Tag: ex/imp bank

INTO THE WEEDS 8

The new gods of the world By Ken George 11-20-2016

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Bill and Hillary Clinton drink Coca-Cola in Greece

Dow is one of the bigger pesticide producers in the world, and holds its own ground in an agrochemical arena flooded by Monsanto and Syngenta strongholds. Since 2011, it has been revealed that Dow’s donations to a Clinton-aligned firm, range in the tens of millions. Douglas Band has been described as the man who encouraged big corporations to donate money to “Bill Clinton Inc.,” to prop the Clinton’s income. Companies such as Coca Cola and Dow Chemical, which were clients of Band’s firm, Teneo, were those named in the 2011 memo named “Attorney-Client Privilege.” The memo was sent by Band to two attorneys who were reviewing the Clinton Foundation.

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Sadara Chemical plant, Al Sharqiya, Saudi Arabia

For me, it would really be comical, if it weren’t so criminal. You can’t look at a donor to the Clinton Foundation, without discovering some less than honest behavior. So many special favors, sweet deals, access, and criminal behavior, with a total disregard for ethics, national policy, or law! My latest adventure was to investigate a man named Andrew Nicholas Liveris. Not many people would immediately recognize the name, but he is a multi-national industrial CEO. He runs the Dow Chemical Company, based in Midland, Michigan. They make chemicals….chemicals for every conceivable endeavor and industry. They have plants all over the world, but we are concerned with only one. A brand new, state of the art, plant in Saudi Arabia. Yes, that’s right, Dow partnered with Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, ARAMCO to build a $20 billion factory in Al Sharqiya, Saudi Arabia. So once again, we have to ask the question, what does this have to do with the Clintons? You have to start with understanding the magnitude of a 20 billion dollar plant. Even though Dow and the Saudis are more than capable of financing that big of a deal, they had to get taxpayer help. Before I go into the details, let me just say this is about the bigger picture. It’s wonderful that an American company like Dow needs to expand. I might even be able to accept that Saudi Arabia was the best place to build a state of the art factory. What I cannot accept is that, we, the people of America, have to help finance such a venture. OK, now that I got that off my chest….let me continue.

Let’s start with Andre Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemical. As with most of the Clinton’s friends and donors….this guy is a piece of work. After an internal audit was conducted, after a whistle-blower came forward, Liveris was found to have used nearly a million dollars of company money for personal expenses. He was forced to return nearly $800,000 to the business. He also started his own foundation in Greece called the Hellenic Initiative. It has the makings of another Clinton Foundation….a charity that does good works, while siphoning off millions for founders and friends. I don’t suppose then, it would be surprising to find out that two of the biggest funders of “Bill Clinton Inc” Dow and Coke, both sit on the board of this new charity. Liveris is a close and long time friend of Bill Clinton. Now nothing so far is illegal or even dubious, maybe incestuous, but nothing indicates foul play, to this point.

Enter Teneo. You would have to read all my pieces to understand how important Teneo is to the Clinton Foundation. I’m not going to go into all of it again. At the time that the Sadara plant was being conceived, Teneo was a consultant to Dow, raking in 2.8 million a year. E-mails have been released recently that disclose conversations between Doug Band, a Teneo founder and CEO of the Clinton Foundation, and a director of the Exp/Imp bank, Kevin Varney. He writes: “If you guys think there is an opportunity to work together I remain very interested and excited by the possibilities, Thanks again for considering me. Teneo is doing some amazing work and has a great team.” Mr. Varney was trolling for a job. There were meetings and conversations between Band, Declan Kelly and two other Ex/Im Bank directors concerning possible employment. This was all going on in the context of many conservatives in congress trying to end the Bank….here’s a piece of the timeline. The Export/Import Bank Re-authorization Act of 2012 was introduced in June of 2011. It was passed by the House on May 9, 2012, passed by the senate on May 15th and signed by the president on May 30th 2012. The next morning, May 31st, Varney sent the following to Band, Kelly and head of Teneo’s investment bank, Michael Madden: “The President signed Exim’s re-authorization yesterday, With that done I’m free to move forward” The job wrangling went on for another two months through August of 2012. Meanwhile, prior to these negotiations, Dow was spending millions lobbying congress on Exp/Imp Bank. Fred Hochberg who I’ve mentioned in another post……the Chairman of the Exp/Imp Bank, recused himself from the vote, not sighting a reason. On August 22nd, 2012, the Exp/Imp Bank authorized the loan to Sadara….the largest loan ever underwritten by the bank….4.975 billion dollars. What’s purely coincidental was Teneo’s fees to Dow dramatically increased in 2012 and 2013 to $16 million, from $2.8 million. You can read more about this here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421081/hillary-clinton-ex-im-5-billion-loan-saudis-dow-chemical

Something has occurred to me while doing all this research. Big picture stuff…..throughout history people have been used by the rich and powerful elite for their own benefit. As far back as ancient Egypt there were the Pharaohs. They had all the power, they were gods, looked down on the people and used them for their own benefit.  Then came Rome and its republic….things changed for a little while. Then the Caesars took control, they were gods. They took all the power and used the people for their benefit.  The rise of the Church changed things for a while, but it too, became corrupt and used the people. Next were the monarchies. The Kings and Queens took control and used the people for their benefit. Finally, came America and it changed again for awhile…..but then came the carpet baggers, the Robber Barons and the Captains of Industry…..they took control and used the people for their benefit. Along came Ronald Reagan and there was a short respite…..it didn’t last long. Now it appears we have the Foundations, the charities, the lobbyists, the consultants, and the multi-national corporations. They have taken control and look down on the people as merely a tool to use for their benefit. The theme of Lamentations from the Bible is that there is nothing new under the sun. The Clintons and the rest of this global elite are just one more group of individuals that want control and are willing to use us for their benefit. They are the gods of the 21st century.

INTO THE WEEDS 7

Crony capitalism or massive corruption? “What difference does it make” By Ken George 11-16-2016

 

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INCEST! No matter where I look, I find some connection between government and the Clinton Foundation. My latest find is in the Export/Import Bank. For those that are unfamiliar with this crony big government money pit, let me explain. We often hear in the headlines Boeing, or GE, or some other giant corporation makes a huge sale to some foreign nation or state-run airline or company and we‘re suppose to act like that’s great for America. But is it? Many will show graphs and charts extolling our strong exports that create thousands of American jobs. But let me put it this way…..if you cut your grass, and pay yourself  20 bucks….would you consider that income?  No that’s not a joke, that’s how the export/import bank works. Boeing gets an order for 6, hundred million dollar jets from Podunk Airlines in Thirdworldistan. The sale price is $600 million. The export/import bank loans the $600 million to Thirdworldistan. Thirdworldistan then is able to pay Boeing. Somewhere along the way, the US State Department provides $600 million to Thirdworldistan in foreign aid, who then uses it to pay back the export/import bank. Just to recap….we, the taxpayers, just bought Thirdworldistan  6 very expensive jets, and our export business just grew by $600 million, but we, the US taxpayers paid the whole bill. In my world, we call that a scam!

But what does this have to do with the Clinton Foundation. You don’t have to look to deep in any money pit, to find the Clintons with their hands in it. The Chairman of the export/import bank is Fred Hochberg. Forget that he was appointed by Bill Clinton, and forget that he was a huge 6 figure bundler for the Hillary campaign, and you can even forget that he showed up in NH to campaign for Hillary. But look to his $25,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation, along with a 900,000 dollar donation from Boeing to the foundation, two months after closing on a $3.7 billion dollar sale with a Russian airline company. But that wasn’t enough….Boeing’s chief lobbyist, Tim Keating, hosted a huge fundraiser for Hillary shortly after the deal, then 6 months later Boeing paid Bill, $250,000 to give executives a speech. And finally, Hillary got Boeing to spend $2 million on her pet project in China….an American pavilion at the Chinese World’s Fair.

All this is rather transparent, but still looks bad. Pay for play, again while we foot the bill. But it all begs the question what else, that’s not so transparent, might it have cost us as a nation so Boeing could get their sale and Bill and Hillary could get a few bucks? I’m sure it was coincidental, but this happened in 2009-10…..just a very short time before we eliminated our missile shield in Poland that Russia railed about. Also it was just a short time before Russia invaded Georgia and then Ukraine. Of course I’m speculating….but could there have been a wink and a nod, that we would do nothing….we wouldn’t send weapons to Ukraine or Georgia, that Russia would be uninhibited by the US? It’s a wild theory, but the patterns are just to striking to ignore.

To be fair, is it good or bad for America to have an export/import bank? Would it cost thousands of jobs if we didn’t pay for Boeing’s jets, or GE’s windmills or hundreds of other American products being sold to foreign countries? Look at it this way….if we valued those jobs, why not just buy them from them for us? Buy our airlines a jet or two. Buy products from our small businesses so they can prosper. Why not just pay workers not to work? You see….all those things would never be considered because this America…the land of free enterprise, competition, and capitalism. What I’ve explained in this blog, is Fascism…..government partnering with corporations to control production. Its simply un-American.

Finally, I have now written 7 pieces on massive corruption surrounding the Clinton Foundation. I’ve spent about 30 hours reading and searching on the internet for this information. For Mr. Comey, our FBI director, to say there’s nothing here is to be willfully blind. Was his investigation so narrow that they just refused to look at anything else? Who can say why it was dropped. But, like I said, you don’t have to look far to find a corrupt act by the Clinton Foundation. The congress has vowed to investigate further, but that’s political. This should be unraveled by the justice department and this corruption must be ended.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-export-import-bank-is-the-international-bank-of-clinton/article/2565909