11.15.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




The former Williamson County prosecutor of Michael Morton, who withheld evidence which resulted in the innocent Morton wrongly serving over 20 years in prison, began his punishment of a whopping 10 days in jail.  He served only three and was released ten years ago today. He had finally resigned his position as district judge only two months earlier.

  • A little unusual arrest last night in Wise County. Edit: Oh, my. This is what you think per the Update.

  • So I dedicated a full bullet point to this guy yesterday who had actually announced he would leave Congress and had formally filed for a Texas senate run, and then later in the day he completely changed his mind. Clown move.

  • Inflation numbers came out yesterday and they continue to fall. The stock market, and people's 401(k)s, rallied. Oh, and gas is around $2.69. What's everyone complaining about again?

  • We almost had a fight between a U.S. Senator and the president of the Teamster's Union.  I think I'd bet on the Teamster guy. Here's the full six minute exchange which is wildly entertaining, and is right out of Idiocracy. 



    • This tweet by the Teamster head about the senator earlier this year seems to be the cause of all of this. 

  • David Spiller's (R-Jacksboro) immigration bill finally passed yesterday. It will be struck down in record time, but it finally passed.


  • Trump urging a "citizen's arrest" of the judge and the prosecutor in his civil fraud case is basically asking his mob of MAGA stormtroopers to take them hostage. I don't know how he gets away with that. 


  • Let's check in on the Fox Business Channel. Fabio?!

  • Step aside Delkus! "WASHINGTON POST - A new computer model to predict the weather built by Google and powered by artificial intelligence consistently outperforms and is many times faster than government models that have existed for decades." Of everything AI can do -- and I use it all the time and find it the most fascinating and helpful tool since the invention of the Internet -- weather predicting is perfect. Taking massive amounts of data and applying it against a set of rules. 


  • The Business Second™: I have never heard of this store, but it's opening up at the ever growing shopping area at I-35 and 287 (the Presidio part to be exact.) It has "versatile workwear [for] skilled trade workers in industries like oil, gas, manufacturing and construction." 

  • Kinda Legal Stuff: The new House Speaker is everything you would expect:

  • Random shot of Boyd's stadium. The school indicated last night that it's willing to host playoff games as a neutral site after Thanksgiving since finding stadiums on that Friday and Saturday across the state apparently isn't easy. That's really nice turf. Bright endzones. Alternating green print on the field, too. Thumbs up.

  • (Below.) Rep. Stucky hasn't even said how he would vote on vouchers. But I can't believe he would be in favor of trying to gut public schools by funneling your tax dollars to private schools with no rules or accountability . . . 


at 8:31 AM

11.14.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




Ted Cruz was becoming a Tea Party darling so the Boston Globe ran a profile of him and found this photo of him while at Harvard. 

  • The Texas Observer has a deep dive article with interactive graphics about the hijacking of local school boards by PACs and . . . 


    • . . . after messing around with the graphics for a while, lo and behold I found that Decatur ISD made an appearance due to a PAC funded by Dallas billionaire becoming involved in the last election. (I profiled the whole thing back in August.)

  • Wichita Falls just decided to give each of its teachers a $1,000 bonus. 

  • Political news. Stay with me yere. 
    • #1: Wise County lost a House Representative yesterday. Michael Burgess, who represents the south part of the county in District 26, announced that we will not see re-election. 
      • To keep all this straight, Wise County is split. The upper part of the county is represented by crazy Ronny Jackson in District 13 while Burgess has the lower part (in yellow) below.

      • The above is not confused with the Texas legislature's House where Wise County only has one representative: Dr. Lynn Stucky. 
    • #2: And then we had news that a second local House Rep is quitting: Rep. Pat Fallon announced he is leaving Congress.  He will, oddly, seek to go back to the Texas Senate in Austin in a seat currently held by Drew Springer who is not seeking re-election. 

      • This is his congressional district which will now open: 

      • If you think that impacts Wise County, you are wrong but understandably so. Fallon used to represent Wise County in the Texas senate. But even that senate district has been redrawn so, even if he is successful in getting his old seat back, he won't be representing us again. We are now in a Texas senate district that includes Highland Park, and that seat is held by Sen. Tan Parker who probably couldn't find Decatur: 

    • And we wonder why people are confused about who represents them. 
  • Clay County Sheriff's Office with some humor. 

  • There's another government shutdown deadline looming this week. It's hard to keep up. I think they'll get it passed. 

  • Demographics: If you are interested in this sort of thing, the New York Times has a long article on how Texas is no longer what you think it is. And how it will continue to change. (Free link.)

  • The government is coming up with new ways to kill people. 

  • The Business Second: This new grocery store, which "will span 123,000 square feet over the 17-acre property", is at Bonds Ranch Road and 287, seven miles from the Wise County line.

  • Random real estate note in the Dallas Morning News today:


  • Meant to mention this yesterday: The parents of NY Giants QB Tommy Devito are the most New Jersey looking couple ever.
  • The Decatur City Council voted last night 5-1 to move its regularly scheduled meeting from Christmas Day to one week earlies. (And, yes, the one dissenter was doing a bit.)



at 8:30 AM

11.13.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Greg Abbott posted the above (it's still up) when he was running for governor. Who could have predicted that Texas would become the mass shooting capital of the world under his watch?

  • A Watauga man and his wife get into an argument on Saturday night as they were driving on 287 at Blue Mound road.  They pulled over. The husband got out in anger. And then we was killed as he made the unfortunate decision to try and walk across the highway. 


  • Just hitting the wires moments ago: "WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service agents protecting Naomi Biden, President Joe Biden’s granddaughter, opened fire after three people tried to break into an unmarked Secret Service vehicle in the nation’s capital." It happened at midnight last night.
  • "Five American service members were killed during a training exercise Friday after a military aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea."  (Interesting note: During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel accidentally bombed a U.S. ship in the Mediterranean off the Gaza Strip, killing 34.)

  • In a strange incident with no real details given, a SWAT officer and "two hostages" were killed during a raid in an Austin residential neighborhood early Saturday. (Google streetview of neighborhood.) 


  • Rep. Tim Scott, who was on the Republic debate stage a few of days ago, abruptly announced he was quitting the race last night on Fox News. The host was very surprised. 

  • Trump is going full Hitler.  Hell, even Hitler didn't say the following things before he ascended to the leader of Germany. This is getting scary, and I cannot believe it is actually happening. 
    • Concentration camps? 

    • He didn't stop there. On Saturday he said in a post and at a rally (video), "We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country." The word "vermin" is 100% Hitler and refers to extermination.  Incredible.

    • You've heard the following old quote before and this is how it actually reads. It's often misquoted, but here it is direct from the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. 

  • Trump officially filed to be on the Texas primary ballot on Saturday, the first day of filing. And look who he got to do it for him: The literal Three Stooges.  Ronny Jackson, Ken Paxton, and Sid Miller. 
  • If you've got nutty friends who say nutty things, they get their news from sources like this: 
  • David Spiller (R-Jacksboro)  is still on his immigration bill tour, this time with an appearance on CBS.  Meanwhile, thirty former immigration judges signed off on a statement saying the bill was unconstitutional. 
  • The Aggies fired head coach Jimbo Fisher yesterday and, as a result, will have to pay him $76 million. Normally under contract law, and the default common law, is that he is entitled to the all the money due him under the contract unless he gets a job somewhere else during the remaining contract years. That's called an offset. But that doesn't apply to Jimbo. Look at that last sentence: 
    • The Aggies beat Mississippi State 51-10 on Saturday night, but minutes ago they just fired their head coach, too. It's carnage everywhere.
  • UT running back Jonathon Brooks is out for the season after tearing his ACL against TCU.
  • I can't stand Rep. Jeff Leach but he was wrongfully sued for defamation in Parker County by a nutty Texas secessionist. The judge dismissed it. But now Leach wants $90,000 in attorney's fees and, under Texas law, he's probably going to get it. 
  • Photo of Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery for Veteran's Day sixty years ago -- eleven days before his death. 
  • I looked for a Texas newspaper cover that had Jimbo's firing on the front page, but I couldn't find one. So I went with yesterday's Star-Telegram: 



at 8:31 AM

11.10.2023

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

at 2:30 PM
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