Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

What a crazy case. Three girls, which he had held captive for years, escaped from him in early May, 2013. He was indicted a month later on June 7, 2013. He quickly pled guilty on July 26, 2013.  He was sentenced to life without parole on August 1, 2013. And he then committed suicide on September 4, 2013.

---

• Paxton impeachment update: 
• This was the House Manager's first witness, the former First Assistant AG. His testimony wasn't all that earth-shaking, but has he never testified before? Had no one prepared him?  In general, he was horrible. (Did you know he was nominated for a federal judgeship under Trump before it was withdrawn?)

  

  Jeff Mateer

  
  
• And "prosecution" attorney Rusty Hardin needs to get off his hands. If he's going to let Tony Buzbee just turn every question on cross into a closing argument, this is going to take a long time. 

  

  Rusty Hardin, surrounded by other people also scared to object

  
  

  

  Buzbee

  
  
• The second witness, who will be cross-examined this morning, wast the guy below. He was also with the AG's office, but he's a much smoother witness.  It isn't important, but why did he leave a partnership at Baker & Botts to go to the Missouri AG's ofice before coming to the Texas AG's office? The other thing that bugged me was that he basically described the AG office's Open Records lawyers as a braintrust. That's about as far from the truth that there is. 
  
  
  
• Holy, cow! We learned how the Pennsylvania inmate who is on the run escaped: He "spider walked" up in between two walls. Video.
  
  
  
• Wait, what? ERCOT asks all of us to conserve electricity -- with some urgency last night, in fact. Why don't they write us a check, too?
  
  
  
• Texas prisons are in a lockdown. Most aren't air-conditioned. If I were to guess, I bet this is directly related to the difficulty in filling guard positions.  
  
  
  
• This is obviously a "witch hunt" brought by a "weaponized Justice Department" because they "hate traditional American values." Or, maybe, he just broke the law.
  
  
  
• Both the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram are doing feature stories this week on the dangerous of fentanyl.  The one below is from today.  So what makes a couple "prominent"? It basically just means you're very rich and you go to a lot of social events, right? 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Random fun fact: The Secret Service has a tricked up rolling communications command center which is called the "Roadrunner" which is part of presidential motorcades. It will make a preliminary run before the official event. It crashed last Saturday before President Biden's visit to Florida after the hurricane.
  
  
  
• Random sentence from this D Magazine business article: "They opened a tasting room and 10,000-square-foot bottling facility in Bridgeport, Texas, and a corporate headquarters for the company’s parent, Sanctified Spirits, in Southlake." 
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Of the many things I've forgotten is when radio man Mike Rhyner, then with The Ticket and now with The Fan Freak, got in a pretty good wreck. 

---

• The Paxton Impeachment hearing is now underway. 
• Paxton's front lawyer, Tony Buzbee, is about what I expected. Juries actually fall for his schtick? 
  
  
  
  
• I've said all along: There was no way the House Republicans were going to stick their necks out with their impeachment vote unless they were sure the Senate would back them up now. Paxton will need 10 "no" votes from cronies in the Senate to save his job. So does he have it?
• Here's the math: There are 31 Senators. It takes 2/3 to Impeach. That is 21. (Sen. Angela Paxton can't vote she is counted in the 31. That's a big deal. If she wasn't counted then it would only take only 20 votes to impeach.) But the bottom line is that a vote of 21-9 or more will get him. To put it another way, Paxton needs at least 10.
• Yesterday, we got a huge preview where the entire Senate voted on various pre-trial motions filed by Paxton to dismiss the articles of impeachment.  He only had six that would back up his Motions to Dismiss across the board. Notably, one of them was Wise County's Sen. Tan Parker:
  
  
  
• The closest Paxton got to the needed 10 votes was a vote of 22-8 on his Motion to exclude any evidence of conduct before his most recent term of office. That appears to be his biggest defense of the "Prior Term Doctrine" or the "Forgiveness Doctrine." It's over, isn't it? 
• We have the biggest lick yet as a consequence for the Trump Insurrection. "Stand back and stand by!" / "Be there. Will be wild!"
  
  
  
• As if long waits weren't bad enough, DPS has screwed up and cancelled long-held appointments for today.  Maybe if they just had some extra money laying around to fix everything. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• You know, I didn't think much about the allegations against the "official" until you dig a little deeper and find out it is the court clerk who . . . 
  
  
  
• . . . has already profited off the case by publishing a book about it. That's a bad look. 
  
  
  
• This is getting weird.  One guy claimed to see the man in his house,  but I'm not sure everyone necessarily believed him.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• But the story creeps me out. I'm still disturbed by the escaped Texas prisoner who killed a family of five a year ago. 
• Nobody wears a tie any more (even when your boss does). Some of us old-timers will never get over this change in the profession.  
  
  
  
• This would seem to be a very ill-advised attempted career move.
  
  
  
• Political deep cut: Far right wing former Texas State Sen. Konni Burton seemingly just announced she's leaving Twitter because the further far right nutcases are doing nothing but "grifting" and "creating an angry mob [which] is particularly depressing because it's built on so many lies, not truth." She has been unabashed about her dislike of Trump.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

And I just thought I was joking. 

---

• COVID back in the news.
  
  
  
• The Ken Paxton impeachment trial begins today.  Question: Since all you need is 21 of 31 Senators, has there not been a survey/prediction of how each will likely vote? That a small group whose views should be well known in Austin. We should have a pretty good feeling by now how this is going to turn out. 
  
  
  
• Sunday morning. Man and wife, 57 and 53. Seems to be a lot of this going on these days. 
  
  
  
• That's a car inside a Denny's. It happened in Roseburg, Texas (right outside of Houston) yesterday shortly before noon. Twenty-three were injured, but no deaths. 
  
  
  
• Trifecta on musical deaths over the weekend: Jimmy Buffett (skin cancer), Smash Mouth's Steve Harwell (liver), and Gary Wright.
  
  
  
• Prepare to get beaten down with "government shut down" news over the next couple of weeks. 
  
  
  
• I've seen some criticism of the Florida defendants smiling (Jenna Ellis, etc.) in their mugshots, but the practice is not new.  Tom Delay perfected it in 2005. I think it's a good idea. 
  
  
  
• The Hollywood writers/actor strike is still going on. I can see why. 
  
  
  
• Football follow-ups: (1) Baylor paid Texas State $350,000 to come to Waco and beat them. (2) We're all just going to pretend that Deion Sanders' Prime Academy in Dallas didn't happen? (3) The "new" College Game Day theme is the same beat down of a song just re-recorded. (4) Funny GIF from TCU game. (5) Pivotal play in the Tech loss here if you haven't seen it. 
  
  
  
• Great collection of pictures of Burning Man here. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

One of the first Twitter viral sensations was "@Vodka_Samm" who ran onto the field during an Iowa game, blew an 0.341, got arrested, tweeted it out as it happened, and earned a story in the New York Post and Deadspin.

---

• Wise County capital murder update. We have a somewhat shocking preliminary ruling in the District Attorney's attempt to get an answer on whether the judge properly removed Tanner Horner's court appointed lawyers on July 13th and replace them with the the group named the Regional Public Defender’s Office (RPDO) -- the group which had previously signed a contract with Wise County to represent all capital murder defendants. The higher court ruling came down hours after the request was filed, and  . . . 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Quick background: Recall that last week the D.A. went directly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to try to get the court to rule on the propriety of the attorneys' removal. If he could get it, he wanted an answer now instead of years after the trial.  And he took the additional unusual step of asking all Wise County proceedings be stayed until the court could rule. 
• The court has now granted the first request: Proceedings stayed.
  
  
  
• I think this is a big deal. Even though the court did not decide the issue of whether the removal of the lawyers was proper, it did grant the stay. I'm not sure I've ever seen this happen before. If I were reading the tea leaves, that is probably a message that they will put the original court appointed lawyers back on the case. Maybe. This is uncharted territory for everyone involved. 
• But the court didn't make a final ruling just yet. Before it does, it wants to hear from others within 20 days. Those include: The judge ("respondent"), the lawyers taken off the case, and the lawyers who were newly appointed. 
  
  
  
• I'll post the responses once they show up on the court's docket. They will be public records and you can monitor it here, too. Developing . . . . 
• Incredible that Texas towns are actually doing this (free link): "Designed by the architects of the state’s 'heartbeat' ban that took effect months before Roe fell, ordinances like the one proposed in Llano . . . make it illegal to transport anyone to get an abortion on roads within the city or county limits. The laws allow any private citizen to sue a person or organization they suspect of violating the ordinance."
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Crazy rain has stranded thousands at the always wild Burning Man event in Nevada. It's hard enough getting in and out of there when it is bone dry. It looks like a mess. (And, no, there is not an Ebola outbreak as the nutcases would have you believe.)
  
  
  
  
  
   
• Last Friday was very deadly in the metroplex.
• Early Friday morning hours:  
  
  
  
• Armed guard shot dead at 9:30 a.m. Friday in East Dallas.
  
  
  
• Friday evening:
  
  
  
• Well, this is nuts. A plane hired to spray blue or pink in a gender reveal party crashes seconds afterwards in front of the guests. Video.
  
  
  
• I'm personally indifferent about her, but it's time to realize that Taylor Swift is more popular than anyone who has come before her. More than Elvis. More than the Beatles. She sells out stadiums for days in a row. And now she is releasing a movie of that concert and people are knocking each other down for tickets.
  
  
  
• Business quick hit: I'm no expert, but I think the employment rate is clearly back to normal. 
  
  
  
• College football: Baylor (27.5 favorites over Texas State), Texas Tech (14 point favorites over Wyoming) and  TCU (20.5 point favorites over Colorado) all lost straight up. 
  
  
  
• It's a new day in college football. With the blossoming of NIL and immediate transfers, Colorado, with a new coach, had 87 new players.  Texas State, with a new coach, was second with 71 newcomers. See a pattern to success?
• It's Labor Day. This production brought to you by The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.™