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by jacquesm 3225 days ago
> How is this shit legal?

In a banana republic? Or in a country that takes these things serious? It all depends on where you live. The absolutely incredible conflicts of interest the Trump administration has brought into the whitehouse ought to have been enough to put several people behind bars. The brands of family members are openly advertised by whitehouse advisors on national TV and the president did not divest himself from his holdings but created some kind of smoke-and-mirrors version of divestment.

It's ridiculous, and it sets the tone for the rest of the nation. If you feel that it isn't legal you are probably right but it would require someone in a position in power to do something about it and that is not going to happen for the time being.

The real problem this causes: precedent has been set and future administrations will not feel bound by these rules any more.
1 comments
maxerickson 3225 days ago
It isn't all that unlikely that new laws will be passed (for example, there were substantial reforms after Watergate/Nixon).

A big part of the problem is that a lot of the ethics rules surrounding the president are just norms, they aren't laws.

If we are real lucky the imperial office of the president will be neutered quite a lot.

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jacquesm 3225 days ago
> If we are real lucky the imperial office of the president will be neutered quite a lot.

This is my preferred outcome for the Trump administration: that it serves as a vaccine, a shot in the arm for those calling for more restrictions on what a single person can do to the country and that this helps to curb a future wanna-be emperor who is actually competent. Trump - fortunately - is a bungler, imagine the damage he could do if he was half as competent as he claims he is. That would be a much larger issue.

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cmurf 3225 days ago
Congressional Republicans are what what's been neutered quite a lot. Their approval is lower than Trump's, banks, and TV news. That's pretty bad. Their ability to find their tongues, let alone any useful policy making, is impressively bad.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx

If we are real lucky, the president will have resigned two weeks ago, so obviously we are already not lucky. What we have ahead of us is more of the forest fire in progress, damaging trust. That's what is being neutered, public trust in all of government. And that is risky.

http://www.people-press.org/2017/05/03/public-trust-in-gover...

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