1.08.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 

  • Texas hospitalizations: I skipped it yesterday, but it keeps getting uglier. I never thought it would get this high. 

  • We've got an incredibly interesting situation developing in the Wise County politics. Stay with me here.
    • Judge Melton Cude died November 29, 2020 creating an unfortunate opening for Wise County Court at Law #1. I say unfortunate, because we all loved Judge Cude. 
    • That position remains unfilled, and our current District Attorney, Greg Lowery, is the only applicant for the vacancy.
    • The Commissioner's Court, which is responsible for filling Judge Cude's vacancy because it is a county position, meets on Monday to presumably appoint Lowery. 
    • Here's where it gets wild. The moment that Lowery takes the oath of office as Judge Cude's replacement, Gov. Abbott has the power to appoint Lowery's successor as District Attorney. When the legislature is not in session, that appointment become effective immediately. 
    • Here's the kicker: The legislature goes into session at the strike of noon on Tuesday.  Why is that important?: A governor's appointment for district attorney which occurs during a session does not become effective immediately but instead requires a 2/3 consent of the Senate. Because of this headache and because 2/3 isn't a slam dunk for anyone, it is my understanding that the governor normally doesn't make an appointment during a session and will wait until it over. The 2021 legislative session ends May 31, 2021. 
    • So here's what we've got: If Lowery is appointed and if he takes the oath of office on Monday after the commissioner's meeting, there will be a window of 24 hours for Gov. Abbott to appoint his replacement before the legislative session begins.  If Lowery is appointed and takes the oath after noon on Tuesday (and after the legislative session begins), it's almost a certainty we won't have a D.A. successor appointed until after May 31, 2021.
    • Let me say this gingerly: I'm told that everyone involved from all sides in this process is keenly aware of how the 24 hour window would be created.
    • Depending on what's been going on behind the scenes, we could have a new D.A. on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. But that also requires Lowery to take the oath on Monday and not Tuesday in order to create the window.  See all the moving parts here?
    • I'm just watching all of this from the cheap seats. 
  • A Capitol police officer has died from Wednesday's storming of the Capitol building. 

  • Here.

  • Ashli Babbitt was a veteran and deep into QAnon. The Washington Post had an article one year ago which began: "The Trump administration has for nearly two years ignored mounting evidence that Russian operatives and other foreign actors were deliberately targeting U.S. troops and veterans with online disinformation amplified on a massive scale, a leading veterans group said." Here's a tweet by Babbitt:
    "The Storm" is QAnon's name for the ultimate violent purge
    of the government. 
  • Goosehead Insurance is based in Westlake. They fired Paul Davis yesterday. Don't be Paul. (University of Texas Law School, 2011.)

  • A Frisco real estate broker is getting some attention in the New York Post. 


  • Speaking of purge, there was quite the one yesterday: House Sergeant at Arms, Senate Sergeant at Arms and Chief of US Capitol Police all resigned.  Side note: I had completely forgot about this wild story from a few years ago. 

  • There's a video go around showing Trump Jr., his girlfriend, Trump himself, and others in a gleeful mood in a tent "as they watched" the rioting. This is false and not true. That video was taken before Trump spoke to soon-to-be-mob earlier that morning behind the White House.  It's just an example of misinformation that everyone accepts as true. 

  • Will we have snow on Sunday? Personally, I feel really good about it, but I can't make an official prediction because, during an angry rage last weekend, I fired every meteorologist on my staff. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 553 days
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:35 AM

1.07.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

 

The Treason Finale of Trump's America

  • Let that image be seared into your mind. It is the legacy of Donald Trump. 
  • So you thought I was being hyperbolic with all that Treason and Sedition talk? Yesterday a mob of thugs, who up until that point had been "standing back and standing by", came to D.C. at the direction of Donald Trump with the intent to overthrow the government. "It's going to be wild!" Trump had tweeted. Giuliani demanded "trial by combat" before the masses yesterday morning. 

  • Mitt Romney said it best on the Senate floor last night: "What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States."
  • Yes, it was an attempted violent coup on the United States of America led by Donald Trump. It was the most shocking day since 9/11 and, in some ways, more shocking because this time the enemy came from within. But Trump is not alone. These are the faces who instigated domestic terrorism: 
  • I said yesterday the real Trump MAGA Republicans want a civil war, and now there's obvious proof for all to see. And it was so obvious that it was coming. Have you not listened to conservative talk radio since the election? It's hard to find a caller who does not advocate violence. And the hosts simply dance around the comments fully knowing their audience is advocating treason  -- an audience which all belong to the cult who worships one man. 
    They put it on a shirt yesterday

  • The Capitol, a beacon of liberty, was desecrated. And a woman, who was a gullible QAnon nut, has died. Trump and his henchmen have blood on their hands. I've written before that Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States, and I was right about him all along. Hell, he told us who he was even when he didn't know he was doing it. Put it on his tombstone: 


  • George W. Bush doesn't mince words: 

  • To my Republican friends who never were part of The Cult, I feel for you. Donald Trump has destroyed your Party. And as Donald Jr. told the angry mob yesterday, it is now Trump's Republican Party. 

  • No, Ted Cruz, you don't get to lead an insurrection by the very people you pander to and then do a 180. If you're going to start a riot, own it. You're a coward and a disgrace to Texas. 

  • Ken Paxton is your Republican Texas Attorney General and an integral part of the insurrection. He traveled to D.C. and spoke yesterday morning before that mob.  He is a crook and a liar and now is involved in a cover-up for those who tried to overthrow the United States by denying who they were.

  • The Capitol Police were a joke. I have a harder time getting into the Wise County Courthouse than thugs did getting into the Capitol.  (Video of the police removing barriers for them.)  And if you haven't heard Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe go off on them this morning, you have to. It's not often you hear an F Bomb dropped on morning TV at 5:15 in the morning. 

  • How the hell did this moment even happen? (Video.) One cop against a mob. 

  • And once they were in, I was thinking the same thing as this guy: 

  • The National Guard was finally brought in. But it was Pence not Trump who had to order them in. This needs to be a bigger story. (But it's perfectly "clear" why Trump "did not give the order.") 

  • The images on the attack on the United States will never go away. They will haunt Trump Republicans wherever they go and remind the rest of us of how dangerous they were to what we hold so dear. Let's look at some of them. Most can be enlarged with a click. 

  • At its core, this is exactly what the Cult of Trump is all about. 

  • There's the Stars and Bars again during this celebration of "Law and Order."

  • They were going to take hostages with zip-ties. 

  • A ceremonial (?) noose for lynching. 

  • The American flag replaced with a Trump flag. 

  • I have no words.

  • Looting. And without a fear in the world. 

  • Annuit Coepits: "He has approved our undertakings."


  • "Camp Auschwitz"

  • And, finally, remember how Trump's government reacted to a planed peaceful BLM protest? Here it is. An army defended the Lincoln Memorial from no one. Make no mistake about it, if the mob yesterday had been black they would have been shot in the face. If they had been Muslim, they would be at Guantanamo Bay to he held for years without a trial. 

  • This is cause for multiple front pages, and I see a theme. I'm just a spare guy from "the humble confines of Wise County", but I've been trying to warn you all along. 




at 8:33 AM

1.06.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Texas Hospitalizations: We continue to rocket further into already dangerous territory.  (Concerning "active cases", the Wise County dashboard was updated yesterday to show 392 cases which I think would be a record.)

  • And Georgia sends control of the Senate to the Democrats!

    • Please note: The Official Liberally Lean Election Prognostication Booth has not officially called the race for Ossoff, but my political scientists on staff tell me they feel pretty good about it. 
    • To put last night into perspective:

    • Trump's strategy of saying elections are fake and that Republicans leaders in Georgia are corrupt really paid off.  Fine job. 
    • "I'm not going to lie to you. This is bad. This is terrible." - Mark Davis on 660AM this morning. 
    • Trump's official statement this morning on Georgia:

    • The official statement of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's replacement:

  • And now we move on for some Light Treason in Washington D.C. today. 
    • First we've got the disturbing Dog and Pony show in Congress this afternoon where a group of Trump Republicans commit and act of sedition as they object to the acceptance of electoral votes cast by the states of the United States.  How does noted dirty lib George Will feel about this?: 


    • Even John Cornyn is not a treasonous nut:

    • Nor is Liz Cheney:

    • But we've got a ton of Proud Boys and the like in D.C. making one last stand for their Leader.   Every cult eventually dies. 

      Who pays for that set up? 

    • I think every Republican needs to announce if they are a "Trump Republican" or not. Are they Ted Cruz or John Cornyn? Pick a side. Everyone deserves to know. 
      (Just a little mob violence being encouraged)

    • Who would have thought that the civil war the Trump Republicans really wanted was one within the Republican Party. But I need to remind you again, Lindsey Graham predicted all of this. 

    • And moments ago, Trump offered up one last delusional gasp of full fledged Treason. But it will be somewhat entertaining to see exactly how lap dog Mike Pence handles all of this. 

  • Moment of Silence: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are headed for divorce. Flashback: 

  • The Texas Highways magazine just released an article on six Texas daytrips and one of them starts in Decatur. 

  • World record?

  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:31 AM
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