this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
579 points (99.2% liked)

politics

19096 readers
3325 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders rose to national prominence in part during her time at the lectern as White House press secretary, but the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for the Arkansas governor is undergoing scrutiny and prompting claims that records about it have been altered.

A legislative panel next week will take up a lawmaker’s request for an audit to review the purchase of the lectern, which was bought in June for $19,029.25 with a state credit card. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.

“From my experience, where we’re at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in,” Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey, who requested the audit, said. “Everyone knows them, they do their work, they’re very thorough and then they produce a detailed report that comes to the Legislature through an open committee.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The made in china version is $1000. Make it custom in the US with real hardwood and we are more like $5000. We can see that has a mic installed, which is $500 for a good mic (A $10 mic would work okay, but the $500 does sound better and isn't unreasonable), which we will pair with electronics to turn the audio into digital for another $500. While we are at it we will build in a computer with a presenters display all connected to the building video system - another $5000.

I'm trying to be generous by using the highest reasonable costs and the most complex feature set. I still can only come up with $11k.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oddly enough, the ‘official’ presidential mic is a pair of Shure SM57s which cost $100 brand new.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is nothing wrong with a SM57 in this application, but you can get a better mic for more $$$. Generally people going for a better mic first head to a studio and have an engineer try them on each one until they find one that sounds good with their voice. But in the end the difference from the sound of a SM57 is tiny so few bother, even the best professionals often choose a SM57 for their best recordings after comparing to more expensive microphones.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Except that it looks pretty much exactly like the picture on Amazon and ain't no custom job with real hardwood.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, but give any good local craftsman a picture and they can build one that looked so much like the picture that you wouldn't be able to tell from pictures it wasn't. The craftsman version would be much higher quality, but you would need an in person inspection to tell that. Of course the craftsman version could make something look nicer for the same price, or for more many can make something a lot nicer, but style often demand ugly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

$10 would work ok but $500 not unreasonable

It's just 50x the price to go from 'okay' to 'good', fuck it why not 200x to get the 'great' model? It's only taxpayers money!

Shit, if I ran this country, everyone would be using $10 ikea end tables stacked 2x tall for their 'I'm important and need a fancy stand'. The microphone is your voice being louder. Want a chair, that's not in the budget sorry. You so much as take an Uber to a press conference and that's also coming out of your own pocketbook. Ain't showed up on Thursday? You ain't getting paid for Thursday. Govt shutdown? Oh I'm sorry, you thought you were getting paid for not doing your job?

But no, no, gotta pamper the idiots who think they matter. Damn country is fucked 8 ways from Sunday.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A $100 mic (the SM57 the president uses) is enough better than a $10 mic that speakers and audiences should care. The $500 mic is slightly better but most people can't tell outside of AB tests in a controlled environment. As you go over $100 in price microphones get more special purpose and often are worse than cheaper ones outside of their special purpose - each human voice is different, so $500 is about the most you can spend on a general purpose microphone and be objectively better than something cheaper. While you can spend $2000 or even $4000 on a microphone, they tend to be very fragile - as in breath on them wrong and you break them - so they are only used in studios where you can ensure nobody breaths wrong around them.

Remember, I'm trying to come up with the reasonable most you could pay for this. You really should be spending less. There is no reasonable justification for the 200x microphone. There is a reasonable justification for the 50x cost - if only just barely justifiable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I could see a handmade, hardwood lectern by a local artisan reaching that price point, and I think that's totally reasonable for something that could be used for more than a century. Bonus, you're giving back to the residents of your state by buying local.

But nah, this thing looks like cheaper garbage than some of the furniture I owned in college. $900 is a stretch.