6.12.2019

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts


  • A UFC fighter is the first to file a lawsuit over the crane accident in Dallas. Was a loved one killed? Was she permanently disabled? Will she never be able to fight again? Did her dog die? Nope. She cut her foot and has some property damage. She wants $1 million. 
  • I spent a couple of years in the Tarrant County DA's office back in the day. Another new hire (slightly after me) and I were sitting around talking one day, and he told me that his sister was the victim in the Central Park Jogger case. I was stunned. I don't remember his name, and I don't think he stayed with the office very long. I don't even know if he was telling the truth. (This would have been around 1992, and I'm not sure the victim had even been publicly identified yet so I couldn't even verify it.)
  • Prediction: This DFW lawyer, former cop, and sometimes Fox 4 commentator is going to run for office. (He announced he was going to run for Dallas County Sheriff a couple of years back then suddenly backed out.) He's now becoming visible as the PR person for DeSoto PD, and has suddenly taken on a very hard line "law and order" persona. This is a very bizarre tweet from a defense lawyer about the recent police shooting in Forth Worth when the body cams haven't been released. (And putting "activists" in quotes becomes perilously close to being interpreted as "those people.") The whole thing is very Trumpian.

  • When did monster rectangular (not circular) hay bales become a thing?  As a hay hauler from the mean fields of Wise County from way back, I notice things like this.
    Exclusive photo of Wise County hay field. 
  • Gov. Abbott is just killing it these days with his signature.
  • Call of the dogs. Run out the clock. And don't celebrate if you do score. 
  • Mute? I'm not sure I've ever seen a press release like this.
  • Kevin Durant just blew out his Achilles days before becoming a free agent.  You feel sorry for him? Don't. If he was healthy, he was going to get either 5 years and $220 million from his current team, the Warriors, or 4 years and $160 million from some other team. It was going to be his choice. But now he's hurt. Will he get those offers? It really doesn't matter. They'll be there next year: He doesn't have to declare as a free agent since he has a player option for one more year with the Warriors and, if exercised, he gets $31.5 million simply rehab and then can become a free agent. 
  • Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered 25 years ago today.
  • The lost Fort Worth hiker I wrote about yesterday has a cover story in the Star-Telegram today. "McClatchy, 38, has not publicly described the experience. He was not ready to be interviewed, his family said." That's him front and center below.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold. 

at 8:30 AM

6.11.2019

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • I told you this was coming. Bills become law in Texas without his signature yet he signed a few in front of the camera for publicity only. But then he goes over the top with these pictures. To say he signed all of those is a lie. "Hey, Jim Bob, put a bunch of piles of paper on my desk. Let's snap a pic. And then lets clean off the desk. It'll look great!" 

  • As of September 1st, if you are 20 years of age and vape in Texas, the government has the right to arrest you and fine you. But you can vote, drive a car, and be drafted.
  • I knew the winds were big in Dallas but didn't know about the rain. Look at these two videos: The street looks like a river, and I can't believe this house didn't give way. 
  • Power outages continue in Dallas. This pic was taking looking west towards downtown Dallas this morning (you can see the neon green building.)
  • This picture was floating around showing the rain over downtown on Sunday. One problem: It was taken in 2017.
  • Heard on the radio: Isn't it true that big construction cranes are to be left untethered before a big storm so they can swing in the wind like a weather vane? I've actually heard that before, but I have no idea if it is correct. 
  • The Messenger noted that a former (and current?) Rhome resident and Northwest High graduate won the NCAA discuss this weekend. Here's video of the toss. (The discus and the javelin make me nervous because I fear someone isn't paying attention to the death coming at them from the sky.) 
  • I would give you an update on the murder trial going on in Wise County, but I looked through the glass door yesterday, saw a photo of what looked like bullet fragments on the big screen, and noticed it had "State Exhibit 154" on it. I immediately got Tired Head and didn't go in. 
  • The capital murder trial in Dallas that started last week involving the killing of the dentist in a murder for hire trial was over by Friday morning. 
  • There's no easy way to summarize a story of Jerry Jones gaining controlling interest in some natural gas company named Comstock last year for $630 million, it just acquired a company called Covey Park Energy for $2.2 billion --- largely with a new investment from Jones of $700 million, and Comstock has the weird stock price history:
  • The Random Thought Girl last week was indeed on a beach in Dubai. (Thanks emailer.)  My other guess was Qatar whose skyline is shown here:
  • Wise County housed an alleged serial killer last year and the Morning News has an update where authorities continue to link him to more murders. I was skeptical at first, but I've had conversations with folks who are beginning to convince me.  Wise County's own and Texas Ranger James Holland is credited in the story. 
  • Legal news.
  • Let's check in on the Toddler In Chief this morning. Yep, still at it. 
  • I'm reading The General vs. The President about Douglas MacArthur and Truman. Like most things, I'm stunned by what I didn't know, but one little fun fact I picked up: Presidents used to meet with the press outside of the cameras. If they wanted to quote Truman, the common practice was for the press to ask him permission to do so. If they didn't get it, they didn't print it. 
  • CNN referred to the situation after the crash yesterday as "pandemonium" and now the headline below would make you think there were mass casualties.  You think everything is bigger in Texas? 



at 8:32 AM

6.10.2019

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • That was a heck of a storm that went through Dallas yesterday afternoon, but we also learned that every local television station is ill-prepared to cover any major local news on a Sunday afternoon when they only have a skeleton crew.  I'm not sure Fox 4 had a producer on a staff. Here's a tip: When a massive crane falls on an apartment complex, show shots of the damage.

  • And there was amazing footage on Twitter immediately after it happened. Since I'm the hardest working man in news, here's a compilation:
    • Panes of glass from a skyscraper under construction crashed into an existing high rise.
    • Great footage of the velocity of the wind taken from inside a building in Addison.
    • Video of the crane collapsing in the distance
    • People scrambling to get off a boat ramp on Lake Grapevine.
    • Billboard crashing on car. (With a bad narrator.)
    • Photo of windows broken out in Fountain Place in downtown.
  • There was a hiker in Fort Worth who got lost in Arkansas but was found late Friday. When I see a story written like this, I wonder if the reporter is trying to say something without saying it. Can text but can't make calls. Most hikers lost in the area are found quickly. Roommate set up a GoFundMe account.
  • There was a Lamborghini wreck in Dallas over the weekend where the driver was killed. Speaking of GoFundMe, his family already has over $100,000.
  • Southlake Carroll's baseball team won a state title with a 17-0 victory this weekend. But the other team had, uh, issues.
  • The City of Dallas will settle the Exxxotica lawsuit which started a few years back when the City denied them use of the convention center.   Do you know which simple country lawyer from Decatur said that the legal position of the City of Dallas was on "shaky ground" way back in 2015 when all this began? This guy. My free legal advice would have saved Dallas not only the $650,000 settlement but also legal fees which had already reached $675,000 way back in 2017. 
  • Eric and Don Jr., who took a side trip to Ireland last week at your expense so daddy could look at his hotel, went on a "pub crawl' and ordered a round of drinks for everyone at one bar. They left without paying. But the owner said she was OK because "I don’t think we’ve to worry about getting paid for that." She doesn't know the Trumps.
  • Fort Worth police shot and killed a guy last night. This is in addition to the fatal shooting on June 1st by the SWAT team and a June 5th shooting where a cop fired at a guy but didn't hit anyone.
  • Tech won the men's NCAA Men's Track Championship this weekend and punched their ticket to the World Series. This is after playing in the NCAA Basketball Championship a couple of months back. (And I note a way-too-early death of a woman from Runaway Bay who has "Guns Up" in her obituary.)
  • Guess which world "leader" signed this D-Day Proclamation at the top?
  • The Texas Tribune has a story on the abuses of civil forfeitures by DA offices across the state. Here is the way the Texas County and District Attorney's Association read it: 

  • Trump continues to let us know he's not mentally well: 
    "of which the Moon is a part"

    Less than one month ago
  • More proof of instability as he was watching Fox News on Saturday afternoon. He misspelled basketball and referenced the wrong Rick Barry.
  • A former NFL player is on trial and this is the note the jury sent out on Friday. 
  • Messenger: Above The Fold

at 8:29 AM

6.07.2019

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.







at 2:00 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts





  • That may not be the best RTG above, but that has to be the most interesting skyline ever. With doing no research, I'm guessing it's Dubai or somewhere in Qatar or some such?  And that one building in the middle under construction appears to be leaning to our right. 
  • Yes.
    And do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder in Paris?
  • I mentioned the other day about the deputy city manager out of Wichita Falls who had his trash searched by cops who then raided his house looking for weed. He was fired from his $180,000 a year job after  31 years. How much marijuana did the find? "[A]n inventory of seized items filed with the 78th District Court did not specify the amount of marijuana investigators found when they served the search warrant." Translation: They weren't proud of what they found. It wouldn't surprise me if it is a misdemeanor amount.  Story.
  • I'm no business genius, but when the Shell station in Decatur by James Wood's is selling gas at $2.59 and the new QuikTrip has it priced at $2.12, I think I know which one will win. 
  • For one to be a personal campaign account and one to be a government account, there are a lot of similarities between these two posts three minutes apart yesterday. (But there are a million ways how you could explain that a taxpayer paid PR person did not create the campaign post on taxpayer time.)

  • Heck, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett was always blatantly posting on his personal account during government work hours and no one cared. Trump even made him a federal judge. 
  • Some group has created a text based search engine of past tax returns of non-profit organizations. I found NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's $34 million salary from 2014 here. (Yep, the NFL was non-profit until the last couple of years when they changed it so people can't find their salaries.)
  • We've come a long way from the report being a "complete and total exoneration." 
  • Alabama's Roy Moore's lawyer has been arrested for DUI and weed. And he has a pretty intimidating mug shot in a I-Might-Do-Something-Crazy-At-Any-Moment/Full Metal Jacket kind of way. 
  • Fourteen minutes after the D-Day remembrance ceremony was to begin, Trump decided to give an interview with Fox News where, with crosses in the background,  he decided it would be a good time to call Robert Mueller a "fool." Mueller has a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart Medal.
  • The length of time from the end of Civil War to D-Day is roughly equivalent to the length of time from D-Day until now. (Four years off).   And that's today's fun fact. 
  • Hot World War II opinion: Hitler would have won but for the Russians. (That's probably more of a common knowledge opinion.) Dead Russian soldiers: Over 20 million. Dead American soldiers: 405,000
  • Fox 4's Good Day this morning. It's a hot female Caucasian traffic light.
  • A sheikh who wants to be president of Iraq, and who wants the U.S. to strike Iran, has paid to stay twenty-six nights in a suite in Trump's Emoluments International Hotel.
  • I'll put her close to the top of my Evil Women List. Quick loading interview.

  • Want to see a Russian destroyer taunt a U.S.S. cruiser in the Philippine Sea within the last 24 hours?




at 8:31 AM
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