Posted on 01/31/2018 8:22:45 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
No, but buying tobacco stock? Come on. This lady was either too stupid for words, or she did this on purpose, to try to embarrass the POTUS. Given how she got the gig, my money’s on the latter.
Its all about political correctness
I’m sorry anything happens to Trump’s people, but as long as all DC bureaucrats (who are mainly leftists) are at risk by it, then its at least tolerable, or can be used against its own proponents.
Its when its not equally applied - then that’s the worst.
Any .gov official with an IQ above room temperature gets the written blessing of an ethics attorney before touching a stock purchase.
(btw “ethics attorney” is an oxymoron, but welcome to the Swamp...) :-(
Incredibly stupid thing to do. And to tour the tobacco lab the very next day!?
Unanswered questions. Did she buy individual stocks herself? Or did a financial advisor buy them without consulting her? Did she buy a mutual fund or individual stocks?
I think trump decided to fire her last night when he asked pence after the speech, where is she? Pence said, she went out for a smoke.
While I think she made a dumb investment, considering her position, the article gets some things wrong, at least from the perspective of balanced coverage and accuracy.
Just one example:
“one of the very drugs she is supposed to be leading the crusade against”
Tobacco is not a “drug”. I thought the CDC is supposed to be about science - thoughtful, non-partisan science, and not as a “crusader” like an advocate or activist of one position or another. Yes, it can seem I am referring to “tone” here, but it is more than tone. If one is an absolute true believer of some current orthodoxy, then one is not a skeptic and a true unbiased, willing to be shown the error of their own thinking, is a skeptic or not a scientist at all. The CDC should report its opinion, but doing so should not be as a crusader, but as a dispassionate observation “based on what we know and believe today” (subject to change as true science continues without any “crusade”).
The article says an ethics board reviewed her portfolio when she took the position and instructed her to sell certain companies that posed conflicts of interest. As usual these days, the article is poorly written, but it sounds like she did have the stocks sold (or maybe not all of them), but her financial advisor bought the new conflicting stocks (not clear if the advisor bought the same stocks that were sold).
It sounds like she has a stupid financial advisor who didn’t understand conflicts of interest. Or maybe he’s an FBI agent out to scuttle her career via skullduggery.
January 29, 2018
“Alex Azar has been sworn in as President Donald Trump’s second health secretary.
The former drug company executive and official in George W. Bush’s administration succeeds former Republican Georgia congressman Tom Price, who resigned last fall following an outcry over his use of costly private charter aircraft for official travel.”
Mistakes are inevitable. No big deal, as long as you correct them when discovered.
Swamp draining continues. Sometimes it turns out that some of your own people are swamp creatures. No matter, just flush them too.
At HUD, Dr. Carson has to deal with diseases much more serious than most infectious and behavior-related chronic diseases. The Acute Social and Cultural Diseases exhibited by a a large percentage of HUD-subsidized tenants.
Was it illegal?
Was it?..........................
Not just optics. CDC findings can have a major impact on the profitability of tobacco companies.
It could be considered insider trading if she had knowledge of any pending future CDC research on tobacco.
I guess some people don’t know smoking isn’t healthy.
We’ve been brain washed to the nanny state. That needs to end.
CDC needs to get a new gig and give it a rest on tobacco.
Maybe they could work on the new flu strains, from the influx of foreigners no doubt, pouring into the country un-inoculated.
Recent reports that tobacco company(s) are expanding financial investment into other than tobacco products and services, (I can’t recall more than that concerning any specifics).
An investment in stocks is a reasonable move. As far as regulation, that needs to freeze unless Congress outlaws tobacco use entirely, even before they outlaw prostitution. I think they are both equally old behaviors.
I bought shares in a “sin” mutual fund 2 years ago which invests in companies based in booze, tobacco, gambling, gun manufacturers and offensive weapons of war. It has been outperforming the general market industries. Vice has a place in our society particularly when it can lead to early retirement.
They are so desperate to put a bad spin on any action by Trump’s administration. The stocks were purchased by her financial manager. She may very well not have know what individual stocks were in any portfolio. She has divested them.
CNN and the other lickspittles are trying so hard to make out improper conduct when there was none. CDC does not regulate tobacco. As far as I know tobacco companies are not underwriting any research done by or on behalf of the CDC. So for them to squawk like she was giving tobacco companies some sort of seal of approval is just poppycock.
So no stock in Sara Lee for any CDC official.
It was the CDC tobacco lab.
That would be a stretch.
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