2.26.2021

Random Friday Morning Thoughts






I don't remember these drastic budget cuts at Chico ISD (or Dallas ISD for that matter). And I feel like I was right: We hadn't seen school cuts like that before. And we haven't seen them since.    

  • Some things never change: We dropped some bombs on the Middle East last night. 

  • So yesterday evening the news broke that the Minimum Wage provision won't go into the Senate's version of the Stimulus Package because a parliamentarian said it wasn't procedurally proper? What's going on? The Republicans rammed through three Supreme Court justices and the Democrat controlled Senate now can't pass a law which the majority of American's overwhelming support? 

  • Seriously?

  • There were hearings at the state legislature yesterday on the energy fiasco last night. As expected, it didn't reveal or fix anything of note.  But I did learn the number of people who might find their monthly of electric bills to be in the thousands of dollars: 

  • DeAnn Walker is the head of the Public Utilities Commission, and was basically the only one to get beat up by legislators because she didn't seem to know very much. “I don’t think I understood the situation and underlying issues until we’ve lived through this,” she said. 

  • Much like the golden calf, a golden Trump was rolled into the CPAC convention last night. Now if they can just avoid the 40 years of wandering in the desert.  

  • I missed this particular picture at the rally before the Trump Supporters Stormed The Capitol.  It's a lot like that old Apple "1984" commercial from the Super Bowl. 

  • I got the mailer from the Runaway Bay Mayor going after the Messenger for criticizing Rep. Ronny Jackson for supporting of The Big Lie.  If I understand the mailer, his defense is the The Big Lie isn't a lie at all. Sheesh. (By the way, the complained of item in the Messenger was an "editorial" and not an "article.") Side note: How much did this cost him? 

  • An update on a wild story: This guy just received 10 years in federal prison  "Mark Kuper, 44, of Aledo began his career as a surgeon. But after several malpractice lawsuits related to his surgeries, he converted his practice in 2014 to an unregistered pain management clinic, the feds say."  He tried to burn the receipts in 2017 but accidentally burned his mansion down. Any chances that guy was a little wheels off in his every day life? 

  • Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot and wounded and her two dogs were stolen. The singer has offered $500,000 for their return - "no questions asked."  I'm not sure what the dog walker and attempted murder victim thinks about the "no questions" part. 

  • Watch this deep-fake of Tom Cruise. There's a scary world coming. 

  • It's legal stuff most of you won't care about but Ethan Couch's mom, Tonya, tried to get her cases thrown out First Amendment grounds. The Fort Worth Court of Appeals shot it down yesterday. I think the arguments are pretty interesting. Her lawyers are Houston lawyer, and noted First Amendment scholar, Mark Bennett as well as Stephanie Patten out of Fort Worth. 
  • In the nerdiest of legal things, some lawyers got very excited yesterday when the Supreme Court used the notation "cleaned up" for the first time yesterday.  ("Cleaned up" basically means the court is quoting another opinion but not using a verbatim quote because internal quotation marks, brackets, and ellipses have been omitted. This new citation tool was first proposed in a 21 page legal article in 2017  here, and I'm a little concerned that I care enough to dedicate a bullet point to this. 

  • Twenty-two years after it debuted, I'm six episodes into The Sopranos. Pretty, pretty good. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 602 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold