It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

So much happening in one gif

Obama and Daughter Gettin' Groove On

Obama bopping to Eminem "Lose Yourself" backstage at the DNC pic.twitter.com/Jez2FVw51Z

— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) August 5, 2016

A video posted by Power 92 Chicago (@power92chicago) on Jul 31, 2016 at 9:06pm PDT

Chicago Shooting

Log# 1081642 - Bodycam Video #1 from IPRA Chicago on Vimeo.

If Chicago wasn't ramped up enough, this won't help. Story.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Of all of Trump's falling poll numbers, the great 538.com projection for Texas may be the most eyebrow raising. Trump's projected share is 47.8% with Hillary at 44.1%. That's shockingly close for Texas. And once Texas goes blue, American politics is forever changed.
• Headline in the Morning News: "UNT student stars as famed 1980s 'Preppy Killer' on 'Murder Made Me Famous'." Then you read the story and it never mentions UNT or where the guy is from. 
• When was the last time you thought of the "Preppy Murder"?
  
• Speaking of UNT: The Drudge Report reports that the Daily Mail reports that North Texas reports that guys on Tinder have low self-esteem.
  
• No we they don't.
• In light of Trump's problems, Fox News went into full blown Blame-The-Mainstream-Media mode last night.
• The beatdown of SI's Monday Morning Quarterback cite had an article that looked nothing more than an ad for NFL gear. Lo and behold, at the end of the column there was this: "The MMQB has affiliate deals with some of the brands featured and receives commission on certain purchases." Finally, some honesty.
• I'm really surprised you don't see it more often: A guy on trial for continuous sexual abuse testifies and then high tails it at lunch in Fort Worth. 
• Spending money, crowds, traffic, oppressive heat, grumpy kids: It's tax free weekend!
• Dallas PD issued a press release regarding robberies involving people playing Pokeman Go. There have been two. And one occurred at 1:05 a.m. and the other at 2:30 a.m.  My CSI type of mind has cracked the case.
• Fox News brought on a guest last night to give an opinion whether the U.S. swapped money for hostages in Iran: Oliver North. I don't know whether that is idiocy or genius. I suppose if you need an expert opinion on chicken theft you bring in a chicken thief.
• We've got a great legal battle going on in Wise County. There is an idiotic law on the books which allows someone to be charged with a felony if a person steals "copper" or "aluminum." So if someone steals a penny, a prosecutor has the unfettered discretion to charge them with a felony (because a penny has some copper in it) or charge them with the lowest crime on the books, a Class C Misdemeanor (because the value stolen is only one cent.)  Yesterday the Fort Worth Court of Appeals decided a case where someone allegedly stole a misdemeanor amount from a Bridgeport scrap yard but, unfortunately, it included four aluminum bats. The prosecutor decided to go with a felony. The trial court found the statute unconstitutional. The appellate court disagreed but with a rare 1-1-1 vote. One to uphold the statute's validity, one who concurred only (because the judge didn't think the record was enough to find the statute unconstitutional in this particular case), and one dissent. 
• Love this from the dissent: 
  
• Let me say this again: Think about the amount of your tax dollars spent in that case.
• If Seinfeld had a script for 9/11? There was one on the Internet yesterday but now it's gone. 

"Again. Hall and Oates."

"THIS IS FINE." pic.twitter.com/k51WwJnTWh

— Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) August 4, 2016

Quality comedy.

Joe Biden Doin' The Twitter Game, Too

Happy 55th, Barack! A brother to me, a best friend forever. pic.twitter.com/uNsxouTKOO

— Vice President Biden (@VP) August 4, 2016

Campaigning And You Pay For It With Your Taxes

Editor's note: This is my own personal pet peeve giving rise to my own personal rant.

For the life of me, I don't understand how public officials tweet during the day about personal matters and do so only to promote themselves for the next election. They are supposed to be working for you (and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt they aren't using a government paid for phone or computer.) They don't tweet to inform the public of the government's business. They do it for name recognition for the next election.

Take for example our insane Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his son (who first got his district judgeship by appointment.) This happened today. A Thursday. A work day:

Ok, on its surface this is no big deal. Lt. Gov. Patrick posts a link to his appearance on a local TV station.  But that is his official government account he is using and he posts during the day for the sole purpose of self promotion.  It clearly is an official account because clicking on the tweet leads you to this:

Pretty official.

Is it the end of the world? No. Is it a crime? Heck, it might be but what isn't a crime these days? Is it a violation of ethical campaign rules. The answer can almost be "absolutely".  If a sitting official uses a government stamp to mail in his re-election application for a place on the ballot then he's technically in big trouble. If that same official tells his assistant to "be sure to vote for me today", it's a violation. But these guys (and many, many others) just tweet away on government time and everyone looks the other way.

But let's get past our Lt. Gov. and take a look at his son, the judge. Above, he came along to promote himself by retweeting his father's post and adding a sweet memory from his childhood.  The son is an odd bird. He's uses his Twitter account all the time during the day. Sometimes he'll retweet news but he oftentimes uses it for self-promotion by letting us know how hard working he is. He'll tweet that a jury is being picked or a jury is deliberating in an effort to appear to be the hardest working man in show business. You know, I really don't have any problem with that because he is informing us about government business. BUT if you click on his tweets, he makes it clear that he's not on Twitter to tell you about official business. Nope, he is in the ultimate business of self-promotion:

At least he doesn't hide the message of "Vote For Me! Vote For Me!" like his dad does. So he tweets during work days on an account with the above campaign logo. I don't get it.

No one else will care, but I still don't get it.

Edit: Bonus points - What is a "circular hypothetical"?

The State Of Journalism Today: Exhibit A Is The Associated Press

She 'knew this day would come:' Kim Kardashian gets emotional over the death of her classic  BlackBerry Bold. https://t.co/72MQUeD6mB

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 4, 2016

You Just Knew Those High Tone Latin Professors Would Get Involved

Story.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Easiest way to get stopped for speeding in Wise County: (1) Be southbound on 287 with either Colorado plates or with plates from deep south states, (2) Be running around FM 718 or FM 51 in the south part of the county after midnight.
• New last week down by Austin way was that a deputy might have been ambushed and killed and/or was robbed. Now it looks like he may have shot himself.
• "Murder Trial Begins For Slayer of Richardson Gay Pornographer". That story is insane. (The bad news is that the link takes you to the Dallas Observer which means your browser will probably ground to a halt.") The link was to Day #1 of the trial. Here is the link for yesterday's Day #2.
• It's technically a "perq of the job" and not "perk of the job"? I had no idea. 
• Heard at the courthouse two days ago: "I'm against school uniforms. I think people should be able to flaunt their wealth." The response of those around him: "You feeling OK this morning, buddy?"
• Las Vegas over/under season wins for Big 12: Baylor at 9, TCU at 8.5, Oklahoma at 10. Texas at 8, Tech at 6.5. (Aggie -- which I still can't believe is in the SEC -- comes in at 8.)
• It's been over a month since the SMU officer was reportedly swept into Turkey Creek.
• The High School Graduate Soon To Be Kicked Out Of The House wants to do her own guest edition of Random Thoughts.  Me: "Have you ever read the blog?" Her: "Not a word." Me: "Knock yourself out."
• The Dallas DA has worked a little over two months this year.
  
• Note to Texas deputies: Don't get all liquored up and go shoot your gun off around a church while shirtless. (By the way, if you watch the video, you'll see a DA who overacts for the camera like a professional wrestler. But the arresting agency wasn't exactly thinking when they provided Fox 4 with a photo of a blank wall in response to the news organization's request for a book in photo.)
  
• "They don't write good, they don't know how to write good." - Donald Trump to Sean Hannity regarding his opinion of the New York Times. 
• Texas times the holding of two a days for football and band perfectly . . . 
  
• WBAP's Brian Estridge is advertising a real estate investment trust named, in an Idiocracy sort of way, as "Rich Uncles". Estridge casually tells us it is a "Reg A, Tier 2" trust. Quick, Brian, since you want that organization to manage our hard earned money, tell us what that means. 
• The President granted commuted the sentence of two Boyd men yesterday. I just saw the news and quickly googled one of the names. I'm so interested.
• 
• "Don't go there!" - Zachary Thompson, the head of Dallas County Health and Human Services last night on Fox 4 News on how people should handle travel to Miami in light of Zika.  That sounds like calm, thoughtful and rational advise. 

Above The Fold

Readable full page.

Iowa Likes Bits

A parade float featuring a Hillary Clinton lookalike wearing a prison jumpsuit and being pelted with water balloons left some in Arcadia, Iowa, laughing and others grumbling Saturday. The Clinton character was inside a cage hauled through town during a parade celebrating the centennial of the Arcadia Fire Department, according to photos published by the Daily Times Herald newspaper of nearby Carroll, Iowa.

I'll admit. That's quality humor. The Uncle Sam riding a camouflaged ATV puts it over the top. 

And who doesn't love a female child throwing a water balloon at the first female nominee in the history of the U.S.?

Government Employees March On City Council

This is just part of the line of 1st responders walking into #Dallas council chambers, asking for raise this morning pic.twitter.com/jUOhsXo7iK

— Monica Hernandez (@MHernandezWFAA) August 3, 2016

So many 1st responders showed up to the council meeting to demand a pay raise, the line to get in is huge. #Dallas pic.twitter.com/ZK3iEuWqi5

— Monica Hernandez (@MHernandezWFAA) August 3, 2016

Edit: And let's go to the open mic . . .

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Anyone else uncomfortable with white police officers in Virginia stopping blacks in order to give them ice cream? (And concerning the issue of "Can they legally do that?" the answer is a resounding "no".)
• Cowboy Rolando McClain  is probably done after it was revealed that he tested positive for the Purple Drank. I just watched an episode on that stuff on Vice TV and walked away more confused than informed.
• That "Vice" family of networks is confusing. There are Vice documentaries on HBO. There is a Vice Channel. There is Vice News production team (which a big wig at NBC just left to join). And I think there is a Vice magazine.  It's normally pretty good stuff. 
• Another Baylor player was arrested -- this time for stalking. What's next? A devil worshiping child trafficking case?
• It's not so much that I'm surprised by Trump's implosion this week, it's that I'm surprised it has taken this long. 
• A plane crash landed in Dubai a couple of hours ago. Six Americans on board. No fatalities.
  

• In one of the weirdest legal stories I've seen, we've got a lady in Parker County who had her DWI plea bargain set aside. She asked for a new trial because she alleged sexual assault by her lawyer, a hearing was held, the lawyer took the Fifth, the State agreed to the Motion, the Texas Rangers are investigating, and a former long time prosecutor who quit when the new Tarrant County DA took office is on standby as a special prosecutor. 
• Oil has fallen below $40 a barrel again. 
• And the greatest of these is apathy . . . 
  
• The over/under for Cowboys wins this year is 9.5.  I don't even need to see a pre-season game. Take the under. Lock it. 
• BagOfNothing points out that the Mineral Wells paper is taking heat for this in a story about one of the dead men in the Lockhart balloon crash: "He is a former in [sic] Mineral Wells police officer who, in 2011, was placed on 10 years deferred adjudication for setting as many as four fires in the Mineral Wells area a year earlier, including one that injured a firefighter. He was ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution, fees and fines." I'm not sure I understand the heat. It's a news story. The guy recently pled guilty to crime and had been in charge of the public trust. The news story wasn't supposed to be a glowing obituary. 
• When some people die, you know their crimes will be mentioned. John Hinkley, Jr., Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, and, heck, even Oliver North. But all of those people are famous because of their crimes. I'm trying to think of another example where someone dies in a newsworthy way (i.e. balloon crash) and then their past is brought up. I can't come up with one. 
• I question this: Mansfield police have released the "forensic bust" of a lady found dead in hopes of identifying her. An "investigation reveals the victim was an African-American woman anywhere between 5'2" and 5'10" and somewhere between 35 and 55-years-old at the time of her death." Wait a second. The best you can give me is a 20 year age range and an 8 inch height range? And you expect me to believe the "forensic bust" is even close to accurate?
  
• I'm not jazzed by the Olympics.

They Are Just Launching Missiles At Delkus

First they hit him with the Thunder Truck . . .

and now Channel 5 brings you this . . .

If WFAA doesn't get to work on a triple polarity Z band radar, this is going to get ugly.

Trump!

Master politician move here. There is a silent majority who supports the Get That Crying Baby Out Of Here movement.

White People Golf Course Brawl

A video posted by Justin Abrams (@jabrams77) on Jul 30, 2016 at 6:30pm PDT

Language warning.

That pop by the guy in the blue that knocked the other guy's cap off was wicked. That knocked the other guy woozy and brought him to his senses at the same time.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The pilot in the hot air balloon crash which killed 16 had two dogs named Zappa and Joplin.
• Yesterday I had the earworm of "And your lips taste like sangria" all day long. By the afternoon I was still it hearing it so I just gave up by longingly looking off into the distance with my head slightly cocked. 
• The American Sniper widow has now been hired by Fox News. Exactly what does she have to contribute?
• There's some SuperPAC which advertises on Fox News asking you to dial a number and push 1 to support Trump and 2 to basically support "crooked" Hillary. It's obviously designed to suck in Bubba, but how exactly do they make money? That has to be what they are after.
• I said "kill me!" . . . 
  
• In case you missed it: Trump eats his chicken with a fork?
  
• In reacting to gun violence, Apple will replace the gun emoji with a water gun emoji in its next operating system update.

• I have a far greater chance of dying by listening to a Jason Garrett press conference than I do from Zika. 
• I heard on the radio Sean Hannity doing an ad for a DFW real estate firm. How much do you think you would have to pay Hannity to do a 30 second spot for you? My wild guess is $10,000 but that may be way off. 
• Based upon Twitter and the activity on the court's website, it looks like the Texas Supreme Court is on a seven to eight week vacation. (Judge Jeff Boyd, for example, is in San Francisco and joked about being on a boat he couldn't afford since he has only a "state's salary". He makes $168,000 + insurance + pension + seminar speaking fees + perks.)
• Beginning of an opinion piece today in the Star-Telegram on the insane "surcharge" program levied against drivers in Texas: "Every day, nearly 1,800 Texans are entered into a registry with the sole intention of collecting money — highway robbery by your state government.After more than a decade, we can no longer sit idly by while the state’s Driver Responsibility Program ruins lives and ensnares Texans in a debtors’ prison. It’s time to end the DRP." True that. 
• Bag of Nothing had a link which shows you when you registered with the Selective Service (I've written before regarding whether this is even required any longer. It is.) He registered within a week after turning 18. I registered within 10 days before I turned 20. The law is summarized on the website: A person "must register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Late registrations are accepted, but not once a man reaches his 26th birthday." There doesn't appear to be a penalty for registering late but here are the penalties for not registering at all: "[A] felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 or a prison term of up to five years, or a combination of both." [Editor's note: Good lord.] And more: "The more immediate penalty is if a man fails to register before turning 26 years old, even if he is not tried or prosecuted, he may find that some doors are permanently closed." [Editor's note: What the heck does that mean?]
• Maybe I'm getting old, but I thought I would see a lot of Trump headlines using the the title The Wrath of Khan.

Human Chain Saves Woman

Unbelievable video as I and several other men rescue a woman from her car floating down Main St in Historic Ellicott City, Maryland, at about 8:30pm July 30th during the devastating flood. My wife and I are business owners on Main St. I was standing at the entry of my shop at the top of the human chain holding the next man's hand and filming with the other. The man who got washed away was incredibly lucky.

I thought the first guy was a goner.

I'm surprised when she started delaying the whole process by taking care of her cell phone they didn't all just say "screw it" and go on their way.

Shoplifter Brought To To Court With No Pants

This is long but lots of gold in it for those which do this stuff for a living. No pants is just the beginning. The judge picking up the phone and firing off a "What. The. Hell?" was funny. And I loved how the plea bargain/recommended sentence was shot down from the get go and the case got a lot sweeter for the defendant once the "no pants" issue was discovered. (And I kind of worry about her lawyer if that's her in the blue.)

And the judge actually qualifies as a "Hey, Now":

Today Is The 50th Anniversary of the UT Tower Shooting

Excerpts from 96 Minutes.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Trump can't screw up much more than he did this weekend -- from the Stephanopoulos interview to tweets - - but it doesn't seem to matter with his supporters. Nevertheless, Ted Cruz must just sit back these days, smile, and say "I told ya so."
  
• KRLD's weather guy "resigned" after posting on Facebook during the Democratic National Convention that the slain sons of the Mothers of the Movement were “thugs.” (I've said for years that I don't know how those guys over at WBAP keep their jobs based upon what they say on the air.) 
• Kill me . . . 
  
• I understand that ads on web sites, the Star-Telegram, for example, uses your location but what exactly am I looking at here?
  
• Open Carry hits Texas universities today.  There are 37 private Texas universities and only one will allow it: Abilene Christian.
• “Quit hiring cowards, they are hiring cowards… my partner says they are hiring cowards . . . .They are hiring ex-military and they don’t see people as human.” -- Dallas police officer calling into a live podcast as the shooting was going on that left five dead.
• Mrs. LL dreamed we had a "vacation home" in the Hamptons. This from the girl who claims she grew up without a dishwasher. 
• A phrase I heard that I don't think I've ever heard before: "Blood libel." 
• The Star-Telegram had a big story of the "millions" raised by Texas Legislators this year. But when you look at it, most candidates weren't impressive at all. For example, "State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, raised $4,360 this year and has $47,446.81 in cash on hand." That was pretty typical.
• If you thought Fox 4's Clarice Tinsley's broadcasting Facebook comments was an all time low for local media, their bits on Facebook are worse. Throw in a few "warnings" and the time honored click bait phrase of "you won't believe" and there you have it. I used to think Steve Eagar was better than this. 
  
• Sixteen people were killed in a hot air balloon in Lockhart, Texas on Saturday. I had no idea those things could carry sixteen people. (The pilot had the same name as a former editor of the Messenger.)
• I actually saw The Last Picture Show for the first time over the weekend. Pretty racy for back in the day. I looked it up and learned that at least a couple of places tried to ban it as pornography. (But for the life of me, the group's reaction to seeing the dead boy in the street -- played by Sam Bottoms who died a few years back at the age of 53 --  was so out of place and weird for a depiction of small town Texas.)
• "At a quarry in Bridgeport, Texas, where rock is crushed, sorted and cleaned, it’s hard to tell that the nation’s construction boom may be hitting a wall." - The opening line to a Bloomberg.com story today on construction and the only reference to Bridgeport.

Above The Fold

Readable full page.