And Let's not forget about the other Deplorables

[KaraBulut]

Karma seems to be homesteading, thankfully.

Judge rules Alex Jones can't use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying Sandy Hook families

A Texas judge has ruled that Infowars host Alex Jones cannot use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion to families who sued over his conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.

apnews.com

A Texas judge has ruled that Infowars host Alex Jones cannot use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion to families who sued over his conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.

The decision is another significant defeat for Jones in the wake of juries in Texas and Connecticut punishing him over spreading falsehoods about the nation’s deadliest school shooting. U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez of Houston issued the ruling Thursday.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year and more recent financial documents submitted by his attorneys put his personal net worth around $14 million. But Lopez ruled that those protections do not apply over findings of “willful and malicious” conduct.

 

[rareboy]

So where does Jones go from here?

Another appeal? He will never pay out a penny to the Sandy Hook families.

 

[KaraBulut]

So where does Jones go from here?

Another appeal? He will never pay out a penny to the Sandy Hook families.

Before the judgment, Jones set up a bunch of new companies that were in relatives' names. He transferred millions of dollars in cash and properties to those new companies, setup "loans" to increase in indebtedness of his companies and Jones then claimed that he didn't have the money to pay the settlements.

Alex Jones faces long odds hiding assets after $1 billion Sandy Hook verdict

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has vowed to fight a nearly $1 billion defamation verdict against him, but experts say neither bankruptcy nor an appeal of a Connecticut jury’s findings on Wednesday are likely to salvage his personal fortune and media empire.

www.reuters.com

The pattern that we've seen is that judges get tired of Jones' antics and they come down hard on him. That's where this is all headed.

 

[rareboy]

But at what point does the court then appoint an administrator to start unwinding the companies and seizing the assets?

 

[KaraBulut]

But at what point does the court then appoint an administrator to start unwinding the companies and seizing the assets?

In the US bankruptcy law, there's different "chapters" for different types of bankruptcy. Jones filed under Chapter 11 which means that he intends to continue his business but is asking the Court to discharge his debts. Normally in Chapter 11, the petitioner (in this case Jones) submits to the Court financial statements detailing assets and liabilities. The Court then pays priority creditors (taxes, student loans, secured creditors) then the remaining creditors get a reduced amount of payoff (often pennies on the dollar) or, as unsecured creditors, they end up getting nothing.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 hoping that the Court would eliminate or severely reduce the $1 billion judgment. With a $1 billion judgment, he could be forced intoChapter 7 bankruptcy which would appoint a trustee to liquidate his assets and put him out of business.

The Sandy Hook families interceded into Jones' Chapter 11 bankruptcy and alleged to the Court that Jones has concealed assets and lied to the Court in his asset/liability filings. The Court appointed an "overseer" to monitor Jones' businesses. That overseer was notified by Jones' bank a couple of months ago that they were closing his business accounts because of "suspicious transactions".

The evidence is piling up that the Court is aware and has cause to believe that Jones has committed fraud. I haven't seen any media reports indicating what the Court is going to do about it. Jones is another one who thinks that he can get away with things because, in the past, his audacity and mendacity has allowed him to escape accountability. I don't think he realizes how much trouble he is in.

On a related note, one of Jones' cohosts on InfoWars, Owen Shroyer, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for his activities on Jan 6th (he incited the rioters but didn't actually enter the Capitol). He got 2 months in jail but I don't think he's started his jail time yet.

 

[rareboy]

Mildly deplorable because of the naked hypocrisy right now when all over Turkey there are signs reading "No Jews Allowed"

"We, as the Turkish nation, are the only people on earth who have not committed racism throughout history,” claims Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Seems like Erdogan has missed the Armenian Genocide by Turks.

In 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a declaration that the Ottoman Empire’s slaughter of Armenian civilians was genocide. Many other countries have as well.

 

[KaraBulut]

Mildly deplorable because of the naked hypocrisy right now when all over Turkey there are signs reading "No Jews Allowed"

This story seems to be making the rounds on Twitter. It has also been picked up by Israel faux-news sites:

Shops in Istanbul: NO JEWS ALLOWED

These signs appeared today in the tourist attraction, the old city of Istanbul. This report was sent to NEWSRAEL from a source in the city saying that many stores have already put it up in their entrances. Turkey, minute after minute is becoming an enemy of not only Israel, but the Jewish...

www.newsrael.com

I did a little research because I'm always suspicious of these stories that are intended to incite outrage. I found stories that talked a business in Belgium having signs. I also found stories about a bookstore in Turkey- some stories said the bookstore was in Ankara and some stories said that the bookstore was in Istanbul.


The picture from the Rağmen Sahaf bookstore is below. I did confirm that the bookstore exists- it is in Fatih which is a conservative area of Istanbul near the Grand Bazaar. It's hard to tell whether the picture is photoshopped. The sign says "Yahudiler Giremez" which means "Jews cannot enter" in Turkish, but it's puzzling that the sign has the English portion larger than the Turkish. Who exactly is the sign intended for?

The stories also said that the bookstore was owned by Ozhan Mustafa. This also caught my eye because Mustafa is a first name and Özhan is a last name. It would be like saying the bookstore is owned by "MCDonald John".



We have to be very careful about these stories because there is a battle going on in countries like Turkey where there is a group of pro-Zionist and pro-Islamist media outlets who are fomenting tensions on both sides. There is a pro-Zionist media outlet in Turkey, Avlaremosis, that was hacked by pro-Palestian activists. Meanwhile, a pro-Islamist site, Yeni Akit Gazeti is running stories encouraging religious Turks to boycott companies like Starbucks that are putting out statements of support for Israel.

If the sign on the bookstore does exist, it's largely a red herring since there's only about 20,000 Jews living in Turkey and they are very wealthy and very secular, so they're unlikely to be shopping in that neighborhood. The bookstore owner would have no clue whether it was a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim entering the store since the Turkish Jewish population is not Orthodox and not observant. They fly under the radar.

Meanwhile, the Erdoğan is saying some pretty anti-Israel stuff. But I guess most people on Twitter don't know who Erdoğan is, so a picture of a sign on a bookstore in Turkey makes for better outrage material.

Turkey's Erdogan says Hamas is not terrorist organisation, cancels trip to Israel

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest comments yet on the Gaza conflict, said on Wednesday the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands.

www.reuters.com

Turkey's Erdogan says Hamas is not terrorist organisation, cancels trip to Israel
"Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, it is a liberation group, 'mujahideen' waging a battle to protect its lands and people," he told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party, using an Arabic word denoting those who fight for their faith.

Unlike many of its NATO allies and the European Union, Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organisation and hosts members of the group on its territory. Ankara backs a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Erdogan also slammed Western powers for supporting Israel's bombing of Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire, the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and for Muslim countries to work together to stop the violence.

 

[rareboy]

Yes...saw the Starbucks being attacked in Istanbul...too sad...but once again, it shows how easy it is to turn people to rage.

I would say though that the real point is how Erdogan is able to slide over the Armenia thing...

 

[KaraBulut]

Yes...saw the Starbucks being attacked in Istanbul...too sad...but once again, it shows how easy it is to turn people to rage.

I would say though that the real point is how Erdogan is able to slide over the Armenia thing...

I never have agreed with Erdoğan's approach to the Armenian history. The incident that happened with the Armenians was between 1915-1917 at the end of World War I and involved the Ottomans. Turkey didn't come into existence until 1923. The dirty little secret is that the a significant number of people living in modern Turkish are not ethnic Turks; they are Greeks, Armenians and Kurds who were forced to convert to Islam and have been convinced that they are a single ethnic group that doesn't exist in order to create a country that only came into being after World War I.

Erdoğan has a particular interest in denying the history with Christian Armenians because he's a fan of the Ottoman period and he wants to Make Ottoman Great Again.

There was a cartoon that I posted in the Memes thread that pretty much covers the history of the Middle East (and not just Palestine):

The Christians, Jews and Muslims have been fighting over claims to the same shitty pieces of land for centuries. They're going to continue to find reasons to kill each other whether it's Nationalism, religion, land claims or water claims... or just because they all hate each other and they have nothing but a false history of a glorious past they've been told existed a long long time ago.

 

[gsdx]

Yesterday, I watched a video with a reporter with a mic interviewing a Trump supporter. A cameraman filmed the exchange (paraphrased):

Man - "The United States is a country build on Christianity"
Reporter - "What does that mean?"
Man - "It means that Christianity is the only true religion in America. Christians are the only ones who will go to Heaven."
Reporter - "What about Jews?"
Man - "............"
Reporter - "What about Jews?"
Man - "..........."
Reporter - "My friend here (points to cameraman) is Jewish. Will he go to Heaven?"
Man - ".........."
Cameraman - "What about me? Will I go to Heaven when I die?"
Man - "Jesus is the light, the truth, and the way."

Funny, that. Someone should remind him that Jesus was Jewish. In fact he was the King of the Jews.

 

[KaraBulut]

....Funny, that. Someone should remind him that Jesus was Jewish. In fact he was the King of the Jews.

And Christianity is just another sect of Judiasm...

 

[TX-Beau]

So is Islam. I think that the Islamic world has felt affront for decades because Isreal is pursuing a colonialist agenda that amounts to ethnic cleansing in defiance of the supposed values of the Western World, and we keep defending them and throwing cash at them no matter how deep the hypocrisy gets.

Frankly, I've lost any sympathy I had for anyone over there in positions of power of any kind.

 

[KaraBulut]

So is Islam.

It is, in a way similar to how Mormonism is a Christian offshoot. Same ancient books, same ancient prophets, different guy hallucinating and writing his own new book.

I think that the Islamic world has felt affront for decades because Isreal is pursuing a colonialist agenda that amounts to ethnic cleansing in defiance of the supposed values of the Western World, and we keep defending them and throwing cash at them no matter how deep the hypocrisy gets.

Frankly, I've lost any sympathy I had for anyone over there in positions of power of any kind.

A couple of weeks ago, Bill Maher was making an argument that Israel had an entitlement to the land because they were there first. That ignores one fact of the exodus: the land that the Israelites fled to wasn't uninhabited.

I've said this previous about living in the middle east: if you ask an American what they had for breakfast, they will have to think about it before they can give you an answer. If you ask someone from the middle east what they had for breakfast, they'll tell you about their great great grandfather and how some group of people stole their ancestral land.

No one holds a grudge like people from the middle east. It's passed along from generation to generation to generation. Old scores get settled, sometimes decades or centuries later.

 

[rareboy]

Not to get off track too far but Joseph Smith qualifies posthumously...with his fake religion.

 

[KaraBulut]

From 2020:

View attachment JennaEllis&Brian Stelter-You understand that someday you're gonna regret this, right.mp4

and now:

 

[TX-Beau]

It's finally happened, the right has gone so far to the right, they've gone all the way around to the other side.

MSN

 

[rareboy]

Why are the GQP afraid of Citizens United?

 

[TX-Beau]

Why are the GQP afraid of Citizens United?

I suspect it's because they've become so extreme, that they are losing donors who are still giving to the other side.

Toad is not good for business, nor is chaos.

 

[rareboy]

i'm not understanding this though...the far right is still being bankrolled by some pretty dark money and I can't see either party supporting taking money out of politics at this point...they all benefit.

The dark money interests are getting exactly what they want out of the Republicans which is the demolition of Federal government. Even right now the buzz is that the bill to support Israel will be done through reducing funding to the IRS.

Trump may be damaging donations to the Pubs from the grass roots level through the corporations that openly support their candidates...but the Mercer money and Koch money is still going to be flowing in...including to Hawley.

This smacks of a performative election year trap for the Dems...make them go on record about reversing Citizens as a campaign distraction.

 

[TX-Beau]

I've always had a quibble with the idea that there was ever any actual interest in "destroying" the government. There's your performative politics. There is no intention to dismantle the actual authority of the state, just use it to push what they find preferable. Toad and his minions are not good for any business interest that is trying to promote actual business. Right-wing dark money from people like the cock bros isn't about business at all, and their donor base has shrunk, Democrats are now routinely outraising 'Pubs at an alarming rate. We do ourselves no favors by pretending that the motivation of fascists is just about profit.

For decades the right has catered to business by being willing to use the government to promote their profits, but when you have a party whose goal is white nationalism, that is going to destroy their business as well as our democracy. Toad and his horde are losing traditional Republican donors because the horde has reneged on the deal. "Business" is after low taxes and regulation, but also stability.