2.22.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


I remember this like it was yesterday. And I can't begin to tell you just how adorable. cute, 
and loud she was.

  • Brookshires in Bridgeport looked like the Apocalypse had hit. And this photo was from yesterday (and the meat and dairy sections were equally as empty):

  • Ted Cruz continued his Damage Control Tour this weekend by putting pictures like this on his own Twitter feed. That's not gonna help him. 

  • AOC showed up and managed to raise $5 million for Texas since Thursday.


  • I'm uncomfortable with protestors showing up at Cruz's house, but can't help but appreciate the humor of someone hiring a mariachi band to play. 

  • President Biden declared a "Major Disaster Declaration" for 77 counties in Texas. Wise County made the list. Jack County did not.

  • Hey, this is unrelated, but were those wind turbines in Jack County turning last week? Someone email me with the answer.
  • I'm sure you've seen the  Boeing 777 engine on fire as it left Denver. 



  • Stuff I learned about pipe repair. This coupling by Sharkbite easily does the trick and amazingly does not require glue, cement, or welding. The thing only costs $7.50 and is removable if you screw something up. With a two inch gap removed, it slides over both ends of two stationary pipes.


  • It looks like Trump's first personal appearance since going into seclusion at Mar A Lago will be speaking a CPAC. Mike Pence has declined.

  • 60 Minutes has a segment on QAnon last night which is worth your while.

  • Dominion has officially sued My Pillow and Mike Lindell this morning. The 115 page lawsuit is here. (The amount of time and effort expended on preparing the Petition, which has 246 footnotes, is mind-blowing.)

  • An OU wide receiver got in a fight in restroom bar and almost lost an eye. It was all caught on video (complete with the over-cussing, annoying narrator.)

  • My favorite actor might be Ben Foster. I first noticed him in Alpha Dog (love that movie) and thought he was great in Hell or High Water (one of my all time favorite flicks).   I watched two of his most recent films over the Icemageddon where he's great but the films are mediocre: Leave No Trace and Galveston.  (He actually had a pretty big roll in Six Feet Under, but I hardly remember him in it.)

  • Any Texas court which has any proceeding by Zoom must simultaneously make the broadcast live on Youtube. A list of any court which is "live" at any particular time should be at the top of the page here. 
  • The Ticket has spent a bunch of time promoting "digital sports cards" and NBA Top Shot, and I think it is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Here's an example: Host Jake Kemp paid money (probably around $20)  to "own" this video of Gordon Hayward jump shot. His video card is numbered 5,553 out of 12,000 (which means 12,000 other people shelled out money, too, for that video.)  Currently there are 768 of the 12,000 video cards for re-sale with a price range of $89 to $250,000. For some reason, the higher the number the higher the value.  Did I mention I think this is dumb? It's like people who thought they could make money off of Beanie Babies. I'll say it again: You haven't made anything off something until you actually sell it.

at 8:30 AM

2.19.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Our of Here (If We Ever Got Here)

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 


I have no memory of a computer being a contestant on Jeopardy. But if it could win then, it would dominate now. 
  • I probably took to much joy in watching Ted Cruz being scorched all day yesterday for running off to Cancun while Texas suffers. I may frame the picture of him in the Cancun airport as he headed back to do damage control:

    • I can just picture Cruz arriving at the Ritz-Carlton, changing into shorts , walking out on the balcony with his complimentary margarita, and then looking at his phone and seeing 198 messages. 
    • I like this pic, too. 

    • He continues to blame his daughters (10 and 12) for this fiasco. After all, he claims they wanted to go to Cancun since school was closed for the week and, being a "good dad", he said yes.  (Who amongst us hasn't taken our kids to Cancun on a whim?)
    • But actually that's not true. Leaked group text messages by Cruz's neighbors show that Cruz's wife strung that deal together. 

    • For a politician who literally cares about nothing other than being a politician, how could he possibly have been that dumb to be caught in a fiasco like this? 
    • Cruz ran into the loving arms Sean Hannity last night for damage control. But it was bizarre in it's own right. Watch his one minute explanation here.  (I actually watched  most of  Hannity for the first time in years just to see it and, let me tell you, I don't know how anyone can stomach Hannity's lies and propaganda. It was insane.) 

    • Funny lines that I saw about the whole mess: (1) We didn't send Mexico our "best people", did we? (2) We can't fault him for crossing the border. He was just looking for a better life for his family at the moment. (3) If Ted Cruz were an ordinary dude, and he did a Mexico round-trip in less than 17 hours, the DEA would be waiting on his lawn when he got home.
  • In a response that was anything but "candid", Gov. Abbott lied yesterday. 

  • And I think this "seconds or minutes" claim is a lie as well. That sounds like something ERCOT made up in order to deflect criticism. You know, "Don't be mad at us! We actually saved you!"

  • We haven't had mail delivered this week. I'm not complaining -- just an observation. 
  • Shout to Ms. LL for doing a heck of a job going to the grocery store before all this hit. We've been fine all week. 
  • I'm an idiot on things like this, but most of society's energy problems would be solved by huge and cheap batteries that could power a house, right? I mean, we have slowly gotten  to the point where electric cars run on batteries with capabilities we couldn't dream of.  Now just keep that technology going for home power storage.  Massive capacity. Store for extended periods. Cheap.  Problems solved. 
  • Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, who might be the secret sister of Marjorie Taylor Greene, attended a hearing by Zoom with guns prominently (and oddly) placed in the background. 


  • Look at Wednesday:

  • Sports: I don't really care about Carson Wentz being traded to the Colts, but his trade now leaves Dak as the only QB on this list which is still with the team that drafted him:

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 595 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold 

at 8:32 AM

2.18.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

 


Most have forgotten, but we had "rolling blackouts" during Super Bowl week 10 years ago. My thought then is the same now: There's something flat-out weird about it which doesn't make sense, and I can't help but wonder if we are being taken for a ride. 
  • With that introduction, this headline below didn't help yesterday: 

  • Even Oklahoma is somehow doing fine throughout this ordeal, and Arkansas taunted us yesterday by using snow plows on their side of Stateline Road in Texarkana. This whole week has revealed how Texas was unprepared, and it makes our braggadocio reputation seem hollow. silly, and forever unjustified.

  • A faithful reader between Decatur and Slidell sent me this pic yesterday. His power has been out since Monday.  Incredible. 

  • I bet Rick Perry didn't ask him if he was willing to make that sacrifice -- something which Perry thinks we are all willing to do just to act stupidly independent in the face of the federal government. (Hey, remember that Trump made Perry the Energy Secretary -- the same guy who got a D in college in a course named "Meats"?) 

  • I got to experience the joy of the snowstorm yesterday morning when the Family Dog decided to make a break for it. The mutt acted like he was free from a life a bondage with a miraculous series of zig-zagging sprints and changes of direction that covered a half mile. That dumb thing actually loved the snow, and the chase went on for 30 minutes.
  • I'm also proud to report I didn't break a bone when, during my pursuit of the wild beast through the streets, I hit a patch of ice, my feet came out from under me, and the upper part of my body came crashing down on the snowy pavement. An ambulance ride was flashing before my eyes on the way down to ground. I got lucky. 
  • I also had the joy of a experiencing a busted pipe later in the day. Fortunately, I saw it the second it happened and knew how to shut off the water at the main. 
  • Broken pipes are happening to everyone. The civil courts building in Dallas is not doing well:

  • I researched as to how hard it would be fix a pipe (if you can get to it), and it really doesn't look that hard at all. But good luck finding a tube/pipe cutter if you don't already own one. They are sold out all across the Southwest Proper. Literally.

  • Social media and media outlets are abuzz about Ted Cruz possibly being spotted going to Cancun yesterday. Between him, Perry and Abbott, is the GOP trying to lose Texas in the future? 


  • Rush Limbaugh has died. Judging from the online reaction, more than a few people didn't think very highly of him. I'm in that group.  Two generations of politicians thought that Limbaugh's online bombastic and callous persona was the way that an actual human being should act. And somehow it got them elected. 
  • Watch Trump's building in Atlantic city being imploded yesterday. (Hey, see that building to the right that is still standing today? It is where the Democrats held their 1964 convention. I found a photo of it below. Think LBJ felt a little pressure with those signs behind the stage?)


  • "The San Diego Padres and superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. agreed to a 14-year, $340 million contract extension Wednesday night."  I'm torn on this. Did Tatis agree to too long of a contract? That amount might be considered cheap 10 years from now but, on the other hand, baseball is the one sport that might be in financial dire straits in a decade. 



at 8:30 AM

2.17.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Deion's house had broken pipes during the ice storm of 2011. (He has since sold the place and most of the land around it to a developer for a subdivision. Here is the home now on Zillow.)
  • Yesterday, I had to re-locate to a secure location just to make sure Liberally Lean wouldn't be kept down by Big Energy, The Man, The Weather, and any other co-conspirators. 
  • How is ERCOT doing? This was the headline yesterday afternoon. What a cluster this has turned out to be.

  • Your anger about the widespread power outage is in direct proportion to whether you have been affected by it. Random outrage example:

  • The most appropriate headline comes from the Texas Tribune: 

  • Gov. Abbott was all over TV acting mad about the situation.  Buddy, the Texas establishment has created this situation. You guys care more about whether the Mavericks play the National Anthem than whether the state will be crippled because of something called "cold weather." You and your cronies need to look in the mirror. 
  • No, it wasn't because of the windmills. Quit lying. And Fox News has been doing a lot of this in the last 24 hours 

  • Back to Abbott, you have got to have a special amount of hubris to lead a state that is as far away from implementing the "Green New Deal" as possible, but somehow blame this current disaster on AOC.  And he blamed windmills. That's a lie. And what's he doing wasting time on Hannity during a crisis? He's a con man, but just keep on voting for him. 

  • Remember Texas politicians mocking California for not being able to provide electricity?
    • Ted Cruz:

    • Dan Crenshaw:

  • Here's a graphic of the power grids. We are in the green one that cares about profits over the pubic welfare. 


  • ERCOT is a non-profit corporation. Here are the salaries headed by people with oil industry ties:
    $814,909



  • Did you know that ERCOT has asserted in Texas courts that it can't be sued claiming sovereign immunity and won? The Texas Supreme Court is now considering the case. That court, which is also full of politicians because they are elected, will now rule against them since they know everyone will be watching. Funny how that works. 
  • Any legislative hearings over ERCOT, and politicians were all pounding their chests for them yesterday, will just be for show. Just like the multiple round tables Abbott held on gun violence after the El Paso massacre, they will be held in order to look like something will be done.

  • If any changes are made, you can rest assured they will be so insignificant as to hardly be noticeable, yet certain groups and individuals will make a fortune implementing them. It's the way Texas does things. 
  • Downtown Dallas went into light saving mode last night. This, too, will last only a couple of days.  

  • Below is how not to be the mayor of Colorado City, Texas. I mean, literally. If you write that as mayor of Colorado City, Texas, as this guy did, you will find yourself being forced to resign within 24 hours. 

  • A busted pipe creates a waterfall in Victory Park in Uptown Dallas. Video.

  • A waterfall from the roof at the downtown Hilton in Fort Worth. Video.

  • The national level Republican Mommy and Daddy are fighting.

     

  • Because of the reduction in COVID hospitalizations, as of yesterday "Wise County businesses can return 75 percent capacity."  Of course, we would have to find a business operating under 75% capacity for that news to matter.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM
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