Judge says Musk critic "targeted" advertisers in Texas, denies motion to dismiss.
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Texas judge decides Texas is a perfectly good venue for X to sue Media Matters
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Media Matters is the defendant, they aren't trying to sue X, they just reported on ads being shown next to extremist content, what suit would MM have filed?
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Does anyone at Twitter still use Twitter? I'll risk personal liability by saying I also believe Twitter is a social media platform dominated by neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism. I just checked three threads and was pleasantly surprised that only one had an anti-semitic ad for a republican candidate in it.
Edit: It was the "Chuck Schumer and his people want to turn Texas Blue" ad for the curious. Bold my own.
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I've said before that Trump is a symptom and not the disease, and I still think that, but one thing that IS uniquely Trump's fault is how he made those in power realize they didn't have to hide their worst selves any more. Trump put the lie to that old storytelling trope of the "big reveal", where the cult leader is exposed by a captured good guy in their darkest hour, everyone sees that person for who they REALLY are, and they lose all their supporters. That simply isn't reality. Every last one of those cathartic "bad guy exposed" scenes? We now know they simply aren't reality. What happened in The Boys where Homelander murdered someone right in front of his fans and they all talked themselves into cheering for what he did, THAT'S the depressing horrific reality of cultish followers. You CAN'T "expose" a cult leader to their followers. Nothing they do or say can ever BE wrong. A realistic ending to that one Rescue Rangers cult episode is that everyone in the cult blames the rangers for all the hoarded wealth, come up with justifications why their leader HAD to keep it all, and then "baptize" them in drowning-by-soda, with Gadget herself cheering their deaths. The end.
And now that this secret's out of the bag, everyone's just going to act like their worst selves publicly and in full confidence that those who "follow" them won't reject them for it. Note that the problem with this of course is that many who are doing this don't have actual worshippers like Trump does, just people who support them in a far more tepid sense, and they quickly find out that difference when they get voted out for their dumb behavior.
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The only thing he knows about horses is that he's never successfully traded one for a handjob
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And dragged an 87 year old woman out of her home in the middle of the night for the high crime of...helping Hispanic seniors register to vote.
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It's all just Calvinball these days. Utter lawlessness in the Judiciary. They just make shit up to suit their desired outcome.
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More than half a century ago, the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded a song "The Ides of Texas," sometimes known as "The Ballad of Billie Sol Estes." A verse and chorus from the middle are below. Plug in the name of Elon Musk and it still seems to fit:
While other kids saved up their nickels and dimes
For jellybeans, licorice, and fudge,
Well, Billie saved too, and when when he had enough
He bought him a federal judge
Billie Sol Estes, we're proud of ya, mate
Hey, Billie, Billie, hey, Billie, Billie, Billie
It's hombres like you that make Texas so great,
Hey, Billie, Billie, hey, Billie, Billie Sol.
(I've seen it listed as by Fred Ebb, Norman Martin & Cole Porter, but I don't have the LP at hand.)
While other kids saved up their nickels and dimes
For jellybeans, licorice, and fudge,
Well, Billie saved too, and when when he had enough
He bought him a federal judge
Billie Sol Estes, we're proud of ya, mate
Hey, Billie, Billie, hey, Billie, Billie, Billie
It's hombres like you that make Texas so great,
Hey, Billie, Billie, hey, Billie, Billie Sol.
(I've seen it listed as by Fred Ebb, Norman Martin & Cole Porter, but I don't have the LP at hand.)
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Texas is like a whole other world. I would avoid the American South like the plague.
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The sentiment is valid but this is a
Thank you to @Dan in NY for the correction.
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Yesterday's systemic voter disenfranchisement and discrimination is today's literally rounding up your political opponents for daring to think themselves part of the "genuine" polity.
Obvious fucking fascism, or good ol' fashion Americana. You decide!
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In his defense, he is merely upholding a time-honored Texas tradition.
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That changes things a bit, wonder why the reporting focuses so much on him being from Texas then?
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MMA is doomed against this judge.
The case is doomed on appeal, as are most of these bullshit cases that come before this judge.
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The next time Texas starts making noise about seceding we should help them pack their bags. Texas is a net negative for the rest of the country, an absess of a state swollen with principled right wing fanatics.
Texas is an infected toe, we need to amputate for the sake of the body.
Texas is an infected toe, we need to amputate for the sake of the body.
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Voting is for rich white dudes only; haven't you read the constitution? They're just being originalists.
(I just threw up in my mouth a little, because I realized that I'm not at all joking and it isn't at all funny.)
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Hooowheee! They cain't beat our Texas facts and Texas laws with all their civilized stuff, nosir-eee!
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Tortious interference? Makes a lot more sense than the case X has against MMA.
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Like what? Be specific.
Name one that would be relevant.
You really need to prove that MM targeted anyone, and didn't just release a general report.
Who cares? That's completely irrelevant.
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Sadly, you're assuming Media Matters has the resources to keep defending itself.
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If you are still using Twitter / X, you are part of the problem.
Be part of the solution.
Be part of the solution.
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Not even a little bit. X can claim that their site is safe, that brand safety is important to them and that ads for major brands running next to the tag #hitlerwasright are rare (and they have claimed all that). That might even be true. But it doesn't give them a basis for suing about accurate reports of the same, even if they had to hit refresh a bunch of times. You can make additional speech, but not use the courts to silence valid reporting.
I should say, the law protects Media Matters here. But, as the report above indicates, certain federal judges just play Calvinball with the law to reach the outcomes they desire. Judge O'Connor's opinion is just fucking bonkers. It someone sued Musk in a similar fashion with such weak factual support on their claims, it would be dismissed in a heartbeat. It's so infuriating how he just ignores the law when it suits him.
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Feels like this guy is just trying to prove that he has the ethics to qualify as Trump supreme court justice should that opportunity come up..
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One of those people I really hope I outlive so I can throw a party when they die, hopefully of natural causes.
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You know what? At this point, I don't think they care or even understand what consequences are. I bet you if this hypothetical scenario did play out, the leaders most responsible for this fiasco would just leave and let everybody who can't afford to move holding the bag.
It's a common theme of history that the people who are responsible for making stupid decisions that screw people over are usually in positions where they can escape the consequences of said decisions -- which is why they feel emboldened to make the stupid decisions in the first place. For example, no matter what O'Connor does, no matter the consequences of his decisions, he's never going to be worried about paying his medical bills or feeding his family or dealing with the consequences of online racism.
This is true privilege - not having to learn from your mistakes or deal with the consequences of your decisions because you always get to walk away.
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We really need Federal-level anti-SLAPP laws to help end this shitty court shopping in texas.
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I think they should appeal this ruling. They will probably lose at the 5th circuit, because obvious reasons, but might actually win at SCOTUS. Yes, SCOTUS has been changing up a lot of stuff, but, they DID throw out the Texas/5th Circuit Mifepristone case, because the plaintiffs didn't have valid standing, and both the Texas district court and 5th Circuit ignored those long-standing standing rules, and the SCOTUS looked at it and said, "Yeah, this is a clear standing violation".
But, on the other hand, they have allowed cases to go forward where it's questionable the plaintiffs had either real standing or a real live legal harm to litigate, like the "I don't want to make websites for gay weddings" case.
Still, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and getting the suit out of the 5th Circuit early is their best chance at a fair trial.
There's always the question of "can you afford to pay for the appeals", but in this case the better question might be, "can they afford to NOT pay for the appeals", because leaving it in Texas/5th circuit might end up with a crazy ass judgement that costs them big bucks.
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And now we have purported "fact checkers" who've decided to play "chase the Overton window" and slid further right just so they can seem "fair and balanced", instead of just admitting that right now the overwhelming number of lies are coming from the right and the left simply doesn't NEED to lie to make the right look bad.
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Can I sue Reed O'Connor in the Commonwealth of Virginia for insulting Mr. Justice John Marshall?
Because this decision is a vile insult to the most basic fundamental principles of proper judicial review. FFS, as Marshall himself demonstrated you can let your political opponents have their victory when the facts favor them, because in doing so you get them to affirm your own authority!
Because this decision is a vile insult to the most basic fundamental principles of proper judicial review. FFS, as Marshall himself demonstrated you can let your political opponents have their victory when the facts favor them, because in doing so you get them to affirm your own authority!
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I think it's really super important to talk about the following case. There is a group of LGBTQ civil rights lawyers, who are facing being sanctioned in Federal Court in Alabama over. . . venue/judge shopping. Meanwhile, we have all these Conservative groups and corporations blatantly venue shopping in Texas and nobody is facing any sanctions whatsoever. What kind of unfair, injust double standard is this?
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What kind of unfair, injust double standard is this?
The same standard we've always had: the dominant culture enforces its will against subjugated/minority ones, because power is not about fairness. Straight people couldn't sue over anti-sodomy laws, because they lacked standing, because everyone knew regardless of the text of the statutes they were only ever enforced against icky gays.
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Because they aren't in the news making controversial decisions.
Most often though it's of note when trump judges are going against him, or when older republican judges are going against the current parties bs.
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