Ethics, No Worries
D. S. Mitchell
Dog Ownership
It was 10:00 in the morning before the rain stopped. My dog, Lily, had become quite irritated with me by this time. I had refused to endure a downpour to take her for her ritual 7:30 am walk and instead had pushed her butt out the door to do her business in the yard. These are the kind of things that start slowly, and before you know it, the dog is in charge. I should probably resume reruns of The Dog Whisperer.
Just The Headlines
Political news and world news are sharing a lot of media space today. Please, humor me dear reader, as I write a couple of paragraphs for the Calamity Politics blog site for each breaking story, rather than focus on a specific topic of political investigation and analysis.
1.) Bill O’Reilly: Settlements payments totaling $13,000,000 paid over a decade were exposed this week. Those payments, disguised with some bookkeeping trickery kept the payments secret from the public, the FCC and Fox shareholders. The revelation cost Bill O’Reilly his job. A Murdock spokesman announced that Bill O’Reilly had been fired.
Forced Out
When the news of the pay-offs broke, a media circus ensued. Initially, Fox seemed paralyzed and took no action. Quickly women’s protests became deafening and sponsorship dried up making it clear O’Reilly’s sustainability was impossible. O’Reilly earned a reputed $22,000,000 annually, plus unknown benefits. It was the youngest of the Murdoch sons that finally said, “Enough.” Former Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes was also forced out of the company under a similar cloud of sexual harassment.
O’Reilly Issues Denial
Since publication of the charges, O’Reilly has denied the allegations. He has complained that when you are rich and famous people target you for money and fame. That should have been easy enough to defend against–if O’Reilly was telling the truth, all those many, many, many, times. ‘Your Lyin’ Eyes’ give you away, Bill. You have lots of money, please disappear to some place, somewhere, that I never have to see you again.
Back At The Office
The office has been in a bit of a turmoil after I found three boxes of old family photographs stored in the attic. Those priceless treasures have consumed an unbelievable amount of my recent time and space as I label and organize each photo. There is a 100 years of life, caught by the camera taking up needed table and desk surface. Amazing how many faces I recognize, and just as amazing how many names I have forgotten. And then there are those faces I’m not sure if I ever knew. In a perverse way, the faces I never knew are the hardest to deal with. Should I throw them away or just put them back in the attic. It’s as if they are saying, “No one remembers. No one can tell my story. Everyone that knew me is dead.” It’s weird, how such thoughts fly into my head.
Clearing some space on the desk, I’m back to the news of the day,
2.) Ivanka Trump (Kushner): Reports on Tuesday, by both the Associated Press, and Jeff Pegues, CBS News show that First Daughter, and Senior Advisor to the President may be involved in an ethics quagmire related to her fashion line products. Ivanka has an office in the West Wing and is a formal employee of the United States government and as such “she must comply with the Criminal Conflict of Interest Statute.” The statute prohibits government employees from “participating in government matters that have a direct or predictable impact on their businesses, and this includes trade with China,” Richard Painter, an ethics attorney for Bush 43 stated.
Beating Back Questions
An attorney spokesman for Ivanka tried to beat back questions surrounding ethics and conflict of interest questions when he suggested, “Ivanka has had no involvement with trademark applications submitted by the business.” Ivanka says, while sitting primly, “I manage any conflict. I put in place an Ethics Trustee.” What the Hell is an Ethics Trustee? If you have an Ethics Trustee then everything must be a-okay, right? Unfortunately, I don’t believe a word of it.
Serenading Xi Jinping
Looks bad, I would say, very bad. Applications made to the Chinese government some time in the past were cleared the same day Xi Jinping visited Mar-a-Lago during his visit to the United States. That day Ivanka personally serenaded the Chinese President which was posted on Instagram. The performance went viral in China. Those three provisional Trademark approvals are for her clothing line. These provisional trademark contracts are potentially lucrative.
Best Wishes
It looks like Ivanka is using her position within the administration to help herself financially. The timing of the Trademark approvals looks bad. Estimates indicate between 2/2016 and 2/2017 Ivanka’s sales increased by 771%! I believe her sudden increase in sales has everything to do with her father’s candidacy, his election and her role rubbing elbows with foreign leaders. Ivanka will be in Germany next week to take part in W20 (Women 20). She plans on sharing her knowledge and ability at that event. One pundit said, “Be born rich and then marry rich. Simple.”
3.) Carl Vinson Scandal: Early last week we were told by the President of the United States that he had ordered the Carl Vinson strike group, “an awesome armada,” to the Korean Peninsula due to heightened tensions in the region. That deployment was confirmed by Defense Secretary James Mattis when he told reporters, “she’s on her way up there, because that’s where we thought it was prudent to have her at this time.”
Spotted In Australian Wars
Imagine what a shock it was to find out that the Carl Vinson strike group wasn’t anywhere near North Korea. In fact, it was sighted doing maneuvers with the Australians Wow, not sure what to even say. Was our government just recklessly saber-rattling, or did someone forget to tell the captain of the Carl Vinson he had a mission? This looks so incompetent. If I’m shocked at it, imagine our allies reaction. And then, to have that lying spin doctor Sean Spicer, stand at the podium for the daily press briefing and dream up some nonsense story of the ship “heading that way.”
Like I said at the beginning of this little post, I’m going to let you decide what the hell is going on with each of these evolving stories. With Trump it is one scandal after another.
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