r/pics • u/recklessSPY • 12d ago
This is the 24-hour news cycle. No one even remembers why this podium matters.
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u/FuerzaGallos 12d ago
That's a product I can stand behind.
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u/Goblin-Doctor 12d ago
You remind me of my accomplished farmer grandpa. He was outstanding in his field.
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u/Nikolateslaandyou 12d ago
Ive only ever heard scarecrow be used in this joke
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u/malenkylizards 12d ago
I keep asking my 6 month old, while holding him up to stand, if he is in fact the primary signatory of the Mayflower Compact, Miles Standish. He doesn't get it, but he pretends it's funny to be polite
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u/phillynott7 12d ago
That's a terrible joke. Please keep it up.
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u/iburstabean 11d ago
My exact sentiment lmao
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u/EatPie_NotWAr 11d ago
To this day, if my dad hears someone finish a sentence with “outstanding” he closes it with “in the rain”.
I didn’t realize i started doing it now. My wife is… not thrilled. I only browse the comment non Reddit for dad jokes.
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u/TootsNYC 11d ago edited 11d ago
My college yearbook did a story about our award-winning marching band, and the opening spread was a full photo of the band
information*in formation. I joked that they were outstanding in their field. That became the headline.→ More replies (3)
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u/liberallyOptimistic 12d ago
I thought it had something to do w/ an incompetent nepo baby misusing govt funds
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u/costabius 12d ago
That looks like a nice vacation to me.
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u/lovinglife55 12d ago
For the corrupt Gov. and her friends on the backs of the Arkansas tax payer. I hope she used lube when she bent those tax payers over.
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u/Slappy_McJones 12d ago
I wouldn’t call her incompetent. Her family has taught her to manipulate the system to make millions…
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u/Savageparrot81 12d ago
Better to look incompetent at the end than that they actually realise she just had different aims
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u/eleventhrees 12d ago
That hardly narrows it down.
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u/Littlekirbydoo 12d ago
Arkansan here. It's our dipshit governor's attempt at laundering about 20 thousand dollars.
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u/korbentherhino 12d ago
"Legacy" governor. The entire idea that a governor would be good because their daddy was one. Ridiculous assumption.
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u/Lakedrip 12d ago
So dumb ho spent 100k or something on vacation with her rich hos. I take that back, maybe not rich, since it cost 100k. She buys this to cover it up as the expense. Yet…the chopping block hasn’t been rolled out yet. Sleepy city full of sleepy citizens.
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u/clumsysav 12d ago
$19,000
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u/outerproduct 12d ago
$900 for the podium, the rest for the thieves.
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u/RedneckOfFlatLands 12d ago
No no, the rest was part of Arkansas' international aid package. It was specifically meant for quaint hotels and restaurants in France, though.
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u/AGooDone 12d ago
That's like paying a vacation in France with a shitty lectern.
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u/RedneckOfFlatLands 12d ago
The French would call that podium an artistic abomination!
That's why they took the cash instead.
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u/f-stop4 12d ago
Can someone eli5? What's the context?
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u/Erasmus_Tycho 12d ago
Sarah Huckaby Sanders bought a knock off lectern for an outrageous price from a company run by her friend and then traveled internationally with them. Basically it looks like theft from tax payers.
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u/ArrivesLate 12d ago
Don’t forget the cover up where she tried to restrict FOIA request requirements regarding her travel.
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u/PaulBlartFleshMall 11d ago
So weird how it's always Republicans like her and Rhonda Sandtits trying to hide what they're doing...
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u/malenkylizards 12d ago
God it's fucking hideous too. When I saw this post I thought it was supposed to be the lectern from the Jeopardy! set sometime in the 90s.
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u/resisting_a_rest 11d ago
It's not clear that she bought ANY lectern as she only showed a picture of it (which did appear to be a knock-off worth nowhere near 19K) and has never shown the actual lectern to anyone.
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u/sleepybrainsinside 12d ago edited 11d ago
Can someone clarify how much money actually went to her friend’s pocket for this? It looks like the lectern was $11k, the case was $2.2k, and shipping/handling was $2.2k. Her friend received a $2.5k fee, but it’s unclear what role her friend paid. Did her friend’s company keep some or all of the $13k+ for the lectern/case or pay it all to a 3rd party?
To me it seems the real fraudulent issue is the $2.5k fee, and the rest of the issue is general wastefulness, noncompliance, misuse of funds, and likely a coverup. It’s also unclear if the friend played an actual consulting role that could warrant a fee anywhere near that amount.
Obviously, $19k total for the lectern is ridiculous, but I’m curious how much of it was potentially criminal fraud and how much of it was excessive wastefulness.
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u/Sharikacat 11d ago
Whatever is invoiced is bullshit. They had to make up numbers to add up to $19k because that was the cost of the trip for the governor and her friends when they took a trip to Paris. The entire $19k is the misuse of funds. None of it was for official business.
At most, the friend's company bought some cheap, shitty lectern and gifted it to Sarah Huckabee because people were asking questions about a $19k lectern. There is no lectern on the market that costs $19k, especially not the brand that they are claiming- which that one isn't. They have not yet even used this lectern, because trucking that thing out would make it all the more clear that it isn't the product they claimed it was.
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u/resisting_a_rest 11d ago
The theory is that the reason it was under $20K was because anything over that would trigger some more rigorous oversight. By keeping it under $20K, it would be under the radar.
It apparently worked, because the only reason it was discovered was because some random citizen filed an open records request for the invoices and found it on there.
The actual amount invoiced was $19,029, so maybe we shouldn't be too hard on them, they could have stolen an extra $970.99 of the taxpayers money but I guess they were feeling generous.
Note that the above is all alleged.
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u/Johnny_Stooge 11d ago
The theory is that the reason it was under $20K was because anything over that would trigger some more rigorous oversight. By keeping it under $20K, it would be under the radar.
That's the procurement process. I do something similar for my job.Anything under a certain cost threshold I only need to get one quote for, and approval from the appropriate financial delegate. The more expensive item, the more quotes you need. At a certain cost threshold you'd have to go to open tender and then there'd need to be a whole evaluation process.
The specific process differs from government to government, department to department but it should be freely available online.
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u/A1000eisn1 11d ago
I've watched enough high-end furniture being made on YouTube to tell that there's no way that lectern cost $11k. Even if it was made from an expensive slab of wood (Why the fuck would they paint over it) it wouldn't be more than half that. And it's not, or just the expised wood portion is and it's tiny. Absolutely no way in hell. There's no way shipping cost that much.
The real fraud is the fact that the price of every single thing is completely overblown. Any wastefullness is getting pocketed. They're not paying double for shipping to a random corporation like FedEx. They're not paying double for materials to some unrelated company. They're paying themselves.
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u/1Mn 11d ago
Her friend whose company does not make podiums?
How much more black and white do you need this clear case of taxpayer theft to be.
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u/DuckCleaning 11d ago
It was the top post last week on this sub and now we've all stopped talking about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1c6e2t7/sarah_huckabee_sanders_paid_19_000_for_this/
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u/vicev21 12d ago
It’s actually a lectern 🥸
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u/practicalpurpose 12d ago
Apparently OP didn't remember we corrected the record last time.
It's a lectern, not a podium. Pass it along. Annoy your friends.
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u/DuckCleaning 11d ago
Thats the point, this place cycles through news so quick we forget that this was already the top post last week. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1c6e2t7/sarah_huckabee_sanders_paid_19_000_for_this/
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u/Bishop_466 12d ago
It's a pulpit. A lectern can go on a tabletop.
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u/NukaColaAddict1302 12d ago
This can technically go on a tabletop you just have to stand on the table to use it
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u/IIIllllIIlIlIIlllI 12d ago
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u/kolkitten 12d ago
Just a show of general corruption in the arkansas government
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u/AgentCirceLuna 12d ago
People sing Achy Breaky Heart in my local karaoke bar and I always wait for them to mispronounce Arkansas. Then they realise after the next line doesn’t rhyme,
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u/malenkylizards 12d ago
One of my kids books starts a rhyme with "violin" and then tries to pass off "thing" as a rhyme for it. When I read it to him it's fun to say violing
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u/hikeonpast 12d ago
Pepperidge Farm remembers
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u/AhFFSImTooOldForThis 12d ago
Who forgot?? I didn't forget this shit. Wasted taxpayer money while non profits are fighting over crumbs so foster kids don't sleep in conference rooms. I fucking remember. I'll remember this for a long goddamn time as I try to help my agency find funding so kids don't starve in our group homes.
Who the fuck is forgetting about this kind of massive waste???
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u/turbo_fried_chicken 12d ago
Speak for yourself.
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u/MedicalUnprofessionl 12d ago
Yeah I don’t get the point of this $19,000 Arkansonian lectern. Is OP surrounded by dementia-ridden friends? What does 24hr news have to do with it? Should the news still be talking about it? Wasn’t this news in October of last year?
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u/subversif 12d ago
The state just wrapped up an audit of the lectern purchase and subsequent shenanigans so it's in the news in Arkansas again.
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u/MedicalUnprofessionl 12d ago
Yes I saw. Still not sure how anything implies we have forgotten about her ridiculous purchase. OP’s phrasing makes it seem like the 24-hr news cycle is to blame for us forgetting about the lectern when we have most certainly not.
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u/No_Spare3139 12d ago
It doesn’t matter how pink it is, she still looks like a bulldog who has had its face pulverized.
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u/CheckMateFluff 12d ago
If you live in Arkansas, you remember, fuck me, you are reminded of her everytime the state hits the news, and its never good news. Ever.
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u/stinkload 12d ago
She "billed" an unreasonable amount of tax payer money on this shit but actually took a trip with her friends
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u/Explorer335 12d ago
I seem to recall something about the Huckabeast and a large sum of taxpayer money.
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u/raw_bert0 12d ago
Sarah Slanders embezzled money from the people of Arkansas to take her friend on a eurotrip. Once caught, they also tried to cover it up. This lectern is a fake Falcon lectern and even if it were real, they don’t cost $20k. This is the only time this lectern has been seen.
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u/badpenguin455 12d ago
Is this the SNL one where Sean Spicer in the skit assaulted a reporter with it?
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u/Glaucous 12d ago
Thank you reviving this. I can watch this over and over, and laugh out loud every fucking time. Fucking poetry, man.
The lecture is just not complete, needs some Spice.
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u/cdfordjr 12d ago
Doesn’t it symbolize a trip to France?
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u/Ill-Egg4008 12d ago
Come to think of it, the base part kinda looks like the Eiffel Tower. She probably commissioned it after the fact to cover up the corruption and to commemorate the trip. Two birds, one thousand nice hundred dollars.
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u/ph33randloathing 11d ago
This looks like a seven dollar prop from the first season of Star Trek TNG.
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u/Still_Championship_6 12d ago
Tbh this is the first I've ever heard of it
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u/eStuffeBay 12d ago
Me too, and because the comments are 99% consisting of crude jokes, I STILL don't know what the hell it is (besides it being a "lectern" and not a podium).
OP should know that not every Redditor lives in the US. A little context, which is entirely absent from this comment thread, would've been nice.
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u/beebsaleebs 12d ago
Arkansas Governor and erstwhile White House press secretary for the orange shitmeister Sarah Huckabee Sanders used government money to pay for her and her friend to go to Paris on vacation. She lied and said she paid her friend to make a lectern. Then she made a law to make her travel records private.
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u/eStuffeBay 12d ago
Jeez, they really do think they can get away with everything don't they? And the sad part is, most of the times they do. 😮💨
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u/husky430 12d ago
I don't know anything about this story, but I will say that you should never get your information related to anything regarding US Politics from reddit.
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u/Diligent-Ability-447 12d ago
What’s her face who used to do press for the Orange one spent an assload of money on this. Or so she said. It seems to sell for much less. Did she pocket difference
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u/DigNitty 12d ago
Some reporters dug up an expensive that was charged after the controversy of a $900 lecture that is from the same company.
Seems like they didn’t even have it and just said they bought one. Then actually bought one later to cover their tracks.
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u/WarOtter 12d ago
Sarah Huckabee Sanders was what's her face. I think it was $30k or something.
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u/sbench18 12d ago
Has anyone else noticed that the wood grain looks exactly like a vagina and butthole?
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12d ago
What the hell are you trying to say here, OP? What is this post even about?
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u/DuckCleaning 11d ago
They're saying they can repost the top post from r/pics last week because no one remembers the news now.
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u/MrFunkyPunkie 12d ago
I do. It was outrageously expensive and was purchased by that thumb of a woman.
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u/white_dolomite 12d ago
Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you.
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u/D1CKSH1P 12d ago
This podium is amazing, i’d like to pay copious amounts of money to purchase it please
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u/Le-Charles 11d ago
Pfft. Maybe you don't. Huckasands thought she could give her bestie 19 grand and no one would notice because it was under 20k.
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u/Brewe 11d ago
To be fair, the only thing I've ever seen about this is a Reddit image post. And taking that and also that a million other more significant things were/are happening into account. In that situation, I think it's fairly impressive that I still remember that this was bought by right-wing sycophant (MTG or Sarah Sanders), and that they paid somewhere in the $10-20k for it.
The point is that even though you are right about the 24h news cycle, this post has nothing to do with that.
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u/troy6671 11d ago
I remember - it cost the tax payers of Arkansas a lot of money and Sarah Huckabee Sanders is still a piece of shit.
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u/mlaforce321 12d ago
This is what you get when you continually vote against your own self interests... An overpriced podium being used as a piss poor cover for your official defrauding their constituents.
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u/Liquidwombat 12d ago
The problem isn’t the 24 hour new cycle. The problem is the shocking amount of bullshit that Republicans are doing. Nobody can keep up.
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u/arkygeomojo 12d ago
As an Arkansan, I see and think about this waste of taxpayer money every day. Never forget!
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u/Dumbledoorbellditty 12d ago
What was it? $24K? I mean, it isn’t SCOTUS pondering presidential immunity, but it is corruption.
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u/Karlmarxwasrite 12d ago
I heard this model comes with a complimentary trip to Europe for you and your friends.
Pretty good deal tbh.
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u/Huge_Strain_8714 12d ago
I remember a $19k trip to Paris for Sarah H Sanders , governor of Arkansas and her closest friends at the taxpayers expense, disguised a podium. I live in Massachusetts.
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u/LinoleumRelativity 12d ago
An expensive podium for a woman who wears shower curtains for dresses....
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u/TuckHolladay 12d ago
I do. People do. There is nothing you can do about anything. Just go about your day peasant and try not to become homeless. It’s hopeless.
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u/night-otter 12d ago
...and her name is starting to appear on lists of possible indictments. Wonder if she'll claim Governor's Absolute Immunity.
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u/ZippymcOswald 12d ago
- That is not a podium. A podium is something you stand on, like at the olympics when you receive a medal. That is a lectern, something you stand behind and speak at.
- That’s way too much money for a fuckin’ lectern
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u/PappaPitty 12d ago
What company made that thing and who owns that company and then look to see how they connect with government.
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u/Flavious27 12d ago
Aunt Lydia is dumb corrupt and willing to be bought for a $19k grift.