Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Four were killed and 16 injured in Midland when a train struck a parade float carrying 12 veterans and their spouses.  After its investigation, the NHTSB created an animation of the reconstruction of the accident which is on YouTube.

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• An earthquake hit West Texas yesterday at 3:30 p.m.  The boys on my afternoon radio station in downtown Dallas swore they all felt it, and that it lasted for almost 20 seconds.
  
  
  
• It turned out to be a false alarm, but a potential active shooter caused quite the commotion in Fort Worth yesterday.
  
  
  
• This is what started it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The view from someone inside the building during the confusion. 
  
  
  
• Until yesterday, most people probably didn't realize the Collin County DA had been sued for sexual harassment. He needs a PR guy. 
  
  
  
• Same sex marriage will be federally protected by statute before the end of the year.
  
  
  
• Neither of the Texas senators stepped up.
  
  
  
• The action was taken because of Justice Thomas concurrence in Dobbs where he threatened to come after other constitutional protections next.  
  
  
  
• Current abortion ban states after the last election. It's kind of hard to keep up with. 
  
  
  
• Fun race in Pilot Point. If I understand it, there will now be a required "run-off" even though there were only two candidates to begin with. In the (unlikely) event they are tied again after the second vote, they will "draw lots" to decide the race.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Whenever you support the "government should be run as a business" mantra, you get a government with "profits" of $27 billion.   Most reasonable people would call that being unnecessarily overtaxed by $27 billion. 
  
  
  
  
• I think Fox News might really be done with Trump.
  
  
  
• I can't believe this is possible. (The Supreme Court refused to hear a different "judicial override" death penalty case out of Alabama in 2020.)
  
  
  
• (1) How is this possible when you have a budget of $742.3 billion?  (2) That Lockheed-Martin project is a boondoggle so far, anyway. 
  
  
  
• And another.
  
  
  
• The Cleveland Browns at Buffalo at noon on Sunday has quite the potential. 
  
  
  
• Former Governor Rick Perry has been hired to help in the legalization of mobile sports betting in Texas. 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

There were few details given other than he was found with his family. But little did we know then that a few years later that player would make the news for a ghastly crime against a jogger near White Rock Lake. 

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• For a second there yesterday, we thought the Russians had bombed Poland. It turned out to be a Ukrainian defense missile that went off course. It hit a farm and killed two. 
  
  
  
• Combine the missile strike with people up in arms for not being able to buy Taylor Swift tickets through Ticketmaster online because of servers crashing, and you got this:
  
• A man climbed on top of a tractor-trailer in Houston and danced as it went down a freeway. It did not end well. 
  
  
  
• Elon sent an email last night. (Actual text here.) 
  
  
  
• Trump's presidential announcement last night -- which seemed strangely "low energy" -- was met with brutal honesty by the "lame stream media." 
• Washington Post and the New York Times
  

  

  
  

  
  
• NBC News
  
  
  
• National Public Radio
  
  
  
• But the conservative New York Post was downright brutal:
  

  

  
  
  
  
• My hot expert political thoughts on Trump:
• He can't win the presidency. He is, and has been, the most hated man in America. People didn't turn out to vote for Biden -- they turned out because they will crawl across broken glass to vote against Trump. And in light of January 6th, that number next time will be even larger and have even more passion. It would be like the Democrats running Hillary. 
• But can he win the Republican nomination? The numbers work better for him there. That's assuming he fields a multitude of opponents. There are at least half of all Republicans who are his disciples and who will follow him to the end of the Earth (or the nation). And even if that number is a third, that's enough to win almost every state in the primaries when you start divvying up the votes.  
• I don't know if he wins if it was only a DeSantis vs. Trump in the primaries, but I don't see just DeSantis being the only one to challenge him. That would take a concerted effort of all non-Trump Republicans to rally around DeSantis, and that's just not going to happen. 
• And Trump holds the ultimate Trump card and nuclear option: If he ends up losing a couple of primaries, he could threaten to run as his own third party.  And he's nutty enough to do it and the establishment Republicans know it.  If he actually did that, the Republican Party is literally destroyed in the next election.  In that regard, he holds them hostage. 
• What a mess for the GOP. 
• All that being said, I know better than to underestimate that guy. 
• DeSantis fired back at Trump yesterday.  But he had quite a bit of shake-voice when he did it. I hear others says that he does not have the personality to deal with Trump one on one. 
  
  
  
• Attorney news from up north a bit.
  
  
  
• A Georgia judge yesterday ruled that the state's abortion law was unconstitutional because it was passed when Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land. If it was unconstitutional when passed, he wrote, it is forever void and Dobbs could not revive it.  I honestly have never thought about that, and have no idea if that's right. 
  
  
  
• But what a footnote.
  
  
  
• It keeps getting worse. 
  
  
  
• Speaking of Republican problems, Marge thought it was a good idea to go on Infowars with Alex Jones yesterday before going to vote for Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker. 
  
  
  
• The Republicans might end up with only 220 seats. With 218 needed as a majority, small coalitions can be a voting block. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and our own Ronny Jackson could be a crazy theoretical threesome.
  
  
  
• In light of the shooting, UVA has cancelled Saturday's football game against No. 23 Coastal Carolina. 
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

He's been at it a long time now.

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• The biggest election denier since Trump was officially beaten last night in Arizona.
  
  
  
• She is taking the loss with all the class you would expect. And she certainly set herself up with this remark.
  
  
  
• Liz Chaney reminded Lake of something last night. Actual link here. 
  
  
  
• Flashback: She thought posing for this pic in anticipation of Trump's arrival would help her. 
  
  
  
• Republican good news: They are now just one short of reaching the 218 majority in the House. That probably comes today. 
• The Rhome mayor was sued because of a Facebook post. The case has now been settled by a mediation agreement where she will remove the post and then post a new apology. 
  
  
  
• Police chase deaths in the last 24 hours: A Grand Prairie officer was killed last night, and two people in a fleeing vehicle were killed yesterday afternoon. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Keller ISD went woke last night. Gotta protect the kids from all that gayness out there. 
  
  
   
  
  
  
• A huge and moving silent turnout at the University of Virginia last night in honor of three football players shot dead. 
  
  
  
• The number of ransomware attacks made on government entities (and payments to be free from them)  would stun us. We just never learn about it because it is something they don't want to publicize. It's happened here in Wise County more than a couple of times. 
  
  
  
• That's a long and questionable way to get to "What are alligators?"
  
  
  
• Trump will make his big announcement tonight. In the end, there's a chance that Lindsey Graham will turn out to have been right all along. The Republican primaries will be the wildest thing we've ever seen.  
  
  
  
• Herschel Walker made another nonsensical comment yesterday and it even sounds nuttier than it reads. How is he in a run-off? 
  
  
  
• The world's population counter just zoomed past a milestone this morning.
  
  
  
• Victor Kiriakis (actually John Aniston - and Jennifer Aniston's dad) has died. I remember him on Days Of Our Lives back when I was in high school.  Now I'm wondering how Bo and Hope are doing. 
  
  
  
• I said yesterday that 300 to 500 bills would be pre-filed in the Texas legislature before Thanksgiving. I got that number from TDCAA -- the official prosecutor's site.  The number of bills filed after just one day turned out to be 849 based upon numbers from the House and Senate.  A whole lot of damage is going to be done.