6.27.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts





The Wendy Davis abortion filibuster was 10 years ago. Troopers were in the gallery even back then. 


  •  Everything's fine.

  •  While looking at the Wise County Jail inmate list this morning, the entry below got my attention. I can't figure out if the arrest was because of an outstanding warrant out of some other county or if Wise County has a new murder case. He was booked in late yesterday afternoon, but a bond has already been set at $300,000. 

  • We learned in May that the Justice Department had the recording, and the recent federal indictment actually quoted from it. Now we have the audio. "But that wasn't a document — Bret, there was no document," he told Fox News last week when confronted with the transcript. But the audio makes it clear there was definitely a classified document he was waving around at Bedminster in 2021.  And he knew it.

    • There was nothing in the Watergate tapes even remotely damning as this. Trump is in big trouble. 
    • Trump must have just woke up and saw the news. Anyone remember when he first said the documents were "planted"?

  • But Trump had a win yesterday in court. And I support his lawyer in this regard. The concept of "sealed" anything in a criminal trial is wrong.  But the judge is giving the government a chance to try again to keep its witness list a secret.



  • That's a catchy headline, but the law they are referring to, which amends the Texas murder statute to include death by fentanyl, doesn't go effect until September 1st. You can't retroactively apply a new law to conduct in the past. (And the story actually finally says this, but why ruin a perfectly good headline?)

    • Legal nerdy stuff: Here's the amendment to Texas Penal Code 19.02, the murder statute:

  • There is no one who wouldn't believe this to be true.  

  • It's no surprise that the state will seek the death penalty in the Idaho murder case of four college students. Side note:  It's been bugging me who he reminds me of, and I've decided it is Timothy McVeigh. Absolutely the same vibes. 

  • Speaking of, I'm halfway through this book and it fantastic.  Toobin has always been a great writer. 

  • Video. Story.


  • With the All-Star break quickly approaching, Decatur's Bryce Elder is now the leader in the National League in ERA and third in all of baseball. Incredible.  He's 24, and this is his second season after being called up. 



  • A decade after it ended, I've finally started Mad Men.  Big, big thumbs up. 

at 8:29 AM

6.26.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Still wild. 

  • If you blinked, you missed a Russian coup against Putin over the weekend which left everyone confused. As I understand it, it would be like Blackwater declaring war against the U.S. Defense Secretary, begin marching towards D.C., shoot down some U.S. helicopters, and then the U.S. grant him asylum in Canada if he will call the whole thing off. And he did. From Saturday:

  • Deaths during recreation:
    • Story.

    • Out of Stephenville. 


  • We have the dumbest governor. Yesterday, thinking it was real, he posted a fake story written by a parody site about Garth Brooks. The name of the site should have tipped him off. 




  • City of Fort Worth got hit with a cyber attack. But it wasn't ransomware. The hackers are just posting the date they stole. 
  • You may remember the story below from earlier this year. On Friday, a Tarrant County juvenile judge in Friday refused the D.A.'s attempt to certify the shooter as an adult to be transferred to the adult system. 


  • A new NBC poll shows Trump with a stranglehold on the Republican Party. Darker red is April. Lighter red is now. Likely Republican primary voters.



  • In other Trump news:
    • The prosecutors want the Miami documents case trial to be pushed back to December 11th. 

    • On Saturday, Trump made a statement which, once again, will be played by the prosecution. He's going to convict himself. 

    • He's nuts. 

    • This Trump six second video of Trump gyrating and grunting at a different weekend event deserves to be in the hall of fame.   
  • There was an incident in San Antonio on Friday that caused three officers to be arrested that very same day for murder. It made the New York Times on Saturday. I'm not sure about this at all. (Free link.)

  • Sheesh.
  • Hey, look who got quoted by the great Bud Kennedy in the Star-Telegram on Saturday.

  • Legal nerdy stuff - civil: Can you rightfully bring a medical malpractice case in Texas for an "undesired pregnancy resulting in the birth of a normal, healthy child, caused by negligent performance of a sterilization procedure"? The Texas Supreme Court on Friday announced they will decide the issue. 

at 8:30 AM

6.23.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




This spelling error really happened.

  • You just knew that was coming. 

    • All the conspiracy nuts can calm down over this news as well. The Navy heard an explosion which they thought was probably the sub but they weren't sure. They relayed the info to the Coast Guard which also also couldn't be sure it was the sub. What are you going to do? Call off the search. Nope, you'll continue to look just as hard as if no explosion had been heard. 


    • The New York Times changed a headline.


  • "The Wise County Republican Party voted last night to condemn to House impeachment of AG Ken Paxton."

  • It's the one year anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

    •  It's hard to imagine how Roe was overturned by a reality TV star (Trump) who picked three Supreme Court justices (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett) from a list prepared by a guy (Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society) who arranged free luxury trips for two other sitting Supreme Court justices (Alito and Thomas.) And those five justices made up the Dobbs five person majority.




  • Reports of police departments being defunded were greatly exaggerated. It even has its own drone that can be launched off of it.  

  • There's a lot going on 287 heading into I-35 in north Fort Worth. But this new strip center at Blue Mound Road is pretty small.  Anyone remember what that whole area looked like 20 years ago? Fields everywhere. 


  • Legal stuff: Here are the sanctions handed down by the judge against the lawyer who used ChatGPT which spit out some fake cases authored by real judges. What he has to do is a little weird. The $5,000 sanction might be considered light.  

  • Very in the weeds political thread: A State representative and a Wise County resident got into a Twitter fight over a "rogue" meeting of Ultra-MAGAs in Denton. 
  • I don't know anything about the NBA draft but this missive about a Kansas player made me laugh:

  • 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, 354 days.

at 8:31 AM
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