11.14.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • Impeachment Hearings:
    • Jim Jordan's lack of jacket drives me insane.
    • Ambassador William B Taylor's voice sounded familiar. The closest I can get is that of actor Donald Moffat who was the president in Clear and Present Danger. (Great movie by the way.)
    • Taylor was impressive. He's nothing but a patriot who graduated fifth in his class from West Point and then volunteered to seek combat in Vietnam. He was there voluntarily because he cares about his country.
    • The biggest news was that there will be a witness who will testify on Friday who heard Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland, on an unsecured cell phone call in a Ukranian restaurant, talking about whether Ukraine was caving to the pressure to investigate Biden's son. It will be very interesting to see if Sondland will admit to that. And if he'll admit to this shocker from Taylor: 
    • You'll recall Sondland is already on shaky ground because he had to "amend" his testimony to the Congressional impeachment inquiry committee. He's already worried about being caught in a lie again.
    • Trump denied that call yesterday when a reporter hit him with the question after meeting with the Turkish president. No one had time to prep him. 
    • I thought it was amazing that the counsel for the Republicans just casually and continuously referred to Rudy Giuliani rooting around in Ukraine  as an "irregular channel."  It certainly was, but I didn't expect them to admit it so freely.
    • He even incorporated the "irregular channel" into one of the hearing's funniest moments:
    • Or maybe this one was funnier. “If they impeach President Trump . . . then they have to call President Trump a liar to do it. [Insert awkward pause.] I yield back.”
    • Trump's third favorite child had a great defense yesterday morning.
    • All this (very irrelevant) talk about "hearsay" reminds me that almost everyone, including the vast majority of lawyers, don't understand the Hearsay Rule.  And, even when the rules of evidence apply, you can get almost any out of court statement into evidence if you know what you're doing. The chances of any statement not meeting the legal definition of hearsay (or some exception applying even when it does) are greatly in your favor. 
    • I don't understand this defense of: "Trump was just trying to crack down on general corruption in the Ukraine." Do you think Trump would give one flying flip about Joe Biden's son making money for being on the board of directors if he wasn't Joe Biden's son?
  • We had an increasingly rare death penalty handed down in Tarrant County yesterday.  Little known fact: Two of his victims, one of which was found beheaded, were stopped by Decatur PD for a traffic violations not long before their murders. They just happened to be passing through Wise County.
  • The Texas high school playoffs begin tonight. Chico made the playoffs with only a 3-10 record, but that's nothing compared to Iraan. The Braves from their 2A division finished 0-10 (all four teams in its four team district made the playoffs.)  In a playoff game which will probably be played somewhere in the Middle East, they will face Sudan who went 10-0. 
  • Wow: TCU raised tuition to $51,570 per year yesterday. 
    Raise your hand if you aren't the one paying for it.
  • It's just delaying the inevitable, but the lawyers for one of the Texas Seven have had his execution stopped by the Fifth Circuit again. For some reason Texas thinks it's proper to provide a chaplain to pray with a Christian before his execution but not a Muslim.  The very conservative court said: 
  • I continue to think this is a funny bit.
    And the "Magnifying Lens"
  • On this day in 1960, Ruby Bridges becomes the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana. 1960. Heck, she's only 65 today.
  • I mentioned Judge Fostel yesterday, and I'm not sure how many people knew he had Norman Rockwell's painting of Ruby Bridges on his office wall at the courthouse.  One of my great joys as DA in the 1990s was occasionally getting to walk into his chambers with an out-of-town defense lawyer who I just knew was expecting to see a Redneck/Bubba/Country judge.  They'd glance at the painting and try to keep a poker face as I got to think, "This isn't exactly what you anticipated, is it, hoss?" (It eventually made them feel at ease. It just took a while for it to sink in.)
    "The Problem We All Live With"
  • In response to the Astros-stealing-signs scandal, this made me laugh.
  • I just randomly posted her pic yesterday as a bullet point. I didn't know I could be the cover editor of a New York newpaper.

at 8:31 AM

11.13.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • The Prosperity Gospel is really upping its game down in Houston. 
  • Have I told you how to watch a Joel Osteen sermon? Every one will have a phrase like, "Maybe you didn't get that promotion at work", "Maybe a family member has said something hurtful and you've been holding your tongue," "Maybe a relationship isn't going as well as you had expected," or "Maybe you're experiencing a financial issue that you didn't anticipate."  It's a great trick to make everyone in the audience think, "Hey! He's talking directly to me!"
  • A look at the impeachment room a couple of hours ago. It's only the fourth time this will happen to a sitting president.  (Or has someone else said, the first impeachment hearing in the Disney+ Era.)
  • He's not handling it well this morning. I assume this means he's against them. Do you think he threw something against the wall after hitting "send"?
  • Oh, and this is also just outside the impeachment hearing room.  Man, I hope she makes it in the gallery and can be seen all day in the background.
  • Tyler Technologies, which provides criminal justice software to many, may counties and the state, is making money hand over fist. They have a huge piece of the pie of with e-filing in addition to contracts with the counties.  Now they are being sued for patent infringement. I'm not saying the plaintiff is a "patent troll" but the story says that some people have called him that. (And that's not to imply a suit by a patent troll doesn't have merit. In 2013 I wrote about how a patent troll, Erich Spangenberg, owned one of the fifty most expensive homes in Dallas.)
  • The City of Bridgeport purchased the old Spot Cash building in the revitalized downtown area, and it seems the belief was it would be turned into a park. Now there's a discussion of the city selling it off to the highest bidder which has created a bit of an uproar. It's a little confusing, but I'm not sure I've seen quiet an exchange like this in a city council meeting. From this week's Messenger:
  • Also from the Messenger, Robin Garrett, the wife of a current Justice of the Peace, pled* guilty yesterday to stealing from the Decatur Wood's family. It's probation with 120 days in jail as a condition but get this: Restitution of $472,291 has been paid.  (Buy the Messenger. Support local journalism. Give them your money.)
  • *Yes, I know it is "pleaded" and not "pled" but that's something that needs to be changed. I'm here to champion that cause.
  • I think I'm battling pink eye. The last time I got it - fifteen years ago - I got some prescription drops and it went away within 24 hours. Now Mrs. LL hands me some over-the-counter pink eye medicine and tells me it's the same thing because "things have changed." I cocked an eyebrow over my watery eye at that.
  • I normally don't care about baseball news, but it seems to be a pretty big deal that the Astros were stealing signs with a camera during the 2017 season. The story really took off yesterday when "Jomboy", a guy on Twitter who normally does fantastic voice overs as a lip reader to interpret player/umpire fights, put up an incredible video revealing the Astros making a "bang bang" sound from the dugout whenever a change-up pitch was coming. 
  • A rare volleyball bullet point: The defending state champion Decatur girls team was upset by Krum in five sets in the playoffs last night. Decatur had beaten Krum twice in the regular season -- although it took five sets both times. Here's the final point.
  • Hey, southern Wise County, your congressional rep has a Republican primary challenger who says she is not loyal enough to Trump. That's the standard now? 
  • He lies every day and yesterday was no exception.
  • The cast of Days of Our Lives has been laid off. It was the first soap opera I ever watched as a teenager. Back then, there was nothing funnier than when two of the characters were about to jump into bed together, and my brother would alert my mom in the kitchen with, "We need a sin ruling over here!" She'd look up at the screen and say, "Oh, my goodness. Yes that's sin, boy. Pure sin."  He did that bit dozens of times.
  • I think I'd like Yu Darvish off the field. (He goes by the screen name @faridyu)
  • Remember, kids. Even Lee Harvey Oswald had a library card. 
  • No, I'm not bitter about Baylor going to 9-0 and dropping one spot in the playoff rankings. Baylor is 13 and one loss Oklahoma is 10. But if Baylor had been wearing OU jerseys all year long and OU wearing Baylor jerseys, OU would be in the top 4 and Baylor would be ranked 20th. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM

11.12.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • This is one odd way to refer to a convenience store parking lot at what turned out to be a  convenience store at Calmont Avenue and Las Vegas Trail in Fort Worth. (One guy ended up dead after being shot in the head and the other one ended up at hospital with gunshot wounds. That's one heck of an "altercation.") If the parking lot is "well known" for crime then I'll admit I'm not in the know about it.
  • What!? Watch. The mascot gets fired for this, right?
  • The definition of the Swamp: Rick Perry went to the inauguration of the President of the Ukraine and handed him a list of potential "energy advisors." Less than a month later, one of them gets a 50 year lease to drill on Ukrainian government lands. That guy just happened to be Michael Bleyzer -- a long time backer of Perry who gave him $30,000 the last time he ran for election. Logs show that Bleyzer visited Perry's office two weeks before Perry attended the inauguration. And of the nine oil and gas grants by Ukraine on July 1, Bleyzer and his partner's "bid was the only one of the winners that didn't include the participation of a Ukrainian company."  That swamp ain't drained -- it's being restocked. 
    Bleyzer and Perry
  • How weird is Trump? He posted the following tweet last night to get the nation to vote for Sean Spicer on Dancing With The Stars last night and then deleted it when Spicer was booted off.
  • Speaking of press secretaries, Spicer's predecessor, Stephanie Grisham, has not held a single press conference -- something that  used to be an almost daily occurrence with other presidents. Now she just appears on the safe confines of Fox News.
  • Yesterday, in watching a video of an "interrogation" of some guy with no criminal history who was stopped in Wise County for speeding but investigated for possibly possessing weed products purchased legally in Colorado, the investigator told him: "At some point you are going to have to sit down in front of a judge and jury and tell them what happened," and "I'm here to help you help yourself out."  First, unless the Fifth Amendment has been repealed, he doesn't have to tell a judge or a jury anything. Secondly, that's a flat out lie that you are there to "help." (It didn't work, by the way.)
  • Alabama gonna Alabama. A guy stabbed the Trump Baby Balloon at the the LSU/Alabama game and then tried to get a GoFundMe campaign going to pay for his legal defense. GoFundMe shut it down. 
  • I should have mentioned yesterday that when I first explored with Mrs. LL my Master's thesis on The Butterfuly Effect and Whether The Game Would Have Turned Out The Same, which I set forth at length yesterday, that her first reaction was in the Kip Dynamite voice of, "Like anyone can even know that." Really.
  • For those who read the thread I linked to the other day about the lawyer who told a federal district judge that he missed a hearing because his grandfather had died, we have an update. 
  • Also an update, the Houston prosecutor who asked if a victim was "legal" as a condition of accepting a case has been fired.
  • I normally wouldn't promote someone promoting themselves, but J.D. Clark has done a fantastic job as county judge. He's right. (But the picture of the late Judge Fostel just five years ago was a kick in the gut this morning.) 
  • A first run Jeopardy episode had Alex Trebeck getting chocked up last night. Watch.
  • Trump Jr. got booed off the stage by the alt-right at UCLA, but not before his ex-Fox News girlfriend fired off the very odd put down of, "I bet you engage and go on online dating because you are impressing no one here in person." Have I said we live in strange days?
  • The impeachment transcripts are damning (and just wait to you hear it live and in person in the upcoming days.) The following Orwellian quote, which we all thought was a fantasy, is now 100% reality. These aren't just strange days. They are frightening days. The good news is that his rants of a madman are becoming increasingly ignored.

  • The Cowboys are making it unnecessarily difficult to reach my locked and loaded prediction of over 9 regular season wins this year. And I stress the word "unnecessarily."


at 8:29 AM

11.11.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • It's about to get cold. I've been in my weather lab in the pleasant early hours this morning  and, for those in Decatur, I think around 10:20 a.m. you'll say to yourself, "Man, it's getting cold."
  • The Messenger's Update reports that a 21 year old Alvord man has been arrested for murder. Here's the story in the Denton Record Chronicle. (The body of his ex-girlfriend was found stabbed to death in rural Denton County creek.) 
  • I've been on a kick lately pointing out the questionable court appointments of judges in Texas (which is an elected judge state.) Here's a wild one. There is currently a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who, because of the mandatory retirement age, will have to step down on December 31, 2020, even though he'll have two years left on his term. It's the law. It will happen. So is the position to be filled by election in November of 2020? The Texas Secretary of State told everyone yes. Then that office abruptly changed its mind and said Gov. Abbott will fill it by appointment. 
  • A Houston state district judge was indicted in federal court for using campaign funds for non-campaign expenses such as her mortgage payments, private school tuition, travel, luxury items and cash withdrawals. The story refers to her as Alexander Smoots-Thomas. The State Bar web site lists her as Alexandra "Alix" Smoots-Hogan.  (My super-secret Houston sources tell me she is very well liked and considered to be fair.) 
  • The assistant general counsel for UNT had to resign after firing off a hot example in a panel discussion on the First Amendment on campus.  “Gonna say a lot of offensive things in here, because it’s impossible to talk about the First Amendment without saying horrible things. Um, you know, you’re just a dumb n**** and I hate you. That alone, that’s protected speech.” She's a Baylor Law School graduate from 2010.
  • Long time readers know that Mrs. LL loves the football "Spin Move."  Her delight in it is almost comical. She may still be watching Lamar Jackson's play from yesterday. (Watch.) To her credit, it may be one of the greatest executions of the move ever.
  • I continue to believe Uber is a house of cards. And I had no idea that one of their largest shareholders was Saudi Arabia. When asked about the Crown Prince ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, we learned that the CEO of Uber actually believes a good answer was: "It's a serious mistake. We've made mistakes too, right, with self-driving ... So I think that people make mistakes. It doesn't mean that they can never be forgiven." That's the man in charge of a company losing billions a year.   
  • The Decatur Eagles went 10-0 in the regular season and are headed to the playoffs (although your team just needs to have a pulse to get into the high school playoffs these days.)  I'm a little fascinated with Gainesville's cornerback when the game was basically over on Friday night as Decatur added another touchdown. The ol' hands-on-hips move while the play goes the other way is a new one to me. Watch. (But I'd probably do the same thing back when I was 18.) 
  • Speaking of high school video clips, I'm not sure I've ever seen a blocked field goal travel basically 90 degrees and like a rocket into the sideline. It happened in the Bridgeport game on Friday. Watch.
  • I suggest a different line of work for the substitute teacher at Lehman High School in Kyle, Texas after video caught her putting a beat down on a student. (And that stomp in the back at the end was quite the finishing move.)
  • I told you Trump's new spiritual advisor was crazy, but it's worse than I thought. I had no idea she had (allegedly) had an affair with Benny Hinn. 
  • I'm not sure I realized the Chief Money Changer was selling his gospel through Fox News now. I actually clicked on the link. You aren't buying his version of the gospel, you are actually buying a subscription to Fox Nation where you can watch him along with other shows for $130 a year. 
  • College football screenshots from Saturday:
    Looks bad.

    The "pylon cam" is amazing.

    Alabama had won 31 straight home games until . . . well, you know.

    We had a rare appearance of the chain gang. (Note that
    the first down is still right at the hash mark which it is always is these days.)
  • I now bring you special holiday content (not available on Fox Nation for a fee). It involves my explanation of a high level esoteric belief of mine regarding the Butterfly Effect. It's so mind-numbing that it caused a stop down conversation yesterday. Here we go. Baylor beat TCU on Saturday in a crazy triple overtime game with some bizarre moments. I thought about going, but I didn't. Here's my belief: If I had gone to the game, it would not have happened in the exact way it did. TCU might have won. There might have been no overtime. A player might have been lost for season.  You name it. My premise is this: If my actions in going to the game caused any change in another person's movements or thoughts then that would cause an exponential change in other's movements and thoughts which would have eventually traveled to those directly involved in the actual game.  Stay with me here. Let's look at some examples on a sliding scale, starting with the crazy ones, and its impact on changing the game.  
    • I go to the game and smash Baylor's quarterback's hand with a hammer as he's walking into the stadium. (A very ridiculous example, but an obvious example.)
    • Moments before Baylor's game clinching interception, I run onto the field causing a delay in the game of 60 seconds before security gets me off the field. (Ridiculous again, but there's no way the next play occurs the same way, right?)
    • Like I said, stay with me here. I'm about to get somewhere. 
    • I run onto the field delaying the opening coin toss by 30 seconds. (That's also ridiculous, but it's now at that point where I want you start thinking. Does that 30 second delay change everything to come? A player is now distracted for 30 seconds. A different player has 30 extra seconds to motivate himself. A coach has 30 extra seconds to think about his playbook.)
    • Now let's get more realistic: I travel to the game causing hundreds of people to be delayed by seconds (at stop signs, red lights, in the parking lot, entrance gates, getting to the seat.) That delay causes an exponential change/delay with others. Each person delayed will then also delay hundreds of others and those hundreds delayed will delay tens of thousands. With all those changes causing the delays and changes in peoples' routines, any million things can happen which would not have otherwise happen:
      • Someone, who would not otherwise have been near coach Gary Patterson at an exact moment in time, could innocently say to him, "You've never been much of a gambler." That innocuous comment sticks in Patterson's mind.
      • A kicker comes in contact with a "fan" who yells, "Don't choke" which, for whatever reason, really bugged him. 
      • A player has 30 extra seconds before the game to think about what to do in a certain formation because he's not called to a final meeting due to a delay -- a delay caused by the ripple effect of thousands delays caused by me. 
      • A defensive lineman hears, "We're counting on you, Lynch!" during pre-game from a fan who wouldn't have been at that exact spot and time otherwise. That comment later crosses his mind when he's tired and exhausted.
      • Like I said, think of a million other examples of change. And if one single play is changed, all plays after it will be changed.
    • I ran all of this by Mrs. LL who thought I was crazy but couldn't exactly say why. Interestingly, the example of delaying the coin toss by 30 seconds made her think most of all. Throw out the coin flip being delayed because of me running onto the field. I asked her if the coin flip was delayed for 30 seconds for any reason, can you tell me the game would have turned out exactly the same way? "I can't say that it would." 
    • And that's my theory.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:33 AM

11.08.2019

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







at 2:30 PM
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