Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Two were killed and 23 were injured in Austin. The driver would eventually get life in prison.

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• Although I still think this bill dies in the Senate, it passed with surprisingly high numbers yesterday in the House.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump's former Treasury Secretary told CNBC this morning he'll buy it. I think I'd rather have China. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• There is an editorial in the Messenger this week where the reporter defends the publishing of this photo after, I think, social media tried to shame him. He didn't need justify it. It's clear journalism. 
  
  
  
• I asked my Liberally Lean Weather Team about the chance of potential bad weather and they, sadly, just threw up their hands. It's just too sporadic to predict although they say the best chance seems to be around 11:00 p.m. tonight. 
  
  
  
• Jerry Jones' alleged love child, Alexandra Davis, suffers a loss. (I don't even remember this lawsuit even being filed.) She sued him because he said he wasn't the father and was being extorted.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• "IRVINE, Calif. — An explosion during an indoor training exercise Wednesday sent 16 members of Southern California’s Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team to the hospital . . . . It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, but it happened during a training with the sheriff’s bomb squad" (Insert forehead slap emoji.)
  
  
  
• His wife's trial was quite the media sensation just a few weeks ago, but his was very much under the radar.  She testified in her own defense and was convicted. He did not and we'll probably learn the result today.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elon Musk might be the biggest baby ever. He brings Don Lemon over from CNN for his own show on X, and then cancels him after his first interview because he pressed Musk on his widely known drug use. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wise County's newest Congressman is making me power down already.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This will not sit well with DA's across the state. 
  
  
  
• The most unsurprising news ever. He's in the same group as Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
  
  
  
• Incredibly random sports: If you want to see one of the quickest catch-and-release shots in the history of ever, check out this exciting game winner by SFA over Abilene Christian last night. And he had to -- the clock expired while the ball is in the air.
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff that got out of hand on me: The dismissal of some counts against Trump in the Georgia election interference case hardly deserved a headline. They were dismissed not because they were meritless but because the indictment wasn't specific enough. 
  
  
  
• Any time the government tries to take a right from you (generally your liberty or your property), you are entitled to "a notice and hearing."  That's called "procedural due process."
  
• In a criminal case where your liberty is at stake, the "notice" is the indictment and it should tell you, with at least some detail, what you did wrong. (The "hearing" part is a full blown jury trial where the government has to prove what they gave you "notice" of, but that's not at issue here.)
• In this case, the problem was with the "notice" - the indictment. It wasn't specific enough. The best analogy is an assault case. In those cases, the "notice" needs to tell you "how" you committed assault. Did you slap someone, or strike someone with a fist, or hit someone with a frying pan? If the government is going to accuse you of something, they have to tell you how. If they don't, the cases can be dismissed, but the government can just refile them with a better worded "notice" document. That's what happened here. The government can just refile if they want and word it better.
  
• But this "notice" thing can give rise to some odd legal issues that drives the public crazy. For example, if they accuse you of telling you hit someone with a frying pan, do they have to tell you it was a cast iron skillet? Generally, no, but what if they do and instead prove at trial it was a stainless steel skillet?
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Just a random photo that caught my attention. The ball was actually captured in the frame.

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• We now officially have another Wise County murder charge. I need to create a list of all of them over the last few years. There's been a bunch. 
  
  
  
• Wait a second. She is not the one suing, Dak is. (This is from a Fox 4 reporter).
  
  
  
• The days of Ken Paxton and others filing federal lawsuits in specific courts because the results are a foregone happy conclusion are over.  Judges Matthew Kacsmaryk (Amarillo) and Reed O’Connor ( Fort Worth) are about to have some free time. 
  
  
  
  
• Please, please, please make the Rodgers thing happen. 
  
  
  
• I really can't imagine this going through both the House and the Senate. 
  
  
  
• This investigative piece was just released by The Washington Post this morning. It looks insane. (Gift link.)
  
  
  
• Trump:
• Nothing like the family of a dead girl smiling with a guy who wishes to exploit her -- all the while holding an autographed photo where he misspelled her name. I don't understand this at all. 
  
  
  
• Four years ago on March 11th the NBA shut down due to COVID and Tom Hanks announced he had contracted it.  Trump had it all under control two days later. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I don't think a D.A. has any business at a crime scene.  And he sure doesn't need to be getting in front of the cameras to give a "statement." Plus, in these cases, he comes across more like the defense lawyer for the officers than an independent screener of crime. 
  
  
  
• The Business Second™. No exact locations were announced.
  
  
  
• Former Alabama coach Nick Saban was at Congress yesterday complaining about NIL.  “All the things I believed in for all these years -- 50 years of coaching -- no longer exist in college athletics.”  He's moaning the death of a system which allowed him to make millions off the backs of unpaid players.
  
  
  
• I finally watched the Lorena Bobbitt documentary on Amazon Prime. Big thumbs up. Anyone who was involved in it (the Bobbitts, the cops, the surgeon, the D.A., the defense lawyers) all give interviews 30 years later. It's really good.  

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Not to be a downer, but I was glancing at an election results story in the Messenger from 10 years ago and saw this -- which stopped me down. Four of those six have since passed away. And very suddenly for each.

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• This is a wild story.  The defendant killed himself during the trial so he obviously didn't show up the following morning for closing arguments. Unaware what had happened, the judge then started the case back up without him, and the jury actually retired to deliberate. Thirty-two minutes later, the jury was discharged once everyone figured out the defendant was dead.  And there's another crazy aspect: The defendant was represented by his lawyer brother. 
  
  
  
• Dak is making headlines, but it isn't contract related. "Here we go . . . ." 
  
• Wait, this "threat" came from a law firm?  
  
  
  
• WFAA has the story this morning with a lot of details. If I understand it correctly, she alleges sexual assault while Dak, acknowledging that he hung out with her one night, denies that. "Levin McCathern, Prescott's attorney, confirmed in an interview with WFAA that Prescott had a relationship with the woman, but denies doing the things she alleges." "She was a waitress at a bar he frequented," McCathern said.
• Dak's lawsuit says the statute of limitations had expired on any civil suit that the woman could have brought so she tried to do an end around by threatening to go to the police if she didn't give her $100 million.  
• Oddly, Dak's lawsuit attached  to the lawsuit the 11 page demand letter from her lawyer which included lots of seedy allegations. So it is now a public record. I'd link to a copy but I haven't found it yet. 
• I don't like this for Dak: He is represented by the same guy who represented Michael Irvin in his weird lawsuit against Marriott (which just quietly went away.)
  
  
  
• Considering that the "new norm" is for Paxton to target any judge in the the next election when they rule against him, that's a bold move by this judge. 
  
  
  
• Compare and contrast. It is happening all over again:
• Trump in 2024 a couple of years after his failed Insurrection:
  
  
  
• Hitler in 1924 a year after his failed Insurrection: 
  
  
  
• You want to know how MAGA extremists have taken over the Regular Republicans in Texas? I think I figured it out. This is a stunning decline in voter participation: 
  
  
  
• Trump taking over the RNC by Trump's daughter-in-law now being in charge, and the amount of money he will syphon from it, is a significant story. And the purge of Regular Republicans began yesterday with 60 people in the RNC being fired. Thing about it: You worked at the RNC for a living, and you weren't MAGA enough. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• What is Truth Social worth? $99.95?
  
  
  
• Kirk Cousins signed as a free agent with Atlanta yesterday in a deal for four years and $180 million with $100 million guaranteed. For a guy who was drafted in the fourth round by Washington, after they had already taken RG3 in the first round, he has parlayed the system into a gold mine. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• We thought Hamas is holding six Americans in Gaza. That number became five this morning when we learned that Itay Chen, 19, was actually killed on October 7th. His parents attended the State of the Union message.