11.05.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I had forgotten that Herman Cain (R.I.P.) was running for President a decade ago, forgot that he got caught up in a sexual harassment scandal right in the middle of it, and forgot that he broke out into song to get the press off his back. (Video.)   

  •  The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is bizarre because every witness the prosecution calls is hostile. They aren't outright saying that Rittenhouse was justified, but they might as well be. It's just the best witnesses the prosecution has. One witness yesterday was a "journalist" for the right wing The Daily Caller, and the other was a guy who had driven to Kenosha armed with his own AR-15 and pistol while wearing body armor in order to try to stop “rioting and looting and what not.”


    • And even when the trial is not going on in the courtroom, things aren't going well for the prosecutor. 

  • This case never made sense to me. (Background.) It was just so cold-blooded. And it happened right off Harmon Road as you are headed into Fort Worth. 


  • The Little Ball of Insurrection got 60 days to do. That's not nearly enough.


  • This got a lot of play yesterday.  Perhaps this struggling family used the milk to fill up their pool in the background. (Not to mention milk hasn't been $1.99 a gallon since 1979.) 

  • I might embroider this on a throw pillow. 

  • Breaking: Unemployment numbers just released show it is down to 4.6% (it was 6.3% in January.)   Throw in the stock market being at an all time high and we are finally out of Afghanistan, are things really that bad? Trump would be running to the Rose Garden right now to get in front of the cameras. Biden should, too.

  • New Texas Tribune/UT poll just released. I think this is just about right. 

    • And I think Abbott will win the Republican primary, but I'm surprised that the new poll shows this:

  • How much do you think they had to pay Kate Hudson to promote some kind of cryptocurrency? I'll tell you one thing, I guarantee that she demanded to be paid in U.S. currency. 

  • I read this one over the last couple of weeks.  It's a about a serial axe killer in Austin in the 1880s written by the famed Texas Monthly writer.  Good stuff. And you'll learn that prosecutors could be pretty wild with their accusations even back then. 

  • I'm two episodes into Maid on Netflix. Everyone needs this dose of reality. 

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 854 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM

11.04.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




The Ticket's Norm Hitzges got married 10 years ago, and I had found their wedding album online. Alas, it is now gone. The album, not the marriage. "Norm and Mary" are still together today.   

  •  I watched some of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial yesterday.  Random observations:
    • From an optics standpoint, he is a nightmare for the prosecution. Boyishly young, white, and clean cut. And he looks, well, innocent. 

    • I've said that I thought the prosecution will have a difficult time getting a conviction, but I've been focusing on the death that occurred on the street when he was retreating.  But that first killing by the boarded up store, where we don't have a good video of it, might be a lot more troublesome for him. He shot the guy in the head. If I'm the prosecutor, I would have indicted him on that one alone and focused on it. 
    • Man, you get to see all the unedited videos taken that night if you are watching this trial. (Just search for the trial on YouTube. There are a number of live feeds.)
    • The judge is much smarter than I expected, but he's also a nut.  In considering a hearsay objection, he went on a long dissertation about the Hearsay Rule which was actually spot on about a very complicated subject. But then he went on to its historical background and began referencing the Apostle Paul while he was in prison.  He certainly has never learned the first rule of being a judge: Say as little on the record as possible if you don't want to get reversed.

    • Then he went on a rant about legal experts on TV and even brought up Jeffrey Toobin. Watch it here. 
    • The defense lawyer doesn't know the evidence rules. 

    • The prosecutor is ready to push the rules and no one is calling him on it. While playing a video, he would suddenly stop it and, without objection, would then address the jury with something like, "What you are seeing here, and this is undisputed, is the defendant . . . ."  Sheesh.  This isn't a One Act Play. 

    • Hey, that guy kind of looks like Gary Oldman in Batman Returns.

  • He's unhinged. 

  • Teacher salary scale in the metroplex is here.  It lists 1 through 49. 

  • I'm not exactly sure how the prosecutor in the Raider player's deadly DWI case got the detailed information below so quickly. It seems like you would have to jump through some constitutional hoops to get access to the "black box" information. And that would also be record speed to get a court admissible alcohol concentration from blood.  

  • The Cowboys will wear these 1976 helmets on Sunday. I'll say it: That's a bad look. 

  • Lots of truth to this. 

  • A few people asked if my assistant made it to the Rolling Stones. Yes, she did. Got there at 3:30 p.m. for general admission standing room on the floor of the Cotton Bowl and didn't sit down again until after 11:00.  You have to really love the Stones to do that. 
  • Louie Gohmert and the QAnon Jewish Laser Beam Congresswoman did a publicity stunt together in support of the January 6th Trump Insurrectionists.  They showed up at the D.C. jail demanding admittance. (They were told to hit the road.) He even has a cute little hashtag for the seditionists. 

    • I'll never understand how these nuts want to normalize the attempted overthrow of the United States Government. I'll forever be pissed off about it. 

  • Prosecutors cannot intentionally use their peremptory strikes (removing x number of jurors from the pool without the need for the judge's approval) on the basis of race alone.  But that rule also applies to the defense lawyer. Someone pointed out to me last night hat there is one huge difference: If the prosecutor objects to the defense striking all minorities and the judge overrules the objection, there will never be anything the prosecutor can do about it if that white jury then finds the defendant not guilty. The state can never appeal an acquittal. 

  • Random new Gallup poll on marijuana legalization (including historical results): 

  • Mrs. LL has an unusual philosophy for teenage trick or treaters. She thinks they ought to get full sized candy bars as a reward for not instead being out and doing hood rat things.
  • Interesting. Wise County voted against a Proposition that passed the state wide election: "Texas Proposition 2, Authorize Counties to Issue Infrastructure Bonds in Blighted Areas Amendment." I wonder if the word "blighted" had anything to do with it.

at 8:32 AM

11.03.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




This one is fitting. Last night Ron Washington finally got a World Series Championship ring, and ten years ago this little guy made his appearance on Liberally Lean in anticipation of the Rangers Game 7. (The kid actually did that bit in 2010, a year earlier, but I re-issued the pic for good luck. It didn't work.)     

  • A big crowd showed up at Dealey Plaza yesterday to see the return of the late JFK, Jr. who would then install Donald Trump as president.  Make no mistake about it: These people are all around you. 


  • The Tarrant County DA will not get a new $116 million office after a bond proposal was rejected. That's never going to pass as a stand alone item. 

  • A lot of school bonds failed across the state.   I'm not sure it's a good idea to put multi-million dollar bonds on a ballot right after all the voters have received their jaw-dropping property tax bills in the mail. 
  • Constitutional amendment elections are a scam.  An example is below. It would be nice if it told you how the eligibility requirements were changing. 

  • Republicans got a big win in Virginia and are getting real close in New Jersey which is currently too close to call. Heck, both races have razor thin margins. But Virginia is weird. Since 1976, every time a new president has been elected to the White House, the other party wins the Virginia governor`s race the following year.
    Virginia

    New Jersey still being counted

    • Virginia, on the same night, elected a Democratic black and female Jamaican immigrant as Lt. Governor. Edit: Oops. She's a Republican. The gun should have tipped me off. 

  • "Saginaw police say they got the call at 3:55 a.m. Monday reporting shots fired at a home on Babbling Brook Drive. Investigators say Russell had gone to three or four homes, knocking on the front doors. According to police, one homeowner answered the door and told Russell to go away. 
    • Police say at some point, Russell started to leave but then rushed back toward the homeowner who then fired multiple rounds, killing Russell." I'd bet there will be no criminal charges. 



  • The fact the Rittenhouse trial is televised is great. I'm telling you, it's going to be hard to get a conviction. When a whole criminal trial revolves around whether someone's conduct was "reasonable", the prosecution is in for a huge uphill battle. 

  • Jenna Ryan, the Little Ball of Insurrection™ and realtor from the metroplex, will face sentencing next week. In the Justice Department's sentencing memo, prosecutors mention that she tweeted that she's not going to jail because she is white and has blonde hair. 


  • Everyone had a lot of fun with the UT coach's stripper girlfriend monkey story yesterday, including the finding old tweets from the Pole Assassin herself. From a liability standpoint which she might be facing because of her monkey biting a child, this ain't a good one: 

  • An excerpt from the SCOTUSBlog article about the abortion/procedural oral arguments in the Supreme Court on Monday: 

  • According to the Messenger, with the Rhome city secretary resigning this week, that makes the fifth city secretary in Wise County to quite or be forced out since August. That's amazing. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)