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    Sean BrodyJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:19pm

    If Gawker Media is, as Thiel claims, so serially guilty of egregious invasions of privacy against powerless individuals, why is he throwing his lot in with a lawyer intent on punishing Gawker for writing about Edward Ivari, the man who may have restored Trump’s hair to greatness, or Meanith Huon, whose coverage on Gawker “bolstered” his reputation?

    To put Gawker out of business.
    I don’t think he wants you to start behaving and correcting individual stories.
    He wants you dead. He doesn’t care which cross they nail you to.

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      Vanguard KnightSean Brody
      6/14/16 4:22pm

      The precedent is rather sobering isn’t it?

      The wealthy will just squash dissent via the legal systems that claim to protect us. Then again as a black male the only shock I should have is that this kind of action has now begun to affect the lives and livelyhood of white people.

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      Vox PopulistSean Brody
      6/14/16 4:24pm

      Let’s be realistic. Gawker is done. It’s just a matter of time until the mounting legal fees will force them to close shop for good. Peter Thiel has much deeper pockets than Denton and won’t rest until he has accomplished his goal. A couple million dollars more to throw at lawyers is nothing to the man, he wants to set an example.

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    The Noble RenardJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:25pm

    Well, since I may actually be sued by Mr. Harder at a later point if the whole suing of Jezebel commenters is any indication, let me just state publicly on the record right now that, as an attorney, I think Mr. Harder is a sleazebag who has ignored his duties as an officer of the court not to bring frivolous litigation or make arguments that are clearly directly contravened by established law.

    Oh, and Peter Thiel is the textbook example of a thin-skinned bully, and if there was any justice in the world, reality would have kicked him in the teeth by now. Sadly, in a battle between cosmic justice and great honking sums of money, money wins every time.

    And you can quote me on that, guys.

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      Burt Reynolds JrThe Noble Renard
      6/14/16 4:31pm

      I was just thinking this about Mr. Harder as well. Honestly I will not be surprised if this eventually gets brought up to an ethics committee. Then again, I don’t see it being enough to have his license removed, maybe suspended for 6 months

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      Bradley's BallsThe Noble Renard
      6/14/16 4:35pm

      Seriously, I think bar complaints may be in order.

      Also, what shitty lawyering. “This letter is covered by copyright law.” Haha, fuck off.

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    Rutherford B. Hayes, caretaker presidentJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:18pm

    This is well past ridiculous.

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      XrdsAlumRutherford B. Hayes, caretaker president
      6/14/16 4:23pm

      This is also exactly what Thiel wants as part of his anti-democratic alt-right program: constant lawsuits on behalf of plutocrats that chill any criticism of them.

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      rmric0.wedding.photographerXrdsAlum
      6/14/16 4:30pm

      Well, I’m sure in Mr. Thiel’s libertarian paradise the Independent(TM) Arbitration Panels would not at all be biased toward the plutocrats that sponsor them.

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    Humorless JoeJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:17pm

    Gah. Please tell me we’re not going to elect a guy who looks like this.

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      Flying Squid (I hate me more than you do.)Humorless Joe
      6/14/16 4:17pm

      Hey! Watch out! Do you want to get sued?!

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      Pumibellicose is really a BinturongHumorless Joe
      6/14/16 4:25pm

      Is this sublime piece of public art your creation? I’d definitely watermark that photo before you get sued for something or someone else claims your work!

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    KulturVulturJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:27pm

    I learned a long time ago a lot of men are unreasonably touchy about their hair for some reason. I privately refer to is as “the Samson idiosyncrasy.”

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      ReburnsABurningReturnsKulturVultur
      6/14/16 4:35pm

      This is very true. For example, when my hair becomes long enough that vaguely running my fingers through it in the morning is no longer adequate to make it presentable, I get extremely frustrated until I can go get it cut back down to size.

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      TopherKulturVultur
      6/14/16 4:35pm

      The Samson Idiosyncrasy

      by John Grisham, on sale now!

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    Bolivia Newton JohnJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:21pm

    Let’s be honest: if you’re going to destroy some First Amendment journalistic privileges, you may as well destroy all of them. I mean, who blows up half a bridge?

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      IanBolivia Newton John
      6/14/16 4:23pm

      Well, ummm, technically the bad guys in movies do. If you watch closely, they don’t ever take out an entire bridge, only a piece of it. Usually what’s left constitutes half a bridge, man.

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      XrdsAlumBolivia Newton John
      6/14/16 4:29pm

      It will be a beautiful demolition of press rights, the best. We’ll open up the libel laws and you won’t believe how classy America will be.

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    SauceboyJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:42pm

    The funny thing is, and I mean funny rather loosely, is that for all of Thiel’s intelligence, and he is smart, he’s still a thin-skinned bully who thinks that the world would be better off if he ran it. And he seems to be oblivious to the fact that by better off, he means better for him. The fact that there’s no real principle behind it is interesting to me insofar as he seems like somebody who likes to pontificate about ideas in the abstract.

    But in the real world he’s just another rich jerk who likes to avail himself of rich jerk prerogatives. But then again, that’s what most of his “ideas” revolve around anyway.

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      Flying Squid (I hate me more than you do.)Sauceboy
      6/14/16 4:44pm

      He isn’t oblivious to that. He doesn’t care. He’s an Ayn Rand-worshipper. As long as he is at the top, fuck whatever baby’s eyes he had to gouge out to climb up there.

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      PoodletimeSauceboy
      6/14/16 4:54pm

      Well, you know, that’s libertarians for you in a nutshell. Since their very “philosophy” is conditioned upon studied callousness towards the needs and rights of other people, and, in fact, a total repudiation of the scientific understanding that humans are social animals who need tribes to thrive and even survive, one is hardly surprised by this. He has no interest in the financial, emotional, economic, or personal interchange that provides sustenance to humans as a species.

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    BulfrightJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:15pm

    F*ck you, Harder.

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      Sid and FinancyBulfright
      6/14/16 4:18pm

      That’s not even the Meanith comment you could have made.

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      Crown_JewSid and Financy
      6/14/16 4:21pm

      What are you going Huon about now?

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    Dave J.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:20pm

    Holy shit, I joked in the comments that Gawker would get sued over this but I never actually THOUGHT it would happen. This is a fucked up world.

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      loracksDave
      6/14/16 4:23pm

      I'm sorry, Dave.

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      opiumsmabytchDave
      6/14/16 4:25pm

      You have to change your avatar

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    GeorgeGeoffersonLivesJ.K. Trotter
    6/14/16 4:22pm

    And, with that, the Streisand effect is initiated...

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      Sean BrodyGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      6/14/16 4:23pm

      I want to see this story covered everywhere, the way every dumb thing Trump says is.

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      RevengencerAlfSean Brody
      6/14/16 6:26pm

      Would be nice, but the problem is Gawker has effectively rendered every story about this turd unworthy of serious discussion. Everything they report on Thiel and his cronies is effectively perceived by external parties as a smoke and mirrors show to distract from the fact that they genuinely fucked up with the Hogan tape and have been maliciously vindictive about the entire thing.

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