Late Night

Another busy day for me.

Thursday Evening

enjoy

Maybe This Sucky Blog Has Been Good For Something After All

This is incredible. https://t.co/O0oEisXEeJ pic.twitter.com/ro04fnHdcR

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) April 26, 2018

Yes I know it's mostly been a certain president

Incoming

Apparently there's a Cosby verdict (so not another hung jury). Exciting!!!

..guilty on all 3 counts.

Not Too Late

For a lunch thread.

The Rot At The Top

I'm pretty squeaky clean I think (I don't mean I'm a perfect human being, but there aren't any bodies buried on the roof deck), but if a president called me up to appoint me to a position which would entail massive scrutiny I would politely run away screaming. I'm about as much of a public figure as I can stand, and even if there's nothing more than a few suspect Twinkie wrappers in my trash, I still don't want people going through my trash.

Anyway, as Ryan said in the link below, elites just don't seem to think they can fall very far, no matter what they do. I think Harvey Weinstein will remain dead, but it is almost inevitable that some of other recently disgraced will have successful comebacks, and certainly true that many more of them are trying to.

Bye Doctor Ronny

I guess the mystery is why he didn't get out while the going was still good.

WASHINGTON — The White House withdrew the nomination of Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the White House physician, to lead the Veterans Affairs Department on Thursday after lawmakers went public with a torrent of accusations leveled against him by nearly two dozen current and former colleagues from the White House medical staff.

....Cooper:

What this tends to demonstrate is that the incredible corruption of the Trump administration — acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Mick Mulvaney recently basically admitted to taking quid pro quo bribes while he was in Congress — is a window into a much larger galaxy of corruption and malfeasance at the top of the American elite. Most people in Jackson's position simply are not used to being subject to accountability of any kind. Even President Obama, whose vetting process was infamously extensive and slow, apparently tolerated astounding misbehavior from his own dang doctor.

If people in the running to work for Trump had a lick of sense, they would surely see the risk here, and pick this time for a long vacation, early retirement, or to start that carpentry business they've always wanted. Even if your own history is in order, it's a near certainty that Trump will flip out and fire you after a few months anyway.

Morning Thread

Late Night

Various things interfering to make my blogs much less mighty these days.

Afternoon Thread

er...evening

WeWhat

I never paid much attention to it but I never quite got the WeWork business model.

WeWork began business by leasing office space and renting desks to New York’s creative set, with unusual work perks such as microbrews on tap and a “community manager” who programs events such as book clubs and Ping-Pong tournaments. It now has 234 locations across 22 countries, company documents show, with a portfolio of short-term co-working spaces, mainly leased from landlords on long-term rental agreements.

Lease flexibility, a major perk for potential WeWork tenants, also poses one of the company’s biggest risks. The company is subject to "mismatched terms" when it takes 10- or 20-year office leases from landlords and then offers companies month-to-month rental options, according to Fitch.

Now I think I get it - attract a bunch of money by marketing itself to investors as a some sort of new economy thing (hip millennial working spaces with Ping-Pong and beer!!!), and use that money to go long on a massive portfolio of commercial real estate leases. Then hope for the best!

Could work. Will work for some people, as is always the case when money is sloshing around.

I Do!

When one of my dear readers gives me the gift of a modest flat in London, not too far out from the center, I will move there.


The right wing fantasy of London and Sweden (and Paris and wherever they decide to talk about next week) as being horror zones because a bunch of brown people live there is bigoted and also...false. It could be bigoted and true if people were as bigoted as Tucker Carlson, but it isn't. The problem with London is that too many people want to live there. Which is why one of you needs to buy me a flat.

They Lie About Everything

Mnuchin is rich. Really really rich! Also, he does not care about the things you yokels care about because he lives in the greatest only city in the world!

“People in Kentucky took this stuff very seriously. Being a New Yorker, I don’t have any interest in watching the eclipse,” Mnuchin said according to the Washington Post.

As a New Yorker, he took it so seriously he had a military jet take him there.

Which One Is That Again

I keep confusing all of the details of the various killing sprees. You know, "was that the waffle house guy or was that the...".

Late Thread

Happy Hour Thread

get happy

Give The Dems Reliable Veto-Proof Majorities And

I know this is my regular cranky complaint and I certainly never mean it in a "both parties are the same" sense. Also, too, it's not going to happen this election cycle. But what would happen in 2019 if it did happen? What would have happened if President Obama had been effectively a benevolent dictator, with a compliant Congress rubber stamping everything he sent them?

I occasionally pay attention to politics and I literally have no idea.

I don't know what the aspirational Dem agenda is. I don't even know what the reasonable - Dems could win House and have slim Senate majority - compromise agenda is.

I suspect some commonsense solutions and bipartisan cooperation.

America's Worst Humans

Kevin Williamson.

And all this science he don't understand

I am genuinely curious how the little BBs floating around his walnut brain conspired to give him what appears to be genuine affection for Rocket Man.

BREAKING: Trump says North Korea wants meeting ‘as soon as possible,’ praises Kim Jong Un as ‘very open’ and ‘very honorable’

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) April 24, 2018

A Meeting Of The Big Banks

For some reason, in 2018, our customers still can't quite figure out why transferring money electronically is not only not instantaneous, but can take some ambiguous amount of time for reasons only known to us. They are resorting to using "apps" on their "phones" to bypass the excellent services that we provide for them at low low prices with our always trustworthy brands.

How about we...innovate in this space? We will calls it Zelle. The kids will love that! Zelle.

People Who Disagree With Me Are All Naive Ridiculous Children

Sometimes it's even true! But my new commitment is to adopt this rhetorical tactic which is always used against people who suggest "maybe we can have nice things" or "war is bad, mmmkay?"

Fuck Greyhound

There was some ambiguity about whether Greyhound did or did not have a choice in the matter given that our "border" goes all the way to Missouri, but apparently not.

Border Patrol officers routinely board buses without a warrant, without specific people they’re targeting, up to 100 miles from the border — and ask passengers for their papers. Greyhound, the nation’s largest intercity bus line, lets the Border Patrol do it and doesn’t plan to stop.

Greyhound officials say they’re just complying with the law. But 10 ACLU state affiliates argue Greyhound has the right — and the responsibility to its passengers — to demand a warrant for Border Patrol officers to board its buses.

And, yes, I do take Greyhound sometimes. Not anymore.

You don't have to give a crap about immigrants and racism (I do!) to not want your bus boarded by a bunch of thugs demanding your papers, especially in a country where most people don't have, or certainly don't carry, any papers.