3.11.2024

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




I had forgotten J.D. got over 50% in a three man race. (This was technically from 10 years ago last week, but I'm going to be scrambling for material because a decade ago I took off for vacation so there aren't any posts to choose from.)

  • In a Liberally Lean Exclusive™, my intrepid team of reporters has learned that Decatur lawyer Paul Belew has taken the first steps to run for election as judge of the 271st Judicial District which covers Wise and Jack counties.  The election is two years away. 

  • I think this is an example how local newspapers and local media affiliates -- all of them -- are suffering due to staff cuts.  This criminal case against the Affluenza Mom was pending for eight years and it, along with the case against her son, Ethan Couch, made headlines everywhere. But she quietly pled guilty and received 180 days, credit for time served, last November and we are just now finding out about it.

  • The Texas Tribune notes the Wise County race, which is headed to a run-off, and its Texas Oilman PAC connection.  And this is the first time I've seen in mainstream print that Hopper's son works for the Jonathan Stickland's Pale Horse Strategies (since renamed) whose offices were the epicenter of the Nick Fuentes brouhaha. 


  • Katie Britt's cringe-worthy Republican Rebuttal to the State of the Union took a wild turn this weekend.
    • There was on part of it where she said she had spoke with a woman immigrant who had been trafficked and how we wouldn't accept that in a "third world country" much less in America. Video.

    • A TikTok sleuth quickly found out that she was lying. The woman does exist but she isn't someone who quietly confided in the Senator. Nope, she has speaking engagements everywhere, even in front of Congress, about being trafficked. But, get this: It occurred over 20 years ago when she was 12 and when George W. Bush was President, and had nothing to with America  -- it happened deep in Mexico. This guy did a fantastic job. Video. 

    • Scarlett Johansson then gives and Oscar-worthy performance recreating this whole mess on Saturday Night Live. Video. (Side note: Look how well they recreated the imagery of the whole thing.)

    • Even Fox News had to confront her with the lie yesterday -- all because a TikTok guy is doing what journalists should do.

  • Fox4Terry was on the job this weekend. That was one heck of a wreck.

  • Oh, my. Carey Birmingham, 60, was sentenced last week in Harris County for shooting his wife Patricia, 48, after discovering she had an affair.  It was an all-female jury (pretty wild for Texas) and, if I'm reading the story correctly, they also found that he acted in "sudden passion" which would have capped the sentence at 20 years anyway. Here's the video (which ends before the shot.)


  • Trump news:
    • He mocked Joe Biden's stutter over the weekend. Video.

    • He sounded like a drunken uncle last night when he got mad during the Oscars.

    • Jimmy Kimmel then read the Tweet on stage and responded with a very funny retort. Video.

  • Rare Royal Family News from me: Questions surrounded the health of the Princess of Wales over the last two months so the Royals decided to release a photoshopped picture of her. They were quickly busted for it. She released this statement this morning: "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused." Sheesh.


  • Junior's not wrong. The normal and regular Republicans have been conquered.

  • Women's College Basketball fight yesterday! Kind of. Video.

  • Hot Sports Opinion: There's no way I pay Micah Parsons the big money. Once paid, his motivation, which wanes as the season goes on anyway, will be gone.  Think Albert Haynesworth from back in the day who was once signed as a huge free agent by Washington, and was immediately a shadow of himself.

at 8:30 AM

3.08.2024

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I short summary won't do this one justice. A boy found dead in a bathtub in Frisco, the mother arrested before an ME's report put the case in complete doubt, and then seven months later both the lady and her husband were dead. Here's a long read on it. 

  • Biden did really well on the State of the Union although in this day and time no one is sitting through an hour long speech. But I did.

    • Let's check in on some GOP images. 


    • Was Rep. Ronny Jackson feeling uncomfortable as he was on his phone in the audience? 

    • If you want to see 21 seconds of the Republican response, check this out. It is like the first day of acting school. 

  • Oh, before I forget, we learned yesterday that Ronny Jackson has been lying about his military rank.
    Editor's note: This is not the photo that ran with the story, but it seems like a good time to remind everyone of that incident. 
     
  • The metroplex was far worse than Wise County yesterday.

  • I'm not sure what the purpose is of acknowledging by a press release "that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire" while denying any negligence. 

  • "UVALDE, Texas (AP) — An independent report commissioned by the City of Uvalde into a deadly 2022 school shooting found that none of the city’s officers violated department policy, infuriating families of some of the 19 children and two teachers who were killed in one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history." If the "department policy" was to stand around while kids die, I suppose it is right. 


  • The last thing we need is this on the State Board of Education. 


  • Speaking of vouchers, that's a big bullet point for the Texas Oilman PAC. They want to gut public education and move tax dollars to private, unregulated Christian schools. Andy Hopper, who the PAC has thrown a ton of money at with more to come, fell in line yesterday.  

    • Sidenote #1: That voucher proposition on the Republican ballot was horribly worded. It might as well have begun with, "Do you want to follow God's Word and have your personal hard earned savings follow your precious child instead of going to cross-dressing devil worshipers?" 
    • Sidenote #2. You are not "the representative of #HD64."
  • Let's check in FBC Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress to see what message of Christian love he was spreading last night. 

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 4 years and 289 days.

at 8:30 AM

3.07.2024

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




That Farmer's Branch lawsuit was over an ordinance which prevented private landlords from renting to undocumented aliens. It never went into effect, but legal bills cost the city over $8 million. And it was all spearheaded because of Mayor Tim O'Hare who is now the administrative County Judge of Tarrant County.

  • We've got an Anti-Gaza Invasion protest in Fort Worth this morning outside of General Dynamics.

  • I said yesterday that I didn't know much about the newly elected Brandon Gill who will become Wise County's Congressman along with Ronny Jackson, but yesterday Wired magazine educated me. Good lord.



  • "The armorer faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine after the involuntary-manslaughter conviction, according to the AP."  I'm not too bent out of shape about the conviction, but she doesn't need to be put in a cage for this mistake. 

  • I'm not sure I've ever heard of this guy.  When he ran for Congress in Tarrant County he got less than 3% of the vote. 



  • Having a ton of drama students show up at a school board meeting and passionately tell you that you are out of your collective minds apparently works:

  • I haven't followed this case at all (I hate the Eagles), but it somehow got derailed because, of all things, a document dump in the middle of trial by singer Don Henley. Prosecutors had to dismiss it shortly after it started. (That's a free link to the story.) 



  • I asked on the Monday after Paxton's acquittal why the House Republicans risked the impeachment if they were not 100% sure the Senate would convict. I still wonder that. 

  • State Rep. Glenn Rogers (Parker, Palo Pinto, and Stephens Counties) was defeated by the Oilmen PAC and went scorched earth yesterday in the Weatherford Democrat. He's not wrong. 


  • When I first saw the plans for the proposed new baseball stadium for the A's in Las Vegas, I thought I was being punked. Nope, it's legit.


  • I don't think I ever mentioned that the big bucks for jury service went up starting last year.
  • Legal Nerdy Stuff: Florida passed an "Anti-WOKE" law which is as dumb as it sounds because it prevented private employers from engaging in any type of diversity training. Well, the 11th Circuit struck it down on Monday on First Amendment grounds (infringing private speech based upon content), and it has one of the greatest first paragraphs ever: 

  • Extremely legal nerdy stuff for practitioners only: I complain about people being prosecuted for traffic accidents all the time, and yesterday a Texas court overturned a manslaughter conviction in an auto-pedestrian case because the State failed to prove the often misunderstood legal standard of criminal "recklessness." 
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM
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