10.25.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



We still talk about this to this day.    

  • Another shooting in high tone Uptown last night. 

  • More and more stories over the weekend about the Trump Insurrection. When I was a kid, I was told that advocating the overthrow of the American government was one of the worst things you could do. Was I lied to?
    • You've got Giuliani, Bannon, and Eastman in a war room.  

    • Of course Giuliani and Eastman took the stage urging the crowd to, "Let's have trial by combat!" 

    • You've got members of Congress involved in the insurrection. 

    • They named names and they are exactly who you think they would be. 

    • And there is corroboration as the attack was ongoing. 

  • In Kerrville on Saturday:


  • Still don't know if this is going to be a Starbuck or Whataburger on 380 in Bridgeport. I'm guessing a Whataburger. 

  • I don't understand what a real gun with real bullets is doing on a movie set at all. (By the way, the author of Hillbilly Elegy is a despicable human being. For those who don't know, "@jack" is Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter.) 

  • I've said it for years: What used to be accidents are now reframed as crimes because of overzealous prosecutors.  (But, no, he will never be charged with anything. Nor should he be.)

  • The Elizabeth Holmes trial is an example of lawyers not realizing times have changed (speed it up, boys!) and proof that juries might not be the best way to resolve complex allegations. 



  • As he was acting like a tourist this weekend, he didn't realize they brought out the DPS gun boats (!!) to protect him. 

  • For Wise County, here all the old vs. new redistricting lines now that the dust has settled.  Anyone can see their new maps, and demographic information for it, by entering your address here (courtesy of the Texas Tribune.)
Texas Senate. (Where we are now joined with Highland Park.)

Texas House representative (Parker County and Phil King are gone)

Congressional rep (For Decatur and Rhome, at least.)

  • I think I've walked out of two movies in my life. One was an art house film at the Angelika, and the other was Dune in 1984.

at 8:31 AM

10.22.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Rick Perry was going hard after Mitt Romney as we were a year out from the election. It would be a couple of weeks later when Perry will have his infamous "oops" debate moment.   

  • That's simply awful: Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of Rust in New Mexico and it killed a film crew member, Halyna Hutchins, 42. The only other time I remember this happening was with Brandon Lee in 1993.

    • Thank God we don't have a certain president with a Twitter account who almost certainly would say something cringe-worthy offensive this morning. 
  • The cause of death of a UT linebacker was released yesterday.

    • A Texas lawmaker was able to somehow blame brown people. 

    • And to be clear, the quoted portion was from the Ehlinger family attorney. To call it "prescription anti-anxiety medication" is a little misleading.  That simply means that Xanax -- the unlaced kind -- can be obtained via a prescription. 
  • So the official cause of death of these three people found dead after hiking was revealed yesterday to be "hyperthermia and probable dehydration." And we are supposed to believe that's what killed all three of them and their dog? I suppose that's possible, but it is weird. They were found last August on the Hite Cove Trail in California. 
    Picture from an earlier date. 

    • But I will admit the most dehydrated I ever got -- to the point of being very concerned -- was a simple five mile flat hike in Palo Duro Canyon about 10 years ago. It caught me me completely off guard. And this was in the middle of my half marathon days when I was in very good shape. I still don't know what happened, but when your body needs water it really needs water. 
  • The Supreme Court denied a stay of execution last night in a case where, get this, the guy missed the deadline of choosing how he wanted to die. The State wanted to kill him in an alternative way. Good lord. 

    • I feel this in my bones:

  • This is really a screwed up process with this Steven Bannon subpoena situation.
    • With a normal subpoena issued in a court case, someone like Bannon files a Motion to Quash the subpoena. The court then holds a hearing to determine if there is any basis for the subpoena to be declared invalid (here, the Executive Privilege claim), and the whole matter is summarily dealt with. Simple and sweet. 
    • But here, the process is (1) Have the full House vote to pursue criminal contempt, (2) The Attorney General then decides if he wants to file a criminal case, (3) he gets an indictment if he does, (4) Bannon gets to argue the actual defense of a "good faith basis" (his Executive Privilege argument) to the criminal charge, and (5) he's either convicted or not. That will take forever.  And even then whether there actually is an Executive Privilege in this situation has not been decided -- just whether he had a good faith basis to believe it. 

    • As to the merits, I despise Steve Bannon but he probably has a "good faith basis" when he's hired a lawyer who tells him he has a good faith basis. And the lawyer's argument of Executive Privilege is far-fetched, but doesn't fall in the category of ridiculous. 
  • This is so legally nerdy that you have to be in the business to appreciate just how bizarre it is: The Dallas Court of Appeals just had to reverse a case because at trial the defense lawyer, prosecutor, and the judge all believed someone who is convicted of a basic State Jail Felony is not eligible for probation. Incredible. 
  • I ignored the first video I saw of this teacher doing an "Indian dance" in class because I figured there had to be an explanation. Now there's another one. She's a mess. Story.

  • Here's a random silly felony criminal case I saw out of Houston yesterday. Yep, a prosecutor managed to get an indictment from a grand jury for assault by bananas. It was later dismissed because the prosecutor magically decided he couldn't prove that being hit with bananas caused pain -- a necessary element. That's probably something he needed to think about beforehand. Put it on my tombstone: "Too many cops. Too many prosecutors." 

  • And another. My continuing bullet point of people-getting-rich-in-the-warehouse-industry.

  • What you saw in the Mavericks game last night is exactly what you are about to get. That was no fluke. 
  • 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: 842 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:29 AM

10.21.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I had found this on Joe Duty's Flickr page (which still exists and is fun to browse around on.) This photo was associated with Cottondale somehow.   

  • Brian Laundrie's remains have probably been found in an area not far from his family's home. "Laundrie's parents directed FBI agents and North Port police to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park where 'some articles belonging to Brian were found,' Steven Bertolino, an attorney for the Laundrie family, said in a statement." And some reports have his dad being the first person who found one of those articles.  Suspicious? (But the best conspiracy theory I heard yesterday: A third person killed both him and Gabby Petito.)

    • In more than one way, America is now safer:

  • Well, I speculated that some Wise County resident would run for the newly drawn Texas state House District 64, but this isn't exactly what I envisioned. Andy Hopper, who was behind the small "Wise County Conservatives" group, announced yesterday he would seek election for that position. This is what happened the last time he ran for office: 

  • Trump announced a new social network where, instead of posts called Tweets, members will post "Truths", and "Retweets" will be branded "Retruths." That may be the most Orwellian thing ever. 

    • And this new social network will supposedly be a bastion of free speech where "Big Tech won't be allowed to censor our First Amendment rights." However, it has one big exception in its Terms of Service Agreement: You can't badmouth Trump or you'll be banned. Term no. 23 sets that out. 

    • This will be a disaster.
  • Wise County's "Largest Hog Hunting Contest In The World" is out with a new promotional video. I don't know anything about hog hunting, but I do know production value, and the video certainly has that. 


  • I'll give Arlington Police credit for one thing: They always release the bodycam footage, and make no attempts to cover it up. They always do. 

     

     
  • This Trump disciple is running for Governor in Nevada, and I get get her first ad out of my mind.  

  • Greg Abbott appeared at at a Kingwood Tea Party event on Monday and said this below. I'm telling you, he got a brand new advisor about midway through last year when he was getting beat up his mask mandate and COVID business restrictions mandate.  He didn't talk this way before his makeover.   

  • Baylor lost its appeal yesterday to keep the Pepper Hamilton report confidential. A screw-up by the school's lawyers are the reason they'll have to turn it over. 
  • Travis Tritt on Fox News.
    • Now:
      Side note: "Sensation"? "Evil"? 

    • Then:

  • Fun baseball stat below.   The chances of seeing a starter go more than six innings these days are only 1 in 3.  Compare: Nolan Ryan threw 222 complete games.

  • ???? It's still up last time I checked.

  • Just for the photo . . .  
at 8:31 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)