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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Fiorina: What, Me Worry? (About Spending Other Peoples’ Money)

Fiorina: What, Me Worry? (About Spending Other Peoples’ Money)

by Anne Laurie|  October 10, 20154:53 pm| 97 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Republican Venality, Vagina Outrage, Assholes

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This is pretty fucked up: http://t.co/SdhXe3MSpl pic.twitter.com/LBLTmsdHM3

— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) October 5, 2015

From the Washington Post article:

… Fiorina has emerged in recent weeks as a top-tier candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, impressing voters with a pair of crisp debate performances and a promise to put her bottom-line inclination as a Fortune 50 chief executive to fix a broken Washington. But that fiscal sensibility was largely absent from Fiorina’s other run for office — a quixotic and unsuccessful attempt to unseat longtime Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

In more than two dozen interviews, staff members, friends, contractors and operatives who worked on Fiorina’s 2010 campaign singled out one big problem: how the team managed its cash….

Those who waited the longest to be paid were small businesses with a few dozen employees who did the grunt work of the campaign: building stages, sending out mailers, selling polling data. And at least one is still waiting…

“People are just upset and angry and throwing her under the bus,” said Jon Cross, Fiorina’s operations director for her Senate campaign. “If we didn’t win, why do you deserve to get paid? If you don’t succeed in business, you shouldn’t be the first one to step up and complain about getting paid.”…

Olivia Nuzzi, at the Daily Beast, has another intriguing investigation of Fiorina’s “campaign” finances:

… “Through the Fiorina Foundation, she has given to dozens of charities, including those that support veterans, education and their local community,” Flores said.

Asked to name the charities, she said, “It’s a lot of charities and I’m not going to release names which will cause a headache for some of the smaller organizations.”

Asked to at least specify how many charities there are, she said, “I’d just say dozens. I don’t have an exact number.”

There are, Cantor explained, a few reasons why someone might like the anonymity a donor-advised fund provides. “She may be very generous and we don’t know it, or she may have not given any money out of her fund but got the charitable deduction [anyway], or she may have given to organizations she would rather not be associated with.”…

But then, as Jeb Lund explains in the Guardian, “Carly Fiorina can’t win, but she can help the men of the party hurt Clinton“:

… Carly Fiorina is running for president now – and in this senselessly, agonizingly protracted campaign, she can probably keep running for months – but in the long run she will be most likely be running as cover for the retributive, punitive, invariably masculine rhetoric of movement conservatism.

Being used as their cover is the best, most profitable thing that Fiorina can do in the long run, both to advance her party’s interests and guarantee her a lifetime of ample speaker’s fees on the big-business and wingnut welfare talk circuit. Maybe, in the short term, she’ll be rewarded with a cabinet position or a vice presidential nod, but neither would be as lucrative as putting a “legitimizing” female stamp of endorsement on systemic anti-women policies.

Instead, ironically, her story of the “secretary-to-CEO” will wind up being a lot more like a secretary than Madame Secretary. In effect, either by appearances on the news or by taking the form of an endlessly exculpatory feminine rescue quote, her job will eventually be to convey to the people asking hard questions the unpleasant news that the men behind the closed doors will not be able to address them, but, in their absence, here is what they wanted to say.

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 10, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    @efgoldman: Apparently Gingrich left a bunch of unpaid bills as well. Anyone who contracts to a campaign without getting paid upfront is a fool.

  2. 2.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 10, 2015 at 5:06 pm

    They are all so despicable, the GOP Presidential contenders. They are like human empathy black holes, every single one of them.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    October 10, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    this is HUGE!!!

    CALIFORNIA TO REGISTER VOTERS AUTOMATICALLY AT DMV

    October 10, 2015

    ———————————————–

    In a bid to improve voter turnout in California elections, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed legislation to automatically register to vote anyone who has a driver’s license or state identification card.

    http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38684598.html

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    October 10, 2015 at 5:15 pm

    WHATEVER, mofo.

    J-TWISTA⚡
    ‏@TwistAnonymous
    #Cleveland DA Refuses To File Charges Against The Cops That Murdered #TamirRice http://www.copblock.org/143320/cleveland-da-refuses-file-charges-against-cops-murdered-tamir-rice/ … #JusticeOrElse #MillionManMarch

  5. 5.

    Face

    October 10, 2015 at 5:19 pm

    Did that guy really say that campaign workers of candidates who lose dont deserve to be paid? Is this guy f#ckin nuts?

    If I was currently working w/ her campaign, I’d suddenly want my money upfront, in cash. Yesterday.

  6. 6.

    sharl

    October 10, 2015 at 5:23 pm

    @rikyrah: Well shit. I had a real bad feeling about how this might go down, given the Cleveland political leadership’s responses (especially the mayor) in the weeks after the killing. Really hoped I’d be wrong though.

    That they would go this way even with that park surveillance camera that caught pretty much the whole thing…that’s fucked up, and downright evil.

    RIP (again), young Tamir. Wish you could have been born into a civilized society…

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 10, 2015 at 5:27 pm

    @Face: If I was working for *anybody’s* campaign, I’d demand cash up front.

  8. 8.

    sukabi

    October 10, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: no kidding. With all those Brinks Trucks backing up, you’d be a fool to wait till they got around to paying.

  9. 9.

    Mike J

    October 10, 2015 at 5:32 pm

    @Face:

    Did that guy really say that campaign workers of candidates who lose dont deserve to be paid? Is this guy f#ckin nuts?

    Worse than that, vendors to campaigns don’t get paid. At least as a staffer you got yourself into it. Not that I think staffers should get screwed either. I’ve never had any delay in getting a check form a Democratic candidate’s campaign.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    Not even Baud! 2016 would stoop this low.

    But then again, I’m not a fiscal conservative.

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    October 10, 2015 at 5:37 pm

    Face:

    Did that guy really say that campaign workers of candidates who lose dont deserve to be paid? Is this guy f#ckin nuts?

    Well, he’s Republican. So, yeah, of course he’s nuts. Republican and bonkers are basically synonymous these days.

  12. 12.

    Redshift

    October 10, 2015 at 5:38 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Yeah, apparently not paying the bills after a losing campaign is commonplace. The campaign organization goes out of existence, so there’s no one to sue, and except in the most extreme grifting cases, the money has all been spent.

  13. 13.

    Redshift

    October 10, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    @efgoldman: It doesn’t increase turnout ask by itself, but it’s a necessary prerequisite. If it didn’t help increase turnout, Republicans wouldn’t be working so hard to make it hard to register.

  14. 14.

    Mike J

    October 10, 2015 at 5:44 pm

    I knew a guy who was *offended* oh horrors that a campaign that used a banquet hall at a hotel he was working at woudl *dare* to ask management if they’d like to make it a donation. Hotel said no, campaign wrote a check, everybody was happy. But this person was shocked that a campaign that was spending >$100million would dare ask people for donations.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    @efgoldman:

    You’re running my SuperPAC. I can’t pay you!

  16. 16.

    David Koch

    October 10, 2015 at 5:50 pm

    I ? how ¿Jeb? is planting all this oppo material.

  17. 17.

    David Koch

    October 10, 2015 at 5:51 pm

    Meanwhile, GOP DISARRAY blows wide open.

  18. 18.

    Mike J

    October 10, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    @David Koch:

    I ? how ¿Jeb? is planting all this oppo material.

    If this was coming from ¿Jeb? he’d say Carly made a black prostitute pregnant.

  19. 19.

    sm*t cl*de

    October 10, 2015 at 5:58 pm

    @Mike J:

    Worse than that, vendors to campaigns don’t get paid.

    It’s a mixture of the Spoils system (if we win, and get to pillage state finances, then we can afford to pay our bills”) and blaming the hired help (“we didn’t win, it must be that you didn’t work hard enough, why should we pay you?!”).
    These both trump written contracts.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    Asked to at least specify how many charities there are, she said, “I’d just say dozens. I don’t have an exact number.”

    “I can’t tell you how many, but the number is YUUUUGE!!”

  21. 21.

    gian

    October 10, 2015 at 6:03 pm

    @SFAW:
    All of them Katie

  22. 22.

    sm*t cl*de

    October 10, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    @Redshift:

    Apparently not paying the bills after a losing campaign is commonplace. The campaign organization goes out of existence, so there’s no one to sue, and except in the most extreme grifting cases, the money has all been spent.

    In the case of the Fiorina campaign, left-over money in the organisation bank account went to pay Fiorina.

  23. 23.

    Punchy

    October 10, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    @David Koch: That article? Man bites dog. Anhydrous water. Hawkeye secondary sucks ass.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    @SFAW:

    I have no issues with anonymous donations, but you can’t take credit for it if you’re not going to disclose the recipients.

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:06 pm

    @David Koch:

    Meanwhile, GOP DISARRAY blows wide open.

    I liked the Rethug mouthpiece’s response, talking about Podliska’a “wild imagination.”

    That the Mouth of Sauron mouthpiece was not incinerated on the spot by a bolt of well-aimed lightning is clear proof that there is no such thing as a Just God.

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    @Baud:

    I have no issues with anonymous donations, but you can’t take credit for it if you’re not going to disclose the recipients.

    You do realize that, by demonstrating a sense of ethics, you’ve just killed your chances to be Speaker of the House. Well, if you wanted a significant number of Rethug votes, that is.

  27. 27.

    skerry

    October 10, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    @rikyrah: Unbelievable. He was a child playing in the park. So sad.

    I hope his family sues for big bucks

  28. 28.

    srv

    October 10, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    Where are all those ISIS Toyota’s coming from?

    Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.

    Hiluxes were on the Free Syrian Army’s wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan of the truck.

    “Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what we refer to as force enablers for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,” he adds. Shahbander says the US-supplied pickups will be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Some of the fleet will even become battlefield weapons

  29. 29.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    @SFAW:

    Oops.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:19 pm

    @Baud:

    There’s still time to recover, but it’ll take some work.

    Maybe you should form an investigative subcommittee to find out what Hitlary’s connection was to Kim Philby, Major John Andre, and Caligula, and why her e-mails from them seem to have disappeared from her “private” server – mysteriously.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:23 pm

    @efgoldman:

    You forgot Judas and Pontius Pilate.

    Well, I didn’t want to pile on too much.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 6:25 pm

    @SFAW:

    Wouldn’t it be to easier just to express hatred toward some non-white demographic? Has anyone taken the Aleuts yet?

  33. 33.

    David Koch

    October 10, 2015 at 6:26 pm

    @efgoldman: you forgot she rode a tank and held a general’s rank when the blitzkrieg raged and laughed when Anastasia screamed in vain

  34. 34.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    @David Koch:

    On the other hand, she plays a mean fiddle.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    @David Koch:

    Wrong song, wrong topic

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    @Baud:

    Albanians might work better. Worked well for Peter Falk.

    ETA: But, technically speaking, verbally attacking non-whites of any color (so to speak) is not really an ethics thing.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    October 10, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    @rikyrah:

    In a bid to improve voter turnout in California elections, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed legislation to automatically register to vote anyone who has a driver’s license or state identification card.

    Does this include the illegal aliens getting driver licenses?

    Yes, I’m snarking, but this is how the GOP will play it.

  38. 38.

    West of the Cascades

    October 10, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    Wow. Did a guy who worked for Carly Fiorina, who failed spectacularly as HP’s CEO, laid off 30,000 workers, and yet took a golden parachute worth $40 million, really say this?

    “If we didn’t win, why do you deserve to get paid? If you don’t succeed in business, you shouldn’t be the first one to step up and complain about getting paid.”…

    He and she should be fitted for tumbrels.

  39. 39.

    mclaren

    October 10, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    @Mike J:

    If this was coming from ¿Jeb? he’d say Carly made a black prostitute pregnant.

    What do you think they’ll imply Carly spent that $30,000 on? Wait for it. The commercials showing former Fiorina associates claiming she raped and artificially inseminated a hooker will air in lurid detail: “I know Carly did. Because I was there.” The Swift-boating will be epochal and relentless.

    So delightful to see the sharks eat each other. When the general campaign rolls around, the last Repub standing will be so damaged Hillary will blow him away. Yes, this has all the earmarks of the Shelob of Kennebunkport, Bar Bush herself. You can practically see her venom sacs pulsating with rage as she watches those other upstarts getting in the way of her son!

    All the cruelty and all the sadism but also all of the stupidity we’ve come to expect from the Bush crime family…

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    October 10, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    when is the next GOP debate

  41. 41.

    David Koch

    October 10, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    Speaking of Rock and Politics, who said:

    “The night he was elected, I wanted to go out and dance in the street. The next day, Seattle had a rare day without rain, the sky was clear.”

    He added that the people who had not voted for Obama were recognizable at first glance as they were, “Sad, disappointed, pathetic.” He added that he was disgusted when President Bush was reelected in 2004, “When Bush was reelected, I could not help but think: ‘Fuck you Americans, because you are ill-informed and base your vote on values that I can not accept.’”

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    October 10, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    @Brachiator:

    in Illinois, at the top of the voter reg card, at the DMV is..

    YOU CAN ONLY VOTE IF YOU ARE A U.S. CITIZEN.

    pretty clear to me.

  43. 43.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    @mclaren:

    “The Shelob of Kennebunkport”? Has a nice ring to it.

  44. 44.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 10, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    @SFAW:
    When Baud is elected to every national post simultaneously in 2016, that will not be a problem.

  45. 45.

    Patrick

    October 10, 2015 at 6:40 pm

    @West of the Cascades:

    “If we didn’t win, why do you deserve to get paid? If you don’t succeed in business, you shouldn’t be the first one to step up and complain about getting paid.”…

    Then why did Fiorina get such a big package when the board fired her? She helped drive HP to the ground.

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:41 pm

    @David Koch:

    Ricky Gervais?

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    October 10, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    @Patrick:

    That’s different. One-percenters and CEOs in general are not supposed to suffer negative consequences. “Privatize the gains, socialize the risks.”

    Sheesh, must I ‘splain everything?

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    October 10, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    hmmmmmmmm

    ……………………………..

    This Document Reveals Why The House Of Representatives Is In Complete Chaos

    BY JUDD LEGUM OCT 9, 2015 9:51AM

    The House of Representative is in chaos. John Boehner announced his intention to step down as Speaker at the end of the month. There doesn’t appear to be anyone to take his place. The leading candidate, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, abruptly withdrew from the race yesterday. Another popular choice, Paul Ryan, says he’s not interested.

    What happened? How did we get to this point? One document, produced by the House Freedom Caucus, holds all the answers. Framed as a “questionnaire” the document effectively makes it impossible for any candidate to both: 1) Get elected speaker, and 2) Not send the entire country (and maybe the world) over a cliff.

    …………………………………………………

    Sounds perfectly reasonable, right?

    What the Freedom Caucus actually wants

    Yesterday, Politico published the House Freedom Caucus “questionnaire” which it described as pushing for “House rule changes.” The document does do that. But it also does a lot more. It seeks substantive commitments from the next speaker that would effectively send the entire country into a tailspin.

    For example, the document seeks a commitment from the next speaker to tie any increase in the debt ceiling to cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

    The United States will reach the debt limit on November 5. If the limit is not raised prior to that point, the United States could default on its obligations. This could have disasterous effects on the economy of the United States and the entire world. In 2013, a Treasury Department report found “default could result in recession comparable to or worse than 2008 financial crisis.”

    Cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is extremely unpopular, even among Republicans. These programs are sacrosanct to most Democratic members of Congress. There is effectively no chance that President Obama or Senate Democrats — both of whom would need to support such legislation — would agree to “structural entitlement reforms” in the next month under these kind of conditions.

    The House Freedom Caucus essentially wants to make it impossible for the next speaker to raise the debt ceiling. But that is just the beginning.

    The House Freedom Caucus also wants the next speaker to commit to numerous conditions on any agreement to avoid a government shutdown:

    http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/09/3711011/this-document-reveals-why-the-house-of-representatives-is-in-complete-chaos/

  49. 49.

    West of the Cascades

    October 10, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    @Patrick: My point exactly, evidently poorly articulated.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    Seems like O’Malley’s poll numbers aren’t high enough for this to have happened.

    Washington (CNN)Martin O’Malley’s campaign has cut all ties with a state campaign chairman who was arrested on child pornography charges.

    “We’re horrified by these allegations, and if he is found guilty he should be punished to the full extent of the law. He is no longer a volunteer, and we have severed all ties with him immediately,” O’Malley press secretrary Haley Morris said in an email to CNN about the campaign’s now ex-Virginia state chairman.

  51. 51.

    mclaren

    October 10, 2015 at 6:47 pm

    @SFAW:

    I stole that from another commenter.

  52. 52.

    Patrick

    October 10, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    @West of the Cascades:

    Not at all. Your point was clear. It just drives me insane how the media has fallen in love with her after the debate, eventhough she was lying through her teeth.

  53. 53.

    Yatsuno

    October 10, 2015 at 6:53 pm

    @efgoldman:

    She’ll be offered Secretary of the Treasury.

    Do. Not. Want.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    @rikyrah:

    when is the next GOP debate

    Seems to be ongoing.

  55. 55.

    Ron Thompson

    October 10, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    @efgoldman: She’ll be offered nothing, because they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    October 10, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    I really really really don’t get the “I’m a CEO” sell when it comes to the government. Legislating is all about compromising and getting consensus.

    CEO’s don’t do that. They just order everyone around.

    Thinking. How does it work?

  57. 57.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    @WereBear:

    It’s a conservative trope. Government is full of waste that would never be allowed in the private sector, so we need a CEO to manage the bureaucracy.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    October 10, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    @efgoldman:

    She’ll be offered Secretary of the Treasury.

    Listening to a game show on NPR today, I heard P.J. O’Rourke (no fan of liberals, he) state that during Fiorina’s CEO-dom, HP stock lost 43% value. I can’t imagine even Wall Street he-man types would want her anywhere near Treasury.

  59. 59.

    mclaren

    October 10, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    @rikyrah:

    The United States will reach the debt limit on November 5. If the limit is not raised prior to that point, the United States could default on its obligations. This could have disasterous effects on the economy of the United States and the entire world. In 2013, a Treasury Department report found “default could result in recession comparable to or worse than 2008 financial crisis.”

    All empty mainstream-media-hype bullshit. If the Repubs play hardball, president Obama will simply raise the debt limit unilaterally. There is no requirement for a debt limit bill in the constitution — it’s an entirely procedural issue, so Obama has plenty of leeway in dealing with it. this is a non-issue.

    A much bigger issue is: how to get the U.S. economy moving again? The obvious answer comes from John Maynard Keynes ca. 1936 — prime the pump with lots of government spending.

    That’s a particularly great idea right now because the U.S. government is currently offering negative interest rates. The U.S. TIPS bond (an inflation-protected federal treasury bond) is currently paying an interest rate below the current rate of inflation. That means that U.S. treasury bonds are actually paying a negative real rate of interest.

    This means that T-bill buyers are currently paying the U.S. government for the privilege of the loaning the government money. Under these circumstances, it’s absolutely insane not to run up gigantic deficits, since real interest rates are negative. (The lenders are paying interest for the privliege of loaning us all money, and the amount we pay back is smaller than the amount we borrow!)

    Everyone on this forum doubtless recognizes half a dozen different urgent projects that America needs to finance — repairing our crumbling water mains and sewers and bridges in all 50 states, buliding a nationwide high-speed rail system, building Elon Musk’s hyperloop on a giant cross-country scale, setting up nationwide autonomous self-driving elecgtric carpool systems in partnership with a company like google or Tesla with the goal of replacing all privately-owned single-passenger vehicles by 2025, building a nationwide publicly owned fiberoptic 100 gigabit internet system that offers an internet connection to everyone for $10 a month, ramping up basic scientific R&D by a factor of 100, funding fusion research at 50 times the current level, funding a vast nationwide apprenticeship program for young people who want high-skill high-pay jobs like numerical machine tool operator but who don’t want to go to college; and of course busting the AMA’s monopoly on doctors by setting up a nationwide set of health clinics staffed by RNs only who deal with minor health problems like lancing boils or treating minor wounds, leaving doctors free to deal with more serious issues like open-heart surgery and kidney transplants.

    America should be running a deficit of at least 6 trillion dollar right now. When lenders are paying money for the priviliege of loaning you cash, it’s insane not to do that. Plus, so many jobs would be created and the U.S. economy would roar back to life so fast with all that new economic activity going on, that the deficit would get paid down in record time because tax receipts and aggregate demand will skyrocket.

    That’s the real problem right now. Not this bullshit sideshow with the debt limit.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    October 10, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    @Baud: “We’ll make government work as efficiently as the cable company!”

    A winning slogan, I’m sure.

  61. 61.

    Corner Stone

    October 10, 2015 at 7:30 pm

    @Baud:

    Government is full of waste that would never be allowed in the private sector, so we need a CEO to manage the bureaucracy.

    = fire a fuckton of people then privatize that function and/or service

    I, for one, am laughing my ass off that Twitter’s new CEO is planning to lay off a massive amount of people. Say what? No one *ever* saw that coming!
    Now tell me again, Martin et al, that coding is where it’s at. Or retraining or whatever BS you want to peddle now.

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    October 10, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    @dmsilev:
    Conservatives already think it does.
    So now they want to hire someone who is worse than the cable guy to run it. OK they do want to run it right into the ground, but still.

  63. 63.

    dmsilev

    October 10, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    @mclaren: Hyperloop is silly[*], but your general point is correct. Unfortunately, we have a bunch of homicidal maniacs in control of Congress and a bunch of short-sighted “it has to pay off _this_ quarter” idiots in charge of most businesses.

    [*] High-speed rail, on stilts and in a vacuum-tight tube, for less money than ordinary high-speed rail. The latter is achieved by hand-waving away most of the real costs of building ordinary rail (i.e. land acquisition). Build 150-200 mph ordinary fast trains or 300 mph maglevs instead.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    October 10, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    @Ruckus:

    So now they want to hire someone who is worse than the cable guy to run it.

    They already did that with W.

  65. 65.

    F

    October 10, 2015 at 7:46 pm

    Fiorina is to charities as Palin is to newspapers.

  66. 66.

    PurpleGirl

    October 10, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    In another thread about Fiorina’s bill payment practices, I mentioned that I had worked for a scientific publisher. We were told that when we received copyediting, or paste-ups or typesetting, whatever, we were to process the invoices that same day. No waiting, no looking at the work first — invoice was to be processed as soon as possible. Dekker did not pay top rates but we had some pretty good freelancers because they knew they’d have their money in a week to ten days. None of this 30-day (or 60-day or 90-day) crap — the invoice got processed right away.

  67. 67.

    Patrick

    October 10, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    I wonder how Fiorina, based on her reputation of not paying her bills, will get any vendors to do work for her? Or might it be cash first and work later…

  68. 68.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 10, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    @efgoldman: Lol, I’m sure their databases don’t have fields for that kind of information. All government bureaucracies are as incompetent as the most unimaginative wingnut who somehow derped onto the internet.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2015 at 8:14 pm

    @gian:

    All of them Katie

    You know, it’s almost genius that these four words remain fresh and useful more than seven years after they were first uttered.

  70. 70.

    Citizen_X

    October 10, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    campaign. “If we didn’t win, why do you deserve to get paid? If you don’t succeed in business, you shouldn’t be the first one to step up and complain about getting paid.”…

    You better believe that motherfucker got paid.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2015 at 8:29 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    I don’t know what Jon Cross looks like, but I would bet good cash money that the word Backpfeifengesicht would be appropriate.

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    @efgoldman:

    If LBJ had said it, there would be a “fuck” somewhere in the quote.

  73. 73.

    TG Chicago

    October 10, 2015 at 8:48 pm

    That Daily Beast story about Fiorina’s charitable giving is a shit story.

    The only actual news out of it is that Fiorina claimed to be Chairman of the Fiorina Foundation, which is a silly bit of resume inflation. She deserves to be mocked for it, but it’s nothing remotely serious.

    She has a Donor Advised Fund. The story actually explains pretty well what that is (and it’s not a Foundation, despite Fiorina’s claims). It’s not a scandal that she may not yet have disbursed the funds. And it’s just offensively stupid to make the connections to Planned Parenthood that the reporter does.

    I suspect the reporter started looking into the story thinking there was something there. Then as she did her research, she learned it was nothing. But you don’t get clicks for an explainer article on Donor Advised Funds, so she sexed it up by pretending it makes Fiorina a hypocrite on Planned Parenthood. The reporter knows full well that it’s not the case, but that doesn’t stop her from making the implication and bringing home the clicks.

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    October 10, 2015 at 8:49 pm

    @Baud:
    True but now that’s the only type of person they are willing to have with their name behind them.
    Idiot, loser MF (R)

    And you want the job where you have to play in the same sandbox. I know I offered to go in your place but I’m pretty sure that playing with a group of shit throwing morons is not my idea of a fun time.

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 10, 2015 at 8:54 pm

    So the Fiorina Foundation gives to charities, but they can’t name any, for reasons.

    I call fraud.

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    October 10, 2015 at 8:54 pm

    @PurpleGirl:
    I owned a business where it was very common practice to give terms for custom products. I changed to progress payments and COD terms only. And only got one complaint. It was from the asshole who finally caused me to take that step after years of having to beg for my money for completed projects that worked.

  77. 77.

    C.V. Danes

    October 10, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    Perhaps, Mr. Cross, those who don’t pay their bill don’t deserve to win.

  78. 78.

    LosGatosCA

    October 10, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    Fiorina sees her opportunity – Phyllis Schlafly can’t live forever.

  79. 79.

    jl

    October 10, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    @SFAW: Speaking of GOP disarray, I am looking forward to likely Democratic lock on CA Senate seat in 2016. Looks like it will be Kamala Harris, and if something unexpected happens to her, then it will be Loretta Sanchez, and either would be fine with me.

    The CA GOP cannot figure out how to get behind a single candidate and there are three running in the open primary. One guy is a moderate conservative, Rocky Sanchez who could probably not suffer a completely humiliating defeat. The others are two back room party machine hacks no one has ever heard of. They both say they are the only people who can bridge the divide and bring California together. I guess they don’t realize that CA is quite together right now in not liking Republicans very much.

    No sign the GOP will quit its infighting in time for the primary, but I guess it is still early. Anyway, Harris and Sanchez are whomping all the GOPers in the polls.

  80. 80.

    Gwangung

    October 10, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    @TG Chicago: However, most DAFs I’ve worked with knows pretty much where they’re going and for approximately how much (actually the majority know to the penny).

    I find it interesting anyway….

  81. 81.

    jl

    October 10, 2015 at 9:08 pm

    @TG Chicago: So the real story is that Fiorina is lying again? Well, that does fit a pattern. I’ll go with that, then.

    Edit: and now Fiorina is considered a top tier GOP presidential primary candidate. OK then, we have a megalomaniac fantasist and bigot billionaire, a ex-surgeon who seems to have lost his mind, and a one of the most amazing and bald faced liars in US political history. That is a nice trio. I hope they stay on top for awhile so the voting public can get familiar with the leading lights of our current GOP.

  82. 82.

    gf120581

    October 10, 2015 at 9:09 pm

    @jl: The way that race is going, given CA jungle primary and the obscureness of the GOP candidates, it could very well be Harris vs. Sanchez in the general election.

  83. 83.

    jl

    October 10, 2015 at 9:13 pm

    @gf120581: If the CA GOP cannot get their shit together in the next few months, all the polls say that is exactly what it will be: Harris versus Sanchez. Any race with one of the Sanchez sisters in it will be interesting.

    I read the GOP was supposed to have made up its mind during its recent state convention, but it didn’t happen. So, I’ll hope for the best over the next three or four months. If the CA GOP hasn’t organized itself by then, very probably too late.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2015 at 9:49 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Clearly misquoted. Just like the lamestream liberal media to edit out the swears in order to make the Democrat Preznit look good.

  85. 85.

    Joel

    October 10, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    @Patrick: 1) The love was lined up before the debate.
    2) Lying was a benefit, of course. (Think Romney in second presidential debate).

  86. 86.

    gf120581

    October 10, 2015 at 9:54 pm

    @jl: I expect it will be Harris in the end. She’s a rock star and after she gets in the Senate, it probably won’t be long before she gets chatter about her national prospects. (Though Sanchez will always have my gratitude for ending Bob Dornan’s career.)

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    October 10, 2015 at 9:58 pm

    You know, we could use a “state of the (GOP) race” thread at some point soon, certainly before the next debate. Seems like most everyone but Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Rubio, and Cruz are basically spinning their wheels, with Jeb! and Kaisch about to spin right off the Klown Kar.

    When will the national media follow up with Jindal, Santorum, Huck, Paul, Graham, Pataki, Christie, and Gilmore, and ask them exactly what they’re hoping to accomplish here?

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    October 10, 2015 at 10:00 pm

    @Jeffro: Also folks take note: that Top Five is for real – if and when Jeb! and Kaisch are out, that means the Establishment will be down to Rubio, Cruz, and perhaps a brought-back-into-the-fold Fiorina. Wow.

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    October 10, 2015 at 10:09 pm

    Just in case anyone thinks Cruz is kidding around or swirling down the drain: he’s not only poised to win over Walker’s, Trump’s, and Carson’s folks, he’s after Rand Paul’s, too:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-rand-paul-stalls-ted-cruz-seeks-to-pick-up-support-among-libertarians/2015/10/10/4523022a-6e9d-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html

    If he wins over everyone but the Establishment…won’t they just about have to go along?

  90. 90.

    bystander

    October 10, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    Wow! A thief among the repubs! My nitro pills! I’m comin’, Lizbeth!

  91. 91.

    TG Chicago

    October 10, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    Carson’s for real right now, but I think his moment is soon ending. He’s just saying too much inflammatory and plain-stupid shit. I imagine that by the time votes are cast in Iowa, he’ll be a non-entity in the race if not officially withdrawn.

    Fiorina needs to figure out a follow-up to her strong debate performance. But she might be able to hang around.

    I had thought Cruz was in trouble after his GOP Senate colleagues dissed him, but with the current stories out about his fundraising, he might just be keeping his powder dry.

    And that’s actually a smart strategy. I always love looking at the Real Clear Politics polling graph from the 2012 GOP nomination race. It’s so ridiculous how each candidate got their one month bump. Santorum and Gingrich benefitted from having their bumps come late after others had faded. So it makes a lot of sense for a Republican candidate to just hang in the background, not sweating the single-digit poll numbers, and waiting to make a big offensive in the last month or two before the polls open. If you can get your donors to go along with that, you’re in good shape.

  92. 92.

    Johnny Coelacanth

    October 10, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    @Corner Stone: Oh, look. Corner Stain has an opinion.

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    October 10, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    @Johnny Coelacanth:
    Is it true what they say, that words are weapons?
    And if it is,then everybody best stop steppin’,
    Cause I got ten in my pocket that’ll bend ya locket,
    I’m tired of all these rockers sayin’ come with me,
    Wait, it’s just about to break, its more than I can take,
    Everything’s about to change,
    I feel it in my veins, its not going away,
    Everything’s about to change.

  94. 94.

    joel hanes

    October 11, 2015 at 2:07 am

    @SFAW:

    Shelob of Kennebunkport

    I believe Morzer coined the phrase, in a comment that memorably included “pearls and venom sacs”

  95. 95.

    Procopius

    October 12, 2015 at 12:39 am

    @srv: The Toyota Hilux has been the vehicle of choice for militias for years. I remember reading that warlords in Somalia love them because they can carry a heavy load and they’re reliable even when they don’t get regular maintenance.

  96. 96.

    Procopius

    October 12, 2015 at 12:53 am

    @Baud: “Government is full of waste that would never be allowed in the private sector, …” Right, HP absolutely, really needed those five corporate jets because …

  97. 97.

    SqueakyRat

    October 13, 2015 at 8:51 am

    @efgoldman: It’s a good question. In fact, I don’t think you have to be a US citizen to get a driver’s license in any state, even if legal residence is required. But it’s a little hard to believe California totally overlooked this little problem.

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