Yet More Kevin Morris!

It's remarkable how quickly the Trump hush money trial and conviction have faded into the rear view mirror -- by the weekend, legacy media was gloating that Trump was ahead by as low as 0.6 points in the meaningless RealClearPolitics popular vote average, but as of this morning, he's back up at 1.1, basically no change from before the verdict. So they've moved on to Hunter's gun trial, which is soap-opera clickbait with a juror getting weepy during Abbe Lowell's opening statement.

But I can't resist posting on one footnote. Kevin Morris, Hunter's "sugar bro", attended at least the first day of Hunter's trial on Monday to support him, although as I posted here, after spending at least $6.5 million to pay Hunter's lawyers and fund his lifestyle, he's said to be out of money. I've been increasingly skeptical of the conventional Morris narrative -- he's a "Hollywood lawyer" who stopped practicing law 15 years ago, and he's a "novelist" who was never able to sell a blockbuster despite his wife being one of the most powerful agents in the industry. In other words, he's basically been just a dilettante living off his wife for more than a decade.

And his wife is probably key to the most recent development in the story. In my post two weeks ago, I concluded, "It looks like Mrs Kevin has staged an intervention, and she's cut Kevin off." A story in yesterday's New York Post confirms my surmise:

“His entire family has abandoned him because they were livid when they found out he was bankrolling everything,” a source close to the Morris family told The Post.

Morris’s daughter Dulcie Lou even confronted Hunter Biden recently, telling him to “stop taking advantage of my father,” the source said.

Dulcie Lou hasn't commented since this news broke -- but I went looking for more background on her. Here's a 2021 photo:

The horse is named Big Shot. As of 2019,

In 2018 Big Shot moved up to the 3’6” green hunter division and won enough classes and championships to be named the U.S. Equestrian Federation 3’6” Green Hunter Horse of the Year. He also began competing in USHJA International Hunter Derbies in 2018, earning reserve champion at the derby at Blenheim (California) in June, quickly followed by big wins in international derbies at Franktown Meadows (Nevada) and the Giant Steps Charity Horse Show (California). The 8-year-old gelding also does double duty in the junior hunter ring with owner Dulcie Lou Morris.

This essay gives additional background:

People involved in the equestrian disciplines . . . . fly on private planes, vacation in the islands and flaunt their wealth in astounding and egregious ways.The economics speak for themselves: If you want to be competitive in the regular divisions, the average price for a horse at competition level is around $100,000 and stretches well past that. The cost for boarding at a more minimalistic barn is at least $1,000 per month. There are more extravagant barns with costs ranging into the millions that have full lounges, gyms, swimming pools, kitchens and any amenity the mind can conjure. Since the horses are treated like athletes and there’s a lot of pressure on their joints, they also get regular injections and courses of treatment. At base level, owners must factor in thousands per year in veterinary costs to maintain their joints and a minimum of $250 every eight weeks to have their hooves maintained by a farrier.

It seems to me that there are two issues here. One is that if Kevin has hired Abbe Lowell to defend Hunter, Mr Lowell, who is said to bill up to $1500 an hour, is doing typical expensive lawyer things to make sure he gets paid, which could well include liens on Morris properties, or simply outright cash payments against monthly billing. I've got to think this is starting to threaten the Morris family lifestyle, including Dulcie Lou's equestrian career.

The second problem is that people who are rich enough to do equestrian are likely the sort of rich people who pay publicists to keep them out of the news, especially the tabloids. They simply don't want their names connected with notorious crackhead con artists like Hunter Biden -- and neither do they want photos of their husbands and fathers taking bong hits in the national press, much less naked photos of their husband's and father's protégé romping with Russian hookers.

For that matter, they really don't want to be thought too close even to Joe Biden, who is looking more and more like a clownish loser. That family is getting close to cutting Kevin loose, if you ask me. I don't think that marriage has much of a future -- but is this a trend? For the ultra-wealthy, there's no question that Trump is just a little too arriviste -- but if you get right down to it, Joe, Hunter, Dr Jill, Hallie, and that whole crew aren't just trashy, they're catastrophic. Worse than the Clintons. They don't go with equestrian outfits.

As I've been saying, times are changing.

UPDATE: My wife responds, "I'm on Dulcie Lou's side. At least she wants to be a successful equestrian."