Three-Point Shots, Vol. 1, No. 16: Catching Up with Ken Paxton
Questionable real estate purchases, a funky trip to China, and a “principled” refusal to testify. Plus, Harriet O’Neill’s suiting up for the prosecutors.
Welcome to another edition of Three-Point Shots, a part of my Life Its Ownself Substack page. If you enjoy reading it, please 1) hit the Like button, 2) subscribe to the Life Its Ownself, and 3) share it with others in the link below. Also, comments welcome and encouraged.
But first, your Moment of Zen … July 12 was the one-year anniversary of when the James Webb Space Telescope went operational. To celebrate, NASA released this stunning image of the closest star-forming region to Earth, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Though a small and relatively peaceful stellar nursery, the powerful telescope's visualization represents a chaotic close-up of the region located 390 light-years from Earth.
Jets of gas and energy burst from some of the 50 or so young stars in the stellar nursery, impacting surrounding interstellar gas and causing molecular hydrogen to glow red. The makings of a protoplanetary disk of gas and dust from which planets will eventually form can be seen in the form of shadows around some of the young blue stars. The darkest areas in the JWST image are regions in which protostars are still being born in the Rho Ophiuchi.
In celebration of JWST’s first birthday, The Atlantic’s Alan Taylor has curated a selection of her most startling images here.
Friday, July 14, 2023
Happy 234th Bastille Day to those who celebrate! Vive la France!
Millions of Americans are rushing to cinemas to see the new Barbie movie. And for the air conditioning. Barbie’s longtime boyfriend Ken is played by A-lister Ryan Gosling, complete with his trademark chiseled chin and shaved chest.
In Texas, alas, we’re stuck with our Ken – Ken Paxton, the Disgraced Twice-Indicted Impeached Suspended Attorney General. His impeachment trial is not slated to begin until September, but even so – or maybe because so – Ken’s flirtations with ethical and legal mischief continue to entertain Texans, at least those of us who think an Attorney General should not be the boss of a crime family.
1. Ken and Angela put together a nice real estate portfolio.
Ken, Angela, and a family trust made $3.5 million in real estate purchases between July 2021 and April 2022, including three houses in Florida, a lodge in Oklahoma, and land in Hawaii and Utah. The purchases began shortly after Paxton was identified as the subject of an FBI probe into the whistleblower allegations of his senior staffers.
House managers are reviewing the transactions as part of the impeachment inquiry under way, although Paxton lawyer/flack Tony Buzbee says they are aboveboard. “A guy uses money he saved for many years to purchase and finance investment properties before interest rates spiked? Other than that, I’m not sure where the story is,” Buzbee said.
My take: Maybe when the feds told him he was a target of their investigation, Ken surmised his days as an elected official – and Angela’s as his Own Private Ma Ferguson – were coming to an end and it was time to diversify his portfolio. But other than the timing, there may be “no there there” to this story.
2. Ken went to China.
Fox News (yes, that Fox News) breaks the story: “Ken Paxton, the suspended attorney general of Texas, traveled to China with other attorneys general in a secretive trip that included meetings with government officials and did so against the advice of his staff who expressed worry over potential Chinese Communist Party influence.”
Both Democratic and Republican Attorneys General participated in the 10-day trip in the fall of 2019, organized by the Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) and the Attorney General Alliance (AGA). His wife Angela accompanied her husband on the junket, where they met with government officials and were given “lavish” accommodations.
My take: Meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and government officials is never a good look, but it is especially ill-fitting for Republicans – which is probably why Fox News broke the story and the right-wing media ecosphere seems most interested in it.
3. Ken Paxton will – surprise! – not testify at his impeachment trial.
The pearl-clutchers’ favorite slam on the House impeachment is that Ken Paxton was never invited to appear and defend himself. Thus, the logic goes, the House’s process was corrupted from the beginning and the charges should be dismissed because of that error.
Now, Paxton’s lawyers have announced he will not testify at his trial because ... he did not testify at the House hearings. This Möbius strip of legal logic is brought to you by Tony Buzbee: “They had the opportunity to have Attorney General Paxton testify during their sham investigation but refused to do so. We will not bow to their evil, illegal, and unprecedented weaponization of state power in the Senate chamber.”
My take: Ken Paxton has never testified in any criminal or ethical investigation of himself. I suspect that if you brought Ken Paxton into the Senate chamber, put a gun to his head and asked him to defend himself, he would plead the Fifth. Which he is entitled to do. And we, the people of Texas, are entitled to draw inferences from his reticence.
Two additional Paxton-related stories:
Abbott appoints another interim Attorney General … Alert Readers will recall that Governor Abbott tapped former Secretary of State John Scott to be the interim Attorney General after Paxton was suspended. But Scott said he’d do it for only a limited time, and this week Abbott appointedAngela Colmenero, a deputy general counsel and deputy chief of staff in the Governor’s Office, to serve as the interim A.G.
Harriet O’Neill joins the House managers prosecution team … Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O’Neill – a Republican – has joined the team prosecuting Paxton in the Texas Senate. "The facts in this case are clear, compelling and decisive, and I look forward to presenting them before the members of the Texas Senate," Justice O'Neill said.
Other stories for your weekend reading (and future discussion) …
… State Sen. Roland Gutierrez jumps into the 2024 U.S. Senate race …
… the City of Austin ends its policing “partnership” with DPS … and Greg Abbott announces he is sending additional DPS troops into the city, whether Austin wants them or not. Developing story, obviously …
Good stuff as always, bro. I take issue, however, with the close association with China as being "particularly ill fitting" for Republicans. In fact, they have morphed into a party of totalitarianism to the point where it true democracy, voting, and campaign funding transparency are what has become "particularly ill fitting" for the GOP. Also, major bonus points for his "Own Private Ma Ferguson." There is a title to a Coen Brothers movie in there somewhere.
Thank you for making sense - wait no, that's not it... (None of it makes sense in Texas.) Thank you for interpreting the Wild Wild West in a way that is wildly informative, humorous, and digestible.