10.03.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




Oh, my. That's a blog post from 10/3/13,There was a brief period of time when the Messenger was under different ownership. Ten years ago was part of that time frame. (Side note: I couldn't find out what happened to the lady in Midland County.)

  • Trump acted crazy outside the courtroom yesterday. In addition to saying the judge should be disbarred and arrested, he said, "you ought to go after this attorney general.” Yes, another threat. Things are getting really, really weird. 


    • I asked a couple of weeks ago why there would be no jury in this civil case. I got my answer yesterday. 

    • After the trial day was over, Trump shared this post. 

    • But late last night, he was up and railing against late night talk show hosts.

  • That chain link fence should be credited with an assist.


  • County Judge J.D. Clark updates us on the courthouse renovation. The elevator is gone and now you can stand in the basement and see all the way up to the top. More.



  • A car-jacking last night by "three armed assailants." The car was stolen but there were no injuries.

  • Republican Infighting: The crazy and attention seeking Rep. Matt Gaetz followed through on his threat to try to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. There must now be a vote either today or tomorrow. Unless the Democrats decide to save McCarthy and vote to keep him in (or vote to table Gaetz's motion), there will be no Speaker of the House and chaos resumes. 


    • And then the two acted like Fourth Graders on Twitter: 

  • Major League Baseball is not a serious sport when they put playoff games on during a weekday. 
  • It looks like Texas is a 4.5 favorite over OU on Saturday.  Whatever you think, do not trust that game. Ever. 

at 8:30 AM

10.02.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




You think government shutdowns (which were avoided this weekend) are new? We actually went through one 10 years ago -- that's a headline for 10/2/13. 
  • Chaos on Wise County roads this weekend. 



  • The UIL is looking into a referee ripping off a player's helmet in a high school game at Dallas Madison.  Best video I found of it is here.

  • It's now been over a month since the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals put a halt in Wise County to the capital murder prosecution of Tanner Horner until they sort our his lawyer issue. 
  • The Republican controlled House temporarily avoided a shutdown this weekend, but crazy Matt Gaetz says he will attempt to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week because of it. 


  • It takes a special kind of ghoul to be the richest man in the world who wants to cosplay as a cowboy in order gaze upon the poorest people in the world being detained.

  • Trump became more unhinged on Friday.  He dropped the mother of all cuss words (video) and he mocked at 80+ year old being beaten with a hammer that sent the man to ICU (video).  And the Ultra-MAGA Extremists cheered him on. This is the best the Republicans have to offer?

  • Heck of a photo of a shooting in New Mexico on Friday you many not have heard about. The guy in the foreground was hit but did not die. (There's an Instagram video of the incident here, and it shows there's a whole lot more to this than meets the eye.)

  • For those who still glance at the front page of papers, most of them would have thought the DA in Dallas County was doing a bang-up job.  But the story was actually about the Wichita County DA -- a guy who probably had slumped shoulders about that fact being left out of the headline. 

  • A Trump Insurrectionist, as of last week, is on the run from his sentencing hearing but first he filed the document below in court.

  • That apostrophe in "you're" gives people a lot of problem -- even at the State Fair. 

  • September was a beating. Official highs at DFW Airport: 

  • Last Thursday, these are all of the scenarios that the Astros were facing in their attempt to win the division over Texas. The only way they could do it was to win three of three and Texas had to lose at least three of their final four. It happened. 

  • Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, 57, died yesterday of brain cancer. Former Patriot TE Russ Francis, 70, was killed in a plane crash last night. 
  • Wednesday warning: "On Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 1:20 p.m. CDT, every TV, radio and cellphone in the United States should blare out the distinctive, jarring electronic warning tone of an emergency alert."

at 8:31 AM

9.29.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




It must have been a very cool morning 10 years ago. What are those like again?

  • Breaking: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest U.S. Senator, passed away overnight. It was only two months ago she made headlines when she appeared confused at a hearing when she was told to simply vote. (Side note: She cast a vote yesterday morning.)

  • This could have been worse. A recently fired employee went back to Vandergriff Chevrolet in South Arlington late yesterday afternoon and opened fire at the building from the parking lot. The building is closed today because it ended up being flooded when the security system activated.



  • The normal Republicans have to get control of the Ultra-MAGA extremists. That group demanded and caused the "impeachment inquiry" to take place at a congressional hearing yesterday as the government shutdown looms, and it was a disaster. None of the witnesses knew anything, And they all said they didn't think there were enough facts in existence to justify an impeachment. As said on Fox News, "I don't know what was achieved over these last 6+ hours." 

    • But the funniest moment (video) of the hearing gave us this screenshot:

  • Speaking of Ultra-MAGA, it looks like they are going to shut down the federal government this weekend, and then attempt to throw out the Speaker of the House. What a cluster. 

  • "The county ordinance also prohibits traveling through the county or driving on its roads to obtain an abortion." So dumb. So backwoods.  

  • Elon Musk decided to be a "reporter" at the border late yesterday. 

    • Compare and contrast: 

  • Aggieland is preparing its students for a future in politics. .

  • That Grandpa Bachelor show sure is getting lots of buzz. I would give a review, but I didn't  watch it. Yet I can say that I don't think I'd pick a gal who decided to wear a track suit. 


  • So former pitching great (and nutcase) Kurt Schilling decided to tell the world that Tim Wakefield is battling brain cancer when it wasn't public information? “This is not a message that Tim has shared and I don’t even know if he wants it shared. But as a Christian and a man of faith, I have seen prayer work and so I’m going to talk about it,” Schilling said. “Recently, Tim was diagnosed with a very serious, very aggressive form of brain cancer.” The Red Sox quickly slapped him down:

  • Law school sure has changed. Read this post by a guest lecturer. It's real and it stopped me down. Link (with interesting comments.)

  • Legal nerdy stuff:  How would you like to have your 99 year jury-imposed Texas prison sentence as a habitual offender reduced to no more than 1 year in the local county jail on appeal? It happened this week. Stay with me here.

    • A DWI is normally a misdemeanor. Even a DWI-Second is a misdemeanor. But it can be upgraded to a Third Degree Felony (2 to 10 years in prison) if you have two prior "final" convictions for DWI. 
    • But that Third Degree Felony DWI can be upgraded even further to a First Degree Felony (ergo the 99 year sentence that happened here) if you have been in and out of the pen for any unrelated felony convictions at least two times before. 
    • But that Third Degree DWI felony law has a weird quirk: A DWI conviction before 1985 is not a "final" conviction and can't be used for enhancement if you received probation that was not revoked. Not many people know that any more.
    • In this guy's case, one of the two prior DWI convictions the prosecutor used was a 1979 DWI conviction which, the court held, wasn't "final" because he successfully completed his probation back then.  So that killed the Felony DWI conviction and made him guilty of only a misdemeanor DWI-Second. And, boom, domino-effect: Since it was now a misdemeanor DWI-Second, the fact that he was a habitual offender because of the two other unrelated felony pen trips doesn't matter. He's only subject to one year in jail for a misdemeanor. A lucky guy for a guy who hasn't been very lucky. 
  • 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 85 days.

at 8:31 AM
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