Today, for me and like-minded women everywhere, it was a laugh-your-ass-off day. Knowing that a lawsuit has been filed by a former female employee of Rudy’s is simply delicious. The contents in the lawsuit are completely disgusting and nauseating but it shows just how crazy this jackass is! He knew Ma. Dunphy was recording conversations. He gave her permission to have access to all of his emails, of which exceed 20,000. Rudy takes Viagra like it’s candy and he’s an alcoholic. What a pig! Oh and those emails contain plenty from the Trump family including the one and only Donald! Can’t wait for the details but Rikers should be calling soon.
E Jean Carroll and her attorney, Robbie Kaplan were on Rachel Maddow tonight. It was a wonderful interview and they pretty much said another defamation suit was likely. So for me, it was a spectacular day for women.
Randy Rainbow’s new musical video featuring Ron DeSantis is fabulous. Just came out. Seriously, I get through these abysmal days because of his videos. Bless his little pea-pickin’ heart.
After reading LFAA and Hubbell and a few other assessments of the latest monstrous news, I watched this gem. And my day is brightened with a smile I can't lose.
Mr G is a pig…no wait, I like pigs…I have know a lot of them. they are very smart and quite tidy actually . However a well made man, whose hair dye does not run, a martini and little viagra in a civilised private setting does not go amiss in ones golden years. It is unwise to tar all men with the same icky brush. 🍸
I once saw Rudy G at his son’s high school football game! Not a pleasant sight, a wide body in a cheap looking rumpled suit! Amazing how he collected so many wives!
Honestly, I believe that Joe Biden should not give an INCH to McCarthy. I say, if McCarthy is determined to let the debt ceiling stand, crash the economy, let him. He's weak, he'll be eaten alive by his own. Use the 14th Amendment and let the chips fall where they may. The Republicans will be held responsible and whatever happens, Democracy will win out, and we'll take care of each other. I'm no economist, so what do I know? But I do know you don't negotiate with terrorists.
Once again, TC, I must point out that Democrats are such doormats that we control the White House and the Senate, and more statehouses and governorships than we did a year ago.
And yet they are still too passive and whisper quiet in messaging. If Dems had been paying attention, playing offense and using the bully pulpit properly, I don’t think we would have found so many states with a Republican super majority. We have largely been asleep at the wheel while the takeover has occurred.
And yet Fearless Leader looks to be negotiating running up the white flag on the debt ceiling. Agreeing to anything with those people is giving in to terrorists and making the next time worse.
Sadly, TC, you are altogether too correct! Wish there was a little blue pill that could make Dem gumption grow to implacable strength and stiffen...uh...spines.
And a Pims cup. It’s the “One is way to civilised to get scrappy” british routine. Although, they might not push you off the curb they are however, excellent at the stinging retort.
I have a meme that deals with the Dems not fighting back, but Robert would kick me off his list if I posted it here. Check out my profile pic on FB. Pretty much sums it up.
Thanks to you, Robert (and, indirectly, Andy B.) for calling my attention to the Forbes article. I am prompted to share my own thoughts about the significance of this article and the position (legal arguments) it articulates. Bottom line, it has given me a sense that there is another way out.
I have no doubt of the catastrophic consequences of a failure to deal with the impending cash deficit implied (or imposed) by the so-called debt ceiling. It would be devastating and it would be worldwide. I also have come to believe there are 6-10 extreme members of the House Republican caucus who -- not unlike children fascinated with their first opportunity to play with matches -- are excited by the possibility of (1) seeing what will happen and (2) the prospect of a political wreckage from which they believe the President and the Democrats could not recover. These apparatchiks may prove to be immovable obstacles to any negotiated "solution" to the debt ceiling gordian knot and may also be agents of the inevitable destruction of Kevin McCarthy's tour as Speaker.
Hence, not only the search but also the practical and existential necessity of an alternative resolution of the problem. The so-called 14th Amendment solution has always appealed to me, although it is logistically fraught with all sorts of difficulty, not least of which is its uncertainty, protracted gestation and the material risk of its ultimate failure as a validated legal conclusion. It has also troubled me to rest the entire outcome of this controversy on the little words included in a legal instrument constructed 155 years ago -- "shall not be questioned." All that being said, today this Forbes article -- written by Robert Hockett -- is a comprehensive, well-reasoned, much more robust and muscular legal argument why the debt ceiling is a nullity as it is being wielded by Speaker McCarthy and the House Republicans. This, to my mind, is a real winner, and it has the heft to carry the weight it would be asked to carry in lieu of an agreement to "raise" the debt ceiling.
A recent NYT Daily episodes did a good job of pointing out the challenges of “invoking” the 14th, including the probability that the government will be forced to borrow money at an extremely high interest rate because of uncertainty about the legal validity of those loans. However, it also concluded that the worst case financial challenges of legal uncertainty, as bad as they are, would be less catastrophic than the results of a default. I think Biden, by not taking it off the table, is playing it wisely.
Gee, Robert Hubbell, since you're going to be at the White House anyway, would you mind dropping off a copy of Robert Hockett's Forbes article to President Biden? It'd sure help us a lot!
I really don’t get it! Garland is such a disappointment. I may find, however, that he is so quiet and so understated, that he will someday deliver some bombshell result of all they have been ‘investigating’. Then I might feel bad about saying that about him. But, for now, what the HELL do they do all day, everyday!
Don’t be. Think about all the evidence his teams has accumulated and the people caught in his net over the past 12 months leading to many more convictions.
Good point! Something else that occurs to me is that having prosecutions decentralized, occurring at the state and local levels, means that these prosecutions have a better chance of continuing, even if the federal government falls into GQP hands in 2024 (Lord, help us 🙏🏽)
Yeah, we need to kick Durbin and Feinstein in the butt and get more of Biden’s judicial nominations approved. Everything is connected to everything else.
Perhaps Garland thought that it’s not worth any airtime to give Dunham’s report credibility. Garland is still in the mindset of a Federal judge versus being in a political position of Attorney General. It’s frustrating yes. However the mantra of people who have been close to Trump then went through their “break ups” have constantly said that you need to ignore him and not give him airtime, basically suffocating him from spewing the toxic waste he spreads. We need the Democratic leaders to get on the air and call out the bullshit. Not sure why everyone is so laid back. This is a war for the soul of democracy and the democrats think this is a pillow fight.
I'm thinking that Garland is showing us why he would have been an excellent Supreme Court Justice. I think he may also be looking for others to state the obvious rather than himself jumping into the limelight or putting his thumbs on the scales of justice. His appointment of Jack Smith, when the opportunity presented itself, seems to have been a masterful stroke. All that being said, for the sake of our democracy, let's get on with it!
One can't help laughing at the fulminations and Big Announcements of Gym Jordan and James Comer. I keep thinking of the Wizard of Oz. Smoke, mirrors, a drawn curtain and then...a nothing-burger. I hope their constituents in Ohio (4th) and Kentucky (1st) recognize foolishness writ large when they see it.
This is all depressing. We don't talk about legislating anymore. The Country is mired in one lawsuit after another. And this is from Republican and Democrats alike.
When was the last time we aspired to anything? Are we doomed to wander around in legal muck?
Yes. I know that Robert. I keep a running list of his Administration's accomplishments and use it frequently. What I am referring to is the national discourse in general. The list of prosecutions, defenses, indictments, convictions, appeals, sentencing, subpoenas, cases pending, blaming, wild goose chases, threats, and chaos in general is exhausting. Is this who we are now? Maybe we need to teach the Law instead of Civics.
May 16, 2023·edited May 16, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Once again, you made sense of a something that had my head spinning. The confusing morass of the Durham probe, made even murkier by pretty much all of the news outlets, was frustrating. You pulled it into sharp focus and did a tidy job of contrasting the results of both the Durham and Mueller investigations. This is one of the reasons your newsletter is so valuable! Sadly, the mass audience will only get the spin that seems to benefit the far right. If only your column was read far and wide. How can we get it “out there”?
You can see the gQp's problem: invisible witnesses/whistleblowers are difficult to see or hear and they do not leave any footprints. It's such a problem.
I’m sorry, Robert, but you must be wrong. All the alerts that came across my phone yesterday screamed that Durham’s investigation SHOWED that the FBI never should have opened an investigation into Trump and the Russians. Todays MSM all talked about the scathing Durham report. None of them indicated that it was a nothing burger. There was no mention of the other details you talked about so you must have made them up! Now I hope you can see the dripping sarcasm in my comment. 😂
I don’t know exactly but the NC Dem Governor made some “noise” by doing a veto “rally” on an abortion ban that his Repub legislature sent to him. He made a big and fun razzle dazzle over it, energizing his constituents and gaining some media attention. Maybe more like these! Rallies, Town Halls, noise in general.. Media seems to be attracted to a spectacle, so, barring violence and negativity, make a lot of noise and keep it up. Eventually it may turn the tide.
I saw a pic in AP online of a man and woman holding signs “Politicians make crappy doctors.” How about we make T-shirts “Authoritarians make crappy leaders” ?
I don't fear investigations into conspiracy theories. I object to (most) of them because they are a colossal waste of resources - our tax $s and Congressional resources.
I absolutely groove Randy Rainbow. He/she etc. keeps me laughing. Why haven't I heard of the antics sooner. Grumpy Trumpy Felon from Jamaica in Queens is a howl!
Also, just a reminder: "THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE TURN SLOWLY BUT GRIND EXCEEDING FINE."
Today, for me and like-minded women everywhere, it was a laugh-your-ass-off day. Knowing that a lawsuit has been filed by a former female employee of Rudy’s is simply delicious. The contents in the lawsuit are completely disgusting and nauseating but it shows just how crazy this jackass is! He knew Ma. Dunphy was recording conversations. He gave her permission to have access to all of his emails, of which exceed 20,000. Rudy takes Viagra like it’s candy and he’s an alcoholic. What a pig! Oh and those emails contain plenty from the Trump family including the one and only Donald! Can’t wait for the details but Rikers should be calling soon.
E Jean Carroll and her attorney, Robbie Kaplan were on Rachel Maddow tonight. It was a wonderful interview and they pretty much said another defamation suit was likely. So for me, it was a spectacular day for women.
Randy Rainbow’s new musical video featuring Ron DeSantis is fabulous. Just came out. Seriously, I get through these abysmal days because of his videos. Bless his little pea-pickin’ heart.
Sharing Randy's latest!
https://twitter.com/RandyRainbow/status/1658098490847686659?s=20
Oh my, oh my, oh my, my my myeee!
After reading LFAA and Hubbell and a few other assessments of the latest monstrous news, I watched this gem. And my day is brightened with a smile I can't lose.
Thank you!
Thank you! Randy is the absolute best for skewering the MAGA pols.
Agree, T L!
😂😂
Mr G is a pig…no wait, I like pigs…I have know a lot of them. they are very smart and quite tidy actually . However a well made man, whose hair dye does not run, a martini and little viagra in a civilised private setting does not go amiss in ones golden years. It is unwise to tar all men with the same icky brush. 🍸
Lol yes, pls let's not insult the pigs! They are often wrongly used as an insult but they are intelligent and clean.
I once saw Rudy G at his son’s high school football game! Not a pleasant sight, a wide body in a cheap looking rumpled suit! Amazing how he collected so many wives!
A profound mystery, however as Georgie Jessel said "He had a way with women, it was expensive but it was a way" 😂
E. Jean just posted a Substack article entitled "JOY! JOY! JOY! JOY! JOY! AND GREAT HEAVENS TO BETSY!
We won!"
"https://ejeancarroll.substack.com/p/joy-joy-joy-joy-joy-and-great-heavens"
Honestly, I believe that Joe Biden should not give an INCH to McCarthy. I say, if McCarthy is determined to let the debt ceiling stand, crash the economy, let him. He's weak, he'll be eaten alive by his own. Use the 14th Amendment and let the chips fall where they may. The Republicans will be held responsible and whatever happens, Democracy will win out, and we'll take care of each other. I'm no economist, so what do I know? But I do know you don't negotiate with terrorists.
Not one FFF-ing inch. McCarthy manufactured this crisis. Let it land on him like a ton of bricks.
Invoke the 14th Amendment, passed without southern Democrats, who are today's Republicans. The greed class, led by people like Charles Koch.
Professional Democrats are always happy to bring a cucumber sandwich and a policy memo to a gunfight.
Once again, TC, I must point out that Democrats are such doormats that we control the White House and the Senate, and more statehouses and governorships than we did a year ago.
And yet they are still too passive and whisper quiet in messaging. If Dems had been paying attention, playing offense and using the bully pulpit properly, I don’t think we would have found so many states with a Republican super majority. We have largely been asleep at the wheel while the takeover has occurred.
What 'bully pulpit' do you suggest since Fox News owns the market share? Biden and other Dems do speak out and are barely covered by the MSM.
And yet Fearless Leader looks to be negotiating running up the white flag on the debt ceiling. Agreeing to anything with those people is giving in to terrorists and making the next time worse.
He doesn’t appear that wqy to me. But I guess I am just naturally more hopeful and optimistic than you are.
I used to be hopeful and optimistic, then I dealt with politics.
Sadly, TC, you are altogether too correct! Wish there was a little blue pill that could make Dem gumption grow to implacable strength and stiffen...uh...spines.
As Clementine Paddleford said, "Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be."
And a Pims cup. It’s the “One is way to civilised to get scrappy” british routine. Although, they might not push you off the curb they are however, excellent at the stinging retort.
I have a meme that deals with the Dems not fighting back, but Robert would kick me off his list if I posted it here. Check out my profile pic on FB. Pretty much sums it up.
I did! LOL, you are correct on all counts! Love it!
Thanks to you, Robert (and, indirectly, Andy B.) for calling my attention to the Forbes article. I am prompted to share my own thoughts about the significance of this article and the position (legal arguments) it articulates. Bottom line, it has given me a sense that there is another way out.
I have no doubt of the catastrophic consequences of a failure to deal with the impending cash deficit implied (or imposed) by the so-called debt ceiling. It would be devastating and it would be worldwide. I also have come to believe there are 6-10 extreme members of the House Republican caucus who -- not unlike children fascinated with their first opportunity to play with matches -- are excited by the possibility of (1) seeing what will happen and (2) the prospect of a political wreckage from which they believe the President and the Democrats could not recover. These apparatchiks may prove to be immovable obstacles to any negotiated "solution" to the debt ceiling gordian knot and may also be agents of the inevitable destruction of Kevin McCarthy's tour as Speaker.
Hence, not only the search but also the practical and existential necessity of an alternative resolution of the problem. The so-called 14th Amendment solution has always appealed to me, although it is logistically fraught with all sorts of difficulty, not least of which is its uncertainty, protracted gestation and the material risk of its ultimate failure as a validated legal conclusion. It has also troubled me to rest the entire outcome of this controversy on the little words included in a legal instrument constructed 155 years ago -- "shall not be questioned." All that being said, today this Forbes article -- written by Robert Hockett -- is a comprehensive, well-reasoned, much more robust and muscular legal argument why the debt ceiling is a nullity as it is being wielded by Speaker McCarthy and the House Republicans. This, to my mind, is a real winner, and it has the heft to carry the weight it would be asked to carry in lieu of an agreement to "raise" the debt ceiling.
Hoping Biden and team have read it.
A recent NYT Daily episodes did a good job of pointing out the challenges of “invoking” the 14th, including the probability that the government will be forced to borrow money at an extremely high interest rate because of uncertainty about the legal validity of those loans. However, it also concluded that the worst case financial challenges of legal uncertainty, as bad as they are, would be less catastrophic than the results of a default. I think Biden, by not taking it off the table, is playing it wisely.
Gee, Robert Hubbell, since you're going to be at the White House anyway, would you mind dropping off a copy of Robert Hockett's Forbes article to President Biden? It'd sure help us a lot!
I am so disgusted with Merrick Garland! What a disappointment!
I really don’t get it! Garland is such a disappointment. I may find, however, that he is so quiet and so understated, that he will someday deliver some bombshell result of all they have been ‘investigating’. Then I might feel bad about saying that about him. But, for now, what the HELL do they do all day, everyday!
Don’t be. Think about all the evidence his teams has accumulated and the people caught in his net over the past 12 months leading to many more convictions.
Good point! Something else that occurs to me is that having prosecutions decentralized, occurring at the state and local levels, means that these prosecutions have a better chance of continuing, even if the federal government falls into GQP hands in 2024 (Lord, help us 🙏🏽)
Agree as long as the judges are not all Republicans
Yeah, we need to kick Durbin and Feinstein in the butt and get more of Biden’s judicial nominations approved. Everything is connected to everything else.
Feinstein is a sad case. She needs to resign.
Perhaps Garland thought that it’s not worth any airtime to give Dunham’s report credibility. Garland is still in the mindset of a Federal judge versus being in a political position of Attorney General. It’s frustrating yes. However the mantra of people who have been close to Trump then went through their “break ups” have constantly said that you need to ignore him and not give him airtime, basically suffocating him from spewing the toxic waste he spreads. We need the Democratic leaders to get on the air and call out the bullshit. Not sure why everyone is so laid back. This is a war for the soul of democracy and the democrats think this is a pillow fight.
I'm thinking that Garland is showing us why he would have been an excellent Supreme Court Justice. I think he may also be looking for others to state the obvious rather than himself jumping into the limelight or putting his thumbs on the scales of justice. His appointment of Jack Smith, when the opportunity presented itself, seems to have been a masterful stroke. All that being said, for the sake of our democracy, let's get on with it!
Agreed and thanks!
One can't help laughing at the fulminations and Big Announcements of Gym Jordan and James Comer. I keep thinking of the Wizard of Oz. Smoke, mirrors, a drawn curtain and then...a nothing-burger. I hope their constituents in Ohio (4th) and Kentucky (1st) recognize foolishness writ large when they see it.
“Hope is the thing with feathers...”
-Emily Dickinson
https://poets.org/poem/hope-thing-feathers-254
This is all depressing. We don't talk about legislating anymore. The Country is mired in one lawsuit after another. And this is from Republican and Democrats alike.
When was the last time we aspired to anything? Are we doomed to wander around in legal muck?
Joe Biden's first two years were the most productive of any president since FDR.
Yes. I know that Robert. I keep a running list of his Administration's accomplishments and use it frequently. What I am referring to is the national discourse in general. The list of prosecutions, defenses, indictments, convictions, appeals, sentencing, subpoenas, cases pending, blaming, wild goose chases, threats, and chaos in general is exhausting. Is this who we are now? Maybe we need to teach the Law instead of Civics.
Once again, you made sense of a something that had my head spinning. The confusing morass of the Durham probe, made even murkier by pretty much all of the news outlets, was frustrating. You pulled it into sharp focus and did a tidy job of contrasting the results of both the Durham and Mueller investigations. This is one of the reasons your newsletter is so valuable! Sadly, the mass audience will only get the spin that seems to benefit the far right. If only your column was read far and wide. How can we get it “out there”?
The very idea of “Rudy Guilianni” and “sex” appearing in the same sentence is sick-making.
If that makes you sick, DO NOT read the lawsuit.
You can see the gQp's problem: invisible witnesses/whistleblowers are difficult to see or hear and they do not leave any footprints. It's such a problem.
Shape shifters!
I’m sorry, Robert, but you must be wrong. All the alerts that came across my phone yesterday screamed that Durham’s investigation SHOWED that the FBI never should have opened an investigation into Trump and the Russians. Todays MSM all talked about the scathing Durham report. None of them indicated that it was a nothing burger. There was no mention of the other details you talked about so you must have made them up! Now I hope you can see the dripping sarcasm in my comment. 😂
And "presto magico!" the story has disappeared from the Fox News website. It was a nothing burger.
https://www.foxnews.com/
It’s so incredibly frustrating! I couldn’t stand reading or listening to any media yesterday.
I don’t know exactly but the NC Dem Governor made some “noise” by doing a veto “rally” on an abortion ban that his Repub legislature sent to him. He made a big and fun razzle dazzle over it, energizing his constituents and gaining some media attention. Maybe more like these! Rallies, Town Halls, noise in general.. Media seems to be attracted to a spectacle, so, barring violence and negativity, make a lot of noise and keep it up. Eventually it may turn the tide.
I saw a pic in AP online of a man and woman holding signs “Politicians make crappy doctors.” How about we make T-shirts “Authoritarians make crappy leaders” ?
I don't fear investigations into conspiracy theories. I object to (most) of them because they are a colossal waste of resources - our tax $s and Congressional resources.
I absolutely groove Randy Rainbow. He/she etc. keeps me laughing. Why haven't I heard of the antics sooner. Grumpy Trumpy Felon from Jamaica in Queens is a howl!
Also, just a reminder: "THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE TURN SLOWLY BUT GRIND EXCEEDING FINE."
SUN TZE