Vox has a preview of a book that’s coming out next week, The Fight of His Life, authored by Chris Whipple, which Vox says gives a “mostly positive” behind-the-scenes look at the first two years of the Biden White House. There are tidbits about Biden not trusting the Secret Service (smart!) and believing they defamed his dog Major, etc., which isn’t new. But I hadn’t heard this before:
The distrust of Trump was so profound that Biden tried to remove reminders of the former president’s presence from the White House whenever possible. According to Whipple’s account, this included an effort to remove the Resolute desk, which Biden believed was tainted by Trump’s use of it, from the Oval Office and replace it with the desk used by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This fell through, and Roosevelt’s desk remained in Hyde Park, New York.
That’s not “distrust” — it’s disgust, and it’s completely understandable. Joe Biden isn’t the only American who wants to expunge all traces of the grotesque and embarrassing Trumps from our national history. As for removing Trump cooties from the Resolute desk, Old English furniture cleaner isn’t enough, but if the restoration team used a toothbrush and toothpaste (not the gel kind) to scrub the carving and details thoroughly and washed down the flat surfaces with hot water and soap, it should be okay to use.
Open thread.
We Placed a Bet on Michigan, and We Won Big
Ohio Mom
Oh, I like the symbolism of Biden using FDR’s desk. Too bad that idea didn’t fly.
Bill Arnold
Blowtorches are used to cleanse kitchens for Passover:
https://www.cedars-sinai.org/content/dam/cedars-sinai/blog/2018/03/Kosher-Kitchen-Passover-Prep.jpg
Some biblical ritual could be fun, especially if it made its way into the press with video.
(There’s a section about cleansing unclean clothing with fire, but that would be bad for the Resolute Desk.)
Brachiator
That is some serious antipathy. Not easy to remove, even with great furniture polish.
But every good thing that President Biden has done makes it easier to forget about Trump.
artem1s
The whole White House needs to be smudged but there probably isn’t enough sage in the universe.
Steeplejack
And I hope they burned some sage in the Oval Office.
Edmund Dantes
I was always of the belief Major was being antagonized into bites.
Nicole
I find this oddly endearing. But it’s like going to that special restaurant you and your ex went to together- it’s important to start making new, better memories after the disaster is over.
(Also I really liked that restaurant.)
Baud
I trust the dog.
VOR
I’m telling you, yellow crime scene tape around everything TFG ever touched.
J.
Lord only knows who sat on or under that desk, if you get my drift. I’d want it gone too — or at least thoroughly sanitized.
Ken
There may be some distrust involved too, though I assume Biden asked several different Federal security agencies to sweep the office, and the whole White House, for bugs.
WaterGirl
@Baud: You left out the L in gmail.
mrmoshpotato
It is tainted.
Baud
@WaterGirl: I reposted. Now it looks like I posted twice. YOU’VE RUINED EVERYTHING!!!!
owlbrick
Shit, now I’m wondering if there’s not a good reason for Biden to be specifically disgusted by the desk Trump used. Like, is there some kind of rumor amongst white house staff that inappropriate activities took place on the desk while Trump was in office? And would anyone be surprised if that were true?
RandomMonster
Entirely genuine questions that creep into my mind, usually while shaking my head in utter disbelief that a sleazoid like Trump was our 45th president: How do official presidential portraits get commissioned? Is there always one? Could there be one and it never gets displayed in a public facility?
WaterGirl
@Baud: What are you talking about? :-)
mrmoshpotato
I trust the White House was combed over for Russki bugs before the Bidens moved in.
Elizabelle
I would have wanted to fumigate Air Force One and all the executive aircraft. Three times. It always bothered me that TFG had access to such splendid resources and military staff. Paid for by US taxpayers.
zhena gogolia
@owlbrick: I hope at least they were able to give him a different chair.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
👍
Hoodie
@owlbrick: Probably just saturated with noxious farts, french fry crumbs and chicken grease.
Urza
I hope someone trustworthy checked every inch of the Oval for listening devices, especially after that soccer ball.
WaterGirl
@Urza: Soccer ball?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If there were some way to find a definitive answer, I would bet Mr Whipple $500 that this was Biden’s thinking, rather than ‘ew, trump cooties!”.
Not quatloos, mind you, five hundred greenbacks! American.
mrmoshpotato
@owlbrick: Dump probably took a dump on the desk.
Ohio Mom
@artem1s: Yes, I was going to suggest smudging over blow-torching.
I hasten to add that I’ve known families who are very enthusiastic in their Passover preparations but no one I’ve ever known has blow-torched anything. A good scrubbing suffices.
But a big hospital like Cedars-Sinai that is strong-armed into the involvement of ultra orthodox rabbis must make a big show of it. Really, does anybody think blow-torching is an ancient tradition? People living in wooden shacks in Eastern Europe were not interested in risking burning down their homes. Feh on the ultra-Orthodox who have perverted so much.
...now I try to be amused
The Romans had a custom called damnatio memoriae (“condemnation of memory”). Trump deserves that more than any other American.
The Republic of Venice sentenced Doge Marino Faliero to death and damnatio memoriae for an attempted coup. His official portrait was replaced with a black shroud with the inscription:
Hic est locus Marini Faletro decapitati pro criminibus (“This is the space reserved for Marino Faliero, beheaded for his crimes”)
cmorenc
Aren’t there other legacy desks used by other former Presidents available in storage? If the FDR desk is in Hyde Park, NY – it’s managed by the National Park Service, and perhaps the unavailability is similar to how historical exhibits of famous people’s furniture in the Smithsonian museum aren’t available to be taken off for use by current office-holders of every sort (including POTUS).
mrmoshpotato
@RandomMonster: And would the orange shitstain be scowling?
trollhattan
Things you just can’t explain.
Roger Moore
I’ve said before, I’m tired of our President sitting at an ancient desk that’s steeped in history, wondering which former President’s favorite desk he’ll use. Our government is already too focused on history and not enough on the future. FDR didn’t dig up some musty, century old desk for the oval office. He used one that had been made recently to show off the skills of American craftsmen*. Doing the same kind of thing would be a positive symbol of the same kind of attitude.
Every President should get their own desk that shows off their personal style and highlights the skills of American manufacturing. When they leave office, the desk could be moved to their Presidential library, first as an actual workspace for when they want to go there and work on their papers, and later as a museum exhibit about what their presidency was like. That would empty out the office so the next President could have complete freedom to remake the space to their liking.
*FWIW, the desk was first given to Hoover when brand new, and FDR didn’t bother to redecorate the office.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: Dallas Zoo is trending and I thought, Oh god, no. Then I saw it was a serious siuttaiton and thought, Oh shit. Then I saw that it concerns an unaccounted-for leopard
what a beautiful animal
Ruckus
I’d bet that it is extremely difficult to remove SFB stench from any place. And look, he still has a draw to those who seem to like stench more than anything else in the world. Stench to them is the normal smell of the world, because they surround themselves with stench. A fellow traveler in the world of only stench, one who is on the list of supreme stench, is going to be their leader. And it’s for 2 reasons, first they like stench, it is normalcy to them, they have been raised on stench and second the only thing they actually know is stench, it permeates their every move, every thought (even as few thoughts that exist in there), and second it gives them a reason to keep living, because they live/breathe/bathe/ for stench, it gives them a purpose in life, be for stench. And SFB is the epitome of stench.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: Had The White Lotus season 1 aired by the time he left?
Old Man Shadow
I think Major picked up on the people who meant his daddy harm. Dogs are good about that sort of stuff. Don’t mess with the pack.
I’d also ditch the desk. Put it on display in the Smithsonian.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Ohio Mom: Two years ago a father and son pair of rabbis used blowtorches in the kitchen of a nursing home in NY state to purify it for Passover. End result: a resident and a volunteer fireman killed, and the place was totaled.
Mr. Longform
@Roger Moore:
I would advocate a compromise position – keep desks around for a while, install a new one every few presidents. But any desk sat at by DJT should be chopped into small pieces and thrown into an active volcano.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Out on the hunt for Republican faces!
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Clouded leopards eating rainy faces?
Jinx!
Mike in Pasadena
Was the desk and fumigate the entire effing building. Probably need to fumigate the Executive Office Building to remove fundamentalist residue.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: No idea. I don’t watch it. And I don’t think I will seeing what you’re asking about.
RandomMonster
@mrmoshpotato: Well, I googled it:
They haven’t said who the artist is. One interesting thing to note:
Guarantee the Trump portraits will not draw crowds.
Ohio Mom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: IIRC, Biden did not put a lot of effort into decorating the Oval Office. I think he left the drapes as they were, pulled the rug out of storage, rearranged a few works of art. I think the sofas were also pre-used.
Some other presidents have put a lot more effort into redecorating. Obama for one, hired an interior designer and brought in new furniture; as I recall, GW commissioned a new rug (please, no one quote me without confirming my hazy memories with google).
Which I think supports that Biden wanted to make a statement, that he was hoping to take his place in history alongside FDR. He’s certainly trying to.
mrmoshpotato
@Old Man Shadow:
Fixed.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: Haha, I’m pretty squeamish, but the story drew me in so much I didn’t mind.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
There should have been videos of Biden putting together a desk he bought at IKEA. Missed opportunity to go viral.
mrmoshpotato
@Mr. Longform: How about the Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan?
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: 🖕😁
Mike in NC
@RandomMonster: There must be a couple of bathrooms in the White House basement suitable to decorate with Fat Bastard’s ugly portrait.
mrmoshpotato
@RandomMonster: Haha, Dump is fleecing his racist trash supporters to fund his scowling face too.
skerry
@zhena gogolia: This was my first thought.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Bury them at a landfill – after they’re burned.
Anotherlurker
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): I am not an enemy of religion, per se. However, fundamentalism of any kind is proven to be a corrosive influence on societies. It stands in the way of emotional and physical progress and keeps its adherents frightened and suspicious of their fellow citizens . It very much encourages “Us vs Them ” thinking.
What to do about it?
I have no idea.
RedDirtGirl
I saw the name Chris Whipple and I thought it was the guy who tried to turn schools into businesses back in the day.
zhena gogolia
I love Betty’s post title. I had no idea what it meant when I first saw it, but after reading the post, I guffawed.
sdhays
@Baud: He should have commissioned Jimmy Carter to build a new Presidential desk. That would be pretty cool, and all American.
Of course, the media couldn’t handle Jimmy in the Oval Office again, even if was just to take measurements.
zhena gogolia
@skerry: I can’t help but think of the gossip of that guy who worked on celebrity apprentice about TFG’s diapers, etc.
RandomMonster
@Mike in NC: I would personally fund the official Trump presidential urinal cake.
geg6
@Roger Moore:
Ooooo, if I was president, I’d want a Nakashima.
El Muneco
@…now I try to be amused: There’s a monument on the Saratoga battlefield that symbolizes a Major General who was wounded in the leg in the battle. This man was Benedict Arnold, who was at the time the greatest soldier in the Continental Army and not yet a traitor. The inscription was very carefully worded:
“In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army who was desperately wounded on this spot, the sally port of Burgoyne’s great [western] redoubt 7th October 1777 winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution and for himself the rank of Major General.”
Nothing about it identifies Arnold.
mrmoshpotato
@RandomMonster:
Directions for use: Face side down. Because even looking at his disgusting face while pissing on it…
persistentillusion
@mrmoshpotato: Would the Tangerine Tantrum be recognizably human? The bar, it keeps getting lower.
geg6
@mrmoshpotato:
He’ll take the $$ and just use the fake TIME cover.
rikyrah
I don’t blame 46 for not wanting ANYTHING associated with Dolt45
Kent
As I recall, the absolutely tackiest thing the Trumps did was “remodel” Air Force 1 to get rid of the classic color scheme designed by Jackie Kennedy and make it something garish. Apparently the did the same thing to the interior as well.
Hope to got they were able to properly fumigate and purge the planes of whatever stench and unidentified liquids were left by the Trumps. But there might not be all that much the Bidens can do about the color schemes and interior if that is a big $$ renovation. That is just another FOX news scandal waiting to happen.
And of course there was the rose garden that Melania trashed. Hopefully that is in the process of being repaired.
lee
@Baud:
Even before more details of the story came out, I think most folks sided with the dog.
geg6
@Kent:
I know it’s not the most important thing in the world, but this pissed me off so much I was incandescent with rage when I saw what she’d done.
zhena gogolia
@geg6: Me too.
Kelly
Unlikely since he’d need a hoist to get on top of the desk.
gvg
I recall a story about Trump being shown a book that catalogued the choices he could make…there were several desks, drapes carpets etc and he picked a bunch of gold things. The drapes and rug were gold. Tacky. I didn’t especially notice it in later photos so maybe someone talked him into changing it to a more American President blue. He liked the resolute desk because of the name.
There are supposed to be several desks available. Also historical figures are shorter than modern ones and most of the old desks have had to be made taller a few times. I always found that to be interesting. People are getting taller and we have always tended to elect taller than average Presidents.
I remember Nancy Reagan spent a bunch of our money on new china and other stuff which I did not appreciate.
geg6
@Baud:
Always.
trollhattan
@RandomMonster:
Odds: 1. it’s not done by McNaughton and 2. most of that money eventually finds its way back into Trump’s pocket?
danielx
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m thinking bleach solution.
danielx
@RandomMonster:
Now if there was an opportunity to piss on the portraits, the lines would be around the block.
Ruckus
@Mr. Longform:
What do you have against volcanos?
sab
@Edmund Dantes: Rescues tend to be careful about vetting these days. I would thibpnk they would be extrenely careful about vetting a dog going to a high profile position. Also too I had a GSD. So yes, I believe Biden over the secret service.
Old Man Shadow
@RandomMonster: He’ll probably have himself portrayed with a body like Superman again.
Ruckus
@RandomMonster:
They would draw crowds if people could do things to them, with spray paint, urine – or worse. Just like his grave will.
Ohio Mom
I like to think that sometime in the second half of Biden’s second term — when he’s coasting on all his achievements — Jill will spearhead a volunteer effort to redo the Rose Garden to its former glory with private/charitable donations (of course this effort will have been long underway on the down low).
To undertake this any sooner might be a big PR mistake, with all sorts of blowback. “We can’t afford groceries and they are buying flowers?” sort of thing.
Steeplejack
@Kent:
I think Melania was a scapegoat on the Rose Garden fiasco. Trump and the GQP wanted it cleared as a backdrop for partisan political events.
MattF
In case you start to think “Well, maybe David Brooks isn’t so bad…”, here’s Brad DeLong, explaining why Brooksie is, in fact, bad.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I think they wanted the desk to last for Biden’s full time in office, which pretty well precluded anything from Ikea.
geg6
@Steeplejack:
I don’t believe that at all. She’s always shown she has terrible taste in decorating and I imagine that extends to the beauty of a garden. Don’t cut that evil woman any breaks. She’s no better than he is.
Dangerman
@Old Man Shadow: Bonfire. Bring hot dogs and buns.
zhena gogolia
@MattF: it’s good. But I couldn’t even read the quoted passages from bobo.
Jackie
@Kent: I believe TFG’s Air Force 1 design was scrapped, due to excessive weight.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/06/10/trumps-air-force-one-paint-scheme-scrapped-by-biden-.html
mrmoshpotato
@geg6:
Agreed. She’s racist, birther shit like her racist, birther shit husband.
M. Bouffant
Oh, that Old English. Thought you meant Olde English 800 malt likker. Not enough of that, either.
Edmund Dantes
@Roger Moore: I have had ikea stuff survive three moves now including cross country trip.
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie:
Well, that’s just Dump’s fat, orange, fascist ass… If he threw himself into a volcano…
Old School
@RandomMonster:
Trump can draw crowds, but they’d prefer to break into the Smithsonian while it isn’t open to the public to see the portraits.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: Sounds about right to me too. She’s a thoroughly horrible person, but I don’t think it would occur to her to vandalize the rose garden. It sounds like she had to be prodded and cajoled into taking up any official 1L duties at all, which might be admirable if done as a statement about the sexist bullshit that goes along with that role, but that wasn’t her motivation.
Kayla Rudbek
@Roger Moore: hey, I am still using my IKEA desk that I bought in 2004, and I expect to be able to use it for quite some time yet! Now the standing desk riser that I bought this year to sit on top of the desk, that riser has moving parts and who knows how long it’ll last?
Urza
@WaterGirl:
Link
This soccer ball. The prevalence of chips now would make it easy to insert something say into the furniture. Maybe run some powerful magnets over the office.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Free Major!
Ohio Mom
@MattF: I’ve long thought that David Brooks’ role at the NYT is click bait. Before the column went online, the print edition of the letters to the editor frequently had letters pulling apart his arguments. In the limited amount of space for letters, he took up a fair amount of it.
The column Brad Delong is complaining about has over 3,000 comments and I bet that all but a very few of them are excoriating him and co-writer Bret Stephens. If you enjoy watching Brooks being dragged, the comments section of any Brooks’ column is for you.
Seanly
@Kelly:
I picture Trump floating around the Oval Office like Baron Harkonnen in Lynch’s Dune (gross pimples & all)
skerry
@zhena gogolia: exactly. ewww just ewww
cain
Not to be paranoid – but it seems like there is deluge of “scandals” for the Biden administration. Just so some shit about how Hunter Biden had access to the garage next to where the secret documents are. I smell ratfucking going on.
ETA – WHAT! #100!! Friday the 13th be damned! I’m a WINNAH!!!
bbleh
@Steeplejack: @artem1s: @Bill Arnold: @danielx: I’d go with full plastic-tent-and-moon-suit fumigation, then those huge fans, then wall and rug and upholstery cleaning (or replacement and repainting), and THEN a whole rainbow of ritual cleanses, definitely including Korean and Native American shaman dances. You really don’t want to leave anything to chance.
@owlbrick: it would be irresponsible not to investigate.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This article runs a bit long, but it was kind of fun. Come for the (somewhat snotty) review of an outer-borough restaurant favored by Republicans, stay for the video of the covid-protest conga line that got the place shut down
RandomMonster
No question!
zhena gogolia
@Urza: Like when they built the “new embassy” in Moscow and then they couldn’t move in because it was riddled with listening devices.
Baud
@cain: I wonder if MSNBC has brought Andrea Mitchell out of her crypt to cover this story.
JMG
The President doesn’t even use the Oval Office desk for work! Just meetings. Stock car racing champ Jimmie Johnson went to the White House when Bush 2 was President and got Bush to admit there was a little office hidden away where he kept his personal computers and had phones to do actual work that wasn’t in-person meetings.
Roger Moore
@Edmund Dantes:
I’m being totally unfair. I’ve had the same Ikea computer desk for close to 20 years, and it’s held up just fine. That said, my understanding is the Oval Office is primarily a meeting space, and most of the paperwork is done in the President’s private study. It’s necessary to have a public office that’s mostly devoid of papers so the staff doesn’t need to go through the office putting away classified documents every time visitors without an appropriate security clearance come to visit. That means the desk in the Oval Office is mostly for show, which is why they tend to be kind of ostentatious.
Bill Arnold
@owlbrick:
Biden is a Catholic. Whatever demonic taint is involved presumably would not be reliably removed by Holy Water.
C Stars
@M. Bouffant: LOL I’ve had BJ open on my browser all day, waiting to read, and I thought she meant Old English the language. Was preparing for some sealten wordings.
Roger Moore
@Urza:
The US government employs plenty of people who are capable of searching for and disabling listening devices. If they can’t figure out if the furniture is bugged, we have big problems.
NotMax
Old English? Scott’s Liquid Gold for the win.
Hm. Apparently only sold in spray form now. Good thing I instructed the parents to ship six cans of the pop the lid open and pour onto a cloth kind years ago (impossible to find here at the time).
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
What do you have against volcanos?
NotMax
@C Stars
Gadzooks!
:)
TriassicSands
@sdhays:
Jimmy is about 200 years old now; i think his desk-building days are behind him. But he is an ethical example for every president who comes after him. None will deviate as far from his model of decency as Trump did.
Once Trump occupied the White House, the only truly effective post-tenure action would have been to burn the whole thing to the ground. Not the desk, the White House. They’ll never get his stench out. Habitat for Humanity could have built a new presidential residence. Fantasy, yes, but a guy can dream. At least not until 2025 if a Republican gets elected.
WaterGirl
@Baud:
So mean, yet so well deserved!
RepubAnon
@Steeplejack: Beats putting on hazmat gear to avoid contamination. Besides, the dried up catsup probably attracted flies.
Frankensteinbeck
@gvg:
It varies over time and location, but I know Americans now are 2” taller on average than 100 years ago. Maybe more important, there is way, way more variation in height. 6’ was really tall because being 5” above average height was really rare.
RepubAnon
@NotMax: when I saw the title , I was thinking Olde English 800 malt liquor.
Kent
Actually it was excessive heat. Apparently the darker colors generate more heat and there are some sensitive components that might be affected. Here is a better link to a better story on the subject: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/10/biden-trump-air-force-one-paint-scheme-00038775
I’m actually sort of skeptical since there are plenty of commercial airliners out there that have dark blue paint. Like for example Air New Zealand which is entirely dark Navy blue. Compared to Trump’s design which is almost identical to British Air.
But hey, it sounds like a good and plausible reason that someone came up with to avoid a day of FOX News outrage over the scrapping of Trump’s precious design. I attribute it to clever bureaucrating.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@NotMax: Pourable is available on Amazon and other sites. Look for “Scott’s Liquid Gold Pourable”.
Hilfy
Never mind the Resolute desk. It can be thoroughly cleaned. I’m still waiting for Biden to replace Trump’s scrofulous wallpaper in the Oval Office. It is vulgarly over-elaborate and attention grabbing, like Trump himself. I can understand a busy man not noticing this, wish someone would point out such ugliness to him . Who would be the best person to write to, to beg for new wallpaper?
Geminid
Hamline University’s firing of an adjunct professor over showing an image of the Prophet Muhammad in class got some attention here yesterday. I noticed this report on the matter today:
Mr. Ingraham included more relevant passages from CAIR National’s statement.
Predictably, one of his first answers was, “But what if some professor….”
TriassicSands
It should be renamed the Dissolute.
TriassicSands
That sentence should be at the end of the previous paragraph.
Geminid
@C Stars: I was afraid this was going to be a be a language pedant thread. What a relief when I found out otherwise!
HumboldtBlue
@sdhays:
That would be awesome.
soapdish
@M. Bouffant: 100% came here to say the same thing.
Feathers
@Geminid: Josh Marshall brought up the fact that the original complaint used the fact that the teacher had given a content warning as proof of intent to show harmful material. Completely incorrect reasoning that needs to be nipped in the bud. I remember the whole Tipper Gore record label warnings BS and how that went from “letting parents know” to “we can arrest minimum wage record store employees who sell these to minors” in no time. I’m in an online book group where we read golden age mysteries. These have little to no on the page sex and violence. The reading list is being handled a bit differently this year, so some contemporary mysteries are being nominated as group reads. We vote on the choices, one of them this month is fairly violent. Every time someone mentioned it, there is just a whole set of people weighing in on their non-reading of violent books. It’s just strange. We’re reading books where people and often multiple people are being murdered.
I support content warnings, but if people want to keep attacking the existence of the content and those who consume it, instead of saying “thanks for letting me know, I won’t be reading this,” I may start rethinking this.
Realizing I was intending to say fuck the Secret Service, they did Champ dirty. I’m 50/50 on their actually having been a bite. Not putting it below one of these guys to have a dog bite them, come to work, and blame it on Champ.
Also, historical preservation people have lost the plot. Desks are made to be used. If Biden wants to use FDR’s desk, he should be able to.
Omnes Omnibus
The malt liquor works in the title too.
Ken
If it’s a money-laundering scheme, it’s the slowest I’ve ever heard of.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Hilfy: Willow Biden
RSA
Sorry, Joe, you gotta take one for the team. A lot of people think of that desk as a part of history, and no one wants history to read, “The last President to use the Resolute desk was Donald Trump.”
Roger Moore
@Feathers:
My understanding is that the situation with FDR’s desk isn’t about historical preservation. The desk was given to Elanor Roosevelt after FDR’s death, and she eventually gave it to his presidential library. That means it isn’t one of the desks the GSA has on hand. The presidential library is technically part of the federal government, but they are tasked with preserving the stuff under their purview, not providing things to the president. Biden might have eventually been able to wrangle the desk from them, but it probably made more sense to stick with what was readily available.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Never have I ever…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@RSA: Could replace it panel by panel. Like George Washington’s axe. “This is George Washington’s original ax. The blade has been replaced four times and the handle five times.”
Geminid
@Ken: There has been a lot of comment on how automatic payment systems can be manipulated so as to avoid FEC reporting. Campaign finance researcher Liz Burgh complains that a portion of the large sums of “small money donations” some candidates brag about are multiple donations from single donors, broken into small increments. This would have been cumbersome and slow 25 years ago when people wrote checks. Now though, with the right app it would not be that hard to give 27 dollars one hundred different times, and Burgh believes this is being done a lot.
Burgh takes a particular interest in the finances of the Justice Democrats outfit. She notes that early in his career, JD founder Saikat Chakrabarti worked for internet payment company Stripe (owned by the notorious Mr. Thiel), where he learned about and helped develop online payment systems.
Burgh identified a series of small dollar political donations Chakrabarti made in 2015, the year before he joined the first Sanders presidential campaign. They were made to a relatively obscure campaign, and the suspicious Burgh thinks these donations were a dry run to see how a campaign would report them to the FEC.
I myself am not conversant with FEC rules and reporting, or online payments either. But I could see how these $199.99 payments might be an efficient way to move a lot of money if done automatically, while avoiding more detailed reporting under election laws. But I expect journalists and various authorities are going over them attentively and we ought to know more before too long.
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
This kind of structuring is basically identical to the way people try to get around money laundering laws by having multiple transactions that are just below the $10,000 reporting threshold. I also see it as a sign they know what the law is and are trying to skirt it, which should be evidence of consciousness of guilt.
IMO, this is where the $27 stuff is actually pretty smart. They have a plausible explanation for why they chose that amount, and it’s far enough below the reporting threshold that it doesn’t look like a lazy attempt to skirt the rules. Multiple transactions for one cent below the limit is just a gigantic sign saying “I think I’m being clever at breaking the law”.
Another Scott
@trollhattan:
Somehow the legal ramifications he may face aren’t at the top of my list of concerns.
Maybe it’s different in the UK (home of the BBC) but here in America 6 year olds are not legally responsible for much of anything…
Grr…,
Scott.
Feathers
@Roger Moore: Ah. That makes sense. I’m sure Eleanor would have wanted Joe to have the desk, though.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Feathers: and presidential library people are usually pretty gung-ho about their presidents. I remember CSPAN or Book TV used to do long broadcasts from different libraries, the librarians and other staff always seemed really invested in their jobs. I loved those shows, but I’ve long since fallen out of the habit of checking that channel. I’d be surprised if the Team Roosevelt, including probably a few descendants, wouldn’t be thrilled to have the old man’s desk in the Oval Office, but who knows what bureaucratic or other obstacles, up to and including the physical condition of the desk, got in the way.
Juju
@Hilfy: I loath that wallpaper. If I had to look at it every day, it’s useless ostentatiousness would give me a migraine. I’m surprised that wallpaper wasn’t the first thing to go. Blehh.
Juju
@Another Scott: the parents who left the gun where a six year old could get to it should be held responsible.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: Santos was a sloppy operator. This may have been as some suggested, a “Springtime for Hitler” operation intended to fail and thus evade scrutiny. He’s sure getting it now, though.
Santos’s money is funny in a lot of ways that we are still finding out about. I keep looking at his connection to Andrew Intrater. He was Santos’s biggest campaign backer.
I knew about Intrater’s connection to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, whose Long Island home was visited September 6 by FBI agents. Intrater is Vekselberg’s cousin and he handles some of Vekselberg’s money though his investment company, Columbus Nova. There is more, though.
Intrater was involved in a $500,000 payment to Michel Cohen while Cohen worked for Trump. He also donated a lot of money to Trump’s Inaugural Committee. Intrater is an American citizen so that might have been ok, but there were indications that Vekselberg was buying himself influence.
Once you add in the fact that in this last cycle Intrater also donated to Lee Zelden’s campaign, as well as to the Nassau County Republican party, the Santos affair starts looking kind of bad for New York Republicans. It already looks bad for Congressional Republicans, and that could get worse.
Rebels Dad
@Bill Arnold: I think an exorcism would be a great idea. Although the US Catholic bishops might not go for it (in that case Biden can always find a Protestant or Episcopalian to do it, hell I volunteer myself.)
Tehanu
IIRC, the Resolute desk was used by President Kennedy so I would be very much in favor of delousing it and making sure none of Dump’s cooties remain on it.
Dopey-o
I thought the “old english” referred to 4-letter anglo-saxon vernacular language. I had a friend who would ejaculate a string of 10 or 12 those, rapidfire, when frustrated.
that generally happened while working on his Morris (british) car, with its Lucas (Prince of Darkness) Electrical wiring.
LiminalOwl
@Ohio Mom: Brooks at the NYT and Thiessen and Hewlett at the WaPo. I always hate myself for reading the latter two, but the comments are fun.
LiminalOwl
@Geminid: And I hoped it would be language pedantry.
@Dopey-o: Glad I wasn’t the only one to read it that way.
J R in WV
@Kent:
I would disagree with you on this — there are way more highly technical and sensitive components installed on AF One than on any commercial airliner — think about it for a minute!
Kayla Rudbek
@Rebels Dad: I’m sure that the president could find some Jesuit priests who would do the exorcism