Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

After a couple of primaries, Rick Perry gave up his presidential hopes this week 10 years ago. That left only Newt Gingrich to challenge Mitt Romney in the fight to prevent President Obama's second term.    

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• Texas numbers:
• Cases:
  
  
  
• Hospitalizations:
  
  
  
• Reporter hit by car. She's fine and kept going. Video.
  
  
  
• President Biden press conference review:
  
  
  
• Positive: He went for almost two hours yesterday which was longer than any held by Trump (1 hour, 26 minutes) or Obama (1 hour, 27 minutes).
• The negative: The Ukraine comments which are in the headlines.
• The comment under examination:  "It's one thing if it's a minor incursion [by Russia] and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do."
• The reaction: What's a "minor incursion" that we won't care about? And did that just give the go ahead to Russia?
  
• The scramble: The White House had to immediately release a statement afterwards saying there is no such thing as a "minor incursion" if it involves troops.
  
  
  
• The reality: It's never a good look to have to fix a statement.
• The real reality:  We are never going to war with Russia over Ukraine. Nor should we.
• Edit: Sheesh. There was just another official "clean up" issued about whether the 2022 elections will be "legitimate."
• This was from the official clerk of the Texas Supreme Court yesterday. (But it really doesn't explain the exact scam that was going on.)
  
  
  
• Texas campaign reports were released yesterday. One single oil man from Midland gave Gov. Abbott $650.000.  In what democracy does this make sense?
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• Yesterday evening, the Supreme Court, over Trump's objection, allowed the National Archives to release its January 6th documents. Only Justice Thomas, as he always does, sided with Trump. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We had Supreme Court silliness earlier. Three justices took the time to issue statements about the report that there was a spat between Sotomayor and Gorsuch. 
• The first statement: 
  
  
  
• The press reaction was that the report never said that Justice Sotomayor asked Gorsuch. The report was that it was Roberts who asked Goruch:
  
  
  
• So another statement comes out, this time from Roberts:
  
  
  
• I'm old enough to remember when the Supreme Court could not care less about what the press said about them. 
• If you haven't noticed, BagOfNothing.com is backed to regular posting. Some have been a little different. 
• Mark Cuban prediction from 2014: "I think the NFL is 10 years away from implosion . . . . pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And [it’s] getting hoggy.”
  
  
  
• The reality:
  
  
  
• The numbers are really insane. The top 10 games:
  
  
  
• Compare and contrast.
• Yesterday:
  
  
  
• 49ers before the game:
  
  
  
• We hear lots about school board chaos and angry audiences, but in Wichita Falls it is about, uh, mascots (that's even former state senator Craig Estes pictured below) . . . 

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. 

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• 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)

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.

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• 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: