US Attorney, District Attorney Investigate Suspicious Brooklyn Library Deal By Mayor Of New York

[From article]
The $52 million deal to redevelop the Brooklyn Heights library into a luxury condo tower, which City Hall awarded to a de Blasio pal who offered less money for the city-owned land than two other bidders, has attracted the attention of federal and city prosecutors, The Post has learned.
The joint probe comes three months after The Post revealed the sweetheart scheme and marks the seventh pay-to-play scandal engulfing the de Blasio administration.
Mayor de Blasio’s latest imbroglio has investigators questioning why the city chose Hudson Cos. to buy the Brooklyn Public Library branch on Clinton Street and build a 36-story condo on top of it despite submitting a bid that was $6 million less than a competitor’s.
The offices of US Attorney Preet Bharara and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance sent subpoenas to several of the 14 developers that bid on the project, sources familiar with the investigation said.
One of the subpoenas went to Toll Brothers President David Von Spreckelsen, a source said. Toll Brothers offered $1 million more than Hudson, the sources said.
Hudson President David Kramer is “one of many people being looked at” but has not been subpoenaed, the sources said.
[. . .]



Hoping to raise money to refurbish its system, the Brooklyn Public Library approached the city to draw up a request for proposals for the development of the site.
The city and library jointly released the RFP in June 2013.
The city Economic Development Corp. vetted the bids on behalf of the library.
Kramer proposed a 30-story residential skyscraper — with 114 units of affordable housing sited two miles away. The plan included space for the library on the ground floor and $40 million of the $52 million bid to spruce up other branches. He also planned to relocate the library to a space on Remsen Street in July 2016 for the four-year construction period.
At least two competing developers not only offered to pay the library more money, but several proposed to build affordable units on the site.
Brooklyn-based Second Development Services offered the library $6 million more than did Hudson and 117 affordable units.
One competing bidder described the process as rigged to benefit de Blasio’s friends.
[. . .]
A friend of the mayor for more than a decade, Kramer and his wife have given $9,125 to de Blasio’s political campaigns since 2007. De Blasio has refunded $6,325 of that money without giving an explanation on city campaign filings.
De Blasio kept another $4,850 that came from Hudson employees, records show.
Kramer and his project architect, Jonathan Marvel, also hosted fund-raisers for de Blasio’s mayoral campaign, including an October 2013 soirée for which Marvel invited the city’s biggest developers.
Six weeks after de Blasio was sworn in, Hudson coughed up $5,000 to the Campaign for One New York, a charity promoting the mayor’s agenda. Marvel Architects added $2,000 in June 2015.
Toll Brothers also has given CONY two $25,000 donations.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/22/feds-da-probe-de-blasios-52m-deal-to-turn-library-into-condo/

Feds, DA probe de Blasio’s $52M deal to turn library into condo
By Aaron Short
New York Post
May 22, 2016 | 12:26am

Cambridge, MA City Council Candidates Discussed Contributions From Real Estate Developers

Legal Ethics Professor Larry "On Leave" Lessig is typical of the corruption fighters found in Cambridge. He used his Harvard University tax exempt offices for his political campaign to fight corruption in campaign finance. Hahaha. Likely not the only one. KSG Prof. Steve Jarding? Lessig lectured the City Council that real estate contributions were not illegal or unethical. But political activity on tax exempt property violates US Treasury Department, IRS, MA Dept. of Revenue and Cambridge property tax laws. He lectures voters about legal contributions. Dumbed down voters and activists quote him. Is this Mr. Fox running for the position of Executive Henhouse Security Director. Hello?



http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151017/NEWS/151017263

LETTER: Consider Cambridge candidates who swore off developer contributions
Posted Oct. 17, 2015 at 12:15 PM
To the editor:
— Kevin Bacco, Massachusetts Avenue

 

Big Business Contributions Influenced Secret Trade Agreement Votes

[From article]
Fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments, was only possible after lots of corporate money exchanged hands with senators. The US Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) – the fast-tracking bill – by a 65-33 margin on 14 May. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 62-38 to bring the debate on TPA to a close.
Those impressive majorities follow months of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing by the world’s most well-heeled multinational corporations with just a handful of holdouts.
Using data from the Federal Election Commission, this chart shows all donations that corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP made to US Senate campaigns between January and March 2015, when fast-tracking the TPP was being debated in the Senate:
Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 “yea” votes.
The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.
The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors.
The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received.
[. . .]
In just 24 hours, Wyden and five of those Democratic holdouts – Michael Bennet of Colorado, Dianne Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, and Bill Nelson of Florida – caved and voted for fast-track.
Bennet, Murray, and Wyden – all running for re-election in 2016 – received $105,900 between the three of them. Bennet, who comes from the more purple state of Colorado, got $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January and March 2015, according to Channing’s research.
[. . .]
“How can we expect politicians who routinely receive campaign money, lucrative job offers, and lavish gifts from special interests to make impartial decisions that directly affect those same special interests?” Gidfar said. “As long as this kind of transparently corrupt behavior remains legal, we won’t have a government that truly represents the people.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/corporations-paid-us-senators-fast-track-tpp

Here’s how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill
Critics of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership are unlikely to be silenced by an analysis of the flood of money it took to push the pact over its latest hurdle
C Robert Gibson and Taylor Channing
Wednesday 27 May 2015 08.30 EDT

Hedge Fund Boss Gives $400 million to Harvard University

John Paulson
[From article]
The 59-year old financier said the gift was his way of thanking the Ivy League school for providing him and others with a top flight education, to which he credits his success at his $19 billion firm Paulson & Co.
"Today is an opportunity to thank Harvard," he said at a conference on campus announcing the donation to Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Paulson earned a business degree from Harvard in 1980.
[. . .]
The school's $36.4 billion endowment makes it the world's richest university.
[. . .]
In 2012, Paulson made his first prominent gift with a $100 million donation to Central Park, near his New York City home.

http://news.yahoo.com/hedge-fund-mogul-paulson-gives-harvard-record-400-142021290--sector.html

Hedge fund boss Paulson gives Harvard record $400 million
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
June 3, 2015

ABC's George Stephanopoulos Forgot He Worked For Clinton, and Gave $75,000 to Clinton Foundation In Interview of Author of Clinton Cash

[From article]
for the man ABC News has made its principal face, recusal from the biggest story of the next year and a half would be untenable. How could he continue in his role as anchor?
[. . .]
Having in effect disqualified himself part of the way, Stephanopoulos is going to have a hard time hanging onto his position, no matter how reluctant ABC News is to can its leading newsman.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/05/stephanopoulos_and_abc_news_now_in_a_nowin_situation.html

May 15, 2015
Stephanopoulos and ABC News now in a no-win situation
By Thomas Lifson

* * *

[From article]
ABC news host George Stephanopoulos admitted Thursday he had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation and did not disclose this conflict of interest to viewers before interviewing the author of a book critical of the foundation’s foreign donors and influence over Hillary Clinton at the State Department.
Stephanopoulos, a former Bill Clinton communications aide, interviewed Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer on the April 26 edition of This Week, where he pushed back against his reporting and Schweizer himself, repeating Democratic attacks that he had a “partisan interest” in disparaging the Clintons.



“They say you used to work for President Bush as a speech writer. You are funded by the Koch brothers,” he said. “How do you respond to that?”
“As you know, the Clinton campaign says you haven’t produced a shred of evidence that there was any official action as secretary that supported the interest of donors,” he asked later. “We’ve done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action. An independent government ethics expert at the Sunlight Foundation Bill Allison wrote this: ‘There’s no smoking gun. No evidence that the changed policy based on donations to the foundation. No smoking gun.’ Is there a smoking gun?”
Stephanopoulos did not point out that the Sunlight Foundation is funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros.

http://freebeacon.com/culture/by-george-abcs-clinton-defender-in-chief/

By George: ABC’s Clinton Defender-in-Chief
Stephanopoulos hammered 'Clinton Cash' author over accusations against foundation to which he donated $75,000
BY: David Rutz Follow @DavidRutz
May 14, 2015 12:44 pm

Cambridge Teachers Union Increases Dues Paying Members, For More Campaign Contributions

[This comment was censored by the editors of the Cambridge Chronicle. Criticism of teachers unions not permitted?] 

Will the increase in "social and emotional learning,” include dating, safe sex, homosexual sex, hate, depression, love and anger? Are these new positions mandated to pay union dues? How much of taxpayers funds for the 29 full time positions will go directly to union political action campaigns?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150430/NEWS/150439529

Proposed Cambridge school budget up 4.6 percent; district to add 29 fulltime positions
By Sara Feijo
sfeijo (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 4:25 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Harvard University Study Shows Faculty Extremely Liberal, Up to 98 Percent At Some Schools

[From article]
During the three years, the Harvard affiliates represented in analyzed public filings gave nearly $3 million to federal campaigns and candidates. Each of Harvard’s schools leaned to the left in the contributions made by their affiliates, many by wide margins. Ninety-six percent of donations in the data set from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which includes Harvard College, supported Democratic efforts. That figure was even higher—nearly 98 percent—at Harvard Law School. Harvard Business School was the most Republican, with 37 percent of its contributions supporting Republicans and 62 percent going to Democrats.
[. . .]
The Crimson analyzed the federal donations of contributors who reported Harvard University as their employer and were listed in Harvard directories and websites as professors, lecturers, fellows, associates, researchers, and scientists, as well as visiting fellows and professors. The data set does not include people who only work as administrators.
[. . .]



The data does not include contributions made to independent expenditure, or super PACs, and nonprofits groups organized under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code that engage in electioneering communications. It does include contributions to candidate-linked PACs.
The data supports the commonly held belief that Harvard’s professoriate is largely liberal, raising questions about the ideological diversity of the faculty and what impact that may have on teaching and research.
[. . .]
The largest FAS donors in the data set include Chemistry professor emeritus and Nobel laureate Martin Karplus ’51, University professor and former University President Lawrence H. Summers, and Psychology professor Steven Pinker.
[. . .]
The third-largest donor in the data set was Martha L. Minow, who has been the Law School’s dean since 2009. Minow contributed $105,250, all to Democratic campaigns and organizations, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and campaigns for U.S. Senators Al Franken ’73 and Timothy Kaine, U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, and the Obama Victory Fund.
[. . .]



“The only debate we get here is between the far-left...and the liberals,” Mansfield said. “It gives students a view that a very narrow spectrum of opinion is the only way to think.”
[. . .]
“I think that this is an institution that really chafes against simplistic adherence to one point of view or approach,” said Lawrence D. Bobo, chair of the African and African American Studies Department. “It is one of the great virtues of the University.”


http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/5/1/faculty-political-contributions-data-analysis/

Harvard Faculty Donate to Democrats by Wide Margin

Eighty-four percent of campaign contributions made by a group of 614 Harvard faculty, instructors, and researchers between 2011 and the third quarter of 2014 went to federal Democratic campaigns and political action committees.

STORY BY KARL M. ASPELUND AND MEG P. BERNHARD

DATA ANALYSIS BY DAVID FREED, IDREES M. KAHLOON, AND ALEXANDER H. PATEL

APRIL 30, 2015

Campaign Finance, Matching Taxpayer Funds, No Solution To Corruption

[From article]
The current enthusiasm for “public” financing far surpasses evidence of its merits, however. Under the city’s program, public corruption continues to be endemic, while voter-turnout levels have dropped to record lows and incumbents remain nearly unbeatable. Extending such a system statewide would waste money, overregulate the electoral process, and create new potential for abuse.
[. . .]
The current enthusiasm for “public” financing far surpasses evidence of its merits, however. Under the city’s program, public corruption continues to be endemic, while voter-turnout levels have dropped to record lows and incumbents remain nearly unbeatable. Extending such a system statewide would waste money, overregulate the electoral process, and create new potential for abuse.
[. . .]
No evidence supports advocates’ claims that public financing strengthens democracy. Even if the offer of a taxpayer match encourages more people to give money to campaigns, as some studies have suggested, donor participation remains low compared with the total voting population.
[. . .]
voter turnout—a more robust indicator of democratic participation—has been declining in New York City. Just 26 percent of voters participated in the 2013 general election, the lowest figure in 50 years. More people voted for Rudolph Giuliani’s losing bid for office in 1989, the first election with matching funds, than for Bill de Blasio’s winning one in 2013, even as New York City’s population grew by more than 1 million
[. . .]
To date, the only mechanism that ensures turnover in city offices is term limits, which went into effect in 2001.
[. . .]
Even more discouragingly for campaign-finance proponents, public financing has done little or nothing to curb corruption in city government. Many participants in the matching-funds program have been implicated in one scandal or another. Public financing has even been the source of corruption.
[. . .]
One thing is for certain: state campaign-finance reform would mean bigger government, in the form of more regulation enforced by an expanded bureaucracy.
[. . .]
Ultimately, though, Albany needs a change of culture. “The quality of people in politics was a hell of a lot higher years ago,” says former lieutenant governor Richard Ravitch. “The problem is that no good people want to run for office.” Ravitch is right. Government policy alone can’t solve the problem of public corruption.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_campaign-finance.html

STEPHEN EIDE
New York’s Campaign-Finance Delusion
Public money for elections is the wrong prescription for what ails Albany.
Winter 2015

Chicago Traffic Jam

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam going into downtown Chicago . Nothing is moving north or south. Suddenly a man knocks on his window.

The driver rolls down his window and asks, 'What happened, what's the hold up?'

'Terrorists have kidnapped Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Nancy Pelosi, Rosie O'Donnell, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. They are asking for a $10 Million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.'

The driver asks, 'On average, how much is everyone giving?'

“About a gallon.”

Pelosi Helps Fund $1 billion Rail Project to Benefit Contributor

[From article]
A new report suggested that liberal billionaire Tom Steyer’s hedge fund profited from a $1 billion San Francisco light rail project pushed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Steyer was also a big supporter of Pelosi.
Despite being quick to criticize conservative political donors, the morning and evening news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC have all ignored the allegation since the Washington Free Beacon broke the story Aug. 12.



According to Washington Free Beacon, Pelosi “steered more than a billion dollars in federal financing” to a transportation project to provide light rail access to the Mission Bay neighborhood in San Francisco. This access helped cause the property value of land owned by Steyer’s hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management, to spike. Farallon has since sold all but two of those properties. Steyer gave at least $5,000 to Pelosi in 2011 alone.
[. . .]
Steyer has pledged $100 million to Democratic candidates this election cycle, to ensure that the Keystone Pipeline doesn’t get approved.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-ciandella/2014/08/13/pelosi-spearheads-1b-project-helps-supporter-tom-steyer-networks-ign#ixzz3AKcOqkgA

Nancy Pelosi Spearheads $1B Project Aiding Left-wing Mega Donor Tom Steyer; Networks Ignore
By Mike Ciandella

August 13, 2014 | 17:32

Two Men Who Made Large Campaign Contributions Wanted By Ecuador

Roberto and William Isaias

[From article]
two men, Roberto and William Isaias, are fugitives from Ecuador, which has angrily pressed Washington to turn them over, to no avail. A year after their relatives gave $90,000 to help re-elect Mr. Obama, the administration rejected Ecuador’s extradition request for the men, fueling accusations that such donations were helping to keep the brothers and their families safely on American soil.
“The Isaias brothers fled to Miami not to live off their work, something just, but to buy themselves more mansions and Rolls-Royces and to finance American political campaigns,” President Rafael Correa of Ecuador told reporters last month. “That’s what has given them protection,” he added, an allegation the Obama administration and members of Congress reject.
[. . .]
In 2012, the two were sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison in Ecuador in what the government there calls a scheme to run a bank into the ground by making loans to businesses they controlled and then presenting false balance sheets to get bailout funds. Ecuador says it lost more than $400 million, and Interpol issued a “red notice,” or international alert, for the men, though some people familiar with the case said the Isaias brothers had been scapegoated and had little chance of a fair trial at home.
As their legal troubles have mounted, Roberto’s wife; their children, daughter-in-law and nephews; and a few employees have donated at least $320,000 to American political campaigns since 2010, finance records show.
[. . .]
“Employing the finest attorneys their millions allow, the Isaiases have successfully fought deportation for years,” she wrote. She urged the State Department to deport the brothers.
[. . .]
Although only a small portion of the Isaias family’s campaign contributions have been previously reported by the news media, that was enough to put it back on the front pages of its country’s newspapers, 16 years after the bank collapse that sent the family into exile.
The relative anonymity the family once enjoyed in the United States ended in late January when an NBC station reported that Mr. Menendez was under federal investigation for having received donations from the family and having written on its behalf to the Department of Homeland Security.
[. . .]
Mr. Menendez’s office acknowledged sending at least five letters to the Department of Homeland Security for the brothers and other relatives with immigration problems, but described them as among thousands of such letters he has sent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/americas/wanted-by-ecuador-2-brothers-make-mark-in-us-campaigns.html?hp&_r=2

Wanted by Ecuador, 2 Brothers Make Mark in U.S. Campaigns
By FRANCES ROBLES

MARCH 11, 2014

Jane Fonda's Charity In Violation Of State Laws

[From article]
Though Jane Fonda’s private foundation has nearly $800,000 in assets, the group has not made a charitable contribution during the last five years for which it has filed federal tax returns, an apparent violation of Internal Revenue Service rules.
[. . .]
IRS regulations require private foundations to make annual distributions totaling at least five percent of its assets. The rule is intended to prevent foundations from stockpiling and investing funds (while never making contributions, gifts, or grants). If adhered to, the so-called Five Percent Rule would have forced Fonda to distribute a minimum of about $40,000 in 2011.f a private foundation fails to make required minimum distributions, it faces stiff IRS penalties.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/Jane-Fonda-Foundation-990-675413

DECEMBER 12, 2013
Fonda Foundation Not So Charitable, Records Show
With 800k in bank, star's group hasn't donated dime since 2006

Massachusetts Journalists Indicate Intolerance For Diverse Opinions

In addition to money, Harvard affiliates provide essays, letters, and articles in local, regional and state wide media venues. Editors of those venues prefer not to publish any critical pieces about the prominent Harvard Law School Professor. Only the Boston Herald and some radio talk show hosts have the courage to publish such expression. The extreme intolerance of political advocacy extends to the highest levels of media venues. What roles do Harvard faculty, administrators and students have in discouraging tolerant attitudes toward persons with diverse opinions?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/9/19/warren-receives-financial-push/
Elizabeth Warren's Harvard Ties Pay Off
By NICHOLAS P. FANDOS,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Dershowitz: Stop Attacking Sheldon Adelson

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/08/Dershowitz-to-Fellow-Democrats-Stop-Attacking-Sheldon-Adleson

DERSHOWITZ TO FELLOW DEMOCRATS: STOP ATTACKING SHELDON ADELSON
by JOEL B. POLLAK
8 Jul 2012, 6:02 AM PDT
Breitbart.com

Bill Maher's $1 million to Obama

http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2012/03/02/bill_maher_major_obama_donor

Bill Maher, Major Obama Donor
Brent Bozell
TownHall.com
March 2, 2012

Dictators Buy University Support

http://bigpeace.com/ipt/2011/03/19/foreign-dictators-buying-control-of-british-universities/

Foreign Dictators ‘Buying Control’ Of British Universities
Posted by The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
BigPeace.com
Mar 19th 2011 at 8:05 am

Wonder Why Pols Ignore Voters?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/ouch-rep-jim-oberstar-d-minn-has-just-one-donor-from-his-district-104979154.html

Ouch: Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., has just one donor from his district
By: John McCormack
Weekly Standard
10/14/10 5:10 PM EDT