Now all we need is a match
BOOM!
Winning! YELLEN GONE!
https://www.axios.com/2022/09/28/janet-yellen-treasury-midterms-shuffle
White House officials are quietly preparing for the potential departure of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen after the midterms, the first and most consequential exit in what could be a broad reorganization of President Biden's economic team, according to people familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: While her potential departure would give Biden an opportunity to respond to public concern over his handling of the economy, it would also create an immediate political headache: finding a successor who can be confirmed by the Senate.
The process is in the early stages and a decision on Yellen, or any Cabinet replacement, has not been made. Multiple sources stressed the outcome of November's election, including who controls the Senate, will factor into whether she stays.
Yellen will also have some say in her fate, and with the world's economy teetering, there could be a convincing case for her to stay.
The intrigue: In addition to Yellen, officials are also considering the possibility that Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, will leave early next year.
Deese’s departure would present an opportunity for Gene Sperling, who is currently coordinating the implementation of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, to serve an unprecedented third term as NEC director after holding that post in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Cecilia Rouse, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, is also expected to return to her academic post in the spring of 2023, opening up another Cabinet-level economic position.
Between the lines: Yellen, an economist by trade and at heart, has been reluctant to make overly political arguments when they violate her core academic beliefs.
The former Fed and CEA chair has disagreed with the White House on several high-profile issues, including the White House faulting corporations for increasing inflation and — most recently — Biden’s decision to forgive some student debt.
She has also made several statements that White House officials have privately viewed as blunders. Yellen publicly admitted this summer she was wrong on inflation, and last year said it would be a "plus" if the Fed raised interest rates.
What they're saying: "While we are prudently planning for potential transitions post-midterm, neither Secretary Yellen or Brian Deese are part of those plans," White House senior adviser Anita Dunn said in a statement.
Yellen has no plans to leave, said Lily Adams, a Treasury spokesperson.
"Chair Rouse will return to Princeton University at the end of her two-year public service leave, likely early spring 2023," according to a White House official.
Driving the news: White House officials are prepping for post-midterm turnover and are conducting a talent search for both senior staff and Cabinet positions, Axios has reported.
Republicans have placed high inflation and sluggish economic growth at the center of their midterm message. Biden's approval rating on the economy currently sits at 36%, with 57% of voters disapproving, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll.
Republicans will seize on any expected departure from the economic team as a tacit admission that Biden has mishandled the economy.
Bourdain - Here comes the coverup…
https://dnyuz.com/2022/09/27/the-last-painful-days-of-anthony-bourdain/
After Anthony Bourdain took his own life in a French hotel room in 2018, his close friends, family and the people who for decades had helped him become an international TV star closed ranks against the swarm of media inquiries and stayed largely silent, especially about his final days.
That silence continued until 2021, when many in his inner circle were interviewed for the documentary “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” and for “Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography.” The two works showed a more complex side of Mr. Bourdain, who had become increasingly conflicted about his success and had in his last two years made his relationship with the Italian actor Asia Argento his primary focus. But neither directly addressed how very messy his life had become in the months that led up to the night he hanged himself at age 61.
On Oct. 11, Simon & Schuster will publish what it calls the first unauthorized biography of the writer and travel documentarian. “Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain” is filled with fresh, intimate details, including raw, anguished texts from the days before Mr. Bourdain’s death, such as his final exchanges with Ms. Argento and Ottavia Busia-Bourdain, his wife of 11 years who by the time they separated in 2016, had become his confidante.
“I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job,” Mr. Bourdain wrote to Ms. Busia-Bourdain in one of their near-daily text exchanges. “I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”
Drawing on more than 80 interviews, and files, texts and emails from Mr. Bourdain’s phone and laptop, the journalist Charles Leerhsen traces Mr. Bourdain’s metamorphosis from a sullen teenager in a New Jersey suburb that his family couldn’t afford to a heroin-shooting kitchen swashbuckler who struck gold as a writer and became a uniquely talented interpreter of the world through his travels.
Mr. Leerhsen said in an interview that he wanted to write a book without the dutiful sheen of what he called “an official Bourdain product.” Indeed, he portrays a man who at the end of his life was isolated, injecting steroids, drinking to the point of blackout and visiting prostitutes, and had all but vanished from his 11-year-old daughter’s life.
“We never had that big story, that long piece that said what happened, how the guy with the best job in the world took his own life,” said Mr. Leerhsen, a former executive editor at Sports Illustrated and People who has written books on Ty Cobb, Butch Cassidy and a racehorse named Dan Patch.
moar…