10.08.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • Most people laughed at him for the "in my great and unmatched wisdom" part. I'm disturbed by the "I will destroy" part. His belief that he has some kind of autocratic power and doesn't think twice before he says it.
  • Man, Trump took it from all sides because of his abandonment of the Kurds yesterday.  He'll probably just change his mind (it happens all the time), but even if he doesn't, we are at the point now where the military will simply refuse to obey him. 
  • I'll be. They did transfer her. (Don't read anything into the "projected release date".)
     
  • Big case(s) being argued at the Supreme Court today. Simplified, does the federal law which prevents someone from being fired because of their sex also prevent someone from being fired for being gay? More specifically, that federal law, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, makes it unlawful for an employer “to discriminate against any individual … because of such individual’s … sex.” So this is a case of statutory interpretation -- what does the statute mean?  At its core, one side says, "Hey, firing a gay person has nothing to do with firing someone because of their 'sex'. So long as gay men and gay women are fired equally for being gay, they aren't being fired due to their sex at all."  Counterpoint: "If you fire someone for being gay, aren't you by definition considering their sex in the decision?"  
  • Lots of questions about this one. 
  • Wise County's Texas Ranger was featured on 60 Minutes. All this press he is getting is based upon his interrogation techniques. Several years back I was appointed to a juvenile who he wanted to talk to for the sole purpose of building a murder case against an adult. After talking to the Ranger and having him give me his word (which was completely legally unenforceable but was practically more binding than any contract), I let him talk to him. And I got to watch the two hour interview. As expected, everything worked out, and I learned a lot.
  • This is a screenshot of a bulletpoint from May. Yesterday the grand jury (with the urging of the DA) declined to indict her. How do I know the DA urged the grand jury to no-bill her? The case is a misdemeanor. Misdemeanors don't have to go through a grand jury before being filed in court. The DA is using the grand jury for political cover. 
  • Say what? Out of Burnet, Texas? 
  • This probably won't interest many of you, but here's a map of Wise County schools in 1930. Look at all them. I'm guessing most of them were nothing other than one building structures that had grades 1 through 12.  You can see photos of many of them at the great site of wiscountytexas.info. For example, here is a page for Grubb Hill (which was between Bridgeport and Paradise.) 
  • Impeachment news this morning. Trump and the State Department are telling Gordon Sondland not to meet with Congress today for a deposition in the Impeachment Inquiry. Sondland's attorney says he has no choice but to comply with The Party's command. Who is Sondland? He's the guy who, in a text exchange about the Ukraine shakedown, acted like Lance in Pulp Fiction as he urgently said, "Crank call! Crank call!" to Vincent Vega. Trump is telling a favorable witness not to appear? Something's up. And this is about to get ramped up. 
  • That pilot on this front page below sure has a lot of Sully-like self-promotion . . . .   


at 8:30 AM

10.07.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Ellen and George W. at the Cowboy game caused a tad bit of confusion. And why did they cut out Portia de Rossi (in the yellow).
  • And I'm not sure I knew Rupert Murdoch was married to Jerry Hall. (Notable on this weekend of the Joker's debut: She played the love interest of Jack Nicholson's Joker character in the the 1989 Batman film.)
  • I don't know what to make of a witness in the Amber Guyger trial being murdered this weekend. But, despite multiple conspiracy theories, he was far from a "key" witness. (We were talking about him last week in the courthouse but not because of his testimony. Unlike witnesses like a 911 dispatcher who came all dolled up for the cameras, that guy wore a Dragonball Z t-shirt.)
  • Yes, I'm being nit-picky, but someone needs to tell Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins that the county has no jurisdiction in the investigation of crimes within the city of Dallas.  Nor does he speak for the "City of Dallas." 
  • WBAP reported on Saturday morning that Amber Guyger had been moved to Huntsville. I find that hard to believe. Even a routine post-trial motion hearing will require her presence in the Dallas courtroom so it would be surprising to see her shipped by now. 
  • Trump announced late last night that the U.S. is pulling out of northern Syria. Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade ranted this morning that Trump is holding the Kurds out for slaughter by the Turks as they will now move into that area. Kilmeade is 100% right. 
  • Holy crap. Trump's lapdog just weighed in and he's not pleased either: 
  • Flashback: 
  • This legal proceedings behind this case are a little hard to follow (it deals with waiver in habeas proceedings) but the dissent in the case last week was beyond harsh as it criticized two prosecutors and decided to put their bar card numbers in footnotes. 
  • Talk about an easy job. 

  • Remember how I've told you how part of this charlatan's bit is to pretend to know secrets like a sorcerer? He's still at it. 
  • It's the first Monday in October the Supreme Court's term officially begins. On Friday, they decided to hear an abortion case out of Louisiana.  The law is identical to that in a Texas case that the court struck down three years ago. 
  • Trump got mad at a fellow Republican over the weekend. (Someone needs to tell him that Senators can't be impeached.) 
  • In a weird moment in the heartland, the University of Kansas opened its basketball season with "midnight madness" on Friday night with Snoop Dogg and stripper poles. (Video.)
  • Ran across a reference to the first lawyer ever in Wise County as I was skimming the 1907 book, Pioneer History in Wise County. This was about as much as I could find on him: 
  • I didn't know about "the new policy went into effect last month, and requires DPS troopers to have a waist circumference of 40 inches for men, and 35 inches for women." The troopers aren't pleased.
  • Troy Aikman always looks hungover on the Fox broadcasts. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

10.04.2019

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.







at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • ABC News found two of the Amber Guyger jurors. I was pleased to see that neither of them said anything particularly dumb, but we didn't learn anything about their thinking regarding the self defense and mistake of fact issues. It was a horrible interview of these two. 
  • Trump's defense theory on impeachment took a dramatic turn yesterday: Admit on the White House lawn what you've been accused of doing. Think I'm wrong? Let's check in on Fox News' Shepard Smith: 

     
  • He's not the only one at Fox who is breaking with The Party.
  • And his base is not pleased when State TV turns on their leader.
  • Nothing says "holy worship" like an interview during Sunday services of someone who is so toxic that Fox News fired him after you talked with him about Democrats worshiping a pagan god. 
  • The Baylor scandal all started with one allegation. The guy was convicted at trial. The Waco court of appeals reversed it. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals then reversed the Waco appellate court and sent it back for further consideration. The Waco appellate court then reversed the conviction again. On Wednesday, the Court of Criminal Appeals said it wants to review that decision. 
  • Whenever I use two factor authentication and have that three second wait before I get a code on my phone, I feel like a CIA spy when it arrives.
  • There appeared to be a mentally disturbed woman at an AOC rally yesterday who said we should all "eat the babies" in order to stop global warming. Something doesn't seem right. I'm not ruling out that she might be a plant.  Edit: That didn't take long. 
  • Tarleton State will move to Division I football and join the WAC. Over the next ten years they'll make millions of dollars playing away games at Top Ten teams. It'll be brutal, but they'll get rich. (You should have seen me and two other guys at the courthouse trying to figure out Tarleton's move to the WAC when we finally figured out the WAC doesn't play football any longer. Tarlton will compete as an independent in football.)
  • I didn't mention it yesterday, but I saw this official complaint coming. I noted that one of the boys on The Ticket's afternoon show even objected to the judge's actions. "I wonder what the reaction would be if she handed her a Koran," he said. 
  • When Mrs. LL and I went to see Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, one of the previews was the yet-to-be-released-on-the-Internet trailer for Joker. I hadn't even heard anything about the movie. We both rated the trailer a collective "meh."
  • Legal nerd stuff: Yesterday the the Fort Worth Court of Appeals took the extraordinary action of  issuing an opinion on the State's Motion for Rehearing for the sole purpose of adding a footnote to slap down the State's appellate lawyers. It might seem like nothing to the man on the street, but this is the equivalent of an Appellate Public Execution. 
  • Concerning that slap down, I first thought the court was going after the Tarrant County DA's office who was first involved in the appeal. But it wasn't. After the court issued an opinion striking down a statute as unconstitutional, the State Prosecuting Attorney's Office out of Austin made an appearance in the case to flex its muscles and filed the Motion for Rehearing. It is that Motion that the court took to task. So the smack down is basically: Before you ride north to come up here to tell us we were wrong, you might want to at least first read the local DA's original brief. Edit: I faithful reader sent me an alternative theory. Maybe it is at least an "implied slap" at the DA's office for not arguing that the defendant had waived the overbreadth complaint in the first place. 
  • It's good to see that the 1918 massacre of 15 men and boys by Texas Rangers is getting the notice it deserves. (The site finally got a historical marker last year.) Now there's a documentary . . . 
at 8:33 AM

10.03.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Amber Guyger:
    • Yep, that was a heck of a moment. I actually had someone call me from the courthouse as it was happening with a "Are you watching this?! Are you crying!? I bet you're crying!"
    • Legend will have it that the moment occurred in front of the jury and before sentencing.  (WBAP's Brian Estridge said this morning that he thought the moment prompted the jury to give the relatively light 10 year sentence.) It didn't. Texas is weird in that we allow for post-sentencing victim impact statements from the witness stand.
    • I've seen my fair share of victim impact statements. Most people, expecting to be nervous, bring a written statement and read it. And almost all are very bitter. Those who have forgiven tend to forego the opportunity altogether.
    • The judge paused before allowing the brother to hug Amber.  You know, that was a tough call. Can you imagine the hell that have broken lose if the brother had actually been putting on a grand charade and suddenly choked Amber out during the hug? That's exactly why the bailiff can be seen standing in close range.  It seemed like a safe gamble to let him hug her, but a gamble nonetheless.
    • I was surprised by the 10 years. I thought the jury was going to crush her after the quick guilty verdict. 
    • She's eligible for parole in 5 years. I would guess in this case she would actually serve 7 to 8 but that's impossible to predict. But no less than 5 years is guaranteed.
    • If the jury would have found her guilty of Manslaughter and given her 10 years, the parole law would be the same. (That's assuming a Deadly Weapon finding which would have certainly occurred.)
    • I'm not sure there will be an appeal. Amber's team needs to have a serious talk with her about the old adage of, "Be careful what you ask for." Does she really want a new trial? You sure it would be better the second time around? (There was a case out of Wise County within the last year or so where the defendant miraculously received probation and he still appealed and sought a new trial. I had no idea what he was thinking. Fortunately for him, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals did him a favor and affirmed his conviction.) 
    • I'm obviously in the minority, but I wasn't a fan of the judge hugging Amber and giving Amber her personal Bible in public.
      • The video feed should have been shut off at that point -- all aspects of the trial were over -- so that seemed a little bit of playing for the camera. And the judge controlled the camera's on/off switch. 
      • A judge should always be impartial and appear that way for matters pending before her. This case isn't over. There will be post-trial motions to rule on. The case could be reversed and tried again. Or that footage could be used in front of the parole board.
      • What's going to happen the next time a defendant elects for the judge to assess punishment? Say he takes the stand and says, "When I saw the judge hand Amber Guyger her Bible that time and point out John 3:16, I looked that verse up at that very moment. I was a changed man from that point forward because I took it to heart. Thank you, judge."
      • Personal thought: Why did the judge think Amber wasn't familiar with the most famous verse in the Bible? That was a weird "Let me show this verse that you might not have heard of" moment. (The very skeptical part of me thinks that anyone who says John 3:16 is their favorite verse is someone who probably can't name any other verse.)
      • Hey, I'd be fine with the judge doing that behind closed doors and we never heard about it. The case is so unusual and so bizarre that it would fit right in.
    • I saw one legal expert say it was a "compromise verdict." Huh? Heck, they are all compromise verdicts. (It reminds me of a buddy who I was golfing with once who heard one of our party say, while on the green, that "This one is a speed putt." He jumped in with a "[Expletive deleted], they are all speed putts!")
    • If the Amber Guyger case hadn't involved a cop and black man, it would have been plea bargained a long time ago (assuming it even got passed the grand jury.)
  • Our favorite Baptist pastor, oozing with Christian Love, is at it again. (Amazingly, even Fox News fired the radio host who agreed with Jeffress when he said it.) I've said it for years: In the long run, Jeffress will single-handedly destroy the First Baptist Church of Dallas.
    I hope The Onion posts a response from Moloch.
  • Count the red flags out of Wichita Falls. And they even left out of the graphic that (1) he is an English teacher at City View ISD, and (2) he crashed the Corvette.
  • And then there's this guy.
  • I don't know if we should be concerned that he can't spell "moat" or that he didn't deny that part of the story where he wanted Border Patrol agents to shoot border-crossers in the legs. 
  • Every person in the right half of this photo from a September 1st meeting in Poland with the president of the Ukraine is probably a tad-bit nervous (except John Bolton.)  Trump has been throwing Pence under the bus lately with a weird He-did-the-same-thing-I-did defense.   Rick Perry might be next. 
  • These are strange days when Trump posts an attack video on Joe Biden accompanied by  a Nickelback song only to have Twitter take it down because of formal copyright complaint. And I think we can all agree on a formal impeachment article based upon him making Photograph get stuck her in our heads.
  • At least four local churches are involved in the "Blessing of the Animals" or "Blessing of the Pets" this week. I think that's a funny bit which I support. (Am I in trouble for calling it a bit?)

at 8:28 AM
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