Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

I had some nuggets for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. 

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• We've got a temporary deal in the Israel/Hamas war. I think both sides have the potential to screw this up.  
  
  
  
• Nothing like a small plane crashing in one of the most heavily populated areas on the metroplex. The pilot is dead. From the best I can tell, he hasn't been publicly identified yet.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Overnight: Well, that was a wild week for this guy.  And the Board of Directors should have typed "What happens if we fire our CEO?" into ChatGPT before they did so.
  
  
  
• Every year we are subjected to the same lie: That this is the biggest travel day of the year at airports.  And every year a at least one local affiliate will send a reporter out to DFW Airport or Love Field for a live spot to, inevitably, show empty lines. Exhibit A this morning:
  
  
  
• What does this mean? A re-enactment/cosplay?
  
  
  
• Why this fluff piece by NBC? According to the story, Roger Williams shook JFK's hand in Fort Worth that morning. So, according to my calculations, that makes him, along with tens/hundreds of thousands of others at the airports and along the parade route, as among those who were "the last people to see" Kennedy. Weird. 
  
  
  
• JFK in Fort Worth that morning:
  
  
  
• Man, I'm hearing good things about this. A stream from National Geographic. (You can watch it at that link, but it requires you to login with your TV provider credentials.)
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: I called the Tarrant County D.A. "inexperienced" yesterday. He helped my case moments later by calling the Intoxilyzer test the "breathalyzer."  There is no one who practices in the area of Texas criminal law who calls it a breathalyzer. The public does, but not those who actually work in the area. 
  
  
  
  
• Hey, we might be in the end times "but you've still got just enough time to buy my book!"  (And he actually said you could go to church or by his book.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I'm really not grumpy today. Promise.
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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

From a criminal defense standpoint, that photo just hurts. Background of this weird Texas case is here. It was affirmed on appeal. 

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• David Spiller (R-Jacksboro) issued a statement yesterday defending his pro-school voucher vote.  The proposal was defeated. 
• Calling it "school choice", like Gov. Abbott does, is disingenuous. If you want to send your kid to a private Christian school, knock yourself out. No one should stop you, and you already have a 100% absolute right to do that. Just don't use tax dollars to pay for your kid's tuition. 
• The face of the Ken Paxton impeachment, the overly-mustached Andrew Murr, has announced he will not seek re-election. 
  
  
  
• Seems bad. The military destroys a lot of planes in accidents:
  
  
  
• Wichita Falls says it's OK for teachers to show tattoos so long as the are "appropriate."  (They've got a free speech problem if they are going to censor them based upon content.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The War on Drugs is alive and well as the inexperienced new DA in Tarrant County tries to make headlines.  Prosecution and cages is not the ultimate answer to the problem. Never has been, never will be. 
  
  
  
• Black market fentanyl is a problem, and it can kill you. But posts like below by DPS are simply a lie.  Let's say DPS seizes 1% of all fentanyl (a ridiculously high guess since 0.00001% or less is probably more accurate). In any event, if it's 1% then that means for DPS's post to be true that 43.065 billion pills -- each one deadly -- made it through to the streets.  Bodies would be piled up on the sidewalks. 
  
  
  
• Watchdog Media Matters pointed out that an ad you buy on Twitter might show up next to anti-Jewish tweets and other crazy crap, so Elon Musk, who claims to be a free speech absolutist, sued them yesterday. It's a silly lawsuit lawsuit (pdf) which has no chance of not being dismissed. (And if you read it, it basically says Media Matters had to hit "refresh" a bunch of times until the anti-Jewish tweets actually showed up next to an ad. Ummkay.)
  
  
  
• Then things got weirder. Texas AG Ken Paxton, the epitome of virtue, announced he has started a state investigation into Media Matters. What a waste of taxpayer dollars -- and what a scary authoritarian tactic.  A rich man snaps his fingers because he got his feelings hurt over what someone said, and the government jumps to punish that entity's free speech. That's fascism with oligarchy as the chaser. I keep saying we are headed to a dark place. Heck, we are already there. 
  
  
  
• Back to Musk, he oddly picked some small firm DFW metroplex lawyers to file his lawsuit, and he chose Fort Worth as a venue in hopes of getting a crazy Trump federal judge. But you know who one of the firms is composed of? Former Paxton AG lawyers. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The New York Times with a front page article on how the very life of democracy is flashing before our eyes. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Let's check in on the MyPillow guy. Oh, there he is yesterday with Steve Bannon while wearing a tin foil hat. Really. 
  
  
  
• A faithful reader, the great Bud Kennedy, sent me the following after seeing the awkward headline I printed yesterday about the Kennedy assassination. One week after Kennedy's death, Texas beat the Aggies with third string quarterback Tommy Wade leading the way. That led to this lede in the Austin American Statesman. Oh, my: 
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Don't do that. 
  
  
  
• TCU is getting (more) pricey. "It is the largest percentage increase since at least 2011, raising undergraduate tuition to around $61,643 before fees, books, room and board."
  
  
  
• A guy named Vladimir de Franceschi just filed for Congressional House District 26, which will become open next year and which includes Wise County.  I looked him up. He's probably smarter than all of us. 
• Lost of civil cases on the dismissal docket in district court in Wise County today. Speak now or forever . . . . 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Had forgotten about that. There were lots of JFK posts this week 10 years ago 

because of the 50th anniversary. 

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• This story happened on Friday, and that's one heck of a photo to go along with it. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• On Friday, the Texas House bravely voted in favor of an amendment that killed school vouchers from the school funding bill.  Unfortunately, local reps didn't join in. (A no vote was to keep school vouchers in the bill.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• There are strange things happening with the leadership of OpenAI, the leader in AI in the United States, the creator of ChatGPT, and and the company that Microsoft has invested $6 billion in.
• On Friday, the Board of Directors, without notice and without any reason given, fired the "father of AI" and its CEO, Sam Altman. There was no hint of malfeasance, just a disagreement over "vision." It caught everyone off-guard. 
  
  
  
• On Saturday, after an investor revolt, there was a crazy effort to reinstate him and have the Board of Directors resign instead.
  
  
  
• On Sunday, Altman was hired by Microsoft as head of a new "AI team", and OpenAI hired the former head of Twitch as interim CEO. 
  
  
  
• Now most of the employees want the board to resign or they will -- and head to Microsoft's new AI team. You know, this could be the biggest thing to happen to Microsoft since Windows. 
• Our governor is the ultimate lapdog.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hey, look, not only were your tax dollars used on this, but the $345,250 Man was there, too! 
  
• Dallas has a weird relationship with JFK and although I'm a big fan of the Sixth Floor Museum, I'm not so sure about those banners they have up right now. Story.
  
  
  
• How that guy is the richest man in the world is one of the world's greatest mystery. 
  
  
  
  
• Fun little sport wrap up on this holiday week: 
• That's quite the tidbit they offered up:
  
  
  
• Auburn scheduled New Mexico State as a cupcake opponent this weekend, but it backfired with a 31-10 loss. But this fact is wild: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Kim Mulkey had a bizarre press conference with focus on her star player not being with the team, and then ended it saying she might have COVID or the flu and didn't care if others got it.  Video.
  
  
  
• I can't get enough of The Sphere on the Vegas strip (where the F1 race was this weekend.)
  
  
  
• Scenarios to get to the  Big 12 Championship game are mind-numbing.