8.30.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




I probably should look up what happened to these three. 

  • I didn't know that part of Florida was (1) known as the "Big Ben" and (2) was swamp area. Side note: Is way too much being made of this storm?

  • Sentencing was supposed to happen this morning for the lead Proud Boys, including Enrique Tarrio, who were actually convicted of Seditious Conspiracy. It was called off moments ago "due to an emergency" per U.S. Attorney's office. Developing . . . ,

  • The crime of failure to report child abuse is a little messy and two softball coaches just got swept up in it in Prosper. The law is triggered by "having reasonable cause to believe."  Any statute with "reasonable" in it -- something that a prosecutor must prove -- is an almost impossible hill to climb.  And in the teachers' defense, what if they simply didn't believe the reports of an incident based upon who it was coming from?

  • I posted yesterday about the murder-suicide of a family of four on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and now the exact same thing has happened in Allen. 

  • Ultra extremist MAGA candidates, with the help of outside money, took over the Southlake ISD board. Now they've banded together to endorse the author of the book banning list for an unrelated Tarrant county commissioner position. See how this works?

  • Is this kind of like travel warnings for Jews about Germany in the early 1930s?

  • I honestly don't know how the Atlanta DA's office can handle all the Trump election stealing cases. Look at the time they are spending on just keeping one defendant, Mark Meadows, in state court. And this is all very complicated. 

  • Hot business opinion: Home prices may end up being flat for the next 5 to 10 years, but we won't see a big dip.

  • Here's the story about his death, and the later ME ruling. Side note: Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins is in the law firm of Loncar, Lyon, and Jenkins.  

  • The Matt Rhule football ear in Nebraska is off to a tough start as a tight end "allegedly" burglarized a vape shop and was arrested this week when caught in the act. If that wasn't proof enough, his case gets worse since it was all caught, with multiple angles, on video.

  • More Nebraska stuff: They are playing a volleyball game today at the football stadium. 

  • Obscure legal nerdy stuff that got my attention: 
    • Did you know that the Library of Congress requires you to give them, for free, a hard copy of any work you "publish"? Well, the D.C. federal appellate court just held that is an "unlawful taking" without compensation. 
    • A sheriff's office in Louisiana arrested someone for posting what is below during COVID. The Fifth Circuit said yesterday it is clearly free speech (he was joking) and it wasn't even close.  Opinion

    • This FBI agent is very proud of his degrees:

  • The actual and unedited front page from today's edition of the campus newspaper at the University of North Carolina -- it's the reproduction of actual text messages exchanged during Monday's shooting  . . . 

at 8:31 AM

8.29.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




I know I'm whipping you with Johnny Football flashbacks but this one is great. They only suspended him for 1/2 of one game after finding he hadn't been paid. In the current documentary, he admits to taking over $100,000 for his autograph.

  • That was a wild helicopter crash into an apartment complex in Florida yesterday. Video.


  • A professor was shot dead by a University of North Carolina student yesterday causing a widespread panic on campus yesterday afternoon.


  • The most important of all criminal cases against Trump, the January 6th case pending in federal court in D.C.,  now has a trial date of March 4th, and that judge seems deadly serious about it. 

    • Trump immediately defamed the judge and the prosecutor and proclaimed "I will APPEAL!"  Someone needs to tell him, "You can't."

    • Random legal thought: The one thing that could delay everything is if there are any federal pre-trial motions Trump could file which can legally be immediately appealed thereby putting the whole case on hold. There's nothing in Texas state court that works that way, but I don't know federal criminal procedure. Some type of presidential immunity claim maybe?
  • I noticed that Tanner Horner has a court appearance in district court in Wise County on Thursday. It would be the first appearance since new attorneys were appointed for him.


  • This appears to be murder-suicide of a family. It happened in a residence on West 86th street which is some ridiculously priced real estate.  It's not far at all from the apartment building depicted in Only Murders in the Building. 

  • Joe the Plumber, who was neither named Joe nor held an official plumber's license, is dead at age 49. After a brief encounter with then Sen. Barack Obama, he tried to parlay that into a career (Wikipedia page), but ultimately ended up as an auto worker and a member of a union. 

  • That's an eye catching headline. Quick facts: The property is a 15,000-square-foot mansion on 5 acres and was sold by Christy Thompson, "daughter of the late Texas oil magnate J. Cleo Thompson, who died in 2010." Fun fact #1: She bought it just last year for $51 million. Fun fact #2: Last year she built a 23,688-square-foot mega-mansion (great Texas Monthly link) for $43 million in University Park.


  • Joey Tribbiani was at Joe T. Garcia's last weekend. 

  • Random rabbit trail: Baylor is playing Texas State this weekend, and I noticed their new coach is G. J. Kinne. I thought that name sounded familiar. He is the son of a coach who was shot in Canton in East Texas by an upset parent in 2005. Flashback: 

  • Brutal:
    • Yesterday at 9:00 a.m. from the official Cleveland Browns account:

    • Yesterday at 11:46 a.m.: 



  • America loves to get excited about a pending Hurricane . . . 

at 8:30 AM

8.28.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Joe Duty photo from a Decatur Eagles game which I thought was great at the time. Still do.  (Original PDF of that page from the Messenger.)

  • A young Nazi extremist, who went and bought an AR-15 as easily as you would a lottery ticket, intentionally targeted and killed three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville on Saturday.  Today is the 60th Anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech. 

    Swastika on the AR-15

    Fired 11 shots at lady inside car.


    • Three hours after the shooting, the NRA posted this. Editor's note: American's don't "vehemently disagree." 

  • Watch players scramble off the field Friday night as shots are fired in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Video.

  • County Jude J.D. Clark sent these photos from the second floor district courtroom of the Wise County Courthouse where, for the first time since the 1950s, you can now see the original ceiling as the third floor has now been demolished. Love this project.  Those metal girders will be removed and a balcony be put back in place.
    Looking north and up from back up courtroom at the now demolished old jury room/commissioner's courtroom above.

    Camera facing south from back of courtroom.

  • This photo doesn't look like much, but that's a big wrecker and first responders blocking both lanes of northbound 287 on Friday afternoon right by NRS south of Decatur.  Traffic was a complete standstill for miles in 110 degree heat --  backed up past FM 407 almost to Rhome. 

  • A crazy story you probably missed on Friday: 

  • Oh, my. (How did they cut that thing off the stingray before it just ripped it back out?) 

  • This headline was everywhere yesterday. Less publicized was that a Marine pilot was killed in San Diego late Thursday when he crashed his Hornet fighter jet. The military has more accidental non-wartime aircraft deaths than any commercial airline. 

  • A bag of chips?

  • Unusual crime filed Friday in Wise County (Cause no. JP1-C-249091):

  • Trump gave us a very Kim Jong Un-like bold claim this weekend.

    • And then destroyed a poor guy's cell phone. 

  • Sports quick hits:
    • College Gameday unanimously predicts Texas to win the Big 12. They're back!

    • High school crazy stat: A Texas 2A running back from Wolfe City rushed for 451 yards and six TDs in one game. He ran the ball 43 times. 
  • Jacksonville's paper of record didn't exactly get excited about the the big shooting this weekend . . .  


at 8:31 AM

8.25.2023

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

at 2:30 PM
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