When you think about it — isn't strange that a US president is not vetted for the job?

© 2017 Peter Free

 

09 January 2017

 

 

In happily trots the King of Conflicts of Interest

 

The American System allowed Donald Trump to amble into Top Secret briefings, as if that were his due.

 

The fact of his election to the presidency automatically cleared him suspicions that the rest of us are subject to, when applying for a Classified or Top Secret job.

 

 

Curious, no?

 

I am not criticizing the President-elect.

 

Just pointing out that we live in a twisted governmental system.

 

 

For instance

 

You can bet that no one is going to be able to do anything about the fact that the former "Mister" Trump indebted himself to Wall Street's banks by perhaps $1.85 billion:

 

 

Last May, Mr. Trump filed a financial-disclosure form with the Federal Election Commission that listed 16 loans worth $315 million that his businesses had received from 10 companies, including Deutsche Bank AG.

 

But that form reported debts only for companies he controls, excluding more than $1.5 billion lent to partnerships that are 30%-owned by him.

 

© 2017 Jean Eaglesham and Lisa Schwartz, Trump’s Debts Are Widely Held on Wall Street, Creating New Potential Conflicts, Wall Street Journal (05 January 2017) (subscription required, paragraph split)

 

For the gist of this pay wall-concealed story, see here (Alternative Media Syndicate) and here (Common Dreams).

 

 

This presidential encumbrance is like voluntarily handing our reigning Financial Oligarchs a fingernail extractor to use against the Nation.

 

Instead of being forced to divest of these debt-ridden assets, the President-elect is going to cruise along like the typical super rich person.

 

By virtue of his wealth and the Electoral College result, President-elect Trump (and any similar such) is comfortably insulated against the hassles of being ordinarily mortal.

 

 

There is (delightfully) more

 

The lack of institutionalized American ethical constraints evidently goes as far as the nomination process for the new King's cabinet. Politico mentioned yesterday that these nominated folk have also not been vetted.

 

Despite this arguable oversight, the Republican-dominated Senate is set to anoint them. Courtesy of Senate Majority Leader, Beelzebub McConnell.

 

Curious again.

 

Perhaps someone should set the table for Democracy's Last Supper.

 

 

 

The moral? — Nobody influential really cares . . .

 

. . . whether the United States becomes a nation of actually society-enhancing laws. Our existing legal edifice works so fabulously well for the Thieving Thuggery in Charge.

 

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