8.23.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




 It was a "fine levied by the Texas Ethics Commission" against Judge Sharon Keller for failing to fully disclose millions of dollars of real estate and income in financial statements." And she is still on the court.

  • I told ya it was coming. 

  • In Georgia attempted election stealing prosecution news:
    • John Eastman has turned himself in and we have our first high profile mugshot.

        • When he doubled down on this statement yesterday like he was a QAnon nut, I was ready to call him crazy.  But upon reflection, what else can he say? It's his only defense. It's his only hope to stay out of prison. He has to maintain the lie. 

    • Even if I'm a lesser know Georgia defendant, I'd spell "request" correctly.

    • Trump will turn himself on Thursday night during prime time. He's a born showman. 

  • There is a Republican debate tonight without Trump. And I just leaned that someone I hadn't heard of might be taking a seat while everyone else is standing:

  • I think this is just a bit. No way he's serious about this, and there's no way anyone would buy it. In support of this theory, I went to the website to see if you could actually buy a ticket like he claims, and you can't. It just promises "coming soon" (with a probably false claim that the 100 "pre-sale tickets" have already been taken.)

  • I know our leaders are dumb, but there's no way we they can be that dumb right? Dennis Prager videos simply push the accelerator down on the road to Idiocracy. 
  • Video: Mom removed from Tennessee House Subcommittee for simply holding up a sign that read, "1 KID > ALL THE GUNS."   When she asks, "Is this what democracy looks like?", we should take heed. 

  • Suites getting nicer. I'm sure the interior decorator didn't suggest curtains for the end zone. 

  • Traffic on 114 news. The new development is described as "south of Texas State Highway 114, west of F.M. 156, north of Elizabeth Creek, and east of BNSF Railroad, the development would span 430 acres." My graphics department took out a red pen and told me that should be somewhere behind Northwest High School off 114. 


  • A former Miss Texas is running for a Texas House district in the metroplex as a Democrat. The seat is currently held by a Republican who won 54.3% to 45.2% in 2022. That photo the Texas Tribune used might be an accurate predictor of her chances if you focus on Miss Texas' Teen's expression. 

  • We had a Wise County criminal case affirmed on appeal on Monday. That was quick. It was tried to a jury less than a year ago.
    • Legal nerdy stuff: This was a very old case because the defendant was in Germany for many, many years before being arrested. One of the points of error concerned a lost video: "Slimp complains of evidence from 1995 related to this case that was lost or destroyed and argues that, even though current law does not allow for a spoliation remedy without a showing of bad faith, this Court should 'reevaluate the current state of the law and amend existing precedent with regards to spoliation in criminal cases.'" The court declined. 
    • Edit: A completely different Wise County criminal case just got affirmed this morning. That was a quick one as well. 

at 8:31 AM

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
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