Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

I tried to find the source on this old bullet point but the link, which went to a Google Doc, was dead. 

---

• It looks like all signs are pointing to is being an errant Hamas missile that hit the Gaza hospital. 
  
  
  
• There were about six hours on Wednesday where everyone seemed to blame Israel for the blast.  From a journalistic standpoint, lots of eyes have been on the New York Times and how their initial headline led the charge. The first one started the narrative -- and putting "Palestinians Say" at the end of it is almost too late from a psychological standpoint. It then morphed as more information became available.
  
  
  
• Even if the hospital story report turned out to be wrong, it's kind of a red herring. Israel has still bombed Gaza incessantly since the weekend attack by Hamas and have killed over 3,300 in the process.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Protestors in D.C. yesterday don't want Israel to bring the hammer down any further on innocent Palestinians. 
  
  
  
• The cluster continues.
  
  
  
  
• Fort Worth's rep held the line in refusing to vote for a man deep inside the planning of the Insurrection.
  
  
  
• Wise County's representative went Ultra-MAGA lapdog. And is still committed (or perhaps even married according to his language) to Jordan.
  
  
  
• I didn't know Northwest ISD had purchased land alongside 287 in Rhome for a future high school -- although it might be 15 years before it is built. 
  
  
  
• Probably the only Paxton defense lawyer during the impeachment trial who was actually good at his job is now running to become part of the Texas legislature.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• That's a heck of a screenshot. (Video.)
  
  
  
• Burt Young, who played Paulie in the Rocky movies, has died. He was age 35 when the first one was released. 
  
  
  
• So close to the name of a fancy mustard.
  
  
  
• Extremely legal nerdy stuff: A very odd and extended rant yesterday in a four judge concurrence in the Court of Criminal Appeals about (1) how unethical the State was in the case, and (2) how dumb it is that Texas law requires any legal opinions released in a case to be wiped from the books if the defendant dies before the case becomes final.  Good explainer thread about the opinion here.
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thought

That's a section of a railroad track on a drawbridge which lifts to allow river traffic in Florida. That's a also a lady who got stuck on it once it began to rise. Story. 

---

•  
• Jonathan Stickland, the head of the West Texas Oil Man PAC who met with a neo-Nazi, is gone. There's no word yet on whether his consulting company, Pale Horse Strategies, which the PAC paid a shocking $828,000 to  in 2022, will still have the PAC as a client.  The meeting with the Nazi happened in its offices. 
  
  
  
• Israel/Gaza: What a mess.
• As President Biden was basically on the tarmac to go to Israel, a rocket hit a hospital in Gaza killing hundreds.  That's bad. Real bad. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The initial reaction was that Israel had hit the hospital and, if it were true, the Middle East was about to come a bigger mess.  Arab protests fired up  across the Middle East and a "Day of Anger" was declared.  Who could blame them? 
  
  
  
• President Biden was to meet with Arab leaders in Jordan after going to Israel, but that country cancelled the visit in light of the hospital bombing. This was getting complicated.
  
   
• But then Israel says it wasn't them -- that is was a misfired Hamas rocket that landed on the hospital. And last night they offered some proof, but Israel has been know to fudge the facts in these situations. True or not, President Biden landed in Israel a couple of hours ago and hugged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he stepped off the plane. 
  
  
  
• So who is responsible for the hospital bombing? President Biden said this in his first public comments about it:  
  

  
  
  
• What a mess indeed. Who actually bombed the hospital may no longer matter, because this is dangerously close to spiraling out of control.  The President is in the middle of a powder keg -- a keg which seems much more dangerous than the Ukraine conflict ever was. 
• Meanwhile, things were normal back in America. We had a courtroom brawl in Houston yesterday. Video.
  
   
  
  
  
• The Clown Show continues. 
  
  
  
• I didn't even know he was required to. Story.
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff related: On Monday, Trump had a "gag order" issued on him in his Insurrection D.C. case, and I finally tracked down the Order.  Anyone want to define "target" for me?
  
  
  
• This is an odd story just hitting the news. A Fairfield lady died this summer after getting an "IV therapy" at a spa in Wortham. (Both Fairfield and Wortham are southwest of Dallas.)  It's just now getting press because the doctor from Frisco in charge of the IV treatments, who visited the spa only three times, had his license suspended.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Let's check in on Fox News:
  
  
  
• Man, I love sports shots with clear views of the crowd. 
  
  
  
• You think we've got a current headache with lawyers in a Capital Murder case here in Wise County, at least we are not Potter County where new lawyers had to appointed when a defendant's current attorney's law license was suspended by the State Bar. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

This was awful. County Judge Bill McElhaney collapsed during a commissioner's court meeting in the courthouse and passed away. 

---

• A hearing was held yesterday in the Tanner Horner Capital Murder case to comply with a higher court's order directing the judge to "ask" him if he wanted the Regional Public Defender's Office, who had been recently appointed, to continue to represent him. (Background here.)
  
  
  
• I wasn't sure what to expect, but it went off about as smoothly as possible. The judge simply asked him in open court, as Horner sat at counsel table, if he wanted the RPDO to continue their representation, and he said that he did. 
• I was expecting him to give some type of weird or ambiguous answer, or refuse to answer at all, but that didn't happen. He was cooperative and kept his answers short. 
• Before the judge spoke to him, he asked the RPDO lawyers if they had any objection to Tanner being sworn in, and they said they didn't. The judge then did so. I also kind of expected that process to go sideways, but it didn't. 
• So now the case goes back to the Court of Criminal Appeals to determine whether it was OK for the judge to remove the original court appointed lawyer, Bill Ray, and appoint the RPDO in his place. (The change was made because it was discovered that Wise County had a contract with RPDO for any death penalty cases.)
• Prediction: The court either (1) approves the change, or (2) they will do a 180 and dodge the whole thing by saying they don't have pre-trial jurisdiction to decide the issue at all at this point. 
• But if the DA's whole purpose was to prevent the case from being reversed after a conviction by getting a pre-trial ruling now on the propriety of the lawyer change, he did manage to receive a massive victory: He got the Defendant to go under oath and say he approved the change. Before yesterday, the only thing that we had was an "unsworn declaration" filed by the defendant that he approved. 
• The most revealing thing about the hearing: We got to hear the defendant's voice.  It is much, much higher than you would expect. 
• One odd thing: Aside from the Capital Murder indictment there is also an indictment for Aggravated Kidnapping. It just serves as a back-up case is case something goes horribly wrong with the Capital Murder case.  The judge had originally taken Bill Ray off of that case as well and appointed the RPDO, but the RPDO had said they don't have authority to represent people other than cases for Capital Murder. So yesterday, as the higher court requested, the judge asked the Defendant if he wanted Bill Ray to remain on the Aggravated Kidnapping case. He somewhat surprisingly said "no."  I don't know what's going on there. Pam Fernandez out of Fort Worth was then appointed on that case -- she'll have a surprise in her inbox. 
• Here's the lead attorney for the RPDO by the way:
  
  
  
• Israel/Gaza:
• Say what?
  
  
  
• President Biden is going to Israel.  He will arrive tomorrow. 
  
  
  
• Hey, I'm a fan of the Messenger, but they've got an irritating habit of including the tag line of "Avoid the Area" after announcing any breaking news  For example, I don't think you have to tell us not to go to residential street in Paradise at 10:00 a.m. on a Monday morning.
  
  
  
• Former Bridgeport resident Elaine [Taylor] Hays officially announces her run for the Texas House seat which includes Wise County and part of Denton. (I think she lives in Runaway Bay now. She was in Amarillo for a long time up until recently.)
• The vote on Jim Jordan as Speaker is at 11:00 CST. He will need 217 of 221 Republican votes. I can't believe this might even be close. 
  
   
  
  
  
• Santa Claus has died.
  
  
  
• This does not make sense. 
  
  
  
• So McCarthy doesn't trust Dak enough to not accidentally take off the complete 8 seconds right before the half to take one shot? Even with a timeout left in case something goes wrong? Just tell him to get rid of it immediately and throw it into either the end zone or the fifth row.