Language nerds have long railed against the use of podium to refer to the thing you stand behind when you're talking to people. That's a lectern, dammit. But no, language nerds! According to the folks at Merriam-Webster it's perfectly OK to call that thing a podium, and has been for half a century.
Why do I care? Because I just learned this in the course of getting myself acquainted with Podiumgate, which is all about an alleged $19,000 podium/lectern that Sarah Huckabee Sanders bought a few months ago. You will recall Sanders as Donald Trump's former press secretary and now the governor of Arkansas.
Your first thought about this should be obvious: $19,000 for a podium? Is it made out of gold leaf or something?
And that's a good question. The backstory behind Podiumgate is that muckrakers in Arkansas think Sanders really spent the money on some kind of fishy purchase from an event and travel company, but covered it up by having the company—run by a pal of hers—invoice it as a podium. Then, for good measure, she asked the legislature to pass a bill exempting the relevant records from FOIA. Finally, having gotten nervous that someone was onto her, she had the Arkansas Republican Party reimburse the state on the grounds that the podium was meant all along to be used for party-sponsored events. Putting it on a state credit card months earlier was an "accounting error."
The problem with all this is that, first, podiums don't cost $19,000; second, it was purchased from an event/travel company that has no history of selling things like podiums; and third, an "accounting error"? Seriously? There are weeks of emails about this purchase.
So what was the money actually spent on? That's the million-dollar question. The best current gossip suggests it funded a trip to Paris for a friend or two. But no one knows. All we know is that the podium story really doesn't hold water.
Sarah being Sarah, surprising no one that lies just come naturally to her. After the disservice to the country & to the child workers of Arkansas, I hope that the truth is discovered & she is forced to resign, but i suppose that's not likely.
Born on a mountain top in Ar-Kin-Saw
The meanest state in the land of Hee-Haw
Raised by her Dad...a guv'nor to be
But lying for Trump showed her vac-u-ity
Sairy, Sairy Huckeett
The Queen of the Riled Frontier.
Impressive!
Okay, I'm glad my wife had just swallowed her sip of coffee when I read your comment. One second earlier an I would have been sprayed!
With some reverse Google image searching, here's something pretty close to what they bought (I'm sure that the muckrakers did the same already):
https://www.amazon.com/ZYQDRZ-European-Style-Lecture-Reception-Conference/dp/B092HV83QY?th=1
Cost: $3,732. Add in a little markup and costs to install a microphone in the base, delivery and installation, and maybe $5,000 is a fair price? Classic local government trade misinvoicing.
“ It is very suitable for offices, classrooms, lecture halls, conference rooms or your own home.”
This cracked me up. Is there somebody somewhere who needs a podium in their home?
For lecturing the kids, I guess.
For home schooling.
I like to play a mental game with myself sometimes, when I interact with the public. When I see someone doing something stupid or incomprehensible, I ask myself "How would I have to think, and what assumptions would I have to have about me and the world, in order to do or say what that person did or said?"
In this particular case, spending $20k of the government's money on a trip to Paris for your girlfriend could be due to any of the following:
1. Massive stupidity
2. Immense levels of entitlement
3. A belief that you won't get caught, because you lack absolutely any insight into what will happen in the future. ("I can't figure out what will happen if I alter these documents, so I'm sure as hell that you can't figure it out, either.")
#3 is the three-year-old defense. Mommy says to the little girl, "Who got into the chocolate icing that I was going to put on the cake?"
The little girl, whose face and hands are covered with chocolate icing, says "It was the Easter Bunny! Not me!"
It's hard to say which one of the above played the greatest role in her actions, or if there is something else, that I'm not aware of, operating here. But just by looking at her, I'd say that all three had some influence.
In any case, she's not three years old any more, and Arkansas deserves a better governor.
Don't forget the combos....
Trip to Paris, a podium, fries and a drink and get money back from your $20K.
In this case, strong sense of entitlement and it's someone else's problem to work out the details....though we do have to wait to get all the details...
Scandal aside, as a longtime woodworker I have to say that $19,000 may not be completely insane. It depends on whether it was mass produced, small-batch produced or custom made.
From a one-of-a-kind perspective, I see the fairly radical curved planes of the base and know how long it takes to produce those and then join them together. In real wood, this would be a major challenge.
Of course the podium is probably made from composite materials and vinyl wood veneer, so this would make it easier to produce. Paint (and most likely filler) on the upper portion hides any imperfection in joinery, so lots of time could be saved there.
All in all, I might not charge $19k for a real wood version but it would be close. Especially if Sanders was paying.
Hiring tradesmen is expensive, as anybody who hires a plumber or electrician understands.
Now, none of this is to gloss over the fact that Sanders is a right wing extremist and the podium is ugly as hell.
I may be wrong here, but it looks like the joinery is covered by plastic/metal corners, and that the only wood is on those panels. The rest doesn't look like wood. But if it were really nice wood, it would be really heavy (unlike with just plastic or metal) and then I'd question why they'd use really nice wood only to paint it in that ugly blue (a blue stain might look really nice!)
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/sep/26/photo-of-gov-sanders-19000-lectern/
Yes, on closer inspection it looks like total shit.
If that thing isn't all plastic they could have made it in all plastic without losing a bit of it's charm.
Maybe it's bullet proof?
Yeah, as an aficionado of fine woodworking - I could easily identify a $20k piece of crafts person art that I would salivate over and buy when I hit the lottery.
Beautiful, custom woodwork is not cheap. That lectern above is cheap.
I'd bet this piece is $20k or close to it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/morrellidesign/8412109129/in/photostream/
Does that include the passage to Narnia?
This is the company she sent all the money to.
https://beckettevents.com/
Very weird, and there's nothing to suggest you or I could buy the same lectern for the same price.
According to the link that Kevin had, nobody had seen the lantern/podium, and it is not obvious that it exists.
https://www.bluehogreport.com/2023/09/25/podium-pandemonium-its-a-lectern/
Not obvious where the picture he put came from.
Wow, that blogger got them dead-to-rights.
Not to provide cover for this obvious laundering, but a subcontract for the podium?
Huh, fun fact: Virginian Beckett once worked for the Mitt Romney campaign.
For only $17k you can get a really classy one like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Acrylic-Portable-Lecterns-Churches-Reception/dp/B0CGHQH76V/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2EEW2NDOG5PZ9&keywords=podium&qid=1696175265&sprefix=podium%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.17f26c18-b61b-4ce9-8a28-de351f41cffb&th=1
There should be pictures of Sarah's podium - is it really better?
For the awesome glorification of Jesus.
It does look like something a grifter/preacher would have.
That thing only looks terrible against that paneling.
It really looks like it was swiped from the set of the first season of Star Trek the Next Generation.
If Patrick Stewart were standing there it would look great! You wouldn't even notice it.
Has a Democratic governor in a blue state ever rammed through a law shielding his or her administration from FOIA requests or other kinds of oversight? I suspect not because we'd have heard about it 24/7 as an example of the worst corruption in the history of the universe. A couple of years ago, Kathy Hochul caught a lifetime worth of shit from the NY media for giving an emergency, no-bid contract for Covid tests to a company owned by a political donor (she claimed it was in order to get the tests out quickly at the height of the Omicron wave). Imagine if her response had been to then declare that all future state contracting would be done in secret and blocked from FOIA.
Republicans learned an important lesson from Trump: if you're so corrupt that the media eventually tie themselves in knots trying to keep up, and if your reponse to every inquiry is to simply tell them to go fuck themselves and you don't care, your base thinks it's badass and you can basically get away with whatever you want.
Ah, you mean like this:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS37263897020110117
Like I keep saying, it's only if you live in a low-rung bubble that keeps out EVERYTHING related to what your team does that you can pose questions like this with a straight face...
A rejected FOIA request that is subject to review is hardly the same thing as " rammed through a law shielding his or her administration from FOIA requests or other kinds of oversight".
You're trying to compare apples and walruses.
Well, but Sarah is Saved, and her election was the will of the Lord, so any such questions are the work of Satan and should not even be raised, let alone answered.
Now I'm as happy as anyone to have this investigated further BUT I'd point out
- is there more here than Whitewater? (Very much relevant, IMHO)
- is there more here than the Hunter Biden stuff? (Not especially relevant in that Hunter is not his father; but "timewise" relevant and "morally" relevant insofar as is one willing to say that the issue shows enough fuzziness that it should be investigated)
What I am seeing is precisely the sort of low-rung tribal politics I so despise – when it's an accusation against OUR team (whichever our team is) "obviously" the allegation is justified and there is guilt, when it's an accusation against THEIR team, obviously the allegation is based on pure malice, an fishing expedition without justification, and who cares exactly what they learn it's all tainted anyway.
What I see looking at 50 years of US history is an unending sequence of this alternation, with neither side learning a thing except how to go even lower, and a sequence of excuses as to why what THEY did was unacceptable and totally different from what WE did.
Of COURSE you will claim that the other side is constantly lost in conspiracy theories IF you create a hermetic bubble in which your own side's conspiracy theories become absolute truth.
So what are you doing about this, other than pointlessly trolling us with false both-siderism? I suggest: Never again vote for Sarah Huckabee Sanders; never again vote for Hunter Biden.
Since Hunter Biden has a special counsel, doesn't that mean that Sarah Huckabee Sanders deserves one too?
She should hold out for two of them — after all, she actually holds a public office.
I am pointing out that not everyone lives at low-rung politics.
I can't stop YOU from doing so, but SOME of us view these things from a high-run lens, and I think it's important to point this out once a week or so, to remind anyone else out there that high-rung analysis does still remain an option, albeit an option apparently only of interest to about 5% of the population.
The MAGA GOP is still providing enthusiastic support for Orange Jesus with over 90 felony indictments, proved to be a sexual predator in civil court, and his RE business ruled a fraud. $19K ripoff is not going to move the needle with these people.
Wasn't she involved in some other questionable accounting practices in some previous job I'm not remembering too clearly?
My favorite part of the Mueller report was the excerpt from Sarah's deposition, in which she acknowledged that as WH spokesperson she lied to the press routinely.
It wasn't bad accounting. It was just constant lying. Per her own testimony.
Oh, I have to look that up. Heh.
I used to listen to BBC World Service news while commuting. One of their frequent segments would be an interview with some government spokesliar or other on a topic that the particular government did not want to talk about. These always went on far too long. I mean, these people get that job because they can repeat the same transparent bullshit over and over without betraying the slightest trace of embarrassment. The reporters seemed to think they could discomfit the respondent into blurting out some uncomfortable truth. Never happened; the spokescritter would just blandly repeat the same nonsense endlessly.
We all know where the money is. The walls. It's in the walls.
Wow, I'd missed this one.
I try to remember how dumb crooks are, but somehow they always manage to surprise me with how dumb they are.
First Menendez and how back to the Hucksterbee clan, googling gold bars and retroactively purchasing $19k podiums from travel companies.
Of course this is the replacement level, the waterline of crooks. Be slightly smarter than this and you'll probably never have a problem and retire to accolades about your ethics.
I do not doubt that Sarah Huckabee is lying. After all, she has a long history of doing so.
However, none of us knows what was added/built into it.
From direct experience of designing such things a very long time ago, bespoke additions of a built-in flush touchscreen, adding a microcomputer, installing an XLR condenser microphone, and putting in custom controls into the tabletop isn't cheap.
It probably doesn't add up to $19K, but still, someone could have billed her $19K with a wink and a nod for a healthy profit margin.
However, even more questionable than the price is the supplier.
I dunno. That's some pretty high quality plastic there.
"Podium? I meant Per Diem! $19,000 is just the cost of a cheeseburger and a case of wine at the airport!"
This must be a special model for female speakers, with that VERY suggestive image just below waist line front and center!
Since nobody else mentioned it, I must have the most sex-obsessed mind in the group. Ah well.....
The people who complain about this use of "podium" aren't real language nerds. They are merely wannabes. The real language nerds will nerd out trying to antedate this usage and discussing the factors leading to this semantic shift. Real language nerds are fascinated by how the language actually works. They certainly don't fall for a crude application of the etymological fallacy. The wannabes just want to peeve while feeling superior.