7.15.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • The Denton County Sheriff's Office won't release records to the Denton Record Chronicle in a police involved shooting that, according to the agency, should be straight forward: On June 29th, a "61-year-old man entered the home [in the upscale Lantana neighborhood] uninvited and threatened the three people inside. When deputies arrived on scene, the man allegedly leveled a shotgun at them before being shot and killed by law enforcement." Turn everything over. You look corrupt when you don't. 
  • I'm not sure what's more disturbing. That someone thought it would be a good look for Mike Pence to go down to the border to look at people in cages or that's exactly the look they wanted to project to Trump's base. 
  • We've seen this before.
  • You think those Republicans (especially Pence, Graham, and Cornyn) really wanted to be on camera at that moment? One time, Pence stormed out of Colts game once because players took a knee during the National Anthem. But he was fine with this.
  • And with the Pence controversy brewing on Saturday, Trump drops a bomb on Sunday confirming what he's made clear since the beginning: He's a racist. He told four duly elected female Congressman of color to "go back" to their home countries. (Side note: Three of the four were born in America.)
  • As usual, Republicans are scared to condemn the Klansman-In-Chief, although Fox News' Geraldo Rivera did call him out. (Note to Geraldo: No, he's not better than that.)
  • And to think I was just going to make fun of Trump supporting disgraced Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta on Friday morning by saying, "He's a Hispanic man."  That was just the beginning of Hispanic Weekend for this administration. (Which including a lie about ICE doing a "roundup" which didn't happen.)
  • Moving on. Yesterday morning: 
  • Update on the sprinkler system: I fixed it! Works like a charm. I found the replacement parts for the solenoid and valve for the one that just happens to be black. And I redid all the electrical connections, cleaned all this up, and put a valve box on top of it. But look at that installation mess. 
  • Well, almost like a charm. The bad news is that after turning the water supply back on to the irrigation system for the first time in a long time, after 24 hours a different section of the yard was flooded from the ground up. I'm now digging to try and find the leak. 
  • TCU is renovating its stadium again, and this time they are making their video screen bigger than Baylor's by 1'4" in width and 1'6" in height. (It will be 180'4" by 48'6" high.) I support construction bits. 
  • If you haven't seen the "Woody Harrelson at Wimbledon", it's pretty funny.
  • After spending the weekend thinking about my Jump-On-The-Drug-Carrying-Submarine Conspiracy Theory. I think I'll double down on it with a slight revision. The whole thing is just so ridiculous including the guy yelling, "That’s going to be hard to get on!”  Further research reveals that the Coast Guard has one spokesman who says that submarine was carrying drugs. I'll reluctantly take the government at their word. But if you read everything he says about it we have this: On June 18 the Coast Guard Cutter Munro intercepted that submarine carrying cocaine. But he never gets down and says the video depicts the exact moment of the seizure. Revised theory: That's the sub they captured. Yep, it had cocaine on it.  Days later they examine then sub and operate it. (Why wouldn't they?) And then they film a guy jumping on the sub to go along with the self-promoting report of the seizure of the cocaine. Thus, the words of, "We seized 16,000 pounds of cocaine from this submarine" being said while the after-the-fact video is playing is technically accurate.  Not spoken: "We didn't seize the sub exactly like that, but we never said we did." 
    Photo Coast Guard released of the inspection of the seized sub.
  • The Washington Post has a front page article about tigers in cages, and it reminded me of a really good recent Texas Monthly article about "Joe Exotic". The sub-headline: "He called himself the Tiger King and plastered his face on highway billboards in Texas and Oklahoma. He bred big cats, bears, baboons, and more. He lived, with a parade of partners, on the grounds of his private zoo. He threatened a rival with murder—repeatedly, on YouTube—and tried to hire a hit man to do the deed."