5.12.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts





There were two links in that post to find the book about Ricky Lee Green. One link is now dead and the other from Amazon now lists one used copy of the book for sale for $1,161.  (Amazon also tells me I bought a copy on January 21, 2003, but now I have no idea where it is.)


  • The Senate tried to pass a bill yesterday making abortion legal through federal law (which would trump whatever states do if Roe were to be overruled), but it failed 49-51.
    • They needed 60 votes anyway because of the filibuster rule. 
    • West Virginia's Joe Manchin was the lone Democrat to vote against it. 
    • Related: The Supreme Court meets today in conference, and it is the first time they have all got together since the opinion leak. 
  • That's a heck of a picture of a wild fire in California from yesterday/last night.

    • And those are some big homes destroyed. The main street that was hit was Coronado Pointe. I wanted to look at it on Google Streetview but it's gated. 

  • Southlake PD has backed off its claim that it was a poisonous water moccasin found in a closet. They posted this on Facebook (the department does a lot of social media cutesy bits):

  • Legal news quick hits:
    • #1. The South is still being the South.  Let me tell you something, the unconstitutional prolonged detention of people after a traffic stop based upon a hunch, bringing in an inept "drug dog" to do an open air sniff, followed by a full blow intrusive inspection of every part of a vehicle, is an epidemic of Biblical proportions in all Southern States including Texas.  

      • After the officer making the traffic stop of the lacrosse team bus was told of the drug dog "hit" by the canine officer, he said on video, "There's a bunch of dang school girls on the bus - there's probably some weed." (Bodycam video starting at around 6:40.)
      • He found no weed. Or anything else. Outrageous. 
    • #2 A three judge panel of the Fifth Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, lost their minds late yesterday and reinstated Texas new (and ridiculous) law which prevents companies like Twitter and Facebook from censoring any user's post based upon the user's "viewpoint." This is an insane ruling and would be the death of the First Amendment.  Legal folks I follow who are much smarter than I am were losing their minds last night about it. This story should pick up steam in the media today.

    • #3 A guilty plea of a Trump Insurrectionists fell through yesterday when a defendant waffled in front of the judge. This type of exchange will cause a courtroom emergency brake to be pulled every time:



    • #4: The lady which was amazingly sentenced to prison for 5 years in Tarrant County for casting a provisional ballot got a reprieve yesterday as Texas' highest criminal court sent the case back to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals to determine if there was sufficient evidence on whether she "knowingly" voted illegally. 

       
      • Here's what the said the Fort Worth court of appeals got wrong: 

      • These were the prosecutors:

  • Richard Greene of the Messenger found this old (and odd) ad in the newspaper 25 years ago where Mitchell Energy denied having "sour gas." The oddity came about after the FBI stopped alleged bombers from blowing up the plant as a diversion for robbing an armored car. But . . . 

    • . . . it turned out that there wasn't much up of a scheme to blow it up at all as this Texas Monthly story explained. But that didn't stop the Feds from coloring it as a great Crime Fighting Adventure. 

  • Pete Delkus says we might reach record highs several times over the next 10 days. If I'm smart enough to remember, I'm going to track and post this everyday with the actual results to see how accurate he is. 

  • Am I missing it, or is there not much political advertising going on in the Bush v. Paxton race for Texas AG? The runoff is right around the corner. 

  • The Dallas Observer reflects on To Catch A Predator and how it came to a crazy end when an assistant DA near the metroplex got caught up in it and killed himself as cops moved in. He ended up with a Wikipedia page.

  • I finally got around to starting Succession. My review after Episode #1: Big thumbs up.