12.31.2021

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




    As 2012 began, there were stories everywhere that the Mayan Calendar predicted that the world 
would end that year. Update: It didn't.


  • It's New Year's Eve, the courthouse is closed, most businesses are shut down, the is no Update™, but the Hardest Working Man in Show Business™ is here to reproduce all the News That's Fit to Print™ because Democracy Dies in Darkness™. 
  • The fires near Boulder are wild in how fast they move in 100 mph winds.  One video I saw which gave you a great idea as to how people felt is this one where a crowd scrambled from inside a full Chuck E. Cheese. They could barely get the door open to leave (as I heard one guy in the background question whether is was a good idea to leave at all.)

  • If you need any more proof that Greg Abbott has seriously learned his lesson from the backlash from his COVID shutdowns, take note of how absolutely silent he is now. He's done with it.
    • You know, I had picked up on this conservative backlash from early on in 2021. I called it the "Rural Uprising" because I couldn't really put my finger on it. 
    • Anyway, the Texas numbers: 
      People in hospital

      New cases reported per day

  • Texas DPS might as well be a government funded PAC for Abbott's re-election campaign. All the agency's official Twitter account does is post accolades about Abbott. It's like they are both are part of a mob. "We will help you get re-elected so long as you keep making sure we are flooded with cash and gun boats.") Seriously, this is all very wrong. 

  • The Little Ball of Insurrection wasn't supposed to report to the hoosegow until January, but she went before Christmas. Speculation is that that, since she is writing a book, she'll now have a chapter about being in prison on Christmas Day.

  • Demolition has begun on the old Cullen Davis mansion in Fort Worth. Either you know the back story about it or you don't. 


  • Save this for later. 

    • By the way, it will be 64 degrees at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow when the cold front hits. It will then plummet to 21 degrees by Sunday morning. I'm serious. I don't do bits about the weather. (Put that on a throw pillow.)  
  • Kind of weird. 

  • I'll bet money this is a Russian Troll account. (I saw it because a Texas state rep tweeted it out asking if it was real). This is exactly how Russian disinformation works: The person isn't real, puts out a fake story about a hot button topic, and uses it to be politically divisive. And they are really, really good at it. 

    • And this was the dead giveaway for me:

  • Going into today, the S&P is up 27.2% for the year, and the Dow is up 22.1%. Those are staggering numbers. 

  • Since it is bowl season, I would like to remind you that the two greatest bowl comebacks of all time were by Big 12 teams: (1) TCU was trailing Oregon 31-0 at halftime in the 2016 Alamo Bowl but somehow came back to win it in overtime. (Oregon lost it's quarterback at the end of the second quarter.) (3) The other was by the Red Raiders. It was also a 31 point comeback, and it occurred in the 2006 Insight Bowl when Tech fell behind Minnesota by a score of 38–7 with under seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. They fought back, tied it with a last second field goal, and won it in overtime, 


  • The SEC is now 1-5 in bowl games. 
  • 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: 910 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold