- Something I learned yesterday after I questioned why we have two different elections, a city/school election and a run-off election from the March primary, in the same month.
- The reason: A primary election, and its accompanying run-off, is a "private election" while the city/school election is a "public" one.
- Say what? Stay with me here.
- So you understand the concept of a public election, but what in the heck is a "private" one? Well, the primary election is solely for the Republican Party and Democrat Party to decide who will be their nominees. Those are private political parties and they get to choose who goes on their ballot. (That's why if you want to be on the ballot on the primary, you don't file your application with any government official, you file it with the head/chairman of the party you want to be associated with.)
- So if it is private, why is the county election office involved? After all, that government office runs it, right? Get this: The political parties actual contract with the county. Yep, the Democrat Party and Republican Party actually reimburse the county for the use of the election employees and pay rent for the county voting machines. (It they wanted to, they could run their own election with their own voting machines purchased from the State and administered by people they choose. But that's expensive and a headache.) In the last primary election in March, Wise County plans to submit bills to the Democratic and Republican parties for $12,200 each for reimbursement.
- However, the county gets screwed on a lot of the "contract" aspect of it. Much of what they can collect is dictated by State law and, for example, they don't get reimbursed for any expenses involved in early voting for some reason. That's a big deal. Also, there's a lot of overtime pay involved, but they can't get reimbursed for overtime.
- So, anyway, the entire state has two elections in May which they really can't combine -- one public for city and school positions, and the run-off election which is a private affair.
- Thanks to Wise County Election Administrator Sabra Srader for explaining this to me.
- Ugh.
- Ted Cruz on Fox News: "People go and do that [become public defenders] because their heart is with criminal defendants. Their heart is with the murderers and the criminals and that's who they're rooting for . . . . Public defenders often have a natural inclination in the direction of the criminal."
- One of the reasons I hate the guy is because he is smarter and that. He truly knows better. But he, ever since he became a Trump sycophant, is just appealing to the most uniformed among us. It' shameful and dishonest.
- A small police department south of Waco announced that a fake cop pulled over a young lady on I-35. The Star-Telegram reported that she was a Baylor student. She called 911 even though the fake cop was "screaming at her" to get out of the car. I suppose there are some people in life, depending on where you are from, who would have gotten out the car because of a legitimate fear that the cop would shoot them. A female Baylor student is not one of them.
- Speaking of Baylor, it struck me yesterday that celebrating "Hispanic culture" with a big sign that reads "FIESTA" seems just a tad bit dated.
- Just announced. Can't wait to see him look at the crowd with a fake look of shock on his face as if he didn't expect anyone to be there.
- Look who President Biden had as a guest in the Oval Office yesterday.
- Flashback to other recent guests:
- In two years, on April 8, 2024, to be exact, areas of Texas, including Dallas, will have a full solar eclipse which will last for about four minutes. We are talking total darkness. Wise County will get dark, but not completely dark.
- Twitter formally announced it was working on an edit function yesterday. This is a very bad idea because . . .
- Can we tap the brakes on this Tiger Woods resurrection? He had a bad car wreck with a really bad broken leg. (And let's just overlook that it happened for an unexplained reason at 7:00 in the morning.) But to say that doctors "briefly" considered amputation is the biggest bunch of crap sold on the public golf world in a long time. He is being treated like he was a quadriplegic who awoke from a six month coma and then magically rolled away the stone from this hospital room while simultaneously carrying his golf bag. It was a one-vehicle car wreck in a brand new car with all the modern safety features. And it wasn't even that bad of a wreck at that as the passenger compartment was completely intact and all the air bags deployed. He then had the very best doctors, the very best rehab people, and all the time and the money in the world to recuperate. And the question now is whether he has the endurance to walk 18 holes while someone else carries his golf bag. Give me a break. There's some guy out there going to work this morning as a roofer with chronic back pain who is overcoming more hardship. #RantOver (I honestly don't know why this irks me so much.)
- Messenger: Above the Fold
4.06.2022
Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts
4.05.2022
Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts
That's a very obscure Random Thought from April 2, 2012. The film still exists on Amazon. And there's a related Easter Egg in today's Random Thoughts.
- With all the storms last night, I heard, once again, people confusing a "Watch" with a "Warning." How hard is that? The terms are obvious and self explanatory.
- Highlights from the evening. We got a lot of rain, but nothing like the metroplex which caught a second band.
- Here is a sample ballot for Wise County in the upcoming election on May 7, 2022. It includes all city and school board races and, obviously, you'll be limited to which race appear on your ballot depending on where you live.
- Note: There will be another election on May 24, 2022 for the run-off races not settled in the March primary (for Wise County Clerk, etc.). Why the state didn't combine the two would seem to be a good question.
- As of April 1st in Texas, you can now see the name of every one arrested, what their bond amount is, and the name of the judge who set the bond. The public list maintained by the state is here. Wise County has yet to submit any information. (The database was up and running yesterday but seems to be wonky this morning.) Edit: The database is up and running and some Wise County bonds have now been submitted.
- Of course he does.
- Take a look of this list of names and salaries of every prosecutor in the Harris County DA's office. You don't find a salary under six figures until page six.
- When I got out of law school, the thought of working in a "government job" like a prosecutor's office was unthinkable to me and my classmates. Now it's a tremendous gig and that's even before you consider the jobs have better retirement and health benefits than the private sector. It has been a monumental shift.
- The Supreme Court did not accept a single Fourth Amendment case this term.
- I'm almost surprised this doesn't happen more often.
- This chart was in an Atlantic article about America's workforce and used this graph taken from a recent Microsoft study of the work habits of their own employees based on keystrokes. Historically, employees normally have two peaks of work: One in the morning and one in the afternoon after lunch. Makes sense. But now there is a new peak developing around 10:00 p.m. The conclusion: With everyone connected via phones and home computers, there is some catch up time after dinner and when the kids are put to bed where we are catching up or dealing with recently developed issues. This ain't good.
- I saw these photos over the weekend of a bunch of private motorists in Dallas doing a Keystone Cops routine to try and round up a dog who had been darting onto the highway. The video is even better.
- The rarely seen curtains were put up during Wrestlemania at Jerry World.
- Compare to . . .
- I don't understand this, but it goes back to my prediction that there will now be the equivalent of Super PACs funding college athletes.
- This is kind of interesting. The floor does seem to give way. Video.
- "John" won the Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney, barely, by hanging on despite not picking Kansas to win it all. I like it. That's my goal: Reward people for early round upsets and give them a chance even once all their final four are gone. Final standings here.
4.04.2022
Random Monday Morning Thoughts
- Updated standings: I think John wins it all regardless of a Kansas victory, predicted by second place Mike, tonight. The tricked up scoring system will only reward Mike with 10 points if he is right. Full standings here.
- Good luck avoiding a mass shootings this weekend.
- Sacramento.
- Dallas.
- Fox4Terry was hard at it last night. This was actually the ramp in North Fort Worth that goes from northbound I-35 to 287 for Decatur. It happened around 2:00 in the morning. That's a tow truck and a car. Two are dead.
- Saturday night in Southlake: Hit and run on service road of 114 and Kirkwood. Victim of accident pursues vehicle. Loses him. But then thinks he's found him as he sees a couple exit a vehicle parked in a driveway. Couple is approached. A fight ensues and shots fired. The car in the driveway turned out not to be the car involved in the accident.
- I've told you: They are everywhere.
- I find it interesting that the Medical Examiner, when no longer working as the Medical Examiner, is now freely issuing an opinion of, "I couldn't possibly tell you that." (Paraphrased.) In this case, he knocked down the "time of death" theory which has been part of criminal justice lore for hears.
- But just think what happen: A lady was indicted for capital murder and now the State just dismisses the case and says, "Sorry. Our bad."
- Legal as of last Friday. How long will Texas hold out?:
- Texas is doing it's best to cause a teacher shortage.
- That took $2.89 billion to get that done. This is all because he got mad at the company last week.
- Fun fact: Alaska has such a small population (731,000 -- less than the City of Fort Worth) that it only gets one representative in the House.
- Dateline Denton. That's one way to encourage people to drive drunk. If you pull over and try to be safe, you'll get arrested. Edit: I screwed this one up. That was literally "on" I-35 and not "alongside" I-35.
- I never thought I would see a party of "conservatives" champion the government sanctioning private companies for political stances. But that's where we are.
- For the life of me, I don't understand the attraction at all. I mean, at all.
- A fantastic history podcast for dummies (like me) which I just discovered: American History Tellers. The episodes on famous Supreme Court cases are tremendous.
4.01.2022
It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here
Someone forgot to tell her to let go. 🤦♂️😏😂 pic.twitter.com/IuPeu74UnT
— Fred Schultz (@FredSchultz35) March 30, 2022
Sticky feet don’t fail me now…not today snek! 😳😅🐸🐍 pic.twitter.com/Dx5grtBcUN
— Fred Schultz (@FredSchultz35) March 31, 2022
Excuse me mam that’s not how sonic works pic.twitter.com/jnaDocZmkP
— Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) March 30, 2022
Arguing online vs. in real life be like..🐕🐾 😂 😅 pic.twitter.com/BRaGigxmvL
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) March 30, 2022
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