1.10.2025

It's Friday - Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




It was peak earthquake time around the old Texas Stadium site. Then they just stopped.
  • I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but the fire destruction is just incredible.

    • Of course, Alex Jones and the other nuts claim the fires are all part of some weird intentional conspiracy. But Elon Musk responded "true" to Jones' post (and then deleted it,) 

  • The funeral of Jimmy Carter gave rise to some great visuals:
    • President Obama and Trump oddly yuking it up.

    • President Bush greeting President Obama with a "belly tap" (video) and tapping Dan Quayle on the head with his program (video).

    • Mike Pence's wife wanting nothing to do with Trump or his wife. (Video)
  • The fires continued around Los Angeles and another one broke out last night. Unfortunately, in response to it, there was an evacuation order inadvertently sent out to all of Los Angeles County.


  • The crazy guy who brought Pizzagate into the national spotlight is dead. 

  • Trump will be sentenced today in his Manhattan state case after the Supreme Court refused to rescue him yesterday. The fact there were four justices who voted for Trump's position is insane. 

    • Honestly, I don't know why Trump even tried to stop the sentencing hearing.  He's just getting time served, and it is the perfect opportunity for him to showboat and make a scene about a "political prosecution."  He's great at that.  I would have thought that he would have welcomed the opportunity.
    • Trump will get to appear by Zoom and won't have to go in peron. Notable: For the first time in the case, there will be an actual "audio recording" of the proceeding released after the hearing. Trump may actually do a rant on Zoom once he learns of that.
    • This is funny. Last night Trump tried to downplay the Supreme Court's ruling by saying it "was actually a very good opinion."

      • However,  the entire "opinion" is below.  It is actually just an "order."

  • Isn't it amazing how the New Orleans Bourbon Street Massacre is already old news?
  • Anita Bryant passed away in December, and we are just now learning about it. In the 1970s, the singer and beauty queen's anti-gay campaign was national news. But it reached a crescendo when she was hit in the face with a pie during a press conference in 1977.  I watched the footage again and the whole thing, including her reaction, is amazing. 


  • I think this is weird out of Waco. He just ran for re-election and is now resigning his four year term so Abbott can appoint someone? Plus, "state district judges in Texas make a base salary of $140,000 a year, which is increased 10 percent after four years and another 10 percent after eight years, for a total of $168,000." 


  • Very, very legal nerdy stuff: We had an appellate case out of Austin yesterday that affirmed a trial court's suppression of a confession which was given after a "failed" polygraph test.  These type of cases are always fact specific, but it involved  the standard cop trick of telling a suspect that he failed the polygraph, telling him the test is infallible, and then grilling him to confess. The court ruled the confession in that case was involuntary.
  • A man who identified himself as "Sideline Sammy", "the head tennis coach at Decatur",  singer, and an "announcer for the Texas Cornhole League" was the guest picker on "Picks Against the P1" on The Ticket this morning. Funny guy.
  • Lauren Whitener Clock*:  5 years and 190 days. (*I'm still workshopping the wording.)

at 8:30 AM

1.09.2025

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




The passing of "Speedo Man" pictured in the masthead.

  • My highly compensated weather team still thinks it snows all day and into the night in Wise County, and they think we will get a lot of it. (It even began falling a bit earlier this morning than they expected.) But Dallas-Fort Worth proper might get nothing but rain until this evening. The closing of schools in the metroplex might have been a bit premature. Edit: Or not,

     
  • There's a criminal trial ongoing in the district court in Decatur about a child who died.  The State claims it was due to malnourishment while the defense claims the death was due to other medical issues.  Here's the obituary. 
  • Yep, it was, and still is, a catastrophe. 


    • The Pacific Palisades area is simply gone. Click to enlarge 
      Just the coastline damage in the northern area

      Red depicts the homes destroyed. And those were
      some high priced homes. 

    • The Eaton fire with homes in Altadena.



    • You can count on Trump to fail to provide encouragement as lives are destroyed. Even Junior got involved.  Just very bad people. 


  • Keller ISD  is considering cutting out the riff-raff from its school district by splitting and creating the Alliance ISD which would take all of Keller's school campuses west of Denton Highway 377. That would include the high schools of Central, Fossil Ridge, and Timber Creek high schools and leaving only the original Keller High School.  It's trying to become a junior Southlake ISD. 


  • An electrical substation just south of Roanoke dramatically caught fire last night.  Video of it as it was ongoing.

  • Trump made a phone call to a Supreme Court judge as Trump was filing his request with the court to stop his Friday criminal sentencing.  The call was allegedly about a low level job reference but almost certainly just an excuse to ex parte the judge (who certainly has no ethics about it.)


  • Lots of kissing of the ring going on. 

  • Wise County's goofy Congressman was on some spare internet streaming show yesterday talking about taking taking over Greenland, Canada, and Panama as something serious and legitimate. 

  • With Texas playing in the Cotton Bowl on Friday, there have been some flashbacks to when coach Steve Sarkisian led BYU over Kansas State as quarterback in the game in 1997.  I actually went to it with a buddy because we didn't have anything to do and tickets were cheap.

  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

1.08.2025

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Wikipedia entry. 

  • My Liberally Lean Weather Team has issued a report: They believe snow will begin in Wise County around 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and end around midnight.  This is not to be confused with the metroplex which they think is becoming very unpredictable and where a wintery mix will start much later in the day. That snow line moves slowly:
    Thursday morning +

    Thursday evening +

    • I feel sorry for those making a decision about schools. Tomorrow morning will look absolutely fine, but we know it will snow/wintery mix during the day. So do you risk opening the schools and then getting everyone home safely? And as tough as it is to predict snow/wintery mix, the conditions of the roads are a complete wildcard with the temperatures hovering around freezing. 
  • A former Wise County deputy who made headlines for taking inappropriate pictures of people registering as sex offenders, is back in the Wise County Jail on a parole violation. 



    • History:
  • With the way these fires have spread in Los Angeles overnight in areas of many, many homes, by the end of the day we are going to see a catastrophic disaster. 




    • Wikipedia has a list of all the times that high school has appeared in movies and TV.

  • He has left the Death Star:

  • The Laken Riley Act was passed by the new House yesterday which will give ICE new authority. It has begun. 


  • I don't know how to handle Trump over the next four years. His press conference yesterday was an insane rant where he claimed he's renaming the Gulf of Mexico, threatened to invade Greenland and Panama, suggested Hezbollah was at the Jan. 6 riot, claimed Jack Smith had "executed people" and ranted about windmills

    • He's a cartoon. Video.

    • But of all his idiocy, let's remember this part of the press conference for future reference: Grocery prices will come down "very fast."

  • She's nuts.  

  • Trump has gone (PDF) to the United States Supreme Court this morning to try to stop his criminal sentencing set for Friday in Manhattan -- where he will get time served. Let's see if they get involved once again. 

  • I can't take it. 


  • I'm sorry. She's getting paid what to do what?!

  • I'm surprised at this. He was originally charged with Intoxication Manslaughter because his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.147.  He pled guilty to the lesser charge of Manslaughter, received 10 years deferred probation, with 150 days in jail as a condition -- but he gets to choose when he serves it.  The victim's family was not in favor of the deal. 


  • Mike McCarthy's contract officially ends today.  He is no longer receiving a paycheck. Today, he is as much the coach of the Dallas Cowboys as I am. (There is a 7 day "exclusive" period for the Cowboys to negotiate with him if they want to.)



at 8:30 AM
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