Sean Spicer wrote a very bad book about his brief role as Mouth of Sauron at the Trump White House. Jonathan Karl’s review in the Wall Street Journal was unkind:
Mr. Spicer’s book is much like his tenure as press secretary: short, littered with inaccuracies and offering up one consistent theme: Mr. Trump can do no wrong. Mr. Spicer has not been well served by the book’s fact checkers and copy editors. He refers to the author of the infamous Trump dossier as “Michael Steele,” who is in truth the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, not the British ex-spy Christopher Steele. He recounts a reporter asking Mr. Obama a question at a White House press conference in 1999, a decade before Mr. Obama was elected.
But, regardless of how terrible and inaccurate the book is, Spicer must go on a book tour to promote it. He appeared on the BBC for that purpose. BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis wasn’t having any of Sean Spicer’s lying bullshit:
BBC interviewer to Sean Spicer: "You have corrupted discourse for the entire world by going along with these lies" pic.twitter.com/HsvNLajwQu
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) July 24, 2018
Ms. Maitlis set the standard for how the Trump people should be dealt with by every journalist worthy of the title when the minions, henchwomen and assorted goons set out on their come-back tours. My guess is that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be on deck next. I wonder what she’ll call her book? “Dinner Denied: A Conservative Call for Civility,” maybe.
But back to Spicer. In addition to releasing a book through a wingnut outlet, Regnery Publishing, which allegedly arranges bulk orders to inflate its authors’ sales numbers while stiffing them on royalties, Spicer is working for a Trump PAC. Spicer will probably ride the wingnut gravy train the rest of his life, but having beclowned himself so thoroughly, his seat won’t be in the club car.
In other Shit Midas-fallout that has not been sufficiently gloated about on this here blog, Princess Complicity shuttered her fashion brand yesterday, allegedly to focus more on her no-show job at the White House:
NEW YORK — Ivanka Trump is shutting down her fashion line of dresses, shoes and handbags that became a target of political boycotts and spurred concerns about conflicts of interest after her father was elected.
The president’s daughter said in a statement she made the decision so she could focus more on work as a White House adviser. She had stepped away from the day-to-day management of her company when she joined President Donald Trump’s administration.
“After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington,” she said. She called the move the “only fair outcome for my team and partners.”
Sales were down 55% according to retail data. Of linking the Trump brand to a fashion empire, Ivanka Trump once told the NYT, “We’re a family company. We’re a family brand. I made a specific choice not to call my collection Ivanka. There’s so much value in the Trump name.”
That was in 2013. Five years later, it turns out that a “family brand” associated with baby-jailing, white supremacist, Russian puppet demagoguery isn’t a marketplace winner. Oh well. Maybe Walmart will let her revive her knock-off bag and shoes operation to sell cheap, foreign sweatshop-made crap to the rubes at a less lofty markup once daddy’s administration finally implodes. Maybe.
I hope for justice but, Manafort excepted, I am skeptical of ever seeing the top strata of the Trumposphere — let alone Trump himself — take the perp walks they so richly deserve. But I do think it’s possible they’ll have a metaphorical “T” tattooed on their foreheads for the rest of their lives to signal the shame of having enabled the most criminal, corrupt, incompetent and loathsome administration in American history. And I believe they’ll rue the day Trump was elected almost as keenly as we do.
It won’t be enough, but it’s something. Open thread.
Lapassionara
Maybe Ivanka will be improving her “public service” resume so she can run for President in 2024.
JPL
@Lapassionara: Maybe Ivanka will be living in Russia.
A Ghost To Most
Conservative Naval professor explains the futility of trying to reach Trump voters: ‘Some of them are just bad people’
Elizabelle
I am going to continue to hope that the Trump administration goes to jail. Nixon’s guys did, and what they did is swamped in contrast with Trump’s malfeasance. It’s a whole administration of snakes, thieves and scoundrels.
chopper
which is funny cause spicey’s way rich.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
IANAL still less an expert on financial crimes, but I think there’s a darn good chance that the spadework done by Mueller and US attys office is going to turn up some stuff that will draw the attention of NY state, and maybe city, officials, and a $10K campaign contribution to Cy Vance isn’t going to make that stuff go away this time.
I really, really hope so.
Elizabelle
A little surprised that Spicer’s book is so error-filled, but then remember what a hack we all thought he was before he ever worked for Trump. And he only looks less horrible in retrospect, because SHS is full on Nazi-strength.
Spicer should thank Melissa McCarthy every day for humanizing him. He owes her.
donnah
I look forward to the day when the Trump name is toxic at every level, where his hotels and golf clubs are vacant, his businesses are all seized, and the only line of people interested in Trump are the ones standing to piss on his grave.
rikyrah
I hope that someone FrontPages this:
Trump White House cuts Putin support for Trump out of transcript
Rachel Maddow shows how the White House transcript and video of the Trump Putin press conference in Helsinki has been edited to remove the question asking Putin if he wanted Trump to win the election, part of a broader campaign of information warfare the Trump administration is waging with Russia against the American people.
rikyrah
Cohen Trump tape offers bevy of new leads for investigators
Rachel Maddow shares the CNN broadcast of an audio tape of Donald Trump speaking with Michael Cohen ostensibly about paying a former Playboy Playmate who says she had an affair with Trump, and discusses with a distinguished panel. CNN says the tape came from Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis.
rikyrah
Courts a stopgap to Trump’s failings on loyalty to Americans
Michael McFaul, Chuck Rosenberg, and Matt Axelrod talk with Rachel Maddow about whether Donald Trump could unilaterally hand over American citizens at Vladimir Putin’s request.
dmsilev
ShitGibbon Tweets again:
Yes, you “presumably” were saying positive things.
Also, wasn’t Trump pretty much Cohen’s only real client as a lawyer?
MattF
Pretty soon, I’m gonna start to get skeptical about the Easter Bunny.
rikyrah
Butina case emblematic of multi-faceted Putin strategy against US
While Mariia Butina faces American due process, the crime of which she is accused is not a rarity given Vladimir Putin’s regard for the United States as an enemy and his desire to gain any upper hand he can. Michael McFaul, Chuck Rosenberg, and Matt Axelrod discuss with Rachel Maddow.
tobie
A girl’s got to dream, so I will make the prediction that in fifteen years the only building with Trump’s name will be the prison where he and his cronies are held. “Trump Tower” will be the colloquial name for the prison.
germy
@A Ghost To Most:
Stacey Abrams has the right idea.
Bruce K
@tobie: I’m holding out for the specific building in Sing Sing where he’ll hopefully live out the rest of his days, if there’s any justice.
(Leavenworth would also be nice, but he can’t self-pardon his way out of Sing Sing…)
schrodingers_cat
Perp walk for all accused. That’s what I want.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: The Washington Post has a pretty convincing case that Maddow got that wrong here.
Betty Cracker
@chopper: Is he? I didn’t know that.
Yarrow
Ivanka shut down her brand because she needs to spend more time with her lawyers.
I’m not skeptical. Ivanka in particular is all up in the treason, especially with her activities in Azerbaijan and China. Trump and his traitor tots will pay. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
germy
@dmsilev:
and a chill runs down Sean Hannity’s spine….
Leto
@Elizabelle: I believe I saw this discussed on a reddit thread yesterday, but the reason his book is so error filled (besides the obvious: he’s a fucking liar, it’s all lies, he was the OG lying mouthpiece) is that the publisher required the author (I use that term very loosely here) to pay a fact checker to check their work. Greed trumps fact/truth every time with these ass clowns.
MattF
@germy: Spine? HAHAHA.
germy
@Elizabelle:
A journalist who is familiar with the publisher said it is up to the author to arrange and pay for proofreading/editing. So Spicey decided to skip that “non-essential” part of the process in order to pocket more $$.
In one paragraph, he has Obama president in 1999.
Jeffro
Well, that would make sense, since 9/11, the Iraq War, and Hurricane Katrina all happened on PBO’s watch.
germy
@Jeffro:
“Feckless”
The Other Chuck
@Jeffro: To say nothing of the Diamond Necklace Affair and the Gunpowder Plot; after which he hopped back into his TARDIS to plant the fake birth notice in the Hawaii newspapers.
Wild Cat
Fact-checkers and in-house copy editors and proofreaders are, for the most part, long gone from the frugal publishing industry.
However, the vetting attorney and freelance copy editor and proofreader(s) should have picked up on factual errors.
Kay
I heard him interviewed on Michigan (public) radio. He’s awful. He just…talks. There’s no meaning or thought behind it. Empty.
He’s also really cynical. You get such a sense that he thinks this is how the world works- everyone lies, everyone cheats, everyone is in it for themselves. It’s the same feeling I get with the whole Trump Administration.
Yarrow
The Russians are making it really obvious.
Why would that be? Julia Davis’s theory:
The Dangerman
@germy:
You betcha. Hannity’s in this up to his nads. Some movie or show (Band of Brother’s? I forget, still on first cup on West Coast) showed well to do Germans having to clean up the mess of the Nazis. Something similar will happen here; after his time in the Pokey, Hannity will be collecting trash next a busy interstate for a while.
Lotsa people going to jail but Donald will be dead before he ever has the bars slammed on him.
Elizabelle
@Leto: That says all you need to say about that publishing house, doesn’t it? Make the author pay for the fact-checker. Is that usual in publishing?
Or just for conservative publishers, where no one expects accuracy anyway?
Elizabelle
@tobie: Fifteen years from now, I think Trump will have shuffled off this mortal coil. That’s a guess. (ETA. D’uh. Like any of us know!)
The question is whether we ever get to make him pay for his perfidy and dragging the country through the mud. I think we have to, or dog knows what might follow.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: it was clear on the day of that press conference in Helsinki, from the soccer ball to Putin admitting he wanted trump to win, it was all Putin mocking trump and taunting the United States. trump is so stupid and needy he thought it was all flattery
Elizabelle
@Kay: You speak of Spicer? Who has retained the luster of one of the good ones (relatively speaking…)
Leto
@Betty Cracker: Read the WaPo piece: they’re wrong. The WH had over a week to correct their official record and never did. While not as bad as the official Russian transcript, which simply omitted the entire question/response, it’s still them lying. Also the bullshit about “we’re using a different feed”… that’s a bullshit excuse. The live feed at the time included the question from the AP reporter. This “oh if you listen to THIS feed, or if you listen THIS feed…” is a fucking distraction. The video on the WH page, as well as their official transcript, is intentionally wrong. It’s not the first time WaPo has carried water for this admin, won’t be the last.
The WH/President/everyone in that place fucking lies. They’re all liars. They don’t get the benefit of the doubt. They destroyed that with Spicy’s first press conference. I’m honestly surprised we even got an official WH transcript, considering most of the time they usually 1) don’t provide one and/or 2) let the Russians release a transcript and that’s the only record. The WaPo is wrong.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sorry, that never happened.
Check the White House transcripts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Why does it matter if trump said “cash” or “not cash”? It’s pretty damn clear they’re talking about paying off a mistress
Leto
@Yarrow: It’s also potentially driving a further wedge between Trumpov and military leadership. Just another win for Putin.
@Elizabelle: It also speaks volumes about how wingnuts view their audiences: they can just lie to them with impunity. There’s no repercussions. I guess it also says something about the audience: they don’t care.
delk
Toxic name?
Prime river front retail space in Trump Tower Chicago still sits vacant. They are being forced to use it as event space and even then it is still empty. Meanwhile, the rest of the Chicago River is in full blown summer party mode.
Marketing material omits the name of the tower and just uses the address. Even the pictures of the building being used opt to have the name MIA.
Spanky
Apparently the tidbit about El Presidente’s blowup about Melania watching CNN has legs … from CNN :^)
ETA: Hopefully this won’t cause M to have to disappear for a few weeks yet again.
Baud
@germy:
https://i.redd.it/0alrh28962c11.jpg
Gin & Tonic
Tales of the Ivanka “brand” – my dear wife was shopping at one of the closeout places, TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, as is her wont. Saw a blouse, said, “hm, that looks nice”, looked at the label, saw the brand and immediately put it back on the rack and moved on.
That’s where you find her stuff – in the it-didn’t-move-in-regular-retail-stores outlets.
zhena gogolia
I love that he’s supposed to need a “fact checker” to tell him the difference between Michael Steele and Christopher Steele. Really well informed press secretary there.
Jeffro
@Yarrow: this is the article that I was in no small rage about last night. It is quite obvious who owns who now, right GOP ?
Baud
@Spanky:
Maybe this is a good time for the Obamas to go on a very public date night.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lawyer and blogger Susan Simpson laid out a pretty good case that trump laundered campaign money to pay off Stormy Daniels. This is a couple of months old. Unless there’s some hole here that I don’t see, I’m really surprised this hasn’t gotten more attention.
There are patterns to all this, as suggested by this recording.
Nicole
I wonder if Ivanka closed down her brand because she’s anticipating legal issues and wants her net worth to appear to be as little as possible. I was under the impression her stuff is still very popular overseas.
Gin & Tonic
@delk: I was in Chicago a couple of times in the last few months, working on a project in the Prudential Building, and staying in the North Loop area. That fucking eyesore was unavoidable walking to and from work.
Litlebritdifrnt
@The Dangerman: I watched a video on Twitter earlier today in which Hannity was discussing the tape and his voice was shaking while he was discussing it, he was obviously rattled, but then launched into “this recording is a nothingburger” bullshit.
My only hope is that Trump and all of his flying monkeys are so thoroughly disgraced that they are never mentioned in polite company again. And when Trump dies (probably from a massive stroke or a heart attack) it will result in a “quiet family funeral” where he is thrown in a unmarked grave as quickly as Melania can get the shovel off the grave digger. It would be an insult to the county and the office if he were given a “presidential” funeral.
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: New Yorkers I know regard what Trump did to the West Side riverfront as vandalism.
Elizabelle
@ Betty Cracker:
@Leto: At the very end of the WaPost piece, by Philip Bump.
and looping back to the WaPost link for transcript from the Helsinki dog and
ponyservile dog show, transcript from Bloomberg:This morning, I searched for and reviewed the Helsinki transcript for July 16 from the White House. It does NOT have the Putin question about preference that Donald Trump win.
Which is this passage, from the WaPost (and presumably Bloomberg) transcript:
Here is the White House transcript. They are different.
Unless there is a corrected official White House transcript, I don’t understand how Rachel Maddow is wrong that the White House transcript is insufficient.
Rachel’s point is: the White House has not updated their transcript. I don’t care how the issue arose — which is how Philip Bump attempts to misdirect us — the point is that the White House has, as of a few minutes ago, not updated their official transcript with the corrected language.
Very sad. Historians of the future — good ones — cannot rely on Trump White House official documents. But I guess they know that, going in.
Yarrow
@Baud: That is very good.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Why would he even consider that large sum of cash, unless he’s used it before? hmmm
Teddys Person
Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano reveals Trump is in legal jeopardy over Cohen tapes
Elizabelle
@Litlebritdifrnt: I want there to be a smoking hole for Trump and all things Trump. Like Chernobyl. Let Trump and his enablers pay so hard that Republicans (or whatever arises after them) are not even tempted to commit his level of crimes and lies to obtain office.
Otherwise, how can we defend against a smoother and smarter and harder-working autocrat, arising in his place?
germy
Here’s a powerful campaign ad from Antonio Delgado:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFUjG7Nq2Xk
His opponent meanwhile is complaining about rap lyrics Delgado wrote years ago. Rather than any actual… issues.
Ridnik Chrome
@Litlebritdifrnt: If even one Fox News personality ends up behind bars as a result of all this, it will be worth it.
Yarrow
Oh, please. This is just sad at this point.
Just how bad is the stuff Putin has on Dershowitz?
LAO
@Teddys Person: what an interesting parsing of the term “fraud” — I guess civil fraud is a far as Fox News is willing to go. SMDH
indycat32
@Elizabelle: By leaving out the first part of the question, the entire question then becomes “did you direct officials to help him” and Putin says “yes I did.” How is that better?
Yarrow
@Ridnik Chrome: Hannity is in big trouble. And we haven’t even started hearing about the morning Fox & Treason gang.
Raoul
I was particularly impressed by the BBC journo getting Podium Spice to splutter when she pushed back on his “everybody does it” defense of Trumps p**sy grab comment. She just nails him, and I was delighted.
Leto
@Elizabelle:
Exactly! And Maddow points that out on her segment: occasionally the WH gets it wrong. It’s happened before. When a reporter points it out, they correct it. Or something similar to that. It’s corrected. It’s been pointed out multiple times, it has not been corrected. It’s yet another gaslighting attempt. It’s the same as the video. Why the WaPo is covering it like, “Oh, they used a different feed, if you watch Putin…” NO! Stop attempting to normalize this gaslighting attempt! If “Democracy dies in the darkness”, stop throwing water on the damn torch!
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: Agreed. The punishments need to be severe enough to discourage anyone from trying this shit again. And anyone involved must not be allowed back into the political world in any way whatsoever.. I’m sure there are farm jobs picking fruits and vegetables they can go do since they’re so big on keeping the immigrants who do those jobs out of the country.
Steeplejack
@chopper:
Got a source for that?
Leto
@indycat32: No, it doesn’t. What does that question reference?
Do what? What does “that” refer to, without the context of the previous question? If you don’t have the first part of the question, the second part makes no sense. And the first part is the entirety of this whole problem:
Platonailedit
@Yarrow:
So how many ‘such payments were handled’,
dershowitz douchebag?
I am also disappointed that only manaforger is in jail while rest of the traitorous thugs are still out there even after nearly 2 years. The whole checks and balances system is rotted to the core.
Ksmiami
@The Dangerman: works for me. I will celebrate his death with wild abandon@Elizabelle: I’ve been thinking about this a lot and the conclusion I’ve reached is that as a nation we are going to have to reign in Presidential authority and write new docs thatshifts power back to courts, states and congress. I know there is danger in this but another situation with a Trump can never be allowed to happen again.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
I’m looking forward to volunteering for Stacey Abrams’ campaign.
Betty Cracker
@Leto: The Trump WH doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt, of course, and they almost certainly haven’t corrected the error because they benefited from the cock-up. But the original WaPo transcript had the same error, so it seems a stretch to claim the WH deliberately went in and edited that piece out to gaslight us. Gaslight us they do — 24/7. Maddow’s right about that. But in this particular case, it doesn’t appear the WH actively edited the transcript.
@Elizabelle:
How the issue arose is not a trivial question when the claim is made that the White House edited the transcript to remove damaging information. I like Maddow, and I don’t think she was particularly careless here — the dystopian quality of this lying administration made that claim totally believable. But the claim wasn’t that the WH left an inaccurate transcript up; it was that they edited it to mislead us, and that doesn’t appear to hold up in light of Bump’s reporting. I bet Maddow clarifies this tonight if she hasn’t already.
Yarrow
Meanwhile, China gets something it has wanted for a long time.
Yarrow
@SiubhanDuinne: I saw you asked about Carville and Matalin yesterday and decided to idly google them. Since “gaslighting” is being mentioned in this thread, I thought you might find it interesting that Mary Matalin’s company (organization? not sure what it is) is called Gaslight, Inc. Not joking.
Sister Golden Bear
@A Ghost To Most: Or why all those pundits who think we just need to be more accommodating to Trump voters can fuck off. Can’t fix those who’ve swallowed the Kool-Aid by the kegful.
On a happier note, I was finally allowed to get out of the hospital bed and take my first shower in five days. It was glorious. And someone who’s supporting a friend managed to score me a latte from the Starbucks in the lobby — a welcome change from the usual lukewarm-to-cold black tea served with every meal.
For better or worse, my super-speedy recovery skills are in evidence yet again, so I’m been really awake and bored here at the hospital, whereas most people just sleep through most of it. OTOH, I’ve not really had much pain, which is a bit surprising given all the re-arranging they’ve done. The two other patients I know of have fared far worst.
Thankfully it’s only a day-and-a-half until I’m discharged back to the hotel for another three weeks of recovery. Still will probably be spending most of my time in the hotel room there, but at least I’ll be able to walk around a bit, have better food, and hang out with some of the other patients.
Yarrow
@Ksmiami: Agreed. We also are going to have to codify a lot of norms that previous presidents just followed without question.
The Dangerman
@Ksmiami:
That’ll be easy; no tax returns, no run.
“But I’m under audit”. Too fucking bad; fuck you.
“My tax returns are long and complicated”. We have the time. Fuck you.
“It’s my business”. DIAF. Fuck you.
eric
@Gin & Tonic: I work in Prudential 2.
Yarrow
@Sister Golden Bear: Great news that your recovery is going so well! A shower after so long without is always so nice. Thanks for keeping us updated.
A Ghost To Most
@Baud: Won’t work on the wing nuts; they have no idea who Orwell was.
russell
Michael Steele – also the bass player for the Bangles.
Have the two ever been seen in the same room?
Brachiator
I have no interest in Spicer’s book. However, one thing about the people who work for the Angry Baby intrigues me.
I am curious about why any of these people seem to admire Trump, want to work for him, and are so eager to be loyal to him.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
LOL! Seriously? Props to her for having a better sense of humour than I would have credited her with.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Ah, nuance and the intent there. Not sure I have the patience right now to go back and watch the Maddow clip. She uses way too many words. I like her, but tire of the flips and “see how smart I am?”
I wish she could get to the point with less words, because a lot of them don’t add anything to her presentation.ETA: you guys get the point.So, Maddow can honestly report tonight that the White House has still not corrected its transcript, or — if they have — that they corrected it today. And she can do a mea culpa, if she wishes, as to intent.
Looking at the transcripts: I liked that the WaPost transcript identified what was a staff comment. Because otherwise you assume it was Putin still speaking. That could be important too, when folks are trying to figure out exactly who said what.
NPR top story at noon recap: Maria Butina in court again today. Defense says she’s facing a “tsunami of negative press.”
A Ghost To Most
@Sister Golden Bear: Glad everything is going well. Just keep swimming. The shower is a welcome start.
Yarrow
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know if it was humor or she just didn’t know what the word meant, outside of the obvious lamp part, when she chose it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sister Golden Bear:
That’s wonderful, that your recovery is going so smoothly and (relatively) comfortably. Just what we all have been hoping for you throughout this process! Always glad to see your updates in the comments.
Gravenstone
@Yarrow: Trump is pretty well known for stiffing anyone and everyone under the sun. So yeah, there were loads of people coming forward to demand their due payment. Not what Dersh meant, of course, but it shows how one takes the kernel of a truth and builds a whole lie around it.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: Great to hear. In time, you’ll have to tell us about the Thai street food and view from your hotel room.
Recuperating in nicer surroundings, that are affordable and quite first world, is a huge draw to medical tourism.
PS: There’s a great Facebook group — Girls Love Travel. Maybe join it, and ask them for things to do in Thailand when you’re on the mend. They will likely have some off the path suggestions, and there are quite a few native Thais there.
A Ghost To Most
@The Dangerman:
And a Top Secret Clearance.
Can’t get one? Tough shit.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Not all heroes…
President Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star was smashed to pieces
Dorothy A. Winsor
If you’re looking for good recent fantasy, the nominees for the World Fantasy Awards are out.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
? <—— actual size
Elizabelle
@Uncle Ebeneezer: When we are past Trump, Trump’s star will either be removed and replaced (with a Muslim or Mexican artist, please!!) or will be roped off with its own little black satin fence and called “Walk of Shame.”
Perp walk of shame works for me too.
I think it’s getting to Trump that people. do not. like him. Otherwise, why the “Your favorite president”, although he is always narrowcasting to his base.
A Ghost To Most
@Uncle Ebeneezer: “We could be heroes, if just for one day.”
A Ghost To Most
@SiubhanDuinne: Enlarged to show detail.
sukabi
@rikyrah: he was following Putin’s lead, they removed references to that bit as well.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: I want to hear about a lot of tsunamis in 2018. Blue Wave!
Just not the natural ones.
And what’s happening in Greece is a tragedy. Foreshadowing of the mortal dangers of climate change. And the Greeks had a lot less personnel to prevent or fight it, because of austerity measures imposed by Merkel and company. (I’ve always had a problem with EU’s treatment of Greece.)
Last year, Portugal lost maybe 50-60 in a fast-moving fire. Being trapped in a car would be horror. Some in Greece drowned as they tried to escape via the sea.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Oh, make no mistake, Donald Tяump already rues his election. It’s the worst thing that ever happened to him. He’s wretchedly miserable. Just look at the sorry hunk of shit. He’s surly and sullen and peevish and full of rage. He hates everybody and everything. Most of all, he hates Hillary Clinton for losing and making him take on this thankless, shitty job. He was told this was going to be fun! He was told it would be easy. They told him everybody would love him. Shit. Omarosa even said we’d all have to bow down before him. Instead, all his manifold inadequacies are laid bare before the world, we’re all laughing at him, Putin doesn’t even respect him and people are flying those mean old big, fat baby blimps. This is the worst thing that ever happened to him. Sad!
Yarrow
@Elizabelle:
I agree. In one thread yesterday someone posted about an expanded security perimeter for an upcoming Trump rally. The Secret Service was recommending businesses shut down and even keeping pedestrians out. Adam speculated it could be partly because the protesters make Trump angry and then he rants and raves at everyone and no one wants to deal with that. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: I saw a quick headline that 44 people died from the heat in Japan as well. Saw somewhere it was 106 degrees F in Tokyo.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: So they’re reducing our (the protesters’) First Amendment rights? Speech and free assembly.
O -kkkkay.
VOR
@Jeffro:
You laugh, but prior to the 2016 election my son was at a Republican rally where the speaker claimed Obama had been President for 16 years. He challenged the speaker, who responded by doubling down and claiming Obama had been President for 16 years even louder.
Then there was the Daily Show segment where a mouth-breather at a Trump rally wondered why Obama was absent from the Oval Office on 9/11. (in our reality Obama was an Illinois state representative on 9/11 and was years away from being elected to the Senate) Shrub has been forgotten and edited out of their view of history.
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: Well, they aren’t stopping protests, just moving them further away. Adam also speculated that it could be because there were credible threats and they needed to move the security perimeter back. We won’t ever know, probably.
dmsilev
@Uncle Ebeneezer: I think the time someone built a wall around his star was better.
No word on whether Mexico paid for that one, though I suspect they probably would have if asked.
rikyrah
@germy:
Delgado is a Harvard-trained Rhodes Scholar. And, he raps.
Hungry Joe
@Wild Cat: Fact checkers and copy editors are not, in fact, long gone from publishing houses … at least, not legit publishing houses. Simon & Schuster did a thorough going-over of my book just a few years ago, and although there have been cutbacks across the board, authors are not required to pay for this basic procedure. Regnery — Spicey’s publisher — is just a printing press that spews out garbage for right-wing nutjobs.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
RIDICULOUS!
Kay
This is true. I think it’s hysterical. Literally anything you can name will be more popular than “give it to rich people” :)
We can have big fights over whether to spend it on infrastructure or education or health care and knowing us, we will! Have fights. But all of those things are appealing and fun to run on.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Bruce K:
I’m thinking more along the lines of the gurney in the needle room at Terre Haute, along with Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka and Jared…
Ian G.
@Uncle Ebeneezer:
Why the fuck does he have a star there to begin with? He ain’t exactly Humphrey Bogart when it comes to a film career.
Also, this is why they’re going to have to cremate his ass when he kicks the bucket. His gravesite would be vandalized on a daily basis otherwise.
RedDirtGirl
@dmsilev: Just him and Sean Hannity.
rikyrah
Mickey Blue Eyes shivs Donnie Brasco
Kay
I can’t make heads or tails of the sleazy Trump tape. Is “Pam” in the tape the corrupt AG of Florida?
What exactly does she have to do to get an investigation started? My God, she’s dirty as hell and everyone knows it.
Lock. Her. Up.
Yarrow
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Death is still the penalty for treason in the United States of America.
Ian G.
@dmsilev:
Someone should have asked Vicente Fox to pay for that wall out of his pocket. I’m sure he would have been glad to.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
Mine is smaller.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Hungry Joe: My small press does copy editing (also substantive editing) at no expense to me.
Kay
Isn’t it so weird that the National Enquirer is this far Right rag now? Did anyone predict that? That they would go nutjob Right?
What a weird business decision. “We’ll be the crap tabloid of Putin and old, rich racists!”
Meanwhile Teen Vogue decided they’d crack the serious, good government market. WTF?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@delk:
Oh, shit – that was sitting vacant when I was doing that architectural river tour in 10/2016 (great fun, by the way – much more varied and creative than Manhattan).
Aleta
@Yarrow: ‘They knew a lot of people were going to come forward at the end of the campaign demanding money.’
Well, they were were stiffing workers left and right, even the airfare for the young girl cheerleading act they booked.
“That happens all the time.” As do the spinster lies of Dershowitz and Giulianni.
This is heading toward the “men’s locker room talk” shrug that worked before. Reminders about Edwards and Clinton come next. Then Franklin Graham visits the WH. Ideally has coffee with Melania the Good, Donald and Jesus, who has everyone’s sins covered for the rest of time.
rikyrah
New Quinnipiac poll show a double-digit Democratic lead on the generic congressional ballot.
Voters prefer a D House over a R House by a margin of 51-39%.
WOMEN support Ds 57-32%.
MEN support Rs 46–44%.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 25, 2018
ascap_scab
But I do think it’s possible they’ll have a metaphorical “T” tattooed on their foreheads for the rest of their lives to signal the shame of having enabled the most criminal, corrupt, incompetent and loathsome administration in American history.
Three words: Richard Bruce Cheney.
Kelly
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-25/putin-soccer-ball-for-trump-had-transmitter-chip-logo-indicates
Putin is blatantly messing with Trump.
Kelly
Obviously the attack succeeded.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah:
Sounds like somebody’s never watched a minute of pro wrestling.
Mnemosyne
@Hungry Joe:
I think “vanity press” is the more common term. ? And, yes, part of the giveaway is that the “authors” have to pay for their own proofreading and fact checking, just like at any other self-publishing place.
The Dangerman
@A Ghost To Most:
Yes!
Also, wanna threaten War with Iran over Twitter? Go home. Fuck you.
HinTN
Your lexicon delights my mind, Ms Cracker.
Wild Cat
@Hungry Joe:
Hungry Joe:
Authors are not required to pay for fact-checking or fact-checkers; only indexers, in most cases. Where did I say authors had to pay for fact-checking???
I work for a major publisher. In-house fact-checkers, copy editors, and proofreaders are long gone. Legal vetting is still required and paid for by the major publishers. The burden has fallen on freelancers, for the most part.
You probably spoke to a lawyer or an editorial assistant or a production editor.
My guess is that Spicer’s “book” was produced on a crash schedule, facts be damned (and in the US, facts are usually damned).
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
My worst nightmare is that someone manages to assassinate Trump. That’s something that would truly kick off full-blown fascism.
The Pale Scot
Not good enough. Anything less than an
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dery9km4G80 ending for Báthory and her brothers Uday and Qusay is justice denied
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Braggart.
sukabi
@zhena gogolia: that’s the thing though, he KNOWS who Michael Steele is. They worked together in the Bush the lesser White House. Steele was the head of the RNC and Spicer was the Easter bunny, among other things.
Spicer didn’t “make a mistake” he’s purposefully LYING.
Manyakitty
@Bruce K: I still vote for that tropical paradise of Gitmo.
Mnemosyne
@Wild Cat:
Apparently Regnery does require its authors to self-pay for fact-checking and copy editing, which is what makes them a glorified vanity press.
How much does freelance proofreading/copy editing go for these days? I’m considering doing some on the side since I’m a freak who actually enjoys it and I now have a good reference from an editor who was happy with my work.
West of the Rockies
I truly don’t intend this as appearance shaming, but she has such a plastic, not-quite-lifelike aspect… Sort of a wax figure made animate. Odd.
BruceFromOhio
:::ZING!!!::: LOL
Gaia save me, you got the turn of a phrase down cold, would enjoy having you consult on writing my monthly status reports.
Jeffro
@Mnemosyne: eh… probably just an audible sigh of relief from the vast majority of the country
Twitter would haz a sad, though
HinTN
@Gin & Tonic: Was planning a stay in Las Vegas with Hilton Grand Vacations and they tried mightily to put us in the Trump property. Nope, not having that.
Hungry Joe
@Wild Cat: No, I didn’t “[speak] to a lawyer or an editorial assistant or a production editor.” I received a thoroughly gone-over, hard-copy manuscript fluttering with Post-it notes marking questions and suggestions.
As for Spicer’s book being produced on a crash schedule, facts be damned … well, that’s Regnery’s business model.
Ruckus
@donnah:
I no longer think that pissing on his grave is appropriate. I’m thinking that another elimination product is much more applicable.
TenguPhule
Life for professional wingnuts can be unexpectedly short.
TenguPhule
Score one for the good guys. A small victory. But still ours.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
I’d settle for wheeled out by EMTs. I’m not picky.
Yutsano
@rikyrah: That men number is a killer. Only two points up for Rs means the Democrats can overwhelm them with a spike in women voting. Let’s hope this keeps up because if it does this will be brutal for Republicans.
A Ghost To Most
@Ruckus: We should nuke his gravesite from space. Just to be sure.
TenguPhule
@Wild Cat:
LOL, as if Republican publishing companies actually have those.
Wild Cat
@Hungry Joe: You dealt with a freelance copy editor, most likely. S&S uses freelancers.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most:
We can always fire his and his family’s mortal remains at Uranus.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Agreed. If the Secret Service feels they need to increase security perimeters to help avoid that situation I’m all for it.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Heads on Pikes? Or not quite there yet?
Wild Cat
@Mnemosyne:
Learn electronic copyediting. Hard-copy manuscripts are going the way of the Daily News.
In the Big Five, regular (nonrush) copyediting tends to pay about $30-$35.
Comparative proofreading pays between $25-$30.
Cold reads are easy and pay around $20-$25. That’s how I supplement my own pathetic salary.
Smaller houses probably pay less. Rush/Crash jobs can pay quite well, but it’s high pressure.
G’luck.
Jeffro
@Ruckus: @A Ghost To Most:
Um, just a quick reminder that one of my major life goals at this point is a road trip to wherever they bury Fat Bastard, sipping cold American Beer Soda (aka Bud Light) the whole way. (No worries, it won’t be me driving.)
I mean, I can and I WILL hold it for the whole trip, just for maximum volume when I get there.
Afterwards, if you’ll give me an hour to clear the area, THEN you can nuke it from space.
West of the Rockies
@West of the Rockies:
I’m referring to Ivanka, btw.
Elizabelle
Looking at that British television interviewer: a fantasy, but I wish our broadcasts could employ journalists like that. People who can see the bullshit and call it out in real time. Impatient with the lying and kowtowing.
That job falls mainly to comedians in this country.
UK journalists have to be way aware of what a clusterfuck Brexit is, and how it happened. They don’t have time for the self-protecting niceties that make our broadcast mouths into pussy cats, well fed ones, with few exceptions.
I wonder if Brexit will actually happen. It should be about undoing that vote, not trying to cover May’s sorry, sorry ass at this point. Let Britain have a mulligan. It’s about more than the careers of the UK politicians involved at this very moment.
I wish we could do the same. I don’t think Trump was re-electable, from November 10.
Anyway, if we had a tougher media, it would be harder to have a Trump. Their “both sides”, careerist, sensationalist shit got us into this mess.
ETA: Nancy Pelosi is a tough woman. That’s why many are trying to take her down. She is effective, and tough.
A Ghost To Most
@Manyakitty: Does Gitmo have a golf course? Not so he could play – so his cell could overlook it.
captnkurt
@dmsilev:
Trump must be working on his Borscht Belt act – “A lawyer recording his client? Terrible! And such short recordings!”
Miss Bianca
@Wild Cat: Ooh, this sounds like kind of a natural for me – I was doing copy editing and proof reading for a regional magazine for a while – I’ve switched to writing, primarily, but dang…that would be some good money! Where do I sign up? ; )
TenguPhule
Via Wapo. Trump is determined to destroy the economy that President Obama built. At any cost.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: I don’t want to see a head on a pike, no.
But dead as a result of guillotining or hanging? Even a firing squad? I am good with that. Treason is treason. You in the first group, Mitch. Do you want to wear your glasses or not?
Actually, I’m OK with what the Italians did to Mussolini. It dampened Hitler’s spirits considerably, and sped his suicide. All accomplished without pikes.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
All signs point to yes. The Conservatives seem bound and determined to commit the act of national suicide. And they changed the law back in 2008 or so that prevent new elections before the deadline until and unless May’s government collapses under a No Confidence vote which won’t happen unless some of the Conservatives put country before party.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
I’m a romantic with a soft spot for the historical classics. Sometimes the best visual warnings to deter future generations are the oldest ones.
A Ghost To Most
@TenguPhule:
My father’s ashes were shot out of a (Civil War) cannon. They called it the blow job he never got.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: I am betting that it doesn’t. But we will have to see. What a mess. That didn’t have to happen.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
You want to punish Trump, not yourself.
tracy ratclif
@TenguPhule: obligatory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DfQcHMYLY
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most: Ouch, was he not well liked by the family?
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Cash transactions over $10,000 are reported by financial institutions. If they pulled the cash from a legitimate source, there would be records.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
This part goes beyond his hatred of Obama. Trump is going to destroy the economy because he doesn’t know any better.
Trump is an idiot who doesn’t understand the economy (or much else). And he is a bag of anger and resentment and phony determination. He is that ignorant guy sitting in the back of the bar, with simplistic answers to everything. And because they saw themselves in him, the ignorati voted for him and (with Russian help and other slimy practices), he is now the president.
I suppose the GOP leadership could slow him down, if only they had an ounce of courage. The midterms give us an opportunity, I think. Otherwise, we are in for a mess.
ETA: The global economy may get a double jolt through Theresa May’s bumbling mishandling of BREXIT. We might look back at the financial mess of 2008 as the good old days.
jl
@TenguPhule:
“Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off?”
This recovery has seen record agricultural exports, at record prices. So, It takes a minute or two to check this on FRED ST Louis.
Some exceptions: corn has seen a price bust, but still exporting at a good price compared to before 2007 recession.
So, ignorance has its costs. If you look at how successful US exports of agricultural goods overall has been, you can see why many farmers (and agribusiness) not happy at all with Trump’s emergency big government Depression program type handout.
And US ripped off applies mostly to lesser people. US finance is doing fine. But on then, they won’t lend Trump money any more because he is a crook. I won’t try to figure out Trump’s thinking on that. He certainly doesn’t care about the lesser people.
maybe idiotic moment-to-moment reality show style drama over nothing defines success for Trump.
A Ghost To Most
@TenguPhule:
He was a drunken racist ammosexual asshole. No tears shed by me.
West of the Rockies
@A Ghost To Most:
Wait… Your father never…
That’s just sad.
Captain C
@dmsilev:
Presumably one whose client is a) a compulsive liar and/or b) is asking the lawyer to commit a crime on their behalf. I’d say Deadbeat Donnie fits both descriptions.
Wild Cat
@Miss Bianca:
Send out resumes, accept any job offered at any price, and make sure you have a record of paying your taxes on monies earned from freelancing—this will make it easier to break into the more upscale, higher-paying gigs.
Proofreading may dry out soon. More compositors are attracting publishers with their own proofers, so publishers are trafficking out less proofreading.
West of the Rockies
@A Ghost To Most:
I’m sorry, GtM. Cyber hug.
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
Hopefully, folks in the Hamptons will take Dersh back into their good graces so this fine man can resume living the gilded life he so richly deserves, surrounded by grateful acolytes. Or he gets run over by his Uber.
jl
In fact, agricultural exports this recovery have been so successful it has caused problems. Very short term corporate projects to take advantage of high export prices and growing demand have caused problems in Central Valley CA. The corporations and equity funds know how to privatize the gains and socialize the losses in all sorts of ways.
TenguPhule
@Ksmiami:
Only after Republicans installed by Bush the lesser and Trump are kicked out and not before.
i don’t want to escape from Nazi Germany just to wind up in Mao’s China.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most: Condolences. At least you turned out much better.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
BBC is probably the world’s best news organization. I thank my lucky stars those socialist Brits tax themselves in order to keep it alive and viable.
Shell
“Quick and dirty” pretty much describes it.
*******
Re: the Spricer book reviews, does anyone mention the infamous “unicorn riding a unicorn” sentence?
trollhattan
@Captain C:
Need to add c. never pays his bill.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
The self-publishing boom means there are a lot of authors looking for copyeditors, but I don’t know how steady the work would be.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
We’re certainly going to look at 2016 as the good old days.
The crash is coming in 2019. Business confidence is at record highs in sharp contrast to the economic realities.
The Titanic is charging full speed ahead.
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
There are fires near one of my favorite little monasteries in Pendeli.
A Ghost To Most
@TenguPhule:
That’s debatable.
More dispatches from the Christian fascist leadership:
Fuck this guy.
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: It’s actually an upgrade from what I used to drink in college.
Who wants all that hoppy, heavy stuff anyway? Makes my sinuses swell up and leaves me feeling like I ate an entire loaf of bread. Beer Soda, not so much.
trollhattan
O/T Just the kind of thing the Trump maladministration is scrupulously not doing to protect you and the environment. Woe unto you living in states that are similarly disinterested.
Bring on the Brawndo
Manyakitty
@A Ghost To Most: If not, installing one for that reason alone would be tax dollars well spent. Especially if he has to watch other people play under his window.
Jeffro
@A Ghost To Most: I’m interpreting Rev Graham to mean, “Let’s give Trumpov a pass; God’s in charge of passing judgment here and most of you are guilty of many sins yourselves.” Fundie version of “both sides”, really.
And so I would like to join your “Fuck this guy” chorus, if there’s still room?
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
it keeps on chugging along…
Yarrow
@Elizabelle:
Yep. Time to bring back an updated version of the Fairness Doctrine. Giant media corporations are not in the country’s best interests so somehow that issue needs to be tackled.
Manyakitty
@Elizabelle: Always been a fan of the firing squad…there’s something so personal about it.
trollhattan
@A Ghost To Most:
To be fair, God is busy preparing a 1,256,864-count indictment against Trump. Bet he has a half-million counts against Franklin Graham already.
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
That would only apply if he actually did any of the actual work. He is the laziest sack of shit ever.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most:
You’re here, aren’t you?
jl
@Brachiator:
” ETA: The global economy may get a double jolt through Theresa May’s bumbling mishandling of BREXIT. We might look back at the financial mess of 2008 as the good old days. ”
My hunch is that the excess global cash is mostly in real estate now, and much more closely held, rather than in sketchy securities trading on secondary markets. Take a look at most recent IMF Global Financial Stability Report, and the real estate bubble, which is not has big as in 2007, isn’t driving a lot of consumer demand as in 2007.
So, I hope and expect-guesstimate that the next recession will be more like 2001 dotcom bust than 2007. Mostly rich people losing paper profits. And their cash was going to waste anyway, wasn’t going into real productive investment. OTOH, if incompetent management of the recovery causes a prolonged liquidity problem in the US, and the country has to call its dollars home from overseas again, then it could develop into a financial crisis again. The dollar is creeping up as the main reserve currency again, and the international dollar markets just as rickety as before 2007-2008 financial panic.
SiubhanDuinne
What the spox said:
What the spox meant:
Miss Bianca
@Wild Cat: Thanks for the advice! Cheers!
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: Rick Perlstein was surmising cash does not mean bills. That it’s like you buy a house “cash” — ie. with a check — but not identifiable.
I have no idea. Doesn’t really matter. Main point was “paying off mistress before presidential election” and “reporting requirements, for the IRS and FEC.”
Mnemosyne
@Wild Cat:
Really, $35 for a 400-page manuscript? That’s a little scary.
By “electronic proofreading” I assume you mean in Word or PDF form? I already do that quite a bit at work. With Word, we usually use the Review function. PDFs we use the edit function in full Acrobat or lots of e-sticky notes.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro: All beers are awful, it just varies by degree.
Try sake instead.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: I think I’d be much better editing non-fiction than fiction. Seems easier for me, somehow. Or maybe less personal. ; )
Mike in NC
Just got in from running a few errands. Spotted a parked car with both a TRUMP bumper sticker and one next to it that said something about Socialism (where I couldn’t be bothered to read the fine print). Elderly white couple in their 70s-80s sitting inside. Obviously the sort of hopeless Fox-bots that can never be engaged.
TenguPhule
@jl:
If?
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
Yes – this is where the stupidity is dangerous.
I was thinking about it last night: what is it about this jackass that inspires such an all-day, every-day anger in me (perhaps many of us Dems). Well, he is kind of the perfect storm…
– financially corrupt
– morally corrupt
– a spiritual fraud
– lacking knowledge and expertise in almost everything, but believing he knows everything
– thoroughly in thrall to a hostile foreign power, while
– carrying out the most radically Randian/Fundie agenda in a century, primarily because a) he hates the previous president for being successful and black and b) he is so weak he has no ability to refuse his backers anything.
There’s just no end to the ways he is deficient.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
JFCOAC. How the FUCK do you fuck up bottled water like that?! This is so fucking outrageous that it had to be intentional.
Jeffro
@Mike in NC: See, now, that’s just not respectful…you’re not even giving them a chance to tell you why they HAD to vote for Trumpov.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
There’s probably more work proofreading fiction, though. You may have to wade through a lot of junk, though.
Elizabelle
@Manyakitty: I don’t know why we don’t use it more. Mind you, I am not a proponent of capital punishment, except in much more rare circumstances. I think there should be 9 levels of review before imposing it on people of color, ever, after all the excesses and injustice there.
But why a nation that is dripping guns and bullets isn’t using a firing squad, but forcing on a deadly drugs protocol … ? Maybe because there’s some elan to being executed by a firing squad, as for many brave soldiers (as well as deserters and cowards and thieves…)?
I know hanging was forced on the Nuremberg Nazis, and on Saddam Hussein ….
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: I’ll pass, thanks.
Yarrow
@Mike in NC: Socialism just isn’t scary to people under about 40 or so. The general examples given of socialism are Sweden or Norway. In those countries people have health care, jobs, lots of time off and are happier in general than Americans. That sounds great! Sign me up for some socialism! If these old, white Foxbot Trumpers think shouting “socialism!” is going to scare people they’re going to be very disappointed.
jl
@TenguPhule: Setting aside arguments about what is good for the US and world economy as a whole (aka the global population of lesser people) versus big money and finance, and given the lack of adequate fiscal policy, the recoveries from 2001 and 2007 recessions were technically superb. I would argue that we have had two almost identical Paulson/Geithner and Bernanke/Yellen experiments in economic recovery, since both Dub and Obama deferred to their worldview.
Current Fed chair is Powell, who is as close to a Yellen re-appointment as possible, and he’s been fulfilling expert FEd watcher predictions that he would be the second Yellen. So, I guess it’s an ‘if’, assuming Powell is good enough to clean up the mess Mnuchin and Trump make of handling the recession. And, hey, maybe Mnuchin knows something about his job… we’ll find out sooner or later.
Tarragon
@Mnemosyne:
Can be very… The copyeditor my wife uses is usually booked far enough out that she reserves a slot about the time she finishes chapter 1.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Campaign for a Democrat.
The Dangerman
@TenguPhule:
Gotta be the good stuff … the good stuff is gooooooood.
Actually, the not so good stuff is pretty good, too.
Love sake,
Wild Cat
@Mnemosyne:
Word files.
$35/hour. Some projects are prebudgeted.
TenguPhule
@jl:
Mnuchin is in the “trade wars are short and easily won” camp. No help there.
Trump is already interfering with the perceived impartiality of the Fed. With zero pushback from Powell. I have no hopes for him when the real crisis hits. He bent the knee and everything Trump touches turns to shit.
jl
@Yarrow: By current GOP and Trump and corporate media standards, Australia and Switzerland are Maoist commie hellholes. Sure, in health care they produce far better results at 3/4 or 2/3 the cost, for example, but they are socialist hellholes.
TenguPhule
@The Dangerman:
The joy of sake is that even the not so good stuff can be improved by heating it.
Anything absolutely undrinkable has already been labeled as cooking sake. :P
MomSense
@Brachiator:
Having spent a lot of formidable years waiting on wealthy summer people and tourists, I can tell you that Trump is the epitome of that type of person. I can’t tell you how many times I would listen to their idiotic conversations and wonder how the hell they could possibly be successful enough to enjoy their lifestyle. It’s probably part of why I never fell for the bullshit run government like a business or CEO president argument.
Trump surpasses them with his criminal and traitorous behavior. We elected the biggest asshole from the country club and it’s going as well as I expected.
I'll be Frank
@SiubhanDuinne: Not a brag one sees every day.
jl
@TenguPhule: I figure Cohn. before he left, must of slipped a sane appointment like Powell past Trump, based on central casting criteria. Other Trump Fed appointments have been horrible. And Powell will have to work with some Trumpsters in the Fed. So, I admit my ‘if’ is big.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Couldn’t get enough people willing to fire the guns for execution. Weird, but true. Also why one round is randomly a blank. Plus I believe it has been challenged under cruel and unusual since death was not painless and not always swift (especially if they did gut shots).
TenguPhule
@Manyakitty:
Hasn’t Cuba been punished enough?
Mnemosyne
@Wild Cat:
Phew! Okay, I was afraid it was $35 for the whole manuscript.
It was especially nice to get complimented on the one that was such a slog (despite the interesting topic) that I found myself howling out to the universe, “‘FEVEROUSLY’ IS NOT A REAL WORD, BOB!” (not the author’s real name)
Captain C
@TenguPhule: Given how much Russian money is invested in the UK, and given what will happen to its economy if/when Brexit goes through, doesn’t this seem like a case of short-sightedness on the part of the Russians for covertly supporting the Leave vote?
rikyrah
ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
RT @JamilSmith: This isn’t a bailout. It is a payoff. Trump has some experience with this. He needs to keep these farmers quiet before the… https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1021796850725056512?s=17
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
My worst nightmare is they try and fail.
Captain C
@trollhattan: This is true.
Brachiator
@Wild Cat:
This sounds like fun. Where can I find out more about it?
rikyrah
Connecting the dots
cherokee welch (@cherokee_welch) Tweeted:
@EmilyKMcCoy @adamcbest @emsawarrior Exactly. The migrant work force has been decimated thru #LittleGestapoSessions & immigration debacle. The tariffs set farms & ranches up for failure & foreign/domestic investors r set to buy up prop. Big Ag-co-ops will take over as well. This bailout is to secure votes. #NoRussia https://twitter.com/cherokee_welch/status/1022010950210215936?s=17
TenguPhule
@Captain C:
Not really. If London’s property prices crater, it means that much more the Russian mafia dons can buy up. Given all the other losses they already sustain in converting rubles into a less volatile denomination, one more cost is peanuts. It increase’s Russia’s grip on Great Britain.
jl
@TenguPhule: @rikyrah: Good points.
Leto
@Yarrow: After living in two of those “socialist hell-holes”, I’d go back in a heart beat. One of the things that I found that I love love love is being able to bicycle anywhere. I grew up riding a bike as a kid, but then when I hit 14 transitioned to a car and thought of bikes as either kids toys, or essentially a rec activity (road racing/mountain biking). Living in Europe and seeing people go everywhere by bike, and then joining in on that activity, really re-shaped how I viewed transportation and how I wanted to live my life. I guess I’m rambling by this point, but I wish more areas here in the US were bike friendly. I miss it a lot.
Manyakitty
@Elizabelle: Right?! With your reminder, I can also accept hanging.
Gin & Tonic
Pretty strong statement by Pompeo today, called the “Crimea Declaration.” Includes the key
I wonder if anyone will tell Trump?
jl
@Leto: So what? 150 years ago Sweden and Norway were poor shithole countries that took advantage of the US by shipping us not the best people, but a bunch of illiterate peasants who only knew how to dig ditches. The US is just recovering from that disaster. Unfair! Bicycles are low energy.
/snark
Manyakitty
@TenguPhule: Sure, but as long as it’s just SITTING there with all those empty cells, why not get some use out of it?
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
I think there is too much uncertainty to say when the next crash is coming. Profits are up and the tax cuts are giving corporations and well-heeled individuals a nice cushion (though it’s hard to say how well the cushion will protect if a crash comes).
@jl:
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is meant to entice corporations to bring dollars home from overseas. However, tax reform also has created unnecessary uncertainty in the housing markets, especially in high tax states. Home sales in California are down, and some of this may be due to the limits on state and local taxes and mortgage interest. The GOP/Trump tax plan and trade war actions are incoherent financial policy, and inherently de-stabilizing.
Jeffro
Btw quite a few witty folks on Twitter are noting that the “best deal maker in the world” paid over a quarter million bucks to get laid a few times. It’s not a bad line. It’ll sound good in the 2020 debates ;)
Gin & Tonic
@jl: Ah, but 1100 years ago, they’d cut you to pieces and eat your liver.
jl
@Brachiator: I agree. Except that the GOP tax cut is not working at all like they promised. If any dollars are being called from overseas, it is for stock buybacks and dividends. The tax cut was supposed to help workers by causing a flood of overseas funds to push up real investment here in the US, increasing capital stock labor productivity and real wages.
So, far, the tax cut has had zero detectable effect on domestic investment in private businesses, it’s rising perfectly trend with earlier in this recovery.
Through Q2 of 2018, Trumpsters have had no detectable effect on the US real economy. I think is pretty clear. So we’ll can have fun monitoring the messes they make with the trade wars and fiscal imbalance of another huge income transfer to rich and corporations.
The stock market seems to be saying that only small cap stocks see anything at all beyond an income transfer in the tax cuts, and I guess they are more liquidity constrained. So, they might have some useful use for the tax cut money.
PST
I look out on the Trump Tower from my office window. I can’t see the whole logo, just RUMP. I hate to say it, but take away the name, and it’s quite a nice building. Its setbacks complement the surrounding buildings. Its curves soften its closeness to the neighboring IBM building across Wabash. Its glass reflects the Wrigley Building. A kink in Wabash makes it stand out as you look north from the Loop much like the famous view of the Board of Trade as you look south on LaSalle. Long after Trump is dead and the building is renamed, it will be a welcome addition to the skyline. By curious coincidence, I not only look out on the Trump Tower from work. When I get home, I look out on the headquarters of the Federal Savings Bank. That’s the outfit that lent $16 million to Paul Manafort, allegedly in return from help getting its CEO appointed Secretary of the Army.
RedDirtGirl
Jumping in here, so it may have already been mentioned, but there’s a WaPo article with the following headline in today’s paper: “Farmers like me put Trump in office. Now his trade war is smothering us”. Every comment says she got what she voted for.
Every. Single. Comment.
What a maroon!
debit
@Leto: Minneapolis is very bike friendly, and biking in spring, summer and fall is awesome. Winter biking can also awesome, and I loved it when I could commute by bike trail. Unfortunately, Minneapolis winter drivers are also assholes and don’t give cyclists a lot of space on sometimes treacherous roads.
My dream is to retire here.
p.a.
@Jeffro: Btw quite a few witty folks on Twitter are noting that the “best deal maker in the world” paid over a quarter million bucks to get laid a few times. It’s not a bad line. It’ll sound good in the 2020 debates ;)
There are better ways to transfer wealth down, but it is a redistribution in the right direction.
Brachiator
@MomSense:
Yep. Of course, there are simpletons in every social class, ignorant blowhards who love to tell you exactly how they would fix everything if they were president, and barely equipped to pour their own beer into a glass without spilling everything. But absolutely certain in their ignorance.
@Jeffro:
You lay it out very well. Trump is only sufficient in his deficiency.
Despite having access to the best minds in the world, Trump keeps coming back to his tired fears and obsessions.
And yet fearful bigoted white conservative morons hated Obama because he was “arrogant” and “elitist.” Go figure.
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
Only if you support the British Empire, the royalty, the House of Lords, etc. BBC is owned and controlled by the British Government. Their coverage of the Falklands War, The Suez Crisis, etc. Of events in India and Pakistan, Canada, Australia, NZ… all aligned with the view of the British Civil Service and the Prime Minister’s offices.
Sorry to disagree. The Guardian is better…
R-Jud
In re the proof reading and copy editing conversation, I actually have proofed as a freelancer for Simon and Schuster/ Scribner, and just want to back up WC’s description of the work and the rates. Good work if you can get it— I wound up getting axed from their roster when the production editor I was pals with left the company.
Leto
@RedDirtGirl: Shorter title: “Save me from my stupidity!”
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Thank you, that’s great. I’m on a monthly contribution to him via Swing Left. That’s my “adopted” district, since I’m in a blue state. (But I give to my blue peeps here too!)
Omnes Omnibus
@debit: WI is also quite bike friendly for 3/4 of the year. Until there is ice on the roads…
zhena gogolia
@Leto:
When I heard it I thought he was answering “Did you want him to win,” not “Did you direct your people to make that happen.” He didn’t listen to enough of the Russian to be answering the second question.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator:
Probably can add to “Trump considers himself a successful businessman, so he sees himself as a naturally taught economists because of reasons we shouldn’t ask about, so he resents the accusations he’s a total ass clown with curious hair and so by enacting his economic “vision” in all it’s crayon glory Trump will prove them wrong”
debit
@Omnes Omnibus: I built up a winter commuter from an old mountain bike: did drop bars, built wheels around a dynamo drum brake for the front, drum brake on a cassette hub for the back, had two inch studded tires, felt like I was riding a tank. Happily commuted year round for a couple years, then some asshole clipped me with his mirror and I went down and nearly under his car. My heart gallops just thinking about it and I was too panicked to do it anymore. Come the first hard freeze, my bikes now go into storage.
RedDirtGirl
@Leto: The crazy thing is she still thinks/hopes that Trump has some strategy up his sleeve. The man can hardly play checkers. No elebenty demension chess for this guy.
Leto
@debit: I’ve heard that about Minneapolis! Regarding drivers: same thing in PA. Except year round. (Uhm, just how brutal are MN winters?) If the wife and I could retire anywhere it’d be Brugge, Belgium. Same as Groningen with regards to biking. We stayed in Amsterdam for a week and it was awesome too. There’s a cycling book about the Netherlands titled, “In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist”. Engaging read about an American that just moved to the Netherlands to be a bike mechanic, and the history of the bike in the Netherlands from about 1890 to present day.
jl
@Gin & Tonic: So, they were strong back then, but weak now? What happened?
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: That’s OK, I’m used to wading thru’ junky fiction!
Miss Bianca
@MomSense:
OMG, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Was that up in Maine, by any chance?
debit
@Leto:
Not as bad as they used to be. If you can layer and have a strategy for your hands and feet, you can, or I can anyway, cycle comfortably in as low as -10 F. I actually tend to overheat and worry more about that than I do the cold. Except for my feet. After 12 miles they were always frozen.
Brachiator
@jl:
Uh, yeah. I would argue that the tax cuts are working exactly as designed. Corporate profits are up, and excess profits are being used to increase shareholder value.
This was the heart of the con. Almost every business site, economist and business savvy pundit predicted that this would happen, as did nonpartisan Congressional budget reports. Hell, even Trump bragged that he and his rich buddies were going to do well at one of his dinners.
But the suckers bought the con. And some are still buying it.
By the way, there was an excellent, picture-worth-a-thousand-words, recent article on the impact on wages.
Trump can wail all he wants about fake news. When people file their tax returns, many will see how little the tax cuts are doing for them. Sadly, those who end up getting a slight refund, will have no idea how much of a huge cut the uber wealthy will be getting.
Leto
@debit: That’s good to know; I’ll have to remember that for later. Thanks!
Spanky
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s how I read it.
rikyrah
@RedDirtGirl:
YES YES YES
bemused
@Yarrow:
Meghan McCain was hysterical about evil socialism on The View. I wish one of the others on show would have asked her why the citizens of Sweden and other northern “socialistic” countries aren’t protesting in the streets over their high taxes and why even the conservatives don’t seriously try to emulate American system. Good question to ask any American who believes socializing the US more like other countries is the worst thing to happen to civilization.
westyny
Small correction: The Mouth of Stupid Sauron.
MomSense
@Miss Bianca:
Ayup.
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: Foreigners have been buying farmland forever. That’s one of the reason that shit is going for near $5k/acre where I grew up in Ohio.
Kayla Rudbek
@Yarrow: next thing you know, they’ll want to throw out the Taiwan IP Office
Mnemosyne
@R-Jud:
Since I’m in the romance world now, I could probably pick up some work from self-published authors if I can build a reputation. ?
I started thinking about it again because my friend’s brother may be looking for a copy editor for his current novel (his third). He hasn’t been happy with his publisher’s copy editors.
Kayla Rudbek
@TenguPhule: yep. See https://www.uspto.gov/corda/dashboards/patents/main.dashxml?CTNAVID=1005
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the tips. I’ll look it up. Sadly, it won’t be for this trip, since I’ll still have another month of recovery at home once I return back to the States in a couple weeks. (Among other reasons, I’ll need to spend an hour doing post-op care three times a day for the next three months.) But another time.