10.26.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




I just went back and watched it. I still think it was wildly inappropriate, but I surprisingly also caught myself laughing this time.     

  • The cold front and accompanying very quick storm will blow through Wise County at 1:15 a.m. 
  • Friday really is the time to dump bad news.  Arlington PD fired the officer who shot and killed the man driving very slowly in a cul-de-sac who they had blocked in, and also released the video of the incident. By Monday, everyone had forgotten about it, including me.   Fox 4 coverage. WFAA coverage. (It's the white vehicle, below.)


  • The stock market hit and all time record high yesterday. Trump used to take all the credit when that happened. 

  • It's a Starbucks going in on 380 in Bridgeport.  Also, Bud Kennedy of the Star-Telegram tipped me off to this site where you can find out what's going on with basically any commercial building site in Texas. 

  • Ummm???

  • It's just mindboggling numbers. Facebook yesterday evening announced $9.2 billion in net income on $29 billion in revenue -- all in the third quarter alone and all for a company which doesn't produce anything. 

  • Yesterday I saw references to two new cases where a person's identity was established by forensic genetic genealogy/familial DNA -- the locating of relatives through commercial DNA databases who share most, but not all, of the known DNA markers from the unknown person you seek. And then doing good old fashioned police work after that. 
    • This one

    • And this one.

    • I remember this quote from a small town Texas police chief from a Texas Monthly story from a couple of months ago. It is spot on. 


  • Just like what happened with cell phones and flat screen TVs, you are about to see the age of the astronomical explosion of electric cars.

  • Cover-up!!!

  • You know who I think is a very possible wild-card hire? Art Briles' son, Kendal, who is the offensive coordinator at Arkansas. 

  • Someone read this very short story and explain where that $500,000 figure in the headline comes from.  It's completely made up. 

  • Thumbs up to this Netflix documentary. And it has quite the startling ending. 

  • I still monitor the Texas COVID hospitalizations because I'm kind of expecting another Winter Surge, but so far there is no evidence of that happening. Yet. 

at 8:31 AM

10.25.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



We still talk about this to this day.    

  • Another shooting in high tone Uptown last night. 

  • More and more stories over the weekend about the Trump Insurrection. When I was a kid, I was told that advocating the overthrow of the American government was one of the worst things you could do. Was I lied to?
    • You've got Giuliani, Bannon, and Eastman in a war room.  

    • Of course Giuliani and Eastman took the stage urging the crowd to, "Let's have trial by combat!" 

    • You've got members of Congress involved in the insurrection. 

    • They named names and they are exactly who you think they would be. 

    • And there is corroboration as the attack was ongoing. 

  • In Kerrville on Saturday:


  • Still don't know if this is going to be a Starbuck or Whataburger on 380 in Bridgeport. I'm guessing a Whataburger. 

  • I don't understand what a real gun with real bullets is doing on a movie set at all. (By the way, the author of Hillbilly Elegy is a despicable human being. For those who don't know, "@jack" is Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter.) 

  • I've said it for years: What used to be accidents are now reframed as crimes because of overzealous prosecutors.  (But, no, he will never be charged with anything. Nor should he be.)

  • The Elizabeth Holmes trial is an example of lawyers not realizing times have changed (speed it up, boys!) and proof that juries might not be the best way to resolve complex allegations. 



  • As he was acting like a tourist this weekend, he didn't realize they brought out the DPS gun boats (!!) to protect him. 

  • For Wise County, here all the old vs. new redistricting lines now that the dust has settled.  Anyone can see their new maps, and demographic information for it, by entering your address here (courtesy of the Texas Tribune.)
Texas Senate. (Where we are now joined with Highland Park.)

Texas House representative (Parker County and Phil King are gone)

Congressional rep (For Decatur and Rhome, at least.)

  • I think I've walked out of two movies in my life. One was an art house film at the Angelika, and the other was Dune in 1984.

at 8:31 AM

10.22.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Rick Perry was going hard after Mitt Romney as we were a year out from the election. It would be a couple of weeks later when Perry will have his infamous "oops" debate moment.   

  • That's simply awful: Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of Rust in New Mexico and it killed a film crew member, Halyna Hutchins, 42. The only other time I remember this happening was with Brandon Lee in 1993.

    • Thank God we don't have a certain president with a Twitter account who almost certainly would say something cringe-worthy offensive this morning. 
  • The cause of death of a UT linebacker was released yesterday.

    • A Texas lawmaker was able to somehow blame brown people. 

    • And to be clear, the quoted portion was from the Ehlinger family attorney. To call it "prescription anti-anxiety medication" is a little misleading.  That simply means that Xanax -- the unlaced kind -- can be obtained via a prescription. 
  • So the official cause of death of these three people found dead after hiking was revealed yesterday to be "hyperthermia and probable dehydration." And we are supposed to believe that's what killed all three of them and their dog? I suppose that's possible, but it is weird. They were found last August on the Hite Cove Trail in California. 
    Picture from an earlier date. 

    • But I will admit the most dehydrated I ever got -- to the point of being very concerned -- was a simple five mile flat hike in Palo Duro Canyon about 10 years ago. It caught me me completely off guard. And this was in the middle of my half marathon days when I was in very good shape. I still don't know what happened, but when your body needs water it really needs water. 
  • The Supreme Court denied a stay of execution last night in a case where, get this, the guy missed the deadline of choosing how he wanted to die. The State wanted to kill him in an alternative way. Good lord. 

    • I feel this in my bones:

  • This is really a screwed up process with this Steven Bannon subpoena situation.
    • With a normal subpoena issued in a court case, someone like Bannon files a Motion to Quash the subpoena. The court then holds a hearing to determine if there is any basis for the subpoena to be declared invalid (here, the Executive Privilege claim), and the whole matter is summarily dealt with. Simple and sweet. 
    • But here, the process is (1) Have the full House vote to pursue criminal contempt, (2) The Attorney General then decides if he wants to file a criminal case, (3) he gets an indictment if he does, (4) Bannon gets to argue the actual defense of a "good faith basis" (his Executive Privilege argument) to the criminal charge, and (5) he's either convicted or not. That will take forever.  And even then whether there actually is an Executive Privilege in this situation has not been decided -- just whether he had a good faith basis to believe it. 

    • As to the merits, I despise Steve Bannon but he probably has a "good faith basis" when he's hired a lawyer who tells him he has a good faith basis. And the lawyer's argument of Executive Privilege is far-fetched, but doesn't fall in the category of ridiculous. 
  • This is so legally nerdy that you have to be in the business to appreciate just how bizarre it is: The Dallas Court of Appeals just had to reverse a case because at trial the defense lawyer, prosecutor, and the judge all believed someone who is convicted of a basic State Jail Felony is not eligible for probation. Incredible. 
  • I ignored the first video I saw of this teacher doing an "Indian dance" in class because I figured there had to be an explanation. Now there's another one. She's a mess. Story.

  • Here's a random silly felony criminal case I saw out of Houston yesterday. Yep, a prosecutor managed to get an indictment from a grand jury for assault by bananas. It was later dismissed because the prosecutor magically decided he couldn't prove that being hit with bananas caused pain -- a necessary element. That's probably something he needed to think about beforehand. Put it on my tombstone: "Too many cops. Too many prosecutors." 

  • And another. My continuing bullet point of people-getting-rich-in-the-warehouse-industry.

  • What you saw in the Mavericks game last night is exactly what you are about to get. That was no fluke. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 842 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:29 AM
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