Every review of Elizabeth Warren’s new book, A Fighting Chance, seems to include one particular anecdote. Here’s the NYTimes version:
… A telling anecdote involves a dinner that Ms. Warren had with Lawrence H. Summers, then the director of the National Economic Council and a top economic adviser to President Obama. The dinner took place in the spring of 2009, after the oversight panel had produced its third report, concluding that American taxpayers were at far greater risk to losses in TARP than the Treasury had let on.
After dinner, “Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice,” Ms. Warren writes. “I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.
“I had been warned,” Ms. Warren concluded….
***********
Now that I’ve started my week on the proper tone, what’s on the agenda?
Baud
I’m glad Warren decided not to become an “insider,” but I can’t disagree with Summers on the nature of Washington politics and the choice Warren had to make.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Some people can make the hard choice. Apparently Warren is one of those.
Baud
OT: Just saw the news about Arkansas. Really awful.
raven
@Baud: Yea, I’d like to hear from Ozark.
Baud
@raven:
My first thought also. I think he’s in Missouri, so hopefully out of the way of the worst of it.
OzarkHillbilly
The question for anyone is, “Can I do more good from the inside or the outside?” Some can answer that question honestly in either direction. Most however just rationalize until they come up with the answer they wanted to begin with. I think Warren answered this question honestly, but I have been accused of naivete in the past.
Job one for today: Make sure all my Arkie friends are OK. I know a couple of folks in the Little Rock area, so it is a worry.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Glad you checked in.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: @Baud:
Storms up here weren’t too bad. Plenty of thunder and lightning, rain too, not too much wind. I’ll wait until 8-9 then start making phone calls.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Glad you’re safe.
gene108
Day 1 of exercising regularly and watching what I eat. I’m tired of being fat. Off to exercise.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Wasn’t Mayflower, AR the same town that had an Exxon pipeline break?
raven
@gene108: Rock on, make it part of your life.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I don’t recall. I really just saw the number of dead this morning.
Baud
@gene108:
I’ve been struggling with that also. I won’t quit if you won’t.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: yes
raven
@Baud: It’s hard to start and easy to bail. One can always find a reason not to work out. I’ve been running or swimming for 20 years and I always fight the urge to give up in the first few minutes and I’m always glad I don’t.
eta And off we go on that early morning hike!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Me too. My doctor yelled at me during my last visit with him. I’m down 16lbs since Feb.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I’m walking and getting at least 10k steps in a day. My monster phone keeps track of steps.
Baud
@raven:
Yep. I wish Ballon Juicing burned more calories.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Damn! I need to pick up the pace. I’m impressed.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yep.
@gene108: I dropped 35 pounds (and six inches around my middle) on my physical therapy journey from walking with a cane to a half mile plus without one. I’ve just resurrected my old Weight Watchers plan via HabitRPG by putting my exchanges in as dailies. It’s working well so far (day 3) as a reminder of what I still need to eat to make my minimums.
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I need to lose about 35 pounds. I hope I’m as successful as you were.
Joey Maloney
I broke a bone back in February and had to stop skating Roller Derby, and I packed on 20 pounds just like *that*. I’m now the heaviest I’ve ever been. I’m cleared to start skating again May 1st. Thank goodness.
EconWatcher
One of the more grotesque recent spectacles was all of Summers’ cronies coming out of the woodwork to try to get him the Fed appointment. They ran a sycophantic little agitprop campaign in the opinion pages of the Financial Times and other such rarefied venues.
They tended to focus on personal reminiscing about how “brilliant” and “creative” he is, rather than discussing his actual policies and performance in his long periods in positions of power. Understandable, I guess, because otherwise you’d have to get into awkward things like his support of a total bar on any regulation of derivatives, which had a whole lot to do with bringing the entire world economy to its knees.
In many other contexts, I sense that Obama is a good judge of people, but I will never understand why he ever had the time of day for the likes of Larry Summers. I’m very glad that Summers didn’t get the nomination, but I think the only reason O dropped it was because he thought he’d have trouble lining up votes in the Senate. That just doesn’t speak well of O.
OzarkHillbilly
Exercise is for people who don’t work. ;-)
Seriously tho, when I am not working, especially during the winter, I struggle to get the carb burning activities in.
gene108
@Baud:
I’m with you.
What exercise routine are you looking at doing?
I’m doing the Power 90 routine from Beach Body.
Yesterday I did some meal prep for the week.
OzarkHillbilly
@EconWatcher:
Expand that comment to his embrace of Wall Street, and I totally agree.
gene108
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Great Job!
gene108
@Baud:
I should drop about 70 pounds. Thin boned 5’7″ and tipping the scales at 215 lbs. I outweigh some safeties, corner backs, running backs and wide receivers in the NFL and that is not right, plus 6’6″ guys in the NBA weigh less than me.
My goal is to get my weight under 200 lbs for the first time in years in the next few weeks.
NotMax
Down Tennessee way:
danielx
A variation on Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment* on how thou shalt not criticize another Republican: Thou shalt not criticize another Villager, which Summers most definitely is. It’s advice he clearly never took to heart for himself, since Summers has not been noted for his reluctance to criticize anyone for any reason at all. If Warren is to be known for the quality of her adversaries, my admiration for her goes up every time I read about how detested she is by Summers, Robert Rubin, etc etc etc…fuck Larry Summers. If there were any justice in the world, he’d be working the 10 pm to 6 am shift at a convenience store in East Compton.
*A commandment which is as dead as Bob Dole’s dick, be it noted.
debbie
@Baud:
It’s not just Washington. In late summer 2011, Jamie Dimon gave an interview to the Financial Times, saying that he missed the days when he and other bankers could sit in Summers’ office and ask for and get whatever they wanted.
mm
I for one have read Elizabeth Warren’s new book. I couldn’t put it down. It felt like she was talking directly to me.
She has such a rag to riches story. Hard working salt-of-the-earth parents from out in the sticks in Oklahoma. She worked hard to get a scholarship to college. Dropped out to get married. Went back to school. Got her law degree. Juggled 2 kids. 3 older brothers in the service (take that Mitt Romney). One with 248 combat missions with the Air Force in Vietnam.
She knows what is going on and has ideas to fix things.
I, personally, haven’t been screwed by the banks and Wall Street other than the general screwing we all are getting from their cheating and skimming. Though who knows what my IRA and 401(k) would be worth if Wall Street and the banks would have been doing their historical job raising money for investment in plant and infrastructure instead of making their money from financial shenanigans and bailouts.
I’ve been lucky. Too many people have not.
Betty Cracker
@EconWatcher & @OzarkHillbilly: Co-signed. There was a happy medium between the solution I favored (nationalizing the banks and turning the Meadowlands into a mass bankster holding pen) and letting the bastards walk away with their fat bonuses. It was a missed opportunity, and it will — already has — come back to bite us on the ass.
Baud
@gene108:
No specific routine. That’s the problem with my exercise routine. It’s too random. Makes it hard to lose weight. I need to find a way to be more disciplined.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Baud: That was exercise only, slowly building up from being a complete pile of wet noodles. I still need to lose more, hence using HabitRPG as a exchange tracker. I’ve been looking for some way to manage that old, wonderful system ever since I got my first smartphone. I lost 50+ on the Quick Start program, years ago. The WW points system was an unmitigated disaster for me, and then I got sick.
I’ve stopped progressing, though, so I need to change my activity. The pool is about to open….
Baud
@debbie:
Yes. Wall Street really hates this administration with a passion. It’s the first time since at least 1980 that they’ve had to fight about anything.
Baud
@gene108:
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Good luck to both of you (and me too!).
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Just to start with, the banks should have been broken up. Instead, they’ve gotten bigger.
grillo
@gene108: During the very very difficult (for me) year of 2013, I went from 145 to very close to 200. I am also 5′ 7″ though I can’t speak to my bone structure. I also went from half marathons to almost entirely sedentary.
2014 has been a project in reclaiming myself, and one aspect has been bringing my weight in line with my concept of myself. I am currently in the 160s and going (mostly) in the right direction, mostly through elimination of carbs from my diet (my weight shot up a little when I served divorce papers, but, you know).
Mostly I try to rely on diet to control my weight and exercise to improve my health, but everybody’s metabolism is different.
One of the things I find interesting is that coworkers who are men my own age are actually kind of hostile to my weight loss. It seems to make them angry and upset. It’s kind of odd.
ETA to add, what I am trying to say is congratualtions and I am rooting for you.
WereBear
Very true. I used to do 45 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of floor exercises every single day. But this aggravated an old injury and I had to stop until it got better.
Once it did, such a routine no longer worked to keep my weight in check, and I went with low carb, which did.
A routine not only has to work for the person; it has to be a lifestyle change that is enjoyable in order to maintain it, and its benefits.
Hal
@gene108: I need to lose a ton of weight and I’m horrified because I saw a cadaver of a 400+ pound person on a medical blog yesterday. This person’s insides were all yellowish fat. Obscured organs and all.
Makes me realize what’s going on internally even when you feel ok.
rikyrah
Elizabeth Warren Smacks Down ABC’s Attempt To Split The Democratic Party
By: Jason Easley
Sunday, April, 27th, 2014, 11:54 am
Instead of talking about how the big banks and Wall St. blew up the economy, the middle class, or income inequality, ABC’s This Week tried to use Elizabeth Warren to divide the Democratic Party, but Sen. Warren wouldn’t play along.
……………….
Sen. Warren kept trying to steer the discussion towards the middle class and fighting the big banks, but mostly George Stephanopoulos wanted to talk about the 2016 horse race and stir up disagreement between Warren and Hillary Clinton. ABC had a chance to discuss income inequality, the big banks, and the decline of the middle class with one of the nation’s top experts, but all they wanted to do was try to create some controversy ahead of 2016.
The media desperately wants to divide the Democratic Party. They want big ratings, and the ratings come when there is a contest that captures the imagination of the nation. Hillary Clinton running away with the 2016 Democratic nomination is boring TV. The Republican field will likely be as weak and unpopular as ever. The mainstream media is begging for a storyline for 2016. If the storyline helps to destroy Democratic Party unity, all the better.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren made it clear that she isn’t going to give the media what they want.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/27/elizabeth-warren-smacks-abcs-attempt-split-democratic-party.html
Gretchen
@grillo: are you also a man? That is odd. I suppose if you can do it it removes the excuse that they can’t.
@gene108: today is the day I promised myself I’d start exercising too, when I’m back on my regular work schedule and can get back into my routine.
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: Have you tried Weight Watchers?
Paul in KY
@Baud: Good luck to all of you! Remember, it didn’t get put on in a day & it ain’t comin off in a day. Must think long term, when it comes to getting in shape & losing weight.
schrodinger's cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Obama used to teach at UChicago the home base of con artists also know as the economists of the Chicago school. He does seem to have drunk their kool-aid and I am not sure that Hillary will be any better. Bill Clinton’s administration was at the forefront of gutting the New Deal Era financial market regulations.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Good for Warren.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: HRC might even be worse, but there’s no way of knowing for sure. All we can know for sure is that virtually any Democrat would be better than any Republican.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodinger’s cat: Totally OT, but this one is for you.
El Cid
Has Summers ever put this to the test by criticizing any significantly more powerful insider? Or did he make the assumption about insiders not criticizing insiders and thus specialize in criticizing the less powerful by impulse?
Mnemosyne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
There are basically two programs now: the Points system, and Simply Filling. Basically, with Simply Filling, you eat from the list of “green pyramid” foods and only count Points if you eat something not on that list.
I like that they now offer two ways of doing the same thing, because everyone is different. For myself, I tried the Core program a few years ago (the precursor to Simply Filling) and it was a freakin’ disaster. Points work much, much better for me.
Mnemosyne
@EconWatcher:
I do suspect that, like many politicians, Obama buys into a lot of the Wall Street bullshit, but I think he didn’t re-appoint Summers for the simple reason that Summers is a fucking disaster as a manager. He can’t run a staff, and he antagonizes everyone around him. Obama may like Summers’ ideas when it comes to the economy, but he’s not going to put Summers back into a position where he can cause the chaos Summers always seems to cause.
NobodySpecial
@danielx: People want to drink and have a good time at that point of the day, why ruin it for them by making them deal with Larry Summers?
WaterGirl
@gene108: Day 8 for me. Best thing so far is that I feel better about myself.
@BillinGlendaleCA: Me, too! 10,000 steps with my fitbit zip.
@ Baud: you made me laugh! I think BJ burns extra calories when you are funny.
Ruckus
@grillo:
It’s the same as the racists who are mad that a black man is much more powerful than them. You can and are doing something they know they need to do but don’t have the stones to risk failure. What was the line? “Tis better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.”
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
Should add to the first line that most of us couldn’t be president, but the point was trying to do better, trying to reach past our limitations, especially the ones we put on ourselves. We all have flaws, including President Obama but he sure tries to be a better person and is successful most of the time.
grillo
@Gretchen: I am. I am a man who is a little over fifty. And I agree with your idea. The one who is the most hostile is a ‘former track star’ as he likes to say. He does not look like a track star any more. And he is very crabby with me.
One of the things that is interesting is that having the weight come off feels a little (only a little) like having years come off. It is imperfect, and my aches and pains have not vanished. But the clock does feel like it is turned back some. And I like the feeling.
grillo
@Ruckus: I think you are also right, as I said to Gretchen. I never proselytize or brag or anything. I think that’s lame. But people ask me what I am doing and I tell them. And some people get hostile. It’s weird.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mnemosyne: That would also be a disaster for me. I could quite happily spend all day nibbling on a couple of loaves of “lite” whole-grain bread and eat nothing else. AFAICT, that would be perfectly legal on that plan. Bread I can eat at my desk while I’m working. Meat, fruit, and what few veggies I’m willing to force down, not so much.
The real reason I crashed and burned on the original points system, though, was that it cut my allowed food way, way back from what I had been losing successfully on for the previous year. I did the math: the best I could come up with on my points allotment was about half the calories. It left me with the distinct impression that one could only meet the points limits by eating WW packaged food, and I can’t.
Gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yes. Did WW for a year. I might go back. I like how they make you think about what you eat.
SFAW
AL –
Don’t know if you saw it in the Globe, but The Always Clueless Joan Vennochi’s takeaway from the book was that the senior Senator from Mass should have been more candid about her use of her
KenyanNative American heritage as an Affirmative Action ploy vis-a-vis Hahvahd.I haven’t completely figured out what drives TAC Vennochi, but I’m thinking part of it is that she feels the need to tear down a successful female politician, possibly out of envy.
Well, that, plus she’s dim.
SFAW
Re: all you losing weight (or trying to): I thought I was the only one who had porked out. Time for me to NOT put my money/junk food where my mouth is.
My ultimate goal would be to get down to my last-year-of-college weight, but I’ll settle for half of that drop – for the moment.
And congrats to all you skinnier BJers, and keep up the good work for all of youse trying to be.
@Baud:
Need more trolls: more trolls => higher BP => gets the juices (as opposed to Juicers) flowing => more conducive to working off your troll-focused anger => more exercise =>
PROFIT!Weight Loss!patrick II
They are listening to her now, even if they still don’t want to.
Mnemosyne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Actually, no. You can have a couple of slices per meal, but you’re not supposed to sit and eat an entire loaf, any more than you’re supposed to sit and eat an entire pound of baby carrots. You’re not supposed to sit and eat an entire package of anything. That’s kind of a problem no matter what it is you’re eating an entire package of. :-)
Absolutely not the case. I don’t eat any frozen meals at all anymore and do most of my cooking at home. Both fruits and (most) vegetables are now zero points, and they adjusted things so that high-protein foods (like a chicken breast) have fewer points than high-carb foods (like a soft pretzel). It’s really designed to steer you towards fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins and away from starches. Plus there’s a lot of focus now on making you think about what you’re eating and figuring out the difference between when you’re full and when you’re just eating mindlessly. It’s not an easy thing to figure out, especially for people who have a weak or nonexistent “fullness” signal that tells them when to stop eating.
But I have heard from other people that they need more rules than WW provides, because otherwise they will do things like eat an entire loaf of bread because it’s on the “safe” list. So you should probably use the program that works for you as long as you feel it’s something you can keep doing for the rest of your life. (Depressing, I know, but one of the reasons people re-gain is that they go back to eating the way they used to, which was what made them gain weight in the first place.)
Mnemosyne
Also, for everyone over 40, one of the reasons you’re suddenly gaining weight is that you naturally lose muscle as you age. People over 40 really need to do weight training (even just something like yoga or Pilates) to keep their muscle mass up.
Ezra
Powerful people listen to what insiders have to say, as long as those insiders say what the powerful people what to hear.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
But what if you didn’t have any muscle to begin with? Does that mean you suddenly lose weight after 40?
J R in WV
I’m 63 now. I was skinny in high school, and then in the USN I worked 12 hour shifts towards the end of my hitch, hard physical work. I was skinny then.
Now I’m 63 – not skinny. I usually lose weight when I work hard on some physical task, building something, planting something, etc.
But I’m trying to cook healthy food, eat a reasonable amount. I would be so happy to weigh 180 again! Not going to happen, without a fatal wasting illness, but you can hope. Trying to walk on the hill paths!
Best of luck, all!
JR