1.15.2025

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Rick Perry left the governor's mansion, and the oil field was about to go bust. 


  • There was a really, really bad wreck on 920 near Bridgeport yesterday morning.  The Messenger has a photo but it might be behind a paywall. We don't know any names yet of the two people seriously injured.


  • The West Texas Oilmen, who are always buying the legislature so they can ram through school vouchers, were unable to get their boy elected as House Speaker  yesterday.

    • Some ultra MAGA folks, including a group from Wise County, were "protesting" after the vote outside of the capitol.  Video

    • Ted Nugent really packed them in with a free concert nearby yesterday morning in Austin.



  • Welcome to the Oligarchy.


  • The Pete Hegseth confirmation hearing yesterday for Secretary of Defense turned out to be all for show. He'll be confirmed. But it was a bit uncomfortable for him to be asked about all his infidelity with his third wife looking on from behind him. 
    Standard answer from, of all things, a Fox News host.

    That probably guarantees confirmation

    • Wise County's representative Ronny Jackson is excited about Hegesth burning the Defense Department down. He literally said that:

  • This is pretty wild. A UTA professor and a lawyer from Temple were detained and/or arrested outside of the Commissioner's Court in Tarrant County yesterday. Videos.


  • Seems bad out of Houston.
     

  • Very legal nerdy stuff. There were lots of headlines yesterday that said "Special Counsel Report Say Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case."  That's not true. The report said "the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."  That's not saying a jury would have convicted him. It's saying that if a jury convicted him then there was some evidence on each and every element of the charge that would survive an insufficiency argument on appeal.