1.05.2026

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





Lots of Wise County crime and justice news that week.

  • Non-Venezuelan quick hits.
    • "Around 2:40 a.m., officers noticed a vehicle headed the wrong way on Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards. According to police, the driver ignored commands to stop, made a U-turn and sped away."

    • The trial begins today. WFAA will live stream it. 

    • Story.


    • Now that's a bus crash. 
  • Now on to Venezuela: I don't know much about international affairs, but if we just replaced Maduro with his vice president, what was the point?



    • Top Trump quotes at the press conference after the invasion of Venezuela. 
      • "We are going to run the country." (Video) Reality: No we won't. And he has no plan. 
      • “The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust…We're going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure, and start making money."(Video) Reality:  Not a chance. Trump might believe it, but he's the only one.  
      • "We are not afraid of boots on the ground. We had boots on the ground last night. We are not afraid of it. We’re going to run the country right. It’s going to make a lot of money. They stole our oil." (Video.) Reality: It will never happen. (Venezuela is two times the size of Iraq and half of it is jungle.)
      • And right in the middle of the press conference, Trump's brain wandered to D.C.  "We haven't had a killing. We had the terrorist attack a few weeks ago. Uhhh. A little bit of a different kind of a threat. But we haven't had a killing in a long period of time. Six, seven months." (Video)  Reality: He can't stay on track. And there have been 59 homicides during that time frame. 
    • Quick other hits about Venezuela:
      • Pete Hegseth: "America can project our will anywhere, any time" (Video)
      • AG Pam Bondi promised Maduro would face "the full wrath American justice."  Wrath?
      • Well, this was embarrassing.

      • Last night Trump said on Air Force one that we "need" Greenland next. Steven Miller's wife post even before he said it: 


  • And buried in all that news, Trump posted a wild conspiracy theory that would have had him removed from office in a nano-second a few years ago when the country was sane. Side note: Moments ago, Walz announced he would not seek re-election.
  • The Business Second™: Based upon this headline being on the Dallas Morning News home page a second ago, I'm a little worried about the newspaper being taken over by the hedge fund a couple of months back. 
  • Random NFL tidbit: The New York Jets became the first team in NFL history to not get an interception in a full regular season. 

at 8:30 AM

1.02.2026

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts





The big "question" was whether police officers could ask those visibly carrying guns to present their permits (which were still needed under the new law.)  I don't recall a single case where that was ever an issue. 

  • A couple has pled guilty in federal court of basically being a fake Chris and Joanna Gaines, and I was surprised to see three of victims were in Decatur and hit for a big chunk of change. The couple lived in Keller, and she used to work in a dental office.  DOJ press release



    • And this is from the indictment which lists the Decatur victims (although not by name.) Source

    • Odd paragraph in the original criminal complaint since none of the victims appear to be in Runaway Bay. :

       

  • This appears to be the image of the fire beginning in the Swiss nightclub. That's acoustic paneling on the ceiling.  And here's a video from seconds after that photo.

  • I've seen lots of images of vehicles just stopped on the major freeways in downtown Dallas to watch the fireworks at Reunion, but here's a video of a couple of folks just firing off their semi-auto weapons to join in the celebration. 

  • We've got a mystery going on in Ohio. Authorities believe an unknown assailant is out there. 


  • We're doing great.

  • Trump:
    • America first? 

    • He continues to want you to belief this: 

  • So the Dallas Stars run a promotion for the chance to win a T-shirt with a corporate logo on it? 

  • College football: 
    • I feel bad for Tech but, they never could get that offense going. Never fear, their big donor says he will "double down" for next season. 

    • The Georgia/Ole Miss game last night was fantastic, although it had the most unnecessarily tortured ending. 
  • Lauren Whitener Clock: 6 years and 183 days.

at 8:30 AM

1.01.2026

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts





  • Overnight in Switzerland. The fire damage, even from inside, amazingly doesn't look widespread. But a four second video, which is unverified so far and all over the Internet, shows huge flames.   



  • All we know is what is in the headline. 

  • You don't think a certain someone would project their image onto the Washington Monument sometime in the near future, right? Right? 

  • The biggest game in the history of Texas Tech kicks off at 11:00 a.m.

  • There's a new mayor in New York City, and the New York Post can't stand it. 

  • This about as warm of a winter as I can remember. 

  • Get ready. 

  • Extremely nerdy legal stuff: I've ranted for years that proving "recklessness" or "criminal negligence" is ions tougher than a lot of lawyers realize. Case in point, yesterday the Dallas Court of Appeals reversed and acquitted a man who was convicted for Endangering a Child when three children in his care got out of the house while he was sleeping - on three different occasions.  Opinion here. 
  • My favorite bowl season photograph was taken yesterday. 

  • It's been a rough decade so far. 

  • THWMISB™.

at 8:30 AM
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