Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

It turned out he wasn't a suspect, and eventually had a long career in the NFL. But that guy got royally screwed on draft day. 

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• Published by D Magazine this morning. I've wondered about this, too. (h/t to BagOfNothing.)
  
  
  
  
• The Ashlee Long case in Dallas is going to be a mess.  Yesterday there was a bond reduction hearing where the full surveillance video of the shooting was shown. Only bits and pieces of it were aired on the local news stations, but the whole unedited hearing is preserved, for now, on YouTube.  I've got it cued up to when the prosecutors walked the judge through the video. By the way, the victim's boyfriend is moron. 
  
  
  
  

  

  

  
  
  
• Dateline Arizona: Ok, things are getting weird.  
  
  
  
• The story describes it as a "Victim Impact Statement", but unlike Texas where victim statements are allowed after sentencing, this came before the judge imposed the sentence. Legal nerdy stuff: There is a serious 6th Amendment confrontation clause issue here. 
• Just when you're processing that Trump called the head of the Federal Reserve a fool, you are buried in an avalanche of lies this morning.
  
  
  
• Weird and goofy things the Texas legislature is currently doing:
• Making it a crime to release a balloon outside. Really. It passed the House yesterday 97-40.
  
  
  
• Setting up a Texas Star Chamber to decide if a federal law or action is, in their opinion, constitutional and, if not, then referring it to the legislature as a whole to "invalidate" it. Anyone down there ever heard of Separation of Powers? It doesn't work that way. If it did, the South sure could have used such a law after Brown v. Board of Education. The bill passed 94-53.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This bill is not to be confused with the one mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in every school. 
  
  
  
• Legal crazy stuff: The Fifth Circuit saw nothing wrong with a trial judge ordering criminal defendants in his court to obtain a GPS ankle monitor device and directing them to get it, at a cost of $300 a month, to a business ("ETOH") owned by his former law partner and current campaign donor. 
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The cops agreed to go to the kid's school to briefly take the child into custody to teach him a lesson for misbehaving in class. And school officials weren't given a heads up first.  I can't find where anyone suffered any ramifications for this stunt. 

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•  Just two nuclear powers on the verge of a full scale war:
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Don't worry. The U.S. is on top of it:
  
  
  
• We lost another $70 million fighter jet from the same aircraft carrier. This time it rolled off the side during a landing. 
  
  
  
• The Prime Minister of Canada was in the Oval Office yesterday and, I can't believe I have to write this, had to tell Trump . . . 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Our own Minister of Propaganda described the meeting this way:
  
  
  
• Deportation news overnight: 
• Ukraine?
  
  
  
• And this "could happen as early as today."
  
  
  
  
• It appears that Trump's nominee for U.S. Attorney for D.C. (who is a Stop the Steal supporter, who had never been a prosecutor before his interim appointment, and then dismissed his own client's case when he was) won't even get to a vote due to one lone Republican member who sits on the Justice Committee.
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
• It doesn't even register that a law passed by Congress, signed by President Biden, and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court is just ignored by Trump.
  
  
  
• Wise County's state rep yesterday voted against a gambling bill because he wants to protect us from it. (Have I mentioned he voted for school vouchers?)
  
  
  
  
• Legal stuff: You can't get people interested in school vouchers, but it's a packed house in Austin this morning at 7:00 a.m. for the hearing on the big "tort reform" bill. Livestream. Seventy-five speakers have registered.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Cowboy news this morning:
  
  
  
• Clever headline from a Canadian newspaper . . . 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Do you remember the incident at the Culwell Center in Garland? It has its own Wikipedia entry.

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• I'm didn't know Wise County had an up-to-date web page dedicated to road closures because of the Trinity River currently overflowing.  
  
  
  
• Colleyville lightening strike of a home was caught on video yesterday. That's unnerving. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• "McEuen is accused of shooting and killing his neighbor, Aaron Martinez, on Neal Road in Forney on May 1, 2023. Investigators said he shot 35-year-old Martinez multiple times . . . . "
  
  
  
• Newark airport has been a mess for over a week, and yesterday we learned one of the reasons why: At least five air traffic controllers took "trauma leave" after an incident a week ago where there was a complete communications blackout with all aircraft for 30 seconds.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It probably sank from the weight of  the self-importance onboard.
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• So they think that an immigrant, who has seen you round people up and send them to an El Salvadorian prison, will trust you enough to enter their identifying information into a government app? And for just $1,000? To be paid after you have been returned?
  
  
  

  
  
  
• Trump thinks all immigrants are entitled to a full jury trial before deportation.  Due Process does not always equate to a jury trial.  For immigration purposes, due process requires notice and a hearing. Jury trials, like for criminal cases, are the "gold standard" of due process.  (Side note: The NFL Commissioner having to uncomfortably stand there while Trump held an impromptu press conference was unusually satisfying to me.)
  
  
  
• And that's how you begin to remake a military which will become Trump's own personal army.
  
  
  
• The grift never ends.
  
  
  
• Just Trump "directing" the Justice Department (who he thinks is his personal team of lawyers) to somehow free a person who was convicted by a state jury for a state crime and sits in a state prison. This is insane. 
  
  
  
• Bad legal takes. 
  
  
  
• The Business Second™. 
  
  
  
• I finally got around to watching all episodes of the Robert Durst documentary, The Jinx. Very good stuff. And I'm almost through with the Karen Read documentary A Body in the Snow. It's great, too. Both are on Max.