[Politico] On their nine-day trip to Africa, Bill and Chelsea Clinton are traveling with 20 wealthy donors and foundation supporters, a group that includes fundraisers for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid and others who are expected to give generously to her campaign.
The opportunity to accompany Bill Clinton on trips across the globe on behalf of his philanthropic foundation has for years been considered both a reward for past donations and an inducement for future giving, say sources familiar with the foundation's finance operation. This trip, they say, was an especially coveted invite -- one that was extended to wealthy Clinton supporters.
The foundation, which provided the list of donors on the trip upon POLITICO's request, said the group represents both longtime supporters as well as those who are just getting involved, and provides an opportunity to see the projects they are specifically funding.
Along this year for the annual foundation trip abroad is Jay Jacobs and his wife, Mindy, longtime Clinton fundraisers and foundation supporters. Jacobs, who has donated between $500,000 and $1 million to the foundation, is also a "Hillstarter," a "Ready for Hillary" donor, and is planning to be a major fundraiser for Clinton campaign, as he was in 2008. Last month, Jacobs, the CEO of a chain of summer camps, brought Clinton in to give a paid speech at the American Camp Association, where he also lead a q-and-a session with her on the stage. The Clinton's and a 'children's camp' Q&A session? Chilling optics that, very chilling.
The Clinton Foundation’s finances are so messy that the nation’s most influential charity watchdog put it on its “watch list” of problematic nonprofits last month.
The Clinton family’s mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but spent just $9 million on direct aid.
The group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends.
I'm afraid that more than slush funds are involved here. If a large chunk of America's uranium was sold to the Russians in exchange for money to the Clintons, it sounds like the "T" word is operative here.
[Kanuk Free Press] Which of the following headlines stand out as contrary to what the rest of the world is doing? If it isn't at first clear to you, they are marked in capital letters.
Coal by 2030 will the most widely used fuel worldwide as developing countries electrify burgeoning cities and rural areas where billions of people have had little or no access to power.
When President Obama announced on March 31 that he intends to ensure that the US will slash its greenhouse gas emissions 26% below 2005 emissions levels by 2025 he showed once more his zeal to shut down every coal-fired plant in the US.
As an aside, he failed to mention that such levels would be comparable to what they were in our Civil War, 150 years ago notes Alan Caruba.
At the heart of Obama's program are EPA regulations that will make it impossible to open any new coal plant and will systematically shut down existing plants. "Politically the White House is hesitant to say they're not having a war on coal," explained one of Obama's climate advisers. "On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed."
Under current regulations- not the vastly harsher ones the president envisions- 204 coal-fired electricity generating units in 25 states will be shut down.
Earlier this month, employees at coal plants in West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana received notices that the plants will be closed by the end of May and more pink slips are expected to be issued in the coming months. A slew of preemptive power plant closures across Appalachia and the Midwest have already occurred since 2011. And all of this before the proposed new rules which will further demolish the coal industry.
Yet worldwide, almost 1,200 coal-fired plants are in the planning stages, and over three-quarters are to be built in China and India. To put this in perspective, China and India are planning to build over 60% more coal-fired capacity than the coal-fired capacity that currently exists in the United States. Once Obama's plan goes into effect and another 204 coal-fired plants are shut down in the US, this figure of 60% will more likely be over 100%; double the current coal-fired capacity that presently exists in the US.
The United States has already radically cut carbon dioxide emissions--more than any country on earth since 2006. Emissions today are back down to 1992 levels, and yet at the same time global emissions have gone up. That's because we don't control the energy use of the other 96 percent of humankind while they continue increase usage of coal.
#3
We shoot ourselves in the foot a great deal by electing boneheaded (and often not too bright) politicians who play to the crowd. No surprise when these politicos come up with policies that provide payback to some special interest group who supported them but are antithetical to the U.S.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
