While we await Saturday Morning Brain Drain, here’s a little news (all I could handle) and some fun stuff to tide us over…
“I’ve not seen one single person wearing a mask,” said Jessica Christian, who is working at a bar at the sprawling event.
‘It’s just madness’: bikers throng South Dakota town despite Covid threat
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/07/south-dakota-bikers-rally-coronavirus-pandemic
Can’t spend money if you’re dead!
The U.S. economy is on the verge of a ‘lost year’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/07/us-economy-is-verge-lost-year/
#JFC
Beirut explosion: former port worker says fireworks stored in hangar
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/beirut-explosion-former-port-worker-says-fireworks-stored-in-hangar
Sprots!
The Washington Football Team announced Friday that it has released running back Derrius Guice amid allegations of domestic violence.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2020/08/07/derrius-guice-cut-washington-football-team-arrested-domestic-violence-charges/3324298001/
Fucking herbs.
Bless his heart.
Jerry Falwell Jr., the president and chancellor of Liberty University, has agreed to take an “indefinite leave of absence,” according to a statement Friday from the evangelical Christian university.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/us/jerry-falwell-jr-liberty-university-leave/index.html
“Yeah, it was weird. She’s pregnant. She couldn’t get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like… I had on a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in a long time and couldn’t get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers. She’s my wife’s assistant she’s a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. I’ve apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out.”
https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2020/08/06/jerry-falwell-jr-responds-to-questionable-instagram-photo/
FYI:
Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/07/postal-service-investigation-dejoy/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_postal-155pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans&tidr=a_breakingnews
Some good Tweets:
Have a great weekend!
Time for another round of “What Was Trump Asked About”! We give you a Trump rant and you guess what he was asked about in the first place.
That’s sad news about the G/O video group, who I’m sure are a very talented bunch. On the other hand, I think I’ve watched maybe three of the god-knows-how-many videos they’ve churned out. I don’t know why (I think) their much remarked upon pivot to video seems like such a failure. I suspect it’s something to do with their “à propos of nothing” nature. The embedded ads don’t help of course. No, I’m not going to watch a 30 second or 1 minute ad for something that doesn’t interest me in the least, only to get to some staff writer talking for 2 or 3 minutes about a topic that interests me at about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.
I hope they land on their feet at a better and brighter company, one that can actually use their talents in a meaningful, engaging way.
Gawker(it will always be to me!) is just a shambles now. Some posts only get a few comments and then they’re not very interesting. Thanks Peter Theil! Ruining America one website at a time! Also – Thanks Deadsplinter peeps! This site is much more engaging and I’m thankful that y’all take the time to make it so.
I don’t like reaction videos for the most part – I think they’re very strange – but the twins reactions are very adorable and that is such a great song.
And in case you want to hear the whole song –
If Meg hadn’t posted that video, I was going to put it in the comments. I love these kids. This song is also one of the most exquisitely recorded pieces of music, ever. To truly appreciate it, one must listen to it under a good pair of reference headphones. No, not those bullshit AirPods. I will allow a set of Sennheiser over-the-ear BT headphones. But, to truly hear all of the subtleties, a hardwired set of headphones from Sennheiser, or Grado or even Beyerdynamic at the very least, are a necessity. The collective listening ears of the world have been seriously dumbed down over the past 25 years with compressed audio and streaming services. Get this song on a regular old CD or an LP while you’re at it–do NOT listen to this on Spotify or Apple Music. This isn’t one of those idiotic audiophile arguments where you have someone trying to make the case for a 10 Hz difference from one source to the next. This is a matter of opening one’s ears up to things that they’ve probably never realized were missing. Trust me.
I was at a wedding once where the ceremony happened at the reception venue. So, ceremony, then everyone gets herded into another section for drinks, and then back into that ceremony area for dinner where the tables had replaced the folding chairs.
While we were being herded into the drinks area this song played on an excellent sound system, and loudly. I turned to my husband and said, “Isn’t this that Phil Collins song from years ago? I wonder why they chose it?”
But hearing it at that volume and with that sound quality–I can’t describe it. I’m going to come off like a complete lunatic but it was perfect for the occasion. I was washed over with this feeling of “I have just witnessed one of my best friends GETTING MARRIED!” And then the drum break.
My husband asked, “Are you alright, Cousin Matt?” “Oh, I’m fine, I just…you know, I hated this song when it came out, and I always resented the breakup of Genesis, but–”
“It might be the heat. Let’s get you a good stiff gin.”
They did Jolene too, which is also v. fun. I’ve definitely become a fan!
Jerry Falwell Jr. reminds me of the second generations in family-owned businesses where I have worked. (Not my family, random outside hire here.) In both cases the founders had grown the businesses into corporations employing hundreds. And in both cases the children of the founders were entitled, incompetent, and cruel. One in particular was especially inept, but the company just kept hiring them more support staff to prop them up and do the actual work. This created a group of sycophantic minions who practiced office politics as a blood sport. I bet this is what working at the Trump white house is like, too. At least with the hallelujah component here Falwell Jr. can be kicked out and redeemed through prayer infinity times…right? In the meantime, maybe he can get a job with the Republican election committee.
Sorry, this is probably very boring and specific, but kind of relevant.
My oldest brother works in an industry that is dominated by family-owned, private businesses. These companies were all founded after the war and now the children, usually a son or two, run them. The industry is very small, very localized geographically, and very incestuous. It’s easy for this brother to jump around, they all know him and he knows all of them, but each one is now more horrible than the last. This brother is considerably older than me but he refuses to retire and really, why should he, he likes the work, he’s extremely competent, and he likes to work in general.
He’s going to hang on where he is as long as possible because the founder is still alive, still keeps a hand in, and reins in the nominal CEO, his son, who’s an incompetent loon. The founder remembers my brother fondly because it was my brother’s first full-time job and the founder was only maybe 15 years older himself at the time. Once the founder leaves the scene the son/CEO, seething with resentment, is going to give my brother the axe (my brother is convinced of this.)
He never should have told me this at one of our 30-person family get-togethers because I gave him a widely adopted new nickname: Prince Andrew.
In all seriousness, this is a big reason why inheritance taxes are so important, and it’s no mystery why the Republican Party makes serious bank from donors by wiping out inheritance taxes.
Nicknaming someone Prince Andrew hits a little different now!
True, but I trotted out a favorite joke I made up years ago, when Prince Charles let it be known that he wants to streamline the monarchy. Andrew’s been sleazy and grifting for decades. It’s well-known, even before the Epstein revelations. But he’s the Queen’s favorite, apparently, and she’s single-handedly keeping him afloat. No one on Earth sings with more fervor or more sincerity than Andrew when the band strikes up “God Save the Queen.”
I’ve encountered the same thing, repeatedly. Now, to be fair, I’ve also met some children that took over businesses and did very well. But business succession plans that lead to incompetence is so common that it was actually covered in one of my grad school courses, and that was … some years ago. There’s a reason the term “failson” exists.
Mostly, though, it’s a parenting failure. In the wealthy people I’ve seen who successfully inherited businesses, the parents expected their children to work, usually outside the family business. Inside the business, employees are hyper-conscious of the child’s status. How could they not be? I worked for a family business that belonged to a high school friend, and my friend told me, oh, don’t worry about getting there late. When I was late one day the woman I was taking over for told me, “I have to take that kind of thing from him. I don’t have to take it from you.” I was never late again, and it made me very conscious of the difference between his status and mine. He was allowed to get away with shit. He and his two siblings “worked” there, but hardly ever showed up to do anything.
That particular business no longer exists, by the way. The parents just sold it off and distributed the money to their three kids. None of them could effectively run it, and the parents, who are smart people, knew it.
Falwell Jr. is a creep and I’m very surprised that more photos and other evidence of his indiscretions hasn’t emerged. I’m sure they will, and that may be why he’s been removed:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/07/jerry-falwell-jrs-long-string-of-scandals/#4e217db4e4aa
There has been no shortage — the whole pool boy thing should have been enough to get the board of Liberty University to throw him out. The students there hate his guts.
My sneaking suspicion is that the trigger wasn’t the scandals, it is the way the football program is being gutted by Black players transferring out because they can’t stand Falwell’s racism. These people have no problem when leaders (not the students, of course, unless they’re legacies or stars) do the most depraved stuff. But mess up the football program — that’s a bridge too far.
Good point. Sports generate a lot of revenue, and first and foremost those “religious” zealots are lining their pockets.
I know Lynchburg is named after a guy, but it’s still a little too on the nose.
I always heard it as “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”. Same concept as failson, only now they’ve blown thru all the money and the grandkids have to actually work.
What good is a union that can’t protect its members from being fired for no good reason?
I’m enjoying the Falwell scandal. His excuse was ridiculous. If she couldn’t zip up her shorts why didn’t she simply wear a different pair? Why come out of her room and display herself (I’m clutching my pearls) to a room full of people. The sinfulness! Same with Jer, it’s his yacht, surely he had other jeans he could put on. I’m rolling my eyes so hard.
Love that expression, “clutching my pearls”. I have used it at work on the rare occasion, and it sure doesn’t go over well there. (People can be so touchy when they get called on their preciousness. Hmmm, then perhaps they should have played nicely with others…)
It’s like the big televangelist sex scandals of the 80’s all over again. I missed those crazy kids.
I was just saying on Brain Drain that I watched the first season of the Righteous Gemstones. It hits in all the right spots! I enjoyed it thoroughly.