I don’t know how I would sleep were this guy to be convicted:
A judge in Las Vegas has ruled that a lawsuit involving accusations of graft and organised crime ties to casinos owned by the multibillionaire and Republican party funder, Sheldon Adelson, will be heard in the US.
The decision raises the prospect of Adelson facing difficult questions about his business practices following allegations by a former chief executive of his highly profitable casinos in the Chinese enclave of Macau that a well-known triad crime figure was used to bring in high-rolling gamblers and of influence peddling with Chinese officials.
Sheldon Adelson faces new scrutiny as documents challenge his testimony
Read moreThe case potentially has implications for Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands casinos because evidence of ties to criminal organisations could cost them their gaming licences.
It could also have a bearing on the 81-year-old billionaire’s considerable political influence. He is estimated to have spent $150m in a failed bid to secure a Republican victory over Barack Obama in the last presidential election and is being vigorously courted by Republican candidates in the next race.
Will be fun watching the people hyperventilating about the Clinton Foundation rush to this scumbag’s defense.
aimai
Those two things–the Clinton Foundation and Adelson’s story–will be kept strictly compartamentalized in the press. They won’t be covered in the same space (under politics) or on the same page (literally) at all.
Frankensteinbeck
A) We just had a thread about this.
B) We could use as many as you want to post. Adelson’s downfall is badly needed and worth endless discussion.
I heard in the last thread he’s being a jackass to the judge, too. I understand that’s a Bad Thing.
Big ole hound
His lawyers will delay any court date until the old fuck dies so no good stuff will come out. I think they big story is Louisiana has banned all products from Ireland because of the gays. No Irish beer in NOLA.
NotMax
The schadenfreude is strong with this one.
Cases against Adlelson’s cas1no operations have been (mostly) quietly building evidence for years now.
Also too, organized crime involved with gambling? I’m shocked, shocked.
Karen in GA
@NotMax: I’m shocked gambling was going on in his establish– eh, never mind.
KG
@Frankensteinbeck: there’s an old saying in the law that the closest you can get to a medieval fiefdom in the modern world is the courtroom of a federal judge. lifetime appointments are apparently quite liberating when it comes to dealing with bullshit
srv
As the IRS scandal showed, Obama will stop at absolutely nothing to use the gears of goverment against free speech.
Imagine Bush going after Soros and the shrieking the left would make.
Valdivia
this guy is up to it in dirty Macau shenanigans. Would be nice to have him get his comeuppance.
Ellen
Adelson will settle, the case will be dismissed, and that will be the end of it.
Chris
@NotMax:
Or more generally “large corporations involved with organized crime? I’m shocked, shocked.”
FlipYrWhig
Wasn’t this a House of Cards plotline?
Ultraviolet Thunder
There are a whole bunch of issues tied up in this. A Macau cas(eye)no manager suing for wrongful dismissal, he says because he tried to break ties between the cas(eye)no and gangsters.
More popcorn please.
Mike in NC
@Big ole hound: Really? This must be Bobby Jindal’s latest lame attempt to ingratiate himself with the bigoted base. Won’t work.
SiubhanDuinne
@Frankensteinbeck:
At the risk of sounding like Little Boots — “Where is Omnes? We need Omnes!”
Yatsuno
@srv: 1/10. Can you at least TRY?
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig: Organized crime in this country is indistinguishable from corporations.
They’re essentially the same thing, but corporations have a sheen of “legitimacy” about them.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yatsuno:
I don’t think the point is to really make people angry. Srv is more like troll performance art.
shell
Can’t risk catching any of those gay cooties!
Really, can Jindal become any more of a jackass?
Villago Delenda Est
@Ultraviolet Thunder: He actually tried to take the operation legit.
That damages profits. No can do.
mellowjohn
sheldon adelson has possible mob ties???
https://youtu.be/2TnkJ8_BmSI
p.s. i believe the jindal/irish products ban report comes from andy borowitz.
Yatsuno
@Villago Delenda Est: A little corporate charter makes all the difference…
@Frankensteinbeck: Sure. I can roll with that. The material needs serious upgrading.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they what? I don’t get.. huh?
Maybe it won’t just be a Clinton candidacy that makes it feel like 1992 all over again. I was gonna say, can they dig up Pat Robertson and prop him up, but it was the other one that died, wasn’t it? Both Pats are still with us. And Molly Ivins is not.
Sometimes it’s that sick sense of humor that keeps me from being a full-on atheist. The universe is too perverse to be completely random
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Villago Delenda Est:
I read part of an interview with notoriously successful cocaine importer Rick Ross ($1B lifetime sales). He credited much of his success to following business self-help books by the likes of Tony Robbins and acting like a legit corporation. Avoiding violence, letting the people below him succeed, planning for growth rather than profit, etc. the model works on both sides of the law.
srv
Republican’s show how it is done:
Onward and upward:
A lifeline, not a hammock. Now there’s a bumper-sticker for 2016.
Karen in GA
@Big ole hound: Not true that Jindal banned Irish products. It’s just an Andy Borowitz joke. Believable, though, so I don’t blame anyone for accepting it as fact.
MattF
@Big ole hound: I expect New Orleans will now secede.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
I came to this conclusion a while ago. But with the addendum that crime syndicates are the bottom feeders of the business world. Big banks, defense contractors and oil companies run cons and rackets that are orders of magnitude larger and more profitable with far fewer risks.
The Five Families are pikers. Wall Street is where the real action’s at.
Joel
@srv: if a troll dies in the forest something something..
Gimlet
If the Adelson case is delayed until a Republican administration, I wonder how much more favorable the outcome will be?
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
:) that totally cracked me up
on a more meta level: have I been lurking so long that I failed to notice our trolls have failed utterly to live up to the standards of pizza oven guy and cudlips (or whatever that was)?
Amir Khalid
@Joel:
… there will be much rejoicing?
gene108
@aimai:
I think the media understands that kissing corporate ass is just part of what it takes to climb to the top. They can understand a politician needing to get on Adelson’s good side.
They therefore assume people donating to the Clinton Foundation – a charity – are doing it for favors.
encephalopath
Why hasn’t the DOJ gone after him with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You have that backwards:
The universe is too random to be completely perverse.
Actually the universe is so big and we are a pretty small pool. Take the entirety of it and the bits are a lot more, well, random.
For me, that sick sense of humor is what makes me a full-on atheist. That and what George Carlin said, “…….He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money!” More to the point, What the hell does he even need it for?
gene108
@Gimlet:
Like the Microsoft antitrust case the Clinton DOJ started, it will probably be quickly dismissed / dropped.
Ruckus
@Joel:
ROFLMAO
dmbeaster
@srv: Its a private civil suit moron. Obama and Justice have nothing to do with that case or ruling, and if any government is going to take action, it is the State of Nevada concerning gambling licenses held by a corrupt individual (Adelson).
The likely outcome of the case if it is too hot for Adelson to handle is they buy the guy off in order to shut down the civil inquiry concerning the allegations.
Thor Heyerdahl
@dmbeaster: Your snarkmeter looks like it needs to be taken into the shop for a tuneup.
LWA (Liberal With Attitude)
@srv:
I wish a mutherfucker would!
xenos
@LWA (Liberal With Attitude): srv has been around for years, usually in a non-troll capacity. The old coot is bored, or misses the old-school dougj. .. or, heaven forfend, has been dough ALL ALONG!!1!
divF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think of this line a lot when reading this blog.
TG Chicago
It never ceases to bewilder me that Cole doesn’t even read his own blog. I mean, he doesn’t even skim the headlines. Odd.
Howard Beale IV
@aimai: That’s why you’ll never see anything about Adelson on Fox – except maybe whining.
Howard Beale IV
@Yatsuno: He’s as sharp as a bowling ball.
SiubhanDuinne
@Valdivia:
I have to admit, Brick Oven Bill had a kind of style to him that is sadly lacking in these young trollsters.
Cudlip had a nym something like Mofo-San. Can’t remember, but I’ll bet Amir or Suzanne or Yutsano/Yatsuno would know.
Yatsuno
@SiubhanDuinne: matoko_chan. And when she actually had a point she was a good person to interact with. When she went off the rails though WHOA.
gelfling545
@Ultraviolet Thunder: A local guy was arrested for selling marijuana cookies in a kind of drive-in set up. The customers would pass by & he’s hop out of the shrubbery with the merchandise. I was quite tempted to comment on out local newspaper’s page that he was simply an entrepreneur trying to make as much money as possible without government interference & was probably a good republican but the comment pages here are a snake pit.
Ian
@srv:
That’s how you try to troll us? So less hungry people in NH get the basic food in a day– and thats a good thing?
aimai
@Valdivia: srv makes me miss cudlips.
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
yeah he was really an artist of sorts, had a crazy whimsy to him. Compared to what we are getting now….
@Yatsuno: @aimai:
Exactly what I was thinking: how terrible are our present trolls that I am missing cudlips. And I didn’t even understand half of what she/he was talking about most of the time.
Yatsuno
@Valdivia: The thing is, when they were interactive, they were ENTERTAINING. I mean, m_c got banned for blatant racism & attacking of Amir (pbuh) and BoB was being BoB but they were at least fun. srv just spouts boring Republican talking points we can see by watching the MSM. Yawn.
Valdivia
@Yatsuno:
yes I totally agree, they were special performances.
sharl
Ah, memories…I too miss matoko_chan, with her(?) persistence* and unique style, including the cudlip thing that always cracked me up. She could even get herself front-paged, e.g., her comments in this post led to this and this.
*(actually, to be honest, her persistence could be either entertaining or extremely annoying)
The Pale Scot
@Big ole hound:
You had me there, I LOOKED it up.
burritoboy
This is not the usual “mafioso involved in casinos” thing. The case is attempting to prove that Adelson himself is one cornerstone – and perhaps even the most important cornerstone – of the Triads’ worldwide crime organization. The Triads are probably the world’s largest organized crime operations, far outstriping such things as the Colombian drug combines, the Russian Mafia, Sicilian Costa Nostra, Japanese Yazuka, etc. Adelson’s Macau operations provide the locus of how the Triads make their money legal from their criminal operations throughout the world (at least, that’s what the case is trying to prove). Thus, the cornerstone of Adelson’s business empire is also simultaneously a cornerstone of Republican politics in the US, and also a cornerstone of worldwide organized crime (many other organized crime groups besides the Triads worldwide use Macau to launder money and they pay the Triads well for the privilege of doing so.)
Further, the case is trying to show that Adelson is heavily involved in promoting organized crime’s interests within the People’s Republic of China. It is alleged that he has a network of allies who are pushing for Triad interests within PRC political and legislative bodies. Not only is Adelson’s Macau operations doing what I describe above but also means the US Republican party is actually closely allied with certain factions in the Communist Party of China. Which is not something we should ignore either as a political slogan or as a real threat to global well-being.
burnspbesq
@srv:
Damn, you’re funny.
burnspbesq
@encephalopath:
DOJ and SEC investigations are ongoing. Described in delicious detail in Sands’ SEC filings and more articles in the business press than you can shake a stick at.
burnspbesq
@sharl:
We still get the occasional drive-by from mclaren. He/she/they/it graced our shores last week.
Valdivia
@burnspbesq:
He/she was talking about juries and sounded half normal, then went a little off the rails with Omnes. I had forgotten for a moment he/she was a troll but was quickly reminded.
sharl
@burnspbesq: Yeah, I see mclaren now and again. I once wondered whether mclaren and m_c were one-and-the-same, but no more: as far as I can remember, m_c had a pretty steady delivery style (reliably wacky/over-the-top, though occasionally informative), while – as Valdivia notes in #59 – mclaren seems to have multiple online personalities (but who is also occasionally informative).
Major Major Major Major
@Valdivia: I remember that thread. I was like “oh, decent point, who said–that was mclaren??”
Valdivia
@Major Major Major Major:
I know right? All that historical details about points of evidence etc. I even ventured to say that. But then it all went full on flame war with Omnes.
Frankensteinbeck
@sharl:
Mclaren is not a troll in the classic ‘trying to start a fight’ sense. Mclaren is a liberal, with values much like ours, but believes every paranoid conspiracy it reads online. In a world where Obama did cover up the extent of the gulf oil spill for BP and we’re engaged in ‘3-4 permanent, unwinnable wars’, everything mclaren says would make sense. The problem is just a different base of facts. Being mclaren must be terrifying, with black helicopters outside every window.
@Yatsuno:
I think you’ve got it backwards. M-C wasn’t funny at all. M-C talked like your standard 19 year old libertarian, throwing out a couple of buzzwords she’d made up herself, wildly simplistic and often racist rules (Muslims can’t be evangelized!) and the occasional actual insight that, unfortunately, everyone else already had. Then we would get lectured, complete with insults, about how we’re not as smart as she is and the demographic timer is a thing, or the Iraq war was a bad idea. Attempts to reason were ignored so that she could return to lecturing us with some simple rule, even though we had already taken it (Arab states do not want to be ruled by the US) into account and were five stages of thought beyond that. And yes, how she treated Amir was disgusting. The man’s patience and good humor dealing with her fills me with astonishment and admiration.
@Yatsuno:
I’ve been watching srv. They don’t stick to any one line, Republican or ultra-liberal or anything. I seriously think it’s performance art, an attempt to come up with a contrary statement to every topic, preferably as bizarre and idiotic as possible while still within believable American discourse.
Suzanne
Ahhhh, matoko_chan. Who always struck me as extremely high. Hence my renym: FourLoko_chan.
Valdivia
@Suzanne:
:)
too true.
Suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: Remember how FourLoko would close a fair number of her comments with “spit”, as in she wanted to spit at us? What a charmer.
I felt bad for laughing at her because she admitted to having some mental illness. Took the fun out of it.
sharl
@Suzanne: Wasn’t it Asperger’s (and maybe ADD or ADHD) she said she had? Am I remembering that right?
Major Major Major Major
@sharl: Gosh, I hope not. Some of my best me’s have those.
Shakezula
He wouldn’t be convicted, this is a civil suit. Is there any sign a criminal investigation against him (not his corporations) is in the works?
liberal
@burnspbesq: not to mention the occasional drooling idiot who thinks TPP needs 2/3 of the Senate to pass.
sharl
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t remember in what context m_c brought up her personal mental health issues. I don’t recall that it was in any way brought up in a defensive capacity; that would have definitely been out of character for her.
She could hold her own against critics just fine, whether making what seemed to be a good point to us cudlips, or engaged in one of her racist tirades against Amir (as noted above). And if I recall correctly (less certain of this), her banning – like most who’ve been banned here (hell, even myiq2xu) – was temporary. She basically got bored and moved on.
Suzanne
@sharl: I don’t remember. Maybe bipolar disorder?
burnspbesq
@liberal:
srv
@Frankensteinbeck: You will not likely see this, but I was here before them, and I will be here long after they are long gone.
For they are all old. And I am young.
The PUMA-hating Obots will march to the voting booths to vote for Hillary, as they see no other option. If it was a gas chamber, or a Flavor Aid stand in Guyana, they would still march. I was a Obot before there were Obots. I was a PUMA before there were PUMAs.
Would that they could be better.
mclaren is a true progressive. Truer than corner stone or I. I will always defer to the true rage.
fuckwit
@Big ole hound: cough cough kenny-boy lay cough cough