Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Forgot that he was so young when he died. If my math is right, he would have been 26 when the famous video of him was filmed in 1991. 

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• Oh, my! This just keeps getting worse and worse. 
• The Austin American Statesman has obtained a screenshot of video footage from inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde showing officers with long guns and shields at 11:52 a.m.   
  
  
  
• The Texas Tribune has a screenshot of more officers and guns at 12:04 p.m.
  
  
  
• Everything we are learning about Uvalde comes from the press. The mainstream media is the lifeblood of democracy and government accountability.  And here is a video from yesterday of the press being kicked out of Uvalde City Hall (a public building) by Uvalde police. The desperately need a PR person. 
  
  
  
• Last second Edit/Update: There will be some public hearings today (including DPS head Steve McCraw for the first time since he threw the police chief under the bus) so at least something in the open is going on. But I'm not sure I see a "part of the door" in this photograph:
  
  
  
• The burning of the Balsora Baptist Church has made national news (well, at least Fox News) because of its remains. 
  
• In a shocking campaign ad yesterday (video of it here), the leading Republican candidate for the Senate out of Missouri, and former governor, encouraged others to join in "RINO hunting." He's literally going to get people killed. Facebook took it down. Twitter kept it up but put a warning label on it. 
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Actual text: "Join the MAGA crew! Get your RINO hunting permit.
  There's no bagging limit!" 

  
  
  
  
  
• People need to wake up. The Republican party is being taken over by a faction of fascists.    Encouraging violence while openly willing to defy the norms of democracy is straight of early 1930s Germany. It's the equivalent of Hitler and his brownshirts  (the Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers) rising to power after a failed insurrection -- and finally achieving their goal despite never getting a majority of the vote.  I know it makes me sound like an over-the-top alarmist but, right now, what's the difference between that and the efforts of Trump and the Proud Boys/Oath Keepers and those who sit back and nod in approval?  These are dangerous times. 
  
  
  
• The January 6 Committee will continue to present its case at noon today. It will focus on Trump trying to find and strongarm elected officials in the state governments in Arizona and Georgia who might be sympathizers to overturn the vote. ("I just want you to find 11,780 votes!")  In addition, the shocking scheme of the submission of "Fake Electors"  will be explored. Once again, faithful Republicans will be the damning witnesses. 
  
  
  
• One of those witnesses will be Russell Bowers. He is a state Republican from Arizona and an American hero. This press release, written by him way back on December 4, 2020, proves he is basically the first person to alert us that there was a crime and a coup afoot by Trump and his henchmen. "As a conservative Republican, I don’t like the results of the presidential election. I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him," he wrote. "But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election." More golden language:






• The medical examiner's office in Tarrant County has had a rough couple of years. 
  
  
  
• Anyone got their summer electric bill yet? Throw this on top of the price of gasoline, grocery, and housing increases and we are in trouble.  Story.
  
  
  
• Texas seceding from the Union was in the news yesterday as the Texas Republican Convention floated the idea at its convention. All the news stations jumped on the "Texas can't secede! It would be illegal!"  I've fought this for over a decade.  Secession talk is dumb, but if a state wants to leave the United States there is no law that is going to stop them. Succession is, by its definition, a declaration that an entity no longer wants to be abide by the laws and rules of its motherland. Can you imagine England telling the colonies: "You can't declare independence! That's illegal!" But there are contrary voices: 

• Update from yesterday: I had a bullet point of a not guilty verdict out of Wichita Falls. A faithful reader tells me the defense lawyer was Michael Valverde.