Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Random pic from Wise County courthouse 10 years ago.  How's that complete renovation going?

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• Yep, I'm processing the election, but we have never seen what we are about to see: 
• A president-elect who promises to exercise presidential powers in an unprecedented authoritarian way,
• Will appoint an Attorney General who will 100% do his bidding with a Justice Department full of yes men prosecutors (and Ken Paxton is on the potential AG list), 
• Trump will have the full approval and support with no pushback from the Senate or the House, 
• And the Supreme Court, which has three of his appointees, will not stop him. 
• Get ready. The only restraint will be the one that Trump forces upon himself.
• For years, Republicans worried about the Hispanic population growing to be a force in Texas politics.  They had nothing to worry about at all. It's getting better for the GOP.  Hillary won 27 Texas counties. Biden won 22.  Harris won 12. 

  

  Biden vs. Trump

  
  

  

  Harris vs. Trump

  
  
• Starr County turned red for the first time in over 100 years.
• Look at these stunning numbers:
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Another fun Republican fact:
  
  
  
• Ok, here's a strange one: Remember the gal who ran for Texas Railroad Commission who became semi-famous for an ad where she rode a pump jack virtually topless? Well . . . 
  
  
  
• She ran for D.A. as a Republican in a district composed of three very rural counties in West Texas (Ward, Reeves, and Loving) against a long-time Democratic D.A. Well, she won.
  
  
  
  
• Here's a New York Times article (gift link) on how she ended up there. She was basically recruited to target one of the few remaining Democratic DAs in the state. 
  
• Hurricane Rafael hit Cuba and then completely changed directions.

  

  Two days ago

  
  

  

  This morning

  
  
• Might as well. No need to wait for Trump's AG to do it. 
  
  
  
• SMU will post historic local media clips from time to time and yesterday they gave us this one. 
  
• But I didn't know anything about him and used ChatCPT's new* web search function to find the answer.
  
  
  
  
   
  
• * "As of November 7, 2024, ChatGPT's web search functionality is available to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers, as well as SearchGPT waitlist users. OpenAI plans to roll out this feature to free users over the coming months."
• Messenger - Above the Fold