Bernie Sanders has undeniable momentum ahead of the upcoming Iowa caucus and the Clinton campaign has gone into panic mode. It’s responding with right wing attacks against healthcare, ageism, red-baiting, accusations of communism, and now a flood of skewed “news” from Hillary’s allies is fouling the Web. Hillary is also making emergency funding raising stops with Wall Street bigwigs to pad her cash reserves.
‘Astroturfing’ — attempts made to subvert progressive news with campaign messaging and smears against Sanders — began preemptively several months ago when Clinton surrogate David Brock used his PAC’s slush fund to acquire Blue Nation Review. It ran a ridiculous piece of propaganda stating that ‘Sanders is the establishment’, earlier this week. We can question its impartiality.
Think Progress is next on the list, and it has gone into full-born Bernie attack mode, with an attack piece running as today’s lead story. The editorial independence between Think Progress and Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta’s Center for American Progress is an open question that journalists have exposed. It’s not good when your peers are questioning your integrity.
But Hillary’s ties to Wall Street are unquestionable, and visits to Wall Street are on the docket before Iowa. After all, Wall Street has been at the center of her universe for over a decade. The origin of her cozy relationship with banksters dates back to her two Senate campaigns and failed 2008 run for the White House. Then, she accepted millions in speaking fees from the world’s most powerful firms after serving as Secretary of State (knowing she was intending to run for public office again).
Now, Hillary receives substantial donations from Wall Street, and is making last minute runs for cash before Iowa votes. Daily Kos’s Bob Johnson shined some light onto Clinton’s big-ticket fundraiser next Thursday with the founder of Franklin Square Capital, a $17 billion firm that sells expensive, unregulated, alternative investments the middle-class that deliver poor returns. It’s recently come under the radar of regulators.
Johnson wryly observed, “I think we can all rest assured that the big-ticket soirée thrown for Hillary Clinton by the bigwigs at Franklin Square Capital Partners just days before the Iowa caucus is being done just because they love, love, love Hillary. And not because federal regulators are scrutinizing their business and may decide that some regulatory controls are necessary in order to protect their small-ticket investors.” [emphasis mine]
That same day, Hillary is holding another fundraiser that’s co-hosted by one of the managing partners of Evercore Partners investment bank (the other one went to prison for insider trading).
Here’s the price list, for those who can afford it:
- $250 - Guest (Limited Availability)
- $500 - Friend
- $1,000 - Supporter
- $2,700 - Champion (Includes photo reception with Chelsea and attendance at an upcoming event with Hillary)
Nothing suggests any wrong-doing on Hillary’s part — Billy Jean King is the other co-host of the Evercore partner’s event, and the partner was a major campaign bundler for President Obama and donates to multiple other democratic candidates (we’ve socialized, and I have nothing negative to say about him...I also learned through him that Hillary Clinton is godmother to his kids). The issue is that nobody can credibly say that people who donate huge sums of money to candidates don’t expect some payback. Investments are made to strengthen future interests; donors are investors.
Whose voice is being heard and to what extent are those relationships influencing policy? It’s unlikely that someone who’s buying a home would rely on sponsored mortgage industry content to educate themselves before taking out a loan. Phony liberal news doesn’t help us to decide who to vote for. Nobody would hire a home inspector who takes big money from the same local contractors that would benefit from suggested repair work. Why then are the Clinton campaign’s glaring conflicts of interest with Wall Street excused? Cronyism doesn’t bode well for a government that’s for the people.
We can be judged by the company that we keep, and Hillary is turning to the entrenched, monied, ‘powers that be’ when the heat is on and she must fight for the Democratic nomination.