Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Erbie Lee Bowser, a former big man of the Mavericks ManiAAC, went on a killing spree of four women — including his girlfriend and estranged wife — and wounding four children in two homes. In 2017, he would get life in prison after a Dallas jury deadlocked on the death penalty. 

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• The fire on Maui is awful. You don't see many fires that just burn up everything in sight until it is stopped by the ocean. Edit: The death count is up to a shocking 36 as of this morning.
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• This guy was a radicalized nut. Here is the actual criminal complaint detailing everything that he did.  
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Irreverent observation: He reminds me of Buddy Ryan who used to coach the Philadelphia Eagles back in the day.
• This is both awful and weird. Three other officers opened fire as well after, they say, the suspect pointed a gun at them. And there is no evidence to refute that the shooting was justified. 
  
  
  
• There were no bodycams.  The officer was a Dallas Police Officer, but he was assigned to a "fugitive task force" which included federal officers. There's a weird policy where the feds don't want any of the task force members to wear bodycams. 
  
  
  
• We learned yesterday that the prosecutor obtained, via a search warrant, the data from Trump's Twitter account -- but only after a judge had to sanction Twitter $350,000 for the delay in turning over the information. 
  
  
  
• What do they want? Theories include: (1) private direct messages or (2) the meta-data which shows where public tweets were sent from, i.e. phone or desktop, to help prove that Trump, and not someone else, actually posted them. 
• And for those upset about the government's intrusion, (1) this is routine, and I'm surprised they didn't get a search warrant for his actual cell phone sometime along the way, (2) remember when hard-liners use to tell us "if you don't do anything wrong, you shouldn't have anything to complain about" whenever a lowly criminal would object to the government's tactics? 
• ProPublica has yet another article on Justice Thomas this morning.
  
   
  
  
  
• A play in two Acts. 
• Act I: DPS patrols inside Austin city limits at the order of the Governor.
  
  
  
• Act II: From today's Texas Tribune.
  
• The Cumulus lawyers of the Ticket trying to stop Dan and Jake from having a podcast had their case dismissed because they failed to follow the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. What a screw-up.  I wonder what their hourly rate was?
  
  
  
  
• The lawyers for Southwest Airlines who were ordered to basically go to church (a slight exaggeration on my part) have appealed. Good.
  
  
  
• Another gun law goes down in light of Bruen. Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal statute criminalizing gun possession by an "unlawful user" of a controlled substance was unconstitutional.  (The judge in Hunter Biden's case rejected his plea, in part, because she thought this statute -- which is the exact same one he was charged with -- may be unconstitutional.) 
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: The opinion is here. These facts are wonky, and I can't believe the guy got charged by the feds in the first place. They had to have been after him for something else. 
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

That was really bad. The lake is 10.83 feet low as of this morning. 

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• There was a huge house fire in Southlake yesterday afternoon on Enclave Court. That was one big house.  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Very red Ohio (Trump won 53%-45%) rejected abortion restrictions last night by a wide margin.  That Dobbs decision might end changing everything. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This is what it was about: This Fall, there will be a referendum on the Ohio ballot as to whether to basically put the old Roe abortion rights into the Ohio state constitution. The Republicans in their state house feared that would pass so they tried to sneak in this obscure voting proposition yesterday which, if passed, would raise the requirement in the future to 60% on any vote to amend the constitution. Voters caught on to this trick, turned out in droves yesterday, and rejected the 60% threshold. So now Roe can become law again in Ohio this Fall with a 50% + 1 vote.  
• So Greg Abbott's floating buoy barriers have the equivalent of buzz saws between them?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Oh, my.
  
  
  
• The New York Times revealed last night that it had a copy, along with Special Counsel Jack Smith, of the actual memo which hatched the Fake Electors scheme to overthrow the election.
  
  
  
• The author of the memo was not John Eastman but lawyer Kenneth Chesebro who is un-indicted co-conspirator #5.
  
  
  
• The key takeaway is that the memo concedes the scheme was unconstitutional but hoped it could be used to stop the January 6th certification -- which is Counts 2 and 3 in the January 6th indictment, to-wit: Obstructing and impede a governmental proceeding. 
• Sure it's hot and dry, but we haven't also had high winds. Until now. That's supposed to happen over the next few days which makes it a recipe for wild fires. 
  
  
  
  
• This came out a couple of days ago, but the New York Post discovered the identify of the "That [person] is not real!" airplane ranter in the viral video. It's a lady from Lake Highlands in Dallas. I want to not like her, but she's slowly becoming one of my favorite people of all time.
  
  
  
• Dude, you were inconvenienced for a few minutes. Cry me a river. 
  
  
  
• The Ticket vs. Dan and Jake ramped up yesterday. I've never seen anything quite like this. 
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: In a case that is weird in a number of ways, Dallas federal judge Brantley Starr has ordered three lawyers from Southwest Airlines to undergo "religious training" from the right wing group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).  And the judge quoted the book of Geneses in justifying his ruling.  This is where we are headed, folks. 
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Tell me if this doesn't tell you all you need to know about the judge: Graduated from Abilene Christian, clerked for Judge Don Willett, is the nephew of Kenneth Starr, member of the Federalist Society, and appointed by Trump 
  
  
  
• Here's a pretty good dive into the underlying case from a legal standpoint here. 
• More legal nerdy stuff: The sweeping 2nd Amendment Bruen decision as now been used by the Ninth Circuit to legalize butterfly knives.
  
  
  
• Private school Vanderbilt just hangs back and collects money in the SEC. Not a bad gig. They will start the season playing home game(s) in a high school stadium.  
  
  
  
• SMU to the ACC? 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

We had a unique funeral in Decatur.

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• We've got a Liberally Lean™ exclusive:
• Remember back in the Spring during the Decatur ISD school board elections when a mass marketed text message followed by a flyer went out? Eyebrows were raised because the flyer was paid for by a mysterious PAC named Decatur ISD Parents Unite. It even was the main subject of a Messenger article. The text, which focused on "woke" being within Decatur schools, also upset the Superintendent.  And the whole thing became even a little more uncomfortable when . . . 

  

  Above, from the Update 

  

  The text message

  
  

  

  The flyer

  
  
• Well, we have finally learned about who was the major funder of the PAC.  A required campaign filing with the Texas Ethics Commission for the PAC shows that "Printed Materials," "Direct Mail," and "Digital Communications" was paid for by Montgomery Bennett of Dallas. He commonly goes by Monty Bennett. 
  
  
  
• So who is he and why is he contributing to a PAC involved in a couple of obscure school board races for Decatur ISD?  
  
  
  
• Bennett is a very wealthy man who invests in hard right politicians and/or PACs. By doing so, he gets engaged in culture wars at the local level even though he may have no direct ties to the community. He's kind of like the West Texas Oil Men but on a smaller scale. 
• Bennet has thrown money in other flashpoint school board races in North Texas as well. In the last election, in addition to donating in Decatur, he supported PACs or candidates in the following (larger) district school board races . . . 
• Keller ISD ($20,000),
• Plano ISD ($15,000),
• Northwest ISD ($7,500),
• Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD ($2,500),
• McKinney ISD ($10,000), 
• and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD ($5,000). 
• Sidenote: He's not limited to school boards. He recently donated  $20,000 to Tim O'Hare, the new right wing Tarrant County judge. He's also donated $1.1 million to Trump.
• He also was mentioned in a a recent Texas Monthly article 
  
  
  
• He also can get a little testy. Described by D Magazine as "a wealthy hotelier named Monty Bennett who was near the steps of the Capitol on January 6 and has said the insurrection was overblown by the mainstream media," he sued a publication called the Dallas Weekly and lost.
  
  
  
• He also became front and center in the controversy surrounding the PPP during COVID -- even getting mentioned by then candidate Joe Biden. 
  
  
  
• But gave it all back under pressure
  
  
  
  
• So is there anything illegal or unethical about this guy getting involved in Decatur school board politics to help a couple of designated candidates? Of course not. It's not illegal to be rich or illegal to use that money in any campaign you choose.  But it's a wild development that as "culture wars envelop schools" in North Texas, they seem to have made inroads into Wise County by way of a big Dallas wallet. But the question remains: How in the world did Bennett end up getting connected to Decatur? 
• Quick hits on other news:
• We've got an an arrest of a Jacksboro teacher on an "improper relationship" charge. 
• Lots of charges being dropped in Tarrant County based upon a couple of headlines in the last 24 hours. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Last night, the judge in Trump's January 6th case ordered a hearing be held this week regarding what should have been a routine protective order. It will be the first time the actual federal judge in charge of the case will speak face to face with the lawyers. Trump's arraignment was handled by a magistrate. 
  
  
  
• I wonder about this, too.
  
  
  
• KERA has bought the Denton Record Chronicle. Seems like a big deal. 
• The first USA Today/Coaches poll for college football has been released.