12.07.2018

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











at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • The founder of the Texas Tribune is considering creating a competitor to the Star-Telegram. The Star-Telegram reporters responded. 
  • The Decatur Eagles won again last night before a sparse crowd (a Thursday road trip to Lubbock ain't easy), and were rewarded with the next game being in Jerry World on Friday. What a treat. Heck, any adult would be giddy about playing just a flag-football game there. 
  • Interesting legal question. It all started with a screwed up arrest of a lady who then began to criticize the sheriff's office on Facebook. It hurt the sheriff's feelings so he blocked her. 
  • After the Bridgeport girls basketball team's bus accident last week, stories like this make me do a double take.
  • Text Me Merry Christmas feat. Kristen Bell is a thing?
  • Kevin Hart was named host of the Oscars and then  backed out 48 hours later because of being a horrible comedian past homophobic tweets.
  • There was a Maserati parked at the Wise County courthouse yesterday. Obviously an out-of-towner. And to make things confusing, the only thing going on was a misdemeanor criminal docket. No one associated with those things could afford (or want) a Maserati. 
  • Fox Business had to apologize for a Congressman firing off anti-Semitism yesterday. That Congressman was from Texas who would easily win an award for Most Likely To Fire Off Anti-Semitic Opinions. 
                                              
  • An Ohio woman was arrested in a Walmart for shoplifting. I'm guessing that's not high on her list of problems. 
                                             
  • This is pretty interesting: A New York Times probability calculator for the Cowboys making the playoffs based upon how they do in their last four games. You can mix and match. Spoiler alert: If they win on Sunday they are very likely to be in regardless of what they do the next three games.  Lose on Sunday and they are likely out.

  • Trump is normally briefed in the evening by the Justice Department when the Special Counsel is going to make noteworthy court filings the next day, so let's check in on Trump's mental health: He has six tweets since late last night about the Russian probe, and this tweet of paranoia at 10:08 p.m. EST. Thirty-nine minutes later CNN had to evacuate its New York headquarters because of a bomb threat of five devices. 
  • I can find any updates on it, but right now in Vegas there is a guy in a completely dark room (with a toilet and a fridge without a light) who will win $100,000 if he can remain there for 30 days. Details here. If he can't make it, he owes $100,000. There is no way I would get involved in that. The sensory deprivation with no concept of time would drive me insane within a week. 
  • Here are your Top 10 movies for 2018 as the year wraps up. It's proof that the days of the traditional movie are over. 
  • I kept seeing Roger Stone show up in the news about the Russian probe, and I was ashamed that  I really didn't know anything about him. So I've started watching the 2017 documentary Get Me Roger Stone on Netflix. He may be the most fascinating and corrupt political consulting nutcase I've ever heard about. I had no idea he was such a big player from way back.
  • Delta has started using facial recognition software for check-ins at Atlanta's airport. Get ready. Once technology hits a tipping point, it will be everywhere in the blink of an eye. 

at 8:34 AM

12.06.2018

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • "And another" update. A wife of a football coach in Tennessee who was sentenced to three years is now being sued by the student/player. He's also sued her husband and the school.
  • We had a car chase in Fort Worth yesterday which ended with a guy just casually sitting in his car for about an hour while the military local police and DPS made preparations. 
  • Got to have assault weapons and gear
    You need two assault vehicles and a drone
    while everyone looks on
    And you had to start it with at least 20 police cars and a helicopter
  • Has Fox News declared a war on Christmas?
  • Trump can't go to a funeral without being Trump.
    No hand over his heart.
    The only couple not to recite the Apostles' Creed
  • Decatur plays Hereford in the Texas high school football playoffs tonight. Fun facts: Hereford is the county seat of Deaf Smith County (technically pronounced "deef" but most people use "def"), has a city population of 15,370 (as of 2010), is named after the breed of cattle, and, because of the town's high content of fluoride in its water supply, has earned the title of  "The Town Without a Toothache"
    The courthouse in Hereford.
  • "Keep doin' what ya doin', playboy, and keep chasin' that money."
  • DPS and others have been sued in federal court over the insane "surcharge" program which has currently lead to an astonishing  1.4 million Texas driver's having lost their drivers license for failure to pay. I love the way it starts out . . . 
  • Not only is this not true, it wouldn't be anything to brag about if it was.
  • Golden Globe nominations were just announced (and I always find that awards show far more entertaining than watching the Academy Awards.) But Vice, that great looking movie about W and Chaney, led with six nominations. But how does it fall in the category of "Musical or Comedy"? 
  • Nice touch by UT last night.
  • The Dow just opened up with a 400 point loss and falling. 

at 8:35 AM

12.05.2018

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts


  • Several people have confirmed that the Decatur Sixth Grade pee-wee team did in fact play against a team from Argyle a few years back coached by the Saints' Sean Peyton a few years back. (I'm getting conflicting reports regarding his general attitude.)
  • The comic book character "Tariff Man" truly has not a clue how tariffs work (and it is really, really simple to understand.)
  • Bridgeport has a banner hanging over its main street proclaiming it is the "Christmas Capital of Wise County." The rest of you towns going to put up with that?
  • A clip of Joel Osteen from 2017 has gained new life where he said, after noting he would be ridiculed if his kids wore raggedy clothes, that "When you look good, dress good, live in a nice place, excel in your career, generous with others, that bring's a smile to God's face."  With the exception of "generous with others", that whole statement is about as Biblically ignorant as you can get.
  • The boys on my radio station switched shifts this morning. Because of that, four guys were watching Fox 4 News in the background and had never seen a certain early morning anchor before. Let's just say their reviews, at least with the audio down, were strong to quite strong. 
  • Wise County probation took in almost a million dollars last fiscal year from fees alone.
  • I hope this breaking news means as little to you as it does to me:
  • Rain forecast. Important disclaimer: This is from Pete Delkus and not the Liberally Lean First Warn Weather Team.
  • I've got yet another UT Breckyn Hager update. That goofball didn't smash his hand into an inanimate object after the OU game in anger did he? (I know which side I'd bet on.)
  • Rudy Guiliani posted a tweet last week and accidentally created a hyperlink to a domain name ("G-20.In") that didn't exist. Someone immediately bought the domain, www.g-20.in, and uploaded one page saying Trump was a traitor. Last night, Guiliani, oblivious to this trickster who had widely promoted what he had done, blamed Twitter for allowing someone to "invade my text." The man doesn't understand how the Internet works. The man was named by Trump in 2017 as "an informal adviser on cybersecurity" for Trump's transition team. 
  • Remember the number of times I've talked about retiring to the "jungle in Costa Rica"? Well, about that . . . . 
  • The Bridgeport man who "set himself on fire and jumped from a bridge last Friday" has been identified as Lance Coe, 20, in the Update. There has to be some horrible back story to all of this. From 2014:
  • I'm sure you've seen it, but it you haven't, take a moment to watch Bob Dole visit George H.W. Bush in the rotunda yesterday.
  • Messenger: Above The Fold.
  • The U.S. Postal Service taking a day off today in the middle of the Christmas holidays will not serve them well. It's probably a good thing, however, that the stock market is shut down today.

at 8:32 AM

12.04.2018

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • Breaking college football news: Ohio State coach Urban Meyer will step down after the bowl game. (At least he gave his bosses the heads up about something.)
  • Isn't it time that the Southlake football team stop dying their collective hair blond? I know they have been doing it for years and years, but in this day and time it has kind of an Aryan Brotherhood feel to it. 
  • Fort Worth PD will place, with a homeowner's permission, "bait" Amazon-like packages on doorsteps to catch thieves. Question: What level of crime would the thief be charged with? A theft charge is based upon value (regardless of whether the person actually knows the value of what he is stealing): For example, under $100 in value is like a traffic ticket, over $2,500 is a felony.  So what's in the packages which will determine its value? The PD Press Release doesn't say. (It also says the homeowner, who must have a video recording mechanism, won't be involved as a witness. That's a promise they can't legally keep.)
  • Once Eric Trump said this, you just knew he was going to get killed in the comments. He must have forgot that daddy (aka "Individual 1") used to frolic with Stormy while married (among many others).
  • "All state agencies, offices and departments will be closed on Wednesday for a day of mourning to honor former President George Herbert Walker Bush, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an executive order Monday."  Around here, I have no idea who is shutting down, but that could include DPS, all District Attorneys and the District Judges. (All are technically "state agencies.") Schools and universities were specifically excluded.
  • Here's a shocking thread on President Bush. As President, he wanted to ratchet up the War on Drugs and to do so he wanted to address the nation holding up crack cocaine and say it was purchased in front of the White House. Since there wasn't any drug dealing going on in front of the White House, the DEA lured in a 19 year old high school kid to sell to an undercover agent. Bush got to hold up the crack. (Note: The 19 year old was tried twice and both trials resulted in hung juries. The feds tried him a third time, got a conviction, and he received ten years in prison serving over seven of it.)
  • I've dogged UT's long haired Brecklyn Hager over the last couple of weeks and perhaps deservedly so. He got mauled in the OU game (quick video with three examples here), received a critical 15 yard penalty, and then deleted his Twitter account after the game. 
  • Recommended: A fairly short podcast by Slate on Ruby Ridge. 
  • Also recommended: Showtime's ongoing series Enemies: The President, Justice & The FBI. The more things change . . . . 
  • A member of the "Texas Seven" (prison escapees who killed a cop outside of an Oshman's in Irving) is scheduled for execution tonight. Two years after  four of them were caught in a small town in Colorado, I actually went through there on the way to a tiny casino town. There were places selling "The Texas Seven Were Captured Here" t-shirts. 
  • This front page from Galveston makes the cut below because of the crazy lead story: "A scammer posing as a county contractor in May tricked an employee in the county's purchasing department into changing how and where a $525,282 payment for road work would be made. The scammer has not been caught . . . . " Good, lord. 

at 8:35 AM

12.03.2018

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • That Bridgeport school bus wreck could have been much worse than it was. 
  • Somehow a sheriff's deputy with Broward County in Florida just casually had a crazy "Q" emblem showing a support for the crazy conspiracy theory group.
  • The Southlake Police Department goes after a Christmas classic:
  • I love the look of Tech's new offensive coordinator (yep, that's really him):
  • This was pretty big news on Friday. Obviously those trying to figure out what happened have never seen the old Twilight Zone episode starring William Shatner.
  • George H.W. Bush has died. The White House issued a prepared statement incorrectly stating he went to Yale and then into WWII. 
  • Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger at Camp David in 1991.
  • Trump went to the G-20 Summit in Argentina and (1) Appeared in the background as the Saudi Crown Prince and Putin high fived each other, (2) Walked off stage confused not once but twice, and (3) Proved he doesn't have any friends: 
  • Yes, she says some dumb things but it is good to have someone in Congress who will pull back the curtain.
  • Faithful readers sent me this expressing their concern:
  • The Decatur Eagles continue on in the football playoffs. When the season was halfway over they were one of the worst teams in the state at "1-4 and on the heels of a brutal 70-28 loss to Glen Rose." What happened? 
  • Trump, out of the blue and moments ago, just did a complete 180 on military spending. He says it is "crazy" how much his administration has spent. 
  • Mule looks like it would be good if it wasn't directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. After Million Dollar Baby and Grand Torino, we know that it's full of campy dialogue and over the top angst. Oh, and lots of grunting.
  • Messenger: Above The Fold

at 8:31 AM
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