I'm Very Confused

That is one harsh sentence. Even for threatening people. (The Confederate flag is a side issue.) And I'm stunned a judge in the South would do it.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• "Now, I have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complex subject," Trump said. "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated." What a moron. 
• Name these Texans (there are three that I don't know):
  
• From Modern Family as Jay spends money wildly: "You can't take it with you!" His younger wife, Gloria, replied: "But we'll still be here!" At that moment as we were watching it together, Mrs. LL looked at me. 
• Kellyanne!
  
  
• Football season is over which means I no longer have to hear about Peter King. There is no bigger blowhard than that guy. He was on The Ticket every week and would start every sentence with "In my opinion . . ." or "Based upon the facts that have been given to me at this time . . . " Sheesh. Take a stand. 
• Watch State Sen. Don Huffines disrespecting Richardson ISD 8th graders.
• At a driver's license hearing in Denton yesterday, I ended up in a room with three Wise County deputies. Funny guys. Good guys. (One of them I've seen numerous times on video and have always been impressed with the way he handles DWI cases. He will actually say to a motorist, "I want you to understand everything that is going on because I want you to understand your constitutional rights. And you don't have to do anything.")
• Could it be any warmer this morning? And, man, did I use a lot of Round Up this weekend. 
• The Eighth Grader in the House will have to have minor foot surgery. ("Minor" because it isn't happening to me.)
• I think people are driving crazier and crazier. And they drive stupidly. I'll see some guy just weave in and out of traffic at a high speed only to end up right beside me at a red light 100 yards ahead. 

The Leader Of The Free World

President Trump tells Breitbart that the Oscars mix-up happened because they'd been too focused on attacking him: https://t.co/f9mKKOGeTI

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 27, 2017

AP Has A Wise County Story

Link.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I was fast asleep last night when that Oscar screw up for Best Picture took place, but I so wish I had seen it. I love train wrecks. 
• The presenters were Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway because of the 50 year anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde. (It's still a better movie than anything made last year.)
• Mrs. LL and I watched Death Proof again this weekend. So dark. So great. 
  
• Does the Decatur Booster Club have a bus? I keeping getting comments about it being misused. 
• Once every few months or so three of my buddies at the courthouse will gang up on me and  beat me down in a political debate to no end. I'm on the ultimate island during those things. I think the office staff even has pity on me. 
• I could tell the Decatur Swap Meet was happening this weekend by all the broken down cars along 287. 
• Trump has announced he will not be attending the White House Correspondent's Dinner. That's an evening where everyone makes fun of themselves and everyone else. It occurred to me that Trump cannot possibly ever engage in self-deprecating humor. Ever.
• The Eighth Grader in The House went on a supervised "date" this weekend. Once I get permission from his crazy mom to identify her, long term readers of the blog will be stunned -- as I was once I learned who she was -- what a bizarre coincidence it is. My head is still spinning. 
• I don't know anything about high school basketball, but Decatur winning 102-37 in a playoff game seems weird. 
• At least one judge on the Supreme Court this morning is disturbed about how redneck counties impose the death penalty more than others: 
  
• I think my favorite Bill Paxton performance was in True Lies as the used car salesman. 
• Judge Wapner died this weekend as well. 

Above The Fold

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

 When I feel worse about the property damage than the guy's concussion

 As far as form tackles go, that's about as perfect as it can get for a goat.

 I'll never think the same about falling again. 

 Daddy loves bits. $100 says mom is on the couch rolling her eyes. 

 That look of failure. 

Life comes at you fast.

Breaking: This Is Crazy

CNN and other news organizations were blocked today from a White House press briefing. https://t.co/yH3feeMQHH

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) February 24, 2017

Banning those organizations from the daily White House press briefing (this one was oddly changed to an "off camera" one earlier in the day)? You kidding me. This should scare every single one of you to death.

And it sounds like other press organizations are walking out in protest or giving Spicer the beating of his life.

And this is what Trump said this morning!:

“I love the First Amendment. Nobody loves it better than me.” pic.twitter.com/Hxq6KD8fzJ

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 24, 2017

When A Guy Tells You Not To Throw Him A Surprise Party

I Want The Back Story On This

VIDEO: 2 removed from court during Redford woman's sentencing for deadly DUI crash https://t.co/bZTtVvZz8D pic.twitter.com/LYkoyjoLOH

— Local 4 WDIV Detroit (@Local4News) February 23, 2017

It sounds like this is a horrible DWI case with a death and the defendant's family, at least one of them, are in the gallery "laughing and smirking." That's not on camera.

Ok, let's be clear. That's offensive. And dumb.

But here's what I'm curious about. The video starts with the judge admonishing a man for "smiling and laughing". It seems like he is the one who leaves at the beginning. He walks through the exit.

Then a woman gets up and walks out.  The judge has her hauled back in and sentenced to 93 days in jail for contempt. I don't know what she did in the gallery. I'm not sure she did anything. It almost seems the judge got pissed simply because she walked out during the judge's tirade. If that's true. We've got a Judge Judy on our hands.

Like I said, I want the background.

Or maybe the judge didn't like the outfit. 

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The first time Ag Commish Sid Miller has not sounded like and idiot. And it involves The Wall!: 
  

I learned a lot last night from a guy who actually legally hires Mexicans trying to come to the U.S. It was fascinating how it worked, what he had to go through, and the cost involved. You guys know about H2B workers? I didn't. 

"I think we'll have another vacancy this summer." - Ted Cruz yesterday at CPAC about the Supreme Court. (He might actually be the Zodiac killer.) 

Decatur's power went completely out for a time this morning. In this day and time, everyone just stops down because no one can work. (A terror attack on the U.S.'s electrical grid would be devastating.) 

A woman who received a large settlement from Tarrant County in 2012 over allegations of sexual harassment against former DA Joe Shannon had died in Parker County. Age 48. Cause unknown. 

Dr. Robert Jeffres of FBC of Dallas, on the other hand, is working to make appearances on Fox News: 

Lone Star Law on Animal Planet featuring Texas Game Wardens is very entertaining. Overall, I (amazingly) have no complaints about what I've seen. There's not really a detailed understanding by them of the Fourth Amendment but most have the attitude of giving someone "the benefit of the doubt". (Which, now that I think about it, is probably the best interpretation of the Fourth Amendment for cops if they don't want their cases thrown out.) But one guy in Hunt County did bother me: "If I see a car parked off the side of  a country road, I'm going to detain them and investigate." (And he has no idea how that statement will come back to haunt him.)

I had the worst criminal law teacher ever at Baylor Law School. Why? Because he had never handled a criminal case a day in his life. If I taught it, I'd spend a day teaching about a certain aspect of search and seizure and then on the next day play an episode of Cops, Lone Star Law, or the like. I'd hit the pause button from time to time and ask: Anyone see anything that stood out about what just happened? 

Watch this story. White House Chief of Staff Priebus leaned on the FBI to kill these Trump/Russia connection rumors while the FBI is investigating that possible connection. That's mind blowing.  It's either corruption or stupidity. The White House doesn't tell the FBI what to do. Has no one in the White House ever read about how Watergate went down and what happens when you try to interfere with an investigation? It does not go well. 

The DA dodged a bullet. (She was cleared by another DA without the case going to a grand jury.)

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article134534064.html#storylink=cpy

Breaking

Decatur is suffering a complete electrical blackout.

Edit: Power back up at 8:19 a.m. I'm not sure how long it was out.

Bridgeport's New Head Football Coach Is . . .

. . . Art Briles.

Kidding. The actual new coach is Shannon Wilson  from Bullard ISD. He won state championships at Southlake in the late 2000's as the Defensive Coordinator.

It wil be announced tonight.

This is unconfirmed but I'm comfortable enough to run with it

Love This Guy

His wife probably sent him to the store for the 8th time that day he had nothing to lose pic.twitter.com/QqO0KciOLu

— Comeaux (@Listen2Tony) February 21, 2017

(The actual back story is that he says he didn't even see the gun. There's a news report of it here but my Spanish speaking friends will have to tell me what it actually says. I'm kind of sad to hear that. I liked him better when he just didn't care.)

One Of The Craziest Things You'll Ever See

I saw the abbreviated version of this video a couple of days ago where it ended with the guy motionless on the ground. I didn't post it because I was sure he was dead. But this one was a longer video which shows the guy sitting up.

Longtime readers know I'm fascinated with the "Butterfly Effect". This one is a perfect example. Think of all the millions of events that had to occur before this in order for his head to be in the direct line of a runaway tire at that very split second in time.

[h/t Mike]

Get Me This Fast Dog!

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Trump repealed Obama's transgendered/bathroom guidelines which. legally, doesn't mean much. But I don't know why he did it. And, once again, he has trouble with consistency. This from last year: 
  
• Call me a skeptic: NASA, whose budget has been slashed, just happens to make an "amazing" announcement about seven "earth like planets" around a different star. This as a new budget  under a new President is being prepared. The problem is that no one can refute anything they say. (They could have said two or twelve plants and described their condition in any way they wanted. Who could call them out?)
• Commenters: I'm not going to post anything where you accuse someone of theft even if it is a public official. You want to call them a moron or incompetent, fine. But you can't anonymously accuse someone of breaking the law and without proof.
• I've been on three different major roadways in Wise County over the last couple of weeks where it looks like a blood bath happened on the highway. Someone had this suggestion of what is happening: People are hitting wild hogs. 
• Speaking of being skeptical, I hate crap like this: The Trump administration is accused of  being anti-Semitic so they send the VP to a damaged Jewish cemetery who then rakes leaves for two minutes for the cameras. 

  

  Other guy: "That's right, Mr. VP. That's how you rake."

• Major League Baseball has a new rule where an intentional walk no longer requires four balls. The pitcher can just signal that's what he wants to do and the hitter takes first base. That rule will hardly speed up games. But what it really is is a trial balloon about changing the rules in a sport which never changes rules. If the fans accept it, there will be more to come. 
• Someone needs to check on Ann. She's looking as bad as Kellyanne: 
  
• Boyd's own and former Ticket host Greg "The Hammer" Williams got mad at a black guy last night on Twitter and called him "Sambo." 
• Former Fox 4 Sean Hannity co-host and token liberal whipping boy, Alan Colmes has died. 
• Confederate flag takedown:

• The way my man jumped for the Confederate flag like Neo and Trinity jumping between buildings has me absolutely weak tho. 😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/qwmiLLAnIa

  — KYLE + (@kylebillable) February 23, 2017

• I watched Blackish for the first time last night. Not bad. But one of the craziest ad gimmicks I've ever seen occurred: They cut to a commercial, and it was the same Blackish characters continuing a scene but making it very clear that it was a Microsoft ad.  That didn't bother me. I knew it was an ad, and it's an entirely clever way of advertising. 
• What I hate are ads disguised as news stories: Case in point: Fox 4 doing a story last night of a preacher who had a "viral" video singing about Whataburger. They even interviewed him in a Whataburger where he sang about how great a particular burger was. Come on. Don't lie to us like that. 

Denton County Court Dress Policy

I've got no problem with the policy but the one about leggings is kind of funny. It sounds like you could have leggings that don't cover your butt in which case they would be disallowed. Those would be some very exotic leggings.  (I assume they are talking about a top not covering a gal's rear end while she is wearing leggings.) And when is the last time you saw the word "derriere"?