Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts
- Gov. Abbott is going to a Mexican restaurant in Lubbock today to make an announcement. He's either going to discontinue the "mask mandate" or announce that he is a big fan of fajitas.
- As he has always done, Texas AG Ken Paxton ignored the law and filed a lawsuit just to placate the masses and seek publicity. Griddy did nothing wrong. Everyone who signed up with them knew exactly what they were getting into. Yet, Paxton will sue them to get headlines.
- The first head has been lopped off in wake of the Texas Energy Fiasco with the resignation of the top person at the Public Utilities Commission, DeAnn Walker. It'll be interesting to see if $850,000 a year guy Bill Magness, the president of ERCOT, survives this thing. You know, he just might. If there is one thing we've all learned after a major political screw-up is this: Just ride it out, let a little time pass, and you may survive.
- In a growing trend, Dallas PD no longer cares about the state's dumb laws of making it a crime to possess less than 2 ounces of marijuana and will no longer enforce it. Note: This isn't just Dallas police wanting to implement a "cite and release" law which allows them to simply hand a person a notice to appear in court instead of arrest them. Nope, they will neither arrest nor give a citation to appear. Fort Worth PD announced the same policy in November.
- Yesterday alone, there were four people arrested in Wise County for being in possession of marijuana under 2 ounces. That's it. There were no other companion offenses. (One guy was arrested by Bridgeport PD, one by Decatur PD, and two people by DPS.)
- A convicted felon is running for mayor in Arlington, and he may or may not be eligible to do so. But I got side-tracked by the highlighted statement below in the story. Grand juries don't convict anyone of anything -- they just hand down indictments.
- The Republicans in Georgia, in light of the last election results, are now trying to make it as hard as possible to vote. Things like this are happening all over the country.
- As America gets back to normal in this post-Trump era, the fencing has come down around St. John's church across from the White House.
- NFL Reporter Jane Slater got dogpiled on Twitter yesterday for promoting "unpaid" internships. She was oblivious to the fact that the only people of privilege can afford to work for free.
- Legal stuff: Yesterday the New Mexico Supreme Court heard an appeal of the largest wrongful death verdict in state history: $165 million. I noted that one of the issues, but not the main one, was the judge had an ex parte (one sided) communication with one of the lawyers. But, in the judge's defense, he handled it as best he could:
- Nerdy legal stuff: I was hoping the Supreme Court would agree to hear a pending case as to whether cops illegally prolong a traffic detention by simply running someone's criminal history. It's an open question. Last week, the Court decided not to answer it for us. (I don't think the facts were as clean as they would like to decide the issue.) But for those who are interested in this area, here's a link for some of the great briefs filed in that case.
- There's is no way I give JJ Watt $23 million in guaranteed money on a two year contract like Arizona did yesterday. In addition to being on the decline, he's injury prone at this stage in his career. He played in only 3 games in 2016, 5 games in 2017, and 8 games in 2019. This season will be his 11th year in the NFL.
- Very random political thought: Whatever happened to Sen. Phil Gramm?
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