by John Walters
Starting Five
Capitol/Hill
Nontroversy? Kerfuffle? Another entry for The Daily Harrumph? Also, is conflating Linda Cohn‘s suspension for publicly criticizing her employer and Jemele Hill‘s lack of a suspension for calling the president “an ignorant white supremacist” fair? Answer: No.
Cohn deserved to be suspended because, even though we agree with every last thing that she said, when you publicly slam your own employer, that employer has the right to respond in its own way. As for Hill, she, too, spoke freely about a matter and we largely agree with her thoughts (not that it matters) (he’s more of an opportunist and a white, comma, supremacist, than he is a white supremacist), but she was simply expressing a political opinion. She was not publicly second-guessing her employer.
Hill has since deleted this tweet. In a feature that ran in The Ringer just yesterday, she boasts about how she does not delete tweets.
As for the White House, it has fired so many staffer in the first eight months of the administration, an administration whose top dude constantly sends out inflammatory, duplicitous and malevolent tweets, that hearing Sarah Sanders remark that Hill’s tweets are a “fireable offense” are comical.
So, to address the elephant in the room … #Facts pic.twitter.com/RTrIDD87ut
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 14, 2017
By the way, Hill sure upped her Q Rating in the past 48 hours, no? If we were more cynical, we’d call this a brilliant career move. It sure got this story much more attention.
2. “Watson, Come Here. I Need You”
After Week 1, in which Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien started Tom Savage (no relation to Peter Tom Savage, who does not exist but whose name reminds us of former FSU QB Peter Tom Willis, because who can figure out how our minds work?) at quarterback, he has now opted to go the Alexander Graham Bell route and start rookie Deshaun Watson.
Savage, out of Rutgers, went 7 of 13 for 62 yards but was sacked 6 times. Watson, who led Clemson to consecutive national championship games and won it last January, was 12 of 23 but led Houston to its only TD in a 29-7 loss to Jacksonville. Up next, tonight in fact, for Houston, is the Cincinnati Bengals. Mr. Watson, meet Mr. Burf–oh wait, he’s suspended again.
3. Strange Days At Bitcoin
This is Joy Corrigan, who has nothing to do with cryptocurrency, and if you ask us why she’s here, we’ll just claim that The Big Lead hacked our site.
We really do not understand what Bitcoin is, or does, even when we read its Wikipedia page. Best we can acknowledge is that it’s a form of payment between people who only exist for one another digitally. But we think Jacob/Jason Antsey/Anstey* understands it, so perhaps he’ll explain below (ft., it’s “Jacob Anstey”).
What we do see clearly is that Bitcoin stock was at $608 one year ago today and is currently selling at nearly SIX TIMES that price ($3,500), even though this morning it is down nearly 10% on bad news. Something to keep an eye on. Ticker symbol BTC.
4. Buh Bye, Mr. Shkreli
Someone in this pic will soon be someone’s bitch, and perhaps the price of avoiding that fate should rise 5,000% for him.
While awaiting sentencing and free on $5 million bail, human slime Martin Shkreli felt the urge to demonstrate that he still doesn’t get it. Shkreli posted on Facebook, ““On HRC’s book tour, try to grab a hair from her. Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.”
He later said it was satirical, but the judge didn’t care. She ordered Shkreli, 34, jailed until his January 16 sentencing, at which time he could receive 10 years in prison. See ya. Say Hi to Craig Carton, who resigned yesterday from WFAN, if you see him.
5. Your Knot Wrong, Wendell
Not again with Joy Corrigan! We were hacked. No, wait! It was a staffing issue.
Our friend Wendell Barnhouse, an inveterate ink-stained wretch, has made this plea for editing and editors. We wholly support his crusade. To illustrate his point, Wendell has collected an array of editing errors over the past month. One slight clarification, friend: the biggest role of producers these days, except in situations in which writers produce their own stories (as I did at Newsweek) is to 1) find a photo and 2) slap on an SEO-friendly headline.
By the way, read the second graf (“To err is human…” carefully).
Music 101
Sunshine
In 1971 John Denver released “Sunshine On My Shoulders” on an album, and then three years later as a single, and it went to No. 1. Also in 1971, Jonathan Edwards released this tune on his debut album and rose to No. 4 on the charts.
A Word, Please
visceral (adj)
relating to deep inward feelings rather than to intellect
Mega thanks to JDubs for including me in today’s edition (which, if I wanted to make a funny, I would type “addition.”)
Woe is me, though, I failed to give my Patreon post a thorough scrubbing before posting. John was kind enough to think I was being clever to include a typo/mistake in a story about editing but it was just dumb luck on my part.
In the second paragraph of my story, there’s this sentence: “Now, the mistakes that are made on the World Wide Web and be correctable.”
What the writer was trying to write was: “Now, the mistakes that are made on the World Wide Web can be corrected.”
The writer regrets the era. (That’s another “funny.”)
I’m not special. Like John, I couldn’t give you a definitive answer to the question, “What is Bitcoin?” As the great Richard Feynman said, there is a difference between knowing the name or something and knowing something: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/01/richard-feynman-knowing-something/
Bitcoin’s price is rising because Wall Street is greedy. Intuitively, I believe the success of cryptocurrency will succeed precisely because of Wall Street’s greed. But not because of a stock price. But because of the value it holds in keeping information secure (hey, Equifax…). The underbelly of Bitcoin is the the Blockchain, and I’ve read and been told (take these things for what their worth: nothing) that that is the future of the internet.
Anyhow, after just spending two paragraphs and getting nowhere, listen here: https://tim.blog/2017/06/04/nick-szabo/. And do yourself a favor and follow @aantonop
I’m a newbie like everyone else and you don’t know what you don’t know.
As a side note, I purchased $100 worth of Bitcoin last August before the start of the college football season. Let’s just say I never held onto that…
Oh, and Jamie Dimon’s comment on Bitcoin is one of the most stupid things I’ve ever heard in my life. Please tell me what happened back in 2007 and 2008, please? Just another reminder that wealth does not equate to intelligence, and anyone that tells you otherwise needs to do some soul searching.
I stopped reading after “I’m not special. Like John…”
Endorse and agree.
Ha ha…I wonder how many people will catch that my initial comment used “their” when it should have been “they’re”. That’s even worse than (or if we keep at it, “then”) the “there” and “they’re” malfunctions that are plaguing us all. Today’s acknowledgement of Wendell’s piece may have jinxed us all. And I even took a jab at someone’s intellect!
All I know is Jacob picked Bitcoin in the MH stock picker contest earlier this year & if it’s up 700% & doesn’t crash like my “lottery winning hopes & dreams” continue to do, I will lose this too! 😉
I was eliminated from the MH March Madness Knockout challenge (this probably isn’t even its name) in the first round this year, so this is just making things right.
Totally agree with you jdubs on the vast differences between Cohn & Hill’s remarks (& why Cohn’s more merited a suspension from her employer, a media company).
There is one thing I disagree a bit with Jemele – I don’t think The Sociopath is a white supremacist. He is A supremacist, but is a WEALTH supremacist- if you’ve got over a $100 million, you are fine no matter the color, if not, you’re a looooooser whom he doesn’t give 2 craps about. Does anyone think Trump actually CARES for the lower class rednecks that make up a large portion of the white supremacists? HAHAHAHA. He is politically USING them as his once & continuing ‘advisor’ Bannon (a true white supremacist) pounded into Trump’s head that this group is his CORE BASE.
One more thing – HRC & her Presidential campaign did make mistakes. However, she is COMPLETELY accurate to write that Comey’s last minute “investigation” into a non-event cost her the election. I said it at the time, the day after the election & now. Especially when you add in the FAKE NEWS machinations by the Russian hackers (& other paid internet operatives), it’s a wonder she WON the “popular vote” which, oh yeah, means she REALLY WON THE DAMN ELECTION!
And yes, Jacob, I am ANGRY!
Two years after playing ND, Watson replaces Savage but won’t be able to throw to the guy who used the term #savage prior to that college clash