Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

The riots in Ferguson erupted after the D.A. thought it would be a good idea to hold an 8:00 p.m. press conference to announce his grand jury's decision not to indict. 

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• As we knew was coming, the federal prosecution of Trump came to an end yesterday.  Jack Smith had no choice. He could either do it now, or wait for Trump to fire him and have his replacement dismiss the cases then.   So it is done.  Trump got away with it.  And all because the American people decided to effectively pardon him for his crimes in the election.  I will never understand how this happened until the day I die. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• New this morning: 
  
  
  
• Fox4Terry is out there. 
  
  
  
•  It happened behind this house per Google streetview.
  
  
  
• Proving once again that he doesn't understand how tariffs work, last night Trump said that he will, on his first day via executive order, impose a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada and a 10% tariff on China for all goods until illegal immigration and or drug importation is fixed. Good luck buying anything at Walmart if he does that. (But in reality, he'll probably do nothing but immediately declare victory. And MAGA will believe him.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Got this Wise County tip about the appraisal district from a reliable source: "They sent out 118 (their number) notices to tax exempt organizations (many churches) of WCAD’s intent to deny tax exempt status unless they produce a portfolio of documents by April. IRS tax numbers for are not acceptable docs."
• Gov. Abbott is already cozying up to Trump's new border czar who sounds like someone who'll put everyone, even resistant mayors, in a concentration camp.  
  
  
  
  
• I don't know if someone shooting at coyotes should be labeled as a "vigilante", but if a bullet went through a window, I would call him a horribly reckless shot. 
  
  
  
  
• I saw the news yesterday of the DHL cargo plane crashing while trying to land at an airport in Lithuania, but I hadn't seen the wild footage of it.  What's even wilder is that three of the four people in the plane survived.
  
  
  
• And look at this headline from the New York Times from back on November 5th. 
  
  
  
• Say what? Every article I see on this refers to a "proposed bill" in the Texas legislature but none of them give the bill number or the author. Andy Hopper, maybe?
  
  
  
• In other drone news, the war in Ukraine ramped up overnight and got more high-tech.
  
  
  
• Quite the exchange on Fox News last night. Video.
  
  
  
• The Local Business Second™: A new Sonic in Bridgeport, out on highway 380, was built and opened in record time.   It's at the site of a David's Feed Store which was shut down and torn down -- also in record time.
  
  
  
• Want to know your team's chances of getting into the Big 12 title game?  Here's a great and bizarre flowchart which helps you figure it based upon the order of the games being played over the extended weekend. Oklahoma State vs. Colorado start it all off on Friday. 
  
  
  
• Elon Musk thinks that Lockheed's  F-35 is a waste of money, and it might be the only thing I agree with him about.