BloggeRhythms

The Democrat party in general, and the administration in particular, would be far better off if they could find a way to overcome a continually nagging problem known as reality. Because, it seems that just when they’ve sold the public a story intended to prove or embellish their point, facts get disclosed indicating the opposite.

 

Today, several articles prove the point clearly and concisely.

 

Just as negotiators meet to try to finalize an acceptable deal with Iran, critical to the president's legacy, CNN’s Barbara Starr, Jim Sciutto and Jamie Crawford, write that, “A U.S.-flagged ship was recently intercepted by an Iran Revolutionary Guard naval patrol, the U.S. Navy revealed to CNN Tuesday.

 

“The incident occurred on Friday when four Iranian naval vessels surrounded the U.S.-flagged Maersk Kensington in the Strait of Hormuz. 

 

“The episode came ahead of an encounter Tuesday in which Iran Revolutionary Guard patrol boats fired shots at a commercial cargo ship and then intercepted the vessel, the Marshall Islands-flagged M/V Maersk Tigris, which was also crossing the Strait of Hormuz.

 

“A senior U.S. military official told CNN that "the Iranians encircled the Kensington and followed the ship on its course for a period of time before withdrawing and breaking away." After that, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet issued a notice to mariners about the incident.

 

“The crew of the Maersk Tigris container ship is "safe and under the circumstances in good spirits," Danish shipping company Maersk said Wednesday in an emailed statement to CNN. 

 

“Maersk said they are still unable to "establish or confirm the reason" for the seizure, and remain in close dialogue with the Danish Foreign Ministry.”

 

So, it looks like, as far as the Iranian deal is concerned, that their navy either didn’t get the memo regarding an end to aggression, or isn’t planning to stop business as usual in their region anyway.  

 

Another item, although about Lois Lerner’s lost emails, doesn’t bode well for Bill Clinton’s wife either.

 

Fox News reports that, “The Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration notified the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday that they have recovered thousands of Lois Lerner emails that were not previously produced to Congress.

 

“The inspector general recovered approximately 6,400 Lerner emails and will carefully examine them as part of the committee’s bipartisan IRS investigation.

 

“The Hill reported that around 650 emails were from 2010 and 2011, while most of them were from 2012. The inspector general has found about 35,000 emails in all as it sought to recover emails from backup tapes.”

 

The news means that the clock is ticking for Bill’s wife as well because, “The IRS also said it took the inspector general around 10 months to come up with the emails sent or received during the period affected by Lerner’s computer crash.” Which indicates that in a year or less, those searching for the emails supposedly erased by Bill’s wife will likely be found by the experts involved in that case too.

 

Then, at the same time, Joshua Green and Richard Rubin report on bloomberg.com that the, “Clinton Foundation Failed to Disclose 1,100 Foreign Donations “

 

The story regards Frank Giustra, “who has donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and sits on its board.”

 

“Clinton, the story suggests, helped Giustra’s company secure a lucrative uranium-mining deal in Kazakhstan and in return received “a flow of cash” to the Clinton Foundation, including previously undisclosed donations from the company’s chairman totaling $2.35 million.

 

“We’re not trying to hide anything,” he says. There are in fact 1,100 undisclosed donors to the Clinton Foundation, Giustra says, most of them non-U.S. residents who donated to CGEP (Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership).  “All of the money that was raised by CGEP flowed through to the Clinton Foundation—every penny—and went to the [charitable] initiatives we identified,” he says.

 

The same story appeared in the Washington Post which gave it 3 Pinocchio's.

 

On Saturday, responding to a similar story in the Times, Maura Pally, the acting CEO of the Clinton Foundation, issued a statement echoing Giustra’s assertion: “This is hardly an effort on our part to avoid transparency–unlike in the U.S., under Canadian law, all charities are prohibited from disclosing individual donors without prior permission from each donor.” 

 

However, on that score, “Canadian tax and privacy law experts were dubious of this claim. Len Farber, former director of tax policy at Canada's Department of Finance, said he wasn't aware of any tax laws that would prevent the charity from releasing its donors' names. "There's nothing that would preclude them from releasing the names of donors," he said. "It's entirely up to them."

 

“Mark Blumberg, a charity lawyer at Blumberg Segal in Toronto, added that the legislation "does not generally apply to a registered charity unless a charity is conducting commercial activities... such as selling the list to third parties."

 

So, the beat goes on with these stories apparently meeting deep interest and having long legs. Which may be a reason New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, is holding off on endorsing Bill’s wife, saying he wants to see "a clear, bold vision" first. 

 

And that’s quite ominous for her because he’s a progressive champion who managed her successful Senate campaign in 2000, and therefore, knows her better than practically anyone. 

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios