3.20.2024

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Just google some Westboro Baptist Church photos if you want to remember what this guy was famous for. Sadly, he might have felt right at home in today's America. 

  • I got an up close and personal look at the new copper "crown" that will go on top of the Wise County Courthouse. They actually just "made it" using the best estimate of what the original one looked like based upon drawings and images. (I had a desire to put my initials on it.) 



  • If went to bed last night thinking you were up to the date with the latest status of Texas' new immigration law, think again. You might have thought that the Supreme Court "allows Texas immigration law to go into effect." You would be wrong. These morning headlines are also now wrong.


    • Why wrong? Late last night the Fifth Circuit put the law on hold again.

    • So what's going down?  You have every right to be confused. Stay with me here. 
      • Texas passed an (unconstitutional) immigration bill, Senate Bill 4,  allowing Texas peace officers to enforce immigration laws. This is the law co-sponsored by Rep. David Spiller who is on your TV all the time about this story. 
      • A federal judge struck it down and "enjoined" the law -- preventing Texas from enforcing it - in late February.
      • Texas then appealed to the Fifth Circuit and asked two things: (1) to declare the law constitutional and (2) to stay/stop the lower district court from enforcing it's order that the law can't go into effect. Normally, this formal Stay Application is decided within a week while the bigger constitutional question can take months or even years.
      • Important: The Fifth Circuit didn't rule on the Stay Application but did something increasingly weird: It ordered an Administrative Stay of the district court's ruling until they could decide that formal Stay Application. It was just a stopgap measure. This meant that Texas could enforce the law unless the Supreme Court got involved with the Administrative Stay.
      • The Supreme Court then did get involved and stayed the Administrative Stay twice in the last couple of weeks. (Confused yet? It's like a double negative. That meant the immigration law could not be enforced.) They figured that the Fifth Circuit would just rule on the formal Stay Application and then this whole Administrative Stay mess would become moot.
      • Well, yesterday everyone went crazy when the Supreme Court let the Administrative Stay go into effect (which meant Texas officers could start arresting "illegals")  but, reading between the lines, they basically said: We are kind of frustrated with this whole process so the Fifth Circuit needs to get off their butts and rule on the formal Stay Application. That's what the concurrence said:
        ***

      • Then the Fifth Circuit, feeling the wrath of the Supreme Court and within hours of the Supreme Court ruling yesterday, ordered a hearing on the Stay Application for this morning.

      • Then, to make everyone's head spin, the Fifth Circuit, yesterday evening, dissolved its own Administrative Stay meaning the law remains enjoined by the district court. 

    • It's important to note that NONE of this has anything to do with whether the law is constitutional or not. It all is about whether the law will or will not go into effect while that issue is decided. And in the meantime, the Fifth Circuit might to decide grant the Stay Application, and then that will go back to the Supreme Court. 
  • In less high brow litigation, this happened in an Atlanta courtroom yesterday. Video.

    • And in that same case, an equally jaw-dropping pleading was filed yesterday. 

  • I would love to tell you what this is all about, but the brief article is almost impossible to follow.

  • This guy is a moron. All he had to do is show up and assert the Fifth Amendment. Instead, he is such a Trump MAGA worshiper that he's going to prison. 


  • President Biden is going to Dallas today for fundraisers with one of them in the home of Russell Budd.  Budd is a partner in Baron & Budd the big plaintiffs firm which got rich off asbestos litigation.  (The Baron of Baron & Budd is the late Fred Baron who was involved in the scandal that took down presidential candidate John Edwards back in the day.)

  • Good grief. Police say it looks like murder-suicide in this San Antonio case. An Amber Alert had gone out a couple of days ago. 

  • Sports: NIT woes updated.

  • You are running out of time: Sign of for the Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney. 

at 8:30 AM

3.19.2024

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




Ten years to the day.

  • The Texas Republican Party is in the process of finding a new chairman, but the leading candidate has hit a bit of a speedbump. (Police report here.)


  • Sounds reasonable. (And this two minutes of the Don Lemon interview of Musk on a different topic is something to behold.)

  • Why does he do this? He always ends up losing and paying the other side's attorney's fees. (Earlier this year he was ordered to pay the New York Times $400,000 on a different failed lawsuit.) And this one is another 100% loser.  

  • Ken Paxton's partner in crime, Nate Paul, was sentenced to 10 days in jail for contempt of court, but he appealed. Last Friday, the Texas Supreme court upheld the order.  Four judge were scared of Paxton's potential wrath and dissented so it was a 5-4 decision. Paul is to report to jail on April 1st.


  • We've got an interesting new January 6th Insurrection arrest.


     

  • Trump is having trouble getting a bond in order to prevent New York from taking his property while he appeals the $464 million civil fraud judgment. Maybe publicly berating the judge and his clerk during trial, and using an incompetent lawyer, wasn't the best strategy after all. 

    • Flashback: 

    • Ok, this is funny.

  • Trump legal nerdy stuff: If the Trump friendly federal judge in the Classified Documents case in Florida  is seriously considering giving the jury these instructions, she might as well just acquit Trump right now and send him home with flowers and a kiss.



  • We've got a new Banksy mural in London. He painted it on the building behind this tree.

  • This seems to be movie material. He was found in his vehicle in the hotel parking lot with an alleged self-inflicted gunshot wound.


  • Sign up for the Liberally Lean 2024 Pick-Em Tourney.



at 8:30 AM

3.18.2024

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Seven years later, the money would amazingly be found by a plumber working on a toilet. The public would only learn about it because he called into a radio show and casually spoke about it. 

  • The Liberally Lean March Madness tournament is up. Join it here. As we've done the last couple of years, the scoring system is very tricked up which rewards upset picks.


  • I said that I needed to compile a list of Wise County murder indictments over the last handful of years so I did. We will probably have one more added to it based upon an arrest last week. 

  • They better get control over that area.

  • The death of an Alvord man is getting coverage on WFAA and in the Star-Telegram.

     

  • Republicans are all free market capitalists and limited government until the are not. 

  • Trump is going full Hitler and he's not even disguising it. I cannot believe what I am seeing. 
    • He ramped up his defense and support of those engaged in Insurrection on January 6th calling them hostages and saluting them as the Convict Choir sang in the background. The recorded voice going over the loudspeaker even boomed, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages!"  Video. This is full fledged insanity.

    • He then delivered a doozy of speech in Ohio. A bloodbath if he's not elected*, and immigrants are "not people" but "animals."  Yep, full Hitler. (*Yes, I know his campaign now claims he was just talking about the auto industry but this is coming from the same guy who told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by.")

    • And this is not the first first time he used the animals comment. At least a few years ago he would try to walk in back by saying he was just referring to specific gang members.  He's abandoned that. They are all animals now. And if all of this sounds very familiar. . .

      • . . .it should. 

  • Mike Pence joined this list over the weekend of former Trump confidents who are not endorsing him. Those who knew him best and saw him behind the scenes in the Oval Office want nothing to do with him. 

  • The Business Second™. I'm not sure I understand this after a big lawsuit settlement on Friday, but it sounds big. 

  • NCAA Basketball notes from yesterday.
    • Teams who didn't make the NCAA Tourney also declining an NIT invitation.

    • The confetti went off while a tournament championship game was still being played. Video.

    • Love this. 

  • Once again, sign up for the Liberally Lean tourney or you will have a bad week.


at 8:30 AM

3.15.2024

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

at 2:30 PM
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