Here is the link to the NYT article referenced in the title above https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/politics/ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-still-benefiting-from-business-empire-filings-show.html?emc=edit_na_20170331&nl=breaking-news&nlid=75028030&ref=cta&_r=0
I also post a blogger (ExCook) response to that article which I thought was very well thought out and on point. I place his opinion and my comment to it below.
ExCook: Of course, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with wealth. I'm sure criticism of the Trump aristocrats can be interpreted as class resentment but there are serious constitutional and legal problems with this current situation. It seems that the lexicon connected to political ethics is irrelevant today -- "disclosure" "transparency" "conflict-of-interest""recuse""beneficiary" "trusts" "limited liability" "filing" "real interest" "ownership" and my favorite, "nepotism." The elites who are now filling the top levels of our government are immune to or will simply ignore all of those pesky legal entanglements the rest of us (little people) must endure. They are being allowed to set up a whole new set of rules in order to avoid legal/constitutional accountability.
I clearly recall the era of Newt Gingrich back in the 90's, when one of the popular conservative retorts against the "liberal elites" was that they were acting like the old-world "aristocrats." Funny, where's all the concern and outrage from all of those same conservatives today? More disturbing is the fact that more Americans aren't more concerned that the Federal Republic is looking more like a banana republic every day.
MY COMMENT: ExCook, your post is a very well thought out. You are exactly right as you hit the conflicts of interest worry "little people" have as megga wealth at the top usurps all power in the White House. Accumulating all that wealth at the top is one thing but wanting to scoop it up in its entirety through the creation of policy as easy as putting a pen to an executive order rolling back corporate and environmental regulations is another. Placing foxes in charge of all the hen houses is still another. Corporate tax loopholes at the top means it is all for them and nothing for those at the bottom who could benefit from a small slice of it with help from government policy that favors their interests too.
This is America in 2016 where the accumulation of wealth for the top 2% is huge and the middle class pays for it. The imbalance of wealth and power between the 2% at the top and the rest of us below keeps growing larger. Yet the electorate keeps electing Republicans into office. Republicans are smart to lie to the middle class and the poor that they are the ones who care about us. They don't. One need only look at NYT stories like this one (posted at the top) discussing Trump family wealth to see this is so.
Securing the seat of president of the most powerful nation on earth while not holding Trump and his minions to account for that conflict of interest wealth will ensure the gap between the top and the bottom will keep growing apart as the top 2% take it all. Yes, all for them and nothing for anyone else. Sad.
