11.15.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




He's been at it a long time now.

  • The biggest election denier since Trump was officially beaten last night in Arizona.

    • She is taking the loss with all the class you would expect. And she certainly set herself up with this remark.

    • Liz Chaney reminded Lake of something last night. Actual link here. 

    • Flashback: She thought posing for this pic in anticipation of Trump's arrival would help her. 

  • Republican good news: They are now just one short of reaching the 218 majority in the House. That probably comes today. 
  • The Rhome mayor was sued because of a Facebook post. The case has now been settled by a mediation agreement where she will remove the post and then post a new apology. 

  • Police chase deaths in the last 24 hours: A Grand Prairie officer was killed last night, and two people in a fleeing vehicle were killed yesterday afternoon. 


  • Keller ISD went woke last night. Gotta protect the kids from all that gayness out there. 

     

  • A huge and moving silent turnout at the University of Virginia last night in honor of three football players shot dead. 

  • The number of ransomware attacks made on government entities (and payments to be free from them)  would stun us. We just never learn about it because it is something they don't want to publicize. It's happened here in Wise County more than a couple of times. 

  • That's a long and questionable way to get to "What are alligators?"

  • Trump will make his big announcement tonight. In the end, there's a chance that Lindsey Graham will turn out to have been right all along. The Republican primaries will be the wildest thing we've ever seen.  

  • Herschel Walker made another nonsensical comment yesterday and it even sounds nuttier than it reads. How is he in a run-off? 

  • The world's population counter just zoomed past a milestone this morning.

  • Victor Kiriakis (actually John Aniston - and Jennifer Aniston's dad) has died. I remember him on Days Of Our Lives back when I was in high school.  Now I'm wondering how Bo and Hope are doing. 

  • I said yesterday that 300 to 500 bills would be pre-filed in the Texas legislature before Thanksgiving. I got that number from TDCAA -- the official prosecutor's site.  The number of bills filed after just one day turned out to be 849 based upon numbers from the House and Senate.  A whole lot of damage is going to be done.


at 8:32 AM

11.14.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




From Random Thoughts on 11/14/12. 

  • There were a lot of videos of the mid-air collision that killed six in Dallas on Saturday. I think the top four are here (planes coming in towards the camera), here (screenshot below), here, and here. 

  • Over the weekend, Nevada and Arizona were called for the Democrats. The Senate, and President Biden's ability to have his federal judges confirmed, remains intact. (I'll break down my wrongful reliance on 538's prediction later.)

  • Election denier, both past and present, Kari Lake is probably going to lose the Arizona governor's race.  It's amazing how if they lose it's "Fraud!" but if they win "The system worked!" 
     
    • Saturday Night Live had a spot on imitation of her, complete with her trademarked "soft lens", as well as a great depiction of the Fox and Friends hosts:

  • The FTX crypto implosion turned into a bankruptcy and scandal as its founder was rumored to be headed for South America (which he denied) but with billions being unaccounted for. 

    • What makes Americans so gullible? Maybe because we are conditioned to be. Yep, that's the FTX founder on the right: 

  • College carnage: 
    • Shooting at UVA last night. The schools is still in "shelter in place" this morning since the gunman is still on the lose, but police have identified who they they are looking for, and  he is a former student and football player.  Edit: A current linebacker was just named as one of the victims.

    • Ruled a homicide in Idaho. The bodies were found yesterday afternoon. 

  • Elon Musk's  new Twitter verification system is going great. It was was abruptly put on hold on Friday, but the mess is still out there. 
  • Trump news:
    • Tiffany got married this weekend and, I'll admit, this is a nice family photo -- with the exception of one person not following the rules. 

    • Trump is now a major headache for the Republican Party. And he's a child. This was before the wedding: 
       

       
  • "Walther was a pastor at the Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock for the past 18 years, said David Clawson, a deacon at the church."  It looks like he wasn't the pastor, but the church's website -- and that's a big church -- has scrubbed him so I can't figure out what position he held.  Story.


  • Three images from the TCU/Texas game.  And, yes, I should have never doubted the Frogs.
    • Before the game, the UT coach was sporting a wild suit. 

    • Those first quarter stats. If I heard the broadcast correctly, it was the fewest number of combined yards for a first quarter in any college game all year. 

    • Best crowd shot

  • We had one of the Top Five all time catches yesterday in the wild Vikings/Bills game. Video.

  • Legal nerdy stuff: Federal law makes it a crime for a person to possess a firearm if he is subject to a family violence protective order (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8)).  Well, maybe not. Last Thursday a Trump federal judge in West Texas struck the law down citing the Supreme Court's Bruen decision from earlier this year. And this is one nausea inducing opening paragraphs: 

  • Legal nerdy stuff #2: The Texas legislature -- the same one which banned all abortion with no exceptions -- began pre-filing bills for the upcoming session at 8:00 a.m. this morning. Between 300-500 bills are expected to be filed before Thanksgiving. 



at 8:30 AM

11.11.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




When the Messenger took on the War on Drugs. 

  • Not sure what the update is on this . . .

  • Senate update:
    • Nevada: Republican leads by 8,988 with 130,035 left to count. 

    • Arizona: Democrat leads by 115,037 with 527,715 left to count

  • This occurred last night by a the same Trump district judge in Fort Worth who who is always making the news because of his wild decisions.   This one will be appealed to the Fifth Circuit which is also full of Trump judges. Opinion is here.

    • On a related note of the sad state of our judiciary, watch a smiling Justice Alito, author of Dobbs, appear before the right wing Federalist Society at a dinner last night as the crowd gave him a rousing ovation.  This is really disturbing. 

  • Elon Musk's decision to allow any account to get a "verified" check mark for $8, is going really well. Examples below (all which went live -- and then Twitter can't ban them fast enough because everyone has been fired or quit): 



  • Inflation might have tailed off just a bit yesterday, but I really liked this chart showing inflation over the years.  The period of 1973-1985 was wild, and then we had a generation that didn't even know what inflation was. 

  • We have a winner in the Dallas County district judge's race which required voters to write-in a name. So how many votes does it take? 38,865 is number it took to win over two other write-in candidates. In the other "normal" judicial races on Tuesday in Dallas County, there were around 400,000 votes cast in each which meant you needed 200,000+ to win. 

  • Trump declared war on fellow Republican Ron DeSantis last night.  The first sentence of the statement was 88 words. It's the kind of thing that would cause an immediate family intervention to be called if your crazy uncle posted it. 

    • Seriously, what are the Republicans going to do with Trump? He may be about to destroy the party's best chance to win the Presidency in 2024.  And the Republican primaries and the debates would a wheels off circus. Let's do it! 

  • I present to you a very confusing photo posted on the Messenger's twitter account last night as they covered the Alvord playoff game. (Click to enlarge.) I love this so much. 


  • Remember yesterday when I made fun of 300,000 in Tennessee for voting to approve slavery for prisoners?  I missed a very big related story: 

  • College NIL flashback and news: 
    • I said this the day after NIL payments were authorized:

    • Yesterday we had the equivalent of a SuperPAC (or probably a combo of already existing SuperPACs):

  • I've got a bad feeling about TCU on Saturday. 
  • Cyrptocurrency exchange FTX just declared for bankruptcy. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 129 days.
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

Remember, the have gun boats!


at 8:31 AM
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