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Farmers market boots vendor who offered ‘Gas the Jews’ discount code

Justin Bale, who runs what he calls a “Christian family business,” doubled down on his antisemitism after the Kansas farmers market kicked him out.

Peppers. Roy Harryman/Pixabay.
Peppers. Roy Harryman/Pixabay.

There’s peppercorn, and then there’s pepper scorn.

Justin Bale, who owns a business in Olathe, Kan., that grows more than 100 kinds of peppers and tomatoes, in addition to seasonings and hot sauces, has been kicked out of an Overland Park, Kan., farmers market for shocking antisemitic postings.

The owner of PepperCave, identified as a “Christian family business,” even offered customers a discount code of “GasThejews,” the Kansas City Star reported. Bale also posted social-media messages denying the Holocaust and calling for the extermination of the Jewish people.

A spokeswoman for the city of Overland Park said that Bale was “suspended indefinitely” from the farmers market.

Undeterred, Bale doubled down after being booted out. He posted on social media that he now has “much more time to dedicate to online sales and we can switch the chip recipe to lard!” (It wasn’t clear if that was a reference that was intended to call attention to something non-kosher.)

“Remember to save 14.88% on all orders with code: GasThejews,” he wrote. “My name is Justin Bale. I live in Olathe, KS. I fear no jew!”
The discount was apparently a reference to the neo-Nazi 1488 code that the Anti-Defamation League called “a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols.”

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