Usually Balloon Juice is a hookers and blow based blog but this story from the LA Times will create an exception:
During his tenure as dean, Puliafito kept company with a circle of criminals and drug users who said he used methamphetamine and other drugs with them, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
Puliafito, 66, and these much younger acquaintances captured their exploits in photos and videos. The Times reviewed dozens of the images.
Open thread…..
dmsilev
Read that this morning. I’m old-fashioned enough to like reading a print paper over breakfast, and it was an …interesting way to start the day.
TenguPhule
Hours of no threads.
Then suddenly, half a dozen in an hour.
Keith P.
MSNBC is breaking with Jerry Moran and Mike Lee are both ‘No’ on MTP for Turtlecare. And the CBO hasn’t even weighed in yet.
dmsilev
@Keith P.: TPM had a piece earlier today about Ron Johnson leaning ‘no’ as well. See, he heard about McConnell telling the “moderates” not to worry about the Medicaid cuts because they wouldn’t actually happen, and he was like “hell no, I want to actually cut Medicaid”.
jl
Well,for some reason, probably sheer spite , the insurance oligarch Mayhew, the previous health care blogger at BJ, would never talk about the hookers and blow side of the biz. Even though that was what everyone wanted to read about. Mayhew just churned out numbers and facts and logic and other goring stuff.
Is BJ gonna get this guy to be its executive suite hookers and blow front poster? With pix?
Cole promised a full service blog. It’s about time.
efgoldman
@Keith P.:
Without ever saying so. somebody (Heller? Suzie Q? Somebody we never thought of?) wants the bill to sink without a vote. Which would be fine.
Then Granny Starver can pretend to pass repeal in the house, over and over and over.
The base is happy, the ACA survives, everybody has their political points on record so they can weave new lies around it. Win, win.
Brachiator
Read the Times story today. Fascinating stuff. Before this, I thought it was USC’s football program that had all the scandals.
But damn, meth and 21 year old “companions.” Go Trojans!!
jl
@dmsilev: Yes, I read that. Ron Johnson finally decided to expend some resources on researching the health care bill when he read that McConnell was double dealing with different factions of the GOP caucus. Johnson went and personally interrogated the moderate GOPers. I am impressed, I guess that he bothered to actually learn something, either substantial wise or procedural about a bill that will effect everyone in the country and about 15 percent of the economy. We need wins wherever we can get them these day.
And the spineless cowardly jackass theory of GOP moderates, and other wings, seems to be true. McCain’s absence made him the de facto ‘third no’ while he recuperates from surgery. So the herd starts to stampede. Profiles in courage among the GOP Congresscrooks!
dmsilev
@efgoldman: It’s really the optimal solution from their standpoint. They can hardly be attacked, from either side, for how they vote if there wasn’t actually a vote.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev:
This never stopped the Republicans.
It shouldn’t stop us.
jl
They guy should be an inspiration and example to people to stay in good physical shape, not any 66 year old could hoover up enough meth to kill a horse out of mega-bong and live, let along zip off to important university functions. Why’d he resign?
Edit: obviously slam dunk immediately obvious criminal activity is the standard now for our leadership. Maybe he was snorting up technically legal designer drugs, hehhh? If the guy bothered to get himself some real Trump style lawyers, he’d still have the job, IMHO.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl:
To spend more time with his pipe?
trollhattan
Jeez, this Puliafito dude seems to have learned the “one crazy secret” to having it all.
CaseyL
A major university near me also had an internationally renown, hugely funded, highly successful researcher who used his lab as a private harem and piggy bank (and was hideously verbally abusive to employees).
I wonder if there’s anyone who excels in a high-stress, high-intensity, high-stakes field who isn’t an asshole.
mai naem mobile
I saw this piece earlier today. OMG. This guy was going through a late mid life crisis or what? It doesn’t sound like they’ll get him from doing anything illegal. Not even sure he will lose his license. His reputation is gone and he’s old enough that he’s made plenty of money so it’s just his reputation.
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL:
Bill and Hill. That Obama couple seems nice as well.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: If he lost his younger assistants, I guess he’ll have to spend more time on that himself.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator:
Is that the school sports team, or were you referring to a brand of condoms? – Can I say condoms here?
Iowa Old Lady
Wow. I’ve been at faculty gatherings where deans were shredded, but this guy makes them all look good.
jl
@WaterGirl: You can say condoms, but you’ll have a hard time explaining where they go and how they work.
TenguPhule
@jl:
Wrapped around the supplies you want to keep waterproof?
Nelle
Yay – I’ve been calling Moran’s offices so often that last week, when I called and identified myself, the staffer (whose name I know well now) asked if my granddaughter had been born yet. When I said yes and that she actually has names of Jane Austen protagonists (two of my favorite ones, my granddaughter is Eleanor Anne), the staffer got so excited that we ended chatting about that for a long time. When I got around to the health care bill, I asked her to ask Senator Moran to watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and to Jimmy Stewart-ize himself. She laughed and said that was a good suggestion. As I said once before, I do this because I should, not because I expect a result. But this result is much more than I expected. I don’t think he is on the side of the angels, but I do think he has a little bit of moral fiber that I can possibly twinge? I used the argument of a moral stand (which I would never bother with in relation to my other senator, Pat Roberts), saying that there is a moment in a person’s life when their character becomes their destiny……. I think I may have also promised to make him a pie sometime…. I have no shame. But, small as it may be, I will claim a tiny bit of it and woo-hoo. Who would have thunk it from Kansas?
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: I have to admit that I have been lucky enough to study or work with a lot of really nice world-famous researchers. But most of those were brilliant people who maintained their position and got some research resources just with pencil and paper and brilliant brains and new ideas. But they don’t run million dollar labs with a big staff, or get involved in bureaucratic politics.
Among those who have to win a lot of very competitive grant competitions, or win bureaucratic battles to get where they are, I think a much higher proportion of egotistical, near sociopathic personality types, though not always.
i noticed similar in private corporations. Nice brilliant people work there, but as you get higher in the power structure that type gets rarer.
Quinerly
N Word used on Walmart website by third party vendor to describe the color brown: nypost.com/2017/07/17/n-word-used-on-walmart-website-to-describe-product-color/
trollhattan
@jl:
Mom had a nice one in Seattle, on the east side of Magnolia with a view of downtown and Rainier. Wonder what it’s worth now?
Another Scott
@Nelle: :-) Nice.
Thanks for your work!
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
Breaking: McConnell’s bill drops below 50 R yesses.
jl
@mai naem mobile: I dunno if ‘mid-life crisis’ explains it. He saw some unusual opportunities that looked pretty damn fun to himself, and he took them. The part animal never dies in some people.
gene108
Dude’s in his sixties and partying hard with 20-somethings.
If I tried doing that now, in my early forties, I’d be dead.
Some guys, man…
Mike in NC
@NotMax: So Fat Bastard will be tweeting up a storm at 3 AM?
jl
@Nelle: Thanks for the report. Glad to hear at least Moran has what seem to be nice and conscientious staffers. I hope the person you talked with is having earnest talks with the senator.
jl
@Mike in NC: John McCains eye problem was a Deep State plot! Sad!
They’ll get up a crooked commission to go after ophthalmologists. That will get that crummy Rand Paul on the shit list, though not sure he is a real one.
BTW, I heard Rand Paul’s interview about Senate TrumpRichCare bill this weekend. It was so incoherent and confused, thought crossed my mind that Paul might be sincere. Like Rand Paul is Rand Paul’s idea of what a smart guy is like, and he is very impressed.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
For now.
Always got to add that qualifier now.
Gvg
@jl: the hooker thought it was odd how much time he spent with them instead of family. I would guess his marriage was dead but he hadn’t divorced yet.
He gave prescriptions for asthma inhalers to underage teens he was doing drugs with to cover up drug symptoms. Don’t think he will be teaching again. Suspect that is against medical ethics and can lose his license.
There is something pathetic about this famous guy hanging out with addicts and seemingly no friends or family to be with.
WaterGirl
@Nelle: Go you!
WaterGirl
@gene108:
Not sure if the play on words was intentional, but that’s an image I would prefer not to have in my head.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: It’s the U$C way, jl.
Jeffro
whoa now that’s what I call higher ed…get it? HIGHER ed? Ho ho!
/dad joke
Mike J
@Keith P.:
My guess was that if one more person came out as a no, we’d see several more.
Good news for now.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl:
As a wise woman once said, “what difference does it really make”.
smintheus
My father was in charge of grant/contract offices at 2 large med schools, and I grew up hearing all the gossip at the dinner table. A lot of his stories of academics behaving badly seemed pretty outlandish at the time. But none of it resembled this stuff Puliafito was up to. The choking of a colleague over malfunctioning lab equipment seems especially out there; also, a prostitute favorite calling him ‘Tony’…not really done in top tier medical schools.
Mike J
@Keith P.: Many here will enjoy Weigel’s commentary on this story:
twitter.com/daveweigel/status/887121848177229829
?BillinGlendaleCA
@smintheus:
Then again, we are talking about the U$C Medical School.
smintheus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: When I worked in the law school library at UCLA back in my grad school days, USC students coming in to use the facilities were the butt of many jokes among our students. Not quite as scorned as Pepperdine, but a close second.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@smintheus: If it wasn’t obvious, I’m a UCLA undergrad alum.
smintheus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No it wasn’t obvious entirely. I thought nearly everyone in LA except USC grads really, really hates USC.
danielx
Variety is the spice of life.
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx: Isn’t it generally strippers and meth?
BBA
Well, uh, this is not the sort of story I was expecting a close family member of mine to show up in. (He has a very minor role. I spoke to him, and he thought there was something fishy about the dean’s abrupt retirement, but never imagined anything like this.)
(And I may have just compromised my pseudonymity by mentioning this, but whatever.)
Gretchen
@Nelle: @Nelle: WooHoo Nelle! Congratulations both on your granddaughter and turning Moran! I am a fellow Kansan and have had the same experience. Moran’s people are polite and listen. Roberts’ people are rude and argumentative. Social media tells me that other have had the same experience. But as much as I’ve made my calls, telling myself that I have to do something, I never in a million years expected that Jerry Moran would be the one who would sink this thing!
SWMBO
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe that Jimmy and Rosalynn are nice folks too. I can’t believe you didn’t mention them. Where are your manners, sir?