Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The joys of Christmases past. "Fort Worth police estimate 300-400 people crammed on top of each other and pushed their way to the entrance to try to secure a spot in line for Nike's newest shoe -- the Air Jordan Retro 11.  The shoes cost around $200 . . . . "

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• Let me tell you, I seriously whiffed on this one. I didn't think he would be convicted, and if convicted, I thought he would get probation. 
  
  
  
• Introspection on how I got it wrong: (1) I still don't think he would have been convicted in Wise County, but I misjudged that Tarrant County is no longer anything like Wise County -- assuming it ever was, (2) For almost all of my career, criminal charges for "mistakes" were unheard of. Now the public, and juries it seems, welcome it. (3) I thought cops would still always be given the benefit of the doubt. 
• I'm torn on the bizarre particulars of the sentence of 11 years, 10 months and 8 days. I don't know if is the result of reasoned consideration or a jury being a bit too cute. 
  
  
  
• When it first happened:
  
  
  
• I said the other day that I thought there was a serious chance the case gets reversed on appeal because the shooting was an intentional and not a reckless act. I'm now rethinking that. I'm not sure the elected judges on the Fort Worth Court of Appeals would have the nerve to do it.  It's just a political fact of life. You can serve forever in obscurity on a Texas appellate court unless you do something to call attention to yourself. 
• Trump's tax returns have been released if interested. For reference, he took office in 2018:
  
  
  
• Ukraine President Zelensky is making a surprise visit to D.C. today to make an address to a joint session of Congress. Serious question: Are any of the Representatives and Senators there? I would think they would have left for the holidays. Edit: They may be in town for last second budget stuff.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wichita Falls news where an ex-deputy was found not guilty of Official Oppression.  Reading between the lines: The story says it was a trial before a judge and not a jury. The only way that happens is if both the defendant and the State agree to waive a jury. This tells me the State pretty much thought it was a lost cause but didn't have the guts to dismiss it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Washington Post, in a fantastic multi-media presentation, reported yesterday only two ambulances made it to Uvalde Elementary one hour after the shooting started. And no one was Careflighted to a remote hospital. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Checking in on Fox News to see what they were outraged about yesterday.
  
  
  
• Here is 40 seconds of fantastic MAGA craziness as they celebrate a judge's ruling in the Kari Lake election challenge. 
• The judge actually tossed 8 of 10 claims but will allow Lake to try and prove that election workers intentionally fixed the election.  It's a guaranteed loss. From the ruling: "The Court takes no position as to the evidentiary weight it will give Plaintiff’s proffered experts at trial and notes that, at trial, it must indulge all reasonable assumptions in favor of the election when weighing the evidence before it."  It's over. But the video of delusion is great fun. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This is a big one for my generation. He was a Super Bowl killer for the Cowboys. "Harris' death comes just two days before the 50th anniversary of the 'Immaculate Reception' [video] and three days before the Pittsburgh Steelers planned to retire his number [at their game on Saturday]." I once visited, and took photos of, the site of the Immaculate Reception which is now on a sidewalk outside the new Pittsburgh stadium.
  
  
  
• It's college national signing day. I'm not even paying attention because I'm too mature for that. <checks screen> Wait. I'm I'm being told that an 18 year old has just ruined my Christmas. 
  
  
  
• With the transfer portal, I suppose National Signing Day is actually just an announcement of a one year commitment. 
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Everyone got bent out of shape over a video showing a full body cavity search of a woman who was stopped by a DPS trooper for throwing out a cigarette. A lawsuit followed which was settled six months later for $185,000.

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• A Criminal Referral that was well deserved. Democracy was on the brink. A hammer needs to fall. Hard.
  
  
  
• And it is not only only about the riot on January 6th where he brought his MAGA minions to DC because with the promise that it was going to "be wild" -- prefaced by telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" on national TV. 
• It's also about the 187 minutes -- as the rest of us watched in horror -- where he did nothing other than to rile the crowd up with a tweet about Mike Pence. 
• It was prior to that day when he attempted to coerce Mike Pence to throw out the constitutionally submitted electoral votes. 
• It was the actual submitting of Fake Electors.
• It was tampering with the will of the Georgia people by telling its Secretary of State to  "find 11780 votes."
• It was his continuous lie, taken from the toolkit of Nazi propaganda wars, that he won the election. 
• We finally heard from Trump-favorite Hope Hicks yesterday. She said those around Trump told him to send out a tweet before January 6th to tell the mob not to be violent. He refused. And there are texts to back her up.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Rumor on the streets is that local Methodist churches, especially in Bridgeport, are having some big time fights. It's about an issue sweeping the country.  
  
  
• That's a long time to deliberate on punishment -- especially on Christmas week. They decided to spend another night in a hotel and come back today.  
  
  
  
• This is how it works. Legal nerd warning. 
• The jury has to pick a prison time number between 2 and 20 years. Even if they want to give him probation, they still have to pick a number. 
• The punishment verdict form will tell them that if they want to give him probation, however, that (1) the number they pick must be between 2 and 10 years and (2) they have to indicate by their verdict that probation should be granted.
• If they grant probation, the judge sets the length of that probation. He has a cap of 10 years, but that's what I'd guess the judge would do. So you could theoretically have a sentence of, say, 5 years in prison (the number the jury picked) probated for 10 years (the number the judge picks). In that scenario, if Dean violates the probation during the 10 years, he would then he is subject up to the jury sentence of 5 years, but not longer than that.
• If the jury grants probation, the judge cannot overrule them. But he can be sneaky and order a maximum of 180 days in the local county jail as a condition of the probation. 
• What if they can't agree on punishment and are hung? That's possible. In that scenario, the Manslaughter conviction still stands and there could be another jury empaneled for the sole purpose of deciding the punishment.  But he can never be retried for Murder. He was acquitted on that once the jury found him guilty only of Manslaughter. 
• If Dean is sentenced to prison instead of probation,  how long will he actually serve? This is the extremely nerdy part.
• Normally, I would say he has to serve one-half of his actual sentence before becoming eligible for parole. And I'll still say that.
• But I only hesitate because I've not heard anything about there being a "deadly weapon finding" which must be present in order to trigger the 1/2 rule. It's automatic for Murder, but not for Manslaughter. If there is not a deadly weapon finding, he has to serve only 1/4 of his time but he also gets good conduct time (normally three to four days for one real day) calculated into that 1/4.
• I'm stunned I haven't' heard anything about a deadly weapon finding. The only thing I can think of is that the jury specifically found him guilty of using a "firearm" when they found him guilty of the lesser included offense of Manslaughter. If so, that's the equivalent of a deadly weapon finding and the 1/2 rule applies. But I've not heard if the Court's charge/instructions were that specific.
• If there is a prison sentence, can he get out of the hoosegow pending appeal by posting an appeal bond? 
• Generally, if the prison sentence is for less than 10 years, a person is entitled to an appeal bond. (See art. 44.04(b)). 
• But the appeal bond is not mandatory in that situation (as a case released last week by the appellate court in Fort Worth pointed out, see footnote 4) -- the judge can still deny it in his discretion. (See art. 44.04(c)).
• But that same statute also says that you can never get an appeal bond if you are convicted for any offense listed in art. 42A.054. And although Manslaughter is not listed in it, that article also includes any felony where the jury has found the defendant used a deadly weapon.  Again, that's why a deadly weapon finding is important, and I'm bugged I've not read anything about it.
• Bottom line: I don't think he is getting out pending appeal if he receives any amount of prison time. 
• In Trophy Club? YouTube video. He backed off the accelerator in a hurry or this could have actually have been bad.
  
  
  
• Missing Aggie:
  
  
  
• You knew it was coming. The grift from Kari Lake officially began yesterday. It's always about the grift, and the preying on the gullible, with these people.
  
  
  
• Trump may end up making her wife #4. Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The difference between the big ailments out there right now:
  
  
  
• And another x 2.
  
  
  
• Below is an example from yesterday yesterday of why the Transfer Portal is ruining college football. It's how I felt in 2000 when I saw Randall Cunningham start for the Cowboys at QB soon after free agency was brought to the NFL.
  
  
  
• I'm watching the first season of White Lotus. I really like it. And I got an extra jolt when it dawned on me that it has a tinge of being a modern day dark comedy reincarnation of Fawlty Towers.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

As there should have been, there was a ton of fallout from Sandy Hook in the days following the shootings. Back then, I thought this picture would become famous, but it didn't. ("Jillian Soto, identified by USA Today, breaks down as she learns the news about her sister, Victoria Soto, who was killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (Jessica Hill/AP)")

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• Thursday won't be pretty, and Friday morning these will be the lows . . .  
  
  
  
• Right now my Liberally Lean Weather Team™ is projecting the front to hit with a vengeance around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. At that moment, winds will dramatically hit from the north (mostly around 25 mph the rest of the day), and temperatures will drop from the morning high of 42 degrees to 26 degrees by noon, 19 degrees by 4 p.m., and 11 degrees by midnight. 
• Baylor and Air Force play in Fort Worth in a bowl game on Thursday night beginning at 6:30 p.m. 
• Oh, my! Not the Baby Jesus!
  
  
  
• The jury deliberates on punishment today in the Aaron Dean trial, but we had a weird event happen on Friday when a guy was arrested for failing to take the oath as a witness. Video.
  
  
  
• This is how it went down. He was sitting in the gallery and the defense just stood up and, out of nowhere, "called him as a witness." It's entirely unclear if he had anything of merit to testify about, and he had been seen in groups outside the courthouse demonstrating against the officer. Thinking it was a just a stunt, he refused. The judge then had him arrested under the bizarre pretext of on-the-spot "declaring his bonds insufficient" -- bonds that were in existence on unrelated criminal charges. 
• Here's the kicker: I don't think he was under subpoena. I'll be honest, I have no idea whether a person has to comply with a defense "request" to be a witness even if that person is sitting in the courtroom. My gut reaction, with doing absolutely no research, is no. 
• The late Judge Fostel used to amuse me when, during trial, an attorney would ask him if a witness "could be excused" or "could be released" after testifying. Fostel would always ask, "Is he under subpoena?" If the answer was "no", he would always give an answer which implied that he didn't have any control over a witness if they weren't compelled to be in court in the first place. 
• We had the fourth largest earthquake in Texas history (and the second 5.0+ one one in the last month) on Friday, and most people don't even know about it. 
  
  
  
• Amber Heard announced moments ago she will settle the defamation suit brought by Johnny Depp which she has on appeal. Her insurance company will pay $1 million.  Bad decision. That was constitutionally protected speech. 
• Some people go to Christmas parties, drive around and look at Christmas lights, or perhaps stay home and watch It's A Wonderful Life. Others, on the other hand, spent their weekend . . . 
  
  
  
• Imagine spending $44 billion just to show the world that you are one weird guy. And he might just jack around and end up losing every dime of it before it's all said and done.  
  
  
  
• The January 6th Committee holds its final meeting today.
  
  
  
• Elon Musk and Jared Kushner were hanging out at the World Cup final yesterday. No surprise.
  
  
  
• We've got a new leader in the clubhouse. 

  

  Graphic source: New York Times.

  
  
• But the QAnon Congresswoman has found a new cause.
  
  
  
• This may have had a a top five crazy ending to an NFL game late yesterday afternoon. Video.
  
  
  
• The high school playoffs wrapped up at Jerry World on Saturday. Below was the scene from the media's sunny perch later in the afternoon. (The best of all the 12 games involved China Spring, who beat Decatur in the semis. They were down 21-0 at halftime and came back to win it 24-21 on a last second field goal.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• That was really a pretty fancy sign for what was supposed to be a less than ideal area of housing. 
  
  
  
• This is what I use to select which front page to post every day. Panola County maybe the tiniest publication on that list. It is Carthage to which they refer to here . . .