Random Friday Morning Thoughts

I had a lot of posts about Greg Hardy back then. Everyone apparently 

was really worked up.

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• The Wise County Messenger was on top of this yesterday. 
  
  
  
• We had a hung jury yesterday in the Wise County district court on a dope case in The State of Texas vs.  Kory Carter, CR25016.  The defense lawyers were Ray Napolitan, who was court appointed, and Tim Godwin, who served as second chair. 
• Oh, my! Wise County's state rep Andy Hopper posted this last night from Austin where he thanked a group of "patriots" in the room with him. But who is that up front? Is that Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder? You might remember the Oath Keepers when they kept an arsenal of weapons across the Potomac River during the January 6th assault on the Capitol which led to Rhodes being convicted of Seditious Conspiracy and an 18 year prison sentence. Then Trump pardoned him. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Trump dismantled the Department of Education yesterday with a bizarrely staged backdrop.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Texas was represented there by these three.
  
  
  
  
• After this story came out last night in the New York Times (and then confirmed by the Washington Post), Trump has posted twice at length to deny it -- a sure sign that it is, or had been, true. I bet the meeting gets cancelled now, and Trump just screams "Fake news!"
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Sen. John Cornyn has now bent the knee to the Fuhrer.  For a man who has quietly resisted for years, he made this embarrassing post yesterday:
  
  
  
• This is really incredible. A huge Washington law firm, targeted by Trump because they had represented prominent Democrats in the past, caved to his extortion yesterday.  A judge had already ruled that Trump's identical "targeting" order sent to a different firm, who chose to fight it, was illegal. But this firm instead cowed down to the illegal conduct in its pursuit of future legal fees. Shockingly, they also agreed to do millions of free legal work for Trump's "initiatives." (Gift link.)
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  
  
  
• Coming soon to NWS stations near you . . .
  
  
  
• Legal news about a story I didn't know happened last year in Texas. "Loud, 39, created a disturbance last year during jury selection at his first [felony] trial . . . .  That’s when Loud entered the courtroom, walked up to [defense lawyer ] Dohoney, pulled his arm back as far as he could and smashed Dohoney with a staggering roundhouse right in front of 80 potential jurors seated in the courtroom . . . . The assault was so brutal that it caused the 63-year-old Dohoney to permanently lose sight in his left eye after his orbital socket was shattered." A video of it, which I don't think I had ever seen, is shown in this TV news story.
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: The 9th Circuit had something truly bizarre happen yesterday.  One of its judges issued a dissenting opinion not in writing but on a video posted on YouTube. He even used real guns to make his point. The judges in the concurrence, which begins at page 60, were not happy with him. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• A 138 new state troopers go to work today.  But a months-long wait to renew your driver's license will continue. 
  
  
  
• Lauren Whitener Clock: 5 years and 262 days.