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News/Politics 4-20-15

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread

I’ll start things off.

1. Clinton’s cash. 

From TheNYTimes  “The book does not hit shelves until May 5, but already the Republican Rand Paul has called its findings “big news” that will “shock people” and make voters “question” the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by Peter Schweizer — a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities — is proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy.

The book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asserts that foreign entities who made payments to the Clinton Foundation and to Mr. Clinton through high speaking fees received favors from Mrs. Clinton’s State Department in return.

“We will see a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds,” Mr. Schweizer writes.

His examples include a free-trade agreement in Colombia that benefited a major foundation donor’s natural resource investments in the South American nation, development projects in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010, and more than $1 million in payments to Mr. Clinton by a Canadian bank and major shareholder in the Keystone XL oil pipeline around the time the project was being debated in the State Department.”

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2. A new VA scandal. 

From FoxNews  “Nearly a year after a scandal rocked the Department of Veterans Affairs, revealing that the agency’s centers nationwide were manipulating records to hide dangerously long patient wait times, the bad news just keeps on coming — calling into question the agency’s promise to clean house.

Ignored claims, manipulated records, cost overruns and even one facility infested with insects and rodents are among the latest issues uncovered by a blisteringVA Inspector General’s report. The auditor’s probe found that more than 31,000 inquiries placed by veterans to the Philadelphia Regional VA office call center went ignored for more than 312 days, even though they were supposed to be answered in five. Perhaps even worse, claim dates were manipulated to hide delays, $2.2 million in improper payments were made because of duplicate records, 22,000 pieces of returned mail went ignored and some 16,600 documents involving patient records and dating back to 2011 were never scanned into the system.

“This report is as bleak as it gets, full of systemic malfeasance and deliberate data manipulation,” charged Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, in a statement after the story broke April 15. “The Philadelphia VA Regional Office is in crisis, brought on by years of mismanagement and encouraged by VA’s longstanding refusal to hold employees accountable.””

“In response to the Philadelphia IG report, the VA said the findings “reflect conditions a year ago.” Once issues were brought to their attention by whistleblowers, reforms were already in high gear during the IG’s inspection, first and foremost with a new director Diana Rubens, who was brought in to tackle the reforms in July 2014. 

“This is not a new thing, this is a last-year thing,” Allison Hickey, the VA’s official in charge of benefits, told The Associated Press. But the IG’s report rejects that notion, saying it was getting complaints as recently as last month.”

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3. Soros’ secret liberal donor retreat. Remember this the next time you hear some liberal whine about all of that money Republicans use.

From TheFreeBeacon  “The contrasts are stark at this week’s meeting of the nation’s foremost liberal donor club. Flashy sports cars ferry climate crusaders to a luxury hotel, a private security company shields prying eyes from speeches on political accountability, and billionaire Democratic donors denounce money in politics.

The Alliance is a hub of liberal and Democratic fundraising. It steers tens of millions of dollars each year to leading political and policy groups strategically vetted and endorsed by its staff of progressive operatives.

“If there was an attack on this building, the Democratic donor base would be gone,” joked investor Joe Sanberg. “There are probably a lot of conservatives who would love to drop a bomb on this building.”

Security was tight at San Francisco’s Four Seasons hotel, as the group hired its own security to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing the hotel’s conference area.

It set up disposal bins for “confidential” conference materials, where attendees could dispose of sensitive paperwork for “secure shredding.” The group brought along its own paper shredders.”

“Attendees dined on goat cheese and garlic polenta, sourdough French toast, Kobe beef, and chorizo-stuffed dates. They sipped fine Napa Valley wine. The minimum food and beverage charge for the event was $130,000 according to hotel documents.”

Paper shredders? They must be hoping Hillary stops by. 😆

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16 thoughts on “News/Politics 4-20-15”

  1. The big news in the Times-News this morning is that Hillary is courting liberals.
    The people who will vote for Hillary don’t care about all the stuff that’s coming out.
    I just hope the conservatives will vote.
    The reason we have Obama is because some didn’t like Romney.

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  2. I disagree, Chas. The reason we have Obama–aside from the customary mountain of persuasive lies, deceptions, and nanny-state promises Democrats customarily provide in their campaigns–is that conservatives over the years have offered candidates like Romney, or worse like McCain, GWB, etc. How does that get a conservative message across to anyone, especially fence-sitting voters? So the reason we have Obama is because some didn’t like Ron Paul.

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  3. Huh?

    Ron Paul?

    Well, I’d have a very hard time voting for Ron (or Rand) Paul.

    Hey, don’t we all have this same discussions every two to four years, though? 🙂 We’re getting really good at it!

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  7. It’s crazy to me that Ron Paul arouses more ire than any of the endless stream of usual republican suspects trotted out every election, most of whom, themselves, have great culpability in getting us into the various messes we’re in. But yeah, go ahead and vote for Jeb and think that’s getting something done. No need to give up on a strategy that has been serving conservatives so well these last few decades.

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  8. Yes, it’s true these discussions come up every couple years, but I’m seeing more and more folks come to the realization that the Republican status quo is garbage, and something more than just voting more garbage into office has to be done. For cryin’ out loud, that’s the greatest reason for the existence of the Tea Party movement, itself. More remains to be done, sure, but more and more people are seeing the futility in sticking to the Rs for no good reason.

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  9. For Chas (and anyone else):

    Here are 27 rare WWII photographs with such amazing clarity that you’d think they were shot digitally!!! Make sure that you click on each photo to magnify it. Then click again to return to normal size. Be sure to read the description before enlarging the picture.

    View post on imgur.com

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  11. They are fantastic photos. I took up several rolls of 35mm photos while I was in the AF. Most of them are on slides. But I transferred a bunch of them.

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  13. I fear anything may be too little too late anyway at this point … But we’ll carry on, vote our conscience, hope we beat the other side and won’t probably be too surprised if we don’t. 😉

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