6.06.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




The Texas Republican Convention was going on and the Tea Party from Watuaga was warning about the new "smart meters" for electric usage readings.  Early signs of QAnon. 

  •  I'll swear between Friday's Random Thoughts and noon on Friday, gas jumped 30 cents. I saw $4.79 later in the day, and it might have gotten higher.
  • This crime is just hauntingly horrible.

  • A state judge in Wisconsin was killed and found zipped tied to chair. He was on a "hit list" of the suspected killer, a man who had been sentenced by the judge to prison for six years in 2005. 

  • Man, this woman's account of ignoring cops and going into the Uvalde school to retrieve her kids is amazing.  I believe every word. Video. (NBC and other networks have even been playing this CBS interview.)

  • Now the Texas House Speaker has figured out how to stop mass shootings in Texas: Committees!

  • A man died after being hit by the wheels of an 18 wheeler while it was turning in Midlothian, and the brief story about it is wild.

  • A guy who tried to overthrow the government was very upset that the government put him handcuffs because he ignored a subpoena to talk about the overthrow. Video.

  • In a sane country, news that the Chief of Staff to the Vice President went personally, for the first time ever, to the Secret Service agent in charge to tell him the President is about to get the VP killed, would be a pretty big story. Especially when the next day Trump almost had Pence killed. 


  • If you haven't seen the winner's performance in the first ever "spell off lightening round" in the National Spelling Bee, it's worth a minute. It's mind boggling. 

  • Kyle Rittenhouse says he going to be an Aggie, he says. The school then announced he isn't scheduled to be enrolled.

  • I didn't tune in to see any of the celebration of the Queen's 70th anniversary celebration, but I kind of wished I'd seen her in hologram form waving to the crowd in an historic carriage. Video.

  • There are plans for TxDOT to put in an overpass on 287 where National Roper Supply is located, but the money could be far better spent putting an overpass on 287 further south, just past Rhome, where it's a literal death trap as cars going into and out of the heavily traveled 4838 have to dodge cars going 70 mph. 

  • I monitor Wise County records all the time, but this might be the first time I've seen someone booked into jail officially listed as a transient. You would think that would happen at least a few times a year.

  • Kenny Chesney played Cowboys Stadium on Saturday night. A few years back the guy decided to try and get rich by ripping of Jimmy Buffett's persona with a country twist, and he basically got away with it. He even threw in a little Dallas Cowboy pandering at the show. 

  • Buried in a long story yesterday in the Washington Post about former golfer Greg Norman, who is now the commissioner for the newly formed and controversial golf tour funded by Saudi Arabia, was this paragraph asserting the Tiger Woods turned the Saudis down for the same job despite being offered close to $1 billion. 

  • A mysterious raft showed up on a Texas beach.  "It’s made from humble materials, old metal drums apparently held together with lengths of rebar. The mast is a broken tree branch. On the right side — starboard — clothing is tied to the front, likely used to catch the wind and function as a make-shift sail."

  • Matthew McConaughey gets a front page op-ed piece in the Austin American-Statesman.

at 8:30 AM

6.03.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



That's a great line.

  • If you are here at 8:30 to 9:00 or so, you might want to check the radar.  Edit: Man, that storm line hit a wall and stopped. 
  • A tragic and crazy ending to the escaped TDC inmate story. After the bodies of five people (at least three of them children) were found in a home in Leon County near Houston, the escapee was stopped in Atascosa County south of San Antonio via spike strips and then subsequently killed. (Warning: Dead body picture here.) 

  • Last night at a church:

  • Yesterday afternoon at a funeral in Wisconsin:

  • Update from Tulsa: The shooter bought an AR-15 a couple of hours before the murder of two doctors, an office employee and a patient.

  • So the last two weeks in America have taught us that you can go to a school and get shot, go to a doctor's office and shot, go to a funeral where you can get shot and, if your lucky enough to survive, you can then seek solace in church and get shot.   
  • It looks like the Congressional hearing on curbing gun violence went well yesterday. Video. 

  • I'm coming around on this. 

    • Maybe we do need to see the pictures of dead children. Maybe we do need a "Emmett Till moment." As the opinion piece said, "Images have the capacity to shock the conscience into action, galvanize a population, and alter the course of history. Recall the the film of dogs and firehoses turned on Black demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala. (1963); the TV news footage of Alabama cavalry beating civil rights marchers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge (1965); the photo of a South Vietnamese police chief executing the Viet Cong fighter with a gunshot to the head (1968); the image of the screaming, naked “Napalm Girl” in South Vietnam (1972); the grainy images of LAPD officers beating Rodney King (1991); and the cellphone video of police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck (2020)."
  • Get your popcorn ready. The January 6th Committee investigating the Trump Insurrection will hold prime time hearings beginning next week. 


  • The northern part of Wise County got a wild but brief rainstorm on Wednesday afternoon, but it also hit Denton County where this event occurred after nearly five inches of rain fell. A man and his wife were riding their bikes in a paved ravine in a residential area when the flood waters hit. Her body was found almost a mile downstream.  


  • I saw a gas price of $4.59 with my own eyeballs this morning. 
  • Random Fox News screenshot of one of their regularly seen experts. The belt over the shoulder is what gives the guy credibility. 

  • This seems like a very big deal, especially if you are a dealer.


  • I don't know if I'm going to run out and see it, but I don't think I've ever heard everyone rave about how good a movie is like they are about Top Gun Maverick.  Even those that went in expecting to hate it because they liked the original seem to love it. 
  • One guy in this photo, and because of this photo, got featured in a product ad. And is was not Tiger Woods. 

  • 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: 1,064 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

6.02.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



"Is that a snake under that bench?"
"Yep, a massive one."

I posted this 10 years ago as a callback to a May, 2009 incident on the Wise County courthouse square.  It feels a little different now because Allen Williamson, who just passed away, is in the photo (in the white shirt).  I also should note that the photo includes people who would go on to become a district judge (Brock Smith, kneeling), a governor's candidate (Paul Belew, far left), and a district attorney (James Stainton in the black shirt?). Heck, there might be a future Justice of the Peace in there (Callie Manning-Watts in yellow?) And shout out to the bailiff of County Court at Law #1. 

  • Let's see how the mass shooting legislative response is going:
    • Committees! He will solve it with committees!

    • Unannounced intruder detection! What could go wrong?

    • And while children are being buried in Uvalde, Ted Cruz is posting bits. 

  • In case you haven't seen it, CNN tracked down the Uvalde Consolidated ISD Police Chief. I didn't know what I expected, but just going to work like it is just another day was not it. 

  • We hardly had time to breath before there's another one. 
  • I really don't have any fiery opinions on transgenderism, but I do believe every human being should be treated with dignity and respect.
  • I'm hearing about lots of Wise County folks coming down with COVID.
  • That was a lot of rain in the early morning hours. It seems to have been concentrated in northern half of Wise County when it went through.
  • Marion Barber had been acting strangely for a few years.  I have no idea if it was CTE related, but you've got to consider it.  The NFL just eats up, beats up, and throws out running backs left and right.  In about three years, Zeke Elliott will be completely out of the league. 
    • Uh, that's a little dismissive.

  • Hot legal opinion on the Depp vs. Heard verdict: I don't understand any of it. Bid did you see the jury initially announced they had a verdict but the judge had to send them back into the jury room because they forgot to fill out the damages portion of the verdict form? How is that possible?  By the way, Depp wasn't in the courtroom because he had a "conflicting engagement." 
  • Two years ago yesterday. Still a jaw-dropping incident. 
  • I mentioned the other day that this will be the month of Supreme Court opinions. I had no idea there will be 33 of them.



at 8:29 AM

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
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