He certainly looks mad on the twenty dollar bill. Jackson may have averted the civil war for a bit as he wasn’t pro-slavery and sank the country into a devastating decade long financial panic. Hard to find a war if you can’t buy guns...

“Sydney Applebaum”!

On one of the box podcasts I heard someone say that Spicer’s first news conference after inauguration was both a loyalty test and trap. Forcing a spokesman to destroy his credibility with the press means he has nowhere to go from here, no safe harbor. I don’t think he can quit. Trump can and will throw him under the…

Time Donald Trump’s number one failing is his regard for family over country. I literally feel sick to my stomach when I remember that this man has installed his son in law in a vague position that is rumored to be as powerful as the Secretary of State. Ivanka Trump acting like it is unprecedented for a president to…

Sure they would. Cal is public university but that does not mean it is open to the public generally. These types of public lectures are a very small part of the educational mission of the school, and lower profile, the works of conservative scholars are taught and discussed All the time. Take a look st the economics…

I agree, and I’m the type of person who, on occasion, forgets to bring her dress shoes to work. I’ve had a couple of pairs from tsubo that are stylish enough to pass for work shoes, if I don’t have a big meeting.

For me the books that have helped me through dark times are more ones that help me break cycles of dark thoughts, so kind of distracting myself with a meditation on something. Two of my longtime favorites will sound hyper specific: “a book of bees and how to keep them” by Sue Hubble and piano lessons by Noah Adams.…

My go to work shoes are naot Mary Janes, the model I like is called ‘trendy’. The are super comfy, I can (and have) stood in them all day, and I started wearing them when I moved to a building where I needed to walk~1/2 from my car to my desk. They do start to get stinky after wearing them without socks for a while,…

The EPA is a case study in why politicizing science is a terrible idea, and so is doing your job too well. Environmental quality has truly improved since the seventies, and many thousands of people are alive as a result. To the point where people no longer see acid rain killing trees and devastating lakes, or fear…

I think Kansas might be fluke though—brownback has damn near shut the state down with absurd tax cuts. I think the near miss had way more to do with local politics than Trump.

I wonder how much round the clock protection costs. I imagine it takes at least four people, but that wouldn’t be anything like 7.8 million. I think this means she is receiving specific threats. That or she is a typical rich person who finds any level of personal risk utterly intolerable, and they are paying to secure…

I expect her to be “better” because the Trump administration points to her as a champion of women and as proof they are not a misogynistic organization. Her presence and mealy mouthed feminism are providing cover they do not deserve.

I think that is the point they are trying to make.

I don’t shop at Walmart mucheither—I live in a high density neighborhood of Houston (we exist!). However, I work in southern Louisiana on occasion where it is the only game in town, and there is just no way it can be avoided. I also think that if you look at companies that have devastated small retailers, Walmart is a…

I wonder how many business decisions are driven by CEO’s desire for prestige? Trying to move upscale is such a common move for apparel outlets and it seems to totally crash and burn. When was the last time you shopped at J. Crew? I stopped because there is a limit to the number of transparent two hundred dollar shirt…

What exactly is the unprecedented situation she is in? Trump is hardly the first president to have adult children. HW Bush had several kids in their thirties and forties, a couple of whom even held public office prior to his becoming president and we’re major players in the campaign. Reagan had two adult child as well…

No, it’s not dumb. It’s mendacious and a truly awe inspiring level of hypocrisy, but she knows what she is doing. And Ivanka Trump doesn’t care that it makes her political opponents angry. Her point is to make a show of being a good woman who says the right things that lets her father’s supporters fool themselves that…

I heard a podcast interview with one of the women who testified against John McLaughlin in the eighties for sexual harassment. It was eventually settled out of court for $4 million in 1989. McLaughlin continued hosting a show on PBS until the week he died. I don’t know how far we’ve come, but I wouldn’t be surprised…

I dunno, I’ve been out of college fifteen years and while I often enjoy a beer I don’t think I have had a Mountain Dew since 2001.

WTF. Was this payment for appointing his sister Secretary of Education? She was a terrible choice due to her policy positions, but this connection is so much worse.