Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

This blog admittedly used to have a different feel about it. But the link in that bullet point was still alive so I clicked on it to figure out what I was talking about.  I stand by that post.  

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• The stock market broke 37,000 and set a record high yesterday afternoon. 
  
  
  
• Flashback: 
  
  
  
• The good news doesn't stop there. Look at the gas prices in Decatur (below), and they are even cheaper in the metroplex:
  
  
  
• Well, I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't believe her. But the jury certainly didn't share my reasonable doubt concerns. That was the maximum: 
  
  
  
• Normally when a cop is on trial for murder around here, it's wall to wall coverage. I hardly heard anything about this one at all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Regarding the story from yesterday about the 8th graders "overdosing" on candy, now they are wildly speculating about fentanyl. I'd tape the brakes on that -- big time. I'm guessing this situation turns out completely different than the current narrative. 
  
  
  
•  We knew that the the former Sheriff of Clay County had simply gone home a couple of weeks ago right in the middle of his 30 day jail sentence after being transported to the hospital for high blood pressure. Why home? The "Sheriff's Office did not have the manpower to send a deputy" after he was discharged according to the local sheriff. But two days ago a court order got hm back in the hoosegow. (I missed this yesterday.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lawyer Rusty Hardin stumbled through the impeachment proceedings of Ken Paxton, and now the Dallas Morning News has obtained his firm's bills to the taxpayers for his work: "Hardin used at least 20 employees of his firm and billed $3 million." And bills from other lawyers are still rolling in. Bandits, all of them. I want to see the actual PDFs. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• An Oklahoma school superintendent was arrested for public intoxication yesterday while on a school campus.  But I would withhold judgment because the police called in someone who claimed to be a Drug Recognition Expert.  I bet we are going to end up with a medication issue instead of an alcohol issue (although they police do claim alcohol was a factor.)
  
  
  
• Her on better days:
  
  
  
• The House voted to begin an impeachment "inquiry" on President Biden yesterday and rolled out this crew to promote it. Those five right there have to drive the normal Republicans crazy. 
  
• I went searching through a long uploaded YouTube video by the AP of the proceedings yesterday because of a specific moment I had seen on the news. One Republican member, while giving his presentation on the House floor -- but when pressured to disclose what the exact crimes they were accusing the President of -- had said,  "I will tell you when I have the time."  It was gold. But I couldn't find it. Instead, during my search, I saw this moment in that video clip. I wasn't going to let you not see it, too. Idiocracy: 
  
  
  
• Impeachment survivor Ken Paxton is behind a PAC designed to defeat three judges on the Texas' highest criminal court because he thinks they have wronged him in the past.  Is it any coincidence that they are all women? Nope. Misogyny is a trademark of the MAGA extremist wing of the Republican Party.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A big budget film named "Civil War" - as in a modern day civil war -- is scheduled to be released in April, but the trailer has been released. It has people talking. And a chilling moment is the great Jesse Plemons saying, "Okay. What kind of American are you?"
  
  
  
  
• Legal stuff that is pretty important to everyone: A Google policy change will kill geo-warrants issued by police. The change will cause your movement/location data to be only locally stored on your phone, and if you do choose to keep it to the Google cloud, it will be encrypted from everyone, including Google. Police can still get a geo-warrant, but the data will now be worthless.
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

You know who I was referring to? Ethan Couch. The same Ethan Couch who was not yet infamously known as the "Affluenza Kid." It all started 10 years ago. 

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• We have a jury verdict in the Intoxication Manslaughter case in Wise County: 10 years probation.  Quick synopsis: It involved a wrong way driver by an 64 year old man with health problems and with no apparent criminal history. But the case was complicated because there was no alcohol involved, yet the State successfully alleged he was intoxicated due to medication. 
• The case has local interest because the person killed,  Nikki Etter, 36, of Boyd, was the daughter of Jerry Miller who is the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Decatur.  
• The defense lawyer is listed as Phillip Hayes out of Dallas. 
• Note: The judge is the one who sets the terms of the probation, and he imposed four months incarceration in the Wise County Jail as a condition of that probation. It is required by statute. (That's now in art. 42A.401(a)(5) for the legal nerds out there.) 
• The crazy murder case in Dallas continued yesterday with the Defendant taking the stand.  She is very smooth and very articulate, but I don't think she is telling the truth. But I also have a reasonable doubt about her guilt. 
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
• That's a big headline and the story says the candy was tested for THC. But the results were negative so we don't know what's going on with these middle school kids. 
  
  
  
• Former Dallas DA Craig Watkins is dead at an early age. (No cause of death mentioned.)  His office did some good things as DA but, as a lawyer, he didn't know what he was doing. He snuck into office by being lucky enough to run at the exact moment that Dallas suddenly flipped from Republican to Democrat. But rest in peace. 
  

  
  
  
  
  
• After the world has long since figured out that NFTs are a scam, Trump unveiled some new ones yesterday. And the video of him promoting them seems like a parody.  (But if you spend $5,000, you can get a special extra card.)
  
  
  
• I saw this cryptic post yesterday about state rep Jeff Leach being involved in some law enforcement confrontation in Collin County, but I can't find anything else about it. I'm very interested. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Even Ann Coulter has turned on Texas Republicans for their Draconian abortion position. 
  
  
  
• Interesting view of the former basketball arena at UT which is currently being torn down. 
  
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff involving bad lawyers (as always, click to enlarge.)
• A court is mad after a lawyer filed nude photos in the public court file:
  
  
  
• A court is mad because a lawyer filed a pleading with AI made up case cites.
  
  
  
• Trump's lawyer's in an appeal in the DC Circuit cite Dr. Suess:
  
  
  
• The Business Second™: A new half billon dollar hotel will be built by Jerry World and Globe Life Park. 
  
  
  
• The Texas High School football playoffs start today at 11:00 a.m. It's on Bally Sports if you are lucky enough to have it. The first two games are six-man.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

He spent 16 years at Texas. That bowl game he stuck around for did not go well. 

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• Texas Abortion battle: 
• Yesterday afternoon, the woman who the Texas government wants to force to give birth to a non-viable fetus fled the state to have the procedure. That doesn't violate Texas law. Not yet at least. 
  
  
  
• One little noticed fact is that her attorneys notified the Texas Supreme Court that she would have the abortion out of state but stressed that, under the law, the issue was not moot if the abortion happened and wanted the court to rule on the case anyway. (Letter.)
• The court obliged. Later yesterday afternoon: 
  
  
  
• It was a weird ruling.  Basically: "Hey, no one even has to ask a court to get an abortion in Texas under the new abortion law so long as your doctor says, to himself, the magic words that it is his opinion, based upon 'reasonable medical judgment', that the exceptions in the statute apply. But your doctor just said that he had a 'good faith belief' the exceptions existed and that's not enough. So we won't let the lower court greenlight the abortion that -- once again -- you didn't even have to ask the court for." Opinion here. 
• It's the lead story on The Today Show this morning. 
  
  
  
• The prosecutors of Trump in the Insurrection case pending in D.C. have Trump's deep cell phone data from January 6th. This was revealed in this court filing yesterday afternoon disclosing the summary of expected expert witness testimony.
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• A jury has been empaneled to determine only one thing: How much Rudy Giuliani owes two election workers who he defamed by saying they were tampering with election results. He was already going to get killed in this case, but then yesterday, after jury selection, he doubled down and said the same exact thing again outside the courtroom. (Video.) That jury will bury him. Good. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Edit: The judge is chewing his lawyer out this morning for this. 
• But somehow charging $75 for parking and $20 for a margarita is legal. Can we arrest someone for that?
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I bet she will testify. She'll blame it on the guy and say that everything she did after he killed her (disposing of the body and fleeing with him) was done because she was scared of him. After all, she'll say, he stabbed a lady to death in cold blood. Heck, I wouldn't rule out that being at least a version of the truth. 
  
  
  
• Let check in on Fox News last night: A former "star" from from an MTV reality show is brought in during prime time to give tax opinions.
  
  
  
• Political news out of Waco: Although I appreciate his reasons (he thinks the nuts have taken over the local Republican Party), I don't think there's any chance at all that a Democrat can win down there.
  
  
  
• Contract details: Per the report, $680 million of the $700 million contract will be paid to Ohtani from 2034 to 2043. Hey, that's fine. But if I'm Ohtani, I'm not depending on the Dodgers or MLB to be in business and/or solvent in 2034.  I want the Dodgers to buy, with cash right now, an annuity which guarantees the money.  I bet they did. 
  
  
  
• Newspaper news: The New York Times hit a milestone this morning. 
  
  
  
• The Business Second: Every time the stock market had a positive day, Trump would talk about it.  But we hardly hear at all that the market is up a whopping 20% for the year.
  
  
  
• Fun Fact: The "That . . . guy is not real!" lady from the airplane viral video is 5'2" tall. 
  
  
  
• Yep, the Intoxication Manslaughter case in Wise County is still ongoing. The jury got the case shortly before noon yesterday. They then went to Sweetie Pies. There wasn't a verdict -- or at least one in time for the clerk to enter it -- before 5:00 yesterday.