Optional musical accompaniment for the following post:
John covered Trump’s plan to build a tacky, golden ballroom onto the White House in last night’s open thread, but goddamn, look at this hideous and cheap imitation of the Winter Palace! It looks like an ad from Crazy Liberace’s Discount Gold Flock Warehouse.
In a White House statement that is equal parts self-congratulatory and defensive, Trump’s incompetent flaks note that the current arrangement is unacceptable because large gatherings require erecting an “unsightly tent” located “approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance.”
Translation: this exceeds Trump’s maximum waddling distance, so he has to be transported there by golf cart, which is embarrassing.
President Trump, and other patriot donors, have generously committed to donating the funds necessary to build this approximately $200 million dollar structure. The United States Secret Service will provide the necessary security enhancements and modifications.
I guaran-damn-tee y’all this is a grift-o-rama, just like the Qatari “gift” plane, for which the Trump administration stole nearly a billion dollars that were set aside to secure our aging nuclear missile silos, all to make sure Donald Trump can shit in a golden toilet at 30K feet.
The White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said the following: “President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail. The President and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future Administrations and generations of Americans to come.”
More bullshit. Trump is a fucking CROOK at heart, Suze, and you know it. (An aside: I look forward to Wiles’ eventual tell-all — hopefully authored from a minimum security Club Fed facility — after the fascist Trump regime reaches its inevitable sticky end. Wiles is evil but not stupid.)
Open thread.
On The Road – Captain C – Netherlands, September 2024 Part 4: Hotel New York, and Some from Den Haag
prufrock
We might have to invite the Brits to come burn down the White House a second time.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Lapassionara
Just when I think things can’t get worse, they get worse.
Suzanne
I noted last night that these are essentially what we call “white box” renderings, which means that the final product will look a lot different when it’s done. We do renders in this style early in the project, before materials are selected. So when there’s paint and flooring and curtains and all that stuff, it’s likely to look somewhat less flashy/trashy.
What I think looks deeply ungood are the exterior renders. It looks like Fake History Crap architecture, and it’s this chonky box, which kind of throws off the symmetry of the building elevation.
NotMax
Large ballroom to compensate for small ball room elsewhere?
//
Suzanne
Oh, and if anyone thinks they’re coming in on a $200 million budget, or that they’re finishing this soon enough for FFOTUS to use it….. LMAO.
NotMax
@Suzanne
“Back to the drawing board. He wants the windows all shaped like the letter T.”
SFAW
Final amount that Fuckhead actually contributes: minus $100 million. [“Minus” because he’s going to “repurpose” that amount into his own pockets.]
Scout211
Susie Wiles says what? Her statement reads like a sales campaign. I thought she was running the White House but I guess she’s also employed as a pitch person for a sales campaign. But then again, who isn’t in Trump’s campaign?
NotMax
@NotMax
“And a big beautiful disco ball hanging from the ceiling.”
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I guess it depends, I’ve seen stuff get built pretty quickly. I agree about the budget, though.
MazeDancer
Guess there will be no need for approvals or permits. Or dealing with any historical protevtions saying you can’t demo the East Wing.
Will this be the throne room, too?
ICYMI, here is VP Harris interview with Colbert.
twbrandt
It looks like it was inspired by Louis XIV crossed with Saddam Hussein,
Suzanne
@NotMax: I’m not offended by the idea of adding on architecturally. Honestly, from what I’ve read, a larger room for events has been a desire of many presidents. Hosting events in a tent with all the logistical problems that brings seems less than ideal.
But, like many architects, I hate when we try to make something contemporary look like the styles of the past. It doesn’t make sense; we use different materials now, and every era has its own look and feel. It usually comes off as a bad copy. There’s so many ways to do additions that honor what’s there without trying to make the new thing look like it’s the same age. Hence: Fake History Crap.
sab
@prufrock: Why not ask the Canadians to do it instead?
japa21
@Suzanne:
Considering Trump, I guarantee you the final product would be more flashy/trashy.
NotMax
Just for fun, Strictly Ballroom.
;)
prufrock
@sab: They’ve become too polite.
Scout211
For a change of pace this morning, blog favorite Drew Magary reviews the new Naked Gun movie:
I hate reboots but damnit ‘The Naked Gun’ rules
The review concludes:
Suzanne
@MazeDancer: So I dug around last night, and it’s so unclear what is actually happening. The press release said something about starting the project in September, but these renders are concept-level and there’s no drawings. So I can’t tell if they’re totally or partially demolishing the East Wing, or just adding onto it. How much of the site will be changed, and if the existing functions of the East Wing will be relocated into the new building (90,000 SF implies that there’s a lot more than a ballroom being built). Honestly, it looks to me like they are very early in the design process.
NotMax
@Suzanne
In this case, slapped together by the Habitat for Inhumanity.
Chief Oshkosh
Well, I look forward to Wiles’ stepping on a rake, breaking her nose, and knocking out her two front teeth. I guess YMMV.
Wapiti
@MazeDancer: There appears to be no need for competitive bidding, either.
Suzanne
@japa21: Depends. Trump’s personal properties mostly look terrible. The hotel interiors mostly look like standard boring rich person stuff. (Amazing how they all have the same boring taste.) So we’ll see where it lands.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Given all the shit Dump has done throughout his miserable life, Dump has enormous balls.
His micropenis is a different story.
Hey Satan! (NSFW)
kindness
The next Democratic president owes it to all of us to demolish Trump’s monstrosity no matter how much Republicans and the right squeel, shriek and whine. Tear it down. Ignore the MSM & the right wingers (redundant, I know).
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: How many statues of his fat, orange, fascist ass will there be? How many of Putin?
Miss Bianca
@Scout211: Ooh, I guess I’m gonna have to lobby for this one at my theater. I loved the original “Naked Gun” series, and part of what made them so effective was that Leslie Neilsen had been such a SEEE-RIOUS dramatic actor. I am guessing that Liam Neesan will have something of that same affect.
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: Hey, relax, guy!
LMAO.
NotMax
Just for additional fun, clip from the woefully overlooked Stepping Out .
:)
piratedan
I guess the next step for DJT would be to place his mug alongside the other dudes on Mt. Rushmore. Perhaps we can convince him to put his attention on that for a while.
sab
@prufrock: Good point, but they seem to have their gloves off lately about US as neighbors.
MattF
I suppose there will be marble and everything not marble will be ‘goldish’ (as Terry Pratchett would say). So, high-maintenance, at least at the start.
ETA: Autocorrect really wanted me to write ‘goldfish’. So, there you go, Auto.
sab
Google says White House grounds are 16 acres. How much is 90,000 ft?
ETA 2.0066 acres.
schrodingers_cat
Did anyone watch KH’s interview by Colbert? My Twitter feed is buzzing with it.
satby
Miss Bianca
@sab: survey says…90,000 square feet is about 2 acres.
MattF
@sab: A little under two football fields.
New Deal democrat
I hate to change the subject on you all, but this morning’s jobs report merits its own discussion.
In a word, it was AWFUL.
I have yet to see a single take trying to downplay its negativity. Not only have there been just 35,000 new jobs created on average in the last three months, but the unemployment rate went up even with the number of people even participating in the labor force going down.
And all of the leading sectors of employment – manufacturing, residential construction, temporary help, goods production in total – not only all went down, but with revisions are now showing as having declined for three or four months in a row.
About the only reason this report did not indicate that we are already in a recession is because the headline number remained positive.
For a sample of the negative takes, here is Carl Quintanilla’s Bluesky feed:
bsky.app/profile/carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Best take, by E. J. Kalafarski:
”Yikes. It’s not often you get 3 months of bad jobs numbers in a single month. I wonder if any major changes to global trade policy happened exactly 3 months ago?”
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Has this writer been reading BJ comments?
NotMax
@piratedan
Luckily, geologists have determined there is no more suitable rock on Rushmore. Maybe he will try to get Noem to push for his mug on the Crazy Horse statue.
Jackie
@piratedan:
A few MAGA Congress critters are already lobbying for this, along with renaming national airports, the Kennedy Center, renaming Washington DC, etc, etc. Ass kissing sycophants.
piratedan
@NotMax: I find it quaint that you think that DJT will take under advisement anything that might limit his own self glorification :-)
Scout211
The part of the story that many of the news outlets are emphasizing in their lede is, Trump is “kicking Melania out of the East Wing.” LOL
She and her staff are being “temporarily relocated.” But then where will she go?
Betty Cracker
@satby: I like The Daily Blast. Short and informative!
piratedan
@Jackie: I’m all for renaming things in DJT’s name, as long as the normal protocols are followed and it means that he’s dead.
Sure Lurkalot
@sab: An acre is 43,560 sf. I was in the biz and was taught to remember it by noting the numbers in order and switch the first two, which shouldn’t work but did for me.
MattF
@NotMax: Just replace Teddy.
Jackie
@New Deal democrat:
It’s ALL Jerome Powell’s fault! //
Suzanne
@sab: The exterior renders show that the building is at least two stories, so it’s not going to cover that much of the site.
NotMax
@MattF
AI will fix it.
//
satby
@schrodingers_cat: pretty much most social media anywhere right now is the same. Whole transcript was good, BTW.
satby
@Scout211: NYC and back to her happy place, nowhere near her husband.
sab
@Scout211: Thanks to Covid and DOGE there are lots of unoccupied buildings around DC.
me
Make
AmercianSoviet cars great again!sab
@Sure Lurkalot: That is a helpful mnemonic. Thanks.
satby
@Betty Cracker: I do too. People who say they only get their news here now, 😭.
The Other Bob
@New Deal democrat:
I am so confused. Shouldn’t all those unemployed folks be able to scoop up all the vacant farm and construction jobs now that we are kicking out all the immigrants? /s
NotMax
@The Other Bob
I hear ICE is hiring.
Hoodie
This POS is never going to happen. It’s just another bribery vehicle and some narcissistic supply for Trump. The “new” AF1 is similar. I think his staff encourages this stuff to keep him happy and let them pursue their own nefarious agendas. Seeing the pictures from his trip to Scotland, he increasingly looks old and shriveling. At that ribbon cutting for his golf course he stands next to his middle aged sons, who make him look small and hunched. His ankles are swelling and he has bruises on his hands. I think he’s probably scared shitless of dying and is desperate to anything to distract himself from the reality that he’s old and declining.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: I don’t remember the last time I watched South Park, but the new season is set up on my DVR.
NotMax
@Hoodie
But – but- according to Junior, “My father is hot.”
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: The extended interview is on the Late Show’s YouTube page. Clocks in at just under 30 minutes.
karensky
@NotMax: Ooo, snap! Thanks
satby
Damnit Joe Walsh, quit making me agree with you (except the respectfully part):
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
His mugshot?
Jeffg166
He’s turning the White House into a wedding venue that will be rented out. For a fee he will appear in bridal photos.
sab
@Suzanne: Wow. It looks like any old 19th century midwestern bank only bigger.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: I’m hoping she takes her Eurotrash racist birther ass back to Slovenia.
NotMax
@Jeffg166
“I’m going to the dressing rooms to check on the flower girls.”
mrmoshpotato
@Hoodie:
Because of who will be first to piss on his grave?
Princess Leia
@NotMax: And offering student loan cancelation as a perk!
Chief Oshkosh
@piratedan: It’d be great if someone convinced him to instead add his facsimile to Stone Mountain, riding his golf cart alongside the other treason-committing shitbirds on their horses. May as well concentrate all the awfulness. And who knows, maybe Trump’s contractors will fuck up and wipeout the entire “monument” to the worst people in our country’s history.
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: You are on a roll today. I’d ask what you for breakfast* but I have no idea off the top of my head what time zone Hawaii is in and what your most recent meal was.
Seriously, I don’t think we Juicers/Jackals remember enough to remind you how much your sharp wit enhances this dive blog.
* When Ohio Son was in elementary school and had had a good day, his teachers would tell me, “Today was a great day, whatever you fed Son, give it to him again tomorrow” To which I replied, “He had an Eggo waffle, the same thing he had yesterday when he drove you nuts.”
artem1s
@prufrock:
I wish I could upvote this a thousand times. Nominating it for rotating tag. Even out of context everyone will know what/who it’s about.
RevRick
@NotMax: Since he’s going to Hell, I’d say pre hot.
Suzanne
@sab:
Yeah, it is a big-ol’ disappointment.
Harrison Wesley
@Hoodie: He’s desperate enough to do anything except exercise and eat a healthy diet.
oldgold
Uh oh! The chaos and tariffs are starting to bite.
U.S. employers added a disappointing 73,000 jobs in July as payroll growth slowed. The unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.2%.
Even more concerning: Job gains for May and June were revised down by a whopping 258,000. Payroll gains for May have now been revised from 144,000 to 19,000 and June’s additions were downgraded from 147,000 to 14,000!
Ohio Mom
@New Deal democrat: I know the job market is awful because Ohio Son’s job developer (job developer is disability-speak for agency staff who help you find and keep a job) said so.
She looks to be in her 50s, so after three decades in the field, she’s seen it all. It’s all the sighing she does when she talks about the job market that scares me.
satby
@Suzanne: real Palace of Versailles vibe.
mrmoshpotato
Chicago Has Worst Air Quality In The World As Lollapalooza Starts
Woo hoo! /S
trollhattan
@oldgold: On the topic of our most geneeus finance presnit….
schrodingers_cat
@Ohio Mom: We were told that Joe Biden’s full employment economy meant zilch by self anointed progressives no less because 25 year olds didn’t have the house of their dreams
Media was fixated on the moderate inflation we had and they hardly ever spoke about the full employment economy.
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
::blushes, digs toes of the Birkenstocks into the sand:: Aw, shucks. Thanks for that.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: No, Temu Versailles vibe.
satby
@Ohio Mom: that’s a job I only lasted in 2 months when I got promoted from being a job coach. People who can do it are heros. I bailed after two months of dealing with the bigotry and ignorance. I’m not a person who can gently cajole opposition over months of effort and I realized what a terrible fit I was before my bosses did.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: yes, that’s it!
artem1s
@New Deal democrat:
This is not the tariffs. This is just the start of the trickle down (on) of firing thousands of federal workers across the whole country. EVERY department and agency was affected. These workers no longer have salaries to buy stuff. And for every federal worker cut you’re likely to see 2-5 at the state and local level as the cuts in those agencies result in canceled contracts and pass thru funding. Then there is the added burden of states and counties who are having to pay out unemployment wages. There is no end to the ripples that decimating these agencies will cause. The tariffs just add more things to the list that these unemployed workers can no longer afford.
Iron city
@prufrock: May just have them burn the Griftoballroom thing and plow up the paved over Rose Garden. And take as many high value hostages away with them as possible.
satby
@mrmoshpotato: Canadian wildfire smoke is affecting us here too, not quite as badly.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus:
Love that.
Another Scott
@MazeDancer: Thanks for the link.
It’s a good interview. Those expecting her to smite her enemies will be disappointed, but I like politicians who understand the job isn’t to use power to smite their enemies – it’s to use power to make the government, the country, and the world a better place for normal people. YMMV. ;-)
She’s saying all the right things, IMHO. She’s smart, has her heart in the right place, and is trying to figure out how to do the best she can for the country and all of us right now.
I very much like that she’s going to be out and about and doing the Hillary-esq “listening tour” and talking with everyone she can now. Pete is doing that, too. Beto is doing that, too. Many, many more good people need to be out doing that. We have to find people where they are and talk with them.
Eyes on the prizes, and the future of our system of government is the biggest prize of all.
I’ve pre-ordered her book.
Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Harrison Wesley
@mrmoshpotato: And so Canada begins the assault seeking to add the United States as a new territory…
Geminid
@oldgold: The unemployment story led the CBS Radio 10am news. The lead-in was the Dow Jones Average dropping 660 points in response to the new and revised numbers.
Downpuppy
@trollhattan: What the heck is 100% ground beef? Did Bailey Schulz see the “100% Guaranteed” stickers and think that was a guaranty of beef content? Was it written by an AI, or by an intern who’s never bought hamburger?
I know nothing. Nothing.
Baud
@oldgold:
Next month’s employment numbers should be better with all the people being hired to distract the MAGA from the Epstein files.
NotMax
@Harrison Wesley
A Tim Horton’s on every corner!
:)
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan:
‘Course, I’ve been paying $6+ per pound for ground beef for quite some time now, as I am only buying locally-raised grass-fed beef – one of the little perks of living in Redneckistan – it’s cattle country!
Iron city
@NotMax: I nominate Stone Mountain GA to have the Orange Menace’s smiling visage added with Lee, Jackson, Davis and whoever other traitors are on there. Could be scaled down to fit or just blast the existing ones off and add “he who must not be named”.
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: And they’ll all get paid in Trumpcoin! So much winning!
mrmoshpotato
@satby: That feels like an insult to the Palace of Versailles.
NotMax
@Downpuppy
Guaranteed rat droppings undetectable.
//
OGliberal
I believe Donald Trump is president because he’s a cheeseball, hateful, insecure, sociopath and so are many more Americans than we’d like to think. Sadly, I think believing this makes me sleep a tad bit better at night than believing he is president – twice! – because people watched a “reality” TV show and think he’s a genius, deal-making businessman. Because that would lead me to the conclusion that a large number of voting Americans are morons. Actually, I don’t know which is worse. You really can’t fix either.
I emphasize “twice” because winning re-election as a sitting president is relatively easy – it rarely fails. Winning, then losing because you are perceived as a failure, then winning even bigger the second, non-consecutive time is almost unprecedented and pretty impressive. I’m pretty certain this says more about American voters than Trump’s political expertise, although his marketing expertise – when targeted at haters and rubes – is top notch.
It’s all just one fucking Simon Cowell reality show contest and we’re stuck in it – but it’s people’s lives at stake, not a short-term record contract. (Kelly Clarkson was definitely a plant – they knew she was going to be huge and that’s why she was on Season One of whatever show that was – everybody else on all those shows has been, if they were lucky, a flash in the pan.)
mrmoshpotato
@satby: What is wunderground.com/ reporting for your air quality?
mrmoshpotato
@Harrison Wesley: Smoke screen!
Heidi Mom
@NotMax: Crazy Horse was a mystic as well as a warrior, so who knows what disasters may befall those who mess with his statue? Not that he wanted a statue, he never even allowed himself to be photographed, but he sure wouldn’t want to be replaced by Donald Trump.
Melancholy Jaques
@satby:
Fuck Joe Walsh too! The Democrats have grown elitist & out of touch? He’s definitely turned toward the good side, but still sees the world through right-wing glasses.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
They can rename it the “Crazy Fuck” statue.
XeckyGilchrist
@kindness: It may fall over all by itself, having been built by unpaid contractors in a big hurry.
trollhattan
@satby:
Can you slap a tariff on that smoke? Now hear me out….
OGliberal
@Melancholy Jaques: I think a lot of Democratic “strategists” – and not a small number of pols – think the same. Not saying they are correct but Walsh has done an almost complete 180 – I’m talking folks who have been Democrats forever.
Iron city
@NotMax:
When Canada Rules the World:
“Put curling rinks in Africa
And hockey everywhere
And make Americans have free health care
To France we’ll bring Poutene
Then we’ll conquer Britain and install our Queen” (okay, that didn’t age well, substitute “King”) ”
Arrogant Worms
lowtechcyclist
@Scout211:
I’m guessing she’d be perfectly happy to retreat to Trump Tower in NYC, since T’s rarely there.
To steal a line from Dylan, “she was tired of the attention, tired of playing the role of Big [Don’s] wife.”
Miss Bianca
@Melancholy Jaques: Funnily enough, we have very, very left-leaning commenters on this here blog that say the same thing about Democrats.
Yeah, that comment stuck in my craw too, but I am accepting Joe Walsh into the foxhole. For now./
Harrison Wesley
@mrmoshpotato: The big push will come after they start lacing that smoke with some of the fentanyl they’ve been shoveling across the border.
OGliberal
mrmoshpotato
@Melancholy Jaques: I think you’ll enjoy this blog post – The Parable of the Deadbeats
OGliberal
@lowtechcyclist: I know her redeeming quality is she hates her husband but Melania is an awful human being.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffg166:
For a substantially larger fee, he’ll stay out of the wedding photos.
/Chico Marx
Downpuppy
@NotMax: I’m tempted to ask her how hard it is to be vegetarian in Las Vegas.
NotMax
@XeckyGilchrist
Cocoanut Grove, anyone?
schrodingers_cat
@OGliberal: I do watch Top Chef and the Great British Baking Show. The recent iterations of Top Chef and GBB are not mean and I see the contestants helping each other.
JoyceH
What amuses me about the renderings of Trump on Mount Rushmore is that they’re apparently going to carve it out of air. Look at a picture of Mt R and then look at the Trump mockups. There’s no stone where they’re claiming Trump will go. If someone were to do a render of the mountain with Trump placed where there’s actual stone to carve, he would be further back and below where the others are. He would look small.
lowtechcyclist
@oldgold:
I don’t recall having ever seen one downward revision that dramatic, let alone two of them back to back. Anyone?
ETA: First time I saw them, I registered the 19K and 14K as the downward change, rather than what the initial numbers were being revised to. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it at first.
Another Scott
@OGliberal: When I was out and about in Winston-Salem yesterday, I heard a bit of an interview on Here and Now on the NPR station with a woman who had her own child-care business. She was in her 50s and said she had been doing it since she was a teenager, loved teaching little kids how to count and their ABCs and all the rest. Just loved, loved her job and her business, but it was really hard and she worried about the future.
When asked about who she voted for, there was a long pause, and she said something like “this is going to upset a lot of your listeners, but I voted for 47 because I thought it was important to have a businessman …”
[ Click ]
:-(
Humans are weird.
As Susanne says, stories that people hear and internalize are generally much more important than personalities or policies. We need to figure out how to find stories for our times that connect with more voters so that we can regain the majority.
Those of us who try to be analytical and dispassionate about politics aren’t immune to stories either. Kamala the Protector! Kamala for the People! Even if we meet candidates in person, we don’t really “know” them. We internalize feelings and act on those feelings. We’re all human.
tl;dr – It’s both and. Self-government demands that we recognize that we’re emotional, illogical bags of meat, not machines.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
BellyCat
Architect here. Frankly, I feared it would be MUCH worse than it is. Fortunately, it’s likely to never be built once the funding grift is exploited to the max.
OGliberal
@lowtechcyclist: Have to admit I am not a long time or loyal tracker of this stat but those revisions seem nuts.
BlueGuitarist
@Ohio Mom:
Agree re NotMax on a Roll
And appreciate your comments, for one example, your excellent comment re OhioSon breakfast.
Many other excellent comments, many other valued commenters, Love all y’all
@NotMax:
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
Win.
satby
@Melancholy Jaques: of course he does. But he’s now a registered Democrat and advocating against fascists. We call those people allies, they helped us win a war. Roosevelt never mistook Stalin for a fellow believer in political theory either.
OGliberal
@Another Scott: It’s so hard for me because I always think the logic of many things I would argue for make perfect sense. And they often do, not just based on my opinions but facts. But people act on emotion. Obama trapped me in that, a bit. Of course, whatever faults he may have had, he was infinitely better than this d-bag.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: I have seen some clips. Did not seem to me like someone who has said a goodbye to politics.
oldgold
@artem1s: The report states this concerning federal workers.
“Federal government employment continued to decline in July (-12,000) and is down by 84,000
since reaching a peak in January. (Employees on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay
are counted as employed in the survey.)”
When these numbers are added in the stats are going to look really terrible.
Shalimar
@Suzanne: I don’t have any objections to the project itself. I assume any tragedies his lack of taste inflicts on the design can be changed by later generations. What I am worried about is that I think this is an indication he plans on still being president when he dies, elections be damned. This is an entertaining area he intends to use indefinitely.
Sure Lurkalot
@NotMax:
According to Junior’s stepmom, who in age is more like an older sister, “my husband is hot like an iron…do not touch.”
Geminid
@Another Scott: I’m curious: what do think of Winston-Salem? I’ve driven past the city a lot but have never visited. It seems like it would be a nice place to live.
Omnes Omnibus
@Shalimar: I am okay with him being president when he dies.
Another Scott
@oldgold: Interesting.
Tens (hundreds?) of thousands of federal workers took the various “deferred resignation” stuff from the DOGE monsters which ends on September 30. So there will be more downward pressure on employment come October.
(Some of those folks will find other jobs, some will retire. And the labor market is huge so the magnitude of the pressure is hard to gauge. But it is downward pressure.)
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: That’s because the fringe left appeals to fragile white and white adjacent people who want the plausible deniability when they attack the Ds (the party of undesirable non-white people and Jewish people and other minorities)
lowtechcyclist
@OGliberal:
I would never claim otherwise. If you recognized the Dylan quote, the character in that lyric is far from a good person as well.
satby
@mrmoshpotato: AQI not as bad as Chicago, only 125. I’m not supposed to be outside long, but I have to mow the grass.
I’m so old I remember looking forward to summer. So last century.
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato:
That thing downtown is trafficjammapalooza; I know, I was there.
This is “Lollapalooza” (John Adams).
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
I think he’s referring to me.
cope
@mrmoshpotato: There is also the AirNow website run (at least for now) by the government that is pretty much a one-stop shop for info on air quality across the country. One of its many layers includes the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map. Use it while we can.
airnow.gov/
prostratedragon
@piratedan:
👀What things?👀
Uncle Cosmo
And then came Airplane!, which proved to all & sundry that the man could flat-out deadpan as if he’d invented the term. Neeson definitely has some 16EEE Clown Shoes to fill…
Fair Economist
I suspect the shocking jobs revisions are a result of the federal layoffs. I have seen a number of discussions in econ blogs about how the inflation report is using a lot more modeling and less actual data, because they have lost a lot of the people whose job it was to collect and analyze the data. Not at all surprised if something similar has happened with the jobs report.
Yet another way DOGE wasted money.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: I think the power of whiteness and white-adjacency infects a hell of a lot more people than we – or they – would care to admit.
Another Scott
@Geminid: There’s a lot of old tobacco and textiles money in the area. Some beautiful estates and museums, good universities, etc. There are some very, very nice areas. And some very, very poor areas (especially in some of the tiny towns outside the city).
It’s a microcosm of America, and all that implies.
It’s growing a lot, but I don’t know if it will become Asheville-esque soon. I don’t know much of anything about the other big cities (Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte) – my folks had a nice house on a pond about 10 minutes from her job in W-S. I don’t think there are too many affordable places like that any more.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Fair Economist
@Baud: You’re out of touch? Have you started wearing pants?
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus:
Dump can fight Satan for the presidency of Hell.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: That explains what the stock market is doing today.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: Indeed and in many cases it is at a subconscious level. Something that people are not able to admit, even to themselves.
Check out the discussion on Shapiro for example. The governor of Pennsylvania or Kamala Harris, for that matter.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: Took the train downtown the two times I’ve gone. :)
prostratedragon
@satby: I’ve been tasting it all morning, and my eyes are smarting.
Ohio Mom
@Iron city: the Arrogant Worms! I saw them at a FuMPFest, years ago.
For a while, we were regulars at that yearly event, at Ohio Son’s behest. It could have been renamed the Neurodivergent Funny Music Woodstock.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@Miss Bianca: Serious? He was positively grim.
mrmoshpotato
@cope: Looks like all of Minnesota is getting the worst of it.
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: Found myself wondering a little while ago if that might work.
Seriously though, hope the people up there are managing.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Kiddo just spent a year in Winston-Salem in grad school. Likes it a lot.
I was visiting for a week last fall (the week just before election and boy howdy) and found the area lovely and like fall everywhere, perfect weather. We didn’t get to Asheville because most of the roads were out from the hurricane.
Didn’t like Raleigh-Durham as much and never made it to Charlotte.
Anecdotally, the prices of stuff didn’t seem different from California. Kind of surprised but NC is growing like a weed and that has impacted things like housing availability.
mrmoshpotato
@Fair Economist: 🎵It’s the end of the world as we know it, no more pantsless Baud🎵
randy khan
@Suzanne:
“Chonky box,” indeed! The enormous north façade of the ballroom will look very strange on the east side of the building, and the only good thing about the portico is that it will be so far back very few people will see it. (It occurs to me that the pastiche of the ballroom exterior clashes not only with itself but with the architecture of the main building, but that’s, uh, par for the course with Trump, who has no taste at all, and for the architect, who is fixated on reproducing Gilded Age designs wherever he goes.)
But I fear that you’re wrong that it will look better once the final decisions are made. It is much more likely to be junked up (particularly on the inside) with all the cruft that Trump adores.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: Ugh. And I wanted to hike over to The Aldi’s…
randy khan
@Suzanne:
Yeah, that budget is imaginary.
Ohio Mom
@JoyceH: Maybe they are planning to do a version of landfill to add to the rock. Some sort of bondo except for stone.
For Trump, spending our tax money, cost is of no concern. That it would offend the Native Americans who believe the Black Hills are sacred would be a plus.
ruckus
@Suzanne:
They are in the “I must have this huge structure that is basically useless for much of anything to show how great I believe I am.” stage. This is a human that has screwed up every damn thing he’s ever tried to do. I believe his support comes from others who think they are the smartest, bestest people alive, who have accomplished far, far less than shitforbrains ever has. Which is basically zero. He’s had money. Not MONEY, just money. They like him because he’s the leader of Nothing Positive, Ever. Which is their description, nothing positive, ever. npe. And they can’t even capitalize their name.
Fake History Crap. Is the perfect description.
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato: Seriously, you might want to postpone that if you can. Wonder if it gets better in the evening?
Ohio Mom
deleted duplicate comment
ruckus
@NotMax:
T for Terrible?
Suzanne
@randy khan:
I would have preferred to see something delicate and contemporary rather than pseudo-historical pastiche. (But of course I would say that.)
The Carnegie Museums and Music Hall here in Pittsburgh have a contemporary addition, and I think it’s nice. That’s the thing: every era and style has beautiful things about it.
Geminid
@Another Scott: The problem with Asheville for me is it’s so dam’ far west. I love camping at Pisgah Mointain which is 20 miles down the Parkway from Asheville but it’s an 8 hour drive for me.
Fortunately, the Southern Appalachian Highlands extend north quite a ways and they run northeast. So I can get to them at Blowing Rock or farther up the Parkway. That’s only a five hour trip.
The stretch of Blue Ridge Parkway from Roanoke south to Blowing Rock is very driveable, without all the hills and twists north and south of it. I usually hop on the Parkway at Roanoke when I’m headed that way.
That’s one nice thing about Winston-Salem; it’s closest of all the Piedmont cities to the mountains.
WhatsMyNym
@Miss Bianca:
Until the food supplies get low…
p.a.
Car Care Nut on the cybertruck: “looks like if a nine year old tried to draw a car…”
Me on tRump interior design: “looks like a 14 year old boy drawing his idea of a whorehouse.”
JoyceH
@randy khan: the new ballroom will be hideous. It’s far too large for anything resembling elegance. It will be tacky and cheap. (In all the actual Trump built properties, the so-called marble is actually a manufactured composite.) They might use it once a year and year round it will devour the White House maintenance budget. It will be falling apart in twenty years.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@artem1s:
This is just the start of the trickle down (on) of firing thousands of federal workers across the whole country.
And here we’ve been telling the right (and the large number not on the right who peddle the same bullshit) that trickle-down doesn’t work and we have 40 years to show it.
An example of how it does work!
/s
anotherlurker
@JoyceH: I say some concerned citizen should start a petition to have trump’s image carved into stone mountain Ga.
JoyceH
BTW, CNN did a piece last night about all the small contractors who are going bankrupt because Tesla stiffed them and didn’t pay them for work they did. No wonder Musk and Trump were besties for a while – vultures flocking together.
ruckus
@oldgold:
There are positives and negatives in humanity.
I had a good post here but really I didn’t need to describe this person or his followers, and where they locate their tiny, barely thinking thought centers so that nothing positive can ever interrupt their lives.
Soprano2
I had to come on here to say you should all listen to the latest Offline podcast. I know many of you hold the Pod Bros in distain, but Jon Favreau did a really good interview with Daniel Martinez HoSang about why more non-white people are turning toward FFOTUS and Republicans in general. It was informative, at least to me, and tracks with what I’ve heard other people say. We can’t just tell these people they’re wrong, we have to demonstrate to them that we have better ideas and ways to solve problems, because they’ve spent years watching Democrats govern and feel that Democrats haven’t actually done much to help them. We have to work with what is, not what we wish was true. I also heard this On Point broadcast about the left and the working class that I think is worthy of a listen. This woman, Joan Williams, wrote a book about how the left lost the working class. She has some good things to say that I think are productive.
Just MHO. I’m fully aware that a lot of these analyses are full of BS, but I think these two are good and make relevant points. They aren’t 30,000 ft analyses, they’re people who have actually talked to these people.
satby
@OGliberal: That’s why I hate and do not watch any of them. They are sadistic.
I always thought that too. Not a watcher either.
Another Scott
@Suzanne: $2,200 per square foot seems kinda extravagant. Yeah, there’s no way it will be done on time.
JHU-APL’s recent, state-of-the-art, Building 201 was about $700/sq ft.
Apples and oranges, etc., etc., but it’s a lot of money.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
ruckus
@prostratedragon:
Garbage dumps.
Swamps.
The after effect of a forest fire.
ruckus
@The Other Bob:
They might if they lived near a farm or had any idea or ability to work construction. But most of us don’t.
ruckus
@Suzanne:
There’s likely only one designer that will work for all the standard boring rich assholes. Who knows only one design process and in a limited manner. And as all the rich assholes want to out bore each other they all hire the same designer. And they get the same boring design every time. Because it’s easier for the designer and none of the customers have a clue, can find a clue, or understand the clue if they found it.
Melancholy Jaques
@mrmoshpotato:
I did enjoy it – in a dark humor manner.
I get that people want to treat Walsh as one of us one of us, but I am going to object to that false characterization of us Democrats every time I see or hear it
Especially since “elitist” is code for “Democrats aren’t racist enough for me”
Bill Arnold
@JoyceH:
Here’s the text version of the piece. Musk is scum. Tesla is scum. X is scum.
Small businesses helped build Musk’s empire. Their unpaid bills add up to millions (2025/07/31, CNN, Audrey Ash, Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Melanie Hicken)
ruckus
@Bill Arnold:
Many people with MONEY feel entitled to screw over anyone, because they have MONEY. Money makes the world go round, more money makes it go round in their direction, Doesn’t it……..?
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I agree. I think part of this is because they assume the full employment economy is “normal”, so no one should get credit for it. It was normal for a lot of these people’s lives. It’s the same thing as them thinking a 30 year mortgage at 3% is normal and just the way things should be.
Suzanne
@Another Scott: Most of my healthcare projects are coming in in the $750-$800/SF range right now. Of course, there’s a ton of variation between projects, even in the same city, or of the same type. I can only imagine the cost impacts of working literally on the White House site, all the underground work and security.
But it always ends up costing more. Always.
Suzanne
@ruckus:
Oh no. There’s a ton.
The best interior designers can do great work with a tight budget. Mediocre designers just make everything look the same. American Standard Boring Rich Asshole is definitely as much of a look as “modern farmhouse” or “Tuscan kitchen” or any of the other design eras we all know.
Kelly
Someone pointed out last night there’s an important bunker under the East Wing. Gonna need to move that first.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Emergency_Operations_Center
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Kelly:
[From the Wikipedia entry] He’s forgotten. Not surprising.
Another Scott
@Kelly: Made me look.
Oooh! High Tech!!
:-)
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@ruckus:
Now, I could support one of those but for the certainty that for years MAMAt deadenders would make it a shrine.
Soprano2
@OGliberal: The only reality shows I’ve watched regularly are The Voice and Bar Rescue. I agree that most of those shows are about humiliating people and making them look bad, and that’s why people watch them. It makes them feel better about themselves.
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: I just watched the trailer — I lol’ed.
ruckus
@Suzanne:
I was trying to be a bit facetious. I don’t always pull it off.
I built tools that made plastic and metal parts for most of my working life. If I listed some of the things the tools I worked on and later designed, many people here would know what I was talking about. You very likely would. A lot of that time I designed the tools and made the blueprints, and then computerized drawings used. I learned from specialized schooling and from my father and his, and then, my employees.
Anyway
Decades of “Run government like a business” and other assorted CofC propaganda will do that. Funny thing is if you have worked for any time in a mid-sized or larger corporation you’ve seen multiple cases of boneheaded business decisions. They’re not infallible. And the flip-side – those that generalize personal or household finance decisions to government …
WTFGhost
For those of you who play Tabletop RPGs, do you now want want you most destructive character, to be invited, in your civvies, to the ballroom, only to have the terrorist leader shout “everyone attack” and it turns into a Ballroom Blitz? And the “girl in the corner” happens to be one of your helpful informants, saying “boy, I coulda warned you, it would turn into a Ballroom Blitz!”
Not only would the song reach its fruition as a happy battle song, you’d get to destroy everything in that effing ballroom, including the preserved corpse of Fearless Leader (fearless only because dead men no longer feel fear).
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Our air comes up as unsafe here in Champaign, too.
151 !!
ruckus
@NotMax:
OK, I laughed out loud at that.
Standing up – clapping. OK I stayed sitting and thinking about clapping.
ruckus
@NotMax:
Does that letter T stand for tramp, trash – or both – in which case it should be t and t.
pieceofpeace
@lowtechcyclist: Lol!
Eyeroller
@Soprano2: One of the hardest things to make people understand is that, at least at the national level, we spend nearly all of our limited time in power working to repair damage done by previous Republican governments. It doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity to move forward, when it’s all we can do to pull the country out of a hole. Then we are thrown out again. (Mostly by white people, of course.). This pattern has gone on for at least 60 years now.
Eyeroller
@Anyway: Most business owners would think it is not a good idea to prioritize intentionally decreasing revenue, but that’s what Republicans always do. They are not “businessmen,” they are vulture capitalists. Spend wildly on short-term useless grift, stop investing in the future, push the “company” deep into debt, while enriching the executives who then exit on their golden parachutes. But people are convinced that Republicans are “good businessmen who are good for the economy.”
ruckus
@NotMax:
Word on the street is that shitforbrains only has small ones and those would be difficult to turn into hanging lamps……
ruckus
@Suzanne:
Is the design process only going on in one old fart’s demented mind?
The Lodger
@mrmoshpotato: He’s already a crazy horse’s ass. Hardly any work needed.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
I still want to know why this isn’t a bigger deal to “the best defense is a good offense” militaristic Reichwing.
And no, nobody please bother to tell me how the Cult of the Brass Piglet had consumed the Reichwing, or that SportAhrTrupz meme was just cover for converting the entire DoD into End Times Crusaders. SOMEBODY on the other side has to be upset enough about squandering the US’ military advantage all to obtain the Gilded Intel Sieve that the Qatari plane promises to be to say something about it.
Kayla Rudbek
@Eyeroller: yeah, if you actually wanted to have government make money, from an business perspective you do the following things:
1) government gets to own copyright in the data/writings/maps it produces. Weather Channel, Accuweather, Google Maps,etc gotta start paying royalties on all that data etc. (the USA is the only country that puts all government generated works/data into the public domain, unlike the UK and commonwealth countries which allow the Crown to own copyright on e.g. the British Ordnance Survey maps, etc). Government already gets to own patents and trademarks (and license these out to collect royalties), it’s just copyright that’s weird.
2) start charging by the year to keep your issued patents/copyrights/trademark registrations alive (just like you have to pay property taxes every year). European Patent Office charges every year after issuing a patent, USA charges at 3 intervals during the lifetime of a patent. The current morons in this maladministration have a proposal to charge fees based on the value of the patent, and even Gene Quinn at IP Watchdog (who is so far in the tank for the Republicans that he can’t see daylight) said that it was a catastrophically stupid idea.
US Copyright office charges at registration and I don’t think charges at any point in the rest of the lifespan if I recall correctly (I think Spider Robinson once proposed adding a yearly? fee that would be squared when you went to renew the registration, in return for allowing perpetual renewal if you could afford it. Mathematically, even Disney would run out of money to keep its works in copyright).
Not sure if World Intellectual Property Organization charges by year for trademarks (and trademark registration goes by individual countries, WIPO just acts as an initial clearinghouse/placeholder). I think that the US charges various renewal fees at 7 or 10 years, but the trademark can stay alive indefinitely if it’s used.
3) fully fund the IRS and all its investigations to cut down on tax evasion and fraud, as the IRS is the only agency besides the Patent and Trademark Office that actually makes money for the government (USPTO is totally self funded, no taxpayer money needed).
4) government charges market rates for leasing land for grazing, water use, etc, no subsidies to farmers and ranchers (this may not be the best idea for habitat/soil conservation but I’d have to consult an expert to make sure)
5) no subsidies for oil/gas/coal industries either, they are mature and should be able to stand on their own two feet.