Amazon Prime Day is a huge fucking deal, according to Amazon. It’s a day when Amazon Prime members can buy loads of crap at a special discount. But now that Prime Day is upon us, it’s time to go shopping. Except for one problem: Amazon’s website is all fucked up.
This is the second year in a row (in the two years of Prime Day’s existence) that Amazon was not able to anticipate the demand generated by its fake holiday. Website issues have people super pissed on Twitter. Founder of Business Insider and Amazon investor Henry Blodget is also super pissed. One of his employees even wrote an article about it.
But Blodget wasn’t the only frustrated customer. Plenty of tweets show issues that range from incorrect shopping carts to busted promo codes:
Amazon finally admitted to the issues earlier today:
Now, I know what you might be thinking. This is a corporate holiday, and Amazon may have just underestimated demand in order to create an appearance that the one-day sale is actually a bigger deal than it is. But that would be CRAZY, right? Not as crazy as these shitty deals.
The Washington Post continues its aggressive reporting on Donald Trump’s charitable contributions, most recently putting the screws to the presumptive Republican nominee’s son, Eric Trump. “It’s disgusting. It is so disgusting what’s happening,” Eric complained last week. “I’m saving dying children. We do tremendous good for people. And you’re sitting there tearing us apart.”
“My father has given me and my foundation hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Eric told the Post. “And he’s given other charities millions and millions and millions of dollars.” He could not, however, provide any specifics (i.e. dates, amounts) about his father’s personal contributions to the Eric Trump Foundation.
“My father likes to keep some anonymity,” Eric claimed. “It’s who he is. It’s who he is as a person.” (It isn’t.) Undeterred, the Washington Post continued pressing Eric for details about the contributions. He responded on Monday with several examples: In all, the Eric Trump Foundation received $210,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation and Trump-owned businesses—that is to say, not actually from Donald Trump.
Asked to explain this discrepancy, Eric wrote, “Just to be clear, I never said no.” (This is not actually “clear,” but apparently what he meant was that he hadn’t said his father hadn’t given the Eric Trump Foundation a personal gift.) “I have a lot going on,” he added, explaining why he wouldn’t be able to come up with anything supporting his earlier claims. “I just don’t have the time. Good luck with the story.”
Bernie Sanders today endorsed Hillary Clinton, his obligatory words of approval impressively audible through his thin smile.
The senator from Vermont appeared onstage with Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, apparently of his own free will and volition.
Hillary “will be the Democratic nominee for president and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States,” Sanders said.
His decision to finally endorse Clinton reportedly followed weeks of negotiations between Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, and Sanders’ wife, Jane, that led to Hillary rolling out a series of proposals in support of expanded access to healthcare, free college tuition, and a higher minimum wage.
Still, USA Today reports some of his supporters walked out of the rally when he announced he would be endorsing Clinton.
The rally drew supporters of Clinton and Sanders, some of whom chanted “Bernie” while others chanted “unity.” Some Sanders supporters left their seats when Sanders said he was endorsing Clinton. Earlier when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said “we need to elect Hillary,” she was interrupted shouts of “NO!” and chants of “Bernie, Bernie.”
Here is the divisive announcement they missed (full text here):
“I have come here today not to talk about the past but to focus on the future,” Sanders said. “That future will be shaped more by what happens on November 8 in voting booths across our nation than by any other event in the world. I have come here to make it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton and why she must become our next president.”
Some of America’s biggest corporations are (very publicly) raising the minimum wages of their employees. This is better than nothing, but not as good as, say, dangling a CEO by his ankles and shaking him until all of his billions fall out.
Raising wages is better than not raising wages. We can all agree on that. That said, how much moral courage does it take for CEOs to raise wages right now? Even Walmart, for chrissake, implemented widespread raises a full year ago, after years of heavy political pressure from activists. The political climate is clear. Inequality is not going away, and people are pissed, and on top of that, unemployment is relatively low, meaning companies need to compete harder for workers. Not raising wages is the bolder business move at this point.
That fact does not stop companies from extracting the maximum possible PR value from their decision to raise wages. Jamie Dimon, who makes $20 million a year presiding over a bank that not so long ago paid $13 billion due to its role in the collapse of mortgage securities that made tens of millions of people decidedly poorer, took to the New York Times op-ed page to bask in his own decision to raise the minimum wage of low-level JPMorgan Chase employees to between $12 and $16.50 per hour, from the current $10.15. If we do some very rough math, assuming that all 18,000 of these employees get an average raise of $3 per hour and work 2000 hours per year, that’s a total additional annual expenditure of $108 million by JPMorgan. Better than nothing, certainly. In the context of a bank that posts profits of more than $5 billion per quarter, this is peanuts.
In that context, it is kind of embarrassing to brag about this move in the New York Times.
Again—raises are better than no raises. But it should be understood that this country is currently in a period of economic inequality not seen in a full century. Wages for low earners must go up. Bragging about raising your minimum wage a few bucks at the moment is a bit like bragging about changing your tire after you ran over a box of nails. Good for you, sure, but if you didn’t do it, the whole system won’t work. When Starbucks (very publicly) announced this week that it is raising minimum wages in company-owned stores by at least 5%, it is worth remembering that this is a company that still is not unionized despite widespread worker complaints and a corporate reputation for liberalism. It is safe to assume a union would raise wages more than 5%. It is also worth remembering that Starbucks’ CEO, an inveterate self-promoter and narcissist, is worth more than $3 billion. All of these points are related.
Should major American companies raise wages? Yes. Should they feel good about themselves because they pay marginally more than fast food chains? No. Should we give fabulously wealthy CEOs moral credit for any of this? No. These are not expenditures on employee welfare. These are investments in workforce stability, PR, and, to a lesser extent, social stability in a nation that is wracked by inequality.
National guardsmen and police officers mill around Tampa before the 2012 RNC. Image: Getty
Journalists traveling to Cleveland and Philadelphia to cover the Republican and Democratic National Conventions will be just fine, totally safe and sound, really, thanks to extra security measures their employers are taking this year, Politico reports.
Sources at news organizations such as the New York Times, ABC, and CNN told Politico their reporters are receiving security or civil unrest training aimed at keeping them safe at the conventions. It is widely assumed that the RNC in particular, what with Donald Trump and his violent supporters and violent protesters, will be the site of intense unrest. “I wouldn’t say I’m nervous,” said one anonymous reporter, despite “an assembly of potential anarchists, the Westboro Baptist Church, white supremacists, Latino activists and pro-Trump forces which could be a much more volatile mix.”
Those of us at Gawker who are covering the conventions have not received any special security training, and will likely be running around like the idiots we are, hoping to avoid being hurt or arrested, and god willing, find a good story or two along the way. We’ll be fine. Really.
Prime Day is back, and it doesn’t totally suck. Below you’ll find all the best deals from the event, linked as they go live. You need an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of the sales, so sign up for a free trial now if you haven’t already.
We’ll be covering all 24 hours of the event on this page and on Kinja Deals to the best of our ability, but we expect that many deals will sell out so quickly, that we’ll only have time to post them to our Twitter and Facebook account, so be sure to give us a follow, or just see our latest tweets below.
On any given day, it’s not uncommon to see deals on a few of Amazon’s first party gadgets, but the discounts are usually modest, and relegated to less popular products. Today’s not any given day though: It’s Prime Day, and the deals are bigger and broader than we’ve ever seen.
The entire Fire TV line is also on sale with abnormally large discounts today: $15 on the Fire TV Stick, and $30 on the 4K Fire TV, along with all of its associated bundles.
Do you spend money on Amazon? Then this is basically $10 worth of free cash. All you have to do is add a $50 gift card to your cart, enter promo code GCPRIME16, and you’ll see a message confirming that you’ll receive a $10 credit. Just note that it’s only available for Prime members, and likely won’t last long.
If you’ve been meaning to try Audible, here’s the only excuse you need. For a limited time, Prime members can get a three month free trial (up from the usual one month), plus a $10 Amazon credit just for signing up. Note: This is only available for first-time Audible members.
During the trial, you’ll get one book credit per month to use on any of Audible’s 180,000 titles. Even if you cancel your trial later on, those books are yours to keep. And if you do stay a member, you’ll be charged $15 per month for a single book credit. But hey, even if you have zero intention of becoming a paying member, or even using your three book credits, this is basically $10 for free.
Hisense isn’t the most well known TV company out there, but they’re generally well respected, and it’s tough to find much fault with a 43" 4K smart TV with HDR processing for $300. This is the entry level model of the company’s 2016 lineup, and its black levels are apparently a step or two behind its more expensive brethren, but it’s still a fantastic price if you’re in the market.
Update: We’re still waiting on Amazon to post the flat version of this TV for $550. It’s sold out at that price at Best Buy, and the curved version sold out earlier today.
Note: Amazon promised this deal in their Prime Day press release, but we’re not 100% sure what time it will be available tomorrow. We’ll update this post and tweet about it as soon as it’s live.
Your next TV really should have HDR support, and this insane Prime Day deal will check that box, and then some.
Samsung’s 2016 55" 4K TV will be on sale for just $550 on Prime Day, while supplies last. To give you some context, the smaller 50" model was selling for $100 more on Amazon today, which was the best price they’d ever listed. Considering you get a great upscaling engine, local dimming, smart apps, Samsung Smart View, and, HDR, I’d say this is one of the best TV deals we’ve ever seen. Just don’t expect it to last.
The Corsair K70's aluminum chassis lends the keyboard a premium feel, and its key-by-key customizable backlighting is just plain cool. For $90, you really can’t go wrong here. Just note that while both red and brown switches are great for both work and play, the browns will have a bit more of a tactile feel.
It’s not as advanced as a Samsung Gear VR or Oculus Rift, but if you have a smartphone and $13, you can experience VR with this View-Master VR starter set.
The View-Master is actually just a Google Cardboard-compatible VR headset, except, you know, it’s not made of cardboard. That means it’s affordable, but not janky.
As far as I can tell, this TP-Link Archer C9 discount isn’t technically part of any Prime Day promotions, but $98 is still an all-time low price, and only the third time the popular router has fallen below $100. 2,000 5-star reviews can’t be wrong!
This Contigo travel mug is very similar to the Autoseal West Loop, your overwhelming favorite mug on Kinja Co-Op, but with a rubberized non-slip grip. $16 is an all-time low, but it’s only available for the next few hours.
There’s something to be said about instant cameras coming back around again. Something, but I’m not sure what. If you don’t feel like reliving your childhood with a brick-like instant camera, try one of these Polaroid ZIP Mobile Printers and make your smartphone actually give you real, printed photos. It even comes in four colors.
For some reason, the Furby is a thing again. The Furby Connect takes this talking acid flashback from off the shelf and gets onto your smartphone. If someone in your life wants to relive the nightmares of this Lisa Frank gremlin, but also end up with a free $30 Amazon gift card, here’s your chance.
You probably looked at that image up there and laughed. But let me tell you, there’s nothing funny about using the bathroom in the middle of the night and having to turn on an overhead light to see where you’re going. Because as soon as you hit that switch, you know you’re not getting back to sleep for another hour.
GlowBowl fits on just about any toilet, is motion activated, and can even output seven different colors of light. Most importantly though, it won’t wreak havoc on your circadian rhythms.
Google’s second OnHub router packed in plenty of smarts, but was a tough sell at its original $220 MSRP. But could you be tempted for $130? That’s a pretty solid price point for any high end 802.11ac router, let alone one with intuitive app control, and the ability to enable certain functions by waving your hand over the top. Just note that the deal is for Prime members only, while supplies last.
As far as Chromebooks go, this is pretty standard fare. You’ll get an 11.6" screen, 16GB of onboard storage, and 10 hours of battery life, though it does include 4GB of RAM, which is double what you’ll find in most similarly priced Chromebooks. Today’s $140 price tag is an all-time low, so be sure to lock in your order while you still can.
Note: Discount shown at checkout for Prime members.
Did you know you’ve been pooping all wrong? It’s true! Luckily, the obscenely popular Squatty Potty is designed to lift your legs into an ideal bowel movement position, and you can get the 7" model for just $18 on Amazon today as part of a Prime Day promotion. These things almost nevergo on sale, so if you’ve had your eye on one, it’s officially time to poop or get off the pot.
Note: Discount shown at checkout for Prime members.
The 5.7" Moto X Pure “does Android better than Google,” and Amazon’s selling 32GB models in black, white, and bamboo for an all-time low $250 unlocked today, for Prime members only. That’s far and away the best price we’ve ever seen for that capacity, but we don’t expect it to last long.
If you have any long-neglected home maintenance and upkeep tasks to check off your to-do list, Amazon’s offering a flat $40 cash back on any service priced $75 or more through Amazon Home Services as part of the Prime Day festivities.
Available services will vary depending on your location, but they can include lawn maintenance, cleaning, home improvement, computer help, and more. In fact, Shane recently used Amazon to install a TV wall mount.
Even if this isn’t your thing, it’s a great gift idea for the reader in your life. Just mark it as a gift subscription at checkout, you can choose the date that it will be delivered, allowing you to automate some upcoming birthdays.
Like the idea of a Belkin WeMo Switch, but not willing to spend up to $60 to try one out? This TP-Link alternative has a nearly identical feature set for half the price.
Just like a WeMo Insight switch, TP-Link’s Smart Plug will let you turn appliances on and off from your smartphone, track their energy usage, and set schedules to toggle them automatically. The only major feature it’s lacking is IFTTT support, but it will integrate with an Amazon Echo for voice control.
Other than a very short-lived (and probably erroneous) $24 deal a few weeks ago, this is the best price we’ve seen on the energy monitoring version of this smart plug.
If there’s ever a time to convince yourself that you will work out, it’s when there’s a discount on athletic shoes. Celebrate Prime Day with huge discounts on shoes from Adidas, New Balance, Mizuno, and ASICS. Maybe if you invest in a good pair of sneakers, you’ll go out for those Poké Walks you’ve been saying you’ll go on.
If you’re worried that you won’t get a ton of use out of this thing, note that in addition to standard pressure cooking, you can also use the Instant Pot as a slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, and more.
All you have to do is pick your favorite Alta color and size, bundle it with an extra band of a different color, and you’ll automatically save $30 at checkout. Alta deals have been basically nonexistent since it launched several months ago, so if it’s been sitting on your wish list, I’d run over to Amazon to take advantage.
iOttie makes your favorite suction cup-based smartphone dash mounts, and while they may have been supplanted by sub-$5 magnetic vent solutions, I’ve found iOttie’s snap-to-close phone cradles to be incredibly secure and convenient. Take off 25% at checkout on CD Slot, vent, and suction options in honor of Prime Day.
Nose hair is a problem a lot of people have but, for some reason, few people take care of. Save $3 at checkout on this Panasonic nose hair trimmer, which drops it down to only $10, and you can be one of those people doing something about it. Harambe didn’t die so you could look like The Missing Link.
Note: Discount shown at checkout for Prime members.
Summer is the time to relax, even if it feels like you don’t have time. Make some time (or just work from home and hang out) in one of these hammocks. For $80, that’s the hammock, stand, and carrying case. No tree trunks required.
While supplies last, if you buy a $5 Crest sample box from Amazon, you’ll get a $5 credit to spend on your next Crest purchase from the site. Even if Crest isn’t your usual brand, those sample sizes are perfect for traveling, so you should definitely get some use out of them.
Who doesn’t want to roll their grill up to a BBQ like a great piece of luggage? This portable grill by Coleman is literally called the Road Trip and it’s only $100. Even with its cast iron cooktop, it collapses into a super portable, rolling party machine.
For some reason, the deal prices aren’t showing up on the hub page, so you’ll need to click through to the individual products to see the discounts. The star of the show is the 12.5" Thinkpad Yoga with 256GB SSD for $800, but there are several less expensive computers available as part of the deal as well, all of which should be perfect for anyone in need of a portable, workmanlike PC.
Huawei’s excellent Nexus 6P, Honor 5X, and Android Wear smart watches are all on sale as part of a Prime Day promotion.
The Nexus 6P probably needs no introduction, but needless to say, $404 unlocked for the 64GB version is a fantastic deal on an unlocked Android handset. The Honor 5X appears to be a slightly lower-specced version of the Nexus 5X, and seems to be a great buy at $120.
You don’t see a ton of products on Amazon with over 4,000 reviews, but this Waste King garbage disposal manages a 4.6 star average from over 4,700 customers, and it’s marked down to an all-time low price, today only as part of a Prime Day deal. If you happen to be in the market for a disposal, this should be a no-brainer.
Well this is definitely the weirdest Prime Day deal we’ve seen, but also potentially the most lucrative. Today only, if you sign up for new select Comcast internet, phone and/or cable accounts, you’ll automatically receive $100-$400 in Amazon credit, depending on the service.
Obviously, this deal is only available wherever Comcast operates, and it’s only available to new customers, so the reach is fairly limited, but the bonuses are huge.
Note: The price shown in the green bubbles below corresponds to the size of the included Amazon gift cards.
If you still haven’t outfitted your kitchen with a KitchenAid, you can get a brand new Professional 6 quart model for just $249, today only as part of Amazon’s Prime Day festivities. We occasionally see KitchenAids cheaper, but those are usually refurbished and/or smaller and less powerful models.
There are certain things you should hold onto for nostalgia sake when it comes to beauty. But hair tools are not one of them. Toss your old straightener and hairdryer and upgrade to something a little more professional. You’ll thank me after you realize what you were smelling all those years was burnt hair.
If you’re curious about Amazon Dash buttons, there’s never been a better time to stick them around your house. As part of a Prime Day countdown promotion, Prime members can purchase all the buttons they want for just $1 each, down from the usual $5. Plus, you’ll still get a $5 credit the first time you use it, meaning Amazon’s literally paying you to buy household essentials.
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If there’s anything to be said about Bernie Sanders fans, it’s that they’ve handled the past year with the sort of sensitivity so rarely seen in politics today. And now that Bernie Sanders has finally conceded to Hillary Clinton, they’re responding with the same fair-minded thoughtfulness we’ve all come to know and love.
You’ll find no greater example of this than on the Sanders supporters’ unofficial Facebook hub, Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash. For the past few hours, its hundreds of thousands of members have been eagerly contributing to a conversation that could very well shape the future of the Democratic party. Let’s see what they have to say.
Sometimes, people on the internet argue about things. But what unites us all? Laughter.
One thing that happened on the internet this week: a lot of people made up a group called “We Are the Left” and published an open letter titled “An Open Letter on Identity Politics, to and from the Left.” You can read it if you like. (The people who wrote this letter do not like me personally, which is fine, and, indeed, perhaps, a mark of maturity!)
Mere seconds after this open letter signed by more than a hundred people was published, the conversation that it was ostensibly designed to prompt degenerated into a meta-conversation about who gave permission for their names to be included and who fucked up the attaching of whose name to this letter and also several objections have been raised to the use of various language in the letter. A single day after being published, the letter now carries four added notes at the bottom.
Confused? Don’t feel bad. I have no idea what is happening and I am the one writing this blog post! That is the sad state of “journalism” today. Instead of reading this blog post, in fact, I highly recommend you read this extremely entertaining explainer and also this other extremely entertaining explainer in order to develop a deeper understanding of the intricate background machinations and political rivalries and alliances underlying this open letter on the internet. In the future, you will be able to understand the Twitter arguments of a variety of people you will never meet in a more sophisticated way. If you study very hard, you may even one day be able to grasp what is happening here:
There are not that many funny things to read on the internet these days so I fully support the publication of more open letters on this important topic, whatever that may be.
Yesterday, the Trump campaign finally acknowledged Pokémon Go. Finally. The Republican frontrunner’s newest anti-Clinton smear ad made a nod to Niantic’s hit app (“Crooked Hillary No!”), probably explained to him by his interns. Given Pokémon Go’s apparent resonance with the The Donald’s campaign, I wondered how popular the game was in the gilded palace of Trumpland. So, I went up to New York’s Trump Tower looking for fellow Pokémon trainers. And found nobody. Not one person.
Here’s what happened.
I hopped on the M train to 53rd and 5th Avenue. Trump Tower loomed as I rounded the corner onto 56th, its name in gold over a wide entrance. Its sterile, glassy lines shot up into a sky that was threatening rain. A mass of tourists, shoppers, locals, media and sign-bearers of various political leanings loitered out front. It was a PokéStop, because of course it was.
The building is 58 stories high. Trump Bar and Trump Grill feature on the bottom few levels. Its foyer resembles a gaudy, tasteless Baroque church lined in gold leaf, but with a Starbucks as its focal point instead of an altar.
As a monument to excess, capitalism, and nostalgia for so-called better times, I expected nothing less than an endless stream of Pokémon and Pokémon accoutrements. Outside, I caught a Magikarp.
Now is when I must establish that everybody in New York is playing this game. Nearly every Manhattan block I walk, I see another another Pokémon trainer with her phone thrust before her, head down and totally negligent of her surroundings. PokéStops dot about every third corner, a full half of them with lures. There, groups of trainers gather and wait forPokémonto approach. Given this, I assumed a tourist trap slash PokéStop like the Trump Tower would be rife with trainers.
Immediately, I started to play Pokémon Go as conspicuously as possible, adopting the conspiratorial, come-hither body language specific to socially-inclined Pokémon Go players. I wanted to make friends. When someone finally caught my eye, it was a woman with a sign standing confidently outside the Trump Tower entrance. She smiled and I smiled back. When I looked down, I realized that her sign said, “TRUMP IS FIGHTING 4 YOU.” I frowned.
Two Turkish tourists approached her to take a picture. A Seel appeared. I caught it as they walked off.
“Hey, mind if I catch your name?” I said, writing down the contents of her sign.
“Who do you work for?”
“Gawker’s video ga-”
“No,” she said firmly. “No.”
Suddenly, it started to downpour. Everybody collected under the Trump Tower awning, weighing the benefits of shade against standing too close to the tower’s imposing guards. Everybody was holding their phones, not playing Pokémon Go. After my notebook got soppy, it was time to go inside. “Did you make any money?” a man with manicured nails yelled into his phone. I caught a Poliwag.
Men with shiny shoes, teenaged girls, conspicuous tourists, women with Prada shopping bags and whoever happened to be outside when the torrential downpour began all collected in the building’s foyer, starting at their phones. I stalked the perimeter of the crowd. Tinder, yes. Texting and Facebook, all right. No sight of the Pokémon logo.
Weird, I thought. Weird. How is it that everybody and their grandmother’s ex-roommate’s ficus are playing this game, and yet, I’ve found nobody entering or loitering in Trump’s 58-story pillar to acquisitional frenzy collecting Pokémon?
The game glitched, so I logged onto the Starbucks WiFi. I caught another Voltorb. Then a Diglett, which was pretty exciting. But something felt off.
I went up and down a half dozen flights of escalators. Nothing. Back on the second floor, peering over the Starbucks customers’ shoulders, the weirdness of the situation hit me. Hundreds of people walked in and out, faces glued to their phones, but not a single Pokémon trainer. I descended the escalators and ran back outside, frantically hoping to find common ground with anybody at all. Over an hour of lurking later, somebody threw a lure up. Satisfied, I left.
Yesterday, I found out, Trump told the Washington Examiner that he wished he had time to play Pokémon Go.
Two blocks away from the Trump Tower, 30 people were playing Pokémon Go in a 40 by 40-foot zone.
According to health department records and apparently unsatisfied customers, up until very recently the Trump Taj Mahal casino and hotel in Atlantic City was crawling with mice, roaches, and bed bugs.
The company Elder Pest Control removed 51 mouse corpses from traps in the hotel and casino in March 2015, and 38 during the first half of April, according to exterminator’s reports submitted to the Atlantic City Health Department and obtained by Gawker. A Health Department memo from May 2015 describes the experience of one Taj Mahal visitor, who claims to have seen numerous mice in the casino’s VIP club, and coming out of the hotel’s Chinese restaurant. The mice apparently approached the guest’s service dog. “He said they are very brave,” the memo reads.
The infestation got so bad that, as of last July, the Atlantic City Health Department required the Trump Taj Mahal to submit biweekly reports. “Extermination is on-going and attempts to eradicate rodents / stopping entry in building are to be increased,” a July 17 departmental memo reads. “Extermination reports are to be forwarded to this office every 2 weeks to monitor improvement.” That month, exterminators reported removing 103 mice from traps at the Trump Taj Mahal; in the first two weeks of August, they removed 36 mice.
Although his name is still on the front of the building, Donald Trump no longer owns the Taj Mahal casino. It opened twenty-five years ago, went bankrupt a year later, relaunched, went bankrupt again, and in February of this year, was bought by billionaire Carl Icahn. An inspector with the Atlantic City Health Department, Paulette Simonetti, confirmed the authenticity of the documents provided to Gawker, but, added that complaints at the Trump Taj Mahal are “substantially decreased” under the new ownership.
“Employees were constantly leaving doors open, allowing the rodents access from the boardwalk,” Simonetti said. Those doors are now kept locked at all times. “I think it was a smoking area.” Great news!
In less good news, mice aren’t the only pests to have found a home at the Taj Mahal. Four hotel suites were treated for bed bugs in March and the first two weeks of April last year; a dozen suites were treaded in July and the first two weeks of August. “This place should be called Trump’s Dump,” remarks a Yelp review from earlier this month. “Can you say BED BUGS?”
“Disgusting,” declares another, from April. “Knew prior to going that it was a run down casino but wasn’t expeceting [sic.] this. The rooms are like a scene out of the shining.....and yes...they have bed bugs. Since I was only there because of a business function, I ran like a bat outa hell when i saw them and went to the borgata.”
The Trump Taj Mahal has 51 anonymous reports dating back to 2010 on bedbugregistry.com. The most recent is from January. The Borgata, meanwhile, has 31. A handful of rooms at the hotel were found to be clear of mice and bed bugs, the exterminator’s reports showed, but hosted roaches instead.
Currently, about 1,000 workers in the casino’s food, beverage, and housekeeping departments are on strike. They haven’t had health insurance for almost two years. “The money I took out of there was incredible,” Trump has said of Atlantic City. Neither the Trump campaign nor Trump Taj Mahal responded to requests for comment.
Fortunately, not every complaint about conditions at the casino was valid: “Smell coming from ceiling is not a dead mouse,” an exterminator’s report from April 9, 2015 concludes. “Smells like wet insulation or ceiling tiles.”
The NYPD can’t escape scandal lately, from the federal corruption investigation to the tape of a captain seeming to encourage racial profiling that Gawker published this week. Now, a group of cops are reportedly being probed for committing that most grievous of workplace infractions: Playing Pokémon Go on the job.
The New York Daily News reports that after the officers were caught in a New Yorker’s Snapchat video apparently playing the game while patrolling the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, commissioner Bill Bratton has said that the department will “take a look at that as to whether there was inappropriate behavior on their part.”
This, after Bratton told reporters in no uncertain terms that he does not spend his free time wondering why there are only freakin’ Rattatas and Zubats floating around One Police Plaza. From ABC:
“I haven’t the faintest interest in that stupid craze,” Bratton said. “I don’t understand it. Too many people have been watching the zombie shows, and basically seem to be fascinated with making themselves walking zombies on Pokemon.”
“Again, go figure, in terms of things people want to occupy their time with,” he said. “I don’t intend to occupy much of my time, other than the 30 seconds I just spent answering (this) question.”
It’s unclear yet whether the cops will face punishment for their alleged gaming. Certainly you would never ever see this sort of thing at an office that adheres to any standard of professionalism, such as here at Gawker Media.
It’s Pence! Really this time. Definitely. Almost certainly.
The Indiana governor was framed as Donald Trump’s “safest” option—an archetypical right-wing Republican who manages to be both completely boring and totally evil. He has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, and the Cato Institute has called him a “champion tax cutter.” Also, he hates gay people and women.
Trump confirmed earlier reports that he was going with Pence via Twitter, despite having said last night that he would postpone the announcement following the attacks in Nice, France. Plans change! And not a moment too soon, either.
Earlier today, Donald Trump announced on Twitter that Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana, had been chosen as his vice presidential candidate. Pence, 57, is a deeply traditional choice, he’s a standard old-school Republican who hews more closely to the GOP’s ideology than Trump. Pence is religious and speaks often of his Christianity as a motivating force behind the controversial laws he’s signed during his tenure, including omnibus abortion bill HB 1337 and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a discriminatory bill that prompted numerous boycotts of the state.
[...] a cautious choice of running mate — a political partner who is unlikely to embarrass Mr. Trump, and who may help him shore up support among conservative voters still wary of his candidacy.
There’s no doubt that Pence is of the standard Republican issue variety: religious, anti-gay, pro-life, and pro-open trade. His tone and political ideologies seem to depart from Trump on more than a few issues. On social media, many were quick to point out where Pence clearly departs from Trump, including bans on Muslim immigration and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trump has built his candidacy by presenting himself as the alternative to traditional Republican talking points; he’s religious when he needs to be (though terrible at even performing evangelical Christianity), vacillates on abortion, has little to no platform on LGTBQ rights, advocates protectionism and is anti-immigration. Where Trump is all empty anger, the Times described Pence as “low-key.”
Pence is popular with religious conservatives, in particular, anti-abortion advocates. It’s likely that Pence will bring the pro-life movement, who have felt alienated from and ignored by Trump, back into the fold. Prior to Trump’s official announcement, groups like Indiana Right to Life celebrated the rumors of Pence’s selection. “Governor Pence is devoted to protecting the unborn and their mothers,” Indiana Right to Life president said in a statement to the ultra-conservative Life News. “Pence’s pro-life stance is more than a talking point; Gov. Pence has put his pro-life position into action time and time again.”
Pence is a bit of a darling among anti-choice groups. As a member of Congress, Pence sponsored a 2007 bill to defund Planned Parenthood, the first of its kind, the legislation set off a now nearly decade old congressional battle to defund the organization. Pence reintroduced the legislation multiple times until he left the House in 2011. “Let the abortion providers provide for themselves,” Pence told Politico in 2007. “I’d like to continue to be a persistent, respectful voice for the sanctity of life.”
It was a template and an indicator of how he would treat women’s health as governor of Indiana. As governor, Pence signed virtually every anti-choice bill that was put on his desk, including HB 1337, an omnibus abortion bill that a federal court blocked from taking effect in June of this year.
Pence described the law “a comprehensive pro-life measure that affirms the value of all human life.” In reality, it is a deeply invasive law lacking both empathy and reason (unsurprising, perhaps, from the state that jailed Purvi Patel). HB 1337 bans women from seeking abortions based on race, gender or fetal anomaly; it also mandates that women be required to bury or cremate the fetus post-termination. In addition, it required that abortion doctors have admitting privileges in order to practice, a restriction that the Supreme Court recently struck down in Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt.
The law was loudly and routinely condemned by pro-choice groups and though the Times might think of Pence as “low key,” women in Indiana certainly do not. After Pence signed HB 1337, a group calling themselves Periods for Pence, protested the invasive bill by calling and tweeting his office details of their menstrual cycles. In a statement, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, said about Pence’s selection:
“The reason anyone in America could pick Mike Pence out of a one-man lineup is because of his long history of targeted political attacks against the care provided at Planned Parenthood health centers in Indiana and across the country.
Other than that, he doesn’t have a single distinguishing characteristic.”
In 2015, Pence also signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The controversial law prohibits the passage of state laws that “substantially burden” the religious beliefs of individuals. According to the Associated Press, the definition of an “individual” originally included churches and religious institutions, as well as businesses and other entities (RIP Memories Pizza who played themselves all the way to closing).
The law and its passage were a mess, LGBTQ activists argued that the bill would effectively allow business owners to discriminate and deny customers service if they were LGBTQ (or merely if the owner of the business perceived them to be). After numerous companies and organizations, including Angie’s List and the NCAA, announced that they would boycott the state, the Indiana legislature amended the bill, clarifying that it could not be used to discriminate against LGTBQ people.
Pence handled the passage of the bill poorly. He acknowledged that the bill was discriminatory, yet signed it anyway and, in the process, lost quite a bit of cash for Indiana businesses. If anything, the RFRA demonstrated the tensions between the pro-business and “pro-family” ideologies that underpin GOP ideology.
Ostensibly Trump’s selection of Pence is meant to appeal to the evangelical “pro-family” base of the Republican party, of which Pence is a member. Certainly, Pence has a long history of sponsoring and signing bills that appeal to that demographic, no matter how prejudicial, unconstitutional or invasive they might be. In short, he’s the perfect VP selection for a campaign built on those very things.
Update: Jezebel reached out to Periods for Pence to find out what’s next for them. In an email, they said they will “move forward” with assistance from “Tampons for Trump.” “We will be contacting Mr. Trump’s HQ to check in with our menstrual cycles and any reproductive questions we may have, since choosing Mike Pence automatically means he is extremely interested in this as well. I’m really looking forward to receiving gynecological advice from Donald Trump since he must be such an authority as well. It’s great to have the best of the best paying such close attention to my ‘lady needs.’”
Well-meaning people and confused people keep saying or typing the phrase “All Lives Matter.” Then they are surprised that other people get angry about it.
How can a simple statement like “All Lives Matter” be racist, or be taken to be offensive in any way at all? Almost no one disagrees with what those words say on their face: All lives matter. Everyone is valuable. All men are created equal. Right?
The trouble is that no statement can ever be inherently innocuous. Consider this: “The weather was lovely.” What could be a more harmless thing to say? Now let’s use it in a conversation and change the context:
Person A: “I’m so glad you finally got to meet my fiancee. What did you think? Wasn’t she great?”
Person B: “The weather was lovely.”
What is Person B saying here? Person B is saying, “I hate your fiancee.” And being pretty rude about it.
How about “All babies are cute”? So true, and to the extent that it’s not true, it’s telling a little lie to be nice. Again, let’s put it in a conversation:
Person A: “Look at my grandson. Isn’t he the most adorable?”
Person B: “All babies are cute.”
Again, just like that, the neutral sentiment becomes a rude one. “All babies are cute” means “This baby is not particularly cute, or even cute at all.”
This is a basic principle of language and social interaction, and you know it already. When someone says something, and you respond by changing the subject or saying something vague, you are not neutrally expressing your own idea. You are negating or dismissing the thing they have said.
So when an unarmed black person is shot by the police and someone says “Black lives matter,” if you respond by saying “All lives matter,” what you are saying is, “Black lives don’t matter.”
You may not think you are saying that, but you are. The trolls and racists who invented and promoted #AllLivesMatter had exactly that purpose in mind. If that’s not what you’re trying to say, then don’t say it.
Datta Phuge, the Indian man who achieved everyone’s goal of worldwide viral fame in 2013 when he commissioned the production of a six-pound shirt made of gold, was beaten to death by a gang in the city of Pune early Friday morning, various sources reported this afternoon.
Per the Times of India, the gang who attacked Phuge hacked with a sickle before using “large stones” to bludgeon him to death. The BBC reports that police stated up to 12 men were involved, with the Times of India reporting that four men, including a relative, are under arrest. Police say that Phuge’s 22-year-old son witnessed the murder, but was not attacked by the gang.
However, reports differ on how the gang was able to set on Phuge. The Times of India says that Phuge’s wife told police that he was abducted from their home by five men Thursday night, but a police inspector said authorities believe Phuge may have been lured away from his home to celebrate a family member’s birthday.
Police believe that the motive behind the Phuge, who worked in the lending industry, was killed in a dispute over money. In 2013, Phuge detailed his gold obsession to the BBC.
With racial tensions, inequality, and populist rage set to boil over, some fear America could be on the path to a violent confrontation between the angry Trumpies and the equally angry lefties. Before we decide to start this war, we must ask: who would win?
As police shootings and street protests stoke a national climate already heated by xenophobia, terror attacks, and the unexpected success of an anti-everything brand of politics not seen in generations, many have compared 2016 to 1968, a year marked by assassinations, riots, and questions about the continued success of the American experiment. It is still early, though. By the time this is all over we may be more inclined to compare 2016 to 1860, when half of America got so pissed at the other half that a bloody civil war ensued.
This, of course, is the worst case scenario. But it’s always good to plan ahead.
The Combatants
On the Right: Low-income white workers who were on the losing end of globalization and have become convinced that immigrants and non-white people are to blame; Billionaires; White nationalists; Angry grandpas; Fearful grandmas; Survivalists; Fox News viewers; “Car guys”; Inveterate racists who have no excuse.
On the Left: Black Lives Matter activists; Bernie Sanders voters; Aging hippies; College students and professors; Legal and illegal immigrants of all nationalities; Occupy-style perma-activists; Confused self-identified pacifists.
Strengths
On the Right: They own more guns. They may also be able to claim a higher percentage of military veterans and law enforcement officers in their ranks. They are more willing to blindly follow a charismatic leader into battle, leading to a more coherent fighting force. They watch a lot of UFC. They carry the revolutionary zeal of notable groups like the Confederacy and the Nazi Party.
On the Left: They have a higher average education level, which could be useful for designing bombs and crafty booby traps. They have a younger average age, making them more physically fit on average. They carry the revolutionary zeal of notable groups like the Maoists and the Khmer Rouge.
Weaknesses
On the Right: High proportion of elderly crackpots could hold back fighting units when traveling for speed and distance. High proportion of rural residents could be a drawback in urban battles, when skills like navigating sidewalks and subways are necessary. Anti-intellectual tendencies could result in hostility towards “outside the box” guerilla tactics. Affinity for Donald Trump holds no combat value whatsoever.
On the Left: Widespread lack of military or contact sport experience could lead to panic in the ranks when the violence begins. High proportion of urban residents could be a drawback in rural battles, when skills like living off the land or not being scared of bugs are necessary. Reggae music is an ineffective pre-war motivational tool.
Tactics
On the Right: Mass shootings. Head-on assaults on mosques, quinceanera parties, and college dorms. Lots of gunfire, everywhere. Occasional arson of libraries (they haven’t figured out the internet stuff yet).
On the Left: Guerilla warfare. Elaborate ruses designed to entrap jeeps full of enemies into concealed pits. Hit-and-run attacks on churches, VFW halls, and high-rise office buildings. Lots of Molotov cocktails, homemade spears, and gunfire that is somewhat sporadic due to relatively low gun ownership in this fighting cohort.
The Outlook
The Left’s purist ideology and youthful vigor will inevitably wane under the withering fire of The Right’s mob-like bloodlust and superior weaponry. The inevitable ugliness of the conflict will tend to erode the morale on The Left, where philosophical approval of violence is mixed at best, whereas the religious and racial zealots of The Right will only grow more emboldened, easily integrating this new war into their longstanding intellectual framework of patriotic genocide of The Other. We can expect that the next civil war, like the last one, would be explosive, bloody, and long. But we can’t expect that the good guys would win this time around. In the final calculus, The Left is better off parlaying its domination of the media into social victories that can be leveraged for peaceful political gain. It’s the only real choice, unless we all want to get massacred.
For over a day, participation award-winning Gawker editor Kelly Stout and Jezebel editor and essayist Joanna Rothkopf have amassed countless email exchanges about passion, creativity, and how transmissible rabies is to humans - until yesterday. They were stopped in their typing tracks when the epistolary oatmeal enema between Natalie Portman and Jonathan Safran Foer mysteriously appeared in T, the New York Times style magazine. On the eve of another day of ambitious Blogging, the friends and colleagues connect online, to reflect on how the times have changed, and how they have changed over time.
I seem to have lost all of your snaps. They are gone from my phone’s digital archive quickly as they came. But no matter. You came into my life at just the right time, Joanna. Eternity is so lonely, when you think of it, and I have found myself in need of a friend to spend these hot days beside. I lay back in bed last night, wearing only wool socks and a bikini bottom, and flipped to my favorite moment in Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium. I don’t really remember what the book is about, but I do have it, and it’s a comfort for it to sit there on my nightstand, a winking reminder of that time you and I stole that package of jelly beans from the Easter display at Barnes & Noble.
Must be off! I melted some cheese on top of bread under the broiler (you must try it) and it set off the smoke detector.
>>On Thu, July 14, at 1:18pm, Joanna Rothkopf wrote:
As I write this, I hear the faint tak tak tak of an army of cockroaches scurrying up the steps of my historic Brooklyn brownstone to terrorize me. Currently I’m wearing nothing but an authentic linen pajama set that a pushy man sold me in the New Delhi airport—he said they were the traditional garb for the region’s “hookers” but my traveling companion was certain he meant to say “female poets,” and that his English was not very good. I have to agree. Anyway, the point is I’m feeling vulnerable to attack.
Funny you should bring up the Calvino. (The Calvino! I’m shaking.) I was just meditating on that morning last March—the air was cold and wretched that day, heavy with the stink of e-commerce—and I felt lost in it, until I met you at that café. Oh, you know the one just off the West Side Highway, in the Hudson River, underneath the unidentified organic mass? The one that serves the madeleines? That morning we maintained uninterrupted eye contact for, I don’t know, six hours? It’s the closest I’ve felt to anyone in a long time.
That’s what I’m thinking about now—the comfort of friendship, time’s cruel, unyielding gaze, India’s post-liberalization economy. But I have to leave it there for now; the cat is menstrual and is tearing apart the chaise lounge.
>>On Thu, July 14, at 1:40pm, Kelly Stout wrote:
It’s Thursday, garbage day. One of the garbage days, I should say. Every day is a garbage day when the thin film that was the world thickens into a scrim, which I now have wrapped around my face to keep out the morning light. Light! It so reminds me of darkness that I find it easiest to ward of its creep by dressing in its own costume.
On garbage day, a man shuffles through the recycling outside of my own brownstone—how funny that you and I both live in old brownstones, though I don’t find myself laughing, why?—looking for what? Cans I presume, those skeletons of the sugar and booze we allow to slither down our throats to dull the ache that comes unannounced at a summer barbecue. The sun is shining, the grill hot, yet I feel suddenly slipped of my moorings, and cannot say why.
He drags the cans down Bedford in a solemn, commercial dance, to turn them in for nickels at the collection station outside the supermarket. But he is free! I think. Free from having to bring his dog to the vet to get a cyst on her hip drained. (It was $800, Joanna!) For him, the prerequisites of passion are sturdily in place. I think he must have a screenplay in him.
Why do I mention all of this? Because the quotidian comings and goings of the smaller people of the world are what keep me from tearing my hair out as I Blog about how narco-capitalism and its intergenerational threat to artists are endlessly interesting to me. Do you ever wish you had less?
P.S. Should I be using a sunscreen with a higher SPF than 50, or is it all basically the same after 30, as I have read?
>>On Thu, July 14, at 2:21pm, Joanna Rothkopf wrote:
I don’t use sunscreen because I find the whole thing to be futile, to be completely honest (when am I not with you?). Like your loving dog’s cyst, our corporeal existence will eventually be popped and our souls drained by a heavenly vet tech into a medical waste bag, destined to be fetched by some poor, aching night shift truck driver and taken to an appropriate facility.
Anyway, I’m not an expert, but I’d assume over 50 SPF is more expensive and in my experience, more expensive means better.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned I’m currently on a spiritual pilgrimage to the southernmost tip of Prospect Park. Thus far, the journey has been grueling on foot, but with every step I feel more connected with my great grandparents, and their parents and so forth, who, of course, lived in the shtetl of Bed Stuy before it was overrun by serious toddlers speaking Mandarin, those who are constantly chased by wearied parents, all in sockless loafers, plugged in constantly to the rhythmic beating of their iPhone’s data-fetching, their children’s hearts.
This afternoon I ate at the most wonderful restaurant called Checkers—if you ever travel so far south you must go. Brad (my long-term boyfriend) joked about the difference in our orders—I opted for just the pickles that once were gingerly placed between the toasted buns of a Checkerburger with cheese; he chose the Steakzilla. I laughed a lot (we are happy).
Ah, I am being told to vacate the foyer of this emergency room. Apparently the WiFi is just for patients.
>>On Thu, July 14, at 3:56pm Kelly Stout wrote:
Your quest sounds magical! There is something about nature that always makes one feel very in nature.
Anyway, here I am writing to you again. I can’t sleep, Joanna. The clock will soon turn from 3:59 to 4pm, a time when I am not accustomed to sleep, so maybe that’s why. I also drank a red eye at 3:20. (Do you know red eyes? They are when a barista puts a shot of espresso in a cup of coffee. Of course you do. You know so much, and at such a young age.)
Your last letter has me thinking about emergencies. Do you know O’Hara’s “Meditations In An Emergency”? I believe there’s an episode of Mad Men named after it.
Extreme levels of wonder.
>>On Thu, July 14, at 5:05pm Joanna Rothkopf wrote:
Ma chère Kelly,
Maintenant je lis Les Liaisons Dangereuses et je me sens plein du—comment dit-on ? Je ne sais quois. Un sentiment... d’envie? Du désir? Et pour quoi? La beauté? La baise? Le chien? Un casse-croûte?
Je suis perdue.
C’est Jeudi... jour poubelle.
Plus tard.
>>On Thu, July 14, at 7:20pm, Kelly Stout wrote:
La baise, you ask? I find myself giving fewer and fewer of them these days. So few that the number approaches zero.
I don’t mean to complain, but I’m suffering from writer’s block. You probably don’t know what that’s like. A girl like you, fluent in so many languages, Blogging with such ferocity of spirit, and with such clean, soft brown hair. (Have you tried no-poo, by the way? If so, do tell with regard to likes/dislikes.)
I had my first Blog published at a young age; I spent some time abroad in my early 20s—do you know this about me? Not many do, and perhaps I’ve failed to mention it, despite the length and intimacy of our friendship—and had the opportunity to Blog from abroad. Like you, Joanna, I found myself positively perdue in the wonder that was abroad. (I actually have some family that are originally from abroad, so I did experience that devil, flirtatious as a lover you cannot have: the enchantment of the familiar in the alien. But when I sat down to write, it was the overwhelming sense of otherness that I returned to again and again in my youthful Blogs.)
It gets harder with age, of course. The glamour of the world is receding, and I realize that the pleasures of home have me hooked. Just yesterday, I made prolonged eye contact with a man vigorously rearranging his privates on the M train as he snacked on those gummies from Trader Joe’s that look like little penguins with distended bellies. It was grotesque and so utterly public, but also raw, and thereby manageable. I looked at him and saw the bluntness of city life and felt, yes, love. Home.
This is all to answer your implied question, why do I Blog? Do you remember how, in the mid-2000s, Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg had an advertising deal with the T-Mobile Sidekick? This was all before I traveled abroad, so I was a different person then, but I remember thinking, when Snoop intoned “everybody needs a Sidekick,” does everyone?Everyone? I didn’t think I did needed a Sidekick. I felt confined by the loneliness of existence, but in a certain light, I could see that that solitude was freeing. It was then that I knew I was a little different.
That’s my silly little answer for why I Blog, anyway. I leave the question of how for another day. Ah, how I love to joke!
Better be going, I hear the clicking of claws on the stovetop, which means the glue traps I set didn’t work. I would love to travel abroad with you, Joanna. Maybe you’ll settle for a night at my brownstone?
P.S. Is rabies a concern in kitchen mice?
>>On Fri, July 14, at 8:05am, Joanna Rothkopf wrote:
On the walk home, over the uneven brick sidewalks of southern Brooklyn, past the mom-and-pop mayonnaise shop, the neighborhood laundromat where I once coerced an elderly Jamaican woman to speak with me at length about her politics until I felt I grasped her perspective and experience in such minute detail that I could have lived it myself, I found myself thinking about the Blogs.
Crossing paths with you this evening while you were having that mindful encounter with that dog, and I was waiting at the Junior’s pick up window for my nightly personal cheesecake, felt beyond fortuitous. Like my personal God had decided once again to meddle in the life of his subject, to take pity on me. To notice that I’ve been in need of inspiration.
You know me better than most, Kelly; how I too have blogged since a young age—younger than I’d like to admit. And probably too many blogs, to be frank. I’ve blogged meaningless blogs, blogs that were cheap and dirty. Blogs because I was pressured. Blogs because I was in college and wanted to show that I could. Blogs to pay the bills. What was missing, and what still is missing—that is, until I saw you—was that sort of carnal lust Nietzsche wrote about in the Birth of Tragedy. Uncontainable lust that springs forth from our primitive bodies, that frees us from our capitalistic, technocratic paradigm. The real blogs. I hope this will stay between us, but I felt that tonight, with you.
For the first time in my adult life, I understood what Nabokov meant when he said, “that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other’s soul and flesh.” (Speaking of which, I have a raging bed bug problem in addition to the roaches. Please let me know if you know any responsible beagles.)
And as you and I attempted such an assimilation, we both yelled, “the blogs, the blogs!”
Now I find myself repeatedly watching the opening scene of Von Trier’s Antichrist to try to recapture that feeling. But I cannot. I am numb. I am content-less.
I will try to rest now, though it might be hard—Brad is playing the Inception soundtrack at full volume.
PS. I had dinner with a neurosurgeon from Columbia Presbyterian and his adorable wife last week at Mar, this fabulous little bistro in the baggage claim area of Laguardia Airport—you really should go there if you have the chance, and order the dinner waffle—and he told me, among other things (we had the most fascinating conversation about the etymology of the word “dickhole”), that anything that can bite can give you rabies. I have the number of a mouse exterminator to give you—his name is Robert, he has a wonderful narrative, he won Poland’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize in plastic arts.
>>On Fri, July 15, at 11:18am, Kelly Stout wrote:
Last night was strange, but wondrous, wasn’t it? When I awoke this morning to your silhouette in my window, wrapped in my wool sweater (too hot for the weather, but no matter) and nothing else, back to me, face looking out to the world, I thought it must have been a dream. But as you turned and murmured, “Want to get breakfast sandwiches?” it was all rushingly real. The dregs of two mugs of Chateau Diana were there on the nightstand, the AC was set to “energy efficient mode,” and the remains of last night’s cheesecake lounged in the sink.
Finally, I thought to myself, after so many emails, so many thoughts tenderly shared, so many ideas for Blogs tossed back and forth across the digital abyss, we finally rose above the Wonder Line. We finally fucked.
>>On Fri, July 15, at 11:16pm, Joanna Rothkopf wrote:
Not even fucking can stop the clock—a full day has passed in the course of having our exchange. But fortunately technology has enabled us to live in the past as well as the present. Just this morning, after I received your email, my TimeHop app coughed to life, revealing a few things that I had been relieved were lost forever. Among them, this notification:
April, 2007: Joanna Rothkopf, Kelly Stout would like to add you to her professional network on LinkedIn.
Illustration by Bobby Finger. Photos via New York Times and Shutterstock.
Donald Trump has been called impulsive, disorganized, and a messy bitch who lives for drama. If reports from at least two sources regarding the process of ultimately picking Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate are true, he is all of that and more.
This afternoon, just hours after Trump made Pence’s selection official (on Twitter), CNN’s Dana Bash reported that Trump tried to abort the pick altogether last night:
A half hour later, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell affirmed Bash’s report with her own:
It’s possible that Bash and O’Donnell have the same source, or that they have two different sources working in cahoots to embarrass Trump. Of course, there are a whole host of people who might want to slime Trump by painting him as indecisive and bumbling, starting with the reported VP finalists he did not pick, and finishing with the myriad bitter ex-campaign staffers who may or may not relish leaking damning info to the press.
BP says that the total cost to the company for its 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill will be nearly $62 billion. That is nearly eight times the total annual budget of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Members of Congress are looking to create an encryption commission that would “get the answers we need” on the issue of encryption and digital security.
This is a farce.
In an act of bipartisan showmanship, Senator Mark Warner and Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul are seeking to create a commission that would waste time and money all while providing no new revelatory answers on encryption, and certainly wouldn’t change anybody’s mind. Announced earlier this year, McCaul said the 16 member commission would work similarly to the 9/11 commission, which issued recommendations on how to stop future terror attacks.
Homeland Security aides told reporters yesterday that they are hopeful the bill proposing a commission would be marked up by the Senate Homeland Security Committee when the next Congressional session begins in September.
We already know how encryption works, how it’s deployed, and its pros and cons with regards to law enforcement operations. All the questions someone could possibly have about encryption have already been answered, and have been for years. Back in the early 2000's, the government had this same debate over encryption, and the technical experts of that era exposed the flaws of trying to ban or weaken encryption.
It’s tough to imagine a world where the findings of this commission would change the hearts and minds of our blissfully ignorant representatives.
It’s not like the concept of encryption has changed either. It’s a mathematical algorithm that scrambles data—be it messages, files, pictures—and makes them readable only to the intended recipient or someone with the encryption password. The only change that has occurred with encryption is that it has become much more reliable and widespread. Which is a good thing.
I really doubt someone like McCaul, who wrongly blamed last year’s Paris attacks on encryption, would suddenly realize that encryption is a useful tool that can protect enterprises and citizens alike. There is no way this commission, which will most likely result in the same answers we’ve heard time and time again, would convince Senator Feinstein and Senator Burr that their nightmare encryption bill was a bad idea.
This proposed commission is another way for lawmakers to drag their feet on actually passing meaningful legislation that would help protect folks like you and me in the digital age. A bill that would require our sensitive data that is stored on government servers to be encrypted, or one that explicitly bans forcing tech companies to create dangerous encryptionbackdoors for law enforcement, wold be much more useful than this proposed commission.
Here’s the reality: Encryption is not going away, so it would be a good idea to adopt it and reap the rewards. It would be in everybody’s benefit if Congress embraced encryption, instead of wasting time and money on a commission that will tell us what we already know.
