12.10.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Did Steve Castor have a financial side deal in this weird move in the Impeachment Hearing yesterday? Are we to believe he just happened to use a Fresh Market bag instead of a brief case and that Fresh Market just happened to promote it after the fact? Do we have the ultimate ad disguised as a news story?
  • The Richard Jewell movie looks good, but there's no way it will be: Clint Eastwood is directing it. A horrible script and especially horrible dialogue is a guaranteed. See, e.g., Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The 15:17 to Paris.
  • And the movie is already knee deep in controversy for depicted a now deceased female reporter sleeping with a source when there's no evidence she ever did. 
  • Oh, my. 
  • Well, what did we learn from the report by the Justice Department’s inspector general charged with "investigating the investigators"?  There was no Deep State, there was no "Witch Hunt", Trump's penthouse wasn't bugged, the investigation began before the Steele Dossier, and, as a bonus, Ivanka Trump is a long time friend of Christopher Steele. (Side note: Would you really bet against the existence of a compromising tape of Trump actually being in the hands of the Russians?)
  • Look out. Trump is not happy this morning. Is he about to fire another FBI Director who doesn't kiss his ring?:
    *current*
  • I bet he does fire Wray: The FBI Director is also out there telling the truth that Ukraine didn't interfere in the 2016 election despite Trump's promotion of this conspiracy theory. (Ted Cruz amazingly peddled that lie this weekend on Meet the Press.)
  • The Democrats need her back in the debates for entertainment.
  • It's time to admit it: I am better at weather predicting than Delkus. I'll probably get an Honorary Doctorate from some weather school after yesterday.
  • This was before noon. 
  • Let's check on Trump's schedule today. 
  • Political info: Some Texas Republicans running for office next year had to file with the state and others file with their county. The last day to do so was yesterday. The State list is here. The Tarrant County filings are  here. Wise County isn't listed online. (By my count, 39 people at the state level waited until the very last day.)
  • This was quite the Everyone-Needs-To-Know-This "statement" released by Judge Sotomayor in a case the Supreme Court decided yesterday not to here. Wow. (Note: She's talking about the "Fifth Circuit" in the Louisiana state system and not the federal Fifth Circuit.) Crazy fact: Louisiana has more people sentenced to life without parole than Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee combined.
  • The NFC East is 10-28 against teams not in the division. 
  • Major League Baseball has removed marijuana from the list of banned substances even in the minor leagues. The stuffiest league in America no longer cares about players smoking weed. (Texas will arrest you.)
  • I've preached for years that prosecutors have no idea how high the standard is for "criminal negligence" or "reckless" because they prosecute for simple accidents all the time. That being said, the El Paso DA not criminally prosecuting this horrible accident used a completely inapplicable standard of "criminal intent." 
  • After the Fort Worth Court of Appeals stopped the jury selection in the Lottery Winner's Son Sexual Assault trial in Wichita Falls last Wednesday, the court ordered it to go forward on Friday.
  • A Houston police officer was killed in the line of duty two days ago. Then the Chief of Police took a shot at politicians: "I don't want to see their little smug faces about how much they care about law enforcement when I'm burying a sergeant because they don't want to piss off the NRA."

at 8:30 AM

12.09.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • When are we going to admit that Saudi Arabia is a problem?
  • The Baylor/OU game was almost as insane as the first one. I'm not sure how Baylor wasn't behind 50-0 at halftime. But I'm also not sure Baylor wouldn't have won by two scores if the third string quarterback hadn't been put in "sooner." (Rock me.) In any event, the Bears go to the Sugar Bowl to face Georgia (who beat Texas last year according to ESPN.)
  • There was some kind of Pentecostal rally in the White House on Friday. (Video). I suppose everyone is fine with that room being used this week for a Muslim afternoon prayer, right? Trump's new questionable faith adviser, Paula White, can be seen helping lead it. (There was no word if she again asked everyone to give her $229 pursuant to 1 Chronicles 22:9 or if they were "invited to instead pay $31, a number reached by adding the numbers of the verse in the Bible—22 and 9.")
  • It's now heading into winter time, so it is also time for the worst weatherman in the metroplex to start with his his Boy Who Cried Wolf routine. He's already at it:
  • Unlike that fraud on our profession, I, the most Trusted Name In Weather, predict today's cold front hits Wise County at 1:25 p.m.  There will be rain later becoming heavy around 10:00 p.m. and peaking after midnight. No snow. No sleet. No ice. 
  • Lane Kiffin has been named coach at Ole Miss. He was fired by the Oakland Raiders after one year by the late Al Davis going full scorched Earth on him at a press conference that wouldn't stop, he almost caused a riot at Tennessee after he left the school after one year to go coach USC, and USC fired him mid-season at an airport (really).  
  • Yolanda Waters, the chairwoman for Galveston County's Republican party, is facing pressure from top Republicans to step the heck down after this racial slur.
  • A church in California is throwing down some hot opinions.
  • It got buried in the news, but Trump had some insane thoughts about new showers and toilets on Friday. Did you know people have to flush toilets 10 or 15 times for success? (It's even better when you watch it.)
  • Netflix has a new docu-series called The Confession Killer about Henry Lee Lucas.  Wise County's own Phil Ryan is on camera and interviewed a lot.  It looks like Phil did a good job on the first two legitimate cases out of Montague County.  After that, others took over and probably created one of the biggest hoaxes in criminal justice history.
  • Lucas got all the hysteria rolling after his first appearance in the Montague County District Court where, after being asked if he was competent to stand trial for murder (weird) said, "There is about a hundred women out there that says different." What's crazy is that the moment was caught on film and shown in the documentary. The judge is shown leaning down to the clerk and asking, "What'd he say?" What cameras were doing in the courtroom in 1983 -- especially up there -- is a mystery to me. (Here's the UPI story after that happened which opened the flood gates.)
  • This is real. The FBI wants you to volunteer to give them your fingerprints. 
  • Trump's Medicare chief thinks her government employer is an insurer of her ridiculous travel items. 
  • Elsa Alcala was a former judge on Texas' highest criminal court until she voluntarily chose not to seek re-election. She's now active on social media. I wish she had been as bold in scolding the State in her opinions.
  • Fort Worth resident Larry Myers was also a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals until, for some reason, he switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic party and lost. Now he's taking a run as a Democrat in hopes of catching a Blue Wave in Tarrant County. (Remember: Beto beat Cruz there two years ago.) I tried to figure out his age without success. He's been around a long time.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

12.06.2019

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








at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • The guy involved in the murder case out of Granbury didn't help himself with a jailhouse interview.  He said he used three guns to shoot his young wife. "So I bam, bam, bam shot her. That didn't even phase her.” (Dear WFAA: Your website is awful. Why are all media websites so bad?)
  • An innocent UPS driver and a bystander were killed by police in an insane shootout on a Miami highway yesterday shown live on local TV and the Internet. This video shows a portion of from someone in a nearby car (although I have no idea why someone would be rolling video at that moment.)
  • The Wichita Falls case where the son of the lottery winner is accused of sexual assault, and who is represented by lawyers who allegedly are charging $600,000, was derailed during jury selection this week. A rare halt to the trial was ordered by the Fort Worth Court of Appeals because of a defense claim that one of the prosecutors is also a witness. (Story.)
  • Have I mentioned "house of cards"?
  • Before we get to the Cowboys' game, can I mention what a cool view it is from that stadium? (But as a kid -- way before the stadium's renovation -- I remember seeing those columns above the opposite grandstands. I always thought that confusingly cool.)
  • Well, the Cowboys have ruined my 100% lock prediction of having an over 9 win season. If there is any proof needed that this is the most underachieving team in the history of teams, there you have it. I'm never wrong. 
  • Is Jason Garrett capable of making any changes as the game goes along? Nope. Over the last five years, the Cowboys have lost every game they have trailed at halftime except five. Only two teams are worse over that time period.
  • If I'm a crazy seventy-seven year old billionaire and the owner of an NFL franchise where I've spent a fortune to put together a team that should win, I'd do something drastic to try and save this season and scare the beejebus out every player and coach who is capable of being frightened for their job. Here's my plan:
    • First, I fire Jason Garrett today and appoint someone as interim coach. It doesn't matter who. Promote someone. I don't care. He'll just a caretaker. But keep the same offense and defense coordinators.
    • I then  hire Urban Meyer, not as a head coach, but as the most unique consultant in the history of the NFL. And this is the critical part: For the rest of the season I want him everywhere to just look, listen, and report back. No coaching. (I'll money whip him to do this gig.)  And this is just a contract for the rest of the year. There's no discussion of him being the next head coach. 
    • I want every player and every coach to know that no matter what is going on, Meyer has the absolute right to be anywhere he wants to be. A player might be in a one on one meeting with a coach and Meyer might walk up and listen and no one is going to tell him to leave. He has the right to be in all places at all times.
    • And I want him everywhere: On the sidelines with a headset on -- not saying a word but just listening, and walking around the bench area listening to every conversation coaches have with the players. To start the third quarter, I want him briefly in my owner's box so the cameras can see him talking to me. Then I want him to move to the coaches booth once gain listening, watching, and hovering over their shoulders. I want him out at the Star going in and out of every coach's meeting. 
    • And Meyer never talks to the media. He's just like the Grim Reaper looking for slackers and incompetence. And everyone on the team knows it.
    • Heck, it might not work, but at least it might put a fire under a team which can, because of a ridiculous division, make the playoffs. 
  • I make fun of screenshots of Fox and Friends all the time. MSNBC had one yesterday that got my attention.
(Probably explaining why he left Atlantic.)
  • How can people be so dumb? Nothing like Nazi Prison Guards. Story. (I don't know why their faces are blurred.)
  • If you want to see bad lawyer conduct by an attorney suing Allstate, go here. Extreme language warning. He is about to be royally slapped down by a federal judge.
  • Impeachment or not, re-election or not, Trump has already had an impact that your children's children will feel. Almost 30% of federal appellate judges are now Trump appointees. That's a staggering number.
  • Yesterday in a three hour period I had a windshield replaced, oil changed, car inspected, and got a haircut. You know what that's called? That's called getting "squared away."


at 8:33 AM

12.05.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • The heck with the War On Christmas, we had a War on Law School yesterday at the Impeachment Hearing. 
  • There was a great deal of discussion at that hearing as to what the Founding Fathers thought about impeachment.  If we could ask them, we'd probably have to wait for an answer as they composed themselves after learning that somehow the slaves were freed and women can vote. 
  • The suspension seems a little extreme. (I had someone tell me that in high school his offense had an African-American running back who would wear white tape around his wrists for deception. The football had white stripes on both ends.)
  • I've got questions. A lot of questions. (This is out of Granbury).
  • And you know who represents him in this nonsense? The founder of "Judicial Watch" which I just happen to make fun of yesterday in a bullet point.  (Side note: I had forgotten that Zimmerman sold at auction his gun he killed Martin with.)
  • Hey, you guys want to be beaten down by hearing Margaritaville for the billionth time after fighting Dallas traffic while you pretend to be living the Salt Life? (Sorry, just the mention of that song is enough to put me into intensive care.)
  • Yes, Virginia, the War on Christmas continued this morning. It was in the news. 
  • Speaking of news, I wonder if 40 years ago she would have thought she would stand in front of screen reading reader's tweets and Facebook posts that say things like, "Good job, that was perfect," "I hope he's OK," and "You go, girl!" 
  • That did remind me that Channel 4 used to be CBS and Channel 11 was a mishmash of syndication -- and a pretty, pretty good bit of mishmash at that. Then one day you walked in and turned on Channel 4 on and there was something called Fox. 
  • I decorated the outside of the house this year in all white lights but left inflatable Disco Santa in the box while realizing that I would incur Mrs. LL's wrath. Much to my surprise, she later said, "I don't think we should put it in the yard because the lights looks so elegant right now." I've been preaching that for years. (And I always wondered if the manufacturer of Disco Santa paid rights fees to the intellectual property owners of Saturday Night Fever. )
  • I don't hate Disco Santa, but I spent a few years cringing -- and I do mean cringing -- when Mrs. LL made me put out a giant inflatable monkey. 
  • From D Magazine:
  • Former Wise County Attorney Todd Durden, who ended up in Kinney County, became County Attorney there, and got into a crazy fight with the county judge, has filed as a Republican to become district judge. (Politics are interesting down there: The incumbent is Judge Enrique Fernandez who ran unopposed as a Democrat last time.)

at 8:31 AM
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