The story is that Donald Trump is suing Bill Maher over a bet requiring Trump to prove he’s not the “spawn of his mother having sex with orangutan.” Trump somehow thinks that he met the burden of proof by sending Maher a copy of his birth certificate. Since Trump is on record as rejecting this kind of proof as it pertains to Barack Obama, he can hardly argue that he has met it in regards to himself.
But seriously, everybody knows that humans and orangutans can’t bear hybrid children, so Maher couldn’t have been serious, and Trump knows it. Nevertheless, when did nonsense ever stop Donald Trump?
The story is reported by none less than The Washington Times who said that the lawsuit was filed today. Later today a copy of the complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court surfaced at TMZ.com.
I want to add, with some hesitation, that the presence of a father’s name on a birth certificate is, in the case of a married couple, a presumption that the father is the husband, and in general it is a representation of the child’s mother as to who the father was. The presence of Fred Trump’s name on Donald Trump’s birth certificate would lead one, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to assume that he was indeed the father, but I wouldn’t consider it absolute proof where there is controversy.
Read more:
Doc, there may be a rule that humans and orang-utans can’t breed. But isn’t there an exception to every rule? And do the people of Borneo not believe that orang-utans are in reality humans who just are too clever to work like other humans?
In my world someone who looks and behaves just like the offspring of a love-affair between a human female and a male orang-utan is such a hybrid. And TheDonald(TM) looks and behaves like that.
gee i was hoping trump would have to undergo DNA testing for confirmation
after all, he wants verifiable confirmation for everything
Ok, you know better than this:
Latest stats sez DC population is : 632,323 – let’s round down – 625,000.
Washington Time distribution (and I am taking these numbers from Conservapedia to be extra fair) – sez 100,000. I don’t believe this, but. And, I am being kind in limiting my ratio to DC only. 16% of some population reads this rag, I guess. The second I leave the DC population, that percentage falls hard.
And, we are still below the needed 27% of whack-jobs.
Quoting Moonie-central, where even the insane fail to congregate, shows…
Hell, I don’t even know what it shows; other than a giant zero.
Give us a credible source, plxt.
As I said in the article, I was unable to confirm the Washington Times story, and I would consider it a “third tier” source.
There is plenty of confirmation that Trump SAID today that he was suing Maher, including Politico.com:
Where you can watch the Fox News clip where he said he was doing it.
If you want the LATEST on the story, you can use Google like the rest of us.
I wish Trump would fade into the obscurity he belongs…not a coherent voice for some birthers.
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday in California against liberal comic Bill Maher, suing him for $5 million after Trump says Maher did not follow through on a $5 million public bet he made on “The Tonight Show.”
“I don’t know whether this case will be won or lost, but I felt a major obligation to bring it on behalf of the charities,” Trump said in a public statement first obtained by POLITICO.
the new season of apprentice begins in march hmmmm
i can’t wait to read the lawsuit
Apparently Trump told Fox News that he was going to file suit “around noon” today.
Trump was born in New York in 1946. Has anyone looked into the possibility that his real father is Harrison J. Bounel?
The PACER case locator didn’t find anything as of 5:45 PM. That’s just for federal court, and I don’t know the delay between filing and it appearing in PACER.
Uh, no.
Ok, my snark met the site owner’s snark and generated a giant fail.
Just remember, The Washington Times is a giant fail.
I didn’t see if there was a later release of Trump’s BC, but didn’t he originally provide one that wasn’t certified with his footprints?
If that’s the one he’s using for this case, he might lose.
Bill should countersue.
Not sure about this current episode but during the original Trump birther intervention about demanding release of Obama’s long form Trump proudly got his office to publish a copy of his own ‘birth certificate’…..which transpired to be a hospital souvenir with footprints and not a valid birth certificate at all.
When this was pointed out he hurriedly (I’d like to also say in an embarrassed manner but I don’t think he’s capable of embarrassment) got his office to then publish a copy of his real ‘birth certificate’….which this time transpired to be a short form COLB.
I’m not sure if anyone in his office got sacked at that point in time, but after this too was pointed out to him he then published a third birth certificate….this time a long form copy.
Hilarious at the time….and he didn’t actually get as much flak for the entire debacle as he ought to have. I doubt he made the same mistakes again this time.
I believe those two things are mutually exclusive.
He’s probably waiting for his investigators to get back from Hawaii with all that nifty stuff they found about Obama.
I sure hope Trump and Maher know what they’re getting into here. There’s a very real possibility they might find themselves faced with additional publicity, something I know they each assiduously strive to avoid.
Thanks, Judge Mental.
Regardless, BCs provide race and sex for the parents.
They don’t provide “species” 😉
You can retire for the evening with complete confidence that your post will not be topped.
Ftw!
The case was filed in state court in CA, Los Angeles County.
TMZ has a story with a link to the complaint. Either it’s been filed, or scribbled on and stamped to look filed. Let’s tentatively go with filed.
trump wants a trial by jury?
hysterical
with judge judy?
This is an 80’s TV show featuring Trump’s real Dad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tW1wy5il4
This article has been updated with a link to the complaint a short commentary. Thanks, Dave.
this story would make sense if it was the orangutans that filed suit.
I know a lot of orang-utans who call themselves “Fred C. Trump”. This name on a so called “Certification of Birth” proves nothing.
Trump’s hair is the right color and texture. His complexion and expressions are close, too.
Did I come close?
Which would explain why my prediction about this issue was wrong:
My rule was “If the Donald writes 20 tweets about it, he won’t sue”. The exception here is obviously due to the fact that he seems to want even more publicity for his show.
I wonder if birthers will jump on this or not. The only thing I see them get out of it is “even The Donald had to show his BC in court to sue for libel, why doesn’t the Prez have to show his BC?” or something.
Misha, you are in a class all by yourself and compete only against yourself.
I don’t care that he has posted a PDF of his long form BC. It’s probably forged, so I would need to see THE ORIGINAL – not a certified copy because that’s probably forged as well, and the microfiche. Plus, since I don’t believe that Mr. Trump is actually the Donald’s father, then I would need a DNA to prove it.
But that’s just me. However, if anyone disagrees with my opinion, then you’re unpatriotic and need to be deported.
Here’s my deal. I will donate $5 million to a charity of Donald Trump’s choice once he learns how to pull his head out of his ass.
“Trump somehow thinks that he met the burden of proof by releasing an image of a birth certificate on the Internet. Since Trump is on record as rejecting this kind of proof as it pertains to Barack Obama, he can hardly argue that he has met it in regards to himself.”
I somewhat agree. However, Trump did provide his Birth Certificate that stated he was born in New York and have no reason to believe he was born anywhere else. The problem with Obama has been that there is OVERWHELMING evidence (I will admit some of the evidence would be questionable in the court of law but certainly not in the court of public opinion) to suggest that Obama was born in Kenya. Therefore, only the highest burden of proof will satisfy me regarding Obama’s birth in this country. To review the mountain catalog of evidence, please go to this link: http://puzo1.blogspot.com/2010/05/catalog-of-evidence-concerned-americans.html
If Trump releases the adoption papers for the badger on his head, I will donate $5 to help retired adult film actors charged with DUI: http://tinyurl.com/a99j69d
Attention Mario Apuzzo!
On a more serious note, one of the issues here is whether Trump has proved that he was not fathered by an orangutan. The birth certificate may be insufficient for several reasons. First, as noted above, there is nothing in the birth certificate which identifies the species/genus of Fred C. Trump. Second, at common law, if the mother and father were married, there was a conclusive presumption that the husband was the father of the wife’s child. However, this birth certificate shows the mother and father with different last names without any indication of marital status so there is no conclusive presumption of paternity. At best there is a rebuttable presumption of paternity if any evidence at all.
It seems to me that Trump’s attorneys have confused proving who Trump’s father was with proving that Trump’s performance satisfies Maher’s offer. Maher could argue that the mere presentation of this birth certificate does not “prove” who Trump’s father was and does not “prove” that the father was not an orangutan. If a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim caught the judge on a good day, she might decide to have some fun with the Donald.
In the court of public opinion, only your looks count, and I don’t like your looks. Apologies to Alan Bennett.
Who cares? Other than a handful of malcontents and kooks…
And then you would see birthers jumping all over it going “see, a BC does not really prove what it says on its face, the court just agreed”. Maybe The Donald has this set up as a potential win-win scenario for himself? (Either he wins the suit or he loses it in a way that allows him to pimp his birtherism again.)
Let’s clear some thing up here.
First, interesting choice of words. Evidence *proves* something, it doesn’t “suggest” it.
Second, even if all the document-related claims of birthers were true (BC forged, SSN stolen etc.), that still doesn’t constitute *evidence* he was born outside the US. And even if it did, it still wouldn’t prove (or even “strongly suggest”) he was born in Kenya.
All you have w.r.t. Kenya are some anecdotical statements of people without first hand knowledge (like those Kenyan politicians you birthers like to quote) and the “grandmother tape”.
So even if someone granted you the benefit of the looney doubt, all you’d have is one family member claiming that. And yet somehow, while some birthers even claim Obama had people murdered to hide his “true past”, the Big Konspiracee just “forgot” to silence the only living person who was present during his birth in Kenya? Come again?
And that is precisely defined *how*? Since you seem convinced everyone who ever was involved in handling the BC or any other Obama document is “in on it”, what kind of proof would you actually believe? You can’t believe any court or forensic examiner because “Obama might have paid them”. You can’t believe your own eyes because you have no way of telling a real Hawaiian long long long form BC from one cleverly forged by the almighty FBI. You wouldn’t even believe it if Orly and Corsi and Arpaio sang in unison “he is legit” because you’d claim “somebody got to them”.
So who on Earth would you believe? And how can you be sure you weren’t hypnotized to think that person you’d believe actually said that? Are we in Zen territory yet?
I wish Trump had run for President. He would have been Obama’s worst nightmare. Romney was too nice.
Just wanted to clarify that this is not a libel action — it alleges breach of contract.
Again: ordinary claims require ordinary proof.
Obama claims he was born in the city his parents resided in at the time.
He offers as proof a certificate issued by the canonical authority for such certificates — verified by them multiple times over — stating the date and time to the minute when he was born and the location of his birth, signed by the attending physician.
Really, that’s pretty much the whole story, full stop. Anything else is superfluous.
Thank you, John, for that laugh.
What would be the “highest burden of proof” acceptable to you?
To the contrary, Trump’s mother allegedly was visiting her native Scotland and gave birth to Donald Trump while visiting family on the Isle of Lewis, or so the overwhelming evidence of his mother’s life story would *suggest* (“suggestibility” being the clear proof in common between the Scottish and Kenyan births in question).
I must state clearly that I in no way believe such rumors about Donald Trump’s birth.
You have no reason to believe Obama was born anywhere else but where the State of Hawaii says he was… but yet that didn’t stop you. Hmmmmm…. I wonder what the obvious difference between Obama and Trump is…..
The problem with you, John, is that you are easily overwhelmed by speculation masquerading as evidence, which says what you really need it to say
Be honest John. The only thing that will satisfy you is for you to be right. No reality will sway you from that course.
Fortunately, the universe does not care one iota what will satisfy you.
If you’re relying on Apuzzo for evidence then it’s no wonder you’re in such bad shape reality-wise. Apuzzo has no evidence. That much is court record.
The evidence has been heard in the court of public opnion. Twice. Do I have to review what the verdict was for you, john? Should we get Karl Rove to go over it for you?
Uh, the “highest burden of proof” is clearly laid on the people who claim that Obama was not born in the city his parents resided in at the time.
I have to say, the most obvious way to interpret that sentence is you tipping your hand that you’ve been trolling us all this time. Well played, “john.”
You nailed it, Daniel. And john, you should carefully consider what Daniel wrote. It’s a concise analysis of why your continued embrace of birtherism is so pointless and so wrongheaded.
Not going to happen. If this complaint has actually been filed it has monumental fail written all over it. An appropriate motion to dismiss will not even require to mention Trump’s birth certificate in order to secure a near certain immediate dismissal for any one of several reasons.
Yeah, I went all obsessive and categorized the OVERWHELMING evidence.
Of the 40 points Apuzzo thinks he lays out, almost half of them (1-8, 10, 13, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 38) are hearsay, most all of which were misinterpreted, or later clarified or denied by their original speakers. The remaining are claims by birthers, such as college
professorinstructorstudent assistant-or-something Tim Adams.Another eight (17-20, 23, 28, 35, 36) are based on Obama not releasing his LFBC, and never removed by Apuzzo after April 2011.
So that leaves 15 out of the original 40…
9 – “no hospital will confirm.” Yeah, that being the law and all. It was, however, confirmed by the State of Hawaii.
12. – “no witness” to his birth. See the sworn and certified signature of the attending physician. Also, there were indeed people who said they saw the Obamas around the time of the birth — certainly to at least the strength of any of the hearsay claims mentioned above.
11, 14 — “Obama refuses to release” documents. Except he has released his BC, and we’ve seen his US passport as well.
15 “kindergarten records have allegedly disappeared.” Well, I allegedly say they’re still there, so there!
16 Uncertified Indonesia document says he’s an indonesian citizen – how does this negate his birth in Hawaii? Was he born in Indonesia, then? I thought it was Kenya.
21 – “anyone can get a BC saying they were born in Hawaii.” No, they can’t.
22 says: The newspaper announcements confirm Hawaii’s statement that he was born there. True. Thanks!
24 no one’s commemorating where he was born. Ohh-kay.
25, 26 say: many organizations not tasked with confirming Obama was born in Hawaii have indeed not done so.
31 Incredibly stupid parsing of the meaning of “returning to Kenya”
32 Did he go to Columbia? Yes. This has something to do with where he was born because armwaving.
39, 40 LFBC is fake. Well, no.
I’m not OVERWHELMED. I’m not even whelmed.
J. Fred Muggs was the Today Show chimp. Fred C. Trump was Donald’s father. They have the same name (Fred), an initial, and a 5-letter last name. Coincidence? I think not.
🙂 Every time I’ve seen the name “Fred C. Trump,” my brain has processed it as “J. Fred Muggs.”
The cases that immediately come to my mind are:
Hustler Magazine v. Falwell
Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc.
Irving Berlin et al. v. E.C. Publications, Inc. might be a little off base (heh heh), but I think of it because Trump is also a humorless twit, only with about .00001% the talent of Irving Berlin.
I’m also reminded of LBJ v. Apocryphal Congressional Opponent (The One About the Pig), especially when I saw the TMZ headline linked to way above.
And J. Fred Muggs apparently was a Republican.
http://delmardustpan.blogspot.com/2008/02/j-fred-muggs.html
I am shocked yet thrilled that Trump appears to have actually filed suit against Maher.
This will provide endless entertainment value.
The attorneys here can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that a party to a civil lawsuit can be compelled to testify……imagine Trump on the witness stand…..
Maher has got to be thrilled at all the material the Donald is giving him.
What a monumental waste of taxpayer money!
4 weeks until the new season of The Apprentice. It all comes down to Trump being a publicity whore.
What? Trump filed a vanity lawsuit?!?
Who’d a thunk it.
I wish there were some satisfactory way for faux-offended entities to file their ‘suits’ without actually wasting any paper, or any court-time. You know, just have it out in the court of public opinion.
Hmmm. Perhaps an all-volunteer “court of public opinion”. Would make great reality TV. (for anyone who finds reality TV great).
FIFY
Also, don’t forget Fox v. Franken: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_v._Franken
O’REILLY: He baited me and I fell for it and I helped him.
The irony is that Republicans do not believe in evolution.
Your conceit is cute, but also indicative of your status as a time-wasting gadfly, Nobody in the world except you and a small number of your fellow conspiracy theorists gives a rat’s ass about what you think concerning the birthplace of the POTUS. The burden of proof rests with you, not the POTUS. He occupies the office for his second term, and your demands for “the highest burden of proof” read like the foot-stomping demands of an entitlement-ridden little child. Grow up.
You may be on to something here. “Harrison” could be derived from “hairy,” “Bounel” could be derived from “Borneo,” and the J could stand for “jungledweller.”
Good lord, this conspiracy is deeper than we suspected!
john: Therefore, only the highest burden of proof will satisfy me regarding Obama’s birth in this country.
in the country, the burden of proof is on the accuser – perhaps you would prefer moving elsewhere
Indeed. That pretty much sums it up…
Agreed. Excellent breakdown of the sheer inanity of the Birther positions BTW…
Bravo! Well said. All of it.
I REALLY hope this goes to trial. Can you imagine Donald Trump having to submit to a DNA test to prove he isn’t the spawn of an orangutan? Can you imagine the judge explaining to Trump that a birth certificate isn’t proof of paternity, that a DNA sample would have to be provided by his deceased parents? By the way, where is the long form of his birth certificate? How do we know this one isn’t a forgery? I hope he drags this out for months. The comedians will have a field day!
I know where you are coming from, Graciela, but since Trump is only pursuing this for the publicity it can generate for him and his TV show, I hope everyone completely ignores it.