3.16.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • Let's check the board. Remember when I started doing this 11 days ago and those bars way back then looked disturbing? It continues, and will continue, to get way worse.
  • Our current embracing of "social-distancing" will last, what, a week? Two weeks? 
  • The CDC recommended last night that we don't gather in groups of 50 or more.  Uh, did you see what our Federal Government caused by not thinking about the logistics of how they would screen international travelers on Saturday night?: 
    DFW Airport

    Chicago's O'Hare
  • Let's also check in on some far right wingers who still think the coronavirus is a Liberal Media Hoax. And make no mistake, there are a ton of Wise Countians out there who are right there with them. You know some of them.
    This from the over-meddled and Fox News multi-time guest, "Sheriff Clarke"
    He's yukking it up. He's Texas' own Mike Huckabee.

    This from the Oklahoma governor. He deleted it. 
  • Fox News is going to get people in their major demographic killed. I thought Hannity had come around, but he was at it again this weekend.
    From March 10th.

    From Saturday
  • So true. Video.
  • If the coronavirus doesn't kill us, the irony will.  (Stolen joke.)
  • When the Texas Governor declared a state emergency on Friday, that kicked in some criminal laws that no one knows about. Relevant to felony docket over-crowding is that every misdemeanor assault (i.e. simply causing pain to someone by making contact with them), now becomes a State Jail Felony.  Anyone want to place any bets on the number of domestic violence cases which are about to become felonies? 
  • Other than tweeting about Hillary's emails over the weekend (really), Trump also celebrated the Stock Market going up 2,000 points on Friday (ditto) despite the Dow being down 10.4% for the week. He either doesn't understand the big picture or wishes to mislead you. Take your pick.  (Breaking: The stock market just opened with the Dow dropping 2,250 points.)

  • I'm not going to let it go that the White House lied to you about Google on Friday. 
    • Trump said, "“Google is going to develop a website — it’s going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past — to determine if a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location." Google immediately said, by a tweet and through a spokesperson, that one of its sister companies had only been working on a "triage website" which was to be available to health care workers and was only going to be released to "pilot sites" in the San Francisco area.
    • Despite there not being any nationwide website immediately available to the public being developed by Google, The White House still had Dr. Deborah Birx display a cute graphic to show how the fake website would work for the public. ("They would move down this and be told where the drive-thru options would be for them to receive this test.")
    • After being blind-sided with the false website claim and then disputing it, the next day Google said, as expected, that that it was willing to help in anyway it could including its current triage website project. What company wouldn't? But how did Trump spin his blatant lie from Friday? 
    • Some jokes were made about the comparison of the image of Dr. Birx holding up the flowchart at the press conference to the character, Valery Legasov, in the HBO mini-series Chernobyl using a prop to explain how a national disaster had been allowed to happen. But you know what else Legasov did? He exposed how the government's lies during a crisis only makes things worse. 
  • No one will ever remember the Google lie, and I know I'm wasting my time. But people might remember this because Biden will run it on a loop until election day:
  • It's all fine. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold