- If you had trouble keeping up with the story yesterday of the two associates of Rudy Giuliani being arrested and indicted, here's a good summary:
- So what's Trump's connection to those two since they were also running around Ukraine trying to help Giuliani with this Biden scandal they are trying to sell? He said . . .
- Well, he probably knew them:
- And it's good to know Texas will be well represented in the Ukraine scandal. Pete Sessions, who lost his congressional seat last year, was named in the indictment as "Congressman-1" for receiving money from the two henchman and helping get our ambassador to the Ukraine removed. And Rick Perry has been hit with a subpoena.
- Wise County's state senator, Pat Fallon, has decided not to challenge Sen. John Cornyn after giving every indication that he would.
- Here's a somewhat awkward picture of WBAP's Hal Jay and Brian Estridge yukking it up while holding an Intimate Partner Violence sign.
- The Tarrant County Sheriff, dressed in a manner to reinforce stereotypes, made statements yesterday that reinforced racist stereotypes.
- The Texas Tribune later replaced that tweet with the one below. That was way too kind. Yes, the Sheriff was referring to migrants in jail on DWI charges, but he still used the type of rhetoric that made him come across as a redneck. Replace his highlighted words below with "those Mexicans" -- which is exactly how the statement felt -- and you'll understand why he received the backlash. Whenever you start a diatribe with "those people" and it with them coming into "my neighborhood", we know what you mean.
- There is no reason for "SECURITY TIGHT." You wouldn't be able to pick one of the judges out of line-up. They were hearing cases where people were fighting about money, they don't hear criminal cases, and they are at no more risk for violence than you are every day.
- Trump held a rally in Minnesota last night. " For many years. leaders in Washington brought large numbers of refugees to your state from Somalia . . . ." Then the crowd loudly jeered. It's truly mind-boggling.
- Prince came back from the grave last night via his Estate to tell Trump to quit using his song. (Side note: Trump also used the name "Little Bruce Springsteen" at the rally.)
- My weather prediction was spot on with the exception that most of the rain went about 30 miles south. The band developed on time but just a tad South. I'm recalibrating my Weatherlyzer 9000 despite speaking to its Technical Supervisor who assures me beyond a reasonable doubt that it is always accurate.
- Yesterday a Wise County jury found a guy not guilty after an assault trial. You could see that verdict coming from a mile away.
- There was a crash in Dallas last night. This Ferrari was driven by boxer Errol Spence Jr. who was not wearing a seatbelt. He's in ICU.
- Trump, you've got a problem. A new Fox News poll shows that the majority of Americans want you impeached and removed. And the rapid increase in those numbers is stunning. This is a big deal.
- He just saw the poll! And he responds like a petulant child who is mad at his daddy.
- These are predicted lows for Saturday. Caveat: These are Delkus predictions so they are likely wrong by a few degrees or more.
- Liberally Lean Super Team Weather Center Guaranteed Forecast -- I've been studying the maps for a couple of hours: The wind will turn and come out of the north at 8:00 p.m. tonight and wind speeds will peak at 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. But before the wind turns, we'll see storms. They'll move in around 4:30 p.m. this afternoon and taper off after midnight. We might hit 60 degrees on Friday. Plan accordingly. Set your clocks.
- If you like politics, you've got to see this ad of a candidate for sheriff in South Carolina. He wants to confess some mistakes to get out in front of a story. Some of those things aren't like the others.
- If you want, you can vote on a constitutional amendment in Texas preventing a personal income tax. But it's all for show. The Texas constitution already has a provision that prevents the legislature from imposing the tax without voter approval. Yet the true Texas Swamp takes offense when you point that out.
- Other Texas politics news: The morally challenged Michael Quinn Sullivan of PAC Empower Texans says he will release his secretly recorded conversation with house speaker Dennis Bonnen next week since he's received the "green light from [his] legal team."
- I'm issuing a permanent traffic alert for Tin Top Highway and its cousin Lipan Drive in Granbury. I saw the blurb below on Sunday evening and thought it was weird. One of those crashes involved a fatality. Then I learned there was another head-on crash on Tin Top on Monday which also involved a fatality.
- While Trump was doing his normal tweet storm yesterday morning, his Fox News buddies and even lapdog politicians were crucifying him about the Turks moving in to slaughter the Kurds:
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- Let's check in on what great humanitarian project the First Lady is working on.
- Wise County Jail population this morning: 170.
- Well, the Trump administration has officially told Congress they won't cooperate at all with the Impeachment Inquiry. It's Game On. (I don't know who the president's lawyer is firing off this defiant shot, but I'm guessing he puts "Esquire" behind his name based upon his ridiculous signature.)
- The murder of the witness in the Amber Guyger has been solved with the ol' "drug deal gone bad" narrative. Observations: (1) When the first guy you arrest is a gunshot victim, his self-defense claim might work better than Guyger's defense, and (2) who in the world travels from another state to Dallas to buy weed?
- Goodbye, Allsups. They are all being sold to Yesway. (What's a Yesway?)
- Layoffs in Bridgeport: "Other Stevens Tanker facilities closing in towns across Texas included Asherton (6 employees), Bridgeport (16 employees), Bryan (24 employees), Cresson (40 employees), Dilley (10 employees) Pleasanton (44 employees) and Waelder (8 employees)."
- A national writer (whose true crime stories often show up in Texas Monthly) questions the reliability of the confession of the United States' most prolific serial murderer (allegedly).
- I've failed to mention the goofy judge who sentenced a man to 10 days in jail and then a year of probation for oversleeping and missing his first day of jury duty (and then completely rescinding the sentence once public outrage caused him to then, and only then, realize how moronic that was). He was called out in The Hill in an article which pointed out that one our country's criminal justice problems is that many, many judges are former career prosecutors. And I love the title. We might as well face it . . .
- On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether the Constitution requires individual states to have unanimous verdicts in criminal cases. At one point, they went down and interesting road: If you are a criminal defendant and forced to choose, would you rather be tried by a jury of six where the verdict must be unanimous, or a jury of 12 that requires at least 10 to agree to convict? I don't think that's an easy decision.
- And in a bizarre moment in the Supreme Court yesterday, the character of "Pat" from Saturday Night Live came up during arguments in the gay discrimination case with Justice Alito saying he wasn't familiar with that reference.
- I successfully replaced two of these in my Dell laptop, and I now feel qualified to perform brain surgery. (It took a while to get up to speed because I kept running into new precision tools I had to buy. I'm guessing most guys don't have, say, a T8 Torx screwdriver laying around.)
- Last year an assistant district attorney left our local DA's office to try her hand at high-tone civil law. That didn't last long as she's now the assistant felony chief of the "Special Victims Unit" at the Tarrant County DA's office.
- The GOP lead Senate Intelligence Committee finally said yesterday what we all know: The Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential election to help Trump get elected.
- Flashback to Trump at Helsinki: "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be." He'll be the last man on earth to believe it.
- For you Baker Mayfield haters who saw Nick Bosa mock Mayfield's "planting of the flag" on Monday Night Football, take a look at this quick loading split screen video of the two events.
- There are new allegations against Matt Lauer being revealed in Ronan Farrow's new book. (The Today Show addressed it this morning.) His abrupt overnight firing from that morning show is still a very bizarre event in American pop culture.
- This was Monday. A long time ago, perhaps three years ago, a blatant lie like this would destroy a presidency. Now you don't even hear about it because it is so common. (Side note: He lies all the time, but he'll actually signal he's lying whenever he uses "sir" in a story.)
- High school volleyball seems to have really upped its game over the last few years. And it might be the most entertaining high school sport of all.
- The attack of the Kurds has officially started. Just now.
- Messenger: Above the Fold
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