Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Greg Abbott during his speech yesterday: “No child should be in the wrong school simply because of zip code.” There is a very glaring problem with that statement regarding public schools. Figure it out? Answer at the end.
• Abbott also announced a statewide hiring freeze including universities. He went Full Trump. You never go Full Trump. 
• I think I've mentioned this before, but there is a lady at the courthouse who used to be a whiz at shorthand. 
• Fox News was quick to incorrectly identify the killer of the peaceful worshiping Muslims in Canada in a tweet (shown below). Fox News claimed in the story, since taken down, that “witnesses said at least one gunman shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’”  Nope. He was very white, very much a Canadian, and very much anti-immigrant. 
  
• Local radio talk show host Mark Davis immediately jumped on the fake news proclaiming radical Islamic terrorists were killing other Muslims who weren't radical: 
  
• By the way, this morning Davis had for Tarrant County GOP chairman Tim O'Hare fill-in for him but Davis was on the phone to start the show because of the Supreme Court news. O'Hare actually asked Davis who he thought would be the next Supreme Court justice to die. Davis was horrified and wished them all a long life. 
• And we always need to remember that evil isn't limited to race or religion or country:
  
  
• As I think more about the two horse deaths at the Stock Show, I'm stunned PETA isn't all over them. 
• #AboutToGoOnAMajorRant
• There is no worse of a magazine than The Texas Bar Journal. And to prove my point, they had an article this month written by an "expert" on "how to get noticed on social media"  if you are in a small firm or sole practitioner. The excerpt below made me laugh.
  
•  "Remain neutral." Good lord. Look, people don't want a lawyer who is politically correct.  They want someone who gets out of bed every morning and cares, who is smart, and who will raise hell if the situation dictates it because they are passionate about what they believe in.  None of my clients give a rat's ass about my politics. I'm sure most completely disagree with me. But they know I despise injustice in any form, and I suspect they would be very concerned if I were "neutral" about those injustices. 
• And anyone who fights in the trenches, who has had to hug a mother in a courthouse hallway, had to comfort an individual who is scared to death and who depends on you, and has to deal with a system which is stacked against him in so many ways, will not be "neutral."
• Have I ever lost a potential client because of this blog? Sure. Do I care? No. 
• #MajorRantOver  
• Hot sports prediction: Jerry Jones gets elected into the Hall of Fame this weekend. 
• Funny thing I read last night: Is there any chance that Donald Trump is Andy Kaufman? 
• #BeginSupremeCourtThoughts
• I'll tell you one thing about Trump, his moving the  Supreme Court announcement to prime time  for TV  complete with an audience to applaud him as he walks in was PR genius. Every other president has to be thinking, "Why didn't I do that?" And I'll admit: Trump did a fantastic job last night introducing the nominee.
• But I bet new Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch went to bed last night praying that Trump doesn't get impeached for some screw-up in the future so that he won't have to suffer the notation "Appointed By Donald Trump" by his name in the history books forever.
• As conservative as Scalia was, he was really a good judge for Fourth Amendment law. He actually understood it and provided some great personal liberty decisions. I took a quick Internet search of Gursuch last night and found he had thrown out a warrantless police  computer search in a child porn case. And he has railed against sending in the police for a kid's conduct in school (fake burping) instead of the school staff doing their job. If that makes him Scalia 2.0, I'm happy from a criminal justice standpoint.
• And for those of you who don't follow this sort of thing, about a year ago Obama nominated a replacement for Scalia, Merrick Garland. By Senate "rule", it takes 60 votes to confirm and the Republicans would not concede enough votes to even let the nomination get to a vote. Now it is up to the Democrats to decide if they will concede enough votes which are needed to confirm Gorsuch. They may not. So will the Republicans, who have the majority in the Senate, change the 60 vote rule and require only a majority?
• #EndSupremeCourtThoughts
• Answer to first bullet point: There should be no "wrong school."