Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

I ended up being wrong about it being a murder. The name was John Rodman Steele if you want to go down that rabbit hole.

---

• Moments ago. Ugh. 
  
  
  
• More video was released late yesterday from the debacle in Uvalde, and it was worse than what you expected.  A four minute edit is here. The full 1 hour and 22 minute video is here. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I think this frame from the beginning of the video might stick with me forever. Good gawd. 
  
  
  
• The reaction and response of police was shown to be, like we knew, horrible. It doesn't look like anyone was in charge, and certainly no one was willing to act. Hand sanitizer should not be on your priority list. 

  

  
  

  
  
• Looking at the lock screen of the Punisher while children are being slaughtered is not a good look. 
  
  
  
• The January 6th hearing yesterday revealed that Trump had planned all along for the mob to march to the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the electoral votes. It was a pre-planned coup.
• A tweet announcing the planned march down Pennsylvania Avenue was drafted but not sent. 
  
  
  
• Why was it not sent? It was decided that an announcement during Trump's speech would have more of an impact. The My Pillow guy was in on the plan. "Kremer" below is Kyle Kremer who was a major organizer of the rally. 
  
  
  
• And why did Steve Bannon announce to his podcast audience on January 5th that "all hell was going to break loose" the next day? He had inside information. Trump and Bannon talked on the phone at 8:53 a.m. for 11 minutes on January 5th according to phone logs.
  
  
  
• And this nutcase actually believed she was appointed as Special Counsel to Trump. And from the way the unhinged meeting sounds, she just might have been. 
  
  

  

  Worst Dr. Pepper commercial ever. 
  
  
• Random throw away thought:  I'm going to end up buying that panda art in the background before all is said and done. It has really grown on me. Or maybe it's just the feeling I get from hearing this guy talk about all the lunacy that was surrounding Trump in the final days. 
  
  
  
• Twitter officially sued Elon Musk yesterday. And, as predicted, they don't want the $1 billion penalty fee but, instead, they want him to buy the company for the $44 billion he promised. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I wondered about this possibility when those fires broke out.  Teenagers and houses under construction can be a bad mix. 
  
  
  
• These are the faces of new federal judge nominees announced yesterday. And they will all be confirmed. 
  
  
  
• Very nerdy legal stuff: This excerpt from a concurrence in an otherwise forgettable Fifth Circuit opinion from two days ago is 100% true. 
  
  
  
• I'm coming back to this quote but in this form. I might print it and frame it. 
  
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Acknowledgment: Liberally Lean Might Not Be Loading and/or Crashing Some Browsers

 My crack team of System Engineers is tearing the place apart trying to find the problem. It might be limited to tablets and, specifically, iPads but I'm not even sure about that. But it appears that Windows is not impacted. 

Edit: It's possible that something I embedded, which I normally wouldn't, is causing the lockdown in Apple operating systems. (Someone also mentioned that a Macbook Air won't load the page either.)

 I deleted an animated gif from July 4th to try and solve it. 

I took down last Friday's "Let's Get Out of Here" since the problem seemed to develop after that.

Developing . . .

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Ten years ago we still hadn't had the runoff election between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst, but this was the first sign that Cruz might actually win.  (Dewhurst had been attacking Cruz for doing legal work for a Chinese outfit. I thought that was stupid and was backfiring, but now I doubt that had much to do with it.)

---

• I don't think Abbott and DPS are on the same page on this one. And I'm kind of surprised Abbott is taking this stance.
  
  
  
• I'm not sure how that line ever got into Jill Biden's prepared speech. It wasn't impromptu. Video. That's an unforced error. 
  
  
   
  
  
  
• An officer with a constable's office in Harris County is in hot water for "hard" high-fives to the opposing team after a little league game. Video.
  
  
  
• The January 6th Committee will focus today on the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers connection to Trump and the Insurrection. But one thing which they will bring up is something which I hadn't put together . . . . 
• There was a crazy meeting in the Oval Office on the evening of Friday, December 18th when the nutcase entourage of Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne managed to get in the White House and just happen to catch Trump's eye. Over the next several hours, Trump advisors (especially Eric Herschmann) would battle the conspiracy theorists in the Oval Office as they urged Trump to seize voting machines and take other insane action. 
  
  
  
• But it would be later that same night, after midnight, when Trump will in effect summon the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others to Washington for January 6th in a tweet. (Which also marks the first time in American history that a president called for a protest against the peaceful transfer of power.)
  
  
   
• It had only been a couple of months since Trump had told the Proud Boys in a national debate to "Stand back and stand by." Now they were coming. 
  
  
  
• New poll released yesterday which I believe. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The New York Times focused this morning on a different part of the same poll.  The headline is technically true, but admittedly the actual polling numbers gives you a different feel. Then again, Trump's stronghold on the Republican Party is finally beginning to show signs of slipping away. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• How Hershel Walker is a Senate Republican nominee is one of life's great mysteries. Video.
  
  
  
• The Alpine, Texas police department tried to get cute on Facebook. The comments didn't find it that funny.  
  
  
  
• If you are interested in school politics, this might interest you out of Wichita Falls.  The WFISD superintendent announced his resignation earlier this year "after controversy and protests arose about his plan to make cuts to staffing to fill an estimated $8 million to $9 million hole in the 2022-2023 budget."  It looks like he over-projected enrollment which is a big no-no and which caused a financial crisis. 
• However, the guy was able to find a job at Victoria ISD right away and started it on July 5th. 
• But get this: He just told the Victoria school board that "Based on the overwhelming negative and defamatory social media unrest, however false that it maybe, I feel that it is in the best interest of the VISD that I resign my position effective July 11, 2022." The social media "unrest" doesn't appear to be related to any personal scandal but just Victoria folks finding out about the budget problems while he was at Wichita Falls. 
• By having his Wichita Falls resignation take effect on June 30th, he was able to collect "$112,440 in bonuses and other payments" and "did not have to repay the WFISD money for tuition and fees from his pursuit of a doctorate degree at the University of North Texas."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Real estate headlines in Dallas Morning News today. The cooling off continues.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• That escaped mental patient from the Wichita Falls hospital was captured in Austin on Sunday. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Hot weather is often a topic. That's from the front page of the Star-Telegram on July 10, 2012.

---

• Speaking of:
• ERCOT wants you to conserve electricity during the hottest part of today:
  
  
  
  
• That announcement from ERCOT came right about the same time last night as parts of Houston started getting hit with electricity outages. 
  
  
  
• Somehow Wise County is out of the warning area for today, but there's no way you will feel any difference. Waco and College Station both hit 109 yesterday. And those southwest of us are really getting scorched today.
  
  
  
• DFW Airport has had 8 consecutive days of 100 or higher, and 17 total days at that level. In case you were wondering what the records look like:
  
  
  
• A lady gets stopped in the HOV lane in Plano and decides that she should fight the ticket using the argument that she should be considered to have "two people" in the car since she is pregnant. There are some weird things about all of this: (1) The story went nationwide overnight despite only appearing in David Lieber's pretty boring "Watchdog" column about it in the Dallas Morning News. (2) In interviews, she completely dodges Roe v. Wade questions and won't even state a position despite the Dobbs angle being the only reason the story is going national. (3) She sure is willing to pose for pictures for everyone. So what exactly is her angle?
  
  
  

  

  Posing for WFAA

  
  

  

  Interview with CNN on Sunday

  
  
• Elon Musk, as I told you he would do from the start, has backed out of this $44 billion Twitter deal. 
• He just posted this. This will not end well for him, and the child is not smart enough to realize it. 
  
  
  
• He has a major problem. Some people think he can just pay a $1 billion "penalty" and walk away. That's not true. There is a $1 billion penalty clause in the contract, but that only comes into play if Twitter allows him to use it. More importantly, the contract requires specific performance and gives venue to the Delaware Chancery Court which enforces that remedy all the time. And Twitter isn't playing around . . . 
  
  
  
• Fox News says an AR-15 wasn't the cause of the Highland Park Massacre, this was: 
  
  
  
• The police are definitely not being defunded in Fort Worth. 
  
  
  
• It's flat out weird that a small group of right-wing, part-time Texas lawmakers have decided to proactively play cops, judge, jury, and executioner. I mean really weird. (And one of them tried to be D.A. in Tarrant County.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump was in Alaska this weekend. 
• Good lord.
  
  
  
• Guess who was there?
  
  
  
• This gal was a mess. Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I doubt if you paid attention to 15 people being gunned down in a tavern in Johannesburg yesterday.  But that comes on the heels of another incident (below) in South Africa -- which probably should catch a few more headlines than it is  -- and where the motive is also unknown. Something's going on down there.
  
  
  
• Here's the Wikipedia entry for the Luby's Massacre for those who have forgotten . . .