Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

I still think about it. It's available online for free.

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• The tiny Texas town of Matador (pop. 571) was leveled last night.  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Texas AG Ken Paxton's impeachment trial will begin on September 5th based upon the rules that were adopted late last night in the Texas Senate by a vote of 25-3 (with 3 not voting).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Here's an interesting part: Those rules will prevent Sen. Angela Paxton from voting. However, her physical appearance at the trial will be counted towards the total number of Senators "present" in calculating on whether there are the 2/3rds of votes in favor of impeachment. I'm bad at math, but that has the net effect of allowing her to functionally be a no vote even without formally voting, right? 
  
  
   
• But she got to vote on whether she won't be allowed to vote. Guess how she voted:  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• As of right now, the missing Titanic exploring sub should have run out of oxygen -- at 6:08 a.m. CST.  It probably ran out way before that. 
• Fox and Friends somehow knows what depth the sub, however.   
  
  
  
• Side note: I'm beginning to think that a 1/3 of the population is as dumb as a box of rocks and look for a conspiracy theory under every one of those rocks. 
  
  
  
• A good lick against the Insurrectionists but, if it could legally be done, I'd have drug him back into the courtroom and doubled the sentence after he spouted off. 
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• It finally happened:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• One thing I noticed about the Alito scandal is that he and the guy on the left go fishing in button-up dress shirts. 
  
  
  
• Idiocracy:
• In the octagon, ring #1:
  
  
  
• In ring #2: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff which involves math: The EPA in a lawsuit in the Fifth Circuit made a request to increase the word limit of its brief to 50,000 words. (Sheesh.) But check their math:
• The Motion:
  
  
  
• And the funny thing is that the court granted it without comment.
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

And that was 10 years ago. No wonder he hasn't retired. 

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• In the most recent murder in Wise County, WFAA and the Dallas Morning News report today that the alleged killer did not confess after all.  The word "admitted" was used in the WCSO press release, but it only said he admitted to the bodies being in the garage. 
  
  
  
• Excerpt from WFAA story:
  
  
  
• I went back and looked, and the defendant's claim that they boy did the killings was actually buried in the original story in the Messenger seven days ago.  
• From Stephen F. Austin University: The only thing better than this headline about an assistant bowling coach are the coach's quotes in the story defending himself. 
  
  
  

  

  The quotes are in the link.

  
  
• ProPublica does it again this morning. This time they have a story of Justice Samuel Alito being flown on a private jet to an Alaskan resort by a billionaire hedge fund manager who later had cases before the court. 
  
  
  
• Alito's defense, in an op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal, was that the seat of the private jet would have been empty otherwise -- at least as far as he knew. Sheesh. 
  
  
  
• Our long national nightmare is over.  The irony of the MAGA boys supporting the prosecution is that he's pleading guilty to two things they don't want to see criminalized: Cheating on your taxes and lying on a form when you buy a gun. They don't think there should be an IRS or gun forms. 
  
  
  
• Maybe I'm just getting old, but this heat wave feels worse than normal. Side note: And if the cost of lawn care or construction is getting high, it should. Those guys deserve to be paid for working in this mess. 
  
  
  
• If the corridor between Fort Worth and Alliance Airport (and eventually onwards to Denton) wasn't already booming enough, it's about to get bigger.  A 6.7 mile tollway express opened this morning between the 287/I-35 exchange and Alliance. 
  
  
  
• Gold from a Texas caller on CSPAN. Video.
  
  
  
• Ranger fans are bent out of shape about a replay reversal of a call made at home plate that decided the game last night. Here's the video. 
  
  
  
• I just checked -- the submarine has still not been found. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Yep, there were Ken-styled Aggie yell-leaders released in 2013.

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• We've got a missing submarine which took a voyage to the Titanic with five people on board. Contact was lost with it after almost two hours into the journey and at that time they had 96 hours of oxygen. Sorry, this will not end well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• And you will believe it won't end well if you watch this very brief clip from CBS Sunday Morning with reporter David Pogue which featured the sub a couple of years ago. I couldn't believe how wheels off that operation is. This will stick with you. 
  
  
  
• One person on board is billionaire "British aviation tycoon Hamish Harding." The submarine trip costs $250,000 by the way. 
  
  
  
• Trump gave the most wheels off interview of his life to Fox News' Brett Baier. Quick hits: (1)  The network no longer provides him a love-fest when he shows up.  (2) He's making so many admissions about the document case that I'm beginning to believe he's going to prison.  (3) And this question about "hiring the best people" might have been the greatest question of all time.  Video
  
  
  
• Breaking: Trump just got a preliminary trial date in Miami.
  
  
  
• Well, kind of. It was a sub-courthouse in Kemp which housed a Justice of the Peace. No "major" damage, either. 
  
  
  
• Paxton impeachment update: 
• Grifters gonna grift.
  
  
  
• His wife announced she won't recuse herself from the Texas Senate vote on her husband's guilt or innocence. She has a community property interest in the salary which depends on the vote.  The corruption in these people is deep.
  
  
   
• This morning, the Texas Tribune ranked all 150 House members of the Texas legislature from far right to far left. 
  
• Sen. John Cornyn showed up very briefly yesterday to walk with Opal Lee in a Juneteenth celebration. The ultra-MAGA extremists will not be pleased with that. And was that umbrella for him or her? 
  
• But he's doing more that Mississippi state government. 
  
  
  
• I don't know who she is, but she definitely got plunked by that phone. Video.
  
• It's bizarre to look at the National League pitching leaders and see the name of a guy who graduated from Decatur just a few short years ago. 
  
• Never heard of Gustavo Garcia. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

I didn't watch The Sopranos until a couple of years ago. It lived up to the hype.

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• THWMISB™.
• That's all I know about this from last night. 
  
  
  
• Abbott went nuts this weekend with his veto stamp. This is really, really strange.  Here's the list. He even vetoed part of the budget last night.  
  
  
  
• I don't mind politicians going to weather damaged areas for a photo op. Heck, it's kind of expected and required. But don't put on gloves and act like you are working when you aren't.  Ted Cruz played pretend this weekend in Perryton:
  
  
  
• What a mess. The truck was stolen and driven by a kid who just turned 17. His passenger, who died, was a 15 year old girl.
  
  
  
• Flashback. More proof that Pete Delkus is all about the hype. This was his 10 day forecast from a week ago. He missed the 100+ predictions for the last four days. And although it will be hot and miserable today, it's not going to be 102.   
  
  
  
• Highland Park ISD superintendent perk. Click to enlarge (as always)
  
  
  
• That didn't work out. Here's an appellate opinion out of Fort Worth in the case if you want to take a deep dive into it.
  
  
  
• From the campaign trail. (This was actually in early June in Iowa.) I don't think I posted it.  
  
  
  
• This might indeed be the worst home run TV call of all time. And it was on ESPN. It was the first game of the college world series on Friday, and TCU was ahead by two in the top of the ninth and pitching. The ORU batter pulled off a shocking three run homer. The announcer first calls it a "walk off home run!" -- which is impossible at the top of an inning -- and then he gets further confused and says it is TCU who has won it:  "Oral Roberts wins it and rallies  . . . TCU I should say . . . in a walk off." What a train wreck.  Video.
  
  
  
  
  
• Random college football recruiting news that made me cock an eyebrow.
  
  
  
• Uh . . . 
  
  
  
• A very, very random Twitter post and replies that I stumbled across which I shouldn't have read right before bedtime. 
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy observations: 
• I know nothing about Texas civil law, but the Texas Supreme Court on Friday may have begun to curtail the right to recover large damages for past and future mental anguish and loss of companionship (summary here) because the Plaintiff's lawyer argument:
  

  

  
  
• The U.S. Supreme Court did not have a Fourth Amendment case on the docket in 2021 and 2022. Thus far, they have not agreed to hear one for the 2023 fall term.