1.15.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • I had a congressional candidate stop by my office yesterday stumping for Max Thornberry's soon-to-be vacant seat. This is quite the flyer if you read it closely. (Look for the stream of consciousness as it goes from Virginia gun laws -to- Guns are good -to- Venezuela and eating dogs! -to- She likes dogs -to- She's raised chickens. )
  • Lee Harvey Oswald's last paycheck form the School Book Depository is up for auction. It looks like they put an estimated value of $20,000 on it. Side note: In the 1990s, one of only two or three AP wire feeds still in existence announcing the bulletin of Kennedy being shot was also up for auction. I remember it being estimated at $20,000, too, and I thought that was under-priced. (I found a story about that auction here behind a paywall so I don't know if my memory is correct about the price.)  A 40 foot printout of the UPI wire is at the University of Virginia and can be read here.
  • You know, I wouldn't have said this a month ago, but now I think Michael Bloomberg has a serious, serious shot at winning the Democratic Nomination. 
  • Want to see Meatloaf fall at a hotel in Dallas which prompted him, of course, to sue the hotel? (The link is from TMZ so it is not quick-loading.)
  • With little fanfare, DPS just released its "Texas Domestic Terrorism Threat Assessment" for 2020.  White Power and Guns are a major player. 
  • Did Rudy Guilini's associates have Trump-fired Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch under surveillance and discussing her security team? Do these text messages between his buddy Lev Parnas and Robert Hyde sound like a hit? Remember when Trump said in his "perfect" phone call that "she's going to go through some things"? Remember her testimony before Congress that she was ordered to leave Ukraine "on the next plane"? Remember Trump attacked her by tweet while she testified giving rise to claims of witness intimidation? I used to think the concept of a "Deep State" was a joke. All of this is being submitted to the Senate for Trump's impeachment trial. 
    Robert Hyde
  • This, of course, actually turned out to be a lie. Just 10 years ago this would be a front page scandal. Now you don't even hear about it because it happens every single week. 
  • Art Briles might get the head coaching job at tiny Missouri State today. Edit: The same web site, which I'm now very skeptical of, has just said it'll by Bobby Petrino.
  • Texas has over 145,000 people in cages prison.  Last year, 33 inmates killed themselves. There were 1,380 who tried to kill themselves. Natural deaths accounted for 358 fatalities.  The government intentionally killed 8 of them. There's got to be a better way.  Source.
  • For those who care about such things, the 2020 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was just announced. 
  • Cliff Harris was just announced to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (he's part of the 15 member Mega-Class.) Drew Pearson was passed over. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:31 AM

1.14.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • I just happened to buy Mrs. LL a Ninja Foodi for Christmas (her request) and, based upon the couple of weeks which have followed, I think she might divorce me and marry it.  To be fair, it has more utility than me. 
  • For some reason it's a big political story that Elizabeth Warren says Bernie Sanders told her in 2017 that a woman could not beat Trump. Sanders denies it. I don't care. 
  • Let's check in on State TV with their lead story at 6:01 EST/5:01 CST. 
  • Highway 287 between Decatur and Rhome flooded on Friday afternoon bringing traffic to a standstill.  I've seen that portion of the highway flood before, but never after just a single afternoon of rain. It normally takes days of a downpour before it happens. 
  • The last time National Champion LSU lost was at aTm and it took seven overtimes. Also, LSU's Joe Burrow looks like a former Trooper named Petty who worked in Wise County. 
  • Texas finished, #25, Baylor #13, and OU at #7 in the Final AP Poll. (That's the first time Texas has ended up ranked in back to back years since 2008-2009.) Here's the AP's Pre-season poll for those who like to compare and contrast: 
  • Yep, the Fake Babe Ruth is huge.
  • Just when you think he can't embarrass the country even more than he has. 
  • Seems wrong:
  • A man who was a Junior in college (and at least 20 years old?) wants $1 million for wanting friends so badly that he voluntarily was allegedly forced to drink almost a full bottle of licqour to be part of a group that most of us wouldn't want to be in the same room with. 
  • At halftime during last night's Championship Game, Jim Brown was named the #1 college football player of all time. He was before my time, but I know his stats in his short lived NFL career are outstanding. But get this: He averaged just 87 yards a game in college.
  • Crazy NFL receiver Antonio Brown proved he is crazier than we thought he was -- something I didn't think was possible. Language warning. And I mean extreme language warning. 
  • Troy Aikman (16) and Jimmy Johnson in 1983. I wonder whatever happened to the kid on the left.
  • The wife of a current Wise County Justice of the Peace, who was placed on probation for theft allegations regarding the James Wood family, began her four month jail sentence yesterday. The jail time was a condition of the probation -- she'll serve it at the jail in Decatur. (She doesn't show up on the jail list because, I think, it only shows those incarcerated with pending charges.)

at 8:30 AM

1.13.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




  • Oh, one thing I forgot to add to my otherwise perfect weather forecast on Friday: "And, I promise you, we will have a freak snow storm on Saturday morning. Huge flakes. Might even be a couple of inches."  I can't believe I left that out. Thanks.
  • You've probably seen the crazy video footage of gunshots ringing out at a south Dallas high school basketball game but, if you haven't, hear ya go. 
  • Best Picture nominees were just announced. 
  • It was 70 degrees yesterday in D.C. 
  • Jimmy Johnson learned he will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last night. I knew they normally announced the inductees during the Super Bowl week so I wasn't sure what was going on. Here's the deal: This year there will be a Centennial Class of 15 people in addition to five regular inductees. Yep, twenty people will go into the Hall of Fame in 2020.  That kind of cheapens it. (Side note: How is Dan Reeves not in and Jimmy is?)
    • Mrs. LL was watching Jimmy's reaction on TV last night more than me, and she blurted out, "Who's that guy with the huge hands!?"  She was referring to the Fake Babe Ruth representing the Hall. 
  • This headline got my attention because it wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think it's accurate. The story says, "In 1999, the number of death certificates mentioning alcohol was 35,914. That number jumped to nearly 73,000 in 2017."  Yes, that's doubled but that doesn't tell us much, does it? How many more deaths in general did we have in 2017? We need a per capita number before we can say "doubled." 
  • I'm surprised Trump doesn't build a monument to this guy. He checks all the boxes. 

  • From the Star-Telegram: "A Tarrant County district judge is putting vulnerable children at risk by reversing a longtime practice of appointing volunteers to advocate for them as they move through the child welfare system, a group that trains the workers alleges."  That may or may not be true. What is true is that a district judge, Alex Kim, is taking a stand about the use of CASA volunteers to be involved in CPS cases. He questions why people who couldn't officially be a party to a lawsuit are allowed access to unredacted CPS reports -- something even parents aren't allowed to see. That's a bold move. And politically unpopular. You don't see judges, who are elected, take stands like that very often.
  • I've got a lot of questions about this problem a former Fox 4 gal is having.
  • "Businessman" is the most generic term ever invented. 
  • Oh, my. Has their been a documentary about the street performers on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? I don't think this is the first wheels off story. 
  • Every now and then I think about the crazy Super Conducting Super Collider which is buried in North Texas. 
  • Messenger: Above The Fold.
(They are talking about us in that textbook story.)

at 8:29 AM

1.10.2020

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






at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • Obviously you are here for a Wise County weather forecast because you can't trust those snake-oil salesmen in the big city.  I'm you man. I've been in the lab all night. 
    • First, the temperature: This weirdly warm temperature we have right now will last all day. Around 9:10 p.m., you'll begin to feel the winds shift to the north and then temperatures will plummet. You wake up at tomorrow morning with temperatures at or below freezing, it'll be cloudy, and winds will be gusting. It'll crack into the low 40s tomorrow afternoon but, with the high winds, basically all of tomorrow is miserable. But winds will almost completely disappear tomorrow evening.
    • Now the rain. I think it'll start before noon today, but then hard stuff will come down all afternoon. It will begin to taper off around 5:00, but it'll still rain somewhat into the early evening.
    • Largemouth bass are good near boat docks using spinners, rattletraps, and Alabama rigs.
  • Five people just "happened" to call on the same day? He didn't name them last night. (And this is possibly in response to the Lincoln Project's first commercial which is a little NSFW.)
  • Mike Leach coaching at Mississippi State is fantastic. I don't wan't him coaching my team, but I like him coaching a team I can root for.  (I think I finally became fascinated with him when he went on the insane "fat little girlfriends" rant while at Tech.)
    Video here.
  • This map is fascinating. I'm not saying I could point out the exact location of Iran, but I at least would put a pin in the Middle East.  But who are those people who thought Iran was in Australia, near Memphis, or in the middle of the ocean?
  • It's a little weird: On Tuesday morning I mentioned, for no reason at all, that the U.S. shot down an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988.  Then twelve hours later Iran shoots down a civilian airliner. 
  • A Boyd assistant principal has been arrested for Intoxication Manslaughter. (As an extreme side note: This is the first week on the job for Boyd's new superintendent Tamara Vardy. Think she expected to deal with something like this?)
  • On my D.C. trip, I located and walked by Jeff Bezo's new house he bought for $23 million and then renovated. (You pay $23 million for a fixer-upper?) Anyway, I found this shot of it from a story yesterday. It's a view from the house across the street which he also just bought for $5 million.
    I think he actually first bought that one and one of those beside it.
  • "And I promise you Mexico is going to pay for it" in 2016 really meant, "I'm going to declare a fake State of Emergency and steal from the Department of Defense and then declare it a victory in 2020."
  • Random Vanna White trivia: "White dated Playgirl centerfold/Chippendales-dancer-turned-actor John Gibson in the 1980s, and they eventually became engaged. In 1986, Gibson was killed in a plane crash."


at 8:30 AM

1.09.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • It was weird seeing Republican senators standing up to Trump yesterday after getting a very poor military briefing.  But they forgot that they don't question The Party and that The Party is now Donald Trump. (Mike Pence was doing damage control on Fox and Friends this morning with the "just trust us" defense.)
  • Oh, my.
  • The Tarrant County DA is taking a leave of absence for an unknown length because of an unknown medical condition.
  • Speaking of, 2020 didn't start off too well for the Tarrant County DA Misdemeanor section.
  • TCU's basketball program has received a Notice of Infractions from the NCAA which is weird because the program hasn't been very good.
  • I'm want this former Bridgeport gal's press agent. Story.
  • Who would have thought that a totally unqualified politician would be appointed to the head the Department of Energy, would then do nothing at that job for two years, then resign, and then start profiting off of the gig?
  • That Houston drug raid, where cops made up information to get a search warrant and then murdered an innocent couple and their dog while executing it, continues to break new ground. I have never heard of a grand jury visiting a crime scene. 
  • The Southlake twitter feed is doing bits again this year.  I'll say it again: It's funny and clever, but one of these days they are going to get it wrong and simply slapping "allegedly" in one tweet isn't going to cost their ampletaxpayer base a pretty penny. Complete thread here. (But I'll agree those are good security cameras, though.) 

  • In more serious Southlake news, a high school senior was struck and killed by a car last night. 
  • Puerto Rico has been rocked by earthquakes that have left 2/3 of the island without electricity. Trump has tweeted about it once. I don't have to state the obvious reason why.  
  • I always dog the Texas criminal defense organization's "Trial Tip Thursday" and they didn't disappoint today. Sure, your guy has just been found guilty and the victim is now testifying about the impact of the crime as the jury is about to decide punishment, but, go ahead, tell her she's not "healing" the right way. That couldn't possibly backfire, right? 
  • A New York Times columnist raised some eyebrows yesterday when he tweeted the following. He later deleted it, but the Internet didn't seem to believe his claim.
  • This license plate was issued to a Fort Worth man and then revoked. 
  • I didn't mention that the contempt proceeding against the Dallas DA for allegedly violating the "gag order" in the Amber Guyger trial was dismissed because, quite frankly, I don't understand any of it. I don't understand why it has to be prosecuted by outside counsel, and I don't understand why the DA's office couldn't fight it themselves but had to bring in a ridiculously high priced lawyer at taxpayer's expense. And I don't understand how "gag orders" are constitutional -- an issue currently before the Texas Supreme Court, by the way. 


at 8:30 AM
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