34 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Jeff Tiedrich's avatar

did you know this is Ronald Reagan's favorite joke? I didn't, until I went googling for it. oh well, I still like it.

(don't tell me I told it wrong, there are dozens of variations, all with the same punchline)

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

Rudy to "pay the million he owes Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss for ruining their lives."

Ordinarily, Jeff, I wouldn't correct you, but in this case every single one of the MILIONS owed by Rudy to these women is another pony 🐎🐎🐎 (why aren't emoji ponies pink like they should be?)

Expand full comment
arne link's avatar

Rudy is getting a huge monthly allowance from the bench. More than most people earn in a year. How does that work, exactly?

Expand full comment
Betsy L's avatar

I don't know how he worked that out, but it's some ungodly amount like $25K a month and he goes through it all and then some. He must be buying expensive scotch.

Expand full comment
Lynn Van Haren's avatar

I think he hauls in about $100,000/ year from retirement benefits. He won’t be living under a bridge

Expand full comment
SPW's avatar

Too bad too. SOB should be scrubbing floors for Freeman and Moss.

Expand full comment
Rick Khamsi's avatar

Yes! For his sick, bigoted, hateful lies about those honest Georgia poll workers, Rudy was judged to owe them $150+ MILLION, a fair amount for all the suffering he caused them.

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

That's a herd of ponies. Of course, Rudy and Trump are not good for the damage they do.

Expand full comment
Brad Yazell's avatar

I could use a pony or two right about now. It's been a shitty week.

Expand full comment
steve robertshaw's avatar

I loved reading your optimist story. And I concluded some time back that you're an optimist at heart. Which is one more reason I enjoy reading your takes. But damn! these latest goings-on have to be killing you. Being a sort-of pessimistic skeptic, it's easier for me to be disappointed - i expect it!

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

I've always said that the power of protective pessimism beats the power of positive thinking every day. But I run by the greatest power of all— not dead yet!

Expand full comment
SPW's avatar

Honey, you can tell this “shitty” joke any way you want to. It’s all good and I’m all for trying to find ponies anywhere they may be. That said, I read in one Substack or other, that the orange cock splat(tm-JT)was going to get his .10 lawyer to argue that(trump’s)signing checks to Michael Cohen was an “official act” since he did that after taking office 🤨.

Expand full comment
Bill Lawrence's avatar

That's nonsense, IMO. I'm no lawyer, but the timing of his signing checks doesn't make it an official act. It was an act in furtherance of his campaign coverup. How is that something essential to his presidency? Same for Jan 6th. Violating his oath of office to incite his armed followers to overturn an election is hardly an official Presidential duty.

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

Every president has an official right to an official closet in which all of his skeletons are officially kept. Forever. This should be obvious. Without such a closet he cannot act promptly and boldly.

Do you know what Trump said to Don McGann, his White House counsel? “I don't like lawyers who take notes."

Expand full comment
SPW's avatar

I remember. Orange didn’t like note takers of any kind, especially around

Putin or on Ukrainian phone calls.

Expand full comment
SPW's avatar

Bill, we all know that the orange dumpster fire will grasp at any straw that blows his way in the wind. His check signing is just such a straw to grab then appeal the hell out of whatever decision falls.

Expand full comment
Bill Lawrence's avatar

Yep. He doesn't have a chance on this one. But this SC decision is another in a string of appalling decisions this court has made. They will go down in the history books as one of the worst courts ever--and given the history of the SC courts, that's a tall order.

Expand full comment
arne link's avatar

But the Supremes seem to think it was. They believe an official act is anything he says it is. BTW, I agree with you.,

Expand full comment
Lynn Van Haren's avatar

That doesn’t mean tRump & his twisted lawyers won’t argue it

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

And he did it in an OFFICE at the OFFICIAL desk with a pen he stole from his secretary's OFFICE. Jack Smith, are you listening?

Expand full comment
Marty's avatar

Not an official act!!

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

Agreed. I was writing an SNL skit where a trump supporter 'splains it all to you.

Expand full comment
Betsy L's avatar

I'll bet Dumpy stole it from the kid who mowed the White House lawn.

Expand full comment
DonP's avatar

It'd be a straight up loss. Signing personal/business checks to a personal lawyer is not an official act of the President, and doesn't even vaguely fall with either the "core duties", or outer edge of responsibilities of his office.

In fact, I doubt Merchan will even consider a hearing on such a specious filing. And neither will an appeals court.

Expand full comment
Marla's avatar

He wasn’t even president when he did all of this! How can any of this be considered ‘presidential acts’ when he wasn’t even president until January 20, 2017?

Expand full comment
DonP's avatar

Apparently some of the checks he signed, and at least one of the meetings he had with Cohen were in either February or March of 2017.

That said though, it is not an official duty of the president to meet with his personal lawyer unless they're discussing national business. And neither is signing checks to his personal lawyer.

And, most importantly, if I remember correctly, it wasn't the prosecution that introduced the meeting as evidence, but the defense team who brought it up when questioning Cohen on the stand. I might be wrong about that though.

Expand full comment
P123Sunny's avatar

WTaF

Expand full comment
Robyn myers's avatar

I've been thinking of that joke and that punchline all week ( with all this shit, there must be a pony) thanks Jeff. I feel better with all the poo being flung by the GOP, I cling to hope and know we must rise.

Expand full comment
HI2thDoc's avatar

Speaking of dementia, Reagan definitely was out to lunch in his second term. I read somewhere, maybe in Colin Powell's first autobiography, that Reagan told a "joke" to the Soviet delegation where he asked an American cab driver what his career plans were and the man answered that he hadn't decided. Reagan continued the joke with he asked a Soviet cab driver that same question and the guy answered, "I don't know-they haven't told me yet." An awkward chuckle from the Americans followed. I imagine the Soviets didn't laugh

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

Reagan would have told that intentionally.

Expand full comment
HI2thDoc's avatar

Yeah, the implied anecdote was that he did. I didn't mean to excuse him from that inappropriate trolling because of dementia

Expand full comment
Cynthia Turner's avatar

Maybe one thing I like from the mut.

Expand full comment