A MESSY POST FOR A MESSY SUBJECT:  Labor.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

JONATHAN TURLEY: The Clancy Trial: When “Twelve Angry Men” Becomes One Angry Man.

“I hope that guy can sleep well at night.”

Those words from Kevin Reddington on the steps of the Plymouth, Massachusetts Courthouse were part of a diatribe against the “guy” who was reportedly the sole holdout in the Lindsay Clancy trial. The scene was a fitting end to a visceral trial, but it added a vindictive element that should prompt Judge William Sullivan to call out the seasoned defense attorney.

After declaring that the 11-1 mistrial was “no time to gloat,” Reddington bragged repeatedly about “crushing” District Attorney Tim Cruz, whom he also attacked. He insisted that, in the trial, no one said a single negative thing about his client as a mother — ignoring that little matter of the three young children whom she had strangled to death, one by one.

But it was his attack on the holdout juror that was a breathtaking abandonment of restraint and decency. Reddington knows it is very likely that the name of this juror (he has already been identified as one of only three males on the jury) will eventually be uncovered by Internet sleuths. He effectively put a target on the back of a juror who committed the unpardonable sin of not being convinced by his arguments.

The fact that this is one of the three male jurors only ramped up the rage. This case prompted a striking gender divide between men and women, with many women expressing sympathy for Clancy and anger at the system for failing her.

Yes, I’m pretty sure the holdout juror is sleeping just fine at night: The Postmodern Defense of Lindsay Clancy. O.J. Simpson for middle-class white women.

THAT WAS THE DECADE THAT WAS: Conspiracies Everywhere; What to Do?

I keep coming back in my mind to all of the “conspiracy theories” that have come true since 2016.

I have told friends in the past: “The more you see, the more you see.”

It’s a delicate balance to be distrusting of most things without wandering into paranoia. I often believe the biggest damage that has been done to the country since 2016 is that anyone who is even slightly politically aware is now distrustful of everything, and I cannot say I blame them.

The problem is, not everything is a conspiracy. Some things are the result of mere incompetence. Other things actually are what they appear to be. Some other things are, in fact, deep, dark government conspiracies.

Having said that, I know that our nation’s recent history does warrant a sense of paranoia. Consider the things we now know to be true; below is a list of former “conspiracy theories” that we were right about all along:

Read the whole thing.

BEGUN, THE CLONE WARS HAVE:

I’m not sure how well MiniMax H3’s digital Denzel would look projected onto a 50-foot movie screen, but digitally recreating actors has come a long way from the complexity of Industrial Light and Magic recreating Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher for 2016’s Star Wars: Rogue One:

UM:

That exit quote is… wow.