Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Bark louder, little dog.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Cutting the Deadwood Open Thread: Bannon’s Banker Files for Bankruptcy

Cutting the Deadwood Open Thread: Bannon’s Banker Files for Bankruptcy

by | 79 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Guo Wegui is a man of many mysteries, but nothing in his known history suggests he’s stupid. Ergo, my take on this ‘bankruptcy’ petition is that Guo, or his handlers, have decided the risk of continuing to associate with members of the Trump Crime Cartel just isn’t worth any potential profits to be made from such association.

Per the South China Morning Post:

… It came after a federal judge last week ordered Guo to pay a fine of $135 million or face arrest, because he had violated a court order to keep his luxury yacht in American waters as part of a dispute over debts that he owed.

The bankruptcy filing is the latest turn in the long-running saga of Guo, who fled China in 2014 and became an ardent supporter of former president Donald Trump and strident critic of the Chinese Communist Party.

Guo, who filed for bankruptcy in the state of Connecticut under the name Ho Wen Kwok, appealed the judge’s order last week to forfeit the $135 million, and claimed that he does not own the yacht, according to Bloomberg.

Guo has been closely associated with Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon, who was arrested in 2020 while on the same yacht, called the Lady May.

Bannon and Guo have partnered on media ventures, and both men made names for themselves as some of the Trump era’s most vocal opponents of the Communist party, although Guo has also been accused of being a spy for Beijing…

Guo is also said to be behind Trump’s new social media app, called GETTR, which the former president started after being kicked off mainstream American platforms like Twitter and Facebook after inciting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol…

More on Guo’s backstory at the link.

… It also comes amid layoffs at Gettr and infighting within the anti-Beijing dissident network Wengui launched with Bannon. The $28 million yacht—on which Bannon was famously arrested—was missing from Guo’s self-valuation in the Connecticut bankruptcy filing. Also absent was his $68 million penthouse overlooking Central Park; a holding company tied to Guo that purchased the pad reportedly filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Guo’s attorneys did not immediately to a respond for comment. Jason Miller, co-founder of Gettr, told The Daily Beast that Guo’s financial fortunes would have no impact on his company.

About that:

Everything is interconnected…

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    Jason Miller, co-founder of Gettr, told The Daily Beast that Guo’s financial fortunes would have no impact on his company.

    IOW, it was doomed no matter how much financing it got.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    I see bankruptcy, like so many things, works differently for the rich. I suppose it helps to plan ahead so that on paper you only have 48 cents to your name, but are fortunate in that a benevolent corporation[*] allows you to live in a penthouse it owns, travel on its yacht and private jet, and dine and shop anywhere you want using its credit cards.

    * Ownership chain of said benevolent corporation being difficult to trace, but probably ending with an offshore holding company that has exactly one voting share, valued at 48 cents.

  8. 8.

    sdhays

    I was initially confusing Gettr with “Truth Social” because I can’t keep all of the right wing lazy ripoffs of Twitter straight.

    Truth Social is the one run by Devin Nunes now, right? I’m sure that will be a well-run operation. Being a traitorous (and bumbling) Congressman is just the kind of expertise required to successfully run a technology company.

  9. 9.

    Ken

    @sdhays: I’d like to say you’re right about Nunes, but as Theranos showed, sometimes all you need to run a technology company is the right contacts and the gall to lie to their faces, and Nunes probably has those qualities.

    (Hmm.  Is there a word that relates to “qualities” in the same way “infamous” relates to “famous”?)

  10. 10.

    sdhays

    @Ken: Theranos wasn’t really a technology company, though. It was a technology scheme. And, yes, so is Truth Social, but the scheme is getting a fascist-controlled counterweight to Twitter. To do that, you need to build a real technology company.

    Peter Thiel could do it, I expect it. Interesting that he’s not.

  13. 13.

    RaflW

    Is that really what TFG/Nunes’s site looks like? Jack may decide that the publicity of a cease-and-desist for so totally copying Twitter’s look and feel isn’t worth it. But what a total, complete, and imagination-free rip off. Dang.

  14. 14.

    Poe Larity

    What happened with librul loan and bail bond forgiveness?

    Guy may only have one yacht, where is he going to live?

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    layoffs at Gettr

    SAD! Also, fuck ’em!, suck a bag of dicks, and die in a fire.

    ETA

    Gettr has reportedly fired its entire security & developer teams, leaving the site vulnerable to attacks, outages, & more

    More SAD! Also, more fuck ’em!, more suck a bag of dicks, and more die in a fire.

  16. 16.

    CaseyL

    I’m curious why the Mercers, who’ve bailed out other RW social media companies, haven’t stepped in – or are they part owners of the new Trump scam?

    Guo is always described as a “billionaire,” though all his money is probably hidden in places like Panama.  I don’t buy the bankruptcy thing for one nanosecond.  I wonder if the courts will be able to make a grab for wherever he’s stashed his money.

  17. 17.

    danielx

    Yacht, bankruptcy, no assets, still living lavish lifestyle, sounds like a former NY real estate developer I used to hear about. Now what was his name?

  18. 18.

    MisterForkbeard

    @RaflW: This is pretty normal. After Reddit had a mild crackdown on the racist/sexist/threatening The_Donald subreddit (WAY after they had repeatedly broken the rules) they left Reddit in a huff and immediately copied everything about it for several knockoff sites that are still heavily used today.

    They’re all unoriginal idiots who just want to steal the work and success of others.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sdhays:

    Truth Social is the one run by Devin Nunes now, right? I’m sure that will be a well-run operation. Being a traitorous (and bumbling) (and Internet cow-suing, and real-life cow-fucking) Congressman is just the kind of expertise required to successfully run a technology company.

    How dare you say that about Devin and forget two vitally important details!

  21. 21.

    Jay

    Banks are moving to freeze accounts linked to convoy protests. Here’s what you need to know

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergencies-act-banks-ottawa-protests-1.6353968

    They are going after licensing, insurance, credit cards, loans, bank accounts, etc of not just the Donors of the Flu Trux Klan,

    Because a bunch of the Ice Choad Truckers have been using children, ( we think they are their children, but maybe not) as human shields,

    Child and Family Protective Services have been called in, due to “involvement in an ongoing criminal enterprise”.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergency-powers-children-1.6353842

  22. 22.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: As this unfolds, at every step I’m like “Wow, applause!”  Lots of people (and me too) were unimpressed for weeks, saying “the Canadians are no better than us at dealing consequences to white people who commit acts of terrorism” and there you go, proving me wrong.

    I commend your leaders and your people.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    Eric Dump has the most disgusting face of the shitstain children. And he’s also a dumbfuck! He’s grifter trash, but I also think he really is this stupid!

    Eric Trump: "The vaccine represents, literally, the stripping of freedoms in this country" pic.twitter.com/Ev2KJnZo2e— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 16, 2022

  25. 25.

    Jay

    @Chetan Murthy:

    we tend to be patient, polite, rule bound and willing to give people more than enough rope to hang themselves.

    For example, because of the stresses of Covid, according to Corporate, we are supposed to be gentler and more helpful.

    So I am not supposed to tell customers or others to “f€ck off!”,

    I am supposed to say, “how can I help you f€ck off?”.

  26. 26.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay: If “rule-bound” means that the rules apply to everyone, I can get behind that.  Even if it means “we’re trying, we’re really trying, to make sure the rules apply to everyone”, that’s such an improvement …..

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    So tiresome trying to keep up with the moving goalposts.

    I thought that was what the tax code represents.

    Or the entire Food and Drug Administration.

    Or fluoridation of water.

    Or laws proscribing child labor.

    Or….

    //

  30. 30.

    Marty

    Because of course he did – Guo as recently as last week pushed the drugs ivermectin and artemisinin as Covid treatments.

  31. 31.

    Jay

    @Chetan Murthy:

    yeah, we like others arn’t so good about “the rules apply to everyone”,

    when the Flu Trux Klan tried to shut down Vancouver, it wasn’t the Cops that shut them down, it was skateboarders and cyclists.

    The general consensus at work was that if the “protests” had been Indigenous, BLM or Environmentalists, “we would have been able to smell the tear gas and police brutality from here*”,

    *10 blocks away.

    When we get “fed up”, with a Liberal or Leftish Government however, stuff happens.

    Ottawa Police Chief is gone, Police Board is being decimated, so is Windsor’s Police Board.

    Morans have been slapping anti-vax stickers up on bus stops, bathrooms, ( no video), street signs. Nazi recruitment website links with the “freedom/antivax” bs as a “hook”,

    At first, they were peeled off.

    Now as fast as they appear, they are being covered with “ kill the deliberately unvaxxed!” and similar stickers.

  35. 35.

    BigJimSlade

    @popehat (twitter quoted in the post) beat me to the joke (and commented on its unoriginality) – gettr done.

  39. 39.

    cain

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Right wingers can only co-opt others .. they have no original thoughts and they are all marks. Shit they grift from each other making money on low quality products with low quality executives ?

  41. 41.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Chetan Murthy:

    A Canadian suffering is just tribute to the volcano gods after that abject performance from the US Women’s hockey team in a gold medal game.

    Also, can someone please ask NBC if they could actually interview and focus on the women winning the downhill skiing events instead of interviewing Schiffrin, who has literally fallen down on the job? She’s been amazing in the past but sweet mother of not coming close to the podium, this is silly.

  42. 42.

    mrmoshpotato

    @HumboldtBlue: Glad Twitter video is muted by default, or I might’ve smashed my phone.

    No audio needed.  Cry harder, Canadian Trump trash* plague rat!

    *Yeah, I know, but these assholes would’ve voted for the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain down here.  You can take that to the bank.

  43. 43.

    Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    the Truckholes fly Confederate and Trump Flags.

    the Plague  Rat probably isn’t going to jail.

    F€ucked financially, yes,

    F€ucked employment wise other than grifting outside the grift platforms, (already an established grievance grifter),

    Probably a few dozen months picking up trash on the sides of the highway, ( preferably the Coq),

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    I have decided on names for the new instruments: Cherry and Olympia. It shouldn’t be hard to guess which is which.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I did indeed: a Firefly FF338 semihollow, a copy of the Gibson ES-335 beloved of The Father of Rock’n’Roll; and a Squier Affinity SSS Stratocaster with the recently upgraded spec. The FF338 came last week, the Strat this week. They’re both fantastic instruments.

  53. 53.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @Steeplejack: It was a nail biter for me too – second time using all 6 guesses. Third guess is always critical; try to cover as many possibilities as you can.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Abnormal Hiker:

    I just fell into that situation where there are too many last letters that fit, e.g.—and this is not a spoiler!—stoke, stole, stone, store, stove. At that point it’s a crapshoot. That was the longest one I’ve had.

  55. 55.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I think Peter Thiel should get together with Guo and turn the yacht into a floating island and run Gettr from said seastead.

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    Some of Guo’s group were staying at the NYC hotel I was in, Sept ’21 IIRC.  I had no clue who they were until I googled their ‘Taiwan is China’ baseball hats.  (Hats said something like that; close enough.  I would have loved to get an ‘Unleash Chaing Kai-Shek’ t-shirt made up.)

  58. 58.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Steeplejack:

    I generally get it in 4 or 5.

    My starters are always tries, aloud and nymph – I’ve managed to use 15 unique letters and identify any vowels or prevalent consonants. I also know if there are any h-base diphthongs.

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @steppy:

    Speaking of America’s Greatest Traitor: the FTFTFNYT had an article informing us that, since Mazars “fired” TFG, he’s been going around with new lies about his personal wealth. I’ve exhausted my “free” articles, so I have no info, but I’m morbidly curious as to what that thousandaire is now claiming he’s worth. (Dollar-wise, that is. As a “human” [sic], he’s worth far less than nothing.)

  62. 62.

    Steeplejack

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes, @Mousebumples:

    I have settled on arise as my starter word, thanks to someone here. It gives me three vowels and two common consonants, and it’s easy to remember. Raise would work too, of course.

    Unless I get a good lead from that, my second word is something with ou in it—e.g., sound, cloud, etc. Something like rouse or hours if you got some hits with arise. That gets you the vowel situation, which I think is  key, and probably some consonants, and you can go on from there.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack

    @SFAW:

    A few days ago Trump said he’s worth $6-7 billion and has something like $350 million in “cash” (liquid assets, I presume). Probably bullshit, I also presume.

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack:

    He may be worth $350M — with heavy emphasis on “may” — but there’s no way he’s worth anything north of $1B. He’s probably (A) totaling up all the properties with his name on them, including the ones he doesn’t own (but just licenses his name), and (B) massively inflating their “worth” and (C) is not deducting any of the liabilities/loans associated with said properties.

    And I bet a large part of that (maybe) $350M came from the government paying for the privilege of housing the Secret Service (et al.) at “his” properties, along with various other grifts he ran while in office.

    [No, I am not a financial analyst, so take my “estimates” with a ton of salt.]

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @SFAW:

    I agree with A, B and C, especially C. That fits with Trump’s “debts are just bills that I haven’t not paid yet” attitude.

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack:

    “debts are just bills that I haven’t not paid yet”

    I was going to point out the extra “not,” the I remembered about whom you were writing. Nicely done.

  71. 71.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread – https://kyivindependent.com has headline story summaries about shelling of a village in Donbas (including a daycare facility) – setting up the false flag that we’ve known is coming, and a headline about a CBS story claiming that the invasion is coming in 4-5 days (again pointing to after the Olympics are over).

    VVP is staying on the same path so far…

    :-(

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    H-Bob

    @mrmoshpotato:  “The vaccine represents, literally, ….”   How can something represent something else literally?  Representation is the opposite of literal.  So Eric is an oxymoron and a real moron.

  79. 79.

    J R in WV

    I (we) look forward to seeing and hearing the Trump and his by-blow kids testify in front of a real DA, should be great fun! I don’t think they have any idea what this will be like for them.

    Unless they just try to answer “I Take the 5th amendment right to not answer that question” for every question. I mean, that would be funny, because I don’t think that’s quite how that’s supposed to work… but real attempts to answer while not incriminating one’s self, that would be funny!

Comments are closed.