1.19.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



The post from 1/16/12 was too long to reprint, but it said that Fort Worth cops got into a vehicle chase with a guy who headed towards Wise County on 287.  Once stopped, he got out but "lunged" towards the vehicle and one officer fired. The suspect later died. But not from the gunshot. He wasn't hit. He just collapsed in the patrol car and died from what the ME called "METHAMPHETAMINE INTOXICATION Due to: INCAUTIOUS CONSUMPTION OF TOXIC DRUG." He was identified as a 24 year old man from Newark. 

  • Numbers:
    • Seven day average of new cases:

    • Current hospitalizations

  • Get your free COVID home testing kits here. (Warning: Since they are free from the government, you may become a Socialist by placing your order.)
  • Liberally Lean Guaranteed Weather Center Alert: The temperature will rise until about 11:45 today when it will top out at 50 degrees. From there, it will begin to drop.  It'll be 39 degrees by 6:00 p.m., and then will hit a low of 22 degrees overnight. Tomorrow we will barely crack freezing with a high of 33 degrees.  Book it. 
  • This is a long article which is the product of a year long investigation by the Marshall Project and distributed by newspapers nationwide yesterday, including the Dallas Morning News. It has Wise County ties and focuses on a particular Parker County murder case. (To be clear, "lying" during an investigation is both legal and common, and the article doesn't claim otherwise.)

  • I think I mentioned Crosby, Texas for the first time ever yesterday, and now I see this: 

  • The January 6th Commission has subpoenaed the three most deceitful lawyers in the country:

    • This is really all coming together. Stay with me here.
    • One of the craziest parts of the attempt to overthrow the election was done in plain sight. An election, since our nation's founding, has been carried out without a hitch by the formality of a two part process no one really pays attention to: As part of the Electoral College process: (1) Governors are required to sign a formal "certificate of ascertainment," verifying that the statewide winner's slate of electors are the legitimate electors, and (2) Those electors then individually sign a second certificate, formally affirming their votes for president. 
    • Both the Governors' certificate and the corresponding Elector's certificate are sent directly to the National Archives (that was news to me) which will then make them available every four years on January 6th for the Vice President to do the only thing the Constitution allows him to do: Count them.
    • The National Archives makes the Certificates viewable by the public here.
    • Here they are being taken to the Senate Chambers on January 6th of last year:

    • But here's the shocking part: The Trump group sent a slate of fake elector Certificates to the National Archives. They were fake in that no single State authorized them. Here are those fake certificates for all to see. These are the ones Trump wanted Mike Pence to use an an excuse not to count the real elector certificates on January 6th. 
    • And Trump wanted the mob in D.C. on January 6th to make it happen. 

    • The fake electors plot was the brainchild of lawyer John Eastman who appeared on stage on January 6th with Giuliani. This was the "Trial by Combat" speech. 

    • Then Trump took the stage and told the crowd to march to the Capitol because Mike Pence was not going to follow their plot. This is directly from Trump's speech where he tells them that Pence will fail them: 

    • Pence, in fact, wouldn't follow the plot and he released a statement during Trump's speech at 12:02 P.M. EST saying he would count the real electors votes later that day.
    • The crowd riots with shouts of "Hang Mike Pence" and the real electoral votes are ushered to safety.
  • This video is pretty entertaining. A 12 year old girl [Edit: Turns out she is 18] confronted Rep. Dan Crenshaw on a statement he once made which could be interpreted as saying Jesus was a fictional hero.  He then went after her. The crowd then went after him. "The crowd erupted in a chorus of boos, shouts of 'wow,' 'you moron,' and other heckling. 'Don’t talk to a kid like that, jerk,' one man yelled."

  • Bastrop State Park seems to catch fire a lot. 

    • Flashback to Bastrop Park in 2011:

  • All the Justices on the Supreme Court having been wearing masks during oral argument except Gorsuch who refuses to. Now we have a judge fight. 

  • Gary Patterson was in Austin last night at the UT basketball game wearing a Longhorn shirt and talking to the school's athletic director (who just happens to be his former AD at TCU.) After the photo came out, it was announced later that night that he has been hired as a "special assistant to the head coach."

  • The Big 12 continues to say it will not let OU and UT leave for the SEC until current contract allows it in 2025.  They now have plans for the 2023 and 2024 season to be played with both schools as well as the new four members of Houston, UCF, Cincinnati, and BYU.

  • They are pretty much the same guy. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold (link fixed)

at 8:33 AM

1.18.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




That referred to Bridgeport's own Jeff Riordan. I  found an update: "He compiled a mark of 66-18 at Crosby, a Class 5A school. He led the Cougars to six playoff appearances and four district championships, and reached the state semifinals in 2014." He has hired by Chappell Hill in Tyler in 2019. He went 11-4 last year and made the playoffs.

  • COVID: We still have old charts, but I've got some updated numbers.
    • New numbers:

    • Last updated cases chart from January 14th so we are still up there:

    • Here's the last hospitalizations chart so add about 450 to get it to 12,286 (which shows an increase but a slowing increase):

  • This is the dumbest idea ever. "WINDCREST, Texas — It's a concept never done before, and it's about to happen in Bexar County: Getting a traffic ticket sent to your phone without an officer pulling you over. One police department will be the first in the nation to test it." Here's how it works: You sign up to be a "Trusted Driver" on a website, "enter your information" (sheesh), and then when a cop sees you commit a traffic violation, he texts you the ticket instead of stopping you.

    • But here is where the whole thing breaks down in my humble opinion:

  • A vote will be taken this week in the Senate as to whether to end the filibuster to pass voter rights legislation. It is expected to fail, but Democrat Senate leaders want everyone on the record. 

    • Doing the vote about the filibuster on the week of MLK Jr. Day is no accident. (Side note: I heard "communism" and "socialism" all the time when I was a kid. Then it suddenly just went away for three decades. Now the same old fear-mongering is back.) 

  • Oil hit a 7 year high this morning at $85.20 a barrel.
  • Is this a big deal?

  • Don't forget that tomorrow is an official state holiday of "Confederate Hero's Day." It is actually a state law:

  • This seems like a good idea. GM will launch its own used car site which will be a public database for all the inventory of GM dealers. They want it to be a Carmax of GM dealers.
  • Under the radar legal stuff: The Supreme Court decided on Friday to hear a pretty interesting religious case. That is, whether a high school coach can lead players in a prayer after the game. At least I think that's the question. The case is extremely odd because the coach and the school are still fighting over what the facts actually are --  something that is always completely settled by the time the Supreme Court gets involved.  So what will happen? If it is just a private prayer, I think the coach would obviously win. If he made it a team led prayer with some coercion involved, then winning is not a given (although I bet he would prevail with this new court.)


    • Concerning them still fighting over the facts, the coach says this:
    • The school district says this: 

    • Weird Cowboy tie-in: Former defensive player Chad Hennings filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting the coach. 

  • I wonder if anyone is still proud about their "NFC East Champions" t-shirt? I've never understood a division champion shirt. 

  • There's a video of the 49ers walking towards the tunnel on Sunday with a guy blasting music out over a monster-sized boom box. And then the boom box guy walks along with them all the way.  It's kind of wild (and you get an inside look at just how long that walk is). 

  • Here are two great videos of Cedrick Wilson Jr. having to duck because the sun was blinding him. One you saw on the telecast, and the other one you haven't. 


  • The Star-Telegram does an impressive job today going into the details of the hostage crisis on Saturday. It's a bit noteworthy that the case came to an end by the rabbi throwing a chair at the guy, all the hostages running out, and then the cops rushing in and then killing the guy who was then alone: 

at 8:31 AM

1.17.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Things have changed in 10 years.   

  • It's an official holiday, but THWMISB™ is here.
  • Let's start with the Cowboys.
    • It should not have come down to it, but that was the dumbest final play call in the history of ever. With 14 seconds left and no timeouts, you no sane person would even consider running the ball. From the second Dak took off, I was yelling, "No! No! No!"
    • The Umpire had to set and mark the ball after the run (that's the rule because you can't let the offense mark it because they'd cheat), so a run play puts you at the mercy of where he is. And, in this case, he wasn't nearby.

    • As shown by the number of penalties yesterday (14), the Cowboys are a really dumb team. 
    • Speaking of dumb. Oh, that stadium.

    • Sad girl with 4 minutes left. Video is even better.


    • Sad couple.

    • You've probably seen the video of the crowd running after purchasing their "standing room only", aka "Party Pass", ticket.  The tickets were going for $167 on Stubhub before the game. 

    • The Cowboys misspelled their starting linebacker's name on his jersey. 
      Screenshot from Nickelodeon

    • How weird is it that an NFC wild card game, especially involving the Cowboys, is broadcast on CBS instead of Fox? Old man me doesn't like it. 
    • I guess I just have a gift. Criminal law expert, political prognostication expert, weather expert, and sports expert. Me from last Thursday:
  • It's not perfect, but probably the best video of the ending of the hostage situation at the synagogue in Colleyville on Saturday was obtained by WFAA. It's here. (The hostage-taker's "sister", who he wanted to be released from a federal prison in Fort Worth, has a fascinating Wikipedia page.)

  • The eruption of the underwater volcano near Tonga on Saturday was wild. Waves were felt literally thousands of miles away -- including causing some rivers in California to flow backwards. Here's a great collection of videos of its impact on the U.S. 



  • Did you know that a Commissioner's Court --which isn't a court at all -- has subpoena power? I had never heard of it but apparently it does, although they can only enforce it with the threat of a  $25 fine for ignoring it.   This subject came up in this wild and fun story out of Hood County:

  • Elon Musk is a bad guy as this story from the Wall Street Journal exemplifies. (That associate might be sitting pretty.  That law firm, if it values money over people like most do, would probably be willing to secure the associate a cushy job at another firm as well as write him a fat severance check to go away.)

  • Trump was going all White Power this weekend. (At least he's not hiding it anymore.)

  • DirectTV will remove the propaganda network, OANN.

  • Quite the contrast is bullet points about a trip to Manhattan:
    • I was prepared to say how great Twitter can be when someone with a lot of followers asks for suggestions for a proposed trip like The Ticket's Bob Sturm did on Friday night.  The tips that come in are great. It made me want to plan a trip Manhattan.

    • Then I turned around and saw this. 

  • Here's the Texas COVID numbers if you want them. They haven't been updated in a couple of days. I'm guessing they will peak this week. 



at 8:32 AM

1.14.2022

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

at 2:30 PM
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