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A Tale of Three Foundations: Carter, Clinton and Trump
Seen the latest front-page Jimmy Carter Center scandal? Hear about the six figure fees speaking former president Jimmy Carter pulls in from shady companies and foreign governments? An oil painting of himself he bought with charity money? Maybe not.
Take a moment to Google Jimmy Carter. Now do the same for Bill Clinton. The search results tell the tale of two former presidents, one determined to use his status honorably, the other seeking exploitation for personal benefit. And then throw in Donald Trump, who of course wants to someday be a former president. Each man has his own charitable foundation. Let’s compare them.Three charitable organizations enter, only one emerges with honor. Let’s do this!
CarterCarter’s presidency carries an uneven legacy. Yet his prescient but unwelcome 1979 warning that the country suffered a crisis of confidence, preventing Americans from uniting to solve tough problems, anticipated the faux bravado of Reagan’s “Morning in America.”
Many feel Carter has been a better ex-president than he was a president. His Carter Center focuses on impactful but unglamorous issues such as Guinea worm disease. When Carter left office, the disease afflicted 3.5 million people, mostly in Africa. Now it’s expected to be only the second disease, after smallpox, to ever be eradicated worldwide.
Carter, 90, still donates a week of his time each year to Habitat for Humanity. Not a photo-op, Carter goes out without the media in tow and hammers nails. Carter also tirelessly monitors elections in nascent democracies, lending his stature as a statesman to that work over 100 times already. Summing up his own term in office, Carter said “We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. We never went to war.”
He is the last president since 1977 who can make that claim.
ClintonBill Clinton pushed the NAFTA agreement through, seen now by many as a mistake that cost American jobs. He pointlessly bombed Iraq and sent troops into Somalia (see Blackhawk Down.) Clinton’s legacy most of all is his having an oral affair with an intern, then fibbing about it, and then ending up one of only two American presidents ever impeached as a result.
As a former president, Clinton is nothing if not true to his unstatesman-like form. Bill makes six-figure speeches to businesses seeking influence within the U.S. government, earning as much as $50 million during his wife’s term as secretary of state alone. He used a shell company to hide some of the income.
His own charity, humbly known as the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Global Foundation, is a two billion dollar financial tangle. It spent in 2013 the same amount of money on travel expenses for Bill and his family as it did on charitable grants. Instead of volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, Bill takes his big donors on executive safaris to Africa. Many of those same donors also give generously to the Hillary Clinton campaign and its constellation of PACs.
TrumpTrump refuses to be very specific about who his charity donates to. We know its off-shoot, the Eric Trump charity, donated to a wine industry association, a plastic surgeon gifting nose jobs to kids and an artist who painted a portrait of Donald Trump. Trump-owned golf resorts received $880,000 for hosting Trump charity events.
Reports show Trump donated money from his foundation to conservative influencers ahead of his presidential bid, effectively using funds intended for charity to support his own political ambitions. The New York Attorney General ordered Donald Trump’s charity to immediately halt fundraising in the state, following reports that it had not submitted to routine audits.
Voters should judge a candidate not just on examples of past competency, but with an eye toward the core things that really matter: character, values, honesty, humility and selflessness. Perhaps this tale of two presidents and a wanna be has a lesson in it for 2016.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Mitch said...
1Peter,
Soooo……. You like President Carter……… Too ???
You left out a couple things about him, though….
Such as, just an example………. His Nobel Peace Prize….. That was actually earned…..
And….
Sometime, you need to allow scan pictures to be posted to your comments section, ( yes,I realize that can of worms that would be…)
Because…… If you allowed scans…… I could show everyone a letter I have….. A letter I wrote to President Carter…. About 15 years ago……almost 20 years now…
It starts with…
Sir,
I was a child when you were president, and, frankly, what I remember is the jokes…….(etc, etc, etc,)
It ends with, …..
Sir, Thank you for being a hero to the world, and thank you for showing mankind, what we are supposed to be like.
…..
Here’s the punch line……… HOLY SHIT……
President Jimmy Carter…… Wrote BACK!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a simple little note on my original letter…..
” Thank you, no one normal has ever told me I’ve done a good job, best wishes, Jimmy”
I’m nobody to that man…. At the time, a single father, living in california, working too much, and fighting with a mortgage company…..
And……. President Carter wrote back…….
Got involved with Habitat because of that letter. Met him Lousisna. He said he remembered the letter. The stories about him swinging a hammer are true.
Saw a story about a Habitat project in NJ. He apparently climbed up on a roof to find out who was singing, while swinging a hammer….
Apparently, he tapped the man on the shoulder….
The Man turned…… ” Holy Shit!!!! Mr.President!!!! ”
Carter….. ” Holy Shit !!!! Jon Bon Jovi !!!!!”
In my way of thinking…. That is how Presidents, and former Presidents are SUPPOSED to act !!!
( and yes, Pitchfork, and gave him a little bit of shit about his presidency in the letter. )( no one will ever accuse me of being two faced )
M
11/7/16 6:39 AM | Comment Link
Helen Marshall said...
2Lovely story Mitch…
Does either Bush even bother to set up a shell foundation?
11/7/16 10:19 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
3Helen,
He’s a pretty awesome man.
Neither of them that I know of.
Lady Laura, though….. She’s pretty awesome too.
Around Dallas area, she’s a common sight. I work with the homeless shelters quite a bit.
Common to have her come in and lend a hand.
Always call her “Lady Laura”. She always blushes.
M
11/7/16 10:47 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
4PS.
Lady Laura,
As in Lady Laura Bush.
What a First Lady should be like.
M
11/7/16 10:49 AM | Comment Link
Helen Marshall said...
5Mitch, I only wish that she were not sleeping with a war criminal. How she stayed married to him all these years…
Oh well.
11/7/16 11:34 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
6Same here. Same here.
M
11/7/16 12:18 PM | Comment Link
lindaj said...
7Okay, maybe Carter never went to war, but he sure helped some other people carry them out. ‘Member the Shah? Made war on his own people. ‘Member East Timor? Marcos of the Philippines? http://fair.org/media-beat-column/jimmy-carter-and-human-rights-behind-the-media-myth/
I’m willing to say he is working on redemption, but his presidency did not even try to eliminate violence.
11/7/16 12:48 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
8bartender… two sixpacks of Carter beer to go. Great stuff. Btw, pour that crap Clinton/Bush shit down the drain. It’s been on the shelf for 10 yrs. Nobody buys their shit. Stinks. Rot gut. But save the cans for me. At least I’ll get a few bucks out those bastards yet.
11/7/16 2:13 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
9BillyBeer/2016
11/7/16 2:41 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
10Pitchfork,
I’m not really a beer guy….. But get an extra 12 pack for me.
M
11/7/16 3:21 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
11Mitch said…
“Pitchfork,
I’m not really a beer guy….. But get an extra 12 pack for me.”
Only if I get the cans.
11/7/16 6:43 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
12ps Mitch.. save the cans.. you might need them after tommorow..
11/7/16 6:47 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
13bartender… the polls open at sometime in the morning. Save me a barstool. I’ll be here at 6am. We’ll watch democracy sink to the bottom of the fucking WDC bullshit cesspool together. Then… let’s break out the booze. Because..is this all there is my friend.. then let’s keep dancing.
11/7/16 6:54 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
14Pitchfork,
Save me a bar stool. As soon as I’m done solving stupid crap, I’m there.
All the employee’s have been told to stay home, execpt for emergencies, til Thursday. Not worth the lawsuit if someone gets hurt. Have 9 women techs. Don’t want them, or anyone else hurt.
PS.
Prefer wine…… Besides….. The bottles come in ……. Useful.
But…. The cans are yours.
M
11/7/16 7:42 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
15oh..damn.. I completely forgot..
Janet Reno just died.
Lest anyone fail to recognize the USG unending praise for murdering psychopaths.. one only has to look at Janet Reno’s real legacy. Waco. While our wunnerful leader of the FBI stereotypes his ideal character of those agents of his institution as.. INTEGRETY IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.. let’s take a look..
at his so called “non-negotiable” integrity.. as demonstrated by the killer of Ibragim Todashev.
quote:”Aaron McFarlane has been a special agent of the FBI since 2008. Prior to working for the FBI, he was a police officer at the Oakland Police Department in California. While working at the Oakland Police Department, McFarlane was the subject of two police-brutality lawsuits and four internal-affairs investigations.
c. In 2003, McFarlane testified for the defense in California v. Siapno, a.k.a the “Riders” case. After the prosecution implied McFarlane falsified police reports, he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination and subsequently testified under immunity.
d. In 2004, McFarlane retired from the Oakland Police Department, claiming disability and, thereupon, began receiving disability payments. He was still receiving disability payments at the time he was hired by the FBI for active duty and continued to do so up through the time he shot Todashev.”
Integrity redefined.
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/03/02/family-of-ibragim-todashev-files-suit-against-the-fbi
Comey is a fucking dickwad.
Let’s not forget the integrity of those ATF/FBI/Military whores who relished the authorization of Janet Reno’s redefinition of “rules of engagement” to terrorize men, women, and children.. for 51 days prior to incinerating them …WITH IMPUNITY. Imagine what those children were experiencing at the final moment the USG, sent a fucking TANK, to inject chemical weapons into the heart of that building, notwithstanding dropping incendiary weapons on the roof. Today.. Janet Reno died. If you read today’s commentary on any given MSM comment section..you’d think she was a legal god. I say she was a fucking pathetic psychotic who never bore a child. Fuck Janet Reno
ok. bartender… gimme a Bud Light.
11/7/16 7:45 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
16Sir Pitchfork,
Easy…. Easy…. More beer. More beer.
Ms Reno was not ” a fucking pathetic psychotic who never bore a child. Fuck Janet Reno ”
She was in fact…. Nothing more that the Fucking Devil’s Concubine, who got called home.
Translation….. Preaching to the choir.
If she was not so blood-thirsty, she would have snatched the guy, any day he went went running at 5am……. Which was …. Everyday.
M
11/7/16 8:00 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
17Pitchfork,
Holy Crap…..
The riders case…..
Holy Crap…. What the hell were they thinking??????
That makes the “Crash” cases look little league.
M
11/7/16 8:10 PM | Comment Link
A Tale of Three Foundations: Carter, Clinton and Trump | SHOAH said...
18[…] By Peter Van Buren […]
11/13/16 3:46 PM | Comment Link