1.30.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • I focused on this guy on Monday. He needed to be suspended. ABC didn't disclose the length of the suspension, however.
  • The Iowa Caucasus are in four days and winning has been far more important to the Democrat  than the Republican.  The last four individual Democrats who won Iowa also won the nomination (Gore, Kerry, Obama, Clinton). The last three Republicans to win it did not (Huckabee, Santorum, Cruz.)
  • I'm not issuing a Wise County Coronavirus Warning, but I am issuing There's A Lot Of Wise County Folks Who Are Sick With Something Warning. 
  • A lady who tries to provoke government officials into doing something stupid on camera made a visit to Boyd City Hall the County Annex recently and just posted the video on YouTube. Two cops who were called out remained calm. (There are two other Boyd officers who I would have love to have seen called out to the scene instead.) I understand what she is trying to do, but she sure has a caustic way of going about it.
  • Everyone is entitled to grieve in any way they wish, but it's refreshing to see Kobe Bryant's wife acting like a real human being. Being silent for days. Finally issuing a statement in writing. And keeping away from the cameras.
  • The Bravo Eugenia has landed
  • For most of my life I've thought Alan Dershowitz was a liberal nut. Then he became a right wing nut. Now I think he's just a nut. He got to trend yesterday when he defended Trump at the Impeachment Trial by saying: “If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”
  • Chief Justice Roberts having to read questions from Senators is a little bizarre. Kamala Harris made him to quote some of Trump's Access Hollywood leaked tape (no, not the "grab 'em" part) while Rand Paul tried to get him to name the Whistleblower (Roberts refused.) But Mitt Romney actually asked a legitimate question:
  • This college football hypothetical question and answer made me laugh yesterday just thinking about the visual:

  • Shout out to someone who left a magazine for me in my foyer with the message "He'll like a couple of things." The magazine, The Cattleman, had an article about Ladybird Deeds and another one about the Comanches. Now that's what you call a very faithful, and careful, reader.
  • A coach for a small college has been making the news this week after naming Hitler as someone he would want to have dinner with because of his "leadership" skills. I've been racking my brain trying to remember when I had heard that exact same controversy before. Someone reminded me that then Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott got in trouble in 1996 for saying that Hitler "was good in the beginning, but went too far", but I still think I'm missing another story from the past.
  • Yesterday Ted Cruz just made this up. Parnas never got close to the gallery.
  • Legal stuff: I was a little surprised last year when a Texas appellate court reversed a guy's conviction for Evading Arrest With A Vehicle simply because the jury, while deliberating, heard a police siren in the distance. Yesterday, Texas's highest criminal court said, "Uh, we want to take a look at that." 
  • Random history. I can't say I was familiar with this story.  The exact number of those who died is not known, but most put it at around 9,600 with and estimated 5,000 of those being children. Good lord. That dwarfs the Titanic. It was sunk 75 years ago today. 
  • Random Baseball Contract Nugget: Prince Fielder will be paid $24 million dollars this year -- the third year in a row at that amount since he was placed on the disabled list in 2016. (He didn't "retire" because he wouldn't get the money.) Each year the Rangers pay $9 million, the Tigers pay $6 million, and insurance pays the remaining $9 million.  But this is the last year. Question: Is Fielder then eligible for Social Security disability?