3.14.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Remember this? It became known as the Kandahar Massacre and led to a life sentence. Here's a long read on the incident that appeared in GQ magazine.



  • It's Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tournament time. Sign up here. Once again, I'm tricking up the scoring system to give great weight to the early rounds with even more points awarded this year for upsets. The idea is that if you do well in the opening rounds, you might be able to hold on and win it all. We'll see how this works out.  I'm kind of interested in that myself. 

    • Lots of local flavor in the first four left out which you won't get a chance to bet on.

  • There was a fire near Boonsville yesterday which caused some evacuations. I'm stating the obvious, but we didn't get any rain in the Fall and none this Spring. It's really dry. And the high wind months are starting. 

  • Liberally Lean Weather Expert Bulletin: If we have any storms, they'll be in a window between 4:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m., but my boys don't seem to be worried putting the odds at 1 in 4. The more east you go, the greater the chance for rain. In downtown Dallas for example, chances go to about 70% an hour later. 
  • The Ukraine images have only become worse. And we've got an update on one picture from last week and it's not good. 

  • A 25 year old guy fell off the roof top area of this bar in Dallas on Saturday night and did not survive. It's an "Irish bar." It was St. Patrick's Day parade weekend on nearby Greenville Avenue. 

  • "Prostate cancer lives as it is born: slow-growing and benign or fast-growing and dangerous."

  • A bullpen catcher for the University of Texas was caught on cell phone video drinking from a fan's flask during a game. He was kicked off the team. 

  • Lock your guns up. 
  • Trump being Trump this weekend. One relatively harmless. The other promoting a race war to be led by the Critical Race Strawmen. 
    Video.

    Video.
  • Random musical/play which everyone raves about once they see it. 

  • The standard funny line about this announcement is: "It took him about two months of 'family time' for him to figure that out."

    • This really happened on the day before Brady's announcement:
  • This is behind a paywall, but I warned about it the moment that selling your "name, image, or likeness" became legal in college sports. We now have the equivalent of Super PACs buying athletes for schools. I not against players finally getting paid, but college football as we knew it will soon be gone forever. 
  • You think that would be a bigger crowd. 
  • Legal nerd stuff: Fifth Circuit rejects a First Amendment challenge to Texas's anti-barratry law prohibiting lawyers from soliciting legal work from already-represented criminal defendants. 



at 8:33 AM

3.11.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I just looked up Magnus Carlsen. He's "has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011" and may already be the greatest chess player ever. In that 60 minutes segment (available here), it started with footage of him playing  (and winning) 10 games against 10 different experts, all played simultaneously and all with him with his back to them. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.


  • That once stalled Russian convoy is on the move, and I bet this war is about to enter the long haul stage. 


  • Here's the video. Friday classes are cancelled. 

  • More high school craziness: Don't bring a gun with you to your state basketball tournament. Update: Kimball lost last night. 

  • Lubbock car dealer (and former prolific DFW radio advertiser) Barter Reagor received 14 years in federal prison yesterday.  The U.S. Attorney's Office, which now showboats as much as anyone, issued a press release which, oddly, quoted and linked to some of Reagor's salesmanship meeting rants which were already Internet famous. (Side note: The links actually included video of the rants. I had never seen the video aspect of them before. But when you actually get to see Dykes in those sales meetings, his rants seem more like he is doing a bit instead of being a serious jerk.)

  • The Tarrant County D.A.'s office has indicted another officer for murder -- something that used to be unthinkable.  There's a bodycam in this case showing it all according to the story, but I don't think it's been released. There hasn't been a lot of press about this case. The officer is 24 years old, but looks younger. 

  • Three out of four misdemeanor jury trials in Tarrant County this week did not result in a conviction. 

  • Here's a wild twist in the Jerry Jones love child story.  The girl's mother was once involved in an incident where her boyfriend was shot in a parking lot in Frisco.  And in a really wild moment, the actual shooter popped on The Ticket yesterday for a quick interview. He claimed the lady was being drug across a parking lot and he came to her defense after leaving an establishment at 1:00 in the morning. He may be right: The case was no billed by the grand jury. (The segment is on The Ticket's app in its podcast section and should be available here very soon. Here's a Reddit thread about it.)

  • Yep, the woolly mammoth story from yesterday does have Wise County ties: One of the lead guys is Ben Lamm who is from the Armes family lineage in Decatur. 
  • We had a rare trifecta in Union news:
    • Baseball avoided a prolonged lockout, but the agreement yesterday shows a crack in the once great baseball players union.  The old guard would have never gone against the recommendation of executive board. They would have held out. The new generation caved.

    • Someone tipped me off yesterday that the six year Lockheed employee contract is up in April and that negotiations are going slow. It's been a while since we've had a big union strike in the metroplex but that might be coming to Fort Worth. 
    • The Fort Worth Police Union went to the trouble of issuing a press release to attack three council members who failed to vote for the purchase of a third armored vehicle. The vote actually passed 5-3-1 so they are going to get their weapon of war. 

  • Fox News has really upped its attack on teachers. 

  • Former OU coach Lincoln Riley's new $17 million home for his USC gig is spectacular. 

  • My rebuttal: "You're wrong."

  • I'll do my Tricked Up Scoring Liberally Lean March Madness Tourney brackets on Monday.  In the meantime, The Evil Empire got ready by blowing a 20 point lead against TCU in the Big 12 Tourney yesterday, and then Baylor slept walked and got bounced by OU later that evening.   

  • The Tarrant County DA's office is promoting a TV show on Sunday which features DNA forensic/familial genetic testing which almost every agency seems to be using these days to solve crimes left and right. 

  • 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: 981 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

3.10.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts





That line still makes no sense. 

  • Images of war as Russia bombs a maternity hospital. That's a pregnant woman in the first photo.


  • So Jerry Jones (maybe) fathered a baby and has paid a fortune over the years to the mother and her daughter to keep the whole thing quiet. Lots to unpack here.

    • Before you demonize Jones, it should be noted that he's paid far more in this deal than he was legally obligated to if the father.  And the child has done OK financially. She had a high tone Sweet Sixteen birthday party where she received a Range Rover, and she even went to SMU. Heck, momma and daughter even appeared on something called Big Rich Texas:


    • And if you want to crucify him for having an affair, you might want to really tap the brakes. Just look out that window -- he's not alone in that sin. 
    • But it's certainly ok to demonize him for apparently having had no contact with the child for her entire life. That's bad. 
    • This really bugs me: What's the purpose of the daughter's lawsuit? What's her end game?  It's not about money. He doesn't owe her anything and she's not "entitled" to anything by simply being a biological daughter. The lawsuit reads as if it is to simply declare that she is not bound by any Non-Disclosure Agreement, but who says that she is? Of course, she's not. She's not a party to it nor could she have been -- she was an infant. 
    • I  suppose it's just a coincidence that she ended up working for Trump and our own scandal-ridden Congressman, Ronny Jackson. (She also worked for former Congressman Mac Thornberry so she's got a weird connection to our far reaching Congressional district that reaches all the way to the Panhandle.) 

  • The official Liberally Lean forecast says, "It's gonna be really, really cold, but nothing otherwise to get excited about."

  • Am I losing my mind, or do I remember hearing something about a significant Decatur or Wise County connection to this project?:

  • Video. This is wild even for Trump. Once again, I present the presumptive nominee for the Republicans:

  • Of course she's been funneling part of the $15 million there. It's all a full circle. 

  • Random stolen criminal justice thoughts:
    • That's not a bad idea. 

    • Funny but true.

  • Books I've read this year (look at me!):
    •  He's a good writer, but he comes across as an arrogant Ivy Leaguer. And this "book" actually turned out to just be a collection of speeches, papers, and even some of his court opinions(!).  That's exactly something an arrogant Ivy Leaguer would do. (Verdict: Disappointing.)

    • I'm stunned the owner of the Mets isn't in prison. This is, in part, the inspiration of Billions.  (Pretty good. Not as technical as I feared.)

    • Fourteen poverty stricken men died in the desert in 2001 trying to come to America for a better a life. Turns out, their  hired guide just got them lost. In the heat. With no shade. With no water. (Not bad, but the author could have picked up the pace a bit.)

       
  • Online shopping tidbit: I ordered the best and greatest soft bath towel (recommended by WireCutter) directly from the manufacturer in January, and it still hasn't arrived due to being on back order. I ordered new tennis shoes recently from Kohl's and it took eight days to get here (and I had to actually go to the post office and pick up the package when DHL couldn't successfully deliver it on the first attempt). But if I order anything from Amazon, it will show up within 24 hours -- and without the hassle of entering all my data and credit card number.



at 8:29 AM
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