8.29.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




I know I'm whipping you with Johnny Football flashbacks but this one is great. They only suspended him for 1/2 of one game after finding he hadn't been paid. In the current documentary, he admits to taking over $100,000 for his autograph.

  • That was a wild helicopter crash into an apartment complex in Florida yesterday. Video.


  • A professor was shot dead by a University of North Carolina student yesterday causing a widespread panic on campus yesterday afternoon.


  • The most important of all criminal cases against Trump, the January 6th case pending in federal court in D.C.,  now has a trial date of March 4th, and that judge seems deadly serious about it. 

    • Trump immediately defamed the judge and the prosecutor and proclaimed "I will APPEAL!"  Someone needs to tell him, "You can't."

    • Random legal thought: The one thing that could delay everything is if there are any federal pre-trial motions Trump could file which can legally be immediately appealed thereby putting the whole case on hold. There's nothing in Texas state court that works that way, but I don't know federal criminal procedure. Some type of presidential immunity claim maybe?
  • I noticed that Tanner Horner has a court appearance in district court in Wise County on Thursday. It would be the first appearance since new attorneys were appointed for him.


  • This appears to be murder-suicide of a family. It happened in a residence on West 86th street which is some ridiculously priced real estate.  It's not far at all from the apartment building depicted in Only Murders in the Building. 

  • Joe the Plumber, who was neither named Joe nor held an official plumber's license, is dead at age 49. After a brief encounter with then Sen. Barack Obama, he tried to parlay that into a career (Wikipedia page), but ultimately ended up as an auto worker and a member of a union. 

  • That's an eye catching headline. Quick facts: The property is a 15,000-square-foot mansion on 5 acres and was sold by Christy Thompson, "daughter of the late Texas oil magnate J. Cleo Thompson, who died in 2010." Fun fact #1: She bought it just last year for $51 million. Fun fact #2: Last year she built a 23,688-square-foot mega-mansion (great Texas Monthly link) for $43 million in University Park.


  • Joey Tribbiani was at Joe T. Garcia's last weekend. 

  • Random rabbit trail: Baylor is playing Texas State this weekend, and I noticed their new coach is G. J. Kinne. I thought that name sounded familiar. He is the son of a coach who was shot in Canton in East Texas by an upset parent in 2005. Flashback: 

  • Brutal:
    • Yesterday at 9:00 a.m. from the official Cleveland Browns account:

    • Yesterday at 11:46 a.m.: 



  • America loves to get excited about a pending Hurricane . . . 

at 8:30 AM

8.28.2023

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Joe Duty photo from a Decatur Eagles game which I thought was great at the time. Still do.  (Original PDF of that page from the Messenger.)

  • A young Nazi extremist, who went and bought an AR-15 as easily as you would a lottery ticket, intentionally targeted and killed three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville on Saturday.  Today is the 60th Anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech. 

    Swastika on the AR-15

    Fired 11 shots at lady inside car.


    • Three hours after the shooting, the NRA posted this. Editor's note: American's don't "vehemently disagree." 

  • Watch players scramble off the field Friday night as shots are fired in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Video.

  • County Jude J.D. Clark sent these photos from the second floor district courtroom of the Wise County Courthouse where, for the first time since the 1950s, you can now see the original ceiling as the third floor has now been demolished. Love this project.  Those metal girders will be removed and a balcony be put back in place.
    Looking north and up from back up courtroom at the now demolished old jury room/commissioner's courtroom above.

    Camera facing south from back of courtroom.

  • This photo doesn't look like much, but that's a big wrecker and first responders blocking both lanes of northbound 287 on Friday afternoon right by NRS south of Decatur.  Traffic was a complete standstill for miles in 110 degree heat --  backed up past FM 407 almost to Rhome. 

  • A crazy story you probably missed on Friday: 

  • Oh, my. (How did they cut that thing off the stingray before it just ripped it back out?) 

  • This headline was everywhere yesterday. Less publicized was that a Marine pilot was killed in San Diego late Thursday when he crashed his Hornet fighter jet. The military has more accidental non-wartime aircraft deaths than any commercial airline. 

  • A bag of chips?

  • Unusual crime filed Friday in Wise County (Cause no. JP1-C-249091):

  • Trump gave us a very Kim Jong Un-like bold claim this weekend.

    • And then destroyed a poor guy's cell phone. 

  • Sports quick hits:
    • College Gameday unanimously predicts Texas to win the Big 12. They're back!

    • High school crazy stat: A Texas 2A running back from Wolfe City rushed for 451 yards and six TDs in one game. He ran the ball 43 times. 
  • Jacksonville's paper of record didn't exactly get excited about the the big shooting this weekend . . .  


at 8:31 AM

8.25.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Two long term Decatur ISD educators (right) celebrated integration on the front page of the Messenger. I need to be careful: This archived newspaper might be considered illegal "CRT" information in today's age. 

  • A fake mugshot, distributed online moments before the real one was, duped a lot of people last night. But the real one looks more ominous than the fake one.  
    Fake
    Real


    • We knew the official arrest was coming, but it really was jarring to see the above. Almost as jarring as the ridiculous number of motorcycle cops in the motorcade to and from the jail.

    • After the book-in, Trump made his first post on Twitter since being banned the day after the Insurrection. And it included a weird slogan for a guy who just surrendered at his book-in.

  • Breaking records left and right. And high school football season started last night with the majority of games this evening. 
    • And Wichita Falls is having its big bike race this weekend. 

  • Big News! Thes$300,000 Man in no more. Instead, he has become the $345,250 Man. Yep, after the Uvalde cluster they gave him a raise. 


  • I was kind of curious that we "had over a thousand" people missing in Maui without names. Now we have names and a smaller number:


  • Two "sexual assault" cases were tried this week in Tarrant County with two "not guilty" verdicts returned. Source: Tarrant County DA Trial Board.
  • Not sure what is going on here. Zillow is showing that Mar-a-lago was "sold" for $422,000,000 (say what?) to Mar-a-Lago Inc. in early August. That company is controlled by Donald Trump Jr. 

  • I'm a day late on this, but a 53 year old third grade teacher in Oklahoma got a bit liquored up before and during the first day of school.  That's yellow thing in the photo below is a portable breath test (PBT) which showed an alcohol concentration of 0.24.  The driving limit is usually 0.08 around the nation. 

  • Translated: The convicted cop simply filed his brief (PDF) in the court of appeals alleging errors made at his trial which is pretty much what happens in 99% of every criminal appeal.  It's not a personal attack on the judge.

  • A very Charlie's Angels vibe by Dallas PD in a recruiting post this morning. 

  • Thank goodness: It was announced yesterday that ESPN's College Gameday has officially retired the "Coming to Your City" song as it's introductory song. Driven me nuts for years. We won't know the new song until tomorrow morning. 

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 4 years and 50 days.



at 8:32 AM
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