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Gap03

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Gap03

  1. 1 hour ago, Smax said:

    Ken Paxton sues 2 more adult websites over age verification law

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    AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two more adult websites are facing lawsuits from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office over accusations they’re not following the state’s age verification law, the latest effort to legally go after internet porn providers.

    The Office of the Attorney General filed two civil lawsuits Tuesday afternoon in Travis County against the respective companies that own the websites xHamster and Chaturbate. Paxton said they’re not doing enough to stop those younger than 18 from looking at the adult content.

    Paxton’s office would like a court to issue a permanent injunction against the two websites and force them to pay hefty fines if they don’t come into compliance with House Bill 1181, which went into effect on Sept. 1 last year. It requires age verification measures to protect minors from what the law’s supporters called exposure to sexually obscene materials.

    KXAN reached out Wednesday afternoon for comment from Hammy Media and Multi Media, the two companies that own the websites in question and are named in the lawsuits. This story will be updated once any responses are shared.

    These lawsuits come almost a week after Pornhub, the well-known adult website, announced it would disable access to Texas completely over opposition to the law. Paxton also filed a separate lawsuit against the company that owns that website, and he celebrated the news about Pornhub shutting down in the state.

    “Sites like PornHub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children,” Paxton posted on his X account. “We recently secured a major victory against PornHub and other sites that sought to block this law from taking effect. In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don’t want to comply, good riddance.”

    The state’s latest lawsuit notes visitors to the xHamster website are met with a pop-up message where they have to click a button confirming they’re older than 18. However, Paxton’s office claims that’s not enough to follow the new law.

    “Minors can simply click almost anywhere on the webpage away from the ‘I’m 18 or older’ button, including the ‘X’ in the top right corner of the message, to dismiss the pop-up message
    and proceed to the Defendant’s pornographic website,” the lawsuit explains. “The age verification methods used by the Defendant on its websites cannot be said to verify anything at all, and they wholly fail to comply with the requirements of Chapter 129B.”

    The state is asking the court for xHamster to pay a civil penalty of up to $1.67 million as well as an additional $10,000 a day since the lawsuit’s filing.

    Texas is seeking a higher civil penalty from the company that owns Chaturbate — $1.78 million along with the $10,000 a day for every day after the filing of the lawsuit.

    It’s unclear when or if hearings will be held related to these two lawsuits, but KXAN will keep following and share any updates.

     

    https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/ken-paxton-sues-2-more-adult-websites-over-age-verification-law/

    Why do I get the sense this wonk-eyed piece of shit has recently become heavily invested in a leveraged portfolio of VPN providers? 

  2. 5 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

    Where the murderers will die in prison for their crime?   Wouldn’t that be our justice system functioning normally? 

    That was a bad example.  I'm thinking something more like this, but worse, cuz we're Texas ...

    Qualified immunity: Ohio police killed Luke Stewart (usatoday.com)

    Quote

    Luke Stewart, a 23-year-old Black man, was asleep in his parked car on March 13, 2017, when he was approached by police officers Matthew Rhodes and Louis Catalani. He was parked legally in Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, and he wasn't posing a danger to anyone.

    Catalani knocked on Luke’s window, startling him awake. They did not announce themselves as officers. Luke sat up and started the car. Catalani and Rhodes immediately opened Luke's car doors and reached inside to forcibly remove him. Catalani grabbed Luke’s arm, and he wrapped his arm around Luke’s head and pulled, while Rhodes pushed from the passenger side. 

    Scared, Luke attempted to drive away, but Rhodes jumped into the passenger seat. Luke looked at Rhodes and asked, “Why are you in my car?”

    Rhodes attacked Luke. He punched him, stunned him with a Taser six times, then used the Taser to strike him in the head. Luke never hit back. Moments later, Rhodes shot Luke five times, killing him. Rhodes had been in the car with Luke for only about one minute before he opened fire.

    Rhodes had no reason to jump into Luke's car, let alone to use deadly force against him. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a jury could find that Rhodes’ decision to shoot Luke had violated his constitutional rights. However, even acknowledging this, the court dismissed Luke’s civil rights lawsuit. Why? Because of the hotly debated, court-created doctrine of qualified immunity

    In summary, a poorly-drafted, poorly-thought out law + loose cannons enforcing it + judiciary run amok = lots of innocent dead people. 

    It's a completely foreseeable outcome, but the GQP (and Fatty) will still manage to act surprised when it comes to pass, despite repeated warnings.

     

  3. 17 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

    lol, the cartel would wipe the floor with the Texas Guard or whoever it is Greggie would send. Now the BP has similar equipment, so that would be a fair fight. But ole Joe isn't resorting to that bullshit like sitler is. What happens when they deport or kill a US citizen?

    Bro, do you even qualified immunity? Alito will fall all over himself to rule that even militia members have been deputized by SB4 and accordingly are entitled to QI, just like the cops.

    aint-nothing-gonna-happen-nothing-happen

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  4. 4 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

     

    Jesus H. Christ - this bumbling, fat fuck is the perfect spokesperson for SB4 - it was obviously as well thought out as it seemed.  It's a fucking splendid idea for the USSC to let this sort of shit ride through, clearly encroaching on federal authority, just because the state GQP screams "INVASION!1!!1" / "EMERGENCY!11!"  At least the 5th Circuit stepped back in, but what the actual fuck?

  5. So, if Tester, Brown and Gallego pull off the hat trick, the Dems gain control of the House and Biden is able to hold off Dotard, do we think that the Senate Dems will finally have the balls to kill the filibuster and start doing some shit?  Lots of "ifs" in there, but there seems to be a fighter's chance of getting to a place where they can actually deliver on election integrity, women's rights, etc. After the low-hanging fruit, I'd love to see them take a crack at packing the Court and, if they can't get that through, at least shoring up the authority of federal administrative agencies (EPA) against the barrage from the Court's conservative wing. 

    I know, I know ...

    morgan-freeman-hope.gif

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  6. 50 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

    He's gonna pay out a few hundred million at the very least.  The issue for him is if he has to come up with the liquidity even in the short term - that means he's exposing himself to a fuckload of taxes.  So even if they go back and lower the amount...once he's had to makes moves to raise money, it's costing his ass a LOT.  Also remember there's a shitload more cases on the way vs him.  It's beautiful thing.  Just laugh at him and enjoy.  

    Trump's Tax Accountants:  "When criming's your business, aren't criminal penalties fully-deductible business expenses?"

    or Option B: 

    kramer-write.gif

     

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  7. 34 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

    They couldn't even get the hand count right in their own primary in Gillespie County.

    "The election was a low-profile party primary, but stakes are high. Gillespie County Republicans, led by Campbell, decided months ago to hand-count more than 8,000 ballots. Experts agree and studies show the method is time-consuming, costly, less accurate, and less secure than using machines, but local Republicans, citing unsupported concerns about the accuracy of voting machines, were determined to try and show otherwise. Workers recruited and trained by the party counted until the early hours of the next morning, and declared the effort a success. Proponents of hand-counting are now touting GIllespie as a model."



    https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/19/texas-republican-hand-count-election/

    This shit is fucking flabbergasting.  It took them hours and hours to count 8,000 votes and finalize the results, during which there were issues at multiple stages.  No worries though - just a few innocent mistakes:

    Quote

    He told Votebeat that 197 voters had cast ballots at his precinct on election day. ... As he went down the list, he noticed he had 207 votes reported for a third race.

     

    Quote

    “So there were two ballots, and I just didn't add them up. So I would have had to add 450 and two, and it would have been 452 and I didn't. I just forgot to fill it in,” Treibs said in the video posted last week. “So I don't really think that's something that's going to shut down the election and it's like, ‘oh my gosh, he didn't add 450 and two and come up with 452 and now that means the whole election was a failure.’ Well, that's ridiculous.”

     

    Quote

    Some judges quickly explained how errors happened on Thursday during the canvass, reasons ranging from “poor penmanship” that was hard to read, to accidentally writing the wrong numbers, or miscalculations.

    Quote

    When writing the total number of votes for a proposition on the ballot, Smith wrote the number 451. It should have been 415. “I literally just switched the two numbers when I wrote it down on the form,” she said, something she attributed to exhaustion in the wee hours of the morning after a long night.

    Quote

    All but one of the county’s 13 Republican precincts had reported incorrect totals on the official reconciliation forms.

    image4061139x.jpg?v=b64ebf3cd0145765e492

    Close enough, right?  I'm sure the GQP is fine with the counts being +/- 2-3%, right?  

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  8. 6 minutes ago, AnTiM said:

    I am still wondering WTF happened to the billion dollar supply of golden athletic shoes???

    I'm waiting for news of the mysterious warehouse fire in JYNA!!! that burned the entire 1M pair supply and the accompanying insurance claim that builds in a 50% premium over the original $400 asking price cuz they were so hot ...

    so-hot-right-now-trending.gif

  9. 43 minutes ago, immamac said:

    Kushner is doing shit with that 2B not just donking it the fuck off. 

    Yeah, but he is "earning" $25m per year for investing in an asset class in which, to my knowledge, he had no experience (which honestly might be a good thing given his real estate investing experience).  Super ironic in light of all the crying about Hunter's board comp. 

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  10. 5 minutes ago, bolverk said:

    image.thumb.png.edd1ae3238feefffb63f729700afdb1d.png

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/rupert-murdoch-engaged-6th-time-92-sources/story?id=107897609

    Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old conservative media mogul, is engaged for the sixth time, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

    News of his engagement to Elena Zhukova comes just months after the Fox boss effectively handed over the reins of his conservative media empire to his son, Lachlan Murdoch.

    The wedding is set for June at his California estate and vineyard, called Moraga.

    Multiple recent media reports describe Zhukova as a 66-year-old retired scientist. Reports also say her daughter was married to Roman Abramovich -- who the U.S. government has described as a Russian oligarch, seizing his yacht.

    Last August, news broke that Murdoch's engagement to his last fiancée, Ann Lesley Smith, was called off.

    A spokesperson confirmed the engagement.

    The worst fucking people never die ...

    caddyshack-bishop.gif

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  11. 12 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

    Hmmmm funny how key votes just showed up at exactly the right spots ….

    I mean, Trump, Bannon and co. are sketchy as shit, but Ima need a little more in the way of supportable facts here.  It all feels a bit "2000 mules" / "magic box of ballots"-y to me, and I'm not on board with having that sort of disinformation coming from both sides.

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  12. 4 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

    To be clear, they didn’t have any real say in the decision here and if they’d ruled the way I think was legally correct and somehow gotten their way, Abbott and DeSantis (among others) would’ve seized on their reasoning to attempt to kick Biden off the ballot. 
     

    They’re playing poker with shit hands. But they’re also not good at poker.

    Bro, Abbott and DeSantis are going to suppress the shit outta urban voters anyway, so 6 of one, half dozen of the other ...

  13. 10 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

    What would happen if Colorado left him off the ballot anyway?

    I mean, there IS plenty of Supreme Court voting law precedent for the "we don't think CO should have done this, but we can't possibly expect CO to print new ballots at this point, soooooo maybe next election ..." approach, right? So maybe CO just says, "Sorry, folks, ballots already printed ..."

    john-candy-ed-grimely.gif

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  14. this-is-fine-its-fine.gif

    Hurricane season this year is going to be fun, given temps in the Atlantic are already at June levels.  I mean, maybe if we get a tropical storm parked over the Highland Lakes, I'll be able to water my lawn this summer.  Knowing our luck, though, we'll probably have widespread wildfires going that will end up being exacerbated by the dryside winds from a Cat 6 hitting Houston.      

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