1.24.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





This was a Decatur school bus "on Heritage Creek Road, about one mile north of County Road 4421." No one was injured. It took eight weeks to repair the bridge.

  • Most recent numbers:
    • Probably on our way down, but we've got a long way to go:

    • Hospitalizations should peak this week or next:

  • We aren't going to war with Russia over Ukraine, we were never considering doing so, and the American people don't want to do it either. Nothing has changed. 

  • The guy who is charge of deciding on Open Records Requests doesn't like your Open Records Requests to him.  (How weird was it that he was there on January 6th anyway?)


  • A weekend of bad news for officer deaths.
    Houston shooting

    New York shooting

    Car crash on the border

    Houston, again. Standing next to motorcycle. 

  • Count the red flags from yesterday. This is the place visible off the highway between Aledo and Fort Worth. 


  • When I saw the news of two men being found shot yesterday in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in Fort Worth, I figured it happened in the middle of the night. Nope, it was in the middle of the afternoon in an area of town that doesn't look that bad. One has died. 


  • This was Friday news.  So why not release the confession or, at the very least, quote it?

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger got in a pretty big wreck on Friday.

  • The Four Seasons in Los Colinas will no longer be the Four Seasons. 

  • 49th Anniversary yesterday of LBJ's sudden death and Roe v. Wade. Pretty big news day.

    • Speaking of Roe, it constitutionality doesn't hinge on its popularity, but this Fox News poll is interesting. 

  • There is an option on Amazon to "Request My Data" but do they really keep all the audio recordings of your Alexa requests and send them to you?

  • Say what?

  • I actually managed to watch the fourth quarter of every single NFL game this weekend. Everyone is saying it is the greatest playoff weekend in history, and they ain't wrong. Side note: 

  • Thanks so much to the people who reached out to me on Friday about my court appointed lady in jail. I had people offering to bail her out and others sending me legal motions they had used in similar situations (quality ones at that.)  Also credit to someone who in the County Attorney's Office who was bending over backwards and making calls during her lunch hour.  

at 8:31 AM

1.21.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




We didn't learn her name because she was a juvenile, but she would be 26 years old now. 
I wonder what happened to her. Seriously.    

  • As you may have heard, Dallas' own Meat Loaf has passed away. TMZ, which is normally right about things, says it was COVID.

  • COVID numbers
    • Maybe we have seen the peak. Maybe

    • Hospitalizations always trail.

  • I've met lots of people involved in the criminal justice system, but I have never been as emotionally rocked as I was after my visit yesterday with a distressed court appointed lady on a little criminal trespass case. 
    • She's being held in solitary confinement in the Wise County Jail, which I admittedly understand due to her unique mental state, but this is a bad, bad situation for her, jailers, society, and common decency. 
    • There's lot of issues going on, but I've got to get her out of there. And she's really there only because she can't afford a very cheap bond and no one on the outside is willing to help her. 
    • And, yes, I want this to be seen by all those who have the power to get this done as I try to get it accomplish that this morning. 
  • Here's the lady who got hit by a car yesterday. 

    • There's been a lot of blowback from reporters who decry having to do "live shots" all by themselves. (Sometimes they even set up the camera.)

  • Business quick hits:
    • Here's an unpopular opinion: I think Netflix's subscription rate is too cheap.

    • Another hot opinion: As an avid stationary biker who uses a reasonably priced and bare bones product, I think you are nuts if you've spent (at least) $1,500 for a Peloton with a $39 monthly subscription fee. 

  • Oh, my.

  • Everyone needs to read yesterday's letter of the January 6th Committee sent to Ivanka Trump. They want to talk to her because they know she was in the Oval Office when Trump made one last attempt to strong arm Pence on that morning to overturn the election.  They now want her cooperation. Other highlights:
    • Trump's failure to call off the mob for 187 minutes concerns the committee. Trump obviously finally released a video message telling them to go home but ended it with "Go home. We love you." Now the committee suggests they may be, or will be, in possession of video footage not used before the final video was released.

    • Sean Hannity tried to talk sense into Trump the next day via texts to his Press Secretary. "No more crazy people" around Trump, Hannity begged. 


       
  • And Trump's problems didn't end there yesterday.

    • I know I rage against Trump constantly, but do you remember just how insane his January 2nd phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was? Trump actually said, "So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state." Followed by, "And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated." Good lord.
    • How is that alone not enough to cause the country to stop what it's doing and demand he be charged?
    • What if you told a bank teller, ""So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 more dollars," followed by, "And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated."
  • I don't follow the D.A.'s race down in Waco, but it sure is heated. 

    • From the challenger who is a criminal defense lawyer: "[T]o my knowledge, [D.A.]. Johnson has never tried a criminal case in a courtroom in front of a jury." Side note: Really?
    • From the D.A.: His opponent uses "his best efforts to put child molesters, wife beaters, perverts and violent criminals back on the streets of McLennan County, where they can continue to prey on you and your family. Luckily, for our citizens, he is not too good at what he does and his efforts usually lead to failure and a jail cell for his clients,” 
  • That's a heck of a house.

     

  • Nerdy legal stuff: This was crazy yesterday. A judge on the federal Ninth Circuit penned and opinion striking down a COVID restriction on gun dealers on Second Amendment grounds. But since he is certain that the whole court will decide to overturn his ruling, he went ahead and wrote that opinion for them and attached it -- complete with sassy footnotes.  (The judge is a Trump appointee who the ABA called "arrogant, lazy, an ideologue" in its assessment of him as "unqualified.") 

  • Republican on Republican violence: Yesterday, this Texas legislator attacked Texas' all Republican highest criminal court after it had struck down a law which gave AG Paxton jurisdiction of cases that that Texas Constitution expressly grants only to locally elected D.A.s:



  • 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: 931 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:32 AM

1.20.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




After a couple of primaries, Rick Perry gave up his presidential hopes this week 10 years ago. That left only Newt Gingrich to challenge Mitt Romney in the fight to prevent President Obama's second term.    

  • Texas numbers:
    • Cases:

    • Hospitalizations:

  • Reporter hit by car. She's fine and kept going. Video.

  • President Biden press conference review:

    • Positive: He went for almost two hours yesterday which was longer than any held by Trump (1 hour, 26 minutes) or Obama (1 hour, 27 minutes).
    • The negative: The Ukraine comments which are in the headlines.
      • The comment under examination:  "It's one thing if it's a minor incursion [by Russia] and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do."
      • The reaction: What's a "minor incursion" that we won't care about? And did that just give the go ahead to Russia?
      • The scramble: The White House had to immediately release a statement afterwards saying there is no such thing as a "minor incursion" if it involves troops.

      • The reality: It's never a good look to have to fix a statement.
      • The real reality:  We are never going to war with Russia over Ukraine. Nor should we.
      • Edit: Sheesh. There was just another official "clean up" issued about whether the 2022 elections will be "legitimate."
  • This was from the official clerk of the Texas Supreme Court yesterday. (But it really doesn't explain the exact scam that was going on.)

  • Texas campaign reports were released yesterday. One single oil man from Midland gave Gov. Abbott $650.000.  In what democracy does this make sense?


  • Yesterday evening, the Supreme Court, over Trump's objection, allowed the National Archives to release its January 6th documents. Only Justice Thomas, as he always does, sided with Trump. 


  • We had Supreme Court silliness earlier. Three justices took the time to issue statements about the report that there was a spat between Sotomayor and Gorsuch. 
    • The first statement: 

    • The press reaction was that the report never said that Justice Sotomayor asked Gorsuch. The report was that it was Roberts who asked Goruch:

    • So another statement comes out, this time from Roberts:

    • I'm old enough to remember when the Supreme Court could not care less about what the press said about them. 
  • If you haven't noticed, BagOfNothing.com is backed to regular posting. Some have been a little different. 
  • Mark Cuban prediction from 2014: "I think the NFL is 10 years away from implosion . . . . pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And [it’s] getting hoggy.”

    • The reality:

    • The numbers are really insane. The top 10 games:

  • Compare and contrast.
  • We hear lots about school board chaos and angry audiences, but in Wichita Falls it is about, uh, mascots (that's even former state senator Craig Estes pictured below) . . . 
at 8:31 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)