Hannity should go ahead and file that billion dollar lawsuit right now if he really thinks he has a case. Although I wouldn’t recommend Lin Wood, who has a spotty track record at best (having lost the key suit in the Richard Jewell cases and having just lost the Elon Musk case).

It’s unfortunate that Hannity is now trumpeting the nuisance suits filed on behalf of Nick Sandmann. CNN settled one for a pittance of a few thousand dollars to spare themselves the expense of going to court to defend themselves against the nonsensical claims of the Sandmann family. (This is typical for a big company’s response to gold-digging like these lawsuits – they settle for a tiny amount to make it go away quietly.) The Washington Post suit has mostly been dismissed but is being allowed to continue discovery to cement the dismissal. And NBC is unlikely to settle even for the pittance. So no, Nick Sandmann is not going to be a “billionaire”. He likely saw almost nothing from the CNN settlement as much of that would have gone to Lin Wood to cover his own costs. And Sandmann is no innocent victim. He behaved very badly in public and was caught on video doing so. The correct response for him and his friends is that he should have been harshly disciplined by his family, his school and his church. Instead, the family has shamefully chosen to try to monetize his notoriety. Having worked in litigation for years, I can attest that this approach is both pointless and fruitless for a plaintiff like the Sandmann family.

Regarding the constant nonsensical SLAPP suit threats by Hannity, by Devin Nunes, by Pence’s childish spokesman and even by Eric Bolling, that approach is frankly just an irritation. Reporting the truth is always a solid defense against claims like these, no matter how many empty threats Sean Hannity thinks he can get away with flinging. If he truly wants to mess with getting hit with a massive countersuit, he should file away right now.

And on that note, why hasn’t Eric Bolling piped up about that 50 million dollar lawsuit he threatened against Yashir Ali in 2017? The one where Ali had the temerity to report the facts about how Bolling was sexting lewd photos to his female co-workers, which led to Bolling’s firing from Fox News? The one where Bolling tried to personally extort 50 million dollars from Ali as a way of silencing him? The one where Ali hired an attorney on contingency to immediately warn Bolling to walk away or face the consequences? Why hasn’t Eric Bolling been discussing his tremendous success with a lawsuit that should have already gone to trial within the last year? Unless of course, Bolling listened to his own counsel in 2017 and quietly backed down…

I’m doubting that the Pence White House and Fox News will be able to do much with the Hunter Biden nonsense. Too many people have caught on to their playbook. The only major result they got from that attempt was the impeachment of Pence’s childish spokesman. Their new narrative appears to be one of calling Biden senile, and that one doesn’t appear to be going anywhere either.

Most of what Nunes said is criminally irresponsible nonsense, particularly telling people to go out to eat in the middle of a pandemic. (BTW you will still be able to patronize restaurants by either picking up takeout orders or having the meal delivered to your home.)

There is one correct point he made, however. He made a mess of the statement, but I do agree with his point. Which is that it’s a ridiculous idea to run to the grocery store and do panic shopping. Having a couple weeks of food and supplies at your home is not the same thing as filling your cart with a pallet of toilet paper or frantically emptying the shelves of soup or crackers and hoarding those items.

My local supermarket has regularly been slammed by panicked locals frantically grabbing food and items that they don’t actually need for even a month – they’re over-purchasing in a way that would suggest that they think they’ll be locked behind their doors for the next year. Which is ridiculous.

The shortages we are seeing, the empty shelves at the grocery stores, are based on the panic buying, not on a lack of supply. My local supermarket is being restocked on a daily and weekly basis and the panickers are continuing to raid it. I believe that behavior will tail off over the next week and that we’ll see the stores come back to some normalcy. But people really need to calm down about this.

What makes this sickening is that Kudlow is LYING. And he’s being fairly brazen about it.

First, Middle Class employees DID NOT GET A TAX CUT. THEY GOT A MASSIVE TAX INCREASE. PERIOD. Middle Class employees saw their brackets increased and their deductions erased – thus pinning them into higher brackets and therefore into significantly higher tax burdens.

Secondly, the increase in take-home pay was a cynical trick of goosed-down withholding – an attempt to fool people into thinking they’d received the non-existent cut during the midterm election year of 2018. This did see Middle Class employees getting more in their weekly checks, but it resulted later in them owing even MORE the following April come Tax Time. The Pence Treasury Dept tried the sop that this was just to give everyone their refunds early, but that didn’t explain why millions went from getting a 4K refund to a 5K BILL.

Thirdly, Kudlow’s estimation of a 5K increase over 3 years in take-home for a 66K annual earner is mostly due to that goosed-down withholding, with the remainder coming from a nearly imperceptible drop. Lower Middle Class and Working Class employees saw very little benefit from minutely reduced rates – with most getting something like an additional 10-20 bucks per week IF that.

There’s a reason that tens of millions of Americans were outraged a year ago at Tax Time. And they’re about to get a painful reminder in less than 2 months – only now we’re in a major election year. It is my hope that they’ll remember this pain come November.

No surprise here.

This is intended to help drumroll the massive actual cuts they intend to inflict on “entitlements” in 2021 if the Dems stay home this November.

I’ll remind everyone that the plan for the big reductions in Social Security and Medicare is publicly available at the Heritage Foundation website. It’s not like they’re hiding their intentions here.

The idea is essentially what Ellen noted, although they’ve been more pernicious about it. Angry Right Wingers have wanted to get rid of these programs ever since they were established. The current approach to destroying them is decades old.

Any potential future shortfalls could have been dealt with 15-20 years ago with minute adjustments in payroll tax levels for employers. But the Republicans refused to make any such adjustments, thus starving the programs and establishing a false premise of how they are going bankrupt. We can still make those adjustments to the payroll tax levels, but they’ll have to be a little larger now, since the Right Wing has forced the delay.

But the intention by Right Wingers is actually to continue fearmongering, and to float these nonsense proposals til they get their majorities back – and then lower the boom.

If they win this November (ie if Dems stay home), they’ll reduce SS to a 1K flat payment per month, only available to indigent elderly (and this will apply to everyone under the age of 60, so it won’t hit the current retirees). They’ll reduce Medicare to a tiny voucher supplement for you to go to your own doctor and you’d have to have your own coverage. And the retirement age will be extended to 69 or 70 – again for everyone under 60. Anyone complaining that they contributed for decades will be told that it can no longer be afforded, and that you have an additional decade to save something for yourself.

This is but one reason why it is crucial for everyone to actually show up this November.

I wouldn’t give up just yet. Let’s see what happens over the rest of the primaries. Unless Buttigieg suddenly runs away with most of the states, I don’t think we’ve seen the actual nominee prevail yet.

The only way the GOP squeaks through again is if Dems stay home this November. Fox News is desperately promoting a notion that Trump is somehow going to have a “landslide” – as they’re hoping to depress turnout by everyone else, as usual. I wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. Instead, I continue to urge EVERYONE to show up and vote this November. It’s the only way to head off bonehead ideas like the Heritage plan for SS and Medicare.

Romney’s maneuver yesterday was an interesting one, and one that will put him in the history books, but it really didn’t cost him anything.

The positive first:

Romney spoiled the intentions of angry Right Wing pundits and the Pence White House by breaking ranks on a single article and voting with the Dems, who all stood on principle and stayed the course. (More on that later)

Fox News and AM Radio had been counting on all the GOP senators to vote in lockstep, so they could play the whole thing as partisan. And they were desperately hoping a couple of Dems in Red States would cave here and give the a “bipartisan” acquittal. Instead, angry Right Wingers were presented with the opposite scenario – a bipartisan vote to convict on a single article. And as we’re now seeing, the Right Wing is jumping up and down and throwing various tantrums as a result.

For Romney, this wasn’t a hard vote. He frankly has never been a fan of the Pence White House, and he’s voiced that at multiple times. He’s also interested in presenting himself as an “independent” voice, along the same lines as John McCain, as this will give him credibility and it will cement his place as an important historical figure for this era. (If you can’t win a presidential race, you can at least be a memorable politician)

Actual cost to Romney for doing this: A bunch of hatred from the Right in the short term, and a few snubs for the next few months. And then it will blow over and he’ll be back in vogue. Because Romney, like McCain, votes 95% with the other Republicans. It’s only from time to time that he wants to have these small rebellions. And he’s in a safe seat – as long as he wants to run for the Senate, Utah will vote him in. I think he’ll be there for another 20 years, to be honest.

Getting back to the Dems who stayed the course – Sinema and Jones are taking a huge risk here. Joe Manchin is figuring he’ll be fine in 4 years anyway, or he may choose to retire at that point. Sinema will be stuck trying to answer for this to her more Right Wing constituents. And Jones is going to be held accountable THIS YEAR, and he could well lose his seat in the middle of GOP anger at him.

I would say that Sinema and Jones have made much braver plays here. Not to take anything away from Romney’s move, but the consequences are much less for him.

Nice to hear that Fox News has suddenly decided to reverse its position on NFL players taking a knee. Now we never have to listen to their moralizing on that topic again, right?

Carlson clearly had a temper tantrum here. And clearly, it’s because he wanted to be able to have the talking point that EVERY Republican had voted to acquit and hopefully that a few Dems had joined them. When the Dems stood on principle, he lost the latter. When Romney took the safe protest position, he lost the whole thing.

Interesting to see Carlson suddenly attacking Romney as a “private equity guy”. Carlson was all about defending Romney from attacks about that in 2012, when he thought the Dems were somehow out of line to bring that up. Guess he had a change of heart for some reason.

I don’t watch addresses by Pence’s childish spokesman as they are usually both incoherent and nonsensical. I did see three key clips, however.

1. Pence’s childish spokesman angrily refusing the hand of the Speaker of the House;

2. Pence’s childish spokesman and Rush Limbaugh degrading the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a moment that clearly embarrassed most of the people in the room.

3. Nancy Pelosi summing up the nation’s reaction to the nonsense by neatly ripping up the papers that Pence’s team had cheapened with the nonsensical address.

Regarding Limbaugh’s cancer diagnosis – it’s not really that surprising considering that he smoked for years and has made a point of promoting a lifestyle meant to evoke macho posturing but really connotes a bit of desperation.

And now he has a medical situation that he will need to handle – it’s good for him that he has plenty of medical coverage thanks to his membership in AFTRA as a full-time radio host going back at least 35 years. So unlike millions of Americans he derided, he doesn’t have to worry about a major illness emptying his bank account. (I note that he discussed that people who have more money should be able to afford better care, in the same way that wealthier people can enjoy better hotel rooms and better cars for themselves.)

I have no opinion about his medical status. I don’t wish to see anyone suffer from any disease. I do have great pity for Limbaugh for the way he’s conducted his life. And I continue to hold him responsible for having encouraged bigotry and hatred, and for emboldening so many deplorables to act out their inner viciousness. His spoken motto of “Well, SOMEONE had to say it!” has sadly had consequences for millions of people. And his own viciousness toward others suffering from medical conditions, like Michael J. Fox, has been truly repulsive.

In the final analysis, the best measure I can think of is the Campground standard. Meaning that we can best assess someone’s contribution to the world based on whether they leave the campground a cleaner and nicer place than the way they found it. Rush Limbaugh is a man who has worked hard to make the campground a much dirtier and more unpleasant place for the rest of us, and he’s enriched himself while doing so. I can only hope that his career will serve as a reverse example to broadcasters with any sense of principles.

I’m sure that he’ll update his fans fairly soon with how it’s all going for him.

I note that Justin Amash supported the impeachment in the House, and openly did so until other House Republicans forced him to switch his status to “independent”. If the Right Wing wants to play games about somehow their angry acquittal being “bipartisan” then they can deal with the fact that the impeachment was also bipartisan. The only difference is that the Dems don’t hound people out of their party – the Drew situation was one where he openly stated that he wanted to do jump sides.

And let’s keep in mind – no matter what the Right Wing does here, the Pence White House was impeached. Period. Full Stop. Every history that gets written about this miserable epoch (and there will be plenty of misery to cover) will include the note that Pence’s childish spokesman got himself impeached by trying to goon it up over a nonsense conspiracy theory.

Wow! So I guess that means that Bill Clinton was never impeached, right?

Or maybe angry Right Wingers should just accept that yes, Donald Trump has been impeached. Deal with it.

This is one of those spit-take moments. It’s a good thing I wasn’t drinking water when I read this.

One must wonder how Rivera will deal with this clip coming back to haunt him in the coming years.

Guys, the 2020 election is NOT over, despite what you may have heard on Fox News. Surrendering now is a strange choice, given that we haven’t had a single primary yet.

Scooter, we will have an election this year, and it’s a matter of who shows up to vote. The reason Clinton lost in 2016, and that Abrams and Gillum lost in 2018, was because millions of voters stayed home in key areas rather than showing up. Sure, Kemp tried to purge voter roles in Georgia and make it harder for 50K voters – so the response is that you overwhelm his goons with 500K voters and you make sure those people are prepared to stay ALL DAY to get their votes counted. People need to be prepared to take the day off work if that’s what it takes. Assuming that there’s no point in voting is frankly nonsense.

Eyes, I agree with you that Murkowski probably just destroyed her ability to be re-elected. Her post was inane in the extreme. After telling everyone she was taking all night to really read everything over and think carefully, she wound up repeating some infantile Fox News talking points. But I don’t agree with you that the election is over already with Trump.

If voters show up to the booths this year, particularly in the swing states, and don’t stay home and hide under their beds because it’s just too tough, the Dems can prevail and we can send the Pence White House packing. That is a simple FACT.

I strongly doubt John Bolton will agree to appear in the House. He was okay with showing up in the Senate because it is under GOP control. He’s not okay with having Adam Schiff control his questioning. Not sure that anything will happen with Parnas at this point, in spite of the explosive audio.

It’s more likely that this will simply play out as campaign fodder for the rest of the year, for both parties.

My instincts say that all 53 of the GOP Senators will stay whipped in line on Friday. The “moderates” will ask questions through tomorrow to play themselves as more skeptical of the Pence White House, but in the end, they’ll follow their normal pattern. We should keep in mind that even if they had allowed witnesses, the GOP would NEVER vote to convict Pence’s childish spokesman. And they never would have allowed Bolton to testify on national television – that’s too much of a crapshoot and they know it.

There’s also the likelihood now that Bolton’s book will be held back til after the election – apparently as punishment for his temerity in leaking that Pence’s guys have been going through it since December.

My hope for the year continues to be that people will pay attention and show up to vote in November. It’s the only way we can get Pence and his minions out of there and start to clean this mess up.

This meltdown by Hannity was quite bizarre to hear. If I didn’t know better, he was flat-out panicking on the air. But if Bolton doesn’t have anything substantive to say, why is Hannity so worried?

I strongly doubt that any of the 53 GOP senators will vote to have any witnesses, even Bolton. They don’t care. They’re too frightened of the Pence White House and the notion that their heads would be put on pikes.

But past all that, it’s really interesting to hear Mike Huckabee wax nostalgic about executive privilege. I sure don’t recall him granting that to President Obama. As I recall, he and the guys at Fox News were routinely accusing President Obama of covering up “the facts” about such bombshell issues as Solyndra or Joe Sestak and demanding transparency. The second that President Obama discussed anything needing to be confidential, it was treated by Fox News as an immediately impeachable crime. But those rules don’t apply to the Pence White House, now do they?

Bruce regularly tries to push these discredited propaganda memes on Fox News. (I have to wonder how much Fox News is paying her as a Contributor to do these things. It’s truly a betrayal of any principle she purported to hold, so I hope she got a good price.)

As for the “paradise” of the Pence White House and the current culture of outright hatred towards “uppity” women and anyone with the temerity to speak up, I suppose we should just ignore the fact that angry Right Wingers are pushing the criminalization of women’s reproductive choices. I suppose we should forget that the Supreme Court is on the verge of essentially overturning Roe v Wade within this calendar year with the Louisiana case. I suppose we should forget that we’re only two steps at the Supreme Court after that before things become decidedly more dire.

We could talk about the “paradise” of having a craven ideologue like Kavanaugh rammed onto the Supreme Court, and the upcoming possibility of having more gargoyles rammed on.

We could discuss how the annual March Against Women results in various abuses, including the disastrous spectacle of the Covington Catholic School men shouting taunts at a Native American elder and then being celebrated for it on Right Wing media.

Or we could just acknowledge that Tammy Bruce is not a reliable voice on what constitutes a “paradise” for anyone not on the Extreme Far Right.