Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

It turned out that the gun looked very real, but it was actually a pellet gun. As expected, a grand jury declined to indict the officer later in the year.    

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• It's the anniversary of an event whose importance to America cannot be understated: The attempted overthrow of the United States at the hands of those, at all levels, who wanted to stop the certification of an election held by a free people. It was insurrection and treason. It ranks behind 9/11, but not by much. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Flashback:
• Kevin McCarthy (R): 
  
  
  
• Mitch McConnell (R): 
  
  
  
• Mike Gallagher (R) on Jan 6: “Mr. President. You have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off. Call it off. The election is over. Call it off. This is bigger than you. It is bigger than any member of Congress. It is about the United States of America”
• Rep Chip Roy (R) on Jan 6: “Today the people’s house was attacked, which is an attack on the republic itself…People need to go to jail… and the president should never have spun up certain Americans to believe something that simply cannot be.”
• Yesterday, Ted Cruz called January 6th a "terrorist attack." We can all agree with that, can't we? Well, last night Fox News went after him. Video.
  
  
  
• The violent overthrow of the Capitol was just one prong of the Insurrection. The other prong was Trump and his henchman trying to strongarm Mike Pence to not certify the electoral college vote. The January 6th Committee thinks this is so important that moments ago they just sent out this tweet to remind us: 
  
  
  
• Trump and his crew had been hammering on Pence for over two weeks. Pence, who is weak and persuadable, was scared to death and went to former VP Dan Quayle for advice. Quayle, of all people, saved the Republic and told him to do the only thing he could constitutionally do: Certify the vote. As Trump was revving up the crowd on January 6th, Quayle released his statement saying he would defy Trump. (I can't recommend enough Bob Woodward's book, Peril, which explained all of this.)
  
  
  
• In other news . . . 
• Keep your eye on these Texas hospitalization numbers. I don't think this surge will last long, but it will be intense. And with half of Texans unvaccinated, it will be more impactful here than what we've seen in other parts of the country over the last month. I'm guessing these next two weeks will be the worst.  
  
  
  
• A horrible fire in Philadelphia.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Gunfire by a toddler in a Granbury Walmart parking lot: "[A] 2-year-old picked up a gun concealed between the seat and center console of a truck in which he or she and the 18-month-old were sitting around 11:25 a.m. Wednesday. The 23-year-old mother was standing outside the vehicle, next to the driver’s door." Injured, not killed.



• "Now we're finding out that [State Ag Commissioner] Sid Miller's campaign team has been meeting in the back alleys behind the Texas Department of Agriculture, taking bribes [from those seeking hemp licenses]” - Former Texas House Rep. James White and current Republican opponent of Miller on 660 AM yesterday.
  
  
  
• Video. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dirk statue plan unveiled. Really?
  
  
  
  
• Ok, so Micah Parsons attended a Mavericks game two days ago, then tested positive for COVID, and will now miss a meaningless Cowboys game on Saturday night. No biggee.
  
  
  
• But CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper decided to go to the game last night? Do they miss the playoff game if they test positive in a couple of days? 
  
  
  
• Today's front page is a flashback:

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

This was a wild case which turned out even wilder than we originally thought. I found this from a lawsuit filed by two passengers who were killed in the crash: 

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• With all those people stuck on the I-95 highway in Virginia, this question came up: How long will a full tank of gas for the average car last if the engine is running with the heat on? My Google research ballparked it at about 1/2 of a gallon per hour. 
• The Little Ball of Insurrection is at it again. 
  
  
  
• The January 6th committee wants to talk to Sean Hannity. We can see why. 
  
  
  
• Within hours of this Hannity news, Trump cancelled his ill-advised press conference scheduled for tomorrow.
  
  
  
• Then Trump got stranger.
  
• The price of oil is pretty much back, isn't it?
  
  
  
• We'll see more changes at the top over the next 15 years as electric vehicles take over. 
  
  
  
• Greg Abbott is suing over the federal vaccine mandate for the Texas National Guard.  But I think he suddenly believes he's Eisenhower: 
  
  
  
• But he's better than Huffines. 
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I'll say this about the Texas COVID hospitalization chart, it's changing rapidly. 
  
  
  
• Sounds very strange: The State Bar filed an "administrative matter" regarding a "complaint" against, as best I can tell, a prosecutor or other lawyer within the Ellis County D.A.'s office.  The county hires an outside firm to represent the lawyer (and settles up with that firm for $5,000 for the defense's final bill), but the county commissioners aren't allowed to know the name of the attorney. 
  
  
  
• I loved this quote from one of the commissioners who was complaining: “I woke up with a start Monday morning realizing for the first time since I was sworn in in 2013, I’m being asked to issue a check on behalf of ‘Anonymous’. ”
• Hey, Adelle is fantastic and her new song "Easy on Me" is already the gold standard, but when she sings the word "chance" at one point during the chorus, I hear an odd Southern twang. (It's at exactly 2:37 in this video.) I can't unhear it. 
• Let's do it. 
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold

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.   

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• 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.