Why the Clinton Foundation should end Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House

In 2008 Hillary Clinton was widely touted to not only clinch her party nomination but also to emerge victorious in her race for the White House. Those plans were prematurely doused as Hillary suffered an astounding and embarrassing defeat in the Primary contest at the hands of first term senator and relative political rookie Barack Hussein Obama. What was more surprising to the Clintons was how easily the establishment within the Democrat party (such as the Kennedy family) abandoned her in favor of the first potential African American President. The contest was bitter and Hillary tried every uncharitable trick in the dirty book of politics to bring down Obama but that was not to be. Upon defeat Hillary was her typical ungracious self, refusing to acknowledge and endorse the first African American presidential nominee. When she did endorse Obama at the Democrat Convention it was a perfunctory exercise so that she could stay afloat in the Democrat Party and not appear to be dissaproving of the first first African American presidential nominee. To be fair, it is human to not be able accept defeat when one is expected to secure victory with ease, it is even more difficult to be stand by the victor when defeat has been so public.

It was expected that Hillary would dodge the limelight until the end of Obama’s presidency and then perhaps throw her hat in the ring again. It therefore came a great surprise to many that Hillary agreed to become Secretary of State in the Obama administration. After all why would she want to work under her arch rival (and perhaps nemesis) who denied her the dream of becoming the first female President? She had shown all signs of being a sore loser, what was the reason for this sudden change of heart?  

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The Clinton Foundation also known as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation was setup in 1997 as is a nonprofit corporation. The foundation’s goal is "We build partnerships between businesses, NGOs, governments, and individuals everywhere to work faster, leaner and better; to find solutions that last; and to transform lives and communities from what they are today to what they can be, tomorrow." That certainly sounds to be categorically grand and noble with the influential and charitable Clintons wanting to help the less fortunate.

So how much did the foundation donate and how effective were they in transforming the lives of lives and communities less fortunate?

During the time that Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, at least 181 individuals, companies, and foreign governments donated to the Foundation, all this as they officially lobbied the State Department and were in personal contact with Hillary Clinton. The time frame of access and donations, clearly suggests conflict of interest i.e. donating to the foundation was a way to gain face time with Clinton and influence in her department and the US govt. In his book ‘Clinton Cash’ Peter Schweitzer showed numerous instances where donations to Clinton Foundation led State Department actions that were favorable to the donor. One such instance had Russian donors to the Clinton foundation associated with the firm Roastom getting state department approval for buying out of Canadian firm Uranium One. Records show that Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013 had made payments to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Another case that highlights misuse of power and conflict of interest,  was when Huma Abedin, (who held positions at the Clinton State Department official and was also an independent contractor by the foundation) arranged special government meetings for donors such as Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain, Lebanese-Nigerian Gilbert Chagoury and a host of other individuals with questionable motives most of them who receive favorable treatment by the US government. There are also reports of questionable deals with countries with dubious human rights records such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman all of whom donated millions to the foundation. Many of these donor nations treat women as second class citizens, do not even allow them to drive. It was also reported that State Department increased chemical arms sales to Middle East countries that donated to Clinton Foundation.

It was well publicized about how the Clinton foundation worked actively to provide relief after the earthquakes in Haiti, but quite soon Haitians discovered very little of the collected money made its way to help the poor and the affected, in fact it was observed that a number of companies who secured contracts to rebuild Haiti was donors to the foundation. There was also news of Hillary’s brother questionable role with respect to gold mines in Haiti.  According to Politico, Numerous journalists and media organizations donated to the Clinton Foundation, these include ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc, the parent company of CNN. PBS News anchor Judy Woodruff also donated to the Clinton Foundation's relief fund for Haiti, which, as mentioned earlier, was really a slush fund to benefit Clinton Foundation donors. 

While the Clintons never did draw salaries from the foundation, it was used to bill various and sundry expenses for travels and hotel stay, they also reportedly made over 153 million dollars in speaking fees on many occasions speaking for the foundation. There were also reports of bribes paid as gifts to secure favors

Perhaps the mystery has be solved about the motives for Hillary Clinton's willingness to work under her rival Obama as secretary of State. Recently there were reports of an escalation in donations as it became obvious that Clinton will be the nominee her party, clearly deals are being struck in case Hillary gets to the White House. 

So let’s consider the following scenarios. The Pakistan government, who played host to Osama Bin Laden, donates 25 million dollars to the Clinton foundation and then requests that the US provide financial aid to ‘combat terrorism’, what is the possibility that the request will be denied? If the monies are paid to the Pak government, what is the possibilities that it will be used to fund terror groups and for terror training camps? It is also not beyond the realm of probability that individuals trained in these camps make their way to the US owing to Clinton’s weak immigration policies. Let’s consider the possibility that a country in the Middle East or Africa is in chaos, what is the possibility that Clinton will not lead a coalition for an invasion so that contracts for rebuilding and arm sales can be given to her donors? Let’s consider medicines or food items of questionable quality needs approval from the US government to be available in the US market, all the manufacturing company will have to do is donate to the Clinton foundation or pay Bill a hefty speaking fee and every American will be as risk. If Hillary or Bill or any of their aides is caught doing something illegal, 'donations' can be made to stop initiation of legal proceedings against them. How about trade deals that cause loss of jobs to regular American, why would she negotiate in favor of the US if the government is a donor? The list of possibilities are endless and the risk is very high. Even if the foundation were to be shut down today, many shady deals may already have been struck. These items will seldom be discussed in the media since many corporate houses who own the media are probably donors to the foundation. 

Recently at the debate Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump needs to disclose his taxes as if he gets near the White House, the American people need to know if he owes monies to anybody and if it would present a conflict of interest. Well I cannot think of a better case of the pot calling the kettle black. If she is elected, The Clinton foundation is the equivalent of Hillary opening a tax deductable store in the White House, telling people ‘Buy from products here and get presidential access for free. Buy our products and get US government endorsement for free. Buy from here and get contracts worth millions.” This is dangerous and can compromise the standing of the United States both nationally and internationally like never before. If she could do some much for her foundation as Secretary of State, wonder how much she will do at the White House. The level of corruption and conflict of interest and most importantly the dire consequences it will have on the lives of Americans is immeasurable.

Danger is defined a the combination of risk and experience, on both counts Clinton scores high. How can any body with even an iota of morality and decency consider voting for Crooked Hillary?