Writes Ruby Rippey, in "How I Blew Up—Then Rebuilt—My Life/When news of her affair with Gavin Newsom exploded into the public eye, it was only the outward mark of a long-rippling private implosion. In the wreckage of the scandal, Ruby Rippey faced her demons but lost her voice. Twenty years later, she is ready to share her story" (Vanity Fair).
And here's the NYT article about that: "Aide Who Had Affair With Newsom 20 Years Ago Details Her Experience/Ruby Rippey had stayed mostly quiet since her relationship with the San Francisco mayor rocked the city" (gift link). Excerpt: "She seems to blame herself for betraying her husband and says that her life spiraled as she drank heavily and used cocaine. She indicates that she was not coerced, but she also held Mr. Newsom responsible for holding power and proceeding with the affair anyway. 'Power does not need to coerce,' she writes. 'It only needs to exist. The responsibility to hold the line belongs to the one who holds it. That didn’t happen.'"
I like Rippey's info-packed, present-tense prose: "I always go to him — his penthouse in Russian Hill, a private back room at a North Beach bar, the W Hotel in Los Angeles." And the breathless wisdomizing: "We meet and we drink. There is sex, but it isn’t the point. The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."
পোস্টগুলি
৬৮টি মন্তব্য:
Soup is good food. Politicians? Ehh...
Kamala...Ruby...Monica...power-adjacent women being women...
Lana Del Rey got it right: "F*d my way up to the top."
Being a progressive Democrat, this story should help Newsom's chances.
Newsom fucked his friend’s wife. Despicable guy.
Newsom’s affair with Rippey happened in 2005, but the excerpt you quote seems to be saying their first kiss was just after midnight on January 1, 2000. Or, is this excerpt about someone else?
So she's saying she wanted a high status man to use her for sex but a high status man shouldn't have used her for sex.
Have I got that right?
Eric the Fruit Bat @5:23, my very thought: it's not possible, it seems, for a man of power or status to act on his attraction to a woman of less power and status. I'm guessing this woman is also a progressive - certainly it seems to me she must consider herself a feminist, and progressive seems very likely, such that everyone must occupy an exquisitely precisely placed rung on the hierarchical ladder, and stay there, and mix only with others on that rung. (Except for reaching a magnanimous hand down to the people on the bottom rungs to give them their brioche and a pat on the head.)
I mean, I deplore the affair and I can't stand the smarmy Newsom. But this woman's attitude about relationships seems to me to be unworkable.
Why now?
@Left Bank, the affair occurred in 2005-2006. Newsom was elected mayor in 2003. At the time, Rippey was married to Alex Tourk who has often been described as Newsom's close friend. I'm having a hard time pinning down the date of their marriage but I don't think it is inconceivable that Rippey and Newsom met prior to her employment and the affair
@Humperdink: "Why now?"
Someone seeks to take down a 2028 Presidential contender. See the Platner sequence in Maine. The Democrats have a hardcore internal civil war in progress. The DSA vs. the elected establishment vs. the Tech tyrants.
"Cheating" in California...since the 1960s and Hugh Hefner and the hippies, California's powerful and political class has considered marriage an economic and public relations front. Lots and lots of leftist "feminists" put up with or revered Roman Polanski and Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton until they contracted TDS and suddenly didn't.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy."
However, it’s the man’s fault, because….
“Being a progressive Democrat, this story should help Newsom's chances.”
…What I thought. Made Ann look…
I dunno. She didn't have agency then but she does have agency now?
As for Newsom, he's always struck me as a smarmy creep. This doesn't change that.
I do think men in power have the responsibility not to abuse it. Just as I think women in power do, as well.
The vast reams of text that women produce to rationalize that they got horny and wanted to be courted in luxurious circumstances, and screwed by a rich powerful man are a great source of comedy. The woman’s fall to the temptations of lust, greed and power is, of course, the man’s fault.
What was on the mixtape?
The point was sex.
"Humperdink said...
Why now?"
To ask the question is to answer it.
Humperdink: "Why now?"
Enigma responded: “Someone seeks to take down a 2028 Presidential contender.”
Exactly. Although it’s a bit early for the old October surprise thingy.
Here's the answer to the question, "Why now"?
She would have liked to have waited until Gavin was President. That would have brought the most money in to both her and her agent. The second best time would have been during the primary season, during the run-up to the actual election.
But as it turns out, Gavin is currently plummeting in the polls as the more outrageous DSA-adjacent candidates are getting the news space, the talk, the buzz. Gavin is viewed as the overseer of ruin in California. Everyone has accepted that. Still they were willing to vote for him, but the yoots are looking at other, more buzzy and excitable approaches. Gavin, by comparison is an Old Progressive. Old and tired looking with nothing new to offer.
And so Rippey and her agent have decided that they'd best dip into the Gavin Gold Train while the gettin' is good. Right now, he may be as newsy as he gets.
Why now? I think because Newsome is approaching his sell-date and no one will care in a year, so now's the time to make your splash. Smoke 'em if you got'em.
By the late 90's, making a mixtape was not the painstaking effort of recording specific tracks from a collection of 33 rpm vinyl records.
You could go to a store with a list of songs, or you could choose the songs by sampling an archive, they make you a mixtape in less than half hour. Link to ai answers
🎶 there were few at the scene
But they all did agree
That the player who ran
Looked a lot like Gavin Newscum
Gavin is a Santa Clara grad.
My youngest daughter is a Santa Clara grad.
Does this count under Kevin Bacon rules?
I like Hank Williams,
The news is out, all over town,
That you’ve been seen,
A runnin’ round.
This is an example of how the powerful orgs like the DNC/media don’t admit you to the top unless they have compromat on you so they can take you out if necessary. An honest man can’t be tolerated, they can’t get him to go when he starts to stink.
Critical Adultery Theory
I wonder what her current husband and young son think about her article? She says she has grown and changed but she sure seems to be making it all about her.
“The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."
When they’re rich and powerful, they let you grab ‘em by the p**sy. Even Gavin Newsom. Even when you have a one year old baby at home.
Lite Smear: Less Filling, Tastes Great.
“She says she has grown and changed but she sure seems to be making it all about her.”
I think the saying is something like: *once a coke whore, always a coke whore.*
The revolution is always built on the ruins of the old regime. Nancy's old and her grip ain't what it once was. The Gettys have left. Gavin isn't going to have the opportunity to 'fight' for his future on an already-paved road, those days are gone.
A revolution is required. The only way socialism looks good enough for the proles to buy into, is when you're stuck in the middle of ruins, where anything looks better, especially if it includes Free Stuff.
Maybe they are just inoculating the electorate to the idea that Gavin is a horndog. It's not a bad strategy--both Clinton and Trump succeeded despite the rap.
If you wrote a screenplay and the slut was named Ruby Rippey they would make you change it because it is too obvious,
Forget it, Jake. It's California. I spent most of my life there and I can confirm that it's an aphrodisiac. No one there can help it. "Power-adjacent" has nothing to do with it. Everyone there functions like they are sex adjacent 24x7.
Per Meade’s comment,
If you are a nice looking woman who drinks heavily and takes drugs, you are going to be screwed, blued, and tattooed. That is the way it works. Don’t don’t don’t don’t.
Newsum - the good looking powerful dope.
who cheats. and lies. and destroys.
If they really wanted to take him down they would front-page the funding scandal regarding his wife's nonprofit.
**I like Rippey's info-packed, present-tense prose**
Maybe so, but it's still just a collection of excuses by a terrible person trying to blame someone else for her destructive choices.
Proximity to power: wisdomizing and sodomizing.
Newsom and his women are shallow and stupid. He's a poster child for one aspect of why politicians and politics are such a mess.
So she was banging him not for the sex itself, but so that she could be "close to power," but puts it on him to be the one to prevent the affair from happening?
"There is sex, but it isn’t the point. The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."
That says it all.
Over the years we've seen adultery ignored or forgiven (varying in degree based on party affiliation, of curse). The fact that this story makes some of the MSM power brokers leads me to believe this is inoculation for later.
As noted in a prior comment there is scandal aplenty to take Newsom out permanently. Decades old sexual encounters? Apparently consensual? Feh.
Yes Newsom is down in the polls right now. But the D party is flailing in an attempt to find someone, anyone, that might be palatable to the masses. Newsom and friends might have some shred of hope that he would be acceptable in 2028. After all Avanati was portrayed as a GREAT candidate by CNN.
And who else, Kamala?
WTF… Rodney Alan Rippy loses his Jack-in-the-Box ad gig and later gets cucked by Gavin Newscum.
That’s a stretch of bad luck right there.
Californians started this business of assigning everyone a number based on their sexual attractiveness. Was it really about "proximity to power"? If it really wasn't about the sex, it may have been about the joy of transgression, the pleasure of cheating and getting away with it.
VF eschews the NYT/WaPo tradition of standing by a window in a sweater for these types of profiles.
Dollars to donuts he gave the same mixtape to more gals.
"...The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."
Point taken.
I see Kamala’s hidden hand behind this. Rippey admits Kamala had given her some advice about holding on to this info for a time. Now was probably the time to release it per Kamala, I’m guessing.
Power is an aphrodisiac, and this is particularly true for the person that holds the power. If women expect powerful men to stifle that impulse in the presence of cleavage and green lights, they are destined to be deeply disappointed in their boss.
All's fair in lust and abortion (AFLA). #PP
“The responsibility to hold the line belongs to the one who holds it.”
JFK had two women in the White House typing pool (Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowan), plus 19 year old intern Mimi Alford, on the White House payroll, and he still had the energy to boink mob moll Judith Exner and Hollywood actresses like Marilyn Monroe, Gene Tierney, and his father’s former long term mistress Marlene Dietrich.
This isn’t a new phenomenon, and absolutely not a new phenomenon among wealthy Democrat politicians. There are men whose wealth and power offer them access to ample numbers of willing women, and a subset of those men will take advantage of those willing women.
And the key word is “subset.” Not every man takes advantage of his opportunities, there will always be some horn dogs. If a woman doesn’t want regrets she should remove herself from the ranks of the willing and available.
As a pornstar name Ruby Rippey trumps Stormy Daniels.
That VF picture is just Tarantino click bait I see.
She's as much in love with power as Gavin is. Pity that the Brylcreem Boy will fall short of his presidential ambitions. A blow for the greasy rich kid, but preservation for the United States. He and his policies have destroyed California--and sure wouldn't help the USA.
Between the responsibilities of the presidency and the demands of satyriasis, Kennedy could only give each of his paramours a few minutes of his day. I expect to find out in the next few years that Bill Clinton was a more "generous lover."
"Well you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with some underworld spy
Or the wife of a close friend, wife of a close friend and
You're so vain"
- Carly Simon
In Althouse's opening paragraph, the one with the mixtape, Ruby is talking about her husband Kenny - I mean Alex - not Gavin.
I did try to fuck her. She was married."
(And so was he.)
I think the saying is something like: *once a coke whore, always a coke whore.*
You misremembering the quote, It's "once the kind of guy that parties with Epstein and whore, always the kind of guy that parties with Epstein and whores."
MAGA batting an eyelash over adultery makes me puke. I think the saying is something like: *once a coke whore, always a coke whore.*🤮 Now you care?! Only this one time? Fuck off.
"[Newsom] explained that he’d had an affair with Ms. Rippey, the wife of Alex Tourk, a close friend who was then serving as his re-election campaign manager after working as his deputy chief of staff. Mr. Tourk had just told Mr. Newsom that he was resigning after learning about the affair from his wife."
"By the time the affair became public knowledge in early 2007, Mr. Newsom was dating Jennifer Siebel, now his wife, who caused her own brouhaha by publicly dismissing the affair as 'a couple nothing incidents' and by calling Ms. Rippey 'the culprit.' Ms. Siebel later apologized for the remarks."
Whatever you think of their politics, these don't seem like good people.
"The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."
It seems like if the person doesn't regret it in the future, you get a pass. But if the person later says that you took advantage of an unequal power dynamic, you get cancelled. (Like Louis C.K.)
A reminder, during his early presidency, JFK wasn't a "horndog", he was a hopped-up ultra-high-T psycho sex machine, before RFK Sr intervened:
During his first year in office (1961), John F. Kennedy was taking a large and complex mix of prescription drugs for chronic medical problems.
---
🧪 Medications JFK took during his first year as president (1961)
1. Painkillers
Used for his severe back pain and osteoporosis:
- Codeine
- Demerol (meperidine)
- Methadone
2. Stimulants / Amphetamines
- Ritalin (methylphenidate)
- Amphetamine‑based injections from Dr. Max Jacobson (“Dr. Feelgood”)
These injections contained amphetamine and methamphetamine, along with steroids and other substances.
3. Anti‑anxiety medications
- Meprobamate (a tranquilizer)
- Librium (chlordiazepoxide)
4. Sleeping pills
- Barbiturates (unspecified types)
5. Steroid hormones
Required for his Addison’s disease (adrenal insufficiency):
- Hydrocortisone
- Testosterone
- Salt tablets (to manage adrenal insufficiency)
6. Thyroid hormone
- Used to manage metabolic effects of his endocrine disorders.
7. Antibiotics
- For recurrent urinary tract infections.
8. Antispasmodics
- For chronic colitis.
9. Antihistamines
- For allergies; at least once caused a severe mood reaction requiring an antipsychotic.
10. Gamma globulin injections
- To fight infections.
---
🧭 Summary
In 1961, JFK was taking painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, steroids, antibiotics, antispasmodics, antihistamines, thyroid hormone, and gamma globulin—often 8–12 medications at once.
This regimen was partly supervised by his official physicians and partly by Dr. Max Jacobson, whose amphetamine‑laden injections were later banned from the White House.
---
If you want, I can also break down:
- which drugs he was taking during specific crises (Bay of Pigs, Vienna Summit),
- how his regimen changed after Dr. Jacobson was barred from treating him,
- or how his medical secrecy shaped public perceptions of presidential fitness.
Sorry about the AI.
“MAGA batting an eyelash over adultery makes me puke.”
Then keep emptying your stomach, you worthless a*****e.
Matzo ball soup is her favorite? Really? I suppose she's VERY good looking.
Its interesting how many people are still at the Caveman level in terms of morality. They may use computers and be oh so smart but they're just apes in suits and dresses.
Newsome sees a cute young thing and goes after it. She sees the powerful alpha male and feels "Special" and "Chosen". Neither cares about their spouse.
Personally, I don't give a rap. But I think its fair to say that a man who will cheat on his wife, wont think twice about betraying his voters. Of course, the opposite is not true. Just because a man is true to his wife doesn't mean he won't lie in politics or business. Cf: The bushes or Nixon.
Given the scum we have to choose from, I'll give Newsome a pass.
Is this coming out in order to damage Newsome, or in order to get it out of the way now so it has "old news" less effect closer to election?
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