another politics thread of substance and enlightenment
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:24 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this guy would appeal to you, because he is so substantial
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:37 (11 months ago) Permalink
legume what is your beef with dude's financial reporting exactly?
― the route is ban (k3vin k.), Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:10 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
kevinclovestofu
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:40 (11 months ago) Permalink
oh, this is gonna be one of these threads
― goole, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:41 (11 months ago) Permalink
dude is overrated by people who think he is 'cool,' underrated on actual writing performance by people turned off by that perception
― mh, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:42 (11 months ago) Permalink
Malcolm Gladwell S/D C/D
nobody commented on this!
― goole, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:42 (11 months ago) Permalink
errors is a single piece http://prospect.org/article/errors-matt-taibbi
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:43 (11 months ago) Permalink
― mh, Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:42 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
o god stfu
um who are these people who think he's *quote* cool *quote*?
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:48 (11 months ago) Permalink
Hunter Thompson aficionados who are into the renegade/substance abuse style of writing? I've run into a few, and count that shit as a guilty pleasure sometimes
― mh, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:55 (11 months ago) Permalink
lag∞n, I get yr point but there's a place for a populist reporter who appeals to those who aren't picking up well-researched political mags on the regular
it'd be nice if dude had a fact checker, though
― mh, Thursday, 7 June 2012 14:56 (11 months ago) Permalink
yeah itd be cool if there was a populist finical reporter who a. knew wtf he was talking abt b. wasnt the worst writer in the world c. wasnt a weird self involved misogynist
this person clearly is not matt taibbi
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:00 (11 months ago) Permalink
what abt someone like felix salmon
― just sayin, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:04 (11 months ago) Permalink
he writes mostly for a p financially literate audience and doesnt generally have taibbis passion for publicly s.h.a.m.i.n.g.i.n.g. the industry
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:11 (11 months ago) Permalink
kinda hard to argue against this
― mh, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:14 (11 months ago) Permalink
“That’s the thing about Russia,” Mr. Taibbi said. “It’s a totally unironic place. When I first was a student over there I had this girlfriend who had this mobster boyfriend, so she only saw me between 3 and 6 in the afternoon, but as a going-away present when I left my exchange program, she gave me this picture of herself naked in a bathtub. It was totally serious, like, ‘Here, for you to remember me by.’ An American woman would never do that except as a joke or to be sexy.”
american chix man
― lag∞n, Thursday, June 7, 2012 7:12 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol what a simp
― horseshoe, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:14 (11 months ago) Permalink
in a way taibbi then is perfect -- nobody knows how this shit works but people know in their bones that something is grossly wrong and the great majority are being shafted.
felix salmon is great (great name too) but he wouldn't have come up with "vampire squid" either
but yes the exile crew and their 'aesthetic' are p gross
― goole, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:15 (11 months ago) Permalink
Indisputable that they were gross. 90% of their stuff was gutter-level gonzo / Vice offensiveness but the other 10% was worth more than pretty much every mainstream reporter working for an English-language paper put together.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:31 (11 months ago) Permalink
i will admit to liking "war nerd"
― goole, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:33 (11 months ago) Permalink
Dolan/Brecher stuff was usually p.great. When I first became aware of Vice it seemed like the worst parts of eXile combined with NY/etc advertising dollars.
― etc, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:36 (11 months ago) Permalink
sharivari srs request for evidence here, also did they do like actual reporting or was it more that they were willing to print opinions that were taboo
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:37 (11 months ago) Permalink
Both. Can't really offer links atm but will look into it later.
There was a lot of very good reporting / analysis and a definite willingness to print things that other people were too gutless to look at. More importantly, i think they understood Russian politics better than any other news source and were willing to call out all sides, and the press, on their faults.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:41 (11 months ago) Permalink
Nothing about Taibbi is gonzo/druggy, tho.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:43 (11 months ago) Permalink
his style is kinda gonzo imho
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:44 (11 months ago) Permalink
Taibbi's 2004 campaign journal Spanking the Donkey cemented his status as an incisive, irreverent, zero-bullshit reporter. In one memorable scene, Taibbi dropped acid then interviewed the former chief of the Office of National Drug Policy—while wearing a Viking helmet.
― just sayin, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:46 (11 months ago) Permalink
hmmmmm
...while wearing a viking helmet
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:46 (11 months ago) Permalink
i know that in the US today where we're practically flooded with leftist writers tackling economic crimes w/ humor and outrage, Taibbi seems redundant and his flaws are magnified. but imagine an alternate reality where actually every financial writer is either a shill for Wall St. or a blathering pundit on the Sunday morning news programs, and you can see why, even for his flaws, people would embrace Taibbi (who is often very informative - okay, so he sometimes gets confused about how derivatives work, so do I). u know. theoretically.
― Mordy, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:46 (11 months ago) Permalink
his crimes against reality go way beyond not understanding derivatives
― lag∞n, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:49 (11 months ago) Permalink
r u on the jp morgan payroll?
― Mordy, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:51 (11 months ago) Permalink
lagoon, would you recommend Michael Lewis
― that's why ZOG controls the radio (brownie), Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:52 (11 months ago) Permalink
he's waiting for that one perfect anti-oligarchy journo
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:54 (11 months ago) Permalink
we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good! lulz.
― Mordy, Thursday, 7 June 2012 15:54 (11 months ago) Permalink
Ok I can't get to the original story because of a paywall, but this prospect thing is pretty bullshit. It's 90% insider baseball about who supposedly has what responsibility, and most of that isn't factual at all but just disagreeing with Taibbi on intepretation.
Look at what it says about Gensler, for example! It doesn't even argue with Taibbi, just whine that Gensler is supposed to be fighting "to close the loopholes in derivatives regulation that Taibbi complains about later" -- which is basically Taibbi's point, that Gensler is a former goldman banker and maybe not the most trustworthy person in this position.
Again, the prospect piece complains that taibbi writes that biden "seems more interested in foreign policy than financial reform" but in fact they say "Biden has taken the lead on the stimulus and jobs efforts." That's not a factual error -- that's a matter of editorial opinion.
Later on the prospect piece confuses Taibbi's figure on "total cost of bailouts" with expenses to date exclusively for TARP.
And then a dispute over the effectiveness of the CFPA and whether it is "castrated-in-advance" or just "somewhat compromised." Again, not a factual error.
ffs.
In this sort of policy analysis, everyone either overstates or understates or only gets part of the picture. These are mostly not errors (there may be some actual minor ones but I can't check without the article) but differences in interpretation and expectation, which reveal more about the prospect author than anyone else. I mean, lo these three years later, whose projections for govt. policy outcomes w/r/t the banks seem like they were more prescient?
― s.clover, Thursday, 7 June 2012 16:02 (11 months ago) Permalink
It's rather difficult to find stuff in the Exile archive as i'm essentially just googling half-remembered stories i read eight years ago but there's lots of really good, really detailed material there.
As a semi-random example, Mark Ames' piece on Montenegro:
http://exiledonline.com/kremlin-whores-how-mccain-staff-sold-countries-to-putin/
Press analysis from Taibbi:
http://exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=6274&IBLOCK_ID=35
Kompromat Korner, which gave a regular update on corruption:
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=8213&IBLOCK_ID=35
Again,this isn't "the best" of their work but it does show that they did take the role more seriously than it looked at times.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 June 2012 18:57 (11 months ago) Permalink
Also worth remembering that, regardless of how often Luk3 H@rding likes to bleat on about the time he was jostled by a man in a leather jacket at Sheremetyevo airport, Ames is probably one of the the only Western journalists the Russian government has legitimately run out of town for being too dangerous.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
maybe he just scored the wrong babe one too many times, man
― goole, Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:04 (11 months ago) Permalink
not that i nec. want to side with putinism or anything
They say they also take advantage of what they like to call the “white god factor” and make trips to the provinces. “Tens of millions of people live in dire circumstances, stranded in the center of the world’s largest continent, with little hope of going anywhere,” said Mr. Ames. “Which means–sexual opportunity for me.”
rly cool guy
― shit_ebooks (am0n), Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:19 (11 months ago) Permalink
in post soviet russia you rape and pillage across mongols
― goole, Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:22 (11 months ago) Permalink
poverty for you-sexual opportunity for me
― shit_ebooks (am0n), Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:25 (11 months ago) Permalink
that was the underlying principle of the columbian triangle right?
― he bit me (it felt like a diss) (m bison), Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:26 (11 months ago) Permalink
from taibbi's boehner article, this is just a really nice bit of prose styling, describing "the 2000s, back when America was still unfucked enough to enjoy a phony real estate boom and launch recreational wars of conquest in the Middle East."
― s.clover, Thursday, 7 June 2012 19:33 (11 months ago) Permalink
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/06/15/how-new-york-will-improve-its-on-street-parking/
― iatee, Saturday, 16 June 2012 01:12 (11 months ago) Permalink
p decent summary of asshole Dimon's testimony, if you'd like to get away from Taibbi's ancient peccadilloes:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/senators-grovel-embarrass-themselves-at-dimon-hearing-20120615
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:04 (11 months ago) Permalink
from the comments, a nice response to the salmon piece: http://quantiger.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/is-11-billion-a-fair-price-for-new-york-citys-parking-meters/
― s.clover, Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:21 (11 months ago) Permalink
hmm maybe rando blogger shoulda done basic research on the subject, where they'd quickly learn that the only thing being privitized is operations
― iatee, Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:30 (11 months ago) Permalink
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markbergen/2012/06/14/what-matt-taibbi-misses-on-the-nyc-parking-meter-deal/
“The basic structure is totally different—Chicago sold the system for a one-time cash infusion,” a Bloomberg spokeswoman told Dana Rubinstein. “We are looking for a private operator but we would still own the meters.” The city’s request, dug up by Rubinstein, is more subtle, but no less cutting. “In contrast to certain precedent U.S. parking transactions, the City’s objective is not to structure an upfront payment,” (emphasis theirs). If this commitment falters, then Taibbi should scream “grifter.”
― iatee, Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:32 (11 months ago) Permalink
"his acidic tongue"
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:35 (11 months ago) Permalink
really not keen on another argument here. i'll just note that being on forbes doesn't make one less of a rando blogger, nor do promises from the bloomberg administration give one cause for hope, and finally that the "operations" bit doesn't mean the revenue stream isn't going to go to the private operator and furthermore the details on the administration retaining certain elements of control were in the salmon piece already that the blogger was responding to, and aren't at all relevant to the y'know, math, that the blog post actually contained.
― s.clover, Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:38 (11 months ago) Permalink
+ the plan also means cutting city jobs with decent pay and benefits, regardless.
― s.clover, Saturday, 16 June 2012 02:40 (11 months ago) Permalink
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/07/24/1094601/the-academics-on-qe-for-now/
― iatee, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:11 (7 months ago) Permalink
my reading of that post tends to support my point, but you know, who cares.
― s.clover, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:21 (7 months ago) Permalink
otm
― iatee, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:21 (7 months ago) Permalink
Fact schmacts.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:28 (7 months ago) Permalink
it's not exactly godwin's law but come one, you need to be very leery of anyone who calls himself 'tyler durden' on the internet
― goole, Wednesday, September 26, 2012 5:00 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
there are multiple posters who call themselves tyler durden on that site lol
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 23:56 (7 months ago) Permalink
they all do, it's their thing
― goole, Thursday, 27 September 2012 00:41 (7 months ago) Permalink
what if there are multiple Ezra kleins
― lag∞n, Thursday, 27 September 2012 00:43 (7 months ago) Permalink
all this debate abt a RS journalist while Madonna endorsing Obama as a Muslim goes unobserved; you people.
― kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 27 September 2012 00:45 (7 months ago) Permalink
I didn't know Madonna was a muslim.
― Aimless, Thursday, 27 September 2012 01:15 (7 months ago) Permalink
I'm glad Madonna explained herself to the Washington Post today. Otherwise millions of undecided voters who base their views on Madonna's onstage comments would have been confused. I am sure Taibbi will find a way to work this in.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 27 September 2012 14:50 (7 months ago) Permalink
Madonna in concert:
― Ham Lushbaugh (Eric H.), Thursday, 27 September 2012 14:51 (7 months ago) Permalink
Otherwise millions of undecided voters who base their views on Madonna's onstage comments would have been confused.
Are you familiar with the Human Rights Campaign?
― kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 27 September 2012 14:53 (7 months ago) Permalink
^^ I laughed
― taking tiger mountain (up the butt) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 September 2012 14:54 (7 months ago) Permalink
haha
― goole, Thursday, 27 September 2012 15:00 (7 months ago) Permalink
"Undecided" aside, well played.
― Ham Lushbaugh (Eric H.), Thursday, 27 September 2012 15:03 (7 months ago) Permalink
it's true, bitches who give money to that sinkhole are only undecided about what belt to wear to brunch.
― kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 27 September 2012 15:07 (7 months ago) Permalink
That and whether they feel comfortable admitting they have a thing for Rep. Aaron Schock.
― Ham Lushbaugh (Eric H.), Thursday, 27 September 2012 15:09 (7 months ago) Permalink
Morbs, I was kidding, as was Madonna
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 27 September 2012 15:13 (7 months ago) Permalink
"sinkhole"
*hanky panky*
― taking tiger mountain (up the butt) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 27 September 2012 15:17 (7 months ago) Permalink
idt matt taibbi's sense of humour is that different from like, dan perry's, or whiney's even, i guess a bit more macho but it's got the same basic structure ito, like, these enraged long incongruous expletive laden analogies
― flopson, Thursday, 27 September 2012 16:23 (7 months ago) Permalink
Comments here are comedy gold:http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/rewrite-thomas-friedmans-syria-column-win-a-free-hand-grenade-20121114
― schwantz, Wednesday, 14 November 2012 19:25 (6 months ago) Permalink
this is hilarious http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/no-evidence-he-was-stoned-but-bank-of-america-ceo-brian-moynihan-apparently-doesn-t-remember-much-of-the-last-four-years-20121127
― s.clover, Monday, 3 December 2012 23:38 (5 months ago) Permalink
"a Being There-esque cipher who was placed in charge of a Too-Big-To-Fail global banking giant by some kind of historical accident beyond his control, and appears to know little to nothing at all about the business he is running." <-- A+
― s.clover, Monday, 3 December 2012 23:39 (5 months ago) Permalink
So I guess Matt Taibbi has never read a deposition transcript before?
― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 01:19 (5 months ago) Permalink
Because in my experience, it's generally true that if you remember the financial crisis, you weren't there.
― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 01:20 (5 months ago) Permalink
"attorney Peter Calamari"
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 03:09 (5 months ago) Permalink
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213
― ✧ (am0n), Thursday, 13 December 2012 22:49 (5 months ago) Permalink
for some reason every time this thread gets revived i expect it to be a report that taibbi died, possibly by his own hand or "death by misfortune."
― in excelsis 乒乓 (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 13 December 2012 23:05 (5 months ago) Permalink
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104#ixzz2HQDiw8gU
Haven't read this yet. Am guessing it's standard Taibbi.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 20:16 (4 months ago) Permalink
another narrative about how everything has been utterly fucked up by ugly shitbrain poopyheads, yes
― da croupier, Wednesday, 9 January 2013 21:51 (4 months ago) Permalink