Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Trump shocker! Who is Elaine Chao?



Trump shocker! Who is Elaine Chao?
McConnell's wife tapped for transportation secretary has deep ties to China, Bloomberg, Heritage Foundation coup
President-elect Donald Trump picked former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for transportation secretary (Photo: Twitter)
WASHINGTON – Elaine Chao is not exactly the kind of Cabinet pick you would expect from outsider Donald Trump.

The Bush administration retread has deep ties to the anti-coal Bloomberg Foundation, is married to big-time Trans-Pacific Partnership supporter and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and has deep business and political links to China.

And that’s just the beginning of her resume.

As WND reported, when President George W. Bush nominated her to be his labor secretary, Chinese dissidents like Hongda “Harry” Wu were shocked.

“I worry about Elaine Chao’s business relationship with communist China,” he said in 2001. “This woman has a significant shipping business through her father.”

James S.C. Chao is the founder of New York-based Foremost Maritime Corp., which ships goods to China and also buys ships from the China State Shipbuilding Corporation. Chao’s ties to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin run deep. The two were classmates at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and have kept in touch ever since.

In 1994, for instance, James Chao, along with Elaine Chao and her husband, GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, visited mainland China and met with Jiang. James Chao, along with his daughter, returned to China the next year to take an honorary professorship and presidency at the Shanghai Maritime College. When Jiang visited the White House in 1997, he met privately for about 20 minutes with Elaine Chao, along with McConnell, before an elaborate state dinner for Jiang hosted by President Clinton. The Kentucky senator met again with Jiang the next morning.

“He was trying to emphasize that the U.S. and China are natural friends, and their futures are intertwined, and that they should try to understand each other,” Elaine Chao said in describing her talk with Jiang.

She has lobbied for normalized trade with China and has downplayed concerns about China’s growing military threat, espionage campaigns in the U.S. and human rights abuses.

Wu, a Hoover Institution fellow, criticizes Chao for glossing over the fact that China is still run by communist hard-liners who pump proceeds from U.S. trade back into military front companies run by a privileged class. A prominent human-rights activist, Wu spent about two decades in Chinese prisons for his political views.

“I’m very surprised Bush would pick her to head labor, especially when most of the profits from trade with China goes into the pockets of socialist leaders, not workers,” Wu said.
Both Chao and McConnell, however, serve on the board of the China Foundation, a nonprofit charity devoted to helping develop rural parts of China.

McConnell has been China’s biggest Republic booster in the Senate. Chao sought out John Huang to help raise money for Republican senators in 1989 – beating Bill and Hillary Clinton to the punch in 1992. In 1993, Huang, then head of Lippo Bank, rounded up a coalition of Chinese banks and individuals to sponsor Chao’s visit to Los Angeles as the new head of United Way. Huang gave McConnell $2,000 in illegal donations as part of a foreign money-laundering scheme — one of only two contributions Huang made to Republicans.

Chao criticized the prosecution of Huang in the Chinagate scandal as racially motivated.

But there’s much, much more.

When she served the conservative Heritage Foundation as Asian studies adviser, a military analyst who sounded warnings about Chinese threats to U.S. security was shown the door, WND reported at the time. Chao served at Heritage beginning in 1996 before leaving to become Bush’s labor secretary in 2001. While at Heritage, the think tank opened an office in Hong Kong.

Some reports by the ousted Heritage analyst – 16-year veteran Richard Fisher Jr. – were footnoted in the declassified version of the bipartisan Cox Report, which documented Chinese espionage at U.S. defense labs, while warning of China’s goal of modernizing the People’s Liberation Army to project power past the mainland’s waters, targeting U.S. allies like Taiwan and even the U.S.

Some reports by the ousted Heritage analyst – 16-year veteran Richard Fisher Jr. – were footnoted in the declassified version of the bipartisan Cox Report, which documented Chinese espionage at U.S. defense labs, while warning of China’s goal of modernizing the People’s Liberation Army to project power past the mainland’s waters, targeting U.S. allies like Taiwan and even the U.S.

“Elaine Chao was part of the deal that got Rick Fisher fired from Heritage,” a congressional aide who worked with him on China matters told WND. “She pushed him out not because of free-trade issues, but because he raised national security concerns over China.”

A Heritage insider agreed: “She was not supportive of any of his writings on the Chinese military.”

One of her patrons was Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, a pro-China lobbyist whose insurance company does business in China. During a Heritage debate over normalizing trade with China, Greenberg protested a Heritage paper by analyst Stephen J. Yates. It suggested Congress postpone the vote on the trade bill to consider adding national security measures, such as tightening controls on exports with military applications.

After Greenberg threatened to cut off funding, Heritage issued a new report: “How Trade with China Benefits Americans,” which was co-authored by Fisher’s replacement, Larry M. Wortzel, at the Asian Studies Center. The May 5, 2000, report buried concerns about China’s defense buildup and its hunger for military-related exports.

Greenberg, chairman and chief executive of New York-based American International Group, gave Heritage $180,000 in 1998 and at least $100,000 a year for more than a decade through his Starr Foundation.

Leadership at Heritage has completely turned over in the years since Chao left.

Greenberg and AIG, through its employee PAC, also have donated thousands of dollars to Chao’s husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, federal records show. AIG and McConnell have been major boosters of cozier trade relations with China – something that would seem to be anathema to Trump.

Together with five other corporate giants, the $26 billion-in-sales AIG formed the Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade to help spin the press on the benefits of open trade with China.

AIG, with offices in Shanghai, is a major client of Henry A. Kissinger, who has gotten rich as a paid consultant for U.S. companies seeking greater access to China.
“Hank Greenberg is Kissinger’s money bags,” said the Hill aide, who asked not to be named.

McConnell and Greenberg also appear to be close.

The senator has given paid speeches for AIG, and he has stepped in on its behalf in federal disputes.

In 1987, for example, McConnell tried to spare AIG from having to pay claims on the $200 million policy it underwrote for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The bugged building had to be rebuilt.

Like Chao, Greenberg was one of the “Bush Pioneers,” responsible for raising more than $100,000 for the president-elect’s campaign. Bush’s father, one-time U.S. ambassador to China, took the insurance magnate along with him on his ’92 trade mission to Asia.

Does anyone even remember Chinagate? WND reported back in 2001 that a review of financial assets held by Chao and her husband, McConnell, reveals she has served as a director of an insurance company that jointly owns a Lippo Group subsidiary with the Chinese government. Indonesia-based Lippo is controlled by the Riady family and was at the center of the Clinton Chinagate fundraising scandal.

Lippo chief executive James T. Riady agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of defrauding the U.S. government by funneling donations to the campaign of Bill Clinton – and others.

Senate financial-disclosure records show that Chao held a seat on the board of Protective Life Corp., which owns 50 percent of CRC Protective Life Insurance. Lippo co-owns the rest of the Hong Kong-based unit with China Resources Holdings Co., an intelligence-gathering front company for China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Speaking of foreign trade, remember the TransPacific Partnership, or TPP, and all the Trump campaign promises about killing it?

While Trump swept to power by denouncing TPP, McConnell announced in 2015 that he would surrender Congress’ ability to amend the agreement and permit the Obama administration to work out the details. TPP became so unpopular during the 2016 election that even Hillary Clinton had to come out against it.


“A wag would be forgiven for saying the TransPacific Partnership describes the majority leader’s marriage to Elaine Chao,” wrote anti-TPP activist Curtis Ellis, a WND columnist. “The former Chinese Communist Party boss Jiang Zemin is a close family friend of Elaine Chao’s, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has praised her father for building up China’s industry. (Shipping to and from China is the Chao family business.) Lest we forget, Jiang Zemin is the hardliner who took power following the Tienanmen Square massacre and is notorious for repressing religious minorities and Tibetans. Jiang’s been indicted for genocide and is fighting to hold on to his corrupt fiefdom in Shanghai. Some friend.”

So what has Chao been up to more recently?

Chao served on the board of directors of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another anti-Trumper who flirted with the notion of running a third-party candidacy against him. Bloomberg gives the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign $50 million a year. The objective? To end the country’s reliance on “dirty coal, plant-by-plant, community-by-community, state-by-state.” Trump promised to put the coal miners back to work.

Chao has also served on the board of Wells Fargo, which has bankrolled anti-coal efforts. Ironic since McConnell’s home state is Kentucky – coal country.

Chao was selected by Bush to head the Labor Department after his first choice, Linda Chavez, withdrew from consideration over charges she harbored an illegal alien in 1992. Chao, 63, a Taiwanese immigrant, has also served as  chairwoman of the Federal Maritime Commission. She became director of the Peace Corps in 1991 and led the United Way of America from 1992-1996.

One thing is for certain: She won’t have any trouble getting Senate confirmation. Even her husband says he won’t abstain from voting for her.

Elaine Chao
Elaine L. Chao is a board member for the American Action Forum, a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation, a fellow at the Hudson Institute (think tank), and married to Addison M. McConnell.

Note: Frederic V. Malek is the chairman for the American Action Forum, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Robert K. Steel was a board member for the American Action Forum, and is the chairman for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Hudson Institute (think tank), the Harlem Children's Zone, and the Robin Hood Foundation.
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a benefactor at the Harlem Children's Zone.
Henry A. Kissinger was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), is a trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (think tank), the founder of Kissinger Associates, Inc., a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a friend of Brent Scowcroft, a friend of Michael R. Bloomberg, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Center for Strategic and International Studies (think tank) was a funder for China.
Maurice R. Greenberg is a trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (think tank), a director at the National Committee on United States-China Relations, an honorary chairman for the United States-China Policy Foundation, a director at the U.S.-China Business Council, was the chairman & CEO for the American International Group, Inc. (AIG), and a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.
Brent Scowcroft is a trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (think tank), a friend of Henry A. Kissinger, and was a vice chairman for Kissinger Associates, Inc.
J. Stapleton Roy was a U.S. ambassador for China, and a vice chairman for Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Michael R. Bloomberg is a friend of Henry A. Kissinger, the founder of the Independence USA PAC, a co-chair for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and a donor for the Robin Hood Foundation.
Independence USA PAC is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Everytown for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Americans for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Bloomberg Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Frederic V. Malek is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the chairman for the American Action Forum.
Robert K. Steel is the chairman for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was a board member for the American Action Forum.
Elaine L. Chao is a board member for the American Action Forum, a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation, a fellow at the Hudson Institute (think tank), and married to Addison M. McConnell.
Bloomberg Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, a friend of Henry A. Kissinger, the founder of the Independence USA PAC, a co-chair for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, a donor for the Robin Hood Foundation, and a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.
George Soros was a benefactor at the Harlem Children's Zone.
Maurice R. Greenberg was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, the chairman & CEO for the American International Group, Inc. (AIG), is a trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (think tank), a director at the National Committee on United States-China Relations, an honorary chairman for the United States-China Policy Foundation, and a director at the U.S.-China Business Council.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Not A Happy Thanksgiving: 70 Shot in Gun-Controlled Chicago Over Holiday Weekend



Not A Happy Thanksgiving: 70 Shot in Gun-Controlled Chicago Over Holiday Weekend
by AWR Hawkins 29 Nov 2016
Violence raged in gun-controlled Chicago over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with 62 people shot and wounded, another eight people shot and killed.

This is an exponential jump over the level of violence seen during the Thanksgiving holidays of the previous two years. In 2014 there were five deaths, with 14 others shot and wounded and in 2015 there were eight deaths with 20 others wounded.

But in 2016 there were eight killed with 62 others shot and wounded.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend violence brings Chicago to nearly 4,000 shooting victims for the year. That figure includes fatal and non-fatal shootings.

The number of fatal shootings alone is 710; a figure which is even more startling when you consider that there were 492 homicides for the whole of 2015. There have 710 homicides through the first 11 months of 2016.

Chicago has long been a gun control experiment gone awry. The city enacted a ban on handgun ownership in 1982 and the Tribune reported that the next 10 years witnessed “murders [jump] by 41 percent, compared with an 18 percent rise in the entire United States.” And this jump made sense. After all, when bans are enacted only the criminals remain armed.

The ban was overturned in 2010 via the Supreme Court ruling in McDonald v Chicago, but city leaders have worked diligently to preserve the vestiges of the ban at every turn in road. And municipal and county limits on the number of gun stores allowed in Chicago, together with rules on the locations of those stores and a ridiculous amount of regulation on acquiring and carrying guns for self-defense, have coalesced to guarantee that criminals maintain an advantage similar to what they enjoyed when the ban was in place.

The latest proposed requirement for Chicago is to mandate serial numbers be placed on all bullets and bullet casings. This is being pushed by state representative Sonya Harper (D-6th) as way to combat crime. In the real world such a requirement will not do anything to stop crime, but it will drive up the cost of ammunition, thereby making it even more difficult for law-abiding citizens to acquire the tools they need to defend themselves and their families.

Gun Control
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Note: Eric H. Holder Jr. was the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, for the Barack Obama administration, and a board member for the American Constitution Society.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society, and  the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a friend of Michael Douglas, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Abner J. Mikva was a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, Mary Lane Mikva’s father, a friend of Newton N. Minow, a chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Julius Genachowski was his clerk.
Mary Lane Mikva is Abner J. Mikva’s daughter, a judge for the 8th Subcircuit Court (Chicago), and was William J. Brennan Jr’s clerk.
William J. Brennan Jr.’s clerks were Mary Lane Mikva, Virginia A. Seitz, Julius Genachowski & Michael Chertoff, and was a justice for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Virginia A. Seitz was William J. Brennan Jr.’s clerk, an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.
Eric H. Holder Jr. was the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, for the Barack Obama administration, and a board member for the American Constitution Society.
Faith Elizabeth Gay is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, and was an attorney at Sidley Austin LLP.
Dora Hughes is a senior policy adviser for Sidley Austin LLP, and was Kathleen Sebelius’s counselor at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kathleen Sebelius’s counselor at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the Barack Obama administration was Dora Hughes, and she is married to Gary Sebelius.
Gary Sebelius is married to Kathleen Sebelius, and the federal magistrate for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and Julius Genachowski’s law school friend.
R. Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a friend of Abner J. Mikva.
David D. Hiller was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, a publisher & president & CEO for the Chicago Tribune, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
James S. Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the vice chairman for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Lester Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Meryl Justin Chertoff is a director, Justice and Society Program for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and married to Michael Chertoff.
Julius Genachowski is a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank), was Barack Obama’s law school friend, and was William J. Brennan Jr. & Abner J. Mikva’s clerk.
Walter Isaacson is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation.
Bloomberg Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the founder of the Independence USA PAC, a co-chair for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, and was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Independence USA PAC is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Everytown for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Americans for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Covington & Burling LLP was the lobby firm for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, and is the lobby firm for the National Football League.
Paul Tagliabue was a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, and a commissioner for the National Football League.
B. Todd Jones is the chief disciplinary officer for the National Football League, and was a director at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michael Chertoff was an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, William J. Brennan Jr’s clerk, is a senior of counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and married to Meryl Justin Chertoff.
Eric H. Holder Jr. is a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, was the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, for the Barack Obama administration, and a board member for the American Constitution Society.
Margaret A. Hamburg is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and was a VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Warren E. Buffett is an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and an advisory board member for Everytown for Gun Safety.
Everytown for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Michael Douglas is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and a friend of George Soros.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)
Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.     
Valerie B. Jarrett is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and was a director at the Joyce Foundation.
Joyce Foundation was a funder for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.