Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

 

• Texas hospitalizations - a tick up from yesterday. 
  
  
  
• Alvord ISD is opening up its bank account.
  
  
  
• Here's the first person in the world to get the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine (outside of those in the test group.) That's Margaret Keenan, 90, getting the injection in England a few hours ago.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I'm confused as to how the Law and Order crowd are now defending an anti-lockdown guy after he drove into a deputy. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Oh, come on. (But to think the social media person up at the Wichita Falls didn't get a single comment in response to this headline.)
  
  
  
  
• Trump is catching grief for walking out of the Oval Office and leaving a new Medal of Freedom recipient awkwardly addressing the crowd. (Video.) I don't think that's his fault. There should have been a staff member immediately say, "Thanks everyone. Guests, please make your way to [x room] for refreshments. Media, please exit through [certain door.]" (I actually saw that exact scene happen on House of Cards the other day.)
  
  
  
  
• This is real. There's even a trailer for it. "Mario Lopez as Colonel Sanders." I don't know how much KFC paid to pull this off, but it's a great advertising bit. 
  
  
  
• Ted Cruz knows the Supreme Court isn't going to sniff any case coming out of Pennsylvania or anywhere else. The election lawsuits were trash, and he's perfectly aware of that. This stunt is no different than KFC doing a bit on Lifetime. Look at me! Look at me! And so much for being a State's rights guy.  (Edit: I just noticed that the Texas AG did something nuttier this morning.)
  
  
  
• Hey, more power to them. But who would have ever thought that a residential lot would cost twice as much as the Louisiana Purchase?  Here's the Google Maps link to the island which is a stone's throw from Miami Beach.  Here's the real estate listing for "Lot 4."
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Second Amendment Alert! 
• I've got lots of questions over this story by Dave "The Watchdog" Lieber in last weekend's Dallas Morning News. It's about a guy from Aledo who brandished a weapon in the back of a truck during the Parker County marches this summer. 
  
  
  
• The story says he was charged with a misdemeanor offense after-the-fact because of it. Really? Was his conduct any different than the run-of-the-mill "open carry" guy? And the charge arose out of a complaint that some lady sent in from Ohio. The cops on the scene didn't even say a word to him at the time. You kidding me?  
• Wouldn't the Second Amendment boys in Parker County (and across the nation for that matter) go nuts over this? Wouldn't the office of the prosecutor, Parker County Attorney John Forrest, be flooded with phone calls? Why haven't we heard about of this? 
• But the article is crappy.  It doesn't even call into question the legality of the charge. And we don't get to learn of the status of the criminal case. 
• So I searched the Parker County's county criminal records are online. Curiously, he actually was arrested for the alleged offense, but I don't see a criminal case against him. (If it got filed in Weatherford Municipal court instead of a JP court, it wouldn't show up online. It could have been filed in either court.) Edit: I'm wrong about that. It would have to be filed in the County Court at Law since it is a Class B. See Penal Code 42.01(a)(8) and 42.01(d). Thus, it has not been filed according to online records.
  
  
  
  
• The article didn't even mention what he thought about the arrest or whether he is fighting the charge. Did I mention the article was crappy? 
• Legal nerd note: To those curious as to whether it is actually crime, the statute technically says it is against the law if you "intentionally and knowingly, in a manner calculated to alarm, display a firearm in a public place." Your guess as to what that means is as good as mine. Texas highest criminal court actually had to deal with that issue involving that part of the statute in 2019.
• Sheesh. Mugshots as Christmas ornaments. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Remember how beaten down we were from all the political TV ads a month ago? Well, can you imagine what it is like in Georgia right now with the control of the U.S. Senate hanging in the balance? TV ad spending already has hit $280 million and should reach a half billion by election day. Those poor TV watchers.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• s
• Texas hospitalizations:
• trump military coup and russia
• https://twitter.com/SmileItsNathan/status/1334717201195040768
• luther wise county totals and the extra money she received. $500k go fund me
• plenty of perjury
• tiger's kid
• lou dobbs and others
• something about Aggie I'm scared of Oklahoma my baylor graphic 
• Rose Bowl at Jerry World
• Dont understand when two NFC oppenents meet on CBS
• 
  
• s

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

New video into the @wcco newsroom shows the plane landing on 35W last night and colliding with a vehicle! The State Patrol reported no injuries. pic.twitter.com/tkabShah3J

— Guy Still (@mplstvguy) December 3, 2020

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Well that was unexpected 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/ldIbEkpcd8

— CCTV_IDIOTS (@cctv_idiots) December 4, 2020

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pic.twitter.com/4EjgLTyHee

— Perfectly Cut Screams (@AAAAAGGHHHH) December 4, 2020

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Hold my beer while I break into this store. pic.twitter.com/DtD9xHBKLf

— Hold My Beer (@holdmyale) December 4, 2020

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 

• Texas Hospitalizations: +42. The only question now is whether it will surpass the Summer Wave.  This one isn't as steep but its incline has already gone on longer and still growing. 
  
  
  
  
• There were 244 deaths recorded in Texas yesterday. You have to wonder how many of those people who were in the hospital and, therefore, weren't counted in yesterday's  9,151. 
• All time record deaths in U.S. yesterday: 2,857.
• The "19-county North Texas region" set the second highest record for the number of new cases ever yesterday with 1,894 reported.
• 81 Tarrant County jailers have the COVID.
• And to bring it all close to home: Links to watch Judge Melton Cude's funeral at 2:00 p.m. today from the First Baptist Church in Decatur:
• Facebook
• Youtube
• I'm still rattled by that. Wear a mask. 
• I you haven't seen the video of last night's assault of a referee by an Edinburg High School football player, here ya go. 
  
  
  
  Photo credit: Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP. 

• Has anyone collected Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's $1 million prize for election fraud yet? 
• They used the Panama Canal?
  
  
  
• I've been informed that all the gentlemen who appeared in photos in the Los Angeles Times this past weekend (which I linked to yesterday) are from Wise County.  So Fred Jones and Chase Lasater, rest assured your friends and family let me know about it. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I had no idea there are online archives of a newspaper, The Frontier Echo, which was published in  the 1870s in Jacksboro. That's the 1870s and not the 1970s. 
  
  
  
• Presented without comment other than a link to the Wise County Zillow listing which got this gal's attention. 
  
  
  
• Random small town Texas criminal justice news here. But the story notes that the Texas Attorney General's Office will be named as special prosecutor which almost guarantees an acquittal.  (They've shown up twice in Wise County as special prosecutors: Not guilty on one and a directed verdict of acquittal on the other.)
  
  
  
• I was standing right there at the base of capitol a year ago when I asked a cop at what level the swearing in took place. He told me the first level. I couldn't envision it. A photo published yesterday of the ongoing construction of the temporary stands and platforms helps me out in that regard: 
  
  
  
• One last COVID note:

• Longhorn Nation went on a hunt this week to discover if Urban Meyer was actually making a TV appearance while secretly secluded at Austin's Horseshoe Bay. Curtain rod? Ceiling fan? (It didn't really pan out, but it was fun.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 518 days.
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

 

• Texas hospitalizations: +62.  
  
  
  
• Record deaths in U.S. yesterday: 2,777.
• Record number of new cases in U.S. yesterday: 200,070.
• Wise County hog hunters were featured in a front page story in the Los Angeles Times last weekend. Link. Trey Hawkins even got color photos in the newspaper. He's gone all Hollywood on us. 
  
  
  
• Arizona's newest U.S. Senator was sworn in yesterday. Big kudos for the other Arizona senator, Krysten Sinema, with the purple hair. Mrs. LL? You're on the clock.  (That's not the senator who had the wild leather boots on a while back, is it?)
  
  
  
• As COVID spreads throughout Texas at the quickest rate ever, there are some numb-nuts like former state Rep. Jonathon Stickland (who endorses Shelley Luther) who think Gov. Abbott needs to ease restrictions and stop "being a tyrant." What restrictions?
  
  
  
• In addition to doing great political polling tracking, 538.com also tracks things like how concerned Americans are about the spread of COVID-19.  I'm telling you, no matter what the issue, there are 1/3 of all Americans who are just "out there."  
  
  
  
• A response filed late yesterday to one of Sidney Powell's crazy Kraken lawsuits pulled no punches: 
  
  
  
• Speaking of incompetence: 
  
  
  
• Rudy brought a lady to a "hearing" in Michigan yesterday who was apparently channeling a drunk Victoria Jackson* as she sparred with a fellow Republican. Watch. (*A dated reference yet an accurate one.)
  
  
  
• There were six people killed in a crash near Snyder last Friday. I noticed a Bridgeport name: 
  
  
  
• Warning: Here comes legal nerdy stuff. Double warning: I offer conclusive proof that I am The Premier Legal Genius in the Southwest Proper. 
• Remember the crazy Amber Guyger trial last year?  The Dallas cop who killed Botham Jean while he was in his own apartment?
  
  
  
• Back then, I was listening to a replay of one of the final day's proceedings when I heard the judge read the jury the "Court's Charge" (the jury instructions). I fell out of my chair because, based upon the way it was worded, the judge basically told them to find her not guilty. Spoiler: They jury didn't. 
• The wording was simply wrong, and I couldn't believe it had been given.  I was so amazed by it that I even went to the trouble of sitting down and transcribing what the the judge read and wrote a long post about it the next morning. (I care that much about you, dear reader.) 
• At the time, I heard no one else say what I had observed: The jury was told to acquit Amber if she simply believed she had gone to her own apartment. Heck, that fact was undisputed. 
• And it was far worse than that. The court's charge put the burden on the State: The jury was told to acquit unless they believed the State had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Amber did not believe she was in her apartment. 
• Here's a small portion of what I wrote: 
  

• And here comes the part that proves I'm a modern day Oliver Wendell Holmes disguised as a backwoods Wise County country lawyer. The Dallas County D.A.'s office recently filed its brief on appeal and they, after months of study, have finally discovered exactly what I was trying to point out at the time. 
• The prosecutors are now freaking out about that very wording in the charge.  Here's an excerpt of their brief which, after quoting the charge just like I did, complained that it should have never been given. What they wrote should sound pretty, pretty familiar now: 
  
  
  
  
  
• I had written, "Holy cow. That's insane." They wrote: "That's open season [to kill]"!
• I wrote: "Do you understand how that literally reads?" They wrote: "Read it again"! 
• Have I mentioned that I'm simple country lawyer who was just listening to the court's charge on the radio and heard something in real time that a roomful of silk-suited boys in Dallas at the time did not. Do I need another trophy?
• The next day I was driven more nuts that Amber's lawyers didn't take advantage of the error by jumping up and down during closing argument with the charge, as written, in front of the jury. It was fair game then.
• I would have highlighted those important words on the hard copy of the charge and held it up like I was Moses presenting the Ten Commandments to partying Israelites. I would have blown it up the big screen. And then I would have read that part of the court's charge with all the passion of a soap opera star trying to convince his mistress not to call his wife: "Look at the law that the judge has given you! Look what she has told you in her own words." Like I said, it was a gift to the defense, but they didn't use it. 
• Here's triple legal nerdy stuff, but if you've read this far, here goes: The fact that the Dallas D.A.'s office brings this jury charge error up in their brief, as a "cross-point" no less, is really weird. It doesn't matter to Amber's appeal at all. The incorrect wording in the charge wasn't (and couldn't have been) one of Amber's points of error because the error had no impact on the verdict. Any insufficient evidence Amber has raised on appeal must be based upon what the law is (the "hypothetically correct jury charge") and not the law given to the jury. Amber's lawyer even filed a reply brief pointing this out, and said the D.A.'s office was just trying to get an advisory opinion on an irrelevant matter. I'm guessing they are just worried about other Dallas judges using the that same form in the future. 
• There's always basketball: #2 Baylor beat #5 Illinois last night, 82-69. On Saturday, we get #2 Baylor vs. #1 Gonzaga at noon. 
• Crazy football breaking news: Undefeated BYU and undefeated Coastal Carolina just got scheduled for this weekend. 
• If there is any question that government is one of our America's biggest employers and a major cog in the economy, the City of Fort Worth has bought the Pier 1 building for around $90 million: 
  
  
  
  

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Texas Hospitalizations: We cracked 9,000.
  
  
  
• WFAA's Rebecca Lopez's mother passed away from COVID, as did the mayor-pro-tem in Grand Prairie, as did a Denton County deputy constable. 
  
  
  
• Gov. Abbott endorsed Drew Springer over Shelley Luther yesterday. Luther was then passive-aggressive on Twitter. 
  
  
  
• Even Bill Barr can't bring himself to stoop to the level of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
  
  
  
• Sean Hannity was pondering a question last night. And to think they were obsessed with the conduct of President-Elect Joe Biden's son for months. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Ticket's Dan McDowell posted this picture of a Grapevine fitness center and their very odd COVID prevention measures for the exercise bikes.
  
  
  
• Having my outdoor Christmas lights on a timer makes me feel like a technological wizard. 
• I feel old because every time there is any news story about any social media "influencer" I have no idea who they are talking about. 
  
  
  
• Hey, we all get to ride dirty for a few months. Good. Mine expires this month. 
  
  
  
• I had almost forgotten about Chris Faulkner after he was in my cross-hairs for years because of being an absolute fraud and huckster. Here's the update. He used to be a sponsor of the 660AM's podcast of the Mark Davis Show. 
  
  
  
• Domestic violence is way up in Tarrant County which just goes to show you that fancy PR campaigns are just for show. In 2017, the D.A.'s office started a "Not In My County" promotion where elected officials from across the county posed with signs proclaiming that abuse won't be tolerated in the county. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In other Tarrant County crime news, murders overall have surpassed 100 for the year, the most in 25 years.
• Shout out to the past Wise County elected official who just causally dropped off John Grisham's latest novel, A Time of Mercy, and then simply left. From the cover notes, it looks like Southern lawyer Jake Brigance makes his first appearance since A Time to Kill.
• Also, shout out to a stranger who dropped off for me a series of Bridgeport Index's from 1973.  People just give me stuff!?
• The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today on whether last term's ruling that jury verdicts must be unanimous should apply retroactively. That is, if you are sitting in prison because of a non-unanimous verdict, can you get a new trial because of that recent decision? You would think the obvious answer is "yes", but that's not so.  It's a tough standard and "[t]he landmark 1963 right-to-counsel decision in Gideon v. Wainwright is the only one the court has ever indicated could achieve this . . . status." (The test is whether the right at issue implicates "fundamental fairness that is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." I've said it before: Constitutional Law is just trying to keep up with what the Supreme Court just makes up along the way.)
• Sports: The very last two games of the Southwest Conference were played 25 years ago today. Texas beat Aggie, 16-6, followed by Houston over Rice, 18-17.  Fun fact: Houston and Rice, who weren't invited to the Big 12, moved their game in order to be the final game of the conference instead of the bluebloods. 
  
  (Yes, I know Arkansas left before the conference disbanded.)
• Speaking of Aggie, the band tried to pull a fast one last weekend: 
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold (with a great picture of Judge Cude.)