Originally published at: In Our New Gilded Age, Everything Is For Sale
I struggled to find a unifying theme for the latest parade of depredations from late last week through the weekend. But when a Gilded Age name like Mellon is dominating the news, it’s hard to resist framing the current moment as runaway billionaire-ism. A billionaire president freed from the restraints of the law by a…
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Whither the Big Clot?
ETA:
Fran Lebowitz famously said, “You don’t know anyone as stupid as (you know who), you just don’t”, which I call The Lebowitz Conjecture.
I now have a corollary, which I call The Cargo Conjecture: You don’t know anyone as corrupt as (you know who), you just don’t.
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This is it. Lower courts have said no justification, even using stretched logic. DOJ is saying “but we want it!” to SCOTUS.
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Obligatory cats
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Reminds me of a line from Sallust’s War with Jugurtha. Jugurtha realized how corrupt the senate was and was exxpelled from Rome. Upon leaving it he looked back and reportedly stated:
“Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit.”
“The city is up for sale, and it will quickly perish if it find a buyer.”
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…diagnosed with?
Well, it was perfect! But you have to ask the doctors what it was for.
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Mellon’s $130M to pay the troops would give each $45.80.
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Jesse Welles:
Venezuela
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Trump has challenged Joe Biden to an MRI IQ test.
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I guess that it withered. But, the Big Clod is still with us.
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Image was leaked this morning…
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I think he recently challenged AOC to a cognitive test.
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Not even enough for a night in a Motel 6.
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An MRI at Trump’s age would be looking for amyloid plaques consistent with Alzheimer’s Disease.
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1.32 million military service personnel, so it’s more like $99 per troop. Such utter chump change that I think there’s got to be something deeply corrupt going on. Also completely illegal under the Anti-Deficiency Act.
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The electorate voted for this. Trump was soooo spot on when he speculated our nation wanted a dictator. The people ACHE for cattle cars and ovens.
>
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Apropos of Rome:
An attempt to privatizing the military and make it loyal to you with private funds? Check.
Turning the legislative body from an independent and free one to one dependent on the patronage of a strong man? Check again.
Overturning norms, personal aggrandizement, cult of personality, close control of governors (when not confronting “rebellious” ones), and absurd building programs? Check again!
Felicitations Americans, you just got yourself a Roman style empire complete with the military dictatorship, and all because we morphed into a bunch of mouth-breathing doom scrollers whose rage was turned into a vast political commodity.
Nice.
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Thank you.
You may have noticed over the last few weeks, the pace of our fundraising emails and texts has slowed considerably when compared to the start of our campaign.
There’s a reason for that.
We have hit our budget goals and raised what we need in order to pass Proposition 50. You can stop donating.
1.2 million donations, $38 million raised in online small-dollar donations in just 10 weeks. Thank you. It’s unbelievable.
Now it’s about executing the plan. If we can do that, we’re going to win.
Gavin Newsom
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