Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

One of the two worked out. And I seriously misjudged Google+.   

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• Point: It doesn't seem fair that the majority in a legislative body can be thwarted by Texas Democrats who invoked the quorum rule by leaving and going to D.C. Counterpoint: It's the equivalent of the Republican Minority in the U.S. Senate thwarting the majority by just invoking the filibuster rule. 

  

  Texas GOP doing some posing yesterday

  
  
• Covid quick hits for the unvaccinated. Pay attention:

  

  Nearby Tarrant seems bad.

  
  

  

  Hey! Wise County is a little darker than everyone around us!

  
  

  

  Another day of Texas hospitalization increases

  
  

  

  But you can ignore this. And you wonder how someone gets inspired to drive nine hours to El Paso and go on a shooting rampage? He knows exactly what he is doing.

  
  
• Whatever it takes. (And I wanted to post the marine photo.) 
  

  

  

  
  

  
  
  
  
• Joe Exotic had his sentenced vacated by the 10th Circuit yesterday. Not the conviction, just his sentence which will have to be redone. But the opinion starts off with this new wave of cutesy writing by federal judges. 
  
  
  
• It has finally dawned on me why the Trump Insurrectionists are hell-bent on exposing the identify of the police officer who, while defending the Capitol building, shot Ashli Babbitt: They think he is a black man.  
  
  
  
• Any publicity is good publicity. New York Times best seller list: 
  
  
  
• Bad lawyer.
  
  
  
• If you have time, read this story. There may be something really wild going on. 
  
  
  
• I stumbled on this: A watchdog, who reviews the mandatory forms required of Texas law enforcement for any in-custody death, found this one from San Jacinto County for a death earlier this month. It's a little disturbing. A lady with mental health problems committed suicide after putting a cord around her neck for the third time. (Uh, you want to keep it the cord away from her after time number two?) And to make it worse, the only reason she was in jail was for a fine-only Public Intoxication charge. She had been there seven days.
  
  
  
• Random fan on Twitter of the Ticket says his car was hit by a "bucket truck" yesterday which then fled towards Decatur. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• There's nothing shocking about this. Have you listened to talk radio? They encourage it every day.  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Selling a gun encased in Legos seemed like a really bad idea. 
  
  
  
• It's been four days since the Decatur School Board fired anyone and paid them off with taxpayer money. 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Kelli Cox was a UNT student who vanished during the day in July of 1997 after touring the Denton Police Department jail.  Ten years ago the case was unsolved, but no more. In 2016, a Texas inmate, who with the help of DNA had recently been discovered to be a serial killer, would lead authorities to her body in Brazoria County. And just last month he was sentenced to death in Oklahoma in connection with the murder of another young woman. 

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•  Nice lede by the Messenger today regarding the chaos surrounding the Decatur School Board. 
  
  
  
• The Texas Democrats are in D.C. and are grabbing national headlines. And, no, they won't be arrested.
  
  
  
      

• A new lawsuit in Texas challenging the new restrictive abortion law has been filed, but the Supreme Court will rule on a 15 week ban out of Mississippi before this one gets finally adjudicated. The Supreme Court decided to hear that case on May 17th and, with the new conservative majority, all the rules may soon change.
  
  
  
• It's a Family Affair: Five members of the same family from Borger, Texas were arrested for their involvement in the Trump Insurrection. They, by their own admission, "are Q."
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Texas has seen 10 straight days of hospitalizations increasing due to COVID. We went from 1,589 on July 2nd to 2,282 yesterday.  That's nothing close to our peak of 14,000 last January, but still a trend which is worth noting. 
  
  
  
• But just keep on following the anti-vaxxer right wing leaders. For instance, the Jewish Space Laser theorist is full of misinformation to guide you down that path.
  
  
  
• Alabama's own Roy Moore, who is basically infamous now, predictably has lost his lawsuit yesterday against Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen tricked him into an interview and then brought out a "pedophile detector" device which went off when he hovered it around the former judge and failed Senate candidate. Video here.
  
  
  
• I saw this and was skeptical, but then a rabbit trail led me to Harry J. Anslinger.
  
  
  
• Personal note: Shout out to Decatur Attorney Mark "The Decatur Hammer" Howell for a tremendous batch of home grown tomatoes that he personally delivered to me. 
• Sports: The Los Angeles Angels drafted a pitcher in every single round in the 20 round MLB draft.  I love this. And I think it's smart. 
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

2011 might have been peak prosecutor arrogance in Texas, and I took time back then to rail against this lead story in the official Texas prosecutor publication. It was basically bragging about convicting a man with no evidence (look at the sub-headline). I was just slightly ahead of the curve. Later in 2011, the Michael Morton scandal would break revealing the practice of illegally withholding of evidence, and everyone began to look at D.A. offices in a brand new light. 

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•  Texas Democrats have fled to Washington D.C. to prevent a quorum in the legislature in protest of proposed more stringent voter laws.
  
  
  
• Their excuse to "save democracy" may not sit well with some Texans, but I suppose it's more noble than fleeing to Cancun while the masses are freezing to death. 
• Heading to the airport yesterday.
  

  
  
  
• You can taken exception as to whether Texas' proposed new voter laws is "the new Jim Crow", but this is a lie:
  
  
  
• The federal court hearing yesterday -- all six hours of it -- where a judge is considering sanctions against the "Kraken" election lawyers was brutal. And glorious.  For all my professional life I've been fearful of putting anything in a pleading which wasn't true, yet I watched Sidney Powell and Lin Wood blatantly lie last December and January about conspiracy theories. I was stunned they could get away with it. Now they won't. I just don't know why it has taken so long to slap them down. 
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
• Everyone complaining about gas prices need to remember they were higher in 2005 and, on average, many years thereafter. From 2011 to 2015 they were always over $3.00 a gallon. 
  
  
  
• I rewatched JFK the other day. That's one wild movie which is notorious for playing fast and lose with the truth.  And that 10 minute scene where District Attorney Garrison meets with mysterious Mr. X in D.C. where, in a rambling 10 minutes, the guy reveals all sorts of government secrets is unbelievably ridiculous. 
  
  
  
• Speaking of ridiculous, Mr. X would probably have brought up this with Kevin Costner if he had a little more screen time: 
  
  
  
• I completely missed this video of a pretty powerful firework being thrown into a convertible at a stop light. Good lord. 
  
  
  
• Funny.
  
  
  
• I had a leaky copper pipe coming from a hot water heater that a neighbor was able to replace with the skill of a licensed plumber. I would tell you his name, but I had to give him Blog Immunity because he didn't want everyone and their dog in Wise County calling him for help.