6.01.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts





That was a wild story. He was a carjacking suspect who fled from cops in Deep Ellum and made it to the crane on the campus of SMU at 11:30 a.m.  Fourteen hours later, in the middle of the night, he fell to his death. 

  • The funerals for 19 dead children have begun. This story was the absolute gut punch.

  • Yesterday DPS took another punch to its already staggering reputation.
    • When DPS' $300,000 Man gave his press conference on Friday to "set the record straight" regarding the false statements various DPS officials and Gov. Abbott had told the public, one thing which was stunning was the moment when Col. Steve McCraw threw a Uvalde teacher under the bus.
    • He said the the gunman entered a door which had been "propped open" by a teacher. 

    • Here's the video of it. Some people didn't take kindly to that when it happened: 

    • But yesterday, after the teacher's lawyer said that McCraw had lied, another new spokesman for DPS, Travis Considine, made an appearance and completely backtracked and said that while the door had been propped open initially, the teacher removed the object keeping it propped open and then shut the door. However, the locking mechanism failed to catch. This is on video, the DPS spokesman said. Sheesh. 
    • There is no doubt that teacher since last Friday has been going through absolute hell. McCraw didn't say her name, but there is no question everyone in that small town knew exactly who it was. We know how that works. Can DPS screw this up any more? Today is a new day. 
  • In another wild twist, now we've learned that the two agencies at front and center of the failure-to-act controversy have stopped cooperating with other investigating agencies. 

      • "According to sources, the decision to stop cooperating occurred soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was 'the wrong decision' and contrary to protocol."
      • I bet when McCraw targeted the agencies with his "the wrong decision" comment (which I pointed out yesterday was weird because he said it in response to a question while rattled and it was not in his prepared remarks), that the agencies were taken completely by surprise. 
      • So you've ridiculed people in the past for "lawyering up" and not cooperating with police? Well here's an example of two entire police departments understanding that once those in authority make you the target, that authority is not your friend and doesn't want to talk to you to "help you." And those agencies should know. 
  • But the man at the head of the controversy, Uvalde Consolidated ISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo is not completely in hiding. He was supposed to be sworn in as a new city councilman last night for the City of Uvalde but the meeting was cancelled. But then, in a secret meeting in the afternoon, he actually was sworn in. The mayor then issued this weird press release to announce it. 


  • Let me try to move on to other stuff . . . 
  • A few days back the Fifth Circuit wildly let the new Texas law stand which prevented any big social media company from "censoring" comments on their privately owned platforms. The Supreme Court finally took action late yesterday and stopped the law again in its tracks. (This is beyond bizarre how it is even open for debate.)

  • Trump was not happy yesterday when the only attempted prosecution for his "the FBI set me up in this Russian collusion narrative" ended up in a quick not guilty verdict.
    The man continues to spiral deeper into insanity.

  • The Boyd School Superintendent has resigned to take a new job.  She suffered the lose of her husband in the horrible icy pile-up on I-35 in Fort Worth in February of last year. 
  • If you cared about this house in Arlington which used to be owned by Pantera's Vinnie Paul, you might be interested to know it has been demolished. 

  • I'm extremely tired of the QAnon congressman, and I've ignored this for a few days, but if you want to see her in a brief conspiratorial rant involving Bill Gates and "fake meat" with the added bonus of her referring to a petri dish as a "peach tree dish", here ya go.

  • Random sports thought: You know what is wildly entertaining? The NCAA golf finals tourney on the Golf Channel.  It's match play and has a Ryder cup feel to it. Yesterday, I caught an OU player trying to sink a put to keep the entire Sooner team from being eliminated while all his teammates, who had already finished, were huddled off the green watching him. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

5.31.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




We didn't have the primary election until May 29, 2012 back then, and afterwards David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz were headed to a run-off for the vacant Senate seat. I had forgotten that Cruz didn't get the most votes. This was my message to Cruz supporters:



  • New video shows kids escaping from Robb Elementary but also picks up on 911 dispatch relaying to officers that kids were still alive inside.

  • This was really a great photo from Sunday. The crosses in the background with the names on them. The school's brick sign prominently displayed.  The president and his wife the only people in the photo. A symbolic (?) forked tree in the center above Biden's head.  It was taken by a French photographer.

  • As was this one, which was reprinted everywhere, may end up being the lasting image. It was taken by Pete Luna with the local Uvalde paper.  

  • This guy somehow got coverage on both WFAA and Fox 4 yesterday as he plans to head to Uvalde.  I think it's a little to early to start with cutesy bits to make people feel better.

  • The Republicans sending John Cornyn to a "bi-partisan committee" in response to the Uvalde shooting is nothing but for show. Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- will come out of it. 

  • I keep forgetting to post this. The manufacturer of the two AR-15s in the Uvalde massacre, Daniel Defense, scrambled and deleted this tweet from May 16th after the shooting went down. 

  • I saw that "Fox4Terry" had covered this wreck yesterday morning, and then . . .


     
    • . . . later in the afternoon we found out it involved the death of a former TCU football player. 

  • Tomorrow marks the start of June which will be the month when major Supreme Court opinions for this term are released. We've got abortion, a the Second Amendment, and the coach lead on-the-field prayer cases coming down soon. Meanwhile . . . 

  • Even if the jury finds he was "defamed", I hope they give him only $1 this week.

  • Man, this has been forgotten in light of the Uvalde news, but the guy that escaped from TDC on May 12th is still on the loose. (For you legal nerdy guys, here's the appellate opinion affirming his life sentence without parole in 2008.)

  • Random sports

  • Uvalde shook so much I never got around to mentioning that the the Book-Banning/Never-Tried-A-Case DA candidate in Tarrant County lost his election. (But the guy who won actually got endorsed by Trump so this isn't exactly anything to celebrate.)


at 8:31 AM

5.30.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




A death sentence of a female I had forgotten about. Kimberly Cargill is her name
 if you want to Google her. 

  • It's a holiday. Everything is shut down. The is no Update. But, nonetheless, I'm here for you once again. 

  • I was just going to make this some Uvalde quick hits but it turned into . . .
  • Once those 911 calls of those little kids begging for the cops to come save them are released, people are going to lose their minds. I can't get over she said, "Please."
  • 19 police officers in the hallway. 19 dead kids. 
  • Can we stop saying the gunman was "barricaded" in the classroom, and that officers eventually "breached" the door? He was behind a "locked" door which officers finally entered by using a "key" obtained from a custodian. 
  • The press conference by DPS Director Steve McCraw on Friday was bizarre.  The guy stumbled through it, getting confused, and appeared to be such in the middle of a health/mental crisis that one reporter actually asked him if he was OK. But no one is talking about that because of the shocking information he provided. Nevertheless, if I had to guess, I bet he "retires" in the next six months.  (I encourage you to watch the raw footage of the entire press conference today.)

  • And the moment that made the biggest headline is when McCraw specifically said it was the "wrong decision" not to go in.  But that was not in his prepared remarks. He just blurted that out in response to a question. I'm not sure that was his plan, but he was so rattled it just came out. (Video of that moment.)




  • He specifically called out the "commander" of the crime scene for waiting over an hour before allowing officers to go in and kill the gunman. And then, in response to another question, said that commander was "The chief of police of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District."That police chief is Pete Arredondo who hasn't been seen in a couple of days. He was standing in the background at some point based on this New York Times photo, but I'm not sure when this was taken.


  • Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde City Council on May 7th.
  • The Consolidated ISD PD hosted an "Active Shooter" training in March.

    • And this from the training: 


  • I almost felt sorry for the other police chief who is the head of the Uvalde Police Department which is different than the police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated ISD Police Department. But any sympathy went away when he released a statement saying he's thankful that his officers who did respond weren't killed. Tone deaf.

  • This is the only time I've heard that DPS troopers were part of the 19 officers. But legislators screw up facts pretty often. 

  • The 18 year old shooter had purchased 1,657 total rounds of ammunition and no one batted an eye.
  • The problem in this case is the AR-15. It can fire so fast and is so powerful that a single kid can hold off an army of cops.  If they are so scared of it, maybe it shouldn't be publically available. But, admittedly, there are so many out there it's a lost cause.  Your children will continue to be sacrificed on the altar of the Second Amendment, the NRA, and the Almighty AR-15. 
  • Random photo from over the weekend.

  • Texas is a killing field.
    • Sutherland Springs church: 26 dead.
    • Santa Fe High School 10 dead.
    • El Paso Walmart: 23 dead.
    • Odessa/Midland: 7 dead.
  • Yep.

  • One suggestion has been to "arm teachers." Sheesh. We had 19 armed and trained officers who wouldn't engage the shooter - the most basic function of their job -- but we think arming teachers so they can perform that same task they never wanted to do in the first place is the answer?
  • Here are two cowards. 


  • The guy went to two Ivy league schools, his wife is a partner at Goldman Sachs, he lives in one of the richest neighborhood in Houston, and he goes to Cancun at the drop of the hat when the masses are freezing. Yet he complains about the "elite" at an NRA convention held two days after the slaughter of children.

  • Trump did a little dance at the NRA convention.

  • The Justice Department won't do anything, but at least we will learn even more about how bad it was. 

  • So what about the lies we were told in the beginning? Gov. Abbott says he was "misled" and the facts and that he was "livid" about it. I don't know if he is telling the truth, but either scenario is not pretty: (1) Abbott is lying to us now, or (2) police thought they could lie to Abbott and get away with it in the most important investigation in decades. 

  • If Sandy Hook didn't change anything . . . . 





at 8:29 AM

5.27.2022

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

at 2:30 PM
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