I confess, I was only about halfway through the Donald Trump interview when I posted it last night. It went on and on and on, and it never got coherent. How can a person talk and talk and talk like this, in an interview with one of the most important news outlets in the country? Here, they’re trying – and trying and trying and trying – to get him to say when he decided to run for president. Not a difficult question, you’d think. But nooooo:
Remember this crazy man, Lawrence O’Donnell — he’s a total crazy nut — he said, Donald Trump only made a million dollars with “The Apprentice.” I said, “A million dollars?” You know, when you have a show that’s essentially number one almost every time it goes on, you can name it. . . . So anyway, when they added it all up — and these are certified numbers, because you have to do certified numbers — it came out to $213 million. Okay? That’s what I made on “The Apprentice.” That’s just — and that’s one of my small things. That’s what I made. You know? So it was put at $213 million, and it was certified. And your friend Joe in the morning said, “There’s no way he only made. . . .” They had a big fight, and O’Donnell, Lawrence O’Donnell started crying. I never saw anything like it. Do you remember? He started crying. [Laughter] He actually started crying. But that shows the level of hatred that people have. But what happened is, I made — I had a very, very successful show. And they put me in polls, and I was essentially leading right at the top, without doing any work. Not one speech, not one anything. But any time I was in a poll, I did very well in the poll. Anyway, I decided not to do it. NBC called and Mark Burnett would call, and I did see if I could get out. I had another year on the contract. Because you’re not allowed, because of the equal time, you’re not allowed to have a show . . . .
RC: What happened between 2011 and 2014?
DT: Well, that’s what — I mean. . . . Between 2011 and 2014? I would say, just thought process. Only thought process.
And that is pretty much the level of deep thought and intelligence that goes into what seems to be the entire interview. If I were a loyal Republican, I’d be drinking pretty much nonstop.
That’s the really long thing I finished reading. Also, this really long thing, which is incredibly creepy: A Gay Talese exploration of an extremely dedicated voyeur. If I stayed in a motel in Aurora, Colo., anytime between the mid-’60s and mid-’90s? I’d be staring at the ceiling tonight.
Otherwise? It was cold today, and I’m damn sick of it. I dug out my winter dog walking pants – that’s how cold it was. I wore a B-level sweater I don’t like much – that’s how cold it was. I wore a fleece scarf. Today sucked.
I also read this piece, about Gov. Snyder and the Flint water crisis, and even after running it through the usual filters – Salon, generally leftish-y writer, etc. – it’s still not unfair. If you’re still scratching your head about how this could happen, read it.
This week’s episode of “Girls” had a play within it about the Kitty Genovese murder. Then this happens – the man who killed Genovese died in prison.
Finally, you don’t have to be a web designer to know that colors in HTML code are expressed in six-digit numbers, do you? Maybe you do. Well, anyway, time can be expressed in six-digit numbers, too. So here’s a clock that changes colors, very slowly.
Dexter said on April 5, 2016 at 4:15 am
I also like military times and dates better than the civilian way.
0406 hours, 05APR16.
Winter coats, OK…but thermal gloves mandatory just to take the dogs out to the park for 20 minutes? Yes.
College and high school winter sports are finished and baseball is back, and maybe by the time pro basketball ends about 04JUL16, it will be warm again.
Somewhere on Sunday a big tree fell on a car , killing a couple inside the car. In 1998 a huge maple fell onto my house, causing horrible destruction, and narrowly missing me by less than one minute. I have been called a tree hugger but I can guarantee I never hugged any damn maple trees. I hate them…two damaged my house and one flattened a truck I owned.
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Hattie said on April 5, 2016 at 6:19 am
That New Yorker piece on the Colorado Springs creep was amazing. One of the quality pieces they publish now and then that keeps me subscribing.
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David C. said on April 5, 2016 at 6:40 am
It’s primary day here in Wisconsin. The state Rs and lip flappers seem to be all in for Rafael, so we’ll see. I voted last week, so no standing in line for me. Early voting is a wonderful thing.
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Icarus said on April 5, 2016 at 9:34 am
The Kitty Genovese murder will forever be known as the crime that 30+ people witnessed but ignored. Even though it has been debunked.
http://nypost.com/2014/02/16/book-reveals-real-story-behind-the-kitty-genovese-murder/
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Julie Robinson said on April 5, 2016 at 9:39 am
Snyder was CEO of Gateway Computers? That would have been enough for me to vote against him. Over-priced, POS machines, with a clever ad campaign. Then they went bankrupt. And now he thinks he can fix the Flint water situation by tweeting and spending $1 million on personal attorney fees. POS.
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Deborah said on April 5, 2016 at 10:06 am
Oh my God, I have stayed overnight in Aurora, CO. I had a project there sometime in the 90s. I doubt that it was at that particular motel, but I have no recollection of where I stayed. I was only there a couple of times and may have stayed in Denver but I sort of remember it being a bit far from Denver to drive to in a decent amount of time in the morning for meetings etc. Creepy.
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Sue said on April 5, 2016 at 10:36 am
No discussion on the Panama papers? There are a bunch of journalists on this site and apparently this is investigative journalism at a whole new level. Thoughts?
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MichaelG said on April 5, 2016 at 10:47 am
Sue, I don’t think the revelations caused an outrage because they are nothing more than what people assumed anyway. Just business as usual. Nothing new to see here.
Been beautiful, sunny and 70s here. Should hit our first 80 today.
Fun basketball game last night. Tonight’s? Not so much.
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jcburns said on April 5, 2016 at 11:14 am
Just learned the insidious term “culture fit” from this piece on age discrimination. I’ve certainly heard from many fronts that I’m WAY beyond the age where one can learn new things. Now excuse me while I get back to Learning New Things.
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alex said on April 5, 2016 at 11:20 am
JC, you might want to check your link again…
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jcburns said on April 5, 2016 at 11:24 am
Ah, thanks. Fixed.
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Connie said on April 5, 2016 at 11:41 am
For the first time since January 2015 I am walking on my own two feet in shoes. OK, medical shoes, but no wheelchair, no orthotics, no brace. Wheee!
OK,pretty slowly sometimes and usually with a cane. And with the brace gone I should be driving again. Last time I drove was Jan 11 2015. This whole thing wasn’t fun and will probably never be completely over. I also have permission to take a shower standing up carefully for the first since that Jan 2015. Goodbye shower chair I’m glad to see you go. Goodbye wheelchair. I also have permission to walk on barefeet from bedroom to bathroom in the middle of the night as long as I use the walker to help support my weight. GOOD BYE COMMODE BY THE BED.
Next project is to unhandicap my bathroom, which means putting stuff now on the counters back in the cupboard. I am no longer getting ready for bed from a wheelchair.
I feel like I should go dancing but that might be overdoing it.
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jcburns said on April 5, 2016 at 11:55 am
BREAKING: Icelandic Prime Minister Resigns After Thousands Protest Panama Papers Scandal — gee, Nancy, maybe you should think twice about heading off to visit such a nexus of unrest and chaos!
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Judybusy said on April 5, 2016 at 12:08 pm
WOO HOOOOOOO Connie! That has got to feel pretty great.
When I heard the Panama papers story on NPR yesterday, my immediate hope was that Trump would be named and that it would actually damage him. They interviewed an author who had written a book on the subject, The Hidden Wealth of Nations; I’ll add it to the ever-growing list. MichaelG, I think it’s getting overshadowed by election news, especially with WI primaries today. Who knows if it will end up being a big deal here, as it is in Iceland. I wonder how many people really know just how much money is at stake, and how we middle class end up paying more in taxes to make up for these POS’s actions. (Hat tip to Julie for the acronym!) The author of the book estimates that 8% of the world’s wealth is hidden, taxed at a lower rate than it should be. That is a lot of money. I would have guessed 1%, a totally random, meaningless stab in the dark.
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brian stouder said on April 5, 2016 at 12:24 pm
Connie – excellent news! And just in time for April showers and May flowers.
Skimmed the motel article; egad!
Pam used to live in an apartment which had an attic door right above her bed. We took a look up there, and found that the attic extended the length of the building; one could go from one apartment to another, via the attic! She added a sliding-bolt to lock the attic door(!!) – and eventually the Fort Wayne Fire Department made them fix that, amongst other violations. This article immediately reminded me of that place
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Icarus said on April 5, 2016 at 12:51 pm
“It’s awfully difficult to get Americans to care about our own politics let alone elected officials in other countries. “Oh man, I can’t believe Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugson did that!” is a phrase no American news consumer or media personality has ever used or will ever use.”
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2016/04/04/water-wet/
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Jolene said on April 5, 2016 at 12:57 pm
The PBS NewsHour had a good piece on the Panama Papers last night. The clip at the bottom of the article at this link has a video within it that provides a good illustration of how the tax avoidance made possible by these schemes impoverishes governments, as Judybusy mentioned.
I think it will take a long time for the implications of these revelations to find their way into our politics in any useful way. Like the 2008 financial crisis, the causes and effects are very complex, and the agents of all the nefarious activities are, in many cases, faceless corporations. All of that makes connecting outcomes to prosecutable actions very difficult.
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Charlotte said on April 5, 2016 at 1:35 pm
Connie — you’re amazing to have gotten through that! I’m a whiny baby about 2 weeks on crutches and 8 weeks now without being able to go for a proper walk. Over a year?!? Congratulations and I hope your recovery speeds along at this point (but don’t blow it by premature dancing!).
I’m both fascinated and bored by the Panama Papers leak — looks like Cameron could be in trouble in the UK, which is fine by me. Seems like no one has excavated far enough to have found the US names yet …
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Connie said on April 5, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Charlotte, I cannot claim not being whiny. But grumpy is more common.
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Jolene said on April 5, 2016 at 1:44 pm
Yes, Connie, great news of your improved mobility. That you were able to keep working and clicking along with life through all this is very impressive.
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MichaelG said on April 5, 2016 at 1:53 pm
Great news, Connie. Just in time for Spring!
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Bitter Scribe said on April 5, 2016 at 2:03 pm
This article in New York magazine is a compelling inside look at the Trump campaign. Basically, it says that Trump is a shrewd but incredibly luck amateur, and his luck is about to run out.
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Julie Robinson said on April 5, 2016 at 2:25 pm
What perseverance you’ve shown, Connie. Not that you really had any choice, I know, but it’s been an incredibly long journey. Enjoy, but don’t overdo.
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Jolene said on April 5, 2016 at 3:55 pm
JC, here is a NYT review of the book you mentioned. Not much of a review, actually, but a mildly entertaining commentary. Just happened to see a link to it in my Twitter feed.
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Jenine said on April 5, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Yay Connie! Yay walking! It’s so good for us. I hope you enjoy your freedom more and more each day.
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beb said on April 5, 2016 at 4:47 pm
There’s also been a leak about bribery in the oil and gas industry. Don’t hear much about that either. Probably because the people being exposed as bribers and bribe takers are the one’s who own the world. We’re not allowed to complain about them.
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Jolene said on April 5, 2016 at 5:03 pm
An interesting read: Here, James Fallows takes questions in an online chat at Quora, a forum in which experts on various topics take on whatever questions are asked. Fallows is a senior writer at The Atlantic and has written books and articles on aviation (He is a pilot.), international trade and politics (He has lived for periods of years in China, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia.), the state of journalism, and American politics (As a young man, he was a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter.)
No special focus in the chat, but a chance to read interesting commentary in abbreviated form by a smart, fluent writer with broad interests and broad experience of the world. His comments on the negative influence of Donald Trump are, I thought, especially perceptive.
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Jolene said on April 5, 2016 at 5:04 pm
Oh, good grief. Not sure what I did or didn’t do, but the Quora chat is here: https://www.quora.com/profile/James-Fallows
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Sherri said on April 5, 2016 at 5:43 pm
JC@12, “culture fit” has been a means of excluding people from companies in Silicon Valley for a while now, and while age became a more noticed part of it during the Facebook age, it goes back to at least Google. Back in 2004, Brian Reid sued Google for age discrimination (he was 54), and their defense was that he was not a “cultural fit”. Google initially won summary judgment, but Reid appealed and that judgement was overturned and the case proceeded. Eventually, the two parties settled. (BTW, Reid was fired 9 days before Google’s IPO, so the firing cost Reid a significant amount of money, not just embarrassment and a job.)
Maybe as Brin and Page has aged, the cultural fit at Google has allowed older people now. When Mark Zuckerberg was 22, he infamously said that “young people are just smarter”; I don’t know if he still believes that now that he’s over 30. After Facebook’s success, VC’s took a cargo cult approach to finding the next Facebook, investing in young hoodie-wearing dropouts from prestigious colleges.
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David C. said on April 5, 2016 at 6:33 pm
I know a few damn fine engineers who were never able to find jobs in their field after thew were fired during the great recession. They mostly cobbled together whatever they could until they could collect Social Security. If I remember right, the Supreme Court OKed using statistical data to prove housing discrimination, I hope something similar is done about age discrimination. It seems like it would be a slam dunk.
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Heather said on April 5, 2016 at 7:25 pm
Just checking in to see what Nancy has to say and to say hi–I am on vacation in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and I honestly have been able to put the specter of President Trump out of my head. The whole trip is worth it just for that.
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MichaelG said on April 5, 2016 at 7:56 pm
The rumor that I turned on my A/C today is false. But it is 81.
That meet and greet Sanders did with the NY Daily News was really horrid. This guy’s been in congress for 25 years?
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Jolene said on April 5, 2016 at 10:36 pm
Man, oh man! Am listening to Ted Cruz speak after his victory in Wisconsin. First, he sounds as if he has already won the presidency, not a primary in a state that he would likely lose in November. Second, his speaking style is, to me, off-putting enough to turn me off politics forever. Third, what is wrong with Republicans? What do they have against health care, environmental protection, and international agreements to prevent nuclear proliferation? I just do not get it.
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Dave said on April 5, 2016 at 10:36 pm
Maybe the bit Larry David did as Sanders a few weeks back on SNL is true, MichaelG, where he said his biggest supporters were the age group 18 to, uh, 19, they like him a lot, because he’s just like them, with a lot of big ideas and no idea how to accomplish them, at about the 4:00 mark:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/carson-endorsement-cold-open/3001362
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