3.31.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




It was on March 28, 2011, that 54 year old Smith County Deputy Robert Britton passed away. "Britton had responded to a report of a stray cow struck by a vehicle and was directing traffic on Farm Road 344 when the cow charged him. Bullard Police Chief Gary Lewis tells KLTV in Tyler that few noticed the cow started to stand until it was too late." The Texas legislature honored him two years later with a resolution. 

  • Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is in trouble. The New York Times has reported, and The Wall Street Journal has confirmed, that the Justice Department is looking into conduct which is, uh, inconsistent with family values.


    • This all started last year during an investigation by the Trump Administration's Justice Department when they were focusing on a guy named Joel Greenberg, a simple county tax collector in Florida, for sex trafficking. Greenberg was subsequently arrested.
    • During the investigation, it came to light that Gaetz may have had a 17 year old girlfriend he had sex with and, here's the tricky part, paid for a plane ticket to cross state lines.  That's what makes it a potential federal crime. (There would also be a state crime problem because the age of consent in Florida is 18.)
    • Here's a picture that Greenberg posted on Twitter of himself and Gaetz. 

    • Here's a another great picture that Greenberg posted of himself, Roger Stone, and Gaetz. (The fact that Roger Stone gets thrown in is an added bonus.) 

    • Gaetz reaction yesterday was pretty bizarre. After denying he has dated underaged girls, he added this piece of gold in an interview with Axios:

    • He then went on Tucker Carlson and got oddly specific by saying he never "traveled" with a 17 year old girl. "That is verifiably false. You can look at my travel records," Gaetz said.  
    • Then it got weirder. Gaetz told Carlson that "You and I went to dinner about two years ago, your wife was there. I brought a friend of mine,... You'll remember her." Gaetz then said this person was "pressured" by the FBI to say he was involved in a "pay for play" scheme.  That was all we got because Tucker ran away from the comment immediately by replying, "I don't remember the woman or the context at all, honestly." (Video.)  

    • Carlson might as well have screamed, "Hey, don't drag me into this!" He later told his audience that the interview with Gaetz was "one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted." (Video.)

    • Gaetz is also saying he was recently subject to an  "extortion" attempt for $25 million by a "former" Justice Department employee. No one knows what he is talking about. 
    • This may all end up being nothing. There ain't no Republican going down for having sex with a 17 year old. 
    • Gaetz raised eyebrows last summer when "he announced that he had a son, Nestor Galban, 19, though Mr. Gaetz said he was not Mr. Galban’s biological father, nor had he adopted him. Mr. Galban had been 12 when they met and had come to the United States from Cuba; Mr. Gaetz was at the time dating Mr. Galban’s sister."

  • Back to normal Random Thoughts . . . 
  • I'm not following the Derek Chauvin trial in the case of George Floyd all that closely, but I have no idea why the defense lawyers keeps letting the prosecutor get away with asking witnesses how it made them "feel" when they were watching the the incident. That's irrelevant. They are there to only tell what they saw. 


  • Second Chauvin trial thought: The prosecutors better be careful. The witnesses seem to all have a pro-prosecution agenda instead of just being disinterested fact witnesses. And they seem coached. All this could backfire. 
  • An official in the Gonzaga/USC game last night dropped like a rock, but he will be OK. That was scary looking especially when he hit his head. Video.

  • I'm not saying that there is a COVID resurgence, but there are some rumblings out there.

     

  • There were indictments yesterday of two Williamson County deputies involved a case which was filmed by Live PD and which the Sheriff tried to cover up. But for the dogged work of the The Austin American Statesman and the local ABC affiliate in Austin, these indictments would not have occurred.


  • Random Letter to the Editor in the Messenger this week by a decades long critic of the town:

  • Despite my tricked up scoring system, the leader in the Liberally Lean tourney is a guy who picked three of the Final Four. He would have gone four for four if Michigan hadn't been upset last night. Full leaderboard here.

  • The former football coach of SMU and the University of Arkansas just took the head coaching job at . . .  Allen High School.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:31 AM

3.30.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




This was referring to the aftermath of one of the worse DWI wrecks in Wise County history when it occurred in 2007. But, despite the bullet point, I never followed up on probation modification despite there later being a hearing in April of 2011 according to county records. I still don't know. But it's all history now. Both are now deceased.   Betty Monroe died in 2014. Jackie died in 2018.

  • Sad update on the shooting of the DPS trooper on Friday. 

  • Oh, my.  I remember him back from his traffic duties at KLIF during the 1990s where he'd end it with the tagline of  "See ya on down the road." 

  • Everything is normal:

  • The My Pillow guy is getting nuttier and nuttier. Video.

  •  "Forney Man" is pretty close to "Florida Man." (You can click on the link if you want, but the headline pretty much tells you everything that is in it.)

  • The number of people who refuse to get the COVID vaccine is stunning. I don't understand you people. 

  • Vaccine passport? What Marjorie is doing below is announcing her support for  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who has said he issue an executive order forbidding private businesses from requiring so-called vaccine passports across the state -- a very odd proposition coming from the Republicans.  Seriously, if a private entity requires a vaccination card before entry that will be the price you pay for not being vaccinated. On the other hand, if the government requires it in order to do "x", then we'll talk. 

  • President Biden, moments ago,  announced his first slate of federal judicial nominees -- eleven in all. It's a diverse group. What I like is that the names include four former public defenders. (For what it is worth, there are no Texas connections other than one nominee got her undergraduate degree at UTEP.)

  • Baylor digression:
    • They finally broke through to the Final Four. They are an astonishing 52-6 over the last two years.  

    • The women almost made it last night as well, but a last second shot against UConn didn't go in because she never got it off. No foul called. Here's a great video of it. 


    • Random pic from that game:

  • What I wish would come back: The "DVD commentary" option for movies streamed online. 
  • During Bridgeport's playoff soccer game last night, one player lay paralyzed on the field for quite some time. It scared everyone to death, but he'll be OK. 


at 8:34 AM

3.29.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





This was all over the news because it was a fiery crash involving a wrong way driver who hit a tanker truck at I-30 and Beach Street in Fort Worth. The driver later admitted on camera from jail to drinking 10 beers at Embargo, which was actually a Cuban themed club, prior to the accident. He actually went to trial the next year and received 20 years in prison. The Fort Worth Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction although it was "greatly disturbed by the tenor of the State’s punishment evidence and the jury argument" focusing on the defendant being in the country illegally.  As to the club, Embargo closed in 2014 after an eight year run. 

  • Breaking: That big old ship in the Suez Canal is free.

    • Here's an angle of the ship yesterday from an adjacent village. It's a big old thing. 

  • A DPS trooper remains in critical condition after being shot near Mexia on Friday eening. The alleged shooter took his own life a short time later.  Out of all of it, this was the first time I had ever received a "Blue Alert." 
  • As always, an arrest does not mean guilt nor does an indictment, but it is noteworthy that a former Boyd Police Officer is now the subject of both in connection with Indecency with a Child charges. Vince Estel in cause number CR-22969.
  • Six teenage girls, all from Nocona, were in a pickup on Saturday afternoon just northwest of town when it went of the road. One did not survive.
  • Senators traveled to the border for a photo op on DPS's gun boats. The usual suspects showed up. 
  • But I didn't expect to hear a Senator upset that the cartels have overtaken his state's homemade bathtub crank.
  • I'll never get over the DPS gun boats having three 350 horsepower outboard motors on each boat. But they don't have the money to staff a driver's license office. 
  • Out of context Fox News: 
  • This girl is gonna end up in prison if she's not careful with her Twitter account. 

  • Almost every AR-15 owner I know speaks of the scenario that Lindsey Graham came out and described on Sunday except the say "when all hell breaks loose" instead of "if there's a natural disaster." 


  • A lot going on at Harmony Free Will Baptist Church in Ada, Oklahoma: 
  • Random Big Man Kicker coming through. 5'5" and 285 pounds. 
  • I saw a headline where five people were killed in a helicopter crash in Alaska on their way to "back country skiing." I thought that sounded pretty high-tone, and I was right: The five people were staying at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge which offers packages priced at $15,000. Here's a picture taken during the summer:
  • UT would have owed basketball coach Shaka Smart $7.1 million if they fired him. Instead he just agreed to walk away to another school. Seems weird. 
  • Liberally Lean Pick Em Standings:
  • Baylor/Arkansas starts at 9:00 p.m. tonight? Why? There's only one other game today. 


at 8:29 AM

3.26.2021

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

at 2:30 PM
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