Mr. Charles P. Pierce previews “The Annual Versailles Cotillion“:
There is no clearer example of the uselessness and essential decadence of our courtier press than the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, which will be fouling the reputation of the craft of journalism this very weekend. Putative journalists pretend they’re Academy Award nominees while squiring around actual Academy Award nominees, many of whom can’t tell one red carpet from another, and everybody acts as though there’s seemingly nothing wrong with journalism-as-celebrity, and with journalists claiming the same sort of celebrity as the people they cover. This is a medieval papal court for whom its Luther never was born. It’s Versailles without Robespierre…
Jonathan Chait, at NYMag, as “The Annual Washington JOurnalism Nadir Commences“:
… The WHCD has evolved into a profitable leverage opportunity for media companies. They use the cachet of their brand name, and the access it gives them to the event, to lure celebrities and sell that access to corporations. The biggest media personalities are needed to lure in both the celebrity flesh and the corporate johns, but the rest of the reporters are completely superfluous to the exercise.
Ed Henry, the Fox News correspondent and White House Correspondents’ Association chairman, hilariously defends the practice on the grounds that, hey, he’s trying:
“I have put a lot of energy into making sure as many White House correspondents as possible get invites, instead of celebrities and others. And, as we speak, I am working this very week with Jay Carney’s office on getting young staffers who work with the White House press corps some invites to the dinner,” Henry added. “As for celebrities, last time I checked it’s a free country, so individual news organizations can invite whomever they choose. It’s really not the WHCA’s place to dictate to members of our organization who to invite or who not to invite. But I continue to strongly encourage our members to invite as many journalists and White House aides to the dinner as possible because these are the people who deserve to be in the room for what is a very fun night.”
All we’re doing is providing rooms for these men and the prostitutes. We keep urging them to get to know each other, maybe read and discuss some Edith Wharton novels, but the men just keep having sex with the prostitutes. Oh, well, what are you gonna do? Not hold the event?..
National politics’ company paper, the Washington Post, covers the details:
… This year, the celebrity contingent tended to be well-bred TV drama stars who almost blended in with the more photogenic of the media heavyweights. (And vice versa: “Is that Josh Hutcherson?” a K Street strategist asked, pointing to a young man with the well-groomed looks of a “Hunger Games” star. No, that was Chris Hughes, publisher of the New Republic.)
The Bloomberg table, front and center and closest to the president, had place settings for Barbra Streisand, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) and Kevin Spacey. At the next table, NBC had placed the aforementioned Douglas with newscaster Savannah Guthrie and Obama insider Valerie Jarrett.
The once-staid, now-glitzy annual dinner continues to evolve, and one development Saturday was the off-limits celebrity. For example, Psy, the Korean “Gangnam Style” pop sensation, stayed out of sight, protected by a handler, and would not pose for photographs.
In years past, stars would come once and never return, having discovered that the dinner wasn’t actually at the White House but rather in a big hotel ballroom, and that most of the people attending were ink-stained journalists, obscure Washington staffers and assorted grumpy, old politicians. But there is a critical mass of star power now, and so even the stars who aren’t currently in a Washington-themed movie or TV show will attend, just to be where the action is — and to hang out, apparently, in their own comfort zone with other stars…
***************
Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how’s the critical mass of star power in your varied neighborhoods, as we prepare for another workweek?
maya
All that was missing was Bert Parks and roses. Lots of roses….”there they is pundit America”.
NotMax
@efgoldman
The F.B.I. did (at least once) get hold of a crystal ball:
The Dangerman
@efgoldman:
I’m rather surprised the Black Helicopter Crowd isn’t freaking that the older brother WAS on the radar for doing little more than talking to his Mother about Jihad or being Chechen.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
I haven’t bothered to look. But has Matthew Yglesias blogged yet to criticise those arrests, since not having (or, presumably, enforcing) proper safety regs for factories is good for Bangladesh’s economy?
jl
I thought Brokaw said that Linsday Lohan ruined the dinner? I thought he said she was unseemly.
I mean, I guess Lohan is unseemly, but not nearly as much as the dinner. Not by several country miles.
jl
@Amir Khalid:
” since not having (or, presumably, enforcing) proper safety regs for factories is good for Bangladesh’s economy? ”
Not sure MY wants to go that far. But, by his logic, some one needs to look into it, for the good of the country.
BTW: I remember reading that in ancient Rome, keeping tenants in a decaying apartment building (they had some three or so stories tall) until it collapsed was OK. If they were too stupid or weak to get out once the thing started cracking apart and groaning, they weren’t worth saving anyway. I think Cicero, a big landlord, wrote about it in a letter. The Romans were progressive! Edit: very concerned about rising incomes and living standards for the ordinary people)
Comrade Jake
Just read the piece over at the Boston Globe on the bombings, manhunt, etc.
Damn we’re lucky nobody else was hurt in that massive shoot out in Watertown. Only one of the brothers was armed, and the police exchanged 250 bullets with him. That’s insane.
jeffreyw
@efgoldman:
Ask again later…
NotMax
@efgoldman
If the ball depicts, you must convict.
:)
jl
@efgoldman: I saw a newspaper story that the Russians had tapped the older brother’s phone during his visits. They had two snippets of ‘vague conversations’ with his mom, one with him and his mom, and his mom and somebody else, about jihad. (Edit: oops, forgot the punch line. And somehow they never got this info to the U.S. authorities. Even though they bothered to go to FBI and CIA. Actually, my guess is that it was not definite enough to mean much, but I am naive. But really, who knows?)
CONSPIRACY! Putin’s in on it, whatever it is. Putin probably planted Nobama’s birth announcement in the HI paper.
This is de
rep, very derep.hildebrand
The whole sordid affair was worth it when Obama absolutely torched Bachman with the book-burning jab.
lamh35
ABCFamily has been showing classic Disney animated films all day, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and now Lion King. I’ve always wanted to see the Broadway play, but I keep missing the travelling show.
Anyway, don’t lie, who sings the intro song at the top of their lungs…??? (Raises Hand…) Okay, I’ll admit it.
http://youtu.be/7cQSToOwi54
oh, and please don’t laugh, but I know every damn song. My lil sister was like 5 at the time Lion King was released on DVD. My god she watched that damn song EVERY DAY when she wasn’t watching Barney. In fact, she actually learned how to work the DVD remote so she could rewind the song.
ETA: SPOILER ALERT: when Mufasa died, she cired and cried and used to fast forward past it…lol.
gogol's wife
@hildebrand:
I didn’t get that one. What was the reference, other than her general craziness?
NotMax
@ lamh35
Reminded by that of a minor classic from Animaniacs: “Bumbie’s Mom”
“Pavlov would love this kid.”
hildebrand
@gogol’s wife: Just that, I think – which I thought was a nice general smack upside the head of the wing-nuts in the House.
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
Courtesy of another commenter on an earlier thread, here ya go.
geg6
@lamh35:
Kids and people with kids had a good tv day then. For me? That would be my worst nightmare. Hate anything Disney and also hate animated films. I didn’t even like cartoons as a kid. The only one you could get me to watch back then were the Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes stuff. And that was only if there was nothing else on. I was a freak as a child…hated cartoons, hated baby dolls and the only girl I knew with a Barbie that had no gowns, no Ken and returned the Barbie wedding gown someone bought me as a gift. I exchanged it for a game called “Mr. President.”
raven
@efgoldman: What’s this “hates everybody” gas?
aimai
People are acting like there isn’t ever going to be any kind of regression to the mean. The instat they began televising this thing it was necessary to bump up the glamor quotient. But there is also the fact that the Obamas and their White House are, in fact, glamorous. Even glamorous people want to be near them or say they were near them. If Romney had gotten in I really doubt there would be either this much hate directed at the WHPC for feting him, or this much interest. What Hollywood stars would have bothered to fly in? The WHPC would have sucked up to Romney, and will suck up to the next Republican President–and they would have done so without the shamefaced embarrassed feeling that sucking up to Obama gives them because secretely the Press agree with the Republicans–Democrats are only ever an interregnum and a distraction from the real rule of respectable republicans. They groveled at Bush’s feet without a second’s thought or a moment’s shame. They will grovel at Obama’s but they’ll back stab him after to keep in good with their money masters.
gene108
Global poverty declines over the last 30 years. Most of it is due to China’s economic expansion. Though India’s percentage of poor is down, due population growth in the last 30 years the number of poor is about the same.
Despite people’s misgivings about globalization, it has been the engine for economic expansion around the world. Without economic expansion in developing countries poverty would not be alleviated.
Wally Ballou
@geg6:
You mean this thing?
Goblue72
@jl: MY is a classic example of Ivy League douchebags with only a BA and no formal training in any technical or professional discipline should stay FAR away from dipping their toes in the waters of staking contrarian positions in areas of public policy. That he is the Business & Econ editor of Slate tells you all you need to know about Slate.
The same MY “logic” could be applied to this country – the “why shouldn’t we let people buy cheap crappy shit that might hurt them if they want to” argument was an argument we learned to pull apart in my first week of Torts.
(The answer being, depending on whether you were a Law & Econ guy or a former Oxford don was: 1) those most efficiently able to assess & bear the risk should so bear it (i.e. the producers and not the consumers), or (2) because we live in a f-king moral civilized society and shouldn’t force the poor to choose between having a massively dangerous job or starving in the streets)
Eric U.
@NotMax: never quite understood the disney formula where everyone dies. It’s a damn kid’s movie, does everyone have to die? Those people were sick
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
Actually, I think liberals starting caring about the WHPC dinner after Stephen Colbert ripped the press corps a new one to their faces. I think we’ve all been hoping to see something like that again, though to no avail so far.
jl
As long as ‘nerd’ is in the post, following is not too off topic.
Very interesting post with cool (as always) graphs on private and public sector jobs at Calculated Risk
Interesting data to show to people who think that Keynesian stimulus spending means exploding public sector employment. It doesn’t mean that at all.
And, by ‘stimulus’ I mean just that on those terms, fiscal stimulus of Bush II and Obama first terms can be compared, even though both efforts were inadquate by previous post WWII standards, both Dem and GOP. Note the Bush II started increasing public employment right from the beginning, it wasn’t just a post 911 thing.
Public and Private Sector Payroll Jobs: Bush and Obama
by Bill McBride on 4/28/2013
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/04/public-and-private-sector-payroll-jobs.html
(To bring this back on topic, why can’t a guy like McBride rate being a TV pundit?)
Edit: I found it at Economists View
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview
Edit: Oh, wait, this IS an open thread. Oh boy!
Mnemosyne
Back from grocery shopping and cupcake buying, if that wasn’t obvious. I have a big meeting tomorrow that the department being critiqued does NOT want to be in, so I’m hoping to bribe them into cooperation with cupcakes. We’ll see how it goes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goblue72:
MORAL HAZARD!!!!! ::flails arms wildly over head::
/glibertarian douchebag
lamh35
@NotMax: Hide ya kids. The 2 saddest scenes in Disney animated kiddie movie history…the death of Bambi’s mother and the death of Mufasa…. :(
http://youtu.be/_IZVfwrDR9k
Goblue72
@gene108: I don’t think anyone argues that “liberalization” of international trade” – which generally means reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade – hasn’t assisted the poor in developing countries.
Rather, the objections are that it results in the transfer of low-skill and semi-skilled manufacturing jobs AWAY from 1st world nations to 2nd and 3rd world nations, leaving those 1st world workers fending for crappy jobs at McD’s and WalMart.
Put another way, MY fellow countrymen should not bear the burden of alleviating poverty in Communist China or India. I don’t give a flying fart about the poor in India if it comes at the expense of my countrymen’s livelihoods.
Why? Because I’m an American, this isnt a globalized Star Trek fantasy, and I know where my duty & loyalty lies.
PurpleGirl
Currently watching a show about Dale Chihuly (on WNET). I’ve heard him speak in person. I love his glass work. Some day I’d love to see his museum in Seattle.
gene108
@aimai:
What proceeded the groveling before his Shrubbiness was the media’s uncritical role in making right-wing conspiracy theories mainstream during the Clinton years, therefore I’m not surprised they fell at Shrub’s feet or gave Gore a hard time in the 2000 election.
I never understood why Whitewater was such a big deal, but it got 24/7 news coverage in 1993 and 1994. Clinton’s had a bad business venture, and may have had some help in covering their losses, but by that logic Bush,Jr. should’ve been hauled over burning hot coals for lifetime of bad business deals that got patched up by political coonections.
Gets me mad that the press “let” themselves get played like that and didn’t treated Bush’s failed dealings as off-limits, because it’s not like Bush was running as the CEO President.
Goblue72
@Omnes Omnibus: funny you mention it – moral hazard (along with “slippery slope”) was one of those arguments that said former Oxford don had on his list of “7 or 8 rhetorical arguments you can pull out your back pocket when you are stalling for time to come up with a substantive one”.
Course, this was a dude who’d teach class with a sock puppet and wrote a book on Cannibalism and the Law. What a freak.
Wally Ballou
@Eric U.: I take it you won’t be recommending any Newberry Medal-winning books to the young people in your life anytime soon, either.
Heliopause
I’m not sure Versailles is the proper analogue. After all, the French people managed to summon the wherewithal to seize Versailles as their own. Americans, on the other hand, will meekly acquiesce to just about anything. No, the WHCD reminds me more of scenes out of corny biblical epics. You know, the decadent ruling classes guzzling wine while enjoying the suffering of the exploited, secure in the knowledge that sheer inertia will keep the Empire chugging along for quite a long time.
NotMax
@lamh35
Sort of related (though live action and not animated): There is a 1935 British film *of “A Christmas Carol” starring Seymour Hicks, who was renowned for having played Ebenezer Scrooge on the stage for decades prior.
The only version I’ve ever seen which shows Tiny Tim’s corpse. An odd choice to include that.
*Full 78-minute film on YouTube.
Omnes Omnibus
@Heliopause: For how long did the French acquiesce to just about anything? I think it was until they didn’t anymore.
gene108
@Goblue72:
The loss of those jobs in the U.S. is due to poor labor protections in the U.S. German industry has not been able to off-shore jobs like U.S. firms have because of better labor protections.
A lot of damage to workers was done during Reagan’s terms in office by allowing a lot of M&A activity that would’ve been stopped previously.*
This transferred a lot of wealth from workers to the rich and the stuff being done now makes the deals from the 80’s look juvenile in comparison.
*The movie Wall Street about Gecko stripping off and selling the airline’s assets is a very good microcosm of what the 80’s M&A activity did and does to industry in this country.
Patrick
@efgoldman:
Guys like him just floors me. He and his party claim they care so much about the deficit (except when it comes to wars against countries that never attacked us. Then they can’t spend enough. And the spending doesn’t have to be offset by anything like Sandy had to be).
They don’t want to raise revenues, they only want to cut, cut and cut. Well, when you cut enough, you basically have handicapped the federal agencies like the FBI to such an extent that this type of thing happens.
It is no different than the GOP Congress cutting security for embassies and then you end up with Benghazi.
People like Lindsay Graham and his party should be held responsible for the consequences of their policies. Instead, the media is giving them a free pass.
Suffern ACE
I’m looking for tourist traps in prague. Bohemian Ansinth, Cannibas Vodka, Museums to Belgian Chocolate and Thai massage parlors on every block…this isn’t what I expected.
gene108
@gene108:
Just want to add one point to what I wrote above, even if by economic policy we couldn’t keep all the manufacturing jobs from leaving the U.S., there could’ve been other basic things to help make workers better off and/or ease the transition to a service economy, such as indexing the minimum wage to inflation, so it rises automatically for example.
Globalization doesn’t have feel like a race to the bottom for us in the U.S.
Robert
God forbid a writer care about their appearance. Unless I’m specifically dressed in cosplay at a fan convention, I’m going to be put together h to t every time I step out as Robert, the writer. I’m talking shirt, tie, properly tailored slacks, clean functional shoes, a well-organized bag, and everything from press credentials to business cards within easy reach. I’ll be sure to dress appropriately like a sheltered shut-in should I ever appear at an event run by the people criticizing writers for dressing up for the White House Correspondents Dinner.
As for the complaints, I’m sure if we jump back in time seven years through the power of the Internet we can find a whole slew of negative articles about how the WHCD under GWB’s reign was a circus that invalidated years of journalistic integrity, right?
Patrick
@efgoldman:
It is just astonishing. Yes, Congress may simply do what their constituents wants them to do.
But for crying out loud; wouldn’t it be better to have reputable economists with a track record handle economic policy for our country than Joe Sixpack?
And seriously; who the hell cuts government spending in a recession? You cut it when a soaring economy is getting ahead of itself. Economics 101…
hildebrand
@lamh35: Worse yet – the opening minutes of ‘Up’. I have seen it dozens of times, and still can’t get through it without turning into a blubbering mess. When my daughter brings me a hankie I know what she wants to watch.
Ted & Hellen
at which Progressive President Barack Obama was the featured speaker and attraction, thereby bring Hope and Change to the beltway.
raven
@efgoldman: It was a troll from jump street, that’s why I went for the throat. Just didn’t want any worse of a rep than I already have!
raven
Call the Midwife and Selfridge comin right up.
Chris
@efgoldman:
I know someone in the Defense industry who’s terrified of losing her job.
She blames Obama.
geg6
@Wally Ballou:
That’s it. Loved that game! I played so much and so well that none of my older brothers and sisters would play it with me because I whooped their asses every time. Same thing happened with chess and Risk.
Gawd, I was a nerd!
Maude
@gene108:
Hostess Twinkies is coming back, without union workers.
The M&A destroyed many companies and it’s not stopped at all.
This is causing all kinds of havoc in labor and the economy.
Heliopause
@Omnes Omnibus:
Irrelevant, as Pierce is explicitly referencing the Revolutionary period. He wouldn’t need the huge caveats (“Versailles without Guillotines…Versailles without Robespierre”) if he’d used the proper analogy in the first place. Not a big deal, I was just trying to help him out.
JPL
@Maude: Since twinkies have a long shelf life, they should open a plant in Bangladesh.
eemom
geg6 mentioned earlier Stephen Colbert’s — words can’t really do it justice but I’ll go with Fucking Awesomest Thing I’ve Ever Seen, no-holds-barred smackdown of Presnit W, together with the WH Press Corpse and pretty much the entirety of the emmessemm, at the WHCA dinner in 2006.
That is the only thing I ever think of when this moronic event recurs every year. It was brilliance and bravery incarnate, a shining light in the heart of darkness of those godawful miserable 8 years. Kind of amazes me that more people don’t, in fact, take this opportunity to commemorate it.
Not even ultra kewl kid Charlie Pierce, I suppose. Yeah, he’s clever with teh words, but boy is it obvious how hard he has to work at it.
lamh35
As if there was anymore reason to love Elton John, the Lion King Soundtrack and Broadway musical soundtrack is enough.
Man I love this song. I actually saw him sing this LIVE. A friend and I went to see one of his last shows at Caesar’s in Las Vegas.
Can You Feel The Love Tonight
http://youtu.be/Y1hcc1QvM2Q
I actually saw 2 LIVE concerts that year. This one and I got to see George Michael’s American tour right after he arrested and before the last one where he lost his ability to perform in US (I think). It was one of the best concerts I’d ever seen. Michael was in good form. He sang great if a little more mature (not so many of those higher notes) and he danced that special “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” way of dancing George Michael has. All in all it was a great show. The only disappointment was that he didn’t sing “Last Christmas”, but that was probably cause it was in the middle of July…lol
Hill Dweller
@Chris:
Of course she does.
Pilots were telling passengers any delays were Obama’s fault over the plane’s intercom last week.
Relative to the amount of accurate info available, we are the most ignorant country in human history.
Morzer
@NotMax:
Show me in the crystal ball where President Obama touched you.
Eric U.
@Robert: just curious, is this what a Dougj troll looks like?
WHCD has always been execrable except for the one where Colbert showed up. That’s why there will never be a repeat of that.
Morzer
@eemom:
I do sometimes worry that the throbbing neck veins of Charles P Pierce may lead to his untimely demise.
YellowJournalism
@lamh35: I’m raising my hand. I loved everything animated as a kid. Okay, I still love animation and am a sucker for Disney even though they are an evil, soul-sucking entity…”Squirrel!!!”
MattR
@gene108: Hey. Saw you make a comment sometime in the past couple weeks that you have PKD. Just wanted to throw out that I am in the same boat if you ever want/need to talk to someone.
Morzer
@Eric U.:
I suspect Head & Tellin’/Pokeyblow is worth taking a look at for your DougJ trolling needs.
MomSense
@lamh35:
I do,too! I can imitate the female voices perfectly–used to delight my boys with this until they became teenagers.
We should do some duets!
NotMax
@JPL
Per Snopes:
(holds tongue firmly to not include joke in extremely poor taste about producing them in Bangladesh)
Chris
@Hill Dweller:
To be fair, I suspect there’s plenty of people who lay the blame where it really belongs, but the media being what it is, that pilot gets reported breathlessly (the voice of the people!) while the others are just ignored.
Maude
@JPL:
That’s next. Good thought, thx.
jshooper
@Ted & Hellen:
at which Progressive President Barack Obama was the featured speaker and attraction, thereby bring Hope and Change to the beltway.
I’m convinced you’re getting paid to post shit like this everyday here. Nobody is this Obama Deranged.
lamh35
@hildebrand: OMG yes. I remember seeing it with the same sister (she’s 21 now) and we looked at each other and were OMG she lost the baby and then she died before he did…aww
Someone on YouTube called it the most realistic and
heartwrenching love story told in only 8 mins!
http://youtu.be/UTBQYAE-pMk
gogol's wife
@eemom:
I try to watch it once a year at least. It is the most brilliant and PROFESSIONAL performance I have ever seen. No one’s laughing at his jokes, Bush is glaring at him, and he is not at all rattled. He knows he’s righteous.
Mike in NC
@Mnemosyne: After Colbert, they should have just disbanded this insult to journalism.
Keith G
Hopefully they can put some of that glamorous energy to make sure that Meals on Wheels and Head Start get treated the same as air traffic controllers.
gogol's wife
@jshooper:
Unfortunately, he is (ODS, that is).
Maude
@MomSense:
I used to imitate Ethel Merman and Eleanor Roosevelt.
I worked in restaurants kitchens when I did this.
pokeyblow
I guess Obama had no choice but to go along, smile, joke, and seem to be having a whale of a time.
It’s a real treat having a president who doesn’t give a fuck what people think, who doesn’t desperately try to make everyone like him, from media toads to republican racists.
Oh, wait…
lojasmo
@PurpleGirl:
Not sure where you live, but if you’re in the midwest, it is almost worth visiting the mayo clinic. they have a huge display of art including some chihuli pieces.
NotMax
@Maude
Just curious if the people in those kitchens sometimes thought it was Julia Child rather than Eleanor.
hamletta
@NotMax: That reminds me: I’ve got a container of schmear from Panera that’s now a year old. It was leftovers from our Drupal thing last year.
Ugh. People in my church are always going to Panera or some other corporate bagel place when we have a real bakery a mile away that sells real cream cheese (the chipotle is yummy).
Anyway, I wanted to see if it had the Twinkie effect, that property of wholly unreal foodstuffs.
lojasmo
@lamh35:
I worked as a hand for a John/Joel show in…1985? I actually got to set his piano at the St. Paul Civic Center (now the Exel Energy Center)
Mike in NC
@Suffern ACE: Didn’t see any of that stuff in Prague, but it is the most enchanting city on the planet.
JPL
@lamh35: When my sons were younger, much younger, we went to see “The Journey of Natty Gann”. My youngest climbed on my lap when I started sobbing. The man behind me was sobbing also. Animated Disney’s films always make cry but so do depictions of the depression era.
gene108
@MattR:
I’m good. I’m 38 and will turn 39 this year. I got diagnosed on my 30th birthday. Really. On. My. Birthday.
I went to the doctor after seeing blood in my urine for two days prior (an understatement, since on day one my urine seemed to be mostly blood, but it didn’t hurt, so I hoped it’d go away). So on my birthday I go the my GP, told him about my family history and he recommended an ultra-sound and a good nephrologist.
Anyway, if you are interested I did the Eight week Tolvaptan study last year and am in a longer term Tolvaptan clinic trial, which started last fall.
So far it doesn’t seem to be working wonders, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
The study paid to have an MRI done, at the start of the current trial (after the earlier 8 week study), and my the radiologist report had my kidney volume at the smallest it’s been; even smaller than when I was first diagnosed.
Though this hasn’t really translated into anything measurable with regards to GFR improvement.
Anyway, thank you for the support.
There are pharma companies looking at using drugs developed for other purposes (like Tolvaptan) to treat PKD. Tolvaptan is just furthest along the clinical trial track.
Hopefully one of them should be really effective and can get on the market sooner rather than later.
Though I am making peace with the idea of not having my kidneys in 10-15 years and being on dialysis or having a transplant, if nothing does get on the market.
Maude
@NotMax:
Nope. I talked about Franklin.
Good comparison though. During a live show, Julia drooped a whole chicken on the floor, picked it up, rinsed and threw it in the pot. Gotta love her.
Hill Dweller
@Patrick:
Former Reagan Bedget Director Dave Stockman(h/t Democratic Underground):The Republican Party is merely “a coalition of gangs,” David Stockman, the former congressman and Reagan-era budget director, tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.
“The Republican Party is not really a party. It doesn’t stand for anything except re-electing itself,” Stockman, who directed the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, tells Newsmax. “The neocons are only oriented to an aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy of big defense establishment and suppression of our civil liberties. That’s bad.
“The tax cons want to just cut taxes — any time, any day — regardless of the fiscal situation,” Stockman adds. “That has gone to an absurd length. The social cons, social policy people — the right-to-life issue and gay marriage and all of that — that’s irrelevant to governing a democracy in a free society.
…
“The Republican Party is basically irrelevant to the economic crisis that faces the country.”
Mike in NC
@jshooper: Krauthammer!
NotMax
@hamletta
Heh.
Scenes we’d like to see:
“Golly gee, Mr. Wizard. Is that container in the fridge moving?”
PurpleGirl
@lojasmo: I live in NYC. The Mayo Clinic would be a whole trip of its own for me.
Maude
@gene108:
Had a kidney scare when I was thirteen, but they looked good. I always hope, that when I die, at least one of my kidneys makes someone have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
My kidneys hate Tylenol.
lamh35
At WH tomorrow, Pres Obama to announce his nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to be Secretary of Transportation.
Robert
@Eric U.: Nope. Just an honest reaction to this sudden shocking revelation that the WHCD is a giant circle jerk for writers and celebrities and how that somehow reflects poorly on the mainstream media and the Obama administration. I figured the post having #NerdProm, a reference to Sarah Palin’s inane tweet about it being a bad, bad, thing, would be context enough for questioning why Palin and conservative commentators are so suddenly up in arms about a totally pointless event.
Southern Beale
We were at the theater last night and missed nerd prom. According to my Twitter feed, President Obama was the star of that show.
So, this just in: ‘Misha’ Speaks: An Interview with the Alleged Boston Bomber’s ‘Svengali’
Interesting piece. It’s from the New York Review Of Books, not the National Enquirer, so I’m inclined to give it a little more credibility ….
hamletta
@NotMax: “Sadly, no, Billy. Because its contents are all petroleum byproducts!”
“Golly, Mr. Wizard! How do they get to label it as food?”
“That’s a sad story of government failure and undue corporate influence. Would you let Spot eat this crap, Billy?”
“Jeepers! No way! Spot would shit all over the living room, and Mother would tan my hide!”
lamh35
Manchin: Gun Bill to be Reintroduced
Hill Dweller
@lamh35: Hopefully it will be strengthened. The bill that failed was weak tea.
gene108
@Hill Dweller:
As much as it’s nice to have Stockman’s critique of the Republican Party, he’s more of a Libertarian now, who just occasionally overlaps with the Left. I really don’t want him to be any sort of standard bearer or thought leader for liberals.
Recent interview with Stockman.
Goblue72
@gene108: agreed
MattR
@gene108: We are pretty much the same age and got diagnosed at about the same time. I got a kidney stone a couple months before my 30th birthday which led to the diagnosis. But it was also something I was expecting given my family history. I can’t think of a male on my dad’s side going back 3 generations who escaped it. He started dialysis my sophomore year of college and got his transplant the day before my first day of my first job after graduation.
I was just talking with my mom about getting involved with a Tolvaptan trail. I was gonna talk to my doctor when I see him next week. On that note, do you happen to know any good nephrologists in the NYC area (preferably northern NJ)? I like my guy, but I get the feeling he is not up to date on all the latest research.
I have hope that by the time we need dialysis that process will be much more efficient or there will be other options available. The advances in 3D printing intrigue me. We are years away from being there but it would be amazing to be able to print out a new pair of kidneys with your DNA and eliminate the risk of rejection.
Hill Dweller
@gene108: I agree Stockman is still a hack, but being a former Reagan flunkie carries weight with the stooges in the Beltway.
NotMax
@PurpleGirl
One of the most fun art museum exhibits I ever experienced was a large, multi-room collection of Duane Hanson sculptures brought together for display at the Whitney in NYC.
One of the sculptures was this one, set somewhat apart from the rest, and strategically placed at an archway between rooms.
Watching the double takes of people coming up to it, literally face-to-face, asking in all sincerity for directions to the rest rooms or some such was a hoot.
JPL
@Hill Dweller: haha.. Facts..what are facts to these folks.
Anyone watching Call the Midwife? This episode should be mandatory viewing for every repub in office.
Lurking Canadian
@gene108: You and I are not likely ever to see this te same way, but I will say two things by way of rebuttal. First, the fact that globalization without environmental and safety standards has alleviated poverty does not show that globalization with safety and environmental standards could not also have alleviated poverty while with a lower cost in lives and livelihoods. Second, it is also the case that overall living standards rose in England and America during the Dickensian era of dark, satanic mills. The one did not cancel the second then an does not cancel the second now.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
It’s sad, really!
Kay
@lamh35:
The Democrats in Congress better awaken from their slumber and come up with something coherent to run on in the midterms.
They aren’t going to get another absolute gift like the War on Women again.
NotMax
@hamletta
Lol².
pokeyblow
@Kay: They already have Obama’s “cut-social-security” wind at their backs!
Lurking Canadian
@Kay: I guess the Lamestream media wouldn’t let them get away with, “Vote D! The other guys are nucking futs!”
Hill Dweller
@Kay: The War on Women continues apace. As does the War on Voting.
Baud
@Kay:
Can congressional Democrats really choose a theme this early?
raven
If you haven’t seen Call the Midwife I can’t say enough about it. They tackled illegal abortion and contraception in a very effective way tonight. I’m actually surprised it’s on Georgia Public TV.
lamh35
@lojasmo: The Ceaser Palace show really was a great show. It was a fun time. My friend and I along with one other woman were the only Black people there and my friend and I were probably the youngest people there…lol
I didn’t realize how many Elton John songs I actually knew.
gene108
@MattR:
I live in South Jersey, so I don’t know any specific nephrologists where you are.
I do know that NYU’s Langone Medical Center is doing clinical trials, though not the Tolvaptan study.
I see them every year at the Tri-state PKD Walk, which is usually groups from North Jersey and NYC and last fall they were recruiting for a clinical trial of another drug to deal with PKD.
My brother lives in NYC, so we’ve been going to the PKD walk for the last few years. There’s usually quite a few research groups out there looking to sign up participants in different studies or who just have information to give out.
The Tri-state PKD walks is definitely worth going to, if you haven’t been for the information booths they have set up there.
catclub
@efgoldman: I think the more evidence that Syria has used nerve gas, the less likely we send in people. I got the impression that in 2003 the only thing that freaked out our side was concern about just that from the totally toothless Saddam Hussein regime.
lamh35
speaking of nerd*dom, 5 days until Iron Man 3! Which one of u BJ Iron Man-Stans gonna be at the midnight showing?
Damn!
Box Office Report: ‘Iron Man 3’ Opens to Massive $195.3 Million Overseas, Bigger Than ‘Avengers’
hamletta
@raven: Ha! Twenty years ago, my mom had to tape Tales of the City for me, because Nashville Public Television couldn’t show it.
Our PBS station was run by the school board back then, so teh ghey was a big no-no. They’re now an independent entity, so I think they’ve been able to drop the Lawrence Welk re-runs.
Elizabelle
Watching the rebroadcast of “Rectify” pilot and cannot figure out why plot says 19 years incarcerated, and the guy who was sprung looks 34 and his devoted sister looks 28.
Nine years on death row would fit this cast. Nineteen?
Does this town have a wormhole?
Kay
@Baud:
Well, I don’t think they should have a “theme”
What are goals that they share? Obama’s a 2nd termer. I’d hate to have yet another Referendum On Obama. Presumably they had ideas prior to Obama and they have at least some vague benchmarks going forward.
MattR
@gene108: Thanks for the info. It’s worth repeating :)
gene108
@MattR:
Was dealing with a big dose of FYWP :-)
PurpleGirl
@NotMax: Definitely looks like real live museum guard. Yeah, I would have loved to see the faces on people realizing that it was a statue.
Kay
@efgoldman:
No, but they’re all talking about the governor’s race, and Brown and Cordray are doing their populist thing.
I just think the sequester is perfect for House members, because they can point to specific issues.
Hill Dweller
@Kay: I suspect raising the minimum wage, which Republicans have already voted against this year, will be a part of any platform. That is always popular.
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t think either party has prepared for a post-Obama government.
Hill Dweller
@Baud: Dems certainly haven’t prepared for a post-Obama ground game.
Baud
@Hill Dweller:
I have nothing much to base an opinion on that one way or the other. I thought I read recently about a big Dem push to turn Texas purple. I don’t know who’s behind it, however.
Kay
@Hill Dweller:
I thought about it again because The Toledo Blade wrote this glowing editorial on Cordray battling ahead in the face of unreasonable DC…like that.
You DO get credit for doing your job at home, if not in Politico :)
kc
@efgoldman:
I bet they really appreciate having that grandstanding asshole dump on them.
2liberal
i got diagnosed for acute bronchitis today and was given some meds. I get a week off from work. I have been coughing up phlegm constantly for days. Does anyone have experience with this? It have been afflicted 7-10 days now.
Jeremy
@pokeyblow: I don’t understand the hyperventilating about chained cpi when it’s been supported by progressive think tanks (the proposals along with Obama’s include protections for the poor and very elderly and an exemption for SSI and veterans, and a bump up in basic benefits)and like Lawrence O’Donnell talked about a few weeks ago Democrats voted for Clinton’s budget which taxed some SS benefits which could be defined as a cut. There was no cpi measurement for decades until the 70’s and Carter and the Democratic congress changed the cpi calculation because it was paying out more in SS benefits thus depleting the SS trust fund.
The CPI has been adjusted time and again and for some years we didn’t see any increases so I don’t understand why everyone is going crazy about this proposal and not understanding the facts.
Jeremy
@Baud: Obama’s field director Jeremy Bird is running the operation. Also with OFA in operation there will always be a ground game operation.
Baud
@Jeremy:
Good to hear.
Kay
@efgoldman:
I think it is. Not nationally, but locally.
Toledo.media used to simultaneously parrot national media on debt hand-wringing WHILE complaining that Marcy Kaptur was powerful and should get us MO MONEY.
She actually cares about spending. They liked that IN THEORY :)
pokeyblow
Hi Jeremy.
Two things. 1) Obama is a democrat. His willingness to even slightly shrink social security disappoints me. His apparently-unshakeable belief that the GOP will respond in good faith to his compromising makes me seriously question his judgment.
More importantly, 2) no matter what think-tanks say, we will hear plenty in 2014 from republicans about Obama’s plans to cut social security. (Remember Romney going on mendaciously about Obama’s Medicare cuts?)
I know the democrats are the party of unforced errors. That said I wish Obama would choose a new bungle. The “republicans will surely deal honestly with me THIS time” one is getting really stale.
Joel
@gene108: This is true. Now pair that expansion with a better tax base in rich (western) countries, and everyone can start looking at a decent standard of living.
hamletta
@Baud: Howard Dean’s old organization, what’s left of it, run by his brother, Jim, is starting to work on state legislatures.
Smart move, because that’s where the crazy is these days.
Ruckus
@Jeremy:
Those of us against the chained CPI do understand the differences between adjusting the CPI and changing the entire way it works and in a negative direction.
2 things.
1. President Obama understands that it will negatively affect certain groups faster than others and everyone as time goes on. That’s why he is offering adjustments to keep certain age groups from suffering.
2. There is nothing inherently wrong with a CPI and adjusting it. That is in fact what a CPI does is adjust every year. A chained CPI on the other hand also adds the idea that someone on SS(or one of the other programs that will also be effected) has to purchase the cheapest example of any particular item tracked. The item doesn’t have to be any good for it’s intended use, it just has to be the cheapest. They are designing a program for the lowest common denominator. And the problem is that it doesn’t fix anything except make it just a little harder for someone to live on SS. It will have almost no effect on the trust fund yet it will have a great effect on the lives of those affected. It’s bullshit with a fancy name.
And I don’t really care that a lot of progressive think tanks like it. More like herd lack of think tankers. You have to remember that think tanks make their money not by pressing for things that cost more in taxes but by supposedly coming up with ways to make things cost less. All of them. OK maybe not those in the MIC area.
Shit costs money. Either we tax and spend to get the things we want, or we don’t and then we don’t even get the things we need. That doesn’t mean we have to waste tax money but we do have to at some point make a decision in this country of what we want and what we can do without. Right now the without side is wining handily.
catclub
@raven: “I’m actually surprised it’s on Georgia Public TV.”
I figure if it is there, no one will see it, so no problemo.
fuckwit
Would it be irresponsible to consider Yglesias the Next Generation’s Tom Friedman? It would be irresponsible not to. Both seem to love globalization and corporate rule, have glibertarian privilege all over them, are paid ridiculous sums for writing stupid, uninformed bullshit, and are deeply narcissistic.
As for the Tsarnaevs, I read a bit about the right-wing nutcase who did the Norway shootings/bombings, and this week of course have been reading more than I wanted to about Shrub, and noticed something interesting about bombers and mass-shooters (and neocons) in general, regardless of their ideology or political office. They are really REALLY bad at planning the aftermath. It’s like a psychological tell of sociopaths, maybe. If it is, I’m sure the cops are aware of it. The people who commit these kinds of crimes never seem to plan well afterwards. Hell, it makes catching them possible, if not easy.
It should be more carefully watched BEFORE atrocities are committed, though! Uncle Ruslan (who is a fucking bad-ass), saw it! He said in an interview that what he found most frightening about Tamerlan is that he had no plan for the future, it was all “inshallah”. He was completely unconcerned. I didn’t see what was sinister about that when I first saw that interview. Now I understand why Uncle Ruslan is such a fucking bad-ass. He’d seen this in Chechnya, he’d been around it. He knew that the first part of becoming a violent extremist is complete indifference to the future, an inability to plan, an almost tacit assumption of suicide or of letting go of this world and letting some spooky incompetent father-figure in the sky take care of it.
The Tsarnaevs had no fucking plan for the aftermath, for escape. The Norway shooter had no plan. Bush had no plan for what happens after taking over Iraq. The Newtown shooter had no plan. The Columbine plan was suicide. The 9/11 plan was suicide. It’s like what comes after? Nothing! Anything! Who cares! The Lord will provide! The Free Market will sort it out! It’s God’s Will! Inshallah!
There’s something missing in the brains of a mass-murderer, the part of their brain that should go “hmm, NOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?” appears to be dead. So it’s “inshallah” or suicide. It’s a fatalism that I never considered dangerous, but now I do.
Because, think about it: if these people could actually think ahead, past whatever act they were planning, THEY WOULD NEVER DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE! It’s perfect. They’d do what any sane person would do, they’d think, “that’s an evil fantasy, it’d cause all kinds of mayhem and destruction, people would be widowed and orphaned, and how would I escape? I’d get caught, I’d have to live on the run, it’s stupid, fuck it, get me a beer, let’s watch Mad Men instead”.
See, thinking ahead, of consequences, of effects on your own future, even if not on those of others, is a moral grounding, a safety feature. People who don’t have that ability are deeply dangerous.
Mind you, in crimes of passion, people lose that ability to think “what next” temporarily. That’s not what I’m talking about, the dude who shoots the other dude who was fucking his wife, etc. Those you solve by not having guns everywhere in the first place. I’m talking about the complete and persistent lack of ability to think ahead to the future, to step past an event and plan for its aftermath. I am starting to think, as Uncle Ruslan put it, that “inshallah” (and its free market and christian variants too) is a dangerous and sinister mode of thinking, and should set off alarm bells.
Elizabelle
@fuckwit:
Excellent comment. Arrives pretty late on the thread; definitely put it up again when conversation turns in this direction.