Hey, there! Log in / Register
Just as his presidential campaign begins to soar, RFK Jr. could be forced to prove in court he's the anti-vaxxiest of them all
By adamg on Mon, 06/26/2023 - 10:11am
Shiva Ayyadurai is asking a federal judge in Boston to re-open his $95-million libel suit against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for allegedly calling him a false anti-vaxxer.
In recent years, Ayyadurai has lost a variety of federal lawsuits, including claims that Bill Galvin conspired with Twitter to deny him his rightful seat in the US Senate, that Marty Walsh and Bill Evans denied him his First Amendment rights on the Common, that Cambridge wouldn't let him park his Real Indian campaign bus there and, of course, that he is the One True Inventor of Email.
Also dismissed, in January, was his libel suit against the black sheep of the Kennedy family, for "want of prosecution" after US District Court Judge William Young concluded Ayyadurai no longer wanted to pursue the case because he failed to answer Young's request for proof that Ayyadurai had actually served Kennedy with a copy of his lawsuit. Ayyadurai had sued Kennedy in May, 2020, charging Kennedy libeled him with a blog post that suggested Ayyadurai was not really the anti-vaxxer he claims to be.
In his June motion, filed pro se, Ayyadurai said that this was all his lawyer's fault, that he still very much wants to sue RFK Jr. into kingdom come and asks Young to use his judicial discretion to re-open the case.
Plaintiff left the legal handling of this matter entirely in his former counsel's hands. Plaintiff was of the understanding that defendant actively evaded service of process for a substantial period of time but that plaintiff's former counsel had obtained service and a default [judgment]. Plaintiff also understood there would be a trial date set in the future to determine the amount of money damages.
Unbeknownst to plaintiff at the time, his former counsel had not actually secured a default order, and based on the docket sheet, he apparently stopped working on the case in late October 2020.
Through mistake, inadvertence or gross negligence, former counsel did not keep plaintiff reasonably advised as to the status of this matter and did not diligently prosecute this matter.
Ayyadurai avers that he did not learn that Young was threatening to dismiss the case - and then actually did so - until May, 2023. He writes he is now ready to fully prosecute the case on his own - unless Young wants to simply issue a default order against Kennedy, of course.
Topics:
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Complete motion | 207.46 KB |
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Is Kennedy's campaign actually soaring?
Or is it just that Biden is running again, so there's not really any drama on the Democratic side for the next election so we have to move heaven and earth to try and manufacture something, even if it means giving undue airtime to a conspiracy grifter being propped up by the right wing?
I for one...
... welcome the return of manufacturing in the U.S.!
What a quandary....
Which whacko do you root for?
Can they both lose????
Sure
They can both get an illness easily preventable by a common vaccine.
Least anyone think RFK Jr's stance on vaccines is reasonable, remember he's also saying that Wifi causes cancer.
Maybe he can say email causes cancer, too.
That would really piss Shiva off.
How much do you want to bet that
both Mr. Degrading My Family's Legacy, Jr. and Dr. Tarnishing My Alma Mater's Reputation are fully up-to-date on their covid and other vaccines?
I mean, they may both be utterly nuts, and / or just cynically exploiting the mentally halt and lame for fame and riches, but I don't think either of them is a complete moron. They're just greedy, heartless charlatans.
Wouldn't surprise me
I read a report that Kennedy had a party at his home, and that guests were required to show proof of COVID vaccinations. He blamed his wife for that egregious act of good sense. As for Ayyadurai, any goddamn thing is possible.
1962
When he was running for senate It was said to his uncle Ted, "If his name was Edward Moore with his qualifications, with your qualifications Teddy, that if it was Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke. But nobody's laughing."
It is time for anyone named Kennedy to hang it up and enjoy the dividends set up by their grandfather / great grandfather.
Just because this guy was good for the Hudson and cleaning it up (despite cutting down wetlands on his property) , doesn't mean his roid riddled body and brain would make a good President.
His candidacy is being pushed by libertarian hedge fund managers. That's a problem.
Bobby - Go away.
There isn't enough popcorn in this world.
And maybe this can replace the supposedly-now-cancelled Zuckerberg vs Musk cage match.
jimmy hoffa would want a
jimmy hoffa would want a piece of that action
Hey, he's back!
Our own answer to Wile E. Coyote! Inspiring us all with his relentless pursuit of the implausible and unreachable, his refusal to surrender to the tyranny of common sense!
However Shiva really should stop ordering the Lawsuit-In-A-Box Kit from the Acme Corporation. It never works as advertised.
Does this mean that RFK Jr.
Does this mean that RFK Jr. has given up on his "I'm not really officially anti-vaccine, I just so happen to hate vaccines and the companies that make them" shtick?
Reincarnation of Lyndon LaRouche, et al.
In the categorization of human psychology I see Ayyadurai as part of the same set as Lyndon LaRouche, Sung Myung Moon, L. Ron Hubbard, et al. Folks who might not be described as living with any kind of mental illness. Yet people who live in a reality that 99.99% of the humanity does not see.
But like anything, especially in the US, who is the piper and who pays the piper? Is Ayyadurai indedependly (or indecently as the spell check offered) wealthy? How does he have the money to pay for law suits that are DOA? Or does he have backers who for whatever reason see him as a useful tool?
And who is doing Ayyadurai's legal research? While pro se can get a help from court employed attorneys, as far as understanding how and when to file, etc., this petition is awfully specific in its legal citations. Is Ayyadurai a polymath and so besides inventing email is a lawyer specializing in the law that he is trying to use?
It's probably good that he and Kennedy are now duking it out in the ring of nuttiness. Perhaps this will distract both of them, for the moment, from spreading spreading whatever it is they have.
For the record, Dr. Howling Fraudster did not
invent email. He wrote an email program many years after someone else did it first, and after many other email programs had been written by others after that first. Please don't repeat his dumbest, most easily debunked claim to infamy.
Yet he sortof did
Shiva is very specific not saying he invented email but that he authored a computer program he called EMAIL which arguably was the first example of software resembling a modern email client, in contrast to the command line utilities which all the nerds were using at the time. Not that it played a serious role in the development of the Internet, but it is a footnote.
In some ways Shiva's most significant contribution is all the commentary he's triggered on universalhub.
One of these things is not like the others
Elron's religion may not make sense to normal people, but his purpose in founding it was to gain for himself all the benefits of an established religion, and boy did that work out.
Perhaps not delusional
According to the piece written by RFK Jr which Shiva is suing over, Shiva's motivations were financial. Shiva is invested in the vaccine approval business, and his largest client is Pfizer. RFK2 claims that while he was earnestly organizing opposition to vaccine mandates, Shiva was false flagging to make the anti-mandate advocates look like crazy people. Shiva's behavior was tactical.
The weird thing about this lawsuit is that it probably helps RFK2 in pivoting from being anti-vax to anti-mandate. RFK2 won't get far being anti-vax, but if he can position himself as anti-mandate, then he is definitely capable of spoiling 2024.
20 odd years ago, Shiva used to brag...
That he didn't sleep, he only meditated.
I sure hope he's meditating about this every hour on the hour.
Long way to the top
If you want to rock and roll. Hope he gets the Dem nod. Need some anti establishment rhythm on the Dem side to dethrone neoliberal scum.
Haha, no
The Dems have a candidate, he's already the President. You might have heard of the guy.
Also, the dude being funded by a bunch of billionaires isn't "anti establishment".
Thesis: RFK Jr for president
Thesis: RFK Jr for president
Antithesis: Biden for president
Synthesis: Nobody for president. These men are both morons.
That's the dialectic, baby!
Hilarious
RFK Jr. couldn't dethrone King Vitamin, let alone get elected president.
Why would you support a Dem candidate
whose money is mostly coming from extreme, anti-American right-wing groups like Steve Bannon and company?
If you can't spot a painfully obvious spoiler designed to get a Republican elected, you are even dumber than you already sound.
And, you’ll support Biden?
The guy is involved in one of the most scandalous political corruption cases in modern American history.
Incorrect
His DOJ is independent and prosecuting Trump. Biden doesn't have anything to do with those cases.
I'd vote for a sack of dirty laundry
over RFK Jr. I don't know if he actually believes the things he says, but the things he says are batshit fucking crazy, and the kind of nonsense that gets millions of people killed.
The notion that he's running as a Democrat is absurd: he's a MAGA loon through and through.
But he's not a serious Dem candidate. His only job, which he is a real threat to do well, is peel off enough disaffected Dems to get TFG or DeSantis elected. The goal for the No Labels group, which is also funded by right-wing money, is the same: spoil the Dems' chances.
American democracy would be better served by a pile of soiled clothes in office over either of the wannabe-fascist GOP front-runners.
Please Educate Me
What, in your mind, is one of the most scandalous political corruption case in modern American history that Biden is involved with? Can you lay out the charges for those of us who have no idea what you're talking about? Thanks!
Where do you want me to start?
How about the latest? Using his name shake down CCP connected business associate Henry Zhao for $5.1M.
The times of sweet old grandpa Joe are over. He’s proven to be a scumbag of the highest order and should be deemed unfit to serve and compromised.
Ah, so you're one of those people. I'm
going to predict that you cannot come up with a single credible citation or a shred of evidence to back up any of these assertions, in precisely the same way Biden's political rivals cannot.
It's tedious to hear rightie blowhards gas on endlessly with their dark accusations about Old Joe without the benefit of facts. It's like listening to TFG natter on and on about how the election was stolen from him, after trying to prove it 60 times in court and losing every time.
Your wild-ass conspiracy theories belong in a stoner's basement, not an adult conversation. Put up, or STFU.
Wut?
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/hunter-biden-whatsapp-message-fuels-gop-as...
The story is literally everywhere.
Just because republicans are finding the corruption doesn’t mean that it’s not corruption, BlueAnon.
Hmmm
You seem to be confusing Hunter Biden with Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden is a dope who continues a long line of embarrassing family members of presidents, true of both parties. (Do you think the Saudis would invest in Trump's family businesses if they lacked that connection?)
There's no indication Joe Biden used his influence or authority to help his son. His deadbeat son still milked his connection and name for all it was worth, much like the children of many famous people.
Yes, there's no doubt that Hunter
Biden is a scummy, no-talent nepo-baby who liked to name-drop his powerful daddy in support a debauched, drug-fueled lifestyle. (Sound familiar? It should.)
There's still zero evidence that connects Old Joe to any of Hunter's cheap skullduggery. Call me when you have more than the fevered imaginings of political rivals desperate to drag Biden Sr. down to the level of their own hopelessly corrupt leader. Y'all still ain't got shit.
“I’m sitting here with my father”
Photos have shown Joe in Delaware on the day the WhatsApp message was sent.
You’re really working overtime on the defense.
So if I'm in the room with Michelle Wu and send a text
does that mean that Michelle Wu approved that text?
Hold on, I've got some Tinder messages to send during the next council meeting that are about to be officially mayor-approved!
Yeah, good luck with the "Pretty
sure they were in the same state" prosecution there. And the "If Hunter said it to someone he was trying to suck cash out of, it must be true" gambit.
You people really do live on Planet Claire.
I live on Planet Charlie?
Dude, you’re fucking weird.
Sure, the whole Biden family was making money off Joe’s name and Joe had no idea. Right, right. The old babe in the woods routine. Let’s see how that plays out.
Planet Claire, not Charlie. Do
try to keep up.
You're in exactly the same boat that TFG has been in, and why he has kept lose-lose-losing in court: zero evidence of a crime.
The fact is that the GOP doesn't care that it doesn't remotely have a case it can win. It serves its political ends to keep the story in the atmosphere, so legally-ignorant putzes like you can keep lapping it up.
All it takes to impress the witless, as TFG has done, is keep repeating the lie, never mind the 0-for-60 record in court. But down here on Earth, facts matter. Evidence matters. Legal proof matters.
Sorry if that's a dog's breakfast, but ya'll are your own cooks on this one.
Why do you keep bringing up Trump?
Not sure what he has to do with this other than he’s taken a giant dump on your brain. FWIW, I hate Trump so you can stop mentioning him to me like it’s some kind of win for you.
This is an investigation. Investigators provide evidence. Evidence is the WhatsApp message. Evidence is Joe in Wilmington when Hunter sent the WhatsApp from Wilmington saying he was with his father. Evidence is money funneled from Hunters account to Jim Bidens account and then closing that account.
I know you have a *very successful* career as a food critic and all but you literally make less sense than a Guy Fieri menu.
To quote someone
I once read recently, "The times of sweet old grandpa Joe are over."
Absent Biden, who do you think gets elected? Or even when Biden swats away these tissue-thin allegations, but No Labels and RFK Jr. remain, who do you think gets elected?
I don't find your self-professed Trump hatred very convincing. As long as you keep pushing these bogus narratives, you're helping him get back into office.
RFK
I'm trying to figure out why there is so much hatred for the man on this page. His stance on domestic government, foreign policy, enviroment and the economy are all infinitely better than what we have now (which is virtually nothing). His stance on vaccines is a little out there for me, however, I don't think he's wrong for questioning certain vaccines, primarily the money involved. He's definitely been wrong on things around that, but give me one politician who hasn't been wrong on an issue.
Trump vs. Biden redux would be another disaster for the US, and leave us with a 3rd term of a failed presidency. The thought of an 82 year old Biden or a 78 year old Trump as president makes me sick. We should be demanding better of our politicians, but we have a problem where we elect a bunch of talentless hacks at every level.
Tell me why Biden should be re-elected and what you hope he can accomplish in his 2nd term?
I don't hate RFK Jr, but I don't
want anyone as certifiably batshit-crazy as him anywhere near the wheels of power. Sample positions: "Prozac is the reason for all our mass shootings"; "Vaccines are bullshit"; "Vaccines cause autism"; "Vaccines include miniature tracking devices"; "5G wireless is a mind control technology"; "AIDS drugs are more harmful than just 'naturally' trying to recover from HIV"; "Wi-Fi causes brain tumors". There's a new bit of insane nonsense every day. He's QAnon level nuts, not a responsible adult.
At least as big a problem is who is funding him: anti-democracy right-wing monsters like Steve Bannon. RFK Jr is not a serious candidate; he's purely a Dem spoiler. Supporting him is a de facto vote for TFG or that other Florida asshole.
"stance"
There's "stance" and then there's substance. RFJ Jr. is no more capable of creating policies based on any of his "stances" than is Marianne Williamson (and I expect the Venn diagram of their respective stans is a circle).
And please, "hatred" is just a wee bit hysterical to describe the entirely legitimate objections that people have to this spoiler -- yes, that is what he is, perhaps not intentionally, but then most spoilers aren't. They're just dupes like this sadly delusional man.
Oh ok
You know, you could have just started with "I'm also a loony conspiracy theorist" and saved the rest of us some typing.
Ok
You know, you could have just not responded and saved yourself the typing.
What loony conspiracy theory am I pushing?
These statements put you firmly
in QAnon land by my yardstick:
"His [RFKJ's] stance on vaccines is a little out there for me, however, I don't think he's wrong for questioning certain vaccines, primarily the money involved."
He's not "a little out there": he has been selling a patently insane bucket of lies about vaccines for many years, starting with challenging their general efficacy in the face of a Mt. Everest of clinical data and analysis. His kind of anti-vaxxing is the stuff that gets millions of people killed. But you're still with him, "just asking questions"? Get the fuck back to the kids' table. You are a deeply unserious person.
"He's definitely been wrong on things around that, but give me one politician who hasn't been wrong on an issue."
Yes, nobody's perfect on all the facts all the time. But you should have found any *one* of his drooling, dangerous conspiracy theories (my list is above is a tiny fraction of his ravings) to be entirely disqualifying by itself, never mind the whole body of them put together. The fact that you're still taking him seriously tells me that you have severely impaired critical thinking skills and may be an utter crank. The internet has led you down a deep, dark hole of deadly misinformation, and you have no idea which way is up. One of the tragedies of our age is how much company you have down there.
I sincerely hope you're too lazy to vote.
This is the problem
You asked a question; who did I think should be elected between RFK or Shiva? I said RFK. You then proceed to insult and make assumptions. I never said I took RFK seriously. I never said I thought he would get the nomination. I never said I would vote for him, or any Kennedy for that matter. I don't agree with him on vaccines, I said that. I'm glad you're happy about the role big pharma has in our country, but I'm not and have questions.
It's funny that you tell me to get the fuck back to the kids table when its you acting out like a child with your emotions. I have a 17 month old who handles disagreement with less table pounding and crying than you.
My problem is with Joe Biden. You don't even have the fucking balls to answer my question - tell me why Biden should be re-elected and what you hope he accomplishes in his 2nd term?
Why Biden?
Because he's better than the alternative. Simple as that.
As much as you despise Biden, you haven't given any specifics why that is. Just FN rants.
As for RFK, MC said it way better than I ever could. When somebody presents ideas that are so whacked out and totally go against scientific fact, anything else they say is irrelevant. At that point, they have lost all credibility to consider anything else they say.
Reasons
1. He lies constantly - both in the present and the past
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/list/?category=&ruling=false&speak...
It's not even all about important issues (Iraq and Afghanistan), but stupid shit like he was
appointed to the Naval Academy, Corn Pop, protesting with Mandela and being raised in
the Puerto Rican community
2. Sponsored the 1994 Crime Bill and led the War on Drugs
3. He's a creep
https://www.thecut.com/2020/04/joe-biden-accuser-accusations-allegations...
Not to mention his long history of groping/sniffing/grabbing/insulting women and young
girls
4. His immigration policy is non-existent, leading to all time highs in migrants deaths at the
border
https://nnirr.org/migrant-deaths-at-southern-border-soar-to-new-high-und...
5. I don't think he's fit to do the job - he's too old, the gaffes have gotten embarrassingly bad,
he can't handle questions from the press and he doesn't seem in control of his
administration
Voting for Biden because he's better than the alternative is exactly how Trump got elected, proving that D's and R's are two sides of the same coin.
You seem worked up.
Take a breath, and don't confuse disdain for your ideas with heated emotion.
What I actually asked was, how can you support RFK Jr when he is so obviously a nutjob and GOP stooge? Your comments since have convinced me that you still take him seriously -- you only started backpedaling a minute ago -- which in my estimation makes you dumb and/or crazy and/or gullible.
You took it down a Biden rathole with some GOP talking points about his possible corruption, which my jaundiced eye sees as evidence-free so far, only imaginable with darkly paranoid inferences and ignorance of his character as reflected in a lifetime in public service.
Since you insist: among the currently declared candidates for President, only Biden strikes me as competent, sane, stable, tolerant, and pro-democracy enough for serious consideration. His age is a concern, but compared to the fatal flaws of the alternatives, not my biggest worry.
I have lived through enough close elections to be wary of spoilers, would not support RFKJ even if he weren't a spittle-flecked MAGA-loon fake-Dem propped up by GOP money (and now Russian propaganda.) In our system, fringe candidates only tip the scales toward Republicans, and the two leading GOP candidates in my view are utterly repugnant wannabe-authoritarians. I'd prefer a system where alternatives to the two parties mattered, but this is the one we're stuck with.
Sigh
The actual question:
Again, I've never once said I take RFK seriously. I said I thought his ideas on certain policy are better than what we have now, it doesn't mean I'd vote for him.
This is truly state media type stuff. Well done.
Hey, look, we finally agree on something!
Oops, sorry, you're right.
My original response was to another commenter. I can't imagine who you think "state media" is -- if there's an American media propaganda apparatus, it's all right-wing here -- but if you want to take on my analysis instead of just lobbing a lazy blanket dismissal, feel free.
If you agree that we're stuck with a two-party system where fringe candidates only ever serve as spoilers (see Nader, Stein, et. al.), who gets your vote in the likely Biden vs. TFG or DeSantis election?
Me, I see the flaws on each side and vote pragmatically. Biden may have lost a step, but he doesn't want to end democracy, crush queer people, burn books, starve our grandmas, let Russia annex Ukraine, etc., the way those other two shit-heels appear prepared to do.
If you want your vote to work as intended -- again, a vote for a fringe candidate is effectively a vote for the Republican nominee -- what do you do? Complain like a stoned college sophomore that the world really ought to be better? I agree, it's maddening and sad, but from a grownup perspective, there are only two weevils. What's your choice?
Good job proving MC Slim JB's point!
LOL, if you are trying to make the MAGAt crowd look really stupid, you are succeeding. Did you read the linked article? It points out that there has been no presentation of evidence whatsoever that Joe Biden was involved in any of that.
Uh
Do you really, really think this is evidence of "most scandalous political corruption case in modern American history"
Have you heard of Watergate? Have you heard of Iran-Contra? Have you heard of the W. admin's lies that got us to invade Iraq? Have you heard of the $2 billion dollars Kushner got from the Saudis, or all the money Ivanka made off the family name during the Trump presidency, or the attempted strong-arming of Ukraine to gin up dirt on the Bidens that got Trump indicted the first time? For starters.
Instead you think Hunter Biden trading on his dad's name (which is odious and probably should be illegal, but was investigated by a Trump appointed investigator for 5 years and found no crimes were committed) is worse than all those?
You sweet summer child.
Nice Editing
I said "ONE of the most...", you moron.
Yes, I think that using your name and position in government to make millions for you and your family is one of the most scandalous political corruption cases in modern American history.
Cool defense though, "it's not as bad as Iran-Contra!!!" Don't forget to leave 10% for the big guy. Now, get the fuck out of here with your bad faith arguments.
Very Civil
Hurts to be called out for your utterly ridiculous, over the top statements? When you grow of age to be able to discuss matters without infantile insults, please do come back to me, my sweet summer child.
Psychological obsession with Biden
The obsession with all things Biden from Trump supporters is a dark reflection of the psychological illness that Trump connects with. He gives authorization and inspiration to making up anything possible to go after Trumpy's current nemesis (which oddly enough changes as though he goes after target's dU jour.)
The poor folks who breath the fetid fumes of Trump's madness will follow Trump the same way that Jim Jones' followers walked lockstep to their demise, the same way that David Koresh's followers walked to their own hell, the same way that Marshall's Applewhite's Heaven's Gates followers floated with Applewhite to a higher level of being.
Trump leads a death cult. His followers will either wake up to that gut wrenching reality and do their best to hide this shameful moment in their lives or they will follow him to their own demise.