9.02.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




A stray dog we found 10 years ago stayed with us almost a month before we found it a home. The new owners took it to groomer and sent us the resulting photo. Oh, my.  (That has to be Mrs. LL's caption under the first photo.)

  • Another increase but only by 17 people.

    • Someone suggested to me that the hospitalizations might have leveled off at this point because hospitals are close to capacity and their guidelines as to who they admit has become more stringent. There might be some truth to that.
    • My belief that we might have plateaued has nothing to do with my views on the current state of the virus. It's as bad as ever. It's as dangerous as ever. 

  • Last night, the Supreme Court finally weighed in on the Texas Abortion Bounty Law and let it stand in a 5-4 ruling. But the majority made it clear that it wasn't ruling on the constitutionality of the new Texas law. And, frankly, any challenges to the law before it took effect were probably premature. 
    • Here's the money quote.

    • One of the dissents was not having it. It may be a procedural issue for now, but handling it this way lets an obviously unconstitutional law go into effect. 
    • The whole matter can quickly make its way back to them by having someone actually sue someone else for the $10,000 vigilante fee authorized by the statute. That's already being planned (even by those who oppose the law so they can have a legal vehicle to utilize.)
    • The Supreme Court will basically rule on the merits next June when it decides a pending Mississippi case. A new Texas case might join it and get consolidated with it this fall. 
    • Do I think the court will overrule Roe v. Wade? Probably. As amazing it as it sounds, Donald Trump is completely responsible for this. 


  • I told you I wouldn't be surprised by this result. This was a major screw-up by the officer. Either she made a fireable mistake if she thought she smelled alcohol or she made an arrest believing medication or drugs were involved when she was absolutely not qualified to make that determination. 

    • I heard Dallas union chief Mike Mata defend the officer on WBAP yesterday afternoon. He's a horrible advocate. 

      • He said the case wasn't "about guilt or innocence" but about "procedure". Tell that to anyone who has been wrongfully arrested.
      • He said the officer had "reasonable suspicion" to arrest her. Yep, he actually said that. A high school student knows the standard is probable cause.
      • He also said, "And remember there was a child in the car. If the officer thought it was possible she was intoxicated, she can't let her drive down the road and then get in the accident." Once again, "possible" isn't the standard. It's probable cause. 
    • Angela West's lawyer writes like Trump used to tweet. Lots of CAPS. Lots of exclamation points!!!

  • In one hour last night, Hurricane Ida dumped three inches of rain on Central Park in New York. The National Weather Service, for the first time ever, issued a flash flood warning for the area.

  • From the Washington Post. This crap happens all the time. It's legalized theft by the government. 

  • A few weeks ago, I had a note about a shooting in Sundance Square in Fort Worth which I thought go almost no publicity. Well, The Ticket had the victim on yesterday and he described what happened.  (Funny guy by the way.) His recovery is slow. An original Facebook post from a friend described what happened but it contains one error: He was shot eight times and not five. 


  • The Aggies gave their football coach a contract extension. In 1982, everyone went absolutely nuts when they made new head coach Jackie Sherrill the highest paid coach in America with a salary of $280,000 a year. 

  • Earlier this week I mentioned that a Colleyville principal was suspended for "promoting" Critical Race Theory (as the hoopleheads define it.)  Well I had forgotten that the man got in "trouble" before. The district asked him remove a photo that he had posted on Facebook showing him and his wife after someone complained. The photo is below. This is 2021, isn't it? 

  • Ohio State plays at Minnesota tonight and it's on prime time Fox. 

at 8:35 AM

9.01.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




It is kind of wild to think about what all would have been documented if cell phone video was as common then as it is now.   

  • A slight increase yesterday but you still can't rule out that we are possibly plateauing. 


  • No, the Taliban did not execute a man from a helicopter. Ted Cruz deleted his false tweet. Dan Crenshaw left his up. 

  • No, we did not leave service dogs behind in Afghanistan. Junior has always been a lying propaganda machine. 


  • Now do you still blame the kid from Southlake who skipped his Senior year at Southlake Carroll? 

  • Texas new Draconian abortion law went into effect last night at midnight when the Supreme Court failed to stop it. It's just as crazy as you have heard. Today, if you give emotional support or  encouragement to a woman before she has an abortion at seven weeks, anyone can sue you for $10,000 and attorney's fees. And they will win.  (And subsection three is weird. So I can be sued if I intend to encourage her but didn't get around to it?)


    • The phrase "aid or abets" is not defined in the statute, so let your imagination run wild. That's the real weapon of this law. That and the fact that anyone can sue you. 
    • It just dawned on me that any vigilante and bounty-seeking plaintiff could file their lawsuit in any Justice of the Peace court where almost all judges aren't lawyers. Those courts have jurisdiction up to $20,000.
    • Extremely legal nerd stuff: The legislature is actually trying to avoid Roe v. Wade completely by setting up the statute where its enforcement is not by the government making a violation of it a crime but by private citizens bringing a civil lawsuit. Thus, they will argue, if there is no "state action" then any constitutional Wade-based right to privacy doesn't apply. But that won't work. Think about the oft-ignored, albeit brief, state action discussion in New York Times vs. Sullivan as to why in some situations constitutional protections apply when a private person sues someone in state court. 
  • From the People-Are-COVID-Crazy Department, watch this lady tell a school board in Lee County, Florida that “You are all demonic entities. All of us Christians are sticking together to take you all out . . . .  These doctors that were sneering at us like we’re scumbags, they need to go back to [effing] med school.” She claims to be a registered nurse of 13 years.

  • A paywall? Nooo! But I think I'll pay it. I use Wirecutter all the time. It's fantastic. You need to make a purchase? Enter the generic name of what you want to buy and they'll give you suggestions based upon their testing.  

  • I've never seen Ted Lasso but those that do are convinced this character is CGI generated.

  • Someone posted a pre-game pick of the small crowd at the Rangers game yesterday (which really isn't fair to do it pre-game), but I can tell you why I would stay away.


  • I still can't get over the offensive performance of both teams in the Kennedale and Decatur game. But try to explain how Kennedale won with -1 passing yards and averaging 1.13 yards per rush? 

  • You want a PDF of all the college football games on TV this weekend? This is great. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:33 AM

8.31.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




2011 was a wild weather year. It started with the ice storm screwing up Super Bowl week in the metroplex, then there was a crazy run of 100+ days, and then there were fires. The Cliffs at Possum Kingdom even got hit in that blaze above. And 10 years ago today, a big fire broke out between Boyd and Paradise that sent metroplex news helicopters out. Photos.    

  • Ok, we went up by over 200 yesterday breaking three straight days of declines. I'm still thinking this is the peak, but I'm not betting a lot of money on it. 

  • Is it really a mask "mandate" if everyone can opt out of the mandate?

  • That just feels good to read. 

  • Look what local police in the U.S. will be deprived of. 

  • New Orleans being without power and water in this heat seems like a really big deal. No definitive word yet on when it will be restored. 

  • A state Republican didn't like that a Texas district judge prevented the arrest of Democrats who broke quorum so he's introduced a bill to impeach him. His authoritarian measure found no one else to co-sponsor the bill. The representative is a former pastor who majored in "Youth Ministry" and comes from, surprise, East Texas. 

  • An attorney representing 17 of the Trump Insurrectionist is reportedly ill with COVID. This filing with the Court carries with it a heck of a footnote. 

     

  • The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas issued a press release announcing that JPS in Fort Worth has to pay $3.3 million in a "whistleblower lawsuit", but I was confused because it was a lawsuit brought by a private citizen. Why is the U.S. Attorney taking credit?  Get this:
    • "The allegations resolved by this settlement were originally filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, which permits private persons with evidence of fraud to sue on behalf of the government and to share in any proceeds." 
    • So a private citizen gets to act as a prosecutor seeking money and keep a big cut if they win.
    • "Under the Act, the United States [Attorney] may intervene in such an action or permit the whistleblower to pursue it." But here, the government didn't intervene at all. They instead just "worked collaboratively" with her attorney. I think that's weird. 
    • The private citizen got $912,635.
    • Side note: It's always strange when a governmental entity gets hit with a big fine or lawsuit. It's the taxpayer which ultimately pays. 

  • Colleyville and Southlake seem to have a lot in common. 

  • Whatever happened to the cobra in Grand Prairie which was on the loose?
  • There's some business headlines I read which make me think I've been doing it wrong all my life. 

  • I'm ten episodes into Billions, and I've got to tell you I have serious problem with the corny writing. There are at least a couple of times in every episode where the dialogue literally makes me cringe and eye-roll. Then again, maybe gummy supplement power brokers talk differently than what I would expect. 
  • Random college football thought: I think Oklahoma has everything to lose by moving to the SEC. How that tiny state has had a super power in football defies all logic. And if they ever lose their edge, they may never get it back.  Nebraska going to the Big 10 should be a major warning and a case study. No one in the 1990s would ever think they could become what they have now become. And I don't know it they'll ever get it back. It could happen to OU. 




at 8:33 AM

8.30.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





Ten years ago, the Aggies had just announced they were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. The Rice band, who is always doing bits, then clowned on the UT crowd in the first game of the year by spelling out SEC with a dollar sign. I'm guessing the dollar sign was a reference to the amount of money the Aggies were going to make.  

  • We've had three straight days of decreases in hospitalizations. That's a small sample, but every time we've seen that before it has meant that the peak had occurred and we are now on our way down. 


  • That was one slow moving hurricane once it made landfall yesterday morning. I bet reports of today's damage will be wild. And can you imagine being in New Orleans without electricity?

  • But get that selfie.

  • I thought this story sounded familiar. Yep, he was from Fort Worth and attended high tone Country Day High School before going to Ole Miss.  

  • What a weird story. The guy just walked into Plano PD shortly after noon yesterday and started firing. Police shot him but didn't kill him.  

  • Retaliation news:
    • On Friday, we were told that a U.S. drone killed two "high-profile" ISIS-K members with one of them being "associated with potential future attacks at the airport," a US defense official told CNN.  You have a reason to be skeptical.
    • On Sunday a drone strike hit a vehicle headed to the airport and believed to be carrying bombs, but the explosions also wiped out an extended family of 10 innocent civilians including seven children. 

  • I'm no expert on federal civil procedure, but I think it's weird that the 5th Circuit cancelled a hearing in a federal district court which was set to rule on the Texas new restrictive abortion law. Cancel a hearing? Aren't appeals normally after a judge makes a ruling on an issue? 

  • Dateline Milan, Italy: Oh, my.

  • The Decatur-Kennedale football game last Friday may be on of the worst of all time. It first got my attention that Decatur only had 96 yards in total offense, but that was nothing compared to Kennedale only having 40 yards total but still managing to win 21-7.

  • This is a wild story about a high school game shown on ESPN over the weekend involving an absolutely awful team which we now learn doesn't seem to be associated with a high school at all.  Just as weird, they had just played on Friday before the nationally televised game on Sunday. The announcers, who were covering the game plated at the Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio no less, had to apologize for the quality of play. (Video.)  And the questionable team is supposed to play at state ranked Duncanville High School on September 10. Someone is going to get hurt. 


  • Hey, Dominion Voting Systems, you might want to consider suing WBAP's Brian Estridge over his mischaracterization of this AP story this morning at 6:10 a.m.  Also, yuk monkey Stubie Doak added to the misinformation by specifically asking if Dominion would retract its lawsuit against the MyPillow guy.  Dominion doesn't mess around with lies. 



at 8:31 AM

8.27.2021

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

at 2:30 PM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)