Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

And to think he never got to see the Trump years. 

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• Warning: I'm going election intensive.
• County Judge J.D. Clark won over Chad Miller (who was the darling of the very far right Wise County Conservatives.) I was watching this one simply to see how many Chad Miller could draw in. He is a really polished speaker and good politician. But, more importantly, he was selling the hot button issues (CRT, Trans, the Border, Vaccine mandates) which has absolutely nothing to do with being county judge. He knew what red meat to throw at the masses. Some bit. 
  
  
  
• I mentioned last week that the someone needed to get control of the local Republican Party because it was going very far right (censoring Greg Abbott, for example.) Well, that isn't going to happen. 
  
  
  
• A disturbing shocker almost happened in that Andy Hopper nearly beat incumbent Dr. Lynn Stucky for our state house rep.
• After the new maps were drawn, which freed Wise County from Parker County and put us in a district with parts of Denton County, I spent way too much time one day explaining how Wise County could, for the first time ever, actually control who was our state rep. I didn't have anything against incumbent Dr. Lynn Stucky -- he's a good guy, I was just looking at the map and the numbers. (Because, as faithful readers know,  I'm a political genius.)
• I had in mind J.D. Clark running for the job. He passed on the chance. But Andy Hopper, who calls Wise County home, decided to run despite not doing well at all when he last ran in a special election for Senate District 30. This is what happened in 2020 in that race:
  
  
  
• So Hopper wouldn't stand a chance last night against Stucky, right? Hold that thought. Hopper almost pulled off a stunner, losing by only 102 votes!
  
  
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• I was curious how the break down of Denton/Wise County votes would go in that race. Here it is. As I thought there would be, there were more Wise County voters than Denton County voters in our newly drawn district:
  
  
  
• You want to know the big secret? When Wise County was added to Stucky's district, Denton County was redrawn for the race as well. But then the Denton part was redrawn again at the last second. The final map put the very conservative and heavily voting Robson Ranch area precincts back in the district. Last night, in those three Denton County precincts alone (4184, 4185, 4186) Stuckey beat Hopper 1809-818. That's what did it. 
  
  
  
• The only other contested race involving all of Wise County was the County Clerk's race where long time incumbent Sherry Parker Lemon decided to retire. It will be headed for a run-off between Blanca Tuma and John Curry. 
  
  
  
• Speaking of Governor, Greg Abbott slaughtered all comers and will avoid a run-off. This is how Wise County voted: 
  
  
  
• State-wide, embattled AG Ken Paxton will be forced to a run-off with George P. Bush. Here is how Wise County voted. The only odd thing is how poorly Eva Guzman did here: 
  
  
  
• Here are the state wide results to compare:
  
  
  
• In the Republican Party race for Tarrant County Judge, I was right.  Tim O'Hare won and even avoided a run-off. But he is such a nut that Democrat Deborah Peoples at least stands a chance of beating him in November. 
  
  
  
• The book-banning Matt Krause, who has never tried a criminal case to a jury, will be in a run-off for D.A. in Tarrant County. Amazing. Long time district judge Mollee Westfall will now be out of a job. 
  
  
  
• Jacksboro's own, and Blog friend, David Spiller had his district completely redrawn. Nevertheless, he killed it last night. 
  
  
  
• Hair-stylist Shelley Luther lost in her second attempt to break into politics. 
  
  
  
• Our old state rep Phil King will now be a Texas state senator. 
  
  
  
• No offense to Wise County Commissioner races. I ran out of time. 
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

It's the 10 year anniversary of Sandra Fluke and, more importantly, what Rush Limbaugh said about her which caused a national stir -- so much so that even he had to apologize after the backlash which included President Obama calling her to offer words of support.  

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• There's a 40+ mile long convoy of Russian military vehicles headed towards Kyiv.  They are sitting ducks, and no one is stopping them. That tells you Ukraine no longer controls the air. And it also tells you the capitol city is about to fall. 
  
  
  
• Paul McCartney in downtown Kyiv in 2008. He posted this yesterday. It was a concert at the now ironically named "Independence Square."  
  
  
  
• What a strange photo. "Russian President Vladimir Putin huddled with officials to discuss the economic turmoil amid his invasion of Ukraine." Does he fear an assassination attempt from within his inner circle?
  
  
  
• Assuming this photo is real, it occurred to me Google and Apple and the other tech companies could bring a country to its knees quicker than any governmental sanction. Seriously, Putin has to worry about the Russian people going into a widespread revolt, and the tech companies just impacted every Russian with flick of a switch.  Throw in Amazon servers for banking and credit cards, and this could be a Black Mirror episode.
  
  
  
• The very helpful and very smart Wise County Elections Administrator Sabra Srader provided me with the early voting numbers for the county.  With a little over 47,994 registered voters, we came in at 10.05% with 4,821 -- far higher than the state average percentage. And here's a news flash: Wise County is very Republican. Click to enlarge or click here for the Google Sheet (I added the percentages). 
  
  
  
• Four years ago there were 7,924 total votes cast (early and day of). 
• This guy has spent a bunch of money on campaign ads on DFW television in his bid for District Attorney, but it drives me nuts that he never mentions which county he is running in. 
  
  
  
• Follow-up from yesterday. I don't know about "upset."
  
  
  
• And here's the mugshot of the guy which is at the center of the mess.
  
  
  
• It's pretty amazing that 14 people were shot in a Las Vegas lounge last weekend and it barely registered as news. 
  
  
  
• The ACLU is after the book burners in Granbury. 
  
  
  
• The Messenger's Richard Greene tweeted this out yesterday of the front page of the Messenger from 100 years ago this week. Click to enlarge. The heck with the prison escape, I want to know about the bank cashier that ran off with his paramour. 
  
  
  
• My favorite conspiracy theory, which I love thinking about, is that we are all living in a computer simulation where every now and then there is a glitch in the software causing history to repeat itself -- but we just all chalk it up to coincidence. 

  

  (Smith was actually injured in Landover, MD which is 
  only few miles from where Theismann was playing.)

  
  
• Kim Mulkey out there throwing shade at the Evil Empire. She even threw in an Ehlinger impersonation. Video. 
  
  
  
• I don't care about the NBA, but this found its way to my radar last night. Any chance of scoring here on this in-bounds pass with less than a half second left at the end of the first half? Video.
  
  
  
• Tarrant County Judge race prediction: Tim O'Hare beats Betsy Price, and that's a very bad thing.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

I stand by the proposition of prosecutors attending executions as being weird. In fact, I'm not sure I've heard of it happening since then. 

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• The war continues in Ukraine.  
• Before everyone starts betting on the Ukraine Resistance, I wouldn't get my hopes up.
  
  
  
• As I post this, I'm seeing a flood of social media about "images coming out of Kharkiv." I'm guessing something bad has happened.
• The Snake Island guys are apparently not dead according to a Ukrainian navy Facebook post.  I would tap the brakes on any sensational story you hear in this conflict. 
• I never thought War Games would be relevant again.
  
   
  
  
  
• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become somewhat of a star by donning fatigues and promising to stay and fight.  I thought this thread was interesting: From a PR standpoint, what exactly is it about this video which so powerful and universally praised?
  
  
  
• Kind of makes you think against about Trump's telephone call with him (the one which led to Trump's first impeachment), where Zelenskyy  was asking for Javelin missiles but Trump responded with "I would like you to do us a favor, though" in connection with Hunter Biden. 
• And comparisons were made.
  
  
  
• Voting day is tomorrow.  Early voting has been reportedly very low, but I can't find the exact numbers to compare it to four years ago. But the final cumulative vote count by the Texas Secretary of State's office shows that Republicans outnumbered Democrats in early voting 5.93% to 3.65%.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Florida man who shot another man in a movie theater was found not guilty late Friday. 
  
  
  
• The QAnon Congresswoman spoke at a white supremist rally over the weekend.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Mitt Romney, in response, called her a "moron". 
  
  
  
• She responded. 
  
  
  
• It really was a white supremist rally. Watch this when old Sheriff Joe was a little confused at the audience's reaction to something he said:
  
  
  
• More lawyers coming. (This guy is a professor there.) 
  
  
  
• This is a nightmare for everyone, especially the victim. Stay with me here:
  
  
  
• A guy was arrested for domestic violence in January and became one of hundreds of people a magistrate in Tarrant County sees every month for his bond to be set.  
• Almost anyone can set bonds (from JPs to city judges to mayors), but Tarrant County streamlines the process by giving a lot of that responsibility to a special magistrate appointed by the elected district judges. That's good. The less judges setting bonds means the more consistent bonds will be.  (Plus, the guy is heavily involved in felony cases because he also has the authority to approve tons of plea bargains in felony cases -- he's no novice.)
• Back to the guy arrested for domestic violence. Actually, he had two charges against the same victim, aggravated assault and unlawful restraint. 
• The magistrate set the bond in an combined amount of  $15,000.  That actually seems pretty normal. He even added an ankle monitor as a condition. That seems a little unusual, but was justified because the guy had five past felony convictions and a "danger assessment" for the victim came back as "extreme danger."  
• Pause for a moment. No matter what the bond was set at, how would you feel if you're the magistrate and are holding a piece of paper which says "extreme danger"?
• The guy makes bond.
• Then it went from bad to worse: The victim goes missing.
  
• The cops obviously suspect the guy out on bond, and they get a search warrant for his house. Her body is found underneath it. Oh, man. 
  
  
  
• This all got my attention when the lame duck D.A. in Tarrant County did a pretty scathing social media post on Saturday roasting the magistrate who set the bond by name.  You never see that. 
  
  
  
• Side note: The D.A. needs a headline writer. That reads as if the guy is out on bond again. He's not. He's in jail. 
• This guy has spent a fortune in an advertising blitz in DFW so the Morning News published an article exploring exactly who he is. I stopped reading and decided I hated the guy once I got to this: "Henry splurges on parties. He threw his daughter a $6 million quinceañera and a $4 million 18th birthday bash for his son. Pitbull and Nick Jonas performed at daughter Maya Henry’s party . . . ."
  
  
  
• We have our first January 6th trial this week.  It is for a man from Wylie who is a "member of a militia-style group called the Texas Three Percenters."