More Than I Want To Know
For a while here, we have followed the massive amounts of money that RNC Chairperson Ronna McDaniels spend on hair and makeup at donors’ expense. Thousands, y’all, thousands of dollars.
Well, Honey, I am all for the public’s right to know and transparency and all that, but there are some things I’d buy out of my own pocket …
Checking the date on it, it was the day after the Loeffler and Warnock debate and the day before Georgia certifies the election for Biden. I guess she was trying to hold it together.
By the way, those of you who like to scroll through the expenditures (like exactly what office supplies did they buy at PetSmart?) just click right here.
Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen Queen for the smirk.
There really is a job for Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci with the RNC. The one time Sarah Lie-a-Load Sandbag looked nearly human was that brief scaramucci of a second when the Mooch obviously directed her hair, make-up and wardrobe. Maybe he can do something with Ronna. The Mooch would never allow either of them anywhere near spanx.
1Maybe the reason she always looks so unhappy is because her tender vegetation if being squished by a pair of Spanx!
2How is that a travel expense?
3I scrolled through that list and I just wanna know more details on the $800+ travel expenses from the Mellow Mushroom. Was it a good trip?
4So, I went to the web-site and I have to say; I’m a bit disappointed that an establishment named ‘Spanx’ is somewhat conventional in its offerings.
5Ken @5, obviously we don’t have the special code for admission to the oligarch levels of service. That’s probably a good thing under the “we really don’t want to know and TMI clauses.” Seriously. Ronna’s kinks? Nah. We don’t want to know.
6Do these compliment her special Mormon underwear for temple?
7treehugger @4, as someone who lived in Atlanta for a couple years, I can tell you that The Mellow Mushroom is just a regular pizza shop that serves excellent pizza (with rather trippy decor). $800 for pizza presumably means she was feeding a large number of people, since they’re just mid-scale good food, not crazy fancy.
8Anne Nonymous @8, well I did mention wanting more details, so I shouldn’t complain that the mushrooms were pizza toppings instead of magic good-time mushrooms. It was a fun fantasy while it lasted.
9Or she just likes pizza a whole lot.
10I’ve been encouraged to post this long screed, so only blame me for writing it, the gremlins made me post it here:
As usual, Alfredo’s contribution is enough to keep me going all day long and well into the evening. Tell him that I owe him a Netflix subscription for the entertainment value he’s provided me. There’s a lot of serious grift at the RNC, but as usual I’m finding the weirdness too much to ignore.
That form is the gift that keeps on giving. Looks like “travel expenses” is the “miscellenea” of FEC reporting. But as you scan down, there is “Revolution Events” for $70k. With a name like that and the events of 6 Jan, I had to look it up. It’s got an interesting looking location (sorry for the long URL, but I believe in letting people know what they’re clicking on):
https://www.google.com/maps/place/2000+Washington+Blvd,+Baltimore,+MD+21230/@39.2729286,-76.6473792,3a,75y,197.82h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sO5dEet6RCXrTz_EB42UtgA!2e0!3e11!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fmaps%2Fphotothumb%2Ffd%2Fv1%3Fbpb%3DCg8KDXNlYXJjaC5lc3R1YnMSQAoSCfvGcHO2HMiJEfCcI6CUsZysEgoND4xoFxWDglDSGhIJeSaCtYrht4kRdEqtzHnWEm8qCg3di2gXFd2GUNIaBAhWEFY%26gl%3DUS!7i16384!8i8192!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89c81cb67370c6fb:0xac9cb194a0239cf0!2s2000+Washington+Blvd,+Baltimore,+MD+21230!3b1!8m2!3d39.2727517!4d-76.6474531!3m4!1s0x89c81cb67370c6fb:0xac9cb194a0239cf0!8m2!3d39.2727517!4d-76.6474531?hl=en
It looks slightly better online at https://eventrevolution.com/. But the blurb “We combine entertainment, decor, design, and unique thinking to create environments that foster engagement and FUN!” should also include “and not one bit of good taste”. It looks like the kind of organization that specializes in rush parties for frat houses. Want sychronized swimmers for your 20-th school reunion? A “Marie Antoinette-inspired giant macaron cake” for dessert? A basketball court tarted up with mirrors, glass tables, and a laser show? Well, I guess it’s better than militia-themed insurrection.
IT nightmares:
Also: the form has LOTS of “IT support/maintenance” organizations, many for dribbles and bits. Github for $40, Grammarly for $175 (damned sure thing that T**** never used that service), Fastly for cloud services, Google for $3k, logmein for $60, mulesoft for $300, Premiumsoft in Kowloon (helpfully identified as “Foreign Country”) for $65, namecheap.com for $929, godaddy.com for $1785, on and on. It’s like someone just looked at every software/IT/data managment ad in a businessman’s magazine and thought “Oh yeah, we gotta get ourselves some of that”. It’s a smorgabord of IT security nightmares, apparently with no one providing a coherent strategy or purchase planning. Not that I or any of my students would ever consider such a thing, but the IT attack surface area for the RNC looks like the Hindenberg trailing ropes while trying to land in New Jersey.
Other stuff:
There’s so much else here: Gerald Wosewick in Pennsylvania gets $10453 for “political strategy services”. Maybe he came up with “Stop the Steal!”; the price seems a bit bloated, however. Tatango gets $300k – they’re the folks who blast out text messages for marketing. Plus, Tatango was “started as a solution for his Fraternity (Delta Upsilon) to communicate with his Fraternity (sic) brothers”, yup, that’s exactly the kind of people I figured they were. What kind of “office supplies” are they buying at Tuckernuck, a women’s clothing store? Panties that Rafael Cruz can sniff secretly and fantasize over while watching the porn he “liked” a few months ago? And “health consulting” for $169 at Urgent Care 24-7 in Atlanta, $450 at Arcpoint Labs in DC? Someone needs to tell them that you can get the off-brand Plan B pills for $30 in most pharmacies. Not to mention that condoms are far cheaper, you just have to think ahead and buy them in advance.
But wait, there’s more! “Garnishments” for Maryland Child Support Account ($332, twice) and Virginia Div. of Child Support Enforcement ($213, twice). Looks like at least a couple of the RNC folks should have gone for the condoms … and are jerks that have to have child support forcibly extracted from them.
Kellyanne Conway gets $15k for “political strategy services”, probably “how not to talk to your teenage daughter” lessons. Honest Kapic in Benbrook, Texas, gets a $100 stipend. First, anyone who uses “honest”, isn’t. Second, just what was that stipend for? Storming Capitol Hill? An extra bundle of zip-ties? A horned hat?
But as usual, what I see is
1. Men getting stipends and pay larger than what women get for the same or similar services.
2. These people eat a lot of junk food – my gawd, Washington DC has one of the best selections of restaurants of any city in the world, and these people are eating at Chic-Fil-A? Taco Bell in Irvine, California? I’ll grant them eating hot dogs from Sonic in Oklahoma City – it’s Oklahoma, after all. Plus Whataburger in San Antonio is allowed, especially if you’re passing through and it’s the only stop you’re making in Texas.
3. Any company or university audit would probably disallow 25% of this stuff.
4. Every nickel and dime is reimbursed, no matter how small or embarrasing.
5. If I ever do any work for the RNC, have the habitues of the Salon take me out back in the alley and beat some sense into me. Then remind me that I can grift the RNC hard and get away with it; everyone else seems to be doing so.
11The Washington Post carried a great many column inches on this woman just a few days ago. Wow! Did she come off fluffy brained! Transfer that to the entire horde she runs with and thats a lot of fluffy!
12