I’m not a fan of Cory Booker:
The New York Times’ front-page report on Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s involvement in a fledgling web-video start-up called Waywire contains some troubling and surprising revelations. The article details that the majority of Booker’s wealth—and up to $5 million—involves shares in the company, for which he tapped both celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and campaign donors for seed money. Unusually for someone who does not work on it day-to-day, Booker received the largest stake of its three co-founders. In both federal and municipal forms, Booker was late to formally disclose his ownership. Waywire employs a couple associates of Booker’s, and, as the Times drolly notes, it “has put Andrew Zucker, 14, the son of Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, on its advisory board and given him stock options.” Booker’s buckraking was brazen enough that it is likely he never could have gotten away with it had he been a senator—as he soon shall be, assuming he wins next Tuesday’s Democratic primary, which he is nearly certain to do, and a subsequent special election in October.
The Alex Parenee piece on Booker is well worth reading (via Atrios) too. But the above says it all, doesn’t it?
Villago Delenda Est
The more I read about Booker, the less I like him.
He’s like OvenMItt that way.
aimai
Yup. That was jaw droppingly bad. I was embarrassed for the entire human race when I read about that kid.
Yatsuno
He’s a mayor, so no real voting record to judge off here. I like Holt, but Cory just has too much star power to overcome at this point. Plus the Pareene piece is terrible. It doesn’t really give much argument to not vote for Cory beyond his say so.
(Avoiding surname because FYWP.)
ranchandsyrup
Any Rush Holt fans out there? Does he have a shot against Cory?
Keith G
Very few clean folks get elected to high office. Fewer stay elected.
The question becomes where are the pressure points. How can accountability be enforced (even if it is painful in the short term)?
Doug Milhous J
@Keith G:
I know no one wants to hear this, but Obama’s pretty clean. (I’ll grant that the Clintons may not be.)
max
@Villago Delenda Est: The more I read about Booker, the less I like him.
Quite. But Weigel is commenting to the effect that it would be good for D’s to have more black D Senators, which is true. But I suppose that it’s hard to gain ground in politics as a black person unless you’re willing to ride the money train. Which I expect is why we keep getting reruns of Harold Ford, Jr.
Meantime:
Thank God, I’m not a suspicious cynical type or I’d almost think Bloomberg believed the entire purpose of the stop-and-frisk program was to harass & intimidate black and brown people, criminal or not.
max
[‘Surely not.’]
Yatsuno
@Doug Milhous J: OBOT!!!
Bobby Thomson
Not really. B0oker was slow to comply with disclosure requirements but apparently he ultimately did. (The Times stops short of accusing him of breaking the law.)
That’s the legitimate complaint, not that he owns the comparatively tiny amount of FIVE MILLION DOLLARS. Shit, Lautenberg was rich as Croesus.
The Moar You Know
I get the vibe you do not want to be between Mayor Booker and a TV camera, as you’ll get trampled.
fuckwit
Wall Street Whore.
Avoid.
Ted & Hellen
I almost admire the in your face blatant-ness of this grift.
Hell, the U.S. government and its “elected” participants are beyond corrupted anyway; if it’s technically legal and you can get away with it, why not?
Villago Delenda Est
@max:
Ah, so monitoring for thee, but not for me!
This is violating David Brin’s view of the “surveillance state”…one in which the watchers are themselves watched. Can’t have THAT, certainly.
Which is what the advocates of 24/7 video monitoring shy away from. They want this to be a one-way process. Reciprocity is not on their agendas.
Ted & Hellen
@Doug Milhous J:
lol
Comrade Dread
Sign of the times. Most politicians are in bed with moneyed interests and in debt to them. Booker doesn’t seem any worse than the usual lot we send to Washington.
And most Americans don’t give a damn, so I doubt it’s going to change any time soon.
Suffern ACE
@Bobby Thomson: Yeah. Not certain what to do with this information. It is not surprising that business partners would be donors to a campaign. It’s a private company so its not like he’s bilking investors and lining his own wallet. Is the company itself a sham? Is it actually doing what it says it does or is it just a way to loose the money of 14 year olds.
The Moar You Know
@max: My first trip to Manhattan was a year and a half ago and I thought three things:
1. Where’s the blacks and browns? They ain’t near the tourists, I’ll tell you that.
2. Where’s the homeless people? Even San Diego, law and order central, has them. Never saw a one.
3. (most important) The number of cops was totally out of hand. Never seen so many cops in my whole fucking life, and I live in a town that’ll call out five cars for a traffic stop. How the hell can the city afford to have that many cops on the payroll?
Baud
@Doug Milhous J:
Agreed. Assuming nothing serious happens in the next 2.5 years, this will have been the cleanest administration we’ve had possibly since Carter and, before then, FDR. (Can’t recall if Ike had some corruption in his admin.).
Botsplainer
Clearly, the only solution is to elevate a TRVE PROGRESSIVE for the nomination so that a teabagger gets elected and teaches the Democrats a lesson.
Democrats must always be taught lessons in order for the glorious Revolution to be successful, because that is the best road to complete societal collapse under conservative rule.
From the ashes, the vanguard of the proletariat shall arise.
JPL
OT.. I’m not sure if this has been mentioned but Anthony Stokes has been placed on the organ transplant list. He is the fifteen year from GA that had been denied by the hospital because they felt he was non compliant. The hospital stated that since all teenagers are assholes at some point that their recommendation might appear harsh.
Actually I said that. Good news none the less.
Tone In DC
Clean politicians. Gotta like this idea.
I am sure Ned Lamont, Creigh Deeds, Ralph Nader, Kathleen Townsend, Jill Stein, Martha Coakley, Al Gore, Shannon O’Brien, Mike Dukakis, George McGovern and so many others are very clean, ethical and upstanding human beings.
As cynical as it sounds, I just wish these folks won more elections.
Comrade Dread
@Baud: I don’t expect that will stop the Republicans from trying to impeach him should they get the votes they need in the Senate.
Roger Moore
@Keith G:
There’s dirty, and then there’s corrupt. This sounds corrupt.
Belafon
Booker isn’t the first person I’ve seen to use their name to make money, and I’m not even talking about Republicans. I’ve also seen the person who does the least amount of work make most of the money, because they are the face of the operation.
This might be one more thing to add to the impression of Booker, but it doesn’t seem all that damning. Now, on the other hand, what exactly is the 14 year old doing? If he’s there just so that Booker can claim “we’re doing work,” then yeah, that would be an issue. But i’d rather Oprah give money to a 14 year old than someone who made a purse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d much rather have Rush Holt, if for no other reason than he’s a climate hawk. Booker, like Christie, does not strike me as a Senatorial temperament, and he’s gonna be full on Lieberman as he prepares to take over from Christie– does NJ have term limits for the govenor’s office? Still better than a Republican, but I think it’s a safe bet he’ll be a huge pain in the ass, probably for the rest of his career.
Baud
Without more numbers about initial contributions, this is a meaningless statement.
ETA: The NYT article ways the shares are worth $1 to $5 million.
ETA2: More from the NYT article:
In interviews, Ms. Ross and Mr. Richardson both played down Mr. Booker’s day-to-day work on Waywire, saying that he was mainly focused on Newark. Yet Mr. Richardson confirmed that the mayor received a larger percentage of ownership in Waywire than he or Ms. Ross did, though they were the ones who oversaw its launching and continue to manage its operations.
Mr. Booker received the largest stake because of his social media profile, his name recognition and his connections to investors, and he was not expected to run the company, Mr. Richardson said, though Mr. Booker has attended every board meeting, according to another investor. “Cory is the inspiration architect,” Ms. Ross said. “He really is the thought-leader soul part of the business.”
Suffern ACE
@The Moar You Know: It is true. I believe we have more police in Time’s square than most smallish European countries have in their military services; even those with a mandatory draft. I think our police could invade and arrest Belgium. Not that I’d advocate that. But … the the whole metro area is kind of teeming with police.
Belafon
@Comrade Dread: Unless they get 67, it’ll just piss more people off in 2016. And I’m pretty sure impeachment is not the biggest target Obama has had to deal with.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Botsplainer: I heard that in 2000.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Suffern ACE: fuckin’ Belgians. Even when it was the bears, I knew it was the Belgians.
Villago Delenda Est
Today’s shocking Newsmax headline:
Rand Paul: I might run for President
Knock me over with a feather.
Chris
@Baud:
The CIA coup in Guatemala occurred soon after Arbenz started expropriating land belonging to the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita), in which John Foster Dulles (Eisenhower’s Secretary of State) and Allen Dulles (Eisenhower’s CIA Director) just happened to be big shareholders.
Then there was the Iran coup the previous year. The British had been asking for American support for a while in removing Mossadegh, and Truman had always said no. Eisenhower reversed that policy and said yes, we’ll help you, but under one condition – the breakup of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s monopoly, which left the country wide open for American companies to get in on the crony capitalism (and they did).
Don’t know if there were any equivalents in domestic policy, but as far as foreign policy goes, Ike’s admin was definitely corrupt as hell.
Bob
I’m with you DMJ, CB is bad news.
Keith G
@Doug Milhous J: I completely agree with the second part of your comment. The first part is a bit hinky. I’ll leave the parenthetical alone.
gussie
@Suffern ACE: In Bruges II.
Baud
@Chris:
Hmmm. As you describe it, I don’t know if I’d label Iran as corruption as opposed to basic corporate jingoism.
Roger Moore
@max:
If the police have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to hide.
TooManyJens
@ranchandsyrup: I’d have liked to see Rush Holt get the nomination, but I don’t think there’s any chance it will happen.
Anya
Booker is a sleazball. He’s in bed with hedge fund managers and school reform fraudsters. I think he’ll be the new Evan Bayh.
Chris
@Baud:
Well. You say potato…
ETA: I am curious to know if there was anything like that domestically, though. From what I know, Ike was mostly a good president domestically (nothing extraordinary, certainly nothing new, but he mostly kept the country on the same track that Roosevelt and Truman had put it on), with the really egregious stuff being limited to foreign policy.
ranchandsyrup
@Anya: sadface.
Yatsuno
@Baud: The Chiquita point was pretty blatant, but I’m not sure if it violated any laws at that time. It was definitely a favour to the Dulles brothers, who were also rather dirty in their other dealings. As far as deposing Mossadegh, I’d bet money there were a few palms greased by Chevron and Phillips in at the very least Congress for that little shenanigan. I think there was something else involving the Interstate Highway system, but can’t Google that right now since I’m at work.
Anya
@JPL: I am so glad. The reversal happened only because of the publicity. Imagine what would happened to the poor kid if it was under the radar.
Baud
@Chris:
I know. I’m just trying to distinguish between “corruption” and policymaking (even abhorrent policies) we might not like.
I recently read a biography about Ike, but I can’t recall anything specific about domestic corruption scandals.
Kay
@Anya:
‘
Yup. The ACLU had to sue to get the Facebook donation emails. They were discussing public schools. They didn’t think it was important to bring parents in on that? I mean, Jesus. It’s their schools. At what point does this alliance with wealthy “philanthropists” stop being charity and become incredibly arrogant and undemocratic commandeering of a public system?
Botsplainer
@Baud:
Regardless of any of our other disagreements, is there any dispute of the need for Ms Ross to have her skull pummeled until she lapses into a vegetative coma from which she never emerges for the crime of making statements like these?
TomG
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m pleased to notice another person cite David Brin. When I re-read The Transparent Society last year I was shocked to see how prescient it was.
Everyone on either side of the privacy debate needs to read that book. It was published in 1998, yet reads like it was written last week.
John Arbuthnot Fisher
@ranchandsyrup: Unfortunately, he does not (and I say that as a massive Rush holt fan boy and former constituent).
My wife and I just moved to Texas a couple of months ago so I didn’t catch the one debate, but I heard Rush came off nervous, hesitant (lots of “ums,” etc.) and distant…which is unfortunate, because he’s none of those things in person and he’s truly the best policymaker and progressive advocate in Congress. But on an accelerated special election timeline, you lack the time for “training wheels,” where you can really prep for media exposure and build momentum in a low pressure environment, so to get thrust into the limelight against Booker is really an uphill battle (and Holt just won’t throw a punch). When you factor in Pallone (who shares the same political / geographic base as Holt), he never really had a chance.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
Wait, you mean she made those statements and she is not in a vegetative coma???
Chris
@Yatsuno:
@Baud:
Broadly speaking I’d say pretty much any time a public official uses his office and the means it puts at his disposal for private gain (for himself or for his old boys network) that’s corruption. It doesn’t have to be technically illegal (corporate donors drown the people who make the laws with money in order to ensure that it’s not, in many cases).
Of course it’s always hard to say where it ends, since it’s often disguised as “policy” that others would disagree with. Was the Iraq War a sincere but misguided attempt to resolve what they thought was a national security threat, or was it a circus designed to give more seats to the Republican Party and more money to their big donors? I’d say anyone with half a brain believes # 2, but technically it could be either.
srv
@fuckwit:
Ahem
Holder’s client list:
Make the Bushies look like lightweights.
Yatsuno
@John Arbuthnot Fisher: I believe Holt is in the House. If not, we should get him there. His is a voice worth keeping.
Baud
@srv:
Did you just cite a Breitbart article in an attempt to impugn the Obama administration?
I mean, c’mon.
Botsplainer
@Baud:
I’m just trying to figure out how it is possible for me to hate someone so very much, with a visceral passion. Hell, I’ve never even been married to the woman, and want to beat her senseless.
In the future, when historians examine the rubble to determine what went wrong with America, any of her statement fragments surviving will pretty much encapsulate it all.
John Arbuthnot Fisher
@Yatsuno: Yes, he’s in the House – I think he ran in this election thinking “Why not?” because he doesn’t have to risk his House seat (which he almost certainly would if he were running on the usual federal election cycle).
Yatsuno
@Baud: Wow. That just happened. The firebagger circle is now complete.
burnspbesq
@Bobby Thomson:
The difference is that Lautenberg made his money before he entered politics.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
RT if you have a #dream. bit.ly/1eAoVc9
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
Ask somebody who pays NYC income tax.
srv
@Baud: In a normal world, you people would be angry you can only hear the truth from your enemies.
I’m sure in your fluffersphere, Eric has been doing a bang up job on Wall St.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Norman, coordinate!
Baud
@srv:
Is that like the fleshlight? Whatever it is, it sounds awesome.
Yatsuno
@srv: You place your faith in a known den of liars and distorters. And you wonder why we question their veracity. I smell copulation of rodentia on you.
Roger Moore
@Comrade Dread:
Remember that a conviction in the Senate requires a 2/3 majority, which means 18 more votes than the Republicans currently have. That seems safe enough, even with a catastrophic loss in 2014.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@srv: and if you weren’t such a self-righteous little rage bunny, you might be able to make an argument without tripping over your own ass.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Botsplainer:
Uh, yeah. Nice one, dude.
burnspbesq
@srv:
I’m going to go slowly and use tiny words, so that you will understand.
Most of the horrible things that were done, that gave rise to the 2007-8 financial crisis, did not violate any currently in-force Federal criminal statute.
Even in the relative handful of cases where there arguably was criminal behavior, it is a completely rational decision to pursue civil remedies, because of the difference in the burden of proof between civil and criminal cases.
Throwing people in jail does nothing to make defrauded investors whole. Civil restitution can make defrauded investors whole.
Is your blind rage more important than making defrauded investors whole?
Baud
@burnspbesq:
Yeah, you know, those words weren’t all that tiny.
Botsplainer
@burnspbesq:
TRVE PROGRESSIVISM can never fail, it can only be failed.
burnspbesq
@Baud:
Aw, c’mon. There’s only two words there with more than three syllables.
srv
@Yatsuno: O-bot, heal thyself.
@burnspbesq: We must look forward… to Larry Summers.
burnspbesq
@Botsplainer:
I’m in favor of progress; I just don’t think progressives have any clue how to deliver it.
burnspbesq
@srv:
What exactly does Mr. Summers have to do with securities-law enforcement?
Bobby Thomson
@burnspbesq: It’s not much of a difference. In either case, one can reasonably assume that someone owes favors to people, which is why you want you the disclosure to find out who those people are. Despite people throwing around insinuations that B0oker was selling his office, I don’t see it. He was cashing in on his fame, which he wouldn’t have if he weren’t mayor, but the idea that the mayor of Newark has a lot of political clout doesn’t pass the laugh out loud test.
burnspbesq
@Bobby Thomson:
I dunno, I stubbornly cling to the idea that it’s difficult to buy somebody who already has more money than you.
lol
@burnspbesq:
President Ron Paul would have personally executed the CEOs of every major bank. That would have been the pure progressive thing to do.
Zifnab
Politicians employing cable news personalities? What is this? The reverse-Murdoch? Stupid Booker has it totally backwards. He’s supposed to be taking money FROM the cable news giants, not paying it out.
Zifnab
@burnspbesq: Nothing… and EVERYTHING!
/plays dramatic music
/bangs symbols together
/drops curtain and runs off-stage to uproarious applause
Hawes
It ain’t Chinatown, but it is New Jersey….
Fitting that progressives are shitting all over Booker the same day Tbogg retired. Your Mumia sweatshirt…
gene108
@ranchandsyrup:
Voted for Holt this morning, but Booker has a better organization going for him. He probably has more money (haven’t checked), but a lot of folks are doing ground work for him that I haven’t seen from other campaigns for the Democratic primary.
I did see a few ads for Holt and Palone on T.V.
The Republican primary has gotten no ink whatsoever, which is also today and I do no think people even know which two Republicans are running for the October election.
ranchandsyrup
@John Arbuthnot Fisher: Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated. I have a family member that raves about Holt.
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I believe it is two terms, though in my 16+ years in NJ I have not witnessed a governor successfully complete two terms.
Whittman left early for the EPA. Interim governor was interim. McGreevey resigned. Interim governor was interim. Corzine lost to Christie.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
FTFY. Plenty of us progressives know how to make progress. You get what you can now and go back for more later. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. And never, ever, ever try blowing up the whole system in the hopes you can remake it into your ideal in the following chaos.
jamick6000
Jeez this guy lives in Newark and he’s ALREADY up to his elbows in the Beltway-insider circle jerk.
jamick6000
@burnspbesq: You are very dumb.
ranchandsyrup
@gene108: thx Gene. appreciate the viewpoint.
gene108
@Anya:
I wouldn’t go that far, but what gets me about Booker is he’s all about self-promotion. As far as being in bed with hedge-fund managers, what can you do if your college roommates have hedge funds? Unfriend them on Facebook? Return their Christmas cards as “recipient does not live here”?
My bigger issue with Booker is his mixed results while mayor of Newark. His tenure was not successful enough, from what I have read to want to promote him. How much can be chalked up to the Great Recession taking a toll on the economy and how much is due to his policies will be hard to evaluate, but I from what I’ve read his school reform measures have rubbed locals the wrong way and I think he hasn’t lived up to the hype he created early on in his mayorship.
I think it’s all but given he’ll be a Senator and maybe run for NJ governor.
The real question now is when will he declare his run for the Presidency?
Roger Moore
@jamick6000:
Brilliant point-by-point demolition of his argument, there.
jamick6000
@Roger Moore:
If your favorite baseball team had bases loaded, nobody out, and scored 1 run, people like you would run around saying it was a great offensive performance.
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: I thought you lived in Pennsylvania.
jamick6000
@Roger Moore: kind of hypocritical seeing as how you did not address my argument.
schrodinger's cat
I haven’t seen the Sunday morning talk shows in a while but he used to be a regular fixture on them a
few years ago. Is he still a favorite?
gene108
@burnspbesq:
I think the Chinese have a good system to restore confidence. When corporate officials or government officials break the public trust, those officials get arrested and either do hard time in a labor camp or get summarily executed.
The Chinese government has a 99% success rate in prosecuting crimes against officials.
This is why the Chinese people have so much confidence the government is anything but corrupt and the capitalists are looking out for their workers best interests.
Yatsuno
@jamick6000: “You are very dumb” is an argument? In first grade maybe.
LanceThruster
@ranchandsyrup:
Liked him on Colbert the other night.
gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
South Jersey, which is technically an annex of Philadelphia and thus sort of a “territory” of PA and a separate state from North Jersey, which is an annex of NYC. Central Jersey is a no mans land that needs to make up its mind which state it belongs to.
Could be one of Holt’s problems, as he represents Central Jersey.
gene108
@gene108:
Having trouble editing. FYWP.
I live in South Jersey,
jamick6000
@Yatsuno: How about you make a point that would counter mine, instead of hurling insults?
Heliopause
Maybe BJ should have started its Anybody-But-Booker campaign a couple of weeks ago when it might have made a difference.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jamick6000: Where do Naderites and Kuciunich voters fit in to that analogy? Banging their fists on the floor and tearfully screaming that some fee-nom who never made it above double-AA ball would’ve been the next Babe Ruth if only the fans had clapped harder? or the opposing teams had been nicer?
Yatsuno
@jamick6000: Make a point first, then I’ll think about it. Until that happens, let the adults talk, mmmkay?
(Anyone else smell sockpuppet?)
ranchandsyrup
@LanceThruster: Yeah I kind of did too. But I can see what the comments above mean when they say that he’s not likely to “throw a punch”.
burnspbesq
@jamick6000:
Actually, no. I don’t know for certain (and presumably neither do you), but based on 51 years of watching baseball my guess would be that one run is the most common outcome. I’ve seen some analyses based on historical data that suggest that the mean outcome is somewhere around 2.3 runs.
But so f’in what? If you had an actual point to make, you wouldn’t be muddying the waters with obscure baseball references.
burnspbesq
@gene108:
That’s hilarious on so many levels that I don’t know where to start.
Just Some Fuckhead
What if the Senate caught on fire or something? Do we really want Cory Booker there saving lives?
burnspbesq
@gene108:
Ahh, it all makes sense now.
201 fa life, muthafucka.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
The problem isn’t that he’s personal friends with hedge fund guys; it’s that he’s taking their side in policy arguments. During the last presidential election, Bοoker criticized Obama for being mean to hedge fund managers, which is not what I expect from a Democratic candidate who wants support from the rest of the party.
Amir Khalid
@Zifnab:
Per the note at the end of the NYT story, Andrew Zucker, all of 15 years old, quit the Waywire advisory board after they (NYT) reported he was on it. So whatever advice he was giving doesn’t seem so essential to its business after all.
But what the hell is Waywire’s business model? Giving young people on social media a more prominent social/political voice sounds worthy; but how do you make that a paying business? Charge them money, which they might not have, to get on Waywire? Charge people money to listen to them, and risk driving their audience away? Sell ads on their messages, and make them look like corporate shills?
Roger Moore
@jamick6000:
I’d be happier with the batter who drove in one run with a sac fly than with the guy who struck out swinging for the fences.
Another Holocene Human
@The Moar You Know:
Because we have a FIRE economy and Wall Street is Ground Zero.
Another Holocene Human
@Tone In DC: I am sure Ned Lamont, Creigh Deeds, Ralph Nader, Kathleen Townsend, Jill Stein, Martha Coakley, Al Gore, Shannon O’Brien, Mike Dukakis, George McGovern and so many others are very clean, ethical and upstanding human beings.
The ones I am familiar with on that
lastlist are either not clean in the least or not politicians.eta: jesus, my typing
Another Holocene Human
@Anya: Forget it, Anya, it’s New Jersey.
Doesn’t seem like Booker is a Corzine-level crook (yet). Also, too, the man hasn’t forgotten he’s black even if he does dance with the hedgies, just like Clinton. So I don’t expect Blue Dog politics, just corporate whoredom … again: New Jersey.
Mandalay
@Baud:
Not quite; to clarify, the original article states “his stake in the company was worth $1 million to $5 million”.
The hit piece chose to portray his stake as “up to $5 million” which looks even worse, but I find him to be a phony gold digging conman, so all smears against him are welcome as far as I am concerned.
Another Holocene Human
@burnspbesq: The difference is that Lautenberg made his money before he entered politics.
The respectable way, like a gentleman.
/Karen from Will&Grace
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
2.417 expected runs based on data from 1999-2002. I’d expect it to be a bit lower today, given that the overall scoring environment has gone down by more than 10% since then, so between 2.2 and 2.3 would be a reasonable guess. The actual expected value of the situation will decline less than the overall scoring, since part of the lower overall scoring is that teams get into favorable situations like that less often than they used to. So, yes, 1 run would be disappointing, but I’ll still take one run over watching the guys strike out swinging for the fences.
Baud
@Mandalay:
That’s what I meant to say, 1 million.
taylormattd
If the blockquote you selected is supposed to be deeply damning or something, I must say I am more than underwhelmed.
I guess I’ll read these articles and make up my own mind. But from what you’ve posted, my initial inclination is this story is nothing but a combination of emoprog whining + opposition research spin.
aimai
@The Moar You Know: If they would just put every African American and Hispanic on the city payroll as cops they could stop and frisk themselves and also receive a paycheck. It would be a win/win of enormous proportions.
Anoniminous
Talk about a nothing-burger.
The task of a Board of Directors is to set policy and oversee what the company is doing and how they are doing it. A start-up company needs an “idea-man/woman” (or two or three) on the board to see opportunities for the company the principles, who are in the trenches slogging away will miss.
And a member of a Board for a company worth one to five million? BFD. That’s almost what IBM spends on printer paper every year.
Anoniminous
@Amir Khalid:
From Bloomberg (no link):
IOW, along with the rest of the herd they are chasing YouTube or they are, along with everybody in Hollywood who has a brain, is trying to find a working Business Model for internet based entertainment.
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
I did get that part, but how does the revenue come in for Waywire?
Mandalay
@Anoniminous:
Even in the crowded world of utterly meaningless comparisons, that one is a doozy.
gene108
@Roger Moore:
I think the reason he’s taking their side is he’s a Stanford/Ivy League educated guy just like a bunch of folks who start hedge funds. If he’s not personal friends with them, they are probably very similar to the people he went to college with and became friends with in college; in other words hedge fund managers are probably closer to the sort of peer group he came of age with than the folks in Newark, NJ.
Tone in DC
@Another Holocene Human: I thought Lamont, Dukakis, George Mc and Coakley were clean. What dirt is there? Or is it a matter of not enough for some?
JoyfulA
@Baud: Sherman Adams and the vicuna coat.
Ripley
@gene108:
Ted & Hellen.
TheronWare
I voted for Holt. Booker is too much the corporatist!
Richard Bottoms
Doug, I have to say you are completely wrong on this.
I work in tech, previously in Silicon Valley and these days in the new tech corridor on Market Street in San Francisco.
There’s is zero wrong with providing connections and even a tiny bit of seed money many in exchange for outsized returns. Must not be because I have been watching Stanford and Berkeley grads do exactly the same thing for the nearly twenty years since the Netscape browser was introduced.
In an age where a quirky, but not very complex game like Angry Birds can grow into a billion dollar enterprise, Booker’s investment is a feature, not a bug. Particularly if it influences other middle class and rich black folks to get out of dying industries and into the future.
As long as no public funds were involved and no unethical practices have been revealed you ought to be cheering for Corey Booker and asking when established black people & firms start doing more of this.
Johnson Publishing ought to be all over transforming themselves. Black Enterprise Magazine ought to be the umbrella under which all of us who have the skills to compete can shelter and grow.
Why aren’t they doing exactly what the Daily Beast did, using the connections of it’s high profile founder to become a force powerful enough to swallow Newsweek.
Hell, BE’s Graves Sr. was and probably is a Republican.
Sorry, but you’re just plain wrong.
Stevends
He is Mayor of Newark. He has a side job with a tech startup on the west coast, that apparently has made him rich.
As far as I’m concerned, unless this venture has compromised his duties to his constituents in the past, then I’m fine with it. Of course, if it compromises them in the future, I would have an issue with it.
But I don’t see that as inevitable, and I don’t get all the Booker hate.
johnny aquitard
@burnspbesq:
Throwing people in jail doesn’t make the families of murdered victims whole either. Do you have any thoughts as to why we as a society we insist on doing that?