Who’s Board are YOU on?
Nobody Wonders
I just got finished reading Steve Job’s biography and was amazed about the fact that Al Gore was on the board of Apple. Then I remembered that both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama had been on the boards of Wal-Mart. So,..I don’t get it. The CEO’s of these big multinational companies are hiring government people to be on their boards, and paying them to vote on the company’s issues.
Isn’t that fascism?
From USA Today:
Corporations are largely forbidden from giving money directly to politicians’ families for their personal use. But they can hire family members, pay them for making speeches and put them on their boards.
Lawmakers are required to disclose if they or their spouses receive fees of more than $1,000 for sitting on boards but are not required to specify how much they are paid. There is no limit on the number of boards a congressional spouse can sit on or how much can be earned
Elaine Chao, wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sat on the boards of Dole Food, Protective Life, Kindred Healthcare, Marine Transport, Northwest Airlines and several other companies before ethics rules required her to resign those positions when she was sworn in as Secretary of Labor last year.
Richard Blum, who is married to Feinstein, sits on the boards of six companies, including an offshore company in England called the Concord Egyptian Fund. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., reported receiving $59,460 last year from Behlen Manufacturing, a Columbus, Neb., maker of farm equipment. Nelson sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Like I said: Nobody Thinks there should be a law saying no one connected with the government, or their spouses or relatives, Â should be allowed to serve on the boards of any major companies. Really, what does Hillary or Michelle know about running a company? And WHY should they be allowed to vote on issues? Is Michelle on the board of McDonalds? Is that why I’m getting apples in my Happy Meal?
Nobody Wonders. Nobody is amazed as I am that this goes on. 
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About
I am a nobody. If the different classes of America were color-coded, I would be in the yucky brown, one rung up from the bottom. I grew up in Naples, Florida and live near the Mississippi River now with my husband and two dogs. I am part of the slowly disappearing middle-class. I was a musician most of my life: drummer/singer/keyboards—but I retired before the plastic surgery flu hit. I have no degrees, which could be a good thing…depending on how you view our educational system. I do have three patents…but that really doesn’t make me a somebody. The one thing that is constant in my life is my OPINIONS, which i have more than perhaps even Carl Sagan could have imagined…mostly political. (yes…my ancestors were crabby buggers)
Hopefully other nobody’s will put their opinions on my site. But, if you happen to be a somebody, you’re more than welcomed to help out.
It’s my Nobody Opinion that Nobody’s Perfect, and Nobody Cares, that Nobody Knows why Nobody Wins, and when that happens, Nobody Wonders, why Nobody Flashes, why Nobody’s Fooled, but then Nobody remembers that Nobody ALWAYS Reports the truth.
You can email me at joyanna_adams@yahoo.com
Joyanna Adams
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Joyanna Adams 
It’s not that these people aren’t “capable” so much as the revolving door from govenment to big multinational companies which keeps the “elites” ruling our lives. Tax-paid govenmental wives and officials should be barred from getting jobs on boards where they can have great power. How can a business be independent if the wife of the President is sitting on your board?
It’s the “capital croynisim” that everyone from the tea party to the Occupy idiots are so angry about. BOTH parties do it. It’s sets up a oligarthy.
It’s why George Bush and Obama bailed out Wall Street. The politicians are making billions off those multinational relationships. While they all play a “quid pro quo” it’s hard to see who runs who. I’m sure Elaine can take care of herself,..but no wife of any elected official should be on the boards of major companies…..at least not while their husbands are in office.
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I agree with that. I thought the most ridiculous example was when Barney Frank was head of the House’s Housing Committee yet his boyfriend for almost a decade was a senior vice president of Fannie Mae.
I’ve always thought Hillary on Walmart’s board is beyond ridiculous given their track record. That said, I thought it was hilarious back in Hillary’s 2008 campaign when she went after Walmart–after all, she helped create that monster.
That said, humans are driven by power and greed and that’s not going away anytime soon. Things like nepotism and crony capitalism will continue to happen unless there are rules created to prevent these things.
If a law was passed barring the spouses of elected officials from sitting on boards, I would be in favor of a floor, where it was acceptable for spouses to sit on boards of companies with revenue below a certain level.
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Well….how do you stop it? That’s the question isn’t it? Thanks for all those good insights!
Joyanna Adams
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I agree with you an Hillary, which is so ironic since being on Walmart’s board should count against you. However, Elaine Chao isn’t a good example because she achieved great success on her own, like running the Peace Corps, before getting married to Mitch McConnell in 1993. She also had a very distinguished political career on her own independent of her husband’s success and not because of it like Hillary. Like anyone, she’ll have her critics, but she did achieve some pretty impressive milestones, like being the only Secretary of Labor to serve two terms since before World War II. Unlike Hillary and Bill Clinton, Elaine doesn’t lean on her husband to advance her career. She’s been able to take care of herself on her own.
Her current board appointments are just something to occupy her time since running the Department of Labor under Bush.
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Wal-Mart (even seen from over here at the bottom of the world) have been taken to court for ‘violating’ affirmative action laws – they had to make a MASSIVE payout to female workers only a year or two ago.
Was Hilary on the Board then?. How come the Board members didn’t have to cover the payout as they were in charge?
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Good point.
Joyanna Adams
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