5.03.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




Rick Santorum, who had just conceded the Republic presidential nomination to Mitt Romney, stood behind Lindsay Lohan at the 2012 White House Correspondents Dinner. 

  • In a double bombshell, Politico got ahold of a leaked draft (first bomb) of the written opinion which has been circulated in the Supreme Court which will overrule Roe vs. Wade (second bomb.) Man, what a scoop. I don't think there's any question that it is real. 

    • The pdf of the opinion is here. I can't believe I'm seeing a leaked draft -- something that never happens.   I don't even have time to go into how the news of the leak is the second biggest legal story in decades. 

    • I've said for as long as I can remember that constitutional law is made up along the way. And who sits on the court decides what the law will be.   Those voting to overturn Roe are the author, Alito, and Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett, and Thomas. Those against are Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. Roberts we don't know about. 
    • It's mind-boggling that all of this is because of Donald Trump (and Mitch McConnell's refusal to hold hearings on Obama nominee Merrick Garland.) 
    • So can this draft opinion change? Yes. But I bet it doesn't in any substantive way. It's a full evisceration of Roe which was its intent. 
    • Barricades went up around the Supreme Court last night after the story was released. 

    • If the opinion stands, there is no reason to believe that same-sex marriage cannot be outlawed (overruling Obergefell), homosexual conduct criminalized (overruling  Lawrence), contraception criminally banned (overruling Griswold) and interracial marriage forbidden (overruling Loving.)  The reasoning in all of them is exactly the same as Roe.
    • Ted Cruz's deleted tweet this weekend, which everyone thought was a inadvertent text message, might actually have been a warning. 

  • So what happens if the draft becomes the actual opinion of the Court in June or July? It then will fall on each state legislature do decide whether abortion is illegal  and under what circumstances. But some already have in that they have laws totally banning abortion on the books set to take effect, called "trigger laws", once the final Supreme Court ruling is handed down.  Bottom line: The poor will be punished. The rich, who can afford to travel, will get their procedure. 

    • Texas is one of those states and has a trigger law which will make it a first degree felony for the doctor to perform an abortion at any time after conception. (It is even far more restrictive than the different and controversial six-week "Bounty Bill.)  It automatically goes into effect 30 days after the upcoming Supreme Court ruling is handed down. 

       

    • Here was how the Texas Senate voted on that bill. A Yea vote outlaws abortion:

    • Here are the Texas House votes. A Yea vote outlaws abortion: 

  • This was going to be my lead story. The January 6th Committee wants to hear from Wise County congressional representative Ronny Jackson and his connection to the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. This letter is so good in its series of questions they directed towards him. 

    (Click to enlarge)

    • Remember that the Oath Keepers are the ones with an arsenal in an hotel across the Potomac on January 6th and were ready for a revolution. Two them have already pled guilty to seditious conspiracy -- that ain't trespassing. 


    • This is the leader of the Oath Keepers who is referred to in the letter to Ronny Jackson. His case is still pending.  

  • In after-thought news, Decatur has made a monumental comeback in early voting winning yesterday 161-119 and taking a total lead of 855-823. Today is the last day to early vote. If all of the above taught you anything, it's that voting matters. 

  • Still on the run! An arrest warrant has now been issued for the sheriff's deputy. 

  • That's a lot of blood on that shirt in the ER room. Click for enlargement.  I doubt the confrontation started with just a polite "Hey, be more cautious," but whatever the words were they didn't justify the beating. 

  • I didn't know Wise County had an axe throwing establishment. They wisely put the liability waiver you have sign next to the BYOB link. 
  • Edit: BagOfNothing was at that axe throwing place a couple of weeks ago he tells me. 


at 8:32 AM

5.02.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts






Saw this at the county courthouse back in the day. I never did find out who it was, although I didn't particularly have any desire whatsoever to meet him. 

  •  The tornado in Kansas on Friday evening, which remarkably killed no one, is the most amazing visual depiction of a twister I've ever seen. These are four videos I marked:  Here (18 seconds), here (11 seconds) here (1:18) , and here (the one which is being about the most.)

  • This contest I made up on a lark is getting kid of fun. With a huge win on Friday, 173-132, Decatur now only trails Bridgeport in early voting by a total of 704 to 694.  Only two more early voting days left. 

  • I find it mindboggling anyone would donate a cent to this publicity stunt. 

  • Troopers which are called to the border average extra overtime pay of $41,000. But some are really cashing in. A "36-year-old captain stationed in the border city of Del Rio earned roughly $164,000 in overtime" and "two other lieutenants . . .   each netted nearly $150,000 working extra hours."   Remember that the next time you have to stand in line for hours, due to being understaffed, when you have to get your license renewed. 

  • Bad Texas Sheriff. Bad Chief Deputy. "According to the Van Zandt County District Attorney's Office, Sheriff Steve Hendrix, Chief Dep. Jerry Wood and Sgt. Blake Snell were found to have witnessed ex-chief deputy Craig Shelton's use of excessive force against an inmate, identified as Nicholas Crouch, and lied to a Texas Ranger when interviewed prior in Dec 2021, according to the indictment handed up by a local grand jury." After calling the charges "baseless", the Sheriff announced his resignation. 

  • Hardly anyone is coming out and expressly saying it, but everyone is assuming the death of Naomi Judd was due to a suicide.  (The daughters said in a statement that "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness."). They were actually on hand in Nashville last night, one day after announcing her death, to accept The Judds induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

  • This is pretty wild. The sheriff's office detention officer said she was going to drop off the inmate, who is doing 75 years on a murder conviction, at the courthouse for a mental evaluation, and then she was going to see her own doctor because she wasn't feeling well.    There was no mental evaluation scheduled at the courthouse, and she never showed up at her doctor's office. The guy would be hard to miss: He's 6' 9" tall. 

  • I'll admit I'd go nuts if the Trump Administration created a "Disinformation Governance Board." 

  • I promise you that right out of law school when I was working for a big Dallas law firm that I joined a gym in Uptown (before it was Uptown but it was still pretty high tone), and one day I looked over and saw Boris Becker right beside me with two trainers on a bench press machine.  He didn't seem to be particularly interested in working out. 

  • So the complaining witness testified to the alleged assault for prosecutors and then just got up and left the courtroom before cross-examination? Hey, I'm no constitutional expert, but that Confrontation Clause in the 6th Amendment would seem to come into play here. And the judge trying to solve that problem by telling jurors they should “strike [her testimony] from your minds as if it never happened” shouldn't be able to magically cure the problem.  

  • I've thought about this for over a week: In the April 24th Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News, respected financial columnist Scott Burns had a step by step program on how he helped a friend retire at 62. So . . . 

    • . . . after going through several paragraphs regarding the best use of retirement plans, social security, and healthcare, it was time to talk about finding his buddy a place to retire to in Florida.  "This is exciting," I thought. How were they going to pull this off? Then came the payoff . . .  

  • It was only the second time in history that UT didn't have a player drafted by the NFL.

  • I keep hearing every one busting on Jerry Jones for drafting "another" player out of his alma mater, Arkansas, when he took John Ridgeway in the 5th round this year. But this was only the second time ever he has drafted a Razorback. The first time was Felix Jones in 2008.



at 8:31 AM

4.29.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




After draft night, they got married. But no longer. Russell Wilson is hanging out with Ciara now.

 

  • I don't know much about this Jacksboro trial yet, but Jack and Wise County are in the same judicial district. (That's just a thumbnail below so clicking on it won't make it any clearer.)

  • Decatur with its first early voting win yesterday, 148-128. (Of course, it finally dawned on me that a Bridgeport resident could early vote in Decatur, but I'm guessing that would only be a few people.)

  • The CRT Hysteria Candidates were elected to the school board in Southlake, and then this new policy goes into effect. The new overlords, who are now government actors, don't want to be called out for their actions. 


  • The @DallasTexasTV Twitter account usually just posts crazy videos from the streets of the city. But for some reason, they chose to post this yesterday.  Buddy, this happens several times a day, every day. (Any chances we have an illegal search here? Or do you think the Clay County officer just happen to form a reasonable suspicion based upon his vast "experience and training"?)

  • Man, I don't know about all this. The teacher asks for a personal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet and the kid, who appears to black, fires off the n-word a few times during his presentation.  If the kid had been acting serious about the assignment, I might have let him go on (but you've got to be a pretty bold teacher to have that attitude.) But when it quickly turned into a comedy routine, the teacher has to shut it down.  But fired? I don't know about that either. I wouldn't want to be a teacher.  Here's an unedited excerpt of it. 


  • This was pretty entertaining. She stopped down for a bit to try to angrily defend a text she claims not to remember.   

  • Fort Worth Weekly story. It names names.  


  • I don't know anything about the travel industry but that seems like a lot of lost revenue. 

  • Very nerdy legal stuff: When the Supreme Court splits 4-4 (after one judge recuses herself), this is what the full opinion will look like. It happened yesterday. The judgment of the lower appellate court will stand in those rare situations.

    • But this case gave rise to an interesting dynamic. The legal issue, which was boring -- when is a train "in use" -- but important to some people in the train industry, is now technically "undecided" by the Supreme Court.  But it really isn't: Justice Barrett recused herself because she was one of the judges who ruled in favor of the railroad on this exact case when she was on the 7th Circuit. So we actually now know how the Supreme Court will rule (5-4 in favor of a railroad) if a different case on the exact same issue were to come up again. 
  • The Cowboys first round pick was an offensive lineman. And he needed to hold against his Tulsa competition? 


  • You Maverick fans are going to be sleepy. (EST.)

  • Some guy is lobbying The Ticket this morning on Twitter for some Bryce Elder coverage. 

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 1,029 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM
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