Above The Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Gov. Abbott announced a special session which will include working on the Bathroom Bill. The Texas Capitol is the equivalent of a Clown Car. 
• Speaking of, last night a state rep was arrested in Dallas for DWI after smashing her car into a tree. She's been in office less than six months.
  
• What an horrific five car crash in northern Collin County which left four dead and many injured. The chain reaction started when a car slowed on the roadway for no apparent reason and was struck from behind. I'm telling you: Don't trust the car in front of you and don't trust the car behind you. Fools are among us. 
  
• There's a manslaughter case in Massachusetts where a girl is on trial for encouraging a guy to kill himself via text messages. He did. Yes, that's horrible, but there are massive Free Speech implications here. Let's simplify the facts: Does the First Amendment protect you from government prosecution if you were to say, "Go kill yourself" to another? 
  
• A texting-while-driving ban will become law in Texas on September 1st.  Great idea. Totally unenforceable. But it gives law enforcement a new weapon to stop you if they can justify having a reasonable suspicion you were texting even if you weren't. 
• Drunk reporter vs. Very patient cop. She was fired. Language warning. 
• The Freshman in the House got to see OU win a National Championship last night in softball in Oklahoma City. Good for her. That was Game 2 of a best of 3 so it could have gone to a Game 3 which she would have missed. 
• The day after Trump told then FBI Director Comey that he wanted him to end the investigation into former NSA advisor Flynn, Comey told AG Sessions that he didn't want to be alone with Trump. This presidency is exhausting. (Comey testifies tomorrow.)
• TCU AD Chris Del Conte was on The Ticket this morning. Man, he's a cocky thing. 
• Former Dallas Police Chief David Brown has a new book (of course), but the Morning News says he has some trouble with the truth in it. For example, about the night of the massive downtown police shooting he wrote, "I stepped up to the mic and delivered the facts as I knew them. 'At eight fifty-eight p.m.,' I said, 'our worst nightmare happened.'" Except he didn't say that. The mayor did. 

Runaway Bay On Saturday

Highway 380.

Internet Debate: Fake Or Not

The internet loses its mind over video of water slide stunt by teen in Jamaica 😱 https://t.co/nGk8CILM2I pic.twitter.com/t3Vh5F2e1c

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 6, 2017

Something doesn't seem right. (And how would those relatively baggy shorts not work as a water parachute?)

Edit: OK, I'm switching back to "real".

Chicken Sandwich Based Domestic Terrorism

This video is remarkable for another reason other than a crazy McDonald's customer who flipped out because she got tired of waiting. It starts with just the raw footage. Then it is played again with a voice over and interviews (with the great line of, "Life is too short to get that mad over a chicken sandwich") and then the last third the footage becomes a music video.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Trump is mad at the media this morning. (He's confused. The media loves him being on Twitter. It's his staff and lawyers who want him off of it.):

• 

  
  

• There was the longest college world series softball game in history last night. And it was mightily entertaining. (The Freshman In The House will be there tonight.) Side note: Florida has a stud pitcher with the last name of Barnhill. I thought, "Hey, is that the Barnhill who pitched at Justin Northwest, went to UT, and then transferred to the SEC?" Uh, no. She quit playing in 2011. Time is moving by too fast. 

  

  Not all were impressed.

• Talk about long games: In the NCAA baseball playoffs, Missouri State played Arkansas over the weekend and the game ended at 3:10 a.m. (And did the UT game end after 1:00 a.m. last night?)
• We had a good visiting judge filling in for the late Judge Fostel yesterday. But I heard the higher ups in Fort Worth assigned him over the weekend but didn't tell him why. He learned about the death when he got here.
• I heard the Messenger will have a real nice tribute tomorrow. 
• That case of the Kirbyville school principal who committed suicide is getting nasty.  An assistant principal has resigned in a scathing letter directed at the school board. It's basically, "You knew he was suicidal but didn't care."
• A 25 year old NSA contractor has been arrested on accusations she intentionally leaked classified documents. I don't know if America can ever concentrate on the story because no one can get past her name: Reality Winner. 
• Couple does a ridiculous, but funny, make out bit behind a reporter after last night's NHL finals game. (Video here.)
  
• It's the anniversary of D-Day. That always makes me recall that the vast majority of Robert Capa's photos of the event were destroyed (we were left with the "Magnificent Eleven") when a Life magazine employee screwed up in the developing room. 

This From Alvord Made Fox 4 News Tonight

my dad walked me to school on my very first day & today he walked me to school on my very last day pic.twitter.com/70RmbI7oQ9

— Brittany Gayler (@BrittanyGayler) May 25, 2017

It Is Somber Around The Courthouse Square

That marquee normally has nothing but funny stuff on it.

Recap Of This Weekend's Weather

Yikes! Street flooding from this weekend's rainfall in #Denton picked up a garbage dumpster! 🎥: Bridget Lamm. pic.twitter.com/n3LY16rPJe

— WFAA-TV (@wfaachannel8) June 4, 2017

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I was upset all weekend long over the death of Judge Fostel. He had been on the bench since 1995. I dread going to the courthouse today. 
• The judge was a huge fan of Random Thoughts. 
• "DPS trooper fired for spoof video of shopping for teens." Trust me, that crazy headline doesn't even do the story justice. 
• Whatever happened to the rodeo clown that had his face crushed during a rodeo in Wise County?
• I learned something this week about Mrs. LL: She will scream and run away from a spider but will walk up to a snake sunning on the lake shore to take a closer look. 
• Speaking of the lake, I can't catch anything. Last year I was slaying it. Now I can't get a bite. The lake is 100% clearer than it was last year so maybe my Jimmy Houston techniques of last year might not be applicable.
• Trump went Full Trump this weekend immediately after the London terrorists attacks. The mayor of London made a statement and Trump couldn't understand it. 
  
• And Barron was so traumatized by Kathy Griffin that Trump spent this weekend golfing in Virginia. (I was traumatized by her Friday press conference because it was so wheels off.)
• I'll always be more fearful of driving to work amongst idiots than being killed in a terrorist attack. And I'm 100% right.
• This picture of Dallas yesterday afternoon was floating around. Not photoshopped.
  
  
• And this guy from Canada became famous: 
  
• A guy from Alvord is going to attempt to get 5,000 signatures to get on the ballot as Texas Land Commissioner. Trust me, that is a massive undertaking no matter how popular you are. 
• Breaking: We've got a mass shooting in Orlando this morning. 

Judge Fostel Has Died

Horrible and very sad news.

Above The Fold

Read that top story. Good lord.

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

 Do not deny the cuteness of this. 

 I wonder if this is the kid a year or so later.

 After you watch the good puppy dog, you 

have to ask yourself: What guy watches darts?

 "Scoooooooooooorrrrreeee!"

I'm as confused as you are, kid.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Straight ticket voting in Texas is gone beginning in 2020. I can't believe the Republicans in the legislature did that. (But apparently Democrat straight ticket voting in Texas' largest counties is the reason. They see what is coming.)
• Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord by saying,  "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." That pretty much sums that guy up. (And I bet he backed out because the NATO leaders mocked him during his speech last week. He takes that very seriously.)
• French President Macron wished to retort:  "We all share the same responsibility: make our planet great again."
• The Ryan/Ventura fight will become a mural in Deep Ellum. I've seen the video taken from center field a million times, but I had no idea Pudge was holding Ventura during the beat down. Let me speak blasphemy by saying that fight might not have been that great. 
  
• This is bizarre and sad. An 18 year old kid plowed into a home in Mesquite last night, allegedly while drunk, and killed a guy sleeping in his bed. (Credit Fox 4.)
  
  
• The parking lots adjacent to the Decatur courthouse square have been mysteriously empty for the last two weeks.
• After the hung jury in the Agg Assault case of the Fort Worth cop, I predicted the D.A.'s office would wisely not retry him. I was right. 
• Hot opinion I stole from others: It might not be a bad idea if the Texas Legislature was a full time job. Right now they meet briefly every two years and pass half-cocked laws that do nothing but cause havoc.
• "Anthony Robinson, a longtime employee of the Dallas County district attorney's office, avoided federal prison Wednesday despite admitting taking a $200,000 bribe from a man attempting to keep his name off the sex offender registry.  Robinson rose through the ranks to become District Attorney Craig Watkins' chief investigator from 2007 to 2013." You kidding me?
• Is the routine practice of having inmates shackled for routine court appearances unconstitutional? The Ninth Circuit says so. 
  
• The Soon To Be Freshman in the House wanted me to catch for her softball pitching yesterday. I hadn't done it in a year. Let me tell you something: Those pitches come in fast. I finally put on a mask. And she managed to bust part of the fence behind me. That's one window and one fence in one week.
• Wordkyle. Our blog turns our lonely eyes to you: 
  
• Remember the crazy RV police chase that ended in fire in Arlington last week? Here's the gal that jumped out of it: 
  
• In the seventh inning of the Washington/Oregon softball world series game last night, I'm fairly certain I saw the Washington pitcher intentionally hit a batter (that was idiotic) and then a pinch runner for the hit batter try to break the ankles of the second baseman on a slide. Mean Girls. 

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• The reaction to Tiger Woods arrest for DWI where alcohol was not been involved is pretty fascinating. Some think it's not as bad. Others think it is worse. I follow stuff like that like a hawk. 
• So it's the thing now where little leaguers get "championship rings" (even when they don't win)?
• That crazy "bounty hunters" story that left three dead is beginning to make more sense (kinda). They were from Minnesota looking for a guy wanted in Minnesota. When I said bounty hunters were, in essence, a myth I should have qualified it by saying there is no reason for a fugitive from Texas authorities to be the focus of a bounty hunter. Alternatives are readily available. 
• "Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James said 'being black in America is tough' in response to news that Los Angeles police were investigating a racial slur spray-painted on the front gate of one of his homes." Let's check in on local radio host Mark Davis' response: 
  
• I don't know anything about this story, but you have to love the scoreboard in the background when a coach is claiming he was fired for something other than his performance. 
  
• KXAS/Channel 5 News runs a commercial about two investigative reporters and references a large "call center" to get tips. The commercial then cuts to a phone bank where I bet there are 20 people shown on screen. There is no way that exists. 
• The villain in the new Pirates movie is the same villain as in No Country From Old Men and the bad guy (who appeared briefly with a thumb drive) in Collateral. 
  
• A former Bridgeport resident is withdrawing as counsel for a former Baylor football player in a pending criminal case in Waco.
• Comey is coming.
• Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly, now with NBC, will interview Putin tomorrow. Delicious. 
• ESPN has given Lee Corso, 81, a long term extension.  Over the last two years he has exhibited mass confusion on Game Day. I'm surprised that network, who is making cuts left and right, would do that. 
  
• The Softball College World Series begins today. I could watch it over major league baseball any day of the week. (The Rangers' game on Memorial Day lasted 3 hours and 48 minutes.) 

No!!!!

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau legally separate more than 20 years after their teacher-student affair. https://t.co/t83bx3HQ6d pic.twitter.com/0e3JTAlwsw

— EntertainmentTonight (@etnow) May 30, 2017

Back in the day:

America Has Gone Crazy

Language warning (from the kid).

Youtube description: This happened at the Fairfield Pacific Little League baseball fields in Northern California , I was skateboarding at the park near by & I went to leave & noticed a huge baseball radial crack in my windshield. So after asking around witness' told me they saw the ball go over the fence and hit my car .

I walk over to them and ask how he wants to go about paying for my windshield he immediately got upset with me and accused me of being a moron for parking there ( in the parking lot..) I explain how its the same difference if you are golfing and you hit a car on a road just because you're golfing doesn't shift the blame onto the driver. So he gets pissed and his kids get pissed as the dad goes back to the car i hear him say something along the lines of " if he gets too close to me beat him " and she goes and grabs a bat from the trunk ( about the time the video starts ) More.

I think everyone is in the wrong. Hey, if you park by a baseball field, there's a chance you'll end up with a broken window. There is no absolute liability rule where you are entitled to damages if someone wasn't negligent. And the last time I checked Baseball Law 101, a foul ball does not equal negligence.

And what's with the guy just pulling out $50? Sheesh. Tell the guy to go take a flying leap. And, more than anything, what's with the kid(s) who has anger issues that makes The Incredible Hulk look like a teddy bear? What a time bomb.

Above The Fold