9.18.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




I had forgotten that he had actually been sentenced to prison by a jury, but he had been on bond during the appeal. 

  • Paxton (Not) Impeachment Update:
    • My prediction was wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. 

    • That prediction of conviction on impeachment was based on one simple fact: There was no way, I thought, that the House Republicans would have impeached him without them being 100% convinced that the Senate would follow along and convict. Why would they jeopardize their jobs over Paxton -- an issue they didn't have to touch -- if it could possibly backfire in the Senate? 
    • I mean, from a political survival standpoint, if the House Republicans thought that Saturday's vote was in any way possible then they were absolutely nuts to vote to impeach.  Now they have targets on their backs. I don't understand what happened at all. It's now called a "Republican civil war":



    • And make no mistake about it, they will be targeted. There are jobs in jeopardy. The ultra-MAGA extremists are out for blood. And the West Texas Oil Man PAC has signaled that it is coming after them. This is the head of the PAC immediately after the vote:

    • That same guy was very vocal about letting Senators know where the ultra-MAGA stood before the vote. They listened:

    • House Managers watched the vote go down. That's David Spiller of Jacksboro right in the middle. I've got to talk to him. 

    • And then Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who served as judge at the trial, went scorched earth on them after the vote. And yesterday he was still at it. (Don't worry about the fact he received $3 million from the aforementioned PAC before the trial.)

    • House Managers press conference following the acquittal was very brief:

    • The guys had nothing to do with it despite them wanting to let you think that they did.

    • While the verdict was being read. This guy needs some scene control:

  • On Friday, the embattled sheriff of Clay County was convicted by a Montague County jury of Official Oppression. I can't believe you could convict law enforcement of anything up there.

  • This is a real tweet from an official government account last night. 

  • I'm sure you've seen the Rep. Lauren Boebert groping video. She said last night that  "I was a little too eccentric . . . .  I'm on the edge of a lot of things."

  • Actions no longer have consequences. 


  • Someone told me I needed to keep an eye on the Decatur School Board meeting tonight. I looked at the agenda and these are the only closed session issues that got my attention. 

  • There is a "tipping point" for certain products that explode in popularity. If you saw a graph for the the initial sales of computers, cell phones, flat screens,  -- any revolutionary product -- it starts off flat and then explodes upward. I saw this in the Dallas Morning News yesterday:

  • This may be the most obvious betting directed decision I've ever seen: Down by 10, one play and threes seconds left, second down, you're not going win, but you kick a field goal which just happens to cover the spread?

  • Do we really need a commercial for the new Exorcist movie during a late afternoon Cowboys game?


at 8:31 AM

9.15.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




He failed. He took off from Maine and made it all the way to . . . Canada, 350 miles away. I thought it was a death wish. Lift-off on YouTube here.

  • First photos in the media of the victim of the alleged murder in Boyd this week have appeared. The defendant remained in jail this morning on a $350,000 bond. 

  • In the ongoing litigation about who should represent capital murder Defendant Tanner Horner in Wise County, we have the first response to a request made two weeks ago the Court of Criminal Appeals. It's from his lawyer removed from the case. We are now awaiting responses of the judge as well as the newly appointed lawyers from Regional Public Defender's Office which must be made "within 20 days" of 8/30/23.

  • It has arrived. The impeachment vote will be held in the Senate today after closing arguments which at start at 9:00 a.m.  
    • The head of the ultra MAGA extremists came to Paxton's defense yesterday. 

    • The head of the extremists MAGA PAC funded by the West Texas Oilmen issued a threat. 

  • Hunter Biden was indicted on gun charges. If he's guilty, so be it. But the Fifth Circuit has already struck down the law of one of the charges by relying on Trump Supreme Court's expansive expansion of 2nd Amendment rights in Braun. The other charges will probably face a similar fate. 

  • As of midnight, we now have an auto strike. 


    • No one is asking me for "strike advice", but I wouldn't do this half-arse partial strike. I'd do a complete walkout. Go full throttle or not at all. You know, half measures something-something.
    • Am I the only one who thought the "Big Three" included Chrysler instead of something named Stellantis? 
  • Uh, oh. The Bridgeport High School soccer coach strip club scandal has made the Daily Mail treatment. (He paid the money back and lost his job, let's give the guy a break.)

  • Remember this photo the other day of the Sheriff of Tarrant County posing with Kyle Rittenhouse? Well also in the photo is Jake Neidert who had just fired off this very offensive post. Once that post came to light yesterday, his recent past employer, Rep. Tony Tinderholt, immediately distanced from him with this post.  (The last time I checked, Neidert had been a Baylor University student.)
    Birds of a feather.

  • Texas District Clerk vs. Texas District Attorney in Hays County. Fun fact: The District Clerk made the news last year after winning election as a 19 year old. 

  • Trouble in Aggieland.

  • Ticket fans: The fight of Cumulus vs. Dan and Jake is heating up.  The Ticket's most reccent filing is here. The boys' curt response is here. And the Ticket even made a Wire reference in a pretentiously worded footnote.

  • 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 71 days.

at 8:31 AM

9.14.2023

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




All tracked to Taco Casa in Decatur back then. 

  • Yep, we've got another murder charge on the books in Wise County after a man allegedly shot his stepson. But I bet this one is going to be a bit messy.  Deputies had been called to the home earlier in the evening.  

  • Impeachment quick hits:
    • We had the first appearance of a lawyer on the prosecutor's team, and she was fantastic. Erin Epley should have been in charge of the whole thing. 
    • This was weird: Paxton's mistress was scheduled to testify yesterday, showed up, waited around all day, and then was excused behind closed doors when she told them she intended to take the Fifth.

    • Overall, the prosecution's presentation has been a mess. They had a time limit which they mismanaged, were disjointed, and let the defense push them around. 
    • Case in point. Video. This was really bad. 

    • Tony Buzbee sounds like Mack Brown.
    • This is interesting: The Senate will vote today on a Motion which, if passed, would result in an impeachment conviction also preventing Paxton from ever seeking office again. Without it, there would have to be two seperate votes at the end of the trial (assuming conviction.) I would think that this is basically going to be a preview of the verdict today. 
  • The Messenger has a story on the new budget for Wise County and included this nugget: 
  • After the capture of the escaped Pennsylvania inmate, there was a press conference. And then someone decided to do a bit with a question. This really happened. Video. Yep, an inquiry about one small person possibly standing on the shoulder of another small person inside a trenchcoat. 
  • I don't like this trend at all.
  • A man who shot and killed two people is hanging out with the Tarrant County Sheriff. Rittenhouse's cult following is just weird. 
  • Mitt Romney announced yesterday that he won't seek re-election in the Senate. On the same day, we learned he texted Mitch McConnell before January 6th that he was hearing something very bad may happen. 
  • Mildy legal nerdy stuff. This case is out of Houston and illustrates something I've mentioned over the years. More and more criminal prosecutions are occurring over unintentional conduct. Hey, this case has bad facts, but there would not have been a criminal prosecution 30 years ago.  Side note: The family had already received a jury verdict of $95 million last year.
      • Very legal nerdy stuff: That story is behind a paywall, and I really want to read the rest of that paragraph that gets cut off above. It sounds like the defense lawyer changed his election to have to the jury assess punishment, the judge let him, and then the prosecutor and the defense lawyer got into it. 
      • Very legal nerdy stuff #2: She was convicted of reckless conduct. She was definitely negligent but almost no one understands how reckless conduct, when the law is properly applied, is almost impossible to prove.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold 

at 8:32 AM

9.13.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




"Sheriff David Walker said . . . that the couple had been going through a divorce."

  • Breaking: They have just captured the inmate on the loose in Pennsylvania, Danelo Cavalcante.


    • The cops even gathered around and posed for a picture with him before taking him away. Really. Video.

  • Breaking #2: There's a fire going on right now at an "oil and gas facility" near Decatur. Video. Seems potentially bad. 
  • I'm not sure what this arrest last night was about. We don't have another murder do we? The name isn't familiar to me from pending cases, and that does not look like itis based on a warrant for an out-of-county offense. Side note: That town of "Bots" has a zip code for Boyd.

    • Edit. Related?

  • Not the way you want your school logo to end up in the Dallas Morning News. (He paid the credit card bill.)
  • Impeachment quick hits:
    • Yesterday we learned that Paxton couldn't get his staff to launch an investigation into DPS and the feds who were looking into the business practices of Nate Paul so, at the urging of Nate Paul's personal lawyer, Paxton contacted and contracted with a five year personal injury lawyer with no criminal experience to do the job. He was to get $300 an hour. Oh, my.

    • And did this "hiring" seem a little a weird to this guy? Would he get a badge, AG email address or a business card? No. And Paxton asked him to download "Signal", an encrypted messaging app, to communicate with him. Seems legit, right? 
    • Yet somehow he, as an AG special prosecutor(?), was led to believe that he authority to issue grand jury subpoenas for documents (a practice which doesn't involve a grand jury at all). But get this: He issued subpoenas directed towards 40 people and entities -- names he got  from a list compiled by Nate Paul's personal lawyer. Microsoft was one of them but it balked after questioning his credentials and who he was. 
    • After all hell broke lose and U.S. Marshal's showed up at his law office to ask what he was doing, the young lawyer wanted a meeting with Paxton.  Paxton agreed but moved the meeting to a Starbucks where he was told that it was over, his authority was revoked, and that he wouldn't get paid for any past work. 
    • Angela Paxton pondered life while looking at her wedding ring during yesterday's testimony:
    • Even if removed from office, Ken Paxton will keep his $66,000 a year pension for life. 
  • What a headline. And there is surveillance video of her getting kicked out. 

     

  • I'm sorry, how much did you say? 

  • So there's an impeachment inquiry beginning at the unilateral decision of the Speaker of the House without a vote? That's what happens when you have a Speaker who sold his soul to the MAGA extremists and they now hold you hostage. Would you let your children speak to you this way yesterday?


  • Does this mean that DPS has gone woke? 

  • Marky Mark at Joe T. Garcia's a couple of days ago. 

  • This being a family friendly blog, I can only suggest you not search for the various clips of Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) reading various excerpts from a book in a committee hearing yesterday. Is there no one on his staff who told him this would not be a good idea? 

at 8:31 AM
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