Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Still a crazy story. The head football coach in Arkansas appeared in front of the cameras to explain that his injuries were from a motorcycle accident. But what he failed to disclose was that he had a 25 year old employee on the back of it. It cost him his job. 

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•  Abbott continued his transformation into Trump yesterday with "tough on the border" rhetoric which is making the news this morning. The headline is that "Abbott Will Ship Illegal Immigrants to D.C." which is exactly what he said in his press conference.
  
  
  
• But there's a little sentence in the follow-up press release which is being ignored. The press conference, it turns out, was nothing more than a campaign commercial ruse.
  
  
  
• I noticed, once again, that the head of DPS was right there by his side at the press conference serving as his de facto role of campaign manager and personal servant. All these guys are on the taxpayer payroll including the four troopers serving as props in the background . . . 
  
  
  
• This is a wild story and no one knows the answer as to "why." Two men, posing as agents from the Department of Homeland Security, started to befriend Secret Service agents and, more disturbingly, "lavished them with penthouses, iPhones, drones, and even a $2,000 rifle."
  
  
  
• This is a big, and pretty rare, malpractice verdict out of Tarrant County.  "The anesthesiologist injected tranexamic acid — a medication used to control bleeding — into her spine instead of a spinal anesthetic, attorneys said."  And it sounds like no one disputes this. In a statement after the verdict, the hospital's press release said: “We acknowledge Ms. Davis has suffered a significant and devastating injury as the result of preventable human error. We are so sorry for her suffering." Oh, my. 
  
  
  
• The University of Texas has authorized living in sin within its own dorms!
  
  
  
• In general, Hood County seems to be more wheels off that Wise County. (This story, involving a 37 year old middle school teacher, made it all the way to CNN, CBS, and the New York Post.) 
  
  
  
• Montana legalized weed sales on January 1st.  We now have the first quarter numbers. Have I ever mentioned Texas, instead of collecting tax money, still puts people in cages for possession of less than 2 ounces?  
  
  
  
• You don't see this very often. Stay with me here (if you like political stuff).
• Democratic State Senator Beverly Powell had been an incumbent in Texas ever since she beat Republican (nutcase) Konni Burton.  Yep, in North Texas a Democrat beat a Republican. So what did the Republican legislature do last term? They gerrymandered her district to politically kill her. 
• The District went from encompassing only southern Tarrant County to a sprawling seven counties which now included conservative rural counties. Parker, Palo Pinto, Stephens, and Johnson were all added to her district.
  
  
  
• Immediately after the lines were changed, State Rep. Phil King, who has always been part of the committee to redraw the lines, saw his opportunity to move from the Texas House to the Texas Senate. 
  
  
  
• Powell countered by suing with an allegation that the redrawn lines were unconstitutional. She did that in November. But with the Supreme Court having gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, that was now a long shot. 
  
  
  
• The next step was to have the primary election last month where Powell won on the Democratic side and Phil King's master plan worked out with him winning on the Republican side. 
  
  
  
• But the third step was a little surprising: Powell simply gave up this week and withdrew from the November election because, once her lawsuit failed, she knew that redistricting had screwed her and there was no way to win. 
  
  
  
• The Pro-Life group immediately celebrated the orchestrated gerrymandered victory:
  
  
  
• I'll say it again. The most important political story is one that happens every 10 years and which is is basically ignored by the public: What political party is in power in any given state when the Census number are released because that party gets to redraw that state's voting lines.  It decides everything for the next decade. 
• Legal nerdy (and political) stuff out of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday as one judge takes an out-of-the-blue shot at AG Ken Paxton's recent verbal attack on the court: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Random federal legal opinion leads off with a paragraph right out of Better Call Saul. If you're going to go bad, go all out.  
  
  
  
• The long beat down of a seven month baseball season begins today at 1:20 p.m. in Chicago. Forecast: "50 percent chance of rain and temperatures in the mid-40s."

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The Baylor girls won the National Championship a decade ago. That's Britney Griner who now sits in a Russian jail. 

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• 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

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. 

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• 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.