Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The Wise County "missing dogs" story (that I thought just had a two day news cycle) morphed into a story of all the dogs missing from Decatur, and it ended up on "Inside Edition." 

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• A judge who got Paxton'd in the Republican primary has been appointed to preside over Wise County's most sensational murder case. 
  
  
  
• He's crazy. He's shockingly crazy.    
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• 1.8 million Palestinians would be without a home, and U.S. troops could be used for the occupation and "rebuild." Do we still have a Congress?  

  

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• This is MAGA. Trump said he wanted to turn Gaza in the "Riviera of the Middle East."
  
  
  
• Look, a Gaza takeover will never happen.  There would be a bomb go off every day at every hotel -- assuming every worker wasn't murder or kidnapped during the years of construction. Even the mere suggestion last night of a Gaza takeover by Trump will probably get Americans killed right now. 
• Didn't expect to see the play-by-play man of the Dallas Cowboys, who happens to be Jewish, enter the fray. 
  
  
  
• "Some people are saying" that the Gaza announcement is nothing more than a Trump distraction trick. They might be right. While you weren't looking yesterday, Trump was moving without guardrails at blinding speed:  
• 1. The most dangerous appointee, a Trump yes-woman who is an election denier, is now at the head of the Justice Department after the Republican senate rubber-stamped the nomination. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2 "The Central Intelligence Agency, in what officials reportedly claimed was an effort to bring the agency in line with Trump’s agenda, offered buyouts to its entire staff on Tuesday." Did Putin order this? 
  
  
  
• 3. The largest humanitarian aid organization in the world is no more.  
  
  
  
• 4. Two of the craziest appointees were voted out of committee yesterday and are on their way to confirmation. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 5. Just like he said he would. 
  
  
  
• Closer to home, Northwest ISD will cut 101 teaching positions. And the legislature is about to gut schools even further with school vouchers.  
  
  
  
  
• This is a follow-up from yesterday.  The defendant testified on his own behalf, the defense lawyers were court appointed, the jury deliberated for only three hours, and the jury also rejected the lesser included offenses of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
  
  
  
• An arrest has been made in the road rage shooting on 820 in Fort Worth last week during rush hour: Koby Burkhart, 22
  
  
  
• In Maine, a 29 year old guy became the subject of a domestic violence call and decided to get into a shootout with police. He lost. The video he posted right before his death is as nutty as he is/was. His Twitter account is also a wild ride.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Eleven dead in a mass shooting in Sweden.
  
  
  
• Man, keeping up with all this is exhausting. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

The funeral for Pepper the police dog.

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• I think Fox 4 jumped the gun on this one yesterday.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• They then deleted the story.
  
  
  
• I noticed a not guilty verdict out of Tarrant County in a murder case yesterday 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In the heart of winter: 
  
  
  
• As I predicted, Trump backed down on the tariffs by claiming victory although nothing changed.  He announced that Mexico will send 10,000 troops to the border and that Canada will spend $1.3 billion on border security. BUT . . . 
• For Mexico, 10,000 troops from Mexico is not new.
  
  
  
• For Canada, the $1.3 billion "boost" they agreed to was announced in December. 
  
  
  
• We are watching a propaganda machine that would make Joseph Goebbels blush. 
• Speaking of, Trump's lie of $50 million in "condoms to Gaza" just fantastically increased to a $100 million lie yesterday. Video.
  
  
  
• ♪"That's me in the corner"♪ - Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch in the Oval Office yesterday.
  
  
  
• So Wired magazine identifies by name the inexperienced, young people working for unelected Elon Musk who now have access to all of our personal data on the Treasury Department databases, Musk gets mad, and then the new U.S. Attorney for D.C. immediately threatens to prosecute anyone who "impacts the work" of DOGE.  (Democracy dies slowly, then quickly.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• New State Department appointment. They aren't even hiding it any longer 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The appointee certainly doesn't hide it. 
  
  
  
• With it being Super Bowl week in New Orleans, I was curious what the atmosphere on Bourbon Street would be.  The main entrance off Canal Street has a makeshift memorial.
  
  
  
• Wichita Falls criminal justice news.  Based upon the picture, even the DA likes getting into photos of seized drugs. 
  
  
  
  
• Tom Selleck can almost convince me to do a reverse mortgage, and I don't need, and certainly don't trust, reverse mortgages. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Our County Judge had been in office for only a month and

was already making baller moves. 

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• I'm so used to seeing fake stories online that my brain initially doubted even this headline from the Dallas Morning News yesterday --  which was actually the first thing I looked at after I got up. (Kudos to them for having late breaking news in the Sunday morning edition.)
  
  
  
  
• The Villains: Billionaire owner Miriam Adelson and general manager Nico Harrison
  
  
  
• Mavs fans treat the trade as if Luka had died at a makeshift memorial outside the AAC.



• In one of the goofiest moves yet, Trump imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. I'm not convinced the tariff threat isn't just a bluff. That he calls it off and then announces a victory despite nothing about the status quo changing at all.

• The Wall Street Journal didn't mince words. 

• And then Trump went back to his weird rant about making Canada the 51st state. Are we going to invade them like Austria?
  
  
  
  
• After pardoning the criminals, Trump now fires their prosecutors and the police who investigated them.   We are watching a fascist revolution in real time.

• Speaking of, eliminating the media, and replacing them with his Pravda-like mouthpieces, is another sign of fascism. Three major examples from the weekend:

Kicked out of the Pentagon

Musk's X is the official communication channel

Trump sues 60 Minutes and now his FCC
goes after them.

• Did someone elect this oligarch to anything? 
• He now has access to everything and control of the government's financial infrastructure.
  
  
  
  
• And he's shutting down entities authorized by Congress. This one is the world's largest distributor of food assistance.
  
  
  
• And is just a strange guy.
  
  
  
  
• The guy is literally in a wheelchair.  And, yes, physical disability is included in DEI.

• A Learjet crashed into the heart of Philadelphia on Friday night, and it came down like a rocket. Six onboard were killed and one on the ground.  Video 1. Video 2.

Someone's dashcam caught it.

It left an eight foot crater.

• Watch debris from the crash fly into a restaurant and strike the guy circle in blue in the head. Video. 
  
  
  
• Politician cosplay:
• The new secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, is really leaning into her gig.
  

  

  
  
  
  
• State rep. Jeff Leach (middle) at the Fort Worth Stock Show playing cowboy as well. 
  
  
  
  
• Kanye West's girlfriend showed up naked to the Grammy's last night. Video. (Insert appropriate warnings here.)