Back in the days of sanity, there were a lot of pieces in the press about how Gordon Brown while at the Treasury was a violent, terrifying tyrant who threw phones at people.
(All these stories were false; my own friends at the Treasury described him as slightly socially awkward but a pleasure to work with, and all the female ones seemed to have mild crushes on him.)
So, yes, male politicians do get this kind of hit piece written about them.
Steve Jobs got similar (if more extreme) comments from subordinates for both for his tyranny and the results he got. (To my mind the tyranny was clearly counterproductve, and the praise smelled frankly of Stockholm Syndrome.)
The nature of the allegations are subjective, and there's no baseline to make a fair comparison with other Senators or other presidential candidates.
From the story:
Klobuchar's office consistently has one of the highest rates of staff turnover in the Senate. Klobuchar's rate of turnover ranked No. 1 in an analysis of all Senate staff salaries between 2001 and 2016, conducted by LegiStorm, a widely used database of congressional staff salaries. (Klobuchar was sworn into office in 2007.) She's now third, behind Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen and Louisiana Republican John Kennedy.
Third over what period, I wonder.
Staff turnover is a pretty good metric to use for a toxic workplace.
Staff turnover is a pretty good metric to use for a toxic workplace.
I agree, and the reason why I passed the article along is that it does offer enough evidence that it doesn't just feel like gossip. And I would like to know if a prominent politician (or businessman) consistently treats their staff badly, and yet, it still feels uncomfortable (and your comment 1 adds to my feeling that it's difficult to know how many grains of salt should be applied to the story)
I'm inclined to believe the worst because I've decided I dislike Klobuchar based on her BDS vote.
That sounds so dirty I don't even want to know what it stands for.
9: It's dirty, alright! BOYCOTT DIVEST SANCTION -- kinky!
Klobuchar is the only of the Democratic Senators running for President to vote for it. I guess that means she'll be dueling with Biden for the Jewish pro-Israel vote.
Atrios posted about this. https://www.eschatonblog.com/2019/02/the-boss.html
Hey, this is on-topic, Cassandane is a Congressional staffer and trying hard to get out, mostly due to a toxic environment. Based on 2 minutes of following the links, I'd have to subscribe to Legistorm (or get a free trial, but that's still more effort than I want to go through right now) to see exactly where her boss ranks, but it sure sounds bad at home.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it here before and it came up at the meetup a few months ago in DC. She's still stuck there but is looking even harder now. When talking about this with people, I usually avoid details, both to be discreet and to be impartial. (As for discretion, there's nothing definitely newsworthy, I just am careful about gossip. As for impartiality, it might be dumb about my wife's job, sometimes I'm the kind of person who won't take his own side in an argument, but anyways.) If anyone wants objective details, here's one: she took a calculated risk and told her boss she was looking and asked if he could promote her or at least be a reference. Since then, he has given her a deadline to quit, for no apparent reason.
Atrios posted about this. https://www.eschatonblog.com/2019/02/the-boss.html
Thanks. That's enough for me to answer the question in the OP and feel good about the article as quality political journalism.
she took a calculated risk and told her boss she was looking and asked if he could promote her or at least be a reference. Since then, he has given her a deadline to quit, for no apparent reason.
Jesus.
10: you can just say "pro-Israel," or better yet "pro-Likud/Netanyahu." Plenty of gentiles are passionately so.
I don't think the gentile pro-Israel vote is likely to be a major factor in the Democratic primary. Especially this cycle.
The big vogue puff-piece from earlier in the month has a big section about what a great boss she is, and how much her staff loves her. So I wonder if someone made some calls to "set the record straight".
I can't help thinking that being gratuitously on Team Likud vs the ACLU is... possibly not uncorrelated with a possibly less than ideal attitude towards bullying in general?
This article is kind of an example of a reporter working on a story and failing to really nail it down but publishing anyway because a lot of time was spent and you have to have something to show for it. No one was willing to confirm any really bad stories.
working on a story and failing to really nail it down but publishing anyway because a lot of time was spent and you have to have something to show for it
This is giving me flashbacks to some past projects with grad students.
Reminds me of being a graduate student, except I wasn't very good at it.
||
"The prophecy of the beginning and end, rise and fall, of Kökenuur came to fruition and a rain that was neither goats nor sheep fell."|>
That's your rain usually works around here.
||
I saw that Pitchfork had a list of the greatest 200 albums of the 60s, so I was curious what they put at number one. They have "Velvet Underground and Nico", which may be the most on-brand thing I've ever seen.
|>
This one time at a small party, I met the host's cat, and when I was told the cat's name, I said, "Oh, Neko. Like Neko Case." And the host looked horrified/hipsterer-than-thou and said, "No, Nico. From the Velvet Underground." And then I told him I'd never really gotten into the Velvet Underground, and he promptly died of shock.
I've been pronouncing her name wrong all this time.
"No, Nico. From the Velvet Underground."
"Who?"
"You've never heard of Velvet Underground?"
"I'm not into jazz, old man."
The other one. I thought it was like in the wafers. I love VU (but I would have voted for "Forever Changes")
So I've decided that, while I would love Elizabeth Warren to be President, what I really, really want her to be is Treasury Secretary. Put her in a spot where she can have all her focus on restructuring the economy without all the other Oval Office shit that would distract her from her mission.
It would have been better if it was neko, like the Japanese for cat.
A limping quadruped is just the saddest thing.
That's why I never eat frog legs without eating the rest of the frog.
31: I was guessing it would be "Forever Changes", since that's the "I know 60s music better than you" answer.
I've been thinking about this (the OP) and decided that people staffing political offices are probably like me back before I gave up ambition. Therefore, Sen. Klobuchar can be as harsh as she wants with her staff because they probably deserve it. Except for present company and their spouses/partners.
Cat Wafers" sound menacing
After he converted he changed his name to Wafers von Islam.
"Having mixed blood with gold dust, the children of demons and hungry ghosts will run and jump about. The waves of the ocean will froth in turmoil."
32: That would be okay for bank regulation, but does the Treasury Secretary have any special influence over decisions to overhaul tax rates, at the soak'em Piketty/Saenz levels needed right now? I think that's something the President would more or less have to drive, in tandem with Congress. Treasury Secretary would have a seat at the table, sure, and have a lot of influence over implementation - probably great at rooting out tax havens! - but I'd still prefer her heading a congressional committee, for the longer term.
I saw Amy Klobuchar today came out strongly against gridlock in Washington. Brave!
Standing outside in the wind is a good way to keep Trump away.
42: Sure, I love her in the Senate but its hard to be transformational in the legislative branch. I'd love to see what she could do if she was at the head of the department that includes the IRS. And she can revive the CFPB at the same time.
Underfunding the IRS isn't just hurting because rich people can cheat on their taxes. When you get identity-thefted, it takes forever to sort it out even when it was really obvious you were identity-thefted.
I once saw a pitch from a startup that was going to use "digital identity" to resolve the IRS's identity theft issue. Apparently the IRS has a big problem with scammers submitting other peoples return and collecting the tax refund. But with this company's services that wouldn't happen anymore because something something blockchain.
The IRS was really good about figuring out it was fraud. They sent me a letter saying that somebody filed a tax return using your ID and we know it wasn't you. The hard part was getting them to accept my real return.
Well, good they caught the fraud, at least. Imagine what they could do if they had resources.
I think Klobuchar's strategy of boring her way to the nomination is unlikely to succeed.
https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/a-market-niche-seeking-a-transportation-technology
One guess what the technology is.
Routes suggested include San Francisco-Sydney, trans-Arctic, Bristol-La Guardia. And it suggests that they should be unpiloted for most of the journey, with crew arriving only to guide it into harbour. This, at least, produces much scope for haunted-house stories.
Apparently one of the anonymous stories going around that presumably this article's writer could not get someone to speak to them about is that Amy Klobuchar struck a staffer with a binder.
Obviously, opening the binder and hitting somebody with the open rings is wrong.
Yeah. You can't get any speed up with that much drag.
Obviously, opening the binder and hitting somebody with the open rings is wrong.
Well, yes. All the women would fall out of it.
I think Klobuchar's strategy of boring her way to the nomination is unlikely to succeed.
Really? Because I think boring neoliberal centrism is what a huge proportion of the Democratic party craves. Al Gore has already spoken up, but it worked for John Kerry too.
I want to vote for a woman because I know that having a woman as president will cause actual pain to a non-trivial number of Trump voters I'm a feminist.
60 is a good point. No need to worry that, like Trump, she might get into office and then not hurt the right people; she'll hurt them simply by existing.
Anyway, Minnesota is basically the same as Iowa, at least the populated parts. She'll probably have an edge in the early states.
Is AK the source for the stories?
Not so Minnesota Nice!
OT:
"Developing a happiness-optimised day schedule", Kroll & Pokutta (2013).
https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v34y2013icp210-217.html
Derived from day-diary research on 900 employed women in Texas, using marginal-utility calculations.
16 waking hours, or 960 minutes, comprised of:
Commuting:33 minutes.
Work: 36 minutes.
Napping: 46.
Childcare: 46.
Housework: 47.
Computer: 48.
Preparing food: 50.
Watching TV: 55.
Shopping: 56.
On the phone: 57.
Exercise: 68.
Prayer/meditation: 73.
Eating: 75.
Relaxing: 78.
Socialising: 82.
Intimate relations: 106.
I wish I could be employed at 36 minutes work a day.
Unless "relaxing" is a euphemism, they're going to be really uncomfortable about half way through the second perfect day.
Or shitting during sleep, I guess.
65 is absolutely wonderful. Texan housewives think that prayer is more fun than work or chlld care, but sexytime is the best of all, even better than gossip! Let them have that schedule for a month and then test them again
70: They were going to do this, but they couldn't get enough grant money together to pay the gigolos.
What this blog needs -- what Humanity demands -- is a selfless Texan volunteer.
71: I was making heterosexist assumptions. I am ashamed.
70: not housewives- they were all employed. And this is not the average of what they _said_ would be an ideal day; it's a schedule that's been optimised using inferred marginal utility data.
But if it's inferred that makes it more revealing, surely
Ekranoplan!
Docking at LGA? Ha! Just because it once hosted seaplanes?
Seaplanes, plus existing cargo handling capacity, I think.