The 70 page (yes 70) lawsuit filed last Monday by Noelle Dunphy against Rudy Giuliani contains some truly jaw-dropping accusations. You can find the full court filing here. Here are a few extracts …
Clause 3-4: … Giuliani worked aggressively to hire Ms. Dunphy, offering her what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work as his Director of Business Development with a salary of $1 million per year plus expenses … but … he told Ms. Dunphy that her pay would have to be deferred and her employment kept “secret” …
Clause 6: Giuliani began abusing Ms. Dunphy almost immediately after she started working for the Defendants. He made clear that satisfying his sexual demands—which came virtually anytime, anywhere—was an absolute requirement of her employment and of his legal representation. Giuliani began requiring Ms. Dunphy to work at his home …
Clause 7: Giuliani also took Viagra constantly. While working with Ms. Dunphy, Giuliani would look to Ms. Dunphy, point to his erect penis, and tell her that he could not do any work until “you take care of this.” Thus, Ms. Dunphy worked under the constant threat that Giuliani might demand sex from her at any moment. Even when the Covid-19 pandemic halted Giuliani’s ability to physically assault her, he demanded that she disrobe during their work-related videoconferences.
Clause 8: Giuliani promised Ms. Dunphy that he would give her $300,000 if she would forgo her legal rights in connection with her pending case and “fuck me like crazy.” …
Buried in there is also this gem of an insight within clause 132 on page 25 …
He also asked Ms. Dunphy if she knew anyone in need of a pardon, telling her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split.
In the end he never paid her the salary he promised, but instead tossed her to one side.
The lawsuit she has filed now asks for $10 million. It is 70 pages long because she does to simply bring the accusations, she also brings receipts.
At least Giuliani has a good lawyer … oh wait, no he doesn’t, because this also happened this past week …
Bruce Castor dumps Rudy Giuliani as a client: ‘He’s not cooperating, and he’s not paying me’
Yes, that’s the same Bruce Castor who also represented Trump, but he just can’t cope with Giuliani’s antics, so he is out.
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 dive in.
Stolen Election
Kandiss Taylor, who was recently elected a Georgia GOP district chair, refuses to “participate in the insanity” of accepting that Joe Biden is president: “We’ve got to stop this insanity that’s perpetuating society. It is causing people who were normal to become mentally ill.“
- Yes, it’s the “Jesus, Guns, and Babies” lady. People thought she was parody then, and now, but she is ever so real.
- “To argue with a man/woman who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.” ― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
- The good news here is that when she stood for election in Georgia almost nobody voted for her. She lost the 2022 Republican primary and still to this day claims that her Republican primary was stolen, so they made her Georgia GOP district chair (insert face-palm here)
Self-Inflicted harm
Laura Loomer doesn’t … “really enjoy living in this country anymore” … “The collapse of America is inevitable. It’s only a matter of time.”
- She is basically ranting pure frustration about what she has done to herself
- She collects bans. As I pointed out last week, she has created her very own personal hell by getting herself banned by most social media, most payment processors, most vehicle rental firms, and most food delivery firms. She has totally done this to herself, and now rants about living in a hellscape that she has personally created just for herself. The rest of us are doing just fine.
The QAnon Queen and QAnon Devotees
Remember in early 2019 when Liz Crokin said that she was going to give up on QAnon if the long-promised “mass arrests don’t happen this year.” They didn’t happen and yet, four years later, Crokin is still a QAnon true believer.
- If you are wondering who she is, her schtick is the Pizzagate conspiracy claim -she still believe it. That’s the claim that the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C was the hub of a child sex trafficking ring via their basement … except they don’t have a basement. It was a QAnon predecessor belief and so laid the framework for the eventual emergence of QAnon.
- Doubling down on failed predictions is well understood. Psychologist Leon Festinger famously established this back in the 1950s. The term is Cognitive dissonance. He and his students infiltrated a UFO cult. The adherents had sold all they had because they believed aliens were coming to pick them all up. When no aliens showed up at the appointed time, their beliefs strengthened and they doubled down on it all. His 1957 book “When Prophecy Fails” covers that story. Liz here is just another example of this same psychology in play.
Meanwhile we have Lynz Piper-Loomis. She is a “Christian Constitutionalist” running for a seat in the South Carolina state House. She’s also a PizzaGate conspiracy theorist.
- Christian constitutionalist Translation: It actually means “constitution-themed alternative facts”
It’s not just them of course. The ReAwaken America Tour events are full of QAnon conspiracy theorists.
- Example: When American Idol contestant Jimmy Levy spoke, he claimed that people in Hollywood “are drinking the blood of children.” … hey wait, I think I’ve seen that movie. It was made from a book that Bram Stoker wrote. Meanwhile, these folks appear to think it was a documentary.
- Conspiracy claims like this are not actually new, but instead have a very long history dating back thousands of years. If curious, just google “Blood Libel“.
Picking Judges
Truly Bizarre
Anna Perez defends her practice of freely saying the word “f*ggot” to test if someone is a conservative, declaring that anyone who disapproves of her use of the word “is not a real conservative.”
- In other words, to be a “real conservative” you also need to been a raging homophobic bigot with no empathy for others … good to know.
- Translation: “If you disapprove of my bigoted language then you can’t be a part of my bigotry club” – Yep, that works for us.
Dennis Prager declares that “if every church, every school, every editorial page and every Democrat repeatedly told Americans, ‘Do not hate whites,’” then “almost overnight, the gratuitous hatreds wrecking our country would begin to disappear.”
- Tell me that you have no clue about what is actually going on without using the phrase “I have no clue what is actually going on“
Misogynistic Christian fascist incel Nick Fuentes says that once he turns 30, he’ll probably find himself a 16-year-old child bride: “Right when the milk is good, I want to start drinking the milk.“
- When he is 31 she’ll be finalising her divorce and pressing charges.
- Reminder: This is the guy Trump had round for thanksgiving dinner.
- It will of course be no surprise for you to discover that Nick has disabled comments – gosh I wonder why, what possible comments could he be worried about?
A Tampa pastor with a well-documented history of spreading dangerous conspiracies theories – like mass shootings are false flags and the COVID-19 pandemic was planned by Bill Gates, was awarded a commendation by the Board of Commissioners.
- Are you shocked to discover that this board of commissioners is in Florida. The term “Florida Man” is a meme that describes some guy in Florida doing something totally whacky and completely insane. Apparently this board are striving to maintain that reputation.
The False Profit$
Right-wing pastor Kent Christmas (yes, that’s his real name) insists that he and the other “prophets” who declared that Trump would be reelected in 2020 were right: “In the eyes of God, the President of the United States right now in the courts of justice in Heaven is not Joe Biden, but it’s Donald Trump.“
- He literally painted himself into this corner – By issuing a “prophecy” that then very publicly fails, he either needs to double down like this or admit that he is a false prophet. One of those options would decrease donations, so ….
- Meanwhile we have questions. What is the electoral breakdown for the “courts of justice in Heaven”? Does each angel get electoral votes? Is heaven divided into red clouds and blue clouds? Why does Heaven need “courts of justice“, what is going on there? We are really going to need more details on all this.
- Playing the “It happened on a spiritual level” is a rather familiar card for these “prophets” to deploy. When Harold Camping’s famous end of the world prediction failed back in May 2011, he claimed it had actually happened on a spiritual level only.
Christian nationalist MAGA cultist Lance Wallnau claims that he and others like him are “right so often” about whatever is happening in current events because they have “a prophetic anointing.“
- “right so often” translation is … never right about anything, ever.
- Reminder: Lance is the guy who famously prayed for Rush Limbaugh who was seriously ill with Cancer. He specifically claimed that a miracle had taken place and that the cancer was fully cured One ever so small flaw, Rush then died of the cancer he had been supposedly cured from by Lance … oops.
Nebraska Update: “You hate My Son more than you love your own family“
The GOP in the House this past week
The phrase “batshit crazy” does not even begin to describe what the GOP has become. Here is Jeffries laying it out …
“masks do harm” study has been retracted
So yes, apparently masks really do work, the claims that they don’t was, and always has been, BS.
Statistic of the week
The biggest argument against religion has been the actual behaviour of the religious people. The ultimate “inside job”. Apparently such actions have been having consequences …
Where are the Trump lawyers?
Fake News of the Week
The Debt Ceiling
Interesting Articles
- Andrew Prokop @ Vox: The failure of the Durham report.
- Amanda Marcotte @ Salon: Trump’s dogwhistle to the Christian right is a permission slip to openly hate women.
- Hemant Mehta @ Friendly Atheist: Christian “prophet”: Climate change is God’s way of pointing us to Bible verses.
- Hunter Walker @ Talking Points Memo: Capitol Hill Staffer Is A Prominent Follower Of Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
- John Fea @ Current: Michael Flynn’s anti-vaxxer dating site.
- David Edwards @ Raw Story: ‘They are missing’: Marjorie Taylor Greene confirms GOP has lost several Biden ‘whistleblowers.’
- Nina Burleigh @ The New Republic: Who Is Leonard Leo’s Mysterious Dark Money King?
- Catherine Caruso @ The Daily Dot: ‘Black hearted haters of Christ’: GOP favorite for governor in North Carolina used Facebook for years to push toxic anti-trans tropes.
- Eric Hananoki @ Media Matters: Eric Trump’s tour organizer and media partner: “Jared Kushner” might be a clone created by the Chinese government.
- Tim Dickinson @ Rolling Stone: Evil Mermaids, Demons, and Donald: This Pro-Trump Conference Got Real Weird.
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: GOP ‘living in its own universe’ with reactions to Durham report.
- Steve Reilly @ The Messenger: Five Republican Signers of ‘No Earmarks Pledge’ Are Requesting More Than $175 Million in Earmarks.
- Josh Israel @ The American Independent: GOP Senate candidate ‘kind of hoping’ US military will intervene in 2024 elections.
- Erik Maulbetsch @ The Colorado Times Recorder: CO Lawmaker Says He’s Going To ‘Buy Guns And Grind the Serial Numbers Off.’
- John Knefel and Sophie Lawton @ Media Matters: Conservative pundits are increasingly open about who they think should be killed.
- Jordan Green @ Raw Story: Anti-trans activists lock arms with North Carolina GOP gubernatorial frontrunner.