10.16.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • I'm not 100% sure because of my vantage point yesterday, but I think we have an all male jury hearing a felony case in Decatur right now. The case involves a shooting in Alvord during some cluster of an alleged robbery where everyone knew each other. I'm paraphrasing, but the defense lawyer in opening statements yesterday afternoon said something like, "This case involves someone young and stupid, and then others who I'll call dumb, dumber, and the dumbest." Brian Knox of the Messenger had his pad and pen out, so I hope he got it down.
  • This news is yet another reason for everyone to slow down. It may end up not making one bit of difference, but it is very important.   
  • That Jefferson case is sure being treated differently than those which came before it. Not too long ago, every government official would take a "let's just let the justice system do its job and takes its course" approach. In this case everyone -- from the mayor to the chief of police -- seems to default to, "He's guilty." 
  • Here's your friendly reminder than no one is giving away their expensive marijuana edibles to your kid during trick-or-treating.  Not in Denver. Not anywhere. There's a greater chance that someone will throw a $20 bill into their basket. 
  • The Bonnen/Sullivan tapes had some nuggets other than Republican backstabbing led by Empower Texans. Here's one where the Speaker of the House tells us what Austin thinks about local government:
  • A person who no one would want to hire (or hang around with) but for his last name warned us yesterday of the dangers of nepotism: 
     
  • Random volleyball thought: Decatur won a five set nail-bitter last night against Krum, but I was amazed how there was only about two seconds of celebration before the handshakes. Watch the final point here.  
  • Side note: I'm kind of surprised that the term "kills" is still used in high school volleyball stories. 
  • I've yet to dive into this story (warning: It's beyond complicated), but my head was spinning once I realized the headline concerned the "DWI Dude" out of Austin. 
  • A bunch of lawyers in Wichita Falls are trying to get a governor's appointment to a district judgeship which has become open. Frankly, I'm not sure why anyone should be appointed at all because the position will be on the ballot next March in the primary. Why wouldn't the governor's office just wait for the election and then appoint whoever wins so he/she could immediately take office?  Applicants include Ben Hoover (who graduated from Paradise High School), Meredith Kennedy, Tom Key, Greg King, and Dobie Kosub. The Wichita Falls paper got all of their application packets by an Open Records request. In any event, I'm getting old since I realized I've been licensed longer than every single one of them. 
  • I'm so old that yesterday I googled "Whatever happened to University of Texas running back Edwin Simmons?" (I did find out that there might be more to the story of being found naked in a backyard in Austin than just being "disoriented.") 
    Their jerseys didn't match back then?
  • For some reason, Trump is sending VP Pence to Turkey to try and get Turkey to stop the bloodshed which Trump gave them permission to create. In yet another embarrassment, Turkey's president this morning said that he won't meet with Pence and wants Trump to come instead.  We are now at a point where MAGA means that a low rate country can dupe an American president in a phone call and then order him around the next week. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM

10.15.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • The Atatiana Jefferson Case:
    • The officer was arrested on murder charges yesterday evening. That's shockingly quick. And I think it is odd that the Fort Worth PD was the arresting agency. Outside agencies are normally brought in when there is the appearance of the conflict of interest in that the default agency might be biased and be too easy on someone. In this case, should they have brought someone in so as not to appear too harsh? That is, is there a bias in trying to come off as the "good guys" simply to protect an agency reputation as a whole? 
    • Hey, I agree this case looks very, very bad for the officer, but everyone just needs to slow down. 
    • Any competent investigator would have consulted with the DA's office before making an arrest in a high profile case like this. You are just begging to be embarrassed or screw up a case if you don't. 
    • But the Tarrant County DA's office is in uncharted waters with this case. I've heard the case should go to the "Law Enforcement Integrity Unit" which is currently staffed by two assistant DA's. Both are ex-cops. One has never tried a case a prosecutor (and maybe never tried a case at all).  That could be a problem. 
    • Noteworthy even before there was an arrest:
    • Compare and Contrast: Anyone remember that a Denton deputy shot a guy in the back a month or so ago and the Denton County Sheriff's Office won't even release his name?
  • Impeachment bombshell: John Bolton -- of all people, John Bolton -- saw what was going on with Rudy Giuliani and the Ukraine and called it a "drug deal", wanted no part of it, called Giuliani a "hand grenade", and instructed Fiona Hill (who testified for nine hours yesterday in the Impeachment Inquiry) to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council about the Ukraine scheme. 
  • Remember in early September that John Bolton abruptly quit Trump with Trump claiming he was fired? Something was obviously amiss. Now we know. 
  • Will Hannity-Levin-Dobbs-Limbaugh et. al. say Bolton is part of the "Deep State," too? Even Dirty Liberals can't believe that Bolton will end up being an American Hero.
  • I don't know anything about a hazing incident in at Montgomery (TX) high school, but this lady looked like one mad momma after a school board meeting. I can't get this image out of my mind since I've seen it. (Video) Maybe it just reminds me of Mrs. LL's reaction to most of my life decisions.
  • The cold front across Texas late last week caused a lot of tire "air pressure low" lights to go on. I saw the following from a reporter out of Austin on Friday morning. People are so cheap they won't spend a buck (max) to fill up their own tire? Not to mention the time waste.  
  • With the world burning, Trump tweeted this yesterday morning. (He didn't tweet the photo, but that's Spicer from last night): 

  • What is going on here?
  • A company is liable for the negligence of its employees for incidents that occur within the course and scope of that employment. That's why Uber and Lfyt want their driver's to be considered independent contractors. And they aren't budging. (Every plaintiffs' lawyer is now banging his desk and yelling, "Just because they say it's so doesn't make it so!")
  • Troy Aikman says "at the end of the day" more often than I type "random . . . morning thoughts."
  • The cold front will begin in Wise County around 5:25 p.m. 

at 8:30 AM

10.14.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Fort Worth, you have a problem.  If the Amber Guyger case gave rise to all sorts of intricate and nuanced legal issues, the murder of Atatiana Jefferson does not. This is a bad. Real bad.  (Here's the bodycam video if you haven't seen it.)
  • I was actually the subject of a welfare check once that began very similarly. Somehow my front door came open during the night and neighbors called the cops early the next morning because they were concerned. I woke up to some yelling and impulsively threw open my bedroom door to see two cops in my foyer.  Neither had their guns drawn. In fact, one immediately walked outside to some neighbors and laughingly (and loudly said), "Well, he's up now!"
  • Unless he condemns it, he owns it. A bizarre, graphic and violent video shown at Mar-a-Lago in front of Trump supporters at a campaign event showed Trump engaged in a church shooting of media outlets and critics. What is wrong with those people? 
  • The abandonment of the Kurds has turned into full scale ethnic cleansing. Twitter was full of videos of executions of innocent people including bombings, stonings and beheadings.   ISIS was set free. Mothers were holding dead children. The Pentagon called it all war crimes. This was a decision by Trump without support. He went it alone. There is blood on his hands. 
  • And this news got buried but Trump announced late Friday he is sending 2,000 troops to Saudi Arabia and was excited simply because they'll (allegedly) pay for it. Yep, your sons and daughters are being turned into paid mercenaries. The U.S. military is for hire.
  • Let's check in on Trump this morning. 
  • Heck, I'm surprised he even knows it's Columbus Day. Oh, wait a second . . . . 
  • The commissioners of Rockwall County, the smallest county in Texas, voted themselves a 23% raise, with salaries ballooning from $77,766 to $96,000. They are all Republicans.
  • Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn wanted the spotlight on Thursday at the White House to warn about immigrants in jail being released, getting drunk, and coming to "your neighborhood." Over the weekend, his son got drunk near Jerry World and . . . 
  • By the way, the Sheriff greatly exaggerated the problem he feared. There are 4,744 DWI cases pending in Tarrant County. Only 60 are being held on immigration reviews. 
  • Sports: (1) Some say OU's Jalen Hurts hurt his Heisman chances. He rushed for 131 yards on Saturday -- the most any OU quarterback as ever rushed against Texas. And think of all those great option quarterbacks. (2) Baylor's 6-0 is a very shaky 6-0, (3) Junior Miller made this point on The Ticket this morning: Doesn't it seem like you haven't seen the chains brought out onto the field for a measurement this year -- either in college or pros? (4) The Aggies fell out of the Top 25 but that doesn't seem fair. Their three losses are to #1, #3, and #11 teams with a combined one loss. (5) The older I get, the less I care about pro sports. (6) Decatur had a long scoring drive this weekend where they went for it three times and converted each time on fourth down. Always go for it on fourth down. (7) Trust me, this is the greatest highlight of the weekend. 
  • That guy knows so many secrets. 
  • Billy Joel can still pull in 40,000 people in Arlington. Here's a really good video shot of the crowd as someone in the audience pans their camera.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:30 AM

10.11.2019

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








at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • If you had trouble keeping up with the story yesterday of the two associates of Rudy Giuliani being arrested and indicted, here's a good summary: 
  • So what's Trump's connection to those two since they were also running around Ukraine trying to help Giuliani with this Biden scandal they are trying to sell? He said . . . 
  • Well, he probably knew them:



  • And it's good to know Texas will be well represented in the Ukraine scandal. Pete Sessions, who lost his congressional seat last year, was named in the indictment as "Congressman-1" for receiving money from the two henchman and helping get our ambassador to the Ukraine removed. And Rick Perry has been hit with a subpoena. 
  • Wise County's state senator, Pat Fallon, has decided not to challenge Sen. John Cornyn after giving every indication that he would. 
  • Here's a somewhat awkward picture of WBAP's Hal Jay and Brian Estridge yukking it up while holding an Intimate Partner Violence sign. 
  • The Tarrant County Sheriff, dressed in a manner to reinforce stereotypes, made statements yesterday that reinforced racist stereotypes. 
  • The Texas Tribune later replaced that tweet with the one below. That was way too kind. Yes, the Sheriff was referring to migrants in jail on DWI charges, but he still used the type of rhetoric that made him come across as a redneck. Replace his highlighted words below with "those Mexicans" -- which is exactly how the statement felt --  and you'll understand why he received the backlash. Whenever you start a diatribe with "those people" and it with them coming into "my neighborhood", we know what you mean.

  • There is no reason for "SECURITY TIGHT." You wouldn't be able to pick one of the judges out of line-up. They were hearing cases where people were fighting about money, they don't hear criminal cases, and they are at no more risk for violence than you are every day.
  • Trump held a rally in Minnesota last night. " For many years. leaders in Washington brought large numbers of refugees to your state from Somalia . . . ." Then the crowd loudly jeered. It's truly mind-boggling.
  • Prince came back from the grave last night via his Estate to tell Trump to quit using his song. (Side note: Trump also used the name "Little Bruce Springsteen" at the rally.)
  • My weather prediction was spot on with the exception that most of the rain went about 30 miles south. The band developed on time but just a tad South. I'm recalibrating my Weatherlyzer 9000 despite speaking to its Technical Supervisor who assures me beyond a reasonable doubt that it is always accurate.  

at 8:33 AM
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