8.02.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



That was my hot take after Cruz won the Senate primary. I couldn't have been more wrong. You may not hear about the Tea Party anymore, but that's because the Tea Party became the Republican Party in Texas.

  • The killing of  al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a drone strike will probably be quickly forgotten. But he was a big player for 9/11 and much of the acclaimed book, The Looming Tower, on the terrorist organization was dedicated to him. He just never became a household name. 

    • Mostly unnoticed by many is that the killing was done by the CIA and not the military.  

    • He was hit on the balcony of his home in a pretty "upscale" neighborhood in Kabul not far from our now abandoned embassy.

    • That's it post-strike:

    • And look what we killed him with. That thing doesn't have any explosives on it. Those blades, which can cut through metal and concrete, are what do the damage. 

  • Keep 'em coming. But the Justice Department wanted 15 years.  

  • Just a reminder of how quickly Dallas police released the video footage of the lady firing the gun at Love Field followed by an officer shooting her with seconds. Compare and contrast DPS' response when they don't want you to see what happened. Story. 

  • News about local morning TV news. They have got to promote Hannah Battah (who was actually beside Tim Ryan this morning for the announcement of his retirement) from her early shift to replace him or they are going to lose her. But that would also result in two female co-hosts since she would be paired with long time host Lauren Przybyl.


  • This is turning into a beat down. This has to have a noticeable impact on people's attitudes, right?  Grumpier? Less tolerant? Hopelessness exaggerated?

  • I saw this headline out of Alabama a couple of days ago and was appalled. It's very Taliban like -- a dress code for women for executions. But I backed off once I saw the line that she "eventually got to witness the execution."  But then I saw why she got witness was allowed in: She "accepted a photographer’s offer to let her wear his rain gear — waterproof fisherman’s waders. The prison official approved that outfit." Good lord. 


  • This was at the Saudi LIV golf tournament stop this weekend at Trump's New Jersey golf course. The QAnon congresswoman as well as Fox News most nutty commentator were guests of honor. 

  • Legal stuff: Bite mark comparison, "blood splatter" evidence, polygraphs, arson "experts" and more are all under justifiably under attack in a new book.

  • C.D. Lamb has an odd idea of "full pads."


  • Am I the only one confused about the appeal process in the NFL's disciplinary action against Deshaun Watson? They brought in a retired federal judge as a mediator for a big dog and pony show who then issued a long quasi-judicial opinion about her findings. But the NFL can now appeal the ruling straight to Commissioner Roger Goodell? Heck, Goodell is the NFL!  It's the equivalent of Z suing Y and all appeals going to Z for a final decision. 

at 8:15 AM

8.01.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Ted Cruz beat David Dewhurst in the run-off in 2012. Compare his run-off votes to his earlier primary votes. I was stunned then, and still stunned now. He increased his voter count even though the total turnout, as expected, went down from the multi-candidate primary (1.4 million total votes) compared to the two person run-off (1.1 million total votes).




  • A motorist on Highway 199 in Azle shot a guy a motorcycle yesterday as they went down the road. That's about all we know.

  • Everything about Uvalde is a cluster. We've now got a reversal of the decision to suspend the principal. 

  • One thing very odd about the How-Much-Will-Alex-Jones-Have-To-Pay trial is that the judge allows the jury to submit written questions to the lawyers every day. (The judge screens them and decides which ones will be submitted.) I honestly think this is a great idea. But, admittedly, it could get weird. Here is an actual rejected question from Friday (source and source):

  • If you haven't seen the lady open fire on a silver car after a road rage incident in Houston, here you go. 

  • Two trials regarding crimes which were big news when they happened years ago are starting this month. 
    • This one is local and starts today. The defendant was eventually caught in Justin in 2020 after being on the run since 2008. He is accused of murdering his daughters whose bodies were found in his abandoned taxi cab in Irving.


    • The other case is out of Ohio. It's so bizarre that it got a long feature story in the Washington Post over the weekend. 


  • Got off?

  • If you want to watch the recent CNN special about conservative West Texas oil money running Texas politics, you can do so here or here. Commercial free. It's very good. 

  • That guy ended up in the crowd in England yesterday. There were no serious injuries. Video. 

  • Trump would let Brittney Griner rot in a Russian prison.

  • The ruling on former Houston Texan QB Deshaun Watson's suspension for Massage-gate was just been handed down: It is six games. That's a win for Watson (especially since all his salary is guaranteed.)

    • I think the players' union knew what was coming. They issued this last night:

  • The Cowboys had to shut down admitting new fans to its first official practice on Saturday after 4,000 people showed up. 

  • Maybe I should become the next Jim Cramer because of my investment advice I gave you guys years ago? From the Morning News today: 

  • Legal nerd stuff: Here's the court's scheduling order for the Musk/Twitter fight. Man, that's a short fuse. 
  • On Friday, Exxon and Chevron release their quarterly net profit numbers. We are all suckers. 

  • I have it confirmed that when Garth Brooks took the stage at JerryWorld on Saturday night, he looked surprised to see a full stadium. 

at 8:29 AM

7.29.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




When I wrote that, it was time for the David Dewhurst/Ted Cruz run-off race for Senate.  It looks like I voted for Cruz because I was mad at Dewhurst for running border ads and ads tying Cruz to the Chinese. That type of race-baiting campaigning, I thought, was just over the top and offensive.  How naïve was I? Heck, Dewhurst's campaign style was just ahead of its time. 

  •  "Glass bottles magnifying sunlight in an open trash can ignited paper and other items in the trash which then spread into a 500-acre wildfire that destroyed eight homes at Possum Kingdom Lake last week."  Let me tell you something, the chances of that "cause" of the fire being correctly identified and pinpointed by the Possum Kingdom West Volunteer Fire Department are about the same as you winning that billion dollar lottery going on tonight.

  • There have been 19 different people booked into the Wise County Jail in the last 48 hours. That has to be a record, and I'm not sure what's going on. 
  • First it was the Secret Service, and now we have another January 6th Cover Up story:


  • The video is online, and it's horrible to watch. I kind of regret doing so.  One of the dancers "remains in serious condition", but I don't know how he will survive.


  • The Republicans in the Senate doing an about face and screwing over veterans on the Burn Pit Legislation is really shocking. And, as proven yesterday, there may be no better spokesman for a cause than Jon Stewart. Video.  Stewart is exactly right. America loves war and we throw billions at Lockheed and others who make up the military machine, but we cast aside veterans like rag dolls once they come home and have to deal with the consequences of what we put them through.


    • .And here is Ted Cruz fisting bumping a buddy once that bill to benefit veterans was killed.

  • Gov. Abbott had previously said the stop at the fundraiser in Huntsville on the day of the Uvalde shooting was to “let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go” to Austin to continue working with law enforcement on the response, but . . . 

    • . . . here's what actually happened (with a pretty tasty tidbit in that paragraph).

  • He's a 9/11 Truther now, too? 

  • Buddy, you are as Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment. Act like it. (Video.) And what's up with this new beard? 

  • Let's check in on Newsmax. (There's actually a bank in Wise County that has Newsmax playing on it's big screen TV in the lobby.)

  • And another case solved by use of genetic DNA. "The sheriff’s office reached out to the DNA Doe Project in early 2020 for help. A DNA profile was developed from a molar and uploaded to a genealogical database, according to the DNA Doe Project."

  • 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: 1,120 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)