8.23.2024

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I can't believe I wrote 14 more bullet points back then on changing a tire, but I reread it and it's pretty funny. (Humble brag.) The unnamed man in the story was Allen Williamson, now deceased.

  • This happened east of Boyd last evening.


  • The Fort Worth Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed a burglary conviction out of Wise County with one of the issues being whether the following structure in Rhome constituted a "habitation": A "manufactured double-wide home [which] did not have electricity, had been used to store property, and had not had a full-time occupant since 2018 . . . ." The court said it did. The female defendant got 10 years in prison. 
  • This has to be one of those weird cases where someone looks way worse on video than you would expect for such a low alcohol test.  But normally that means it's a case where medication is also involved -  a fact which would normally work for the prosecution. But without getting a search warrant for blood in this case-- a process which is easy and commonplace these days -- the prosecution should lose this. 

  • Ann Coulter stepped in it yesterday. She quickly took it down once someone told her about the kid's issues. And, by the way, mocking anyone about crying with pride about your father is, uh, weird.

  • GOP VP candidate JD Vance had an awkward experience trying to buy some donuts yesterday, but his hairdo quickly grabbed headlines. 

  • Trump was looking a little haggard himself as he ran to the border.

  • DNC quick hits:
    • Great photo from last night. 

    • A Republican showed up to scorch Trump and how the Republican party has completely changed.  "The Republican party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself."

    • Victims of gun violence, including this Uvalde mom, spoke.

    • Pink (and daughter) as well as the Chicks were there, but rumors about a Beyonce appearance failed to materialize. 


    • Two incredibly cute kids (nieces of Kamala Harris) taught everyone how to say "Kamala." Video.  The girl in pink was in the first photo, above. 

  • Random photo I saw this week out of Springfield, Mass.

  • Deion is trying to get Saudi money.  Hey it worked for the LIV tour and Jared Kushner, so why not?

  • 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: 5 years and 49 days.


at 8:30 AM

8.22.2024

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




This Abilene Christian graduate was the first person ever to be returned to the United States to be treated for Ebola. He had entered the hospital in Georgia being escorted by "three people in white biohazard suits."

  • Yesterday afternoon around 6:00 p.m. is Wise County:

  • Earlier this year, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals found that Crystal Mason should be acquitted of illegal voting. Yesterday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided to review the case.  It used to be that it took an unsettled important legal issue to get a higher court to take up a case. Now you just need a far-right political hot button issue.

  • Gateway might want to hold its breath that the whole church doesn't collapse. They didn't say what the "moral issue" was in this new case. 

  • And the biggest nutcase in the presidential race (which is really say something) is expected to endorse Trump. That makes perfect sense.


  • I just like there is a recent photo of them together. And this guy's initial clemency got attention. He's a drug smuggler with the interesting side business of being a predatory lender.  Now he's got more problems. 


  • Ken Paxton is such a clown. When even the West Texas Oilmen PAC admits these "recent reports" off illegal registering are false, Paxton's political stunts are growing tiresome. 


    • Here's the PAC's funded newsletter reporting that the recent claims are false -- even going so far as to point out that the source was "Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo [who] set off a firestorm, posting to X that immigrants were being registered to vote in Parker County, Texas":

  • DNC highlights:
    • Oprah in the house.

    • SNL's Kenan Thompson had a very funny bit of how Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation plot for another Trump presidency, would upend the country.

    • The Trump inspired January 6th Insurrection took the spotlight last night as a 5 minute film was played with speakers following. I'd keep that film playing on a loop in the arena if I were them.

    • But the GOP has a secret weapon at the DNC as the My Pillow Guy tries to cling to his delusional belief of relevancy by shaving off his mustache, going undercover, and investigating a gender neutral bathroom at the arena. 

  • The richest man in the world actually thinks an online internet poll has value. Look up "random sampling and weighting," hoss. 

  • Along those same lines, a charlatan with the worst toupee in America is claiming special insight on a different subject matter.

  • A sports joke that made me giggle:

  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

8.21.2024

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Yep, that was the fad of the day back then.

  • An elementary school teacher gets accused by the parents of a pre-k based upon only the word of that pre-K child. And they seem to be very online and "active" parents. Kudos to the DA's office for killing the case when they believed there was insufficient evidence (or quietly believed it didn't happen at all.)  But the pitchfork crowd, as they tend to do, are on the rampage in Rockwall.
  • "Pantego City Manager Joe Ashton says Franklin was in uniform and driving a fire department SUV when he offered a ride to a stranded driver who needed to pick up her child. But while riding with Franklin, his driving and behavior led her to believe he was drunk." She called him. Despite appearances. Franklin wasn't "on the clock" at the time -- not that that matters at all. 

  • That Star-Telegram headline is something. 

    • But someone want to explain this story because it makes absolutely no sense. (I guess paragraph #4 could be unrelated to paragraph #3 and the headline but, if so, it's a weird place to put it.). 

  • The risk vs. reward for this guy seems to be a little of of whack. Story.


  • There's a gold mine of nuggets out of this story from Denton. Stay with me here. 


    • It was pled on Friday before trial when the prosecutor offered 5 years to the reduced charge of Manslaughter. The defendant, the victim's wife, has been in the county jail or two and half years so she is parole eligible now.
    • The victim was found unconscious in the driver’s seat of a vehicle with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.  The defendant was in the vehicle at the time and allegedly told police a man approached the truck, shooting the victim and causing the truck to crash. Police said surveillance footage showed no one approached the truck before it crashed.
    • The defendant and the victim knew each other four days before they were married.
    • A special prosecutor had to be brought in because of a possible conflict of interest: (1) The defendant had been a witness "as a victim" in some prior undescribed case and, amazingly, (2) the DA's office had previously prosecuted the victim for "murder [where he] argued self-defense. After a mistrial due to a hung jury, he pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and received a two-year sentence."
    • But, wait, there's more! The defendant "was on probation when she was arrested . . . .  [She] received an adjudicated sentence from a Bay County, Florida, judge for one count of deadly conduct and one count of making a false report of sexual battery involving a law enforcement officer."  That probation may now be revoked. 
    • The defense lawyer was Caroline Simone. The special prosecutor was Kailey Gillman from Collin County,
  • Video discovered shows the Trump shooter walking around the grounds before the shooting. 

  • The three auto dealers named seemed to have something in company. They are: David McDavid Ford Fort Worth, David McDavid Honda Frisco and David McDavid Honda Irving.

  • In 2020, Grayson County voted 74%-24% Republican. Who do you think will win this race? 

  • DNC highlights:
    • I can't say I'm familiar with the fine work of DJ Cassidy, but having him play a different pop song for each state (list here), before and as they announced their vote, was a great idea.

    • And during that roll call, Lil Jon came out to preview Georgia's vote by singing Get Low with the lyrics changed from "From the window . . . to the wall" to "VP Harris . . . to the Walz". That isn't exactly the same as rolling out Lee Greenwood.

    • As for speakers, the manner of delivery by Michelle Obama of the line of the night was a thing of beauty.   Video

    • Barack made a rare appearance and brought down the house. 

  • There were headlines last week about how signing up online for Disney+ could cause you to agree to arbitration against Disney for any claim you might file against them for amusement park incidences. Update:

  • There are about four college football games the weekend and one of them, Delaware State vs. Hawaii, is off to a a rocky start. 

  • Just when you thought NIL couldn't get any more crazy. 


  • I acknowledge that I left the last bullet point blank yesterday.

at 8:30 AM
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