8.09.2019

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • You know how many pre-season snaps Zeke Elliott played in last year? Zero.
  • Below is an update on the Intruder Between The High School Walls in Paradise. (Which sounds like a great title to a movie, by the way.)
  • The Ticket has referenced this bizarre unexplained old footage where the CBS cameras quickly cut to and away from a chimp, dressed in football gear, on the front row of Texas Stadium back in the day. 
  • Uh . . .
  • Thank God he is consulting the families of dead people NRA! (Spoiler alert: Nothing will be done.) 
  • A handful of people are bent out of shape that Rep. Joaquin Castro posted a tweet disclosing the top donors to Trump in Texas. Sheesh. It's public record -- and an easy public record at that. You can quickly sort by any zip code here.
  • Uber announced yesterday that it lost over $5 billion in the last quarter. I went on this rant in May when they announced they lost $1 billion: How in the world is that possible? They just employ a bunch of independent contractors who bear all the expenses for a ride, and Uber manufacturers no product. What are these massive expenses?  
  • Humble brag: I know the difference between mean and median without looking it up. 
  • “Can I have some tissue, too, because I have to cry as well?” - Defense lawyer in Tennessee after a victim in an alleged assault case testified. (The judge held him in contempt and he ended up suspended for 30 days after threatening the judge with a "citizen's arrest.")
  • Quick video of a judge acting like a jerk in Pennsylvania and getting away with it.  A black guy would have been tased for just getting out of his car. 
  • This baby's parents, Andre and Jordan Anchondo, were slaughtered by a White Supremacist at the El Paso Walmart. The infant was brought to the hospital for this photo up.  Thumbs up and a smile?
  • And I'm sure you've seen Trump, captured on cell phone video, bragging about his crowd sizes in front of hospital staff.  (Hey, give him a break. Isn't this exactly like Reagan telling us, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'" No?)
  • A band which was referenced a few times in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood that I haven't thought about in years: Paul Revere and the Raiders.  And at the time of the Manson Murders, I promise you there was more than one Paul Revere album in our house. 
  • Legal nerd stuff: There was a Texas appellate court dissenting opinion yesterday that said an oft-ignored provision of the Texas Constitution mandates that you must have a jury trial in criminal cases (at least for traditional felonies.) That is, it doesn't say it is a "right" that can be waived but says a jury trial is mandatory.  You know, that is what it says. Practically speaking that would mean: No plea bargains. And, probably, that every past plea bargain in the history of Texas was illegal.
  • Wise County Jail population yesterday: 177. That's about as low as I've seen in the last year. (30% have been in jail for 100 days or more which is pretty standard.)