Presidential Conflicts of Interest

[Mike M (the other one)]

(12-07-2016, 10:27 AM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote:

Trump brand just went up another billion.

WTF are you talking about? Such small minded thinking from a little man.
Being on the cover of Time is yuge! He went up 15 Billion minimum.
At the next thank you stop, bring your copy and he will sign it for you.. for $500, which also includes 1 selfie with the Trump, and if your lucky and took a breath mint ahead of time, you might get a kiss whether you want it or not.

[Mike M (the other one)]

(12-07-2016, 01:09 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Nah, a bagel with cream cheese and coffee doesn't do so well on the return trip. At least it wasn't orange juice or something, though.

I was hoping you didn't have any OJ that morning. OJ is so acidic it burns the nostrils too.

[JustWinBaby]

(12-04-2016, 10:32 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I purposely avoid echo chambers, but it seems you have created one out of your own ass.

Clearly you delude yourself into thinking this is true.  But it's obviously a fictitious statement to us in the real world.

My opinions are based on my education and experience.  Where did you get your MBA?  Your Phd?  What companies have you advised? Have you ever sat in a Board meeting? Have you ever had to make the difficult decision to close a plant to save jobs at another plant?

Without any of that, how did you arrive at your opinions if not by being showered with sounds from the echo chamber? You think I "talk out of my ass" only because you don't know better, get your information from liberal echo chambers, and reject how the world actually works.

[JustWinBaby]

(12-03-2016, 10:36 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: There is no lack of common sense in my understanding of this, I know that much.

It most definitely, clearly is.

Hotel revenues are, without question, driven by supply and demand.  If you can convince me how Trump is actually going to gouge people at his Maro Lago hotel as a result of being POTUS, then maybe you're argument gets interesting.

But you should drop this, because it's an ignorant argument.  You're just regurgitating VOX and it's completely disconnected from how the world actually works.

[Belsnickel]

(12-10-2016, 05:22 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Clearly you delude yourself into thinking this is true.  But it's obviously a fictitious statement to us in the real world.

My opinions are based on my education and experience.  Where did you get your MBA?  Your Phd?  What companies have you advised? Have you ever sat in a Board meeting? Have you ever had to make the difficult decision to close a plant to save jobs at another plant?

Without any of that, how did you arrive at your opinions if not by being showered with sounds from the echo chamber? You think I "talk out of my ass" only because you don't know better, get your information from liberal echo chambers, and reject how the world actually works.

(12-10-2016, 05:32 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: It most definitely, clearly is.

Hotel revenues are, without question, driven by supply and demand.  If you can convince me how Trump is actually going to gouge people at his Maro Lago hotel as a result of being POTUS, then maybe you're argument gets interesting.

But you should drop this, because it's an ignorant argument.  You're just regurgitating VOX and it's completely disconnected from how the world actually works.

Actually, my statements on this come from education and experience. From being an accountant for a corporation, from being an accountant for government, from understanding how the policies of one can affect the other because I have a background in both corporate and government finance as well as public policy and administration. I have never read an article on Vox, I purposely avoid just about all media sources. I read government reports. When I want information on polling I look at the polls, not the media interpretation because I actually understand them.

You are correct, though, hotel revenues are generated by supply and demand. But please, explain to me how public policy can in no way impact the demand side using monetary policy. Explain to me how the net gain can in no way be influenced by monetary policy even further and how regulations in no way impact gains. You may know business, but I know business and public policy. That's where my education and experience lie. Business doesn't operate in a vacuum that makes it untouched from the influence of the government. I mean, tell me how Trump being able to appoint a member of a commission tasked with handling labor disputes in no way can affect his own pocket when he has been dragged before them twice, soon to be thrice. This is also why businesses have trade organizatiins and the Chamber of Commerce, and why they spend money on lobbyists. It's because public policy affects their income.

Yeah, I'm the one that doesn't understand how the real world works. You should do stand-up.

[JustWinBaby]

(12-10-2016, 03:22 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: You are correct, though, hotel revenues are generated by supply and demand..

Thank you.  Not sure what the question is, non-economic liberal rant aside.

[Belsnickel]

(12-11-2016, 05:26 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Thank you.  Not sure what the question is, non-economic liberal rant aside.

You mean the rant about how government works? Yeah, stay in your vacuum of theory, I will be over here in the real world. What I said had no slant left or right, it is just how the world works.

You might have been better off to add some poli sci to your education, this is stuff you can learn in a gen ed level in the field. But I forgot, the idea of a liberal arts education is pointless to you and the things you would learn wouldn't really apply to you.

Yeah, I am done with your faux intellectualism. If you truly have an advanced degree but don't understand the very simple concept I am discussing then there is no help for you.

[GMDino]

PE Trump tweeted his plans rather than have a press conference.

The boys (and executives) will run his empire and make no new deals while he is POTUS.

He will not meet with the press about it until after the inauguration.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/12/trump-postpones-announcement-on-how-he-will-avoid-conflicts-of-interests/?utm_term=.1deccf59a7f4

So nothing to see here...no questions to be asked...move along...

[GMDino]

[JustWinBaby]

(12-11-2016, 09:05 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: You mean the rant about how government works? Yeah, stay in your vacuum of theory,

No, actually it was about how government was going to change basic economic fundamentals.  And nothing your rant, nor anything else you've posted, changes that.

Trump may be a greedy asshole, but you've still not presented a remotely convincing argument of how and why he's going to profit personally as POTUS, even without ignoring the ROI of what he could do without running to win election.

Maybe when you get an advanced degree worth a shit from a place worth a shit then we can dispatch with the faux intellectualism and engage in honest debate. Unfortunately studying Japanese art and German literature isn't going to help you discuss finance, economics and fiscal policy. I happen to know the liberal arts part of my degree was a worthless waste.

[Bengalzona]

(12-18-2016, 06:34 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Maybe when you get an advanced degree worth a shit from a place worth a shit then we can dispatch with the faux intellectualism and engage in honest debate.  Unfortunately studying Japanese art and German literature isn't going to help you discuss finance, economics and fiscal policy. I happen to know the liberal arts part of my degree was a worthless waste.

I dunno, JWB. I got a degree in music from a liberal arts college and have worked in a field where finance and economics are key for 20+ years. I do market analyses, highest and best use analyses, discounted cash flow analyses, etc. on a daily basis. The liberal arts degree has helped me in a lot of ways: Mostly indirectly , but sometimes directly. A degree in accounting and/or economics definitely would have helped me as well, no doubt. But I can't say for sure that it would have been better (in college, I could not have even imagined I'd end up in this field or anything related to it). 

That said, I do wish that I had taken more courses on statistics in college. 
 

[Belsnickel]

(12-18-2016, 06:34 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: No, actually it was about how government was going to change basic economic fundamentals.  And nothing your rant, nor anything else you've posted, changes that.

Trump may be a greedy asshole, but you've still not presented a remotely convincing argument of how and why he's going to profit personally as POTUS, even without ignoring the ROI of what he could do without running to win election.

Maybe when you get an advanced degree worth a shit from a place worth a shit then we can dispatch with the faux intellectualism and engage in honest debate. Unfortunately studying Japanese art and German literature isn't going to help you discuss finance, economics and fiscal policy. I happen to know the liberal arts part of my degree was a worthless waste.

I had a longer response here, but, I decided since you can't seem to respond without straw man and/or personal attacks (among other fallacies) there is no point. It's like I am playing chess against a pigeon. Frohe Weihnachten.

[GMDino]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/auction-offering-coffee-with-ivanka-trump-is-canceled/ar-AAlF7Sc?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=BHEA000

Quote:Auction Offering Coffee With Ivanka Trump Is Canceled


WASHINGTON — An auction offering a 45-minute private meeting with Ivanka Trump in exchange for a charitable donation was abruptly canceled Friday after questions were raised about the process by ethics experts, who said it appeared to offer bidders special access to the next first family.


The auction had been running for 10 days, drawing 28 bids, the highest of which reached $72,888. The bidders included at least three businessmen who said in interviews that they saw their donation as an opportunity to press Ms. Trump for information about her father’s plans as president or to try to urge Mr. Trump to take up an issue important to them.

All information on the amounts and names of the bidders disappeared from the internet with no notice on Friday afternoon. The winning bidder would have been an organization called Go Hydrogen, although no information could be found about this entity.


The Trump Organization said in a statement that the Trump family had waited to decide what to do about the auction until “our team was aligned on steps moving forward.” The money raised was set to go to the Eric Trump Foundation, run by Ms. Trump’s younger brother, to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee.


“We wanted to handle this with proper discretion once this was brought to our attention,” said the statement, issued a day after The New York Times first asked about the matter.


Eric Trump issued a statement as well, expressing regret that the charity effort had to be called off. “Today, the only people that lost are the children of St. Jude,” his statement said.


But Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington group that promotes ethics in government, said “there is no reason to have other people underwrite his charitable giving.”


“That is a deflection that misses the whole point,” Ms. McGehee said.


Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump family, did not respond to a question over why Eric Trump did not personally donate the money.


Richard Painter, who served as an ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said that Ivanka Trump should not have been soliciting charitable donations from the public in exchange for special access, given the prominent role she has played in the transition effort and the prospect that she may serve as an informal adviser to her father’s administration with an office in the White House.


Federal employees would not be allowed to solicit a donation in exchange for special access, and neither the Bush nor Obama administrations allowed it, Mr. Painter and Norm Eisen, who served as an ethics lawyer in the Obama administration, said. Ms. Trump is not scheduled to take a paid position in the White House, but Mr. Painter and Mr. Eisen said she should still honor the same standards.


“If she is going to be in the government and a power behind the throne she should observe the same ethics restrictions that other White House employees face,” Mr. Painter said.


For example, during the Bush administration, Mr. Painter said, White House staff members wanted to auction off a lunch there to raise money for their children’s schools, but he would not allow it, saying it violated the spirit of the rules.


Ms. Trump had planned to have her coffee with the winning bidder either at Trump Tower in New York or the Trump International Hotel in Washington. But still this would have been inappropriate given the role that Ms. Trump is playing in setting up the new administration, Mr. Painter said.


Eric Trump continues to operate the Eric Trump Foundation, which donates about $5 million a year to St. Jude and other causes. Mr. Painter said that the first family should cease all such fund-raising, no matter how noble the cause, or they could find themselves facing the same allegations that Hillary Clinton did over the Clinton Foundation.


For now, Eric Trump has a fund-raiser scheduled in February at the Mar-a-Lago resort that his father owns in Florida, where guests who donate $50,000 are given a “gold” status that offers them special access to the event.


“It sounds like a husband running a large charity while his wife is secretary of state, doesn’t it,” Mr. Painter said. “It is the exact same thing that the Trump family accused the Clintons of abusing.”

[oncemoreuntothejimbreech]

(12-18-2016, 06:34 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: No, actually it was about how government was going to change basic economic fundamentals.  And nothing your rant, nor anything else you've posted, changes that.

Trump may be a greedy asshole, but you've still not presented a remotely convincing argument of how and why he's going to profit personally as POTUS, even without ignoring the ROI of what he could do without running to win election.

Maybe when you get an advanced degree worth a shit from a place worth a shit then we can dispatch with the faux intellectualism and engage in honest debate.  Unfortunately studying Japanese art and German literature isn't going to help you discuss finance, economics and fiscal policy. I happen to know the liberal arts part of my degree was a worthless waste.

A worthless waste?  Is there a worthwhile waste?

[Rotobeast]

(12-19-2016, 03:52 AM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: A worthless waste?  Is there a worthwhile waste?

If we go back to "Every Sperm Is Sacred", then there very well may be.

Especially when being coaxed out by nubile, lonely, and bored young women.