Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Every Grift Great and Small

cutlery but not from the White HouseDaily Kos is publishing excerpts from the Anonymous book on life inside the Trump administration.  This little bit is arresting, although there will it seems be no arrests:

Donald Trump cannot not do crimes. It is not possible for him. Early on in the administration it became apparent that he was pocketing the official White House silverware after every meal served to him. It is not something the staff was willing to challenge him on, so it has continued after every meal, every week, since the inauguration. Nobody had the slightest idea where he had been squirreling them off to until the cleaning crew discovered a sack underneath the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom containing literally hundreds and hundreds of stolen knives, forks, and spoons. Does he intend to take them with him when he leaves office? Does he take them just to prove he can? Nobody knows, and none of us want to.

Not I suppose a high crime or misdemeanor, at least until he takes them out of the White House, but sooo weird.

Posted in The Scandals | 2 Comments

Our Tax Dollars at Work

The CIA has a list and brief analysis of every country’s national anthem.  This is not from The Onion.

Posted in Politics: International | Comments Off on Our Tax Dollars at Work

BBVA Compass Bank Behaving VERY Badly

I confess to a learned bias against commercial banks.  (Don’t get me started on investment banks…) I have never found a good brick and mortar bank here in Miami, although I have had more luck with an online bank.

That said, this incident, BBVA Compass Branch Manager Retaliates Against Elderly Customer Via Trying to Have State Agency Deem Her Incompetent on Fabricated Grounds, is several orders of magnitude worse than anything I ever heard of.

Posted in Econ & Money, Law: Everything Else | Comments Off on BBVA Compass Bank Behaving VERY Badly

OK Clay Tablet User

A random Assyrian clay tablet

According to Smithsonian Magazine, an Assyrian clay tablet from 2800 B.C. bears a gloomy inscription describing how the Assyrian youth were ruining civilization.

“Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents,” the tablet supposedly reads.

The inscription is reminiscent of another that, according to Newsweek, was unearthed in the Sumerian city of Ur (located in modern-day Iraq and founded in 3800 B.C.), which says, “If the unheard-of actions of today’s youth are allowed to continue, then we are doomed.”

Source: “OK Boomer” Is Just the First Salvo of a Larger Generational Showdown (note: currently Slashdotted)

This is much too good to check for truth — it trumps my go-to example of Cotton Mather bemoaning the decline in virtue of the new generation, one full of Antinomians and Unitarians, by 4500 years or so.

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on OK Clay Tablet User

Interviewed on WLRN

I was interviewed on WLRN Radio’s Sundial program today about privacy issues relating to home assistants like Alexa, and other privacy topics such as the risks of using private DNA sequencing companies. They’ve published a transcript.

Posted in The Media | 2 Comments

Lock Him Out

The “lock her up” chants are Trump rallies were often scary and always disgusting. But turnabout doesn’t seem like right play: Even if it was meant ironically, and I rather doubt it, I got no joy from the anti-Trump “lock him up” chants at Nationals Park during Game 5 of the World Series.

I think we need a new chant.

And, just in time to celebrate the first day of the impeachment hearings, I’ve got it, presented here as a poster or t-shirt worthy graphic:

Lock Him Out!

Posted in Trump | Comments Off on Lock Him Out