Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• This story is a twist, and I've got questions. In essence, you're just buying tainted cocaine for $30,000 instead of hiring a hit man, right? I guess he could have just poisoned the cocaine himself and cut out the middle man, but maybe he was scared that it would be impossible to do so and cover his tracks (which is probably true.)  It's almost impossible to do anything or even move without a digital/video footprint left behind. 
  
• Oh, no! Kanye has decided he has just been used as a tool for Trump! 
  
• A 19 year old neo-Nazi in Fort Worth has been charged with hanging racist banners on public property in Fort Worth. (It's the "public property" aspect which earned him a Class C misdemeanor. Put a bumper sticker on your car that says the same thing and you're home free.)
  
• I hate Fort Worth Nazi's.
• For any of you thinking the 14th Amendment doesn't demand birthright citizenship because of the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof", read this short yet scholarly article.  (You'll know more than 99.9% of the population about it.) It is written by a conservative and now federal judge who is a member of Federalist Society. Not conservative enough for you? What if I told you he was appointed by Trump to the Fifth Circuit last year? More proof? This is how he began his first opinion ever as a federal judge earlier this year: 
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• Clever:
  
• Trump getting off Air Force One yesterday in Pittsburgh without one single local, state or federal official there to greet him was very poetic. 
• It's Halloween and the 39th anniversary of me and my buddies being chased through the woods in Bridgeport by DPS troopers for throwing eggs. All but two of us escaped -- those two were briefly detained at city hall and then released. (Today we probably would have all been indicted for a multitude of felonies.)
• Here's the Southlake video I referenced yesterday. (Thanks, reader.) 
• And Another (New Jersey):
  
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• I've mentioned before the disaster that is Reagor Dykes Auto Group out of Lubbock which is in bankruptcy. The newspaper out there got a hold of a 22 minute audio recording of an employee meeting from last year where Dykes acts like a profane evangelist to sell cars. It's mesmerizing. If any of you have to work in an environment like that, do one thing: Quit.
• In today's edition of Fear The Brown People:
  
• Messenger: Above The Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I haven't seen the video of the Southlake High kids firing off racial slurs, but I'm not sure the high school has any right whatsoever to punish kids for something they say in their free time and not school related. At its core it is the government punishing someone for exercising legal free speech. (This made me recall the Supreme Court "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case which I hadn't thought about in years.)
  
• In an odd moment, I decided to carve a pumpkin for the first time in my life. Not to shoot low, I found a template for a somewhat elaborate design. Verdict? Mrs. LL said, "It's better than what I expected." I'm still trying to figure out if that was a compliment.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to hear No. 17-1636, California Sea Urchin Commission v. Combs. I mention this only because I learned there was a Sea Urchin Commission in California.
• In bizarre news this morning, Trump has decided he will do away with the constitutional right of birthright citizenship for anyone born on American soil. Yep. You read that insane sentence correctly. "It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump said. Oh, wait, there's more: He thinks he can do it by executive order. His Fear-Brown-People plan continues.

  

  Jesus being born in America denied citizenship by Trump

• The Cleveland Browns fired head coach Hue Jackson. Appearing on Hard Knocks is the dumbest thing he ever did because it gave him a rightfully deserved presumption of incompetence going into the season.
• Shephard Smith can be the voice of reason of State TV. His thoughts on the "caravan"  below are what I have been saying since day one. 
  
• Trump is sending thousands of troops to the border for that caravan that, if at all, won't be there for months. (What are they going to do? Shoot 'em?)  It's for show. It's a publicity stunt. It's to pander to his base. Did I mention his Fear-The-Brown-People mantra?
• One classmate shot and killed another in a hallway before classes started in North Carolina high school yesterday . Get this: They didn't cancel classes. This is modern day America. 
• "The Port Neches-Groves football team was ordered Monday to forfeit one of its wins after a coach was spotted in the press box using an iPad in violation of UIL rules."
• Conservative Matt Drudge of the The Drudge Report was none to pleased with Fox hosts yukking it up after the weekend of tragedies while discussing how it could hurt the vote.
  
  
• A Texas principal is on administrative leave after thinking it was a good idea on Facebook to write: “I worry about the USA looking like Mexico and South America with so many illegal aliens being welcomed to our country. Guess we are doomed to have a dirty country either way.”  (I guess if I don't think the Southlake kids can be legally punished, I'm not sure how I can take the position this guy can be punished.)
  
• Watch this bizarre story out of deep East Texas which no one understands yet: One Texas DA called for the Texas Rangers to investigate another Texas DA (a Baylor Law graduate) which prompted him to quit.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• What a weekend. On Friday we had Trump question whether the bombs being mailed were real and expressed frustration that the attempted murders were impacting Republican voting. Incredible. He knew something was coming.
• 
• Answer: About an hour later, the driver of this van, a middle aged white American man, was arrested for mailing the bombs. No wonder Trump didn't want the press talking about it. 
  
• The affidavit for the warrant for the bomber was sworn out via FaceTime. That's a first for me. 
  
• Then less than 24 hours later, a middle aged white American male slaughtered 11 Jews in Pittsburgh, Trump gave it lip service, then went to two "rallies" in Indiana, and then sent the nation this important tweet concerning a nation's healing later in the evening: 
  
• Let it all sink in. The oldest victim was 97. Murdered for being a Jew. In a synagogue. With an AR-15. In America. In 2018.
• And remember when Trump said there were "good" people on "both sides" in Charlottesville?

  

  They chanted "Jews will not replace us!"

• And a day before the massacre, this guy thought this would be a funny bit for Halloween. He later apologized. (Not only is he a buffoon, he's a buffoon with very bad timing.)
  
• On a lighter note, someone brought milk to the World Series game last night.
  
• This was also at the World Series last night. I don't think anyone says trans people need to die. (But maybe there are.)
  
• UT football notes: (1) They got screwed on offsides being called on the moving punt formation by OSU, (2) Breckyn Hager's long hair is a bad look but not as bad as his unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of the game when he rushed when OSU was just trying to take a knee, and (3) I think there is something mentally off with coach Tom Herman who then rushed the field right after that. 
  
• In case you missed it:
  
  
• Harris County has prosecutors who work too hard.
  
• I wonder how early Elmer Gantry is willing to get up in order to get on Fox News? Oh. (Side note: Learn to spell Pittsburgh): 
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• This umbrella is a metaphor for the country right now. Upside down, ignored by officials, and alone and helpless in the wind. 
• So we've had a Maryland news room shot up, an American resident journalist hacked to death by the Saudis because of what he wrote, and CNN sent two bombs. Let's see how Trump is trying to bring the country together this morning, and to ensure this will stop. Well, I'll be. He called the press the "Enemy of the People" again. 
  
• Messenger: Above The Fold

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

Ya mess with the Sheep 🐑

Ya get the Ram 🐏 💨 💨 💨 pic.twitter.com/4XQbfhwpFv

— UnsilentMajority 🌹 (@The_UnSilent_) October 22, 2018

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This Halloween doggo needed to be recharged pic.twitter.com/0ptH6OP1Bq

— Balthazar (@logan_harrell) October 22, 2018

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BREAKING: Escalator out of control at metro station in Rome, causing multiple injuries pic.twitter.com/fRvt6Crs5l

— BNO News (@BNONews) October 23, 2018

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#LBJ fun! @LBJ_Now pic.twitter.com/wNp3JQtVKv

— JohnyAlamo (@Johnyalamo) October 23, 2018

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PILE OF LEAVES
PILE OF LEAVES
PILE OF LEAVES
PILE OF LEAVES

                          (dognamedstella on IG) pic.twitter.com/1HREQSrv1v

— Clint Falin (@ClintFalin) October 25, 2018

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Christmas is two months away -- from yesterday.
• I've never been a fan of the printing the photos of registered sex offenders in the paper before Halloween. It's not legally required at all. 
• I bet this is going on all over the country. Just legally buy the stuff in a state and move the product. That would seem to be exponentially easier than getting dope from Mexico or Columbia. (Throw in the fact that private airports exist -- or even small public airports with no security -- and interstate importation would be easy.)
  
• While America was sleeping, he was babbling at 3:14 a.m. EST. 
  
• Here's the Tarrant County Sheriff using an official/verified Twitter account to promote Ted Cruz along with a some other taxpayer paid officials who were presumably on the clock yesterday. The Sheriff took it down about an hour later.  (h/t Bud Kennedy)
  
• Time magazine has a "Guns In America" issue this week with an expanded cover. I've circled Texas' goofball legislator and open-carry-even-without-a-license proponent, Jonathon Stickland.
  
• Speaking of, you never see a person with a concealed handgun license "open carry" a handgun which they are legally allowed to do in Texas since 2016. I had one CHL holder tell me one time you would have to be an idiot to do so.
• A member of the white nationalist Proud Boys wasn't so proud once he got to court.
  
• Fox News' Lou Dobbs, who is certifiably insane, deleted this tweet yesterday shortly after it went out. (Lots of deleting going on these days.) Most journalist would get fired for this.
  
• After Dobbs went off the rails with that tweet, who would possibly want to be on his show yesterday? Wait. I know a guy. 
  
• I saw Fox 4 tweet (again) yesterday about Blue Bell but without any reference to it being a paid ad. A quick Google search found at least 79 media outlets pretending the ad was news. Edit: WFAA just did it, too. #Shame
  
• Lake Bridgeport: After all this rain, it is still not at capacity (but it is less than one foot low.)
• An actual footnote in a pleading yesterday of a Russian company charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller:
  
• Megyn Kelly didn't get fired for the "blackface remark". She got booted because NBC wanted a reason to get rid of her. They paid her a fortune and then decided they didn't want her on the Today Show or send her to the Olympics. 
• As America goes full throttle in its attitude of not making marijuana a crime, I'm still amazed at the Wise County Attorney in the 1990s who refused to prosecute those cases. At the time, we all thought he was a nut. In the end, he might have simply been way before his time. 

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• The stock market plunged over 600 points yesterday wiping out the gains for the year. 
• You know me, I despise racism. That being said, a year in a federal prison for this seems a little harsh. 
  
• The Official Liberally Lean Girl's hit, "Baby, One More Time" was released 20 years ago this week. Let us all take time to reflect upon her career and feel old.
  
  
• Bombs were sent to George Soros, the Clintons, President Obama, John Brennan, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder, Joe Biden, and CNN. Who on Earth is in a position of power that constantly characterizes those people as dangerous?

  

  "Who? Me?"

• I know. I know. We have no idea who sent the bombs or what cause, if any, they support. But it is fitting that it looks like that at least one bomb was wrapped in a Larry the Cable Guy Sticker with a faux ISIS font. Those stickers actually exist. Even mudflaps are made with it.
  
• I watched about five minutes of the old You've Got Mail last night. I remember people saying back then that AOL's email notification was grammatically incorrect (literally: "you have got mail") but when Tom Hanks' character signs onto the online service in the beginning of the movie the computer voice simply says, "You have mail." That's the most interesting thing about the movie.
  
• That caption took a hard turn at the end.
  
  
• Remember two years ago when the City of Dallas decided to go all high and mighty and ban the Exxxoctica convention based solely on its content? Well, the legal bills continue to mount as the Fifth Circuit held yesterday that the lawsuit against the city can continue. It's back to district court.
• I'm about 10 episodes into the West Wing. It's great. And so much of the show is how the president's staff carefully crafts, word by word, every statement released to the media.  (I'm still waiting for the episode where the president just randomly hauls off and calls a porn star he cheated with "horseface." Naaaah. It wouldn't be believable.)
  
• I would work in the West Wing for any president in any capacity for free.
• This is in Austin and not fake. Yep, $9.45.
  
• I'm trying to figure out what the Navarro County DA died of. He was only 48 and passed away after a "brief illness" is all I can find. 
• The Dallas Morning News endorsed Beto over Cruz this morning, but I'll admit that newspaper endorsements mean next to nothing these days.
• There are a ton of campaign signs on the grassy area to south of the Wise County Elections Office where early voting is ongoing. You can't have a sign "100 feet of an outside door through which a voter may enter the building" according to Texas law. (A sign qualifies as "electioneering.")  I guess that grassy knoll area is outside the 100 feet limit.