This Wolff episode reminds me of Michael Hastings' embed with the McChrystal crew.
— Kate Brannen (@K8brannen) January 4, 2018
Amazingly Mike Flynn played a supporting role both times. https://t.co/6R5yQbQRRx
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 4, 2018
Because they’re all scorpions in the Oval Office, these days! The Guardian, to its credit, seems to have broken the Wolff story first, and NYMag has a gripping authorized you-are-there excerpt (possibly bumped up, after the the firestorm started). But The Hollywood Reporter scored an excerpt made by Wolff himself, and it is jaw-dropping. He seems to have invited himself into the Oval Office, not just for an afternoon, but repeatedly. The Trump family didn’t pay any attention to the guy on the couch, taking notes (recordings!), because they’re used to treating all random strangers in their quarters as The Help (i.e., invisible to their exalted attention). And all the other operators hanging around — Bannon, Priebus, Spicer, et al — were afraid to challenge Wolff, for fear that he might have more clout than they did… or, at least, that drawing attention to him might draw unwanted attention to them. “”You Can’t Make This S— Up”: My Year Inside Trump’s Insane White House”:
I interviewed Donald Trump for The Hollywood Reporter in June 2016, and he seemed to have liked — or not disliked — the piece I wrote. “Great cover!” his press assistant, Hope Hicks, emailed me after it came out (it was a picture of a belligerent Trump in mirrored sunglasses). After the election, I proposed to him that I come to the White House and report an inside story for later publication — journalistically, as a fly on the wall — which he seemed to misconstrue as a request for a job. No, I said. I’d like to just watch and write a book. “A book?” he responded, losing interest. “I hear a lot of people want to write books,” he added, clearly not understanding why anybody would. “Do you know Ed Klein?”— author of several virulently anti-Hillary books. “Great guy. I think he should write a book about me.” But sure, Trump seemed to say, knock yourself out.
Since the new White House was often uncertain about what the president meant or did not mean in any given utterance, his non-disapproval became a kind of passport for me to hang around — checking in each week at the Hay-Adams hotel, making appointments with various senior staffers who put my name in the “system,” and then wandering across the street to the White House and plunking myself down, day after day, on a West Wing couch…
The nature of the comedy, it was soon clear, was that here was a group of ambitious men and women who had reached the pinnacle of power, a high-ranking White House appointment — with the punchline that Donald Trump was president. Their estimable accomplishment of getting to the West Wing risked at any moment becoming farce.
A new president typically surrounds himself with a small group of committed insiders and loyalists. But few on the Trump team knew him very well — most of his advisors had been with him only since the fall. Even his family, now closely gathered around him, seemed nonplussed. “You know, we never saw that much of him until he got the nomination,” Eric Trump’s wife, Lara, told one senior staffer. If much of the country was incredulous, his staff, trying to cement their poker faces, were at least as confused.Their initial response was to hawkishly defend him — he demanded it — and by defending him they seemed to be defending themselves. Politics is a game, of course, of determined role-playing, but the difficulties of staying in character in the Trump White House became evident almost from the first day.
“You can’t make this shit up,” Sean Spicer, soon to be portrayed as the most hapless man in America, muttered to himself after his tortured press briefing on the first day of the new administration, when he was called to justify the president’s inaugural crowd numbers — and soon enough, he adopted this as a personal mantra. Reince Priebus, the new chief of staff, had, shortly after the announcement of his appointment in November, started to think he would not last until the inauguration. Then, making it to the White House, he hoped he could last a respectable year, but he quickly scaled back his goal to six months. Kellyanne Conway, who would put a finger-gun to her head in private about Trump’s public comments, continued to mount an implacable defense on cable television, until she was pulled off the air by others in the White House who, however much the president enjoyed her, found her militancy idiotic. (Even Ivanka and Jared regarded Conway’s fulsome defenses as cringeworthy.)
Steve Bannon tried to gamely suggest that Trump was mere front man and that he, with plan and purpose and intellect, was, more reasonably, running the show — commanding a whiteboard of policies and initiatives that he claimed to have assembled from Trump’s off-the-cuff ramblings and utterances. His adoption of the Saturday Night Live sobriquet “President Bannon” was less than entirely humorous. Within the first few weeks, even rote conversations with senior staff trying to explain the new White House’s policies and positions would turn into a body-language ballet of eye-rolling and shrugs and pantomime of jaws dropping. Leaking became the political manifestation of the don’t-blame-me eye roll.
The surreal sense of the Trump presidency was being lived as intensely inside the White House as out. Trump was, for the people closest to him, the ultimate enigma. He had been elected president, that through-the-eye-of-the-needle feat, but obviously, he was yet … Trump. Indeed, he seemed as confused as anyone to find himself in the White House, even attempting to barricade himself into his bedroom with his own lock over the protests of the Secret Service….
Such a rich tapestry — or fruitcake. As I said earlier: Wolff may not be the biographer Trump (or we) wanted, but a guy hanging around in the room where it happened based on a good-optics THR interview is the biographer Trump deserved.
JMG
Wolff’s been hanging out in the same horrible rich people social circle in New York as Trump has for decades. Trump was probably used to seeing him without seeing him, thinking of him only as a potential guy to leak to. The others figured the boss invited him in (which he did) and therefore shouldn’t bother him. Boy are they all dumb.
Mnemosyne
Jim, Foolish Literalist, found an ASTOUNDING Tweet from Janice Min, one of the publishers of the Hollywood Reporter:
Again: the New York Times was scooped by a reporter for a Hollywood trade paper. The heartburn in NYC must be epidemic right now. ???
oatler.
Here’s to the leakers who lunch…
clay
It’s so Trump to think that someone who wants access for a book is asking for a job. He filters everything through his own narrow-minded interests, doesn’t he?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
This is the gift that will keep on giving.
Most political reporters love attention and money. And the attention and money cascading onto Wolff will incentivize others to produce similar firestorm books.
JustRuss
I’m picturing that in my mind, and it’s making me soooo happy.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I first read that as epic, which also fits.
And if it isn’t epidemic, it should be. In more places than just FTFNYT.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: They were furious and attempting to discredit the whole thing until Axios reported he had recordings of the interviews.
Ruckus
@JustRuss:
You are imagining it with a real gun though. Aren’t you.
Calouste
@JMG: Wolff was smart enough to figure out that if he hung around in the White House for 2017 he’d get an 8 figure payday. Worth burning his social circle for.
Baud
@JustRuss: Like Archie Bunker!
MisterForkbeard
@Ruckus: I am NOW, thank you.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mnemosyne: they’re not upset about being scooped, they’re freaking out because their decision to go full Vichy has laid an egg while actual reporting has hit the mother lode.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
I’m imagining it spreading from reporters to editors to publishers, or maybe in the other direction. Epidemic.
@Adam L Silverman:
They even fucked that up, though. The instant Trump decided to issue an official White House communication denouncing Bannon, the cat was out of the bag.
They never even asked what he was doing there every day.
Mnemosyne
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I used to be in journalism (freelance, not staff). Trust me, the NYT is pissed that a lowly Hollywood trade reporter scooped them. PISSED. They got pwned by one of their inferiors.
As I said below, the only way it would have been worse would have been if it was a Teen Vogue reporter.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: Maybe they’ll congratulate themselves again on how they broke the email story.
Starfish
@Mnemosyne: Lauren Duca needs to go talk to Hope Hicks and get her story.
clay
@Baud: Yes, that e-mail story was thoroughly broken, wasn’t it?
? Martin
@Mnemosyne:
Why would they? They didn’t even know what they were supposed to be doing there every day. Why ask a question you aren’t qualified to judge the answer of?
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Yep. And as soon as the Axios story about the recordings broke they switched to “this confirms what we’ve been reporting all along”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: OT: have you tried SideSych(it mirrors you phone on your PC)? It’s free from Samsung(run one side on your phone the other on your PC). It works via USB or WiFi.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Nathan Thurm, WH reporter for the FTFNYT
scav
@Ruckus: Epidemic? Epic? If there were any justice in the world, the heartburn at the NYT would be endemic.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
They didn’t even ask what he was doing there.. Just fucking think about that for a while. Putin could already have who knows how many people working feet away from Tяump, and nobody would know anything, ’cause nobody would be asking them what they were doing there.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I haven’t tried it yet. I looked into it and couldn’t exactly figure out how it’s better than simply plugging my phone into the computer to transfer files.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@clay: The “Daily Show”‘s tagline used to be “When News Breaks, We Fix It!”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It’s not just transfering files, the phone screen is in a window on your pc. Anything you can do with your phone can be done from the screen on the pc(this includes making and answering calls*).
*Assumes your pc has speakers and a mic.
Teddys Person
Fuck me, every time I think we’ve reached bottom with these craven assholes new information comes out telling us that it’s worse than we could possibly imagine. There is literally no one in charge. The only silver lining to the black, black cloud is that Dolt45 surrounded himself with people he doesn’t really know or trust. No wonder he’s up at 4am tweeting. Here’s hoping the stress takes a more satisfying toll soon.
debbie
@Baud:
Loved Archie’s pantomimed shooting himself! Also his poisoning himself and, my personal favorite, his hanging himself.
(Reposted because WP objects to what self-shooting with a gun is called.)
Mary G
This parting shot at the end of the Hollywood Reporter article is gobsmacking:
The fact that Wolff and his publishers managed to keep this all quiet before publication is amazing, but it seems like he kept his access for a long time. I don’t think there’s enough popcorn in the world.
You’d think this would be the straw that broke the Republican Congress’s back, but maybe no? This has got to backfire on them next November. If the country with the attention span of a gnat is accepting this stuff I fear for our republic. And we won’t deserve to keep it.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: How do you use it? I don’t make many phone calls, and I would probably just use the phone if I did, rather than the computer window.
Starfish
@Teddys Person: We haven’t reached bottom. We’ve reached PEAK WINGNUT.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mnemosyne: The reason I say the Quislings weren’t scooped is because they know all the horrors that are going on. They know there is gàmbling going on in the càsinö. They decided to collaborate and not publish what they know.
encephalopath
All of these people are too dumb to have a national security clearance. No wonder the intelligence community hates them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: See and respond to notifications, run apps on the phone and have the larger pc screen to look at(I’m old)…
Mnemosyne
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
And that decision has now made them look like fools in the professional arena where they claim to be the top of the heap.
Again: they got pwned by a Hollywood trades reporter. I’m trying to think of an epic enough metaphor, but it’s like Usain Bolt getting beaten in a race by an 80-year-old woman with a walker. It’s fucking humiliations galore, all out in public for everyone to see.
ETA: And even if Bolt claims afterward that he let the old woman win, it’s still a public humiliation.
different-church-lady
Become at any moment? THEIR ENTIRE JOURNEY TO THE WHITE HOUSE WAS ALREADY FARCE!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mary G:
This dispositive of dementia.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The larger screen sounds nice. But I usually have my phone nearby so I think I’d find it easier just to do all that on the phone itself. But I might give it a try at some point.
MomSense
School is already starting two hours late tomorrow but everyone thinks it wail be canceled. The winds are howling which means the snow drifts are enormous. I have to take the dog out and I’m hoping it will be quick.
I’m moving to Glendale.
Roger Moore
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.):
“Could have”, comrade? Are you sure you don’t mean “has”?
Ben Cisco
I never thought that anything happening within 45s maladministration could make me this happy. and yet, here we are. I LOVE that Maggie Hari got pantsed, and is getting dragged all the more, for her evergreen fluffing of tRump. I LOVE that the entirety of the Vichy Times got scooped by a trades paper; wish it could’ve been either Soap Opera Digest or an alternative weekly. Most of all, i LOVE that the incontinent beast’s entourage, nearly unanimously, has been exposed in their own words as the collection of rancid, backbiting would-be dilettantes that they are.
Mike J
@debbie:
So we have to tell people that if they need help they should call the self shooting hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
mike in dc
The current turnover at the WH, according to Maddow, is 34%. Which is more than double the average. And it’s likely to climb past 40% by the time the anniversary rolls past in 2 weeks. If the Dems retake Congress and more indictments come, I expect it to pass 60% halfway through Trump’s term. Maybe a few more departures once the Congressional subpoenas start flying.
That’s a lot of potential tell-all books, unenforceable NDA notwithstanding.
Mary G
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I know, right?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Nothing to lose, it’s FREE!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mnemosyne: That’s hilarious. I love that analogy/visual.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense:
Bad news, it’s supposed to rain next week.
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
Check housing prices before you say that.
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense: I don’t miss the dog today.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne:
That’s like an out-of-shape Pablo Sandoval being pissed that Giancarlo Stanton won the MVP. QUIT YOUR BITCHING AND GET BACK IN SHAPE.
Barbara
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Cosign. They were scooped by their own timidity.
different-church-lady
@mike in dc:
Does that factor in arrests?
The Dangerman
…and here I thought that it was going to be Omarosa that was going to drop the salacious book that told all on Little Red Riding (Wears A White) Hood; instead, a Wolff. Glorious.
OT: Hey, BillinGlendale, did you see that B2 over the Rose Bowl picture I linked yesterday? The huevos on that photographer!
Mary G
Twitter says it can’t access the server for me to embed it, but Kamala Harris just tweeted:
Doug J, good job! That’s a lot of money.
Mnemosyne
@Ben Cisco:
This is like a movie where the snobby rich kid gets a cream pie in the face on stage at the Homecoming dance.
Seriously, you guys, I do not exaggerate when I tell you that this is a major professional humiliation for the NYT in a very public arena. It would be difficult for it to be worse for them.
ETA: Maggie H finally realized today that she will not get a Pulitzer for her Trump book. ?
MomSense
Also too we are only four days into the new year and we’ve already had a presidential term’s worth of new scandals!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: Yes I did see the photo, but the thread was long dead. That’s a great photo.
ETA: Even showed it to madame last night, she was somewhat impressed(tough crowd).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Happy New Year!
Suburban Mom
@scav: Or emetic.
MikeifromArlington
Wonder if they allowed the reporter in thinking it would be like having the house of cards reporter hanging around.
Jeffro
“Well…of course this is less than optimum…the guy’s clearly a mess…but we still like his policies…”
/RWNJs
Ian G.
I liked this presidency better as a Mel Brooks script about a dancing, singing Hitler starring the late, great Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder.
Jay S
@The Dangerman: I wonder how well Amarosa’s book deal is structured to weather a storm like this.
Jeffro
@Mnemosyne:
“You mean, I could have been writing about all the insanity, bullshit, sheer stupidity, and incompetence ALL ALONG?? And people would have loved me for it??”
SFAW
@Starfish:
In your dreams. (And those of every other rational person.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: I joined the Instant Pot cult today.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
So is it a death wish to buy Wolff’s book and attend a public event where Trump is speaking and ask him to sign it?
Roger Moore
@MikeifromArlington:
I doubt “thinking” had much to do with it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
OMG, this to damn funny. Trump was ranting about the leakers and Trump going to fire them when he finds how is doing it and Wolff was probably sitting there watching him do it! hahahah
There must be other too.
FlyingToaster
@MomSense: My sympathies, and I suspect you’ve exceeded our ~15″. We’ve shoveled everything except the front steps and the plow-plug. Which I decline to touch until I’m sure the plows are fucking done. HerrDoktor just came by and asked if we could go shovel and I said “NO”. He’s considering getting a contract for someone to come and plow out the driveway end for the rest of the winter.
They haven’t cancelled WarriorGirl’s school yet, but the surrounding schools (all the publics, 1 of the privates) already have. I suspect that the plow company is going to call the principal at 5am and tell him they can’t get the sidewalks clear in time.
Jeffro
@Calouste:
LISSEN UP TRUMPERS: the legal equivalent of what Wolff got is called a *one hell of a plea bargain*. If you’re smart, you’ll be the first one ‘to market’ as well. The paydays/plea deals only get smaller from here on out…
burnspbesq
@JustRuss:
I’m imagining George Conway in the partners’ dining room at Wachtell Lipton, muttering to no one in particular, “You wouldn’t believe the shit I’m hearing …”
Mike J
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Let me know if you get caramelized onions to work. All I got was brown mush. Tasted ok, but not great, and looked disgusting.
MomSense
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Back atcha! I would rather be touring the Huntington today with you and the other SoCal Jackals.
scav
@Suburban Mom: emetic certainly describes their recent content.
Major Major Major Major
@MomSense: Portugal is nice too.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
This is Revenge of the Nerds: Newspaper Edition. ????
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Jeffro:
Michael Wolff used to be a frequent guest of Keith Olbermann and he seemed like a nice guy. Right now, whether he deserves it or not, he’s being treated as a hero, which is killing courtiers like Haberman, Woodward, John Heileman.
Jay S
@Jeffro: Surely Haberman’s book will put all of that into nuanced context. /sarcasm
MomSense
@FlyingToaster:
We are in the 20-30” band but I don’t know how one would go about measuring with the drifts the way they are.
Adam L Silverman
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): This is the Secret Services’ nightmare. As well as the counterintel portions of the US intel community. Specifically, just who are the members and staff of the President’s clubs. Maralago and his golf clubs. Especially the ones in New Jersey and northern Virginia where he spends a lot of time. I cannot prove it. I have no specific information, but I would put good money down that every foreign intel service worth its salt, including that of our allies, has placed human collectors (HUMINTers) on the membership and staff at these three clubs.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Mnemosyne: I’m glad they’re humiliated. They EARNED that shit. All the condescending Cletus safaris, ALL the normalization of this bullshit, when all those fucksticks had to do was actual journalism. Hope they choke on it.
Adam L Silverman
@encephalopath: You have no idea.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
And they are probably all reporting back that they have found no signs of intelligence.
Ken
@Mnemosyne:
Still a possibility, since apparently the only thing a magazine has to do for unsupervised access to the White House is to print Trump’s picture on the cover.
moops
@Mnemosyne: In fact, Maggie is going to have to seriously punch-up the dirt and scandal in any book she writes if she wants it to even review well compared to Fire and Fury. She might not even sell much at this point. Pulitzer is long gone. I suspect that even her job is questionable at this point.
Jay Noble
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Real Keyboard!
chris
@MomSense:
250 miles east of you it’s 14C and what snow we had is gone. Glendale sounds good though.
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
Isn’t Trump in the habit of saving money by staffing his properties with people on temporary visas? It does seem like a great opportunity for a spy.
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ve always wanted to live in Lisbon.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Mnemosyne
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
My other saying today is that there are few things more satisfying than watching a bad person’s dream turn to ashes right in front of them. And it’s even better that it’s happening so very publicly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: The Huntington doesn’t look it’s best in the winter*.
*Taken with my Note 8.
MomSense
@chris:
That’s weird. I’m pretty sure Maine is the new Alaska.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Ooops.
Also too, looks like Times wants to get back into the ballgame.
Adam L Silverman
@mike in dc: It is worse than that. Exactly who is going to take these jobs? The really qualified folks either don’t want to be associated or, if they’re willing to swallow their pride and reputations for the good of the country, have been disqualified for being NeverTrump or Democrats. Combine that with the President clearly stated he doesn’t want to fill most of the White House positions, as well as the necessary appointments at the different executive branch agencies and all you have are the folks that are there now who came from the campaign or the transition or are pure nepotistic patronage – basically hacks. They will eventually burn out and go, leaving vacancies that will either not be filled or cannot be filled.
One of the biggest worry for the military is budgetary realities that create a hollow force. An Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps in name only unable to actually carry out their required missions. What we have the potential for is a hollow Federal government. We’re already seeing it at State. The White House staff of appointees is also hollow. And with hiring freezes this will further compound the problem.
MomSense
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Still looks pretty damn nice. How are the Camelias?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay Noble: Yup, one of my computer monitors is a touchscreen so I don’t lose that either.
Baud
@Jay Noble:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Now I’m intrigued.
Roger Moore
@chris:
As I said above, check housing prices before you start packing.
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense: I was outside earlier and noted that I have a really nice-looking (and large) drift on the ridgeline of my roof.
FlyingToaster
@MomSense: Hooray! School just tweeted that it’s cancelled!
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Last year, someone was talking about writing a spy farce set at Mar-A-Loco where the entire staff is made up of spies from every country spying on each other and on the members, who are also spies. I don’t remember who it was, though.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I recall that Mueller was appointed after Sessions recused himself.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Didn’t see any, maybe I was in the wrong garden for them. I just went to the Ranch Garden, the Chinese Garden, the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Ruckus might want a third roommate. ?
(If the emoji doesn’t show — joking!)
Ken
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Nice to have further confirmation, but not exactly breaking news. The man did go on national TV and admit to obstruction of justice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: They’ll just bring in private contractors to replace these things.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Baud: Great catch. the person tweeting surely meant Comey.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Or roombas.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: There was a quarter million car outside my cave last night(not mine), a brand new Bentley SUV.
scav
@Mnemosyne: I thought we nearly all co-wrote that in a single thread one night.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: There’s a difference?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Roombas serve a purpose.
schrodingers_cat
Does anyone still find this comforting?
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ve got some crazy snow dunes outside. The wind seems to be swirling.
@FlyingToaster:
Warrior girl won’t have to wear her pajamas inside out or flush an ice cube tonight! Tomorrow is going to be a perfect hygge day.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It was probably to shield him from the FBI investigation.
Ken
@mike in dc: Turnover will climb even higher if Trump demands someone read the book to him and starts firing everyone who criticized him.
Mnemosyne
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I really need to make a clip of this scene from Head Office (1985) with Eddie Albert and Micheal O’Donoghue:
schrodingers_cat
The wind is howling outside my window.
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Bad timing, what with Sessions’ announcement about recreational pot.
mai naem mobile
I know in the big picture this makes this country look really stupid and it’s not a good thing, but,jeezus, all I can do is laugh at these idiots. I wonder if Dolt45 has actually read the book or the excerpts or,maybe,.he had Hope Hicks read the stuff to him. All the people calling him a moron has got to sting big time for such a thin skinned guy. And then for his favorite child be called dumb as a brick. Cherry on top is his favorite child making fun of his hair. Oy vey.I just wonder if Mueller is going to subpoena the tapes.
Jeffro
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Oh my goodness…he was an OLBERMAN GUEST?!? Just how closely will his countertops be inspected by tomorrow evening, I wonder?
I don’t even have to pop over to Faux News dot com to know that he’s already being blasted as some traitorous Demon-rat media hollywood baby-sacrificing type. 110% sure of it.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: I read somewhere a couple of weeks ago that South Korea has a much larger army than we do in number of bodies/boots available to be on the ground? Like 10 divisions vs. 6 divisions? (Numbers completely made up by me.) So we’re already way behind? Is this true? We spend so much money, is it all on weapons?
MomSense
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m a wicked plant freak so the camelias are a big reason I want to visit the Huntington.
Camelia garden
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman:
Even at its post-election rate-hiked rates, a Mar-a-Lago or Trump National membership would be worth its weight in gold considering the access.
Then again, they already get unfettered access to his pea brain just by following him on Twitter for free.
Anne Laurie
@Ben Cisco:
The Guardian did break the story first, as far as I can tell — from what I’ve seen, their story forced the other outlets to push up their own ‘authorized’ versions, which would’ve been timed to drop when the book was officially released next week. The Grauniad, while not exactly an alt-weekly, is very much the spiritual godparent of the alt-weekly image, yes?
Origuy
@Adam L Silverman: I still think this would be the basis for a comedy thriller, ala The Grand Budapest Hotel. Spies spying on other spies, all spying on the bumbling fool of a President.
chris
@MomSense: Heh, that’s what my aunt said. She also said that there are barriers on the road that runs along York Beach because the waves are coming right in.
Earlier wind was southerly and we are 775 miles north of Bermuda. It’s worked its way around to northeast now and by tomorrow night we’ll see -10C. A reminder that we are also just 775 miles south of deepest darkest Labrador. Stay warm!
? Martin
@Baud: Correct. Though ‘Mueller investigation’ may now be shorthand for ‘Russia investigation’.
JMG
Mike Schmidt of the Times reports McGahn pressured Sessions not to recuse himself from Russia investigation and that a Sessions aide was out trying to dig up dirt on Comey. “Your honor, we find the defendants incredibly guilty.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: I said that I had joined the “Instant Pot cult” last night to a friend, he replied that was a stupid idea. I said, “there’s a problem with cooking rice in 5 minutes?”
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
The Guardian broke the story about the book, but the book was written by a freelancer from the Hollywood Reporter.
That’s what’s giving the NYT heartburn right now: He’s not even a real journalist!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mnemosyne: Here it is (video)
I forgot how great that movie is. Still relevant today.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman:
Hard to turn this into a campaign slogan, but it’s really necessary for the next admin to turn this around and quickly (hopefully with a lot of help from former Obama officials).
“Make the Federal Government Un-Vacant Again!” “Restore Minimum Competence and Service!” “Staffing Up to Serve America!”
(That last point reminds me…that hypothetical next admin better do a good job of publishing the numbers of unfilled-by-Trumpov positions, or they’ll just get slammed for “hiring 200% more fedrul slackers, er, excuse me, workers, just like Democrats ALWAYS DO…”)
Yarrow
I cannot get enough of this story and I am busy and I can’t keep up with it. Every revelation is just amazing. They are so stupid.
El Caganer
@schrodingers_cat: If he is standing up to the President, he’s doing a damn good job of hiding it.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Mnemosyne: By all means, come sit by me.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
How are the kittehs reacting? When we had a big windstorm here, Charlotte planted herself right between the two of us so we could protect her from whatever it was that was rattling the windows. ?
chris
@Roger Moore: No freezing weather? I’d be happy under a bridge.
Mnemosyne
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I’m still convinced that Albert’s character is based on Trump even though Albert was much older. It’s just way too prescient, especially the phone bills part.
The actual plot of the movie is pretty dull, but all of the corporate stuff is spot-on. I love Rick Moranis.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
That would be Pasadena, though.
@chris:
All the good spots are already taken.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: One kitteh is huddled next to me and the other is in front of the pellet stove, curled up.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
It’s closer to the Huntington. And Descanso, too.
MomSense
@chris:
I read today that Fort Popham is an island. A police officer tried to respond to a distress call but there was swift moving water over the road. A plow truck on the other side said houses are flooded.
I’m sure Kennebunk Beach is flooded and Fortunes Rocks/ Biddeford Pool.
Another Scott
Watching the Brooklyn 99 marathon on TBS. Just saw an interesting ad by Tom Steyer.
https://www.needtoimpeach.com/
I wonder if it has legs…
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: It looks like the Camelia garden is part of the North Vista, I did walk though there on my last visit.
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
A quarter million car makes more sense when you consider the garage probably cost more than that.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I told you all the other day, he’s using that for his new kid’s college fund. Focus!!!!
? Martin
@Mary G: Sort of. South Korea has a massive reserve military because military service (2 years) is compulsory for men, and they remain in reserve standing.
The US isn’t ‘behind’ because ground troops are mostly useful when you are invading or being invaded, and we don’t have any risk of the latter and we don’t want any more of the former. But SK is greatly at risk of invasion given that NK has an army of similar size – more active duty and slightly less reserve.
MomSense
@chris:
Just found out the yacht club in Ocean Ave, up the road from the Bush compound, is flooded. Soooooo sad.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Anne Laurie: True. Good on them then. I hope they all keep this going for days. Weeks even.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: It was street parked.
moops
@Mnemosyne: Albert’s character is not suffering from obvious dementia and is way to coherent for Trump to have been the model. Even in his non-demented life twenty years ago Trump was never this capable.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Well played.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I think it’s the walkway between the Chinese and Japanese gardens?
Watching “The Good Place” is a little distracting because they use the Huntington for a lot of the location shots.
Roger Moore
@Origuy:
And hooking up when Trump is out of town. You know it’s happening.
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: Yes he is. Maralago and Trump Doral use seasonal labor to plus up the staff. And Maralago closes for the summer because it is too hot for the President to go to Palm Beach between April and October.
CarolPW
@MomSense: We lived in Sacramento for quite a while, and out of the bedroom windows on two walls I would see camellia blossoms in the spring, and they were lovely. The bedroom was on the second floor, and we had very high ceilings.
Sacramento is the Camellia City (and also known as Sacratomato). They have a camellia festival every spring.
Mnemosyne
@moops:
Albert plays the billionaire son of a millionaire who claims that he did it all on his own but insists on micromanaging everything. He even has Don King on his board of directors!
ETA: Trump didn’t have dementia in the 1980s either.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Ballgame. McGahn’s done.
OldDave
@Mnemosyne:
Loved that movie.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Not according to the Huntington’s map, though I think they do have camellias on the upper path from the Chinese to Japanese gardens. I did take a picture of a flower there, but it’s not a camellia.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Lt. Gen (ret) James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence.//
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
And the LA County Arboretum in Arcadia.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Already have 2 1/2. Someone’s friend is over quite a bit.
Let’s have a party!!!!!! Sleep where you fall! My room is off limits. Let’s see how many people we can squeeze in.
This being a cranky old fucking geezer is getting just a bit tiresome.
MomSense
@CarolPW:
Can you grow them where you live now?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CarolPW: I’m still planning on driving up there to take pics of the state capitol building, I’ll probably wait until spring.
chris
@MomSense: So unfortunate!//
ETA Shouldn’t laugh, it’s going to be bad here too.
Anne Laurie
@FlyingToaster:
Our Snow Plow Guy has been a back-saver, and quite possibly a life-saver, for the past several years. The Spousal Unit, after one too many overambitious “Don’t be silly, I can *totally* handle this on my own” incidents, finally broke down and started asking the freelancers who cruised by after every storm whether any of them would add another client. Worse that’s come of his relinquishing the heaviest ice-berm removal was once or twice, when the Plow Guy showed up to remove “just a couple of inches” after less-than-epic snowfalls, and I’ve made it clear that I’d much rather pay the premium than worry about one or both of us ending up injured!
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I doubt the street is its regular parking space at its owner’s house, though.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: You go to war with the comfort you have, not the comfort you want.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne:
This is so great. The fact that it proves Maggie H. is nothing more than a toady, more determined to secure her access to the WH than do her fucking job, is a delicious bonus. She’s done. Over.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Is it just me or are those things just hideous?
schrodingers_cat
Apparently ordinary Russians joke about T, call him our bitch in the WH according to my Russian friend who was back in Russia just this fall.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Is that like figuring how many folk you can pack into a VW Bug?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: It wasn’t the owner’s house, they were going to a party. How do I know this, IT WAS IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE.
@Ruckus: Why, yes they are and they took my fucking parking space.
Ken
@Adam L Silverman: Seriously? People pay umpteen thousand dollars for a membership, and the club isn’t even open for half the year?
ETA: Conversely, Trump built a resort and picked a place that was useless half the year? That I find believable.
Sab
@Gin & Tonic: You should have a roof-rake.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Let us know if it cries wendigo.
Mike J
Jim, Foolish Literalist
$200,000 a year, twice what it was 14 months ago.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
It’s the same reason Ann Romney wore a $1,000 t-shirt with a fish on it — it’s ugly and ostentatious by design so the plebes know that you don’t care about money.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mnemosyne: I love how Albert says “when I came to this town, I only had $43 million dollars [and yet I succeeded]”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: These are people with more money than sense*, sort of like the folk that would pay 1/4 million for a SUV.
*Unless they’re employees of a foreign intelligence agency.
Mike J
@MomSense: The Kennebunk River Club? That sucks.
Gin & Tonic
@Sab: I do, but I can’t reach all the way up to the peak of the roof on a 2-story house. And going up on a ladder in this wind is probably not a good idea.
Two or three years ago I had so much snow I climbed up on the roof to shovel. My wife might frown on me doing that this winter.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: Get a longer handle.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah that’s actually not a joke….
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: True that. Russkie friend was trying to be polite, I guess. My friend has gone from a neutral observer to a fierce resister, went to the Woman’s Day march in DC and also the science march.
CarolPW
@MomSense: I didn’t think so (eastern Washington state), but realized two years ago that a house a block away had something that certainly looked like a camellia. There is apparently at least one cultivar makes it here, although unfortunately the blooms are sort of the Walmart of camellia blossoms. The camellias at our house in Sacramento were probably planted in the 1940’s when the house was built. One of them was as tall and wide as a full grown unpruned cherry tree. Big enough to have a picnic under it. There were at least 10 different cultivars, and many were quite flamboyant.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Most likely Bob Batemen’s piece at Esquire (Bob’s good people). The ROK Army is much larger than ours. But they are living on a peninsula with a fragile armistice papering over a declared state of war with their northern neighbor and its also quite large military.
In the case of the US there are a number of problems. Some of them are caused by mission. The US strategic posture is that the US military is expeditionary. That is out and about in the world trying to shape the operational environment to prevent wars and if that fails shape it to win. So we have significant personnel based abroad. And we have a Navy that is the guarantor of keeping the sea lines of commerce and communications (SLOCCs) open. The US Air Force and the air components of the Navy and Marine Corps have been at war, non stop, since 1991 when they began patrolling over parts of Iraq for Desert Shield. The US Army and Marine Corps have largely been at war non stop since the US intervention in Kosovo in the mid to late 90s. Elements of the US Army and Marine Corps have been at war in the Philippines since 1897, helping various Filipino governments fight different iterations of Moro separatists in the Sulu Archipelago.
Personnel is the largest cost for the Army. Equipment for the Air Force and Navy. But all of our equipment – land, sea, and/or air – has been used and reused and used again almost non stop since 1991. All of this, personnel and material, cost a lot. It costs even more when you’re at constant (undeclared) war. And then add to it penalties from things like Congress’s supposed to have under Title III of the Congressional Budget Act a 1 to 2 year budget cycle. The DOD’s and the Services’ cycles are really four years. If Congress had regular order it would be hard enough to synch them. Given that there hasn’t been a regular budget and appropriations cycle in over a decade. Add another penalty for the sequester. Add another penalty for being the only country to cut taxes (now three times) while at war. All of this contributes to the problem.
Bonnie
Breaking news: Mueller has corroborated Comey’s claims of Trump asking him to stop the Russia investigation.
Anne Laurie
@moops:
Nah, Maggie’s a member of the Lucky Sperm club — her father Clyde Haberman was a NYTimes reporter (and by all reports a good one). No way the Sulzberger weanling who just got appointed publisher is gonna boot a fellow nepotism beneficiary; apart from his natural sympathy, it might give the proles ideas above their station.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Hell, it would be worth my weight in gold.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s really hard to control with 30+ feet of handle.
Gin & Tonic
@Anne Laurie: I mentioned this on an earlier thread: Clyde went to Bronx Science and CCNY. Maggie went to Fieldston and Sarah Lawrence. That tells you everything you need to know.
Baud
@Bonnie: I don’t understand what that means.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: This is no way to run a railroad. I do like Bateman, so it probably was there. Thanks. I am always very “stop giving the military so much money,” but since Trump took that stand in the election, my view is evolving. I can see why our allies are so upset.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman:
Professor Krugman stated* that we’re the only country to do so in world history.
*Back on the old Al Franken Show(might have been the O’Franken Factor).
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
We have a party where people are falling down randomly then yes. Roomy for two, not so much for 3 people living her, any more and it’s like trying to sleep on Colorado on Dec 31.
Mayim
@MomSense:
Route 1 in Lincolnville has evidently been flooded much of the day. I haven’t left the apartment today, so no first hand knowledge of the or coastal damage in Belfast reported on Facebook.
But the wind is still howling here in almost downeast midcoast….one cat is cuddled with me, second is tucked into his bed (under my bed, near the heater, his usual spot), and the third (the 16 month old foster fail, still very much a kitten) is alternating between the window watching with wide-eyed amazement and sitting on my lap for reassurance that the world isn’t ending and (more importantly) that the container with his favorite treats hasn’t blown away.
I’m amusing myself with the #museumsnowballfight on Twitter ;-)
debbie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Honestly, isn’t it more important that the information get out?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: It’s all in the wrist, oh wait, never mind. //
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I get the feeling you’ve never tried to rake two feet of snow off your roof.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
I’ve actually done that, at least for a few hours. Of course there was lots of alcohol involved.
Adam L Silverman
@Ken: Yep. There’s a skeleton caretaker staff over the summer. You have to remember that a lot of the members are also snowbirds. Palm Beach in the late fall to early Spring then back to wherever for the summer.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I just thought that most people with a lot of money are fucking assholes with zero taste. The more of them I’ve met or heard of, I’m getting more and more convinced that is a sure bet.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: I looked up wendigo, looks scary but the weather here is scarier.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: I’ve never seen 2 feet of snow on a roof.
I’m curious as to why anybody would put 2 feet of snow on their roof.
danielx
Head of the Secret Service has got to be gulping down Maalox like water.
Chip Daniels
@Adam L Silverman:
And their bosses are reading the reports, and asking, “What the hell? This can’t be right!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: A Bentley SUV is proof if this. Oh did I mention that I saw the driver and passengers, 20 somethings.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
The Shining of the South.
chelsea530
What in holy hell did I just see at the top of this post about Jonn Lewis being a neoliberal and All hail Bernie Sanders?!!!
Good grief. There’s more crap every time I refresh.
Baud
@debbie: Heh.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Haberman got hired because she was a long time Hillary troll for Politico.
Politico has gotten better in the past year. But for years it was pure right wing trash. In their undying hatred of the Clintons, the Vichy Times hired patented off the shelf Clinton haters Jonathan Martin, Thrush, Haberman to terrorize the Clinton campaign.
danielx
@Adam L Silverman:
An intelligence opportunity like this comes along very seldom. If foreign services are not taking as much advantage of it as possible, they’re not doing their jobs
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
Just to be clear — the Guardian is a very gleeful accomplice in this public humiliation of the NYT. They know what it means for Michael Wolff to publish his book before the official NYT hagiography written by Maggie Haberman.
CarolPW
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You should wait until spring. The capitol gardens are great (although not as nice as the Huntington’s). They had Italian stone pines planted in the 1870’s that were magnificent, although Google tells me that the last one was taken down in 2012. They would have made great photos. They have lots of camellias too.
Grew up in a farm town 30 miles south of Sacramento and took at least two trips to the capitol in the 50’s and early 60’s, and it was kind of meh. After the new paint job around the 80’s it was lovely – brought out the architectural details nicely. Don’t know if they have repainted it since.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: It is always a question of ends, ways, and means. As I wrote here back in the Spring when folks were worried we were going to immediately go to war with the DPRK, and again shortly after the ambush in Niger, the official US policy is expeditionary. But the means aren’t there to provide the ways to actually do this effectively any more.
MobiusKlein
@Ruckus: Now I am imagining it.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ve slept during gunnery practice, sitting outside, about 30-40 ft from a 5 in gun, wearing an OBA. But then at that time I had learned to sleep standing up as well. Amazing how many times skills like that came in handy. Now I just fall over.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Professor Krugman is correct.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
If they are 20 somethings, either daddy is fucking rich or they are some high end drug dealers.
Chet Murthy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Don’t know what you’re trying to do, but if it’s xfer files to-and-from your phone, I use “SSHelper” on my Android phone. Sets up a local SSH server to which you can connect via wifi. I xfer music to/from the phone with that, but it fires up a shell, so you can login and …. do whatever you want. As a UNIX guy, that’s much better than some GUI for me.
eemom
@mai naem mobile:
um, as opposed to how it’s looked for the last 13 months?
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: Apparently NK and SK are talking. Methinks SK doesn’t want to rely on Trump too much to handle the situation.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CarolPW: I’ve been twice, but during the summer and 40 years ago. The second time the old part of the Capitol had been gutted and they were rebuilding it(1977, I think).
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Try doing a keyword search for “the wind cried wendigo”. I was making a specific allusion.
Adam L Silverman
@Chip Daniels: Pretty much.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Here’s Donnie!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chet Murthy: No, I just want to use the phone on my computer screen. SideSych does that.
ETA: It also allows me to use the computer’s mouse and more importantly keyboard on the phone.
Adam L Silverman
@danielx: One would expect.
chris
@Mayim: I’m watching the storm on windy.com. It has an eye like a hurricane and that eye looks to be headed up Fundy. It’s right between Yarmouth and Rockland now. Weird, the wind here is southeasterly but northwest in Maine.
eemom
@Mnemosyne:
In addition to the glorious humiliation of the NYT itself, that little clown reporter who did that last “interview” and bragged about how brilliant he was to score that access to the pure, unchaperoned trump, sure is feeling pretty, um, TRUMPED right now. Haw haw.
CarolPW
@?BillinGlendaleCA: 1977ish would be appropriate timing for the repainting I remember. Spring not only brings camellias in the garden but the azaleas are spectacular too.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
I heard a rumor that a spot is going to open up under the overpass where PCH crosses the Santa Ana River. Prime Newporsche Beach location.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: The new(ish) ROK President has long been open to dialogue with the DPRK. In fact the communication channel had been open as recently as 2015. So this is both a good thing and not really a new thing.
The larger issue is that Kim’s, and as a result the DPRK’s, strategic end state is a reunified peninsula with the US presence completely removed from it. The rub, of course, is that Kim’s strategic end state is this unified Korea will be run by him and his family. That isn’t going to be acceptable at all to people in the ROK.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
I can’t find the clip, but Colbert did a bit on Trump’s tweet disparaging global warming, interspersing clips of Jack in that maze struggling to find his way out before freezing to death.
moops
@eemom: Yeah, Schmidt got upstaged now pretty well. Wolff never even got that much time with Trump.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Was their nationality what I assume it would be in Glendalia?
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
In Glendale, Russian or Armenian Mafia is also quite possible.
Mayim
@chris:
There were some quite impressive satellite images earlier today ~ the NWS Gray ME posted them on Facebook and Twitter.
I’m a bit north of Rockland. Prediction is to be pretty much over here by 1 a.m. so I’m expecting that roads will be cleared and work will be open at 9 as usual, especially since we were closed all day today.
FlyingToaster
@Anne Laurie: I’m just inside from clearing the plow plug.
For the first time since the 110 inch winter, the plow plug was just compacted snow, rather than ice. So it took two of us about 45 minutes to pull the snow down from the ~42 inch tall, 24 inch deep x 2 cars wide and blow it into the mound on either side of the driveway — mostly the downhill side, where the plows had made a 5′ deep wall around the corner. That sidewalk won’t be seen until March, alas.
I’ll shovel the last 4″ off of the front steps and front walk in the morning. And we’ll examine the rabbit and squirrel trails before we feed the birds.
I forgot to put the beer in the fridge, so I think I’ll crack open a Twisted Tea to rehydrate before I go take a bath.
FlyingToaster
@?BillinGlendaleCA: High schoolers? 8. 9 if your bug has a sunroof.
/voice of experience
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Maybe it’s a rental? $1600/day, or $3000 for 3 days. A bargain!
And, hey, Donnie’s tax bill probably makes it deductible. “It’s just smart business!”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CarolPW: It wasn’t just a paint job, they gutted the building, just leaving the exterior walls and the dome, they rebuilt the inside using steel frame and restored all of the inside art.
Jacel
@Calouste: Sounds like Wolff’s equivalent of Truman Capote’s “Answered Prayers”, a barely veiled savage roman-a-clef about his social circle.
J R in WV
@Barbara:
I don’t think they are timid – I think they have sold out to authoritarianism. Long time ago, sold out! They published their first ball-licking piece about European power politics enthusing about Future Chancellor Adolph Hitler in 1922 !! Years before he even took over the state.
And they didn’t really attack the American Nazi Party, holding meetings in Madison Square Garden, in NYC, until they ran off and hid after Pearl Harbor.
Really, I don’t know if they ever attacked the American Nazi Party, they probably just instantly jumped on the war drumbeat and pretended they were always against Nazis.
Like today.
J R in WV
@Ken:
Trump didn’t build Mar-a-Lago. It was built as a private home decades ago, I think for Marjorie Merriweather Post, owner of General Foods and wife of E F Hutton. They had a huge sailing yacht too. She was worth 5 billion dollars back when that was a shit load of money, instead of just a high-tech operator’s cash out.
And she had taste too, collected art, founded museums, hell, her yacht is worth more than Trump Tower to most people, because it’s flying beauty, and Trump Tower just sits there being ugly.
cwmoss
@Baud: Baud, you never disappoint. BAUD 2020!
cwmoss
@Ruckus: Could’ve rented the goddamn thing.
Ruckus
@cwmoss:
Sure, still it is overrunning with bad taste. And as some stated up thread it cost just a bit more to rent per day than some pretty nice houses. And it’s still a tarted up station wagon. And not in a good way. Of course most personal vehicles that cost that much are only there to show everyone else how much money you have. Sitting in traffic on the Santa Monica freeway at rush hour in a $250,000 car is maybe not the ultimate height of elitism, but it’s close.
fuckwit
@Starfish: No. We have not. Peak wingnut is a myth. There is no peak. It’s an endless, limitless field.