Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Ten years ago we still hadn't had the runoff election between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst, but this was the first sign that Cruz might actually win.  (Dewhurst had been attacking Cruz for doing legal work for a Chinese outfit. I thought that was stupid and was backfiring, but now I doubt that had much to do with it.)

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• I don't think Abbott and DPS are on the same page on this one. And I'm kind of surprised Abbott is taking this stance.
  
  
  
• I'm not sure how that line ever got into Jill Biden's prepared speech. It wasn't impromptu. Video. That's an unforced error. 
  
  
   
  
  
  
• An officer with a constable's office in Harris County is in hot water for "hard" high-fives to the opposing team after a little league game. Video.
  
  
  
• The January 6th Committee will focus today on the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers connection to Trump and the Insurrection. But one thing which they will bring up is something which I hadn't put together . . . . 
• There was a crazy meeting in the Oval Office on the evening of Friday, December 18th when the nutcase entourage of Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne managed to get in the White House and just happen to catch Trump's eye. Over the next several hours, Trump advisors (especially Eric Herschmann) would battle the conspiracy theorists in the Oval Office as they urged Trump to seize voting machines and take other insane action. 
  
  
  
• But it would be later that same night, after midnight, when Trump will in effect summon the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others to Washington for January 6th in a tweet. (Which also marks the first time in American history that a president called for a protest against the peaceful transfer of power.)
  
  
   
• It had only been a couple of months since Trump had told the Proud Boys in a national debate to "Stand back and stand by." Now they were coming. 
  
  
  
• New poll released yesterday which I believe. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The New York Times focused this morning on a different part of the same poll.  The headline is technically true, but admittedly the actual polling numbers gives you a different feel. Then again, Trump's stronghold on the Republican Party is finally beginning to show signs of slipping away. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• How Hershel Walker is a Senate Republican nominee is one of life's great mysteries. Video.
  
  
  
• The Alpine, Texas police department tried to get cute on Facebook. The comments didn't find it that funny.  
  
  
  
• If you are interested in school politics, this might interest you out of Wichita Falls.  The WFISD superintendent announced his resignation earlier this year "after controversy and protests arose about his plan to make cuts to staffing to fill an estimated $8 million to $9 million hole in the 2022-2023 budget."  It looks like he over-projected enrollment which is a big no-no and which caused a financial crisis. 
• However, the guy was able to find a job at Victoria ISD right away and started it on July 5th. 
• But get this: He just told the Victoria school board that "Based on the overwhelming negative and defamatory social media unrest, however false that it maybe, I feel that it is in the best interest of the VISD that I resign my position effective July 11, 2022." The social media "unrest" doesn't appear to be related to any personal scandal but just Victoria folks finding out about the budget problems while he was at Wichita Falls. 
• By having his Wichita Falls resignation take effect on June 30th, he was able to collect "$112,440 in bonuses and other payments" and "did not have to repay the WFISD money for tuition and fees from his pursuit of a doctorate degree at the University of North Texas."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Real estate headlines in Dallas Morning News today. The cooling off continues.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• That escaped mental patient from the Wichita Falls hospital was captured in Austin on Sunday. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Hot weather is often a topic. That's from the front page of the Star-Telegram on July 10, 2012.

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• Speaking of:
• ERCOT wants you to conserve electricity during the hottest part of today:
  
  
  
  
• That announcement from ERCOT came right about the same time last night as parts of Houston started getting hit with electricity outages. 
  
  
  
• Somehow Wise County is out of the warning area for today, but there's no way you will feel any difference. Waco and College Station both hit 109 yesterday. And those southwest of us are really getting scorched today.
  
  
  
• DFW Airport has had 8 consecutive days of 100 or higher, and 17 total days at that level. In case you were wondering what the records look like:
  
  
  
• A lady gets stopped in the HOV lane in Plano and decides that she should fight the ticket using the argument that she should be considered to have "two people" in the car since she is pregnant. There are some weird things about all of this: (1) The story went nationwide overnight despite only appearing in David Lieber's pretty boring "Watchdog" column about it in the Dallas Morning News. (2) In interviews, she completely dodges Roe v. Wade questions and won't even state a position despite the Dobbs angle being the only reason the story is going national. (3) She sure is willing to pose for pictures for everyone. So what exactly is her angle?
  
  
  

  

  Posing for WFAA

  
  

  

  Interview with CNN on Sunday

  
  
• Elon Musk, as I told you he would do from the start, has backed out of this $44 billion Twitter deal. 
• He just posted this. This will not end well for him, and the child is not smart enough to realize it. 
  
  
  
• He has a major problem. Some people think he can just pay a $1 billion "penalty" and walk away. That's not true. There is a $1 billion penalty clause in the contract, but that only comes into play if Twitter allows him to use it. More importantly, the contract requires specific performance and gives venue to the Delaware Chancery Court which enforces that remedy all the time. And Twitter isn't playing around . . . 
  
  
  
• Fox News says an AR-15 wasn't the cause of the Highland Park Massacre, this was: 
  
  
  
• The police are definitely not being defunded in Fort Worth. 
  
  
  
• It's flat out weird that a small group of right-wing, part-time Texas lawmakers have decided to proactively play cops, judge, jury, and executioner. I mean really weird. (And one of them tried to be D.A. in Tarrant County.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump was in Alaska this weekend. 
• Good lord.
  
  
  
• Guess who was there?
  
  
  
• This gal was a mess. Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I doubt if you paid attention to 15 people being gunned down in a tavern in Johannesburg yesterday.  But that comes on the heels of another incident (below) in South Africa -- which probably should catch a few more headlines than it is  -- and where the motive is also unknown. Something's going on down there.
  
  
  
• Here's the Wikipedia entry for the Luby's Massacre for those who have forgotten . . .

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

The judge actually got suspended for the remainder of his elected term over this. Story about it here. Video (turn the volume down a bit) is here.

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• Gun violence is almost non-existent in Japan. But not today.  
  
  
  
• Here's a video of the shooting from some distance. Those two blasts sounded like they were from a shotgun.
  
  
  
• But it turned out to be a homemade hand cannon. 
  
  
  
• Photos of the immediate apprehension of the guy:
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Well, they finally disclosed it. 
  
  
  
• New job numbers released moments ago.  So is a recession not coming? 
  
  
  
• Alabama's George Wallace was a moderate until he figured out that being a Klansman in Alabama was the way to become really popular with the masses.  Greg Abbott has found his playbook.  (But note that in this new "policy", Abbott uses to words "to the border" and not "across the border.")
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Texas Democratic reply pulled no punches.
  
  
  
• This is surprising. "The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.30% in the week ending July 7, down from 5.70% the week before."
  
  
  
• No one has ever experienced buyer's remorse more than this nutcase. 
  
  
  
• This Twitter thread of multiple future headlines has a disturbing feel of accuracy to it.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• That makes two of us. 
  
  
  
• Misery is criminally under-rated. As is Honeymoon in Vegas.
  
  
  
• Just as soon not be. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years and 3 days.
• Messenger: Above the Fold