1.16.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




  • It just keeps coming: Last night indicted Les Parnas was on Rachel Maddow and implicated Trump, Barr, Pompeo, Nunes and Pence in the Ukraine scandal.  Part 2 of the interview is tonight, and Rick Perry's name has been previewed. 
    • Moments before it aired, Devin Nunes decided it was a good idea to admit on Fox News that he had met with Parnas.
    • Over on CNN, Kellyanne Conway was saying she had never met Parnas. Uh: 
    • Over at Fox News as well, Eric Trump was saying that he "had no idea who that guy [Robert Hyde] is."  Recall Hyde basically acted like a wanna-be hit man intermediary with Parnas based upon the texts released yesterday. Uh:
  • That was bad karma for Drew Pearson to throw a party of his Hall of Fame Induction announcement that never came. 
  • NBC 's Dateline contacted me again yesterday on a Wise County case, and I'm glad they are involved. 
  • Never expect an appellate court to bail you out. A trial court judge, who knows BS when he sees it, is justice's best friend. And if he doesn't see it, you are normally screwed.  Here's Colloff's story. 
  • This building will soon be gone. You'll either recognize it or you won't. 
  • The "House Managers" delivered the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate yesterday. I don't know why, but I think that's a bad look. I didn't like how it appeared when they did the same thing to Clinton, and I don't really like it now. (Side note: Hey, I was just in the room! That's not the actual main rotunda but kind of a mini-rotunda on the way to the House Chambers -- chambers that you can't even look at as a taxpayer even when Congress has all gone home for the holidays. There are a ton of statues just crammed next to the walls in it. I had been standing in the background of this photo and noticed Brigham Young's statue was shoved in the corner. He never served in Congress. I was confused.)
    See those statues in the background?
    My exclusive photo of Brigham Young which I took while
    I was stewing about how limited the tour was.
     
  • One last thing about the D.C. trip since I just saw it, this might have been the tastiest sandwich I've had in a couple of decades. (Actually from the Baltimore harbor.) 
  • Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has endorsed the opponent of Congresswoman Kay Granger because he wants a "hungry, unapologetic, and conservative fighter." He even spoke on behalf Southern Wise County. (You may remember Wayborn for saying last year, "These drunks will run over your children and they will run over my children” in reference to illegal immigrants in the Tarrant County jail.)   Let me tell you something, the old-school Tarrant County politicians  -- District Clerk Tom Wilder and Congressman Ron Wright to name a couple -- are really way-out-there-hard-liners in a county which voted for Beto over Cruz.
  • Heard on the radio: "Is that the song she [Billie Eilish] sang on Saturday Night Live when she danced around the room? That was cool."  I have no idea why I googled it, but it wasn't what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be Ellen DeGeneres-like dancing around the room.
  • Nothing makes me want to pull my hair out more than to have a client say, "If you can get a plea bargain of [x], I'll take it!" You work forever on getting them x, you tell them you've got x, you set it for plea to finalize x, and then on the day of the plea they tell you, "I don't think [x] is a very good deal."  It really only happens about once a year, and that's a good thing because I really have to control myself when it does. 
  • I know that I over parenthesize. (I just can't help it.) 


at 8:31 AM

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
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