Random Friday Morning Thoiughts

• Just when you thought Trump couldn't embarrass us more than he already has, he did so yesterday in the Oval Office in front of a group of bi-partisan lawmakers.  In referring to Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, he said, “Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here?” He then asked why can't we get people from Norway.
• Add that comment to his litany of shocking statements about people of color and his jaw-dropping, "There are good people on both sides" after Charlotte, and it is clear that he is a racist. If you are not white, he wants nothing to do with you. (Of course, his base of 33% won't care.)
• Oh, and remember this?
  
• And I haven't even mentioned that he said the U.S. delivered several F-52s to Norway. A plane that doesn't exist with the exception of in the video game Call Of Duty.
• I watched the first episode of Ozark, the Netflix series, and I like the premise. The Cartel. Money Laundering. Family Man. Secretly re-locating from Chicago to The Ozarks after things went horribly wrong. 
• A Dallas district judge got kicked off the ballot because, in collecting signatures in lieu of paying the filing fee, the petition for signatures had the date of the election in the place of where party designation was required -- which would be "Republican." She didn't want those signing the petition to know she was a Republican. Here's a tip: You make well north of $100k a year. Just pay the filing fee. Edit: Someone wrote she was actually a Democrat. This makes it even weirder. It would be easier to collect signatures in Dallas County as a Democrat than a Republican.
  
  
• There were several Sam's Clubs that closed yesterday, thousands laid off,  and no one knows why. 
• This guy went missing a few weeks ago in the gulf. The Coast Guard has called off the search. Now the son had created a Go Fund Me page to "help me find my dad." I don't want to question the guy's motives but . . . .
  
  
• That was the thinnest, weakest, and fastest moving snow cloud yesterday that I have ever seen.
• That new indoor water park in Grand Prairie is owned by the city. That seems odd.
• If you think criminal law is easy, just look at the sentencing of the case in Decatur yesterday as summarized in the Update. A lady was charged with a second degree felony (jury would choose between 2 to 20 years)  but the jury found her guilty of the lesser included offense which was a State Jail Felony (180 days to 2 years). However, because they found a "deadly weapon" was used (her hands), it got bumped up to a third degree (2 to 10 years). She received four years. And that's not all. I had heard she was offered two years for a plea bargain offer (I assume that included a deadly weapon admission but I'm not sure). The rule for a deadly weapon finding is that a person is not eligible for parole until the expiration of 1/2 of the sentence BUT a person cannot serve less than two years. So a four year sentence means you are eligible for parole in two years and a two year sentence also means you are eligible in two years. This will be on your final exam. 
• One of my favorite moments in New York was walking by a huge law firm building full of lawyers with incredible billable hour requirements that make it basically a high tone sweat shop and thinking, "You poor suckers."