4.22.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Pretty sure the "Affluenza" kid was at the Astros/Rangers game on Friday - a place where he has every right to be -- but I'm not sure why he was on the field. 
  • It should be the first item in the Update because we had the wild, wild West breakout on Saturday evening. There was a wrong way driver on 287 south of Decatur and another motorist shot out his tire(s) to try and stop him. (Side note: The driver didn't have a bond set the next morning like everyone else. Not sure why.)
  • I mentioned the late, great weatherman Harold Taft the other day. A faithful reader pointed out to me that his granddaughter is a criminal defense lawyer in Fort Worth. 
  • When the Easter Bunny at the White House is sponsored by an egg decorating kit. Now all we need is a resurrection scene where the stone is sponsored by a foundation company.
  • Speaking of  the Easter, we try to do some type of brunch every year. I put Mrs. LL in charge of it who chose Tim Love's Lonesome Dove restaurant. It was quickly cancelled when I asked her, "Uh, have you seen one of the three entrees are on the menu?"
  • This kind of tests your faith one day before Good Friday: "A man was killed in New Braunfels on Thursday morning when he received an electrical shock while washing the exterior windows of the First Baptist Church. 
  • Update on a multi-million dollar verdict obtained by a Decatur law firm against a bank: They have now filed their brief in the appellate court where the bank has appealed. It's here. (Everyone's eyes will glaze over on the legal arguments, but the recitation of the facts in the brief's first 20 pages is fascinating/interesting/curious reading -- especially if you're a banker or involved in any high level financing. And the documents in the appendix aren't bad reading either.)
  • Kate Smith, who was famous for her rendition of God Bless America which could still be heard in sports venues today, is having the song and her image pulled after it was discovered she recorded a song named That's Why Darkies Were Born (shocking lyrics here) in 1938. Interestingly, it was also recorded by African-American Paul Robeson who is best known for Ol' Man River. (Local radio host Mark Davis wrote: "The #KateSmith purge is 2019 at its stupidest.  The controversial song is from 1931 and actually satirizes racism.")
    The Philadelphia Flyers removed her statue (or
    one of the characters in Ghost.)
  • I'm reading Fault Lines which is about the history of the U.S. since 1974 and why we are so divided today. It's amazing how much I've forgotten that has happened in my lifetime.  (Example: California's 1978 "Proposition 13" tax reform on property taxes due to skyrocketing appraisals. It, among other things, limited increases to no more than 2% per year. That sounds pretty familiar if you look towards Austin these days.) 
  • This was up for 20 minutes. 
  • I watched an old episode of Batman this weekend which I hadn't seen in years. It was comedy gold. (Now I know why my dad was laughing in the background when I was a kid as I was worried about whether Batman would get out alive.)
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM

4.19.2019

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







at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • Let's get the obvious out of the way.
    • Heck, you either understand the shock waves of The Mueller Report or you don't. But there is absolutely no question that Richard Nixon, if alive today, would be tearing up his home in San Clemente as he screams, "They forced me to resign for the cover-up of a two bit burglary, and he gets away with all of that?!!" 
    • But we now have the quote that will forever define the Trump Presidency: 
      See The Mueller Report, Part II, p. 78.
    • Trump says he has had "a lot of great lawyers", like famous mob attorney Roy Cohn, who never took notes. He doesn't like people taking notes.
    • David French of the conservative National Review, after reading the Report, expressed his disappointment with Trump on Twitter. Local talk show boy Mark Davis thought he would call him out. An avalanche of conservatives then roasted Davis in the replies by (1) pointing out Trump is really not conservative at all, and (2) for Davis's view that it is "policies" that matter and not truth, character and honor.
    • Of all the things in the Report, I might be happiest that we now have an admission from Sarah Sanders to Mueller that she is a bold faced liar. Yet she was on Good Morning America today trying to salvage her career by justifying the lie in this odd way: "It was the heat of the moment, meaning that it wasn't a scripted talking point. I'm sorry that I wasn't a robot like the Democratic Party . . . . " Huh?
    • Once we are able to digest the Obstruction evidence, we'll try to wrap our heads around the absolutely incredible lengths the Russians went to in order to help Trump win the electoral college. Who knew they were even organizing "grassroot" Trump rallies with fake social media accounts?
  • Unless I'm in war torn Yemen trying to get food for my starving family, I'm not standing in line behind a 100 people or showing up in the morning for a meal. I think this is flat out weird.
  • After I get passed the fact that photographs of juries used to be taken, I could look at them all day long. 
  • We used to get nervous about today's date: The anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing and the assault on Mount Carmel in Waco. 
  • When a pie chart is not the appropriate vehicle to get your point across:
  • Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton decided to write a letter to the Dallas DA John Creuzot criticizing him on  his new and lenient prosecution policies. If I were Creuzot I would immediately draft a letter than said, "You two morons don't tell me how to do my job, and I won't tell you how to do yours." Then I hope I'd have a first assistant who would tell me to put it in my desk and think about it for a couple of days. 
  • Fun fact: The average sunset time for the country, because of times zones, shows that we in North Texas have something in common with eastern Georgia and western Utah. 
  • Anyone else see the problem here?: Texas Instruments just announced a $3.1 billion semiconductor facility in Richardson. Good news, right? Decide after you what learn it will receive "$5.1 million in grant money from the [state] Texas Enterprise Fund . . . . [and] $375 million in tax breaks from Collin County, Plano ISD and Richardson."
  • Trump's in Mar-A-Lago and, oh my, it's raining. Get ready for an all day twitter storm which has started off with a bang this morning as he's already dropped a "bullshit" on this Good Friday.


at 8:35 AM

4.18.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • It's Mueller Report Day where we will finally learn some facts. Let's check in on the Face of the Republican Party this morning who gleefully said a couple of weeks ago that the report was a "complete and total exoneration."
  • Edit at 10:01 a.m.: The report in pdf form is here. 
  • Well, let's talk about my status as the most trusted man in weather predicting. Once again, I was dead on yesterday by accurately predicting the window when storms would hit Wise County, and I was wise enough to not predict hail. I learned from the feet of Harold Taft.
    • Wise County images from last night:
      Pretty cool photo in Alvord as the storm
      was moving in. (From WFAA)
      It would dip and curl towards Alvord after this.
    • But what about Delkus? As late as 12:14 p.m. yesterday, he was boldly predicting storms firing up in Wise County specifically after 5:00 p.m. and then moving into the metroplex after 6:00 p.m. And he did his typical fear-mongering by referencing "baseball size" hail.  He totally missed, got killed online for his continued inaccuracy, and attacked his critics.

    • What was up with the early closing of businesses and colleges?
  • A former right wing Congressman was caught on camera embraced in a shirtless kiss with another man at Coachella over the weekend. Normally I'd shrug my shoulders and say "who cares" but while in Congress he voted against adding ‘sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability’ to the federal hate crime protection groups, against the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. He deserves to be in the cross-hairs because of his hypocrisy.
  • It you are an elected official and have a social media account that you proclaim to be the "official account" of your office, can you delete comments which tell you that you are horrible at your job? The conservative Fifth Circuit just said "no". The case involves Texas Sheriff Randy Meeks out of Hunt County. 
    "I might wear a cowboy hat, but don't go hurtin' my feelings online!"
  • Shout out to the FEMA office in Denton which, I learned yesterday, has some Liberally Lean readers in it. I suppose it's for my expert weather predicting, but thanks nonetheless. (I also learned you've had a tough job over the last two years.)
  • I've made reference to this guy in the past. The Dallas Observer brings us up to date. 
  • Did you know that Texas has a law which says police don't have to cooperate with ICE on immigration matters if the cooperation would be required in a place of worship? (I only learned this when I saw someone was trying to be amend it to include domestic violence shelters -- which is a pretty clever move. We'll protect you at a church but not if you're a beating victim?)
  • This guy was shot in Arlington in the middle of the afternoon in his driveway. I'm completely speculating, but this thing has all the markings of a hit. 
  • "Dozens of medical professionals in five states were charged Wednesday with participating in the illegal prescribing of more than 32 million pain pills, including doctors who prosecutors said traded sex for prescriptions . . . ." Those state are Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia which is the heart of Appalachia. And we are worried about drugs coming into this country? The devil is within. 
  • Let's check in on Austin yesterday to see how the pressing issues of the day are being handled: 
    I'm worried about that little Alex P. Keaton wannabee.
  • Ted Cruz not only doesn't have a sense of humor, he doesn't know what should not be the subject of humor. The replies are gold.
  • I'm no expert, but the new Skylink people mover at DFW Airport is getting an upgrade with the vast majority of it being a "$34.7 million contract with Bombardier Transportation USA of Pittsburgh to replace the automatic train control computer system." Why? "It is a Windows 2000-based system [and being] the brains of the system, like any electronics, is approaching end-of-life," said an expert executive. It doesn't work like that. Software is not electronics. If a program works, it works. It doesn't deteriorate over time. If that's the reason for the upgrade, then that $34.7 million is highway airport robbery. 



at 8:33 AM

4.17.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • Zion Williamson, the upcoming #1 pick in the NBA draft, will make $10 million a year -- in a shoe contract.  
  • Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of Columbine. Those kids who survived it are now pushing forty and some with high schoolers of their own. (All of this as multiple schools in the district are closed today while police search for a potential nutcase.)
  • Now this is not an ad.
  • You think I'm kidding when I refer to Fox News as "State TV"? I'm not. And now we have proof: Trump got mad at the network yesterday and referred to them as "we." We! 
  • And, just like he was their boss wanting the employees to straighten up, he stayed mad at Fox News for giving a platform to Bernie Sanders:
  • I just read The Power of the Dog because I had heard good things about the trilogy of books, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a fan of fiction. Even if the fiction is interjected into actual history. The more I read, the more I just wanted to simply learn about the U.S. involvement in, and "battle of", the drug trade in the 1990s.
  • Question on the radio this morning: Which state most reflects what the United States is? That is, if a one time visitor to the U.S. could only go to one state, what state would best reflect America for him?  I'd go with Pennsylvania. Two major, yet different, big cities on each side with basically Texas in the middle. 
  • And did you know it is the official position of DPS that you can't change your mind within that 100 feet without violating the statute?
  • Very random observation: A former local Fox 4 reporter promoted that her husband is selling his vehicle which led to this link. What am I missing? A 2002 vehicle with over 100,000 miles selling for over $24,000? (It's got a bunch of old video equipment in it which I'm not sure is a plus.)

  • The mallrat is leading in Alabama in his new political bid. Sheesh. But give credit to that 20 vs 17 reference which is very clever. (Side note:  I'm still waiting for his lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen because of the very funny prank to be dismissed.)
  • Being an expert weatherman, I've never seen others predict hail like they are doing so for this late afternoon/evening. I'm putting Wise County's window between 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.  As far as the certainty of hail? My weather models are being too unpredictable. You're on your own. 
  • Messenger: Above The Fold


at 8:32 AM

4.16.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • I'm not sure I've ever referred to a documentary as fun, but Netflix's The Legend of Cocaine Island is exactly that. Big thumbs up.
  • It was announced yesterday that country and western artist Hal Ketchum has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I'm not a country fan, but I wore out his album Sure Love in the 1990s. 
  • Two Bridgeport icons have funeral services in the next seven days. Wayne Harveson on Monday and G.B. Funk today. Mr. Funk was my next door neighbor from the time of my first memory.
  • Mrs. LL saw this on the news the other day and asked me why they were dressed like that in the White House. I told her Trump is obsessed with having people look like they walked out of "central casting" and he uses those words all the time.
    Not the Village People
  • My highly reliable sources tell me the last plea bargain offer on this Tarrant County case was 30 years to do. (Star-Telegram story. Dallas Morning News original story.)
  • This weekend was the first time I became aware that Tiger Woods had a new girlfriend. She apparently used to work at his restaurant in Florida which was another first because I didn't know he had a restaurant.  Here's the menu. (Hint: A side of broccoli will run you $9.00)
  • The burning of Notre Dame yesterday made me want to go to Paris, and reminded me of all the things in this world I've not seen. Nothing lasts forever. 
  • He embarrassed the United States again yesterday. Can you imagine if the French President had said as 9/11 was happening: "So horrible to watch the massive fire at the World Trade Center in New York. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!"
  • I wonder how others handled it?
  • The Washington Post ran this graphic with a story yesterday showing marijuana arrests as a percentage of total arrests across the nation. 
    • Wise County, below my red dot in the graphic, was in the 10% to 20% range. 
    • Since the first of the year I've been keeping close track of criminal case data in Wise County, and I can tell you that of the 384 misdemeanor criminal cases (above a traffic ticket level) and the 204 felony cases actually filed in court in Wise County that 105 of them (93 misdemeanors and 12 felonies) are for marijuana possession. That equates to a total percentage of 17.85% for all cases filed. 
    • Side note: If you added "edibles" that number would be closer to a pretty shocking 26.70%. (All THC legally purchased in Colorado or other such state which gives rise to an arrest in Texas is filed as a "Penalty Group 2" felony case. So far in Wise County this year, we've had 52 Penalty Group 2 cases filed. They are almost certainly THC cases but I can't be 100% sure with the data I'm looking at. We could have a couple of outliers like mushrooms in there.)
    • The tracking by law enforcement of out of state plates headed south on 287 and how they are profiled and targeted could be a feature story in the Messenger.
  • As you paid your taxes yesterday, remember that Sarah Sanders said Congress wasn't smart enough to understand Trump's tax returns as they fight to the death to keep you from seeing them.  Incredible. Sarah Sanders - Sarah Sanders! - is talking about people being dumb. 
  • I'm a big Ticket listener but was shocked to hear Ticker girl Julie Dobbs say yesterday during the noon hour that the burning of Notre Dame "has been confirmed by CNN to be terrorism." Finally one of the hosts called her on it. She just shrugged it off and said that her program director told her that. 


at 8:33 AM
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