6.28.2024

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Still a weird photograph and story about J.D. Granger who was then the well paid Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority and a former Tarrant County prosecutor. He is also the son of then U.S. Rep. Kay Granger.

  • Debate quick hits:

    • Yes, that was a disaster for the President. It started with a raspy voice and reached a a crescendo about 15 minutes in when he had "the moment" of confusion and silence. It was bad. Very bad.

    • But I knew something was really wrong when the question was about abortion -- a softball for Biden -- and for some reason the President deviated off into immigration in his answer. That was bizarre.


    • Trump was a sitting duck going into the debate because of all he has done and said. And President Biden didn't even try to land a glove on him because he didn't seem capable of it.
    • Biden actually got better as the debate went on, but it was too late. The first 15 minutes was, and is, all that mattered. 
    • Substantively, what Trump was saying was insane. But it was completely overshadowed by Biden seeming very, very old.
    • The Democrat reaction thus far has been a full blown panic with open cries to have Biden replaced at the top of the ticket.  I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen. 

    • But let me be bold: I don't think last night matters.  Trump's "grab-em-by the p" moment -- a moment after which everyone was 100% convinced we had seen the death nail of his campaign -- didn't kill him for one reason: Republicans were going to turn out to vote against Hillary. In the same way,  last night won't deter Democrats from walking across broken glass to vote against the most hated man in America. 
    • If you stuck around for all of it, the state of American politics was summed up when Trump and Biden began arguing like two old men at a country club about Biden's golfing handicap. Video.
  • A man was tried in district court in Wise County this week for Sexual Assault, was convicted, but received probation from the jury. And the defense lawyer was this guy: 

  • But for the debate, this news would be a top headline:

  • This would probably be big news, too.

  • Another reason to fear the small plane. Side-note: Back before local journalism wasn't gutted, we would already know the names of the passengers, where they were from, and where they were headed. Now, nada.  Edit: A faithful reader tells me the plane was registered to Hunger Relief Ministries out of Forney, Texas (N414BS).


  • Oklahoma takes imposed Christian Nationalism yesterday. By edict, no less.


  • The Business Second™: The franchisee declared bankruptcy so the parent company bought the theaters all back.

  • The Real Estate Second™. This is on front page of the Wichita Falls Times Record News. I think they have a different definition of "mansion" up there.

  • 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: 4 years and 359 days.

at 8:30 AM

6.27.2024

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




A $24 million yacht burned off the coast of San Diego, but most of the news was of how a drone flew over it and captured video of it. It is still up on YouTube.

  • We've got the final totals of how much the West Texas Oilman PAC spent to buy Andy Hopper the election in Wise County to unseat Rep. Lynn Stucky. Incredible.


    • Here's the background on how the PAC was named shortly after it was formed:

  • The presidential debate will happen tonight hosted by CNN.  Yesterday, the network demonstrated how the mic of the non-speaking candidate will be off while the other man is speaking, and you truly can't hear a single thing from muted mic. (Video - it's really eye-opening.) I'm surprised Trump, who lives and dies by interruptions, agreed to the format. Throw in that there is not an audience, and I don't know how this will go at all. 

  • Fox4Terry was on the job last night. That photo seems like something big went down in Cedar Hill. 

  • You can't even go to a Chick-fil-A now?  Police call it a "targeted" shooting, but that doesn't make me feel any better. 

  • The Supreme Court accidentally posted a decision yesterday which will dismiss an abortion case as "improvidently granted."  It was taken down within seconds. Here's a PDF of what was released and it hadn't even been finally formatted yet.

    • Legal nerdy stuff: I saw someone write that if they only named finished opinions as “final-final-use-this-one.doc” then it would have never been accidentally released. 
  • In an opinion that they actually intended to release, they Supreme Court gutted a public corruption statute by allowing bribes after the fact so long as there was no agreement beforehand. So if you want to dump a public official a check for $13,000 every time he awards you a big government contract, feel free to. 

    • There were three dissents.  You know who they are. From the dissenting opinion. 


  • Woah. From Texas Monthly: "Texas has more than 7,000 licensed hemp dispensaries. We visited eight, then tested what we bought. All eight were above the legal limit for Delta-9 marijuana."

  • The defendant in one of the many, many mass shootings -- this one occurred on  July 4, 2022, and congratulations if you can keep them all straight --  backed out of a plea deal in open court yesterday. It would have given him a life sentence. 


  • Good. And I agree with her. In order to prove criminal trespass, you have to prove the person received actual notice that their presence was forbidden.   Proving that they should have known about a university announcement won't cut it.  That wasn't going to happen in these cases. 

  • I'm not exactly sure how this guy became the unofficial lawyer of players of the Dallas Cowboys.

  • Look out. Lauren Boebert and Ronny Jackson are sharing love on Twitter. Pray they don't meet up for happy hour because who knows what would happen. 

  • Messenger - Above the Fold



at 8:30 AM

6.26.2024

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




That one time that DPS almost used their krillion dollar gun boats. Side note: Can any of those guys now man a desk at the driver's license renewal office?

  • I posted on Monday a vague blurb I saw about a man being hit by a propeller at Eagle Mountain Lake, and we've now got a little bit more information. This is the the guy who was struck, and his GoFundMe says: "Kyle was unexpectedly thrown off the back of his boat while out on Eagle Mountain Lake near Fort Worth, Texas. He was backed up over and his thighs and knees were torn to shreds by the propellers."

    • The Star-Telegram says the boat's driver was arrested for Boating While Intoxicated.

  • My trademarked Something-Isn't-Right-Detector™ is going off with this story from a couple of days ago out of Mansfield. "Smith told KXAS-TV that she picked up Sasha in Grand Prairie early Sunday morning. Sasha told her mom she’d been drinking and didn’t want to drive herself. The two women were on their way to Smith’s home in Cleburne when the accident occurred. 'I said something to Sasha to make her laugh,' Smith said in an interview with KXAS. 'She leaned back on a door and flew out.'"
  • Supreme Court opinions will now be released today at 9:00 a.m. along with new days added for this Thursday and Friday. Buckle up.

  • One of the craziest members of Congress has won re-election. They don't have run-offs in Colorado.


    • She showed up last night at her victory party wearing Trump Sneakers but apparently they were knock-off sneakers so Trump didn't get his grifter-cut off of them.
  • Lots of odd people were involved in the Insurrection. 
  • The MAGA Extremists claiming Biden will be on drugs in tomorrow's debate is painfully laughable.  But it is an extra level of comedy for this congressman to pull out a line right out of Talladega Nights when he says the President will be jacked up on Mountain Dew. Video.

  • That recent Fox poll showing that democracy is the key issue in this campaign might not be as good for President Biden as I thought -- at least based on the results of this Washington Post poll.  We are the dumbest country. 
  • The Evil Empire stole the head baseball coach of the Aggies yesterday, but if you haven't seen the coach torch a reporter less than 24 hours earlier for even asking about the possibility of leaving for Texas, it's worth the entire 54 seconds.   All coaches are nothing but mercenaries, but this one is a bad guy. Not for leaving, but for lying about it so blatantly when he didn't have to say anything. 

"I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job
at Texas A&M to never take another job again. That hasn't changed in my mind."
  • Very legal nerdy stuff: You won't believe how a criminal defense appellate lawyer was roasted in a Dallas appellate opinion this week for having brought the same frivolous argumenta over twenty times since the court told him they won't work. Here's the dissent where it happened. (It's a dissent because the judge thinks they need to strike guy's brief stricken and order him to try again instead of having his client's conviction affirmed). And here's a great thread on it. 


at 8:30 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)