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

pic.twitter.com/86UVEWlL6y

— place where cat shouldn't be (@catshouldnt) February 5, 2021

---

SpaceX’s prototype Mars rocket crashes in test flight.. 😱

🎥 TT: seanmichel782 pic.twitter.com/YlE0UddMhq

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) February 3, 2021

---

pic.twitter.com/d6HESrjbJQ

— negative (@mugen) January 29, 2021

---

"He's just fine!" says the broadcast, as the man nailed by a Dustin Johnson drive hobbles in pain. pic.twitter.com/zZUglw9a9E

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 5, 2021

---

This is the wildest shot I’ve seen someone shoot pic.twitter.com/IncKvSf8uZ

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 4, 2021

---

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 

• Texas Hospitalizations. This may be the last time I post it unless the decline changes. We've got a long way to go, and it's still dangerous out there, but we are officially on the back nine of COVID. 
  
  
  
• Wow. The Mason County Courthouse northwest of Fredericksburg burned down last night. It was built in 1909. The county judge snapped this picture:
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I know someone who received their COVID vaccine at the Texas Motor Speedway and was told that the process worked like a charm. Easy as can be. 
• QAnon Republican Disciple Marjorie Taylor Green was stripped of her committee assignments yesterday, but only 11 Republicans thought she was worthy of such condemnation. Incredible. She's a nutcase who needs to be banished, not just from committees, but from Congress. 
  
  
  
• For those of you who might have been on the fence as to whether or not 9/11 happened, Greene wanted you all to know something very important before the congressional vote yesterday:
  
  
  
• But her explanation for all of her crazy statements over the last few years is that she was "allowed to believe" conspiracy theories "that weren't true." Sheesh. She's a victim because no one prevented her from believing idiotic things?  And I loved this line about her: "It's not fair to hold a 46 and a half year old responsible for the crazy stuff she did and thought when she was 44 and three quarters."
• Wait! There's a documentary released today about the mistreatment of the Official Liberally Lean Girl?! How was I not informed about this!? This might be enough for me to form an Elite Strike Force legal team of my own and head to California. 
  
  
  
  
• I'm not sure what it means, but Rep. Phil King was booted as the chairman of the House Redistricting Committee yesterday by the new Texas House Speaker.   And redistricting actually matters once every 10 years and this is the year. 
• I was curious how much long the run-off election for a Texas House district seat between David Spiller and Craig Carter would be delayed because of the horrible accident involving Carter's family last weekend. The answer: Not at all. Yesterday, Gov. Abbott set the run-off date for February 23rd.
• Watch it at your own peril, but the video which captured all of this in Pennsylvania is disturbing to no end. The guy unloads a pistol and then goes and gets an AR-15.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This story is wild about the president of a massive car dealership is Wichita Falls. And I do mean wild. 
  
  
  
• From Alpine, Texas:

  

  (Even snuck in a "Jesus is Lord" sign in there)

  
  
• Nerdy legal stuff: Democrats now control courts of appeals in Dallas, Houston (2 courts), San Antonio and Austin. This is an extreme proposal to turn the 14 courts into just four in order to dilute Democratic voting. 
  
  
  
• This isn't my forecast, but "some people are saying" we are in store for this next week: 
  
  
   
  
  
• How much did Kroger have to pay Flo Rida for the licensing fees for Low? And I wonder if it was a price based upon a flat rate or per usage? By the time it is all over, that song and Kroger are going to be synonymous. 
• 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: 584 days.
• Messenger: Above the Field

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

 

• That's from 2/3/2011 as the ice and snow storm that week continued. It's Bizarro World: Judge Clay Jenkins was being criticized for keeping offices open. And I had completely forgot about him breaking his leg. 
• Texas Hospitalizations: 13 decreases in the last 14 days.
  
  
  
• I was wrong about no elected officials being at the the Wise County Conservatives meeting. The Runaway Bay mayor was there.  There's an audio of the entire event where you can (barely) hear several elected officials identify themselves from the audience at the 24:00 minute mark.
  
  
  
• But there were some Parker County elected officials there including a district judge. (Side note: Hey, I saw the way Parker County reacted during the BLM rallies last summer on your courthouse square. I'm not sure Wise County needs Parker County's help.)
• After listening to all the speakers in the entire audio, I think the new group is already in the middle of the identity crisis. What they heard from the keynote speakers is not what they came to hear. These are "Trump Patriots" and the status quo is the last thing they want spoon fed to them.
• Most of the reaction I got from posting the photo of the group yesterday had nothing to do with politics -- it was about the lack of masks.
• The Republicans in the House, in a secret ballot last night, voted 145-61 to keep Liz Chaney in her leadership position. Chaney, of course, voted to impeach Trump for the Insurrectionists Storming of the Capitol on January 6th.  Afterward receiving that round of support, she doubled down afterwards. She rightfully thinks Trump should be impeached.  
  
  
  
• How many of the 61 that voted against here were from Texas? I bet a bunch. 
• What would the impeachment vote last month had been if it were allowed to be secret as well? 
• But Matt Gaetz (who certainly was one of the 61) told us Liz Chaney was doomed.
• One week ago:
  
  
  
• Yesterday: "We have the votes"
  
  
  
• He even went to Wyoming to get to know her constituents.
  
  
  
  
• Despite being all together behind closed doors last night, the House Republicans amazingly decided not to take away the committee assignments QAnon disciple Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene. Why? This isn't hard. Instead it will go to a vote today before the full House where the Democrats will have to do it for them. Kevin McCarthy couldn't have screwed this up more if he tried. 
  
  
  
• McCarthy set himself up for Nancy Pelosi to take a savage shot at him through a press release yesterday: 
  
  
  
• And things like this get floated around:
  
  
  
• Just slap down the nutcase and none of that happens. 
• So Greene was "contrite" last night behind closed doors? Who cares? You don't get to just walk away from views about Jewish Laser Beams from Space causing wild fires and everything else.
• Instead, news leaks that Marjorie Green Taylor got a standing ovation last night behind those closed doors. (I'm guessing that came from the same 61 who voted to strip Liz Chaney of her leadership position.)
  
  
  
• They've lost him?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Some breaking news last night on Fox News:
  
  
  
• After Fox News turned on him and then Newsmax, you could always count on OAN to come to the rescue of the MyPillow guy. 
  
  
  
• Freezing Cold Takes: In February of 2002, I distinctly remember being in a taxi cab in Las Vegas and told the cab driver that I thought the Patriots should trade Tom Brady.  It was Brady's second year, and he had stepped in for an injured Drew Bledsoe and led New England to the Super Bowl.  "I think he's a flash in the pan, and I trade him for a trainload of draft pics. You could rob some team," I told him. 
• Five children and 1 adult were murdered in Muskogee, Oklahoma on Monday night, and you might not even know about it. 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

 

• That photo was posted on 2/2/2011. I knew that the ice storm on Super Bowl week was bad in the metroplex, but I had forgotten how it was even worse here. That's a WFAA reporter who was doing a live shot across from Taco Casa on Business 380 in Decatur.
• Texas hospitalizations:
  
  
  
• The Wise County Conservatives held their first meeting Monday night. 
• There was a really big crowd and looked liked what you would expect.
  
  
  
• I didn't see any local elected officials in the audience, and I'm not exactly sure what they think about this group.
• There was a lot of  "Texas Secede!" thrown around.  
  
• There was some anti-Republican rhetoric which makes me think those people would rather be part of a Trump Patriot Party. From today's Messenger:

  

  
  
• I think the keynote speaker, Texas GOP Chairmen Allen West, was a disappointment only because it seems like the state Republican power brokers have told him to tone it down. He wasn't his normal flame thrower self and instead told the group to stop talking about secession and to not fall for QAnon conspiracies. I'm not sure that's what that fired up crowd came to hear. 

  

  
  
• The next meeting might have a double meaning including secessionist theme. 

                   

• A staffer in the Texas GOP office run by Allen West was fired last week when a video surfaced.  Here it is. It's 100% crazy. Spoiler alert: He went to the pizza restaurant in D.C. at the heart of the looney Pizzagate. 
  
  
  
• Last night, the remains of the police officer who was murdered by the Trump Insurrectionist on January 6th were delivered to the Capitol to lie in state.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Meanwhile, at that exact same moment on Fox News: 
  
  
  
• If you haven't seen yesterday's appearance on Newsmax by the MyPillow guy, you have to. He started firing off Dominion conspiracy theories but the Newsmax host, already having been warned by his bosses that they are about to be sued into oblivion, immediately began talking over him and started reading a defamation retraction the station had already aired. The host then gets so frustrated that he walks off the set when the MyPillow guy won't shut up. "Can I ask our producers -- can we get out of here please!?"
  
  
  
• Trump's new lawyers filed their legal brief for the upcoming Impeachment trial. It is only fitting that they didn't know how to spell "United States." 
  
  
  
  
  
• DPS mistakenly emailed this alert out three times on Friday. Really.

• The White House Press Secretary openly mocked Space Force yesterday. Thank you. 
  
  
  
• If you want become rich by shooting a hog, those Wise County boys over at The Hunting Game are offering big money this year. (They've got a heck of a scene going on.)  Oh, and they have a promotional video for the contest which involves some quality comedy. 
  
  
  
• Nothing say "conservatism" and "America" like government imposing a fine on a private company for exercising its First Amendment rights in a way the government doesn't like. 
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold

"Mixed"?!?!?!

Random Tuesday Morning Thought

 

• I posted the above on Monday afternoon 10 years ago. As Super Bowl weekend began, the forecast changed in the blink of an eye.  By the afternoon, the forecast had been revised to "up to 10 inches" of snow. 
• Texas hospitalizations:
  
  
  
• Truly horrible news about the family of Craig Carter who is in the run-off with Jacksboro's David Spiller for a Texas House District seat: "WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)— Nocona businessman Craig Carter and his wife are devastated and mourning the loss of their 4-year-old daughter Lux after a horrible car accident Sunday. In a Facebook post, Carter said his mother-in-law Rose was also killed, and his son Rex is fighting to survive."
  
  
  
• Not sure what is going on, but both ways of Central Expressway in Dallas were shut down moments ago due to a "police incident." This isn't a car wreck. Edit: DPD says they shut it down because they are dealing with a "distressed individual."
  
  
  
• If you don't think Marjorie Taylor Greene is certifiably crazy, consider this video unearthed where she actually talks about the person named "Q". 
  
  
  
• Yesterday Mitch McConnell called Greene's views  "looney" and a "cancer for the Republican Party." Good for him. 
  
  
  
• That "cancer on" line has become a go-to phrase.  It was coined during the Nixon Administration and Rick Perry rolled it out not too long ago:
  
  
  
• This gal got kicked out of a Lakers game last night for mouthing at Lebron. Here's her post game selfie-interview giving her side of the story. Extreme language warning, and I do mean extreme. Good lord, lady.  She's straight out of Real Housewives. But the biggest twist came when she says she's 25. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• If you haven't seen Rochester Police officers pepper spray a nine year old girl, you need to. 
  
  
  
• In other pepper spray news which is closer to home:
  
  
  
• One under-appreciated aspect of all the arrest warrants for the Trump Insurrectionists is that they have used screenshots from social media. That is, they just don't describe the posts with words but they just reproduce them in the body of the affidavit. This one from yesterday is one of my favorites. Somehow, they were able to identify Mr. Faulkner.
  
  
  
• Unrelated deaths but odd. 
  
  
  
• Jason Witten announced he'll coach at nearby Argyle Christian. Here's a hot sports opinion: That won't work out at all. Plus, I'm bugged that he releases a written statement but still decided to use "positive impact" twice in one sentence. 
  
  
  
• And to think that the Democrats never once stormed the capitol in an attempt to overthrow the U.S. because they didn't like the electoral college. 
  
  
  
• I saw this post yesterday about the labor of black men used to build the Texas Capitol building in 1882. They should have just labeled them "slaves" instead of "convict laborers"  because that's what they were. In the Post Civil War South, a work-around to the abolition of slavery was found so long as the slaves were technically labeled convicts. That loophole wasn't hard to find. It was, and still is, right there in the 13th Amendment:  “Except as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
  
  
  
• Moment of silence for Screech and Hal Holbrook.