Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Fight them, without becoming them!

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

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50Comments

  1. 1.

    cat48

    Haven’t seen Inside Job yet, but she visits Geithner a lot & she’s interviewed by the American media a lot. I’ve seen her on Cspan, PBS, network news, etc.

  10. 10.

    drew42

    Yes. From what I remember, she was one of the good guys, who saw what was happening but couldn’t get anyone to do anything about it.

  11. 11.

    jibeaux

    I don’t know, but I don’t think she’s “one of the most recognizable people on the planet.”

    I’m referencing the horrifying Ben Stein piece, if you haven’t read that. What a fucking tool. Before these allegations, I doubt you could find a person in Grand Central Station who could have identified that man.

  13. 13.

    someofparts

    Kirsten Gillibrand was on the Daily Show, and resembles the woman in the picture, but it’s not her.

  14. 14.

    drew42

    Just looked up the movie, and confirmed she is who I thought.

    Lagarde came across as very intelligent, and having a full understanding of the problems and how to correct them. And was frustrated that so many others didn’t (or wouldn’t) see what was going on.

    She would probably be my next choice to head the IMF, after Krugman.

    UPDATE: by “very intelligent” I don’t mean some backhanded compliment (like “articulate”). I meant she seems to be much smarter than I am — which is something I like in world leaders.

  18. 18.

    Keith

    not so reassuring – she also comes with recent problems concerning financial favors for fave friends.

    Lagarde, once a lawyer in Chicago, has become embroiled in the soap-opera saga of Bernard Tapie, one of the most flamboyant and controversial figures in French public life. Tapie is a maverick rags-to-riches tycoon whose CV includes a stint as head of Marseille football club, head of the Adidas sports empire, left-wing urban affairs minister under Francois Mitterrand, a seven-month jail term for match-fixing, a conviction for tax fraud and an amazing public comeback as an actor, singer, chatshow host and supporter of Nicolas Sarkozy.

    For almost two decades, a battle raged through the courts after Tapie claimed he was cheated by the Credit Lyonnais bank which handled the 1993 sale of Adidas. Credit Lyonnais, once publicly owned, had been wound up and its liabilities taken over by a state-operated consortium.

    In 2007, Lagarde intervened and ended the court dispute by ordering a special panel of judges to arbitrate. In 2008, they ruled that Tapie should receive €285m (£248m) in damages. The out-of-court settlement scandalised opposition politicians. The centrist Francois Bayrou said it was “unthinkable that the state dips into the taxpayers’ pocket for a private beneficiary”. At the time, Lagarde tried to calm the row, saying that, after tax and debt payments, Tapie would only pocket about €30m. Later reports suggested he kept about €200m.

    The Socialists accused Lagarde of improper conduct by intervening and asked for a full-scale investigation. Jean-Louis Nadal, the public prosecutor, has now recommended a full judicial inquiry into Lagarde’s role, saying there was evidence of “several reasons to be suspicious of the regularity and even the legality” of the settlement, which could constitute “an abuse of authority”. He suggested the case should not have been settled in private since public money was at stake.

  19. 19.

    blondie

    Yes, she’s in Inside Job. She was the one who said that no one in the US government bothered to give a heads-up to Europeans about letting Lehman collapse, that she found out only after the fact (since the Bushies didn’t realize that Lehman’s bankruptcy would have worldwide repercussions – bright folks).

  21. 21.

    JGabriel

    @Napoleon:

    Wasn’t she either on Colbert or The Daily Show?

    NY Times:

    [Christine Lagarde] impressed American audiences during a 2009 appearance on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, recounting how she pushed for the firing of incompetent managers at a French-Belgian bank that required a taxpayer bailout. (“I, for one, said, ‘Management is out. They did a crappy job. They have to go.’ ”) She then presented Mr. Stewart with a beret.

    .

  22. 22.

    sb

    Yep, that’s her.

    Love the snarky comments by the kewl kidz here. From her comments in the movie, one would think she would be worthy of admiration beyond making fun of her looks and calling her an idiot.

    Fuck the lot of you, I say.

  23. 23.

    shortstop

    @sb: I’m missing the part where someone called her an idiot — can you point out that post?

    The looks comments may be irrelevant but they’re not particularly personal, either — it’s just BJ being BJ. No one here has shown any disrespect for Lagarde’s work and several people have offered the admiring remarks you’re looking for.

  24. 24.

    bayville

    @drew42:
    Yeah. She’s a real woman of the people.
    You might have seen her photo from her website: enoughthinking.com.

    “France is a country that thinks,” she told the National Assembly. “There is hardly an ideology that we haven’t turned into a theory. We have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves.”

    Citing Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” she said the French should work harder, earn more and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich.

    Ms. Lagarde knows well the Horatio Alger story of making money through hard work. She looked west to make her fortune, spending much of her career as a lawyer at the firm of Baker & McKenzie, based in the American city identified by its broad shoulders and work ethic: Chicago. She rose to become the first woman to head the firm’s executive committee and was named one of the world’s most powerful women by Forbes magazine.

  26. 26.

    RobertB

    From the article…

    “What’s happened with Strauss-Kahn underscores how great it would be to have a woman in the role,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a former I.M.F. chief economist who is now a professor at Harvard University.

    So is this guy actually saying that it would be nice if the IMF was headed by someone a little less rapey?

  28. 28.

    res ipsa loquitur

    The key thing re Lagarde in the movie seemed to be that she and the Europeans had no idea what shape Lehman was in until after Lehman melted down. Hence, the “Holy Cow”. If you watch the “Inside Job” extras, Yves Smith makes the point that this suggests that Lehman was engaging in fraud b/c no way someone in Lagarde’s role could not have known how bad the Lehman situation was.

  29. 29.

    Xenos

    @sb:

    Love the snarky comments by the kewl kidz here. From her comments in the movie, one would think she would be worthy of admiration beyond making fun of her looks and calling her an idiot.

    Kewl Kidz? Mostly geeks around here. The snarky hipsters hang out at Sadlyno.com

  32. 32.

    jayackroyd

    Off topic for NY folks.

    My Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, just sent a note that she’ll be running a phone bank on Tuesday for Hoschul. If you’re in the City and wanna stop by and help, drop me a note.

    Her office is, depending on how you look at it, on the northern end of the Upper East side, or just south of Harlem. 3rd between 92 and 93.

    [email protected]

  33. 33.

    RossInDetroit

    @ John Cole

    Taking a break from rubberizing the garden and digging a garage?

  34. 34.

    gex

    So she’s the French Elizabeth Warren? No offense to the menfolk here, but maybe we could use a few more women up there to watch over the boys. (See how you guys are men, and the sociopaths are boys?)

  37. 37.

    bjacques

    I hope she gets the job, for the opening paragraph in the above NYT article alone. Robert Diamond’s thanks were for letting the bankers keep the money they stole, and as empty as a lot of people’s wallets afterwards. Ms. Lagarde’s reply was a notice that the same old bullshit wasn’t going to fly anymore.

    I don’t know whether she’d be a reformer like DSK, but I get the impression she’d be careful about who gets bailouts and how they plan to spend the money (and pay it back).

  40. 40.

    sb

    @shortstop: I misread Omnibus.

    But.

    The snarky comments about her looks? No apologies for saying loud and proud, “Fuck y’all.”

  41. 41.

    Larkspur

    Okay, I’ll talk about her looks. She’s pretty damn magnificent looking. She’s way better looking than me, and damnit, she’s kinda sorta a wee bit younger as well.

    If there was a room with an IQ thermometer in it, and you put Lagarde and the light of my life Elizabeth Warren in there together, the thermometer would vaporize. Then invite Melissa Harris-Perry into the same room, and I will cheerfully swear fealty and enlist in their army.

  42. 42.

    someofparts

    Okay. Sure. If the picture that comes up now was the one that came up when I first clicked on the link, absolutely. In fact, the image in the link now even says who it is. It’s just not the same picture that came up the first time I clicked on the link this morning.

  44. 44.

    lunaticfringe

    I don’t get the love for her.

    Christine Lagarde Defends European Austerity:

  47. 47.

    shortstop

    @sb: Then you’re going to have to do that about twice a day here if you plan to be at all consistent. This crowd has fun commenting on the countenances of just about everybody, male and female, and by no means just conservatives.

  48. 48.

    Lysana

    I am unamazed that Mme. Legarde comes with baggage. She’s too high-up NOT to. Sadly, it may still make her the safest bet out of the lot.

    Enough about her looks. Can I have her read things to me? That voice. Contralto with just enough accent. purrrr

  49. 49.

    Triassic Sands

    @someofparts:

    Nope, he’s thinking of LaGarde, who was interviewed in Inside Job. In the commentary portion of the extras, both the producer and director of the film speak very highly of her.

  50. 50.

    Montarvillois

    Would appreciate fair warning when a link directs readers to the NYT. Clicking on this link has used-up one of my 20 free carefully-selected visits a month to one of their columns.

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