Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

This blog admittedly used to have a different feel about it. But the link in that bullet point was still alive so I clicked on it to figure out what I was talking about.  I stand by that post.  

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• The stock market broke 37,000 and set a record high yesterday afternoon. 
  
  
  
• Flashback: 
  
  
  
• The good news doesn't stop there. Look at the gas prices in Decatur (below), and they are even cheaper in the metroplex:
  
  
  
• Well, I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't believe her. But the jury certainly didn't share my reasonable doubt concerns. That was the maximum: 
  
  
  
• Normally when a cop is on trial for murder around here, it's wall to wall coverage. I hardly heard anything about this one at all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Regarding the story from yesterday about the 8th graders "overdosing" on candy, now they are wildly speculating about fentanyl. I'd tape the brakes on that -- big time. I'm guessing this situation turns out completely different than the current narrative. 
  
  
  
•  We knew that the the former Sheriff of Clay County had simply gone home a couple of weeks ago right in the middle of his 30 day jail sentence after being transported to the hospital for high blood pressure. Why home? The "Sheriff's Office did not have the manpower to send a deputy" after he was discharged according to the local sheriff. But two days ago a court order got hm back in the hoosegow. (I missed this yesterday.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lawyer Rusty Hardin stumbled through the impeachment proceedings of Ken Paxton, and now the Dallas Morning News has obtained his firm's bills to the taxpayers for his work: "Hardin used at least 20 employees of his firm and billed $3 million." And bills from other lawyers are still rolling in. Bandits, all of them. I want to see the actual PDFs. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• An Oklahoma school superintendent was arrested for public intoxication yesterday while on a school campus.  But I would withhold judgment because the police called in someone who claimed to be a Drug Recognition Expert.  I bet we are going to end up with a medication issue instead of an alcohol issue (although they police do claim alcohol was a factor.)
  
  
  
• Her on better days:
  
  
  
• The House voted to begin an impeachment "inquiry" on President Biden yesterday and rolled out this crew to promote it. Those five right there have to drive the normal Republicans crazy. 
  
• I went searching through a long uploaded YouTube video by the AP of the proceedings yesterday because of a specific moment I had seen on the news. One Republican member, while giving his presentation on the House floor -- but when pressured to disclose what the exact crimes they were accusing the President of -- had said,  "I will tell you when I have the time."  It was gold. But I couldn't find it. Instead, during my search, I saw this moment in that video clip. I wasn't going to let you not see it, too. Idiocracy: 
  
  
  
• Impeachment survivor Ken Paxton is behind a PAC designed to defeat three judges on the Texas' highest criminal court because he thinks they have wronged him in the past.  Is it any coincidence that they are all women? Nope. Misogyny is a trademark of the MAGA extremist wing of the Republican Party.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A big budget film named "Civil War" - as in a modern day civil war -- is scheduled to be released in April, but the trailer has been released. It has people talking. And a chilling moment is the great Jesse Plemons saying, "Okay. What kind of American are you?"
  
  
  
  
• Legal stuff that is pretty important to everyone: A Google policy change will kill geo-warrants issued by police. The change will cause your movement/location data to be only locally stored on your phone, and if you do choose to keep it to the Google cloud, it will be encrypted from everyone, including Google. Police can still get a geo-warrant, but the data will now be worthless.
• Messenger: Above the Fold