7.29.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




When I wrote that, it was time for the David Dewhurst/Ted Cruz run-off race for Senate.  It looks like I voted for Cruz because I was mad at Dewhurst for running border ads and ads tying Cruz to the Chinese. That type of race-baiting campaigning, I thought, was just over the top and offensive.  How naïve was I? Heck, Dewhurst's campaign style was just ahead of its time. 

  •  "Glass bottles magnifying sunlight in an open trash can ignited paper and other items in the trash which then spread into a 500-acre wildfire that destroyed eight homes at Possum Kingdom Lake last week."  Let me tell you something, the chances of that "cause" of the fire being correctly identified and pinpointed by the Possum Kingdom West Volunteer Fire Department are about the same as you winning that billion dollar lottery going on tonight.

  • There have been 19 different people booked into the Wise County Jail in the last 48 hours. That has to be a record, and I'm not sure what's going on. 
  • First it was the Secret Service, and now we have another January 6th Cover Up story:


  • The video is online, and it's horrible to watch. I kind of regret doing so.  One of the dancers "remains in serious condition", but I don't know how he will survive.


  • The Republicans in the Senate doing an about face and screwing over veterans on the Burn Pit Legislation is really shocking. And, as proven yesterday, there may be no better spokesman for a cause than Jon Stewart. Video.  Stewart is exactly right. America loves war and we throw billions at Lockheed and others who make up the military machine, but we cast aside veterans like rag dolls once they come home and have to deal with the consequences of what we put them through.


    • .And here is Ted Cruz fisting bumping a buddy once that bill to benefit veterans was killed.

  • Gov. Abbott had previously said the stop at the fundraiser in Huntsville on the day of the Uvalde shooting was to “let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go” to Austin to continue working with law enforcement on the response, but . . . 

    • . . . here's what actually happened (with a pretty tasty tidbit in that paragraph).

  • He's a 9/11 Truther now, too? 

  • Buddy, you are as Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment. Act like it. (Video.) And what's up with this new beard? 

  • Let's check in on Newsmax. (There's actually a bank in Wise County that has Newsmax playing on it's big screen TV in the lobby.)

  • And another case solved by use of genetic DNA. "The sheriff’s office reached out to the DNA Doe Project in early 2020 for help. A DNA profile was developed from a molar and uploaded to a genealogical database, according to the DNA Doe Project."

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 1,120 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM

7.28.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




This is not 10 years ago. I'm deviating. Instead I present the anniversary of a United States military B-25 Bomber crashing into the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945, killing 14 people.

  • This is the 10 day rain projection by the National Weather Service.  Pick out where you think the high pressure system will be parked over.

  • A Democratic controlled House, Senate and Presidency actually felt like it yesterday:
    • A $280 billion Chip Bill passed the Senate and now will easily pass the House.  

    • Then after that, Democrat Joe Manchin, who spends more time voting with the Republicans, did an about face on a different bill that raises corporate taxes and spends a bunch of money on Green projects. 


  • Brittney Griner possibly being swapped for the "Merchant of Death" makes my brain hurt. Now if you reworked it and called her "Dr. Dunkenstein" or something, it sounds a little more palatable. 

  • Out of the blue, the superintendent for Chico ISD was quoted in a Texas Tribune article about the teacher shortage. Oddly, that's the only time he or the school are mentioned in the whole article. (The district will go to a creative four day work week this fall, but the story didn't even mention that.)


  • Beto was in Whitesboro. In a church. Protestors, some openly carrying, also responded to his visit. More photos here. 


  • In a murder trial in New Mexico, the defendant just contracted COVID so the judge is going to continue the trial today by putting him in this "box" that will be brought into the courtroom. 


  • A seemingly normal American couple, with the husband working as a government defense contractor, secretly had all along been living under names they had stolen years ago from two deceased infants. When the feds got onto them and raided their house, they found a picture of them dressed as KGB agents. The feds, in claiming she might be a flight risk, asserted she lived in Romania when is was part of the USSR, but she says she didn't.  This nutty story is right out of The Americans. 


  • More signs that real estate might be crashing with news from this Coppell based company:

  • Legal stuff. This Texas Monthly article is really good. 

    • Random excerpt from it:

  • I still think this kid is a punk. 

  • I was able to watch live the Alex Jones how-much-will-he-have-to-pay trial on YouTube yesterday. I think the link will be here when the broadcast it up, but it will start later in the morning today.
  • Remember two weeks ago that weird hire by the lame duck Republican DA in Waco who brought in the Democrat nominee as his First Assistant -- the same Democrat who will face the Republican in November who made the DA a lame duck in the first place? Well, that didn't work out . . . 

at 8:30 AM

7.27.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




$23 a share? It currently sells for $159 a share. (But that's a far cry from its all time high of $378 in September of last year.)

  • The video of the shooter at Love Field, which also captured her being shot, is pretty wild. 


    • Isn't it amazing how quickly video can be released, even in a "pending" case, when police want it to?
    • And I also got my answer yesterday as to who "dropped her off" at the airport  -- it was Uber.  
  • Wise County received final approval yesterday for the grant to restore the courthouse's interior to its original specs. County Judge J.D. Clark did a fantastic job on this. In the end, I think this will be the most important county project in the last 50 years. That building is the most important, historic, and impressive structure in all of Wise County and there's not even a close second place. 

  • The defense lawyer should have cut a deal with the plaintiff's lawyer immediately after the verdict: "We will cut you a check right now if every juror can independently answer this question: How many millions are in a billion? If they can't, you take nothing." If that bet were to be made, Charter would never have to pay a dime. (And I'm not sure they ever will in this case. It's awful, but I'm not convinced of Charter's legal liability for a rouge employee.) Story in this Dallas case.

  • In Austin, a trial is underway to determine how much Alex Jones will have to pay Sandy Hook victims for his Infowars lies about the mass shooting being a "false flag." Liability has already been determined so the jury will just get to fill in an amount. I hope he gets crushed. He was also ordered yesterday by the judge to bring a $1 million check today to pay the other side's lawyers for discovery sanctions. After this trial, he'll get to face two other juries in other lawsuits. 

  • The news broke yesterday morning that Tony Dow, of Leave it to Beaver fame, had died. Every news agency reported it because it was based on an official announcement by his family . . . 

     
    • . . .  but then we had an emergency break in the afternoon.

  • That's Beto speaking to a crowd yesterday. You know where that was? Bowie. Of all places, Bowie.

  • With everything seemingly being turned upside down with the ultra-right in charge (abortion, government paid coaches leading prayers, the Voting Rights Act, Insurrection pandering, etc.), it wouldn't surprise me at all if Texas' "Robin Hood Plan" is the next to fall. The plan, which requires rich school districts to fork over a portion of its tax collection for the common good, is a perfect sitting duck. Just label it "socialism" to benefit minorities and you've got yourself a winning argument for the masses in today's environment. 

    • But, as the story points out, it is a bit odd that the the rich schools will be forced to turn over $3.3 billion in revenues this year when the state is sitting on a $27 budget surplus.
  • Let me tell you something, former Cowboys PR guy Rich Dalrymple would never have been caught in an important news conference with his foot on a chair and knee raised, all the while looking at his phone. 
    Stephen Jones, Mike McCarthy, Jerry Jones, and the new PR guy

  • The slow motion video of Packers QB Aaron Rodgers arriving at training camp, which was actually released by the Packers, is right out of Con Air. It's glorious. And gloriously funny.



  • Legal nerdy stuff: There's a federal judge in Waco which is so plaintiff friendly that his court had become the patent lawsuit filing capitol of America. One in four of all patent cases nationally were filed with him. Well, no more. Having time and time again been reversed on appeal for refusing to transfer cases when the law required it, he was slapped down yesterday and now any patent cases filed in his court will be transferred among him and ten other judges across the state  -- from El Paso to San Antonio. (There are lots of big firms who have opened up offices in Waco prior to the order who didn't see that coming.)

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM
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