4.13.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




This "going back 10 years" bit has pretty much convinced me I don't remember anything at all. I certainly don't remember this.  But $299 for a softball bat still shocks me today.    

  • Breaking: The FDC and CDC are recommending pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine after adverse reactions to it.  Somehow six cases "of a severe type of blood clot" out of more than 6.8 million doses administered is enough to recommend the pause.  
    • I find this pause to be shocking and irresponsible. My Bridgeport math puts the odds of the blood clot at . . . 

    • The narrative on Facebook by noon will be "All the vaccines will kill you! The CDC said that! Didn't you see it! I tried to tell ya the government rushed it!"
    • Somehow the same people who are fine with over a half million people dying of the disease will justify not getting the vaccine because 6 people developed blood clots.
  • Random thoughts on the shooting of Daunte Wright by Officer Kim Potter.

    • The Chief of Police said this: "As I watch the video and listen to the officer's commands, it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet . . . ."
      • We all agree with this, right? The officer actually thought she had the Taser in her hand.  I mean, it might be bizarre to make that kind of mistake (especially as a 26 year veteran officer), but she did actually believe it, right? 

    •  The Chief continued: [T]his was an accidental discharge, that resulted in a tragic death of Mr. Wright."  
      • <Insert loud record scratch.> Say what? There was nothing "accidental" about the discharge of the weapon. It would be an accidental discharge if it went off when she didn't intend for it to go off. 
      • That was incredibly sloppy language for a prepared statement which he knew would be broadcast across the nation (and world.) 
    • Will they charge Officer Potter with murder? She shouldn't be.  She intended to tase him; she didn't intend to kill him. Murder should be off the table. 

    • What about criminal negligence (at least its Texas equivalent)? Ok, I can go with that. 
      • Criminal negligence in Texas means that she "ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist [she is holding a gun instead of a taser] or the result [the death] will occur.  The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor's standpoint." I think all the elements exist here. Honestly, it fits really, really well. 
      • Should she be incarcerated?  I'm not sure she belongs to put in a cage because of a mistake. I'm not sure anyone belongs there for a mistake -- even a horrible one. 
    • In an attempt to seek comparisons, this case, in my humble opinion, has worse facts that that of the Amber Guyger wrongful shooting case. 
      • I actually understood how Amber could end up on the wrong floor and think she was entering her own apartment. It certainly didn't seem like a "gross deviation" of what would happen to a normal person or that she "ought to be aware" of the circumstances or that a death would occur because of the mistake. 
      • How Amber was convicted of murder -- not even criminally negligent homicide -- is still mind-boggling to me. 
      • Sorry, I digressed. 
    • Back to Brooklyn Center, MN. Sure we hear the same old comments of "he would be alive" if he had "obeyed the police" or "didn't try to run." 

  • Spoiler alert: The microchip is not inserted when you get the vaccine. (This story was actually on 60 Minutes last Sunday.)

  • This headline is a shot at both Trump and Biden, but it's misleading. Can anyone think of anything different between the periods of October 2020 to March 2021 when compared to the period of October 2019 to March 2020? 

  • This is worth watching. You'll remember the Inside Edition interview because of how creepy Copeland acted.  But one thing which I find surprising in his recent explanation of that interview is that how he tells the congregation that it is "his jet" instead of saying it is "our jet" or the "the church's jet." Maybe I shouldn't feel that way. (I always say Wise County gets to claim Copeland because the church and airstrip is closer to Newark than it is to any other town or city.)

  • University of North Texas pitcher was so good she made The Washington Post. (She also struck out 21 in a game in February but somehow managed to give up five hits back then.)  

  • The fire in Big Bend reminds me how I need to make it to Big Bend. I've never been. 



at 8:34 AM

4.12.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




This never did become big news despite the fact that a U.S. service man was killed by our own drone.  He was 26 years old and graduated from Arlington Martin.   

  • The pepper spraying of a soldier has been all over the news this weekend. I just figured out it happened last December. 

  • I got my second Pfizer shot on Thursday and, man, did it hit me. I was relatively fine until exactly 24 hours after shot when I went downhill dramatically. For the next three hours I was shivering in bed and aching. And, since it was the worst I had felt in years, I was on the verge of thinking something had gone horribly wrong.   Then, as suddenly as it had hit me, it was gone. Weird. 
    • I'm now join the ranks of only 1 in 5 Texans who are fully vaccinated.  

    • If I had to guess, I'd say at least a third of the  the population will never get the vaccine. Why? Down deep they think COVID was no big deal and believe the whole thing was overblown. It's now their little protest against The Man to not get the vaccine. 

  • Hail storms didn't impact us on Friday, but they did to the south and east of Dallas. Check out the way some handled it in Rockwall to protect their cars on I-30. 

  • Similar troubling stories out of Houston and Dallas. 


  • There's really no information on this, but they think it is murder. “The official cause and manner of death will be determined by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office."


  • But they might want to tap the brakes on relying on the opinion of the Medical Examiner's Office. Remember the assistant ME from Tarrant County who is on administrative leave for screwing up 40 autopsies? Well now we have a ruling that the lead ME, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, may have his own problems. "In a 51-page finding, Tarrant County District Court Judge Mollee Westfall said Peerwani made 'false, inaccurate or misleading' statements in at least 10 crucial elements of the prosecution case." Prediction: They are about to clean house at the Tarrant ME's office. 

  • The Poor and Downtrodden White Man, subject of so much discrimination, held a variety of rallies across the country yesterday. One of them was in Fort Worth. It went off with a whimper with more counter-protestors than protestors -- and not many of either.  


  • Trump had an audience this weekend. Some things never change. 


  • Chris Wallace continues to be the last bastion of hope for Fox News. 

  • John Cornyn was tweeting early this morning. He didn't mention that President Biden's approval rating have been higher than Trump's ever got in four years. See how that works? (Side note: Cornyn plagiarized this word for word from a Politico story.)

  • Could use just a little bit of editing here:

  • I had forgotten that the Shelley Luther case wasn't over. Her jail sentence for contempt of court out of Dallas was still on appeal, and the only reason she had not served the sentence was because the Texas Supreme Court gave her a PR bond. Well, on Friday afternoon the court quietly overturned the sentence completely. 



at 8:32 AM

4.09.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Ok, that was a little harsh, but that salary was a scam. As for an update on Bristol Palin, it looks like she works in real estate in Austin.  

  •  Royal Family news this morning. He was married to Queen Elizabeth, 94, for 74 years.


  • Update on Prince Philip's death per Fox News: A black woman killed him.  

  • A play in five Acts. 
    • Act I: Yesterday morning we got an update about Wednesday's mass shooting. 

    • Act II: At around 11:00 a.m., President Biden says something must be done. 

    • Act III: At 11:45 a.m., Gov. Abbott, on cue, lies about "take away our guns" and promises to defy federal law.  

    • Act IV: Less than three hours later, there is another Texas Mass Shooting. 

       

    • Act V: Gov. Abbott offer his Thoughts and Prayers.

  • Far right wing radio was going crazy that President Biden said that none of the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, are absolute. That's Constitutional Law 101.  Freedom of Speech doesn't allow you to solicit someone to murder. Freedom of the Press doesn't allow  defamation. Freedom of Religion doesn't allow you to sacrifice your eldest at an alter. Freedom of Assembly didn't allow you to occupy the Capitol on January 6th. This ain't hard. 

  • Another incumbent Decatur School Board member has dropped out of his race for re-election citing the uncomfortable state of politics.  
  • Never pay the pimp directly via Venmo. 

  • I had thought that getting a conviction of Derek Chauvin in the trial might be dicey. But these prosecutors have gone all out and are shockingly good. How they made the science behind the death interesting was a work of art yesterday. Computer animations. Graphics. 


  • The Texas Senate yesterday voted to pass a law that forces any professional sports team that has any government contract to play the National Anthem before every game. What's next? Being required to kneel, bow, and confess our undying allegiance to the government before using a public road or entering a public building?

  • Listening to the Mets' own announcers getting bent out shape because of New York winning the game due to the batter leaning into a pitch which was a strike is pretty entertaining. Video.

  • Embarrassing: Gary Player's son obviously holding up a golf sleeve for the cameras as part of an under the table advertisement payola at the ceremonial start at The Masters yesterday. 


  • 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: 644 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:33 AM

4.08.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




That's another example of stuff I didn't remember. Four thousand physical Ranger tickets were stolen so the club deactivated the bar codes on all of them. And how quickly things change. Now almost every professional ballpark has gone "ticketless" opting to use barcodes on phones instead.

  • We had a UFO spotting over Wise County last night (and most of North Texas). Video. The explanation is that it was "SpaceX’s Starlight Satellite ‘Train.’"

  • So let me get this straight. Gov. Abbott has condemned "sanctuary cities" for their refusal to help ICE enforce federal immigration laws, but now wants all Texas cities to refuse to enforce federal gun laws? I didn't know "law and order" meant that you got to pick and choose which laws you want to follow. (And does no one understand the Supremacy Clause?)

  • Procedurally and politically, the way this capital murder case against a Dallas cop was handled yesterday was weird. From what I can discern, the cops hauled off and arrested this guy after the DA's office told them not to do it because the prosecutors believed there was insufficient evidence. The cops did it anyway. So what were the DA's options? (Stay with me here.) 

    • They could simply "refuse the case." That is, they have absolute power to kill any case they choose. It happens every day. They didn't do that here. 
    • They could have had the grand jury "no-bill" the case. That is, have them make a decision not to indict. (Sometimes a DA's office will do this for "political cover" instead of refusing the case. That way they can say "It was the grand jury's decision.") This wasn't done either. 
    • Instead, they chose to go forward with an Examining Trial requested by the defense -- a hearing which is a rarely held* in almost every Texas county. It is, theoretically, a hearing where the DA is forced, before an indictment, to produce evidence to the judge that "probable cause" exists to refer the case to a grand jury. If they can't do that, the judge is to order the defendant released. 
    • But if the DA didn't like the case (and for some reason hadn't chosen the option to "refuse the case" or have the grand jury no-bill it), the hearing could be short circuited by simply standing up and saying, "Judge, we believe the evidence is insufficient to establish probable cause and will stipulate to this fact." Then the judge would have no choice other than to find no probable cause and release the defendant.
    • Instead -- and this is very weird --  the DA went forward yesterday and allowed a detective to testify and get cross-examined and then, after that, told the judge that there wasn't probable cause. “Where we stand as a district attorney’s office right now today, we do not feel there’s sufficient probable cause for this case,” prosecutor Jason Fine told the judge after the detective’s testimony. (Even more bizarre: The prosecutor and the detective also had a "tense exchange" while he testified according to the Morning News.) 
    • But it was the position of the DA all along that there was insufficient evidence. So why go through the dog and pony show yesterday? Just refuse it, no bill it, or tell the judge before the Examining Trial that you agree with the defense.  There was no reason for the hearing to actually happen and have the detective testify. (Side note: The judge's ruling does not invoked Double Jeopardy.) 
    • Theory: The Dallas DA's office and the Dallas PD have never gotten along. This hearing just might have been the DA's office publicly sticking it to the PD in an I-Told-You-So move. If so, that's a bold move. 
    • (*Examining trials are rarely held because (1) like I said, if the case sucks, the DA will simply refuse it or no bill it, and (2) if the DA likes his case, all he has to do is get the grand jury to indict the case before the date of the Examining Trial to make the issue moot -- you don't get an Examining Trial if the grand jury has indicted the case.) 
  • College Station crime: "A 22-year-old Texas man pleaded guilty to murder Wednesday for hiring the hitmen who killed his father in March 2018. Nicolas Shaughnessy also targeted his mother, Corey, in the plot, and he stood to inherit $2 million if both she and Ted Shaughnessy, a jeweler, died."


  • That reminds me of one of the wildest cases out of Fort Worth which is now almost 30 years old: The murder of of Caren Koslow. Her stepdaughter, who is now 46, is still in prison. 
    Side note: Attorney Mark Daniel has been around a long time. (He's representing one of the
    Southlake school board members who just got indicted in the Open Meetings case.)

  • As much as it drives people nuts, this is legally the correct decision. 

    • Let me tell you something, the same ruling will soon* come come down from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in an unrelated case dealing with "revenge porn." (*They've been sitting on it for months which is what the tend to do when they are forced to rule in a way which will get them criticized. The case was argued on December 12, 2018, and they still haven't issued a decision.)
  • I thought I was in big trouble for a second yesterday.

  • I missed that the fiancé of UT's new basketball coach came dressed to the introductory press conference as a referee.

  • Wichita Falls Time Record News: "The way people in Wichita Falls and [others in the 940 area code] make phone calls is about to change. Soon phone users will have to dial 10 digits rather than just seven to make calls." Uh, we didn't already?



at 8:31 AM
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