1.25.2019

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







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Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • BOMBSHELL BREAKING NEWS: Roger Stone was arrested early this morning. He's a link between Trump ("I love Wikileaks!" and “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing”) and Julian Assange and Russia hacking. Here's the very fact heavy indictment (including a reference to The Godfather: Part II.) The name "Trump Campaign" is mentioned 28 times. 
    • Remember when Al Gore's campaign received a videotape of George W. preparing for an upcoming debate so the campaign turned it over to the FBI? Uh, that didn't happen here. 
      Who did the directing?
    • Wow. That October 7th release by Wikileaks came immediately after the "Grab 'em by" story broke. The Trump campaign tells Stone "well done".
    • Trump hasn't tweeted this morning, and I suspect someone has finally wrestled the phone from his hands. She's up early:
    • Last month I mentioned how great the Netflix documentary Get Me Roger Stone was. I'm guessing it's about to get a lot more popular.
    • Stone at Trump's inauguration:
    • If you want to see Stone say a while back, "Oh, my God, I'm busted drinking Russian vodka! Mueller, arrest me! Libtards!" go here. 
    • And the morning gets a little more bizarre when you find out that a former eccentric NFL receiver lives by Roger Stone and saw it all go down this morning. 
  • When I first heard that Florida's Secretary of State had to resign yesterday because of photos appearing from 15 years ago where he wore black face, I thought there should be some type of statute of limitations. Then I saw he was mocking a hurricane Katrina victim. See ya.
  • Dave Campbell's Texas Football has a bucket list of high school stadiums.  Here's one from El Paso:
  • Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick retaliated against West Texas state senator Kel Seliger by pulling him off the chairmanship of the Agricultural Committee because Seliger said that one of Patrick's aide's could kiss his "back end." Don't worry, Patrick is praying for him: 
                                          
  • Law school passage rates for 2015 graduates who passed the bar within two years. If that's truly Baylor's tuition, things have gotten out of control down there. (Thanks, Tim.) 
    Worst

    Best
  • Man, take a look at the temperatures next week in upper Midwest. They are insane. By Thursday, the actual lows are predicted to be around -25 in Minneapolis and -15 in Chicago.
  • Who would have thought that the Commerce Secretary believes that unpaid federal employees should get a "loan" for groceries, and that Trump tried to clarify by saying that grocery stores will "work" with those unpaid folks. 
  • Did you know Texas will send you a Texas map for free with free shipping? I ordered one to see if it works. 


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1.24.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Five people were murdered in a Florida bank yesterday afternoon and it barely made the news. I'm pretty sure the killer is a Mexican who illegally crossed the border around Presidio.
    Not a Mexican who crossed around Presidio.
  • I missed the news that Ken Paxton was going to solve the opiod crisis in Texas by . . . wait for it . . . creating a website. The home page begins resolving the problem by simply telling people to turn in their prescription medication. How have we not thought of this?
  • I've got a buddy in Houston who also believes its a scam when stations report Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays are the "busiest travel days of the year." (As you recall, I disproved those claims with amazing number crunching last November.) In any event, he sent this photo from Houston this morning calling into question the reporting of long TSA lines because of the shutdown. 
  • I don't want to try and one up this great theologian, but I'm pretty sure we can all agree that the Bible exists. 
  • Maybe there is hope after all. FBC of Dallas doesn't even respect Jeffress enough to spell his name correctly.

  • The Texas Lawyer had a story yesterday about over-billing by big law firms. This part was truly "fake news."  Over-billing by big firms is neither "inadvertent" nor "rare". 
  • Trump had a weird episode of backing down yesterday. He wrote Nancy Pelosi that he would be giving the State of the Union in the House, and she wrote back and said no he wouldn't. Just as everyone was getting their popcorn ready,  he tweeted that it was her "prerogative" and he'd give the address once the government had reopened. (And he added he would give a "great" address -- his quotation marks, not mine.  I don't think he understands the difference between quotes and italics.)
  • But man, it was fun for those brief hours where we thought Trump would literally storm the House for the State of the Union address.
  • The Ecstasy Ewok allegedly had an incident in Vegas.

  • Trump was watching Fox and Friends this morning which prompted him to promote a "new book" which actually came out two years ago. (And remember, he doesn't read books. He hears about books.)
  • I have finished the 17 hour documentary on Vietnam. I loved it. And I feel like I should now be tested and receive college credit. 
  • What?
  • Trophy Club fire about 30 minutes ago:
  • The Star-Telegram has a story today about how Rick Perry is "thriving" as head of the Department of Energy by keeping a low-profile. Heck, he's basically retired. He earns $189,600 with every perk and benefit imaginable, and no one seems to care if he does a thing. (And do you seriously think he's properly overseeing 13,000 employees and 93,000 contract employees in a department he doesn't understand? You think that budget of $28 billion of your tax dollars is being properly used? What a waste.)


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1.23.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • Here's a Pulitzer Prize winning photo I took before sunset on Sunday while on 380 of the Triple Red Double Dog Blood Fox Moon.
  • The House voted yesterday to bar Trump from exiting NATO by a vote of 372-22. (He talks about leaving it all the time.) One of the 22 was our dumbest Texas member. 
  • It should only serve as a footnote, but someone pointed out to me that the missing Ennis lady who was found in a creek was at the same location where locals have heard sightings of  the "Chambers Creek monster."  I suppose 50 years from now, when the incident is nothing but history, this tragedy will inevitably become part of the legend. And that will certainly be true if they never find her car.
  • Greatest line from someone yesterday on the Covington Catholic Controversy: Tell me if you voted for or against Trump, and I'll tell you what you saw after you watched the videos.
  • Trump, in addition to shutting down the government, has also shutdown Sarah Sanders' press briefings. Amazing. It is the first administration in my lifetime that is scared of the press asking questions. Bush 1. Bush 2. Reagan. Clinton. Nixon. They weren't afraid. 
  • I completely missed that Bono's restaurant in north of Decatur shut down on 11/13.  Their Facebook page has one last review on 11/12 which would give one the impression that the end was very near. 
  • D Magazine has an article on local female newscasters and their fitness routine. (Nothing sexist there, right?) I'm a fan of Fox 4's Hanna Battah, but I question her answer of when she normally works out. Uh, she is on the air at 4:30 a.m.  
  • Bad case out of Waco where a 17 year old girl without a license drove the wrong way at 3:00 a.m. and killed a Weatherford man. She received 10 years probation this week since no drugs or alcohol were involved. But she did receive 180 days in jail as a condition of probation which probably relates to the fact that she was dumb enough to test positive for weed and cocaine between the time she entered her plea up until the time the judge sentenced her.  
  • The Cowboys' Cole Beasley sent the message below yesterday indicating the free agent might be gone. WBAP's Brian Estridge this morning had the hot opinion that Beasley "wasn't a #1 receiver" (something even my dumb dogs know) and co-host Stubie Doak said that one of the "black guys will have to do the rapping" if Beasley leaves.
  • But count the number of beer ads.
  • DPS seized $289,000 from a guy in Vega, Texas because he was driving down the road. Were there a bunch of drugs found? Nope. The just searched the vehicle, took the money, and, out of the blue, decided to charge him with "money laundering." Yes, that technically is a crime if it can be proven that the person concealed or possessed the money from criminal activity. Tell me trooper, what was the specific criminal activity? Drugs? Gambling? Extortion? Human Trafficking? Or are you just guessing? (I would think the very right winging and law-and-order Doomsday Preppers have a lot of cash laying around as well.)
                                        
  • Decades ago, "asset forfeiture was limited to wresting ill-gotten gains from violent criminals. Today, it has a distinctive ‘Alice in Wonderland’ flavor, victimizing innocent citizens who’ve done nothing wrong.” - Fifth Circuit Federal Judge and Trump Appointee Don Willett.
  • He's gone all Johnny Cochran on us this morning!
  • Shutdown Day 33: #WhereAreThePesos
  • Messenger: Above The Fold


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1.22.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • The abrupt closing of the Jones Funeral Home in Decatur is weird. 
  • Here's a quick loading video of the pass interference in the Saints/Rams game that looks like it is taken from the front row by a fan. It's interesting because it shows (1) the exact location of the refs, and (2) how fast that play happened in real time. 
  • Just when I said I was immune from allergies, I got crushed this weekend. 
  • Snake Oil Convention alert.
  • This Texas Football cover has aged well. Coach Bro is now head coach at Arizona. Pat Mahomes is an NFL star. And Tom Herman has the Evil Empire apparently headed in the right direction. 
  • Who would have thought that Mr. "There Are Good People On Both Sides", Mr. "I Call Her Pocahontas", Mr. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists" and Mr. "S-hole Countries" would defend a bunch of white privileged kids mocking a minority?
  • And that was so even though new video from yesterday showed those kids acting exactly like we first believed. Watch it. Don't doubt what you see with your eyes. This is basically a Rorschach test with Reality being one of the choices.
  • Based upon the commercials I saw in the playoff games this weekend, the easiest job in the world has to be working in a big time ad agency on Madison Avenue. Some guys who are paid a fortune gathered in a board room and thought it was a good idea to green light (1) hundreds of people carrying a tailgate to the tune of a song decades old, (2) any Bud Light medieval themed commercial, and (3) workers' twerking. 
  • Mitch McConnell will introduce a bill in the Senate today (which will never pass the House) to fund The Wall. Uh, it's 1,300 pages long. I just grabbed a random paragraph where I learned Richmond Avenue in Houston gets no love:
  • The body of missing Ennis woman Emily Wade, last seen on January 5th, has been found in creek. Authorities say they believe high waters took her and her car off the road. What makes no sense: They haven't found the car. This pic of the road . . . . 
  • In the Irony of Ironies Department, Trump oddly retweeted a former Pussycast Doll this morning for something she wrote in April of last year. Get this: She claims to be part Apache so Trump, in 2017, named her Native American Ambassador for Trump when she joined the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. No Apache tribe claimed her. Why in the world would Trump fancy her while he mocks Elizabeth Warren? What could possibly be the difference?
    "other celebrities"
  • The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. Question: Can acting be that hard when Lady GaGa gets a best actor bid? I'm not saying she wan't great in a Star Is Born (haven't seen it), but name another profession where you can go to the top of the mountain in your first effort?
  • “Absolutely. I am afraid it will be on my gravestone. 'Rudy Giuliani: He lied for Trump.' Somehow, I don’t think that will be it. But, if it is, so what do I care? I’ll be dead.” - Rudy.
  • There was never more of a failed experiment when I tried to subliminally persuade the Two Females In The House by watching an episode of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo while they were in the room. I was hoping to hear, "Those are some really good ideas." All I got was, "Are you OK?"




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