Blinkin's Wiki - opening
Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama.[1]
During the Clinton administration, Blinken served in the State Department and in senior positions on the National Security Council from 1994 to 2001. He was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2001 to 2002. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008.[2] He was a foreign policy advisor for Joe Biden's 2008 presidential campaign, before advising the Obama–Biden presidential transition.
From 2009 to 2013, Blinken served as deputy assistant to the president and national security advisor to the vice president. During his tenure in the Obama administration, he helped craft U.S. policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran.[3][4] After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm.
Blinkin - Private Sector
WestExec Advisors
In 2017, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy advising firm, with Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda.[46][47] WestExec's clients have included Google's Jigsaw, Israeli artificial-intelligence company Windward, surveillance drone manufacturer Shield AI, which signed a $7.2 million contract with the Air Force,[48] and "Fortune 100 types".[49] According to Foreign Policy, the firm's clientele includes "the defense industry, private equity firms, and hedge funds".[50] Blinken received almost $1.2 million in compensation from WestExec.[51]
In an interview with The Intercept, Flournoy described WestExec's role as facilitating relationships between Silicon Valley firms and the Department of Defense and law enforcement;[52] Flournoy and others compared WestExec to Kissinger Associates.[52][53]
Pine Island Capital Partners
Blinken, as well as other Biden transition team members Michele Flournoy, former Pentagon advisor, and Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, are partners of private equity firm Pine Island Capital Partners,[54][55] a strategic partner of WestExec.[56] Pine Island's chairman is John Thain, the final chairman of Merrill Lynch before its sale to Bank of America.[57] Blinken went on leave from Pine Island in August 2020 to join the Biden campaign as a senior foreign policy advisor.[55] He said he would divest himself of his equity stake in Pine Island if confirmed for a position in the Biden administration.[56]
During the final stretch of Biden's presidential campaign, Pine Island raised $218 million for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a public offering to invest in "defense, government service and aerospace industries" and COVID-19 relief, which the firm's prospectus (initially filed with the U.S. SEC in September and finalized on November 13, 2020) predicted would be profitable as the government looked to private contractors to address the pandemic.[55] Thain said he chose the other partners because of their "access, network and expertise".[48]
In a December 2020 New York Times article raising questions about potential conflicts of interest between WestExec principals, Pine Island advisors, including Blinken, and service in the Biden administration, critics called for full disclosure of all WestExec/Pine Island financial relationships, divestiture of ownership stakes in companies bidding on government contracts or enjoying existing contracts, and assurances that Blinken and others recuse themselves from decisions that might advantage their previous clients.[48]
Blinken is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations[58] and was previously a global affairs analyst for CNN.[59][60]
Blinkin - personal
Blinken is Jewish.[133] In 2002, Blinken and Evan Ryan were married in an interfaith ceremony officiated by a rabbi and a priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.[20][5] They have two children.[134] Blinken is fluent in French and speaks without accent like a native speaker.[135] He plays guitar and has three songs available on Spotify by the alias ABlinken[136] (pronounced "Abe Lincoln").[137]
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The WestExec Wiki page - opening
WestExec Advisors LLC is a consulting firm founded in 2017 by Antony Blinken, Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda, all former Obama administration officials.[1][2][3] Lisa Monaco, Robert O. Work, Avril Haines, David S. Cohen, and Jen Psaki have also been WestExec employees.[4]
In an interview with The Intercept, Flournoy explained WestExec seeks to employ "people recently coming out of government" with "current knowledge, expertise, contacts, networks."[5] The firm and its partners avoid becoming registered lobbyists or foreign agents so that they can (re)enter government service without delays.[6] It does not disclose its clients, whose names are restricted from disclosure by non-disclosure agreements.[7] The firm is named after West Executive Avenue, a street near the West Wing.[7]
Clients and activities
Although WestExec does not disclose its list of clients, some have been reported. Its clients include Google's Jigsaw; Windward, an Israeli artificial intelligence firm; Shield AI, a drone surveillance company;[4] and "Fortune 100 types".[8]
Under a financial disclosure filed by the Biden transition team in December 2020, Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken declared that clients of WestExec included "investment giant Blackstone, Bank of America, Facebook, Uber, McKinsey & Company, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, the pharmaceutical company Gilead, the investment bank Lazard, Boeing, AT&T, the Royal Bank of Canada, LinkedIn and the venerable Sotheby's". In a similar form, Director of National Intelligence-designate Avril Haines disclosed that WestExec had worked with data-mining company Palantir Technologies.[9]
Wiki page - Evan Ryan (Blinkin spouse) - opening
Evan Maureen Ryan (born April 18, 1971) is an American public servant currently serving as White House Cabinet Secretary in the administration of Joe Biden. She previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) in the Obama Administration (2013–2017) and was assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison for then-Vice President Joe Biden.[1][2]
Ryan - Career
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Ryan served as Deputy Campaign Manager for then Senator Biden's 2008 presidential campaign[6] and also served on the Kerry's 2004 Presidential Campaign and Hillary Clinton's 2000 senatorial campaign. Ryan served in the Clinton White House, as Deputy Director of Scheduling for First Lady Hillary Clinton and as Special Assistant to the First Lady's Chief of Staff.
After leaving the White House in January 2017, she helped launch and lead Axios, and served as its Executive Vice President.[7] She has worked as a consultant for the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict and served as Deputy Chair for the governance track of the Clinton Global Initiative. She is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[2]
Evan Ryan was a Senior Advisor for the Biden-Harris transition team.[2] In January 2021, she was appointed White House Cabinet Secretary.[2]
If all of this stinks to you of revolving door grifters, Covid is not impeding your sense of smell. If you recall Biden telling big money fundrasiing folks, "Nothing will fundamentally change," should you doubt it, after reading the above simple Wiki story?
If you regard Biden as an old fragile shell corporation, with the Wiki quotes naming key corporate shareholders, well, you must be a cynic. How could you think such a thing?
Just good folk, governing for the Biden constituency, right? Who be that constituency; now there's a question with which to wrestle. Recall George Carlin's "Big Club" riff. And you ain't in it.