Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Second rate reporter says what?

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

The lights are all blinking red.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

You are here: Home / Economics / Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You / Lucky Seven

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  3. 3.

    Chet Murthy

    93 years too few. Also, it is a moral failing to wish for prison rape upon him. But many amongst us are fallen.

  4. 4.

    LAO

    @Jager: Which guys. He wasn’t convicted or sentenced for manipulating pharmaceutical prices. He was convicted of securities fraud.

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m setting the over/under on his first trip to the prison infirmary at 5 hours.

    I’m also calling the first fist as being straight to the mouth – the over/under on lost teeth in that first punch is set at 3.

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    @LAO: Honestly 7 years for securities fraud isn’t bad. Wasn’t he charged with multiple counts?

  8. 8.

    LAO

    @Chet Murthy: FWIW, not much — but I really hate prison rape jokes. Also, Shrekli will be in a minimum-security federal camp where prisoner safety is taken seriously. (Unlike most state facilities).

  9. 9.

    stinger

    @LAO: All of them, Katie. The Big Pharma guys getting rich off sick people, and the securities fraudsters. Porque no los todos?

    ETA: I agree with you about any kind of rape jokes.

  10. 10.

    LAO

    @Yutsano: I have never looked at his guidelines analysis — but I’m fairly sure that the Judge imposed a sentence below the recommended guidelines, which is called a variance. At least that’s what it seemed to me from the tweeting. An 84 months sentence for a white collar crime where there was no actual loss (just intended loss) is fairly harsh in our system.

  11. 11.

    Chet Murthy

    @LAO: These times harden people’s souls and congeal humor into hatred. i’m sorry he’s going to a minimum-security prison. I’d much rather he were in gen-pop in a prison full of the most vicious gangsters.

  13. 13.

    hueyplong

    Is anyone else picturing a dozen or so people in the news right now crying at their respective sentencings?

    I myself am rolling with S Miller.

  14. 14.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @LAO:

    It’s been a while since I did this kind of law, but I thought a 7 year term was too lengthy for one of those sweet, sweet camps.

  15. 15.

    germy

    @LAO: Yes. Don’t Financial Crime people go to club fed type places? I doubt he’ll be punched in the mouth by bikers with swastika tattoos. Most likely he’ll eat dinner in a cafeteria filled with accountants who cooked the books, and business owners who didn’t pay taxes.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    @LAO: Should have clarified what I meant by “not bad”. As in not bad from the justice perspective. Even in Club Fed he’ll have a rough time.

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @raven:

    I like it – particularly when delivered by ordinary decent criminals to a sobbing Shkreli.

  21. 21.

    germy

    If he gets out early for good behavior, there’s a spot waiting for him in the trump administration.

  22. 22.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @LAO:

    Ah – I’d forgotten that. I had mistakenly thought that he was still out on bail.

    Wonder how much sweet Shkreli cash made its way to inmates’ mamas and babymamas to make it safe.

  23. 23.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Jager: I didn’t think the rich even went to jail anymore. So there is that…

    @germy:

    I doubt he’ll be punched in the mouth by bikers with swastika tattoos. Most likely he’ll eat dinner in a cafeteria filled with accountants who cooked the books, and business owners who didn’t pay taxes.

    Maybe he’ll be punched in the mouth by an accountant with swastika tattoos…

  26. 26.

    Chet Murthy

    @LAO:

    FWIW, not much — but I really hate prison rape jokes.

    Your attitude is commendable: you extend to him a recognition of humanity that he does not extend to his victims. But me, I *don’t* extend that recognition to him. That’s why I don’t joke about about him getting shanked — I mean it. I mean it. B/c I don’t recognize him as a fellow human.

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @LAO:

    So disappointing. I was so hoping for a Shawshank experience for him (not Andy Dufresne’s experience – but instead, the guy that Byron Hadley beat to death his first day).

  28. 28.

    Zinsky

    I hope Pharma Bro has been stockpiling KY jelly and doing lots of rectal stretching exercises, because he is going to be someone’s bitch in prison real soon….

  30. 30.

    germy

    He should have used Sam Nunberg’s defense: “Do I look like the sort of person who goes to prison??”

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    DA PHUQ???

    Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has reportedly cut off contact with top agency officials and now operates out of an office with an armed guard at the door amid ongoing tensions with top staff.

  32. 32.

    bystander

    Agnew got three years probation for tax evasion. John Mitchell, 2 1\2 to eight, for conspiracy and obstruction. So seven sounds pretty rough for securities. But still not enough for this d/bag.

  33. 33.

    germy

    @raven:

    Fuck him, I wish he’d go to one of Arpaio’s joints.

    Hell, I wish Arpaio would go to one of Arpaio’s joints. Joined by Clarke.

  35. 35.

    LAO

    @Chet Murthy: I don’t think it’s all that commendable. I’m a defense attorney and I represent these people.

    @raven: I’m laughing because years ago, I was part of a trial team that won an acquittal in the EDNY (total jury nullification) and 6 weeks after walking out of federal jail, the idiot got arrested in Maricopa county and then spent 2 years in one of Arpaio’s camps.

  37. 37.

    germy

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    Maybe he’ll be punched in the mouth by an accountant with swastika tattoos…

    He can fight back by yanking his attacker’s glasses off and tossing them a few feet away. The rest of the attacker’s gang will go “Ooooh!” and make Shkreli their new leader.

  38. 38.

    LAO

    @ruemara: Forfeiture —

    On the Monday before his sentencing, Shkreli was ordered to forfeit almost $7.4 million. His assets include a Picasso painting, $5 million in a personal trading account, and a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album, as well as an unreleased Lil Wayne album.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    ALLEGED RACIAL PROFILING?

    UH HUH

    “Cyclists concerned over alleged racial profiling in CPD bicycle citations”

    Excerpt:

    CHICAGO (WLS) — “Cyclists packed a room at City Hall Wednesday to appeal for intercession from the mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council on alleged racial profiling.

    “Many cyclists said they are concerned by a recent report that suggests African-American cyclists are more likely to be ticketed than white cyclists.

    “The Chicago Tribune reports that 56 percent of all 2017 bike citations were issued in majority-black neighborhoods.

    “24 percent of the citations were issued in majority-Latino neighborhoods, and 18 percent were issued in majority-white neighborhoods.”

    North Lawndale has the most tickets at nearly 400. Just five tickets were issued in cyclist-heavy Lincoln Park.

  41. 41.

    Corner Stone

    Gabe Sherman with Vanity Fair is dropping some knowledge right now on MSNBC: Senior WH Staff shakeup expected soon.

  44. 44.

    jl

    @Yutsano: ” Honestly 7 years for securities fraud isn’t bad. Wasn’t he charged with multiple counts? ”

    Why is this guy crying? Did he really believe his snotty dumbass stunts would work? Ordinary people, particularly poor people, and very particularly poor African-American, Hispanic, and SE Asian people often get far worse for much less serious offenses. Three strikes is still on the books in California, for example.

  48. 48.

    Barbara

    This is actually a pretty harsh sentence for a non-violent crime — not that I think it’s too harsh, just that relatively speaking, that’s more than I thought he would get. There is no early release in the federal system, although you can earn time served points for good behavior and a variety of other things. I no longer weep at these kinds of sentences. I tried to help someone get clemency (petition denied) as part of Obama’s initiative, and he is serving 30 years for a non-violent drug crime. And he has kids. Guys like Shkreli figured our law and order society would never actually touch him in any meaningful way.

  49. 49.

    randy khan

    @Corner Stone:

    Gabe Sherman with Vanity Fair is dropping some knowledge right now on MSNBC: Senior WH Staff shakeup expected soon.

    So it’s a weekday, is what he’s saying.

  52. 52.

    Corner Stone

    @LAO: If he actually goes through with canning J Kelly, McMaster, Jar Jar and Ivanka Jr – the level of shithouse crazy would blow through eleven on its way to elebenty.
    And MAGA morons would come in as replacements for JK and H.R. Mc?

  53. 53.

    Gin & Tonic

    @rikyrah: Not to joke about racial profiling, but my son (he’s white) got ticketed in midtown NYC on his bicycle. He was really pissed off by that, and went to court (not even sure what that process was called.) One of his close friends is a pretty serious attorney, and went with him. They both wore suits, naturally. The ticket was dismissed, so I have a selfie they took of themselves out for a drink afterward. Probably spent more on the cocktails than the ticket would have cost.

  59. 59.

    bystander

    @Corner Stone:

    Gabe Sherman with Vanity Fair is dropping some knowledge right now on MSNBC: Senior WH Staff shakeup expected soon.

    Hurry, Mueller, hurry. We do not want to hear about the new cast replacements on Amateur Celebrity Clusterf*ck Show.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    @hueyplong:
    I take Steven Miller as that person whose emotions run the gamut from scorn to rage. He’ll tell the judge just what he’ll do to him for this outrage, and how hard.

  62. 62.

    Calouste

    I’m willing to bet that Pharmabro will find Jeebus in prison and start a new career fleeting suckers the devoted when he gets out.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @bystander:

    Scott signed the Florida gun law. Wow.

    “One small step for man, one giant kick to the nuts of Marion Hammer.”

  64. 64.

    Gin & Tonic

    OT, but The Guardian is reporting that the Russians got the nerve agent onto Sergei Skripal by applying it to his wife’s grave.

  65. 65.

    trollhattan

    @bystander:
    “WH staff shakeup coming…” means exactly what to a WH that turns its staff over completely every two months? How would anybody know?

  68. 68.

    d58826

    ot BUT for the life of me I don’t see what the US gains by having Der Fuhrer met with Kim. Now if he can convince Kim to reunify Korea under a democratic South Korean model then great but anything else just elevates Kim w/o the US gaining anything. Der Fuhrer has elevated Kim to the world stage rather than being an outlaw nation.

  70. 70.

    Corner Stone

    @mike in dc:

    Bolton as NSA, Mooch as COS. Pirro as new AG.

    And Dana Loesch to head of Dept of Homeland once J Kelly’s protege Kirstjen Nielsen is booted with him. Hannity as Press Secretary.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    OT, but have you seen the cartoon about Vladimir Vladimirovich? It’s very hard-hitting, so hard-hitting that I don’t even want to link it.

  74. 74.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Never mind — somebody just sent it to me, but I see it’s dated 2017. Nevertheless, it’s hard-hitting — but you probably saw it long ago.

  75. 75.

    BC in Illinois

    @bystander:

    Agnew got three years probation for tax evasion.

    Yeah, “tax evasion” is a spin-off of the fact that he was taking bribes. He should have claimed them as income on his 1040.

    But he was given a special deal, so that he could be out of the way when Nixon was removed. Letting him walk free was worth it. [On the other hand, when he asked for his law license back a few years later, the judge lambasted his “moral obtuseness” in minimizing what he had done.]

    I think of Agnew nowadays, as I game out the sequence of events after the coming elections. Does Mueller have enough on Pence, to get him to step aside, the way Agnew did? Can the new Democratic majority put a new VP in place, for when Trump goes down? Or do we wait for Speaker Pelosi to become President? [ Our first president born in Baltimore! ]

  77. 77.

    WereBear

    @LAO: On the Monday before his sentencing, Shkreli was ordered to forfeit almost $7.4 million.

    That’s what hurts these guys. I don’t even have to send him to prison. Put him in the middle of Detroit, penniless, in Bermuda shorts and a wifebeater T.

  78. 78.

    Jager

    @raven: No, she wears a giant set of brass balls in her grandma panties. They clang when she walks though the halls of the capital.

  80. 80.

    Barbara

    @BC in Illinois: There is a lot of disparity. I have seen people get no jail time for tax evasions in situations where I was sure they would get it. I also so a brazen act of tax evasion result in a sentence of around 18 months. I think the guy who got 18 months pleaded, probably because they told him if he didn’t they were going to go after the other parties who helped him set up fraudulent bank accounts at his request but who got no money for doing so, and maybe his wife too. You really should not mess with federal prosecutors.

  82. 82.

    raven

    The judge cited emails Shkreli sent while in prison, where he said, “Fuck the feds”, as evidence that six months in maximum-security prison may not have had the desired effect of deterring Shkreli’s behavior.

  83. 83.

    NCSteve

    @Chet Murthy: He won’t be there long. Put a transgressive sociopath like him in a minimum security prison and he’s going to look around, see the absence of walls or towers and figure he can get away with going AWOL for a night or two on the town. And he’ll probably even post selfies of himself on Instragram and Twitter doing it.

    And then he goes to Real Prison.

  86. 86.

    joel hanes

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Glad we’re debating the relative merits

    We’re gaining valuable information about our fellow commenters.
    Unfortunately, we’re learning that some of them are worse people than we’d like to have imagined.

  88. 88.

    jl

    Off topic, but now WH is trying to walk back, backpeddle, and pre-reneg on announced NK talks. I guess we should have expected it. Why would NK talks be any different than BS Trump BS statements on Trumpcare legislation, GOP tax heist plan, DACA, debt ceiling and govt shutdown, tarrifs, or anything at all?
    Extemporaneous meaningless ignorant BS from Trump, followed by more of the same, except different. Apparently now it is unclear that NK even actually made any invitation at all for a high level summit. But I guess this is better than before: Trumpsters will be distracted from genocidal and catastrophic nuke strike talk with confusion and dithering about how to back out of the BS summit announcement. A little better than war talk, and anything to get us past the midterms without a military catastrophe.

    White House Now Trying To Moonwalk Back Trump’s Summit Goof
    Josh Marshall, TPM
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/white-house-now-trying-to-moonwalk-back-trumps-summit-goof

  91. 91.

    germy

    Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg arrives for grand jury testimony
    USA TODAY-3 hours ago
    WASHINGTON — Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg showed up Friday to testify before a grand jury hearing evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, reversing his earlier vow to ignore a subpoena. He even walked in the front door, where he was greeted by photographers.

  93. 93.

    germy

    @jl: USA Today has footage. He looks steady as a rock, at least for him.

    He’s a racist little shit, I hope he’s sweating.

  96. 96.

    Shell

    Did he really believe his snotty dumbass stunts would work?

    Yes. Just to take one look at his smirky face would attest to that.

  97. 97.

    tobie

    TPM is reporting that the summit with North Korea is indefinitely postponed and that it really was a spur-of-the-moment decision by the narcissist-in-chief. The 6:00 news better lambaste the nit-wit for conducting diplomacy in an impulsive manner that damages the credibility of the US.

  98. 98.

    MoCA Ace

    I was out in the shop working when I hears this on the radio. I cheered, gave a hearty FU to the crybaby, and laughed so hard I scared the dogs. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet Schadenfreude!

  99. 99.

    Hungry Joe

    The Shkreli sentence is a test for me. I believe sentences are, in general, much too long, and that prison conditions are far too harsh. Norway has the right idea: They believe that taking away one’s freedom is the punishment, and that treating prisoners like animals is immoral. As a result, their recidivism rate is a small fraction of what our is. Iceland has a maximum sentence of seven years for all crimes except murder, which is 14 years. (I don’t think they have any incarcerated murderers right now.) Prisoners in Iceland can earn weekend passes because, guess what, they’re human beings and it’s kind of nice that they’re able to function normally in society once they’re released.

    So I’m [grinds teeth] okay with Shkreli’s sentence.

  102. 102.

    cthulhu

    Even Shrkeli’s lawyer finds his face to be punchable:

    Attorney Benjamin Brafman told Matsumoto Friday that he sometimes wants to hug Shkreli and sometimes wants to punch him in the face, but he said his outspokenness shouldn’t be held against him.

    And of course, there is this great piece about the jury selection: https://harpers.org/archive/2017/09/public-enemy/

  103. 103.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud:

    Strong job numbers, I think.

    Stronger job numbers than expected, yes. But just as important for Wall Street is that wages remain stagnant at 0.1% growth.

  106. 106.

    Corner Stone

    Nicolle Wallace turned her head a certain way and for a moment it looked like she was wearing pigtails. I fainted.

  111. 111.

    jl

    @Corner Stone: I agree, its the combo of strong job growth and continued weak to so-so real wage growth that is important. And if I may be so bold, this is something I have been predicting, and I think will continue until we get another 1 to 3 million more jobs created above trend growth rate. It is consistent with the Dean Baker theory that low employment population ratio is a hidden weakness in the labor market and makes unemployment rate a misleading indicator of how close we are to potential GDP.

    If you look at similar types of people by age category gender, race and ethnicity, there are between 1 and 3 million fewer people working now than before recessions in 2001 and 2007-8.

    Just tooting my own horn that I am, at least just this once, right about something. Probably get me fired as a Baud 2020 adviser, but what the hell, the campaign has been dishing out skunky beer again..

  112. 112.

    burnspbesq

    @LAO:

    I vote that he get sent to Yankton, SD—but only because BoP closed Boron, CA a few years ago. Boron would have been close enough to burning in hell to satisfy my desire for him to suffer.

  113. 113.

    stinger

    @Hungry Joe: It might be even better to lock them up all weekend (when lots of people get into trouble of various kinds) and let them out weekdays, so they can continue to earn money/support their family/have a job when they get out.

  115. 115.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Far be it from me to interrupt a good old-fashioned pile-on, but sadistic degradation is not one of ours, it is one of theirs. Don’t kick him when he’s down. You don’t have to help him up either, but don’t kick him. If he got what was coming to him (he did), and if that is a good thing (it is), it is because it wasn’t coming to him from the likes of us, but from the system. The system worked. That’s enough.

  116. 116.

    Gelfling 545

    @schrodingers_cat: Yep, he’s got it all: conplete lack of self awareness, no moral compass, inability to filter his remarks, complete disregard for anyone who is not he, confidence that laws are for little people. Maybe if he gets out for good behavior soon enough he can run as Trump’s new vp.

  118. 118.

    SFAW

    @raven:

    She has nuts?

    Sort of. She has Paul Ryan’s nuts in a jar of formaldehyde on a shelf behind her desk.

  119. 119.

    Amir Khalid

    Say what you will about Shkreli, he has gone out of his way to help educate people on the meaning of Backpfeifengesicht and now Schadenfreude.

  120. 120.

    Barry

    @LAO: ” I read his latest. I shrug my shoulders at the crazy. I have a hard time believing Trump is going to push out Jaranka.”

    That’s the real thing – it looks like he thinks of Ivanka and Jared as his Real Children (the other two are maybe’s). They’ll stay on forever, destroying any threats to their power over Trump.

  121. 121.

    Barry

    @trollhattan: “I take Steven Miller as that person whose emotions run the gamut from scorn to rage. He’ll tell the judge just what he’ll do to him for this outrage, and how hard.”

    I would pay seriously good money for that. I think that he’d be stupid enough to pull his ‘nobody shall defy….’ sh*t on a judge while awaiting sentencing.

  122. 122.

    Barry

    @trollhattan: ““WH staff shakeup coming…” means exactly what to a WH that turns its staff over completely every two months? How would anybody know?”

    It means that Javanka hold all positions in the WH, with a few dregs brought in to serve them.
    It means a WH which is even worse than the current one.

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