11.10.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




A lot going on there. And we had references to John Bradley (of the Michael Morton fiasco) and Abel Reyna (of the Waco Twin Peaks shooting fiasco)

  • Well, this turned out exactly as expected. 

  • I heard that the Boyd motorcycle cop, who works 287 on a contract basis for New Fairview, was badly injured in an accident in Forestburg while headed home. Sounds like he will recover, but it wasn't pretty.

  • The official Wise County Republican Party, which sometimes can act reasonable and sometimes acts like it is controlled by the MAGA extremists in its midst, voted last night 16-1 to censure Rep. Lynn Stucky who is, by all accounts, a normal conservative Republican and definitely not a nutcase. 
    • Stucky defended himself yesterday here. He called the censure as the equivalent of " a 'smoke-filled backroom' arrangement among a handful of party leaders who seek to rig the system to favor their own preferred candidate."  He's kind of right about that. 
    • If the local Republican party is going to interject itself into a local contested Republican primary -- something underheard of in the history of the county -- at least it needs to be fair. In that regard, no word yet on whether they will also censor a candidate against Stucky who took $55,000 from the West Texas Oil Men PAC whose leader met with an avowed white supremist and antisemite. (The party itself has already given away the money it received from the PAC because of the  controversy.)
  • Another reason not to trust Elon Musk.

  • The official Texas prosecutor's association yesterday pointed out that Rep. David Spiller's (R-Jacksboro) revised immigration bill -- which creates a state crime for illegally entering the country (or being in the country illegally) and then allowing Texas law enforcement to dump them back over the border by simply getting a local JP to OK it -- seems to run afoul of the Texas Constitution.  It clearly has federal constitutional problems, but no one had noticed this part of the state constitution before.

  • There was a horrible attack by car on some deputies in Florida yesterday. The shocking video was released.


  • Jared Leto, for some reason, legally climbed the outside of the upper portion of the Empire State Building yesterday. 


  • Fun fact on the pay of Texas legislators. 

  • Here are the states which have let their citizens vote on abortion rights after Roe was overturned. Every one of them voted pro-choice. Texas would do the same if our legislature let the people decide instead of leaving the decision to themselves.

  • We had rare playoff football on a Thursday night (boo!) for Wise County last night: Decatur won. 45-14, over Dumas.  Paradise won, 49-13, over Vernon. Alvord fell to Coleman, 47-7.
  • 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: 4 years and 127 days.



at 8:30 AM

11.09.2023

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Chris Christie was winning as governor of New Jersey.

  • The defendant in the Harris Hospital capital murder case took the stand yesterday.  He didn't deny firing the bullets which killed two people, he just said that it wasn't his intent to kill them.  Hey, it's a Hail Mary and the chances of it working are less than 2%, but it's his only chance.

    • But, man, he was wheels off. He actually did a pretty good job of trying to portray himself as calm and meek, but he dropped casual F bombs left and right simply because he couldn't help himself.  
    • One interesting fact that you won't hear about concerns his testimony about going to the hospital to visit his girlfriend who had just given birth.  I don't think he had any intent to kill at that point (the gun was actually with his baby momma in the hospital.)  In any event, he got lost and couldn't find the hospital. He stopped to get gas at a convenience store, asked for directions but got no help from the clerks, so he was just going to give and go home. But some Good Samaritan overhead that he was looking for Harris Hospital and gave him directions.  I'm a big believer in the Butterfly Effect. 
  • Ivanka testified in the Trump Organization's fraud trial yesterday.  The courtroom artist must hate her. 


  • County Judge J.D. Clark posted new pics of the Wise County courthouse renovation.  There is a spiral staircase that leads up to the bell tower, and it used to go all the way down to the third floor. However, at some point the bottom of it was cut off and the remainder was enclosed above a new ceiling.  It will be restored. I love all of this. 
    Red marking from Liberally Lean Graphics Dept.


  • There was a Republican debate last night while Trump held a rally as counter-programming.  Rosanne Barr introduced him and, after watching it, I'm beginning to believe that MAGA is right: This country might need to be destroyed. We deserve everything we get if this is where we are headed. 

  • Remember yesterday I said that Tony Buzbee would probably make it to a runoff in a Houston City Council race. Well, he did. But now there's pretty good evidence he funded the third candidate, who just happened to have an Hispanic name, for the sake of creating a runoff in the first place. 
  • Famed wrestler Kevin Von Erich is looking a little older these days. I used to follow him on Twitter when he lived in Hawaii -- that is, before he got banned for posting anti-vax conspiracy theories and pro-Insurrection content. He was in Dallas last night to promote a new movie.

  • Let's check in on Fox News. (I have no idea what's going on here.)

  • Good for him.

  • Nerdy legal stuff: The Fifth Circuit slapped down Fort Worth federal judge Mark Pittman again. This time for imposing a $250 sanction against a lawyer for a silly reason.  (Opinion here. The sanction arose out of a sexual harassment case involving Weatherford College.) Pittman is a Trump appointee who replaced the retired judge John McBride. 

  • Another Trump judge -- this one who issues crazy rulings out of Amarillo -- was threatened.  Don't do that. 

  • There is never, ever a reason to refer to yards gained in football as "scrimmage yards" or "from scrimmage." Never. It adds absolutely nothing. 
  • Messenger - Above the Fold


at 8:31 AM

11.08.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts





The Art Briles reign at Baylor unofficially began after a Thursday night game against OU on national TV which saw the Bears go to 8-0. 

  • Incredible: Every Decatur ISD bond proposal failed. And it was the same result in Bridgeport as its bond proposal went down as well. Decatur ISD Superintendent put it bluntly: "[I]f you won’t vote to fund a no tax rate raise bond, how will we keep up with future growth and overcrowding needs in Decatur ISD? I’m sad for Decatur ISD students and staff.” 
    • 2,592 people voted in Decatur. 
    • 1,866 people voted in Bridgeport.
  • All Texas constitutional amendments passed except the one raising the mandatory retirement age for judges. It failed 63% to 37%.  I wrote the other day that I wasn't sure about that one because voters hate lawyers and this amendment was perceived of doing something favorable for lawyers.

  • Back to bond elections, at least I understand Prosper voting down a $94 million stadium. 

  • Nationally, the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade continues to haunt Republicans. 
    • Ohio voted to change its state constitution to incorporate Roe.  Since Roe was overturned, seven states have now had state wide votes on abortion, and the pro-choice law has passed every single time -- even in red states.

    • In Virginia, it was a Democrat sweep as they flipped the Senate and Republicans lost their hold in the House. Their anti-choice governor, Glenn Youngkin, had campaigned hard for the Republicans vowing to change abortion laws once the Republicans got control of both houses. 

    • In red Kentucky, a Democrat won the governorship.


  • Ohio became the 24th state to legalize weed.  In Texas, you will still be put in a cage for having a personal use amount in your pocket. Or in your car. Or in your home. 

     
  • The city council candidate for Granbury who just got arrested for child porn came within 17 votes of making it to the run-off. 


  • Ken Paxton's lead impeachment defense lawyer, Tony Buzbee, ran for the city council in Houston, but got beat. However, the winner is about 200 votes short of hitting the 50% mark so Buzbee might/should make it to the runoff race. This is with 694 of 701 precincts reporting:



  • Speaking of impeachment, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick complimented Rep. David Spiller yesterday. Since Spiller was a House Manager for the impeachment team, I'm surprised by that. Patrick has railed against the impeachment proceedings ever since the acquittal.

  • State Sen. Drew Springer wont' seek re-election. He once represented Wise County before redistricting and attended an election-denier rally for Trump on our courthouse steps after Trump lost the 2020 election (but it was before, at least, the January 6th Insurrection.)

  • Non-election news: West Texas had a 5.3 earthquake at 4:30 a.m. Hey, I mentioned Texas earthquakes yesterday!



at 8:28 AM

11.07.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




"Fire engulfed Neel Hall men’s dormitory at Decatur Baptist College on February 22, 1912."

I posted a blurb about this 10 years ago this week. I didn't remember it earlier this year when the Wise County Heritage Museum, which used to be the home of the administration building of the Decatur Baptist College, also burned down. So there have been two big fires at that location.

  • For the last several election cycles, it has almost been impossible for any Wise County school to pass a bond package. Two attempts will be made today: Decatur ISD will try a $68 million package while Bridgeport ISD goes with a $55 million bond. Both will be broken up into three parts to at least try to get at least something, if not all, passed. 
  • This trial about the hospital shooting in Dallas last year is about as close to a guaranteed conviction as you will ever see. And despite the defendant's violent history, the Dallas County D.A. is not seeking the death penalty.  That's a little surprising even for Dallas. 

  • Trump took the stand yesterday. It went about as well as you would expect. 

    • This lawyer, like all his past lawyers, is as dumb as a box of rocks. She took offense because she got yelled at in court as a defense lawyer? This her first time in court?


  • We might have a wild election story coming out of Granbury.  A city council candidate got arrested on child porn one day before the election, But we have to consider that most votes, due to early voting, have already been cast. There's a chance he will win today. 


    • I loved their backtracking yesterday of the Republican Party of Hood County. It's the equivalent "even we can support that."

  • I feel bad that I got distracted by the "8."

  • We are looking at a fourth special session in Austin: Just how exactly do those legislators afford to be away from their regular jobs so much? 

  • In women's basketball news, things didn't go well for defending national champion LSU last night in Las Vegas.

     

  • NFL fun fact: All are current or former Cowboys.

  • The University of Michigan is in the middle of a cheating scandal, but I had forgotten that its athletic director is on the playoff selection committee. That's awkward. Michigan is currently #3. But the AD is skipping today's vote. 

  • The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today as it reviews a lower court ruling that the 2nd Amendment makes unconstitutional a federal law making gun possession by a person who is under a domestic violence protective order a crime. Fun fact: The man the case is about is from Arlington, and is not a good dude. 

at 8:31 AM
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