Alfredo Over At The Dairy Queen
This is from Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen, everybody’s favorite hamburger flipper. It is the honest to God stone cold dead solid perfect truth.
Deep in your heart you always knew this was true, but now it’s the law.
Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ruled in the case of Foster v. Schock, No. 15-cv-03325 (N.D. Ill.) that a candidate’s campaign promises are worthless.
Or at least not actionable. An Aaron Schock donor, Howard Foster, had sued Schock for mail and wire fraud for soliciting campaign contributions on the basis that he was an honest politician.
Aaron Schock, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, was indicted on fraud charges last November after an investigation revealed that he allegedly used taxpayer money to fund lavish trips and events.
Judge Wood wrote, “The parties in this case have not cited any precedent involving fraud claims based upon campaign speech or solicitation of political candidates, and this Court’s research has revealed none. But courts reviewing communications in other contexts have long referred to campaign speech as the paradigm of unreliable puffery. . . . [G]eneric claims of honesty and integrity . . . are too vague to be considered definitive representations upon which Foster, or any reasonable person, could rely. The elevated skepticism directed toward political communications only pushed Schock’s statements further into the realm of inactionable puffery.”
Whether or not eventually Aaron Schock goes to jail, he will go down in history for setting the precedent that a candidate’s campaign promises are worthless.
There is no truth to the rumor that the champagne was flowing in the White House Counsel’s Office last Thursday upon learning of Judge Wood’s decision. In addition, there has been no independent verification of this alleged quote from White House Counsel Don McGahn: “Judge Wood is a brilliant jurist. The President is relieved to know that the Trump fortune will always be protected from the legal claims of 50,000 unemployed coal miners.”
I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
1inactionable puffery. that should be on a pillow or, at least, a ladies hankie.
2Whaddya mean campaign promises are worthless?
Trump got ObamaCare repealed on his first day in office. He got the wall built, and Mexico paid for it. He stayed at the White House almost all the time, worked really hard, and never played golf.
And you can take that to the bank.
3What fortune? If/when the Russian Alfa bank pulls the plug on trump’s money line, his fake empire collapses. Braw heh heh heh.
4Puffery? Yes. Agreed.
5Now what about a candidate that campaigns by telling people to specifically injure someone else in the crowd or uses industrial strength inferences of such behavior. We did see people get hurt at Trump rallies largely because of the mood established by the candidate’s own damn mouth.
As for Aaron Schock, his cat-house red walls in his office plus the gilded picture frames, sofas and chairs that looked like they came from an estate sale held at whore house, he oughta go to jail just on the basis of horrific bad taste for somebody representing the families of his district.
Well, my good friend Sam was running for some office
And he swore up and down that he’d be honest and true
So when elections came, I went and voted for him
To throw the crooks out; that’s what I thought he’d do.
But just a year later, they hauled him in
For drugs, sex, corruption, and many other wrongs,
And when I asked him why he’d gone and done it,
He smiled and sang this song:
CHORUS
Well, it’s not our fault, we have no liability,
We told you that before we began.
Yes, it’s not our fault, we take no responsibility,
For we had no idea what would be in the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px-z4EKNHGk
6“It’s Not Our Fault” starts about 25’15”, but the rest of the album is good too. Written by Bob Esty of Clam Chowder.
maggie:
A federal judge in Kentucky is the latest to take Trump at his word when he says something controversial. Judge David J. Hale ruled against efforts by Trump’s attorneys to throw out a lawsuit accusing him of inciting violence against protesters at a March 2016 campaign rally in Louisville.
At the rally, Trump repeatedly said “get ’em out of here” before, according to the protesters, they were shoved and punched by his supporters. Trump’s attorneys sought to have the case dismissed on free speech grounds, arguing that he didn’t intend for his supporters to use force. But Hale noted that speech inciting violence is not protected by the First Amendment and ruled that there is plenty of evidence that the protesters’ injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s words.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/02/a-judge-rules-trump-may-have-incited-violence-and-trump-again-has-his-own-mouth-to-blame/
7If lying were a crime then Trump would be a lifer.
Free speech permits lying. Some professions require it.
8Well, Rhea, you stole my thunder. I was going to write about this tomorrow. Great story, right?
9Had this gone the other way, imagine all the Republicans who would file suit against Democratic officials for not fulfilling each and every campaign promise.
10Rhea and JJ, I read that Wapo article too, and mumbled to myself, “sic ’em!”
“campaign speech as the paradigm of unreliable puffery.”
11I love that line and I think we’ll be hearing it many times in reference to Orange Whore and many future snacilbupeR campaigns.
And the worst part is 45 voters can NOT believe they won’t get every little bit of shade thrown at those nefarious Killary drones that slavishly gave away their freedom to vote against the triumphal hairo…
12The check’s in the mail and I will respect you in the morning.
13Rhea, my dream is that Trump gets sentenced to a jail filled with bull-**itting copies of his own self and he has to deal with them on a 24/7 basis. That should turn someone into a zombie in no damn time at all.
14Have y’all seen the latest New Yorker cover? It’s delicious.
15http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/cover-story-2017-04-10
treehugger, the cover of the New Yorker was perfect. There’s another ‘toon out there in a similar direction; Donnie digging a yuuuuuge hole on the WH lawn with a pitching wedge. Or, this: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tCgfvvTrTCs/WOGG52MRm4I/AAAAAAABmL0/dSPxkj1vCwgQbaN9jKA_buvMtqHNEHgVACLcB/s640/3%2Badam%2Bzyglis.png
We expect our presidents to be lampooned, and generally our presidents expect to be lampooned. But, that would be as adults. Until Donnie Diaper-load who does not respond as an adult to any semblance of criticism, not even gentle constructive criticism.
It’s not out of the realm of reasonable that the EU, China and Russia coalesce to deal with the Terrible Two Toddlers, Donnie and Kim.
16AT last, A win for Drumpf. Are you tired of wining yet??
17Re: New Yorker cover
“Does my ass make this fairway look small?”
18“An honest politician is one that stays bought.”
19