Trump II

[jeremyrh]

Alan, you are raising an intriguing possibility.
Who knows, maybe after all, Hillary will get her wish fulfilled - a woman breaking glass ceiling and becoming first female president.

Pretty much have to be an improvement on the incumbent.

[Rob C]

Pretty much have to be an improvement on the incumbent.

Even the glass ceiling manages that!

It'll only crack if it's hit by a truck... the other's already in that happy state.

Rob

[Otto Phocus]

Neither Jared or Ivanka are drawing salaries so the nepotism statute unfortunately does not apply.  The ethics declarations may trip them up at some point.

I suspect that we may see some changes to these laws to fill up these loopholes.

[Alan Klein]

I suspect that we may see some changes to these laws to fill up these loopholes.

"Sorry,  you can't advise the president.   You're too successful. " 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

New Trump Late-Night Show:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/president-show-comedy-central-launches-weekly-trump-aimed-late-night-show-990727

Cheers,
Bart

[Farmer]

"Sorry,  you can't advise the president.   You're too successful. "

"Sorry, you can't advise the President because you have a conflict of interest."

Fixed it for you.

[Alan Klein]

"Sorry, you can't advise the President because you have a conflict of interest."

Fixed it for you.

If there's a conflict, then a party can recluse themself.  But we live in a democracy.  We shouldn't stop people from serving our country because they've been successful.  I suppose you'd make the requirement for being Secretary of the Treasury if you can't reconcile your checkbook against your bank statement.  Now there's someone we could hire. 

[Alan Klein]

It seems more and more that the Obama Administration was in fact playing fast and loose with surveillance info they had on Trump and his campaign people.  No, Obama wasn't listening in exactly, but Susan Rice and others were.  It may have been coincidental to NSA taps, but still, the dems unmasked people illegally.  And still no proof of Trump collusion with the Russians to tilt the election.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-04-03/top-obama-adviser-sought-names-of-trump-associates-in-intel

[Peter McLennan]

If there's a conflict, then a party can recluse themself.

Like THAT'S ever happened.

We shouldn't stop people from serving our country because they've been successful.

Of course not.  But it might be a good idea to stop people from serving your country who have recently damaged it, willfully, for their own financial gain.  I'm looking at YOU, bankers.

I suppose you'd make the requirement for being Secretary of the Treasury if you can't reconcile your checkbook against your bank statement.  Now there's someone we could hire.

I think you suppose wrong.

[Alan Klein]

Like THAT'S ever happened.
Of course not.  But it might be a good idea to stop people from serving your country who have recently damaged it, willfully, for their own financial gain.  I'm looking at YOU, bankers.

The Attorney General just recused himself in the Russian investigation matter before Congress and the FBI.  Judges do it all the time.  It's a common practice.  If anyone uses their position to benefit themselves financially, they'll be breaking law.  Also, if you don't like the President's selection, you can vote him out of office.  That's the way a democracy works, not based on your opinion.

[Peter McLennan]

The Attorney General just recused himself in the Russian investigation matter before Congress and the FBI.  Judges do it all the time.  It's a common practice.

Yes, for the supposedly law abiding judiciary.  But for the "advisors" et al?  Not so much.

If anyone uses their position to benefit themselves financially, they'll be breaking law.

When has that stopped them? Any of the 2008 bankers go to jail? 

Also, if you don't like the President's selection, you can vote him out of office. 

By then, it's waaaaay too late.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Yes, for the supposedly law abiding judiciary.  But for the "advisors" et al?  Not so much.
When has that stopped them? Any of the 2008 bankers go to jail? 
By then, it's waaaaay too late.

Let's face it, Alan likes nepotism.

Cheers,
Bart

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... Any of the 2008 bankers go to jail?..

Which law was broken?

[Alan Klein]

Let's face it, Alan likes nepotism.

Cheers,
Bart

Only if the job is for one of my relatives. 

[Schewe]

Things that make you go "hum"

Op/Ed in the LA Times in four parts...one and two are posted, three and four later in the week.

Part One: Our Dishonest President

t was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a “catastrophe.”

Still, nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck. Like millions of other Americans, we clung to a slim hope that the new president would turn out to be all noise and bluster, or that the people around him in the White House would act as a check on his worst instincts, or that he would be sobered and transformed by the awesome responsibilities of office.

Instead, seventy-some days in — and with about 1,400 to go before his term is completed — it is increasingly clear that those hopes were misplaced.

Part Two: Why Trump lies

Donald Trump did not invent the lie and is not even its master. Lies have oozed out of the White House for more than two centuries and out of politicians’ mouths — out of all people’s mouths — likely as long as there has been human speech.

But amid all those lies, told to ourselves and to one another in order to amass power, woo lovers, hurt enemies and shield ourselves against the often glaring discomfort of reality, humanity has always had an abiding respect for truth.

In the United States, born and periodically reborn out of the repeated recognition and rejection of the age-old lie that some people are meant to take dominion over others, truth is as vital a part of the civic, social and intellectual culture as justice and liberty. Our civilization is premised on the conviction that such a thing as truth exists, that it is knowable, that it is verifiable, that it exists independently of authority or popularity and that at some point — and preferably sooner rather than later — it will prevail.

#MAGA
#LIESLIKEADOG

[Alan Klein]

Yes, you're right.  The president has lied constantly.  "You can keep your doctor."  "The ACA will lower insurance costs."  "Benghazi was caused by a movie."

[Schewe]

Yes, you're right.  The president has lied constantly...

Didn't bother to read all of both articles, right?

There's a massive difference in scale and frequency to the point where your post is, well, simply pathetic. Yes polititions lie but nothing like Trump's lies have been seen in the history of the office of the president of the USA...it's magnificently grotesque and hideous...like a fatal car wreck on the side of the highway. You slow down to gawk but not stop.

[Alan Klein]

There's a massive difference in scale and frequency...

Yes, Obama's lies got people killed and screwed up the entire medical insurance industry.

[Peter McLennan]

Didn't bother to read all of both articles, right?

HA!

There's a massive difference in scale and frequency to the point where your post is, well, simply pathetic.

Yup. "My mind's made up.  No way am I reading anything that might change my mind."

Superb articles.  Beautifully written. Can't wait for the next.

[Peter McLennan]

Which law was broken?

A valid, but specious point.  One also made ad nauseum by the bankers.

However, depriving the global economy of something in the order of ten trillion dollars* and half a decade of economic growth still constitutes a crime by any reasonable measure.

*https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/business/economy/the-cost-of-the-financial-crisis-is-still-being-tallied.html?_r=0