I’ll admit, this one caught me by surprise. My television is on mostly MSNBC from around 10 am PT until normally 8 pm. But the media coverage of the Connecticut Jones trial has been so sparse that I didn’t even know that the jury was in deliberations. And so I was gobsmacked when MSNBC broke into their normal programming to air the verdicts live from the courtroom.
First the obvious one. It couldn’t happen to a nicer scumbag. Alex Jones is now officially on the arm for an almost amazing $1 billion in punitive and compensatory damages to 9 Sandy Hook families. I’m no dunce, I know that a certain Jones appeal will lower the initial award. But most early analysis is that by basically ceding the case by refusing to put on a defense, Jones is still highly likely to end up on the short end of something around a $600 million judgement.
Of course, Jones was all bluff and bluster on his POS streaming show today. He ridiculed the verdict, stormed that some wahoo jury in CT wasn’t going to stop him from speaking out on events like Uvalde and Parkland, and then sneered that No money is coming!, Because he doesn’t have any. Bullshit.
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman summed it up perfectly today on MSNBC. He lauded the plaintiffs attorneys for not only naming Jones as a defendant, but all of his companies as well. Once the appeal is over with, the court will order a forensic audit of Jones’s personal wealth as well as his business holdings. And when Jones doesn’t pony up, because he can’t, the Sheriffs are going to start showing up with Eviction Orders, and confiscation locks, so Jones’s shit can be sold off at auction. Even if Jones manages to keep Infowars up and running, he’ll never be rich again, because anything over a reasonable living wage will be confiscated and disbursed to the plaintiffs. Alex Jones of being a cash cow are now officially over. Hey, maybe Trump can cut him a deal on a condo.
The funny thing is, if there can be anything funny about an American tragedy like this, is that Jones actually tipped his hand in his testimony. I don’t think Jones really understood what he was blurting out that a large portion of his audience was Second Amendment who all have 20 or 30 AR-15’s in their home, and they would be uncomfortable having to deal with the fact that a fellow gun nut had slaughtered more than 20 people. And so he gave them a plausible deniability out.
But I have another takeaway from this, and here it is. I suddenly realized that there are a whole lot of other all purpose douche nozzles out there who should be changing their Depends every hour on the half hour right about now. And yes Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, My Pillow MAGAt Mike Lindell, and Rupert Murdock and his fascist propaganda network FUX News. Because right now, every one of those creepazoids are embroiled in a multi billion dollar lawsuit for Defamation brought by Dominion Voting Systems. All of them have cleared the initial hearing hurdles and are proceeding. Hell, a couple of weeks ago several DUX News propagandists like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Maria Bartiromo had to sit for plaintiff depositions in the case.
Today’s ruling should be a strong warning shot across the bow for all of them. American juries, as well as most non Trump Americans, are sick to death of lies and obfuscatory bullshit. And when they get a chance to weigh in, the results ain’t gonna be pretty for the defendants. And it’s also a severe warning to other far right bottom feeding trolls out there on the internet to be very careful what they say about people and companies. Don’t touch that dial.
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In many ways, I see the current national mood as the exact flipside of what it was in the late 1960s in terms of cause. Then as now, America had been through violent domestic upheaval, civil unrest and the tail end of a war we were never going to win. It’s just that while hippies and minorities (blacks, of course, but also Hispanics and LGBT) were pushed back on as the cause, now it’s the MAGA maggots and white nationalists getting the public pushback. This time has more deserving targets.
Jones is a POS I have outright despised for twenty plus years. Watching his fall will be glorious. But let us remember that this was him against a bunch of regular folks. Dominion Voting Systems has much better lawyers to go after Jones’ affiliates you named, Murf.
they will plead entertainment, first amendment rights, satire, not believeable.
Except that there is a huge chunk of amerkkkans who do believe faux news.
Not only believe it, but act on it. Part of the story that I think isn’t getting enough attention is that a lot of Jones fans were ACTIVELY harassing and tormenting the parents and survivors as well. At this point, especially having won their case, I don’t know why the plaintiffs don’t go after these mini-Jones asswipes. Of course the damages would not be as big, but in the aggregate they might add up to a nice supplement if Jones’s penalty gets reduced, and if he really does get squeezed completely dry.
And absolutely none of that is completely, forgive the phrasing, bulletproof. Also, remember that the First Amendment applies ONLY to Congress passing laws regulating speech and not all speech is automatically protected under the law as Oliver Wendell Holmes so accurately noted in the Schenck case–“The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic . . . .”; the later Brandenburg case found “the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action” (it should be noted that at least one of the plaintiffs noted that she’d received rape threats AFTER Jones made his claims that the shooting had been faked).
And “entertainment?” Really? Might want to talk to Martin Scorsese about the protests against his adaptation of “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Only ONE theater in the entire state of Alabama was willing to show the movie (an independent theater that specializes in “arthouse” movies) and every showing of the film was met with protests by “Christians” who’d been mobilized by Falwell and Robertson and the rest of the Christ-Fascists. There was a fair amount of anti-Semitism behind Falwell and Robertson’s attacks (they claimed the film was being financed by Jews bent on “bringing down America’s Christian values*”) but, getting back to Alabama . . . . The theater found its insurance being cancelled (they’d been using a local insurance company that had deep ties to the state’s Baptist groups) meaning the theater would be forced to close down if they couldn’t get the necessary liability coverage (they managed to get replacement coverage literally the day before the movie’s opening day at the theater). And pretty much every state official condemned the theater for taking such “provocative” action against the state’s Christians.
Here’s a newsflash to Fat Pat and the rest: Jews do not give two shits about x-tians. We do not trust them as far as we can throw them and leave it at that. Any “ecumenicism” that happens between Jews and x-tians, and trust me on this one folks, Jews only participate in to keep x-tian violence at bay.
Spike, what are x-tians? I have no clue
Christians. As in “Xmas.” I also didn’t get it when I first saw it.
Nope, still don’t get it. I understand the greek word Xrictoc is Christians and that’s why there’s x-mas , etc. But Piren implies that you are implying all christians, and that I don’t get. Are you actually referencing like, Baptiost Christians or those that follow Trump as if he were the resurrection of Christ? Or are you implyiong ALL christians. That is what I am not following
“anything over a reasonable living wage will be confiscated and disbursed to the plaintiffs.”
Isn’t that reasonable living wage $7.50/hour?
So ‘pube pols, and their bribers….oops, I mean campaign contributors…would have us believe.
I think that every last thing Jones owns, and every penny he has, plus every penny he ever might earn should go to to those he harmed! I want to see him being homeless for the rest of his misbegotten life. Better yet, I want to see him begging on a street corner in some slum somewhere!
Any appellate court that lowers this award and any others against this P.O.S. need to either A) be escorted from their court seats permanently and replaced with people who actually care about the law, juries, judgements, etc. or B) need to face some of that Second Amendment action people like Jones are always threatening. The fucking jury has spoken. Deal with it and pay up a-hole–you lost.
Justice will not truly be served until this scumbag is walking behind a shopping cart packed with all his worldly possessions for the rest of his misbegotten, miserable life.
Guarantee you he will move to Florida and buy a $100milliin dollar home. Floridas homestead law prevents ANYONE, even the IRS from seizing your home. (That’s why Trump & family moved to Florida). He can put his entire net worth into the home rather than give it to plaintiffs.