As everyone knows, the House Select Committee issued subpoenas to both Roger Stone and Alex Jones late on Monday.
As I wrote for Political Flare, if a straight line exists between Trump and active involvement in a conspiracy on January 6th (And Trump is wily when it comes to law. It’s dicey whether one could make that straight line), if that line exists, the safest bet is that it would go through Roger Stone. Many of us who believed that the Trump campaign did collude with Russia, one that was never sufficiently proven, have always believed that Trump was never more than two Stone sentences away from an arrest and impeachment that even he couldn’t survive.
Stone won’t talk. He has already proven he won’t talk. Stone will litigate this thing until the end of time and likely has the financial backing to do it. Stone has been in politics for a long time and knows where a lot of bodies are buried. He could be promised a pardon by any GOPer who wins in 2024 (Except Chris Christie, who isn’t in the MAGA club) and he likely would accept prison as a martyr over being the guy who gave up “god.” At best he litigates the clock out as much as possible and then takes the 5th - at best. In my very arrogant opinion.
Jones on the other hand is on quite the losing streak lately, having been defaulted in four of the Sandyhook cases, leaving only a jury trial over damages (and imagine the damages he might incur). Jones might actually be in need of an opportunity to get on “society’s” right side, and less so on the MAGA side of things. (All of this is relative, of course). Jones is also the one who admitted (on camera), the most peculiar thing, as set out in my Flare article. Salon had the quote but I’ve seen it on video (that is no longer up, surprise!):
The White House told me three days before: We’re going to have you lead the march.’ He went on to say that 30 minutes before the end of Trump’s speech at the Rotunda, the Secret Service planned to take Jones out of the crowd to the spot where the march was supposed to begin. He went on to say, ‘Trump will tell people: Go, and I’m going to meet you at the Capitol.’ Jones’ statements are basically a full-on admission about his involvement in the riots, although he can always hide behind saying he did not intend for the rally to get violent.”
The committee will want to know “who” in the White House asked him to lead that group, among many other questions (“Who asked you to raise the money?” “What else were you told about why this was happening?”).
Jones might be the one who seeks out an immunity deal. Again, he faces bankruptcy due to the Sandyhook lawsuits. If the committee is really honing in on Trump anyway, the MAGAs might not be long for this world anyway. If the MAGAs hear that Trump planned the whole thing, many won’t be bothered. But many will. And confirmation will have to come from another MAGA.
Jones was also responsible for raising a lot of money for this endeavor. As everyone knows, if there was a criminal conspiracy, the people who raised the money always get caught up in criminal charges in some manner, so Jones may face other charges, some very serious. (Sedition is also serious).
Of the two of them, I would think it would be near impossible to get a rock to talk, but all Jones does is talk. Only, this time, the conspiracy theory he explains might have been an actual conspiracy… but he will need immunity, and it might be a good investment.
Of all the stupid presidential traditions with times that have come and gone, this is the one I’d ditch first. The bird is scared enough, and we now know that birds are much smarter than we imagined. Every animal is much smarter than we ever knew.
This next 3-minute clip from The West Wing is almost a “must-watch” and goes a long way in supporting my argument that the turkey pardon is the single most-pressing problem with the presidency.
GIVEN FOOTBALL’S ASSOCIATION WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY…
If a guy were to bring up the fact that it’s harder and harder to watch a sport that science says causes significant changes to one’s brain at a young age…
Then that person (me) is immediately labeled a pussy-ass-whimp-liberal fcking whatever trying to take all the fun out of “America.” At least by some.
And they might have a point. Football is far far far more than a sport. In fact, I prefer college football because, at least for me, it is the culture and ceremony around football that sets itself apart as a “sport” in this country:
I love it. I love college football. And yet…
If I had a son, and I do not - yet, and likely never, given… never mind. If I had a son, I would not let him play football until his junior or senior year of high school at the earliest, and only after his doctor had at least signed off on whether his brain had physically finished growing. We now know that the brain doesn’t fully evolve - as in “mature” with proper balance - until an adult reaches 25 years old, which is also something to consider when talking to your kids about alcohol and drugs.
Damage done to the brain before age 25 can have even longer-lasting and more subtle effects than traumatic brain injury in full-grown adults, and we already know the severity of the injury in any context.
We are making progress but more progress must be made. MRIs are less expensive (in reality, not with respect to medical billing) every year. Establish baseline “healthy” imaging and function for everyone playing contact football, and under no circumstances should contact football be played until at least high school.
Far from trying to ruin the sport, I am trying to save it. The players are bigger, stronger, faster, now, the game moves at a speed that players even in the 80s and 90s couldn’t comprehend. And we see more and more evidence that even one or two concussions as a high school kid can cause lasting damage. If one is going to save the sport from medical concerns and liability concerns, they must keep working at keeping players safe.
Having said that, one knows that even pushing for such improvements will get crowds chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” at every high school and college football game in rural America - the best kind. It is a sport but it’s also often the one thing that brings everyone in the community together. The high school stands will be filled with black people, white people, liberals, conservatives, orthodontists, janitors. It is a sport and a culture. Both are worth saving. And on this particular issue, my position is actually a conservative position under the true definition.
If we want to preserve football - and we should - we need to preserve brain health in the people that play it. The NFL and NCAA seem to have A LOT of money. Some of it needs to be invested (Congress!) on establishing even greater safety protocols on the medical side, to go along with the good rule changes made on the field. Save football, see a neurologist!
I will see how this week goes with respect to how often I get the newsletter out during holiday weeks. On the one hand, people don’t want to read politics on vacations. On the other, it’s often the only time one has to read. But I intend to take this newsletter way out to the crossroads of politics and culture, so perhaps we can find a niche, both this week and as an ongoing endeavor.
If you believe I’ve earned it, please forward this newsletter to just one person. We are growing and that’s wonderful. But there are a lot of newsletters out there and one has to be different, a little dynamic, and interesting. So building a community is important.
Jason
A Rock Won't Talk, But Alex Jones???; The West Wing on Pardoning Turkeys, and Football Ethics
I Loved Playing Football In 7th Grade, On A Half Field With My Friends/Classmates & Tiny (!!!) Me Was Center. No One Got Hurt But We Tried! We Did A LOT Of Lateral Passes. I Made 3 TD's...70's Era. I Like The Packers Because Some Mobillionaire Does Not On Them.