<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Courtesy of today's (July 17, 2017) <i>Moscow-Pullman Daily News.</i></div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><div><h1 itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 42px; margin: 0px 100px 0px 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Letter: Gritman ethics need rehab</h1></div><div><br></div><div>I wouldn't be surprised to see a Trump Tower in many nations' capitals, as they come to suspect that they might need to give him land, permits and government-secured loans to curry favor and guard against regime change.</div><div><br></div><div>And I wonder how long it will take President Donald Trump to learn President Richard Nixon's motive for creating the Drug Enforcement Administration.</div><div><br></div><div>Nixon wanted dictatorial powers, but the fractured federal bureaucracy, with its infighting, wouldn't/couldn't cooperate, nor would it stop leaking counter-Nixon information to the press.</div><div><br></div><div>So, under cover of a "war on drugs," he set up the DEA, a super-agency with domestic spying capability. If he could learn the sources of the leaks, he could stop them.</div><div><br></div><div>What else would he have done with his spy outfit if some low life Metro cops hadn't caught some burglars in the Watergate Hotel? Nixon's enemies list gives a hint. Yay Metro cops!</div><div><br></div><div>America, as a land of the free, is a fragile thing.</div><div><br></div><div>Trumpistan comes to Moscow. Gritman Medical Center not only exists so that doctors, nurses, contractors and janitors can make a living there, but, now, so that a few favored providers can get no-bid contracts as their relatives sit on the board.</div><div><br></div><div>The Gritman board performs an exemplification of Trump's leadership qualities, by publishing some fluff about the no-bid contracts being in line with Gritman's ethics guidelines. Everything is fine, ta ta.</div><div><br></div><div>However, if interested parties are not recusing themselves, but are active on their own behalf, then that portion of Gritman's ethics paper, which deals with conflicts of interest, is insufficient and needs rehabilitation.</div><div><br></div><div>Apparently, a complacent board is unable to give itself the hard-eyed, discomfortable self appraisal that a free people have to subject themselves to.</div><div><br></div><div>Wiley Hollingsworth</div><div>Pullman</div></div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>