Trump Can't Keep His Mouth Shut
It's "F**king Mondays", but on Tuesday...
Apologies again to our readers for our “F**king Mondays” column coming out on Tuesday. Anyway, here we are at the beginning of the week (sort of) with your guide to what to read/watch and look out for in the world of politics.
E. Jean Carroll is suing Trump again
After being ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $2 million for sexual abusing her and $3 million for defaming her, Donald Trump just could not keep his mouth shut. So Carroll is suing him again after Trump continued defaming her on CNN. From the NY Times:
E. Jean Carroll, who this month won $5 million in damages from former President Donald J. Trump, is now seeking a “very substantial” additional amount in response to his insults on a CNN program just a day after she won her sexual abuse and defamation case.
Ms. Carroll’s filing Monday in Manhattan federal court seeks to intensify the financial pain for Mr. Trump. The jury in her civil case found him liable on May 9 for sexual abuse and defamation.
In the infamous town hall on CNN earlier this month, Trump called Carroll a “whack job”, swore on his children that he had “no idea” who she was, and that it was a “fake” and “made up story”. Now it seems a court will decide on whether Trump’s words have any merit. Judging by the last verdict and the ex-president’s disastrous testimony, one suspects Carroll has a pretty good chance of victory.
Tucker taking on Fox
An interesting development in the Tucker Carlson/Fox News fallout. From The Daily Beast:
Tucker Carlson and his loyalists have begun an intense pressure campaign against Fox News in the hopes of getting him released from a noncompete clause—and people familiar with the situation tell Confider the squabble may only get worse as the fired primetime star may know where some proverbial bodies are buried.
A steady stream of leaks about Fox News over the past week, designed to embarrass the network or further undermine its standing with conservative viewers, have come after negotiations between Carlson’s lawyers and Fox have stalled out.
The talks were initially productive, Confider has learned, but have since turned into “meaningless conversations,” as one person with knowledge of the matter described it.
According to the Beast, “Fox had been willing to let Carlson appear on a digital platform so long as he stayed off traditional TV—something which they have since backtracked on as the former on-air host announced he’s taking his show to Twitter.” Carlson reportedly has knowledge of extremely “damaging Fox secrets, including revelations about extramarital affairs and workplace misconduct”.
My guess is that Carlson is drastically overestimating his leverage over the network here. He may well have dirty network secrets he could divulge, but Fox has almost unlimited resources they can use to destroy him. Carlson likely still sees himself as a major player in the MAGA/GOP world, but the reality is that he is just another Bill O’Reilly, a has-been Fox presenter desperate for attention and forced to go online for the attention he craves. The fact that Carlson wants to build a new media empire on a dying social media network that will soon be taken over by an ad executive tells you everything you need to know. Advertisers fled Carlson’s show on Fox, so it’s hard to see how his new show on Twitter will generate meaningful revenue.
Either way, the more Carlson and Fox fight, the less damage they do to the country. So let’s hope they keep it up.
Invoke the 14th dammit
An old friend of mine (and former guest on our old podcast The Bantercast) tweeted this:
David is an incredibly knowledgable historian, so definitely well qualified to talk about this — and his tweet went seriously viral for a reason: the public really couldn’t care less about the debt ceiling. That is unless the US doesn’t raise it and doesn’t pay its bills, because then the economy will fall off a cliff and we’ll all be eating cat food for the foreseeable future. As of writing this, it looks like a debt ceiling deal between the Biden White House and Kevin McCarthy’s Congress isn’t going to happen. My position has long been that Democrats should not negotiate on the debt ceiling under any circumstances, and should simply invoke the 14th Amendment that states:
“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
Biden should do this now to stabilize markets and build in time for Republican legal challenges that will undoubtedly cause more uncertainty. He has already left this very, very late due to his willingness to negotiate with McCarthy, but I don’t see any other options. The GOP’s demands are ludicrous and giving into them would hand them them unlimited bargaining power for future negotiations.
What to watch
I’ve been watching “The Knick” on HBO, a critically acclaimed HBO series set in the early 1900s in New York City. Set in the Knickerbocker Hospital (nicknamed "The Knick"), the show follows the brilliant yet deeply troubled Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) and the extraordinary medical staff as they navigate the complex and rapidly changing world of medicine. The series delves into the lives and struggles of the doctors, nurses, and patients at a time of great socio-political upheaval.
The show, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is exceptional on a number of levels. From the gripping storytelling to the extraordinary production design and attention to historical accuracy, the show immerses you so deeply you start to feel what it must have been like to live back then. Clive Owens performance alone is reason enough to tune in, but the writing is top notch too, combining themes of racism, gender inequality, addiction, and the extreme ethical dilemmas of medical progress (for example: do you cure syphilis by infecting someone with malaria?). Highly, highly recommended.
See you next Monday!
Read the latest for Banter Members and get a 50% discount:
College Young Republican Clubs Provide A Preview Of A Dying GOP
The Young Republicans I was with 30 years ago were paragons of civility compared to the Young Republicans of today.
by Justin Rosario
Once upon a time, I was a blissfully ignorant college student who paid little to no attention to politics. One day, a friend of mine, Jen, asked me if I wanted to go on a trip to Washington D.C. with the Young Republicans club. I was not a Republican (or a Democrat…yet) but the trip was inexpensive, I was young, and I had never been on a road trip with friends before. Also, Jen wanted me there to head off any possibility of her being raped so of course I was going to go. You may recall I’ve told that story before.
On this trip, I learned exactly what the Republican Party was and what it stood for. The sour taste the experience left in my mouth solidified my political leanings if not my involvement. And yet, the Young Republicans of the early 90s, distasteful as they were, were not the toxic assholes we see today.
What we see today is a preview of the rapidly approaching death of the GOP…
Continue reading this Members Only article here (word count 2378), and get 50% off a Banter Membership:
There hasn't been a scandal at Fox News yet that could take that shithole network down, Carlson doesn't have any dirt that will be able to, either. What may hurt them is if they lose viewers. Murdoch is trying to renegotiate carriage fees with at least two big cable companies and having fewer viewers means he has less negotiating power. So, maybe the amount anyone that hasn't completely cut the cord pays for Fox News to be part of their subscription won't increase.
And, Ericson hasn't had an issue that he isn't wrong about yet, this is nothing new. But, Democrats, as usual, are doing a terrible job of getting the two main points out there - both McCarthy and trump in the past have said that raising the debt ceiling shouldn't be political, and that the debt ceiling is to pay bills racked up by Congress and previous administrations. It's a credit card. You have to pay it what you've charged on it. It's not a difficult concept.
Am on a fixed income of ss. (If we get it). How much is it for half price for a year?