8.28.2024

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




"LOS ANGELES — The fantastical story of the Southern California football player Josh Shaw leaping out of a second-floor window to rescue a drowning nephew was, it turns out, too fantastical to be true."

  • If there was ever a major back-story crying out to be told but was not, it's this story.

     

  • Good lord. We knew something happened to her two weeks ago, but we finally got the details yesterday. "[She] said her right eye was knocked out of its socket after a student threw a wooden hanger at her during the first week of school."


  • Lots of yelling and screaming about this from Trump yesterday, but it was just the special counsel refining the most important indictment in the most important case in the light of the incomprehensible Supreme Court immunity ruling. (It you want the details of what the changes were in a nerdy way, this thread is good.)


  • Speaking of the Insurrection, we have another sentence. Not enough. 

  • One of those cool rocket boosters that returns back to Earth and lands upright has finally failed after its 23rd mission early this morning. Video. 


  • It sounds like this was a plea bargain for probation but, if so, I don't know why they are doing the sentencing in September. 


  • I-35 in Oklahoma had a bit of trouble yesterday. That's the trailer of an 18 wheeler definitely pointing the wrong way.

  • In one of the cheesiest and cringiest things you've ever seen, Trump released a two minute commercial yesterday where he tries to convince you to buy his trading cards.  It's amazing. He even threw in a couple of "people are saying". 


  • I have questions: (1) Why would anyone listen to these chowderheads?, and (2) How in the world can Amazon sell over $100 million in advertising in order to turn a profit?

  • The NFL will now allow a team to sell "no more than 10 percent of its ownership to private equity from a list of firms approved by the league."  But I remind you once again they have an arbitrarily self-imposed "salary cap" for players.


  • Very legal nerdy stuff: We had a ruling yesterday regarding drug dogs (you know, those amazing animals that can smell marijuana even when it is in gummy candy form and hermetically sealed). Well, an appellate court said that if the pooch sticks its snout inside a vehicle's passenger compartment in order to sniff the weed, then it's an illegal search.  Makes sense, I never believed an officer can stick his head inside a vehicle to detect an odor, but I've never seen a case perfectly on point -- although others with imperfect facts have tried.  
  • AI writing offense reports? What could go wrong . . . 

at 8:30 AM

8.27.2024

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




This was about the peak of the Lake Bridgeport drought.

  •  Not sure what all is going on here:
    • Greg Swindell is a former Longhorn and MLB pitcher. From last weekend:

    • From this morning:

  • That's one serious water main break.



  • The pitchfork crowd is out for this guy, but let's remember he's legally entitled to a bond. And let's also remember we don't even know the blood alcohol concentration yet, and the DA doesn't even have enough evidence to go to a grand jury. And all these bond conditions aren't cheap. 


    • To start with, $750,000 bond itself probably will cost him $75,000 to a bonding company.
    • The SCRAM ankle monitor device which monitors for alcohol runs over $300 a month.
    • The interlock device is probably around $80 a month. 
    • And the reporting requirement to probation as a condition of bond is probably $60 a month or more. 
  • DPS has entered into a $5.3 million contract to a private firm which collects your location data from your cell phone. So how did the firm get the data? You've agreed to provide to the data to certain apps and the maker of those apps sold it to them. That firm took that data and created its own geo-fencing data which DPS wants. No warrant required. 

  • Trump began to waffle on Sunday on whether he would do the ABC debate at all and continued o do so yesterday.  I think he has to. It's simply too late to back out now of the 9/10 event.  In the meantime, the Harris camp says they want the mics live at all times (they think Trump can't control himself) while Trump's people want them off during not designated speaking times. 
  • A giant head of Elon Musk has been spotted in South Texas. 


  • A beer bash at home in McAllen where there was a cover charge was implemented leads to three arrests after a high school football player decided to jump from a roof to a pool but ended up dying in the process.


  • I must be guilty of living in my own online bubble, because I had never even seen a single word about these girls. Yet they somehow warranted a New Times Times story.


  • The school is UT-San Antonio. Here's its link to the program. 

  • Jerry finally signed CeeDee Lamb yesterday. Overall, it's a $136 million deal with $100 million guaranteed including $38 million up front.


  • This will be the first weekend of Texas high school football and that means there will be 750 games - the most ever. Source.



at 8:30 AM

8.26.2024

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




I was posting lots of old Bridgeport Index front pages back then. Those are total enrollment figures.

  • Our long state nightmare is over: The the $350,000 Man is calling it quits (after collecting a few more months of checks.)  


    • He deserves no accolades because he will only be remembered for DPS's role in Uvalde:

  • Something to think about as high school football season begins. 


  • Crazy RFJ Jr. "suspended" his presential race on Friday much to the chagrin of his crazy anti-vax supporters. Oddly, he said that he will keep his name on the ballot in non-battleground states because that way he can still win: "In fact, today our polling shows them tying at 269 to 269. And I could conceivably still end up in the White House in a contingent election." Moments later Trump said of the endorsement:  “It's big. He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.”


    • They were on stage later that evening where RFK got the mic and primarily praised Trump because, “I want to make America healthy again and so does President Trump.” I'm very confused.


    • But the best part of that Nevada rally was Kari Lake appearing on stage and getting messages on the teleprompter telling her to get off. Ol' Colton didn't get any action after the first one so he had to invoke Trump's name.

       

  • Members of the San Diego Charges got stuck in an elevator in the The Westin hotel in Dallas on Friday. "Fire department personnel were dispatched about 7:45 p.m., around when a 911 call was placed for an emergency where 15 people were trapped in an elevator at the hotel."  Fifteen?! Isn't their a weight limit on those things, 

  • When you struggle to pay for tuition at a public school this year, take some comfort in knowing that a dorm at SMU is a showplace.




  • She has to be tired of pretending to be giddy whenever the cameras turn on. Especially after she got this news. Remember that this trip, which began June 5th, was only supposed to last a week.


  • Insurrection update. The Granbury lawyer will be sentenced in January.  Here's a video she posted while the riot was going on. 

  • Trump turned into pro-choice on Friday? Yes, this is real.  

  • Those South Walton commercials are good

at 8:30 AM

8.23.2024

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

at 2:30 PM
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