8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (14)
#18122876 at 2023-01-11 13:54:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #22217: R Planefagz R Aces Edition
>>18122765
>Holmgren
FTA: "In an email, Obama spokesperson?Eric Schultz sends along the names of some other guests: "Susan Rice, Ian Cameron, James Clapper, Anita Dunn, Bob Bauer, Lisa Monaco, Denis McDonough, Karin Hillstrom, Anita Decker Breckenridge, Russ Breckendrige, Eric Schultz, Emily Blakemore, Sean Crotty, Stuart Murphy, Nick Mcquaid, Joe Paulsen, Samantha Tubman, Michael Bosworth, David Guggenheim, Jeff Zients, Mary Menell, Yohannes Abraham."
…
"During the Obama administration, Mr. Holmgren served on the National Security Council staff as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Director for Counterterrorism. '''At the Department of Defense, he served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, where he was responsible for the intelligence, cybersecurity, technology and special operations portfolios.
Mr. Holmgren also served for eight years in the IC as a senior analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and, prior to that, as a counterterrorism analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency'''. As an analyst, he deployed to warzones to provide support to counterterrorism operations.
Mr. Holmgren most recently served as Deputy for Nominations on the Biden-Harris Transition Team, and prior to that as Vice President for Technology Risk Management at Capital One Financial from 2017 to 2020."
https://archive.ph/Tn9rl
Looks like the shadow govt. IC crew had good cover to convene.
#18122756 at 2023-01-11 13:34:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #22217: R Planefagz R Aces Edition
>>18122601
>That's not any old lawyer.
>This broad and her husband was a topic of conversation in January 2018
>Hussein officated her wedding.
>Husband is a clown.
>>18122658
>She wasObama Foundation counsel.
This wedding looks like an in person planning meeting to plan the coverup op
President Obama Officiated at a Wedding in DC This Past Weekend
Dana Remus and Brett Holmgren had a pretty memorable wedding.
Written by Hayley Garrison Phillips
| Published on January 23, 2018
Brides often worry about their bridesmaids upstaging them on their big day. For Dana Remus, general counsel for the Obama Foundation and Obama's personal office, the bridesmaids were the least of her worries: former President Barack Obama served as the officiant at her wedding.
This past Sunday, January 21, in a small wedding of approximately 120 people at District Winery, the president wed Remus and Brett Holmgren, who also worked with Obama at the White House, both as the special assistant to the President and the senior director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council Staff.
"We had decided to invite him because he was such an important part of our lives, we asked him if he could attend the wedding," recalls Brett. "We also asked him if he could officiate, and he was intrigued with the idea."
At first the couple didn't know if the scheduling would work for President Obama, and they didn't want to put him on the spot. Once the plans did work out, they also enlisted Reverend Oran Warder to speak at the service. The majority of the guests did not know that the President was going to speak until the actual ceremony, and the close family that did know was sworn to secrecy. The bride walked down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon in D, and then President Obama spoke. He'd received a temporary officiant's license through the District of Columbia. He also was a signer on their marriage certificate.
Though the former first lady Michelle Obama was invited, she was unable to attend.
"He complimented them both on their work, on the type of people they were, threw in a tiny bit of humor. He spoke about how their work has been a service to the people and how the two of them complement each other. Very very sincere remarks," recalls Mary Holmgren, Brett's mother, "it came from his heart."
In an email, Obama spokesperson Eric Schultz sends along the names of some other guests: "Susan Rice, Ian Cameron, James Clapper, Anita Dunn, Bob Bauer, Lisa Monaco, Denis McDonough, Karin Hillstrom, Anita Decker Breckenridge, Russ Breckendrige, Eric Schultz, Emily Blakemore, Sean Crotty, Stuart Murphy, Nick Mcquaid, Joe Paulsen, Samantha Tubman, Michael Bosworth, David Guggenheim, Jeff Zients, Mary Menell, Yohannes Abraham."
After the ceremony, which was upstairs at the winery, the party moved downstairs for the reception. Though President Obama was invited to stay for dinner, he only stayed long enough for a few pictures with the family before leaving. "Friends and family danced the evening away at District Winery in Navy Yards," Schultz writes.
"He stayed around a little bit for pictures with the family, but he did not want to detract from their day," says Mary Holmgren, "it was a very very exciting moment. Everybody who was there was just flabbergasted and amazed at just what a nice person he is."
For Brett and Dana, the moment was incredibly special. "We really just wanted to have an awesome party and not worry about all the little things," says Brett.
https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/01/23/president-obama-officiated-at-a-wedding-in-dc-this-past-weekend/
#16260091 at 2022-05-12 12:30:56 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20568:
>>16260056
accurate
>>16260051
>Eric Shultz
Shadow Regime member
Eric Schultz (born 1980) is an AmErican political advisor who served as Deputy White House Press Secretary in the Obama Administration from 2014 to 2017.[1][2] Recognized by Politico as the strategist "White House officials turn to in a crisisto handle communications", Schultz wasoriginally hired at the White House in 2011 to respond to congressional oversight investigations.[3]
After White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest replaced Jay Carney to become White House Press Secretary in 2014, Schultz was appointed White House Deputy Press Secretary.[9][6] In this role, Schultz often diffused "tensions with humor. But he [could] be relentless in pushing his message in both public and private conversations." [6] Former White House Communications Director Jen Psaki compared Schultz to fictional crisis manager Olivia Pope, "he's the person you want next to you in a foxhole when there's a crisis."[6] At the end of President Obama's second term, former White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett said of Schultz,"We've all grown to rely on his wise counsel" and that the President "trusts his sound judgement."[2] After Obama left office, Schultz founded Schultz Group, a public relations, crisis management, and media relations firm.[10]
Obama names Schultz as post-presidency senior adviser
By Edward-Isaac Dovere
01/19/2017 03:45 PM EST
Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged to stay active after he leaves office on Friday, and with hours ticking down on his presidency, he's named several staffers geared to doing just that.
Obama has picked Eric Schultz, currently the principal deputy press secretary at the White House, assenior adviser for his former president's office.Schultz, who's been part of Obama's staff for six years, will develop strategy for Obama's public profile, design strategies for defending his legacy and be the point person to coordinate with Hill Democrats, Obama alumni and outside groups.
"We've all grown to rely on his wise counsel," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama and his closest aide. "President Obama asked Eric to do this not only because he's a gifted communicator, but because he trusts his sound judgment. Eric has the instincts, relationships and experience to help the president manage this transition and we are all grateful he'll continue to be a key member of President Obama's team."
#16260051 at 2022-05-12 12:19:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20568:
>>16259971
>but that it was nothing compared to the way a White House spokesman named Eric Schultz had acted.
>Attkisson said he had "literally screamed at me and cussed at me" about the story,
Democrat of the Year
screaming at journalists for reporting real news and facts.
==White House spokesman Eric Schultz returns home to be honored in Syracuse=
Updated: Apr. 28, 2016, 8:29 p.m. | Published: Apr. 28, 2016, 7:29 p.m.
Eric Shultz
White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. Schultz will be honored as "Democrat of the Year" by the Onondaga County Democratic Committee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Eric Schultz, principal deputy press secretary at the White House and a DeWitt native, will be honored tonight as "Democrat of the Year" at a dinner sponsored by the Onondaga County Democratic Committee.
Schultz, 36, will headline the annual dinner at the Oncenter in Syracuse for his "commitment and years of service to the Democratic Party."
The 1998 graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School is the son of Jack and Sybil Schultz of DeWitt. Jack Schultz served as DeWitt Town Justice for 35 years before retiring at the end of 2009.
Eric Schultz has served in the No. 2 post to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest since 2014. He began his career in politics as a college student working on Hillary Clinton's first U.S. Senate campaign in New York in 2000.
Other award winners at tonight's dinner are Sheri Dozier-Owens, who serves as Central New York regional director for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli; and Lisa Sacco, district director for state Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter.
Richard Knowles, a member of the New York AFL-CIO Executive Board, also will be honored with the chair's recognition award.
Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
#16259971 at 2022-05-12 12:00:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20568:
>>16259838
>help them see the patterns
>>16259919
>Just some Eric Holder perjury
muh conspiracy theory
if you look at where this story has come,
back in feb ish the whistleblower, an ATF agent, was the only one saying by name what happened. Fast & Furious
And DOJ and everybody else painted him as some sort of strange liar outlier not telling the truth.
we've now gone from there, one guy saying it happened, topretty much everybody admitting it happened.
Sharyl Attkisson the 'ONLY reporter not being reasonable' about Fast and Furious
Neo / October 5, 2011
A reporter for CBS claimed that White House and Department of Justice officials screamed and cursed at her due to a story she was pursuing about the controversial DOJ program known as "Fast and Furious."
Attkisson told Laura Ingraham that,when she broke a damning story about the operation, she got extremely aggressive pushback from the Obama administration. She said that a DOJ spokeswoman named Tracy Schmaler had yelled at her on Monday about the story, but that it was nothing compared to the way a White House spokesman named Eric Schultz had acted.
Attkisson said he had "literally screamed at me and cussed at me" about the story, and that the White House also told her that she was the only reporter not being "reasonable" about the issue.
#13456079 at 2021-04-18 21:16:40 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17045: Anons Are Love And Light - A New Beginning Edition
BOOMERANG SUICIDE?
Anons have likely heard the Xiden admin's intel agencies new claim that Konstantin Kilimnik is a Russian spy and so therefore there was collusion because Manafort gave him some polling data.
Anons also likely know who John Solomon is and how much great work he has done exposing the treasonous actions of the Obama admin, the FBI and CIA.
In this piece from last year Solomon outlines how Kilmnik worked very closely with the Obama admin on Ukraine policy when China Joe was point man for Ukraine.
-How is it possible that Kilmnik is a spy if the Obama admin was in near constant contact with him for years?-
These people are truly stupid.
Part one of three
Ukrainian flagged as intel danger to Trump had extensive contact with Obama officials, memos show
In December 2015, the Obama State Department and its ambassador in Kiev were upset over a negative story about then-Vice President Joe Biden ahead of his visit to Ukraine. So a U.S. embassy official turned to a "sensitive source" for help.
"Thank you very much for looking into this and very sorry to ask," U.S. embassy official Alexander "Sasha" Kasanof wrote businessman Konstantin Kilimnik in a Dec. 6, 2015 email obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators and reviewed by Just the News. "Ambassador very unhappy about the article, though agree it stinks to me to (sic) of people we know very well."
A few lines later, Kasanof's email offered Kilimnik some valuable inside skinny about the Obama administration's assessment of a sensitive meeting between indicted fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Dmitri Firtash's associate Yuriy Boyko and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. "I thought Boyko did quite well, in fact," Kasanof wrote. "Don't know that he convinced Nuland on everything (incl. DF intentions), but his performance was much less Soviet and better than I thought would be. So job well done!"
File
Kasanof-Kilimnik (12-06-2015).PDF
In addition to treating him as a valuable political intelligence source, State officials often shared their private insights with Kilimnik, a Ukrainian consultant close to the AmErican lobbyist Paul Manafort, according to numerous communications obtained by Just the News. For instance, Eric Schultz, a former U.S. embassy official in Ukraine who by 2016 had become U.S. ambassador to Zambia, gave his frank personal assessment after President Obama named Marie Yovanovitch to be the new chief U.S. diplomat in Kiev and George Kent to be her top deputy.
"He's ok i think - though yes, very pro-Ukraine," Schultz wrote of Kent in an email from his personal Gmail account in May 2016 to Kilimnik, using mostly lower-case letters. As for Yovanovitch, Schultz added: "she's not (doesn't handle pressure and can be difficult) but then she might be more Russian oriented than you realize. she never learned Ukrainian when she was in kyiv before but speaks good Russian."
File
SchultzKilimnicMay2016.pdf
Ordinarily, such discussions would raise little interest in everyday AmErica. But it turns out Kilimnik is no ordinary contact: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week described Kilimnik as a Russian intelligence officer in its final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Continued…
#12801116 at 2021-02-02 18:10:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #16340: Scrape Notables Edition
White House asks reporters to submit questions ahead of daily press briefings: 'Not really a free press'
According to the Daily Beast, Biden's communications department has requested that reporters submit their questions to the White House staff in advance of press secretary Jen Psaki's daily briefings, presumably to avoid being scrutinized by reporters with difficult questions.
The issue was reportedly discussed during a White House Correspondents Association meeting last Friday.
Reporters are allegedly upset over the White House's request, fearing it plays into the perception of coordination between the West Wing and media.
"That's not really a free press at all," one White House reporter said, according to the Daily Beast.
"While it's a relief to see briefings return, particularly with a commitment to factual information, the press can't really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is picking and choosing the questions they want," the reporter added.
Indeed, WHCA leaders instructed to reporters to either "push back" against the requests or not comply altogether.
What's the background?
In contrast to the Trump administration, which jettisoned daily White House press briefings almost completely, Biden and his communications team promised to restore the daily briefings and have thus far delivered on that promise.
What did the White House say?
Biden's administration claimed that asking reporters for their questions ahead of time is not an attempt to dodge questions, but rather to understand the pulse of reporting on any given day.
"Our goal is to make the daily briefing as useful and informative as possible for both reporters and the public," a spokesperson told the Daily Beast. "Part of meeting that objective means regularly engaging with the reporters who will be in the briefing room to understand how the White House can be most helpful in getting them the information they need. That two-way conversation is an important part of keeping the AmErican people updated about how government is serving them."
Anything else?
Meanwhile, Eric Schultz, who served as a deputy press secretary in the Obama administration, claimed the Biden communication team's request is fairly normal, allowing staff adequate time to prepare for the daily briefing.
"This is textbook communications work. The briefing becomes meaningless if the press secretary has to repeatedly punt questions, instead of coming equipped to discuss what journalists are reporting on," Schultz told the Daily Beast. "In a non-COVID environment, this would happen in casual conversations throughout the day in lower and upper press. One of the few upsides to reporters hovering over your desk all day, is that you get a very quick sense of what they're working on."
http://www.tathasta.com/2021/02/white-house-asks-reporters-to-submit.html
#10409753 at 2020-08-25 03:39:22 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13322: From Cotton To Congress In One Lifetime Edition
Ukrainian flagged as intel danger to Trump had extensive contact with Obama officials, memos show
Obama State Department considered Konstantin Kilimnik a 'sensitive source,' Senate report now identifies him as Russian intel officer.
In December 2015, the Obama State Department and its ambassador in Kiev were upset over a negative story about then-Vice President Joe Biden ahead of his visit to Ukraine. So a U.S. embassy official turned to a "sensitive source" for help.
"Thank you very much for looking into this and very sorry to ask," U.S. embassy official Alexander "Sasha" Kasanof wrote businessman Konstantin Kilimnik in a Dec. 6, 2015 email obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators and reviewed by Just the News. "Ambassador very unhappy about the article, though agree it stinks to me to (sic) of people we know very well."
A few lines later, Kasanof's email offered Kilimnik some valuable inside skinny about the Obama administration's assessment of a sensitive meeting between indicted fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Dmitri Firtash's associate Yuriy Boyko and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. "I thought Boyko did quite well, in fact," Kasanof wrote. "Don't know that he convinced Nuland on everything (incl. DF intentions), but his performance was much less Soviet and better than I thought would be. So job well done!"
File
Kasanof-Kilimnik (12-06-2015).PDF
In addition to treating him as a valuable political intelligence source, State officials often shared their private insights with Kilimnik, a Ukrainian consultant close to the AmErican lobbyist Paul Manafort, according to numerous communications obtained by Just the News. For instance, Eric Schultz, a former U.S. embassy official in Ukraine who by 2016 had become U.S. ambassador to Zambia, gave his frank personal assessment after President Obama named Marie Yovanovitch to be the new chief U.S. diplomat in Kiev and George Kent to be her top deputy.
"He's ok i think - though yes, very pro-Ukraine," Schultz wrote of Kent in an email from his personal Gmail account in May 2016 to Kilimnik, using mostly lower-case letters. As for Yovanovitch, Schultz added: "she's not (doesn't handle pressure and can be difficult) but then she might be more Russian oriented than you realize. she never learned Ukrainian when she was in kyiv before but speaks good Russian."
File
SchultzKilimnicMay2016.pdf
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/ukrainian-flagged-spy-danger-trump-had-extensive-contact
1/2
#7539647 at 2019-12-17 23:50:57 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #9644: Wheels In Motion Edition
>>7539537
WW stands for Weekend Wedding
Guest list had Clapper and Rice and a bunch of others, including Bob Bauer
In an email, Obama spokesperson Eric Schultz sends along the names of some other guests: "Susan Rice, Ian Cameron, James Clapper, Anita Dunn, Bob Bauer, Lisa Monaco, Denis McDonough, Karin Hillstrom, Anita Decker Breckenridge, Russ Breckendrige, Eric Schultz, Emily Blakemore, Sean Crotty, Stuart Murphy, Nick Mcquaid, Joe Paulsen, Samantha Tubman, Michael Bosworth, David Guggenheim, Jeff Zients, Mary Menell, Yohannes Abraham."
https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/01/23/president-obama-officiated-at-a-wedding-in-dc-this-past-weekend/
#6770736 at 2019-06-17 14:05:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8660: Trust Q's Plan Edition
For over two years MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was the mainstream media's queen of promoting the conspiracy of Russian collusion, connecting countless dots with no real connection. Like any true conspiracy theorist, she hasn't revised any of her beliefs since the Mueller report imploded the core of her thesis.
While the likes of Maddow will never adjust their beliefs to evidence, it is amusing to revisit just how wrong many of her "bombshells" were. One man she devoted a large chunk of her show to on June 8th of last year was Konstantin Kilimnik, a man she saw as central to Paul Manafort's guilt. "Today the case marked United States of AmErica versus Paul J. Manafort Jr., became United States of AmErica versus Paul J. Manafort Jr. and Konstantin Kilimnik" she opined, trying to connect the two as proof of Russian collusion.
She further explained that "now that Manafort is charged in a joint indictment alongside Russian citizen Konstantin Kilimnik, this prosecution and the investigation that goes along with it could no longer be stopped simply by Trump pardoning Manafort. To stop this part of the investigation, Trump would also have to pardon Konstantin Kilimnik, Russian citizen, a Russian intelligence operative. And I know Trump`s willing to push the envelope, but that seems unlikely."
Now Kilimnik's name it popping up again - but not in the way that Maddow and company would expect. According to The Hill's John Solomon:
In a key finding of the Mueller report, Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is tied to Russian intelligence.
But hundreds of pages of government documents - which special counsel Robert Mueller possessed since 2018 - describe Kilimnik as a "sensitive" intelligence source for the U.S. State Department who informed on Ukrainian and Russian matters.
Kilimnik's past State Department ties are not mentioned in Mueller's report despite the fact that he was a "sensitive" intelligence source for them since 2013.
Kilimnik was not just any run-of-the-mill source, either. He interacted with the chief political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, sometimes meeting several times a week to provide information on the Ukraine government. He relayed messages back to Ukraine's leaders and delivered written reports to U.S. officials via emails that stretched on for thousands of words, the memos show. The FBI knew all of this, well before the Mueller investigation concluded.Alan Purcell, the chief political officer at the Kiev embassy from 2014 to 2017, told FBI agents that State officials, including senior embassy officials Alexander Kasanof and Eric Schultz, deemed Kilimnik to be such a valuable asset that they kept his name out of cables for fear he would be compromised by leaks to WikiLeaks.
Some of the information that Kilimnik provided the State Department included intel on Ukraine's opposition bloc.
Kilimnik began his relationship as an informant with the U.S. deputy chief of mission in 2012-13, before being handed off to the embassy's political office.State officials told the FBI that although Kilimnik had Ukrainian and Russian residences, he did not appear to hold any allegiance to Moscow and was critical of Russia's invasion of the Crimean territory of Ukraine.
So why did none of this information make it into the Mueller report? Because it would've been impossible to portray Kilimnik as a Russian agent had the truth been included.
https:
//bongino.com/oops-maddows-favorite-russian-connection-turns-out-to-be/
#5269722 at 2019-02-19 21:27:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6734: We Must Rise Edition
Obama Offers No Endorsement But Advises 2020 Dem Candidates on How to Beat Trump
After months of meetings with Democratic candidates, the former US President is still holding back on giving his direct support to any of the candidates until the party nominee is determined; however, he still gives advice as to how to beat Donald Trump in 2020.
Barack Obama has already met with more than a dozen declared and prospective candidates for the Democratic primaries, from Bernie Sanders to Mike Bloomberg, yet no candidate has received his direct lobbying, according to the New York Times. Even former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. does not expect to obtain Obama's backing if he decides to run, according to Biden's allies.
The ex-President, however, reportedly continues to shape the candidates' strategy by giving them advice on how to counter current President Trump in the upcoming primaries. During these informal conversations, usually held at his office in Washington, Obama has offered a combination of supportive advice and warnings, cautioning that running for president is a more punishing process than they could ever imagine, according to seven people who are aware of the topics discussed at the meetings.
According to these sources, Obama has urged candidates to push back against Trump's suggestion that substantial economic improvement has occurred during his presidency and suggested that they try and deliver a competing message that can resonate even in Republican-leaning areas, among rural voters and communities that tend to distrust Democrats.
"President Obama counsels candidates to always show up and make their case even in areas or in front of audiences they may not necessarily win; express views and positions that reflect their genuine beliefs, and share a positive vision for the country true to their own personal story," said Eric Schultz, Obama's senior adviser.
He has also encouraged candidates not to get too personal in the primary, fearing that attacks between Democrats over their program disagreements would help Trump in the general election.
This is not the first time Obama has tried to influence future elections or has given advice to potential candidates. Earlier during the midterm elections, Obama reportedly was counselling Democrats to focus on everyday issues, rather than the Russia investigation.
Don't chase shiny objects, don't hyperventilate over the flash of any tweet. Think about what's going to stick in the long term, he told Democrats, cited by Politico.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201902201072573847-obama-advice-democrats-how-beat-trump/
#2080235 at 2018-07-08 14:52:08 (UTC+1)
Q Research #2623: Baby Khan Counterpunch Edition
>>2079910
NEW RABBIT HOLE - ARRA
$3.9 Billion In Department Of Energy Stimulus Grants And Awards Were Directed To 21 Companies With Ties To The Obama Administration.
1. Sanjay Wagle firm Vantage Point Venture Partners renamed Vantage Point Capital Partners and head 'Clean Tech for Obama' group >>>O Dept of Energy
2. …" David Danielson, would help ensure commercial successes from "the steady flow of dollars coming out of D.C." Danielson, formerly of General Catalyst >>>> O Dept of Energy
3. David Sandalow, a former Clinton administration official and Brookings Institution fellow did consulting work for a venture capital firm, Good Energies. Good Energies-backed firm, SolarReserve, won a $737 million agency loan.>>>>>O Dept. of Energy
4. Steven J. Spinner, a former ENERGY department loan adviser who disclosed that his wife worked for Wilson Sonsini, a Silicon Valley law firm that handled funding applications for several clean-tech companies. Wilson Sonsini's clean-tech clients reaped $2.75 billion in Department of Energy grants and financing, the Post analysis found.
5. Steve Westly, an Obama fundraising bundler for both his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, is a founder of the venture firm Westly Group and served part time on Energy Secretary Steven Chu's advisory board.
"As is evident from the 10-month long congressional investigation into Solyndra, Energy Department loans and grants are decided on the merits," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.
sauce:
Federal funds flow to clean-energy firms with Obama administration ties
https://poe.house.gov/in-the-news?ID=76665B52-0242-4481-82C6-5D8AF018BB90
#1204734 at 2018-04-27 03:21:40 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1508: Vital To Get Right Edition
White House guests
By Al Kamen
Washington Post
Wed, May 23, 2012
If access is power, which Cabinet secretary has it - and, perhaps more interesting, which doesn't?
In The Washington Post's database of the White House visitor logs, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta shows up as a visitor
to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the least. One reason is that he has been on the job for less than a year.
And we should note that the database covering guests to the White House complex doesn't show us every visit (these
bigwigs most often get waved in, or their visits might be logged under a variant of their names).
Moving up the list, Energy Secretary Steven Chu shows up on the logs a mere 14 times - and he has been with
President Obama from the beginning of his administration. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has dropped by no
more than 18 times during Obama's tenure, the logs show, and Interior Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood each clock in at 21.
Attorney General Eric Holder is the most frequent Cabinet-level guest, according to the database, logging 42 visits. He's
followed by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner at 40 and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at 33.
Make an interesting finding of your own while searching through the visitor logs? Let us know on Twitter with the
hashtag #whitehouseguests.
To: Al Kamen
To: Kevin Merida
To: Washington Post Corrections
Cc: Dan Pfeiffer
Cc: Eric Schultz
Cc: Tommy Vietor
Cc: Jenni LeCompte
Cc: George Little
Subject: #s
Sent: May 23, 2012 11:31 AM
Al - This is one of those notes I wish I didn't have to write. But I do. Because even though I'm trying to let more roll off my back these days, your item is so egregiously inaccurate, deceptive, and nonsensical that I can't bite my tongue. Your numbers are off by a magnitude of 20 to 30. Not merely off by 20 to 30. By a MAGNITUDE of 20 to 30. When you saw those numbers you honestly believed that Secretary Geithner has only been there 40 times in 40 months? Or Secretary Clinton 33 times? No alarm bells went off? It completely flies in the face of common sense. They aren't tourists who have to produce a drivers license when they go through the visitors center. They are cabinet secretaries who come and go constantly. Whatever methodology you relied on is about as accurate as saying that President Obama has never left or re-entered the White House because it's not logged in WAVES. And your inadequate parenthetical caveat makes me think you knew something was off. I don't even understand what "variant of their names" means. Someone's habitually misspelling Clinton a Crinton, or thinks her full name is Harriet Clinton? I'm left wondering why you just didn't ask for correct numbers. If you had, I would have told you that through yesterday, Secretary Clinton's number is actually 681. Now, to be fair, it's possible that 642 of those times she left the building, told us she was headed to the WH, but went to Starbucks instead. She's slippery that way. But discounting that possibility, you're off by a factor of 20. If your own *factchecker* reviewed this item, you'd be lucky to get off with only three dozen Pinocchios. So I'm sure the Post, in an effort to adhere to your own lofty standards, is anxious to correct the record here - either formally, or in your next column - to address this gross deception of your own readers. UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05797541 Date: 01/29/2016 If that's not the case, please do let us know as I'm sure another outlet - such as Politico - would be interested in writing about the true facts. Philippe
#914400 at 2018-04-06 04:18:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1136: Youre welcome for the prayers Edition
An investigation has been opened into the cause of the accident, which was the third U.S. military aircraft crash this week.
Four crew members were killed when a Marine CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed Tuesday in California during a training mission along the U.S.-Mexico border west of El Centro. The Marine Corps identified the four members on Thursday.
The same day, a Marine Harrier jet crashed during takeoff from an airport in the East African nation of Djibouti. The pilot ejected ad was medically evaluated.
In September, a U.S. Air Force pilot, Lt. Col. Eric Schultz, died of injuries after a crash on the training range at Nellis, about 100 miles northwest of the base. He was assigned to a military command that conducts research and weapon system tests. Officials did not disclose the type of aircraft Schultz had been piloting.
https:// www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elite-thunderbird-pilot-killed-f-16-fighter-jet-crash-nevada-n862866
8kun Midnight Riders Posts (1)
#119356 at 2022-02-13 18:22:56 (UTC+1)
QR Midnight Riders #619: No Bants Gunna Stop the Flow of Info Edition
>>119354
https://web.archive.org/web/20180913183518/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/al-gore-has-thrived-as-green-tech-investor/2012/10/10/1dfaa5b0-0b11-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html?utm_term=.00a0de2fb3ae
Before a rapt audience, Al Gore flashed slides on a giant screen bearing the logos of 11 clean energy companies he predicted could help slow climate change.
"We can't wait. .?.?. We have a planetary emergency," the former vice president told industry leaders and scientists at the 2008 conference. "Here are just a few of the investments that I personally think make sense."
Today, several of those clean tech firms are thriving, including a solar energy start-up and a Spanish utility company that has dotted rural AmErica with hundreds of wind turbines.
Al Gore is thriving, too.
The man who was within sight of the presidency 12 years ago has transformed himself, becoming perhaps the world's most renowned crusader on climate change and a highly successful green-tech investor.
VIEW GRAPHIC
Gore's green investments
Just before leaving public office in 2001, Gore reported assets of less than $2 million; today, his wealth is estimated at $100 million.
Gore charted this path by returning to his longtime passion - clean energy. He benefited from a powerful resume and a constellation of friends in the investment world and in Washington. And four years ago, his portfolio aligned smoothly with the agenda of an incoming administration and its plan to spend billions in stimulus funds on alternative energy.
The recovering politician was pushing the right cause at the perfect time.
Fourteen green-tech firms in which Gore invested received or directly benefited from more than $2.5 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks, part of President Obama's historic push to seed a U.S. renewable-energy industry with public money.
Over the course of his metamorphosis, Gore became an environmentalist hero with release of his award-winning film and book warning of carbon emissions dangerously overheating the planet. He founded an investment firm devoted in part to backing green-minded companies and later partnered with a leading venture capital firm to invest in clean energy start-ups.
"We have work to do!" Gore recently exhorted an audience while showing his trademark slide show about melting polar ice caps and the urgent need to stop burning so much oil and gas.
That declaration, his friends say, captures his obsession - he's unable to rest in his self-appointed mission to save the planet.
"Maybe there's someone as knowledgeable and passionate about climate change. I just haven't met that person," said Orin Kramer, a leading New York hedge fund manager, friend of Gore and top Democratic campaign bundler. "His schedule is intensely busy, and my sense is he lives a life that profoundly reflects his values and passions."
In building his new career, Gore's name has become ensnared in a broader criticism from Republicans, who put him among political allies they say the Obama administration has unjustly enriched with stimulus and clean-energy funding.
In last week's presidential debate, Romney criticized the $90 billion that went to promote green technology, saying a number of businesses owned by Obama campaign contributors were winners.
Gore declined to be interviewed, but spokeswoman Betsy McManus said he had not asked the administration for support for any companies in which he had invested. "For almost 40 years, he has consistently advocated for the rapid deployment of renewable energy and other sustainability technologies," she said. "His investments are consistent with his beliefs."
White House officials have rejected charges of favoritism.
"These are merit-based decisions made by professionals with the relevant policy expertise," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.
One of the rare times Gore addressed the questions, at a congressional hearing in 2009, Republicans had suggested that Obama's agenda appeared destined to help him become the nation's first "carbon billionaire."
Gore bristled when Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked if he stood to profit from his investments and political connections.
"I believe that the transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us, and I have invested in it," he said. "And, congresswoman, if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed, you don't know me."
Gore 2.0
Gore, 63, divides most of his time now between his home in Nashville and a St. Regis tower apartment in San Francisco, where he can visit his West Coast investment partnership and see his new girlfriend, an environmental activist. (He and his wife of 40 years, Tipper, separated two years ago. She lives in the $8.9 million mansion they bought in 2010 outside Santa Barbara.)
His schedule includes international travel as well, often delivering speeches for fees that have reached as high as $175,000.
It is a huge shift from a decade ago, when Gore was considered a Washington lifer. The Tennessean was largely raised in the nation's capital as the son of a U.S. senator. As his father had hoped, Albert Arnold Gore Jr. went on to serve in office for 24 years: 16 years in Congress and eight as vice president under President Bill Clinton.
His loss to George W. Bush in 2000 was personally devastating, and Gore went into a kind of mourning, friends say.
"The way he coped with the 2000 disaster was to throw himself into this new work," said Elaine Kamarck, a former Clinton aide and friend of Gore who was chief policy adviser on his 2000 campaign. "He just didn't lick his wounds and go away."
Gore eventually turned the painful experience into a punchline. He didn't miss a beat when a conference organizer in 2008 confessed it "hurts" to think of the environmental agenda that could have been, if only Gore had won.
"You have no idea," he said in a deep baritone of mock grief.
By then, Gore had won a Nobel Prize and Oscar for his 2006 book and movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." Supporters had begun hailing him as the single most effective spokesman on the threat of climate change.
With his prize winnings, Gore created the Alliance for Climate Protection, an advocacy group that ran ads warning of looming climate change. In the process, he gained high-placed admirers and business associates in Silicon Valley.
Gore entered the investment world full time by co-founding Generation Investment Management, a London-based investment firm. He was the type of high-profile partner sought by Goldman Sachs executive David Blood, who had headed Goldman's $325 billion asset management division and was looking to start a new firm. The pair launched GIM in 2004 to back companies focused on sustainability, including clean energy, water scarcity and poverty.
GIM also invested in established companies such as Colgate Palmolive and John Deere, as well as medical technology, Internet and other businesses. Within three years, the firm was managing $1 billion.
Gore also found himself to be a sought-after star among elite Silicon Valley investors. In late 2007, he became a senior investment partner at one of the world's most successful venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins. He was combining forces with longtime friend John Doerr in a joint mission to spur clean tech.
Doerr had won legendary status at Kleiner by betting early on the meteoric rise of Internet start-ups Google and Amazon. But by 2007, he had switched his bets to green energy and vowed to raise $500 million to invest in what he called the next "mother of all markets."
Gore and Doerr began comparing notes about start-ups with promise in renewable energy, including biofuels, advanced batteries and solar.
His friends and colleagues say Gore is relishing his new role and has remarked that he feels lucky to be doing something he loves and enjoying financial success.
Kramer, who serves on Gore's climate change advocacy group, said he has watched with amazement as Gore debates obscure research with a room full of scientists.
"He knows the studies they're citing and the three other studies which shed a different light on it," Kramer said.
Washington ties
Eight years after losing the presidential race, with Bush in the final stretch of his administration, Gore was working hard to build support in Washington for his cause. By then a rising green investor, he was keenly focused on shaping policy should a Democrat win in 2008.
Before the election, Gore launched a public campaign known as "Repower AmErica," aimed at encouraging the public and the next administration to support government investments in clean energy. His Alliance for Climate Protection was running numerous ads, and he delivered speeches laying out his goal that, within 10 years, 100 percent of the nation's electricity should come from clean energy.
"The future of human civilization is at stake," Gore said in a 2008 speech, stressing that such projects would create jobs.
At the same time, Gore's venture partner, Doerr, had been raising money for Democrats to take back the White House, holding big-check receptions with Silicon Valley investors. He and fellow Kleiner partners and spouses donated more than $800,000 to Democrats, much of it for Obama and state efforts to get out the vote.
At GIM, five of Gore's principals, including co-founder David Blood, wrote $130,000 in checks to aid Obama's bid, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
As Obama was preparing to take office, it was clear his public agenda supporting clean energy aligned with Gore's personal agenda. Obama held a highly publicized meeting with Gore at transition headquarters in Chicago to talk about energy policy. Later, Obama closely echoed several of Gore's talking points and his plan for public investment in clean energy. Obama even adopted Gore's campaign catchphrase for the effort, "Repower AmErica."
"This is a matter of urgency and national security," Obama said. "We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country in all 50 states to repower AmErica, to redesign how we use energy and .?.?. make us competitive for decades to come - even as we save the planet."
Gore's orbit extended deeply into the administration, with several former aides winning senior clean-energy posts. Among them were Carol Browner, a former Gore political operative who became the president's climate change czar, and Ron Klain, Gore's former chief of staff who went to work for Vice President Biden overseeing the stimulus.
Those connections were underscored in October 2009, when Jonathan Silver, under consideration to head the $38 billion ?clean-energy loan program, hosted a party to help Gore raise money for the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Silver invited the Department of Energy's chief financial officer, days before the official was scheduled to meet Silver to discuss the job.
"At the risk of seeming presumptuous, I want to mention that my wife and I are holding a small event for Al Gore at our home this coming Thursday evening," Silver wrote in an e-mail. "I expect there will be about 40 people or so, generally folks we know who are interested in this issue and have the capacity to write significant checks and a couple of others with professional involvement in the topic."
Help for a portfolio
Gore's investments coincided with the government's largest investment in clean tech. A full 10 percent, estimated at $80 billion to $90 billion, of the 2009 stimulus package was devoted to clean energy.
Like thousands of other companies, those Gore invested in entered the competition for a piece of the pie. (An administration official said more than 80 percent of applicants the first year were turned away.) Several companies in Gore's portfolio emerged as winners. Of the 11 companies he mentioned in his 2008 slide show, nine received or directly benefited from stimulus or clean energy funding.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee and is a leading critic of clean tech funding, said Gore's portfolio "is reflective of a disturbing pattern that those closest to the president have been rewarded with billions of taxpayer dollars .?.?. and benefited from the administration's green bonanza in the rush to spend stimulus cash."
Department of Energy officials have noted that many of the funds that went to companies Gore invested in were available to all eligible firms, and some had won funding from the Bush administration.
"Decisions about the competitively awarded grants and loans were made on the merits by career civil servants after a careful review of the applications," said Dan Leistikow, director of public affairs at the Department of Energy, which administered the awards.
Gore appeared well-positioned. Generation Investment Management saw its earnings quadruple from 2008 to 2009, although there is no way to know how much can be tied to federal support. GIM reported earnings of $51 million in 2009 available to Gore and his nine partners.
But some of the firms in Gore's portfolio have struggled since winning federal funds. For others, the money was a major boon.
Iberdrola Renovables, a wind subsidiary largely owned by the Spanish electricity giant Iberdrola, received $1.5 billion for 20 wind farms it built across the United States.
The company benefited from a program that had been reshaped by the Obama transition team to award cash grants to defray construction costs for renewable energy plants. The grants, available to any eligible builder, replaced tax credits that had become worthless in the financial crisis. With early warning from the Obama team, Iberdrola and other developers could time construction and qualify for the cash for some plants largely built in 2008 - before Obama took office.
GIM had invested modest amounts in Iberdrola Renovables in early 2008 but began dramatically increasing its holdings in early 2009, eventually owning 4.2 million shares.
GIM officials declined to comment, citing their policy not to publicly discuss investment strategies.
Iberdrola spokeswoman Jan Johnson credited the Obama program as a savior that came "just in time," helping the company avoid halting construction that was underway in 2008.
The company now has 40 renewable energy plants operating in the United States, and its parent is the world's largest provider of wind energy.
GIM also invested in Johnson Controls, a long-established Milwaukee company that in August 2009 won the largest award - $299 million - in a $2.4 billion program Obama had launched to help firms making electric car batteries.
Gore's investment firm had earlier invested modestly in the company, then ramped up its holdings in late 2008 and held 5.6 million shares by 2009.
The grant to Johnson Controls was meant to help retrofit one plant and build another. But the company has dramatically scaled back, after executives concluded demand for electric cars was far lower than the administration forecast. The factory outfitted with stimulus funds is nearly idle, and plans to build a second plant have been postponed.
Johnson Controls Vice President Alex Molinaroli stressed that the company has tapped just half of the funds it was awarded. He said the program helped build the foundation for a U.S. electric battery industry that could compete internationally when demand picks up.
"We'll have to wait a long time to see if this was a good investment or not," Molinaroli told the Post in 2011.
The company's decision to pull back, however, will not affect GIM's portfolio. When the investment firm doubled its holdings, shares were as low as $9; GIM sold them from April to December 2009, with prices running from $21 to $26.
Gore's support for companies that also won federal funds is a natural alignment of interests, his friends and partners said. Gore chose to invest in firms with promising technologies, they said, and it makes sense that the administration would choose some of the same firms in hopes of backing successful companies.
"Is he better than average" at picking the best companies, Kamarck asked. "Of course he is. Why is that a surprise? He's spent his life studying this sector."
Alice Crites contributed to this article.
8chan/8kun CBTS Posts (1)
#34242 at 2017-12-05 03:37:03 (UTC+1)
CBTS General #38 - We Are The Storm
Why did she initiate this? Oct 14, 2016 from NYP.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren picked a new fight on Friday, calling for the ouster of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White.
In a letter sent to President Obama, Warren (D-Mass.) said she wanted to see the regulator demoted from chair to commissioner.
Presidents cannot fire SEC chairs but can demote them to a commissioner and then elevate a commissioner to chair.
Warren feels White's SEC has ignored its "core mission of investor protection" by not enacting rules that would require public companies to disclose their political spending.
Last month, Warren picked apart Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf during a Senate hearing - calling for him to resign.
Warren's letter regarding White was not exactly met with cheers at the White House.
"The president continues to believe that Chair White is the right leader for the [SEC]," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday.
The timing of Warren's request was unusual, given that Obama has only three months left in his term.
Commissioners typically resign from their post during a change in administrations.
The SEC declined to comment.