8.09.2019

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






at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • You know how many pre-season snaps Zeke Elliott played in last year? Zero.
  • Below is an update on the Intruder Between The High School Walls in Paradise. (Which sounds like a great title to a movie, by the way.)
  • The Ticket has referenced this bizarre unexplained old footage where the CBS cameras quickly cut to and away from a chimp, dressed in football gear, on the front row of Texas Stadium back in the day. 
  • Uh . . .
  • Thank God he is consulting the families of dead people NRA! (Spoiler alert: Nothing will be done.) 
  • A handful of people are bent out of shape that Rep. Joaquin Castro posted a tweet disclosing the top donors to Trump in Texas. Sheesh. It's public record -- and an easy public record at that. You can quickly sort by any zip code here.
  • Uber announced yesterday that it lost over $5 billion in the last quarter. I went on this rant in May when they announced they lost $1 billion: How in the world is that possible? They just employ a bunch of independent contractors who bear all the expenses for a ride, and Uber manufacturers no product. What are these massive expenses?  
  • Humble brag: I know the difference between mean and median without looking it up. 
  • “Can I have some tissue, too, because I have to cry as well?” - Defense lawyer in Tennessee after a victim in an alleged assault case testified. (The judge held him in contempt and he ended up suspended for 30 days after threatening the judge with a "citizen's arrest.")
  • Quick video of a judge acting like a jerk in Pennsylvania and getting away with it.  A black guy would have been tased for just getting out of his car. 
  • This baby's parents, Andre and Jordan Anchondo, were slaughtered by a White Supremacist at the El Paso Walmart. The infant was brought to the hospital for this photo up.  Thumbs up and a smile?
  • And I'm sure you've seen Trump, captured on cell phone video, bragging about his crowd sizes in front of hospital staff.  (Hey, give him a break. Isn't this exactly like Reagan telling us, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'" No?)
  • A band which was referenced a few times in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood that I haven't thought about in years: Paul Revere and the Raiders.  And at the time of the Manson Murders, I promise you there was more than one Paul Revere album in our house. 
  • Legal nerd stuff: There was a Texas appellate court dissenting opinion yesterday that said an oft-ignored provision of the Texas Constitution mandates that you must have a jury trial in criminal cases (at least for traditional felonies.) That is, it doesn't say it is a "right" that can be waived but says a jury trial is mandatory.  You know, that is what it says. Practically speaking that would mean: No plea bargains. And, probably, that every past plea bargain in the history of Texas was illegal.
  • Wise County Jail population yesterday: 177. That's about as low as I've seen in the last year. (30% have been in jail for 100 days or more which is pretty standard.)


at 8:31 AM

8.08.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • The Tarrant County Jail is now releasing its total inmate population on a daily basis. Yesterday:  4,247. Wise County had 183. For bordering counties, that really is a mind-boggling difference.
  • This would be legal in Texas.
  • I stumbled upon this information on the Montague/Young/Archer County DA yesterday which I didn't know. She was 30 when elected, graduated from Texas Wesleyan Law School in 2012, got a job as assistant DA but was let go once the position was eliminated, and then decided to run against the DA who hired her. And she, according to the two year old story, is married to a Wise County Sheriff's deputy. This is the margin she won by:
  • Pretty crazy story of a guy with a gun who "was off his medication" and hid in "between the walls" of a locker room at Paradise High School yesterday evening. Messenger story here.  (I noticed that the school superintendent referred to the guy as a "perp." I've never met the guy but now I'm picturing Joe Friday.)
  • In my continuing rant about people being criminally prosecuted for traffic accidents, the subject of the Texas Monthly story I've written about before was just released from prison after the appellate court granted him a new punishment trial and allowed bond. His case could still could go higher in an attempt to wipe out the conviction. (On a related note, yesterday a different appellate court in San Antonio threw out a criminal-conviction-because-of-an-accident case.)  
  • Trump went to Toledo Dayton and El Paso yesterday in a somber mission of healing. Let's check and see how it worked out. 
    • This is in between cities when I'm sure he was emotionally shaken.
    • I didn't think he could possibly screw up a hospital visit, but he did. Official White House photo: 

What the hell is wrong with everybody?
    • The rest of us . . . .
    • Trump barred the press from being with him in the hospitals because "it wasn't a photo op" but was able to produce a slickly produced campaign video of his visit in Dayton in less than an hour after he left.
    • Senator John Cornyn probably didn't think about Matthew 6:5 when he campaigned with Trump in El Paso later in the day.  "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others."
    • "My rhetoric is very—it brings people together.” - Trump on the White House Lawn yesterday morning. Later:
  • And while you weren't watching, ICE rounded up 680 people at Mississippi food processing plants yesterday.
  • This photograph for the legendary album cover was taken 50 years ago today.  Today is also the 50th anniversary of the murders directed by Charles Manson. 
  • We were probably too hard on Fox News' Tucker Carlson for saying the White Supremacy is a hoax. David Duke has come to his defense. 
  • I can't envision a "Red Flag" law that could be written without getting into the impossibility of predicting future crimes. How would it begin? "After notice and hearing, a person found by a preponderance of evidence to be likely to commit a crime of violence using a firearm in the future . . . . " Good lord. Unless a person has past history of convictions -- and sometimes even then -- that can never be done. And if a person has any prior serious convictions he can't carry a gun any way. Then you've got the practical problem of trying to keep guns away from a now very pissed off guy if a judge were to make that finding.
at 8:30 AM

8.07.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • Those who watch Fox 4 News will get a kick out of this. (I wonder what happened to Brandy, though.)
  • I saw these photos out of Galveston yesterday right before I hit the "publish" button, thought it should be a big deal, but then decided I was over-reacting. Nope, it turned out to be a big deal. The guy was homeless and arrested for trespassing but the Galveston PD turned it into a scene right out of Django. Kudos to their Chief:  "I believe our officers showed poor judgement in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of the arrest."
  • It seems like any school bus provider would have an app which allows the tracking of school buses by parents. 
  • There was more than just one date?
  • Collin County got a new district court after the last legislative session, and Greg Abbott just appointed Andrea Bouressa as judge. She ran for 416th district judgeship in that county in 2016 and finished last in a four man Republican primary with 12.06% of the vote. 
  • I'll admit I wasn't familiar with the work of Toni Morrison, who died yesterday, but this is great from her: "When your child walks into a room, does your face light up?" Here she explains to Oprah in 2000 (in under a minute) why that's important. 
  • A Paradise boy drowned at a small lake at the Grasslands yesterday morning. I thought this from the Messenger was odd: "Using side scan sonar, [the game warden] said they were able to find him almost immediately. The Flower Mound Fire Department responded and used a submersible remotely operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with video to confirm they had found the boy." Despite no chance of the boy being alive by the time any law enforcement arrived, why wait for the ROV since he was only in eight feet of water?
  • Texas Christian University will now sell beer at Amon Carter this fall for football games. The school joins other Big 12 schools of Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and West Virginia. There is no way Baylor ever approves beer sales in my lifetime. 
  • Watch people run in terror last night after a motorcycle backfires near Times Square.
  • This Texas House Speaker story is crazy and does not bode well for Republicans at the state level. This is what happened: The head of a conservative oil money and religion super PAC, Michael Quinn Sullivan, met with the Speaker Dennis Bonnen and the subject of giving the PAC (amazingly) press passes for the House Floor came up. Sullivan claims The Speaker said OK if the Super PAC would help target ten Republicans who weren't team players. That meeting occurred in the Speakers office, Sullivan secretly tape-recorded it,  and is now playing it for other Texas lawmakers to try to get Bonnen to quit or get ousted because he never liked Bonnen in the first place. But Sullivan won't release the tape to the public.
When mommy and daddy fight.
  • Anyone have a copy of this laying around? It was published for Bridgeport's centennial in 1973 (and sold for $3 a copy -- down from $5 when they didn't sell too well.) 
  • Then I went down a rabbit trail of the Bridgeport Index in 1973 and ran across this ad.  Hartsell Farm Supply was doing my Random Thoughts Girl bit before I even thought of it.
  • Twenty-four hours ago, Trump was forced to say this off of a teleprompter: "Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside, so destructive, and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion, and love." Now, hours before heading to El Paso to help heal a community that any functioning adult president should be able to do, he does this to the city's favorite son: 
  • Uh, a White Supremacist just murdered 22 people.
  •  Messenger: Above the Fold. 


at 8:33 AM

8.06.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Your life can change pretty quickly by simply being a jerk in a public. I'm fine with that. (Original post by family.)
    This is from the home page of the Star-Telegram.
  • The State Bar of Texas reminded the public to be on the lookout for money-sucking vampires (who are also lawyers) after the El Paso shooting. I'm sure someone one will solicit a victim's family to sue Wal-Mart because the legal profession is full of people like that.
  • Count the number of ways this proposal by a Democratic presidential candidate makes no sense.
  • The department of Homeland Security needs to issue a travel warning by the U.S. against the U.S.  
  • More details on a former Texas elected DA.
  • I saw a service dog in the Wise County Courthouse yesterday. That's the first time I can recall ever seeing one. I addressed it as a "good puppy dog" (which is what I do even if a dog is 50 pounds and 10 years old.) 
  • He had one job: To read from a teleprompter, in a monotone voice, the words others had written. He had time to prepare at his golf resort. But he couldn't handle it. "May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo . . . ." 
  • For some reason, this morning Trump retweeted a commemoration of D-Day from June 6th. Today is August 6th. 
  • And he threatened Google this morning but misspelled his own name when referring to himself in the third person.  He's fine, right? Totally fine. 
  • The Cowboys released former Baylor basketball player Rico Gathers yesterday after four years. That was the weirdest and longest experiments in team history.  You almost wondered if he had secret tapes of Jerry Jones in some Moscow hotel. 
  • Yesterday I read somewhere that 85% of the Texas population lives east of I-35. I have no idea if that's true, but it sounds right.
  • I'm counting over 75 subpoenas having been issued in a murder case in Wise County tentatively set for next week. 
  • Sometimes you just get fed up. 
  • Former Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Alpert made the cover of the Wichita Falls paper (although he was named "Albert" under his photo.)

at 8:30 AM
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