I Love Bits

I've officially named the kayak! pic.twitter.com/0ltfkNwNks

— Barry Green (@BSG) June 30, 2017

Above The Fold

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

 Little brothers have a tough life.

 And they know it. 

 Bend It Like Beckham, The Sequel

 I happen to know a kayak expert who is willing to offer lessons.

Buddy, we feel the same way every time we finally sit down to relax.

Too Many Cops?

Hour-long, multi-state police chase ends badly for driver: https://t.co/UFhpBnn6qo pic.twitter.com/GUP55brEU1

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) June 30, 2017

OK, This Is Funny

A request is made for the guy in the back to be photoshopped out of this photo. The Internet responded.

Link. (And there are a ton of them.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• In the last week I've had home grown tomatoes delivered to my office by two local attorneys. There appears to be a bumper crop in the county this year. (And that ends this Country Agricultural Minute.)
• I ran into a former Bridgeport resident/former Texas House Rep in Brookshires in Bridgeport yesterday. (Wearing a Baylor visor, no less.) 
• Something might be wrong with Fox 4's Steve Eagar. I might start a new game called "How long into the broadcast will it be before he stumbles over the teleprompter." (He's had to anchor the 10:00 p.m. newscast alone for about three days this week and it has not gone well.)
• Fox Sports website has laid off a ton of sports writers this week (including the great Stewart Mandel) after announcing it will focus more on videos than the written word. That's stupid. That's Idiocracy.
• I'm struggling in my fishing this year. What lure (including color) do you use when the water is incredibly clear?
• The home page for each Texas appellate court is back up, but the back end database (which has the information that you go there to see in the first place) is still down. That makes three days in a row. Something is royally screwed up.
  
• The NRA put out an ad which is a not-so-subtle call for an armed insurrection against the Dirty Lib.
• "(CNN) - An Ohio city councilman has suggested a controversial solution to the growing opioid problem in his town: If an addict keeps overdosing, the city won't dispatch anyone to save their life." If you won't go out on the second or third time, why go out on the first?
• A city in Iran, with 1.1 million people, set a world record in high temperature yesterday: 129 degrees. 
• Loyal Christian and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump's offensive tweets yesterday by saying Trump shouldn't be considered a role model because, “When it comes to role models, as a person of faith, I think we all have one perfect role model." She followed that up with saying Trump "fights fire with fire." 
  
• Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is still mad about not getting paid after his firing. (USA Today.) He was on The Ticket about a month ago with one of the conditions of the interview being that he got to rant that Tech, in his opinion, screwed him out of over $2 million. And, man, he went off. 
• Speaking of, whatever happened to Craig James? He holds the distinction of getting Leach fired and losing to Ted Cruz in the same year. That's a bad year. 
• You realize that they have no idea who the actual shooter and getaway driver were, right? 
  
• I think I'm doubling down on my belief that the Bedford girl found in the Arlington landfill was a dumpster suicide. No arrests. No search warrants. No family outrage of "the police aren't doing anything!" I bet she left a note. 
• Last night a rookie NY Yankee, Dustin Fowler, in the first inning of his first game suffered a gruesome "open ruptured patella tendon." I don't know what that is, and I'm not looking to find out.  
  
• The Fort Worth PD Twitter account basically posts nothing but silliness with no real effort to seek the public's help in law enforcement. Then this morning they posted a video of a girl wearing a Peaster High School t-shirt and her friend taken from a Target security cam with the caption "she stole mascara." It even sought Peaster school's twitter account for help. It was quickly deleted and replaced with a different caption. I wonder if the girl wearing the T-shirt is not the one actually accused of theft but the original tweet, referencing Peaster, so implied. (Side note: Aren't there bigger crimes to post about?)

  

  The deleted tweet.

• 

  Replaced with this one.

  
  
• Trump will leave for Trump National Golf Club at Bedminster, New Jersey this afternoon. That will make his 32nd day at a golf club as president.

That Was A Waste Of Time

So the DA's office wanted her to have to post a higher bond because she took a "sip" of beer and held a rifle at a gun show?  Come on.

Story.

Arlington PD Release Photos Related To Road Rage Case

That camera was pretty clear. I'm surprised the license plate isn't readable.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Breaking: Within the hour, Trump once again showed he is mentally unstable by insulting the married co-hosts of a daytime morning talk show.  Yes, this comes from the President of the United States of America. This is not normal. This is stuff that a mean, spoiled 14 year old with no filter would say: 
  
  
  
  
• If you want to know what "He just set the Internet on fire" means, go to any social media site right now.  (And it's good to see Melania's anti cyber-bullying initiative is going very well.)
• Edit: Even Fox News called the comments "shocking":
  
• Every website of every Texas appellate court has been down for over 24 hours. The official word is a "power outage." It should be noted there was an epidemic of world wide hacking incidents this week via ransomware. Hmmmm. 
• A young couple decides to shoot a youtube video in hopes of it going viral. The plan: Have her fire a gun at him while he is holding a heavy book which will stop the bullet. The result: The bullet goes through the book and he dies. The gal, 19 and pregnant, tweeted this before the incident: 
  
• This was floating around yesterday: Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and Sen. Ted Cruz finally posed for a picture together. That's freaky. 
  
• Stay with me here. I guy in Texas gets thrown in the Brownsville PD jail. A detention officer then says he was assaulted in the jail by the guy. Guy gets charged with Assault on a Public Servant.  Guy says he didn't do it but agrees to plead guilty to get probation. The guy then screws up the probation by not going to drug rehab and is sentenced to prison. Four years into his sentence it is discovered that the "incident" was videotaped by police, the video was not turned over when the case was pending, and the video shows the guy did not commit any assault. The police had lied and suppressed evidence.  He is released. He then actually gets Texas' highest criminal court to declare him "actually innocent" -- something which is next to impossible to do. He then files a civil rights lawsuit against Brownsville and wins $2.3 million. This week, the ridiculous Fifth Circuit overturned the verdict. Why? Since the guy originally pled guilty that kills his claim. If you are confused, welcome to the club. 
•  Who was the judge who authored the opinion? The guy below who is semi-retired. Before being appointed as judge, he was in private practice for almost thirty years working on "estates, trusts, and taxation." Yes, this is the guy who can make decisions that concern the complicated and often corrupt world that is the criminal justice system.
  
• Newspaper lede: "Waller County district Judge Albert McCraig on Wednesday dismissed a perjury charge filed against Trooper Brian Encinia in connection with the death of Sandra Bland." Actually, the prosecutor asked the charges be dismissed. I don't know why. 
• Yesterday it was announced that there were no drugs or alcohol at the party or in the system of Jordan Edwards -- the teenager who was murdered by a Balch Springs officer as the kid was a passenger in a car that was driving away. Question: What difference does it make? 
• Shoutout to the WBAP crew for having the Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy on this morning and then, once he was off the phone, joking that the paper only had one reader. Specifically, it was Brian Estridge.
• And Another (Michigan). It might just be a court update. 
  
• This is amazing. The White House gives a daily list of the news they think you should read. Thank you, comrade.
  
• I haven't read the story, but what must your musical accomplishments be in order to officially be referred to as a "rapper"?: 

I May Have A New Official Liberally Lean Girl

This girl’s face when she almost gets hit by an ISIS sniper. 😂 https://t.co/tVLrYvOrwZ

— Terminal Lance (@TerminalLance) June 28, 2017

And It Didn't Even Take A Golden Calf

Guy drives vehicle into new Ten Commandments monument in Arkansas, broadcasts it on FB Live, and shouts, “Freedom.” https://t.co/rtXtbp6Xm3 pic.twitter.com/2BT2wVkCQ3

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) June 28, 2017

The link will take you to the video.

And, compare and contrast:

Above The Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• There was a robbery in Houston. What kind of gun is this?:
  
• And Another (Missouri): 
  
• There was a campaign this season where TCU fans could pledge $10 (or other amount) for every home run for the Micah Ahern TCU Baseball Scholarship in honor of the kid who died of cancer last year. The season is over and all pledges have been tallied. The number?: $50,000.  The amount collected?: $15,000.
• First there was the Wiener Mobile. Now there's the Wiener Drone.
  
  
• If you care about the press and the First Amendment, you have a new hero as a  correspondent finally stood up to the White House's "Fake News" narrative at the news briefing yesterday. (Side note: The only person who would be less equipped to hold a news conference than Sarah Huckabee Sanders is her daddy.) 
  
  
• Trump was at it again this morning. Incredible: 
  
  
  
  
• And in the greatest moment of irony, Trump is having to remove fake Time magazine covers from his properties since the cover never existed and he's infringing on the magazine's copyrights and trademarks. 
  
• Nothing says Authentic Cowboy like a Bentley: 
  
• There have been three road rage shootings this week in the metroplex. I'm telling you, people on the road are getting crazier and crazier. 
• The Knicks have fired Phil Jackson. He will be paid for the remaining two years on his $12 million a year contract. 
• I'm not sure I had ever heard the phrase, "constitutional conservator of the peace" until today. (See Update.)

I Saw One Of These On 287 Between Decatur and Rhome

There's even a news report about them.

Mrs. LL said I should put one up that says "HigherGrade420Lawyer.org."

Let's Check In On The Tarrant County Courthouse

Best moment Monday during jury selection in Judge George Gallagher's court:
Woman: Is that a #toupee?
Judge lets her pull his hair. Real! pic.twitter.com/dCQiNxWopX

— domingo ramirez jr. (@mingoramirezjr) June 27, 2017

Compare and contrast:

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• A judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals deleted his Twitter account. One person pointed out that his Wikipedia page had been edited to reflect he took it down after posting a picture of "whiskey and ammo." Then someone deleted that Wikipedia edit.  I don't know what really happened but the Austin American Statesman and/or Texas Tribune needs to find out. 
• I didn't know there was one. It's in Kentucky: 
  
• Yesterday evening Trump banged the drums of war in an ominous statement warning Syria: 
  
• Uh, isn't this the Syrian airport we "destroyed" with 59 Tomahawk missiles? 
  
• After threatening Syria, Trump then woke up this morning and got mad at CNN: 

  

  (Would a "Fake News" organization admit it made a mistake?)

• And then Trump went crazier by retweeting remarks (originally posted by the Fox and Friends account) from Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, and a book promotion of Eric Bolling's "The Swamp." 
• Good grief. As soon as I wrote that bullet point he fires off more evidence of severe mental instability: 
  
• The Family Pup showed tremendous mental stability and restraint yesterday: 
  
• Re: That 14 year old, Kaytlin Cargill, who was found in an Arlington landfill. Is this a suicide in a dumpster that no one is willing to talk about? Remember all the schools who sent out warnings about Thirteen Reasons Why? 
• How do young people afford a house these days? Heck, how does the average American afford a house these days? 
• This is the horror version of Where the Heart Is:
  
• The Supreme Court did a very odd thing yesterday on Trump's travel ban: (1) It agreed to hear the case in the Fall, (2) It allowed it to go into effect unless a refugee can show a "bona fide" relationship to a U.S. person or entity -- a seemingly easy, yet ambiguous, standard, and (3) Noted that the executive order expires in 90 days which will certainly make the case moot by the First Monday in October. 
• Let's check in on Taxpayer Dollars At Work this morning: (EDIT: Do you guys not realize the social media employee in on the taxpayer's dime?)
  
• Wow: The Supreme Court just announced it will take up the issue of sports gambling. (It literally happened a couple of minutes ago. I'll update when I have details.)