oh and, by the by, the foundation’s $250 million was invested with a firm called Summit Rock Advisers, where Chelsea Clinton’s best friend Nicole Davison Fox is managing director. The two were classmates at Sidwell Friends School, and Davison Fox interned in the Clinton White House. She later served as matron of honor in Clinton’s wedding, and her husband was a founding employee of the hedge fund started by Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky.
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy/25752-hillary-clinton-s-philanthropic-controversy-the-clinton-foundation.html
Pay Attention, Folks! That's two degrees of separation between the Clinton Foundation's hundreds of millions of unspent "donations" and Chelsea's husband's hedge fund. Gee, I wonder if Nicole's firm has parked Clinton Foundation funds in her husband's hedge fund?That would be Eaglevale Partners,noted by the Wall Street Journal to be vastly underperforming. https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/nytimes-wrote-brutal-takedown-chelsea-140710252.html The answer to that query makes no difference to true believers, of course.
Meanwhile, Charity Navigator put the Clinton Foundation on its “watch list,” which warns potential donors about investing in problematic charities. The 23 charities on the list include the Rev. Al Sharpton’s troubled National Action Network, which is cited for failing to pay payroll taxes for several years.http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.watchlist
We don't evaluate Bill Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Why not? We have determined that this charity's atypical business model cannot be accurately captured in our current rating methodology.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?keyword_list=Clinton+Foundation&Submit2=Search&bay=search.results
Also meanwhile,
Clinton charity refiles tax return after errors
Hillary Clinton’s family charity has said that it will refile its tax returns after failing to identify tens of millions of dollars donated by foreign governments, in a fresh embarrassment at the start of her presidential campaign.
The Clinton Foundation was already under scrutiny over suggestions that overseas entities showered it with cash while Mrs Clinton was US secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, hoping to win her favour.
The Foundation has now admitted that money from foreign governments was mistakenly combined with other donations in US tax filings over the course of serveral years.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article4424036.ece
Other nonprofit experts are asking hard questions about the Clinton Foundation’s tax filings in the wake of recent reports that the Clintons traded influence for donations. “It seems like the Clinton Foundation operates as a slush fund for the Clintons,” said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group where progressive Democrat and Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout was once an organizing director.
Sunlight is a nonprofit transparency watchdog group funded in part since its founding in 2006 by George Soros' Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network and the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation, among many others.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/
In July 2013, Eric Braverman, a friend of Chelsea Clinton from when they both worked at McKinsey & Co., took over as CEO of the Clinton Foundation. He took home nearly $275,000 in salary, benefits and a housing allowance from the nonprofit for just five months’ work in 2013, tax filings show. Less than a year later, his salary increased to $395,000,
In December 2014, the board of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation approved a salary of more than $395,000, plus bonus, for its Yale-educated CEO, Eric Braverman, while voting to extend his board term through 2017, according to sources familiar with the arrangement.
Braverman, who had worked with Chelsea Clinton at the prestigious McKinsey & Company consultancy, had been brought in with the former first daughter’s support to help impose McKinsey-like management rigor to a foundation that had grown into a $2 billion charitable powerhouse. But in January, 2015, only weeks after the board's show of support and just a year and a half after Braverman arrived, he abruptly resigned. Why? The back story is it was after a falling-out with the old Clinton guard over reforms he wanted to impose at the charity. Last month, 74 year old Clinton loyalist, Donna Shalala, a former secretary of health and human services under President Clinton, was hired to replace Braverman.
HRC's problem? There is no "there" there. She's a shape-shifter.
She will say or do whatever her triangulating/focus-grouping advisers tell her is most popular with the voters - easy enough to do when it's just campaign rhetoric which will be gone with the wind, should she win.
One of her supporters recently posted that to be a viable presidential candidate, one had to raise a billion dollars. Pure HRC - if you've got the money, i.e, the quid, she's got the pro quo.
The American voters (except for the one percenters) are desperate for a candidate with the courage of his/her convictions - not some mealy-mouthed, insecure, I-can't-tell-you-what-I-think, because my advisers haven't told me what to say, candidate.
Canada’s Land Of Tar Sands Just Elected A Left-Wing Government!
Whoo Hoo! Bet it was those bomb trains and fracking spills which turned the tide!
If you don’t know much about Canadian politics & want to understand how unprecedented this is, think of it as a comparison to Texas. As Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel put it on Twitter, abbreviations extended: “Imagine if Democrats took not only Texas Governor, but supermajority control of [the] Legislature and all state offices. That’s what [Alberta’s election] is like in Canada.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/06/3655798/canada-did-what-now/
I'd love to have posted this in latest breaking news, but gasp, it's around 14 hours old. In fact IchingCarpenter posted aabout this around 2 a.m. but at that hour it sank like a stone.
This is big frackin' news! If Canada can come to its senses and vote against Big Oil/special interests, there's hope for the US, and BERNIE!
See also, Iching's link:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/05/06/world/ap-cn-canada-alberta-election.html?_r=0
