Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

From a criminal defense standpoint, that photo just hurts. Background of this weird Texas case is here. It was affirmed on appeal. 

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• David Spiller (R-Jacksboro) issued a statement yesterday defending his pro-school voucher vote.  The proposal was defeated. 
• Calling it "school choice", like Gov. Abbott does, is disingenuous. If you want to send your kid to a private Christian school, knock yourself out. No one should stop you, and you already have a 100% absolute right to do that. Just don't use tax dollars to pay for your kid's tuition. 
• The face of the Ken Paxton impeachment, the overly-mustached Andrew Murr, has announced he will not seek re-election. 
  
  
  
• Seems bad. The military destroys a lot of planes in accidents:
  
  
  
• Wichita Falls says it's OK for teachers to show tattoos so long as the are "appropriate."  (They've got a free speech problem if they are going to censor them based upon content.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The War on Drugs is alive and well as the inexperienced new DA in Tarrant County tries to make headlines.  Prosecution and cages is not the ultimate answer to the problem. Never has been, never will be. 
  
  
  
• Black market fentanyl is a problem, and it can kill you. But posts like below by DPS are simply a lie.  Let's say DPS seizes 1% of all fentanyl (a ridiculously high guess since 0.00001% or less is probably more accurate). In any event, if it's 1% then that means for DPS's post to be true that 43.065 billion pills -- each one deadly -- made it through to the streets.  Bodies would be piled up on the sidewalks. 
  
  
  
• Watchdog Media Matters pointed out that an ad you buy on Twitter might show up next to anti-Jewish tweets and other crazy crap, so Elon Musk, who claims to be a free speech absolutist, sued them yesterday. It's a silly lawsuit lawsuit (pdf) which has no chance of not being dismissed. (And if you read it, it basically says Media Matters had to hit "refresh" a bunch of times until the anti-Jewish tweets actually showed up next to an ad. Ummkay.)
  
  
  
• Then things got weirder. Texas AG Ken Paxton, the epitome of virtue, announced he has started a state investigation into Media Matters. What a waste of taxpayer dollars -- and what a scary authoritarian tactic.  A rich man snaps his fingers because he got his feelings hurt over what someone said, and the government jumps to punish that entity's free speech. That's fascism with oligarchy as the chaser. I keep saying we are headed to a dark place. Heck, we are already there. 
  
  
  
• Back to Musk, he oddly picked some small firm DFW metroplex lawyers to file his lawsuit, and he chose Fort Worth as a venue in hopes of getting a crazy Trump federal judge. But you know who one of the firms is composed of? Former Paxton AG lawyers. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The New York Times with a front page article on how the very life of democracy is flashing before our eyes. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Let's check in on the MyPillow guy. Oh, there he is yesterday with Steve Bannon while wearing a tin foil hat. Really. 
  
  
  
• A faithful reader, the great Bud Kennedy, sent me the following after seeing the awkward headline I printed yesterday about the Kennedy assassination. One week after Kennedy's death, Texas beat the Aggies with third string quarterback Tommy Wade leading the way. That led to this lede in the Austin American Statesman. Oh, my: 
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Don't do that. 
  
  
  
• TCU is getting (more) pricey. "It is the largest percentage increase since at least 2011, raising undergraduate tuition to around $61,643 before fees, books, room and board."
  
  
  
• A guy named Vladimir de Franceschi just filed for Congressional House District 26, which will become open next year and which includes Wise County.  I looked him up. He's probably smarter than all of us. 
• Lost of civil cases on the dismissal docket in district court in Wise County today. Speak now or forever . . . .