Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

This crazy scene ended up killing three.

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• Oh, my! A sentence of one year in a state jail is an actual and real one year. No good time. No parole.  However, she will be able to bond out while the cases are being appealed.  It looks like the defense lawyer was Heath Hyde out of Sulphur Springs. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• That's a lot of full offering plates.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Yay-Boo.  Yay: The Messenger publishes an opinion piece today calling out the voucher scam. Boo: The piece fails to mention that Wise County's Rep Andy Hopper voted for vouchers.
  
  
  
• By the way, the voucher folks promoted their bill by appeasing opponents by supporting a companion "multibillion-dollar public school funding bill." The voucher bill has already passed and become law. The school funding bill is now on the verge of dying. 
  
  
  
• The video is widely available online but here's just a screenshot of it from the second before it happened. 
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• But don't call it genocide.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• We are the dumbest state.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump is going full Stalin. (Newly hung banner on Department of Agriculture building.)
  
  
  
• Video.
  
  
  
• The Business Second™:  They finally figured out that removing the iconic name of HBO was a bad idea.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

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.