Before “lock her up” that obscure chant thrilled the GOP crowds
Greg Doucette at the Bulwark breaks the bad news about the Alex Jones verdict:
Unfortunately, we live in the darkest possible timeline and don’t get to have nice things. So instead we have to settle for the schadenfreude of watching the conclusion of the first of several lawsuits that have been filed against Jones for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) by the parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre.
The repeated legal misconduct by Jones and his attorney during the trial sapped some of the intrigue; the judge in Austin ruled last year that Jones should lose by default for repeatedly withholding evidence that court rules require to be shared between the litigants. The trial on damages ended last week, with a jury finding Jones should pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages to two parents, followed by a separate award of punitive damages (called “exemplary” damages in Texas) in the amount of $45.2 million.
Maybe this sounds low to you, based on what a pile of human garbage Jones is. But the truth is actually worse. Jones will never pay that $45.2 million. Because of tort reform caps, those punitive damages are going to get pared back to a meager $750,000.
Texas went nuts with tort reform. It was, as you might expect, a national strategy to break the trial lawyers association on behalf of their corporate donors. (Trial lawyers tend to support Democrats as well.)And it hurts average citizens who are damaged by bad actors. And now it will hurt people whose little children were killed by a gun toting maniac. How perfect.
Trump didn’t invent this stuff. They’ve been doing it for a very long time. When those giddy rally goers would excitedly chant “tort reform!” at George W. Bush events they had no idea what they were chanting but that never matters. It’s just tribal solidarity.