8.08.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Technically, McKayla Maroney struck this pose on August 5, 2012.

  • Beto is coming to Decatur this week if this text is correct.

  • This is awful. Yesterday evening, a truck pulling a trailer plowed into a home in White Settlement killing 18 year old Katey Kirkland. The vehicle was so far in the home that only its trailer (covered) was visible.  I think this is the Google streetview link. 


  • The person driving the fast moving car which killed six in Los Angeles has been identified and arrested. She is a traveling nurse out of Houston who worked for Kaiser Permanente.

  • The City of Rhome has forced out the City Administrator with a "separation agreement" of $100,000+ but confusingly keeps her on at $50 an hour until a replacement is found. The 15 minute, sometimes contentious, meeting is here on YouTube.  



  • The trial of the (poorly labeled) "honor killings" of the two teenage daughters in Irving continues this week. But this note caught my eye as proof that lawyers involved in even the most clear cut cases run into headaches.

  • Friday roundup of stories we've already forgotten about:
    • Alex Jones got hit with a $45.2 million punitive damage verdict.  There's a great deal of confusion as to how Texas' statutory cap on punitive damages will reduce that verdict. The statute says the cap is $750,000 but there are two plaintiffs so that would make it $1.5 million -- which is what Jones' lawyers say. But there is another argument made by the Plaintiffs' lawyer, and at least supported by one case, which says the the cap is $750K per Plaintiff per every "cause of action" they were successful upon which would make it around $9 million.  

    • This was in Pennsylvania and hardly made the news.

    • This occurred in Lafayette Park directly in front of the White House and is a popular tourist destination.

    • What's Amazon really up to here by buying Roomba?

  • They might want to focus on something down there other than screwing over this lady. She has been reassigned to "the position of assistant director of special education."

  • Remember I told you on Friday to be on the lookout for the Republican Party (at least the Trump MAGA faction) using January 6th as a date of martyrdom just like the Nazis rallied around the date of Hitler's first failed coup attempt? Well on display over the weekend at CPAC in Dallas an actor in a cage playing a January 6th arrestee in a jail cell.  Really. Even Qanon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene -- who spoke at the convention along with Trump, Abbott, Cruz, and every other mainstream Republican -- was there to comfort the crying actor. 


  • Something seems weird about this. He's beloved in Norman and has been there a long, long time. 

  • Everyone is yelling about the price of Insulin online, but I didn't have time for a deep dive. 

at 8:30 AM

8.05.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Groundbreaking on the expansion of 380 from two lanes to four lanes on the way to Denton began this week. The projected was prompted by an accident in 2010 which took the lives of two Alvord teens, Samantha Rogers, 17, and Delaney Mancil, 15.

  • Normal Republican, conservative star, and former VP Dick Cheney appeared in a political ad for his daughter where he didn't mince words about Trump: "In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters."

  • Moments ago. So is this a recession or not? 


  • The video of the wreck yesterday in Los Angeles that killed four and injured eight is one of the craziest things you'll see.  The speed of the car blowing through an intersection was off the charts. 

  • Alex Jones trial notes:
    • Jones was hit with a $4.1 million verdict yesterday. But the trial is not over. Today the jury returns to assess "punitive damages" -- damages to punish Jones over and above what they chose to compensate the plaintiffs. 

    • I really hate to say this, but I'm not unsympathetic to Jones' free speech argument. What he said was despicable, but was it really defaming? (But liability was imposed because of discovery sanctions, so that defense may not even exist on appeal.) 
    • The wild aspect of the Alex Jones trial is, of course, his lawyer mistakenly sending the plaintiffs' lawyer the two years of text messages of Jones' phone. Well, yesterday we learned how it went down. Jones' lawyer, during discovery, sent the wrong link to the plaintiffs' lawyer. The plaintiffs' lawyer calls the mistake to the attention of Jones' lawyer. He then thanks the plaintiffs' lawyer and tells him to "disregard" that link.  But that wasn't enough to keep the plaintiffs' lawyer from using it. Jones' lawyer had 10 days to seek protection from the court to keep the texts private. He didn't do it. Here's the email exchange:

  • Have you seen your most recent electric bill yet? Have I said before that we are all suckers? Dallas-based "Oncor’s quarterly profit soared to $229 million — up from $169 million during the same months last year . . . . The quarterly results didn’t even include July, which was one of the region’s hottest months on record."

  • Less than three months after the slaughter of nineteen children in Uvalde, Wise County's crazy congressman thought it would be a good idea to post this photo. And he's standing next to QAnon supporter Lauren Boebert.

  • This is still a wild story. It actually took two trials before this sentence was imposed because the first one was overturned after the judge learned "that a court security officer had discussed the case with a juror."

  • I was anxious to see if Sheriff Joe, 90, would lose his race to become mayor of a small town in Arizona, but they still don't know results despite the election being on Tuesday.  The last update I could find is from yesterday.

  • Speaking of Arizona, remember these faces. These are all election denying, Insurrection supporting, and Trump disciples. I mean, they are certifiable crazy.  They will all be on the general election ballot in November. 

    • On a related note, I'm re-reading my Hitler book on his unlikely rise to power in Germany. Take a look at this excerpt when, in the earliest days of the Nazi party (1926), he dispatched new buddy Joseph Goebel's to Berlin to try and rouse up support.  Less than three years after Hitler's first failed coup -- the equivalent of our January 6th -- that specific day had already become a "holy day of martyrdom in the Nazi calendar."  So keep an eye out for this: Does January 6th become a "holy day" for the Trump disciples?

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 31 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

8.04.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I had to go down my own rabbit hole to figure out what I was talking about. It caused a little bit of hubbub in the county when a guy decided to run for County Surveyor so the commissioner's court, in response, decided to put a proposition on the ballot to abolish the position. The ultimate result from later in the year  . . . 



  • There was a pretty big fire near Rhome last night. This video clip gives a pretty good indication of it's size. Those little red and blue lights seen in the screenshot are emergency vehicles.

  • The Alex Jones video clip of him being confronted with the news that his lawyer inadvertently turned over two years of text messages to the lawyer who was cross-examining him went viral yesterday. But . . .

    • As attention-grabbing as that moment was, there really weren't any texts from those two years that were all that relevant for impeachment. The set-up was great, but the payoff was underwhelming. 
    • But how Jones' lawyer just sat on his hands during that entire exchange is amazing. Buddy, do something. Just make up an objection if you can't think of one.  

    • "You know what perjury is?" is an amateur question and makes you sound like you learned trial work from watching Law and Order.  But everyone else out there seemed to eat it up.
    • Don't get me wrong. I still hope Alex Jones gets hit with a billion dollar verdict. 
  • The Brittney Griner trial is concluding this morning. It has to be a long sentence, right? I mean, a short sentence just hurts Russia's negotiating rights in a prisoner exchange. 


  • Indiana Congresswoman, two young aides, killed in car crash.

    • That made me curious as to how often a member of Congress dies while in office.  Answer: All the time (although normally it's from natural causes or sudden illness.)
  • Oh, my. "The gas station clerk told officers [she] walked into the store and bought 50 cents worth of gasoline . . . .  Another witness told police they saw [her then] pump the gas into the back seat of the Jeep before walking around to the driver’s side and igniting it. The affidavit says witnesses saw the [victim] get out of the Jeep engulfed in flames and run through the parking lot before someone used a fire extinguisher on him."  There's probably video of that in the hands of police and prosecutors.

  • John Eastman, who should be one of the first to be indicted, not only was committing treason but also trying to get rich while doing it. 



  • The Senate voted 95-1 yesterday to allow Sweden and Finland to enter NATO. The one Senator who voted against it did so to get attention. Guess which station and host obliged him last night.

  • How other states would have voted if the Kansas abortion law were put to a vote (according to an analysis of the New York Times.) I think this is spot on. 


  • If you want to watch a weird 22 second clip of Congressman Madison Cawthorn play commando, here you go. 

  • Former OU great and current Cardinal wide receiver Marquis "Hollywood" Brown was arrested for "criminal speeding" yesterday -- a crime I had never heard of. Apparently Arizona upgrades a speeding charge if you go faster than 20 miles over the speed limit. But that deserves an arrest? That's dumb.


  • And another. I had to double-check to make sure this is different than the 1.7 million project that Hillwood just announced and which I referenced on Monday. It is. 

  • Britney has an issue with you Catholics out there. 

  • Very, very legal nerd stuff: If a judge dismissed a DWI case seven months after the arrest on the basis of a defense Speedy Trial claim, do you think it would stand up on appeal? Nope. (Opinion handed down yesterday.) I can't believe it was ever granted, but I'd love to practice in front of that judge. 



at 8:32 AM
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