Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

It was the unveiling of the cool bridge in Dallas, but look at the economic news headline on the side: Struggling incomes and high gas prices. Everything old is new again. 

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• If Russia slow walks this invasion, Americans will simply get bored and move on. 
• I'm not sure what the details are on this. Edit: Sounds like four Paradise area kids were injured. 
  
  
  
• Has Trump not taught this guy anything about the new world of politics? You never apologize, and you never admit a mistake. Instead you attack your accusers and just ride it out. If you do that, you can survive anything. 
  
  
  
• His mistress, known as "The First Lady of Isis",  was already famous back in 2017:
  
  
  
• That Messenger photo of the train/truck collision makes me think that the train must have been moving forward at a snail's pace. Those things don't exactly stop on a dime. 
  
  
  
• This is probably suicide. Sheesh, check on your friends. 
  
  
  
• Speaking of mental health. 
  
  
  
• State of the Union images I didn't have time for yesterday:
• Ugh.
  
  
  
• That behavior looked a little familiar.
  
  
  
• This was weird, too. Video.
  
  
  
• Criminal justice election fun facts:
• Every county court trial judge in Dallas County, both civil and criminal, is now female.
• Of the 50 DAs up for election in the November, only 7 will be contested. 
• The race for County Judge in Tarrant County will be interesting. On one side you'll have personal injury lawyer Tim O'Hare (famous for almost bankrupting Farmer's Branch for trying to ban immigrants, more recently for making Southlake the racist capitol of Texas, and for sending out flyers like below), and on the other you will have a black female, Deborah Peoples, on the Democratic ticket. And, remember, Tarrant County voted for Beto over Cruz, and Biden over Trump. 
  
  
  
• Anyone else want to talk about how the propositions at the end of the Republican ballot were insane?  Take this for example.  Do people not realize that the one below would absolutely destroy the public school system? It's the equivalent of saying "You should have the right to not pay school property taxes so long as you use that money on, say, Kenneth Copeland Academy."  On second thought, maybe it is the point to destroy the public school system. 
  
  
  
• The man thinks the score on the Law School Acceptance Test for Biden's Supreme Court nominee is important. I wonder what it is about her that would make Tucker Carlson think she might not be bright? 
  
  
  
• The criminal case against Ken Paxton is ridiculously in limbo.  Normally delayed by special prosecutors whining they are not getting paid enough, the other delay has been due to the case being transferred back and forth between Collin and Harris counties. That latter delay just got longer yesterday.
  
  
  
• I thought this story was overstated, but it wasn't. Here's the detailed criminal complaint. It is, after all, the land of Jeffrey Dahmer. (She supposedly has "ties to Texas" but I haven't found exactly how that is true.) 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Random traffic observation: These two might be right. 
  
  
  
• NASCAR's Tony Stewart has a $30 million home on the market which looks a lot like a Bass Pro Shop. 

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.