Hacker News Reader

Comment by nate_meurer | Hacker News Reader

Bullshit. Trump is bringing cronyism and opaqueness to heights unprecedented in recent administrations. His lobbying EO actually weakened some of Obama's lobbying restrictions. And while Trump strengthened some rules, he then promptly started handing out secret waivers to so his favorite lobbyists and and industry executives can come work for him. Go read about what the federal government's top ethics officer Walter M. Shaub Jr. had to say about this before he resigned.

Honestly, this isn't hard to see. Just look at EPA, DOE, FERC... Trump is stacking our agencies with industry executives and lobbyists hostile to these agencies' charters, and in some cases their very existence.

View on HN

If they are secret waivers, how do you know about them?

Because Shaub didn't like what Trump was doing in secret so he outed them before he resigned?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/top-ethics-of...

I may have a different definition than they appear to be using. If I'm understanding your link correctly, I'd say they were undisclosed. There would have been a paper trail and the data wasn't classified, correct?

If he were to resign and leak secret information, he'd be in legal trouble, yes?

Note: This is not meant to be read as approval, just a bit of contention at the language used.

I'd say the salient point about secrecy being this:

> But Mr. Trump has chosen to keep the waivers secret. He dropped a practice, in place during the Obama administration, that any waiver would be shared with the Office of Government Ethics and posted on the White House website or the ethics office’s website, or on both.

It certainly wasn't "top secret" in the classified sense but it was done with secrecy as if he had something to hide regarding the practice or, perhaps a more charitable reading was that he was ignorant of the precedent. From hiding the wh visitor logs to the ethics waivers to stopping the recording inside the wh press briefing room in my view they are actively trying to be less transparent in their dealings.

Maybe it is just my perspective but that reads very slanted to me. I was a freelance journalist that covered the political best and hard copy. This was back in my university days, but I'm not sure my editor would have put that through without changing it to something like the mentioned 'undisclosed.'

Secret, as a word, implies intent - at least to me. It may also imply legality. While certainly worthy of raising an eyebrow, I'm not sure we can make accurate claims of intent?

Ah well, it's largely immaterial. I do thank you for taking the time to explain.

Good question. The administration admitted to the existence of these waivers in May, but refused to disclose their contents to the OGE, which is unprecedented among recent administrations. This secrecy was roundly condemned throughout the federal government, and notably and publicly by George W Bush's former chief ethics lawyer [0].

Trump was eventually forced to back down and the waivers were released, revealing such swampy critters as Michael Catanzaro and Shahira Knight [1].

EDIT: So, "secret" in a more colloquial sense than the technical "classified" definition.

0 - http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lobbyist-ban-cabinet-wa...

1 - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/us/politics/lobbyist-ethi...

Why do you keep saying "recent administrations"?

The norms of what administrations do changes over time in part because what administrations need to do change over time. It's obviously not helpful to contrast George Washington's executive behavior with George Bush's.

In particular, it's useful to draw a line pre- and post-USSR, as that was a sea change in executive policy. That means Bush 1 / Clinton onward. Other common markers are pre/post Great Society, pre/post WW2, pre/post New Deal, etc.

Yeah, I read an article that another user posted. I think I prefer the term 'undisclosed.' At least in my head, secret means someone is in trouble for leaking it. There was a paper trail, for example.

I guess the use is valid, but I'm not sure it's objective. I don't prefer Trump, but I do try to remain objective. Try being the operative word.

Secret just means the vast majority of people can't know the details. You can have a huge paper trail with secret classified documentation.

EX: Huge gang's may have secret handshakes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com