Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

What a crazy case. Three girls, which he had held captive for years, escaped from him in early May, 2013. He was indicted a month later on June 7, 2013. He quickly pled guilty on July 26, 2013.  He was sentenced to life without parole on August 1, 2013. And he then committed suicide on September 4, 2013.

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• Paxton impeachment update: 
• This was the House Manager's first witness, the former First Assistant AG. His testimony wasn't all that earth-shaking, but has he never testified before? Had no one prepared him?  In general, he was horrible. (Did you know he was nominated for a federal judgeship under Trump before it was withdrawn?)

  

  Jeff Mateer

  
  
• And "prosecution" attorney Rusty Hardin needs to get off his hands. If he's going to let Tony Buzbee just turn every question on cross into a closing argument, this is going to take a long time. 

  

  Rusty Hardin, surrounded by other people also scared to object

  
  

  

  Buzbee

  
  
• The second witness, who will be cross-examined this morning, wast the guy below. He was also with the AG's office, but he's a much smoother witness.  It isn't important, but why did he leave a partnership at Baker & Botts to go to the Missouri AG's ofice before coming to the Texas AG's office? The other thing that bugged me was that he basically described the AG office's Open Records lawyers as a braintrust. That's about as far from the truth that there is. 
  
  
  
• Holy, cow! We learned how the Pennsylvania inmate who is on the run escaped: He "spider walked" up in between two walls. Video.
  
  
  
• Wait, what? ERCOT asks all of us to conserve electricity -- with some urgency last night, in fact. Why don't they write us a check, too?
  
  
  
• Texas prisons are in a lockdown. Most aren't air-conditioned. If I were to guess, I bet this is directly related to the difficulty in filling guard positions.  
  
  
  
• This is obviously a "witch hunt" brought by a "weaponized Justice Department" because they "hate traditional American values." Or, maybe, he just broke the law.
  
  
  
• Both the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram are doing feature stories this week on the dangerous of fentanyl.  The one below is from today.  So what makes a couple "prominent"? It basically just means you're very rich and you go to a lot of social events, right? 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Random fun fact: The Secret Service has a tricked up rolling communications command center which is called the "Roadrunner" which is part of presidential motorcades. It will make a preliminary run before the official event. It crashed last Saturday before President Biden's visit to Florida after the hurricane.
  
  
  
• Random sentence from this D Magazine business article: "They opened a tasting room and 10,000-square-foot bottling facility in Bridgeport, Texas, and a corporate headquarters for the company’s parent, Sanctified Spirits, in Southlake." 
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold