Random Friday Morning Thoughts

I just happened to post this grainy courtroom picture back then of an ongoing burglary trial. It now makes me realize how quickly things change. The judge, John Fostel, has passed away. As has the defense lawyer, Jim Shaw. It makes me sad and nostalgic.

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• Here's the Liberally Lean Leader Board. Not a lot of changes after last night. 
• Nice effort by Tech. I like Tech. What's not to like about Tech?
• This story, which broke late yesterday, is insane. We learned the wife of a Supreme Court justice is a borderline QAnon nutcase who tried to help overthrow the government of the United States. And now the January 6th Committee has her texts.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Even Trump had to distance from nutty lawyer Sidney Powell during the planning of the coup, but Ginni Thomas was all in. 
  
  
  
• Heck, this is pure QAnon. Just spreading junk from the start with no regard to whether it is true. 
  
  
  
• Also, this is pure insurrection. She was a party to an attempted coup. 
  
  
  
• And just a couple of months ago, the Supreme Court had to decide if Trump's documents in the National Archives related to the Insurrection and attempted coup had to be turned over to the January 6th Committee. They ruled 8-1 that the documents must be turned over. And guess who didn't recuse himself but instead went further and said said he wanted to help Trump out? You think he could have been a little worried that his wife's name just might be within those documents? 
  
  
  
• And guess who was in the two judge minority when the Supreme Court refused Trump's attempt to overthrow the election by using the Court? 
  
  
  
• The New Yorker tried to warn us in January. 
  
  
  
• Mark Meadows texted Ginni Thomas that this was a battle between good and evil, spouting Christian Nationalism which always seems to be at the heart of it all. Thomas replied that was discussing it all with her "best friend" -- an obvious reference to her husband.
  
  
  
• He's right. It is a battle between good and evil. It's about battling those who conspired to overthrow our democracy. Meadows just got the jerseys wrong. 
• Denver's Mile High Stadium caught on fire yesterday. 
  
  
  
• If you can find one. Heck, I drive by the car lots of the two big dealers in Decatur in Wise County and there inventory is still struggling -- both new and used. 
  
  
  
• I'm suspicious of the motives of guys like Rep. Jeff Leach, who having bent over backwards making it easier for Texas prosecutors to obtain convictions, suddenly thinking that something might actually have gone wrong in a criminal case. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Three current and former school superintendents met in Austin yesterday to talk about Critical Race Theory among other things. They were all in agreement: You've been conned. 
  
  
  
• "There definitely is something that is critical race theory. It's not taught in schools. That was the narrative that was crafted last summer, and it caught on like wildfire. I've never seen anything like it." - Former Richardson ISD Supt. Jeannie Stone
• "This is a manufactured crisis. This is not real. This is a national playbook by some very smart, organized people who pay people to go out and create havoc," Former Dallas ISD Supt. Richard Hinojosa
• "I don't think you need to inject truth serum into legislators. I think you just need to a conversation with them individually behind closed doors. And they understand this is a manufactured crisis." - Fort Worth Supt. Kent Paredes Scribner
• The misdemeanor section in the Tarrant County DA's office had a tough week. And there's still two cases to be decided. 
  
  
  
• Now someone tells me "the boxes in the back are Reagant narcotic presumptive tests that all officers use before the drugs are sent to the lab" and that they just happen to be in the background.  You know, it has been years since I've read a police report in Wise County where a drug "presumptive test" was used. 
  
  
  
• Very nerdy legal stuff:
• If you are a person who likes to read transcripts, this hearing from a couple of days ago where the judge bears down on the lawyers representing conspiracy monger Alex Jones, who was trying to avoid a deposition, is painful to read. (It's never a good sign when the judge says, "God help everyone" if she finds out she's been lied to.) 
• For criminal law practitioners only: Say you got the judge to release a felony defendant from jail under art. 17.151 because he wasn't indicted within 90 days. Could the judge impose a bond requirement of an expensive GPS ankle monitor if the defendant can't afford it? A new case says "no."
• Every single week I read about another case solved by familial/genealogical DNA. Yesterday was no exception.  
  
  
  
• Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 994 days.
• Messenger: Above the Fold