The argument for why it might not apply seems to boil down to the issue of whether the office of the presidency is an "agency" for the purposes of the statute. http://www.npr.org/...him-from-the-white-h

That'll show him!

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I think the American public is smart enough to know that Trump has him as an advisor since he want the advice -- not to give his very wealthy son-in-law a job.

Then why give him the job? Is he incapable of offering advice without an official title, with the salary, perks, and influence that go along with it?

Again, you don't mind nepotism in our government?


Last time, or you strike out on this one: do you think it was bad for the country that Robert Kennedy was AG?

Yeah, I do. Like I said, I'm against nepotism in the government. Why aren't you?

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

No, she didn't front an agency or have a real position. Was Nancy in the wrong to run with MADD? (The answer is yes, the war on drugs is bad)

However, the real answer is from 1993.
When Bill put Hillary in charge of medical reforms - a real position, unlike the stuff Michelle Obama or Nancy Reagan did, or Barbara Bush complaining about the Simpsons - they sued, claiming the White House isn't a federal agency thus nepotism laws don't apply.

He can talk to him unofficially just as well. Trump and many of his cohorts seemed ethically challenged. Trump doesn't sever ties to business , nominates folks who don't provide financial disclosures before hearings, and apparently kushners quals are he married a trump and got family backed investments to do real estate/paper deals. Doubt the guy truly adds expertise not easily found elsewhere. maybe he is there to help on tax evasion matters.

A family run and held business is paying family members with their own money generated from the business, not taxpayer money taken from you and me.

Question for you. Do you think that it should be okay for government managers all over the country to hire relatives for positions under them and paying them with taxpayer dollars? Is that really any different from Trump and Kushner?

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

You asked me to post my qualifications. I assumed you meant qualifications as to why i stated that Kushner was an idiot.

My wife grew up in a small house with her mother, grandfather and grandmother because they had little/no money. She is 33 yrs old and is still paying off her college debt, so no, she's not a spoiled brat.

Oh, and go fuck yourself.

so just an idiot then, not a spoiled brat and an idiot............


BTW how did she go to Frisch, which currently costs $25k a year with little to no money? Did someone cut her a break or make a donation on her behalf?

see how easy this is to throw out there. Not quite the same when it hits closer to home.

You're definitely a moron and perhaps, methinks, a bit of a troll? She's an idiot because she's still paying off college debt? She went to GW, not exactly a cheap school, and I misspoke, i think she paid it off last year or the year before.

Education and religion were important to her family so they spent basically all they had on her schooling and little on anything else.

You can keep making stuff up or making assumptions if you like, I have better things to do than respond with actual facts. i am done here.

And please let me know the next time you sign up for an ironman, i would like to meet you in person.

The whole appoint process is ripe with nepotism, it just involves friends, but not family members. He already gets to surround himself with his choices. Do you think Hillary did not advise Bill? I was under the impression she had a lot to say.

I have a problem with Trump getting advice from him. To date, Trump hasn't divested himself of his interests in his businesses, and last I'd heard, Eric, Don, and Ivanka were going to run them for him. If he's getting advice from his son-in-law, how can we trust the advice is for the good of the country and not the good of his family's business interests?

To some degree, I suppose that's a concern with anyone he appoints, but it raises particular concerns when he's receiving advice from someone with a direct familial relationship. Will Kushner advise Trump to act in the country's best interests even when it might harm his wife's (and let's face it, Trump's) business interests? It's the appearance of impropriety and the fact that we can't ever know for sure if Kushner is giving sound advice that benefits the country or benefits his own (and Trump's daughter's) interests. Kushner may be no more likely to act in his own interests than anyone else, but his relationship to Trump calls into question any advice he may give in an official capacity.

One other thing. I believe there is a privilege that exists between the President and his official advisors, which may be the reason Trump wants Kushner in an "official" position. If he just wants to run stuff past his son-in-law occasionally, he wouldn't need the official position unless he wanted to discuss classified information. With Kushner in an official advisory role, not only can they discuss classified information, their conversations enjoy some legal protection. So, even if they are discussing wholly inappropriate stuff, we'd never get to know unless there was a damn good reason to pierce the privilege. Whenever Trump acts on Kushner's advice, we'll always wonder whether the actions Trump takes are being unduly influenced or taken for personal, familial reasons rather than for our own good. In fact, they may very well be, but we won't get to know that. Kushner's relationship with Trump creates suspicion, which makes it look more like Trump is stocking the swamp with his own morally questionable denizens rather than draining it as he promised. Even if Kushner is on the up and up, it won't look that way publicly.

THAT is what bothers me about it.

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''The enemy isn't conservatism. The enemy isn't liberalism. The enemy is bulls**t.''

—Lars-Erik Nelson

Do you think Hillary did not advise Bill? I was under the impression she had a lot to say.

Again, there's a real difference between offering advice, and holding an official, paid position in the administration. And I was opposed to Hillary's expanded role in her husband's administration, as were most Republicans and conservatives at the time.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Did she hold an official post with a title and a pay check? To my knowledge the answer to that question is no she didn't. Please feel free to correct me if you know otherwise.

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

Work for Trump but not get paid. Sounds like a trend.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

I don't know if she was paid, but Hillary was the official head of Bill's health care reform task force.

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___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Watching priebis on van sustern's new show.....he has got to be over paid. He should work for free too.

She wasn't appointed to any kind of position by her husband. It's expected that First Ladies will advise their husbands, as basically all wives do. Doing so isn't a case of nepotism.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

She was appointed head of his task force for implementing universal healthcare. It went a little beyond a wife giving her husband advice, or a First Lady promoting a pet cause.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

She led the task force, but I don't think that means she was officially appointed to any post or job.

I agree this went past normal wife advice. My point is that it doesn't really count as nepotism. The Clintons expanded the role of the First Lady, but Pres Clinton didn't appoint his family to some job in the govt.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I would much prefer to be having a intelligent debate about whether it is appropriate for Trump to have Kushner as an advisor in his capacity as President. There is a good one going on here based on whether it is appropriate given their family relationship. You are the guy who waded in with the ludicrous position that it isn't appropriate because Kushner is not qualified to do so because he is an idiot.

You followed up with spoiled brat and have now added moron and troll to your intelligent positions.

If you don't want to be trolled then be man enough to walk yourself back from the foolish position you took.

Kushner is an intelligent, tough, experienced businessman. He is more than capable of advising a President on any number of subjects. I don't believe he should because of his familial relationship to Trump. For a lot of reasons. But not because he is not intellectual capable. That is just......moronic......

 

I would much prefer to be having a intelligent debate about whether it is appropriate for Trump to have Kushner as an advisor in his capacity as President. There is a good one going on here based on whether it is appropriate given their family relationship. You are the guy who waded in with the ludicrous position that it isn't appropriate because Kushner is not qualified to do so because he is an idiot.

You followed up with spoiled brat and have now added moron and troll to your intelligent positions.

If you don't want to be trolled then be man enough to walk yourself back from the foolish position you took.

Kushner is an intelligent, tough, experienced businessman. He is more than capable of advising a President on any number of subjects. I don't believe he should because of his familial relationship to Trump. For a lot of reasons. But not because he is not intellectual capable. That is just......moronic......[/quote]
I shouldn't let myself get trolled but alas, let's start over. please don't comment on my punctuation mistakes, which are intentional. i won't correct your grammar mistakes which i assume are unintentional.

you started by asking for my qualifications. did you want to know if i have an MBA or CPA or JD in order to justify my calling him an idiot? what are your qualifications? i ask because, apparently, it's relevant.

you claim that kushner is "tough" and "intelligent". you have never met him, nor have i. you posted a wiki article as support. i countered that my wife, who is much smarter than I am - and you by the laws of "if a than b" - claims he was widely thought of as, yes, an idiot. she attended the same school so she probably has more basis in that statement, assuming she is telling the truth. i trust her judgment over wikipedia, and remember, you twat, that i am a conservative that has never voted for a democrat. she and i had many household arguments during the run up to the election. I am like a sox fan admitting that Ortiz really isn't that good and you are the drunk guy screaming "Nomaaaa" in the corner.

then you called my wife, whom you haven't met, a spoiled idiot brat. knowing her personally, that characterization couldn't be farther from the truth. you'll have to trust me on that one.

You asked me to "be a man". If your comments are reminiscent of "being a man", i will respond in kind: if you don't yet have kids, i hope you never do. people like you shouldn't reproduce. i actually assume you are single or divorced as no one that posts like you would be fit to be a husband. if i am wrong and you are married, i hope you have decided not to have children. in the worst case - you are married and have children - i can only hope that they a) fell far from the tree or b) are being raised by their estranged mother, who, despite marrying someone with a mental disability, wisened up and left you a long time ago.

this was fun.

But this is a special position -- special advisor. And you don't have a problem with Trump getting advice from him. I think the American public is smart enough to know that Trump has him as an advisor since he want the advice -- not to give his very wealthy son-in-law a job.


You seem to keep missing the obvious point, it is illegal. Then you seem to keep missing the next obvious point, nepotism in government is not a good thing.


I find it hard to understand why you are defending it.

See vitus979 sign out line for rational. They will need revolving door at White House as often as these folks change positions. McConnell on vetting first thru the new door.

Wait, isn't this guy the Jew? I thought Trump was an anti-semite.,.

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I shouldn't let myself get trolled but alas, let's start over. please don't comment on my punctuation mistakes, which are intentional. i won't correct your grammar mistakes which i assume are unintentional.

you started by asking for my qualifications. did you want to know if i have an MBA or CPA or JD in order to justify my calling him an idiot? what are your qualifications? i ask because, apparently, it's relevant.

you claim that kushner is "tough" and "intelligent". you have never met him, nor have i. you posted a wiki article as support. i countered that my wife, who is much smarter than I am - and you by the laws of "if a than b" - claims he was widely thought of as, yes, an idiot. she attended the same school so she probably has more basis in that statement, assuming she is telling the truth. i trust her judgment over wikipedia, and remember, you twat, that i am a conservative that has never voted for a democrat. she and i had many household arguments during the run up to the election. I am like a sox fan admitting that Ortiz really isn't that good and you are the drunk guy screaming "Nomaaaa" in the corner.

then you called my wife, whom you haven't met, a spoiled idiot brat. knowing her personally, that characterization couldn't be farther from the truth. you'll have to trust me on that one.

You asked me to "be a man". If your comments are reminiscent of "being a man", i will respond in kind: if you don't yet have kids, i hope you never do. people like you shouldn't reproduce. i actually assume you are single or divorced as no one that posts like you would be fit to be a husband. if i am wrong and you are married, i hope you have decided not to have children. in the worst case - you are married and have children - i can only hope that they a) fell far from the tree or b) are being raised by their estranged mother, who, despite marrying someone with a mental disability, wisened up and left you a long time ago.

this was fun.[/quote]
Atta boy. When confronted double down with more stupidity.

I do have kids. They are the product of public school. I didn't blow all my family money sending them to "religious school" because it was important to me. Only to have them pass judgement on their classmates as "idiots" and "spoiled brats". Clearly that was a waste of money....

Yeah I'm just one guy who thinks Kushner is not an idiot. The rest of the world is with you and your compassionate wife



You are going to need to up your troll game here in the LR.