7.18.2023

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




I've got this occurring on the afternoon of 7/16/13, and that's about all I said about it back then. 


  • This headline is everywhere, but I'm a little hesitant to run with it. The story is from the Houston Chronicle which is behind a paywall, and I can't get to it. But everyone quoting the body of the story and the emails have yet to post any excerpts about "order" or "ordering" -- which seems to be a big deal and the crux of the story. I guess it is in there, but I would think people would pull that quote out right away. This bugs me. 

    • But the Houston Chronicle, the publisher of the story,  pulls no punches in its headline whatsoever. 

       
    • But when the paper does give us details on Twitter, they don't mention "ordering" or "being told." Now, make no mistake, what follows  is bad, but it's not lining up with the headline. Being pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers is not the same as DPS being ordered to do that. Am I obsessing to much about this?

    • Note how the Dallas Morning News headline writer softens it up a tad by not using the word "order" or "told" at all. And it cites the Houston Chronicle as its source for their story. It uses "ordered" in the first sentence but that is the only time, and the subject doesn't come up again. Weird. 


    • Edit: Someone was kind enough to send me the Chronicle story. This is as close as the story gets to matching the headline: "In another instance, on June 25, troopers came across a group of 120 people camped out along a fence set up along the river. The group included several small children and babies who were nursing, the trooper wrote. The entire group was exhausted, hungry and tired, the trooper wrote. The shift officer in command ordered the troopers to 'push the people back into the water to go to Mexico,' the email says."
  • This is dumb and probably a free speech violation.  This isn't a criminal trial, it is a political process of impeachment where the public has an inherent interest. 

  • Weather.

  • As of a couple of weeks ago, it finally looks like dust is serious flying with the Wise County courthouse restoration project. I'm a huge fan of this. 

  • Trump news:
    • Edit and breaking: He  just received "a target letter" from Jack Smith for the January 6th Insurrection. That's huge. (But it's only Trump confirming it so far.)


    • There was a setback for him  in trying to avoid being indicted in the "I just want to find 11,780 votes" case by the state prosecutor in Georgia. 



    • Not enough people are paying attention to the Imperial Presidency / Authoritarian government that Trump would bring. It's Mussolini like. (Free link.)




    • DeSantis has an ad using AI to recreate Trump's voice. Our world is about to get very, very weird.

  • Meanwhile in Chicago . . . 

  • Let's check in on Fox News' first show with Jesse Watters official replacing Tucker Carlson:

  • The Hollywood writers and actors strike in a nutshell:

  • Does this mean he'll have more? 

  • Ticket fans only: The Dan and Jake situation sounds very bad. (Ticket subreddit is here although there's lot of unusual moderation going on.)  Edit: They are gone