Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Two flashback basketball thoughts from my very younger days: (1) "Three [free throws] to make two", and (2) Girls six person basketball where there were three offensive players on one end and three defensive players on the other -- and all could not cross half court. (I'd like to see that again.)
• The great documentarian Ken Burns absolutely went off on Trump at a commencement speech at Stanford over the weekend. “He is an insult to our history,” Burns said. “Do not be deceived by his momentary good behavior. It is only a spoiled, misbehaving child hoping somehow to still have dessert.”
• Two thoughts on "watch lists": (1) The fact that the government has one at all is a little Orwellian, (2) So far the concept has been wildly unsuccessful. When the government watches everyone -- NSA -- they are in effect watching no one. 
• "Philly journalist buys AR-15 in 7 minutes."  I saw that headline and used The Google to try and find one for sell nearby from a legitimate merchant. I came across this page from Cheaper Than Dirt.)
• I've been trying to collect 500 signatures to get on the ballot in November as an Independent. I'm getting there, but I still have a significant way to go. Email me at rx@wisecounty.com if you want to help. We'll do the footwork. We have nine days to go, and I don't want to take us to DEFCON 1. 

"Get the ICBMs in the bullpen warmed up

and ready to fly."

"You don't tell your pappy how to court the electorate.

We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're mass communicating'"

• One of life's greatest joys: When another lawyer in town drops by with a few home grown tomatoes. 
• A Richland Hills guy had a friend place a "Pick Six" bet for him at Lone Star Park on races being run at Belmont Park. The result? A $486 bet turned into $702,114. The largest win ever at Lone Star. 
• I remember being at Lone Star Park about 15 years ago and after the first race I went to collect my winnings (probably $5). The guy in front of me who was about my age told the cashier that "this is going to be big" so I began to watch. The cashier scanned his ticket, looked at the screen, disappeared for a minute and then came back with over $3,000 in cash. The guy took the money, looked at me, and said, "I'm outta here."
• Orlando victims: The oldest was 50. The youngest was 19.
• Sheriff Joe, in a move which will probably secure him the Nobel Peace Prize, announced he is postponing his birthday party in light of the Orlando shootings.
• Everyone, especially The Ticket, is giving Baylor the business on this Art Briles issue. I just want to ask them to pull out a piece of paper and write down everything Briles did wrong. Not sins of omission but sins of commission. The problem is that no one knows.

The Deadline Nears -- We've Gone To DEFCON 2

Edit: If you've got forms you haven't turned in, I need them. Pronto!

Ok, as some of you guys know, I have filed a Declaration of Intent to run for District Attorney as an Independent. However, the Declaration doesn't put me on the ballot. While traditional candidates of the two party system simply get to pay a filing fee to get on the ballot, the government doesn't like rebels and requires Independent candidates to collect 500 signatures to simply give voters  a choice in November.

I've recently sent out many letters to people who I think would be willing to help in collecting signatures, but I'm sure I've forgotten some names. Also, I might simply be unaware of some people who would be willing to help.

If you haven't heard from me, I still want and need your help. If you want to sign the petition or simply collect a handful of signatures, HERE is where you need to go.

If you don't want to do it for me, do it because you are sick and tired of a two party system. Signing the petition isn't a vote for me -- it just gets me on the ballot. And there is nothing more disheartening than going to vote in November without any contested races in Wise or Jack counties. So do it so you can at least have a choice in November, If you like me, you'll be able to vote for me. If you hate me, you'll get the satisfaction of voting against me. Everybody wins!

(The history of how I got to this point can be found by clicking on the tab above labeled "The Campaign For DA.")

Trouble At Weatherford College

Story. Obviously relevant to Wise County because of the campus between Bridgeport and Decatur.

(Thanks to a faithful reader.)

Other Crazy News From Friday

We had the kidnapping and murder of a guy at a DFW airport last week which prompted Arlington Police to release a video of a robbery which might be similar. They guy walks back to his car around the 1:00 mark and the robbers show up at around 1:25.

The camera from inside the store is even more frightening:



Image:

Foreshadowing

This is haunting... President Obama responding to a Pro-Gun Advocate just last week... wow. pic.twitter.com/bNHce8ZuHb

— RickyFTW (@rickyftw) June 12, 2016

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Chip Brown of Horns Digest, who correctly predicted Ken Starr's demise, reported this morning that the Baylor Board of Regents will vote this morning on the proposition of giving Art Briles only a one year suspension and then reinstating him. (Bleacher Report has confirmed the news.) Right or wrong, this has been a cluster. 
• Donald Trump got a lot of attention because of his tweets yesterday but he started earlier in the weekend with: "Goofy Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to as Pocahontas, pretended to be a Native American in order to advance her career. Very racist!" That man is full throttle. 
• I blew past the Borat movie over the weekend but happened to see the scene where he is in Manhatten. One image captures him standing in front of a "Trump University" sign.
• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick claims that his controversial tweet after the Orlando Murders was just a coincidence. Maybe. But after you go on anti-LGBT rants for months, you really don't get the benefit of the doubt. (Side note: He was "out of the country". Where, why, and are we paying for it?)
• A video has surfaced of the moment the gunfire began.
• Overshadowed in the mass shooting is the murder Friday night of Christina Grimmie - a former contestant on The Voice. She was shot a point blank range while signing autographs in . . .  Orlando.
• There were 300 people  in the Orlando club at 2:00 a.m. closing time? That's one happening club.
• There's an Uber type company advertising on The Ticket with a twist: They promise to get you home from the bar by sending two guys: One to get you home and one to drive your car home with you.
• "Hundreds of baby lawyers who graduated from law school just last month will make $180,000 or more working at corporate law firms in Texas this next year — $9,000 more than the state pays Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht." Thoughts: (1) That $180K job looks nice, but it is the worst job in the world. You work long hours producing nothing of substance and charge people outrageous sums for your time. (2) But their pay is more justified than the work schedule of a Texas Supreme Court justice. (3) The $180K makes people want to go to law school only to find out that once they graduate it's hard to find a job.
• Miranda vs. Arizona was decided 50 years ago today on a 5-4 vote. And no decision has been more misunderstood than Miranda by the public. No, the police do not have to read you your rights. They do have to read you your rights if you are in custody and want to interrogate you. (Here's a picture of Mr. Miranda who died in 1976 at age 34 after being stabbed in a bar.)
• The annoying professional networking site LinkedIn which bombards you with emails is about to be bought by Microsoft for $26.2 billion. Dear Microsoft: You've lost your way and your mind.
• I watched the first episode of the 30 for 30's O.J.: Made In America. Other than the first five minutes showing a parole hearing, I was underwhelmed. 
• "BELLEVUE, OH - Three women are under arrest after they assaulted a McDonald's employee because she was working too slowly in serving them. In their booking photos, two of the women appear to be smiling after their arrests." Let's take a look . . . 
  
• Did the cops at Love Field really need to shoot the guy who was armed at one point with rocks? Seems like a great place for a taser.

News Of A Historic Mass Shooting At A Gay Nightclub This Morning

[Edit: WOW! That was just the early news report. Now the news is reporting at least 50 dead]

Edit: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick chimed in this morning:

His spokesman claims it was pre-approved days ago -- but it has not been taken down.

The previous top five:

32 killed – April 16, 2007 – Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. A gunman, 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho, goes on a shooting spree killing 32 people in two locations and wounds an undetermined number of others on campus. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho then commits suicide.

27 killed – December 14, 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School – Newtown, Connecticut. Adam Lanza, 20, guns down 20 children, ages six and seven, and six adults, school staff and faculty, before turning the gun on himself. Investigating police later find Nancy Lanza, Adam’s mother, dead from a gunshot wound. The final count is 28 dead, including the shooter.

23 killed – October 16, 1991 – In Killeen, Texas, 35-year-old George Hennard crashes his pickup truck through the wall of a Lubys Cafeteria. After exiting the truck, Hennard shoots and kills 23 people. He then commits suicide.

21 killed – July 18, 1984 – In San Ysidro, California, 41-year-old James Huberty, armed with a long-barreled Uzi, a pump-action shotgun and a handgun shoots and kills 21 adults and children at a local McDonalds. A police sharpshooter kills Huberty one hour after the rampage begins.

18 killed – August 1, 1966 – In Austin, Texas, Charles Joseph Whitman, a former U.S. Marine, kills 16 and wounds at least 30 while shooting from a University of Texas tower. Police officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy shoot and kill Whitman in the tower. Whitman had also killed his mother and wife earlier in the day.

Above The Fold

Readable PDF.

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

Gunfire At Love Field! Video!

Holy... RT @BradfordPearson: There was just a shooting at Dallas' Love Field airport. Video (not graphic): https://t.co/Co8p8EGmjl

— Alice Wolke (@alicewolke) June 10, 2016

#BREAKING @wfaachannel8 video of vehicle outside @DallasLoveField widows shot out,rocks on hood. pic.twitter.com/cV7UaM9nBz

— Cody W Marcom (@WfaaCody) June 10, 2016

The Government Do Take A Bite Out

Texas Supreme Court rules that civil-asset forfeiture is OK even if evidence of a crime was illegally seized: https://t.co/bzdjOwKssT

— Chuck Lindell (@chucklindell) June 10, 2016

So how does this work?

Example: Cops make traffic stop of you in your $25,000 paid off car. They find a minuscule amount of dope after illegally searching the vehicle without probable cause or consent. Cops arrest you and refer case to prosecutor. Prosecutor notices the illegal search but files a lawsuit to take the car.

Criminal case = Thrown out since dope cannot be used against you.  You're free.
Forfeiture case = Government takes your car despite the illegal search.

(I'll give credit to the tweeting judge Willett who concurred in the opinion but dropped a huge hint in a footnote suggesting that the Court needs to be presented with a "clean constitutional challenge" to the Texas forfeiture system. It's technical, but he's saying "Don't argue whether the exclusionary rule applies to civil forfeiture cases. Instead, attack the whole system on Due Process grounds.")

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Mark Cuban was on CNN last night and Fox News this morning giving his opinions about the Presidential campaign. Why not have Jerry Jones on? They are equally qualified.
• A name of a person who attended Ali's memorial service yesterday which I had not heard of in quite some time: Louis Farrakhan.
• I had to swerve to miss hitting a huge feral hog this morning on 380.
• Heck of a fire yesterday in a high tone Dallas neighborhood:
  
• 
  
• I wrote about this yesterday: "On Wednesday, a Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict McIver on the attempted capital murder and drug possession charges. Prosecutors quickly refiled the same two charges against McIver." One thing I didn't mention is the odd statement that prosecutors had "refiled" the charges.  True, they can get the case before a grand jury again but there is no "refiling" to be done.  To get a case initially started, 99 times out of 100 law enforcement just hands their report over to the DA. It becomes nothing more than a physical file in the DA's office and not available to the public and no "charges" are filed with any clerk at that time. It can be presented to the grand jury, but it doesn't have to be "filed" anywhere first. If a grand jury indicts the case, it is then "filed" with the district clerk and the case receives a public cause number. So if a case is no-billed, how exactly is the case "re-filed" by the DA? (The guy is still in jail by the way even thought the grand jury said the evidence was insufficient.)
• Texas man says he was choked because he smiled during a book in photo. Ok, buddy. You got any proof? . . . 
  
• OK.
• With all this talk about Ali, I recalled an equally famous boxer during his day: Galveston's own Jack Johnson. Ken Burns did a fantastic documentary on him once called "Unforgivable Blackness." He was married three times -- all to white women, and was sentenced to prison for a trumped up violation of the Mann Act (" The Mann Act prohibited the transfer of women across state lines for immoral purposes" which I presume means more than taking a girlfriend to Vegas.) And look at this crowd at a match in 1908 -- in Australia.
• Last night I watched the first 40 minutes of Episode 1, Season 1 of Game of Thrones. Pretty, pretty good.
• Disturbing: A 42 year old guy at a Shell Station near DFW Airport sees some guys trying to steal his rent car, he tries to stop them, and ends up kidnapped and murdered. Intriguing: He was followed to the gas station.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released thirty years ago tomorrow. (Other big films of 1986: Top Gun, Stand By Me, Platoon, Pretty In Pink, Peggy Sue Got Married, 9 1/2 Weeks, The Money Pit, and Three Amigos. Notice the lack of super heroes and explosions.)
• Idiocracy: The fact the WFAA has a cop in full uniform named "Sgt. Nick" doing the traffic in the mornings.
• Arlington PD seized 72,000 pills of Xanax.  They wanted to know "what you could do" with them. 
• Big story yesterday: "Officials within the Obama administration believe that at least a dozen former detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba are responsible for attacks that killed roughly six Americans in Afghanistan." Buried within the story: "[A]ll the former detainees involved were released during the George W. Bush administration."

Presidential Twitter Wars!

Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump:https://t.co/5cToeuS00C

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 9, 2016

Gun News

BREAKING—9th Cir. says there's no 2A right for the general public to carry concealed firearms in public. ⚖ #SCOTUShttps://t.co/OoIEcAvvma

— Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) June 9, 2016

So what's the bottom line? If that decision were to apply to the whole country then the States have all the power. A State wants to ban all concealed carry? Fine. A State wants to put extreme limits on concealed carry? Fine. A State wants to let everyone conceal carry without any regulation? Fine.

This is a perfect example of a court case which will get groups like the Tea Party up in arms when it really supports their basic philosophical tenet: State's rights.

A Chain Is Only As Strong As . . .

When your boy trips on the 1-yard line... 😩😩😩https://t.co/rSGdtK2Siv

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 9, 2016

Blurred Lines Indeed

The former Stanford student, 20, was "convicted on three counts of sexual assault last week and Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to just six months in county jail and probation, saying that a longer sentence in prison would 'severely impact' the college swimmer’s life.

• Ok, this post has nothing to do with the sentence. This has to do with how you, the public, are being pandered to by a Congressman. 
• First, the Congressman is Ted Poe from Texas and a former prosecutor and district judge. He isn't dumb.
• Or is he? The case he is arguing about is a California state prosecution.  It was not a federal case. Congress has nothing to do with state prosecutions. It's high school Civics 101.
• And even if it were a federal case, he's out of order to even have an official opinion on a criminal judgment and sentence. He only makes laws. He has nothing to do with how they are enforced or interpreted or applied.  He would lose on "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" if the question concerned Separation of Powers.
• The defendant idiotically appealed (unless he is seeking an acquittal instead of a retrial) the case. But Poe shows a complete misunderstanding for the basic framework of criminal law: "Poe also said he is 'glad this arrogant defendant has appealed his case,' adding that this appeal will give the court an opportunity to give the former Stanford swimmer a harsher sentence." That's just flat wrong. An appellate court can reverse a case but Poe seems to think they can just change a sentence and make it higher on appeal. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 
• He is grandstanding about an issue he has nothing to do with. And he knows it.

From The Rangers Game The Other Day

One of the most hypnotic things I have ever seen.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• If you ever wanted proof that a grand jury serves no purpose read this story: "A Tarrant County grand jury on Wednesday rebuffed prosecutors and declined to indict a 21-year-old Parker County man accused of participating in the shooting of Fort Worth police officer Matt Pearce in March. Prosecutors quickly refiled charges of attempted capital murder and possession of a controlled substance against Ed Russell McIver Jr. of Weatherford." There is no double jeopardy issues. The prosecutor will simply just wait until there's a new grand jury and keep trying until they get an indictment. Fair?
• If you can't get passed your own grand jury, how do you expect to get past an impartial jury who must be convinced of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? 
• I heard they had released a few tickets to Muhammad Ali's funeral to the public. Members of the public then turned around and tried to sell them online.
• Anyone think the NBA playoffs are fixed to get as many games in as possible?
• Disturbing pic of the morning: One car fatality accident shuts down I-35 in Dallas.
• Whatever happened to my nemesis Ann Curry?
• Heard in the Wise County district courtroom yesterday morning: "The only thing I listen to are the imaginary voices in my wife's head." 
• Random football program cover: The TCU vs. SMU cover from 1970 was very flamboyant.
• I got a replacement credit card the other day. New for me: No raised numbers on the front. In fact, the numbers are just printed on the back. And it also has a chip which I think means "You'll be confused as to whether the merchant wants you to slide it on the scanner or insert it underneath, and it will take 30 seconds to approve once you've figured that part out." 
• There has been an ongoing debate on The Ticket about whether the "Chewbacca Mom" was faking the laugh. After hours of deliberation, my verdict is: Absolutely guilty.
• In the newest "no body" murder case, a judge has been hearing pre-trial motions in the Enrique Arochi prosecution in Collin County. Watch for this: The defense filed for a change of venue with supporting affidavits (a requirement). The State, I believe, didn't file controverting affidavits (which, unbeknownst to them, is also a requirement). If the judge doesn't move the trial, it is automatic error. (Or at least it used to be.)
• The valedictorian of Boyd High School (in McKinney, not Boyd) is an undocumented alien. She has a full scholarship to Yale. Would Trump send her back?
• Oh, and an honors graduate from an Austin high school, who is also an undocumented alien, has received a full ride to the University of Texas.