Back to...

GET VISIBLE! Advertise Here. Find Out More



 

 











Share Our Stories! - Click Here






 

Post-US Presidential Election Antics


By Stephen Lendman
11-28-16

 
It’s all over but the endless postmortems, claims and counterclaims, cheering and jeering.

Nothing going forward will change things, including deplorable recounts if completed, pursued for the wrong reasons, exposing Jill Stein’s phony progressivism, perhaps complicit with Hillary.

Trump won. She lost, with an important reminder. Nearly half the electorate abstained, voting none of the above.

No popular mandate exists, Trump getting around one-fourth of public support - millions against what I call a political system too debauched to fix, power brokers deciding things, voters with no say whatever.

Trump tweeting “(i)n addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” is meaningless bluster, claims without evidence - though he’s right calling Stein’s recount scheme a “scam…now being joined by the badly defeated and demoralized Dems.”

Another issue is avoiding conflicts of interest by separating his presidency from business interests. He needs to remove himself entirely from the Trump Organization, even though it’s not legally required.

It’s not easy, according to constitutional and international law attorney David B. Rivkin, Jr. and appellate and constitutional law attorney Lee A. Casey.

Establishing a blind trust would require Trump to liquidate his securities portfolio, letting an independent trustee manage his assets.

“He would have to sell off business holdings that he has built and managed most of his life and with which he is personally identified in a way that few other business magnates are,” Rivkin and Casey explained.

They call establishing a traditional blind trust “a poison pill” he won’t swallow, “requir(ing) (him) to accept a vast personal loss in financial worth.”

Congress is unlikely to limit his “personal investments or business activities consistent with separation-of-powers principles.”

To avoid conflicts of interest, Rivkin and Casey suggest he “establish a firewall between himself and his adult children with respect to family business affairs.”

“They would agree to give him no information about their business dealings, and he would pledge not to discuss those dealings with them.”

“(H)is children could promise to refer” foreign transactions to the White House counsel and/or Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel to check for constitutional violations. Any found would be avoided.

Given widespread opposition to his presidency, hyped by media scoundrels, he’s unlikely to satisfy critics no matter what he does or doesn’t do.

Governing responsibly by fulfilling pledges to serve all Americans, not just the privileged few, normalize relations with Russia, cooperate with Putin in combating terrorism in Syria, formally renounce TPP, and curb NATO’s killing machine would make his tenure historic.

Wait until he’s inaugurated before judging him. Then hold his feet to the fire if he fails to deliver on promises made.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
.

Disclaimer

Donate to Rense.com Support Free & Honest Journalism At Rense.com   Subscribe To RenseRadio! Enormous Online Archives, MP3s, Streaming Audio Files,  Highest Quality Live Programs