Our New Broligarchs. Tabs, Fri., Jan. 17, 2025

Morning roundup and things to read!

Tabs gif by your friend Martini Glambassador!

Here’s a portal for help in LA with everything from kids’ daycamps to finding your pet to applying for unemployment and rental assistance and SBA loans and food and … well, this whole fucking page. You think Rick Caruso would make sure there’s snacks and daycare? Or interpreters at the shelters? Or a fucking mental health hotline? It’s exactly what I expect from the exquisitely detail-oriented LA Mayor Karen Bass, and man, if they manage to make her “incompetent,” I will follow those fuckers into hell. (LA City)

Meet Trump’s incoming Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent:

More Trump tax cuts for billionaires is “the single most important economic issue of the day. This is pass/fail. If we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity.” Hell, DNC transcript incoming!

Sen. Ron Wyden: “Do you believe the tax code should treat wages differently than it treats wealth?”

Bessent: *struggles to answer coherently* … “It is a decision that was made when the tax codes were written so …”

Wyden: “It sounds to me like you do believe that it’s fine to treat wealth more favorably. I couldn’t disagree more. The idea that a dollar earned by a hedge fund manager has more value than a dollar earned by a teacher or a factory worker, I just think it’s a disconnect with the American people.”

Sen. Raphael Warnock: “What about [those making more than] $1 billion?”

Bessent: “So again, that I think that these are the job creators.”

Sen. Warnock: “So there’s no income level for which you would support raising taxes? Is that fair?”

Bessent: “There is no income level …”

But wait, there’s more!

Sen. Maggie Hassan: “If the president-elect were to propose a policy that you believe will increase prices, would you advise against it?”

Bessent: “I would … speak to President Trump about it. It is his decision. …”

Sen. Hassan: “If you believe that a policy that is proposed by President Trump would increase prices, would you advise him against doing it? Yes or no?”

Bessent: “I can’t answer that question because it’s a hypothetical.”

There’s MORE more too, but I’m not blockquoting at you 18 more grafs. Suffice to say: Won’t raise the minimum wage, which is still $7.25; thinks it’s Congress’s and the states’ prerogative to gut Medicaid; refused to commit to ACA tax credits, increasing health care costs by tens of thousands for millions of Americans, but knows what the number one thing they’ll do will be. And we all know it too!

Mel Gibson broke his girlfriend’s teeth while she was holding their baby, but if Hollywood was willing to put him in family Christmas comedies after that, I guess you can’t expect Donald Trump not to make him an ambassador to “the golden age of Hollywood” whatever made up bullshit that might be. (Joe. My. God)

California’s dumping its diesel truck ban and three other clean air rules instead of fighting Trump on them. Cool cool cool. (OC Register)

America’s broligarchs (that one’s mine) so fucking happy they get to call people the r-word again. Really. That’s what was oppressing them. (Jeff Tiedrich)

No, Trump’s people are not going to be antitrust, don’t listen to Matt Stoller, for fuck’s sake! (Politico)

Lina Khan’s FTC says pharmacy middlemen marked up generic cancer drugs and others by $7 billion in five years (report). Axios seems to think Trump’s guys might get right on that — LOL sure by joining their boards maybe :) (Axios)

Oh right, Lina Khan’s FTC sued John Deere too. Man, who won’t that badass woman sue! (404 Media)

Who are you and what have you done with the Wall Street Journal? “You Blamed DEI for Hurting Your Career. Now What?” This is great, you guys. It even has some bros doing some self-reflection! Read it!

One executive recruiter told me providing honest feedback to unsuccessful job candidates is awkward and sometimes adversarial, so it is tempting to fudge the reason for rejection.

He offered a scenario: “How do you tell someone they had body odor or were weird? ‘Sorry, bud, DEI strikes again!’ ”

(Gift link Wall Street Journal)

As you know, we’re watching this topic closely over the coming year, because one of my fellow Detroit Public Schools “parent outreach coordinators” is simping for “National School Choice Week,” because choice is good! Well here’s the billions they want to suck out of public schools to give them to homeschoolers and Jesus. (Pro Publica with the New Yorker)

EVAN POPS IN: Know how sometimes when I’m pissed off I’ll make a list of all the conservative Christian pastors and youth leaders who have been in the news for allegedly or definitely sexually abusing kids that past week, kind of like Dan Savage’s old Youth Pastor Watch? I’m turning it into a series at my Friday joint. Come by, subscribe, share! [The Moral High Ground]

Evan back out!

You guys ever go to One Simple Wish? You can throw a poor kid a birthday party and stuff, or at the moment just help people in Southern California who are all burned out. WARNING: May stop you from giving Wonkette all your extra money.

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But also you should give Wonkette all your extra money.

This is the button for giving us all your extra money with Venmo. It’s ventabulous!

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SALE! BIG SALE! Through Martin Luther King Day!

My assistant Felicia wants these OUT OF HER FACTORY (our basement) so they are ON SALE for what it costs to ship it to you!

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Somebody make Donna Rose be four again.

NOT THE BABY. YOU CANNOT HAVE HER. It’s five years after that picture and she’s too big to fit in a box.