“I won’t leave those shares because that’s my retirement.”
—Former GlazoSmithKline Parmaceutical executive Moncef Slaoui, Donald Trump’s appointee to head up the administration’s race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, in refusing to give up stock in his former company, which is once of the companies attempting to develop the vaccine. [Gee, I wonder who might eventually get the contract?]
“Woodrow Wilson was outwardly a white supremacist. I don’t think Trump is as bad as Wilson. But he might be.”
—Former Trump White House official, quoted by writer Greg Miller, in story about Trump.
“[I]f three gang members burst into an apartment, were met with gunfire by somebody in the home, and in response shot up the apartment complex and killed an innocent person, they would almost certainly be charged with homicide. It’s no less of a crime when three cops do the same thing. Self-defense is an issue, but one that a jury should decide. We know the officers continued to fire long after any threat ceased. The takeaway was that blue lives rule, and that Black lives don’t matter as much.”
—Former prosecutor and current Georgetown University law professor Paul Butler, on what he described as “pathetically weak” charges filed in the Breonna Taylor shooting by Louisville police.
“His abuses have only escalated as we have gotten closer and closer to the election, and as the president has felt more and more politically vulnerable. I can’t put it more plainly than this: the attorney general is a threat to American citizens having free and fair access to the vote, and is a threat to American having their votes counted.”
—Donald Sherman, deputy director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW, on Attorney General William Barr).
“I think this attorney general is demonstrably more committed to the political success of the president, and the president’s political agenda than any attorney general in history I can think of,”
—Neil Kinkopf, Georgia State University law professor, on Barr.
“[G]iven Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer arrives with an appropriate amount of skepticism about the statements he makes.”
—Unique defense argument given Karen McDougal’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News’s Tucker Carlson. [That Fox won with this argument says all we need to know about the network’s credibility.]
NOT A TRUMP QUOTE
(but it should be – with apologies to Cavin & Hobbes)
“A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.”
That first guy’s simplest and most ethical option is obvious: Resign from his appointment.
An ethical person would have put his stock holdings in a blind trust with instructions to trade out most of his holdings so he won’t know if he is benefiting himself.
True, but I doubt he, inspired by his leader, even sees that as an option.
House Democrats on September 23, 2020 unveil changes to ‘prevent future presidential abuses.’ From the Washington Post. Too bad we didn’t have these changes already written into law. But then, no one since the beginning our our Republic ever anticipated having a President who would abuse his power and our constitution to the extend he has shown. But in order to pass we will need a new president and a majority Senate. Which we will have!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/congress-post-trump-reforms/2020/09/23/38291e70-fd44-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html