4.15.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts






Thirty-one dead cows, and I still don't have an answer 10 years later. 
  • Dallas Cowboys cornerback Kelvin Joseph was a rookie last year but actually started at the end of the season.  

    • The incident the cops are interested in was actually part of Fox 4 News' "Trackdown" series which is normally some pretty good stuff. 
    • "Cowboys officials have encouraged Joseph to speak with police about what he knows, according to a team source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Cowboys officials do not believe Joseph is the shooter." Here's a tip: If I'm him, I'm not taking criminal legal advice from the Cowboys. 
    • Did you know the player also goes by the rapper pseudonym 'YKDV Bossman Fat'?  And the moment I thought, "I wonder if he has any rap lyrics that cops could try to use?", I also thought of this story:
  • This Russian warship is now at the bottom of the Black Sea. Ukraine says it sunk because of a missile strike. The Russians say it was due to an accidental explosion. But if Ukraine is right, hold you breath that the was doesn't escalate via some drastic and demonstrative retaliation by the Russians. Wars can get really out of hand in a hurry.

  • Gov. Abbott continued to tacitly concede his truck inspection plan was a disaster as he abandoned the idea at yet two more border points. Oh, and look who was there at his press conference yesterday as a prop! The $300,000 man!

  • If you have followed this story, this new development is, well, uncomfortable. In 2020, the "hospital’s ethics committee had ruled that it would be inappropriate to continue treating Tinslee, citing the Texas Advanced Directives Act, a 1999 law that allows the committee to make decisions when doctors and patients disagree on end-of-life care." A court battle ensued as the child was in hospital. Now she's home.

  • This didn't receive much press, but it was 107 degrees in McAllen two days ago -- shattering the old record.

  • I saw this photo yesterday as part of an anti-Biden meme, recognized current White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in the middle of it, and wondered when it was from. It's really a great photo. I finally found it, and it had this caption: "Staff members listen to President Barack Obama speak about Donald Trump's victory in the Rose Garden." Psaki was Obama's Communications Director back then. 

  • Nerdy legal stuff #1: In an interview posted on Facebook, Tarrant County DA candidate Matt "Book Banning" Krause, who has never tried a criminal case, also demonstrated that he knows nothing about criminal law. He was asked about the Accomplice Witness Rule and instead tried to B.S. his way through by trying to explain the Law of Parties (which he also royally screwed up by saying you don't have to have any criminal intent, unlike the main actor of a crime, to be "just as guilty." The example he was given was an otherwise innocent "getaway driver." He's just flat wrong.)  Dear Tarrant County Republicans: Nominate him at your own peril. (Relevant part begins at 3:45)

  • Nerdy legal stuff #2: Don't do this in the federal Fifth Circuit. Or anywhere.  

  • Now the officer "finally knows who shot him after DNA data in a forensic genetic genealogy test gave them the name of a man living in Oklahoma. Mark Alan Long, identified by forensic genetic genealogy company Indentifinders International, shot Garner on March 3, 2003 after he robbed a bank in Watauga." Long shot himself the other day once he found out the cops were on to him. 

  • 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: 1,015 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

4.14.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts





(1) I had forgotten that over a month passed from the date of the incident, 2/26/12, to the date of arrest, 4/12/22.  (2) There is no way the Murdock owned New York Post runs with that cover today. It's become way too Fox Newsy. 

  • We've got an update on the murder/self-induced miscarriage case and it is a stunner. After Lizelle Herrera's indictment and then after her arrest, her husband filed for divorce. And you want to know who his lawyer was? An assistant district attorney in that DA's Office who was allowed to have a private legal practice on the side.  The conflict of interest here is mind-boggling. And if that assistant DA is the reason the "abortion case" got indicted, the DA's office needs to be burned down (figuratively). And the Washington Post needs to have put these facts in the headline. 


  • Wise County social media quick hits:
    • A defamation lawsuit was filed by Terry and Elaine Priest in Wise County's district court against the person who allegedly ran the Facebook page "Rhome Watch". (Cause no. CV22-04-251 and Ernest "Skip" Reynolds is their lawyer.)

    • Five members of a female wrestling squad called the "Hollywood Knockouts" out of California, where weed is legal, were arrested traveling though Wise County. They were headed to a gig at the Whiskey Garden on West 7th Street in Fort Worth.


    • You can't get to it without being allowed in, but there's a big brouhaha brewing on the Facebook "Bridgeport Resident's Page" in connection with the alleged tactics of a candidate for the Bridgeport School Board.
  • After buying 10% of Twitter, Elon Mask is now performing a "pump and dump" stock manipulation trick for all to see. Despite making this offer in an official SEC regulatory filing, he doesn't have $40 billion in cash on hand to back it up. When Twitter turns him down, he dumps his stock at a profit. All of this is a crime in plain sight. 

     
  • A pharmacist for CVS has gone missing and "police said his cell phone was last pinged on April 6 around 2:15 a.m. in Wise County in the areas of Bridgeport, Decatur and Paradise." He was still missing per a news report yesterday. 

  • Greg Abbott had a bad day with his publicity stunts:
    • After they volunteered for the bus, he gave a free ride to D.C. to 20 immigrants seeking asylum. They were greeted yesterday with a handshake, a hug, and help. Video. They were then allowed to go wherever they want in the U.S. until their asylum claims can be processed. What was the point of this?

    • Back at the border, Abbott had to hold a press conference backing off his truck inspections because it turned out to be unworkable.  He justified it by saying he signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León who promised to do the extra searches on the Mexican side. Ummmkay. 

  • This was my favorite part of Abbott's press conference.
    • Question and Answer:

    • Uh, Abbott's campaign lapdog, DPS Director Steven McCraw, was standing right behind him at that moment but didn't even try to respond to the question. (You pay McCraw a salary of $299,813 a year in taxpayer money and all he does it follow Abbott around to be a prop for Abbott's campaign stunts.)

  • Crypto currency scam news from yesterday:
    • Jerry Jones wants "millions" of you to "buy your crypto currency" from blockchain.com or, as he called it throughout his press conference, "Block Chain Com."  It made me insane.

    • Proving that NFTs are nothing more than worthless digital Beanie Babies, the guy who bought the NFT of the first tweet by Twitter's owner Jack Dorsey (that sentence also makes me insane) tried to sell it at auction. After paying $2.9 million for it, the highest bid he received was $280. 

  • Clayton Kershaw was throwing a perfect game yesterday but was pulled after he threw 80 pitches. The sure firer Hall-of-Famer had reached his pitch count limit.  Decatur's Bryce Elder should have had a pitch count as well. In his very first start, had thrown 82 pitches when he finally ran into trouble. After retiring the first two batters in the 6th inning, but going to full counts on both of them to reach the 82 pitches, he was left in the game. He then gave up back to back homeruns. 

at 8:30 AM

4.13.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Ouch. 
  • It was a wild day for Decatur's own Bryce Elder as the Atlanta Braves minor leaguer was told he would be called up to big leagues and would start last night's game against the Nationals. Oh, my!

    • So how did he do? Fantastic.



    • The first inning got off to a rocky start. He gave up two back to back hits to start the game, but a double play ball and a strike out got him out of trouble. Only one run was surrendered.

    • Then he was incredible. Through innings 2 through 5, He retired 13 of the next 14 batters only giving up one hint. I was giddy for him, and I don't even know the guy. 
    • I was curious if they would bring him out in the sixth inning because his pitch count was getting close to 80, and he was looking a little tired. They did, but probably shouldn't have. After giving up back to back homers and then a double, he was pulled.  But he was pulled to a standing ovation (video.) 

    • That was tremendous performance.  I heard his parents scrambled and tried to get a last second flight in order to be in the stands and witness it first hand.   

  • If you haven't seen the Abilene youth baseball coach shove the umpire after he was thrown out of the game at The Colony, you need to. Video

  • When crazy Sid Miller thinks you're crazy, things are getting bad.

     

  • Hail pictures out of Salado yesterday evening:



  • Quick hit headlines from yesterday.
    • A guy fired 32 shots on a New York subway, injuring ten, but not killing anyone. He is still on the loose.

    • Oklahoma enacted a law to lock people up over abortions. It carries with it a 10 year prison sentence and has no rape exception. Does anyone not seem to understand that, at least for the time being, Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land? When was it that we just started ignoring it?

    • The South Dakota Attorney General was impeached for killing a pedestrian with his car, leaving he scene of the accident, and claiming he thought he hit a deer despite finding the guy's reading glasses in the passenger compartment of his car. (He was criminally charged but only fined $500.) It's a wild case. 


  • The local media outlet in Starr County is trying to get answers on the dismissed murder-abortion indictment in Texas.  The DA is in hiding. 


    • And that reporter at least got her hands on the dismissed indictment: “Lizelle Herrera, Defendant, or or about the 7th day of January, 2022, and before the presentment of this indictment, in Starr County, Texas did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause they death of an individual J.A.H., by self induced abortion.”
  • State Rep. Jeff Leach is everything bad about a pandering politician, and he is really seeking the  spotlight lately as he has taken up the cause of getting the death penalty overturned for Melissa Lucio.  (You can read about her case here.)  


    • Leach has gone on all in for a reason I'm not exactly sure of. Lucio may have been wrongfully convicted -- lord knows there are failures at every turn in the Texas criminal justice system -- but I'm not sure why he has taken up this particular case.


    • A Fifth Circuit panel actually overturned the conviction in 2019, but then the entire court, in an unusual move, decided to review the case and then overturned that panel's decision in a 10-7 ruling. She is scheduled to be executed on April 27th. 
    • The DA who prosecuted the case, Armando Villalobos, is now in prison (!) after being "convicted of bribery and extortion in 2014 for accepting more than $100,000 in exchange for favorable outcomes in criminal trials." He received a 13 year sentence. 
    • Back to Leach. Yesterday, to bring attention to the case, he empaneled the "Criminal Justice Reform, Interim Study Committee" which he is a the chair of (although having basically no experience in criminal justice and being an personal injury defense lawyer by trade).

    • Anyway, Leach managed to strong arm the new DA into testifying by Zoom, but that DA was having none of it -- even bringing a little sass to the hearing.

    • After the hearing, Leach posted pictures of him hugging the parents of the convicted killer. 

    • Hey, I support his cause, but I don't know what his motivation is. His motivations for anything are normally based on self-promotion, so that's why I'm so suspicious. 
  • The Tarrant County DA's office if off to rough start this week. Two of these losses are DWI cases where the breath/blood test was over twice the legal limit: 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:29 AM
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