CalvinBall wrote:mods, can we ban pacino?

slugsrbad wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

JUburton wrote:surprising how many of the LIBERAL MEDIA are anti buzzfeed's full publishing of the document

Leaving aside how dumb and counterproductive it was, it also undercuts the media as an institution by further erasing its role as gatekeeper.

Yea, and BuzzFeed had seem to be gaining traction in the political journalism arena.

It's a fun read because of schadenfreude, but doesn't accomplish anything.

pacino wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:mods, can we ban pacino?

whatd i do

JUburton wrote:have we mentioned the head of the OGE saying trump's plan is wholly inadequate?

It’s easy to see that the current plan does not achieve anything like the clean break Rex Tillerson is
making from Exxon. Stepping back from running his business is meaningless from a conflict of interest
perspective. The Presidency is a full-time job and he would’ve had to step back anyway. The idea of setting up
a trust to hold his operating businesses adds nothing to the equation. This is not a blind trust—it’s not even
close.
I think Politico called this a “half-blind” trust, but it’s not even halfway blind. The only thing this has in
common with a blind trust is the label, “trust.” His sons are still running the businesses, and, of course, he
knows what he owns. His own attorney said today that he can’t “un-know” that he owns Trump tower. The
same is true of his other holdings. The idea of limiting direct communication about the business is wholly
inadequate. That’s not how a blind trust works. There’s not supposed to be any information at all.
2
Here too, his attorney said something important today. She said he’ll know about a deal if he reads it in
the paper or sees in on TV. That wouldn’t happen with a blind trust. In addition, the notion that there won’t be
new deals doesn’t solve the problem of all the existing deals and businesses. The enormous stack of documents
on the stage when he spoke shows just how many deals and businesses there are.
I was especially troubled by the statement that the incoming administration is going to demand that OGE
approve a diversified portfolio of assets. No one has ever talked to us about that idea, and there’s no legal
mechanism to do that. Instead, Congress set up OGE’s blind trust program under the Ethics in Government Act.
Under that law anyone who wants a blind trust has to work with OGE from the start, but OGE has been left out
of this process. We would have told them that this arrangement fails to meet the statutory requirements.

The President-elect’s attorney justified the decision not to use a blind trust by saying that you can’t put
operating businesses in a blind trust. She’s right about that. That’s why the decision to set up this strange new
kind of trust is so perplexing. The attorney also said she feared the public might question the legitimacy of the
sale price if he divested his assets. I wish she had spoken with those of us in the government who do this for a
living. We would have reassured her that Presidential nominees in every administration agree to sell illiquid
assets all the time. Unlike the President, they have to run the gauntlet of a rigorous Senate confirmation process
where the legitimacy of their divestiture plans can be closely scrutinized. These individuals get through the
nomination process by carefully ensuring that the valuation of their companies is done according to accepted
industry standards. There’s nothing unusual about th

pacino wrote:a replacement would be something different and be a start over. this is to repeal and make it able to repeal with 51 votes instead of 60. there was no 'replace' in it.

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

pacino wrote:Rex Tillerson said he never lobbied against Russian sanctions...Corker later confirmed a conversation with Tillerson re: sanctions.

Monkeyboy wrote:

pacino wrote:Rex Tillerson said he never lobbied against Russian sanctions...Corker later confirmed a conversation with Tillerson re: sanctions.

Did tillerson lie during his confirmation testimony? Is he sworn in during that testimony?