>He was fined over a billion dollars, in what world is losing a billion dollars no consequences?

Parent’s point is that the amount of the fine doesn’t matter if he is able to avoid paying it. It could have been a quadrillion. A fine only matters if you actually have to pay it.

On an average-person-level, some municipalities nearby me have decided to not basically not do anything about parking fines. As a result, there are vehicles that over ten thousand dollars of fine. But they are still allowed to renew their registration and drive their vehicle. So it’s just a made up demerit.

Reminds me of that Russian court that recently fined Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Funnily enough this was along similar lines to the Alex Jones case but in reverse.

Huh, I wonder why they stopped at 20.

They didn't - it was a more modest amount that they put daily compounding interest on. The number keeps growing larger and larger by the day.

Well, that makes sense, at least.

He was fined a billion dollars, but it will never be collected, he never lost a billion dollars. With this decision all his debts are pardoned and he gets to keep his megaphone, that is very "no consequences".

America was founded with a constitution that guarantee's citizens a megaphone as part of a list of inalienable rights (God given per words in the constitution). Bankrupting Jones won't remove his ability speak or muzzle him and it's more than likely only going to give him more of an audience. He'll still be able to voice his performance art about growing babies-in-cows-for-25-years and gay-frogs. He'll more than likely struggle to sell his seeds and end-of-times nonsense and he's probably been debanked. But megaphone wise he'll be louder than ever.

Chemicals in the water turning the frogs gay is an actual thing though. E.g.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3280221/

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1501065112

https://news.berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/

However

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/frogs-rev...

but, > The findings in no way exonerate pollutants like the widely used herbicide atrazine, scientists caution.

OK. Going on an alex jones rant here...

I was always under the impression that the performance art he did with the frogs was in reference to Chlorpyrifos. And I am in concert with Alex Jones here. I agree with him. This crap is not good, is banned throughout the world, and is a mammalian neurotoxin.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1203396109

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/08/chlorpyrifos-neurotoxic-pes...

But you and I both know he crosses the line (and enjoys doing so) from authentic to clown. He'll bedazzle a libertarian and country boy with quirky strange perspectives that have a kernel of truth and then drag them down into the dark ass netherworld he's living his life in. He spins people up and inflames their amygdala's and connects the dots to some dark metaphysical Ba'al. But then he still comes back around and sells you some seeds and some product to stock your nuclear fall out shelter. He's one part performance artist one part grifter. But he crossed a third rail when he tried pulling the parents of a school shooting into his bi-polarish world. Bottom line with a guy like Alex Jones is that he's always going to connect the natural failure-state of a system (FDA regulatory capture) to some fever dream Ba'al conspiracy vs acknowledging that humans and their systems are flawed and that the natural state of a government is one in which it is picking winners and losers (cronyism) and it's been that way in his country since Washington's soldiers and officers mutinied over pensions. https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collect.... That didn't need the illuminati becuase, like the FDA, it's the natural mode of humanity and a system to fail.

I don't see anything in those articles about gay frogs.

Trans frogs, sure, but sex and sexual orientation are different.

The correct term is intersex, but whatever. But in addition

> EE2 exposure at all concentrations lowered male sexual arousal, indicated by decreased proportions of advertisement calls and increased proportions of the call type rasping, which characterizes a sexually unaroused state of a male.

So the males also became uninterested in sex with females. Given that I think you must be really nitpicking to find fault with what he said.

> you must be really nitpicking

I mean...this IS Hacker News. Extreme levels of pedantry is just par for the course, isn't it?

He wasn't fined. He had a judgement for damages against him. They are different things with a similar outcome (he's out a billion dollars) - accuracy is important.

Also - until he actually pays any of that billion dollars, there have been no consequences.

Additionally, it's important to highlight that he refused to properly comply with the legal process - so it was a default judgement. This is essentially unheard of due to how unwise it is.

We can consider his non-compliance an investment in his audience. By refusing to comply, he signals his supporters that the lawsuit is unfair persecution. And they believe him.

His lawyer already stated “Finally, a judge followed the law.”.