Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

The story was pretty crazy.  Six of them actually got indicted on felony charges, but it looks like the cases ended with only one of the pleading to a misdemeanor probation. 

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• Trump has no idea what he's doing, and we'll all pay the price for it. For now, there is still a 10% tariff imposed across the board while the tariff on Chinese goods has gone to 125% and rising. 
  
  
  
  
• Trump's reversal on tariffs was probably due (gift link) to the 10 year bond market trending towards a crash.  Short version: The more people don't trust in the stability of the United States, the more interest rates will rise on the 10 year U.S. bond in order to get people and entities to buy them. After all, "The higher the risk, the greater the return."  So if you think there is a legitimate chance the U.S. won't be stable enough (or exist) in 10 years to repay your bond, you want a higher return before you'll risk your money.  That's what was happening because the world now has concerns about the stability of the America.
  
  
  
  
• When reporters jumped on the Press Secretary, who ran out of the Oval Office to do damage control after Trump announced the tariffs reversal, she said  . . . 
  
  
  
• Visa revocations continue.  No one can get a straight answer as to why these visas are being revoked, but many have been targeted for opposing Israel's heavy handed tactics in Gaza.  Welcome to the new America.
  
  
  
• The actual biggest story yesterday may be that Trump, from the Oval Office no less, said that he was signing Executive Orders ordering (!!!) AG Pam Bondi to investigate two people he appointed during his first term for the words they have spoken and written. Specifically, he's targeting one of them for saying the 2020 election was not stolen. This is not normal. This is fascism.   And there will be more of this to come. It's over. 
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Random odd news.
  
  
  
• If you want a wild follow on Twitter, check out Jenna Ryan, the real estate agent who flew from the metroplex to D.C. on the "private jet" and was later convicted and sentenced to 60 days in prison.  "Short version": She later sued PayPal for "debanking" her because of her January 6th involvement, but the federal judge found there was a binding agreement between the two to arbitrate any dispute, stayed the lawsuit, and referred it to arbitration.  Her lawyer then withdrew.  There has been no arbitration. She has since tried to represent herself and filed some crazy motions and amended complaints despite the stay being in effect. (Court's docket here.) She then issued a press release a few days ago saying that she had "secured" a $185 million default judgment against PayPal. She really believed she had because PayPal didn't respond to her amended pleadings (although they had no obligation to do so because of the stay.)  That prompted the federal court to issue an Order yesterday that basically said, "No you didn't."  She went on a scorched earth rant last night about the judge but has since deleted the tweets.
  
  

  

  
• I'm a little worried abut the Official Liberally Lean Girl.
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The accident was at the Williamson-Dickie building off of 287 at Blue Mound Road. His lawyers had asked the jury for $15 million. 

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• Texas AG Ken Paxton announced he will challenge Sen. John Cornyn. And we are a still a year away from the primaries. 
  
  
  
• Cornyn's team responded. This is going to be nasty.  And can you imagine the number of TV ads we will see? : 
  
  
  
• There is some video coming out from inside the club before and during it was happening.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• This was in the Tanglewood area on Overton Park Drive.
  
  
  
• Is Ronny Jackson moonlighting? "The experienced agent . . .  was cuffed last Monday after becoming irate when staff at the iconic Hotel Amigo refused to reopen the bar after hours." 
  
  
  
• Trump gave a nearly two our "dinner speech" last night. 
• The man who single-handedly is wrecking everything with tariffs still has no idea who pays them.  
  
  
  
• Followed by this. And although I seriously doubt this is true, it's the best answer as to why Trump has imposed the insane tariffs. He just wants to be the center of attention. 
  

  
  
  
• Breaking News Edit: China didn't take too kindly to those remarks. New this morning . . .






•  Guess who was playing dress up again yesterday? And the guy to her left seems to be in a bit of danger. 
  
  
  
• For all those illegal immigrants who paid taxes and were promised by the U.S. government that their data would be kept away from any other agency or third part, the government is about to sell you out. 

• Yesterday, I tried to get a tiny bit into the weeds of the ongoing immigration cases at the Supreme Court.  I should have just posted this dystopian headline.

• Trump went on a big push for coal mining yesterday. 
• But he had to go into cartoon mode.
  
  
  
• And we had to have the obligatory North Korean-like worker take the mic to sing Trump's praises. 
  
  
  
• The Business Second™.  Someone need to check on the West Texas oil patch? The price of oil:

• After the clean toxicology report, his attorney asks for a PR bond or a bond of $1 for each charge.  I'm stunned to see he was still in jail. 

• The actual logistics of setting and collecting the correct tariff on, say, a single box in a shipping container on a massive cargo ship sitting in a U.S. harbor, would seem to be a very difficult task these days. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

And with that, a decade of problems for Ken Paxton had begun.

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• Final Liberally Lean Bracket Standings:
  
  
  
• The University of Houston again failed to win the national championship last night after blowing a late lead. I think we all know why:
  
  
  
• Trump vs. The Courts had a big day yesterday.
• Case #1. In using the Alien Enemies Act to sweep up and immediately deport anyone the Trump Administration claims is a gang member, the Supreme Court avoided  made two rulings . . . 
  
  
  
• The first ruling is that anyone swept off the street does have the right to challenge their removal in court and must be given a "reasonable" time between being snatched up and moved out of the country to do so. Practically, I don't know anyone swept off the streets is going to be able to quickly find, much less hire, a lawyer to make the court challenge so that pretty means 95%(?) or more will just be summarily deported. 
  
  
  
• I was a little surprised that the government actually conceded the due process point -- that those detained under the Act were entitled to a court hearing. (See below) That's not what the Trump talking heads have been saying. 
  
  
  
• And Trump has to be happy with the second ruling: The court said any challenge to deportation must be made where the detainee is held.  So now the plan will be (as Trump has already done), to immediately ship them to a holding center in Texas where a Trump-friendly judge will be waiting for any of them wishing to challenge their imminent deportation. So that 5% which can mount a court challenge are doomed anyway. 
• Case #2. In the case where the federal judge had ordered the Trump Administration, by midnight, to bring back the guy who was wrongfully deported to the El Salvadorian prison, Trump had a loss and then a victory all in the same day.
  
  
  
• The loss occurred early in the day when the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld the district judge's ruling. And they were very blunt about it. 
  
  
  
• The win came later in the day when the Supreme Court put everything on hold. I have no idea what's going on here. 
  
   
  
  
  
  
• Tariff wars: Trump had a message to you - "Don't be stupid!"
  
  
  
• Let's check in on Fox News.
  
• I don't think this is getting enough coverage: All over the country, student visas of college students are suddenly being revoked. 
  
• With crises breaking out everywhere, Trump was excited about at least one thing yesterday. 
  
• Later, as the Dodgers were welcomed to the White House, this happened:
  
• Just a bit too far.
  
   
  
• Go Team Roundup!
  

  

  
  
• I've mentioned before that the company which is trying to create a woolly mammoth has Decatur ties (Ben Lamm and the Armes family). Well, the company just created a living and breathing dire wolf right out of Game of Thrones. The event was featured on ABC's World News Tonight last night and now on the cover of Time magazine.