Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

I wrote this on 3/19/14 so call me psychic. It turned out to be Trump who replaced three of the four but in only one term. Breyer retired once Trump lost the election.  

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• Sad to see the name of Vicky Barnes in the Update's funeral notices. The long-time restaurant figure was a mainstay in Decatur - from Matties to the Courthouse Cafe to the Whistle Stop Cafe. 
• It's the absolute last chance to sign up for the LL Pick 'Em Tournament. Games start later this morning. Get down on it!
  
  
  
• "The Los Angeles Dodgers have fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, after Ohtani’s representatives accused Mizuhara of engaging in a 'massive theft,' using the player’s money to place bets with an allegedly illegal bookmaker under federal investigation." There's something a little suspicious about this story involving the best player in baseball. Ohtani gambling cover-up?
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I don't know why I'm surprised that worked, but I am.   
  
  
  
• There's no explanation as to what this raid was about but this seems very, very odd.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• DPS guy transformed his own picture in that of a 14 year old girl. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• She was the sister-in-law of  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and was the "CEO of a global shipping company." She was also "married to to Jim Breyer, a billionaire venture capitalist and chief executive of Austin-based Breyer Capital." Story.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I want to know more about this. A guy is kidnapped from Smith County in East Texas at gunpoint while in his driveway. He claims he didn't know his kidnappers (and no one disputes that) who then drove him to Fort Worth while they demanded money from his wife by phone. And this is all we know as to what happened next: "The Ft. Worth Police Department was notified that the most recent ping showed the suspects' car to be a gas station. Ft. Worth officers found the Honda and the victim was located in the backseat. Both Cordova and Cordova-Rascon, who were found in possession of two guns, were detained and later arrested." Come on! We need more than that. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Here we go again. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From his smaller rolls of a doctor in Fletch, a machine shop co-worker, in Raising Arizona, to an expert witness with a criminal history in A Time to Kill, I absolutely loved this guy. 
  

  

  "No, not that mother-scratcher. Bill Parker!"

  
  
• Former Cowboys coach Bill Parcells sighting yesterday. We hadn't heard anything about him in a long time. 
  
  
  
• The Business Second™. Jerry Jones was already heavily invested in natural gas before this move.
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

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. 

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• 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:
  
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• 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. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Ten years to the day.

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• 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.