10.22.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • Jimmy Carter fell a couple of weeks ago which left a nasty bruise on his face. He fell again last night and fractured his pelvis.
  • The tide turned on Texas Speaker Dennis Bonnen in the last 12 hours as important Texas reps (and even Phil King and lap dog Jeff Leach) came out against him. He announced he won't seek re-election moments ago. It's funny because Empower Texans' Michael Quinn Sullivan thought his ambush of secretly recording Bonnen was going to work because Bonnen threw some Republicans in Austin under the bus with his "hit list." The ambush worked but not for that reason. It worked because of the disparaging comment about mayors and county officials. The now revolting Republicans feared local blow back if they didn't distance from that comment. Yes, Sullivan won with the ouster of Bonnen, but he was too dense to realize the real gold he was holding in the recording.
  • Tornado photo #1: I'm not sure I've ever seen a vehicle crushed so much. Can't use that in a tough-truck commercial.
  • Tornado photo #2: Two women armed with brooms ready to take on the damage. 
  • It was only a matter of time before Trump called the Constitution "fake news."  I wonder what all the flag waving I-keep-a-copy-of-the-Constitution-in-my-pocket crowd thought about that yesterday? 
  • He went there this morning. 
  • Texas Tech's Homecoming King is from Bridgeport?
  • Trump has given every indication that he thinks a "stealth" fighter jet means they are literally invisible, and he showed again last night that he doesn't quite understand the concept of drones. 
  • Any one else skeptical about the story of the manager of the Home Depot, which was damaged in the Dallas tornado, "sent all employees home early" simply because of a forecast of typically bad North Texas weather? Reports are that the tornado hit "about 30 minutes" after all customers and employees were told to leave.  No one seems to mention that every metroplex Home Depot shuts down at 8:00 p.m. on Sundays. The tornado first touched down shortly before 8:58 p.m. and didn't get to the Home Depot until well after 9:00 p.m.
  • I mentioned the other day that in football we aren't seeing first down measurements with the use of the chains on the field any longer. Here's an explanation from Junior Miller of The Ticket which I find shocking: After every play that results in a first down, the ball is moved up and spotted to the next full yard marker on the hash mark. Yep, he say it is "rounded up" to the next full yard marker. Doing so makes it simple to quickly determine if it is a first down if, say, on the next play the runner gets 9.75 yards. It would clearly be short of the next full yard line marker without the need of bringing out the chain gang. I'm going to start watching for it because if it is true, it's one of the biggest changes ever in the rules of football that no one was aware of. 
    Have you seen this happen this year?
  • Wise County Jail population this morning: 188.


at 8:30 AM

10.21.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • A few shots of the tornado damage from Dallas as the daylight breaks. (Most of these were from Fox 4 who put a helicopter in the air this morning.)






  • This seems to be the best photo of tornado in the darkness last night. Edit: Here's a video from that same perspective
  • Do we have a cop stealing a couple of bottle of liquor? Looks very suspicious.  Video.
  • Changing gears: Baseball background pic. I spy Kate Upton and the Fake Ken Starr and the Fake Bill Barr. 
  • He had to delete this one. Not only is that not the name of the Secretary of Defense, but the real Secretary of Defense said the troops weren't coming home but being moved to Iraq.
  • Trump did a 180 and announced that he would not enrich himself by having the G-7 at the Trump Doral, but not before he decided to use his official Twitter account to promote the property. It's like he was writing his own review on Trip Advisor.
  • So this guy held a press conference last week and announced two things which the White House now disavows: Announced the G-7 would be at the Doral, and there was a quid pro quo with Ukraine. If he's not fired by the end of the month, Trump is losing his knuckle-ball. 
  • In case you missed the Sooner carnage.  (Video in the link.)
  • College football: (1) Texas beat lowly Kansas on a last second field goal -- something that wouldn't have been possible had they had a freak extra-point returned for 2 points minutes earlier. (2) I haven't done any Baylor drum beating because I've expected it to all fall apart at any second. They are now 7-0 with West Virginia and TCU on the horizon. (3) Someone want to explain to me how TCU opened up as a 2.5 point favorite over Texas? It is now at Texas -1.  (4) Random big guy I was not aware of. (He's 6'8" and 360)
  • I'm always doubtful about Texas "turning Blue" but the Bonnen Tape makes me think it is at least possible. What will the effect be on the Common Man after hearing the Austin Republican bigwigs think local and county officials are "dumbass[es]"?  Every one of those officials is elected so what do they think about the people who elected them, too? And collectively that's a bunch of voters.
  • Yes, a little confusing.
  • High school football fact you didn't know: San Saba has played seven games this season and has outscored its opponents 418-9.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold. 
at 8:36 AM

10.18.2019

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







at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • Highway 287 was shut down both way outside of Rhome this morning. From the map, it looks to be at the location where more than one death has occurred in the past. (Cars and trucks are trying to enter 287 from the east. And, compared to 10 to 20 years ago, 287 looks like Central Expressway in the mornings.)
  • Let me tell you something, I've changed many a car battery in my life and last night I had to flex my skills again as I came to the rescue of Mrs. LL. As I excitedly prepped like a NASCAR pit crew and/or the dad in A Christmas Story, I ran into a complication I had never seen before: I had to take the driver's side front tire off to get to the battery.  You kidding me? Who is the engineering genius who designed that? I'm writing a stern letter to Chrysler. 
  • Trump's day:
    • He cut a "deal" with Turkey telling them they could continue to drive the Kurds out the land they occupy and that the sanctions that we just imposed would be reversed.  There's supposed to be a temporary cease fire, but even it's not happening. 
    • Said Turkey would now not "have to kill millions of people." Huh?
    • Went all Hitler by saying about the Kurds living along the border: "[T]hey had to have it cleaned out." Good lord. 
    • His acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, specifically said that there was a quid pro quo to withhold millions of dollars from the Ukraine in order to get them to investigate the "DNC Server" (which is based upon a crazy and debunked conspiracy theory that Giuliani is chasing to exonerate Russia from its election interference), told us to "get over it",  and then three hours later had to put out a statement to say he didn't say what he said. Trump's going to fire him.
    • "Mad dog" Mattis had enough of Trump and said last night, “I earned my spurs on the battlefield. Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor.” And there's more: 
    • Retired Admiral William H. McRaven (he led the team that killed Bin Laden, former Chancellor of the University of Texas System, and author of the great "Make Your Bed" speech), wrote a New York Times opinion piece saying Trump is destroying the U.S., has caused our Republic to be under attack, and that it's time for Trump to go. 
    • Told an audience at the AAC in Dallas that there were "30,000 people outside." 
    • Announced that the G7 Summit will be held at his private golf course -- a mind-boggling theft of taxpayer dollars. (A Texas county commissioner would get indicted if he brought donuts to a county meeting from his donut shop and then submitted a bill to the county auditor. Seriously.)
  • I don't know what to make of the Trump Rally in Dallas. I can't deny that he has his 43% base, and there is nothing he can do that will prevent them from worshiping him. It's a cult the likes of which I have never seen before.  (Here's a great thread of photos of people who showed at the AAC.)
  • Here's an oddity: That Tarrant County DA's office tried two people this week for the misdemeanor offense of prostitution. Both people were found not guilty. I'm guessing the verdict form could have had "and we don't care" next to "Not guilty."
  •  I think I want to marry this woman. Yes, I'd think she's crazy but I'd spend all my time walking around the house thinking about what she just said. Take for example this tweet from her yesterday. There's a lot to unpack in this statement, but I'd spend an hour in silence trying to figure out why she threw in "home repair" at the end of it. Then I'd end up hugging her for acknowledging that, yes, yes I do have home repair needs that the federal government doesn't care about.   
  • Christmas falls on Wednesday this year. How's this for a Wise County government calendar: They will be closed on Monday, open a half day on Tuesday, and then closed on Wednesday.
  • This Dallas lawyer got held in contempt yesterday, handcuffed, and thrown in the hoosegow. (Here's the ruling and the story. ) He actually missed the afternoon session of court because he was in jail. I don't think I've ever heard of that before. But I like his fire:  “Put a black man in jail, huh? That’s the only way to shut him up.”
  • Trump ordered all flags flown at half staff today because of the death of Elijah Cummings. I presume local government will follow suit, but I haven't looked out the window yet.  

at 8:32 AM

10.17.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • Trump decided to attempt to mock Nancy Pelosi by releasing a photo of yesterday's meeting. Somehow, most likely because of the way he views women, he thought it showed her to be "unhinged" and having a "meltdown." It immediately backfired as she made it her Twitter header. This will live forever. Frame it. 
    "All roads with you lead to Putin."
  • And as Trump comes to Dallas, it is hard to describe what a disastrous day it was for him yesterday. To name a few (which don't even have anything to do with the Ukraine scandal):
    • He justified the slaughter of the Kurds by saying "they're no angels" and called them "worse than ISIS."
    • Democrats and Republicans rebuked his cut and run policy in northern Turkey by a vote of 354 to 60.
    • Said "there's a lot of sand in Syria."
    • Rambled like a madman in front of the Italian prime minister much to the horror of the interpreter behind him. 
    • Trump, once again miscalculating as to what looks good, released a letter he had "written" to the Turkish president which, if you didn't know better, would swear was written by a Fourth Grader. "I will call you later." If it is dated correctly and it was actually sent, it was completely ignored by Turkey.
    • U.S. forces bombed our own abandoned bases in Turkey because the Russians, who now control a piece of the Middle East for the first time in decades, were snooping around in them. 
    • Called his ex-defense secretary James Mattis, a four star general with 40 years of service, “the world’s most overrated general” and that “He wasn’t tough enough. I captured ISIS. Mattis said it would take two years. I captured them in one month.”
  • The Texas Conference on Urban Counties issued a statement regarding the Bonnen Tape where the he made fun of city and county governments. I had no idea that Wise County's own Kevin Burns was the chairman of the organization. Wise County is urban? (The statement was too nice by the way.) 
  • Texas Tech's athletic director whined (per Baylor fans) or justly expressed outrage (if you're a Tech fan) about a call in the Baylor game. The Big 12 fined him $25,000 for his efforts.
  • Tickets were sold to watch this. This is the aftermath. Let's just take him out in a stretcher and have the next two come in. 
  • Vanity Fair has an article on how there is a pattern of a person(s) who have a pattern of buying shares of the S&P in the last few minutes of a day's trading, then Trump makes an economic announcement which normally turns out not to be true but causes the markets to then predictably react up or down, and then that person(s) cashes in. They have made billions. Coincidence? Really? 
  • A 17 year old was arrested in Denton because he allegedly stabbed a guy to death with a bayonet during a "marijuana deal gone bad."  What the heck is going on? The Amber Guyger witness was killed during a marijuana deal. You can be smoking that stuff legally this afternoon if you want to just hop in your car. 
  • Wait a second. Bayonet?!
  • The new Dickies Arena in Fort Worth is about to open. I have more than one question about this report yesterday from a Star-Telegram reporter.
  • I haven't watched any of the baseball playoffs, but I did see this photo. I love sports photographs which have clear images of the crowd. My favorite is the guy with his head on his palm.
  • This guy is unbelievable. 
  • Cowboys conspiracy theory: Anyone else think its weird that Cowboys' center Travis Frederick, who was so suddenly struck last year by a disease (we had never heard of) that he couldn't play a single down, now comes back like nothing's wrong? I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of the conspiracy is, but I'm working on it. 



at 8:31 AM
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