Like many graduating seniors, members of Newtown High School’s class of 2024 expect bittersweet feelings at their commencement ceremony.
But about 60 of them will also be carrying the emotional burden that comes from having survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. pic.twitter.com/nNir2A57bY
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 12, 2024
Alex Jones was ordered to liquidate his personal assets Friday, as a bankruptcy judge was still considering forcing him to sell his far-right website InfoWars to begin paying the roughly $1.5 billion in damages he owes for claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) Jun 14, 2024 at 4:01 PM
Per the Associated Press, “Alex Jones’ personal assets to be sold to pay $1.5B Sandy Hook debt. Company bankruptcy is dismissed”:
… Judge Christopher Lopez approved converting Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to a liquidation. But Lopez threw out the case of his company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, after failed attempts by Jones to reach an agreement with Sandy Hook families on his proposals to reorganize and keep operating the company while paying them millions of dollars.
It wasn’t immediately clear what will happen in the coming weeks to Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, which Jones built into a multimillion-dollar moneymaker over the past 25 years by selling dietary supplements and other products. But both Jones and lawyers for the Sandy Hook families said they expect Infowars to cease operating at some point because of the huge debt.
A trustee appointed Friday in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case to oversee the liquidation now has control over his assets, including Infowars, according to lawyers for Sandy Hook families.
Dismissal of Free Speech Systems’ case means the families can now move immediately to collect on the $1.5 billion in state courts in Texas and Connecticut where they won defamation lawsuits against Jones and the company. It’s possible Infowars will continue operating during the collection efforts, which could include selling off the company’s assets.
Jones, who smiled as the judge dismissed the company’s case, called in to Infowars after the court hearing and predicted more battles in the state courts. “The bizarre political attempts to hijack the operation have failed,” he said, and added that he would find another way to broadcast his shows if he loses Infowars…
Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, called Infowars “soon-to-be defunct” as his clients move to collect on the debt in state courts. He said the families will also pursue Jones’ future earnings.
“Today is a good day,” Mattei said in a text message after the hearing. “Alex Jones has lost ownership of Infowars, the corrupt business he has used for years to attack the Connecticut families and so many others. … Alex Jones is neither a martyr nor a victim. He is the perpetrator of the worst defamation in American history.”…
Much more at the link. The Newtown families are still a long way from seeing justice, and Jones himself will continue to broadcast lies and conspirarcy theories as long as he has access to so much as a prison library laptop, but at least he’s feeling some tiny portion of the stress he’s inflicted for so many years.
Who is Alex Jones? The conspiracist and dietary supplement salesman built an empire over decades https://t.co/0DAnEskAlO
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 14, 2024
Because this is America…
Demolition of the Parkland classroom building where 17 died in 2018 shooting is set to begin https://t.co/r9TilYHSIN
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 14, 2024
… The victims’ families were invited to hammer off a piece of the building before the demolition began. Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa died, was one who did, finding it cathartic.
“Hammering away at the building helped to release some of my pain,” said Alhadeff, who was elected to the Broward County school board after her daughter’s death on a pledge to improve campus safety. She is now its chair.
Officials plan to complete the demolition and cleanup before the school’s 3,300 students return in August from summer vacation — to protect the school’s other buildings, it wasn’t imploded. Most of the school’s current students were in elementary school when the shooting happened.
Since the shooting, the building has loomed over campus, locked behind a screened fence that blocked the bottom floor. It was kept up to serve as evidence at the shooter’s 2022 penalty trial. Jurors toured its bullet-pocked and blood-stained halls, but spared him a death sentence. He is serving a sentence of life without parole.
Over the last year, some victims’ relatives have led Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray, school officials, police officers and other invitees from around the country on tours of the building. They mostly demonstrated how improved safety measures like bullet-resistant glass in door windows, a better alarm system and doors that lock from the inside could have saved lives…
Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex died, said Friday that he knows the tours he helped organize will save lives as officials take what they learned and use it to harden schools in their jurisdictions.
“You have to prioritize school safety because you can’t teach dead children,” he said…
HinTN
This is what it comes to…
MagdaInBlack
I first encountered Alex Jones during the 2nd Obama admin ( i think.) Stumbled across his website “Info-Wars” where he was pushing stuff about FEMA building internment camps for conservatives/white folks.
Glad to see him crash and burn
p.s. Hal Sparks has sorta co-opted the name. He has “Infotainment Wars” where he debunks/dismantles all the right wing bs with humor and much cursing
Princess
I don’t know how much the parents will ever get from Jones but it looks like they’ll get more and he’ll lose more than a lot of people ever expected.
Frankensteinbeck
I don’t think anybody in American legal history has waged as determined a war of delay in our courts. He makes Trump look like a hobbyist. The eventual punishment from doing so kept growing, but even now it’s hard to know when it physically hits. Sure looks like he’s out of time.
WereBear
@MagdaInBlack: I lurve Hal Sparks!
OzarkHillbilly
@Princess:
Pretty sure they could care less about the money because
They’re not gonna stop until he is in an unmarked paupers grave.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊😊😊
MagdaInBlack
@WereBear: He helps keeps me positive.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
WereBear
I hope Alex Jones has a chilling effect, but MAGA turns smiles upside down, they are likely to absorb the lesson that conspiracy theories are a market rich in gullibility.
Like a whole chunk of the population has been targeted because we have isolated the pure and refined essence of people who will fall for anything.
WereBear
@MagdaInBlack: Like the way he had 34 different ways to react to “Guilty!”
WereBear
@rikyrah: Good morning!
OzarkHillbilly
They already have.
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
John Brinkley will happily tell you what a fine and longstanding American tradition this is, and how alternative medicine is front and center.
NotMax
In case sleep overtakes me before a morning thread goes up (will repeat it there if not unconscious).
Weekend longish watch. Anyone mentioned this nugget?
God Bless the USA Bible 🇺🇸 An Honest Review of the Bible Endorsed by Donald Trump.
Short version: overpriced crap on a shingle.
NotMax
Tsk tsk. Judgment.
/cold gray dawn pedant
MagdaInBlack
@WereBear: Like the way he tears in to the right wing clowns: “Glenn (beck) you lazy fuk!” He swears exactly as I would at these guys. Saves me the trouble 😉
Also too, His Ukraine updates are good.
NotMax
#15 bad linky. Fix.
Weekend longish watch. Anyone mentioned this nugget?
God Bless the USA Bible 🇺🇸 An Honest Review of the Bible Endorsed by Donald Trump.
Short version: overpriced crap on a shingle.
OzarkHillbilly
People ruin everything.
eclare
@NotMax:
Link doesn’t work for me.
Got the new link, thanks.
I thought that’s who it was, one of the late night hosts, maybe Kimmel, played excerpts from the review. The guy owns something like 800 Bibles!
Gvg
@OzarkHillbilly: money gives power, so they needed to take his, to keep him from doing more damage with more reach.
Money also motivates some people so taking his scare some but not not all similar people.
He was also making money off telling that specific lie so Justice is taking it from him. As far as I can tell all his money was made from various lies, so it’s good to take it ALL.
I can’t even understand why he could think of that lie or why anyone could believe it. A lot of these gun nuts must be hiding really serious moral flaws that they fear safety regulations this much. I mean I was not anti gun until I realized this group would not accept any rules at all. They leading voices don’t even teach their children or themselves basic gun safety anymore, not think people who repeatedly are careless should lose procession. You would think the safe traditional gun owners would push them out for self preservation.
WereBear
@Gvg: But it’s also a cultural thing. And I’ve found those with conservative leanings, especially in the South and West, come from a lot of ruthless socialization, to live the same way as their forebears.
This makes Forebear Criticism tricky, and their path through life, paranoid. Plus, NRA turned into a Russian propaganda arm.
OlFroth
Unfortunately, he gets to keep his 2.8 million dollar home, instead of being forced to live under a bridge, like the troll he is.
Snarki, child of Loki
I, for on, look forward to Alex Jones getting everything liquidated.
My suggestion is to use Piranha Solution.
NotMax
@Snarki, child of Loki
Axed Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode?
//
Parfigliano
@OlFroth: He gets to keep his $2.8 mil house until he cant pay the taxes on the house
Ruckus
@NotMax:
overpriced crap on a shingle
That’s a rather harsh take on shingles isn’t it? Or did you mean the disease rather than the things on a roof?
brantl
@NotMax: Both are now legitimate. I looked it up.