Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Rick Perry left the governor's mansion, and the oil field was about to go bust. 

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• There was a really, really bad wreck on 920 near Bridgeport yesterday morning.  The Messenger has a photo but it might be behind a paywall. We don't know any names yet of the two people seriously injured.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The West Texas Oilmen, who are always buying the legislature so they can ram through school vouchers, were unable to get their boy elected as House Speaker  yesterday.
  
  
  
• Some ultra MAGA folks, including a group from Wise County, were "protesting" after the vote outside of the capitol.  Video
  
  
  
• Ted Nugent really packed them in with a free concert nearby yesterday morning in Austin.
  
  
  
  
  
• Welcome to the Oligarchy.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The Pete Hegseth confirmation hearing yesterday for Secretary of Defense turned out to be all for show. He'll be confirmed. But it was a bit uncomfortable for him to be asked about all his infidelity with his third wife looking on from behind him. 

  

  Standard answer from, of all things, a Fox News host.

  
  

  

  That probably guarantees confirmation

  
  
• Wise County's representative Ronny Jackson is excited about Hegesth burning the Defense Department down. He literally said that:
  
  
  
• This is pretty wild. A UTA professor and a lawyer from Temple were detained and/or arrested outside of the Commissioner's Court in Tarrant County yesterday. Videos.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Seems bad out of Houston.
  
   
  
  
  
• Very legal nerdy stuff. There were lots of headlines yesterday that said "Special Counsel Report Say Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case."  That's not true. The report said "the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."  That's not saying a jury would have convicted him. It's saying that if a jury convicted him then there was some evidence on each and every element of the charge that would survive an insufficiency argument on appeal. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Eight Texas inmates and two corrections officers were killed in a prison bus/train crash.

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• Hearings begin today. I bet he's confirmed. I bet all of Trump's picks will be confirmed.
  

  
  
  
• This official interactive map of the damage to the homes in California by the wildfires is amazing. It allows you to zoom in and click on a photo of the damage to every single house.
  
  
  
• The Texas legislature begins its session today. Yesterday we had yet more proof we are overtaxed in Texas and that schools are intentionally being strangled by the legislature.  Translated: There are billions in taxpayer dollars just sitting around. 
  
  
  
• Another close call over an airport.  I've been warning everyone. 
  
  
  
• Walmart has tweaked its logo for the first time in almost 20 years.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Confusing Fox News graphic.
  
  
  
• Carrie Underwood has gone MAGA.
  
  
  
• Special Counsel Jack Smith's 174 page report concerning January 6th and the tampering with the electoral college was released at midnight. And no one will read it. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Gift link.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It would be a disaster. And I hope it happens for the entertainment.
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
• Re: the California fires. If you had an insured home survive which is now in a neighborhood burned to the ground, I'm not sure you wouldn't have been better off having it burn, too. It may be 20 years -- if ever -- before the neighborhood is "normal" again. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Ten years ago Ohio State, with Zeke Elliott, won the National Championship at Jerry World. 

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• Snow totals as it's now all gone (pretty much):
  
  
  
• Things aren't going well if you are taking I-35E in Denton right now. 
  
  
  
• California fire news and notes: 
• The death toll is now up to 24.
  
  
  
• The amount of misinformation on social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, tells you just how doomed we are. It's just shocking. People are so gullible.
   
  
  
  
• And I'm not even talking about dumb stuff like below. By the way, she had dinner with Trump last night.

• There are many expensive homes which were burned burned to the ground, but this one might have been the most expensive one. (YouTube video tour of the "before,") It is owned by "Luminar Technologies boss Austin Russell, 29."

• Flashback from 2015

• There's zero chance of getting away with this. And the story doesn't say as to why he chose the people he did, but I assume there was some connection. 

• A lady in Fort Worth allowed a neighbor to park his RV in here driveway, but it didn't go well Friday afternoon. 

• That looks like some painful scrapes

• Trump was sentenced remotely on Friday to time-served, but he really didn't make that big of a deal of it. 

• Our snow storm moved into the South and covered the great pyramid of Memphis -- which is actually a Bass Pro Shop.

• Southlake PD is always doing bits on social media, but its pretty bold to poke fun of names of a typical Southlake kid.
  
  
  
• Remember the federal judge who ordered to disagreeable lawyers to go to lunch together? Well, it happened: 

• The only thing that comes to mind of a similar lightning-bolt-moment type loss for Texas is when OU's Roy Williams caused the game winning interception in the Cotton Bowl in 2001. Friday night "scoop and score" was just as shocking although it unfolded over a few more seconds and with more ultimate consequences.

• It's quite the choice to move the Rams/Vikings game because of the wildfires to State Farm Stadium in Phoenix. If you hadn't heard, on "March 20, 2024, State Farm announced it wouldn’t renew 30,000 homeowners’ insurance policies in California, including more than 1,000 policies in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades area."