Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

A cartel hit in broad daylight on a lawyer in the Southlake Town Square happened on May 22, 2013.

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• Mommy and daddy are fighting in Austin! Seriously, this is very, very weird. Texas AG Ken Paxton came off the top rope yesterday and demanded the House Speaker Dade Phelan resign because of this video which shows something momentarily "wrong" with Phelan. Paxton alleges he was intoxicated. Incidentally, Paxton has wanted the legislature to pay for his $3.3 million settlement for firing whistleblowers who reported his past misconduct. Phelan has balked.
  
  
  
• Here's the over-the-stop statement from Paxton but note that he only says it was "apparent" that Phelan was intoxicated.
  
  
  
  
• But then in a letter to the General Investigations Committee, he said Phelan was "obviously" intoxicated. There's a huge difference between apparent and obvious. Words have meaning. Paxton is the State's "top lawyer." And a bad one. 
  
  
  
• The Dallas Morning News has a feature story on this $14.24 million home for sale "just north" of . . . Decatur! Listing is here.
  
  
  
• Trump was "in" court yesterday on his criminal case in New York. A trial date was set for March 25th, 2024.  Don't bet on it happening that day.
  
  
  
• As a widely recognized political expert, I think announcing a presidential bid on Twitter "Spaces", alongside a guy who has been propping up Nazis lately, probably isn't the best way to appeal to a mass general audience.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Today marks the day. 

  

  "The Sound Of Children Screaming Has Been Removed."

   

  

  The aftermath cluster was as bad as law enforcement's response. 

  
  
• We live in the dumbest of times. We've already gone from book banning to poem banning. 
  
  
  

  

  The actual complaint.

  
  
• Will watch.
  
  
  
• I almost feel like there are pitchfork carrying crowds wandering the streets looking at who they will go after next.  Bud Light, Target, and next?  But don't call if Cancel Culture. 
  
  
  
• "Warehouses, people! See ya next week!™" This warehouse is already fully leased to Amazon which kind of surprises me because I thought Amazon owned all of their warehouses.
  
  
  
• I'm hearing things didn't go to well last night.
  
  
  
• No team is going to sign Zeke Elliott, right? 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

This is another front page from Oklahoma about the Moore tornado. One forgotten aspect of the event was a horrible screw-up it was on the number of dead which were reported. The medical examiner's first said 91 were expected to be dead which gave rise to the headline above. It later revised the number  to 51 dead, and finally revised it again to 24 blaming "double counting." Incredible.

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• House Bill 3297 is now headed to Abbott's desk: It eliminates vehicle inspections in Texas for non-commercial vehicles.  
  
  
  
• One thing that Texas can't eliminate is emission inspections if you are in one of the 17 required Texas counties (Wise County is not one of them.)   
• Paperwork has been filed to begin construction on a new $10 million (!) and  20,823 square feet TA Travel Center just south of Decatur around the 287 business exit on the opposite side of the highway. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• It came from a "blue check mark" Twitter account. That used to mean something. Now it means someone is willing to pay Elon $8 a month. Story. We are all doomed. 
  
  
  
• At the risk of sounding like a right wing conspiracy nut, this actually sounds a little fishy: A U-Haul with only a Nazi flag in its cargo rammed a security barrier at the White House last night.  Video.
  
  
  
• This week we will acknowledge the one year anniversary of the massacre in Uvalde. But always remember the disclaimer the Austin American Statesman placed on security cam video it had obtained: "Editor's note: The sound of children screaming has been removed."
  
  
  
• County officials, including those who have for months obstructed the public's right-to-know, are telling outsiders not to come to Uvalde this week. Those signing off on this might want to sit this one out. 
  
  
  
• What a mess in Dallas. This has been going on for quite some time now. 
  
  
  
• The Filter Queen lost again in Arizona last night. Despite the facts and truth, she will continue to lie about it like others who don't care about democracy.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Good gawd.
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: Prof. George Dixon has died.  His multi-volume legal Treatise of "Criminal Practice and Procedure" is the greatest work on the subject of all time. If I ever had a complicated issue to deal with, that work already had a section dedicated to it which I would find easy to read and footnoted out the wazoo. I even wrote him once in the 1990s, and he wrote me back. 
  
  
  
• Extremely nerdy legal (and weird) stuff from of the Sixth Circuit. There's a lot more going on out there than what we know about.
  
  
  
• Flipping around this morning on the radio and heard, on KXT, "The Man Who Saved The World." But it wasn't by Nirvana (who famously sang it on MTV's Unplugged). Instead it was by David Bowie. And then I realized for the first time that Nirvana simply covered Bowie's original 1970 release. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

A massive tornado in Moore, Oklahoma left 24 dead. 

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• Someone learned that Robert's Rules of Order has nothing to do with state law regarding mandatory public notice on matters to be voted upon.  But don't let that sideshow overshadow the fact that guns will now be within the halls of DISD.
  
  
  
• The far right hates Texas Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan for some reason and are now accusing him of being drunk late Friday night on the house floor. Video. I don't know what, if anything, was going on with him. 
  
  
  
• I've been trying to ignore this debt ceiling news because it has always been resolved in the past. But this time if different. The only reason Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker after 15 rounds of voting in January was that he cut a deal with the devil that he wouldn't concede on this issue. He's in a bind now. 
  
  
  
• This prison sentence was handed down on Friday. Not enough™. And he should have received a couple of extra years for cosplaying G.I. Joe. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Considering 480 pounds of ammonium nitrate were used in the Oklahoma City bombing, this story seems a bit concerning. The train left Cheyenne, Wyoming headed to California and somewhere a long the way they lost the chemicals. (Sounds like a certain Breaking Bad episode.)
  
  
  
• So if he would extort one of the richest men in the world, who would he not threaten over past indiscretions? So how many people wanted him dead? Here is the woman who is the subject of the affair, by the way.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Texas A&M has unveiled artist renditions for their new law school building in downtown Fort Worth, and I have a question. I zoomed in on that question . . . 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Are we prepared for the dumbest Republican Primary in history?
  
  
  
• How you can tell when church is over.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• I can't believe I missed this picture. The guy on the right is Bryan Slaton who just got kicked out of the Texas legislature for getting a 19 year old intern liquored up and having sex with her. The guy on the left is simpleton Jonathan Stickland who is the head of the ultra-conservative Defend Texas Liberty PAC - the PAC funded by West Texas oilmen Farris Wilks and Tim Dunn who dump millions into Texas elections
  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• He fled the state during a deadly cold wave, and he joked about it on Friday. Tone deaf.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ticket fans only: The radio station sent all their hosts to a "campound" for three days last week and the secret location turned out to in a place in Aurora, Texas.
  
  
  
• One of my favorite sayings is "The days are long but the years are short."