9.16.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I'm trying to figure out exactly what I meant but that, but I'm guessing that 10 years ago it was incredibly unusual to see small town newspapers break news in real time on social media accounts.  Heck, Twitter is only 15 years old.   


  • I added a couple of red lines to emphasize the start and the end of the most recent surge. That was a wild and steep six weeks.

  • But everyday we are reminded we are still in bad times. 


  • Decatur didn't get fooled. "RanchLand Foods, an Arizona-based meat production company that had reached a deal with Denton’s Economic Development Partnership Board for an incentives package but now is the subject of a police investigation, had applied for similar economic incentives with Decatur in March, city staff there confirmed Monday. But that application derailed during Decatur’s vetting process." The Decatur official quoted in the story was much too modest. I would have thrown out a straight, "Ain't no way we were gonna do that deal!"  

  • It was a bad day for Swollen Testicles-gate and Nicki Minaj: (1) She said that Twitter had censored her account, but then Twitter said they did no such thing, (2) she said that she had been invited to the White House, but then the White House also said they did no such thing -- but did say the "offered a call" with an expert like they do anyone who wants information, and (3) officials in Trinidad said that there is no case of her cousin's friend having swollen testicles due to the the COVID vaccine. 

  • One of the biggest beatings in trial preparation is going through every second of every dashcam, bodycam, and interview recording and carefully listening for anything which is inadmissible. The lawyers didn't do it in Wichita Falls in this case, and the whole trial process ground to a halt. The prosecutors claimed it was accidental on their part to play a non-redacted video, but that assumes they had caught the problem beforehand. I have my doubts. 

  • This story happened over the weekend but didn't get much press. Four people were together in a bar in St. Paul, MN on Saturday night, and then found dead 65 miles away on a farm in Wisconsin -- a place they had no direct connection to.   (Ticket fans: One of the victims has the last name of Sturm, and we know afternoon host Bob Sturm hails from Wisconsin.)

  • A pick-up and car collision at a nondescript intersection in Fort Worth yesterday afternoon had some tragic consequences


  • I have no idea the context of this clip, but a wild NSFW moment happened on Fox News last night. Video.

  • No bullet point can accurately sum up the developments in one of the craziest cases of all time. And it keeps getting nuttier.  Now we learn he tried to get himself killed so his son could get the insurance proceeds but his hired gun botched the job. 


  • Random Texas lawyer news where one guy's wheels have definitely fallen off. "Just a few weeks before his arrest Sunday, Shorty Craig Barrett, 52, was placed on a two-year term of deferred adjudication probation in Bowie County, Texas, for misdemeanor assault with bodily injury. According to court records, in December, Barrett went to a man's place of business during office hours and assaulted the man with his fists and feet."


  • Moments ago: Fort Worth state rep Mark Krause announced he would run for Texas AG against Ken Paxton. Krause was a founding member of the ultra-conservative Texas Freedom Caucus along with Jonathon Stickland (retired after being despised by almost everyone) and Brisco Cain (the short guy with the big hat.) He's the third Republican challenger to announce against Paxton who has been endorsed by Trump. Others are George P. Bush (he's going to cash in on that name even if it kills him) and Eva Guzman (former Court of Criminal Appeals court judge.)