5.26.2025

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




Ten years ago, there was crazy flooding all over the state which gave rise to some crazy images. This one, of I-45 in Houston, was taken by former Wise County resident Cody Duty who worked for the the Houston Chronicle at the time. The paper used it on its front page, but for some reason cropped out the skyscrapers in the background which really gave it its punch. 

  • One more flashback: The flooding referenced above included the middle-of-the-night flood along the Blanco River in Wimberly, Texas which killed 12 people who were all in one home. The river suddenly went from 5' to 41'. The story was the feature of a great Texas Monthly article.



  • He or she hit a kayaker.


  • This story made a lot of headlines over the weekend, but it almost seems that every one of them has a slightly different fact pattern. Story.




  • The Texas House, by a vote of 82-46, gave their final approval to the silly Ten Commandments bill -- on a Sunday.

  • Trump gave the commencement address at West Point in a MAGA hat, talked crazy, and then left without shaking the graduates hands like every other recent president has done.  Video


    • The New York Times needs to stop sane-washing him. 

    • Trump's former (and very bad) personal lawyer, and now the acting U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba, showed up for some reason. 

  • It is barely is blip on the radar when Trump does a flip flop on tariffs. He had one last night after a single phone call. The 50% threat last a two whole days. 
  • The final approval by the legislature to the complete THC/Hemp ban passed last night. Now the only thing to stop it is a governor's veto. I doubt that will happen. But, the again, even Fox News doesn't like the ban:

  • This guy has been on the lam for three full weeks now. 

  • Tim O'Hare, the Tarrant County judge, is trying to gerrymander the four district commissioners court with new boundary lines for one purpose: Limit the minorities on the court to one commissioner.  The Texas GOP weighed in over the weekend calling the redistricting necessary to "safeguard our values" which is code for "Make our commissioners court as white as possible. "

  • I never really follow the Van Cliburn competition in Fort Worth, but one of the final 18 contestants sat down on stage to compete on Saturday, stared at his hands, and then walked off. 

  • Russia continued to bomb Ukraine over the weekend hitting 30 cities and villages.  It was just four weeks ago that Trump tweeted, "Vladimir, STOP!”


    • Trump responsed on the tarmac late yesterday.  Maybe he'll write Putin a strongly worded letter. 

    • Oh, he got worse last night. 

  • Let's check in on Israel who we dare not criticize. 

  • Legal nerdy stuff. There's a condescending end to this opinion. 

  • More legal nerdy stuff: Gov. Abbott has already vetoed a bill that would make it a crime to be on public property within 250 feet of a school. (Text of version that was sent to Governor. Text of the original bill.)  Here's his explanation as to why he killed it -- as if he needed to explain it.
  • Early this morning, Trump posted a "Happy Memorial Day" message which then went into a deranged rant. 
  • THWMISB™

at 8:30 AM

5.23.2025

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




After one of the wettest Mays ever, Lake Bridgeport went from a shocking 23 feet low to full in just a matter of days. And it continued to rise past 836 feet, the conservation level, by week's end.

  • Kudos on the Wise County Messenger for calling out Rep. Andy Hopper in an opinion piece this week for ineptly handling the only piece of legislation that directly impacted Wise County - the creation of a Wise County water district.

  • The leader of the "small government" Republican Party continues to lose his mind. Now Trump wants to put "tariffs" on a single private American company.  From this morning:  


  • That's 27% of the private university's student body. And this is 100% authoritarian crap. 

  • This is weird. And scary. A guy shows up for immigration court in court in Dallas for possible deportation. (You know, trying to follow the law.)  Once there, the United States dismisses its case in open court, and then judge kicks him out of the public courtroom into the waiting arms of ICE agents who disappear with him.


    • And that exact same thing appears to have happened all across the country yesterday. Thread of related stories here. 
      Those aren't immigrants. Those are the ICE agents.

    • Edit at Friday at 10:30:  Ten people were rounded up by ICE in the same way this morning in Dallas per a Dallas Morning News reporter. (Photos.)
  • Follow-up to Trump's ambush of the the president of South Africa with claims of "genocide." Facts don't matter. Truth doesn't matter. Character doesn't matter.


  • Trump held a private dinner last night at his nearby golf course for the top 220 purchasers of his "$TRUMP coin.'  Corruption in plain site.


  • He's not leaving.
     

  • Look at all the stories above this bullet point. This is authoritarianism.  It's happening right before our eyes. It's over. 
  • Did Jared take this picture?

  • The sometimes topless District Attorney in West Texas sure has some hot opinions.  (She also dismissed a weed/THC case yesterday and publicized it.)

  • Lauren Whitener Clock: 5 years and 325 days.

at 8:30 AM

5.22.2025

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




As the dust cleared on the Waco Twin Peaks Biker Shoot Out, news that they were holding all of those guys at a $1 million bond each was my first clue that the Waco justice system had no idea what it was doing. 

  • The House budget vote was taken around 6:00 a.m. this morning, and it passed 215-214. What Trump wants, Trump gets. Side note: Remember that a Democratic House member died yesterday?



  • In Texas, the House voted late last night to ban any amount of THC, 86-53.  The current law allows THC with a concentration of less than 3% and Delta-8.  Wise County Rep. Andy Hopper voted for the ban. 

  • Horrible news last night out of D.C.

     

    • Video of shooter immediately afterwards.  There's no question his motive is what has happened in Gaza. 

  • The South African president was ambushed in the Oval Office and shown a video depicting "mass graves" while Trump denounced the "genocide of white farmers" in South Africa -- neither of which exists. 


  • We live in a time where we don't know if a foreign leader is joking or feels comfortable bribing the President of the United States in broad daylight. Video.

  • Speaking of. 


  • It's a new day.  By the way, the five year anniversary of the death of George Floyd is Sunday.


  • No more transcripts on the White House web site. 

  • Why is Bill Clinton catching strays for this?


  • The Business Second™. "On Wednesday, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said the company was paying $6.5 billion to buy IO, a one-year-old start-up created by Jony Ive, a former top Apple executive who designed the iPhone." The plan is to create "AI devices" which haven't been conceptualized yet, but which will go far beyond a cell phone. It's like the opening scene of a Black Mirror episode.


  • That looks like a hard 65.


  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM
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