8.22.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



It might not be Alabama Rush TikTok videos, but some new TCU sorority girls became a local viral sensation when several tripped over an ill-placed pavement berm. 

  • Trump will turn himself into the Fulton County Jail on Thursday and then be released on a $200,000 bond, but he might be going insane thinking about it: 

    • Fulton County Jail in 1950:

    • Legal nerdy stuff: Regarding his bond conditions, everyone is focusing on sections (a) through (e) which prohibits "threat[s]", but those are just examples which would fall within the broader condition of the opening paragraph. That opening paragraph prohibits any "act to intimidate . . . a codefendant or a witness." Threats are just a small subclass of "intimidate" because of the "but is not limited to" clause.

  • "Stand back and stand by": We've got a Proud Boy on the run. He's a Florida man. BOLO.


  • We spend so much time talking about these things, but no one really mentions how ridiculously ineffective those things are. But if Abbott did it for the PR, it was a home run. 

  • This was from a judge and not a jury. Whenever you see that, you can rest assured that this is an agreed deal between the State and the defense because the State couldn't find a single expert to say the person was sane. 


  • Ted Cruz. Harvard educated. 
    • Yesterday morning he fell for one of the oldest and most infamous photoshops on the Internet. He later admitted he was duped, but wrote "In LA, you never know." 

    • You never know if a shark is on a highway because it's in LA?  

  • Last night, WFAA had this crazy - and I do mean crazy - video (quick loading link on Twitter here and on YouTube here).  The guys trying to break in are thugs, but does anyone care about the bullets which went flying through the wall of his neighbor's apartment? And what king of gun was that? He fired off 12 rounds in under two seconds. WFAA story link here. 
    Guys trying to kick in door. Bullets about to fly. 
    "In the video, you can see bullets [go] into Rodriguez's neighbor's apartment."

    Outgoing bullet holes

  • Political junkies only. Here's a detailed chart of who was ahead in Iowa in August, who actually won, how and how much the polls were off. 

  • I think I'd trust Hunter Biden, who hangs out with hookers and cocaine, more than a president's son who tries to sell the public this: 

  • The Book Banning craze isn't new. I learned yesterday in 1969 that Baylor went nuts when the Theater Department tried to put on a rendition of A Long Day's Journey Into Night. But it's one thing for a private religious school to do this, and quite another for a public ISD to try an censor a book  about a gay kid. Side note: I knew nothing about the play or the movie, but it is ridiculously benign. And I now want to see it. 

  • So we are just going to shoot people at the border now? Some people want to turn immigrants into the new Jews of Germany -- with  gays being a close second. (This is the second time in a week DeSantis has mentioned gunning down people crossing the border. When did this become normal?)

  • Update on The Ticket vs. Dan and Jake: They are headed to mediation today and the parties avoided a federal court hearing yesterday on the The Ticket's TRO by temporarily agreeing to stop doing their podcast.  I bet this gets settled. 

  • I think I've become a big fan of Stoicism. 

at 8:31 AM

8.21.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





This was quite the scandal because he also sounded a little liquored up. He was just coming off a failed race against Ted Cruz for the Senate and, at the time he made the call, Dan Patrick was after his job for Lt. Governor. Things didn't get any better for him. 
  • Weather:
    • We broke a record yesterday.

    • This week is killin' us. 

    • Saw this last night. Honestly, I don't know why we are in more "danger" of a fire than other areas of North Texas unless the red also corresponds with the worst part of the drought. It may.

    • Some high school games in the metroplex have begun announcing a delayed start time for varsity games. I haven't heard anything about Wise County games. Side note: We use to kickoff at 8:00 p.m. back in the day for every game. 

    • That apocalypse of Hurricane Hilary hitting California was probably a tad bit overblown.  This photo was floating around yesterday -- if you look closely, it's just a wet parking lot around Dodger Stadium. 

  • Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last week appointed a retired judge to preside over Ken Paxton's impeachment trial in the Texas Senate.  The judge accepted the appointment and then immediately turned it down when he realized he had once contributed $250 to Paxton's opponent in the last election. (Compare and contrast Justice Thomas sitting on the Supreme Court and won't recuse himself after personally receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in perks.)


  • Trump, citing a new CBS Poll showing him with 62% in the Republican primary, announced he won't be taking part in the Fox News debate this week.  That same poll that Trump endorsed had this amazing result as well: Trump supporters believe him more than pastors or friends/family. 


    • How other leaders in the Republican polls in August went on to do in the Iowa Caucus:

  • Remember that "Blue Alert" that went off on our phones last week -- an alert which led to the guy being arrested a couple of days later only 6 miles from where the Houston incident happened? This is what the cops did to the house to make that arrest. 

  • If you wanted to know more about this, good luck. "Investigators say the stabbing stemmed from a domestic situation."   But here is the street it happened on from Google Streetview.

  • Lake Bridgeport is low, but I've noticed that water hasn't been released this summer to Eagle Mountain lake like you typically see. You know why? The Tarrant County Water Board now has the option of  "pumping significant amounts of water from the east Texas lakes, Richland Chambers and Cedar Creek, to its western reservoirs." And they are doing it. That tidbit is buried in this story which also says,  “Without that pumping, Bridgeport would be seven feet lower and Eagle Mountain would be over five and a half feet lower.” 

  • From the campaign trail: In addition to calling Trump supporters "listless vessels", DeSantis' bus got stuck in Iowa.


  • Random nerdy legal stuff: Fun two page order where a patent troll was ordered last week by a federal court to pay $191,302.18 in attorney's fees as a sanction for filing a frivolous lawsuit against Google.

  • The case of alleged murder-for-hire involving a lawyer which I was monitoring last week involving the Texas AG's office ended in a hung jury. 

  • Shoutout to WCSO for fixing its jail inmate list pdf. 

at 8:30 AM

8.18.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



That was definitely from 10 years ago because it sure isn't true today. Gov. Abbott's border ploy has taken these guys off the road, and away from their homes, by sending them down to the Valley. Other than commercial vehicle enforcement, you never see a trooper on the side of the road any longer. 

  •  How could I not lead with this? It was just a rumor the day before, but yesterday it went down. The Official Liberally Lean Girl is getting a divorce.  Someone might want to check on her because I'm a tad bit worried about her mental health.

  • I forgot this yesterday. Did everyone get rocked in the middle of the night by this alert? And is there any need for this to be sent out in North Texas as well as all over the state? He was captured last night 6.5 miles away from the original incident.  

  • Ugh.

  • Trump's lawyers have requested a trial date in April of 2026 for  the January 6th indictment.

    • That gave rise to a funny MSNBC graphic last night:

    • For counter-programming, Fox News brought on a law student to talk about the Georgia indictments. Wait. What? 

  • After he was indicted in Georgia, Trump promised us a press conference on Monday where, after two years and dozens of baseless lawsuits, he would reveal a report that "conclusively" and "irrefutably" proves that he wasn't lying about The Big Lie. Well, he cancelled it last night.  It's right out of Joseph Goebbels playbook. 
  • The company owned by the man who funded the PAC behind the takeover of the Decatur School Board, Monty Bennett, is having financial trouble. 


  • This is not a good look, but they don't care: Both the trial judge and the appellate judge who have gutted the availability of  the Morning After Pill were together in Fort Worth yesterday one day after the Fifth Circuit appellate ruling. They were in the warm bosom of the Federalist Society. 

  • Business news quick hit.

  • Legal nerdy stuff. Citing an ongoing example, I mentioned on Monday how you never want the AG's office to help your DA's office at trial. He was an update yesterday from the current trial I mentioned. It doesn't seem to be going well:

  • The WCSO is still neglecting in the official Inmate List provided to the public by PDF. It has not been updated since 8/9.
  • 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 43 days.


at 8:31 AM
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