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Celerity
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Celerity's Journal
August 7, 2021
https://thebanter.substack.com/p/mitch-mcconnells-sacrificial-lamb
Last week, Mitch McConnell surprised veteran political observers, Democrats and Republicans alike with an about turn on President Biden’s infrastructure bill. Reported Politico:
McConnell, whose nicknames include "Grim Reaper" and "Dr. No", has spent months indicating he would do everything in his power to scupper Biden’s bill, no matter what was in it or whom it would benefit. This was to be expected given McConnell’s long track record of extreme obstructionism. He even indicated back in June that he would block a Biden Supreme Court pick in 2024. "It's highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don't think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election," McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt. For McConnell to suddenly turn around and give Biden a win that would give Democrats big bragging rights for next year’s midterms, the political calculus must have changed significantly. What exactly is going on?
McConnell the Arsonist
McConnell has never played politics for the betterment of his country. He is a power maximalist dedicated to ensuring his party wins at all costs, and that means in today’s political environment, a form of extreme nihilism. There is nothing to be gained from good policy from McConnell’s perspective — Republicans can leave all that to the Democrats. The GOP’s role in the political process for the better part of the past 60 years is simply to destroy everything. As the Banter’s Bob Cesca opined in his column this week:
When Democrats take power after Republican disasters, as they have done recently, Republicans steadfastly refused to help the clean up because they don’t have to. The base demands warfare and “owning the libs” so they can happily set fire to everything Biden does without consequence. The formula is simple: get into power and wreck everything, then blame Democrats when they try to clean it up. It works on enough voters to keep winning elections, so Republicans keep doing it. McConnell perfected this form of politics during the Obama years and continued hammering Democrats with it under Trump. There was however, one issue where McConnell has shown some flexibility and willingness to cooperate with Democrats on, and this gives us a clue to his current thinking.
The filibuster
While Republicans held the Senate under Trump, McConnell steadfastly refused to scupper the filibuster. Trump pleaded with McConnell to get rid of it, but McConnell would not help him get the votes. “I don’t think the legislative filibuster, which has been around for a long time, is a problem,” McConnell told Politico in June of 2018. “And it does, I think, generate on many occasions kind of a bipartisan solution, and I don’t think that’s always bad for the country. We do have some pretty big differences about a number of things, but there are a lot of things we do together.” While this may sound noble, McConnell then went on to divulge the real thinking behind his defence of the filibuster: “I think both sides, having been up and down a number of times, understand the advantages when you’re not in the majority,” McConnell continued. “What I remind the president of occasionally when we have this discussion is but for that we would have socialized medicine [and] right-to-work would have been eliminated across the country.” McConnell understands that the without the filibuster, Republicans would be powerless to stop legislation under Democratic leadership.
Voting rights reform must be blocked
The filibuster is the most potent weapon Republicans have given the entire premise of their politics is to obstruct and destroy, so McConnell has taken the long term view that it must be protected at all costs.................................
snip
Mitch McConnell's Sacrificial Lamb: President Biden's Infrastructure Bill
McConnell looks set to give President Biden a victory on his infrastructure bill. Why? Because McConnell has his eyes on a bigger prize.https://thebanter.substack.com/p/mitch-mcconnells-sacrificial-lamb
Last week, Mitch McConnell surprised veteran political observers, Democrats and Republicans alike with an about turn on President Biden’s infrastructure bill. Reported Politico:
McConnell, whose nicknames include "Grim Reaper" and "Dr. No", has spent months indicating he would do everything in his power to scupper Biden’s bill, no matter what was in it or whom it would benefit. This was to be expected given McConnell’s long track record of extreme obstructionism. He even indicated back in June that he would block a Biden Supreme Court pick in 2024. "It's highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don't think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election," McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt. For McConnell to suddenly turn around and give Biden a win that would give Democrats big bragging rights for next year’s midterms, the political calculus must have changed significantly. What exactly is going on?
McConnell the Arsonist
McConnell has never played politics for the betterment of his country. He is a power maximalist dedicated to ensuring his party wins at all costs, and that means in today’s political environment, a form of extreme nihilism. There is nothing to be gained from good policy from McConnell’s perspective — Republicans can leave all that to the Democrats. The GOP’s role in the political process for the better part of the past 60 years is simply to destroy everything. As the Banter’s Bob Cesca opined in his column this week:
When Democrats take power after Republican disasters, as they have done recently, Republicans steadfastly refused to help the clean up because they don’t have to. The base demands warfare and “owning the libs” so they can happily set fire to everything Biden does without consequence. The formula is simple: get into power and wreck everything, then blame Democrats when they try to clean it up. It works on enough voters to keep winning elections, so Republicans keep doing it. McConnell perfected this form of politics during the Obama years and continued hammering Democrats with it under Trump. There was however, one issue where McConnell has shown some flexibility and willingness to cooperate with Democrats on, and this gives us a clue to his current thinking.
The filibuster
While Republicans held the Senate under Trump, McConnell steadfastly refused to scupper the filibuster. Trump pleaded with McConnell to get rid of it, but McConnell would not help him get the votes. “I don’t think the legislative filibuster, which has been around for a long time, is a problem,” McConnell told Politico in June of 2018. “And it does, I think, generate on many occasions kind of a bipartisan solution, and I don’t think that’s always bad for the country. We do have some pretty big differences about a number of things, but there are a lot of things we do together.” While this may sound noble, McConnell then went on to divulge the real thinking behind his defence of the filibuster: “I think both sides, having been up and down a number of times, understand the advantages when you’re not in the majority,” McConnell continued. “What I remind the president of occasionally when we have this discussion is but for that we would have socialized medicine [and] right-to-work would have been eliminated across the country.” McConnell understands that the without the filibuster, Republicans would be powerless to stop legislation under Democratic leadership.
Voting rights reform must be blocked
The filibuster is the most potent weapon Republicans have given the entire premise of their politics is to obstruct and destroy, so McConnell has taken the long term view that it must be protected at all costs.................................
snip
With a popular bill passed, McConnell’s strategy will be to take a much credit for it as possible. He will then claim that bipartisanship is alive and well, and that there is no need to scrap or reform the filibuster. This should then give him enough political capital to sink voting rights reform and any other legislation he deems threatening to the GOP’s future.
August 7, 2021
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/08/your-favorite-art-house-film-from-2001/619679/
The year 2001 was a pivotal one for Hollywood. The indie wave of the ’90s was still cresting, but an era of franchises and unending sequels and reboots was on the horizon. Some of the hits of 20 years ago (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Fast and the Furious) have footprints that extend into the present day. It’s hard to imagine other daring work (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Vanilla Sky) making as big of an impression now. Film critics love to celebrate 1999, when American independent cinema was thriving and filmmakers like David Fincher and the Coen brothers became celebrated auteurs.
I’d posit that 2001 is almost as good, while being a little heavier on the blockbuster front. Exciting new directors (though frustratingly almost always male), such as Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson, emerged into the mainstream, while established heavyweights such as John Singleton and Baz Luhrmann did career-best work that’s stood the test of time. The year was also sprinkled with warning signs for Hollywood’s more narratively homogenous future. The biggest hits were open-ended fantasy epics destined for sequels, and animated films pitched at the broadest audience possible. (The most crucial pillar of the industry’s blockbuster obsession—superhero movies—didn’t really take off until the first Spider-Man, in 2002.)
But in Hollywood, the most fertile moments always have red flags, because it’s a world that survives by driving the hottest trends into the ground. Over the next month, I’ll discuss some of the best films of 20 years ago. We’ve broken the candidates into four broad categories: art-house films, dramas, comedies, and franchise hits. And you, Atlantic readers, will vote for one movie from each section to (hopefully) watch along with us week by week. This week’s winner is David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr., which beat out Sexy Beast, Monsoon Wedding, and Amélie in the art-house category. Mulholland Dr. began as a pilot episode for ABC, which was hoping to recapture the magic of Lynch’s prime-time hit, Twin Peaks, a decade prior.
The Hollywood-set murder mystery Lynch presented to the network—the tale of an aspiring starlet (Naomi Watts) and her amnesiac friend (Laura Harring), who appears in her apartment with a strange blue key—was baffling, oblique, and oddly paced. After ABC rejected it, Lynch reshot footage and added in the movie’s final, haunting act. The film remains his magnum opus, a perfect distillation of his most lasting fascinations: pulpy tales of women in trouble, frightening dream logic, and the wrenching pain that comes when love and artistic passion crash up against cruel reality. Mulholland Dr. remains one of the most compelling, terrifying theatre experiences of my life. While there is logic to be found in its strange, bifurcated plot, I find myself revisiting the film over and over again for its singular scenes: the introduction of “The Cowboy,” the monster looming behind the diner, the emotional labyrinth of Club Silencio. I’ve been pondering the meaning of those set pieces ever since my first viewing 20 years ago.
snip
Your Favorite Art-House Film From 2001
On Monday, we asked you to vote for your favorite art-house film from 2001. The results are in.https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/08/your-favorite-art-house-film-from-2001/619679/
The year 2001 was a pivotal one for Hollywood. The indie wave of the ’90s was still cresting, but an era of franchises and unending sequels and reboots was on the horizon. Some of the hits of 20 years ago (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Fast and the Furious) have footprints that extend into the present day. It’s hard to imagine other daring work (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Vanilla Sky) making as big of an impression now. Film critics love to celebrate 1999, when American independent cinema was thriving and filmmakers like David Fincher and the Coen brothers became celebrated auteurs.
I’d posit that 2001 is almost as good, while being a little heavier on the blockbuster front. Exciting new directors (though frustratingly almost always male), such as Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson, emerged into the mainstream, while established heavyweights such as John Singleton and Baz Luhrmann did career-best work that’s stood the test of time. The year was also sprinkled with warning signs for Hollywood’s more narratively homogenous future. The biggest hits were open-ended fantasy epics destined for sequels, and animated films pitched at the broadest audience possible. (The most crucial pillar of the industry’s blockbuster obsession—superhero movies—didn’t really take off until the first Spider-Man, in 2002.)
But in Hollywood, the most fertile moments always have red flags, because it’s a world that survives by driving the hottest trends into the ground. Over the next month, I’ll discuss some of the best films of 20 years ago. We’ve broken the candidates into four broad categories: art-house films, dramas, comedies, and franchise hits. And you, Atlantic readers, will vote for one movie from each section to (hopefully) watch along with us week by week. This week’s winner is David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr., which beat out Sexy Beast, Monsoon Wedding, and Amélie in the art-house category. Mulholland Dr. began as a pilot episode for ABC, which was hoping to recapture the magic of Lynch’s prime-time hit, Twin Peaks, a decade prior.
The Hollywood-set murder mystery Lynch presented to the network—the tale of an aspiring starlet (Naomi Watts) and her amnesiac friend (Laura Harring), who appears in her apartment with a strange blue key—was baffling, oblique, and oddly paced. After ABC rejected it, Lynch reshot footage and added in the movie’s final, haunting act. The film remains his magnum opus, a perfect distillation of his most lasting fascinations: pulpy tales of women in trouble, frightening dream logic, and the wrenching pain that comes when love and artistic passion crash up against cruel reality. Mulholland Dr. remains one of the most compelling, terrifying theatre experiences of my life. While there is logic to be found in its strange, bifurcated plot, I find myself revisiting the film over and over again for its singular scenes: the introduction of “The Cowboy,” the monster looming behind the diner, the emotional labyrinth of Club Silencio. I’ve been pondering the meaning of those set pieces ever since my first viewing 20 years ago.
snip
August 6, 2021
I have been seeing its content posted here at times, including OP's, and its articles quite often inject RW tropes and ideologies on a one-sided basis, which are given cover by its name and due to so many being familiar with it as a major magazine at one point in the past.
Newsweek and the Rise of the Zombie Magazine
How a decaying legacy magazine is being used to launder right-wing ideas and conspiracy theories.
https://newrepublic.com/article/158968/newsweek-rise-zombie-magazine
Writing in The Columbia Journalism Review last year, Daniel Tovrov depicted Newsweek, once one of America’s most distinguished magazines, as a shell of its former self. All that was left was clickbait, op-eds from the likes of Nigel Farage and Newt Gingrich, and a general sense of drift. “Nobody I spoke to for this article had a sense of why Newsweek exists,” Tovrov wrote. “While the name Newsweek still carries a certain authority—remnants of its status as a legacy outlet—and the magazine can still bag an impressive interview now and then, it serves an opaque purpose in the media landscape.”
Last week, Newsweek suggested one possible purpose: The legitimization of narratives straight out of the right-wing fever swamps. An op-ed written by John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, coyly suggested that Kamala Harris, who was born in California, may not be eligible to serve as vice president because her parents were immigrants. It was, as many pointed out, a racist attack with no constitutional merit, on par with the birther conspiracy theory that claimed Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Within a few hours, Eastman’s op-ed was being brandished by President Trump, who told reporters he had “heard” Harris may not be eligible to serve.
Three days after the op-ed was published, Newsweek apologized, sort of. In an editor’s note signed by global Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and opinion editor Josh Hammer, the magazine acknowledged, “We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted, and weaponized.... This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize.” Still, the magazine refused to recognize what was obvious—that the op-ed was intended to spark questions about the eligibility of a Black woman running for high office. Newsweek’s editors merely feigned horror that the op-ed was taken in the only possible way it could have been taken.
The publication of Eastman’s op-ed says a great deal about the state of Newsweek’s opinion section, which has become a clearinghouse for right-wing nonsense. But it also points to a larger crisis in journalism itself: The rise of the zombie publication, whose former legitimacy is used to launder extreme and conspiratorial ideas. Even by the volatile standards of journalism in the twenty-first century, Newsweek’s recent problems are extraordinary. There are the usual issues: a sharp decline in print subscribers, Google and Facebook, the difficulty of running a mass-market general interest news magazine in an age of hyperpartisanship. But Newsweek has also been raided by the Manhattan district attorney’s office (a former owner and chief executive pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in February) and has been accused of deep ties to a shadowy Christian cult, amid many other scandals.
snip
it's at the point of being as bad as Fux Snooz in many of its articles
Russia: A Problem, Not a Threat
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-problem-not-threat-opinion-1584852
Georgia's Voting Law Doesn't Go Far Enough (Charlie Kirk, Founder and President, Turning Point USA )
https://www.newsweek.com/georgias-voting-law-doesnt-go-far-enough-opinion-1581740
Most Voters Don't Want More Judges on the High Court
https://www.newsweek.com/most-voters-dont-want-more-judges-high-court-opinion-1585484
Why Derek Chauvin's Guilty Verdict May Be Overturned
https://www.newsweek.com/why-derek-chauvins-guilty-verdict-may-overturned-supreme-court-opinion-1585401
Countless Lives Have Been Cut Short by Marijuana
https://www.newsweek.com/countless-lives-have-been-cut-short-marijuana-opinion-1584819
Tucker Carlson Says Derek Chauvin Verdict Taught BLM That 'Violence Works'
https://www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-says-derek-chauvin-verdict-taught-blm-that-violence-works-1585582
Biden UN Ambassador's Attack on America Won't Win the U.S. Any Friends
https://www.newsweek.com/biden-un-ambassadors-attack-america-wont-win-us-any-friends-opinion-1584773
Joe Manchin's $11 Minimum Wage More Popular Than Biden's $15—Among Democrats and Republicans
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-manchins-11-minimum-wage-more-popular-bidens-15among-democrats-republicans-1573489
Biden's 'Right Verdict' Comments Ripped After Maxine Waters Controversy
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-bidens-right-verdict-comments-about-chauvin-trial-ripped-after-maxine-waters-controversy-1585161
Daunte Wright Protester Bashes Joe Biden for Failing Black Community
https://www.newsweek.com/daunte-wright-protester-bashes-joe-biden-failing-black-community-you-said-you-got-our-back-1584539
On Anti-Asian Hate, Frustration Builds on Biden's Slow Response
https://www.newsweek.com/anti-asian-hate-frustration-builds-bidens-slow-response-1584361
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213840112
Newsweek has become a right wing rag with a RW agenda and pushing RW tropes and CT
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100215038543I have been seeing its content posted here at times, including OP's, and its articles quite often inject RW tropes and ideologies on a one-sided basis, which are given cover by its name and due to so many being familiar with it as a major magazine at one point in the past.
Newsweek and the Rise of the Zombie Magazine
How a decaying legacy magazine is being used to launder right-wing ideas and conspiracy theories.
https://newrepublic.com/article/158968/newsweek-rise-zombie-magazine
Writing in The Columbia Journalism Review last year, Daniel Tovrov depicted Newsweek, once one of America’s most distinguished magazines, as a shell of its former self. All that was left was clickbait, op-eds from the likes of Nigel Farage and Newt Gingrich, and a general sense of drift. “Nobody I spoke to for this article had a sense of why Newsweek exists,” Tovrov wrote. “While the name Newsweek still carries a certain authority—remnants of its status as a legacy outlet—and the magazine can still bag an impressive interview now and then, it serves an opaque purpose in the media landscape.”
Last week, Newsweek suggested one possible purpose: The legitimization of narratives straight out of the right-wing fever swamps. An op-ed written by John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, coyly suggested that Kamala Harris, who was born in California, may not be eligible to serve as vice president because her parents were immigrants. It was, as many pointed out, a racist attack with no constitutional merit, on par with the birther conspiracy theory that claimed Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Within a few hours, Eastman’s op-ed was being brandished by President Trump, who told reporters he had “heard” Harris may not be eligible to serve.
Three days after the op-ed was published, Newsweek apologized, sort of. In an editor’s note signed by global Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and opinion editor Josh Hammer, the magazine acknowledged, “We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted, and weaponized.... This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize.” Still, the magazine refused to recognize what was obvious—that the op-ed was intended to spark questions about the eligibility of a Black woman running for high office. Newsweek’s editors merely feigned horror that the op-ed was taken in the only possible way it could have been taken.
The publication of Eastman’s op-ed says a great deal about the state of Newsweek’s opinion section, which has become a clearinghouse for right-wing nonsense. But it also points to a larger crisis in journalism itself: The rise of the zombie publication, whose former legitimacy is used to launder extreme and conspiratorial ideas. Even by the volatile standards of journalism in the twenty-first century, Newsweek’s recent problems are extraordinary. There are the usual issues: a sharp decline in print subscribers, Google and Facebook, the difficulty of running a mass-market general interest news magazine in an age of hyperpartisanship. But Newsweek has also been raided by the Manhattan district attorney’s office (a former owner and chief executive pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in February) and has been accused of deep ties to a shadowy Christian cult, amid many other scandals.
snip
it's at the point of being as bad as Fux Snooz in many of its articles
Russia: A Problem, Not a Threat
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-problem-not-threat-opinion-1584852
Georgia's Voting Law Doesn't Go Far Enough (Charlie Kirk, Founder and President, Turning Point USA )
https://www.newsweek.com/georgias-voting-law-doesnt-go-far-enough-opinion-1581740
Most Voters Don't Want More Judges on the High Court
https://www.newsweek.com/most-voters-dont-want-more-judges-high-court-opinion-1585484
Why Derek Chauvin's Guilty Verdict May Be Overturned
https://www.newsweek.com/why-derek-chauvins-guilty-verdict-may-overturned-supreme-court-opinion-1585401
Countless Lives Have Been Cut Short by Marijuana
https://www.newsweek.com/countless-lives-have-been-cut-short-marijuana-opinion-1584819
Tucker Carlson Says Derek Chauvin Verdict Taught BLM That 'Violence Works'
https://www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-says-derek-chauvin-verdict-taught-blm-that-violence-works-1585582
Biden UN Ambassador's Attack on America Won't Win the U.S. Any Friends
https://www.newsweek.com/biden-un-ambassadors-attack-america-wont-win-us-any-friends-opinion-1584773
Joe Manchin's $11 Minimum Wage More Popular Than Biden's $15—Among Democrats and Republicans
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-manchins-11-minimum-wage-more-popular-bidens-15among-democrats-republicans-1573489
Biden's 'Right Verdict' Comments Ripped After Maxine Waters Controversy
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-bidens-right-verdict-comments-about-chauvin-trial-ripped-after-maxine-waters-controversy-1585161
Daunte Wright Protester Bashes Joe Biden for Failing Black Community
https://www.newsweek.com/daunte-wright-protester-bashes-joe-biden-failing-black-community-you-said-you-got-our-back-1584539
On Anti-Asian Hate, Frustration Builds on Biden's Slow Response
https://www.newsweek.com/anti-asian-hate-frustration-builds-bidens-slow-response-1584361
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213840112
August 6, 2021
Stamp:
Clay Records - CLAY LP 8
Format:
Vinyl , LP, Album, Picture label
Country:
UK
Published:
1984
Gender:
Rock
Style:
Hardcore , Punk
Charged G.B.H. - Pins and Needles
Stamp:
Clay Records - CLAY LP 8
Format:
Vinyl , LP, Album, Picture label
Country:
UK
Published:
1984
Gender:
Rock
Style:
Hardcore , Punk
August 6, 2021
An executive assistant to Governor Andrew Cuomo is pressing charges against him after she accused him of groping her inside the Executive Mansion last year. The New York Post reports that the woman, who was referred to as “Executive Assistant #1” in the attorney general’s report investigating her claim and others, met with the Albany County sheriff’s office on Thursday and filed a criminal complaint.
According to the report, the woman said Cuomo frequently made inappropriate comments about her appearance and touched her in unwanted ways. The touching escalated during one moment inside Cuomo’s office, where she alleges the governor pulled her into a close hug, slid his hand up her blouse, and cupped her breast over her bra.
“And I remember thinking to myself who — I knew what just went on, I knew, and he knew too that was wrong. And that I in no way, shape, or form invited that, nor did I ask for it. I didn’t want it. I feel like I was being taken advantage of,” the woman told investigators hired by the attorney general’s office.
Albany County sheriff Craig Apple told the Post what could happen next. “The end result could either be it sounds substantiated and an arrest is made and it would be up to the DA to prosecute the arrest,” he said.
Cuomo Assistant Who Says She Was Groped Presses Charges
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/cuomo-assistant-who-says-she-was-groped-presses-charges.htmlAn executive assistant to Governor Andrew Cuomo is pressing charges against him after she accused him of groping her inside the Executive Mansion last year. The New York Post reports that the woman, who was referred to as “Executive Assistant #1” in the attorney general’s report investigating her claim and others, met with the Albany County sheriff’s office on Thursday and filed a criminal complaint.
According to the report, the woman said Cuomo frequently made inappropriate comments about her appearance and touched her in unwanted ways. The touching escalated during one moment inside Cuomo’s office, where she alleges the governor pulled her into a close hug, slid his hand up her blouse, and cupped her breast over her bra.
“And I remember thinking to myself who — I knew what just went on, I knew, and he knew too that was wrong. And that I in no way, shape, or form invited that, nor did I ask for it. I didn’t want it. I feel like I was being taken advantage of,” the woman told investigators hired by the attorney general’s office.
Albany County sheriff Craig Apple told the Post what could happen next. “The end result could either be it sounds substantiated and an arrest is made and it would be up to the DA to prosecute the arrest,” he said.
August 6, 2021
https://thebanter.substack.com/p/democratic-presidents-cleaning-up
WASHINGTON, DC -- This week, we learned that economic growth under Donald Trump was the worst it’s been since the Great Depression. Naturally, this metric includes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which some people say, including Trump himself, that it’s not his fault because there’s no way the president can control whether there’s an outbreak of that scale. My truth-o-meter ruling places that particular assessment -- that the pandemic wasn’t his fault -- in the “mostly false” category. No, Trump didn’t travel to the Wuhan wet market where he was bitten by an infected bat. In that regard, yes, he’s innocent. However, study after study has proved that his incompetence and corruption vastly worsened the pandemic on a scale of hundreds of thousands of American lives and livelihoods. Trump failed to abide by the paint-by-numbers routine established for preventing a pandemic within our borders and elsewhere. With his attention singularly focused on winning the 2020 election by any means, he refused to take the critically substantive steps toward containing the spread. He failed to act early enough, and then he encouraged Red Hat protesters to force an end to the lockdowns and mask mandates at the worst possible time, just as the infection rate was spiking. Not only that, but according to a new book by Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker, Trump refused to wear a mask in public out of fear it’d make him look weak. (As though the combover, clown makeup, shoe lifts, his tippy-toe baby steps down the ramp, etc, didn’t make him look weak already.)
The list of trespasses goes on and on, and instead of acting like a responsible leader, he presided over the uncontrolled spread of a deadly plague, and in addition to all the death, the economy took a severe beating. Incidentally, prior to any of us even knowing the word “COVID,” the manufacturing sector experienced a recession on Trump’s watch. Now, here come the Democrats to clean up a Republican president’s mess. Again. It’s not the first time this happened, either. Jimmy Carter was faced with a series of political and economic nightmares as a consequence of Richard Nixon’s shenanigans. In 1992, Bill Clinton stepped up to resolve yet another economic mess after 12 years of Reagan/Bush supply-side, trickle-down chicanery. We’re all abundantly familiar with the Great Recession and how none of the Republicans, least of all George W. Bush and John McCain, had any clue how best to keep the economy from completely melting down. So, in came Barack Obama to rescue the economy. And now, post-Trump, Joe Biden’s faced with the same dilemma. Worse yet, once the Democrats arrive to fix all the things, they’re immediately confronted by bug-eyed, screeching opposition to every solution: namely the solutions that later turn out to work anyway, despite the screeching. See also the Tea Party.
In the case of Barack Obama, the Republicans (and some progressives) screeched about the 2009 stimulus, which, by the way, went on to prevent another Depression -- it stopped the hemorrhaging, sparking record job creation and steady economic growth, even though cable news and the entire conservative entertainment complex swore with seething rage that it was the arrival of American communism. It wasn’t. Same went for the Affordable Care Act, which has successfully provided 31 million Americans with health coverage they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to purchase. After eight years of zero personal scandals, zero indictments, and a successful legislative record, American voters were duped en-masse into voting for a sloppy dingus who had no business touring the White House, much less occupying it as president. We tried to warn people. We knew exactly what would happen with a Trump presidency, and most of our forecasts came true, with catastrophic results. We knew that when faced with a serious national crisis, Trump would make all the wrong moves, that he would bungle and botch his way through the job, too undisciplined, too Dunning-Kruger, too fucking pigheaded for the gig. Businessmen who bankrupt casinos make terrible presidents, especially businessmen who scam their way into severe debt while propping it up with conflicts of interest that eventually endanger national security and foreign policy.
There was never any chance his presidency would be a successful one, with or without the pandemic. Don’t forget, before COVID and before his insurrection against Congress, Trump had already been impeached for trying to cheat in the 2020 election. He had already been probed by a special prosecutor who found significant instances of obstruction of justice and cheating in the 2016 election. And his final year in office was a nightmare by literally every metric. So, in comes Joe Biden to pooper-scooper the random piles of dung left in the streets following the parade of all-shitting grifters and weirdos. How often will this endless cycle continue before American voters wise the fuck up about it? How many more times will low-information doofuses step into voting booths and pull all the wrong levers for Republicans, knowing the GOP’s national record of unmitigated failure? I mean, name one Republican legislative initiative since 1960 that actually stuck the landing with the same results as Social Security, Medicare, the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, the ACA, the 2009 stimulus, the American Rescue Plan, the child tax credit, and so on. Good luck. At some point, you’d think American voters would grow tired of paddling their way out of the latest Republican tsunami, reaching desperately for a Democratic lifeboat only to elect another painfully unqualified Republican eight years later, before it dawns on them how all this works.
snip
Democratic Presidents: Cleaning Up Republican Catastrophes Since 1976
How often will this endless cycle continue before American voters wise the fuck up about it?https://thebanter.substack.com/p/democratic-presidents-cleaning-up
WASHINGTON, DC -- This week, we learned that economic growth under Donald Trump was the worst it’s been since the Great Depression. Naturally, this metric includes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which some people say, including Trump himself, that it’s not his fault because there’s no way the president can control whether there’s an outbreak of that scale. My truth-o-meter ruling places that particular assessment -- that the pandemic wasn’t his fault -- in the “mostly false” category. No, Trump didn’t travel to the Wuhan wet market where he was bitten by an infected bat. In that regard, yes, he’s innocent. However, study after study has proved that his incompetence and corruption vastly worsened the pandemic on a scale of hundreds of thousands of American lives and livelihoods. Trump failed to abide by the paint-by-numbers routine established for preventing a pandemic within our borders and elsewhere. With his attention singularly focused on winning the 2020 election by any means, he refused to take the critically substantive steps toward containing the spread. He failed to act early enough, and then he encouraged Red Hat protesters to force an end to the lockdowns and mask mandates at the worst possible time, just as the infection rate was spiking. Not only that, but according to a new book by Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker, Trump refused to wear a mask in public out of fear it’d make him look weak. (As though the combover, clown makeup, shoe lifts, his tippy-toe baby steps down the ramp, etc, didn’t make him look weak already.)
The list of trespasses goes on and on, and instead of acting like a responsible leader, he presided over the uncontrolled spread of a deadly plague, and in addition to all the death, the economy took a severe beating. Incidentally, prior to any of us even knowing the word “COVID,” the manufacturing sector experienced a recession on Trump’s watch. Now, here come the Democrats to clean up a Republican president’s mess. Again. It’s not the first time this happened, either. Jimmy Carter was faced with a series of political and economic nightmares as a consequence of Richard Nixon’s shenanigans. In 1992, Bill Clinton stepped up to resolve yet another economic mess after 12 years of Reagan/Bush supply-side, trickle-down chicanery. We’re all abundantly familiar with the Great Recession and how none of the Republicans, least of all George W. Bush and John McCain, had any clue how best to keep the economy from completely melting down. So, in came Barack Obama to rescue the economy. And now, post-Trump, Joe Biden’s faced with the same dilemma. Worse yet, once the Democrats arrive to fix all the things, they’re immediately confronted by bug-eyed, screeching opposition to every solution: namely the solutions that later turn out to work anyway, despite the screeching. See also the Tea Party.
In the case of Barack Obama, the Republicans (and some progressives) screeched about the 2009 stimulus, which, by the way, went on to prevent another Depression -- it stopped the hemorrhaging, sparking record job creation and steady economic growth, even though cable news and the entire conservative entertainment complex swore with seething rage that it was the arrival of American communism. It wasn’t. Same went for the Affordable Care Act, which has successfully provided 31 million Americans with health coverage they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to purchase. After eight years of zero personal scandals, zero indictments, and a successful legislative record, American voters were duped en-masse into voting for a sloppy dingus who had no business touring the White House, much less occupying it as president. We tried to warn people. We knew exactly what would happen with a Trump presidency, and most of our forecasts came true, with catastrophic results. We knew that when faced with a serious national crisis, Trump would make all the wrong moves, that he would bungle and botch his way through the job, too undisciplined, too Dunning-Kruger, too fucking pigheaded for the gig. Businessmen who bankrupt casinos make terrible presidents, especially businessmen who scam their way into severe debt while propping it up with conflicts of interest that eventually endanger national security and foreign policy.
There was never any chance his presidency would be a successful one, with or without the pandemic. Don’t forget, before COVID and before his insurrection against Congress, Trump had already been impeached for trying to cheat in the 2020 election. He had already been probed by a special prosecutor who found significant instances of obstruction of justice and cheating in the 2016 election. And his final year in office was a nightmare by literally every metric. So, in comes Joe Biden to pooper-scooper the random piles of dung left in the streets following the parade of all-shitting grifters and weirdos. How often will this endless cycle continue before American voters wise the fuck up about it? How many more times will low-information doofuses step into voting booths and pull all the wrong levers for Republicans, knowing the GOP’s national record of unmitigated failure? I mean, name one Republican legislative initiative since 1960 that actually stuck the landing with the same results as Social Security, Medicare, the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, the ACA, the 2009 stimulus, the American Rescue Plan, the child tax credit, and so on. Good luck. At some point, you’d think American voters would grow tired of paddling their way out of the latest Republican tsunami, reaching desperately for a Democratic lifeboat only to elect another painfully unqualified Republican eight years later, before it dawns on them how all this works.
snip
August 6, 2021
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-lindell-loses-it-after-hes-told-he-has-proof-of-nothing
For a man who claims to have uncovered watertight evidence that the 2020 election was rigged, Mike Lindell sure gets defensive when his theories comes under any kind of questioning.
In his latest embarrassing TV appearance in front of the nation, the MyPillow CEO—who has relentlessly pushed the lie that Donald Trump didn’t lose the election—made a fool of himself trying to defend his theories to CNN’s Drew Griffin.
Lindell presented some meaningless screenshots that he wrongly claimed showed that Chinese hackers switched Trump votes to Biden, but his “evidence” was ridiculed when CNN asked experts to take a look. “We sent this to our own experts,” said Griffin. “He said it doesn’t show any specific actions of any kind, election-related or not, and he said it’s proof of nothing.”
Lindell snapped back: “Oh, so he said it’s nothing, huh? Well he’s wrong, you didn’t hire a cyber expert.” Later in the interview, Lindell lost his temper, shouting at Griffin: “You’re lying!... I’m not wrong! I’ve checked it out! I’ve spent millions! You need to trust me!”
https://twitter.com/AC360/status/1423446986724945922
snip
MyPillow Guy Loses It as CNN Reporter Tells Him: You Have 'Proof of Nothing'
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-lindell-loses-it-after-hes-told-he-has-proof-of-nothing
For a man who claims to have uncovered watertight evidence that the 2020 election was rigged, Mike Lindell sure gets defensive when his theories comes under any kind of questioning.
In his latest embarrassing TV appearance in front of the nation, the MyPillow CEO—who has relentlessly pushed the lie that Donald Trump didn’t lose the election—made a fool of himself trying to defend his theories to CNN’s Drew Griffin.
Lindell presented some meaningless screenshots that he wrongly claimed showed that Chinese hackers switched Trump votes to Biden, but his “evidence” was ridiculed when CNN asked experts to take a look. “We sent this to our own experts,” said Griffin. “He said it doesn’t show any specific actions of any kind, election-related or not, and he said it’s proof of nothing.”
Lindell snapped back: “Oh, so he said it’s nothing, huh? Well he’s wrong, you didn’t hire a cyber expert.” Later in the interview, Lindell lost his temper, shouting at Griffin: “You’re lying!... I’m not wrong! I’ve checked it out! I’ve spent millions! You need to trust me!”
https://twitter.com/AC360/status/1423446986724945922
snip
August 6, 2021
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/08/04/fentys-fortune-rihanna-is-now-officially-a-billionaire/?sh=5691b3e57c96
When Robyn Fenty, known to the world as Rihanna, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, she sought to create a cosmetics company that made “women everywhere (feel) included.” A perhaps unintended consequence: The beauty line has helped her enter one of the world’s most exclusive ranks: Billionaire. Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion, Forbes estimates—making her the wealthiest female musician in the world and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer. But it’s not her music that’s made her so wealthy. The bulk of her fortune (an estimated $1.4 billion) comes from the value of Fenty Beauty, of which Forbes can now confirm she owns 50%. Much of the rest lies in her stake in her lingerie company, Savage x Fenty, worth an estimated $270 million, and her earnings from her career as a chart-topping musician and actress.
While Barbados-born Rihanna isn’t the only celebrity to capitalize on her social media presence—she has 101 million followers on Instagram and 102.5 million on Twitter—to build a beauty brand, she is the most successful beauty entrepreneur to do so. Fenty Beauty, which is a 50-50 joint venture with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (run by Bernard Arnault, the world’s second-richest person), launched in 2017 with the goal of inclusivity. Its products come in a diverse range of colours—foundation is offered in 50 shades, including harder-to-find darker shades for women of colour—and are modelled in its advertising by an equally diverse group of people.
Available online and at Sephora stores, which are also owned by LVMH, the products were an instant success. By 2018, its first full calendar year, the line was bringing in more than $550 million in annual revenues, according to LVMH, beating out other celebrity-founded brands like Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Beauty and Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. “A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium dark, dark,” says Shannon Coyne, cofounder of consumer products consultancy Bluestock Advisors. “We all know that’s not reality. She was one of the first brands that came out and said, ‘I want to speak to all of those different people.’”
While cosmetics sales slowed during the pandemic, beauty companies are worth as much as ever. Stocks of larger beauty conglomerates like Estée Lauder and L'Oréal have bounced back, reaching all-time highs and trading at impressive 7.5 (or more) times annual revenues. Meanwhile, independent brands like Beautycounter and Charlotte Tilbury inked deals with investment firms earlier this year at billion-dollar valuations. That is good news for Rihanna. Thanks to the impressive multiples at which beauty companies are trading, Fenty Beauty is worth a conservative $2.8 billion, Forbes estimates. And all signs point to the company continuing to grow. In its annual report for 2020, LVMH said Fenty Skin, which launched last year, was off to a “very promising start” and “generated unprecedented buzz,” and that Fenty Beauty "maintained its appeal as a premier makeup brand."
snip
Fenty's Fortune: Rihanna Is Now Officially A Billionaire
How the singer became the richest female musician on the planet. Hint: It wasn’t from performing.https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/08/04/fentys-fortune-rihanna-is-now-officially-a-billionaire/?sh=5691b3e57c96
When Robyn Fenty, known to the world as Rihanna, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, she sought to create a cosmetics company that made “women everywhere (feel) included.” A perhaps unintended consequence: The beauty line has helped her enter one of the world’s most exclusive ranks: Billionaire. Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion, Forbes estimates—making her the wealthiest female musician in the world and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer. But it’s not her music that’s made her so wealthy. The bulk of her fortune (an estimated $1.4 billion) comes from the value of Fenty Beauty, of which Forbes can now confirm she owns 50%. Much of the rest lies in her stake in her lingerie company, Savage x Fenty, worth an estimated $270 million, and her earnings from her career as a chart-topping musician and actress.
While Barbados-born Rihanna isn’t the only celebrity to capitalize on her social media presence—she has 101 million followers on Instagram and 102.5 million on Twitter—to build a beauty brand, she is the most successful beauty entrepreneur to do so. Fenty Beauty, which is a 50-50 joint venture with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (run by Bernard Arnault, the world’s second-richest person), launched in 2017 with the goal of inclusivity. Its products come in a diverse range of colours—foundation is offered in 50 shades, including harder-to-find darker shades for women of colour—and are modelled in its advertising by an equally diverse group of people.
Available online and at Sephora stores, which are also owned by LVMH, the products were an instant success. By 2018, its first full calendar year, the line was bringing in more than $550 million in annual revenues, according to LVMH, beating out other celebrity-founded brands like Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Beauty and Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. “A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium dark, dark,” says Shannon Coyne, cofounder of consumer products consultancy Bluestock Advisors. “We all know that’s not reality. She was one of the first brands that came out and said, ‘I want to speak to all of those different people.’”
While cosmetics sales slowed during the pandemic, beauty companies are worth as much as ever. Stocks of larger beauty conglomerates like Estée Lauder and L'Oréal have bounced back, reaching all-time highs and trading at impressive 7.5 (or more) times annual revenues. Meanwhile, independent brands like Beautycounter and Charlotte Tilbury inked deals with investment firms earlier this year at billion-dollar valuations. That is good news for Rihanna. Thanks to the impressive multiples at which beauty companies are trading, Fenty Beauty is worth a conservative $2.8 billion, Forbes estimates. And all signs point to the company continuing to grow. In its annual report for 2020, LVMH said Fenty Skin, which launched last year, was off to a “very promising start” and “generated unprecedented buzz,” and that Fenty Beauty "maintained its appeal as a premier makeup brand."
snip
August 6, 2021
Black-pigmented concrete and black timber battens have been used to create this tactile home in the village of Federal, New South Wales by Australian studio Edition Office. The Melbourne-based firm designed Federal House to be both a peaceful sanctuary for its clients and a sculptural object dug into a slope in the hilly, forested landscape. "At a distance the building is recessive, a shadow within the vast landscape," described Edition Office. "On closer inspection, a highly textural outer skin of thick timber battens contrasts the earlier sense of a machined tectonic, allowing organic materials gestures to drive the dialogue with physical human intimacy."
Drawing on the veranda typology common among Australia's colonial homesteads, a central living, dining and kitchen space is wrapped by a partially covered deck area. This deck was designed to create a variety of different connections to the surrounding landscape. It was lined with black timber battens that filter air, views and more direct sunlight on the western edge, and left entirely open for panoramic views to the north. Sliding glass doors around the living spaces allow them to be completely opened to the elements or sealed off. At the centre is a double-height garden void, illuminated by a cut in the home's roof. "The expansion and contraction of the interior allows shifts between the intimate and the public, between immediate landscape and the expansive unfolding landscape to the north," said the studio.
Along the eastern edge of the home is the bedroom block, what the studio calls an "enclave of withdrawal, rest and solitude" containing two smaller rooms either side of a bathroom and a large en-suite bedroom with its own private terrace. For the interiors, the dark wood and concrete are contrasted by lighter wooden floors and tan leather furniture, with custom door pulls designed to encourage a "tactile engagement" with the home. On the lower level is a thin pool open to the landscape at one end, which cools air as it travels through the building, up the garden void into the living spaces. This natural ventilation is supplemented with a ceiling fan for the hotter days of the year and a fireplace for winter.
Edition Office completes black concrete home in rural Australia
https://www.dezeen.com/2021/08/01/black-concrete-house-australia-edition-office/Black-pigmented concrete and black timber battens have been used to create this tactile home in the village of Federal, New South Wales by Australian studio Edition Office. The Melbourne-based firm designed Federal House to be both a peaceful sanctuary for its clients and a sculptural object dug into a slope in the hilly, forested landscape. "At a distance the building is recessive, a shadow within the vast landscape," described Edition Office. "On closer inspection, a highly textural outer skin of thick timber battens contrasts the earlier sense of a machined tectonic, allowing organic materials gestures to drive the dialogue with physical human intimacy."
Drawing on the veranda typology common among Australia's colonial homesteads, a central living, dining and kitchen space is wrapped by a partially covered deck area. This deck was designed to create a variety of different connections to the surrounding landscape. It was lined with black timber battens that filter air, views and more direct sunlight on the western edge, and left entirely open for panoramic views to the north. Sliding glass doors around the living spaces allow them to be completely opened to the elements or sealed off. At the centre is a double-height garden void, illuminated by a cut in the home's roof. "The expansion and contraction of the interior allows shifts between the intimate and the public, between immediate landscape and the expansive unfolding landscape to the north," said the studio.
Along the eastern edge of the home is the bedroom block, what the studio calls an "enclave of withdrawal, rest and solitude" containing two smaller rooms either side of a bathroom and a large en-suite bedroom with its own private terrace. For the interiors, the dark wood and concrete are contrasted by lighter wooden floors and tan leather furniture, with custom door pulls designed to encourage a "tactile engagement" with the home. On the lower level is a thin pool open to the landscape at one end, which cools air as it travels through the building, up the garden void into the living spaces. This natural ventilation is supplemented with a ceiling fan for the hotter days of the year and a fireplace for winter.
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