9.13.2019

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








at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • The new link to Wise County's court and jail database is here. And shout out to County Judge J.D. Clark who responded to my bullet point before 9:00 a.m. yesterday. I don't know if he personally got it fixed, but he was responsive and concerned about the problem which is exactly what you want from a public official. (The rest of Wise County's re-designed government site should be fully functioning by Monday. It looks good.)
  • Twitter fight. Beto doubled down on his mandatory buyback of AR-15s during last night's debate and a State Representative responded.  (But I'm a little stunned that Twitter removed Briscoe's comment because it was considered to be an actual threat.)
  • This is Cain Briscoe, by the way. Does he look like a threat? Let me rephrase that. Does he look like he would threaten violence:
  • Let's check in on the reaction of the general counsel to the PAC called Empower Texans. (I've heard stuff like this from friends all my life.) 
  • This crime has been under the radar: Two guys "push past" an ATM repairman in Denton and got off with $114,000.
  • Moment of Silence, please. I've had this photo taken from video footage, enlarged and framed, on my office wall for almost two decades. 
  • This is North Korean like propaganda. 
  • Jets' QB Sam Darnold has been ruled out of Monday's game because of Mononucleosis. I hadn't thought about the "kissing disease" in years. That thing will knock you down for weeks. 
  • Trump dropped another GD Bomb yesterday (as he lied about wind power.)
  • Every morning when I take a shower I see the silhouettes of the underbellies of two lizards on the frost-tinted window. They wait for bugs to be attracted to the bathroom light and then pounce on them. It's really entertaining. 
  • Yesterday someone at the courthouse told me she had jury duty for federal court in Fort Worth. I don't hear about federal jury duty very often. (After we looked up the counties in the Fort Worth Division of the Northern District of Texas, I had to listen to her complain on behalf of people in Comanche County who would also have to travel to Fort Worth. Of all causes in the world, the inconvenience of Comanche County federal jury service is an odd one to champion.) 
  • Cam Newton might have the Panthers at 0-2 this year, but he's stylin' at the post game press conferences. 

  • It's Friday the 13th and a Full Moon. It's also a Harvest Moon. (Look it up.) 
  • My normal "front page" web site isn't updating this morning. I do the best I can . . . 
Note the lipstick

at 8:31 AM

9.12.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Wise County has tricked up its government website as part of a renovation. Right now the fix prevents access to the criminal and civil court database or the jail database. (It's designed to be available to the public by Tyler Technologies and, up until yesterday, it had been. I noticed the old link is actually hidden under "Bond Information" on the Sheriff's page but it's no longer functioning.) Fix this, boys. And knowing our County Judge, it will be. 
  • I've been warning you that Texas' bonding system to get out of jail (if you've got money, you get out -- if you're poor, you stay), is on the rocks. Federal courts are gutting it left and right, and yesterday Galveston County got hit with a wild twist: An injunction was issued that now requires everyone to be appointed an attorney at the bond hearing which normally occurs within 24 hours after the arrest. 
  • Someone named Megan Fahey has been appointed to fill a vacant district court judgeship in Tarrant County. She's the third former assistant U.S. attorney in a row to be appointed as a Tarrant County judge. That's odd. (Note that the jobs are completely different with one dealing exclusively with federal law and the other exclusively with state law.) She was also a member of ultra-conservative Federalist Society -- which isn't odd if you want an appointment. 
  • Why did John Bolton get canned by Trump? Well, one of the reason is that Trump's buddy Kim Jong Un didn't like him: "And he wanted nothing to do with John Bolton."  Who would have thought that Rocket Man got to influence who is on the president's staff?
  • Trump, out of no where, came out with a desire to ban flavored e-cigarettes yesterday. This clip made my head spin. 
  • I have a theory on this vaping news.  One of the (positive) hallmarks of the right wing is small and limited government. Obviously, government banning any product flies in the face of that. But I noticed about six months ago that a very conservative local radio host, who thinks government shouldn't force restaurants to have non-smoking sections, suddenly went bonkers against the vaping industry. That guy has a teenage son.  Trump also has a teenage son. I wonder, and this is pure speculation without any evidence to back it up, if those kids just happened to have been caught vaping and their mommas didn't like it. Now the right wing daddies (1) are getting pressure from their wives, and (2) looking for someone else to blame other than their sons who might be doing hood rat vaping. 
  • At least I think Trump has a teenage son. He caused some confusion when, in announcing his vaping plan, he said Melania was for it because: “She’s got a son...that is a beautiful young man.”
  • A "Florida woman was sentenced to more than three years in prison and ordered to repay $1.6 million after concocting a 'fortune telling' fraud." In other news, this guy claims to have the inside track to some secrets as well:
  • Watch this federal judge nominee get crucified at his confirmation hearing yesterday. Even Lindsay Graham had to jump on him for not answering questions.  It was brutal. Here and here are examples. 
  • Uber might be mismanaged, but this development which they couldn't control, is a major blow. It's amazing they can lose money using independent contractors, but if you transform those independent contractors into employees the problem gets exponentially worse. 
  • T. Boone Pickens has died. Yesterday, New York sports talk show host Mike Francesa (who once ask a local Ticket personality on the air if he "wanted to compare paychecks") called him T. Bone Pickens multiple times. 


at 8:30 AM

9.11.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • Trump fired his third National Security Adviser in three years. Most the reports indicate that Trump and Bolton butted heads and especially in recent days over Trump inviting the Taliban to Camp David. Remember this less than 24 hours before the firing? 
  • Oh, and Bolton, 12 minutes after Trump announcing by tweet that he was fired (at 10:58 am CST), let loose his own tweet to say  "I wasn't fired! I offered to quit!"  Bolton also texted a State TV personality, while he was on the air the less, to say he quit and wasn't fired.  
  • Bolton was supposed to attend this press briefing which occurred within an hour after he was fired. Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mnuchin seemed pretty shook up. 
  • By the way, the "Fake News" New York Times knew so much of what was going on behind the scenes that they had a full story ready to go about Bolton's firing within seven minutes of Bolton's firing. 
  • Watch a crazy Nevada judge yell at a potential juror for honestly stating she couldn't be fair in a sexual abuse case. He even threw his little pocket constitution and dropped a couple of S bombs. The case was reversed. (Credit.) 
  • And the City of Dallas really thinks Uber is going to build a huge structure in Deep Ellum employing 3,000 people making over $100,000 a piece? Here's some headlines from yesterday. House. Of. Cards. 
     
  • This is a lie. Fentanyl is dangerous but it is not floating poison in the air. Even his own press release says that the officers were uninjured. They only went to the hospital to get checked out because of an unsubstantiated fear  -- A fear which is created by bad information put out like this from a U.S. Attorney.
  • I hope the Messenger continues to place little gems in the coverage of otherwise boring city council meetings. This little blurb was placed in a story which was highlighted by the City of Fairview proposing property taxes for the first time, in part, to pay for a city secretary who is making a jaw dropping $88,000+ a year.
  • Oh, my.

  • When he wasn't whining this morning, he decided to do a little self-promotion.
    . . . You Inviting The Taliban To Camp David
  • At least he's improved somewhat: 
  • Wait a second. What's that embroidery on the back of Melania's dress? Is that one of the towers with an explosion on the side? That can't possibly be what's going on. Right? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
  • I saw a story yesterday about a missing monkey in Galveston County that I "liked" on Twitter to remind me about it (first image below) which prompted a faithful reader, predicting it would make a bullet point, to send me a link to a pretty funny video (second image) of another time when a monkey escaped in Corpus Christi from a lawyer's truck. Why a lawyer had a monkey in his truck as he went to a meeting I'll never know. 
    "Tormenting" really sells the story.

    The Corpus Christi monkey even made his way into the lobby of an office building. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold. (Nope. Can't get it other than a thumbnail.)


at 8:37 AM

9.10.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Our own State Senator (which most of us can't name) is considering running against U.S. Senator John Cornyn. The Star-Telegram describes him as a "Tea Party Republican." 
  • When no one in your family serves in the military, but you want to profit of a military-chic look.
  • The headline says, "Cowboys settle cheerleader pay dispute, entire squad gets pay boost" but there aren't any details. However, the story from WFAA had quotes from two Bridgeport High School graduates. 
  • Denton deputies in charge of courthouse security could take a lesson from Wise County deputies in charge of the same thing. Be courteous. It's not hard. (And I've always been stunned by any deputy who acts like a jerk. Not only will the person hate you, they'll automatically hate the Sheriff. And the Sheriff needs votes.) 
  • You know how I'm always talking about how the Civil War "wasn't that long ago?" That crossed my mind when I learned that Commissioner Gordon from the old Batman TV series was born in 1899. His grandfather could have fought in the Civil War. Heck, his dad could have been in it. (Trivia: He appeared in every single Batman episode -- all 120 of them.)
  • Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame has announced she's running for Congress and releases a pretty cool campaign ad: 
  • Coors doesn't even care any longer, do they?

  • Someone to me yesterday in court: "Why is cockfighting illegal? We eat chickens for crying out loud." Me: "We draw some strange lines in the sand in this country." Him: "We sure do. I think they made it illegal because Hispanics traditionally engage in it. It's another way to pick on 'em." Me: "Wouldn't surprise me." 
  • Air Force One on the tarmac in North Carolina yesterday. 
  • Todd Palin has filed for divorce from Sarah. Her star flamed out quickly. 
  • This seems like a weird case. The only thing I can find on it is this: "According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Heath allegedly spoke to the victims and then left the party. He later returned with a rifle, rang the doorbell and ended up shooting his two neighbors outside their home."
  • I have no idea if vaping is causing these injuries, but Juul and similar manufacturers might be in big trouble. Remember the Big Tobacco litigation? And these cases are weird -- it's happening to young people very quickly and not the result of long term use like you see in regular cigarettes. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold (I forgot yesterday)



at 8:31 AM
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