8.14.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Ten years ago Johnny Manziel and the autograph "scandal" were still dominating the news every day.  And I had forgotten Deadspin took a deep dive into family background on this week. (I love how they have kept their archives alive.)

  •  A young lady drove off the damn into Lake Bridgeport on Friday night. She survived despite the fact that the vehicle, according to the Messenger, ending up in "17 feet of water about 22 feet from the lake shore." 

    In the process of being pulled out



  • Our Congressman continues to embarrass us. The Chief Deputy said he had witnessed Jackson drinking earlier in the night, and an EMT said "he did appear drunk."  



  • This probably didn't get noticed enough. Late Friday, Dallas PD released a video of an undercover officer (sitting in a tricked up car in a parking lot) when he was randomly carjacked. Both sides then opened fire at each other at point blank range. I have no idea how no one was hit. The video is wild.

  • Dear Wise County Sheriff's Office: Please fix the jail inmate PDF. It hasn't been updated since last week. 
  • An incredible home explosion in Pennsylvania, which killed five, was caught on Ring doorcam video. 

  • A couple of homes burned in the Crestwood area of Fort Worth over the weekend. I don't know what I think about them having a photographer along on any major fire to basically take glamor shots. 

  • Republicans at the Iowa State Fair:
    • I don't know much about this candidate but the video is, uh, something. 

    • Rep. Matt Gaetz introducing Trump and saying that "only through force" will change happen in the United States. Video. Believe them when they say it. 

  • The Justice Department for some reason appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Hunter Biden who, last time I checked, was not a public official. Ted Cruz was not happy with the person appointed, David Weiss: 

    • Flashback: Ted Cruz and other Republican senators specifically requested David Weiss be appointed special prosecutor of Hunter Biden last September. 


  • Legal stuff: I think this is just a default judgment that they will never collect. (But I'll have to ask my civil lawyer friends if you can have a jury, instead of the judge, assess damages when the defendant defaults and doesn't answer the lawsuit.)

  • Nerdy legal stuff: Out of a Denton case, we've got lawyers behaving badly.

  • "The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory." - a quote from Mad Men that I saw over the weekend. I couldn't agree with that more. 

at 8:30 AM

8.11.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts





It turned out to be one of my top five books of all time. And it still is. 

  • I doubt Trump's January 6th trial will happen on that day, but it's headed for a date early next year. Let me tell you something, I don't think the country has fully realized just how bizarre and tense things are about to get.
  • The death toll in Maui ticked up to 53 last night. Edit: Just went to 55. 

  • Wise County just missed major storms last night.  Up in Wichita Falls, over 9,000 lost power and may still not have it.  (One faithful reader says he still doesn't have power as of 8:00 a.m.)
  • Unnecessary close-up of a crushed bicycle this morning.


  • Make it stop.

  • I can't stand Rep. Jeff Leach but the lawsuit filed against him for defamation for calling someone who was in favor of TEXIT (the Texas succession movement) treasonous is silly. Anyway, a hearing was held yesterday in Parker County on Leach's Motion to Dismiss. No ruling yet. The defamation lawyer and his supporters outside the courtroom are about what I expected:


    • This is what started it all. 

  • It's just a matter a time until Ultra-MAGA makes him a martyr. The Murdock owned New York Post is already starting.  

  • I'm not exactly sure what the Tortfeasors show is at the Fort Worth Community Art Center, but at least one person has taken exception to "Tarrant County attorneys" putting on a performance of a parody song called "Whiny Ass Clients."

  • It's not another pandemic, but I sure am hearing about a lot of COVID cases out there in the area. The USA Today noted the increases nationwide on it's front page today. 

  • The Ticket vs. Dan and Jake is still alive, and the boys have filed a heck of response. (PDF). The attachments include an affidavit from Jake where he discloses his salary background and reveals numbers.


  • Weekend reading (free link):

  • Hey, WCSO, your jail list PDF is not updating. 
  • 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: 4 years and 37 days.



at 8:32 AM

8.10.2023

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. 

  • 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

at 8:31 AM
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