7.12.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




It's easy to forget that Roy Williams ever played receiver for the Cowboys, but I certainly didn't remember that he sued his ex-girlfriend because she wouldn't return an engagement ring that he mailed to her.  The case was immediately settled when she returned the ring.    

  • With the slimmest of margins last night, the Decatur School Board voted, for all intents and purposes, to fire its superintendent. The chaos continues. 

  • Richard Branson news from yesterday morning: 

  • Breaking down a headline. Here is the offensive clothing story. Here is the duct tape story. Here is the "Hands on head" story. 

     



  • Las Vegas on Saturday. 

  • Trump was revising history this weekend, and he's going to get a police officer killed or start another insurrection. (Audio with Mario Bartiromo who is an accomplice.) 


  • Keep your eye -- especially a large percentage of Wise Countians -- on this Delta variant. We are beginning to see the slightest of upticks. 



  • For some reason, CPAC in Dallas was the home of anti-vaxxers this weekend.
    • This pastor provides some dubious advice. Video.

    • I'm really having a hard time understanding this crowd's flirtation with death. Video. 

    • And you've always got to ramp it up a notch. Video.

  • Don, Jr. was at CPAC and had a bizarre moment. I'm not exactly sure what he was saying about Texas here. Nor did the audience.  Watch.
  • On Saturday morning, the statue of Robert E. Lee was taken down in Charlottesville, VA. You might remember that's the location of the Unite the Right rally which left a lady dead and the origin of the "fine people on both sides" comment. 
    Still shot from a video made by someone simply sitting on their porch.
    A haunting image from Charlottesville in 2017.

  • I'd feel a letter better about Texas sheriffs if they didn't all dress like they were at a wild west cosplay convention. 

  • Decatur's own Bryce Elder is off to a great in his first year as a professional pitcher. (The Mississippi Braves are the Double A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.) He currently has a 2.66 ERA.

  • There's a sanctions hearing going on at this moment in federal court over one of the bogus presidential election "Kraken" lawsuits. Lin Wood, Sidney Powell, and others were ordered to appear. 



at 8:32 AM

7.09.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Rihanna's show at the AAC ended abruptly when her stage caught fire ten years ago tonight. Video. That would have been a little scary as it first fired up.  

  • Decatur School Board news:
    • You gotta be kidding me! They are going to have a public execution on the Lord's Day.


    • Edit: The meeting will be available on Zoom here. (Meeting ID: 863 1852 0666 to enter manually.)
    • More fallout: Another football coach has up and left amongst the turmoil caused by the Board.  

    • The Messenger boldly opens up its guns on the school board in today's paper because of the secrecy and shenanigans, and it all but accuses them of Open Meetings violations and Open Records violations.  Go buy a paper. 

    • In a Letter to the Editor today, a current (and brave) teacher blasts the Board although she notes that others are "worried" she'll be "targeted" for speaking out. Recall yesterday that I said that the Board is acting like it has some kind of Joseph McCarthy-like "list". There needs to be a catchy name for this ongoing saga. Perhaps the "Blue Scare." 

    • The Messenger specifically notes that the Board has requested an AG's opinion in an effort to avoid the paper's Open Records request for all communications between the school board president and the superintendent.  Spoiler: Whenever a public entity hides behind the Attorney General request as a delay tactic, they don't want the public to know what it is attempting to hide. We want those audio recordings. 

    • I'll say it again, the burning of taxpayer money is a little noticed aspect of all of this. In addition to needlessly buying out contracts left and right, how much in legal fees has been spent? Let's see an Open Records Request for that amount. 
  • The newly crowned 2021 Scripps National Bee Champion is also a master at tricked up dribbling. 


  • It's hard to think of someone who went from Golden Boy to the slammer in such a short period of time.  He was riding high with the Stormy Daniels representation and then turned into a common criminal. 

  • You trust Gov. Abbott? His campaign sent out a press release yesterday and claimed that its own polling revealed these numbers regarding his handling of COVID. This is straight out of Fantasyland:

  • Governor candidates are coming to Wise County. 

    • If you think Don Huffines is anything other than a poser, listen to 30 seconds of his appearance on the Mark Davis Show on May 12th beginning at 12:10.  He complains that Republicans have controlled Austin for 20 years but can't get their "priorities" passed. Davis, to his credit, asks him point blank to name some. Huffines absolutely panics when he can't. 
    • I note that local attorney Paul Belew doesn't seem to be invited to the October forum despite announcing he was running for governor a couple of months ago. I knew his chances were slim, but I didn't expect him to be completely ignored -- especially by local Republicans. 
  • Last night. Oh, my.

  • I've got an idea: Pay them a decent wage.  Heck, you're selling a 50 cent hot dog for $8. I think you can work out the finances. 

  • If it is true, they picked the perfect guy to feature as the poster child as to why. 
    Dr. Robert Jeffress

  • Ever since I told you the richest guy I know told me he was quietly making his money investing in massive warehouses, I see stories like this everywhere.  "North Texas has the country’s fastest-growing industrial building market. At midyear, almost 29 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space was under construction in the D-FW area."

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 2 years and 4 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

"The March 23 test results from the DPS showed a 
BAC of 0.234, according to the lab report."


at 8:32 AM

7.08.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts





I had forgotten about this. A person who obtains a protective order against another due to allege family violence can also get the family pet included in the protective order.  In the last 10 years, I don't think I've ever seen it in any protective order in Wise County  -- which means someone forgot to change the boilerplate form.   

  • The Decatur AD/Head Coach is gone and the Superintendent is on his way out.  It's almost like the powers at be have their own Joseph McCarthy-like "list." 
  • I keep waiting for this mystery from last week to be solved but it has not. A pro golfer at a Georgia country club sees a truck drive up on a green and goes to check it out. He's murdered and the gunmen flees. Then two bodies are discovered in the bed of the truck -- one from California and one from Kansas, and there's no indication they knew each other. 

  • Compare the rainfall over the last two days between Hurricane Elsa in Florida and what is going on with an unnamed storm sitting over the Texas coast. And our coast will get pummeled with rain again today.


  • Trump suing Facebook, Twitter and Youtube claiming they violated his First Amendment rights because they are the government is not only dumb, it's really just a grift to to sucker his base into donating money.  This has nothing whatsoever to do with law. 
    • And you've got to love when their lawsuit explains in its own words another reason why he will immediately and obviously lose: Trump complains he had to agree to their terms of service to use it in the first place 

    • No lawyer has turned into a bigger cartoon that Alan Dershowitz. Nothing could be more untrue than this:

  • The local CBS affiliate had a tremendous video package last night on how the shooting in downtown Dallas five years ago that left five officers dead actually happened. The shooter basically confined himself to the grounds of El Centro College right across the street from that neon green skyscraper. 




  • I noticed attorney Bruce Isaacks was appointed to represent the guy who fled Rhome police officers last month giving rise to the "manhunt."

  • I suppose (and would even assume) that Texas Congressman Chip Roy is an anti-vaxxer, but what does this even mean? 

     
  • By the way, you're on your own now if you don't want the vaccine. 

  • In looking at this kind of related headline, I was reminded that I had to deliver a prescription for Mrs. LL after a minor surgery last month. I was surprised about how laxed the whole system seemed. The prescription for a pain killer was just some handwriting on a piece of paper torn off of a pad with no tracking number or bar code.  It seemed like it would be incredibly simple to forge (unless there's some internal check I don't know about it.) 

  • This column by Star-Telegram shock jock Mac Engel has mysteriously disappeared. I don't know why. 

  • Someone check the Ritz Carlton in Cancun. 

  • Legal nerd stuff: A 1975 police training video on "probable cause." It's dated but wildly entertaining -- and with the shocking turn at the end. 

  • The population of the Wise County Jail looks to be right back to pre-Covid levels. As of this morning, they have 184 inmates with those being in jail for over 100 days sitting at 24%. That number and percentage is the exact  benchmark while had held true for the two years prior to COVID. 



at 8:35 AM
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