9.11.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • Trump fired his third National Security Adviser in three years. Most the reports indicate that Trump and Bolton butted heads and especially in recent days over Trump inviting the Taliban to Camp David. Remember this less than 24 hours before the firing? 
  • Oh, and Bolton, 12 minutes after Trump announcing by tweet that he was fired (at 10:58 am CST), let loose his own tweet to say  "I wasn't fired! I offered to quit!"  Bolton also texted a State TV personality, while he was on the air the less, to say he quit and wasn't fired.  
  • Bolton was supposed to attend this press briefing which occurred within an hour after he was fired. Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mnuchin seemed pretty shook up. 
  • By the way, the "Fake News" New York Times knew so much of what was going on behind the scenes that they had a full story ready to go about Bolton's firing within seven minutes of Bolton's firing. 
  • Watch a crazy Nevada judge yell at a potential juror for honestly stating she couldn't be fair in a sexual abuse case. He even threw his little pocket constitution and dropped a couple of S bombs. The case was reversed. (Credit.) 
  • And the City of Dallas really thinks Uber is going to build a huge structure in Deep Ellum employing 3,000 people making over $100,000 a piece? Here's some headlines from yesterday. House. Of. Cards. 
     
  • This is a lie. Fentanyl is dangerous but it is not floating poison in the air. Even his own press release says that the officers were uninjured. They only went to the hospital to get checked out because of an unsubstantiated fear  -- A fear which is created by bad information put out like this from a U.S. Attorney.
  • I hope the Messenger continues to place little gems in the coverage of otherwise boring city council meetings. This little blurb was placed in a story which was highlighted by the City of Fairview proposing property taxes for the first time, in part, to pay for a city secretary who is making a jaw dropping $88,000+ a year.
  • Oh, my.

  • When he wasn't whining this morning, he decided to do a little self-promotion.
    . . . You Inviting The Taliban To Camp David
  • At least he's improved somewhat: 
  • Wait a second. What's that embroidery on the back of Melania's dress? Is that one of the towers with an explosion on the side? That can't possibly be what's going on. Right? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
  • I saw a story yesterday about a missing monkey in Galveston County that I "liked" on Twitter to remind me about it (first image below) which prompted a faithful reader, predicting it would make a bullet point, to send me a link to a pretty funny video (second image) of another time when a monkey escaped in Corpus Christi from a lawyer's truck. Why a lawyer had a monkey in his truck as he went to a meeting I'll never know. 
    "Tormenting" really sells the story.

    The Corpus Christi monkey even made his way into the lobby of an office building. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold. (Nope. Can't get it other than a thumbnail.)


at 8:37 AM

9.10.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Our own State Senator (which most of us can't name) is considering running against U.S. Senator John Cornyn. The Star-Telegram describes him as a "Tea Party Republican." 
  • When no one in your family serves in the military, but you want to profit of a military-chic look.
  • The headline says, "Cowboys settle cheerleader pay dispute, entire squad gets pay boost" but there aren't any details. However, the story from WFAA had quotes from two Bridgeport High School graduates. 
  • Denton deputies in charge of courthouse security could take a lesson from Wise County deputies in charge of the same thing. Be courteous. It's not hard. (And I've always been stunned by any deputy who acts like a jerk. Not only will the person hate you, they'll automatically hate the Sheriff. And the Sheriff needs votes.) 
  • You know how I'm always talking about how the Civil War "wasn't that long ago?" That crossed my mind when I learned that Commissioner Gordon from the old Batman TV series was born in 1899. His grandfather could have fought in the Civil War. Heck, his dad could have been in it. (Trivia: He appeared in every single Batman episode -- all 120 of them.)
  • Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame has announced she's running for Congress and releases a pretty cool campaign ad: 
  • Coors doesn't even care any longer, do they?

  • Someone to me yesterday in court: "Why is cockfighting illegal? We eat chickens for crying out loud." Me: "We draw some strange lines in the sand in this country." Him: "We sure do. I think they made it illegal because Hispanics traditionally engage in it. It's another way to pick on 'em." Me: "Wouldn't surprise me." 
  • Air Force One on the tarmac in North Carolina yesterday. 
  • Todd Palin has filed for divorce from Sarah. Her star flamed out quickly. 
  • This seems like a weird case. The only thing I can find on it is this: "According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Heath allegedly spoke to the victims and then left the party. He later returned with a rifle, rang the doorbell and ended up shooting his two neighbors outside their home."
  • I have no idea if vaping is causing these injuries, but Juul and similar manufacturers might be in big trouble. Remember the Big Tobacco litigation? And these cases are weird -- it's happening to young people very quickly and not the result of long term use like you see in regular cigarettes. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold (I forgot yesterday)



at 8:31 AM

9.09.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • Did you see kids having to hit the ground when gunfire was heard during a football game in Alabama? No worries. The high school principal calmed all our fears: "It was a false report that shots were fired inside the stadium, in the game. The shots were fired two or three blocks away from the stadium. They have created this stir that Center Point is an unsafe place to play football, which is a bald-faced lie.” (Emphasis added.) 
  • I hadn't heard of country singer Kylie Rae Harris who was killed along with a 16 year old in a multi-car crash near Taos, New Mexico late last week.  News over the weekend had a sheriff's deputy saying she "most certainly" caused the crash and they think alcohol "may" have been involved.  She had a DWI conviction out of Collin County in 2017 where an interlock device was required, but I wouldn't rule out her jacking around on her phone while driving since she was pretty active on it before the accident. 
  • The Texas/LSU game was really entertaining. Quick thoughts: (1) Evil Empire fans are disappointed but you're season almost went down the tubes when Sam Ehlinger was rolled up on in the fourth quarter. That had "blown ACL" written all over it. (2) You guys realize that Devin Duvernay is only at Texas because he left Baylor along with the rest of his freshman recruiting class after the scandal broke?, (3) Texas could still get into the playoffs with one more loss so long as they win the Big 12.   They would have had to do that anyway. 
  • After the Cowboys game last night: 
  • Those Aaron Rodgers/State Farm commercials are horrible.   The premise isn't great (two agents) but the attempt at comedy is what makes it painful.  I always picture a bunch of high paid guys and gals in New York in a boardroom and thinking, "Yep. This is is good stuff and the best we can do." Sheesh. Hire a comedy writer. Heck, hire anyone with a sense of humor. 
  • In case you missed it, Trump shockingly and in an offense to the memory of 9/11, invited the Taliban to Camp David.  (I tuned in briefly to listen to the Trump Fan Boys on WBAP this morning, and they were not pleased about it at all. We finally found something that actually made his base mad.)
  • Then, after that tone-deaf announcement of his failed plans, Trump got distracted and degenerated into posting a literal "cat video" about his Hurricane Dorian vs. Alabama fight. 
  • The Harris County DA's office keeps a huge list of cops who have questionable credibility. (Amazing, right?) Yet they were very slow in revealing that a cop in a DWI case was on that list. The judge finally got fed up and really laid the wood to them: A fine of $500.  (The case only made the news because any fine is unusual.). The DA's office dismissed the case but is fighting the fine. 
    The misdemeanor judge in the case who
    looks like he might have a ponytail.
  • I'm experimenting with cord-cutting, and I put up a digital antenna this weekend. Thoughts: (1) If you're replacing a satellite dish, it's a breeze. Just remove the dish and use can use the pole that's already attached to the roof for the new antenna. (2)  More importantly, the satellite used coaxial cable so you just attach the new antenna to it. It's already laid out. (3) Positioning it was simple, and I finally got to use the pre-installed compass app on my iPhone. (4) The picture quality is fantastic, my smart TV even puts the channels in a guide, and in some type of witchcraft, you can pause live TV. (5) The purpose of a digital antenna is to pick up the local affiliates of the major networks (Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC) since online packages can't. I discovered that WFAA/Channel 8 is not with the program. 
  • Side note: Thanks to the neighbor who let me borrow his ladder. It was one of those "Little Giant" contraptions which I had never used. Those things are fantastic. 
  • I saw this headline everywhere. I don't trust this guy. (He decided to go on "vacation" his week.)
  • The Brady Bunch kids are starring in a home renovation show to transform the interior of the sitcom's home into the way the interior, which was filmed at a studio, looked.  Those guys look pretty good. 
  • It may be behind a paywall and of limited interest, but an "opinion" piece in the Dallas Morning News absolutely scorched a lawyer who appeared in a Tarrant County courtroom last week. Example: "From the moment [the judge]first called on [the attorney] during Friday’s hearing, the attorney seemed totally unprepared. Dead air -- while he fumbled for documents, or answers -- seemed to take up as much time as [his] actual responses. I’ve sat in two dozen or more civil and criminal courtrooms and never have I seen anything like this." (I looked him up and he lists membership in the State Bar, the NRA, and Mensa.)



at 8:32 AM

9.06.2019

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






at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • According to the Messenger, a Boyd volleyball player died in her sleep on Wednesday night. There's not a whole lot known other than that. 
  • A DPS Trooper in the Wichita Falls area has resigned after being indicted for "felony charges of drug possession and tampering with evidence." He was primarily responsible for stopping people on 287. So far, five felony cases against other that he had been involved in have been dismissed with, I'm sure, more to come. Oftentimes, there are cases involving the seizure of money (assuming they were filed) which are also in jeopardy in situations like this. 
  • Some agencies use a towel (or in this case a sheet) to cover the clothes of an inmate for one reason: They want to use the photos in future photo lineups and don't want the clothes to be suggestive one way or another -- so just have everyone dressed the same.  It's really a pretty antiquated practice for the simple reason that photo lineups are basically never used any longer. (And if the cops are using a photo lineup these days, their case is starting on shaky grounds.)
  • Sounds like this judge who is visiting-by-assignment in Houston isn't adjusting to retirement very well. 

  • The following tweet about a former Dallas judge got a lot of attention yesterday even catching the attention of the Washington Post. It's in connection with the scheduled execution of one of the Texas Seven.  Here's a link to the referenced amicus brief, and it bugged me that it never cited to the reporter's record where the judge made those statements during trial.   I had to track down the Motion for Stay of Execution filed last month to find out the source of the statements and it turns out it didn't happen during trial. It comes from an affidavit of at least one person who claims the judge made those statements after the fact and away from the courtroom and the jury.
  • But imagine my surprise while I was reading the Motion for Stay of Execution and came across this footnote. Yep, something I wrote in 2006 somehow ended up in a Motion. (I had thought the judge was a silly grand-stander in a radio ad.) I now wish I had slapped a title on the post which wasn't so flippant. 
  • The Hill says that Tarrant County is one of ten counties in the U.S. which will decide the 2020 presidential race because of its chance to turn blue. I'm not so sure about it impacting Texas as a whole, but remember that Beto beat Cruz there in the last election. I've said it before: There is not a Tarrant County elected Republican (and they are all Republicans) who is not worried about a Democratic sweep one of these day like those that threw everyone out of office in Dallas and Harris counties in recent years. This includes the dozens of judges, the DA, the County Clerk, and the District Clerk. 
  • I'm still haven't wrapped my brain around the North Dallas Tollway going all the way to 380. (For you none Wise County readers, 380 is a big player here.) 
  • Trump was still on his Alabama Claim vs Hurricane Dorian rant yesterday afternoon this morning. At any other time in American history, the country would be in a panic over the fear the president was losing it. (You know, someone should tell him it's OK to drop it.)
  • LSU vs. Texas tomorrow: Man, if UT wins we will face peak Texas cockiness that we've not seen since the moment before Colt McCoy went down against Alabama in the National Championship game. 
  • I've mentioned before there is a multi-million dollar judgment on appeal in Dallas County involving a Decatur law firm. It is now set for oral argument on October 10, 2019. (Based upon the notice, there are a lot of lawyers involved in that thing. It also looks like the three judges to hear the case are a bit on the conservative side.)



at 8:31 AM
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