Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• It's probably a good idea for Wise County to buy the Wells Fargo building for a courthouse annex, but its more proof that government is big business. There hasn't been a private entity interested in that building for years but our little rural county can write a check for $2.5 million for it and improvements. 
• "He held up a 2 inch thick stack of white paper and said, 'This is the Texas Constitution. It’s got 496 amendments. It’s over 87,000 words. It’s the second-largest state Constitution in our union, and I’m sorry I didn’t have it down.'" - Harris County ex-Judge Bill McLeod, who accidentally resigned on Facebook, to County Commissioners as they considered whether to keep him in office until a special election could be called. The commissioners voted to name a replacement.
  
• Hey, I just thought up a theme for today: Are taxpayer/government dollars significantly involved in the subject of a bullet point? The answer so far is "yes" to the first two. I'll go the rest of the way with [yes] or [no] in brackets at the end of each.
• Well we learned that AG Barr (1) Won't release and unredacted Mueller Report to Congress, (2) Won't ask a judge to allow permission to release grand jury information, and (3) Won't say whether he has discussed the report with the White House.  [Yes]
• Thieves never tire. [Yes.]
  
  
• Let's check in on "Mr. I Like People Who Weren't Captured" from yesterday. Does he enjoy people spiking on him with stuff like this? Or is he just oblivious? [Yes.]
  
  
• For all the hoopla around Dirk's last game last night, tickets yesterday were still relatively cheap: [No. Unless you consider the AAC was partially publicly funded.]
  
• Phrases that need to be retired from social media: "I'm not crying, you're crying", "Who is cutting onions in here?", and "It must be dusty in here." [No.] 
• Of course, racism in America is a myth. [Yes. Police involvement and it is on taxpayer purchased land.]
  
• OU and Alabama football have scheduled a home and home for 2032 and 2033. Nick Saban, if on the sideline, would be 80 years old. [Yes.]
• I'm now convinced that for the rest of my life I'll have an unexpected $400 repair bill for something every month. (I'm on a four month streak.) [No. But indirectly "yes" since I don't have a job without taxpayer paid police/courts/prosecutors/probation departments/jails.]
• Congressional hearings are becoming high entertainment. Yesterday we had Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin getting schooled  and outsmarted by Maxine Waters (this is almost a 'must see' especially when Mnuchin gets so frustrated he says, “I believe you’re supposed to take the gravel and bang it.” ). Then we had Rep. Ted Lieu, in a hearing on hate crimes,  confronting Candace Owens (she's a black Ann Coulter who the the Republicans thought it would be a great idea to trot out ) by playing a recording of her previous gleeful legitimizing of Hitler: “If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine." [Yes.]
  
• The big skyscraper in Dallas with the green outline is for sale. This paragraph from the Morning News had me track down the identify of the "German family." It's from the estate of a guy named Hugo Mann who wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped for. [No.]
  
• Everything is fine. [Yes.]
  
  
  
  
• "She needs to be abducted, kidnapped and sent out of the country." -WBAP's Hal Jay, around 6:15 a.m. this morning, about Rep. Ilhan Omar after she criticized the scapegoating all Muslims for the actions of a few on 9/11. (Even his crazy right wing co-hosts stepped back from their mics on that one.) You might remember Rep. Omar was shockingly the subject of the poster below in the West Virginia state capital, and was the victim of a death threat just in the past few days by a now-arrested New York man.  [Yes - significant involvement.]
  
• Did you know there's a law preventing the IRS from developing its own online tax preparation program for you to use to prepare your taxes (like TurboTax)? [Yes]
• Messenger: Above The Fold. [No.]