1.04.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




It was the great Bridgeport trophy scandal of 2012 after that photo got out.  The Messenger would follow up the story, and it even made its way to Channel 8 News which mentioned a "local blog" calling attention to the incident.   

  • New Texas COVID numbers were finally released yesterday afternoon and, whether it be a seven day average (yellow) or a new daily numbers (purple), we are now setting all time records. And that has to be only a fraction of the actual cases out there considering how hard it is to get tested. Plus, these numbers don't even include at-home testing. 

    • But hospitalization rates are much better. During the last two peaks, we topped out with around 14,000 in the hospital. Now we have just over 7,000.

  • Dan Patrick wouldn't even think of showing up, and he'll still win the state, and Wise County, in a landslide. 

  • The D.C. area got hit with a snowstorm yesterday, and they handle it as about as well as we do. 
    • A couple of reporters stuck on highways all night have provided updates during their ordeal. 


    • A former VP candidate just chimed in:

  • Trump is supporting the QAnon congresswoman, and thinks a private company should be banned by the government from "doing business." Craziness won't be going away in 2022.

    • Other Republicans don't feel the same way: 

  • There hasn't been much news on the shooting in Lubbock back in November that bugged me so much. Basically the only development is that the dead man's mother and wife have sued the shooter. 

  • I thought endorsements were supposed to help you. 

  • Bexar County is cancelling jury trials due to COVID.
  • Here's a better angle of the rail collapse at FedEx Field. Video.

  • And another. Identifying a DNA sample by looking at the DNA of relatives who had voluntarily sent their sample off out of genetic history interest. And the two or three Texas labs leading the way in this science seemed to be involved in almost every case. 


  • Extremely legal nerdy stuff warning. This is incredible. The Texas Bar Journal just came out with its legal review of 2021 issues in law. I flipped to the single criminal law page (p. 32) and saw the summary of the first of three notable cases (below).  The summary was 100% wrong. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held just the opposite in Ortiz! And that quote the author put in the summary doesn't exist (it actually appears in the lower appellate court opinion which was reversed.)   I knew something was up when he called the highest court "The Criminal Court of Appeals."  By the way, the State Bar forces attorneys to pay around $250 a year to be members, and the Journal is the only thing we really get in return. It has always been awful. But this was really, really bad. 

  • College football is now wild. Couple the transfer portal with NIL money, and it really is free agency. OU both lost and gained a quarterback yesterday. 


  • This scheduling seems weird. If you didn't know better, you'd think that ESPN suddenly discovered they forgot to broadcast a bowl game and have to run it out there tonight.

  • Per the Washington Post, The Washington Football Team will reveal its new name and logo on February 2nd.

at 8:30 AM

1.03.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts






It was Iowa Caucus week. The results:


  • Highway 287 south of Rhome, northbound, moments ago:

  • It's 2022! A new year, and a new you! Scratch that. Nothing will change. 

  • An Arlington townhome blew up on NYE, and it was caught on video. 


  • Two morons "setting fire" to the concrete marker at the southern most point in the U.S. at Key West, and taking photos of each other while they did it, might have been caught in one of the best quality surveillance video I've ever seen. Video. (This screenshot doesn't do it justice.)

     
  • I would give you the COVID numbers, but the state of Texas is in no rush to update the figures. As of this morning: 

  • Two very different Republican women:
    • A nutcase and an Insurrectionist supporter:

    • American hero and democracy icon:

  • Jeff Bezos was killin' it on New Year's Eve.

  • I'm sure you've seen it, but here is the full clip of the Antonio Bryant meltdown from yesterday.

  • And here's the video of the railing collapsing in Washington and almost injuring Philadelphia QB Jalen Hurts.

  • There are still a ton of things wrong with this case on all sides. From still getting 10 years for an accident to a criminal sentence just being magically reduced because of public outcry.


  • The Texas Secretary of State decided to announce Phase I of the Texas election audit of Friday afternoon on New Year's Eve. Guess why he tried to bury it: They found nothing. (Trump somehow got to demand that  it happened.) 

  • Dueling cities:


  • We had a trifecta: Betty White, John Madden and Dan Reaves. 

  • Random bowl win image: Central Michigan's coach doused in frosted flakes after winning the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl.

  • I watched Don't Look Up. Verdict: Fantastic concept. Poorly executed. 
  • Baylor will end up no worse than #5 in the final AP Poll. (For the life of me, I don't know if the AP poll traditionally leaves the four playoff teams in the top four positions after the season is over.) 

at 8:29 AM

12.31.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

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

at 8:36 AM
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