5.19.2023

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

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Lake Bridgeport was 17 feet low. Right now it is 8.22 feet low.

  •  Ron DeSantis fight with Florida might be one of the dumbest political moves of all time. They'll kill him in the end.    

    • But, despite his history of train wrecks, it looks like he's entering the presidential race next week. Trump is not pleased. And he's already rounding up his stormtroopers.

  • Uh . . . how much of an accounting error? 

  • A faithful reader sent in this live action shot from Grand Prairie off of President George Bush Turnpike and Trinity Boulevard yesterday. In addition to the fire, it was also newsworthy because it involved a critical American financial foundation: A warehouse under construction.

  • Notable new law quick hit:

  • Rep. Lauren Boebert is chronologically challenged.

  • I feel sorry for my Normal Republican friends. How they put up with the Idiocracy from the right wing of their party is beyond me.

  • It's probably behind a paywall, but this is a great story of how an 80 year old write in candidate beat an incumbent councilman for the position of mayor of Trophy Club. Yep, the only person on the ballot for mayor would be the guy that would lose.  I would have thought that would have been impossible to pull off. She won, 1,959 to 1,141. 

     
  • This was on the cover of the Houston Chronicle today in connection with the guy accused of killing the family of five in Cleveland, Texas. There's always more to the story. But it better be a completely different story if there are dead children. This ain't it. 

  • Supreme Court stuff #1. Can I pay an artist to take a copyrighted photo to create a new piece of art from it, and then sell the new piece without compensating the original photo owner? In this case involving a photo of Prince and the painter Andy Warhol, the Supreme Court says that's a copyright infringement. That seems wrong to me. and perhaps I'm over-simplifying it.




    • Legal nerdy stuff side note. But that 7-2 opinion produced a cat fight. Two of the liberal female justices are fighting. Justice Kagan took this shot at Justice Sotomayor yesterday in her dissenting opinion. It's such a high tone insult, I'm not sure I understand it all. 

  • Supreme Court stuff #2: A bizarre statement from Justice Gorsuch yesterday in a dissent as he mused about the measures taken during the COVID pandemic.

    • Allow me to retort to his view of what has been the "greatest intrusions" of civil rights.

       

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 317 days.

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5.18.2023

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




We need updated rankings on this. 

  • This "event" sounds incredibly overblown and of publicity seeking origin. We would have never known about it (whatever 'it" is) if the couple hadn't sent out a press release claiming it was a "near catastrophic" car "chase."

  • This seems like an incredible reach in the blame department.

  • This is a little unusual: A high tone estate sale will take place in Graham tomorrow and Saturday at an address so secret that it will be released tonight at 6:00 p.m. The event got a feature story in today's Dallas Morning News. Pictures of the items for sale are here. 

  • Teacher news.
    • Point. Salary news.

    • Counter-point. Teacher goes on shooting rampage in Mansfield. 

  • Trans news
    • Point: Republican women say a prayer on the Texas House floor before voting on anti-trans legislation yesterday.

    • Counter-point. (Hey, I'm just the newsman here.) 

  • A city councilman in Rhode Island was found asleep with a a crack pipe and dope in his possession. Video. 

  • If you get your live TV through YouTubeTV and you wanted to watch the NBA playoffs last night, you were a little frustrated.


  • "Warehouses, people! We'll see you next week!"

  • Legal nerdy stuff: Yesterday the Fifth Circuit pretended to entertain oral arguments about the abortion pill.  In a weird moment, the panel spent time dogging a lawyer about the language that was used in the brief which criticized the ruling of the (activist) lower court judge in Amarillo. The lawyer, Jessica Ellsworth, who was great, wouldn't back down. Audio. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

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5.17.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




This one actually ended up with a not guilty by reason of insanity. 

  • This is a long and detailed story of the trouble in the Sanger PD. At the center of the storm is a former Decatur PD officer.

  • I have a source who I trust implicitly who told me he saw an AR-15 quickly transferred from one car to another, and one party to another, on the courthouse square in Decatur yesterday. Nothing illegal about it, but that would certainly get your attention. 
  • This isn't good. Due to health issues, the Democrat senator had been in California from February up until last week. Now she doesn't remember it. Rumors of her decline have been rampant. 


  • I'll admit that I'm shallow because every time I see a photo of the victim who was killed by the 12 year old armed with an AR-15 style gun in Keene, my mind starts wandering as to why someone would ever get a face tattoo. (And, by the way, that's his son and not the shooter. And, yes, the whole thing is awful.)

  • The guy below was all over the news after the Allen Mall Massacre. He had all sorts of hot sports opinions about guns, but also claimed he was there at the scene providing aid before cops arrived.  But then Allen PD did an odd thing on Saturday by issuing a statement saying he was not credible. You don't see that very often. I don't know exactly what's going on behind the scenes here. 

  • Political gossip.

    • I have an idea. 

  • Personal shopping observation. I was in Home Depot's home and garden area and ran across this item. Never mind it being overpriced (it's a planter), but why would they put a sign up that shows the item has had only one online review and it was just one star? 


  • Legal nerdy stuff. I always try to glance at the online "Tarrant County DA Trial Board", and I noticed the "panel busted" notation this week. So what's that, you ask? 
    • It's really a slang term to denote a situation where an entire panel disqualified themselves with an answer to a lawyer's question during jury selection. It normally happens when one juror gives a disqualifying answer such as stating that he would not being able to follow some aspect of the law applicable to the case. It then (somehow) becomes clear to the entire panel that such such an answer just guaranteed for that guy that he was not going to end up on the jury because of his answer.  
    • The other potential jurors aren't sure why, but they now know by just saying, "I don't think I'd be able to follow that law", they will be getting out of a potentially long jury service as well. And they know no one is going to yell at them or reprimand them for answering that way. So when the next potential juror is then asked if he agrees with the previous answer, and he says yes. And that emboldens the next in line who also answers yes. And the next. And the next. And suddenly you have an avalanche of disqualified jurors. Soon there's not enough left. Ergo, the "jury panel is busted." 
    • If it happens to a prosecutor who is asking the question, it's probably a screw up. He'll scramble to try to try and reword the question to save the panel.  If it happens to a defense lawyer, it normally means he got lucky and he'll roll with it before the judge can jump in and try save the panel.

  • I should have a business show on CNBC or Bloomberg. All I'd ever say is, "Warehouses, people!" Today's paper: 
  • What a price tag . . . 

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5.16.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




Pete Delkus, in action, in front of the green screen. I have no idea where I found this back then. 

  • The Decatur School Board voted to arm teachers last night in a 6-1 vote in approving a "Guardian Program."   It does not sound like like local law enforcement is in favor of this. It also sounds like there was a dispute as to whether is was technically on the agenda. 


    • The meeting was a long one, lasting over three hours.  CRT and trans-kids took center stage at the end of the meeting. 
  • This was wild enough . . . 

    • . . . but about 30 minutes before he did so, video shows his chasing another woman with a baseball bat. That's right out of a horror movie. 

  • Don't look at the lawsuit filed against Rudy unless you are intestested in very seedy stuff.


  • I see a headline like this and I think, "Man, we sure do send a lot of people to prison."
  • If there's a camera, Rep. Jeff Leach will be in front of it. But someone might want to tell that crowd that's the only reason he is there. 

  • After not making an appearance among the throng of DPS officials at a press conference in Allen after the Outlet Mall Massacre, I saw yesterday that the $300,000 Man still has his normal job as being used as a prop for Gov. Abbott. 

  • An officer modeling a fake pregnancy drug smuggling apparatus makes for a good photo. It took me a second. 

  • My interest always perks up with DNA stories and this headline . . . 

    • . . . didn't prepare me for this blurb which had nothing to do with air. You could theoretically find that a killer lives in a nearby town by sampling a nearby river? That last sentence refers to the CODIS database which requires 20 DNA "markers."

  • I need to apologize to the Village People because they weren't at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. That was a a cover band to which Trump was dancing to. 

  • I've never cared about hockey before, and I'm not starting now.


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