10.28.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • There was a shooting at an off campus party at Texas A&M - Commerce over the weekend where two were killed. Things got weird and weirder last night when gunshots were fired at the vigil for one of the victims in Pleasant Grove. Some vehicles were hit. One news crew captured the sounds of the gun being fired. There's something weird going on with this case.

    Not sure why WFAA decided to go with this photo of the victim.
  • Trump learned that going out in public is not the same as going to one of his rallies when he decided to go to the World Series game last night. 
    • He was booed with chants of "Lock him up!"
    • And this:
    • And this: 
    • Side note: How in the world does he not take Barron to the game? But he did, I suppose, bring the next best thing.
  • I went by the Paradise Historical Museum on Saturday, and I'll be posting a couple of things throughout the week. Here's a couple of them. (Shout out to Ms. Gay Read for showing us around.)
    • 1924: A girl in some kind of parade by the courthouse, and no one knows who she is. 
    • This isn't that old, but a beloved teacher had to sign a standard "I am not a Communist" declaration in 1958:
  • A former U.S. Attorney and professor at the University of Alabama might have said one of the dumbest thing a prosecutor has ever said: 
  • There's nothing like killing a terrorist but then posing for a picture. There's no way that's a "real time" photo although there still isn't conclusive proof he staged this. 
  • As a Baylor fan, let me say it was a good weekend to have an open date. 
  • In Pittsburgh this morning: 
  • I finally watched Ex_Machina - a sci-fi film on artificial intelligence. Not bad, but I like stuff like that. And I did love this line from the protagonist (who is basically the founder of Google but also a mad scientist obsessed with creating the perfect AI robot): "My competitors were fixated on sucking [the Internet] up, and trying to monetize via shopping and social media. They thought engines were a map of what people were thinking. But actually, they were a map of  how people were thinking. Impulse, response. Fluid, imperfect. Patterned, chaotic." And he used the "how" to create A.I.
  • This guy has a weird gig. He's a criminal defense lawyer (and sometimes gives guest commentary to local media), but he also is the spokesperson for the Duncanville Desoto PD. He'll just pull on a Duncanville Desoto PD shirt and go down to a crime scene to give a statement. 
  • A few months ago I said I never see this type of playground equipment any more. Then BagOfNothing goes and rides one this weekend. (Video)
  • Radio news: I never listen to them, but "Ben and Skin" are out at The Fan 105.3. And that relationship ended abruptly.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM

10.25.2019

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







at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • There didn't seem to be a big crowd yesterday at the funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, the woman who was shot and killed in her own home by a Fort Worth Police officer. I was curious how the media would handle that. The Dallas Morning News went with the very clever word of "dozens" and said this: "Dozens of Jefferson’s family and friends, as well as elected officials from around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, paid their respects . . . ." 
  • A line I heard which has really stuck with me: "Eventually all of our graves will go unattended." 
  • I think stuff like this happens more than what we hear about. Carnival says this one looks like a suicide. 
  • Well this has started off a little dark for a Friday, hasn't it?
  • With the news of the Confederate Umpire yesterday, this guy asks a great questions since analytics are now such a big part of baseball:
  • Some have been wondering where Kellyanne Conway has been, but she reappeared in the news yesterday after the ultra-conservative Washington Examiner released a recording of phone call of her berating a reporter. Spoiler which shouldn't be a spoiler: She considers herself a "powerful woman" whose husband "gets his power through me." 
  • Callback from earlier this week: See, I'm not the only one who thinks this. 

  • He's actually talking about a process which is required by law immediately after an arrest but is completely ignored. (It's not actually an "arraignment" but is informally called a "magistration") When a judge sets bond in a case where the arrest was made without a warrant, he is supposed to review a sworn affidavit prepared by the arresting officer and determine whether there is probable cause to believe the person arrested committed a crime. If he doesn't make that finding, the defendant is to be immediately released. In real life, probable cause is found 99.99% of the time and the vast majority of judges never even look at the affidavit. 
  • This will interest only a few, but look at this old Cowboys versus the Rams clips for two reasons: (1) Cliff Harris throwing his hands up in exasperation after being burned and then taking a huge tumble after tripping over Charlie Waters, and (2) the craziest play you've ever seen that results in an incompletion. (Both plays are back to back in the clip and can be viewed in less than a minute.)
  • Also worth a watch: The look on Mitch McConnell's face when a guy shakes everyone's hand except his at Elijah Cummings' service yesterday. (It gets better after this.)
  • For all the Republicans who are mad at the Impeachment Inquiry "process", welcome to the world of a grand jury which is essentially what is going on. Side note: Here's my award winning post from 2014 where I explained the Texas grand jury process. It's still accurate but for the grand jury commission part which has been changed. 
  • I may have mentioned this, but one of my guilty pleasures is the Twitter account which posts screen shots of the old Batman TV series and points out the great signs in them. That show was ridiculously clever. 
  • He might not care about the slaughter of the Kurds, but protecting the oil with troops is a different matter. Hey, "reconstituted"? I thought he defeated ISIS personally?
  • Update: He's talking crazy this morning. The soldiers aren't coming home (he just said that.) ISIS is not secured (he just said that, too.) And the U.S. is not "getting" Syrian oil. Sheesh.  
  • OK, who forgot to sweep the forests again?

at 8:33 AM

10.24.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • A group of  Republicans in the House stormed into the Impeachment Inquiry room because, they said, the process was being conducted "in secret."  The trouble is, it's not. Of the members of the House, there are 55 Democrats and 48 Republicans who have a right to be there and ask questions of witnesses due to their position on three select committees.
    Moments before the "The Running of the Confused White Men"
     
  • Girl, you are all of us. 
  • But, wait, there's more. That protest consisted of 41 Republicans. More than a quarter of them, 13 in fact, were part of the  aforementioned 48 Republicans who already had privileges to watch the proceedings. They were protesting for a right they already possessed. 
  • A message from the President of the United States. If you are a Republican and you don't approve of him personally, you are "human scum." 
  • This is a legitimate story. Big thumbs up. And to make it even better, normally the runner's name would have been printed on his bib, but he decided to do a bit by entering under "Jesus Saves."
  • I'm not a music fan but this morning I was listening to an acoustic song on KXT which seemed incredibly familiar. The DJ finally told me it was Overkill by Colin Hay, the lead singer of Men at Work.  He calls his acoustic redos of the group's songs, Man at Work. You know, I thought it was Sting for a moment but his voice was possibly better. Here's a live version. 
  • Oh, my. 

  • It took me two years to figure out that the a lightning cord for an iPhone could be inserted without regard to which side was up or down. 
  • I think they are burying the lede. He spelled it "Cival War." 
  • Trump misspoke yesterday while in Pittsburgh and said the U.S. was building The Wall in Colorado. ("And were building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we're building a in Colorado. ")  Everyone later jumped on him, but I was willing to give him a break. It was just an innocent mistake. Then later he came out with a confusing explanation that he was just kidding. He was not kidding. And did I mention he was in Pittsburgh? His DNA has programmed him to lie. And you trust him to explain his conversation with the Ukraine president? 
  • I really haven't followed the James Younger case, but I did come across these factual findings by a judge when the marriage was first annulled in 2017. They don't put daddy in the best of light. I suspect his background played a role in the jury's decision. But I really have no idea what's going on. 
  • College football quick hits: (1) Four teams which are 7-0 (Baylor, SMU, Oklahoma, and Minnesota) are all on I-35.  I was on the Minnesota campus last year and was very confused when I noticed it's a stones throw from I-35 and the Mississippi River. I had to pull out a map, such as. (2) A key receiver for the Evil Empire may not make the trip to TCU. (3) Being an equipment manager for TCU and having to do this to every new helmet this week would be a beating. 
  • The 39 people turned out to be from China . . . 


at 8:31 AM

10.23.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




  • The Impeachment Inquiry has become Quid Pro Oh!
    • The Ukraine Problem surpassed Watergate yesterday with the testimony of Bill Taylor (the highest ranking diplomat to Ukraine, appointed by Trump, West Point graduate, and Vietnam Vet) who testified he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything we believed about the quid pro quo of Trump and the Ukraine turned out to be true. For his personal benefit for the 2020 campaign, he held up Congressionally approved funds the Ukraine needed to protect itself from the Russians. A PDF of his opening statement is here. Nothing else should be needed.
    • Maybe the best part of the opening statement was how the ultra conservative John Bolton called the whole thing a "drug deal", that those involved needed to "brief the lawyers", and that if Trump made the call to the Ukraine president it "would be a disaster." He was right. And Bolton, who is a powder keg in his own right, hasn't even testified yet.
    • And Sarah Sanders replacement, who is paid $170K a year to never hold a press conference, thought the following would be the best response yesterday. "Radical unelected bureaucrats?" Hey, Bill Taylor is you're guy.  He's still on the job today.
    • Uh, oh. He's watching Fox and Friends this morning, and he's now grasping at this new straw? So the defense is now, "Ok, I'll admit we were withholding military funding until they helped me with my 2020 campaign, but they didn't know that we were withholding funding!" He'll be a con man until the end. (And Ukraine officials did know and complained about it.)
    • Edit/Breaking: Lookout! He just made a decision to tangle with the press!
    • New numbers from one of the best polling services (before yesterday's testimony): 
  • TCU's uniform against Texas is concerning.
  • The Bonnen Tape is causing some young Republican on young Republican violence. It's a preppy online gang war. 
  • Speaking of Bonnen, our County Judge, J.D. Clark, had an opinion piece in today's issue of the Messenger.  He was none to pleased with Bonnen dissing local officials. As I've said, that's what did Bonnen in. 
  • Speaking of the Messenger, I'll just throw out this hidden gem from a crime story. Interested in context? Subscribe to the paper. Support local journalism. Don't be a cheapskate.
  • Texas courts are beginning to throw a little shade at penny-ante marijuana prosecutions. Case in point: A Fort Worth case was reversed yesterday where the court took effort to note the weed in question was ".14 ounces" and "worth about $6." 
  • This is like Season Two of The Wire. They don't know what's going on yet, but the container came in from Bulgaria to a port in northern Wales before being trucked down to near London.  (My Google map skills tell me that the travel by sea alone would be almost 4,000 miles by going through the Mediterranean.)
  • Amber Guyger has filed a Notice of Appeal. She can always withdraw it later, but you don't see that change of heart happen very often. 
  • Somewhere along the line, cops decided that carrying a large amount of cash was in of itself a crime even when they can't prove anything else. Sure it's OK to wire a ton of cash from Goldman Sachs to Deutsche Bank, but if you have an Hispanic surname and driving on I-35 committing a "traffic violation" as viewed by the historically corrupt Williamson County law enforcement community, they'll accuse you of a felony.  Suspicious? Yes. Probable cause? Nope. Eventual proof beyond a reasonable doubt? No way. Will the State try and extort the forfeiture of the money anyway? You know that I don't even have to answer that, but at least the courts are increasing slapping down such efforts.
    And the cops are stealing road signs again. 
  • Come on, if you're from Watuagua and had to serve Jamba Juice to people pulling up in their BMW's and Mercedes all day long, you'd be tempted too. 
  • “I’m not for prejudice but by golly, the white man has very few rights and they’re getting took more everyday.” Video.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:33 AM
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