Thread by @BusterUSMC

***Why Are Politicians Allowed to Own Stocks?***
A case for banning stock ownership by our elected leaders.

2. Susan Rice was not only the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations & at one time the leading contender to take over the Secretary of State position from Hillary ; she was also a rather "successful investor." investmentwatchblog.com/fun-fact-susan…

3. As is often the case, when public officials get financially involved with the companies they oversee, the ambassador had attracted some criticism over the propriety of her investments. jammiewf.com/2012/surprise-…

4. Some progressive Democrats & environmentalists are questioning whether Rice was fit to be the next Secretary of State after discovering some troubling financial positions in her surprisingly large portfolio. weeklystandard.com/susan-rices-in…

5. At issue the role of Hillary's State Dept approving energy infrastructure operator TransCanada's (NYSE:TRP) Keystone XL project, an oil pipeline that wld transport oil produced in Canada's Tar Sands to refineries & export terminals on the Gulf Coast.
politico.com/story/2012/11/…

6. Keystone XL promoters claimed the pipeline would generate good jobs & encourage North American energy independence, but the project was, to some, controversial.

7. Some of the proposed routes for the pipeline wld traverse highly sensitive environments like Nebraska's Sandhills wetlands area & the watershed of the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water for 2 million ppl & supports $20 billion in agriculture.

8. A leak in these areas could contaminate water supplies & harm wildlife.
Since the XL project crossed national borders, TransCanada needed a permit from the State Dept to proceed.

9. At that time, nobody wanted to risk contaminating water supplies or miss out on a way to create thousands of jobs, so no matter what side of the issue you were to come down on, it was clear that the Secretary of State had an important decision to make.

10. Ideally, that decision wld have been made as "intelligently & transparently" as Obama promised America his Admin wld b "The Most Transparent Admn In History" but if Rice became the nxt Secretary of State, her jdgmnt may well have been unduly biased-based on her own portfolio.

11. LEt's Peek Into Susan Rice's Skills As An Investor:
As The US Ambassador to the United Nations in 2010
opensecrets.org/pfds../summary…
Susan E. Rice ranked 4th in the Executive Branch with an estimated net worth of $36,409,595.00 Million Dollars

12. Susan Rice's Assets Are Also Quite Impressive:
opensecrets.org/pfds../assets.…

13. Where Does One Hide All That Money?
Just Ask a Clinton I Suppose...
You Create a 501C3 Non-Profit (non-taxable) Foundation Thingy:
nonprofitlocator.org/organizations/…
"Rice Cameron Family Foundation"
in Washington, District of Columbia (DC)

14. (sorry...twtr kps shutting dwn...hm....weird right?) Anyway...
Acc to financial disclosure reprts 1st highlighted by the environmentalist magazine OnEarth, Rice had a good portion of her $50m net wrth invested in co's that stand to directly benefit if the project wnt 4ward.

15. Besides a $300,000 to $600,000 investment directly in TransCanada, Rice & husband Ian Cameron invested at least $5m in Canadian oil co's incl Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) that wrkng on Tar Sands, w/at least anthr $5m in Canadian banks such as Toronto-Dominion (NYSE:TD)..

16. ..that were expected to finance the project & at least $2 million invested in infrastructure providers, among them railroad Canadian Pacific (NYSE:CP) & electric utilities that expected to benefit from the project.
freebeacon.com/politics/susan…

17. And abt Susan Rice's husband Ian Cameron:
Rmbr NOT seeing on the news (esp ABC Nightly Fake News) When Fmr Natn'l Security Adviser Susan Rice – “UNMASKED” @realDonaldTrump officials?
No?
Maybe bc Rice is married to a frmr ABC News Executive Producr?
heavy.com/news/2017/04/i…

18. If you had "a Hunch" that during the Obama Administration the msm seemed to have some sort of SLOBBERRING LUST AFFAIR with him & his entire cabal...Weeeeell.....maybe this will help you...

19.
~ABC News Executive Producer Ian Cameron
-Husband of Susan Rice, National Security Adviser.

20. ~CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications.

21. ~ABC News Correspondent Claire Shipman is the Wife of Former WH Press Secretary Jay Carney

22. ~ABC News & Univision Reporter Matthew Jaffe is the Husband of Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary

23. ~ ABC President Ben Sherwood is the Brother of Obama’s Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood

24. ~CNN President Virginia Moseley is the Wife of Former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides.

25. There is Much MUCH more but...perhaps now you know why it is NO surprise the same "media" who went easy on Obama’s many criminal acts against US..attack @realDonaldTrump admin relentlessly 24/7 w/ "Russia" & "Stormy"

So...Ya think there might be a little bias in the news?

26. Rice's impressive investment portfolio is heavily tilted toward energy companies & Canadian companies, with as much as 1/2 of her net worth at least was partially dependent on the success of the Keystone project.

27. Even if the fmr ambassador meant well, it's difficult to ignore that approving that Keystone XL pipeline would have provided her an immediate & substantial payoff for Rice.

Is a truly independent decision even possible in such a case?
(Maybe I Should Ask Martha Stewart)

28. But Guess What? Rice was not/and is not alone.
There's an ELITE group of EXPERT investors that managed to produce spectacular returns for decades, outperforming not only the market, other expert traders, but also corporate insiders.

~Who are these ELITE EXPERTS....?

29. They're not a private equity group, or a hedge fund managers; not day-traders or full time traders on the floor of the NYSE, nor are they even Motley Fool subscribers.

THE ANSWER:
~They Are Our Representatives-Mbrs of Congress.
So much for representation "by the people."

30. The truth will make you sick.
Technically it's "public knowledge," but I can tell you
~ it's Congress' dirty little secret.

Congress is rich.
Unbelievably rich.
time.com/373/congress-i…

31. I don't know which is worse:
The fact that insider trading remains legal for some of our nation's wealthiest politicians...

...or that Congress refuses to do anything about it.

32. "A few lawmakers proposed a bill that would prevent members and employees of Congress from trading securities based on nonpublic information they obtain.

The legislation has languished since 2006.
nationalreview.com/corner/if-were…

33. The perception among Americans is there’s no shortage of corruption in Wash or on Wall Street, and a new report finds possibly unseemly activities between dozens of Capitol Hill STAFFERS & the businesses their offices tasked with keeping honest. wsj.com/articles/SB100…

34. At least 72 Congressional staffers traded stock shares of companies their bosses were involved with "overseeing and writing laws for" in 2008 & 2009, a Wall Street Journal investigation uncovered.

35. Although the aides in question denied that they were involved w/"unethical activity," their positions afford them access to info that individuals who are trading could profit from.

36. “Even if they had done so,” the Journal notes,
“it would be legal, because insider-trading laws do NOT apply to Congress.”
minyanville.com/businessmarket…
And not only are Senators and Congressmen immune, their aides are, too

37. In Nov of 2011, (Just B4 the 2012 Election Year) 60 Minutes did a big expose on insider trading within Congress.
cbsnews.com/news/congress-…
While everyone else is subject to basic insider trading rules, it turned out that mbrs of Congress were exempt from the rules.

38. And, as you would imagine, many in Congress have access to market-moving, non-public information.

...And they made use of it.

39. Of course, aftr that reprt came out & got lots of attention, Congress had to act, & w/in mons they passed the STOCK Act nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/… w/overwhelming support in Congress to make insider trading laws that apply to everyone else finally apply to Congress & staffers.

40, As that link notes:
"The lopsided votes showed lawmakers desperate to regain public trust in an election year, when the public approval rating of Congress has sunk below 15 percent."

41. Of course, in 2013, lo & behold, it was no longer an election year.

And apparently some of the "details" of the ban on insider trading were beginning to chafe Congressional staffers, who found it hard to pad their income with some friendly trades on insider knowledge.

42. So... with very little fanfare, Congress quietly rolled back a big part of the law.
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/12/con…
Specifically the part that reqrd staffers 2post disclosures abt their financial transactions, so the public could make sure there was no insider trading going on.

43. Congress tried to cover up this significant change because they, themselves, claimed that it would pose a "national risk" to have this information public.
zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-1…
(A national risk to their bank accounts.)

44. It was such a 'national risk' that Congress did the whole thing quietly,
with NO debate.
theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/11/sun…

45. The bill was introduced in the Senate on a Thur & voted on late in the night when no one was paying attention. Fri aftrn (best time 2sneak thrgh news) the House picked it up w/unanimous consent- ignoring a promise 2give Congress 3days 2read a bill b4 holding a vote,..

46. ...because this kind of thing is too important to let anyone read the bill before Congress had to pass it. cnsnews.com/blog/terence-p…

47. &,"THE MOST TRANSPARENT President In History"
signed it into law in a quiet, fast &furious manner
Bc best way 2rebld trust in Congress, is roll back INSIDER TRADING LAWS for Politicians & Their staff, (Laws US little ppl wld go 2prison 4if broken).
shadowproof.com/2013/04/16/oba…

48. Both chambers of Congress & Obama approved the repeal legislation by unanimous consent, just before heading home to their districts.
That’s right. Unanimous consent, no one wanted to put their name down as openly supporting corruption while supporting corruption.

49. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) participated in mltpl exclusive IPOs -incl that of Visa (NYSE:V )
capital.com/ipo-initial-pu…
Pelosi bought 5,000 shares of Visa at the IPO price of $44.
Just a couple of days later, when the stock was trading to the investing public, it traded at $64/share.

50. Fmr Spkr of the House John Boehner (R-OH) bought shares of healthcare companies days b4 the public option was pulled fr the legislation.
The removal of the public option proved 2b a boon for private health insurers, making a significant sum for the Congressman's investments.

51. Bet You Never Knew that 130 lawmakers traded stocks or bonds in companies
who were lobbying on bills that passed through their committees
In 5,531 transactions
So out of a total of 45,000 transactions analyzed, that's nearly 1 in 8 trades.

52. There's more: washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special…

53. California's mbrs of Congress are worth at least $439,000,000.00 million latimes.com/politics/la-po…

~Ask Yourself:
Does My Congress Mbr REALLY "Represent" Me and My Family?
Do They Feel Our Monthly Financial Pains?
Do They Ever Wonder If They Can Afford College for Their Child?

54. Our Founders Had a Dream
"The American Dream"
Complacency faces America today. Most citizens are uninformed and unmotivated to question the actions of our politicians.
Our freedoms are, as they were in 1776, threatened by our unwillingness to act.

55. The Original American Dream Was Not Abt Getting Rich

~Our nation was formed bc our founding fathers wanted to escape the clutches of British royalty and build a nation that was free to govern itself and thrive on its own, without royal dictatorship.
ranker.com/list/the-riche…

56. Let's Review:
~Politicians who write laws that can make or break America's biggest companies secretly trade stocks using INSIDER INFO
~The msm, (Watchdog of those in power 4US) are literally married to those in power.
~Did I mention their little 'NO TERM LIMITS' Thingy?

57.~Facbk CEO who was w/Obama then w/HER
Faces Congressional Stockholders
oops, I mean a "CongrCommitteeMbrs" In a Hearing Nxt Wk.
~Congress &Senate Pass a Law Eliminating Insider Trading
~Quietly Bludgeon Same Law When Nobody Was Watching.
investors.com/politics/edito…
Got IT?
~End.