ACTION

“Obama, who long cast himself as an ardent opponent of big money in politics” –– even scolding the Supreme Court's ruling on campaign finance reform during his 2010 State of the Union address –– in mid January unleashed his recycled political machine that is pushing on issues that range from climate change to immigration reform to women’s health.

According to Politico, “The president and his allies declared it would be powered by grassroots activists and change politics from outside Washington.”

Not so fast.

If you read the fine print, “[this nonprofit group] shows how disturbing its work really is. Its name is Organizing for Action (OfA), and if its initials seem familiar, that’s because the group is the direct descendant of Obama for America, the president’s campaign organization in 2008 and 2012, noted the left-wing New York Times –– and it's an organization with many of the same Obama strategists, but without the restraint of limited donations.

"It stinks," slammed the Washington Post in an op-ed titled, "The temptation of dark money" –– "judging by recent reports, Organizing for Action should be renamed Paying for Access," because they are raising large sums of money by offering advisory board positions with "the privilege of attending quarterly (and secret) meetings with the president."

It's pretty obvious what access and influence buys in Washington DC these days, but now the Obama Team is openly selling access. Is that even legal?

Or maybe it's just "change we can believe in."

With a massive address list of 20 million, they are circulating emails claiming, "Organizing for Action's mission is to put power back into the hands of the American people. That's why we won't accept a single dollar from corporations, PACs, foreign donors, or lobbyists."

Meanwhile, Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and the OfA national chairman, and Jon Carson (OfA Director) were traveling across the country “meeting with members of the Obama 2012 National Finance Committee, who are being pressed back to work to find support for the new organization” –– even ”hitting up Hollywood studio executives, California energy investors and Chicago business titans,” reported the Post in February. And in its first days, Organizing for Action "[had] closely affiliated itself with insider liberal organizations funded by mega-donors like George Soros and corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Citi and Duke Energy,” noted Politico in late January.

However, after much criticism, the Washington Free Beacon recently reported, "OFA pledged not to accept donations from corporations and foreign individuals or groups," but will still accept donations from labor unions.

Hmm, we'll see about that.

In my last exposé, Citi’s Massive 'Green' Money Machine, I revealed Citigroup's large footprint inside the Obama White House as well as this green-energy scheme, chronicling their connection to approximately $16 billion of “green” stimulus deals. Meanwhile, I’ve highlighted Duke Energy a few times: Duke’s CEO Jim Rogers and his "2012 DNC Cameo" as well as the money behind it, however, fresh information shows that Duke Energy has more stimulus funds to account for. 

Still, there is a much bigger player to expose at this time: the left-wing billionaire George Soros: Obama’s "Agent of Green."

Labeled by the Right as "the single most destructive leftist demagogue," there has been much said and written about the politically powerful George Soros. Along with his deep-rooted shadowy agenda, we know that Soros funds numerous left-wing organizations, including radical environmentalism groups like the Tides Foundation. Most identified are the “anti-Fox” outlet Media Matters, the extremist Moveon.org as well as Obama’s left arm, Center for American Progress (CAP).

As Soros continues to bankroll the Left's far reaching progressive plans, he's more interested in the bottom line, which is evident by his own words, “I am basically there to make money. I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of what I do.”

True to Soros' nature, he’s cashing in at the Bank of Obama, despite what it's doing to our economy. Starting with the fact that Soros was involved in crafting the trillion-dollar so-called "Recovery Act," which President Obama signed into law in February 2009. A massive economic stimulus bill –– among the biggest in history –– that was sold to the American people as a means save our economy, however, recent revelations reveal the real intent behind the stimulus package; a key tool for advancing clean energy, of which at least ten percent was earmarked for that purpose –– it was packed full of "clean energy provisions." 

But what has followed is nothing but pure dirt (cronyism and corruption) including the fact that "in the first quarter of 2009, Mr. Soros went on a stock-buying spree in companies that ultimately benefited from the federal stimulus," including twelve alternative energy and utility companies.  And, after three weeks of intense research, I found that through these twelve, and other timely investments in renewable energy, Soros' green tab exceeds $11 BILLION of stimulus money –– and you, the taxpayer, footed the bill. Keep in mind that this tally is not factoring in the huge profit Soros is making off of these investments.

Most aren’t aware of Soros’ additional links to the president that date back as far as 2004, and how he is key villain in this Green Corruption scandal.

As of late, Daniel Greenfield of Frontpage.com took aim, “George Soros has leased the White House as a summer home for eight years, and appointed a number of his stooges to Cabinet positions, including Chief of Staff.”

In January, President Obama’s named former CAP Senior Fellow Denis McDonough (a deputy national security advisor and a longtime aide to the president) as chief of staff to the White House, to replace outgoing Jack Lew, who is set to take over Timothy Geithner's post as Treasury Secretary. Marita Noon (energy columnist at Townhall.com and my cohort in unearthing the vast amount of clean-energy dirt seeping through our current administration), and I recently completed a collaboration of Mr. Lew and Citigroup: "Wall Street Walks all over the Obama White House."

Daniel Greenfield explains it best, “Denis McDonough’s appointment as Chief of Staff is probably the biggest win for the Soros Lobby since the Obama victory…the George Soros funded Center for American Progress, which is the criminal brain behind the Frankenbody of Obama Inc.”

Subtly put, Edwin Chen of Bloomberg in 2008 described CAP as "an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals," of which, at that time, a squadron of CAP experts worked with president Obama's transition team along with CAP's president and founder, John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.

CAP, on my radar since 2010, is closely aligned with the Obama White House, and last summer we gave some insight into the Podesta Group's lobbying connection to SolarReserve and its $737 million in Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantees, which is also a Citigroup investment, and part of the stimulus created 1705 loan program, the DOE's "junk bond" portfolio.

Looking deeper, you’ll find many CAP associates inside Obama’s 2009 Green Team: both former Climate Czar Carol Browner and the self-proclaimed communist turned CNN contributor, Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. Meanwhile others from CAP had posts inside the Department of Energy like Steve Spinner, a two-time Obama bundler and former DOE Loan Programs Advisor. They are all central to this green-energy scheme, which fit into different categories: "The RAT in the Recovery and the Gang of Eight" as well as the "DOE Dirty Dozen."

Soros Funds Obama Victories

Soros has long, deep and shady ties to the Democratic Party, more specifically, Hillary Clinton, yet Soros jumped into the political arena with Barack Obama as early as 2004, and donated to his Senate run. "Soros and his family gave Barack Obama $60,000. This does not include money that Soros was able to funnel to so-called 527 groups (Moveon.org, for example) that have also been politically active; nor does it include money that Soros was able to raise from tapping a network of friends, business associates, and employees," revealed Ed Lasky news editor of American Thinker in 2007.

Soros helped bankroll an Obama victory in 2008, making it on Forbes' “Obama's Billionaire" list;

however, Soros' overall political funding statistics are startling, as reported by the New Yorker in February 2012.

Over the past thirty years, no benefactor has contributed more to the Democratic Party and other liberal groups than Soros, the billionaire chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, a hugely lucrative hedge fund. In 2004, he contributed more than twenty-three million dollars, a record at the time, to Democratic groups aiding John Kerry’s ultimately unsuccessful Presidential bid. In 2008, he was one of the three largest campaign donors to either party, as he gave five million dollars to help make Barack Obama President.

But the king of contributions wasn’t done there, and in September 2012, Soros pledged $1.5 million in donations to a trio of super PACs backing President Obama and congressional Democrats.

Soros and his family even made it on the Center for Public Integrity list of biggest financial backers of election 2012, ranking #18 with total contributions to super PACs at $5.1 million –– of course all pro-Obama and pro-Democrat.

Besides Soros arming the Democratic Party with a large campaign war chest, he has donated some $5 billion of his fortune to left-wing non-profit groups through the Open Society Institute, which as Michelle Malkin says, "is committed to Soros’ militant ideology of toppling the fascist tyranny of the United States, which he says must undergo de-Nazification in favor of justice."

In the summer of 2010 I had written about the cap-and-trade scheme as well as the Soros-funded Tides Center/Foundation participation, which involved the Chicago Climate Exchange and an array of Obama connections; climate crusaders; and radical environmentalist and conservation groups. Additionally, built-in to this scheme at the time were players like Richard Sandor, Al Gore's Generation Investment Management (GIM), Goldman Sachs, as well as the Joyce Foundation and Obama's Senior Advisor and Assistant, Valerie Jarrett. Looming in the midst are two powerful billionaire forces: the "global warming guru" Maurice Strong, and of course, George Soros, of which according to Canada Free Press, both "were working on anti-American schemes as far back as 2006."

There is much more tell about Apollo, but a newly released investigation by Watchdog.org, reveals troubling information about the Tides Foundation, listing big-name liberal donors and the fact that "from 2009 to 2011, the government has given Tides some $28 million in grants paid for by American taxpayers."

And what do taxpayers get for that 28 mill? 

As I warned in 2010, "our environment has been hijacked," and now we have President Obama vowing to confront climate change in his second term. This time he's armed with a political propaganda machine, a powerhouse of left-wing Big Green groups, plenty of high-powered clean energy lobbyists, and wealthy "green cronies" with access and influence. 

Throw in a new "Climate Cabinet" –– which thrills most environmentalists –– with the likes of Climate Hawk John Kerry as Secretary of State, Climate Czar Heather Zichal as well as the Center for American Progress four-year lease of the White House. Plus, those inside the Obama administration that are directly benefiting from "green" (Citigroup and Goldman Sachs come to mind), be prepared for regulations and legislation that will in some form or another resemble cap-and-trade and demands for additional funds to bankroll Obama's efforts to save our planet.

Furthermore, the president's choice of Gina McCarthy –– labeled as "Obama's Green Quarterback" –– to head the Environmental Protection Agency most say is a signal that the president "plans to make climate change a larger part of his environmental agenda." With Ernest Moniz set to run the Energy Department, don't expect "green corporate welfare" to end either. "Both nominees fit nicely into the pragmatic mold of Obamanomics, seeking to increase government's role in the energy sector with the cooperation of business," writes Timothy Carney, Senior political columnist at the Washington Examiner.

Most relevant to this piece of the Green Corruption scandal is Soros' timely investments, which included twelve alternative energy and utility companies.

Just after the release of Peter Schweizer’s blockbuster 2011 bestseller, one of the most damning revelations featured in Throw Them All Out aired on Stephen K. Bannon's Victory Sessions –– in an interview that starred Schweizer and Wynton Hall of Breitbart.com.

Billionaire George Soros gave advice and direction on how President Obama should allocate so-called “stimulus” money in a series of regular private meetings and consultations with White House senior advisers even as Soros was making investments in areas affected by the stimulus program.

While we know that George Soros has visited the White House on at least five occasions since Barack Obama became president, possibly more, Schweizer gives specifics, "Mr. Soros met with Mr. Obama’s top economist, [Larry Summers, another "green crony"] on February 25, 2009 and twice more with senior officials in the Old Executive Office Building on March 24th and 25th as the stimulus plan was being crafted. Later, Mr. Soros also participated in discussions on financial reform."

Then Schweizer reveals, "In the first quarter of 2009, Mr. Soros went on a stock-buying spree in companies that ultimately benefited from the federal stimulus."

• Soros doubled his holdings in medical manufacturer Hologic, a company that benefited from stimulus spending on medical systems
• Soros tripled his holdings in fiber channel and software maker Emulus, a company that wound up scoring a large amount of federal funds going to infrastructure spending
• Soros bought 210,000 shares in Cisco Systems, which came up big in the stimulus lottery
• Soros also bought Extreme Networks, which, months later, said it was expanding broadband to rural America “as part of President Obama’s broadband strategy”
• Soros bought 1.5 million shares in American Electric Power, a company Mr. Obama gave $1 billion to in June 2009
• Soros bought shares in utility company Ameren, which bagged a $540 million Department of Energy loan
• Soros bought 250,000 shares of Public Service Enterprise Group, 500,000 shares of NRG Energy, and almost a million shares of Entergy—all companies that came up winners in the Department of Energy taxpayer giveaway that produced the Solyndra debacle
• Soros bought into BioFuel Energy, a company that benefited when the EPA announced a regulation on ethanol
• Soros bought Powerspan in April 2009. Just weeks later, the clean-energy company landed $100 million from the Department of Energy
• In the second quarter of 2009, Soros bought education technology giant Blackboard, which became a big recipient of education stimulus money
• Soros also bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe and CSX, both beneficiaries of Mr. Obama’s plans for revitalizing the railroads
• Soros bought Cognizant Technology Solutions, which scored stimulus funds in education and health care technology
• Soros also bought 300,000 shares of Constellation Energy Group and 4.6 million shares of Covanta, both of which landed taxpayers’ money through the stimulus, the former of which bagged $200 million

In Throw Them All Out, Schweizer catalogs several more of Mr. Soros’ trades and says that, while “it is not necessarily the case that Soros had specific insider tips about any government grants,” nevertheless, Soros’ “investment decisions aligned remarkably closely with government grants and transfers.”

Whether Mr. Soros’s involvement in private White House meetings influenced which companies received stimulus money is unclear. What is certain, writes Schweizer, is that “crony capitalism favors the politically active, and the manipulative. It does not favor one party over the other. It does not care about policy. It just knows how to make money off any policy — your tax dollars, leveraged to the rich.”

Soros, who manages funds through various accounts in the US and the Cayman Islands, owns shares in financial companies and banks that include Citigroup, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and so on. However, as noted, in early 2009, just after the trillion-dollar stimulus bill was crafted and passed (February 2009), with 10% earmarked for alternative energy (almost $100 billion tax dollars), Soros dove into renewable energy –– and from what I gather, financial services tops Soros' interests, yet energy is second with his "sector weightings" at 6.1%.

In addition to the timely investments divulged in Schweizer's book, in 2011 Reuters reported that Soros, through various funds had invested in green companies including "U.S. solar panel maker First Solar Inc (another part of Green Corruption that I'll get to in a bit) and Chinese solar company JA Solar, according to U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filings. At the same time, his funds have investments in sectors that environmentalists complain about, such as coal company Peabody Energy Corp and oil company InterOil Corp, according to filings.”

Besides spending billions to fund left-wing, radical environmental groups, Soros, in the fall of 2009, announced his plan to invest $1 billion in clean energy (climate change), and formed and financed ($10 million a year for 10 years) an “advisory group’ called Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), which states they are “an independent, not-for-profit organization with long-term support from financier and philanthropist George Soros.”

At that time, Soros had this to say, “The problem of global warming is primarily a political problem at this point.” Adding, “The science is beyond dispute, but how do we achieve the objectives we all know are necessary? That is a political problem.”

Later in early 2011, Soros teamed up with the private equity firm Silver Lake Kraftwerk to invest in “the energy and resource sectors,” of which he hired folks from Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) –– the Venture Capital firm of John Doerr and Al Gore that I've tackled quite a few times.

But the big catch for Soros was Cathy Zoi.

Zoi, an Al Gore acolyte, who is also one of the “DOE dirty dozen” tied to billions of clean-energy stimulus funds, is the former Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency Cathy Zoi, who oversaw the disbursement of more than $30 billion in green-energy stimulus funds in her Department of Energy post" at the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) –– a post which began in April 2009, and later she briefly filled the role of Acting Undersecretary for Energy, yet in March 2011, she jumped the DOE ship to work for Soros.

In February 2012, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and others invested $81 million into the California solar firm SolarCity –– a solar firm that I covered in my February post, “Obama's Jobs Council Closed: Mega-Rich Member Penny Pritzker "Rumored" for Commerce Job, “Related” to Two Large Green Corruption Stories.”

The SolarCity story includes other billionaire players and Obama donors like Elon Musk, Nicholas J. Pritzker, Al Gore's firm Generation Investment Management LLP as well as Obama Wall Street buddies: Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Adding to the sleaze, as of December 2012 SolarCity was under a federal prove regarding their $341 million in grant, and looking deeper I found 27 1603 grants for "USB SolarCity Master Tenant," which ranges over 15 states, totaling over $88 million. This means that SolarCity snagged approximately $429 million of tax-free cash.

While Crane is a friend of the Clintons, which is one reason why, in September 2010, NRG made a $1 million contribution through the Clinton Global Initiative to deliver solar power to Haiti. Crane did in fact place his bet on Hillary Clinton during her 2008 run for the presidency, but later, and along with other NRG executives, sided with then-Senator Obama. In fact, according to OpenSecrets.org, since 2004 NRG Energy has donated $1,191,047 to both political parties, primarily to Republicans in 2006, however, the shift that went to blue in 2008 and 2010 is quite amusing, with top five candidate donations going to Democrats, including President Obama –– with the exception of David Dewhurst (R-TX)..

In an analysis of the DOE Loan Program by Veronique de Rugy (an extremely significant report I'll revisit in a bit), as of June 2012, "Reliant Energy and Reliant Energy Tax Retail LLC, two NRG Energy companies, reported receiving at least 37 grants under the ARRA," of which we know that in late 2009, Reliant Energy was among 100 winners that came out of the $3.4 billion of smart grid stimulus grants for just under $20 million.

NOTE: This is another rather lengthy post, thus I've changed the title of my blog to The Green Corruption Files. Please feel free to continue reading and review the rest of "Soros Stimulus Stock Winners," including NRG Energy's part in Green Corruption  –– (a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 Index company) and its subsidiaries that were the recipient of most of 1705 stimulus loans: $5.2 BILLION of taxpayer money and counting.  

Beware: most of these renewable energy and utility firms lead to more crony, corruption players and stories, confirming the size and scope of Obama's "green corruption" scandal –– the largest, most expensive and deceptive case of crony capitalism in American history.