10.25.2019

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







at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • There didn't seem to be a big crowd yesterday at the funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, the woman who was shot and killed in her own home by a Fort Worth Police officer. I was curious how the media would handle that. The Dallas Morning News went with the very clever word of "dozens" and said this: "Dozens of Jefferson’s family and friends, as well as elected officials from around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, paid their respects . . . ." 
  • A line I heard which has really stuck with me: "Eventually all of our graves will go unattended." 
  • I think stuff like this happens more than what we hear about. Carnival says this one looks like a suicide. 
  • Well this has started off a little dark for a Friday, hasn't it?
  • With the news of the Confederate Umpire yesterday, this guy asks a great questions since analytics are now such a big part of baseball:
  • Some have been wondering where Kellyanne Conway has been, but she reappeared in the news yesterday after the ultra-conservative Washington Examiner released a recording of phone call of her berating a reporter. Spoiler which shouldn't be a spoiler: She considers herself a "powerful woman" whose husband "gets his power through me." 
  • Callback from earlier this week: See, I'm not the only one who thinks this. 

  • He's actually talking about a process which is required by law immediately after an arrest but is completely ignored. (It's not actually an "arraignment" but is informally called a "magistration") When a judge sets bond in a case where the arrest was made without a warrant, he is supposed to review a sworn affidavit prepared by the arresting officer and determine whether there is probable cause to believe the person arrested committed a crime. If he doesn't make that finding, the defendant is to be immediately released. In real life, probable cause is found 99.99% of the time and the vast majority of judges never even look at the affidavit. 
  • This will interest only a few, but look at this old Cowboys versus the Rams clips for two reasons: (1) Cliff Harris throwing his hands up in exasperation after being burned and then taking a huge tumble after tripping over Charlie Waters, and (2) the craziest play you've ever seen that results in an incompletion. (Both plays are back to back in the clip and can be viewed in less than a minute.)
  • Also worth a watch: The look on Mitch McConnell's face when a guy shakes everyone's hand except his at Elijah Cummings' service yesterday. (It gets better after this.)
  • For all the Republicans who are mad at the Impeachment Inquiry "process", welcome to the world of a grand jury which is essentially what is going on. Side note: Here's my award winning post from 2014 where I explained the Texas grand jury process. It's still accurate but for the grand jury commission part which has been changed. 
  • I may have mentioned this, but one of my guilty pleasures is the Twitter account which posts screen shots of the old Batman TV series and points out the great signs in them. That show was ridiculously clever. 
  • He might not care about the slaughter of the Kurds, but protecting the oil with troops is a different matter. Hey, "reconstituted"? I thought he defeated ISIS personally?
  • Update: He's talking crazy this morning. The soldiers aren't coming home (he just said that.) ISIS is not secured (he just said that, too.) And the U.S. is not "getting" Syrian oil. Sheesh.  
  • OK, who forgot to sweep the forests again?

at 8:33 AM

10.24.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • A group of  Republicans in the House stormed into the Impeachment Inquiry room because, they said, the process was being conducted "in secret."  The trouble is, it's not. Of the members of the House, there are 55 Democrats and 48 Republicans who have a right to be there and ask questions of witnesses due to their position on three select committees.
    Moments before the "The Running of the Confused White Men"
     
  • Girl, you are all of us. 
  • But, wait, there's more. That protest consisted of 41 Republicans. More than a quarter of them, 13 in fact, were part of the  aforementioned 48 Republicans who already had privileges to watch the proceedings. They were protesting for a right they already possessed. 
  • A message from the President of the United States. If you are a Republican and you don't approve of him personally, you are "human scum." 
  • This is a legitimate story. Big thumbs up. And to make it even better, normally the runner's name would have been printed on his bib, but he decided to do a bit by entering under "Jesus Saves."
  • I'm not a music fan but this morning I was listening to an acoustic song on KXT which seemed incredibly familiar. The DJ finally told me it was Overkill by Colin Hay, the lead singer of Men at Work.  He calls his acoustic redos of the group's songs, Man at Work. You know, I thought it was Sting for a moment but his voice was possibly better. Here's a live version. 
  • Oh, my. 

  • It took me two years to figure out that the a lightning cord for an iPhone could be inserted without regard to which side was up or down. 
  • I think they are burying the lede. He spelled it "Cival War." 
  • Trump misspoke yesterday while in Pittsburgh and said the U.S. was building The Wall in Colorado. ("And were building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we're building a in Colorado. ")  Everyone later jumped on him, but I was willing to give him a break. It was just an innocent mistake. Then later he came out with a confusing explanation that he was just kidding. He was not kidding. And did I mention he was in Pittsburgh? His DNA has programmed him to lie. And you trust him to explain his conversation with the Ukraine president? 
  • I really haven't followed the James Younger case, but I did come across these factual findings by a judge when the marriage was first annulled in 2017. They don't put daddy in the best of light. I suspect his background played a role in the jury's decision. But I really have no idea what's going on. 
  • College football quick hits: (1) Four teams which are 7-0 (Baylor, SMU, Oklahoma, and Minnesota) are all on I-35.  I was on the Minnesota campus last year and was very confused when I noticed it's a stones throw from I-35 and the Mississippi River. I had to pull out a map, such as. (2) A key receiver for the Evil Empire may not make the trip to TCU. (3) Being an equipment manager for TCU and having to do this to every new helmet this week would be a beating. 
  • The 39 people turned out to be from China . . . 


at 8:31 AM

10.23.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




  • The Impeachment Inquiry has become Quid Pro Oh!
    • The Ukraine Problem surpassed Watergate yesterday with the testimony of Bill Taylor (the highest ranking diplomat to Ukraine, appointed by Trump, West Point graduate, and Vietnam Vet) who testified he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything we believed about the quid pro quo of Trump and the Ukraine turned out to be true. For his personal benefit for the 2020 campaign, he held up Congressionally approved funds the Ukraine needed to protect itself from the Russians. A PDF of his opening statement is here. Nothing else should be needed.
    • Maybe the best part of the opening statement was how the ultra conservative John Bolton called the whole thing a "drug deal", that those involved needed to "brief the lawyers", and that if Trump made the call to the Ukraine president it "would be a disaster." He was right. And Bolton, who is a powder keg in his own right, hasn't even testified yet.
    • And Sarah Sanders replacement, who is paid $170K a year to never hold a press conference, thought the following would be the best response yesterday. "Radical unelected bureaucrats?" Hey, Bill Taylor is you're guy.  He's still on the job today.
    • Uh, oh. He's watching Fox and Friends this morning, and he's now grasping at this new straw? So the defense is now, "Ok, I'll admit we were withholding military funding until they helped me with my 2020 campaign, but they didn't know that we were withholding funding!" He'll be a con man until the end. (And Ukraine officials did know and complained about it.)
    • Edit/Breaking: Lookout! He just made a decision to tangle with the press!
    • New numbers from one of the best polling services (before yesterday's testimony): 
  • TCU's uniform against Texas is concerning.
  • The Bonnen Tape is causing some young Republican on young Republican violence. It's a preppy online gang war. 
  • Speaking of Bonnen, our County Judge, J.D. Clark, had an opinion piece in today's issue of the Messenger.  He was none to pleased with Bonnen dissing local officials. As I've said, that's what did Bonnen in. 
  • Speaking of the Messenger, I'll just throw out this hidden gem from a crime story. Interested in context? Subscribe to the paper. Support local journalism. Don't be a cheapskate.
  • Texas courts are beginning to throw a little shade at penny-ante marijuana prosecutions. Case in point: A Fort Worth case was reversed yesterday where the court took effort to note the weed in question was ".14 ounces" and "worth about $6." 
  • This is like Season Two of The Wire. They don't know what's going on yet, but the container came in from Bulgaria to a port in northern Wales before being trucked down to near London.  (My Google map skills tell me that the travel by sea alone would be almost 4,000 miles by going through the Mediterranean.)
  • Amber Guyger has filed a Notice of Appeal. She can always withdraw it later, but you don't see that change of heart happen very often. 
  • Somewhere along the line, cops decided that carrying a large amount of cash was in of itself a crime even when they can't prove anything else. Sure it's OK to wire a ton of cash from Goldman Sachs to Deutsche Bank, but if you have an Hispanic surname and driving on I-35 committing a "traffic violation" as viewed by the historically corrupt Williamson County law enforcement community, they'll accuse you of a felony.  Suspicious? Yes. Probable cause? Nope. Eventual proof beyond a reasonable doubt? No way. Will the State try and extort the forfeiture of the money anyway? You know that I don't even have to answer that, but at least the courts are increasing slapping down such efforts.
    And the cops are stealing road signs again. 
  • Come on, if you're from Watuagua and had to serve Jamba Juice to people pulling up in their BMW's and Mercedes all day long, you'd be tempted too. 
  • “I’m not for prejudice but by golly, the white man has very few rights and they’re getting took more everyday.” Video.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:33 AM

10.22.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • Jimmy Carter fell a couple of weeks ago which left a nasty bruise on his face. He fell again last night and fractured his pelvis.
  • The tide turned on Texas Speaker Dennis Bonnen in the last 12 hours as important Texas reps (and even Phil King and lap dog Jeff Leach) came out against him. He announced he won't seek re-election moments ago. It's funny because Empower Texans' Michael Quinn Sullivan thought his ambush of secretly recording Bonnen was going to work because Bonnen threw some Republicans in Austin under the bus with his "hit list." The ambush worked but not for that reason. It worked because of the disparaging comment about mayors and county officials. The now revolting Republicans feared local blow back if they didn't distance from that comment. Yes, Sullivan won with the ouster of Bonnen, but he was too dense to realize the real gold he was holding in the recording.
  • Tornado photo #1: I'm not sure I've ever seen a vehicle crushed so much. Can't use that in a tough-truck commercial.
  • Tornado photo #2: Two women armed with brooms ready to take on the damage. 
  • It was only a matter of time before Trump called the Constitution "fake news."  I wonder what all the flag waving I-keep-a-copy-of-the-Constitution-in-my-pocket crowd thought about that yesterday? 
  • He went there this morning. 
  • Texas Tech's Homecoming King is from Bridgeport?
  • Trump has given every indication that he thinks a "stealth" fighter jet means they are literally invisible, and he showed again last night that he doesn't quite understand the concept of drones. 
  • Any one else skeptical about the story of the manager of the Home Depot, which was damaged in the Dallas tornado, "sent all employees home early" simply because of a forecast of typically bad North Texas weather? Reports are that the tornado hit "about 30 minutes" after all customers and employees were told to leave.  No one seems to mention that every metroplex Home Depot shuts down at 8:00 p.m. on Sundays. The tornado first touched down shortly before 8:58 p.m. and didn't get to the Home Depot until well after 9:00 p.m.
  • I mentioned the other day that in football we aren't seeing first down measurements with the use of the chains on the field any longer. Here's an explanation from Junior Miller of The Ticket which I find shocking: After every play that results in a first down, the ball is moved up and spotted to the next full yard marker on the hash mark. Yep, he say it is "rounded up" to the next full yard marker. Doing so makes it simple to quickly determine if it is a first down if, say, on the next play the runner gets 9.75 yards. It would clearly be short of the next full yard line marker without the need of bringing out the chain gang. I'm going to start watching for it because if it is true, it's one of the biggest changes ever in the rules of football that no one was aware of. 
    Have you seen this happen this year?
  • Wise County Jail population this morning: 188.


at 8:30 AM
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