Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

We forget about the wheels off tenure of the Toronto mayor.  He would die from cancer two years later. 

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• Trump trial:
• Despite promising us he would testify, Trump rested his defense yesterday without doing so.  This should come no surprise.
  
  
  
• Ronny Jackson embarrassed us yesterday by showing up at Trump's trial. He was there with other groupies including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
  
  
  
• Trump suggested a federal restriction on contraception yesterday (he'll get us policy very soon, you know) but later backed off those statements. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Local connection mentioned in this story.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Here's someone's breakdown of Stucky's most recent campaign filing:
  
  
  
• Tarrant County will pay a record $1.2 million settlement. Does this guy know how to run a jail or what?
  
  
  
• If we thought that the D.A. in Atlanta would face public repercussion for having an affair with the special prosecutor she hired to help with the Trump election fraud case, we were mistaken.  The judge, also up for re-election, won as well.
  
  
  
• Despite the headlines, it's not his decision. It's that of the D.A.'s office. 
  
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff: The Trump jury trial just got more complicated and messy. They lawyers had a conference yesterday to prepare the jury charge so we now have a bit of an idea on what exactly the jury will be asked. Stay with me here. 
• First, the jury is asked whether Trump falsified business records.  That's a misdemeanor which (1) is a dumb law and (2) is a misdemeanor and (3) he can't be convicted of it alone because it's barred by limitations.  
• But if the jury finds that he did that, they are next asked whether he falsified those records with the intent to commit some other crime. If so, that's a felony which he can be convicted of. 
• This is where the wheels fall off. The "other crime" that the prosecutors have now identified it as New York Election Law § 17.152 makes it a crime to “conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to public office by unlawful means.”  Wait a second. What the hell does that mean? That says nothing more than "hey, it's a crime to commit some other crime."  
• So now we've got another step because there has to be another law that was broken to make the conduct "unlawful means" under 17.152.  Yesterday, the prosecutors ask the judge to instruct the jury of three other laws that make the conduct unlawful: (1) a federal election law violation, (2) falsification of other business records (sheesh), or (3) "a tax crime."
  
  
  
• Maybe I'm missing something, but for those three "other crimes" to be so critical to the case, I haven't heard prosecutors so much as mention them throughout the trial.  
• This is an absolute cluster. And did I mention the jury will be asked all of the above thirty four times because the prosecutor thought it was a good idea to make it a 34 count indictment -- one each for 34 business records (even those which were only invoices created by Michael Cohen?) (PDF of indictment.)
• I may be wrong, wrong, wrong, but I don't think there's anyway Trump gets convicted. 
• Once you get past the "that's disgusting" reaction, this really is a pretty interesting legal question. It's not illegal to just think those thoughts. And it wouldn't be illegal for him to pencil sketch those thoughts, right? But if he uses a computer to produce fake images of those thoughts we've now entered into the arena of a crime. 
  
  
  
• Finally.
  
  
  
• Trump appointed 243 federal judges in his four year term. Today, Biden will have his 200th confirmed.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Ten years ago, gun rights activists finally figured out that you could opwn carry any long barreled firearm in Texas.  And then they started showing up everywhere around DFW.

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• Early voting numbers for the races of Wise County Sheriff and State Representative.
  
  
  
• Someone has saved, and now weighed, the mailers in the Stucky/Hopper campaign in Wise County. Current leaderboard: Stucky: 14.3 ounces. Hopper: 1 lb. 3.3 ounces.

  

  Hopper

  
  

  

  Stucky

  
  
• Related: Hopper's new financial report is out (PDF).  This one got my attention. That lady has donated to the Texas Oilman PAC before. 
  
  
  
• Trump trial.
• We have some chaos, but I don't understand kicking the press out of a public courtroom for a public trial. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump supporters showed up wearing the same outfit yesterday.  I'm no history buff, but I think it's normally a bad sign whenever the far right starts wearing the same uniform. 
  
  
  
• Look who is going to embarrass us today.
  
• Every keeps saying the criminal cases against golfer Scottie Scheffler with "go away", and maybe they will, but the way the DA was arguing over a continuance for a simple arraignment yesterday is not a good sign. Video.
  
  
  
• Open AI has now pulled its voice for its virtual assistant after Scarlett Johansson revealed she had been offered, but turned down, their request to be the voice model. Then, it seems, OpenAI went ahead and used her voice anyway. (The assistant hasn't been rolled out to the public yet, but the video demo is wild.)
  
  
  
• Let's check in on Fox News.
  
  
  
• Sure, let's blame the restaurant. Looks like the Plaintiff's lawyer is out of Houston.
  
  
  
• I saw this story about a guilty plea of a woman charging $3,000 a pop to transport immigrants. It got my attention because she worked in the D.A.'s office as a victim assistance coordinator, but I didn't expect this: "Garza was driving a DA's office vehicle with official markings when a Victoria County sheriff's deputy stopped her near Victoria on Dec. 7, 2022.."
  
  
  
  
  
  
• So Trump has a new campaign video referencing, “Strength significantly increased by the creation of a unified Reich.”?

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

The remarks were: "If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I'll move to the other side of the street."  But there was a little bit more to it. 

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• The Iranian president is dead after a helicopter crash. But it sounds like it won't cause any immediate political implications.
  
   
  
  
  
• The Star-Telegram's Sunday edition examined the West Texas Oilman PAC and noted they have given $280,000 to Andy Hopper in Wise County. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The ship is being moved at this moment, and it should take about three hours to get it to shore. Side note: What's in those crates that have been sitting there for weeks?
  
   
  
  
  
• Trump and Abbott were in Dallas this weekend. I suppose there wasn't much a discussion about 19 dead elementary school kids in Uvalde.
  
  
  
• What? A deep thinker like Romo supports Donald Trump? Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Friday follow-up:
• This photo from Houston is fantastic. The lady has her car's fob in her hand, but I don't know if that is actually her car. 
  
  
  
  
• The Internet came through after Scottie Scheffler's arrest on Friday morning. 

  

  Funny

  
  

  

  So true

  

  That's on Friday. Note the guy with the t-shirt
  which already has that morning's mugshot.

  
  
• Dog whistle for fascism.
  
  
  
• I'm sure you saw the P Diddy video that CNN obtained. Man, that's bad.
  
  
  
• Michael Irvin won't be charged in a case you won't even remember. A couple of months ago, the Allen PD mysteriously announced he was under investigation but didn't give any details. Now the PD says they won't file charges and still don't give any details about what the whole thing was about. Weird.
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff. (PDF.) Prosecutors tried to correct the error hours after it happened.
  
• Pretty good little NASCAR fight this weekend. Although the initial part seems a little staged. Video.
• The judge in Trump's criminal trial said closing arguments will be next Tuesday.