Something's Happening and He Doesn't Know What It Is

Under duress, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones admitted in court that the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012 actually happened after insinuating that it was staged.  Jones defended himself on the stand by saying that he merely posited the possibility that it could have been faked.

Let me posit this: Jones is going to have a hard time paying the $49.3 million in damages to two Sandy Hook parents that the court ordered him to remit.  Even if he has the money, he'll end up broke, and then he's going to rebuild his life with his reputation in tatters.

The only problem is, Jones has proven that conspiracy theories are big business, and there's a whole army of "Jones clones" who will come up with conspiracy theories that shock and outage people with mature brains and pique everyone else but will not cross the line that Jones pole vaulted over with Newtown, because now Jones clones know where the line is. Hopefully like Jones' hair, that line will recede even farther back so that conspiracy theorists are eventually put out of business.

And yes, sometimes it turns out that a conspiracy theory is true.  And liberals are hardly immune form this - they've come up with conspiracy theories of their own, like Black History Month being in February because it's shortest month or that government agents sold crack in minority-nominated neighborhoods.  I must admit that I subscribe to the conspiracy theory - though I won't categorically say it's true, because I could just as easily be wrong - that right-wing CIA agents or someone like that were involved in the deaths of John Lennon, Bob Marley and Harry Chapin, three socially conscious and politically liberal musicians who died within nine months of Reagan's election to the Presidency.  (I also have a conspiracy theory of my own: Madonna signed Candlebox and the Rentals, two '90s grunge bands that have since been forgotten, to her vanity record label to undermine and kill grunge because she saw it as a threat to her continued success as a pop singer.  And if that's true, the plan obviously worked; grunge rock - indeed, all rock - is out, and the synth-pop/hip-hop/R&B culture that Madge helped foster reigns supreme today. Candlebox was as lightweight as you could get; grunge fans dismissively called them "Crayon Box."  Also, Cherielynn Westrich, a lead vocalist for the Rentals, clearly embraced the accoutrements of grunge but not the culture; she's a pro-Trump Republican Iowa state legislator now.)

All that said, Jones' conspiracies have gone way beyond the pale, having been all based on lies, and with regard to his Sandy Hook theory, that goes double.  And like any lie, Jones' lies have been found out. 

All My Trials

I am now able to tell all of you what I couldn't mention before.  I had federal jury duty.  That's not what I couldn't mention before.  What I couldn't mention before was the case I came close to being assigned to - the Robert Menendez trial.

Robert Menendez, of course, is the senior senator of my home state of New Jersey, and he was charged with bribery in a case involving an ophthalmologist friend of his, gifts, and Medicare fixes.  When I reported to the federal courthouse in Newark for jury duty in June of this year after getting a summons a month or so earlier, I and other prospective jurors were then told what the case would be, but I'd already figured that out before I reported, based on the who the judge was (William Walls).  Anyway, we were given questionnaires to fill out for review over the summer, and it took us forever to fill them out, because they were so darn long - asking us about our backgrounds, our previous jury experience, and all that bit.  In August, I was called back based on my answers and I had to go through two grueling days of jury selection - twelve regulars and four alternates - and I came close to being called for consideration.  First I had to wait in a jury waiting room.  Then I had to sit in the courtroom while the judge called prospective jurors and interviewed them, while lawyers for the prosecution and the defense approved or disapproved them for the jury.  When I didn't get called up, after sixteen jurors were selected,  I breathed a sigh of relief - until I was told to wait and see until September 5 if the judge still needed me and few others to come back.      

I indeed had to go back the next day, the start date of the trial.  One alternate had to replace a regular and two more alternates dropped out.  So the trial needed three more jurors.  I had to sit again through a long, grueling process before being called into the courtroom and having to go through waiting to be called by the judge for possible inclusion.  But the three vacant alternate-juror seats were filled before I was called, and I was finally dismissed.

Had I been called to serve on the jury, I would not have been sequestered and put in a hotel next to Newark Airport. But it still would have been grossly inconvenient.  Anyway, I commented on the Menendez case back in April 2015.  The trial kept getting delayed for over two years - and I had to let the judge and lawyers know about my media activity, and that I'd mentioned this case on my blog, so I doubt I would have been impartial.     

I'm glad that's out of the way.  Hurricane Irma isn't, though most of the computer models show New Jersey being spared, and while there are are outlier projections saying otherwise, it looks lke my blog will continue as usual.  I will likely go ahead and feature a new Music Video Of the Week tomorrow.  Stay tuned.