Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

The Messenger got a lot of blowback for somehow running that photo with that headline on Facebook when the wreck had nothing to do with a local girls high school basketball team. 

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• Aviation news. And old rock band news.
  
  
  
• Sheesh.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It begins.  Trump is now ignoring court orders. This is a major, major deal. But no one cares because he's trying to "slash government spending." We are in strange and dangerous days.
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• And there is no practical legal way to force Trump to comply.  What can the judge do? Hold him in contempt and order the United States Marshals Service, which is under Trump's new AG Pam Bondi, to arrest him or other government officials?  They wouldn't do it. 
• J.D. Vance told us this was coming back in 2021. Video.
  
  
  
• In a shocking move, AG Pam Bondi's Justice Department ordered the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to drop the prosecution against the New York mayor. One of the reasons for the order is that Trump needs him for immigration enforcement in NYC. That's not the way things are supposed to work. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The hits just keep coming.  He's also a former contestant on Trump's Celebrity Apprentice.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump has drawn a line in the sand in the Hamas/Israel conflict. And that phrase "all the hostages" is a big phrase in that sentence. 
  
   
  
  
  
• What are we doing? 
  
  
  
• In Page Six news:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This was wild, and apparently there's a video with her in it. I'm not saying that Nancy Mace is just trying to get ahead of something consensual and embarrassing, but making the allegations on the House floor is notable since she has absolute immunity there from any defamation claim because of the Speech and Debate clause. 
  
  
  
  
• In an odd twist, Rep. Ronny Jackson has been added as a plaintiff to Trump's silly lawsuit against CBS and 60 Minutes for the Kamala Harris edited interview. "Trump filed the suit in Amarillo, Texas, where it is being heard by a Trump-appointed judge [Matthew Kacsmaryk]. By adding Jackson as a plaintiff, the Trump team argued the congressman was harmed by the 60 Minutes interview and that the case should remain in Texas."
  
  
  
• And for legal (and authoritarian) news regarding defamation, keep an eye on this case filed in the Supreme Court on Friday:
  
  
    
  
  
  
• Is there any chance that too many teams make the high school basketball playoffs? From last night:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy news for criminal practitioners: I don't know if it will pass, but a bill has been filed in the Texas Senate to extremely gut the Michael Morton Act. A long thread with a great explanation here. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

And that state park was the Fort Richardson State Park in Jacksboro.

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• The driver was seriously hurt, and a horse was dragged Friday night. Video.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Scant on details.
  
  
  
• The courts, for the moment, are tamping down on Elon and his DOGE kids. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• But it's only a matter of time before Trump starts ignoring the courts. That's the next step as to where we are headed, and the handwriting is on the wall: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump is a master at showmanship. Example: Once they basically shut down the USAID, he dramatically had the agency's name removed from the building for the cameras.
  
  
  
• Everyone thinks the photo is funny, but there is something very disturbing about some spare guy on behalf of DOGE keeping a member of Congress out of the Department of Education building. 
  
  
  
• More gutting of the government coming:
• FEMA on the chopping block? Trump has already hinted at it.  
  
  
  
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is next.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump also illegally fired three board members of the Kennedy Center on Friday, and said he will now be dictating the institution’s “art and culture” which “must reflect” what he chooses. The only artists who will get inducted and honored now will be Lee Greenwood and Kid Rock -- probably annually.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• More major news outlets have been kicked out of the Pentagon, replaced with Trump propaganda mouthpieces.
  
  
  
• We live in the dumbest times: 
  
  
  
• Trump retweeted Roger Stone this weekend.  They will be coming with criminal prosecutions of the prosecutors soon. 
  
  
  
• I already mentioned one Not Guilty verdict in Tarrant County week but there was also another one.
  
  
  
• Of Course, The Sequel (from Friday)
  
  
  
• The former head of the Dallas County DA's office appellate section says Wise County's Andy Hopper is in search of a solution to a non-problem.
  
  
  
• Bad criminals: 
  
  
  
• My favorite Super Bowl commercial was the kid who beat cancer but for some reason had to walk home from the hospital wearing boxing gloves.