Laws only matter when people enforce them. The United States has been profoundly lax in holding rich white men accountable for basically a century now; while this should absolutely be seen as the baseless corruption that it is, it is extremely foolish to expect anybody to do anything about it. They have no appetite for punishing somebody from the elite classes.
> Federal ethics rules on conflicts of interest specifically exempt the president and vice president. But for any other executive branch employee, the rules prohibit using public office for personal gain, or “for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.”
Thanks for posting this. My gut reaction was to say "no, this is a law: the Hatch Act." But the Hatch Act covers partisan political activity while on duty, which is distinct from commercial activity. As you noted, commercial activity is only 'restricted' via a rule.
Here's the ethics statement of Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce.[1] He's from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was Chairman, and had to resign from quite a few boards to work for the Government. He has ownership in many businesses, but Tesla is not listed.
Remember this: it is illegal. People can claim it's not, people can claim "truth doesn't matter any more" or "they make the rules and control the media"
But you have your own eyes and brain and you know it is illegal. It is plainly illegal, which is why nobody had done it before this. They are doing illegal things because they are crooks.
They are trying to get you to give up and lose hope. Hacker News is far more of an echo chamber in that regards than other environments.
If Biden's Secretary of Commerce did this, they would've got sacked and it would be plastered over the news for weeks. Democrats should stop pretending that rules and decorum still matter. You can't claim democracy is at danger and then hold up a small paddle meekly and claim you did your job.
