Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Today’s word: Bird dogging

You may not have time to read about the Clinton Foundation’s Colombian corruption, but you need to learn about bird dogging:

“So the term bird dogging: You put people in the line, at the front which means that they have to get there at six in the morning because they have to get in front at the rally, so that when Trump comes down the rope line, they’re the ones asking him the question in front of the reporter, because they’re pre-placed there,” explains Foval. “To funnel that kind of operation, you have to start back with people two weeks ahead of time and train them how to ask questions. You have to train them to bird dog.”

Rigged election, you ask?


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Colombia: The Clinton Foundation’s toxic legacy

Ken Silverman and the American Media Institute went to Colombia to investigate the Clinton Foundation’s work, and found instead that The Clinton Foundation left a toxic legacy in Colombia.

Silverman located a woman named Sandra, featured at the CF website, who, like many others, was used by the Clintons (emphasis added),

With a warm smile, Sandra told us that she was initially enthusiastic about working with the Clinton Foundation. She pulled out a smart phone and showed us pictures of the 2013 launch party for the “Acceso Oferta Local” program, a foundation effort directly supported by Canadian financier Giustra to match poor entrepreneurs — farmers, fishermen, candy-makers, flower vendors and others — with big buyers, like multinational hotels.

She thumbed past a shot of Giustra to show us a photo of herself with Bill Clinton. The former president and the female entrepreneur had megawatt smiles.

“The idea was that they would help small stores and small fisherman,” she said. “And that’s what it did, but only at the start.”

Sandra said she received no money from the Clinton Foundation and, in fact, took out a large bank loan at its urging. Paying this loan proved to be a tremendous burden, she said. Even worse, within months the head of the Acceso project told her that she should no longer deal directly with buyers. Instead, she would sell her fish directly to Acceso — at sharply reduced prices — and Acceso would resell them. In other words, the Clinton Foundation would act as a middleman and profit from margins supplied by the people it was supposed to be helping.

You may recall that the Fondo Acesso is the Clinton Foundation’s Colombia-based investment company, run from the Clinton Foundation’s Bogota office, while

The Clinton Foundation and CGEP have declined to release a full list of Fondo Acceso’s investments.

Last August I posted that

Fondo Acceso was founded in 2010 by Bill Clinton, the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, and the Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra.

Silverman reports on Giustra’s

sizable Colombian energy corporation, Pacific Rubiales, which benefited richly from Bill Clinton’s politicking and the foundation’s operations.

Colombian senator Jorge Enrique Robledo describes Paciific Rubiales’s operations as

“a type of concentration camp for workers.”

Robledo said he had no doubt that Bill Clinton had successfully overcome legal and regulatory obstacles for Giustra’s benefit, especially given Clinton’s strong relationship with Colombian President Uribe and his stature as a former U.S. President: “Bringing Bill Clinton to Colombia was like bringing God,” he said.

There’s much more at the article, which you must read in full.

Unfortunately, this, like so many stories about the Clinton Crime Family™, take time and commitment to read through, as corruption in high places is convoluted by design (for instance, Silverstein points out that Pacific Rubiales is called Petro Rubiales Energy Corp. in foundation filings)..

It’s much easier to waste time creating distractions about sex scandals.

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Guilty Hillary

Read my article, Guilty Hillary, on the current campaign.

I was a guest in Silvio Canto’s podcast, and that was one of the topics we discussed today,

I also recommend Ed Klein’s new book, Guilty as Sin: Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation

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Obama pipes in on Venezuela’s Miss Machado

I’ve been preoccupied with more immediate concerns, but even then this has struck me as emblematic of the stupidity of the current political climate:
The big issue is that 20 years ago Donald Trump told Alicia Machado she needed to lose weight after she gained sixty pounds while she was still Miss Universe.

Clearly, Hillary is going for the overweight female vote.

She’s definitely not going for the Hispanic vote. More on that below.

Even Obama’s piped in (now that Congress overrode his veto of the 9/11 bill and he needs a distraction):

“You had somebody who basically insulted women and then doubled down,” Obama said in an interview on the “Steve Harvey Morning Show.”

The president added that the way Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, talks about women’s weight and looks “instead of the content of their character and their capabilities” means he “is not somebody that I want in the Oval Office.”

Let’s parse this:

somebody who basically insulted women

1. Why should women be insulted?

Alicia Machado does not represent me as an individual, much less as a woman.

The woman in question was under contractual obligation to remain in the same physical condition as she was when she got the job.

Alicia Machado went from 115 pounds to 170 pounds within a few months. At 5’7″ and 170lbs, she would be considered obese, and fighting obesity is a cause Michelle Obama has embraced.

2. You can argue that Trump “basically insulted” women but you can’t ignore the current rape allegations against Bill Clinton, and the Democrat presidential candidate’s role in suppressing and harassing the women who came forward.

talks about women’s weight and looks “instead of the content of their character and their capabilities”

So let’s look at the “content” of Alicia Machado’s character and capabilities:
Alicia Machado, after her term as Miss Universe,

By the way, what happened to the guy who first revealed the information on the christening party?  He was killed while having lunch at a cafe prior to when he was scheduled to testify on the Beltrán Leyva case.

HOW’S THAT FOR “CONTENT OF HER CHARACTER,” OBAMA?

Which brings me to why this won’t get Hillary any Hispanic votes (other than Machado’s, who was granted U.S. citizenship earlier this year – how’s that for vetting?):  A lot of Latinos follow celebrities, and Hillary couldn’t have found one more disreputable and generally disliked had she tried.

On the other hand, Alicia fits right in with the Clintons.

UPDATE
Linked to by Clarice Feldman. Thank you!

Linked to by Director Blue. Thank you!

Trump is stupid enough he’s still carping on the Machado woman. How did our great nation end up with the two most unsuitable candidates for POTUS out of a population of 320 million people?




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The pre-debate Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Yes, there’s a presidential debate tonight. Meh.

ARGENTINA
Argentina plans eurobond

Probe into Nisman’s death will go to federal courts

Stiuso habló de una “guerra” entre espías tras la muerte de Nisman. La versión del ex director de la SIDE sobre su pelea con el espionaje K

En su testimonio, afirmó que se dio una orden ilegal a Migraciones para saber sus movimientos, reveló el dueño de un teléfono clave y vinculó a Aníbal Fernandéz.

Argentina Seeks To Export Its Human Rights Policy

BOLIVIA
“Narcos”. Artículo completo de Veja sobre Evo y Álvaro – Evo Morales and his vice-president Álvaro García Linera, investigated by the DEA.

Give it up, Evo: Bolivia’s Morales accuses Chile of restricting access to ports

BRAZIL
Brazil’s Supreme Court Gives OK to Open Probe of New President Temer

Judge approves preliminary investigation, which is based on plea-bargain testimony by a key witness that implicates President Michel Temer, other PMDB members

CHILE
CIA found ‘convincing evidence’ Chilean dictator was behind 1976 D.C. attack

The latest revelations about the Cold War-era case come on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading opponent of the Pinochet regime and onetime Chilean foreign minister, and his think-tank colleague, Ronni Moffitt, in a car bomb on D.C.’s Embassy Row.

COLOMBIA
“The FARC’s abortionist confessed to [performing] 400+ abortions on abused girls. Is there pardon, justice, and reparation?”

CUBA
How Kim (DPRK) and Castro (Cuba) Blackmail Abe (Japan)

Nearly on a monthly basis, some senior North Korean is on a “working visit” to Cuba. Or some senior Cuban regime official is on a “working visit” to North Korea.

With the exception of China, there’s no other nation in the world that North Korean officials visit with such frequency.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Republic’s Former Anti-Drug Chief Sentenced to 20 Years

ECUADOR
Ecuadorian Police Oust Dozens of Cubans Demanding Visas from Quito Park

IMMIGRATION
HILLARY: THE THIRD WORLD HAS A “RIGHT” TO MOVE TO THE UNITED STATES. No, they don’t.

JAMAICA
American says he wants to protect Jamaica’s natural ganja

MEXICO
Priest Killings Highlight Mexico Govt’s Credibility Problem

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua rejects U.S. bill for loans with strings attached (emphasis added)
The Nicaraguan government was responding to the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. A version was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate earlier this month.

Nicaragua on Thursday criticized a proposal by U.S. lawmakers that would require the Central American country, which will hold elections in November, to make political changes in order to receive international loans.
. . .
The Nicaraguan government was responding to the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. A version was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate earlier this month.

The bill proposes blocking Nicaragua from obtaining loans from international financial institutions unless the country “is taking effective steps to hold free, fair, and transparent elections.”

On Nov. 6, Nicaraguans will vote for president and 90 members of the National Assembly.

President Daniel Ortega is the favorite as he seeks his third consecutive term.

PANAMA
Smithsonian opens climate change lab in Panama

PARAGUAY
Polka lessons

Budgets have been roughly in balance and public debt is low. The central bank aims for an inflation rate of 4.5% and usually gets close. Commercial banks are healthy (in part because they charge high interest rates and face little competition). Regulation, like the tax code, is business-friendly. Independent trade unions, suppressed under Stroessner, are weak.

PERU
Peru President Says Unasur Unable to Resolve Venezuela Crisis

PUERTO RICO
Where were you when the lights went out? The Puerto Rico blackout, from space

URUGUAY
More on Abu Wa’el Dhiab: Uruguay says ex-Gitmo detainee demands exceed government

“The Uruguayan government is doing everything possible,” Vazquez said. “But as I’ve said in the past: If the countries where the Syrian citizen wants to go don’t take him, we can’t do anything about it.”

VENEZUELA
Military and Police Corruption: Venezuela’s Growing Evil



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Mexico: Vicente Fernandez {hearts} Hillary

Hugely popular singer Vicente Fernández (Chente to his fans), idol of the Mexican working class, momentarily suspended his retirement to take on a commission from the Clinton campaign to write a corrido for Hillary out of his devotion for her possibly large stipend, but who knows?

After taking to Chente’s musical director (wait, wasn’t Chente retired?) last week Chente’s songwriter was so inspired by Hillary that he adapted the song Los Mandados in half an hour, and, presto! here is the result, in full bloom and video production values:

“With all respect, today I make public my support of Mrs. Hillary Clinton. This is for defending my Mexican and Latin American brothers and sisters.”

I can’t wait for Chente’s youngest son, Alejandro, to follow suit, especially if he wears those tight trousers he favors. 

I also wonder what Chente would say if, for instance, Bruce Springsteen made political videos favoring a Mexican presidential candidate.

In one of those happy coincidences, on the same day another video of celebrities endorsing Hillary was released. Like the Chente video, it preaches to the choir.

Hilarity ensued:

Professor Robert George took the more serious view,

Well, I actually recognized one of these self-proclaimed famous people, and he is indeed a (standard issue) Hollywood liberal (Martin Sheen). So evidently this is not what I would otherwise have supposed it to be: a thinly veiled effort by Trump supporters to induce their man’s critics to vote for him by highlighting the elitism, narcissism, and self-importance of so many celebrities who favor Clinton. It is actually meant to be a pro-Clinton ad

I don’t know about you, but the prospect of Mark Ruffalo showing his private parts in a film does not fill me with desire, much less with desire to vote, and definitely not with desire to vote for Hillary. Maybe somebody ought to tell Hollywood writer/producer/director Joss Whedon (“Avengers,” “Firefly”) whose new super PAC, Save the Day, produced the video.

And no, I wouldn’t vote for Hillary even if Clive Owen showed up and asked me in person.

UPDATE
More chuckles,

The death of Leni Riefenstahl has clearly left a great void.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

78% of Latinos Have Negative View of Donald Trump, according to Telemundo. With the constant anti-Trump propaganda in Spanish language and Mexican media, I’m surprised it’s not 99%.



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