3.26.2021

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Rebecca Black's "It's Friday" now has 151 million views, and, let me tell you something, that song ain't that bad. (If you want to see the 23 year old today, she's released a pretty catchy tune named "Girlfriend" just last month.)

  • Trump was on Fox News last night describing the Insurrection and went all 1984 on us: "It was zero threat, right from the start... Some of them went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards... a lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out."





  • Check out the video ad from "Big Dan Rodimer" as he tries to get the vacant Fort Worth area congressional seat. (He's got quite the resume: professional wrestler, attorney, and failed Nevada congressional candidate from 2020.) It's all that you think it will be. 

  • We've got new DPS Gun Boat photos!


  • Speaking of boats, we've still got one stuck in the Suez Canal and let's just say things are going very slowly to get it unstuck. 


  • Correction from yesterday: Local attorney Charles Tibbels provided me proof that he actually successfully pursued and won an "actual innocence" claim in Wise County. He did a very good job and, to their credit, had the cooperation from prosecutors and investigators. 
  • Remember the Tulia, Texas scandal involving fake drug charges which led to the disbanding of the lawless "Drug Task Forces" across Texas? The corruption was exposed by NAACP attorney Vanita Gupta who went on to be head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under President Obama. She has now been nominated by President Biden to be the #3 person in the Justice Department. However, she is being vigorously opposed by Sen. John Cornyn. You know who the cop at the center of the Tulia corruption who ended up in disgrace? Tom Coleman. You know who John Cornyn, when he was Attorney General in Texas,  gave a "Lawman of the Year" award to while he was committing his crimes? Tom Coleman.

  • Here's a picture of the Georgia governor and his white cronies signing a Jim Crow law yesterday making it a crime, among other things, to give someone food and water while they are waiting to vote. They want to make it as hard to vote as possible. Is that a plantation in that painting?


  • Jessica Walter, the actress who portrayed one of my most favorite characters of all time, has died. 

  • President Biden's first press conference went out without a hitch, but some people had their feelings hurt. 


  • Fun Dallas Cowboys fact:

  • Legal nerd stuff: That headline below, from two years ago, turned out to be partially true. The Tarrant County D.A.'s Office did attempt to try the guy again but, yesterday, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, in a rare defense win, killed the case on double jeopardy grounds. Warning: It's complicated. (Lisa Mullen was the attorney on appeal.)

  • The new Sheriff in Clay County found out that an IT Department employee had (allegedly) falsified records in order to trick the State into believing the Sheriff's office's computers were capable of handling and securing criminal history information. A true report, officials say, would cause the office to fail a state audit. The employee has now been arrested.

  • Note to any potential Wise County Sheriff candidates: Our Sheriff and Rep. Phil King are attempting to change the qualifications to be on the ballot in order to require the candidate to hold a peace officer's license at the time of filing. Current law allows that license, which can be obtained after an 18 week course, to be obtained within two years of taking office after being duly elected. The Sheriff testified yesterday in Austin in support of the bill. (Video of the short testimony begins at 1:00:30 which includes (1) the quote "In my most humble yet most accurate opinion" and (2) new Jack County rep David Spiller on the far right.) 

  • 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: 630 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold (the Bridgeport City Council gets called out in an editorial.)


at 8:34 AM

3.25.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Ten years ago we were bombing Libya and Liz Taylor died. Apparently, I didn't think Taylor deserved top billing in the Morning News.  As to Libya, they were in the middle of a civil war and NATO intervened including "American and British naval forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles." The operation continued fox six months until the death of Muammar Gaddafi. And it sounds like Libya is currently still a mess. 

  • Fort Worth Police released video of people acting-a-fool at University and White Settlement ino order to try and ID said fools. But check out this guy (or girl) at around the 43 second mark. They were almost seriously clipped and still acted like they didn't have a care in the world. 

  • Hawaii's legislature outlawed open carry and yesterday the Ninth Circuit approved it by holding that the law did not violate the Second Amendment. (Want to read it? Here's the 215 page opinion by GWB appointee Judge Jay Bybee.) That circuit had previously held that the prohibition of concealed carry was not unconstitutional as well. I honestly don't understand any of this. 

  • Very funny movie. Very sad news. The child actor who played Walker Bobby in Talladega Nights is dead. 

  • It's almost out of the news cycle . . . .

  • College coaches can change jobs at the drop of a hat, but a player can't change schools and be immediately available unless the school consents.  OU is not playing nice.

  • New York is on the verge of legalizing weed. I wonder which state will be the last state to do so - Texas or Utah? 

  • I don't think I've ever wanted someone to be indicted as much as I want to see that happen to Ken Paxton. 

  • Large prosecutor offices have full sections dedicated to finding and overturning past wrongful convictions.  I can't think of a single case in Wise County where an "actual innocence" claims was ever even filed. 

  • After work, I picked up two plants ($6.98 each) out of dozens off a nicely displayed rack at Lowe's in Decatur, but ran into a problem when I tried to check out. The machine wouldn't scan their bar codes. After three employees and a manager got involved by trying to scan and manually input the code, they finally announced the problem: "They aren't supposed to be on sale until tomorrow morning." How'd they remedy the problem which caused a five minute delay? They simply took the plants away from me and then continued to check me out with my other items. 
  • Fun fact: Biden's new Labor Secretary introduced himself at the 2016 Democratic National Convention this way: "Good evening. My name is Marty Walsh, and I’m an alcoholic." 

  • I've ranted that this new trend of buying non-fungible tokens is the equivalent of buying a Beanie Baby thinking it would one day be a collector's item. I'm re-thinking that: The worthless Beanie Baby in your closet might be worth more than what people are buying today.

  • Read this story if you want to, but it will take you until paragraph 25 before they get around to identifying him, and then you'll learn he's not particularly interesting. 

  • In only ten days there will be a packed Globe Life Field for the Rangers' Opening Day. 

at 8:32 AM

3.24.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Eighteen feet? That video is still up, as well as another one showing a better angle of just how low they were. I got worse for the pilot who "led" the crew in that he ended up resigning "instead of facing a court martial."

  • Boulder Updates:
    • We learned the shooter, who was raised and educated in America, and was able to buy the gun just a few days before the mass shooting, had a foreign sounding name. A fact which changes nothing. 

    • He was born three days before the Columbine shooting occurred. We've been dealing with the crap a long time. 
    • Ted Cruz is upset that people demand change after every mass shooting. Every. Mass. Shooting.  

    • Don't worry about your guns. If twenty dead six and seven year olds at Sandy Hook Elementary School didn't cause a change, nothing will. 
    • Good lord. 

    • The President has ordered flags flown at half-staff. I've said it before: We might as well just leave them there. 
  • Most news stories that appear on a local TV news' website are normally ridiculously short with no information other than the headline. Not this one. It is detailed and, trust me, it is wild.

     
  • In Johnson County, one high school student from Venus High School and another from Joshua High School are dead after taking a pill which wasn't what they were expecting. Speculation is that it was fentanyl. Another student is in serious condition. 
  • A cargo shipped got all cattywampus in the Suez Canal and has had it blocked for over 24 hours. There's a massive and expensive traffic jam going on there now.  
     



  • In an article released this morning, The New York Times has pieced together footage showing Officer Brian Sicknick, who died immediately after the Trump Insurrection, being doused with bear spray. It's fantastic work. 

  • Hunger Games: Alvord Edition?

  • There is definitely a COVID induced backlog of criminal cases on the docket. The Tarrant County D.A.'s office released this graphic to demonstrate the new problem. 

  • Actor George Segal has died. Accounts of his career reminded me of this cringe-worthy film that I'm pretty sure I saw in a theater. That's a 26 year old Denzel Washington as his co-star.

  • From the Messenger today: That's a bad look for Bridgeport.

  • Messenger: Above the Fold 



at 8:33 AM
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