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Hail, hail, the gang’s all here. If it isn’t a university it’s a foundation for Democrat former government officials.

Former health secretary to head up Clinton Foundation

Donna Shalala, a former U.S. secretary of health and human services, will lead the nonprofit Clinton Foundation after its previous chief executive resigned in January, former President Bill Clinton announced on Friday.

Shalala, who has a decades-long friendship with the Clintons and served in Bill Clinton’s cabinet, will become the foundation’s president and chief executive officer in the coming months. Last year, she announced she would soon be ending her 14-year tenure as president of the University of Miami.

The announcement was made onstage at a youth conference for the Clinton Global Initiative, an offshoot of the foundation, at the University of Miami.

Shalala, who jokingly introduced Clinton as “the supreme guardian of the galaxy,” did not comment on her appointment during her remarks onstage.

It’s really hard to pin down exactly what the foundation does precisely. According to their website they “convene”:

Creating Partnerships of Purpose

We convene businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change.

Taken all together those words leave an impression of arduous do-gooding until you ponder over the operative word “convene”. Solving problems through convening?

I know it’s the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation now, but that website links to The Clinton Foundation website. Isn’t it just like the Clintons to think calling something a different name makes it a different thing. There are other Clinton organizations such as the Clinton Global Initiative. Another impressive sounding name until you try to grasp what it means. According to the dictionary an initiative is “taking the first step; readiness in initiating action”.

According to the website’s FAQs they don’t give out grants. That would be a first step a bit more productive than convening.

Does CGI provide funding of any kind?

No, unfortunately CGI is not a grant-making organization and does not provide funding directly to CGI members’ commitments.

You can toss around words like “benchmarking”, “capacity building”, “mechanisms”, “leverage” and give whatever you are saying an air of importance and depth. Those words are on a list of jargon the LGA (Local Government Association) in Great Britain bans government councils from using. Oh look, “initiative” is on the list too. Shalala will feel right at home with the gibberish having come from both government and academia where such gibberish flourishes (Conference proceedings removed from subscription databases after scientist reveals that they were computer-generated).

The Clinton Foundation spends money on galas, fundraisers and of course salaries and expenses, to get other people to commit to do actual work and put up money for real world accomplishments. What follow through there is after the commitment I do not know.

The Clintons give their charitable donations to their very own foundation. At least they have done so in the past. Is it really charitable giving if you get something in return?

From 2008:

Hillary Clinton has now released her and her husband’s tax returns for the past seven years, and the campaign is touting the amount of charitable giving that the family contributed over that period. Much of it goes to the charity Clinton Family Foundation. An economist may ask the question, “What fraction of that is actually consumption, given that the Clintons obviously gain utility from having their name associated with the foundation?” Why wouldn’t they just donate some money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, or some other charity? If you buy Girl Scout Cookies, you cannot claim that $3 as a charitable deduction for tax purposes because you were given a good (delicious cookies) in return for the money you gave the organization. Similarly, when somebody donates $10 million to a university to have a building named after himself (or to a charity named after himself), isn’t that person getting something in return too?

I admit I have a low opinion of the Clintons. I think the only reason they would seek out a thirsty man to offer a cup of water is if someone accompanies them with a camera. Otherwise, they just hold out the cup for themselves.