Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

The former Speaker of the House became "he highest-ranking elected official in U.S. history to serve a prison sentence."

---

• Tanner Horner trial. 
• This expert testified about fetal alcohol syndrome in general, but the biggest take away was that he smiled way too much. This has been a strange pattern with the defense experts: They all act like its just another day in the office.
  
  
  
• This doctor examined Horner for three hours at one point and came to the conclusion he has low testosterone. 
  
  
  
• Tanner Horner's brother was supposed to testify, but something happened yesterday that  derailed that plan.  But a jail cell neighbor of Horner's testified in his place who basically sang Tanner's praises.  However, from the beginning (video cued up here) it was clear that he would be difficult to understand.  That led to an actual light-hearted moment later when the judge suggested the attorney read an exhibit instead of having the witness do so. "No offense," the judge told him. (Here it is cued up.)
  
  
  
• The New York Post has a very New York Post headline this morning. 
  
  
  
• The "Execute Tanner Horner" guy is now appearing on a Fort Worth bridge near you. 
  
  
  
• A little odd: You don't ever see an actual execution occurring at the same time as a death penalty trial is going on. 
  
  
  
• Godley continues to have Chamber of Commerce moments. 
  
  
  
• R.I.P.: Yesterday the Supreme Court gutted what little was left of the Voting Rights Act. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• And Louisiana wants to stop the current election so they can redraw the Congressional maps right now. 
  
  
  
• This guy. Sheesh. 
  
  
  
  
• Trump makes Q-Anon posting so often, that we don't even bat an eye now.  
  
  
  
• The Business Second™.  I'm seeing gas prices jump to $3.99 a gallon over the last two days. 
  
  
  
• Let's check out the impact of a betting scandal on the betting odds. 
  
  
  
• Notable death announced this morning: David Allan Coe.
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

There's a name you haven't heard in a long time. 

---

• The Tanner Horner trial continued yesterday, and it's still on course to wrap up next week. This lady did a pretty good job for the defense, but I've yet to hear anything that puts a dent in the State's death penalty case.  The audio/video of the murder is just too much to overcome. Horner's brother, who is in prison, is expected to testify today after the cross-examination of this lady:
  
  
  
• Here's an example of local news taking a long time to filter out by DFW media. 
  
  
  
• "A social media fad [making a comeback] challenging kids to ingest Benadryl to induce hallucinations is sending dozens of children to the hospital, Cook Children’s Medical Center said . . .In six months, more than 100 patients have gone to the Cook Children’s emergency room for Benadryl overdoses, according to the health system."
  
  
  
• There was a manhunt for a guy off of Basswood in North Fort Worth yesterday afternoon.  A civilian employee with Fort Worth PD was taking a burglary of a vehicle report when this guy allegedly shot the employee in the eye.  (That's all we know.)  He definitely looked like he was having a bad day. 
  
  
  
• A recent cold case arrest for a Houston double murder will never see the courtroom.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Yesterday was full of proof we are living in a autocracy.  It's over. 
• In one of the dumbest prosecutions in American history, former DBI Director James Comey was indicted for posting a picture of sea shells.   There is no way -- absolutely no way -- that a federal judge doesn't kill the indictment. This is not normal. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Say what?!

  
  
  
  
• This came on the heels of the Justice Department filing a pleading in the Ballroom case this week which appears to have been dictated by Trump. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• So the government is attempting to shut down TV stations over a joke that Trump and Melania didn't like?
  
  
  
• A statue in honor of grifting.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then and Now:  King Charles visited the Oval Office yesterday, and I doubt he was thinking, "I love what you've done with the place." 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A video reviewed by The Washington Post gives credence to my believe that the officer who was shot at the dinner on Saturday was the result of friendly fire.  Gift link. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• "NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former Associated Press photographer Jack Thornell, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of a shotgun-felled James Meredith looking back toward his would-be assassin on a Mississippi highway in 1966 became an enduring image of the Civil Rights Movement, has died. He was 86."
  
• That's the same James Meredith who integrated the University of Mississippi and who has a statute of himself on that campus now. 
• The price of oil is at $115 a barrel this morning. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

One of the two employees was Chip Roy.

---

• The Tanner Horner trial continued yesterday with the defense presenting more experts.  Every single one of them does not go well for them.
  
  
  
• We finally got an ID on the person killed in the tornado at Runaway Bay. "Family members identified the victim as 52-year-old Juan Madrid of Runaway Bay. Madrid worked as a landscaper and lived at the Wise County home for 20 years along with wife Gloria Avina and their four children."
  
  
  
• This is a wild headline, but that's all the information we have. 
  
• Attempted assassination updates: 
• When all is said and done, I bet we will learn that the Secret Service agent who was hit in the shooting on Saturday night was the victim of friendly fire.  Just look how carefully the complaint, filed yesterday, is worded.
  
  
  
• And I'm not sure the would-be shooter even fired a shot at all when you consider this: 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• And what is this crazy obsession with the Ballroom's construction being justified because of the incident? 
  
  
  
• Flashback: 
  
• Uh...
  

• We have become the dumbest country.
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
• I've got questions. On Wednesday, April 22, defense attorney Adam Muery filed a motion to withdraw from the case during trial due to ethical conflicts, according to Calhoun County District Attorney Sara Rodriguez.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Oh, my.
  
  
  
  
  
• A Waco federal judge announced last week that he would be leaving to head back to private practice.  From the looks of it, that sounds like a good thing:
  
  
  
• Texas Tech's new star quarterback seems to be in a bit of a pickle. Is he going to come back?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Can you really blame Iran for wanting a nuclear weapon? No one is going to bomb and put a blockade around North Korea.