The Price of Lies: A Connecticut jury has ordered conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones to pay $965 million to the families of victims and one FBI agent who responded to the scene of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre. 

  Jones was on his Infowars platform within days claiming that the killing of 20 children and six educators was a hoax carried out by crisis actors. He said it was a plot to take away Americans’ guns. As a result the families of victims were threatened online and in person for years.

  After failing to present a defense, Jones was found liable  under Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act by lying to sell products on Infowars. The law has no cap on punitive damages. 

  Jones was found liable in August for nearly $50 million in Texas and faces a third lawsuit for his Sandy Hook lies.

  The victims are likely to have trouble getting paid. Jones is reported to have shifted around his money like a shell game and filed bankruptcy for his companies. Nevertheless, Jones and his entourage flew to Connecticut for the trial in a private jet and stayed in a rented mansion with a pool and tennis court.

The War Zone: Germany has given Ukraine the first of four ultramodern air defense systems that have never before been used in war. The Netherlands have pledged about $14 million worth of equipment and French President Emmanuel Macron promised to send “radars, systems and anti-air missiles.”

  Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said last night in his nightly address that, “The more audacious and cruel Russian terror becomes, the more obvious it is to the world that helping Ukraine to protect the sky is one of the most important humanitarian tasks for Europe of our time.”

  The government says it will take weeks to fully restore power throughout the country after the Russian missile barrage earlier this week. Power is out for about 30 percent of the country.

  Speaking to the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Zelensky asked for $57 billion to prop up the Ukraine economy and rebuild. He said $38 billion would be pensions, social services, and the salaries of doctors and lawyers . Another $17 billion would be for rebuilding schools, hospitals, transport systems and housing. “Terror has to lose, Ukraine has to win,” Zelensky said during a video conference, “and that’s absolutely real with your support.”

Bet On It: San Francisco radio fans are in an uproar over the sudden format change for KGO, the talk station that’s been the equivalent of the fireside chat for the Bay Area. KGO has verbally held the hands of San Franciscans through earthquakes, wildfires, and Covid.

  Without warning on October 5th, the station went on a three-day binge of playing money and gambling themed songs before announcing that they were converting to a sports betting format called “The Spread” with the slogan, “The Bay’s Best Bet on Sports.”

  LA Times Columnist Michael Hiltzik points out that this is the long-term result of radio stations being collected under ownership of conglomerates focused only on making money, not serving the public interest. Hiltzik says, “For one thing, it echoes the evolution of the radio business from one reflecting local tastes and providing a communal source of information and news into a dispenser of homogenized, syndicated content.”

  Mark Thompson, a former host from who held forth on KGO weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Tweeted, “The broadcast industry and all ad-supported legacy media are in brutal times. Sadly, that brutality hit us suddenly and completely.”

Family Matters: Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about the possibility that his son, Hunter, might be indicted, President Biden professed his love and said, “He’s on the straight and narrow, and he has been for a couple years now.” He didn’t really answer the question.

  Hunter Biden is on the razor’s edge of being indicted for financial crimes and lying on an application to buy a gun, saying he didn’t use drugs. It’s in the hands of the US Attorney in Delaware.

  The younger Biden has admitted lying on the gun application. Fox News host Sean Hannity got hold of a voicemail from the president to his son, and played it to detract from the President, not Hunter. This was when Hunter was deep in drug addiction and the President said: “It’s Dad. I called to tell you I love you. I love you more than the whole world, pal. You gotta get some help,” Biden is heard saying. “I know you don’t know what to do. I don’t either.”

  Obviously in the eyes of Fox News that makes Biden a bad man, and bad president.

The Spin Rack: The House January 6^th Committee holds its 9^th and final hearing today. It starts at 1 pm. — President Biden yesterday announced the establishment  of Colorado’s Camp Hale as the country’s newest national monument. Camp Hale was the training ground for the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. The act protects 53,804 acres of Colorado beauty from mining and development. — As workers at Starbucks attempt to unionize, NPR notes that union employees make about $1.3 million more of the course of the working lives.

Political Haircut: Women around the world women are uniting in protest against the Iranian government by cutting their hair. Among the celebrities who’ve done it are Demonstrations of haircutting include actresses Juliette Binoche and Marion Cottilard. Abir Al-Sahlani, a Swedish Member of the European Parliament also cut hers during an EU Parliament speech.

  Protests in Iran started after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by Iranian morality police for not being properly wearing a head scarf. Women tore off their head scarfs, burned them, and cut their hair in public.

  Under the Islamic Republic, a woman’s hair is a feature of beauty that must be hidden in public, so cutting it is a pointed protest. 

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