Mr Giuliani is rather rapidly moving into what is often termed the “Finding Out” phase. This past week the news is that his own lawyer is now suing him for $1.3m in unpaid fees. It would appear he took a page from the Trump playbook by failing to pay those he engages with for services.
The lawsuit was filed on Sep 18. If Giuliani fails to respond within 30 days then the default is that the court will rule that he must pay the sum of $1,360,196.10 – Court filing is here.
The lawyer suing Giuliani is Robert J Costello, of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. They are long-term associates. Giuliani and Costello were federal prosecutors together in New York in the 1970s, so have a history of being good buddies. It turns out that not paying your legal bills since 2019 is a bit of a deal-breaker when it comes to that friendship.
Because Giuliani jumped into bed with Trump he now faces …
- 13 racketeering and conspiracy counts in Georgia
- Has already been found liable for defaming two election workers in Georgia. On Sep 21 this week the judge set the trial date to decide how much he has to pay for this one to be Dec 11.
- He also faces a $10m lawsuit from a former assistant who alleges offenses including abuse of power, wage theft, sexual assault and harassment
- Has been disbarred by the DC Bar Association
- And also, let’s not forget that this past week on Wednesday Sep 20, Cassidy Hutchinson’s new book describes how Rudy Giuliani groped her on January 6 … “like a wolf closing in on its prey”
Watch out GOP, MAGA, and Evangelicals, because this is all very symbolic of what happens when you associate with Trump. You face total financial ruin also the utter devastation of your public reputation.
Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary.
With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s once again dive into this very murky pool of absurdity and stupidity.
Christian Nationalism
Religious Right Leaders Demand Next GOP SCOTUS Nominees Meet ‘Biblical Worldview’ Standard
- Translation: Religion Right leaders Demand Next GOP SCOTUS Nominee is a Homophobic bigot who will happily trample all over basic human rights.
- Side note: This initiative is being led by the AFA, a group that was recently revealed to be financially corrupt and also covered up sexual harassment of one male staff member by another male staff member.
- With the observation that several justices are quite elderly this is now on the ballot in 2024
Religious Fanatics
- Meanwhile, if a same-sex couple want to get married then this same guy will be insisting it is not a private personal matter that is nobody else’s business, and will insist on sticking his nose into that.
- I guess being persecuted now means that we are simply mentioning his scandals
- Side Note: He claimed it was consensual … but when interviewed, yep you guessed it, “the woman involved in the incident — who has not been named publicly — described it as a sexual assault and as non-consensual.“
- This is what you call “Christian family values” … GOP style.
In Springfield, IL, Catholic schools are taking attendance at Mass to make sure parents are attending. If they skip, their kids “could lose tuition breaks worth thousands of dollars.”
- Nothing like a good threat to bring people back to Church.
- It also means that parents who can afford the full tuition are exempt from the mandatory church-going
Pastor Greg Locke is caught in a rather blatant lie
- He claimed his massive event over Labor Day was a success, and the sheriff told him there were “no problems.” The sheriff’s office actually says the event was “not a success” and they’re sending Locke a bill for $7,500.
Christian hate-preacher Deven Rogers delivered a sermon rationalizing slavery. “What would be better? For them to have lived their entire life in Africa free, doing their Voodoo or whatever, and then dying and going to hell… or what happened? And then they go to Heaven?“
- So yes, FFS is indeed the correct response.
- As for being saved from doing VooDoo, what exactly does he think eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the saviour is all about?
Meanwhile, the Jesus, Guns, and Babies lady confessed last Tuesday that she has never heard of the Constitution …
So this past week “The Transformed Wife”, Lori Alexander who every week tweets weird stuff, rolled with a proud proclamation of stupidity. The best comment on it has been … “A bit long but it’ll make a good epitaph” …
Retirement is not Biblical
Charlie Kirk calls for cuts to Social Security: “I’m not a fan of retirement. I don’t think retirement is biblical.“. Him saying this is basically him channeling David Barton who also added the claim that retired people only live 2.4 years.
- Are guns biblical? Are cars biblical? Are planes biblical? Are glasses biblical? Is anything using electricity biblical? … etc… Use this exact same “logic” to remove all the stuff that’s not mentioned in the bible and you will end up making even the Amish look like cutting edge modernists.
- Fact Check on the Barton Claim: Avg length of retirement is 2.4 years. US Census Bureau: 18 to 21 years … oh … Mr Barton lied, what a shock to discover that, I’m sure nobody saw that coming.
What explains this?
Looking at the above it might be tempting to suggest that the number of elderly retirees in Florida is high, hence the high rates of COVID hospitalisation.
Well hey, guess what, the state with the highest median age is Maine. Florida is number 5. While Florida has the highest current COVID hospitalization rate in the US, Maine has the lowest, it is at the bottom of the above chart.
How is that possible?
Maine has the 4th highest vaccination rate, so way beyond what Florida is doing.
This is what happens when you appoint an anti-vax Surgeon General in Florida who then proceeds to discourage COVID boosters, even among high-risk people.
Charity begins (and ends) at home for Pastor
What is perhaps the only real surprise here is that he managed to find a car for just 30K
Deeply Weird
Sound of Freedom hero Tim Ballard allegedly pressured women to take showers with him or share a bed, ostensibly to fool human traffickers, asking one “how far she was willing to go” to save kids.
- Is anybody actually surprised to find that the supposed right-wing hero is not exactly the moral pillar they all believed him to be.
- 990 documents for his “non-profit” also reveal that he paid himself a base salary of over half a million. Well yes, that’s one sure way to guarantee you never make a profit. With costs like that is there anything actually left for charity? … you can find the 990 documentation here.
Rep Steve Scalise, who has a history of being very strongly anti-mask, is back in the Capitol this past week amid chemotherapy treatments, and was addressing reporters while wearing a mask. He notes that his “protocols” are going to be a little different going forward because of his immune system.
- We can of course wish him well … but Jesus, the hypocrisy is truly stunning. When it is his life on the line and not your kids, he suddenly converts and embraces the use of masks.
- Then again, this is the same guy that was shot back in 2017, and rescued by a gay police officer … yet he still loves guns and hates gay people.
A pastor who briefly shot to fame for rapping in support of Ted Cruz is now selling industrial-strength bleach tablets to parents and has admitted that many of his customers are using the product to treat autism in their children.
- Least anybody doubt that he is running a scam, then permit me to spell it out for you – it’s a scam. Autism is not an illness, you can’t “cure it”.
- What we actually have here is the Miracle Mineral Supplement scam that has been doing the rounds for the past decade and was started by ex-Scientologist Jim Humble back to 2006. People have literally died using this stuff and yet here we are, it is still doing the rounds.
The False Profit$
Self-described Christian “prophet” Robin Bullock has a message for his critics. “You accuse me of doing a show?! You’re the show! You’re the one with your head stuck up the butt and the ass of religion!“
- He has a backdrop, a stage outfit, and props, but it’s ‘not a show’ … LOL
- I also suspect the turn of phrase deployed by the ancient prophets was a tad more eloquent
Political Clap Back of the week
So who will it be?
Trump is of course in the lead, but faces huge legal challenges. A rather nice insights here is that even Christie is now leading over DeSantis.
What is perhaps also great to see is that all three GOP leaders of the poll are people of colour.
- Side note: The orange ethnicity is of course “Oompa Loompa”
Meanwhile …
For a bit of context on this next one, NYT Columnist David Brooks was complaining about paying $78 for a burger and a drink at the airport …