9.15.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




He failed. He took off from Maine and made it all the way to . . . Canada, 350 miles away. I thought it was a death wish. Lift-off on YouTube here.

  • First photos in the media of the victim of the alleged murder in Boyd this week have appeared. The defendant remained in jail this morning on a $350,000 bond. 

  • In the ongoing litigation about who should represent capital murder Defendant Tanner Horner in Wise County, we have the first response to a request made two weeks ago the Court of Criminal Appeals. It's from his lawyer removed from the case. We are now awaiting responses of the judge as well as the newly appointed lawyers from Regional Public Defender's Office which must be made "within 20 days" of 8/30/23.

  • It has arrived. The impeachment vote will be held in the Senate today after closing arguments which at start at 9:00 a.m.  
    • The head of the ultra MAGA extremists came to Paxton's defense yesterday. 

    • The head of the extremists MAGA PAC funded by the West Texas Oilmen issued a threat. 

  • Hunter Biden was indicted on gun charges. If he's guilty, so be it. But the Fifth Circuit has already struck down the law of one of the charges by relying on Trump Supreme Court's expansive expansion of 2nd Amendment rights in Braun. The other charges will probably face a similar fate. 

  • As of midnight, we now have an auto strike. 


    • No one is asking me for "strike advice", but I wouldn't do this half-arse partial strike. I'd do a complete walkout. Go full throttle or not at all. You know, half measures something-something.
    • Am I the only one who thought the "Big Three" included Chrysler instead of something named Stellantis? 
  • Uh, oh. The Bridgeport High School soccer coach strip club scandal has made the Daily Mail treatment. (He paid the money back and lost his job, let's give the guy a break.)

  • Remember this photo the other day of the Sheriff of Tarrant County posing with Kyle Rittenhouse? Well also in the photo is Jake Neidert who had just fired off this very offensive post. Once that post came to light yesterday, his recent past employer, Rep. Tony Tinderholt, immediately distanced from him with this post.  (The last time I checked, Neidert had been a Baylor University student.)
    Birds of a feather.

  • Texas District Clerk vs. Texas District Attorney in Hays County. Fun fact: The District Clerk made the news last year after winning election as a 19 year old. 

  • Trouble in Aggieland.

  • Ticket fans: The fight of Cumulus vs. Dan and Jake is heating up.  The Ticket's most reccent filing is here. The boys' curt response is here. And the Ticket even made a Wire reference in a pretentiously worded footnote.

  • 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 71 days.

at 8:31 AM

9.14.2023

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




All tracked to Taco Casa in Decatur back then. 

  • Yep, we've got another murder charge on the books in Wise County after a man allegedly shot his stepson. But I bet this one is going to be a bit messy.  Deputies had been called to the home earlier in the evening.  

  • Impeachment quick hits:
    • We had the first appearance of a lawyer on the prosecutor's team, and she was fantastic. Erin Epley should have been in charge of the whole thing. 
    • This was weird: Paxton's mistress was scheduled to testify yesterday, showed up, waited around all day, and then was excused behind closed doors when she told them she intended to take the Fifth.

    • Overall, the prosecution's presentation has been a mess. They had a time limit which they mismanaged, were disjointed, and let the defense push them around. 
    • Case in point. Video. This was really bad. 

    • Tony Buzbee sounds like Mack Brown.
    • This is interesting: The Senate will vote today on a Motion which, if passed, would result in an impeachment conviction also preventing Paxton from ever seeking office again. Without it, there would have to be two seperate votes at the end of the trial (assuming conviction.) I would think that this is basically going to be a preview of the verdict today. 
  • The Messenger has a story on the new budget for Wise County and included this nugget: 
  • After the capture of the escaped Pennsylvania inmate, there was a press conference. And then someone decided to do a bit with a question. This really happened. Video. Yep, an inquiry about one small person possibly standing on the shoulder of another small person inside a trenchcoat. 
  • I don't like this trend at all.
  • A man who shot and killed two people is hanging out with the Tarrant County Sheriff. Rittenhouse's cult following is just weird. 
  • Mitt Romney announced yesterday that he won't seek re-election in the Senate. On the same day, we learned he texted Mitch McConnell before January 6th that he was hearing something very bad may happen. 
  • Mildy legal nerdy stuff. This case is out of Houston and illustrates something I've mentioned over the years. More and more criminal prosecutions are occurring over unintentional conduct. Hey, this case has bad facts, but there would not have been a criminal prosecution 30 years ago.  Side note: The family had already received a jury verdict of $95 million last year.
      • Very legal nerdy stuff: That story is behind a paywall, and I really want to read the rest of that paragraph that gets cut off above. It sounds like the defense lawyer changed his election to have to the jury assess punishment, the judge let him, and then the prosecutor and the defense lawyer got into it. 
      • Very legal nerdy stuff #2: She was convicted of reckless conduct. She was definitely negligent but almost no one understands how reckless conduct, when the law is properly applied, is almost impossible to prove.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold 

at 8:32 AM

9.13.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




"Sheriff David Walker said . . . that the couple had been going through a divorce."

  • Breaking: They have just captured the inmate on the loose in Pennsylvania, Danelo Cavalcante.


    • The cops even gathered around and posed for a picture with him before taking him away. Really. Video.

  • Breaking #2: There's a fire going on right now at an "oil and gas facility" near Decatur. Video. Seems potentially bad. 
  • I'm not sure what this arrest last night was about. We don't have another murder do we? The name isn't familiar to me from pending cases, and that does not look like itis based on a warrant for an out-of-county offense. Side note: That town of "Bots" has a zip code for Boyd.

    • Edit. Related?

  • Not the way you want your school logo to end up in the Dallas Morning News. (He paid the credit card bill.)
  • Impeachment quick hits:
    • Yesterday we learned that Paxton couldn't get his staff to launch an investigation into DPS and the feds who were looking into the business practices of Nate Paul so, at the urging of Nate Paul's personal lawyer, Paxton contacted and contracted with a five year personal injury lawyer with no criminal experience to do the job. He was to get $300 an hour. Oh, my.

    • And did this "hiring" seem a little a weird to this guy? Would he get a badge, AG email address or a business card? No. And Paxton asked him to download "Signal", an encrypted messaging app, to communicate with him. Seems legit, right? 
    • Yet somehow he, as an AG special prosecutor(?), was led to believe that he authority to issue grand jury subpoenas for documents (a practice which doesn't involve a grand jury at all). But get this: He issued subpoenas directed towards 40 people and entities -- names he got  from a list compiled by Nate Paul's personal lawyer. Microsoft was one of them but it balked after questioning his credentials and who he was. 
    • After all hell broke lose and U.S. Marshal's showed up at his law office to ask what he was doing, the young lawyer wanted a meeting with Paxton.  Paxton agreed but moved the meeting to a Starbucks where he was told that it was over, his authority was revoked, and that he wouldn't get paid for any past work. 
    • Angela Paxton pondered life while looking at her wedding ring during yesterday's testimony:
    • Even if removed from office, Ken Paxton will keep his $66,000 a year pension for life. 
  • What a headline. And there is surveillance video of her getting kicked out. 

     

  • I'm sorry, how much did you say? 

  • So there's an impeachment inquiry beginning at the unilateral decision of the Speaker of the House without a vote? That's what happens when you have a Speaker who sold his soul to the MAGA extremists and they now hold you hostage. Would you let your children speak to you this way yesterday?


  • Does this mean that DPS has gone woke? 

  • Marky Mark at Joe T. Garcia's a couple of days ago. 

  • This being a family friendly blog, I can only suggest you not search for the various clips of Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) reading various excerpts from a book in a committee hearing yesterday. Is there no one on his staff who told him this would not be a good idea? 

at 8:31 AM

9.12.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




LeBron, Jerry Jones, and Hulk Hogan before the season opener in 2013. At the time, Hogan's daughter, Brooke, was engaged to Cowboys center Phil Costa. They would split up later in the season.

  • I-35 last night. South of downtown. Three dead. Three critical. Five vehicles were involved. It started with a minor  two vehicle accident and they were on the shoulder. A third vehicle, in an ill-advised move, tried to assist with protection by partially blocking one lane. Then two big rigs collided with the third vehicle and chaos ensued. 

  • Paxton impeachment trial quick hits:
    • We could have deliberations begin on Thursday or Friday. 
    • But, from an  entertainment standpoint, Paxton's lead lawyer Tony Buzbee ruled the day yesterday because the prosecution team let's him get away with anything. This is really becoming incredible. Rusty Hardin, for the impeachment team, just sits back and watches it all happen instead of objecting.

    • Case in point, Buzbee will get a witness to say something he wants and then announce to the chamber, "Let's let that sink in for a moment" and then repeats the answer and pauses for effect. This happened at least three times yesterday. 
    • Paxton is not being impeached because of an affair, but his mistress was mentioned for the first time in testimony. That had to be awkward. Here's an old picture of her with the presiding judge, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. And worse, Paxton's wife was sitting just feet away from the testifying witness. 

    • We had our first female witness. The impeachment team decided to have a female lawyer ask her questions. This is, after all, backwoods Texas.
    • I still think he will be convicted. He should be convicted. I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise if you care one iota about character, honesty, and decency. 
  • Good grief.


  • At 6:00 a.m. now less . . . 

  • New Emerson poll for Iowa is out. Trump is down, but so is his closest challenger. 

  • I meant to mention this yesterday: Here is a whole thread of the MyPillow guy going crazy during a deposition earlier this year.  And I do mean crazy. If you watch just one, go with this one.

  • Business News in One Second. This is near Argyle.

     

  • Random ad for the City of Addison in 1988. Pretty good little ad. 

  • DraftKings thought it would be a good idea to have a special 9/11 three team parlay wager yesterday. They called it "Never Forget."  Uh, perhaps they have. They later apologized.

  • Very nerdy legal stuff: Over at the Fifth Circuit, the judge's are arguing over how to use the Bible to interpret a statute.  Sheesh. Things are going just great. 
    Majority

    Dissent

  • So that over-hyped Aaron Rogers experiment didn't work out?


at 8:30 AM
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