Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• It's Mueller Report Day where we will finally learn some facts. Let's check in on the Face of the Republican Party this morning who gleefully said a couple of weeks ago that the report was a "complete and total exoneration."
  
• Edit at 10:01 a.m.: The report in pdf form is here. 
• Well, let's talk about my status as the most trusted man in weather predicting. Once again, I was dead on yesterday by accurately predicting the window when storms would hit Wise County, and I was wise enough to not predict hail. I learned from the feet of Harold Taft.
• Wise County images from last night:
  

  

  Pretty cool photo in Alvord as the storm
  was moving in. (From WFAA)

  

  It would dip and curl towards Alvord after this.

• But what about Delkus? As late as 12:14 p.m. yesterday, he was boldly predicting storms firing up in Wise County specifically after 5:00 p.m. and then moving into the metroplex after 6:00 p.m. And he did his typical fear-mongering by referencing "baseball size" hail.  He totally missed, got killed online for his continued inaccuracy, and attacked his critics.
  
  
  
  
• What was up with the early closing of businesses and colleges?
• A former right wing Congressman was caught on camera embraced in a shirtless kiss with another man at Coachella over the weekend. Normally I'd shrug my shoulders and say "who cares" but while in Congress he voted against adding ‘sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability’ to the federal hate crime protection groups, against the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. He deserves to be in the cross-hairs because of his hypocrisy.
• It you are an elected official and have a social media account that you proclaim to be the "official account" of your office, can you delete comments which tell you that you are horrible at your job? The conservative Fifth Circuit just said "no". The case involves Texas Sheriff Randy Meeks out of Hunt County. 

  

  "I might wear a cowboy hat, but don't go hurtin' my feelings online!"

• Shout out to the FEMA office in Denton which, I learned yesterday, has some Liberally Lean readers in it. I suppose it's for my expert weather predicting, but thanks nonetheless. (I also learned you've had a tough job over the last two years.)
• I've made reference to this guy in the past. The Dallas Observer brings us up to date. 
  
• Did you know that Texas has a law which says police don't have to cooperate with ICE on immigration matters if the cooperation would be required in a place of worship? (I only learned this when I saw someone was trying to be amend it to include domestic violence shelters -- which is a pretty clever move. We'll protect you at a church but not if you're a beating victim?)
• This guy was shot in Arlington in the middle of the afternoon in his driveway. I'm completely speculating, but this thing has all the markings of a hit. 
  
• "Dozens of medical professionals in five states were charged Wednesday with participating in the illegal prescribing of more than 32 million pain pills, including doctors who prosecutors said traded sex for prescriptions . . . ." Those state are Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia which is the heart of Appalachia. And we are worried about drugs coming into this country? The devil is within. 
• Let's check in on Austin yesterday to see how the pressing issues of the day are being handled: 

  

  I'm worried about that little Alex P. Keaton wannabee.

• Ted Cruz not only doesn't have a sense of humor, he doesn't know what should not be the subject of humor. The replies are gold.
  
• I'm no expert, but the new Skylink people mover at DFW Airport is getting an upgrade with the vast majority of it being a "$34.7 million contract with Bombardier Transportation USA of Pittsburgh to replace the automatic train control computer system." Why? "It is a Windows 2000-based system [and being] the brains of the system, like any electronics, is approaching end-of-life," said an expert executive. It doesn't work like that. Software is not electronics. If a program works, it works. It doesn't deteriorate over time. If that's the reason for the upgrade, then that $34.7 million is highway airport robbery.