Jeb Bush's firm paid wife $220,000 but duties unclear other than being a "true partner in work and life.” http://t.co/5MNpeER74x
— Rosalind Helderman (@PostRoz) July 3, 2015
… and then I’d do my (considerable) best to undercut him at every opportunity. Looking forward (not) to seeing how the GooGoos who shook their fingers at Hillary Clinton for her unfeminine attention to earning money defend Jeb!’s financial dealings, as described by the Washington Post:
Shortly after Jeb Bush left the Florida governor’s office in 2007, he established his own firm, Jeb Bush & Associates, designed to maximize his earning potential as one of the country’s more prominent politicians.
Tax returns disclosed this week by the Republican’s presidential campaign revealed that the business not only made him rich but also provided a steady income for his wife and one of his sons…
The returns show that the company set up a generous and well-funded pension plan now rare in corporate America, allowing Bush to take large tax deductions while he and his wife built up their retirement portfolio.
They also illustrate how Bush — who has touted his business experience on the campaign trail — relied on his public persona and political connections to rapidly increase his net worth.
More than a third of the firm’s $33 million in proceeds from 2007 to 2013 came from banking giants Lehman Bros. and Barclays, which paid Bush a combined total of about $12 million for his work as a senior adviser, according to the tax filings and campaign officials. An additional $8.1 million during that period came from speaking fees.
Although Bush presented the release of 33 years of tax returns this week as evidence of his transparency, a review of the filings shows that more than a third of his company’s income was from sources that his campaign has largely declined to disclose…
The NYTimes sticks to the impersonal — “Business Ties Made by Jeb Bush as Florida Governor Turned Lucrative When He Left Office“:
In his final year as governor, Jeb Bush led a campaign to persuade an Italian military contractor and its partners to build a plant in Florida, meeting with the company’s chief executive, offering financial incentives and appearing at an event celebrating the project.
Soon after Mr. Bush left government for the private sector, the contractor, Alenia North America, provided him with a warm welcome of its own: It paid him $64,000 to deliver a speech, his campaign disclosed.
As Mr. Bush sought to create a personal fortune for himself and his family after eight years in public office, he found a ready source of income: speeches sponsored by corporations and industry trade groups, including some that benefited from his administration’s policies.
Since 2007, Mr. Bush has delivered about 260 paid speeches, earning around $10 million in the process, according to records provided this week by his presidential campaign. The speeches, combined with his consulting and investment businesses, rapidly transformed his finances: His and his wife’s net worth soared to at least $19 million from $1.3 million over the past eight years…
That parvenu Romney didn’t have the patrician brio to release his tax returns — he retained some residual shame, or at least sensed that the details of his prosperity might be viewed as unseemly by the striving voter. Jeb!, true scion of the Bush Crime Family, cares not what the peons whinge about at their grubby little “electoral gatherings”…
MattF
So, Jeb!’s ‘business experience’ consists of traveling to Wall Street and holding out a bucket. Sounds good to me. As my old man used to say, “Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money.”
Baud
I have to admit, in our Citizens United world, the concern over speaking fees seems really quaint.
Cervantes
That “contractor,” Alenia, who gave him a “warm welcome,” is an aerospace/military branch of Italian giant Finmeccanica, which has dealings globally, including in the former Soviet Union.
Just a bit of perspective.
Keith G
I assume that we soon will be seeing a breathless post by Cole exhorting how this might well be the end of Jeb Bush’s chances to be a serious candidate.
/morning’s snark
ThresherK
All I can think about is how rich New Yorkers who earn these wife bonuses probably did something for them.
Jeb!? He got it for standing there and looking Bushy.
PS From downstairs’ article on the sharks: We’ve already planned a trip to Cape Cod*, so I’m hoping the sharks stay where they are. And the jellyfish can stay away too.
(*I’d say “the Cape” in real life.)
Zinsky
I’m sure Columba, Jebs wife, was performing many of same services as Monica Lewinsky.
Baud
@Zinsky:
Um… They are married.
bystander
I remember Rachel Maddow doing a program mid-primaries last POTUSES cycle. She was showing how the repub machine was giving primaries to Mittens. Can’t help but think the fix is in for Jeb! right now and the primaries are a mere formality.
Derelict
What I really love about articles like these is the way it’s all presented depending on the political party of the subject. Here we have Jeb Bush trading off his family name and possibly corrupt connections he made while in office and through his family’s connections. He’s getting rich for breathing and for providing access to people make deals from which he gets a cut. This is not a problem.
Hillary made speeches and got paid for those speeches, which is something we really need several congressional committees to investigate. And she and Bill have millions of dollars, which is just wrong wrong wrong because she’s a Democrat. And somehow it’s just unseemly that Bill could be running a successful charity, so we need to investigate that, too.
bystander
POTUS cycle. Foiled by the misnamed auto-correct again.
raven
This job is cursed! After a 2 week delay the framers humped it and made great progress. Yesterday they on it at 6am but by 7:30 realized they were runny low on lumber. It turned out they and the contractor thought the other was ordering so they split. The lumber came at 1pm and it poured at 3 so they made the right decision. They started 6 this morning and were able to work for 15 minutes when the skies opened up. . .again! 1st world problems but goddamn!
Baud
@raven:
You obviously live on an ancient Indian burial ground.
bystander
@Derelict: Especially when you see Jeb! providing advice to Lehman and Barclay’s. Enormously complex banking organizations often need guidance from somebody with no advanced academic credentials or banking experience.
raven
@Baud: :)
ThresherK
@raven: Hey, were you the commenter who posted a link to an article on Tom Petty and That Flag, sometime yesterday?
I’m gonna show my wife that story.
She is a huge fan. And she already loves how Petty’s had to CeaseAndDesist any number of Conservatives who want to use “Won’t Back Down”.
Donut
Per the WaPo back in May, Bill and Hillary on average earn more than Jeb! per speaking gig, but that’s because obviously they are getting paid by islamafeminisocialtisists and are using the money to secretly fund networks of gay marriage Obamacare terrorists around the world.
Duh.
Donut
@bystander:
Well-connected people at the top of the financial food chain, skimming the cream and connecting their friends and associates in order to make everyone involved a little richer? This is unheard of in politics! Someone please alert the media!
raven
@ThresherK: yes, it’s worth it to google Tom Petty and the Confederate flag. There is an article by and African American dude from 2008 that is interesting. He talks about Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell too.
Baud
@Donut:
That, and they are far more interesting to listen to than Jeb!
Sometimes the free market works.
raven
@raven: https://edwardg.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/rebel-songs/
raven
@ThresherK: I assume she’s seen the Petty doc by Bogdonavich?
OzarkHillbilly
Nice work, if you can get it.
satby
Trying to work up the energy for another farmers market day. I enjoy them but it’s hard work. It’s been a miserable week in a lot of ways and I hope it helps reset my mood.
Donut
@Baud:
Hillary v. Jeb!
One is related to the guy who was presidenting while stupid.
The other married to a guy who was presidenting while horny.
America, make your choice which path you’d rather go down again.
Baud
@Donut:
If you’re implying that would be a tough choice, all I can say is, not for me.
Mustang Bobby
It’s the official day off for the school district, so I get to do all the chores I was gonna do tomorrow, like go shopping for dining room chairs, hosing off the patio, and washing the antique car in anticipation of a car show this weekend. I’m strangely unmotivated.
ThresherK
@raven: No.
Or to say: No, not yet.
Strange thing, we have seen (and will recommend to anyone) the last feature fiction movie he’s made, The Cat’s Meow.
Mustang Bobby
@Donut: We’ve had lots of horny presidents (FDR, JFK just to name two that we know of), several stupid presidents (Fillmore, W just to name two), and one who was both (Harding).
I’m with Baud; not a tough call.
Donut
@Baud:
What will hard-working Americans choose? Free markets that help put food on their families or Oval Office oral copulation? Since Hillary is a lesbian Nazi we all know which way she will go.
The Thin Black Duke
@Donut: Uh, dude? You shouldn’t be drunk this early in the a.m., y’know?
Baud
@Donut:
Everyone loves a good food fight.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: googling for it I found a different take on Southern Accents, slow lessons: the southernness of tom petty
Yes, Petty flew the Confederate standard (really the Navy Jack of the CSA, for sticklers) while singing “Hey hey hey, I was born a rebel / Down in Dixie / on a Sunday morning / one foot in the grave, one foot on the pedal / I was born a rebel.” Fetch me my grits and cornpone out here to the porch, Loretta Sue, so’s I keep an eye out for them “blue-bellied devils,” I think Petty’s just another redneck letting loose with a rebel yell.
But wait, not exactly. That song, “Rebels,” opens thusly: “Honey, don’t walk out, I’m too drunk to follow” and continues, with brilliant insight into the inner life of a healthy relationship, “You know you won’t feel this way tomorrow / maybe a little rough around the edges, or inside a little hollow.” Which is to say, the narrative persona isn’t heroic, nor even entirely sympathetic. This guy is the guy who’s shouting, “I was born a rebel” — the guy whose girlfriend “picked me up in the morning and paid off my ticket / screamed in the car and left me out in a thicket” — not exactly the poster-boy for Son of the South. In fact, he’s a decided loser who falls back on “I was born a rebel” to explain why he can’t get on in life. What’s going on here?
A good read.
raven
@ThresherK: it is really really really good. It comes with a DVD of the anniversary show in Gainseville and, aside from Stevie Nicks and Campbell’s fucking Gator guitar, it’s wonderful. Must have for any real Petty fan!
Yatsuno
@Donut: Two points about that article:
1) The amount of disgust for the Clintons is palpable. Good thing I’ll be showering in a little while.
2) If Rubio cashed out at least $65K in retirements, his tax bill is gonna be HUGE come next April.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: good stuff, thx. I’m not sure that the spirit is that different from the ones I posted though.
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: The link from Raven from the other day.
We saw this tour up in CT. I don’t remember anyone in the crowd with a rebel flag. What I do remember: Being in the amusement park, doing ride stuff, and hearing the country classic “Golden Ring” during Petty’s soundcheck.
And The Replacements opening, with the bassist getting a spotlight at one point and demurring, “I’m not feeling too perky tonight”, the politest way I’ve ever heard a professional rocker say “I’m drunk” in my life.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: should have said “another take”.
JPL
@raven: According to wundermap there is a storm about a mile and a half north of me. It’s been thundering since six but no rain. I made sure the dogs had some outside time. Nona the maltese is visiting for a few days.
Shakezula
Aw, look. He’s just a good old family man running a family business with his family.
Betty Cracker
@raven: It´s a beautiful guitar!
the Conster
There will never be an honest accounting of the Bush family’s crimes against humanity – the press is incapable of it, because it implicates everything that’s wrong about the intersections of media, Wall Street and politics. My only hope for this country is that should he make it through the primaries, and that’s a BIG if, he has zero charisma and has nothing new to say. He’s been out of politics locked up in his rich white male bubble for too long, listening to his idiot brother and their ass kissing cronies. Bernie may not make it through the primaries either, but is there any way to imagine JEB getting 10,000 people who weren’t paid to stand in line, to hear him speak at this time, or any time? Picture John McCain’s “crowds” where they had to screen off the empty seats for the cameras.
rikyrah
Jeb is a grifter….and this surprises anyone?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone:)
Mike J
@ThresherK:
Can you repost the link for those of us that missed it?
Kay
Mr. France told 60 minutes in 2005 that he didn’t want it associated with NASCAR so this isn’t new for him.
http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/530699
JPL
@Kay: This is just an opportunity for the immature fans, to bring the flag. You can’t take away my freedom to act like an ass.
Baud
@Kay:
That’s hilarious.
Now I wonder if they allow guns at NASCAR races.
ETA: they should require anyone trading in their flags to take the same oath that naturalized citizens have to.
PaulW
Happy 4th Weekend. I’ve been traveling about the DC/Baltimore area. Got some pics of the trip to Gettysburg up.
http://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2015/07/at-gettysburg.html
Kay
@JPL:
I love the flag exchange, though. They have to turn down a US flag :)
WereBear
Without self-awareness, it’s difficult to process the flag’s true nature, and admit the dark side of that past. What we are dealing with is a group of people so desperate to be proud of something they grab onto a toxic myth rather than have nothing.
They just aren’t Faulkner fans, and that’s a shame.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike J: it’s at @ThresherK:
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
No, they should have to take the same oath their traitorous ancestors had to take when surrendering at the end of the CW. And this time, they have to mean it.
JPL
@PaulW: Thanks for the tour!
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
No crossing your fingers this time!
JPL
In other news of the day, the situation in Greece continues to lead the news cycle in Europe. According to the Guardian, the defense minister of Greece made some ominous statements.
Kammenos, who also heads the nationalist, right wing Independent Greeks party, the government’s junior partner, felt fit to announce on Thursday (in the presence of prime minister Alexis Tsipras) that:……………………………….
“The country’s armed forces guarantee stability internally, the defense of national sovereignty and the country’s territorial integrity [and] stability in relation with the country’s alliances.”
Kay
@Baud:
It’s interesting that France knew it was bad for business in 2005, and said so.
I heard on the radio once that major league baseball hired a political stats person to tell them how to appeal to young people- they were worried their fans were skewing older.
Elizabelle
@raven: Thanks for that. Good reading.
MattF
@JPL: It hadn’t registered with me that the Greek government is a left-right alliance. I guess both parties are anti-EU, anti-German, and, I suppose, pro-Putin.
Frankensteinbeck
I can understand the speaking fees, I guess. It’s deranged, but Jeb Bush was a governor with a career very much in the public eye. I’m sure that makes all kinds of conservative assholes willing to pay big bucks to hear him speak.
The 12 million dollars as a ‘senior adviser’ for two banks when, as @bystander pointed out, he knows jack all about banking, is blatant corruption. It’s also par for the course, the real reason why Romney is not a self-made man. When you come from a rich family, you get set up in cushy, ridicously-high-paying jobs by family friends. The payments to his wife stink of money laundering, but the company’s only reason to exist is to process Jeb’s money. So basically… yeah, he’s a useless, arrogant rich brat who’s had everything handed to him, including a major government job. No news here.
the Conster
@Frankensteinbeck:
Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. – some Balzac guy.
shell
Man, oh man, after reading the last 3-4 posts here, feel like paraphrasing Charlie Pierce “It’s your Democracy, people. Embrace it.”
‘Specially love that item about Scott’s new ‘diet’ distributing job. And the reemergence of Tom Delay, who apparently is obsessed with boy rape.
WereBear
@shell: Tom Delay’s face is an indictable offense. Nothing would surprise me.
raven
Now this shit is funny and if you don’t think so, as Frank Zappa said, “you should go home because this show will bring you down!”
rikyrah
Why Misty Copeland? How The Star Broke A Ballet Color Barrier
You have to watch the video.
“Misty, take a bow,” says Kevin McKenzie, ABT’s artistic director, and the camera pans over to Misty Copeland, who is smiling and crying simultaneously as people clap and cheer around her.
The whole thing is maybe 15 seconds long. Just a moment. But what a moment.
Misty Copeland, the ballerina you’ve heard of even if you know negative nothing about ballet, made history this week as the first African-American woman to be named a principal dancer at American Ballet Theater. ABT is 75. Copeland is 32.
But like other astounding ascents of individuals from persistently overlooked communities — say, Becky Hammon becoming the first female full-time coach in the NBA just last year, or Loretta Lynch’s confirmation as the first African-American woman to be Attorney General of the U.S. just over two months ago — the celebration still invites a question: what took so long? Yes, it is remarkable that Copeland is making history. But it is also disheartening that this history hadn’t already been made.
Copeland joins a very, very short list of African-American dancers to earn this esteemed position. Arthur Mitchell became a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet in 1962, and Lauren Anderson did the same at Houston Ballet in 1990. In its entire history, New York City Ballet has only had two black principal dancers. ABT officials told the New York Times that the only black principal dancer they’d ever had on the roster, before Copeland, was Desmond Richardson, who got the position in 1997.
Diversity is better at smaller, regional ballet companies, said Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post‘s dance critic. and even at not-so-small regional companies, like The Washington Ballet. One of TWB’s leading dancers, Brooklyn Mack, partnered with Copeland in her American Swan Lake debutearlier this year; at the time of the announcement, Kaufman wrote that Copeland and Mack would “effectively shatter the all-white stereotype of Swan Lake, the most traditional of ballets.”
But change is slower at behemoths like ABT, which “has so much at stake,” Kaufman said. “They have a very high profile, as ballet companies go, so what they do will have reverberations. And ballet is a classical art form. It’s very tradition-based. And a large company in a tradition-based art form is going to make any changes very, very slowly… It’s just harder to turn that ship around, because it’s so big and so entrenched in its history.”
On top of those external pressures, “There’s the Board of Directors factor, which, for a large company like ABT is going to be, potentially, of a certain income level and class, and is probably predominately white, as ballet audiences tend to be,” she said. “They may also be resistant to change.” The more traditional ballets are also significantly larger, cast-wise. A smaller company “is not necessarily going to see tackling Swan Lake as part of its mission,” said Kaufman, because “you need a giant corps de ballet. Same with Sleeping Beauty, same with Giselle.” Smaller, regional companies are more likely to dedicate their resources to contemporary works — fewer dancers, modern themes — that will, by their nature, be “more modern and more expressive of our times, not the 1800s.”
These factors, combined with the “ultra-ultra-competitive” nature of ABT admissions, “all converge into a climate that’s not going to consider what has ended up being a [huge] step forward lightly.”
http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/07/02/3676508/misty-copeland-star-broke-ballet-color-barrier/
MattF
@shell: There’s really a huge WTF going on right now in wingerland. The prospect of President Obama followed by President Hillary is driving them crazy. As in actually crazy.
JPL
@raven: Funny!
When the storms drifted south, I might have 1/2 inch of rain but probably less than that. Just north, over two inches.
raven
@JPL: It is absolutely pouring here and has been since 6:30.
JPL
@raven: The local news said some areas could get 3 to 4 inches. It does sound like you might fall into that category.
ruemara
Lying here with a considerably swollen eyelid 7 days before Comic-Con. I can’t even.
WereBear
@ruemara: That really sucks! What can be done?
@rikyrah: Reminds me of how classical musicians suddenly started turning out to be females… when everyone auditioned from behind a screen.
Hard to do that in ballet.
WereBear
@MattF: As in actually crazier.
chopper
@raven:
yeh it dumped here in ATL for a bit. my road flooded for a while.
Kay
Our prosecutor resigned to go to the private sector so we’re having a big rush to apply to the county GOP central committee (that’s who reviews the applicants- I know!- it shouldn’t go to a political Party but it does) and in the course of gossiping about this yesterday w/Republicans I found out that they think the same sex marriage helps them.
I think they’re wrong but that’s what they think locally. They think religious voters didn’t come out for Romney but will for Bush based on the decision.
the Conster
Buggy whip makers thought the same thing when they saw the first horseless carriage scare all the horses.
Kay
@the Conster:
They also told me repeatedly Obama was “toast”, that word, so take that into account :)
They don’t object to it THEMSELVES, it’s just that other people will. They’re all excited, like they get with me when they think they have bad news :)
MattF
@Kay: Cognitive dissonance, in action. The key insight is that it’s a social phenomenon.
the Conster
@Kay:
They do know he’s not running again? They’re going to miss him as much as we will.
cmorenc
@Donut:
To be fair, when men get horny, they tend to let the little head start doing the thinking, which very often leads to stupid stuff….exactly what happened to Bill.
ruemara
@WereBear: well, the off hours physician recommends the emergency room. I did tell my normal clinic I needed an urgent appointment but they’re a clinic, so the best they could do was a Monday appointment. This is going to mess me up, fiscally but I need this thing under control. Damned upsetting.
WereBear
@ruemara: It would be upsetting at any time, but especially when you add extra stresses to it. Any clue, like corneal scratch perhaps, or did it just come out of the blue?
And it being the eyelid only? Which would be good.
If all else fails, an eyepatch would actually blend in at Comic Con.
Another Holocene Human
@bystander: It’s as fixed as they can make it in this brave new world.
I’m enjoying their heartburn.
Another Holocene Human
@bystander: Lehman stoled all the monies out of the money market fund for Florida cities and towns. Some couldn’t make payroll. Billions went poof.
Kay
@the Conster:
In 2012. “Toast”.
One of them was the (former) prosecutor when my house was burglarized. He was reviewing the photos police took and he said to me, just chatting at the courthouse “why do you have a picture of a police officer above your fireplace?”
I said “that”s the police officer who responded. He’s reflected in the mirror above the fireplace. It’s Corey”
He lost. The jury didn’t convict. Then he lost the next election. They’ll probably appoint him.
Robert Sneddon
@WereBear: I used to follow ballet when I was younger and read a lot of technical info and behind-the-scenes detail about it. I’ve watched some clips of Misty Copeland dancing with a partner and compared them to the Youtubes of her advertising Under Armour sportwear. The adverts show off her muscularity, the dancing segments show that she’s not very tall (various reports put her at 5ft 2in) and her partners tower over her in one or two of the clips I’ve seen.
A female principal dancer (a ballerina or ballerina assoluta to use the older gendered term) has to be light as all major pieces will partner her with a male principal who has to lift her multiple times in a performance of the master roles (the “whites” as they’re sometimes referred to) and make it look effortless every time. This simple matter of physique filters out a lot of candidates for female principal roles — they’re either too heavy to lift or too short to match their partner’s height which has, as a consequence of having to lift their partner in performance usually mandates them being of average height or taller. It takes an exceptional dancer to overcome those limitations, like Baryshnikov who was short and chunky but made it to be a world-renowned principal on his sheer ability.
I hope she does well in her career going forward but I don’t automatically assume she will do so just because she’s the first African-American dancer to make the big time in the States.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Both Copeland named as a principal and performing Odette/Odile were BFDs in the ballet world. I’m beyond thrilled.
Another Holocene Human
@The Thin Black Duke: If drinking made donut that eloquent, I’ll have whatever he/she is having!
WereBear
I assume she’s like Baryshnikov; someone special who had to make it over extra hurdles.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: Not to anyone who lives in Florida.
JPL
Even if Scalia doesn’t agree, a bunny taunting two dogs protected by a glass door, is cruel and unusual punishment. Finch could have caught the offensive creature but I didn’t want to deal with the aftermath.
I do have a nice burial ground over the back fence since the person behind has twelve acres.
The Pale Scot
Who keeps a Panzer and an 88mm flak gun in his basement?
This guy
Another Holocene Human
JEB! was the Great Destroyer here.
There was some confusion the other day as to whether Rick Scott or Jeb Bush vetoed trains. The answer is AOT,K.
Bush nixed the Florida Overland Express (FOX) which was approved by ballot measure of the Florida voters.
Scott said no to a billion fucking dollars in free engineering and environmental site prep work for the I-4 corridor. (It’s getting worked on as we speak, without the rail monies.)
Florida rail advocates get used to disappointment. (But it’s funny, when Floridians actually get some rail they ride the hell out of it–TriRail and SunRail commuter rail are stuffed with riders and Amtrak’s Silver Service is a best-seller.)
WereBear
Florida has always had a crony problem; it’s baked in, like the NY state legislature. It started as a place far away from other institutions, and has primary economic drivers that involve big untrackable money. The population mix is heavily weighted with people like retirees and tourists and snowbirds who only care about a few things and who don’t have to make a living from the community.
There’s also considerable racism and misogyny that ruthlessly suppresses talent and ambition who wear the wrong kind of carbon envelope. It then gives power to the weak and easily blackmailed or manipulated.
It’s a toxic recipe that is difficult to deal with.
Another Holocene Human
Call him Wage Theft Jeb Bush because he closed the state’s labor dep’t offices that dealt with wage theft. Now we have a patchwork of a few counties pursuing wage theft claims. Anything from making you work past the clock, to shutting down and letting last paycheck bounce, to paying construction crews only half of what was promised, to cheating on overtime. In just those few counties alone, millions have been recovered from CRIMINAL business owners. But in the rest of the state? Fuck youuuuuuuuuuu.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Florida has a small government problem.
No income tax, and very distorted property and sales tax regime, making taxes very regressive and failing to provide adequate revenue to any level of government.
Government bureaucracy built for 1950 Florida.
Criminal legislature that does even more to prevent ordinary humans from accessing state apparatus when they are dealing with utilities, other big companies, or shitty local governments.
And the state is very large and spread out, with the population center VERY far from the state capitol. Any time local people try to bring democracy down to their level the corporate masters freak and have their bought and paid for lege take that power away.
Small government doesn’t work. Drive through this state, it looks like a 3rd world country. And it kind of is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
for general enjoyment, but especially for Kay and other Ohioans
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: It builds character.
ruemara
@WereBear: no idea at all. Someone at the gym? The first swim in the apartment pool? But just in case it bacteria or virus, I need to fix it. Perfect.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Yes, well put. It’s structural, and needs that kind of fix.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah:
Let me translate: big-ego’d, racist donors, administrators who, like homophobic Hollywood agents, play to the real and imagined prejudices of donors and the public at large, talent at the hiring level that is white/cis/male and swimming with unconscious/unacknowledged racism and misogyny, and a compliant press that never points out or makes an issue of how ridiculous it is that they keep putting on “American-style” 1950’s Soviet era re-enactments of how ballet oughtta be.
The joke’s on them … even three decades ago nobody coming up in American dance gave a shit about ballet. Remember that fad of pimping ballet classes for sports conditioning? I personally gave up on it ages ago. Bring on the modern dance.
WereBear
Since we’ve apparently been pushed out on an ice floe, I will put in a hearty “Well done!” to the makers of Sound Studio, my new podcasting recording & editing software, on the Mac.
Simple and easy to use, just a delight. I’ve dragged Garage Band off my toolbar with only a little regret. Doing 30 minute podcasts with my voice is simply not a good fit for a program that expects me to do 3 minute songs with a band, I guess.
While Sound Studio makes 90% of what I do very easy. It’s not quite as flexible when it comes to moving tracks around, but I don’t do a lot of that, and just mastered how to do it this morning.
Podcasters, this is the one for you!
Another Holocene Human
@shell: Tom Delay sure loved showing (off) his ass on national TV.
Not much change from when he was in DC, I suppose.
Or now, for that matter.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: What does it cost?
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: Man, when I hear those government minister names, I feel like I’m back in Boston. :)
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He worries me a little bit but I think it might be bias. I’ve noticed that Democrats who get beaten by a Republican in a state over-estimate the appeal of that Republican nationally. You heard it with Rick Perry and the same will be true with Scott Walker, I believe.
I think it’s about “he cleaned our clock so he MUST be awesome!”
Kasich worries me because Ohio media adore him and I think national pundits will too.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: $30.
Online manual. Been around for ten years with very good reviews.
Garage Band was something like getting a Ferrari for running errands around town. Way more than needed, and preventing it from doing what it was meant to do.
Yatsuno
@Kay: He expanded Medicaid. He worked with THAT ONE. I can’t see how he overcomes that hurdle with the Teafolk.
Kay
@Yatsuno:
I know but the Koch faction is only one faction. People told me GOP primary voters would never vote for the Mormon and they did. I knew they would. There was no one else.
The Money Party has many facets….and the most powerful like Jeb ‘n John, IMO.
The Bush’s are vicious. They’ll take Kasich out. We don’t have to do everything :)
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: You know I personally think this is complete bullshit. They know exactly what it stands for. It stands for their opposition to affirmative action and welfare programs, both of which benefit “those people” and “bums”.
I’m familiar with self-righteous blue collar white guy rage from the North but it’s even sicker in the South, plenty of screw-everybody-else, I-can-go-it-alone, kill-the-bums tossed in there. Absolutely no ability to hear anyone else’s point of view and precious little ability to work together with people like themselves to advance a common interest because each of them thinks they should be pushing for their own precious snowflake position. (AHH says from personal experience here.)
Remember, that rebel jack came in big time when “SEGREGATION FOREVER” had to kneel to all three branches of the Federal government saying Oh, no you don’t to them. They don’t like Blacks and Messicans making the same as them and they shole ain’t sufferin’ one of them to be their boss.
Now I know plenty of Crackers (Florida Crackers, that is a real thing) who are more enlightened than that. Heck, I don’t think being a racist fuck is a deep part of specifically Cracker culture because they lived in an area with few plantations and slave plantations showed up very late. For example where I am there was a lot of Black and white migration after the war, even more whites as the railroads came, but there were backwoods Crackers, just like the ones in MK Rawlings’ books, who were miles away from the choo choo and the culture the railroad brought. But people can be prejudiced or not anywhere and I still think there are a lot of people who are all cool with Black people as long as schools, neighborhood, and workplace aren’t integrated, which is to say not really.
One nice thing about integration is that you can shame people out of saying openly racist crap.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Any suggestions for something free? Want to do a short videocast, would record using my Mac laptop. Need to edit because people have short attention spans (and their cell phone YouTube apps will choke anyway).
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Another example: Chris Christie. He beat Democrats so they all say “he’s unbeatable!”
Yeah, sure. Or you just lost to a clown.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Here’s a recent roundup that looks helpful:
http://filmora.wondershare.com/video-editor/free-video-editing-software-mac.html
I have iLife so I’ve always used the Mac editor.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He was Tweety’s original man-crush, and Paul Ryan when Paul Ryan was only half way through his first reading of Atlas Shrugged. They both have, along with Russet and god know who else, that “my dad was a blue-collar, lunch-bucket, hard-helmet kind of guy, therefore so am I” delusion, and I think it plays well with people meet on islands off Massachusetts to complain about August in DC.
Yatsuno
@Kay:
They were partially correct. Willard eventually did win the nomination, but he got creamed in the South as I recall. He got there because despite their whining and crying the rest of the country has its say. What he did not fulfill was the White Horse Prophecy.
Valdivia
@Kay: The Village pundits are already breathlessly waiting for him, and though that usually worries me, I think this year the dynamic will be different simply because of how many candidates there are right now. I also think of how the primary calendar pushes some candidates forward and Kasich doesn’t seem to me to play as well as he needs to at the beginning, which is crucial. I hope. I wonder who is worse for us as a national candidate, Kasich or Walker?
I am about to take my old old boy Sisu to the vet. It’s sad to part with him but it’s his time. Le sigh.
opiejeanne
@rikyrah: one thing I didn’t see mentioned other than in passing: she is now 32. That is an extraordinarily long performance “life” even for a woman in ballet; men usually blow out their backs pretty early picking up willowy blondes that are so popular with women directors, and women tend to leave the profession a bit later. She must be very determined and very strong, as well as lucky. She may have had some of the typical injuries but they haven’t stopped her and I am very happy for her.
Being cynical, I’d guess that she won’t continue getting principal roles for very much longer and that knowledge may have been a factor in granting her this prize. I sincerely hope I’m wrong. She is beautiful and a beautiful dancer.
Elizabelle
@Valdivia: Hugs, Valdivia. You are doing right by Sisu, whatever the outcome.
RE Kasich: Yeah, I can see Villagers drooling over him. Hoping Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and President Obama even HRC have changed the conversation enough that voters will ignore the Very Serious People fellating a Republican.
As always.
NonyNony
@Kay:
Hm. Maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s why I’ve been worried about King John running in this election cycle. I’ve just been thinking that if the GOP managed to get a halfway intelligent “moderate” into position to actually run, they might have a shot. Kasich is the kind of fake moderate that the beltway press drool over, so I’ve been worried about him for that reason.
But maybe there’s something going on at the subconscious level like you say. It certainly isn’t at the conscious level – rationally I know that the Ohio Democratic Party is, shall we say, not nearly as formidable a force as the national Democratic party and that it’s a bit easier for Republicans to win statewide election in Ohio than it is for Republicans to win the Presidential majority from Ohio. But subconsciously there may be a bit of that “he beat our guys twice in Ohio so of course he can win nationally” tugging at me (his battle against Strickland was hard fought and the wrong guy just barely won, but his battle against whats-his-name Fitzgerald is no measure at all of how he’ll do in a national contest, so I hope my subconscious isn’t THAT bad at assigning risk here…)
Elizabelle
@Yatsuno: I worry that Kasich will be popular with noncrazy GOP and the establishment. The base is crazy insane, but GOP ended up with Romney, not Santorum last outing.
Kasich is mediagenic and Republicans can always count on media fellating. Tweety too.
J R in WV
All these guys are just SO odious, horrific people skills, evil personalities, willing to dis a mom carrying a disables child to her face.
All that is just concentrated rudeness, with a large side of arrogance and a double order of evil. Yet they get people to work for them, volunteer for them, make phone calls for them… how?
They are so obviously despicable monsters!
Elizabelle
@NonyNony: Dog help us if some voters decide the economy has improved enough under Obama that they can chance a Republican again. Even if that does not make it to the front, conscious part of their minds.
Valdivia
@Elizabelle: Thank you so so much. We went earlier this week and brought him back home, but after consulting with the vet over the phone and seeing his progress we know it’s the right thing, however hard. He’s a sweetie and we were exceedingly lucky we got to spend almost 20 years together.
In regards to Kasich. I think the power of the narrative while still potent during regular news cycles is less so now during the presidential election. There are ways around them, Obama was great at doing that while running I expect Hillary will be too.
NonyNony
@Valdivia:
Kasich is worse – he’s more polished than Walker, has spent time rubbing shoulders with national media figures, and from what I’ve seen so far in general is better under pressure than Walker is.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I laughed out loud at your story. Possibly not the sharpest crayon in the box? Yikes.
Valdivia
@NonyNony: That is my sense too. I am waiting until the first few debates to see how it all shakes out.
NonyNony
Since this is an open thread: The other day when poly marriage was being debated I suggested it would be the polygamous groups kicked out of the LDS church who would be the first to sue for the right to have multiple wives. Someone else said they thought the suit would come from Muslim groups.
I will take my winnings. I did not, however, predict that the group involved would be a reality TV show cast. That puts a new spin on things. We’ll see how far their lawsuit gets.
WereBear
@Valdivia: So sorry to hear that. But you gave him a wonderful life.
gwangung
@rikyrah: We’ve gone through this sort of discussion in theatre, which also skews older and very white….and my experience is that the audience is often much more progressive and ahead of the administration, the board, and the critics (who are basically concern trolling their audience).
Valdivia
@WereBear: Thank you. It’s sad here at home without him even the little kitties are at sixes and sevens.
WereBear
@Valdivia: Explain things to them. They may not understand the words, but they understand our meaning.
xenos
Jeb! Ís not necessarily shameless, just unashamed. This is because he thinks earning 15 million $ over 8 years means he is middle class. I am sure he quite authentically feels this way, and will be shocked to hear the reaction to this.
WaterGirl
@Valdivia: I am sad for you and the rest of your crew.
:: wiping tears away::
opiejeanne
@Valdivia: I am so sorry; it’s so hard a decision but it’s the right one.
Comfort those kitties and yourself, and like she sai above, explain things to them.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
Sorry to hear about Sisu. My thoughts are with you.
Mike G
@Baud:
ETA: they should require anyone trading in their flags to take the knowledge test on US history and institutions that citizen-applicants have to. Most of them wouldn’t pass.