1.30.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts


  • The story behind the shooting wounding/injuring of five officers in Houston is getting weird. It happened during a "drug raid" and so far we've got (1) a man and woman in the house who were married for 21 years are now dead, (2) neither had a criminal history, (3) he was a veteran, (4) the cops busted through the door and shot the couple's dog, (5) it was a search warrant and not an arrest warrant, and (6) the warrant was for heroin and no heroin was found.  
    
These appear to be drivers license photos
since Houston PD didn't have mugshots.
  • The news yesterday about the Las Vegas Strip shootings seems to bug a lot of people. Not me. Charles Whitman in the UT Tower didn't have a reason either. And it really doesn't matter.
  • But Fox News used it to dog the FBI again yesterday. It is very confusing how a network can be pro-Trump and anti-law enforcement and still be the beloved by the far right. 
  • I'm was skeptical about the MAGA reference in this story when I first saw it, and it turned out not to be true. It's OK to be skeptical from the get-go about TMZ and quite another to be skeptical about the New York Times and Washington Post. 
  • I can't get past how Idiocracy it sounds for weatherman to use the "feels like" temperature instead of the "wind chill" temperature. Can the public not understand wind chill?
  • Speaking of the movie, Mrs. LL turned over to some new Ellen DeGeneres game show last night which made me immediately say, "This ain't Jeopardy" followed by the question of, "Why are the contestants spinning around in chairs before they answer?" To the latter she simply said, "Idiocracy."
  • I saw this . . . 
  •  . . . and then laughed (and verified) when I read this: 
  • This isn't a bad theory: No one knows what Trump is talking about when he goes on his immigration rants and references found prayer rugs, women duct taped, and them having far better cars than the border agents. And then you see the movie Sicario and find it has all three.
  • The Starbucks Guy making the political rounds is saying a lot of dumb things. What's a "free job?"
                                         
  • Illiterate Trump tweet of the morning. 
  • This technology is going to make the future bizarre: Here is a Jennifer Lawrence press conference where a Steve Buscemi face has been flawlessly super imposed. Watch it. You literally cannot tell that it is fake. This is all cute and funny until you realize we will have fake videos of anyone saying anything (a president, a mayor, a friend), and we will need someone we believe to tell us it is not real. Or, conversely, there will be people who won't believe any video/audio. (I think BagofNothing once posted a video where audio had been flawlessly changed of Obama and the tech behind it.) Heck, just google "deepfakes".
  • And to think I grew up at a time when technology was so advanced that TV would just "shut down" at night because of lack of content.
  • I don't know why the Update led with a story about Wise County attempting to verify the eligibility 56 voters as requested by the Secretary of State without referencing that originally the state mislead Wise County and other counties about the numbers (in order to grab headlines.) Wise County was initially told last week the number was 77. This "error"/"lie" by the Secretary of State is the top headline in many papers today. (See below.)
  • Messenger: Above The Fold



at 8:34 AM

1.29.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • There's a glitch in Apple's FaceTime app that let's you listen in briefly on the person you call before they answer if you are using the group mode. I plan to go my entire life without every FaceTiming a single soul. 
  • I'm halfway through the Ted Bundy documentary on Netflix. I realized I didn't know anything about him -- college grad, law student, and liked politics. 
  • I need to give credit to Grits for Breakfast for having the link to the Texas database for public defender costs I posted yesterday. (He just casually dropped it the other day when he went after the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) and specifically, Marion County Judge Leward LaFleur who wrote that counties paying for defense costs is an "unfunded mandate" (basically true) but “This used to be paid for — 100 percent — by the state of Texas.” (Which is 100% a bold-faced lie. Counties have always paid for it.)
  • Grits then went after the Cooke County Judge in Gainesville who complained about indigent defense costs in the Dallas Morning News by saying "our indigent defense costs have increased by 80 percent over the past eight years and the criminal caseloads have more than doubled." Grits responded by not focusing on who is paying for the costs but why the cost is rising in the first place. 
  • Then again, there is lots of serious crime out there like this one the Fort Worth PD to trying to crack:
  • I see the Wise County Sheriff's Office has fixed its daily inmate report. A few may use it for gossip, but it provides a tremendous public service in providing public information for people who use it. The vast, vast majority of people in jail are there because of pending charges who cannot afford bail. If you think their lawyer costs are expensive to the taxpayer, take a look at the cost of housing and feeding those people. 
  • What's a gofer?  Edit: That is apparently the way it is spelled. Should have focused on the non-disclosure agreement.
  • Those high tone stationary bike commercials crack me up because they are always in the greatest homes with the greatest views. If it is not some New York penthouse overlooking the skyline, it's something like this. (And who amongst us wouldn't build a custom wooden riser to put the bike on.)
  • Legal nerd stuff: Roger Stone's lawyers were having a hard time getting admitted to appear before a particular federal court yesterday.
                                          
  • Why does he sign letters with the same Sharpie he uses to sign bills? Then again, if you gave the child an option of an ink pen or a magic marker, which would they choose?
  • I did my one-a-month listen to Dennis Prager yesterday, and he's as nutty as ever. He was mad at the Starbucks guy for considering running for president, so he opined (as fact) that the ability to make money is no qualification whatsoever since is just a trait you are born with  "just like Derek Jeter was born with the ability to play baseball." Yep, no difference whatsoever.
  • Baylor brag: Yesterday the womens' team (17-1) ended up ranked #1 in the nation, while the men (14-6) have won five in a row after beating OU last night by 30.
  • No matter what you think about climate change, you should never be this stupid:
                                            
  • It's weird that a Texas PAC named Empower Texas, funded by West Texas oil money who support far right wing candidates, has press passes that gets it on the floor of the Texas Senate. They aren't the press. They are lobbyists. On the floor. But that's what happens when you give millions to the people who control the press passes.
  • That reminds me the time in 1989 that Bo Pilgrim just walked around the Texas Senate floor handing out $10,000 checks. Yep, that actually happened.



at 8:34 AM

1.28.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • In the last five days, a 21 year old white man executed five women in a bank in Florida, and a 21 year old white man murdered five people in Louisiana. And we have a crisis at the border?
  • A cold front will hit Wise Count at 12:15 p.m. today. Book it. 
  • I actually watched most of Rent last night on Fox which was supposed to be live but was mostly recorded from a dress rehearsal after the lead broke his foot a day before. The ending, which was indeed live, was really cool when they brought out the original cast to sing Seasons of Love. Watch it here.
  • Actual shot from the Senate floor on Friday.
  • Another actual shot from the Senate floor. But I support this Arizona senator.

  • Trump caved on the shutdown on Friday and his base wasn't happy. Ann Coulter called him a bigger wimp than George H.W. Bush, and Fox News' Lou Dobbs said Nancy Pelosi "has just whipped the president of the United States." Heck, look what Lindsey Graham said before Trump caved:
  • The national GOP twitter account sent out the following. It is the exact opposite of what happened. This is truly Orwellian.
  • This is an example of exactly did happen:
  • This is interesting and barely reported: A Texas Ranger in Tyler investigating a murder had an affair with the widow while the investigation was ongoing. The audio of his internal affairs interview was released which is something you never see. I'll give the guy credit, he owned up to it. He was demoted but not fired.  
  • There was incredible lazy reporting all across Texas when the Republicans in charge in Texas released a report late Friday with a misleading headline that 58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas. Most media outlets just repeated it as gospel. The Texas Tribune actually took time to read the report and investigate and learned it was based, in language used in the state documentation, "WEAK" data. (Texas actually used "weak" in all caps.)
  • That was a heck of tanker truck wreck in Dallas yesterday. They just let it burn out.
  • Mr. Two Corinthians is tweeting about the Bible literacy this morning. (Finally, in those states kids can have the opportunity to study the Bible. If government didn't give them the option, how would they ever learn? So sad.) Obvious side note: He was watching Fox News. Screenshot from 28 minutes before the tweet..
  • Want to see how much Wise County spends on court appointed criminal defense lawyers broken down by attorney? See here. (You'll have to click on the "View Attorney Caseload Report.") It's actually a statewide database for all counties which even has sort functions. For example, you can quickly learn how many Tarrant County lawyers made more than $100,000 in 2017 via appointment. It's eye opening.
  • Messenger: Above The Fold

at 8:30 AM

1.25.2019

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







at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • BOMBSHELL BREAKING NEWS: Roger Stone was arrested early this morning. He's a link between Trump ("I love Wikileaks!" and “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing”) and Julian Assange and Russia hacking. Here's the very fact heavy indictment (including a reference to The Godfather: Part II.) The name "Trump Campaign" is mentioned 28 times. 
    • Remember when Al Gore's campaign received a videotape of George W. preparing for an upcoming debate so the campaign turned it over to the FBI? Uh, that didn't happen here. 
      Who did the directing?
    • Wow. That October 7th release by Wikileaks came immediately after the "Grab 'em by" story broke. The Trump campaign tells Stone "well done".
    • Trump hasn't tweeted this morning, and I suspect someone has finally wrestled the phone from his hands. She's up early:
    • Last month I mentioned how great the Netflix documentary Get Me Roger Stone was. I'm guessing it's about to get a lot more popular.
    • Stone at Trump's inauguration:
    • If you want to see Stone say a while back, "Oh, my God, I'm busted drinking Russian vodka! Mueller, arrest me! Libtards!" go here. 
    • And the morning gets a little more bizarre when you find out that a former eccentric NFL receiver lives by Roger Stone and saw it all go down this morning. 
  • When I first heard that Florida's Secretary of State had to resign yesterday because of photos appearing from 15 years ago where he wore black face, I thought there should be some type of statute of limitations. Then I saw he was mocking a hurricane Katrina victim. See ya.
  • Dave Campbell's Texas Football has a bucket list of high school stadiums.  Here's one from El Paso:
  • Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick retaliated against West Texas state senator Kel Seliger by pulling him off the chairmanship of the Agricultural Committee because Seliger said that one of Patrick's aide's could kiss his "back end." Don't worry, Patrick is praying for him: 
                                          
  • Law school passage rates for 2015 graduates who passed the bar within two years. If that's truly Baylor's tuition, things have gotten out of control down there. (Thanks, Tim.) 
    Worst

    Best
  • Man, take a look at the temperatures next week in upper Midwest. They are insane. By Thursday, the actual lows are predicted to be around -25 in Minneapolis and -15 in Chicago.
  • Who would have thought that the Commerce Secretary believes that unpaid federal employees should get a "loan" for groceries, and that Trump tried to clarify by saying that grocery stores will "work" with those unpaid folks. 
  • Did you know Texas will send you a Texas map for free with free shipping? I ordered one to see if it works. 


at 8:30 AM
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