Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Photographer Joe Duty didn't choose that photo because of the fire; he chose it because of the dog's presumed acknowledgement that something very bad had happened. Good stuff. 

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• The local media hasn't picked up on this yet, but two Denton ISD employees were just indicted for sending an email from their school account encouraging fellow employees to vote in the Republican primary and, specifically, to be aware that pro-voucher candidates will kill public schools.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Not exactly what you should say if you are trying to keep a law from being declared unconstitutional. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Far right-wing Newsmax posted an unfriendly article about Trump and then promptly deletes it after the MAGA extremists screamed about it. 
  
  
  
• Everything about Uvalde continues to be a cluster. This is the investigator who issued the report clearing the officers of any wrongdoing. 
  
  
  
• Story.
  
  
  
• Two women missing. "Butler, 27, and Kelley, 39, were traveling only 16 miles to pick up Butler’s 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, who were living with her ex-mother-in-law in Eva, Oklahoma. . . . .Kelley — a mother of four herself — was suspected of traveling with Butler to help her with a custody issue, sources familiar with the matter told NewsNation on Wednesday."
  
  
  
• There's always a grift somewhere around Trump.
  
  
  
• Cruelty is the point of their attempted humor. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: With an expunction not being legally available in Texas, a woman tried to set aside a 1996 prostitution conviction because the plea was involuntary: "Appellee testified that she was presently employed as a 'paralegal/office manager' for her writ counsel, Vickers Cunningham, and has been a legal assistant in writ counsel’s office since April 19, 2019. Further, appellee testified that she had obtained her bachelor’s degree and wished to attend the 'University of North Texas Law School,' but she could not sit for the bar examination because her 1996 misdemeanor convictions were for crimes involving moral turpitude." No dice, the appellate court ruled this week. The criminal justice system is not, and has never been, about justice.
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Random thoughts from the jury selection process a decade ago.

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• We knew the cops killed the 15 year old girl who had been taken hostage back when it happened in 2022, but now the video has been released. Incredible. They tell her to get out of the car and the gun her down.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lawyers are flocking after the wreck involving the Kansas City Chiefs player in Dallas and the two sports cars.  But a totaled car and stitches don't exactly equal a multi-million dollar payday.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Near Amarillo, an egg producer had to kill two million of its chickens because of the bird flu.  Amazingly, it has 51,868,556 chickens left. I did the math!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hot engineering opinion:  Rebuilding that Baltimore bridge will take a while, but the opening of the port to shipping should not be a monumental problem.  When all the resources of the federal government are thrown at simply clearing the debris, that should be done pronto. 
  
  
  
• Dueling headlines.
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  
  
   
  
• Trump rally highlights yesterday from Michigan. 
• While trying to exploit a crime, he lied about it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• He's nuts. Video.
  
  
  
• By the way, I'll never understand law enforcement supporting Trump after January 6th. At least some were wearing brownshirts, though.
  
  
  
• Trump, in response a question said he will make a statement on abortion "next week."  Video.  He used to say that about his health care plan that we are still waiting on. 
  
    
  
  
  
• The new and improved Biden campaign then posted this. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: Last year, the Decatur Police Department became the first Wise County agency to submit all its dashcam and bodycam videos in case packages to the DA's office via the cloud instead of bundled on a gillion DVDs or flash drives.  The DA's office can then release it to defense lawyers in the discovery process with just a link. It's fantastic. (And it's password protected and self-logs when and where it was downloaded.)

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

A soldier killed four at troubled Ft. Hood, and David Letterman retired. 

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• Big hail in Rhome last night.  And the fact that this guy has that high tech measuring device makes me want to believe anything he says. 
  
  
  
• New this morning. I'll say it again, Israel will pay for years for all the innocent people they have killed in Gaza. 
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• And they are poking Iran at the same time.  As well as proving they can hit what they want to hit with pinpoint accuracy.  
  
  
  
• Some people really latch on to that "submission" thing. 
  
  
  
• The mayor of Uvalde has resigned. He wasn't the mayor during the shooting, having only taken office last November, but during his term "the city released a report from an independent investigator commissioned by the city attorney that defended the actions of local police officers on the day a gunman . . . ."  The blowback probably got him. 
  
  
  
• The lone Texas Ranger recommended to be fired for the Uvalde debacle is still being paid although he hasn't had to work in over a year.
  
  
  
• Trump:
• He avoids the Sheriff's sale by posting a bond yesterday. 
  
  
  
• That was around the time that Trump had a revised gag order placed upon him after verbally attacking the judge's daughter. I'm not sure what the point is since he's never held accountable. 
  
  
  
• Someone explain this Truth Social public offering scam to me.  Its stock seemed to have the same questions yesterday after financials were released.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Florida Supreme Court yesterday greenlighted abortion bans being on the November ballot. Some people think that now puts Florida "in play" because Republican candidates have bombed in every election where abortion is on the ballot because of the increased turnout.
  
  
  
• I'm skeptical, but the Biden/Trump race was closer in Florida than I thought in 2020.
  
  
  
• I watched Reality the other day. The entire film is the re-enactment of a single interview of Reality Winner while the FBI raided her home in 2017 for providing classified documents to The Intercept.  Maybe I've listened to and watched too many police interviews in my career, but I thought it was great. It stars Sydney Sweeney.