Posted by panch from pool0013.cvx20-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.250.13) on Saturday, October 12, 2002 at 9:15PM :
My defense will be telling the truth. That's all you have to do in a case such as this. If you can prove the person you called a liar...is one...you haven't defamed anyone.
Jackie is the liar here...she and her husband Lincoln...and I can prove it. This is a civil matter, I only need 51% of the "facts "on my side.
I never swindled them out of anything. It was Lincoln who got mad at me for not letting him in on the Mexico land deal. I was content just getting one other pal involved...didn't want to set up a Land Office. When he heard about it he insisted I had to let him in...and when I gave him the name of the real estate agent down there...he insisted I handle the transactions too...tell him where to send the money and he would. Obviously they trusted me...and I wish now I'd listened to that nagging voice in my head, and from other people...that I should not get in the middle of the thing. I liked Lincoln, I trusted him...I certainly felt he would not bend the truth to satisfy Jackie's venomous rage at being dumped.
I also never borrowed any money from them. It's absurd to think I would when I could have more easily sold them something if I was hard up. And why would she buy more sculpture from me if I supposedly ignored her pleas that I pay the money back? Jackie was hard up for a couple of thousand bucks or did she just figure it would be the word of three Benz' against one Suburban and an old Bronco?
Her actions against Jeff...the "darling" of so many yucky e-mails sent from her...who without any warning she turned around and sued for two million just because he wasn't loyal to her...shows just what a vindictive thing she can be.
Ghassan is the same way. They have this thing about "loyalty"...you are either "theirs" or you are against them. I can't stand these popularity contests, like we were all still in high schol. Jackie warned Jeff to "stay away" from this thing", meaning the convention thing when she banned me... to just take her word for it. All he wanted to do was get both sides of the story and when he persisted, though he was never once rude to her or flip in any way...just as he was repectful towards the Ghassbag...they both turned on him in a fury when they sensed he was being his own man...something they absolutely refused to give him credit for...prefering to think he was being "loyal" to me...because they were trying so hard to make him loyal to THEM...and felt I must have been doing the same thing...and that I "won". Something they can't stand to contemplate...being beaten out of anything.
The last thing I want is followers and accolytes...for one thing because I hate lackeys and worshippers... because I always refused to be that way towards anyone.
But Jackie and Ghassbag have the need to fawn on people they consider are important, and likewise they love to have people fawn all over them, for then THEY are important. YUCK!
I sat at a table with them both at a small fund raiser for Anna Eshoo a few years ago. Sargon Lewie and a few ZOWAA thugs were at another table. Right during her little talk practically Sargon handed Anna a check for ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS (WOW!), about as high as he can count. It was an embarrassing moment but Anna handled it well. I remember Jackie and Lincoln sniggering that Sargon was the kind of Assyrian who was a "wannabe". In other words he wanted to be on the "inside"...if not a mover and a shaker, then one who knows movers and shakers...which is the most apt description of Jackie and Lincoln I could think of, I mean wannabes themselves. I was supposed to feel privileged to be seated next to them, like I was "in" also. Where do these people COME from? Truly, the bucks have gone to their heads... and stopped there.
I was there to present a sculpture of a donkey to Anna on behalf of the AAS. I'd made the thing years ago for the California Democratic Party...to hand out to some guy who was retiring. Anna being a democrat and they being jackasses, and we being so intimately related to jackasses...we thought it would be a nice gift. So I presented it to her and made a bit of a speech. later I heard the Whacki Rabi from Iraqi was pissed that I had been the one to present it to her...see what I mean about wannabees?
Lincoln later asked to buy a copy, so I cast him one for $1,500. he was visibly shocked that it cost "so much". I was embarrassed for him...how do you tell these people that you don't buy art like it was onions...by the pound? Or buy paintings by the square inch? In 1982...almost 18 years ago they'd paid me $1,400 for the piece...the Democrats I mean. In that time the casting costs had doubled. I charged a measely hundred bucks more than I'd received 18 years earlier...and Lincoln and Jackie were sure I was taking advantage of them.
That's something every Assyrian artist of any kind has felt when dealing with our people...our 'elite" especially. They don't mind being overcharged for a Volkswagon on steriods...but Art? You better WATCH IT!
I should have listened to those who warned me and stayed away from the two of them. I'll pick my aquaintances more carefully in the future...you can bet they will too.
-- panch
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