Yearly Archives: 2016

hillary

wiki

From top: Hillary Clinton at the UN while US Secretary of State; portion of a speech  Mrs Clinton gave to to bankers.

The furious, ongoing WikiLeaks dump of US Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails has gained little traction in the mainstream media, least of all in Ireland.

But what do we know so far?

1. Mrs. Clinton had cosy and improper relationship with the mainstream media.

See yesterday’s post.

2. The State Department paid special attention to “Friends of Bill.”

After the massive 2010 Haiti earthquake, a senior aide to then-Secretary of State Clinton repeatedly gave special attention to those identified by the abbreviations “FOB” (Friends of Bill) or “WJC VIPs” (William Jefferson Clinton VIPs), referring to the former president. The emails show Mrs. Clinton’s State Department prioritised and benefited Mr. Clinton’s friends in the $10 billion recovery effort. The State Department also polled the popularity of Mr. Clinton in Haiti and shared the results with him.

3. Mrs. Clinton argued for “a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders” in a private speech to bankers

4. The Clinton campaign was in touch with Department of Justice officials regarding the release of her emails.

Brian Fallon, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman and former Justice Department staffer, appeared to have discussions with sources inside the Department of Justice about ongoing open records lawsuits requesting access to her emails while serving as secretary of state. In an email from May 2015, Mr. Fallon said that “DOJ folks” had “informed” him about the upcoming status conference in one of the lawsuits.

5. The Clinton camp was tipped off to the release of the Benghazi emails.

In April 2015, Clinton campaign Deputy Communications Director Kristina Schake referred to a “tip” from a source regarding when the State Department planned to release Mrs. Clinton’s Benghazi emails. Mrs. Clinton’s lawyer Heather Samuelson followed up on the tip, writing: “Latest: Still aiming for Friday, but potential it gets delayed until early next week because still moving through interagency review process. Will check back tomorrow and keep you posted. Quick update on this — DOS says the release of the 300 will likely happen on Thurs or Friday. Will keep you posted as I hear anything further on my end. Thx.”

6. Mrs. Clinton admitted sometimes her public and private positions differ.

In a 2013 speech before the National Multi-Housing Council, Mrs. Clinton indicated her public positions may differ with her private positions, because politics is an ugly business.

“Politics is like sausage being made,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be. But if everybody’s watching, you know, all of the backroom discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.”

7. Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman mocked Catholics and evangelicals as “severely backwards.”

Hacked emails show Mrs. Clinton’s campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri and other Clinton allies openly talking about Catholics being “severely backwards” and charging that they don’t know “what the hell they’re talking about.” The April 2011 discussion between Ms. Palmieri and John Halpin, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, mocks media mogul Rupert Murdoch for raising his children in the Catholic Church and said that most “powerful elements” in the conservative movement are all Catholic.

8. Mrs. Clinton admitted she has a hard time relating to the struggles of the middle class.

In a 2014 speech for Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, Mrs. Clinton admitted her riches and public persona lifestyle isolated her from the financial struggles of most of the country, saying her memories of her childhood is how she connects now to everyday Americans.

“Obviously, I’m kind of far removed because the life I’ve lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy,” Mrs. Clinton said of relating to the middle class.

9. Mrs. Clinton campaign used Benghazi as a distraction from the email scandal.

 10. The Clinton team strategized on how to delay releasing emails, knowing it was against the law.

11. Mrs Clinton confirmed  Saudi Arabia, Qatar fund ISIS.

12. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton traveled the globe encouraging countries to adopt fracking technology. This, despite current public views on Climate Change:

13. Hillary Clinton privately pitched corporations on “really low” tax rate for money stashed abroad

14. Mrs Clinton acknowledged that a “No Fly Zone” in Syria — now her stated policy preference — would “kill a lot of Syrians.”

15. Please feel free to share any we may have missed below.

More as they leak it.

The Podesta Emails (Wikileaks)

Hillary Clinton And Corporate Media Shamefully ‘Stronger Together’ (Mediaite)

Top 10 Clinton scandals exposed by WikiLeaks (Washington Times)

Meanwhile…

kurtz

Fox News’ Mediabuzz host Howard Kurtz explains how, despite attempts at press blackouts, the Wikleaks dumps are damaging the Clinton campaign “drip by drip”.

Thanks Rory

Update:

Meanwhile…
hillary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S77C5hn3FNE&sns=tw

 

Stoner spoiler alert.

Hillary’s pot flip flops compiled.

She’s evil, dude.

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The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock – Folk group reprise and release large-scale pieces

What you may need to know…

01. Marrying noises from the Irish folk canon with experimental rock sounds, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock take their name from a poem about a haunted canal lock.

02. They’ve released two full-lengths to date: an eponymous self-titled album in 2008, and The Brutal Here and Now, in 2012, via Japanese label Transduction Records.

03. Streaming above is the video for the first movement of recently-toured set Lockout. A large-scale piece, requiring a guitar orchestra, and based on the 1913 strike and lockout, Lockout will be reprised with a performance at the Cork Opera House on October 30th, as part of the Green Room stage.

04. Follow-up piece The Bullet in the Brick, marking the hundredth anniversary of the Rising as it draws to a close, is released on 12″ on November 25th. Preorders available now. They’ll also be performing at the No Idle Day weekender in Dublin next week.

VERDICT: Expanding their sonics to accomodate the weight and expectation of their subject matter and its retelling, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock have risen to the challenge of history in fine fashion.

The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock

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dan

From top: Paschal Donohoe and Michael Noonan on Tuesday; Dan Boyle

The procedural aspects of the financial management of the country are not to be found in any single event at any given time.

Dan Boyle writes:

It would save a great deal of air space, bandwidth and newsprint if the budget unveiled in Leinster House this week by Michael Noonan and Paschal Donohue, would be the last Budget presented in such a way.

This isn’t so much because of its content. This year’s combination of cynical box ticking carried less obvious offence than usual. What we should put to bed is the arch and archaic protocols that seek to portray the budget as something mystical that is happening.

I got to respond directly to five budgets from the floor of Dáil Éireann. Two of these were presented by Charlie McCreevy, the other three by Brian Cowen. For those years I was the RTÉ 2 alternative to the Six One News. Apologies for that.

Not that it mattered in those Celtic Tiger Version 2 days. Those budgets were all about spending for the tomorrow that was never meant to exist.

During that time some evolution occurred, most reflecting the nature of society that was being created. The typewritten speech given at the start of the debate was replaced by a printed book. This was added to subsequently with a CD-ROM. The ‘truth’ truly did exist in many forms.

This even extended to the prose attaching to the documents themselves. The decades long use of Sean and Mary and their circumstances, to highlight the effects of taxation changes, saw them being unceremoniously replaced by Ken and Nicola, the aspiring couple of the new thrusting Ireland.

The pretence that the contents of a budget could not be revealed before the Minister stood up to speak, was stated to be a measure to prevent spooking the financial markets.

I suspected it was more a device to prevent accountability by restricting opposition spokespersons to speed reading detailed documents, whilst thinking of how to construct something coherent to say.

It isn’t as if there is even a vote on the Budget. At the end of the set pieces there are sometimes some financial measures that become effective at midnight of that day, but there is not single vote that asks the question ‘So this Budget – a good thing or not?’.

There shouldn’t be any mystery here.

The procedural aspects of the financial management of the country are not to be found in any single event at any given time. It is an everyday, year long responsibility.

We have a Book of Estimates. We have a Finance Bill. We have a Social Welfare Bill. That’s where and when the details can be analysed and decisions get made.

The real cut we should be making is to The Budget itself.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle