Happy First Day Of Winter From The Tandy Hills & I Heard From Fort Worth Mayor Mikey

My therapist, Dr. L.C. ordered me to the Tandy Hills today for the third day in a row. Apparently the temperatures are scheduled to turn cold again. My therapist has been alarmed regarding my recent inactivity caused weight gain.

It's the Winter Solstice today. That's my first day of Winter noontime long shadow on a Tandy Hills trail. That shadow makes it appear as if I'm wearing some sort of skirt. I'm pretty sure I left my skirt at home and was wearing cargo shorts.

Horses are not supposed to go hiking on the Tandy Hills. There are signs clearly stating that rule. In Texas we do not break rules. In Texas we do not question the rules or the authority of who makes the rules.

Anyway, at least one horse clomped around on the trails leaving telltale horseshoe prints. And piles of digested horse food that was attracting flies. It seems sort of counter intuitive to have a rule forbidding the riding of a horse on a Texas Prairie. Then again, it was easy to see, today, how a lot of horses clomping on the trails could do a lot of damage.

The Tandy Hills River was roaring over Tandy Falls today. I'd not hiked to Tandy Falls for a long time. I don't know why. It's so peaceful there. And I love the sound of a roaring waterfall.

I heard from Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief. He commented on a blogging yesterday about the Toy Run of motorcycles. Mayor Mike said he was Anonymous and then signed his comment "Your dedicated and honorable mayor, Mikey."

Ever since I saw the dedicated and honorable Mayor Mikey pouring a cup of grape Kool-Aid into the Trinity River thinking this was going to turn the river purple, well, the former high esteem in which I held the honorable mayor took a really serious nosedive.

Anyway, that's been my exciting day, so far. No swimming this morning due to reasons I don't want to talk about. And today I got my last website off my previous chronically hacked webhost. And then canceled that account. Now I feel like I'll be doing some complaining about IX Webhosting and the dirty deeds they did to me in cahoots with their Ukrainian cyber tech terrorists.

Conflict Of Interest Is A Crime In Richardson Texas But Not Fort Worth

Yesterday I said again that it seems as if the zone of Texas I'm living in is under some sort of protective bubble that prevents the laws that govern the rest of America from being relevant.

This morning I learned the protective bubble is smaller than I thought. Now I'm thinking Fort Worth is at the center of the protective bubble, with its suburbs likely under the cover, while suburbs of Dallas, like Richardson, are outside the protective bubble, with Richardson operating under the laws that govern the rest of America.

So, what did I learn this morning? Well, the people of Richardson have raised Conflicts of Interest issues regarding alcohol sales at a public golf course and city official's involvement in those sales.

Seems a fairly trivial Conflict of Interest compared to that of Fort Worth's Mayor Mike Moncrief and his having an interest in all the natural gas companies drilling in Fort Worth. Interests that pay him over $600,000 a year. The Conflict of Interest in Richardson did not involve any use of eminent domain to take citizen's property, did not involve the release of dangerous toxins into the air, did not involve the theft of river water.

I truly do not understand why criminal charges have not yet been brought against Moncrief. Surely the gas industry is not so powerful that it has co-opted law enforcement.

Permit me to spell out the legalese regarding Conflict of Interest.

Political Reform Act of 1974

The Political Reform Act of 1974 contains a general prohibition against conflicts of interest in public decision making, as well as a provision for the adoption of a conflict of interest code. It prevails over any other conflict of interest law to the contrary. Gov’t Code § 81013. The restrictions of this Act apply to all government employees, without regard to whether they are required to file an annual conflict of interest form.

The General Prohibition

No public employee at any level of state or local government shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his [or her] official position to influence a governmental decision in which [s/he] knows or has reason to know [s/he] has a financial interest.” Gov’t Code § 87100. Any person who willfully violates the general prohibition is guilty of a misdemeanor. Gov’t Code § 91000. This prohibition applies to all government employees.

Conflicting Personal Financial Interests

A personal financial interest extends beyond the public employee’s own finances or investments. A public employee has a personal financial interest in a government decision if it is reasonably foreseeable that the decision will have a material financial effect on the employee, a member of his or her immediate family, in any one of the five economic interests. Gov’t Code § 87103.

Five Economic Interests

1. Any business entity in which the employee has a direct or indirect investment worth $2,000 or more, including ownership of stock by the employee or the employee’s spouse or dependent child.

2. Any real property in which the employee has a direct or indirect interest worth $2,000 or more. The employee’s home is not included in this calculation but any other investment property would be.

3. Any source of income that provides $500 or more in value promised to, or received by, the employee within 12 months prior to the time when the decision is made.

4. Any business entity in which the employee is a director, officer, partner, trustee, employee, or holds any position of management.

5. Any donor of, a gift or gifts totaling $420 or more, received, or promised to the employee within 12 months prior to the decision being made. Meals, travel costs, or anything else of value are included in the $420. (This amount is tied to a consumer price index and is occasionally adjusted.)

---

Now, how can any sane person not get that Fort Worth's Mayor is committing a serious crime? Let me spell it out again, loud and bold.

THE MAYOR OF FORT WORTH, MIKE MONCRIEF, IS TAKING $600,000 A YEAR FROM NATURAL GAS DRILLERS WHO ARE ABUSING EMINENT DOMAIN TO TAKE FORT WORTH CITIZEN'S PROPERTY & POLLUTING THEIR AIR WITH DANGEROUS CHEMICALS WHILE STEALING WATER FROM THE TRINITY RIVER.

Interstate 30 In Fort Worth Shut Down While People Wait & Watch

No, those are not a bunch of Fort Worth natives standing on the Beach Street overpass over Interstate 30 protesting their air being poisoned by Barnett Shale gas drillers. Nor, even though they are close to Carter Avenue, are they showing support for the Carter Avenue Chesapeake Energy Resistance. And no, these Fort Worth natives are not celebrating the eminent arrest of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief on racketeering charges.

So, I was on my way to the Tandy Hills. I enjoyed yesterday's perfect weather so much I decided to go for a repeat. This morning's swim was excellent too, though a tad chilly.

On my way, to the Tandy Hills, Tootsie Tonasket called me. I was driving down Brentwood Stair talking to Tootsie when I saw 2 Fort Worth Police cars oddly parked on the grass by an I-30 freeway exit and entry.

A short distance later, right before Oakland Avenue, I saw what you see above. All these vehicles parked beside the freeway, with people outside looking like they are waiting for something.

I get views of the freeway from the Tandy Hills. Each time I could see the freeway I'd see nothing out of the ordinary. Then I came to the view you see above, looking west towards downtown Fort Worth. And again with a lot of vehicles parked on the side of the freeway. And people out like they are looking for something. This was about an hour after I'd first spotted people at the side of the freeway watching nothing. If you look at the enlarged version of the above scene you'll see that there are pickups that have climbed the knoll on the opposite side of the freeway.

I finished with my hiking and headed towards the Beach Street Wal-Mart. When the Beach Street overpass came into view I saw all those people you saw in the first picture, standing on the overpass. As I crossed the freeway I finally saw what these people were looking at. I made a U-Turn, heading back to the Wells Fargo parking lot. Saw no NO EVENT PARKING sign, so I risked being towed and walked back to the freeway overpass.

And this is what I saw. Motorcycles as far as I could see, looking both west and east. Sadly I don't have a photo of the view to the east, because by the time I was on that side of the overpass I'd switched the camera to video mode. Which means there is a YouTube video of what I saw today, below.

By the time I got to the Tandy Hills I was fairly certain I knew what the people were waiting for, because I remembered being in Arlington around this time last year and seeing a similar scene, only unlike this year, when I came upon it, the motorcycles were already on the freeway.

This event is called the Toy Run. With the people on motorcycles bringing toys to, I think, the Arlington Convention Center. I have never seen so many motorcycles. Thousands of them.

The Fort Worth Police close off the freeway entries while the motorcycles pass. I wonder how kosher doing that is on a federal highway? Seems like it'd breaking some sort of rule. We don't believe in breaking rules in Texas. How much did this little event cost cash strapped Fort Worth?

It is a tad perplexing that thousands of Fort Worth citizens will line up along the freeway to watch some motorcycles motor by while only 6% of them will line up to vote to hopefully oust a corrupt mayor.

Watch the YouTube video to see and hear the motorcycles and the people cheering them on...

It Is Time To Put Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief Behind Bars

My favorite commenter, Anonymous, commented yesterday or the day before on a blogging that made reference to the man behind bars, Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief.

Anonymous informed me that I am playing a major role in the local public rebellion against corruption and tyranny.

I don't know if that's true or not, my playing a major rebellion role. At most I only get a few thousand blog visitors a day.

I liked the Anonymous comment so much I'm going to copy it below. And then below that I'll do some rebelling...

Mr. Durango--you exhibit more of the vaunted Texas spirit and straight talk than so-called "native Texans". Let's hope that this man will get adequate legal help (or not--he seems to hold his own against these thugs so far, not only to kick CHK's @#$% but maybe also get Mayor Gasbag and his cronies under oath to reveal their secret dealings that benefit them but harm the citizens. Your sister probably can tell you that information from a good deposition can lead to many other legal actions, including your vision of Snively Whiplash and co. taking the "perp walk". Stay on this, Mr. D., because it's obvious the Star Telegram and even other media have been compromised and subdued. This battle must be viewed and conducted as a public rebellion against corruption and tyranny. You're playing a major role, sir, whether you know it or not. You have the power of the pen.

Sometime in the past week I said something like it seems as if the zone of Texas I'm living in is under some sort of protective bubble that prevents the laws that govern the rest of America from being relevant.

Many people have complained about Mayor Moncrief's conflicts of interest, with him having holdings in all the Barnett Shale natural gas drillers operating in the city of which he is the mayor. In other parts of America a mayor would either shed the interests that cause a conflict or recuse himself from having any part of any decision that benefits a business that benefits him.

Mike Moncrief benefits from his gas company holdings to the tune of $600,000 a year.

Now, back when the gas drilling seemed a fairly benign, fairly harmless endeavor, Moncrief's conflicts of interest did not seem so conflicting to me.

But, now that we learn the gas drilling operations are doing some serious polluting, endangering lives, abusing eminent domain, with the City of Fort Worth and its mayor doing nothing to make the gas drillers take the measures necessary to reduce the pollution.

We see the City of Fort Worth looking the other way when gas drillers steal water from the Trinity River and damage the river's levees in the process.

We see the City of Fort Worth act as a stooge for Chesapeake Energy, being an ally of that company as it attacks Fort Worth citizens in locations like Carter Avenue. In Arlington, Mayor Cluck finally had the guts to tell Jerry Jones there would be no more eminent domain abuse in Arlington.

Fort Worth's corrupt, conflict of interest-laden, dictatorial, narrow-minded miscreant of a mayor could do the same thing, telling Aubrey McClendon that he would not permit any more eminent domain abuse in his town.

The fact that that won't happen and the eminent domain persecution of Steve Doeung by Chesapeake Energy continues, is the point where, along with doing nothing about the gas drilling caused pollution, Mayor Mike Moncrief crosses the line into being engaged in what amounts to a form of racketeering.

There is an FBI office in Dallas.

I wish the Dallas FBI would spend less time setting up stings in which fake bombs are given to 19 year old kids and more time investigating the crimes that are being committed in Fort Worth, where the city has a mayor who is in collusion with natural gas drilling companies who are in full assault mode on the citizens of Fort Worth.

I'll distill it down for the FBI and shout it in capital letters and make it bold.

THE MAYOR OF FORT WORTH, MIKE MONCRIEF, IS TAKING $600,000 A YEAR FROM NATURAL GAS DRILLERS WHO ARE ABUSING EMINENT DOMAIN TO TAKE FORT WORTH CITIZEN'S PROPERTY & POLLUTING THEIR AIR WITH DANGEROUS CHEMICALS WHILE STEALING WATER FROM THE TRINITY RIVER.

2001 Durango Texas Blog Posts: YIKES!

That's the Dashboard thing I see when I log into Blogger to do a blogging. I'd noticed a couple days ago that the total number of Posts was nearing 2000. I had not noticed when I blogged about the Tandy Hills today that that blogging was number 2000, followed by another one that became number 2001, which makes this one number 2002.

That is a lot of blogging. And that's just this blog. I have 3 others. Yikes. I guess I have a lot to say.

What's weird is I really don't spend all that much time doing the blogging, or so it seems to me. Maybe an hour a day. When I started doing the blogging thing I didn't think I'd really get all that involved with it, that the novelty would fade, like it does with a thing like Facebook.

Instead, blogging sort of became like emailing, which I've always been absurdly prolific at.

It is sort of poetic that my 2000th blogging would be about the Tandy Hills, a place I've blogged about more than just about anything else. And which has provided me with a lot of material in a lot of ways other than simply talking about hiking the Tandy Hills.

I get a lot of Feedback from my Eyes on Texas website and comments on this blog. This morning I got one of the best. Maybe I'll turn that one into blogging #2003.

Gas Drillers Expand Trinity River Water Stealing Operation By Gateway Park In Fort Worth

On Thursday while driving north on Beach Street, as I crossed the Trinity River I noticed a truck and a backhoe at the location where I'd previously told you about a gas driller using a diesel pump to pipeline water out of the Trinity River, leaving a big, rutted, muddy mess in its wake.

When I saw the backhoe I figured the gas driller must be repairing the damage and restoring the levee. I'd seen a similar repair done in Village Creek Natural Historic Area in Arlington, so I assumed that was what was being done on Thursday.

Well. I was wrong.

If anything the damaged levee has experienced added damage. Apparently what the backhoe was doing was making a better "road" to the expanded "pump pad" it'd built by the river's bank.

My limited photographer skills don't quite capture what my eye saw, but in the first picture we are looking at the expanded "pump pad." It appears a lot of earth was moved to make a better place for the diesel pump to sit at the river's edge.

Oh, I forgot to mention, from what I saw today it seemed pretty obvious the water pump is going to return and the backhoe was preparing for that eventuality.

The second picture is looking down the improved "road" at the improved "pump pad."

And another thing, the area reeked of diesel, so much so that my first inclination was to think that all that earthmoving had been done to cover up a diesel spill.

I've asked before, but have received no answer, but how does one go about getting the right to do this type of thing on what I assume is public land?

Does the gas driller have to get a permit? Would that permit not be a public record? Should there not be total transparency on something like this? As in, a Fort Worth citizen be able to call the city and ask who is sucking water from the Trinity River? Shouldn't the permit be posted?

See that NO MOTOR VEHICLES sign? That is located right next to the Trinity Trail before the trail crosses a pedestrian bridge into Gateway Park. As you can see, the area I've shown you before on top of the Trinity levee is now in much worse shape.

Now, if I drove my motor vehicle to this location, parked it, and proceeded to pump some water out of the Trinity River, what would my fate be if spotted by the Fort Worth Gestapo?

More Than A Dozen Humans Hiking The Tandy Hills This Saturday

The Tandy Hills were alive today with the sound of bi-peds hiking. I saw more people in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area today than any other day except for Prairie Fest.

There was one eclectic group of about 15 and a solo hiker I spotted across a valley and up another hill.

It really perplexes me that I don't see more people hiking on the Tandy Hills Trails. I can understand those who are daunted by being outside when it's 105. But what is the excuse on a day like today?

In the Northwest, on a nice Fall day, I could go to any of the dozens of trails, on weekends, in the Cascade Mountains and see more people than I ever see hiking the Tandy Hills. Here in Fort Worth you've got this excellent hiking opportunity, yet in this city of over 700,000 people only a minuscule fraction use this resource.

It can't all be explained by the fact that there are way more obese, less active people here in Texas.

Like I said, it's very perplexing.

In addition to a long hike today, I got in the pool this morning. But not for long. After I was done with the hiking I went to Town Talk and on the way there I stopped to check out that back hoe operation I had spotted on Thursday on the Trinity River levee where gas drillers had been sucking water from the river, via a diesel pump and a pipeline, run across public land and making a big mess in the process.

I'll show you what I saw after I hit the publish button on this blogging.