Sure, but for this particular nut case, it’s her full-time job!
Indeed. He possesses the medal but is not a winner of the Nobel Prize. The medal is symbolic, not a deed and certainly the honor can not be bestowed by anyone or anything other than the Nobel organization.
Question: Aren’t gifts to US presidents owned by US citizens and not the president? So, doesn’t Trump have to give the medal to a museum or the National Archives or something? (really asking)
I think the law only applies if it’s from someone representing a foreign government. And it applies to everyone in the government (even employees), not just the POTUS.
Machado holds no official government position in Venezuela and isn’t allowed to because of “administrative and fiscal violations” that occurred when she was a legislator according to the current regime. Therefore, any gift she would give him is a personal one.
I guess this means that Putin is now a Superbowl Champion, by virtue of stealing one of the superbowl rings.
As to the why of the gift, my theory is because she knows that as long as she had it in her hands, he would intensely personally resent that someone else was holding on to my prrreciioouuusss .
And though already his Venezuela policy largely dismisses the role of the legit opposition she represented, she’d rather not have him actively hostile at them over having failed to properly fawn and grovel.
I do not think gifts that fall under this law must come from foreign governments. Section (c) of the law you cited does not seem to restrict it to foreign governments. Any gift counts (with some exceptions as noted in the law…I doubt this would meet those exceptions).
IANAL so best guess here.
I think presidents can buy gifts from the government for their actual value.
Why would the current occupant of the presidency do this when he could simply not do this and nobody will do anything about it?
Content not viewable in your region.
Please, people, stop using imagur.
But he’s a billionaire right? A quick calculation suggests the value of the gold in the medal is around $18,000 today (ballpark). Surely he can afford that? (This of course does not account for any value it might have beyond the precious metal which it certainly might…like a baseball bat is pretty inexpensive but if Babe Ruth hit a home run with that bat it is worth considerably more.)
Of course he can. But it’s not about whether or not he can afford to buy it. It’s about whether or not he’s strong enough to STEAL it. That’s the point. To show his power.
You keep saying that, and I share your annoyance that the UK can’t view Imgur, but I’m not going to switch over to a less useful host just to be visible in the UK, and nothing else really is as good. Your beef is with the rules that the UK government passed that Imgur found unacceptable.
Can we discuss it in this thread.
of course. the thread was there, yet I didn’t know it was widespread. My post was weeks ago.
To me, every single thing about Trump is nauseating and gross. And those are my most tepid and benign reactions to the man.
But to stay on-topic … look at the expression on that MoFo’s face:
If this photo isn’t the opening scene on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” (“President Trump, seen here …”) then there’s no justice in this world.
So it’s mounted behind glass? I figured he would want to fondle it.
Wonder if she’s pleased with herself for sucking up so hard to a guy who authorized his country’s military to kill her would-be constituents.
He did arrest the dictator she was opposing, and maybe this gets her a chance for the opposition to actually run the country, since the people voted for them to do so, and the dictator falsified the election results.
What does being pleased with things really matter?
As a cold calculation, she probably thought (not incorrectly) that sucking up to the US was probably the best move given the circumstances.
I suppose she could have taken some kind of hard line stance and denounced him openly, but what exactly would that achieve, either? Almost certainly less than giving him a meaningless bauble. Some of us who aren’t in Venezuela might then enjoy a moment of schadenfreude, but I doubt our entertainment is high on her priority list.
That face expression……the man really thinks this counts as him actually being the Nobel Prize recipient.