- Missed on that one.
- The impeachment trial of Donald Trump started off with a haymaker of 12 minute video. Every American should watch it. And after reminding us of the horrors, it ended with what should be a knock out blow:
- The caption has a typo, but that's actually Miami, Texas this morning (brought to you by the ABC affiliate in Amarillo.)
- If I hadn't fired my weather staff, I would tell you if Wise County schools and county offices will be closed tomorrow. It's looking dicey, but that's just my natural weather instincts kicking in.
- Yes, the Texas Cat Lawyer video is everything that it has been acclaimed to be. Watch it. Enjoy it.
- Some people are more upset about this than the Trump Insurrectionists attempting the coup on January 6th.
- Jerry Jones is preparing for bad weather -- spotted buying wine in a convenience store in Prosper.
- This headline is a little harsh.
- This story is a little wild. Throw in that his law firm has split up, a private jet has been repossessed, and the firm was sued in Tarrant County for $344,000 for unpaid marketing invoices, and things aren't going well. (By "opioid lawyer", the headline means his firm was retained by Bexar County to sue opioid manufacturers and retain a hefty a fee if successful -- a contract which raises its own questions.)
- Legal stuff: I had a bullet point the other day about a proposal to turn the fourteen Texas appellate courts into just four. I'm not saying it will be done, but check out this sneaky way of how it would come to fruition: House Bill 339 by Rep. Phil King has been filed which does nothing but cause some harmless changes. Read it. It's simple. But it would actually serve as a "placeholder bill" which would be drastically amended later on to create this massive 14 courts into 4 change.
- Call me grumpy, but I don't care about the answers of 415 strangers. Nor can I believe 415 people took the time to answer as if their answer matters to anyone but them.
- There's probably an innocent explanation.
- I've been preaching about how Tyler Technologies has made a literal fortune off of Texas government contracts for the last 20 years. Now they are expanding -- and they are paying cash:
- In the Messenger today, there's a Letter to the Editor from the founder of the new Wise County Conservatives group trying to clarify the question of the group's stance on secession. If I understand it, and I paraphrase, he says, "I don't know if Wise County Conservatives favors Texas seceding from the U.S. because we've only met once. As for my personal opinion, I wasn't asked." Fair enough. But I think the group should take a vote on the issue at its upcoming meeting and report back to us.
- Messenger: Above the Fold
- I had forgotten about my gift of autographed photo. Former Fox 4 Good Day host Megan Henderson is still in California by the way.
- This was a last second advisory at 7:20 a.m. as it began to mist this morning with freezing temperatures.
- This Britt Reid accident story is already messy, and it might get messier. The cops got a warrant for his blood after the accident, but he wasn't arrested. That's unusual. If an officer thinks he has probable cause to obtain a blood search warrant then he, by definition, has probable cause to arrest. The only time I've seen someone not arrested in this situation is if they required hospitalization, but I'm not sure that's the case here. "Britt Reid had non-life-threatening injuries, the police said, but complained of stomach pain and was also taken to a hospital after the crash."
- Lots of news about a water plant in Florida being hacked where settings were changed to release an unsafe amount of sodium hydroxide. I've been preaching it for years: We are a sitting duck for some type of cyber attack.
- That being said, I'd tap the brakes on this story. My patented Something-Ain't-Right Detector™ is going off. I don't know what it is, but something isn't adding up. But I can already tell this isn't some sophisticated attack. The "hacker" utilized the water plant's own purchased software called TeamViewer which, by design, allows employees to remotely access computers and servers. (It's like GoToMyPC for those who've used that.)
- Trump's impeachment attorneys filed a legal brief citing a conspiracy website which has been full of nutty stories for years. (And they need a proof-reader more than I do: "ani-government")
- Lots of blaming go around this morning in connection with teen or near-teen suicide.
- A trading app gets blamed.
- A social media app gets blamed when at teen dies of a drug overdose.
- I've made reference to this story out of Midland before, but it still astonishes me. An assistant DA moonlighted as the legal clerk for judges who presided over criminal cases his office was prosecuting including one which put a man on death row. Amazing.
- These paragraphs from that story struck a cord with me for the two points it makes: (1) Prosecutors are given a pass for their intentional and reckless conduct, and (2) defense lawyers are either to lazy and apathetic to call them out -- or they are just scared to do so.
- I'm even more confused by the $12,500 procedure than how this all happened in the first place. (By the way, I'm also very suspicious about all aspects of this story. Once again, something ain't right.)
- A plane was dumping (presumably) water on a small island on Lake Bridgeport on Friday afternoon in a fire fighting training exercise. It made a least 10 practice runs.
- There were already questions about the ridiculousness of freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) getting reimbursed by her campaign for $21,199.52 in "mileage" expense (which was reported in campaign filings on November 11, 2020). Now it's being revealed that she coincidentally paid off $18,999.36, in tax liens on her gun-themed restaurant on Oct. 22, 2020. Oh, and all this is completely unrelated to her tweets on the day of the Trump Insurrection Riot giving the location of Nancy Pelosi.
- Her BFF is at it again this morning: It couldn't have been Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building. Sheesh. The Republican Party has been hi-jacked. (And I didn't even mention her press conference on Friday where she proclaimed this about Trump: “The party is his - it doesn’t belong to anybody else.”)
- Just saw that Patrick Mahomes is having foot surgery tomorrow and will be rehabbing for "several months."
- I started up House of Cards again and am now halfway through Season Five. I think it's one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It's like The West Wing on acid.
- That's was at the end of Random Thoughts from 10 years ago after the Super Bowl at Jerry World. The fact that a team, not a quarterback, had a fourth championship was a big deal.
- Remember when Budweiser announced they wouldn't be doing any Super Bowl commercials? I think I missed the fine print where Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzer weren't included.
- I didn't have Billy Idol and Miley Cyrus on my pre-game Bingo card. I think he's had some work done.
- So Bruce Springsteen was able to make everyone mad? On one hand, he's a dirty lib for implying we are finally "united" under Biden, but on the other he's also a White Christian Nationalist for talking about a church in the middle of America. But was able to bring us all together in that we all agree it's dumb to drive a jeep with the top down in 20 degree weather.
- It really didn't matter, but he ended up throwing the ball 30 yards on this play. They guy never had a chance yesterday.
- Drew Pearson finally made it the to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But the camera briefly panning over to Roger Staubach and Jerry Jones made me question which one looks older.
- Five minutes after the Super Bowl was over, the Cowboys tweeted a 32 second clip about next season. There wasn't a single image of Dak Prescott used. If they don't reach a contract with him and they want to use the franchise tag on him for the upcoming season, it will cost them $37.69 million.
- Blaming "Senate rules" for abandoning the minimum wage promise isn't going to go over well for those who voted for him.
- On Friday, Fox News cancelled Lou Dobbs from it business network line-up. The unemployed conspiracy theorist is 75.
- Breaking Telsa/Bitcoin news. After the announcement, the crypto currency is now trading at over $43,000 a coin this morning. (Side note: I think Elon Musk is crazy and might end up like John McAfee one of these days.)
- Fun facts: In 2019, there were 9.7 million traffic stops made by cops in Texas. Citations were only issued in 40% of them. They searched the car in 5% of all stops. When they did search, they found nothing 66% of the time.
- The front page of the Messenger on Friday had a story of 75 pounds of weed found during a traffic stop. I can already tell you there will be a fight in court as to why the traffic stop was prolonged in order for a dog to be brought in.
- I made what I thought was a pretty obscure reference to Leon Spinks a couple of months ago when I had a tooth incident. He passed away on Friday.
- The Supreme Court keeps issuing weird late night rulings (referred to as a "shadow docket") and they did so again on Friday night with a COVID ruling. Justice Kagan fired off a hot dissent, though:
- Who could have predicted in this day and time this would happen?:
- If the Kansas City Star actually went to black and white this morning, that's a nice artistic touch.
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