Tag Archives: grasping at straws

Duggars, true crime

Even the Duggars are turning on Trump…

This morning, I was reading the Duggar Family News Facebook group, when I came across an article about Josh Duggar’s latest efforts to stay out of prison for downloading indecent photos and videos of minors being abused. Personally, I have a feeling that Josh’s goose may well be cooked and reading for serving. I don’t know how he’s going to escape the allegations against him. He was pretty much caught red-handed.

But desperate people will do desperate things, and at this point, I would say the Duggars are pretty desperate. In fact, they’re so desperate that they kind of threw some shade on the Trump presidency. Yes… I was shocked, too. The Duggars, like so many other so-called red-blooded Christian, patriotic, conservative leaning folks, have always been big supporters of the Republican Party. And recently, that means being supporters of Donald Trump and his ilk.

Still, the idea of going to the big house must scare the bejesus out of Josh, because his lawyer, Justin Gelfand, just filed a fourteen page motion-to-dismiss. Why? Because, Gelfand argues:

When federal agents started looking into Duggar in 2019, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was under the control of Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, and the probe continued into the tenure of Acting Secretary Chad Wolf. The Government Accountability Office later found that Trump appointed both men unlawfully, circumventing the normal process of congressional approval. Federal judges later ruled similarly, invalidating some of the agency’s actions under their control.

Basically, he’s saying that because Trump didn’t appoint McAleenan or Wolf by using the proper and legal channels, they had no authority to open an investigation against Josh Duggar. Gelfand further wrote:

“As the actions by DHS HSI in this case were all conducted under the authority of individuals who were acting as Officers of the United States in violation of both the Appointments Clause and the applicable federal statutory scheme for temporary officeholders, the investigation proceeded without lawful authority… Because Appointments Clause violations are structural in nature, Duggar need not show prejudice to obtain relief.”

Josh is hoping to get off on a technicality, since Trump didn’t appoint these two men with congressional consent. While Josh and his ilk probably don’t care what Trump does, as long as it doesn’t affect them personally in a negative way, now they have the nerve to use Trump’s unhinged “drunk uncle” style of governing for their own benefits. Isn’t that just typical? Once again, it’s a celebrity who is desperately grasping at straws.

From six years ago… we were shocked then, not knowing what was coming…

I know people can be fickle, and an awful lot of folks are completely uneducated about the political parties they support. Donald Trump taught me that it’s very dangerous not to know about the people who are tasked with leading the country. He was a TERRIBLE president and is a deplorable person, and he fucked up in myriad ways. And if Josh Duggar does manage to get off because of Trump’s lack of care for procedure and disregard for propriety, that will be just one more reason why he and his buddies should never have another opportunity to be involved in politics in any way, shape, or form.

It’s pretty clear that Josh Duggar has some serious issues. He’s already been outed as a “sex pest”, since he molested four of his sisters and a baby sitter. He’s already been busted as a philanderer who likes rough sex and is willing to pay adult sex workers for it, even though he’s supposedly a Christian and “happily married” to the mother of his six, soon to be seven, children. The legal issues he’s facing now haven’t yet been proven in a court of law, and he is as entitled to a defense as anyone is. But I seriously doubt he is going to get off, because the evidence is pretty strong that he’s guilty. This is a federal case, and the feds don’t tend to mess around. But we’ll see what happens…

I just think it’s interesting that some people are still doggedly supporting Donald Trump. Even the Duggars are turning against him, and if it turns out Josh is acquitted because of Trump’s incompetence, that could be a huge miscarriage of justice that will put women and children at risk. And while I maintain that I “get” people wanting to support their political parties, I still don’t know how a person can be “decent” and still support Donald Trump. So I’m going to assume that most people who are still on Trump’s train are willfully ignorant… and yes, I’m still very sick of willfully ignorant Trump supporters. And I will keep stating it, even if people like ‘ol Steve continue to harass me. The fact that certain people can’t let me state my opinions on my blog without harassing me is just a sign that they aren’t as confident in their position as they’d like me to believe.

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celebrities, law

Grasping at straws…

Ever heard this expression? It came up this morning over breakfast. Bill and I were talking about a recent news story and he said, “I think those people are ‘grasping at straws’, trying to save themselves.”

I thought about that for a moment, then decided to look up the etymology of where that phrase came from. It turns out the expression “grasping at straws” has a number of claimed sources ranging from works published in the 1300s until the 1700s. Prior to the mid 1800s, we didn’t “clutch” at straws or “grasp” at straws. Instead, we’d “catch” at straws.

“Grasping at straws” refers to a person who is drowning and grasping at anything, including flimsy reeds, to try to rescue him or herself. It’s generally inferred that a person who is “grasping at straws” is acting in desperation and futility and will be unable to save his or herself from destruction. Below is a video prepared by an erudite British gentleman who describes what “grasping at straws” means.

Telling us how it is…

I think of Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, both of whom are currently in legal hot water because they’ve been accused of money laundering and fraud. Unlike other people involved in the so-called “Varsity Blues” case, Loughlin and Giannulli elected not to make a deal with prosecutors. They decided they didn’t want to make a deal because they were certain they would be able to convince a jury of their innocence. Lori Loughlin, after all, memorably played the ever perky “Aunt Becky” on Full House and Fuller House for years. She’s made a lot of money playing sweet, wholesome, girl next door types. It’s hard to conceive of her as a criminal.

Making a deal with the prosecutors meant Loughlin and her husband would almost definitely have to go to jail. It might have only been for a short time, given their somewhat clean legal histories. But, because they couldn’t bear the idea of going to jail, Loughlin and Giannulli have decided to take their chances with a jury trial. Now, it appears that they could do some hard time. Their situation may soon become desperate and they might now be “grasping at straws” to try to save themselves from prison.

Naturally, Hollywood has also taken an interest in this case. A made for TV movie is planned for the Lifetime network about “Varsity Blues”. I’m not surprised this is happening, given that another high profile star, Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives fame, is also involved in the scandal. It’s perfect fodder for the “television for women” network. Huffman and Loughlin won’t be playing themselves, though, because there’s a chance one or both of them might be behind bars.

When I think of someone who is about to become very desperate, Lori Loughlin and her husband both come to mind. While I don’t condone what they did, I do have some compassion for their situation. I’m sure being in an A list crowd like theirs is makes them believe that their daughters can’t succeed unless they go to an A list school like the University of Southern California. Loughlin has claimed it’s what any “caring mom” would do for her child, given the means. Huffman, on the other hand, was smart enough to see the writing on the wall, admit guilt, and take a deal.

Actually, I think caring moms would encourage their children to succeed on their own and make their own way. Loughin and Giannulli have two gorgeous daughters who were already succeeding in creating brands for themselves. Olivia Jade Giannulli has been particularly successful in her ad campaigns with major brands, although she’s lost business since her parents got caught in the scandal. One could argue that they didn’t even need to go to college. Olivia Jade has outright said she doesn’t care about school and is mainly there to appease her parents, who didn’t have the opportunity to go to college.

“I don’t really care about school.”

It’s tragic to me that this very beautiful young woman who already has a career was taking a coveted spot at a top university that a truly deserving student could have had. She doesn’t care about school, so she should drop out and let someone else take her place. I feel kind of sad for her, personally, too. It’s likely her parents are about to go to the big house, and they could be there for a very long time. That is sure to be a source of embarrassment and humiliation for her, especially since going to the university was her parents’ dream, not Olivia’s.

People tend to grasp at straws when they are faced with certain disaster. They look for anything and everything that might work to help them get out of whatever fine mess they’ve gotten themselves into. The vast majority of the time, grasping at straws is ineffective and leads to a swift drowning by the facts. It’s usually better to just face the music and work toward settling issues, rather than conjuring up harebrained schemes that aren’t likely to work. Lori Loughlin and her husband probably should have just bitten the bullet and taken a deal. On the other hand, who knows? Maybe this situation will end like O.J. Simpson’s first trial did. Maybe they’ll get away with bribing an official to get their daughters into prestigious USC. Maybe they’ll just get a slap on the wrist. But the odds are, this is not going to be pretty for them… and grasping at straws is going to get them nowhere.

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