Clinton Campaign Chair: 'The American People Can Handle The Truth' On UFOs (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In what seems like an April Fools' Day prank story but is surprisingly real, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, says that he has convinced Hillary Clinton to declassify as many documents as possible related to Area 51 and UFOs. On the matter of alien visitation, Clinton has previously stated that "I think we may have been [visited already]. We don't know for sure." Meanwhile, Democratic rival Bernie Sanders has been dismissive of UFO talk. And on the other side of the isle, everyone surely already knows how likely Republican nominee Donald Trump feels about illegal aliens. "The U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what's going on with unidentified aerial phenomena," said John Podesta, who was also a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.

Comments

Do all Democrats have no memory?

[SuperKendall]

If the Republicans can't accept a black man in the White House

Says the person who apparently can't remember it was only recently Ben Carson dropped out, a widely respected candidate who was surgeon... and oh by the way happened to be black.

It never boggles the mind how someone intelligent enough to type can confuse being against a persons ideal rather than the color of his or her skin. But these days all democrats can see is color or gender, ideas being utterly incomprehensible to them. To you Democrats it is all appearance now, never about deeds or substance any longer. And in the end isn't that the worst possible kind of racism? I would take some southern hick any day over your modern progressive racism...

John Podesta? Putin's man in DC?

[Nova Express]

This is not exaggeration. John Podesta is literally (not figuratively) a registered lobbyist for Vladamir Putin's bank, as shown by the recently released Panama Papers:

Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO is Tony Podesta, one of the best-connected Democratic machers in the country. He founded the firm in 1998 with his brother John, formerly chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, then counselor to President Barack Obama, Mr. Podesta is the very definition of a Democratic insider. Outsiders engage the Podestas and their well-connected lobbying firm to improve their image and get access to Democratic bigwigs.

Which is exactly what Sberbank, Russia’s biggest financial institution, did this spring. As reported at the end of March, the Podesta Group registered with the U.S. Government as a lobbyist for Sberbank, as required by law, naming three Podesta Group staffers: Tony Podesta plus Stephen Rademaker and David Adams, the last two former assistant secretaries of state. It should be noted that Tony Podesta is a big-money bundler for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign while his brother John is the chairman of that campaign, the chief architect of her plans to take the White House this November.

Sberbank (Savings Bank in Russian) engaged the Podesta Group to help its public image—leading Moscow financial institutions not exactly being known for their propriety and wholesomeness—and specifically to help lift some of the pain of sanctions placed on Russia in the aftermath of the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, which has caused real pain to the country’s hard-hit financial sector.

It’s hardly surprising that Sberbank sought the help of Democratic insiders like the Podesta Group to aid them in this difficult hour, since they clearly understand how American politics work. The question is why the Podesta Group took Sberbank’s money. That financial institution isn’t exactly hiding in the shadows—it’s the biggest bank in Russia, and its reputation leaves a lot to be desired. Nobody acquainted with Russian finance was surprised that Sberbank wound up in the Panama Papers.

Though Sberbank has its origins in the nineteenth century, it was functionally reborn after the Soviet collapse, and it the 1990s it grew to be the dominant bank in the country, today controlling nearly 30 percent of Russia’s aggregate banking assets and employing a quarter-million people. The majority stockholder in Sberbank is Russia’s Central Bank. In other words, Sberbank is functionally an arm of the Kremlin, although it’s ostensibly a private institution.

And yes, he's Hillary Clinton's campaign manager. no conflict of interest there...