Puppet Masters
© Getty
The Hillary Victory Fund still had $42 million in the bank at the end of June, and it seems likely that more money will be moved to the state parties in the coming months.
The Hillary Victory Fund still had $42 million in the bank at the end of June, and it seems likely that more money will be moved to the state parties in the coming months.
Leaked emails show the Democratic National Committee scrambled this spring to conceal the details of a joint fundraising arrangement with Hillary Clinton that funneled money through state Democratic parties.
But during the three-month period when the DNC was working to spin the situation, state parties kept less than one half of one percent of the $82 million raised through the arrangement — validating concerns raised by campaign finance watchdogs, state party allies and Bernie Sanders supporters.
The arrangement, called the Hillary Victory Fund, allowed the Clinton campaign to seek contributions of hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend extravagant fundraisers including a dinner at George Clooney's house and a concert at Radio City Music Hall featuring Katy Perry and Elton John. That's resulted in criticism for Clinton, who has made opposition to big money in politics a key plank in her campaign platform.
Clinton's allies have responded publicly by arguing that the fund is raising big money to boost down-ballot Democratic candidates by helping the 40 state parties that are now participating in the fund.
But privately, officials at the DNC and on Clinton's campaign worked to parry questions raised by reporters, as well as Sanders' since-aborted campaign, about the distribution of the money, according to a cache of hacked emails made public late last week by WikiLeaks.
Comment: No surprise here. The Clinton Foundation is run the same way.
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© Denis Sinyakov / Reuters
The bill extends these obligations not only to current civil servants, but also to former officials. The document also allows for the confiscation of the cash equivalent of any property that has been purchased with funds of unconfirmed origin. In addition, the draft imposes tougher control on the existing ban on accounts and securities held in foreign banks for Russian officials, by allowing the Prosecutor General's Office and the state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring to request information about such assets from foreign partners.
Comment: Could you imagine such a bill being prepared in the West? Not in your dreams! Such tyrannical oppression against the freedom of corruption would never be allowed!
© Sergio Perez / Reuters
The eurozone finance ministers decided this month to start sanctions procedures against the two countries for breaching EU spending rules. Sanctions could be a fine of up to 0.2 percent of a country's GDP and the suspension of commitments or payments from EU structural funds of up to 0.5 percent.
European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said "socio-economic factors," including the countries' high rates of unemployment, should be taken into account when deciding how much to suspend.
"We remain at your disposal to participate in a structural dialogue with the European Parliament on the application of these measures, with a view to make a balanced proposal," Katainen said in a letter to the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters during a campaign rally in Miami, Florida, U.S. July 23, 2016.
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters during a campaign rally in Miami, Florida, U.S. July 23, 2016.
As the US Democratic party convention in Philadelphia opened on Monday to formally choose a presidential candidate, WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 e-mails from the party's governing group which reveal the National Committee's been busy mudslinging at opponents and even its own members.
Following the scandal, hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Philadelphia. They're hoping presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton will not be proclaimed the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. Lots of them expressed their support for a previous runner, Bernie Sanders. But Sanders himself has already endorsed Clinton.
The WikiLeaks revelations have led to the chairperson of the Democratic Party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying she'll quit after the convention. Although Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said he believes Russia should be blamed for the scandal.
© US Embassy/Flickr
Presidential demon-o-cratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Presidential demon-o-cratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
I have been filming in the Marshall Islands, which lie north of Australia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Whenever I tell people where I have been, they ask, "Where is that?" If I offer a clue by referring to "Bikini", they say, "You mean the swimsuit."
Few seem aware that the bikini swimsuit was named to celebrate the nuclear explosions that destroyed Bikini island. Sixty-six nuclear devices were exploded by the United States in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 - the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for twelve years.
Bikini is silent today, mutated and contaminated. Palm trees grow in a strange grid formation. Nothing moves. There are no birds. The headstones in the old cemetery are alive with radiation. My shoes registered "unsafe" on a Geiger counter.
Standing on the beach, I watched the emerald green of the Pacific fall away into a vast black hole. This was the crater left by the hydrogen bomb they called "Bravo". The explosion poisoned people and their environment for hundreds of miles, perhaps forever.
© Reuters / BuzzFeed News
The three men feature on a list of former regime figures linked to the bloody suppression of the Libyan uprising and are wanted by prosecutors in Tripoli for allegedly fleeing the country with stolen state assets in 2011.
BuzzFeed News says the men have been given a safe haven in the UK despite standing accused of laundering millions of pounds through British banks and property deals.
Comment: The BuzzFeed article has nothing but allegations and proves nothing. It would be more interesting to know why Britain has given asylum to these three ex-military men and their families.
No doubt Erdogan remains committed to Islamism at home and abroad, but for the time being, Turkey is turning inwards.
Syrian rebels said last week they noticed a drift in Ankara's attention. They said Turkey was inactive as rebels struggled against a tightening siege by the Assad regime on Aleppo, the opposition's last big urban stronghold. Aleppo's fate could be critical to the outcome of the Syrian conflict.
"Usually, the Turks would be checking in a lot, meeting with commanders and making sure everyone is doing their jobs and sticking to the plan," says a rebel leader from a US-backed group. "The Turks could get control of this situation — and now, they're absent."
© www.hackbusters.com
As a result, as reported earlier today, the objective FBI said it is now investigating how thousands of DNC emails were hacked, a breach that Hillary Clinton's campaign maintains was committed by Russia to benefit Donald Trump. Indeed, as noted yesterday, Clinton's campaign, citing "experts", pointed to a massive hacking of DNC computers in June that cybersecurity firms linked to the Russian government.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta added fuel to the debate Monday, saying there was "a kind of bromance going on" between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. The Clinton campaign says Russia favors Trump's views, especially on NATO.
Comment: An unwritten law in US politics: The bigger the personage and wrongdoing, the bigger the fuss and deflection.
Comment: See also: John Pilger: Why Clinton is certainly more dangerous than Trump