Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

And by audit, I didn't mean the money was stolen but was implying they never actually collected the amazing amount that was pledged over the phone. I bet it was under 50%, if that. 

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• What a horrible wreck yesterday in Wise County which became national news.   At the risk of going into dangerous speculation, is there any chance this was a group of immigrants? Not having any names by now is just weird. But there is a report in the Messenger that the van "came from Florida."
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Who are these gullible victims with all that money?
   
  
  
  
• I asked the Liberally Lean Weather Team™ about this forecast from the National Weather Service, and my boys told me those temps might actually be a little high for Wise County. They went with 85 degrees on Sunday and 80 degrees on Monday. As far rain chances, they like Monday better than Saturday or Sunday. Book it. 
  
  
  
• Trump has had another stellar couple of days. First he used the Arlington National Cemetery in TikTok videos despite being warned do so - a warning which prompted his team to have a physical altercation with a female cemetery official about it. The campaign said the next day that the worker must have been "suffering from a mental health episode" at the time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then he went absolutely psycho on Truth Social yesterday by reposting some of the craziest crap you've ever seen.  I'll say it again: For the life of me, I cannot believe that this man is the Republican nominee for President.
• First he went full Hitler. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then he posted this which would have automatically disqualified him in a normal America.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then he went literally full QAnon over and over again.  How is this even possible in a sane world?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It's working out great for him. Here's Fox News' new poll about the swing states and how things are changing. 
  
  
  
• This is an actual shot from Chicago yesterday during the first game of the double header with the Rangers. (But you might want to take a look at an amazing catch from later in the day.)
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

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."

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• 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 . . . 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

This was about the peak of the Lake Bridgeport drought.

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•  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.