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Trump Exempts Entire Senior Staff From White House Ethics Rules

Aaron

Member
Mr.Shrugglesツ;238795074 said:
You'd have to be a fucking idiot to sign on to work with the trump admin at this point.
Why? Do you actually think anyone in this administration will face consequences for their actions? Nixon was only forced to resign because people still believed in facts back then.
 
I knew his "Five point plan for ethics reform" was pure bullshit the first time I saw it. It's just like all his other plans, written by someone else to make him look electable, nothing more.
 

drspeedy

Member
Meanwhile @ Fox & Friends... They're interviewing a former GWB staffer who is a (actually very talented) whistler.


Covfefe and ethics violations? Ha! Lamestream elites are the only ones trying to make this a story!
 

Tovarisc

Member
Meanwhile @ Fox & Friends... They're interviewing a former GWB staffer who is a (actually very talented) whistler.


Covfefe and ethics violations? Ha! Lamestream elites are the only ones trying to make this a story!

I'm yet to see anything about this ethics thing on CNN or NBC.
 

Joyful

Member
lol if a Democrat pulled this shit they'd be impeached by yesterday

being a huge fucking hypocrite is in the Republican job description though so no surprise here
 
Why? Do you actually think anyone in this administration will face consequences for their actions? Nixon was only forced to resign because people still believed in facts back then.
Trump has no loyalty to anybody but himself. The reason why there's a special counsel for the Russia investigation right now is because of an attempt to throw his own deputy AG under the bus.
 
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giphy.gif


I mean.....he's still campaigning.

Underrated post
 

DonShula

Member
Love the handwringing over America needing to be rebuilt from scratch. Look guys, we elected an asshole. He's gonna be an asshole during his term, however long that lasts. But we also haven't descended into full on authoritarianism and there's no chance of that happening BECAUSE of the system. Every time this asshole tries to turn the screws, some other part of the government pushes back, whether it's a leak, an investigation, court ruling, or appointment of special counsel.

Are there laws we could change to make it harder for an asshole to get elected, or harder for an asshole to do damage during a term? Sure. But the system is built to withstand even this clown. I won't downplay that he's making terrible decisions that are affecting people's lives right now, but from a geopolitical standpoint, we can undo this crap when we elect a new president. Climate change is about the only thing he can take action on that isn't easily reversed, and even that impact is limited by the amount of time in his term.
 

jWILL253

Banned
He goes out of his way to prove how much of a criminal he is.

A third of America voted the mob into office, and now the foxes run the henhouse. Coservatives... suck my dick in between your opioid hits while you cope with your economic anxiety.
 
Love the handwringing over America needing to be rebuilt from scratch. Look guys, we elected an asshole. He's gonna be an asshole during his term, however long that lasts. But we also haven't descended into full on authoritarianism and there's no chance of that happening BECAUSE of the system. Every time this asshole tries to turn the screws, some other part of the government pushes back, whether it's a leak, an investigation, court ruling, or appointment of special counsel.

Are there laws we could change to make it harder for an asshole to get elected, or harder for an asshole to do damage during a term? Sure. But the system is built to withstand even this clown. I won't downplay that he's making terrible decisions that are affecting people's lives right now, but from a geopolitical standpoint, we can undo this crap when we elect a new president. Climate change is about the only thing he can take action on that isn't easily reversed, and even that impact is limited by the amount of time in his term.

It doesn't help that so many moving parts of the system are run by assholes begging for a dictatorship. Without the judicial and IC, we'd be super fucked (and honestly may still be).
 
DonShula said:
But the system is built to withstand even this clown.

It's okay to admit that a system founded hundreds of years ago doesn't account for the abuses of power that we're seeing today.

The GOP can keep bending rules and subverting democratic norms because our system of government didn't account for this.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Love the handwringing over America needing to be rebuilt from scratch. Look guys, we elected an asshole. He's gonna be an asshole during his term, however long that lasts. But we also haven't descended into full on authoritarianism and there's no chance of that happening BECAUSE of the system. Every time this asshole tries to turn the screws, some other part of the government pushes back, whether it's a leak, an investigation, court ruling, or appointment of special counsel.

Are there laws we could change to make it harder for an asshole to get elected, or harder for an asshole to do damage during a term? Sure. But the system is built to withstand even this clown. I won't downplay that he's making terrible decisions that are affecting people's lives right now, but from a geopolitical standpoint, we can undo this crap when we elect a new president. Climate change is about the only thing he can take action on that isn't easily reversed, and even that impact is limited by the amount of time in his term.

He's purging the government of everyone except loyalists and isn't hiring replacements for most of the government where possible. Trump isn't the same "conditions" as pretty much every president before him.

Turkey thought they had their shit safe too until Erdogan was enabled just slightly enough to convert it into a dictatorship.
 

Oersted

Member
Love the handwringing over America needing to be rebuilt from scratch. Look guys, we elected an asshole. He's gonna be an asshole during his term, however long that lasts. But we also haven't descended into full on authoritarianism and there's no chance of that happening BECAUSE of the system. Every time this asshole tries to turn the screws, some other part of the government pushes back, whether it's a leak, an investigation, court ruling, or appointment of special counsel.

Are there laws we could change to make it harder for an asshole to get elected, or harder for an asshole to do damage during a term? Sure. But the system is built to withstand even this clown. I won't downplay that he's making terrible decisions that are affecting people's lives right now, but from a geopolitical standpoint, we can undo this crap when we elect a new president. Climate change is about the only thing he can take action on that isn't easily reversed, and even that impact is limited by the amount of time in his term.

The United States Office of Government Ethics was a lesson out of Watergate and the Nixon presidency.

The Trump presidency is revealing the United States Office of Government Ethics as toothless paper tiger.

The system is failing.
 

Shoeless

Member
Insane that he can even do this. What the fuck.

I think it's more insane that people who claimed they didn't want this but supported Trump will now tell themselves that in fact, they always wanted this, and anyone that points out contrary statements they made in the past are just regurgitating "fake news."

The amount of doublethink going on right now for Trump supporters to not realize they are hypocrites that are willing to sacrifice every principle they claimed to have is like some kind of societal-scale mass psychosis.
 
Trump supporters must be getting dizzy having to change their stances on things so quickly.

Lol. Do you think Trump supporters are even aware of this? Or if they are, that they understand what it means? Or if they understand what it means, give a shit? "Good now we can get some things done."

But this will again start a media frenzy that will make the administration look bad. That's all we can ask for for now.

That and that basically his entire administration catches a deadly virus and is wiped out.
 

DonShula

Member
It doesn't help that so many moving parts of the system are run by assholes begging for a dictatorship. Without the judicial and IC, we'd be super fucked (and honestly may still be).

Saying "but without x" has little merit when we already have x built into the system.

It's okay to admit that a system founded hundreds of years ago doesn't account for the abuses of power that we're seeing today.

The GOP can keep bending rules and subverting democratic norms because our system of government didn't account for this.

At the end of the day, they're bending rules to make themselves money. They're not destroying the government and don't have a long enough term in power to do so.

He's purging the government of everyone except loyalists and isn't hiring replacements for most of the government where possible. Trump isn't the same "conditions" as pretty much every president before him.

Turkey thought they had their shit safe too until Erdogan was enabled just slightly enough to convert it into a dictatorship.

Comparing the US to Turkey? A bit early for that.

The United States Office of Government Ethics was a lesson out of Watergate and the Nixon presidency.

The Trump presidency is revealing the United States Office of Government Ethics as toothless paper tiger.

The system is failing.

So the next democratic wave can keep it that way or give it some teeth. Either way the system is hardly crumbling because of it. That office might be a joke, but luckily we have far more than that office that needs to fail before we call the entire system a failure.
 
That this is even possible at all makes the US a fucking joke. every time I look into Trump threads I feel compelled to write a variation of this:
Your country is a goddamn embarrassment. Every system in place is deeply flawed and couldn't all be fixed in a lifetime, even if the uneducated masses weren't actively voting against their own interests. If only you could fuck up your country quietly. but nooo you have to actively harm the rest of the world too.

God I'm so mad.

You just hate us 'cause you ain't us!

Don't worry, I hate us too.
 
Vladimir Putin is probably thinking, "Damn it. Trump is making me look like a Democrat! I can't compete with his corruption at this pace! I need to kill more critics or something..."
 

Tovarisc

Member
White House Waivers May Have Violated Ethics Rules
The Trump administration may have skirted federal ethics rules by retroactively granting a blanket exemption that allows Stephen K. Bannon, the senior White House strategist, to communicate with editors at Breitbart News, where he was recently an executive.

The exemption, made public late Wednesday along with more than a dozen other ethics waivers issued by the White House, allows all White House aides to communicate with news organizations, even if they involve a “a former employer or former client.”

The waiver, which was undated, did not mention Mr. Bannon specifically, but appeared to benefit him by potentially dislodging him from a pending ethics complaint over his past discussions with Breitbart editors. It would also free him from restrictions on his future communication with the conservative media company.

The waiver, and the fact that it remains unclear when it was originally issued, seemed unusual to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who questioned its validity.

“There is no such thing as a retroactive waiver,” Mr. Shaub said in an interview. “If you need a retroactive waiver, you have violated a rule.”
and more at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/...white-house-ethics-waivers.html?smid=tw-share
 

Tovarisc

Member
Ethics Office to Release Two Dozen More Trump Waivers
The new waivers are in addition to ones the president granted to at least 16 White House officials

The Office of Government Ethics next week will release copies of about two dozen ethics waivers for officials working at federal agencies showing which members of the administration are working on issues they handled in their private-sector jobs, agency director Walter Shaub said.

The new waivers are in addition to ones President Donald Trump granted to at least 16 White House officials—copies of which the administration released earlier this week.

In his first four months in office, Mr. Trump granted as many waivers to White House officials as Mr. Obama did in eight years in office. Over the course of his two terms, Mr. Obama also granted about 50 waivers to officials in federal agencies, not including the White House; in four months, Mr. Trump has already handed out about half as many.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ethics-office-to-release-two-dozen-more-trump-waivers-1496421359
 
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