Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, April 29, 2023
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14 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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The spouse of Chief Justice Roberts reportedly made $10.3 million dollars as a recruiter / headhunter for top tier legal firms.
Wtf fee structure pays out that much to the matchmaker?
I have been pitched by recruiters / headhunters in my line of work before. The reputable ones get a flat fee plus a slice of salary all paid by the hiring company. I wanted to keep my options open so I was amenable to a few lunches to hear the pitch out. Heard them out and passed. Not my speed. I wanted to follow interesting projects and not be tied to any one company. Plus, I made substantially more as a mercenary than as a foot soldier. I had a good boss / wrangler – he lined up good gigs and he got 15 percent of my bill rate.
The disreputable ones want a slice of your salary. This most often happens with immigrant IT workers. I found out a friend of mine was under such a contract.
How the fuck do you make $10.3 million in eight years as an individual headhunter? What’s the market rate for high-end lawyers?
Jinkies! Shoulda gone to law school!
I assume it was super high-end executive placements, but fuck me, she made a slice.
We need to treat Ms. Robert’s actions and Ginni Thomas’ actions carefully.
I do not advocate for the practice that spouses / partners should be precluded from careers because their spouse is a high muckety-muck, but life-time appointed judges on the Supreme Court should be demonstrably free from influence.
Ms. Robert’s was playing by the “rules”. Ginni Thomas did not formally break any “rules” that we know of now.
The problem is that there are no formal boundaries either ethical or financial. They police themselves by not policing themselves and they tell us to suck eggs.
I would declare that SCJ Thomas being hosted by and addressing The Federalist Society is a clear ethical violation of his role.
Their spouses don’t have to be Supreme Court justices either.
The friend I mentioned earlier was a Pakistani immigrant. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it was under a H1-B visa, I am no expert and mostly ignorant on how visas work. The issue was that he was under a contract to a Pakistan company that helped him get his visa for n% of his US salary in perpetuity. The cut was onerous. He was basically an indentured servant.
Best damn DBA / DBM I ever worked with. I asked if he could capture and send me all SQL requests to x DB. Took a few iterations, but we found a format I could parse.
Visa abuse, especially for IT workers is a thing that happened, is still happening. A lot of folks do it willingly to get their kids here, or just to get a chance.
@de stijl:
Which makes Musk’s demands that his workers dedicate their lives to Musk’s enrichment or get laid off even more insidious. Also other tech layoffs.
The beat goes on:
Police: 5 people killed in shooting at home north of Houston
@Scott:
The is an appalling story. I’d like to know how many priors the shooter had.
Watched the Carol Burnett 90th celebration last night and wondered if Burnett (at 90 yo) thinks that Biden “is too old” to lead the country.
By the way, I’m 78 (in response to a question earlier this week), and I while I’m still active, I don’t have nearly the same vigor and endurance as Pres. Biden.
On the other hand, my dear neighbor (at 60 yo) who can’t climb a flight of stairs, thinks Biden is way too old and his ideas and personal philosophy and interaction are a throwback to ancient times. (like when statesmen were statesmen – I think to myself)
And in music for this weekend, I offer four iterations of the same piece, Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.
Focusing on the first Promenade section of the piece, right at the beginning, the first iteration is the original piano piece Mussorgsky intended, as I understand such things. Notice the fast tempo.
The second iteration is an orchestral version. Very similar.
The third iteration is a slower tempo, as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. I think of this one as more regal in feel than the first.
And in a classic case of the best, or my favorite at any rate, saved for last, the fourth iteration is a piano rendition by Khatia Buniatishvili, of the same slower tempo as the Ravel version. This one, to me, seems ethereal. It literally gives me shivers.
Enjoy
The more R’s that are threatened by gun violence the more amenable they maybe to some controls.
We are well beyond an armed society is a polite society.
Steve
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/us/politics/jan-6-prosecutors-trump-fund-raising.html
https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1652113203013251074
@charon: I’ve wondered the last few weeks if the Wyoming State Legislature passed the “felons get their rights back” law because it says any convicted felon can’t hold “a position of public trust”. If Trump is convicted as a felon before the primaries, can that keep him off the ballot in Wyoming? How many other states?
@Jax:
That is kind of an academic question. These trials take so long, and indictments are so far off, he is unlikely to be convicted of anything prior to November 2024.
Several trials are likely to be well underway though, through 2024, lots of interesting revelations likely.