Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

This one is fitting. Last night Ron Washington finally got a World Series Championship ring, and ten years ago this little guy made his appearance on Liberally Lean in anticipation of the Rangers Game 7. (The kid actually did that bit in 2010, a year earlier, but I re-issued the pic for good luck. It didn't work.)     

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• A big crowd showed up at Dealey Plaza yesterday to see the return of the late JFK, Jr. who would then install Donald Trump as president.  Make no mistake about it: These people are all around you. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The Tarrant County DA will not get a new $116 million office after a bond proposal was rejected. That's never going to pass as a stand alone item. 
  
  
  
• A lot of school bonds failed across the state.   I'm not sure it's a good idea to put multi-million dollar bonds on a ballot right after all the voters have received their jaw-dropping property tax bills in the mail. 
• But Fort Worth ISD managed to pass a $1.2 billion bond by 42 votes. 
• Constitutional amendment elections are a scam.  An example is below. It would be nice if it told you how the eligibility requirements were changing. 
  


• Republicans got a big win in Virginia and are getting real close in New Jersey which is currently too close to call. Heck, both races have razor thin margins. But Virginia is weird. Since 1976, every time a new president has been elected to the White House, the other party wins the Virginia governor`s race the following year.

  

  Virginia

  
  

  

  New Jersey still being counted

  
  
• Virginia, on the same night, elected a Democratic black and female Jamaican immigrant as Lt. Governor. Edit: Oops. She's a Republican. The gun should have tipped me off. 
  
  
  
• "Saginaw police say they got the call at 3:55 a.m. Monday reporting shots fired at a home on Babbling Brook Drive. Investigators say Russell had gone to three or four homes, knocking on the front doors. According to police, one homeowner answered the door and told Russell to go away. 
Police say at some point, Russell started to leave but then rushed back toward the homeowner who then fired multiple rounds, killing Russell." I'd bet there will be no criminal charges. 









• The fact the Rittenhouse trial is televised is great. I'm telling you, it's going to be hard to get a conviction. When a whole criminal trial revolves around whether someone's conduct was "reasonable", the prosecution is in for a huge uphill battle. 
  
  
  
• Jenna Ryan, the Little Ball of Insurrection™ and realtor from the metroplex, will face sentencing next week. In the Justice Department's sentencing memo, prosecutors mention that she tweeted that she's not going to jail because she is white and has blonde hair. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Everyone had a lot of fun with the UT coach's stripper girlfriend monkey story yesterday, including the finding old tweets from the Pole Assassin herself. From a liability standpoint which she might be facing because of her monkey biting a child, this ain't a good one: 
  
  
  
• An excerpt from the SCOTUSBlog article about the abortion/procedural oral arguments in the Supreme Court on Monday: 
  
  
  
• According to the Messenger, with the Rhome city secretary resigning this week, that makes the fifth city secretary in Wise County to quite or be forced out since August. That's amazing. 
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

The death of Elizabeth Lightfoot actually remains an unsolved mystery. She had gone out that evening and ended up with a strangely high BAC of 0.317 after leaving friends at Yourway Burger in Farmer's Branch ). But then went by a grocery store afterwards and bought Ramen noodles. Police investigated it as a homicide, but the ME's office surprised everyone by calling it an "accident" (for whatever that's worth.) 

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• Oh, my. The girl who was shot to death in her car in Irving, after finding a tracker on her vehicle a few days earlier, was a stripper at Rick's Cabaret near the airport. And the man arrested in connection with her death was a frequent customer. 
  
  
  
• "A well-known Wichita Falls, Texas, man was arrested Wednesday on a tougher charge for an alleged road rage incident that occurred in 2020, court documents show . . . . Wise County District Attorney James Stainton of Decatur is the specially appointed prosecutor for McDaniel’s case."
  
  
  
  
• My one and only assistant is a huge Rolling Stones fan, and also has the worst luck. 
• In 2016, she traveled to Las Vegas to see them only to have the concert cancelled at the last minute when Jagger contracted laryngitis.  
• In 2019, she bought tickets to see them in New Orleans only to have the concert postponed due to a hurricane, and she couldn't make the new date. 
• She bought tickets for the Stones in Dallas for their scheduled concert in May of 2020 but it got cancelled due to COVID. 
• Tonight she has tickets for them at the Cotton Bowl with heavy rains predicted. 
• I've buried the lede! The big story of the day is a UT special teams coach and his girlfriend's monkey.  (The USA Today has some pretty funny coverage of this saga.)  Here we go . . . 
• From January: 
  
  
  
  
• From last night:
  
  
  
• And, finally, here is the "Pole Assassin's" apparent confirmation that the little monkey at least did something (and then she deleted her Twitter account.)
  
  
  
• Just to recap, allegedly the Special Teams coach at Texas, who coached at Alabama, left his wife for a former stripper, who went by the name of Pole Assassin and had a pet monkey who she incorporated into her act, and then he, the coach, brought that former stripper and her monkey with him to Austin, where it, the monkey, bit a kid on Halloween in 2021.
• This all seems so 1950s.
  
  
  
• 34!? There was no way they were walking away from that gig and all the retirement benefits: 
  
  
  
• The Anti-vax crowd used to be a very small fringe movement championed by Jenny McCarthy.
• There are a lot of things I don't understand about QAnon, but their infatuation with JFK Jr. being alive is right up there at the top of my list. 
  
  
  
  
• Dak was announced to be a "full go" for Sunday's game, but he didn't look like it as he ran like an old man to catch up to Cooper Rush after the game. 
  
  
  
• If you want to see how a small town Sheriff's Office can get in over their heads while trying to solve a murder and fall victim to tunnel vision about a particular suspect, watch the 45 minute stand-alone episode named "Joyride" in Season 2 of Netflix's Confession Tapes. It's crazy.  
  
  
  
• I don't think Gary Patterson gets another high profile job. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

The daughter of Aransas County Judge William Adams had videotaped the beating in 2004, but it went viral for some reason in 2011. The daughter then went on a weird publicity tour appearing on the national morning shows and later Dr. Phil. The judge failed to win re-election, losing in the Republican primary in 2014.

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•  The Texas Abortion Bounty Law is before the Supreme Court today. Kind of. The court will hear oral arguments on a complicated federal procedure question that no one I know understands  -- including me. Roe v. Wade is not at issue. That comes next next month in another case out of Mississippi. 
  
  
  
• Tarrant County prosecutors have quietly thrown in the towel after getting a hung jury in September in this Improper Relationship case.  They dismissed it without comment on October 19th.
  
  
  
• Bridgeport will get a Whataburger after all. It will go just to the east of Brookshires. 
  
  
  
• Hero?
  
  
  
• "Texas inmate on Death Row found dead" is just weird to write.
  
  
  
• A failed state senator who wants to be governor has pulled out the Trump playbook to explain his last election loss. (He has since deleted the tweet.) 
  
  
  
• Fun pic circa 1980. The Cowboys headquarters and practice field were off Central Expressway with the Playboy Club right by it. And note the Expressway is two lanes each way with very little traffic. Click to enlarge. 
  
  
  
• Lawyer mishap (story is behind paywall):
  
  
  
• Come on, that's a funny costume. Especially the addition of the dog which was allegedly left behind.
  
  
  
• I'm not sure I knew that Bridgeport High School had a Bass Team. 
  
  
  
• Gary Patterson (shockingly) getting fired by TCU, but refusing to stay for the rest of the season when asked, seems like a very Gary Patterson thing to do. But I wouldn't do it either. Side note: Any chance his towel girl enters the Transfer Portal?
  
  
  
  
  
• Beating the Evil Empire must never go unmentioned. 
  
  
  
• If you want to see a text book example of an illegal detention after the purpose of a traffic stop is over, here you go. This happens all the time. 
  
  
  
• Weird fun facts.
  
  
  
• If Texas can block abortion by using civil lawsuits, why couldn't another state ban gun possession using the same tool?