Okay, I have a little break, so I’ll tell a couple of stories.

Jones’s lawyer goes by the name of Andino Reynal.  On the second day of what appears to be a two week trial, Andino doesn’t get his hour long clips of Jones talking on the radio introduced because he did not introduce them prior to trial. That’s very normal. What is not normal is that he then turned on Bankston and tried to claim that Bankston “said” he could do it and called Bankston a liar. Oops. The judge stops this and said to Reynal, “if you impugn the honesty of another lawyer in my court, you better to be ready to prove it.” She was raising her eyebrows in that way that says, “back off, buddy.”

Reynal waits until the judge leaves the room and gets up in Bankston’s face calling him a liar. Reynal apparently forgot that there’s about 40 members of the media in the room and most of them have cameras. And that HBO is taping everything. Bankston looks out at the audience and says, “Hey, can I get some affidavits from anyone about what he’s doing to me?” It was funny but Reynal doesn’t have a funny bone. But …. he does have a middle finger.

I am not kidding.  Reynal’s middle finger is in every newspaper in the country.

Here’s Mark asking the reporters for a affidavit:

And here’s Reynal’s response seen in every damn newspaper in the country. I betcha his mother is damn proud.

But wait, there’s more.

I want to introduce Alex’s protege, Owen Shroyer. Owen is a shock jock on Jones’s network.  In this trial, after a witness has testified, the judge lets the jury go in the jury room and writes any question they might have the witness. They are to do it alone without consulting with other jurors.

Owen’s testimony was so weird that this happened …

The Judge reads out questions from the jurors to a shock jock Infowars host, Owen Shorley

— Kelvis (@Kelvis56611305) July 29, 2022

And that was because Jones was in the hallway yelling in front of some jurors on a break that this whole trial was fake!

And then the judge seems a little upset with Shroyer. Damn.

Dan Soloman is particularly good to follow on Twitter, as is Elizabeth Williamson.

It was decided that Law and Crime would be allowed to tape the trial daily and put it online.

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I was going through social media yesterday minding my own business when I came along this little nugget. As most people know, OAN is basically Fox News if Fox were underfunded, less talented, and somehow even more extreme. Well, it seems Verizon has decided to cut ties with them which means they will not be on any cable packages and they currently don’t have anyone to stream them. What comes next is truly bizarre.

OAN host makes an urgent plea to liberals to help save the network after Verizon dropped them: “It is absolutely crucial that, for once, we defy the powers that be, we all come together, set aside our differences in a unified effort.” pic.twitter.com/JifUTD5PCI

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 27, 2022

Listen, I could go in any number of directions here, but I suppose I’ll play the straight man for now. Exactly what do we get for this assistance that we would give? I would have to assume this would be somehow transactional because you honestly aren’t making the “the world is a better place with all of us in it” argument are you? Are you talking détente? Is this a truce? Exactly how long would that last?

What you are seeing above is this same Steinberg having a meltdown over a pride flag in Huntington Beach. Yeah, I suppose she can claim it was when she was young and naïve. She’s matured now and is ready to reach across the isle. The picture from this video came on June 22, 2022. It happens to be the Carraway’s anniversary and it wasn’t that long ago. I could add more here, but you get the idea of who we’re dealing with.

A couple of years ago they found a gator in the green space behind our house. Fortunately, it never came close enough to us for us to see firsthand, but we do know that we’ve lost three cats since we’ve moved here. Maybe it wasn’t the gator. Maybe it was one of the owls. It could have been the wild pigs, armadillos, raccoons, or possums. These things deserve to exist on their own and I won’t go out of my way to get rid of them. I’m also not inviting them into our backyard. Wild animals don’t reciprocate or change their nature because you are nice to them. I wish Ms. Steinburg and her colleagues the best in the same sense that I don’t wish death and destruction on anyone. I’m not going to go out of the way to help those wild animals. Those wild animals would surely kill my other cats, dog, and my family if given the chance.

The former president and his children have done their part to attack public education and those that work in the industry. Everyone knows I’m one of those people. His son called us losers and the former guy said no one should let us watch their children for 20 minutes much less teach them anything. We’ve heard all this before and the important thing is understanding why. It is also important to understand exactly why U.S. public schools don’t outperform their counterparts in Europe and Asia and why most private schools outperform their public counterparts.

See, that’s the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to make public schools so unpalatable that most people won’t have a choice but to go private. So, we allow pay to lag for teachers, we insult them and belittle them, and then when there’s a teacher shortage we begin to water down the qualifications teachers must have. Both Arizona and Florida have announced that teachers don’t have to have a Bachelor’s degree.

Most red states are not far behind. Our very own governor threw a commission together to see why there’s a teacher shortage and initially included only one teacher. We could have saved him the money. All of this is by design. They know very well what they are doing. They can offer vouchers and school choice, but that will end up being a band-aid for a gun shot wound. Of course, given the recent mass shootings in our schools, such an euphemism is a little on the nose.

Private schools work for one reason and one reason only. The schools get to choose who goes to school there. It’s the same reason that schools in Europe and Asia outperform our public schools. When you get to choose who takes the test it is remarkable how well they will perform collectively. Imagine an English class where the teacher can pick 20 percent of his or her class to be exempt from the test. We’d have nearly 100 percent passing rate. Boy would we look great.

Simply put, the minute you tell a private school who they have to take is the minute you negate their primary advantage. Plus, a 5000 dollar voucher does little when the average tuition in Texas is over 10,000. Many of the top parochial and Catholic schools can cost more than twice that amount. A lower middle class family can’t afford to send even one child to such a school much less multiple children.

Even if you subsidized the entire tuition costs, the child still has to meet the admission requirements. What happens if they have intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, or physical disabilities? What happens if they have behavioral problems? A private school can simply say no. As a former private school teacher, I can attest to this. Some of their margins are so thin that they can’t afford to pay specialists. If your kid needs extra help he or she will need to go to public school.

Yet, we will be stripping those same public schools of crucial resources. We will be flooding their classrooms with only those students that were too poor or somehow not fit enough to be accepted to one of those schools. They can’t explain what happens to them and they don’t particularly care. I’ve also been in schools that were the last choice in a school choice district. Someone has to care about these kid

I will be totally distracted for the next two weeks.  Alex Jones is finally going to trial in Austin.

They will be picking a jury today.  If any of my Austin friends want to go see Mark do the opening statement, that will start tomorrow at 8:00 am.  There is a chance it will be available live streamed. I will let you know as soon as I do.  I am pretty damn sure jury selection will not be live streamed because Alex Jones is using the Donald Trump method of riling up the fools.  Here ya go. I think they should serve that whine with a straw so he can suck it up.

This judge – and the one before her who retired – has bent over backward to be overly fair to Mr. Jones.  It would be difficult to find any code of civil procedure he has not violated, in some cases numerous times. Mr. Jones has been through 12 lawyers. I am telling you that 12 lawyers quit rather than having to deal with Alex Jones. The judge in the Connecticut case ruled the same thing that the Texas Judge did.

Jones has lied, hidden evidence, destroyed evidence, and behaved in a shamefully ridiculous manner. Let me make this perfectly clear. He will be allowed to testify in this hearing. He will be allowed to tell the jurors why he should walk free from carrying on a ten year constant defamation of the children and their families. Jones’s free speech isn’t free – these families paid for Jones’s free speech. They continue to this day to have a target on their backs.

This is about merchants of lies. This is about evil people making millions of dollars exploiting dead children and their families with lies they invent to sell bottles of lie juice. This is also about others of them making fortunes off campaign donations.

I’m sorry I am so worked up.

Please pray or send ju-ju, good thoughts, power signals, love, and wishes to my baby boy. The two senior partners in the firm are going to be able to be there and help.  They are both totally stunned that anyone got it this far in a Texas State District Court so they will help however they can.  As long as Texas has lawyers with the courage in invest their own money in justice being done, we can keep the fight alive.

PS – I have just been told that jury selection will be live streamed.  It will be today on You Tube but I am unsure of when it will start. It will be under Travis County 459th District Court, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble.

Mark is the lead attorney and will be doing the opening tomorrow.

Okay, here’s your quiz.

“Madison Cawthorn spent campaign donations he was supposed to return on ‘egregiously’ frequent trips to __________ and now can’t pay donors back, report says.”

Okay, guess as hard as you can.

Click the WHO WE ARE box above to see the answer.