2.05.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




  • Yes, I pegged the temperature exactly (33 degrees at 7:00 then dropping slightly), and, yes,  I predicted Wise County schools will be closed, but I'm off by a handful of miles on my snow prediction.  We've had sleet and some freezing rain, and snow is still possible between my closing window of 9:15 a.m., but at this point I'm prepared to accept the "L."  I mean I was soooo close! It's right there to the west! 
    I'm sorry I misled you, lady.
  • WFAA even showed up right outside my office at 3:58 a.m. to talk to me. (Hey, at least the poll was frozen.)
  • I think I'm now beginning to understand why local reporters are quitting. "Hey, Kalee, we need you up in Decatur at a live shot for our 4:00 a.m. newscast. And can ya get up their a little early so we can have a web clip or too?"
  • We had dueling pettiness at the State of the Union last night. Trump refused to shake Nancy Pelosi's hand in the beginning, and Pelosi tore up Trump's speech at the end. I'll be glad when we get back to normalcy. 
  • By my count this morning, Trump has tweeted or retweeted about Pelosi 23 times since he woke up. He mad. 
  • This guy served his wife with divorce papers while she was receiving cancer treatment, was having an affair while he was impeaching Clinton, was fined $300,000 by the House for ethics violations, and lost his House speakership to a pedophile because the pedophile was more likeable. 
  • I'll tell you one thing I actually despise about the State of the Union speech: Human props. Trump did it. Obama did it. Bush did it. Heck, I'm not even sure when it started, but I think it is so cheap. 
  • Rush Limbaugh ("I'm getting this award? Are you kidding? I had no idea this was announced five hours ago!") did his best Garth Brooks impersonation ("There are people here at this concert? I'm not alone here on stage? People paid money to see me?")
  • This doctor and his girlfriend were all over the news last year after a D.A. had a press conference to announce they had been charged for "drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women." A newly elected DA dismissed the charges yesterday saying there is no evidence to support the charge.  In America, how one person views the evidence can be the difference between incarceration and freedom. 
  • Anyone else think it's amazing that gas just above $2.00 a gallon? If you would have told me that when I was in high school and sitting in a gas line (yep, I did), I would have told you we were crazy. For a brief period of time back then, we weren't a hundred percent sure gas was going to even be available the next day. 
  • Put this in the Smithsonian.

  • House of Cards update:  Uber claims that it will have 3,000 very high paying jobs in Deep Ellum by the end of 2023. By the end of 2019, they said they would have 400 people hired. The now say they've "hired" only 150. And maybe these two are competent, but Uber has brought in a 25 and a 27 year old to do all the hiring. 
  • I don't care about Michigan State's long time coach suddenly retiring yesterday, but this got my attention:
  • Just as Jesus did, Jeffress is now hawking a new book online. He's even made it his masthead of his Twitter account. 
  • I'm off to look out the window and pray for a last second snow storm to save my impeccable track record. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold.

at 8:35 AM

2.04.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • I've emerged from my Wise County No Bits Allowed Expert Weather Lab wearing flowing robes and carrying a scroll. I now open it and shall read the following proclamation: "(1) It will snow. (2) The snow will primarily come down from 6:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. and then slowly taper off. (3) Here's the interesting part: At around 7:00 a.m., it will be slightly above freezing but the temperature will drop just below freezing after that and remain there all day. (4) And here's my boldest prediction in the history of ever: Schools will close." So let it be written. So let it be done. 
  • It's the year 2020, and we can't run an election of sparsely populated Iowa? How hard can it be? And they have to use an badly designed app?  It was already time to kill the Iowa Caucuses altogether so let's do it. 
  •  But CNN gets the Clever Graphics award
  • Tanner Brock of Alvord has been in the news lately after being indicted for murder in Denton County.  His name caught my attention when I saw that he was officially charged yesterday in Wise County for the misdemeanor offense of  Class B Theft. (CR-80258). I was going to create this bullet point with a "that's the least of his problems" comment, but then I saw something else: He was placed on probation on June 21, 2019 for Possession of a Firearm by a Felon. (CR-21321). He allegedly committed the Denton murder on October 25, 2019. 
  • If a mayor of a small town did this at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, everyone in the room would look at him and think, "What's wrong with him?" . . . . 
  • I heard an anti-Kay Granger ad on the radio and it was brutal. (It was a fake voice tree with things like, "Push 1 for Corruption." (Paraphrased.) It was paid for by "Club For Growth" PAC which I guessed was funded by Empower Texans but, after checking, I don't think it is.  Man, she is really in the cross-hairs of a lot of people with a lot of money. 
  • The new data is out for criminal prosecution in Texas for 2019.  In a continued trend of declining crime, misdemeanor prosecutions continue to reflect that. But why are the felony cases going up? Drugs. We are prosecuting more drugs. Exactly 1/3 of all new felony cases were for drugs. Source: Grits For Breakfast.
  • Man, the far right wing was really upset with that Super Bowl halftime show. 
  • Rush Limbaugh announced he has "advanced lung cancer." He's obviously not my cup of tea, but he's certainly talented. I don't know how anyone can do what he does. Try going into a room and talking to a wall for three hours. Then do it an make it entertaining. That takes talent. 
  • The Cowboys are leaning to putting the "franchise tag" on Dak Prescott. That would keep him a Cowboy for one year without a contract at a salary of $33 million.   It's a horrible position for the Cowboys to be in. You really don't want to pay a slightly above average quarterback a fortune in a long term deal, but what do you instead? But placing the tag on him doesn't bode well for the Cowboy/Dak relationship. 



at 8:32 AM

2.03.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • Someone check in on the White House. This breaking news will not go over well. 
  • Having now been established as an expert in the field, I've been inundated with questions about Wednesday's weather. I'm going to have to cancel a couple of teaching engagements today at National Weather Service seminars to prepare, but I'll have an answer tomorrow. The rest of my colleagues, however, are already doing bits. The late Harold Taft and I don't appreciate this one iota.
  • I can't stop thinking about this. 
  • Or this.
  • Wait a second. That was inappropriate for TV. Let's check in on some established as well as upcoming young conservatives for commentary. 

  • Closed captioning was very helpful during the the halftime show.
  • The Bridgeport Index printed its last issue this week, and for the life of me I can't think of an exit with less fanfare. There was nothing on its own front page about the Bridgeport institution ceasing publication. Heck, there wasn't even a story about it. You had to search for the editor's column to even see a reference to the paper shutting down where he, once again, told us he has no "venom" about it.
  • Here's a piece of history from the last Bridgeport Index.
  • Meet one of the candidates for Rep. Mac Thornberry's open seat seeking to represent Wise County in Congress. There's a lot to unpack here. 

  • He never disappoints. 
  • I don't know much other Randall County, Texas, politics other than the Sheriff  really doesn't like a particular constable. Something seems familiar about this. 
  • Did you catch this yesterday?
  • Conservative governor says public funded social programs would solve Austin's homeless problem. And one of his followers understands what caused the problem in the first place. 
  • "Gun rights activists carrying semi-automatic firearms walk through the Capitol Building on January 31, 2020 in Frankfort, Kentucky." Wait. Something looks familiar about this. 
    January 31, 2020 in Kentucky

    June 17, 2019 in Dallas, Texas
  • Legal stuff: You ever wonder if the owner of livestock is responsible for damages caused by negligently letting his cattle roam onto a highway?  Aren't we a "free range" state? Are there 
  • limitations? The Texas Supreme Court answered that question on Friday. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold.

at 8:31 AM

1.31.2020

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






at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • Here's a new one. Did you know that you can receive a "federal ticket" on the LBJ Grasslands for weed possession? And it will command you to pay a pre-set, yet arbitrary, "forfeiture amount" or appear in federal court? A ticket which says "United States District Court" at the top of it? It's so crazy that I want to believe it's a scam that someone cooked up. But this website seems to indicate it's true. This is weird, and I can't believe I've never heard of it. 
  • I mentioned the other day about a guy who fired up a joint in front of a judge. There's video!
  • Everyone knew Trump wouldn't be convicted, but there was a sliver of hope that we would get to hear witnesses. That went down in flames last night when Sen. Lamar Alexander, who was a critical swing vote, said he would vote no on calling witnesses. But he also said that the House Managers had proved the Article I of the Articles of Impeachment. But then he said he wouldn't vote to convict.  

  • The halftime score in a women's SEC basketball game last night was 32-2. But for a shot with less than a minute left in the first half, it would have been 32-0. Ole Miss did not score on its first 31 possessions. And that's your women's college basketball update.
  • One thing I should have added yesterday when I posted a pic of Jerry Jones' yacht docking in Miami for the Super Bowl: "Have I mentioned that NFL owners have imposed a player salary cap?"
  • New: U.S. farm bankruptcies jumped 20% to hit an eight year high last year. Flashback from two weeks ago:
  • Coronavirus death count to date: 170. Shooting deaths in the US last year: 15,381. 
  • Runaway Bay, you're on deck. 
  • One thing I've never done is hide on the Internet with a fake name. I don't know what @TheLillyLawyer prosecutor tweeted to cause someone to out her, but the dog pile then began with her being outed and then everyone researching everything she ever said. She then deleted her account.  The last one might turn out to be problematic.



  • “My girls love to drink. Ain’t no telling what’s going to happen there. They are a hoot now. Good-looking, too.” - Terry Bradshaw.  It's The Bradshaw Bunch.  Remember when former Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson said during Super Bowl week in 1979 that Bradshaw was so dumb that "he couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the c-a." He was right then, and he's right now.  
  • The boys from The Ticket road in this boat in Miami yesterday as they were in town for the Super Bowl. If I heard correctly, it sells for over $1 million and can hit 155 mph.  I'm serious when I say, "What's the point?" You can't fish. You can't ski or tube. You can't walk around.

  • For you criminal law practitioners out there, the lead story below sounds like a really wild case. I don't know if the story is available online because the site kept crashing my browser. 

at 8:29 AM
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