Jesse Ventura Wins Libel Suit Against Douchebag

[Elfdart]

A couple of years ago, a Navy Seal named Chris Kyle (along with two writers) concocted an autobiography of sorts about how he was the deadliest sniper ever or some such nonsense. Among the many tall tales in this compilation of wankery is a story about how Kyle sucker-punched an ex-SEAL, then ran away to avoid the police. On the Opie and Fired Racist Stalker Fuckwit Anthony Show, Kyle identified this ex-SEAL as Jesse Ventura:



He repeated these stories on Fox News on both the Sean Hannity Show and The O'Reilly Factor.

Like all bad liars, Kyle had problems keeping his stories straight, but the reason he gave for supposedly punching Ventura is that Jesse "the Body" said the SEALs deserved to lose men in Iraq. Bad move. Ventura sued Kyle for libel, claiming that (a) he never said anything like what Kyle described and (b) he wasn't punched by Kyle or anyone else. In video depositions, Kyle had to take back most of his bullshit and kept changing his story. Not that this did Ventura any good since his name was Mudd now among many current and former SEALs. When Kyle gave himself a Darwin Award by handing a loaded rifle to a crazed ex-Marine, Ventura continued the suit against his estate.

Yesterday the jury found for Jesse Ventura, who was awarded $1.8 million in damages. This is quite remarkable, given that public figures have almost zero chance of winning defamation cases under the crazy US libel laws. Ventura told CBS News that he's now looking into taking action against Harper Collins, the publisher. Good for him.

[Mr Bean]

It's a shame because the story makes him look even worse when it's covered as "Dead SEAL loses lawsuit against Ventura".

Chris Kyle was a shit and a hateful shit at that.

[Elfdart]

This quote makes me wonder just how many of Kyle's "confirmed" kills were civilians:

I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.

[Irbis]

This quote makes me wonder just how many of Kyle's "confirmed" kills were civilians:

I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.

If Brandon Webb's memoir The Red Circle is to be believed Kyle was fucking war criminal using methods I only read done by Waffen SS city cleaning squads. Good riddance

[Zaune]

This makes the Bravo Two Zero debacle look good by comparison.

[Sea Skimmer]

This is bonus stupid since Jesse Ventura is himself a confirmed liar about being a SEAL in the first place. He was an UDT swimmer, and left the navy before UDT units were converted to SEAL units in the 1980s.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm.

I don't know if Ventura is dumb enough to assert in court that he was a SEAL if he wasn't. On the other hand, it's not like Kyle's lies are any less false if he claims to have punched a SEAL who was never actually a SEAL in the first place.

[Elfdart]

This is bonus stupid since Jesse Ventura is himself a confirmed liar about being a SEAL in the first place. He was an UDT swimmer, and left the navy before UDT units were converted to SEAL units in the 1980s.

Bullshit:



Though it was a surprise to hear Mr. Rogers wasn't a SEAL.

[Grumman]

This is bonus stupid since Jesse Ventura is himself a confirmed liar about being a SEAL in the first place. He was an UDT swimmer, and left the navy before UDT units were converted to SEAL units in the 1980s.

Is there some reason that's not just pedantic nit-picking? Is there any difference between being a UDT swimmer and a SEAL except time of service, and that when you say "I'm an ex-SEAL" people would actually understand what the hell you're talking about?

[Grumman]

...or what the guy in Elfdart's video says.

[Elheru Aran]

UDT swimmers are, well, swimmers. They see some ground action, but for the most part they're underwater explosives specialists. SEAL's are more multi-purpose special forces. Both are a bunch of hard-asses. There's not a *huge* amount of difference, but to someone in the services that's enough.

You should see the bickering between riflemen and Water Dogs in the Marines, if Terminal Lance is anything to go by...

[JLTucker]

Clint Eastwood is making a movie about this guy, by the way.

[Pelranius]

Didn't Kyle make up some stuff about shooting two guys at a gas station in Texas and being deployed as a SEAL sniper to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina (?!)?

Would have been interesting to see the man run for public office.

[Elfdart]

Yep:

Washington Post

That sense of superhuman toughness perhaps led him to tell stories reporters couldn’t confirm. One involved a cold January morning at a gas station southwest of Dallas. Two armed men, he said, approached him and told him to hand over the keys to his black F350. “I told them I would get them the keys,” he told Mooney. “I told them they were in the truck and to just let me reach in.” Kyle then claimed he reached into the car, pulled out a gun and, shooting under his armpit, killed both men. “It’s true,” he said.

But was it? Reporters, including the New Yorker’s Nicholas Schmidle, called some of the nearby county sheriffs and none of them knew of it. “I went to every single gas station [nearby],” Mooney explained. “I talked to every single law enforcement out there, all the Texas rangers — and there’s no evidence whatsoever.”

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram had no better luck. “We checked with the medical examiner’s office, which reported no such deaths in Cleburne in January 2009.”

Years after those alleged killings, Kyle had another story to tell. This one referred to the vacuum of authority in New Orleans following Katrina, when the city slipped into chaos. According to the New Yorker and several military publications, Kyle and a few other SEALs drank late in San Diego late one night in early 2012. “The SEALs began telling stories, and Kyle offered a shocking one,” the New Yorker reported. “…He and another sniper traveled to New Orleans, set up on top of the Superdome, and proceed to shoot dozens of armed residents who were contributing to the chaos.” The magazine said one conversation participant said Kyle “claimed to have shot thirty men on his own,” while another said Kyle and the other killed 30 between them.

When the New Yorker’s Schmidle called the U.S. Special Operations Command for confirmation, he didn’t get any. Then one of Kyle’s officers told the reporter, “I never heard that story.”

Does that mean it didn’t happen? Who knows. It’s certainly possible that Kyle killed two Texan thieves and their bodies disappeared. And it’s also possible Kyle killed 30 armed assailants in New Orleans to protect its residents in Katrina’s aftermath. But it’s also possible Kyle couldn’t let go of his own legend, and, in a haze of post-traumatic stress, let his tales veer into untruth.

Even now, more than a year after Kyle was killed by a fellow veteran at a Texas shooting range, the most important aspect of his myth remains unclear. His book says the Navy confirmed he killed 160 in Iraq.

Kyle, for his part, claimed he killed 255.

If he could pull from 32 to 127 dead bodies out of his ass so casually then I'm pretty sure his "official" kill count is bullshit, too.

[Elfdart]

National Review of all places has the best summary of the case -and debunks the tear-stained arguments posted by Kyle's groupies:

LINK

Upon hearing that Ventura is now considering dropping the elbow from the top rope on the publisher, HarperCollins has announced that the parts of the book related to Ventura will be deleted. Looks like he's about to collect a fat check from Rupert Murdoch, which is funny since his stooges at Faux News did so much to help defame Ventura in the first place.

[Pelranius]

National Review of all places has the best summary of the case -and debunks the tear-stained arguments posted by Kyle's groupies:

LINK

Upon hearing that Ventura is now considering dropping the elbow from the top rope on the publisher, HarperCollins has announced that the parts of the book related to Ventura will be deleted. Looks like he's about to collect a fat check from Rupert Murdoch, which is funny since his stooges at Faux News did so much to help defame Ventura in the first place.

Wow, now I'm agreeing with Delgado.

[Mr. Coffee]

Usually it's the wannabe SEALdouchlords that tell dipshit stories like that, but an actual SEAL to do it...

Well, fuck, not sure I really have any sympathy for the Stolen Valor act anymore. Shit, the only difference between this asshole and my Uncle Mike (the one that had six DUIs) is Kyle was at least a verifiable member of the SOCOM community. Both of them are still lying assholes.

[Simon_Jester]

If it's the fake SEAL wannabes doing it 90% of the time or whatever, and people who actually were SEALs doing it the other 10%, at least the Stolen Valor Act can cut down on the problem?

[Sidewinder]

The following article demonstrates Sarah Palin is a squirrel-brained bimbo.

Sarah Palin Blasts Jesse Ventura

Tuesday, 05 Aug 2014 09:04 AM

By Melissa Clyne

On her recently launched online TV channel, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized last month’s jury verdict awarding more than $1.8 million to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in his defamation lawsuit against the widow of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.

Palin said that Ventura is "known for mouthing off" and said the lawsuit "has showed the real Jesse Ventura."

"Jesse Ventura claimed Chris caused him emotional distress by naming him in the story. He says it damaged his reputation.

"Well Jesse, I think shaking down the widow and orphans of an American hero is no way to repair you’re reputation. Really, you’re piling it on now?"

Ventura filed suit following the publication of Kyle’s book "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History," saying a passage about a purported fight between Kyle and Ventura was false.

In the book, Kyle wrote that he punched a man he referred to as "scruff face" in a California bar in 2006 after the man "disparaged Navy SEALS and said they 'deserved to lose some' for their actions in the war," according to The Washington Post. Ventura said Kyle fabricated the entire incident. Ventura admits he was at the bar but that a fight never occurred. A jury rendered a split 8-to-2 decision in Ventura’s favor.

Though Kyle never identified Ventura in the book, he later did so in interviews. Kyle was fatally shot last year on a Texas gun range, purportedly by a Marine he was helping through post-traumatic stress, the Post reported.

Ventura pursued the lawsuit anyway.

On her website, Palin posted this note accompanying the video:

"Hey tough guy, Jesse Ventura, your feelings were hurt because you perceived your reputation was besmirched by words in a book? So you turn around and sue, expecting $2 million from a military widow and her fatherless children? Yeah, like that is going to help your reputation, jackass."

In her video post, Palin hammers Ventura, noting that "a lot of us go through a lot of things about what people say about us, but we don’t go running to the courthouse whining and crying that our reputation was hurt."

"Jesse, buck up or stay in the truck," she said.

Kyle’s widow, Taya, told CBS affiliate WCCO that the verdict left her "shocked and speechless." Taya Kyle will be responsible for paying Ventura $500,000 in damages for defamation and $1.3 million for unjust enrichment.

I'm a disabled US Army veteran, but if I publicly claim AdmiralKanos is a rapist and a child molester, does he have a right to sue me for defamation? DAMN RIGHT he does! This kind of accusation can get him crucified in the court of public opinion, and ruin his career and his social life, with people spitting in his face wherever he goes, or with misguided "vigilantes" physically assaulting him! That is the kind of life Jesse Ventura faced after Chris Kyle accused him of saying the US Navy SEALs "deserved to lose some."

It's sad that Kyle's widow had to pay the price for her late husband's mistakes, but with the court of public opinion the way it is, Ventura's own family will suffer for his alleged actions, unless Ventura's reputation is restored.

[Wicked Pilot]

Sarah Palin's a retard.

I'm mean the 'R-word', don't want to offend anyone.

[madd0ct0r]

then stick with squirrel brained bimbo, idiot, or my favourite, fuckwit.

[Borgholio]

I hope Palin runs for President vs Hilary in 2016. It'll be Biden vs Ryan all over again.

[Raw Shark]

It's sad that Kyle's widow had to pay the price for her late husband's mistakes, but with the court of public opinion the way it is, Ventura's own family will suffer for his alleged actions, unless Ventura's reputation is restored.

I think she'll be okay.

'Sniper' sells: Former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's American Sniper was an instant best seller when it was published 13 months ago. But after Kyle, 38, was shot and killed Feb. 2 at a Texas shooting range, book sales are soaring. The memoir is No. 2 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list, up from No. 113 last week. In January 2012, it landed at No. 10 and stayed in the top 25 for eight weeks. Actor Bradley Cooper, who bought the film rights, plans to star as Kyle in a movie adaptation but has yet to sign a director. Kyle was buried Tuesday after a memorial service Monday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.