10.12.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




 I posted this less than clear picture because a faithful reader had taken it in downtown Fort Worth across from the Worthington Hotel and sent it to me. You know what that was? An "Occupy Wall Street" protest. Remember those? 


  • Greg Abbott announced yesterday that, by invoking the magical "executive order", he can control how a private business wants to decide as to how it wants to make its workplace safe. 


    • This is the same governor who dictated a mask mandate and closed businesses. 
    • This is the same governor who, once the right wing bashed his head in over the mask mandate, said this when he announced he would withdraw it:

    • Of course, Abbott's vaccine ban is unenforceable and illegal under the Supremacy Clause. This is all for show. 
    • By the way, when are we banning the polio vaccine? I think it, too, is "safe, effective and our best defense." 
  • As much as Abbott has taken a beating in the polls (and has tried to remake himself into a mini-Trump to save himself), I still think he wins the Republican nomination next year.  Assuming COVID doesn't get him, Allen West can't win. And Don Huffines is a simpleton with statements like this yesterday. You want to tell us which tax will replace it?

  • Say what?

  • Raiders coach Jon Gruden is abruptly out after more emails surfaced and were published by The New York Times last night. He had six years left on his $10 million a year contract -- a contract I always thought was nuts. In case you want to know what he wrote, here you go.  As they said on The Ticket this morning, "He hit all the numbers on the Old White Guy Bingo Card." And these headlines, even from Fox News, are really uniform.  But I expect Fox News to start coming to his defense as the day unfolds.

  • I'd bet everything I own that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturns this ruling from yesterday. 
    That's quite the glamor shot of the killer, however.

  • When crime is down, you create crime to justify your job. This was a sting operation entrapping adults online by cops posing as women and men offering sex for money.  And look at the taxpayer expense: "[1] Tarrant County Sheriff Deputies in the Human Trafficking Unit worked in the detail with [2] Fort Worth and [3] Arlington police, the [4] Texas Department of Public Safety, [5] the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, [6] the Texas Office of the Attorney General and [7] Tarrant County constables."  Notably absent is the Tarrant County DA's Office who now has all those cases dumped on its lap.



  • Don't look now, but the price of oil is on the move. 

  • The new water fountains at the Wise County Court Center (don't call it an "annex") have a place to fill your water bottle. And it keeps track of "bottles saved." Very progressive.

  • Of all my thoughts on the great College Football Saturday, this was the most random: What's the purpose of all of those arm bands? Heck, what would be the purpose of even one of them? 

  • I finally watched Lincoln starring Daniel Dale Lewis.  I love that guy.  And the cast is so large and so great that I was constantly asking myself " Wasn't that guy in" O Brother Where Art Though? Breaking Bad? Deadwood? House of Cards? The answer each time was always "yes."