WaPo:
President Trump’s budget calls for sharply reducing funding for programs that shelter the poor and combat homelessness — with a notable exception: It leaves intact a type of federal housing subsidy that is paid directly to private landlords.
One of those landlords is Trump himself, who earns millions of dollars each year as a part-owner of Starrett City, the nation’s largest subsidized housing complex. Trump’s 4 percent stake in the Brooklyn complex earned him at least $5 million between January of last year and April 15, according to his recent financial disclosure.
Trump’s business empire intersects with government in countless ways, from taxation to permitting to the issuing of patents, but the housing subsidy is one of the clearest examples of the conflicts experts have predicted. While there is no indication that Trump himself was involved in the decision, it is nonetheless a stark illustration of how his financial interests can directly rise or fall on the policies of his administration.
Intentional or otherwise, this is exactly the Selective Political Fuckery we try to prevent with little things like the Emoluments Clause and the Office of Government Ethics.
If 45* was a Dungeons and Dragons character, he'd be strictly Chaotic Neutral. He has no discernible moral code other than "whatever gets me what I think I want right now".
We thought is was bad when Bush43 brought the Manichean crap - where it's all and only one way, or it's all and only the other way, and there's no such thing as middle ground? Yeah - wow, those were the days, huh?
Weirdly, this 45* guy turns that knee-jerk outlook to his advantage by vacating the narrowly-defined black-n-white moral positions that "conservatives" always claim; substituting himself; and putting the finishing touches on the GOP's attempts to make the equation read backwards: "What's good for Trump is good for the GOP, and what's good for the GOP is good for the country."
And this is nothing new.
And this is exactly what "The Left" has been warning us about for decades.
And 45* is exactly the guy the system was built to keep out.
And he's exactly the guy that same system almost guaranteed would eventually rise by taking full advantage of the system's loop holes.
Because
Unfortunately, the structure of restraint is built around the presumption of honorability, and allows for someone devoid of honor to go more than a little crazy with the power it conveys.
President Trump’s budget calls for sharply reducing funding for programs that shelter the poor and combat homelessness — with a notable exception: It leaves intact a type of federal housing subsidy that is paid directly to private landlords.
One of those landlords is Trump himself, who earns millions of dollars each year as a part-owner of Starrett City, the nation’s largest subsidized housing complex. Trump’s 4 percent stake in the Brooklyn complex earned him at least $5 million between January of last year and April 15, according to his recent financial disclosure.
Trump’s business empire intersects with government in countless ways, from taxation to permitting to the issuing of patents, but the housing subsidy is one of the clearest examples of the conflicts experts have predicted. While there is no indication that Trump himself was involved in the decision, it is nonetheless a stark illustration of how his financial interests can directly rise or fall on the policies of his administration.
Intentional or otherwise, this is exactly the Selective Political Fuckery we try to prevent with little things like the Emoluments Clause and the Office of Government Ethics.
If 45* was a Dungeons and Dragons character, he'd be strictly Chaotic Neutral. He has no discernible moral code other than "whatever gets me what I think I want right now".
We thought is was bad when Bush43 brought the Manichean crap - where it's all and only one way, or it's all and only the other way, and there's no such thing as middle ground? Yeah - wow, those were the days, huh?
Weirdly, this 45* guy turns that knee-jerk outlook to his advantage by vacating the narrowly-defined black-n-white moral positions that "conservatives" always claim; substituting himself; and putting the finishing touches on the GOP's attempts to make the equation read backwards: "What's good for Trump is good for the GOP, and what's good for the GOP is good for the country."
And this is nothing new.
And this is exactly what "The Left" has been warning us about for decades.
And 45* is exactly the guy the system was built to keep out.
And he's exactly the guy that same system almost guaranteed would eventually rise by taking full advantage of the system's loop holes.
Because
Unfortunately, the structure of restraint is built around the presumption of honorability, and allows for someone devoid of honor to go more than a little crazy with the power it conveys.
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