- That hot opinion on melting was posted after the Super Bowl in Arlington was over. I guess we'll see if my observation was correct today and tomorrow. But, then again, we aren't going to even hit 20 degrees today.
- I don't know if we have an "official" temperature anywhere in Decatur, but I'll put it at 1° this morning.
- Snow on the beach in Galveston this morning.
- The snow was great and impressive yesterday, but those flakes were never huge for a sustained amount of time. I don't think anything will ever match February 11, 2010. DFW Airport recorded 12.5 inches and Haslet topped out at 14.4 inches.
- I haven't heard about Wise County being subject to "rolling blackouts" last night/this morning, but it's happening all around the state. They are supposed to be for 15 to 60 minutes, but I'm seeing lots of complaints out of the metroplex this morning that the power had been out for hours.
- If an employee of the Tarrant County District Clerk's office died in the I-35 pile-up because her boss, Tom Wilder, is a jerk who never closes the office and was willing to gamble with the lives of county employees, he needs to resign. It's the least he could do to show respect for her family. (Here's a link to the email referenced below.)
- Horrible news that I'm sure you've heard . . .
- Trump avoid impeachment for the second time, but the Senate at least got close to the 2/3rds that were needed: 57-43. You might have missed it, but for about two hours on Saturday morning the trial almost turned into a substantive spectacle when the Senate surprisingly voted to hear witnesses. But then they immediately changed their minds. This statement of Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler was put into the record by agreement in lieu of calling witnesses.
- If that bored you and you're just looking for an entertaining moment from Saturday, then this video clip is that. I think the Senate was laughing at his pronunciation of Philadelphia. And a very underrated part of the clip is at the end when he says, "I haven't laughed at any of you."
- Ted Cruz isn't even trying any longer.
- Uh, the Babylon Bee is parody.
- Great picture of him meeting with Trump's lawyers during the impeachment trial.
- Local legal related news:
- Random girl's basketball news:
- If you've got a couple of spare minutes, check out the "comedy" routine of this guy. Video.
- I actually watched two movies over the weekend.
- Bombshell - I really liked this, but it's for a niche audience. The best thing about it was Charlize Theron who was a dead ringer for Megyn Kelly. And the brief appearances of the fake Bill O'Reilly and the fake Sean Hannity were fun for a guy like me.
- The Last of the Mohicans - I had never seen this, and I've got a shocking verdict on it: Big thumbs down. I loved Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York and There Will be Blood, but he really didn't have a chance to act in this thing. I found it incredibly corny with horribly designed action scenes. And there were way too many close-ups of Day-Lewis running at me. (But I did love this line in the film: “I would rather make the gravest of mistakes than surrender my own judgment.”)
- Pretty good graphic for federal judge appointments in Texas over the years:
- I wonder if it is worth investing in a generator.
- That post above was about Prince not appearing at a Super Bowl party in Addison because he hadn't been paid as agreed. It was a disaster in that people who paid "$1,500 a ticket" or "$25,000 a table" weren't told about he cancellation which had occurred earlier in the day and showed up for the event. As outlined in later Dallas Morning News story years later, Chris Arnold was heavily involved.
- There are simply no words to describe what happened in Fort Worth yesterday. After watching the second video of the incident unfold, I was done. I didn't want to see any more. So far we know the identities of two of the six fatalities: Aaron Watson, 45, of Fort Worth, and Tiffany Louann Gerred, 34, of Northlake. The Medical Examiner puts the time of death for both at 6:13 a.m.
- Edit: One of the victims was Christopher Ray Vardy, 49, from Boyd.
- The story was on the cover of the The Wall Street Journal this morning:
- In my next criminal trial in Wise County, can I get that special deal where I meet with a couple of jurors halfway through the trial so they can tell me what they think I should do next?
- Headlines from the last hour: Republican Golden Girl Nikki Haley finally came to her senses and has turned on Trump:
- Anyone cocking an eyebrow at this story? "Van Duyne called police after she heard a shot and saw a body on her front walkway at around 3:45 p.m. [on Wednesday.]"
- Surprise: The government refuses to prosecute the government.
- Random bad cop news I saw this week:
- The White House this morning.
- Dave Ramsey with some loving words of financial encouragement. Good lord, man.
- I can't tell you how close the facts of this Idaho criminal justice disaster came to happening in Wise County in the Lauren Whitener/Aric Maxwell case: A murder/rape was committed, DNA was left behind who didn't match the guy the cops targeted, but a conviction based upon a coerced confession was obtained that put the man in prison. But 20 years later he was freed and the true killer, who had lived nearby, was identified by a familial DNA investigation. The only difference is that Aric Maxwell, in the Lauren Whitener case in Wise County, never confessed despite over 15 hours of interrogation spanning five different interviews. He was arrested, indicted and kept in jail for six months anyway. I'm still as pissed off about it now about as I was last year.
- Speaking of: 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: 588 days.
- Messenger: Above The Fold
- That's a pic of the security lines at Jerry World's Super Bowl.
- Holy crap, this is in Fort Worth this morning. I think that's I-35 at NE 28th Street. (Video in link)
- Edit: Found another photo . . .
- Edit: Here's a Facebook video of it happening. Incredible. Language warning.
- Edit:
- You cannot have watched yesterday's impeachment trial, be a patriot, and not think Donald Trump should be convicted. And even though Republican Senators will probably just sit idly by and allow this Trump led carnage to go unpunished, yesterday's proceedings created a historical record for all future generations to see just how close Democracy came to falling that day. They will read it, watch it, and study it in horror.
- We learned for the first time yesterday that the Trump Insurrectionists were on the verge of killing Mitt Romney had he not been directed away from where he was walking -- which was right into them.
- Trump's failure to stop the riot once it began cannot be understated. He loved it. He wanted it. He wanted to see the country burn all because he couldn't handled forever being labeled a "loser." And this moment yesterday from a Texas representative wasn't hyperbole.
- But the biggest news about January 6th occurred after the trial. Politico reported this morning that new Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Trump loyalist, inadvertently revealed late yesterday that he spoke directly to Trump during the riot and told him that VP Mike Pence was in danger and had just been evacuated. Shockingly, that was the same time that Trump tweeted out to the mob that Pence had failed him. Pence was evacuated at 2:15 p.m. Trump tweeted about Pence at 2:24 p.m. Trump was basically trying to get Pence killed.
- Sorry, girl, I don't believe you for one single second. Welcome to the world of personal responsibility and consequences.
- And another one from North Texas was arrested yesterday.
- <Record scratch sound>
- News that Bruce Springsteen was arrested for DWI broke yesterday, but there's lots of odd aspects to it: (1) It happened back in November, (2) His blood-alcohol concentration was only 0.02, and (3) it's a "federal charge" because it happened in a national park.
- Larry Flynt of Hustler fame has died. He gave us a great Supreme Court First Amendment case which held that Jerry Falwell couldn't recover money damages just because Flynt hurt his feelings and was mean to him. And he also brought us a fantastic movie starring Woody Harrelson where Flynt got to play a small part in as a trial judge.
- On of my favorite movie lines occurred in that film when Flynt's lawyer threatened to quit since he was such a difficult client. "You don't want to quit me," Flynt's character said, "I'm your dream client: I'm the most fun, I'm rich, and I'm always in trouble."
- Mark Cuban caved in record time yesterday once the NBA slapped him down about not playing the National Anthem. That whole episode was weird. Pick a fight, run your mouth, and then cower down all within 24 hours. Why do that?
- Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, always looking for publicity when he's not committing crimes, proposed a law yesterday that the Dallas Mavericks shall play the National Anthem since the AAC was built with public funds. Why stop there? Why not force every game attendee to kneel, bow, and and worship the government if they drove on a public road to get there? Moron.
- I'm a little late to this: The daughter of a former backup Cowboys quarterback who has something to do with Star Wars is in hot water because she compared something to the Holocaust?
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