Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The Fox 4 weatherman's flooding "joke" wasn't received too well, and he took it down after about 30 minutes. 

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• That theft trial of the former D.A. of Montague County was quick! Yesterday saw all the testimony take only four hours, and the jury reach a guilty verdict before the day's end.  "After 16th District Court Judge Sherry Shipman read the verdict to the court, Hall was observed hanging her head in disappointment. She was later observed crying and leaving the courtroom in an emotional state." The punishment phase is today beginning at 8:30 a.m.. She could receive anything from probation to 10 years in the pen. I would think that the verdict will be probation, but I'd be a little nervous if I were her. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Dateline: Comanche, Texas. Good grief.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• A judge just resentencing someone from the bench years after the trial? It doesn't work that way in Texas. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I really haven't followed the P. Diddy trial very closely this week, but that's a heck of a sketch of singer Cassie who is eight months pregnant and testified yesterday.
  

  
  
  
• I think that judge is considering blocking the public and media sitting in the gallery from seeing the sex party videos which will be shown to the jury.  That seems like a violation of the right to a public trial.
  
  
  
• This was quick, too. I wish AG Pam Bondi was the one who was forced to personally try the case. 
  
  
  
• Start paying attention to how often Trump talks about peace and stopping wars.  He's decided he  wants one thing: The Nobel Peace Prize. In that regard, yesterday he lifted sanctions on Syria, extended an "olive branch" to Iran, and gave a (shocking) speech which basically said, "The U.S. will leave the Middle East alone in the future."
• I thought it was weird how Trump just decided to take the Houthi's at their "word" that they would stop bombing ships in the Red Sea. Gift link.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A federal judge has finally said Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act to snatch people off the streets.  That makes it 3 to 1 on rulings on the issue so far.  "District Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee in the Western District of Pennsylvania, wrote Tuesday that Trump’s proclamation describes a 'predatory incursion' by Tren de Aragua . . . . ” 
  
  
  
• "The Ellis County District Attorney’s Office has agreed to serve as special prosecutor in the ongoing investigation of McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara on allegations he improperly ordered a deputy to work at his Bosqueville farm over a three-year period while the deputy was on the county payroll."
  
  
  
• Just announced: The Cowboys will host the Chiefs on Thanksgiving Day. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

We were even losing those jets back then. 

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• I think we've already forgotten about this guy. He is still on the run after cutting his ankle monitor off on the morning of his capital under trial in Kaufman County.
  
  
  
• Since grand juries operate behind closed doors, I will forever be frustrated by not knowing what happened in cases like this. Christy Jack of Fort Worth was the defense lawyer, but she wouldn't have been allowed to address the grand jury. 
  
  
  
• What's going on with the heartland?
•  Nebraska?
  
  
  
  
• Montana?
  
  
  
• Trump has arrived in Saudi Arabia this morning and brought his BFF along for the ride. 
  
  
  
• Yesterday:
  
  
  
• Re: The $400 million jet gift from Qatar: I'm surprised she doesn't spontaneously combust sometimes. 
  
  
  
• Story. This guy is in charge of making us all healthy again.
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Legal stuff:  Just when you thought the Texas legislature couldn't get any dumber.
  

  
  
  
  
• I'm not sure I would post this (below) on social media if I were charged which sexually assaulting four women between 1999 and 2005.
  
  
  
• In case you didn't hear, this happened last night: 
  
  
  
  
• Breaking economic news: Inflation is at 2.4% which isn't bad.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

When I discovered something called the Lucky Star Ranch near Lake Bridgeport.

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• Fantastic drone footage of the flooding in Wise County last week. 
  
  
  
• A Facebook post by the son of Roy Cooper is interesting. 
  
  
  
• I started noticing a couple of motorcycle accidents happening in the metroplex on Saturday so I started to keep track of them. These are all from Saturday and Sunday:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The White House says they are "looking into" suspending the right of habeas corpus, depending on whether courts do the "right thing", and it barely is a blip on the news radar. It's over. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Qatar is going to give a $400 million luxury airliner to Trump?  The key is that it would go to Trump "for his presidential library" after he leaves office. The deal has even been approved by AG Pan Bondi who just happened to have worked as a registered lobbyist on behalf of the Qatari government at a salary of $115,000 per month. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If only there was a law dealing with this stuff.
  
  
  
• When you've lost crazy Laura Loomer: 
  
  
  
• It's not hard to figure out who Trump thinks are "good" immigrants. 
  
  
  
• The scandal in 2005 when Jeanine Pirro, Trump's pick for U.S. Attorney for D.C., was a DA in New York and tried to get the police commissioner of NYC to bug the family's boat in order to catch her husband having an affair.
  
  
  
• How's that Make America Healthy Again thing going?
  
  
  
• John Cornyn continues his transformation to a Trump sycophant as he faces a contested re-election.
  
  
  
• The new FEMA chief sounds like a maniac as a secret camera caught his first remarks to the troops. "I don't stop at yield signs . . . I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA."
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ken Paxton took credit for this but he actually contracted the litigation out to the private firm of  Norton Rose Fulbright who will be be paid in one of two ways: Its billable hours on the case times a multiplier of four, or a percentage of the total settlement (27%), whichever is less.
  
  
  
• Say what?
  
  
  
• Bill Belichick's girlfriend competed in the Miss Maine pageant this weekend. She got second runner-up. 
  
  
  
• "The 2025 NFL season will begin with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday, Sept. 4, the league announced Monday."