Terrorists, funsters and all the other nice people

[Dr Sardonicus]

It could be from any of a number of movies. Or true crime stories. Or terrorism-related news stories: "Meet our demands or the hostages die."

When Canada detained Meng Wanzhou on a US extradition request, the Chinese took a Canadian already tried, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years, retried him, and sentenced him to death. Now,

China accuses detained Canadians of stealing state secrets. If the offense is deemed a serious threat to State security, the penalty is death.

Canada said Friday that it will allow court hearings for the U.S. extradition request for Meng to proceed.

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said the new allegations against Kovrig and Spavor are a response to that action.

"Every step in the process will be matched by a step by China. The desire is to raise the raise the pressure to extent that we simply give in," Mulroney said.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Andrew Anglin, publisher of the Daily Stormer, has had a rough month. In court documents that may be found here, the August 16, 2017 Complaint, Obeidallah v.Anglin et al, alleging

false and defamatory statements in a news article published by Defendants about Plaintiff Dean Obeidallah. Mr. Obeidallah is a comedian, commentator, and host of a national daily radio show. With malice and reckless disregard, Defendants published false statements asserting that Mr. Obeidallah is a terrorist and fabricated evidence to support those false accusations

in which the Defendants defaulted, resulted in a June 13, 2019 order to pay real and punitive damages, to the tune of 4 million dollars.

But wait -- there's more! In court documents that may be found here, the

April 18, 2017 Complaint, Gersh v. Anglin that

1. This case asserts claims for invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violations of Montana’s Anti-Intimidation Act arising out of a coordinated, repulsive, threatening campaign of anti-Semitic harassment directed at Tanya Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent living in Whitefish, Montana.

2. This terror campaign, known as a "troll storm," was launched by Andrew Anglin, a well-known neo-Nazi operating out of Ohio.
[...]

resulted in a default July 15, 2019 recommendation from the magistrate to the district Judge that Anglin be ordered to pay real and punitive damages to the tune of 14 million dollars.

[Dr Sardonicus]

This has to do with a lawsuit against Alex Jones et al. The descriptors of the case are

261st District Court
Travis County

CAUSE NO. D-1-GN-18-001835

NEIL HESLIN, Plaintiff, vs. ALEX E. JONES, INFOWARS LLC, FREE SPEECH SYSTEMS, LLC, AND OWEN SHROYER, defendants

The judge is Scott Jenkins.

Jones has been thumbing his nose at the Court's orders for discovery. (Discovery is turning over evidence to the opposing side in a court case.)

He is finding this an increasingly expensive way to try to fight a lawsuit. Filing meritless appeals isn't working out too well for him, either.

I'm not sure whether his tactics have anything to do with it, but he keeps changing legal counsel.

OPINION

Appellants Alex E. Jones; Infowars, LLC; Free Speech Systems, LLC; and Owen
Shroyer seek to appeal what they assert is a denial by operation of law of their motion to dismiss
the claims asserted against them by Appellee Neil Heslin. Because we determine there is no
order from which to appeal, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

The kicker came with the judgement rendered (my emphasis):

Having reviewed the record, it appears that the Court lacks jurisdiction over this appeal.
Therefore, the Court dismisses the appeal for want of jurisdiction. Appellant shall pay all costs
relating to this appeal, both in this Court and in the court below.

So Defendants got stuck with all attorney's fees and court costs for filing a ludicrous appeal.

On October 18, Judge Scott Jenkins ordered Defendants Jones et al to pay $25,875 in legal fees "to be taxed as costs of court," after granting a motion to find Defendants in contempt for violating the court's previous order for discovery. Judge Jenkins also denied Defendant's motion to dismiss the suit.

On December 20, he ordered Defendants Jones et al to pay $65,825 for failure to comply with his October order for discovery. He denied Infowars' motion to dismiss the case and ordered Jones and the site to pay an additional $34,323.80, for a total of $100,148.80 in a single day.

And all this is just in court-imposed sanctions in a lawsuit that hasn't even gone to trial. And if Defendants continue their contemptuous behavior, there may not be a trial -- at least not to decide liability.

Judge Jenkins did not grant Plaintiff's motion for default judgement on December 20, but he wrote that he may later reconsider and grant the motion for default judgement, which would mean that Defendants would be deemed liable due to their failure to follow the law in conducting their defense. If that were to happen, a jury would be empaneled for the sole purpose of determining how much Defendants had to pay. Plaintiffs are seeking relief in excess of $1,000,000.

[Dr Sardonicus]

The woman behind 'Roe vs. Wade' didn't change her mind on abortion. She was paid

When Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff in the landmark Roe vs. Wade case, came out against abortion in 1995, it stunned the world and represented a huge symbolic victory for abortion opponents: "Jane Roe" had gone to the other side. For the remainder of her life, McCorvey worked to overturn the law that bore her name.

But it was all a lie, McCorvey says in a documentary filmed in the months before her death in 2017, claiming she only did it because she was paid by antiabortion groups including Operation Rescue.

"I was the big fish. I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they'd put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That's what I'd say," she says in "AKA Jane Roe," which premieres Friday on FX. "It was all an act. I did it well too. I am a good actress."

In what she describes as a "deathbed confession," a visibly ailing McCorvey restates her support for reproductive rights in colorful terms: "If a young woman wants to have an abortion, that's no skin off my ass. That's why they call it choice."

[kladner]

Gov Andy Beshear of Kentucky addresses the actions of demonstrators who hanged him in effigy. Starts just after 9 minutes.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by kladner

Gov Andy Beshear of Kentucky addresses the actions of demonstrators who hanged him in effigy. Starts just after 9 minutes.

I watched the first 35 minutes of that. There are hard working folks like them (the state staff) all over. Those others are idiots.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Hanging in effigy is a fine old tradition, practiced in the British Colonies before the War of Independence. No doubt our modern COVID-19 crybabies imagine themselves to be modern-day avatars of the Sons of Liberty...

The Stamp Act Riots

Andrew Oliver could have been excused if he didn’t feel very welcome in his hometown of Boston. After awaking on August 14, 1765, the wealthy 59-year-old merchant and provincial official learned that his effigy was hanging from a century-old elm tree in front of Deacon Elliot’s house. After dusk, angry Bostonians paraded Oliver’s likeness through the streets and destroyed the brick building he had recently built along the waterfront. In case Oliver still hadn’t received the hint, the mob beheaded his effigy in front of his finely appointed home before throwing stones through his windows, demolishing his carriage house and imbibing the contents of his wine cellar.

[Dr Sardonicus]

I note that the Board of Trustees of Liberty University has accepted the resignation of Jerry Falwell, Jr. as its president. He had taken leave subsequent to posting, then deleting, a rather embarrassing photograph of himself with a female assistant.

The final straw, it seemed, was when it was published that Falwell liked to watch his wife violating the Seventh Commandment with a business partner, who made the accusation publicly.

Since he has been an avid supporter of the Orange Colossus, it seems many of his supporters think his unusual taste in performance art is no big deal.

Others, however, seem to have had second thoughts, like, "Oh, wait. One of the Ten Commandments..."

[kladner]

I read of Failwell saying, "I've done all I can at Liberty." This sounds a lot like "My work here is done. Time to move on."

It's a crappy line in a third-rate western. It stinks even more in this case.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

I read of Failwell saying, "I've done all I can at Liberty." This sounds a lot like "My work here is done. Time to move on."

It's a crappy line in a third-rate western. It stinks even more in this case.

Maybe the following will invigorate the line a bit:

That night, in his office, he made his entries on page 700 of the book.

Mrs. Ferrel dying of knife wounds in local hospital. Mrs. Backus in jail; suspects husband of adultery. J. Alston accused of dog poisoning, probably more. Putnam boys accused of shooting Alston's dog, ruining his lawn. Mrs. Putnam dead of heart attack. Mr. Putnam being sued for property destruction. Jeffersons thought to be black. McCanns and Mortons deadly enemies. Katherine McCann believed to have had relations with Walter Morton, Jr. Morton, Jr. being sent to school in Washington. Eleanor Gorse has hanged herself.

Job completed.

Time to move.

conclusion of The Distributor by Richard Matheson

(To read this and some of his other stories, go here.) A text search on "time to move" will get you right to the above-mentioned story.

[Dr Sardonicus]

The posting of the link to He's Alive over in "Your Once and Future Supreme Commander" (thanks Uncwilly!) was especially timely. I had noticed this story dated August 22 when it appeared, but had forgotten to mention it when the link was posted.

WWII memory wall defaced in massacred French village

French politicians of all political views roundly condemned Saturday graffiti denying the Holocaust that was scrawled on a wall in the village that was the site of the France's biggest massacre of civilians by the Nazis during World War II.

The rare display of unity, from French President Emmanuel Macron to the far-left and the far-right, underscored the symbolism of Oradour-sur-Glane as a perpetual reminder of the horrors of Nazi occupation of France. The village has remained untouched since the massacre.
<snip>
Troops from the fanatical SS "Das Reich" division were responsible for killing 642 villagers on June 10, 1944, herding them into barns and a church and setting the town on fire. While a new village has been built, the ruins of the old town have been cared for as a testimony to Nazi horrors.

The first portrayal of the massacre I read, many years ago, presented it as having been perpetrated for reasons unknown. I later heard it mentioned on some history program, which said some locals had conned a high-ranking Nazi out of a great deal of money. Now there is the story of the kidnapped German officer.

The details of the massacre are quite horrific. Many men were machine-gunned in the legs to immobilize them, then doused in fuel and burned alive. Women and children were herded into the church, which was then locked shut and set alight using incendiaries. Those trying to escape out the windows were machine-gunned. An American pilot who had been shot down and was smuggled out saw the scene shortly after, and reported that a baby had been crucified.

EDIT: My memory kept niggling at me about the contrast between the atrocity at Oradour-sur-Glane and the destruction of Lidice which was carried out exactly two years previously. Lidice was destroyed as one of the mass reprisals for the assassination by resistance fighters of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, who was also acting Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia and Moravia. The Nazis targeted Lidice and another village, Lezaky, believing their inhabitants had aided and abetted the assassins.

Heydrich was by far the highest-ranking Nazi to be killed by the resistance. Nothing of the sort was associated with Oradour-sur-Glane. But I also vaguely recalled reading about some Nazi officer having been killed in a nearby village.

Googling on this idea finally paid off. This article has the following:

The 'why' may never fully be resolved either. The historian M. R. D. Foot has offered the most convincing explanation in his SOE in France, where he writes that the atrocity was a reprisal for the killing by a sniper of a popular company commander in the 2nd Panzer Division. This shooting took place at Oradour-sur-Vayres, some 15 miles away, but the Germans confused the two villages and exacted their revenge on the 'wrong' one.