Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

 

• Texas hospitalizations: Slight uptick but still setting a new third wave record.
  
  
  
• The story might behind a paywall, but it says this longtime Odessa attorney died from contracting COVID at a November pre-trial hearing he was required to attend. And it was traced to an inmate he represented. Is it to harsh to say that the judge killed him?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The electoral college went off without a hitch yesterday with Biden winning in the 306-232 landslide. It was proof that Democracy can't be hijacked although, at times, it wasn't exactly like the founding fathers intended. First, at least two states had to take measures to safely protect electors. And in states where they weren't afraid of assault, the electors were doing bits:
  
  
  
• Overnight, even Putin couldn't hang on to false hope any longer. 
  
  
  
• The man behind Texas' meritless lawsuit challenging the election is now going to cost you more. All of the people he fired for exposing his "alleged" unethical conduct are now suing him as whistleblowers, and his defense lawyer will be paid a pretty penny.  (By the way, $540 an hour is robbery.)
  
  
  
• This tree, which is the subject of a new Texas Monthly article, isn't that far away. Mrs. LL drug me out to take a look at it a few years back. (I think the GPS coordinates are 33.062881, -97.132468.)
  
  
  
• According to the local U.S. Attorney, six men have been charged in a frequent flyer miles scam. After reading the press release, I still don't understand exactly what they did. 
  
  
  
• In case your company/agency uses it, the Treasury Department and Commerce Department  computer hack occurred because of malicious code the Russians were able to embed in some software program called SolarWinds Orion from a company out of Austin.  The company has over 18,000 customers (which you could have found on a "customer list" hosted on its website until they took it down yesterday.) 
• I wrote about, and praised, how the Tarrant County DA was going to dismiss first time marijuana cases if someone just tested clean, but unbeknownst to her (and me) Fort Worth PD said they had stopped arresting people for misdemeanor marijuana anyway and wouldn't even he filing new cases. That's a big, big deal. I missed this in late November.
  
  
  
• Random cool image: A 1896 photo of the Tarrant Count courthouse taken from the Trinity River. 
  
  
  
• I forgot to check in on this game last night, but it sounded fantastic.  But if you are a gambler, that meaningless safety on the last play/kickoff of the game was made the game even crazier. A 3 point win went to a five point with the line being either 3 or 3.5 depending on when you locked in. 
  
  
  
• My favorite looking offensive coordinator was fired by Texas Tech yesterday. In unrelated(?) news, Art Briles called it quits after two years at Mount Vernon High School.  
  
  
  
• If you are a college football fan, this gal's most recent rendition of the playoff committee's zoom call is really, really funny. It'll take you 53 seconds. (And I normally don't like stuff like this.)
  
  
  
• Trump's personal lawyer AG Bill Barr couldn't even make it for 36 more days.