If only the cable news chyrons change, this Russia stuff will no longer be a problem https://t.co/Uz3sWinWzt pic.twitter.com/JMUcfriy7i
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) July 14, 2017
A key thing to remember is that Kushner isn't very smart https://t.co/AY4bYgipP0
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 14, 2017
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Delicious cold dish for a summer evening! A Washington Post op-ed from Elizabeth Spiers, former Kushner Observer employee and Gawker editor — “The real lesson of the Trump family’s troubles? Nepotism doesn’t pay”:
… New York real estate is very dynastic and insular; a few families have run the largest companies over the course of several generations. One of them is the family of Jared Kushner, then the Observer’s owner and now a senior White House adviser and son-in-law to President Trump. Another, of course, is Trump’s. Both Kushner and Trump are second-generation executives in their family businesses (I would use the word “were” here, but neither of them have completely divested themselves), and Trump’s children are third-generation.
So when the Trump family business became running the United States of America, naturally, the head of the household could not resist installing his nearest and dearest in positions of senior management…
Trump has made it no secret that he views Ivanka as a potential successor of sorts — he once suggested he could name her as his running mate. So although it was wildly inappropriate, it’s not the least bit surprising that both of them thought it was fine for her to sit in for Dad at the G-20 summit. The conclave was not, of course, a Take Your Daughter to Work event. But for someone who recently claimed to “stay out of politics,” Ivanka didn’t seem to have any objection to being slotted into a position with very big political stakes. In her mind, apparently, it was hers to take. Similarly, her husband seems to feel qualified, despite a lack of anything resembling relevant experience or expertise, to assume the mantle of director in charge of everything the president doesn’t understand or wants to delegate or that Kushner would simply like to run…
Ultimately, the mess Trump and his administration have landed in was an obvious consequence of this most disastrous of family-run enterprises. People related to the president were put in senior positions, once again, despite having no being woefully unqualified or incompetent or both. They were, and are, regarded as un-fireable and not held to normal performance standards. And much of this is driven by the family patriarch’s fantasies of political dynasty…
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Family drama or otherwise, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the weekend?
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Not So <del>Bright</del> Fast, JuniorPost + Comments (112)