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- The Board:
Total cases: 1,237,633
Total deaths: 72,271 - Texas (If you could go back in time and were then forced to guess where along the timeline we would begin to "open up", would you have guessed right now?)
- Metroplex (Dallas: Blue + New daily record / Tarrant: Red / Collins: Yellow / Denton: Purple.):
- Wise County: 28 cases, 4 active. (Our number of total cases keeps going up but our active cases mysteriously stay low. It's almost like antibody tests results are coming in: You had it, but you don't now -- so let's add a number to the total cases column and the total recoveries column. That's just a wild and reckless guess on my part.)
- The big news yesterday was Shelley Luther of Salon A la Mode was sentenced to seven days in jail and $7,000 fine for violating the order to not open her hair salon. Ok, there's a lot to unpack here.
- First, the judge would have let her go without a fine or incarceration if she agreed to shut down and apologize. Heck, she can get out of jail right now if she'll agree to that.
- Listen to him give her that ultimatum here. Listen to her defiant response here.
- To ask for an apology from her is ridiculous. The judge even wanted her to apologize to government officials who imposed the order. Heck, I wouldn't have demanded it, but it wouldn't have surprised me if she would have acknowledged she violated the Order and expected to be punished. But even I'd say "screw that" if a judge told me to apologize to Clay Jenkins and Greg Abbott. No way. That's a whole lot of bow-before-me attitude from the judge.
- On the other hand, she asked for this. She wanted to be a martyr and now she gets to be a martyr. If she had just opened her shop up without appearing at rallies and tearing up the tickets, going on TV, and going on radio shows, she would have been under the radar and the government would have left her alone.
- Her attorney could have helped her out a little bit if he wasn't so concerned about showboating.
- This is a gut check for the "law and order" crowd out there. Do you get to pick and choose which laws you want to follow? Haven't you scoffed at those who have yelled about marijuana laws being unfair? Supported cops shoving a black man face down in the pavement because "he didn't follow orders"? Is this somehow different because it infringes on your unique definition of "freedom"?
- The usual suspects came to her defense.
- I've got a question: Why were the lawyers and Luther holding up a cell phone to their mouths when they were talking? Although the hearing was in person, was that done so the audio could be picked up on the simultaneous Zoom broadcast?
- When the judge came out wearing a mask, Shelley Luther had to feel like Nathan R. Johnson in The Jerk when he noticed the judge was cross-eyed from wearing his Optigrab™ glasses. (Obscure reference, but funny to handful of you out there.)
- Unrelated to the hearing, we had two far-right winger Texas legislators showing their respect for the law as well:
It should be a crime to have that mustache. - And just when those guys caused me roll my eyes, law enforcement in Ector County decided to lose their minds and go into Full Nazi Mode. Incredible. And what's up with that ridiculous vehicle of war? Watch it.
- And throw in the Wisconsin Supreme Court acting like children as they heard oral arguments on the legality of some stay at home laws. This one minute clip is not a good look.
- He's not joking. Paul McCartney and Wings was blaring in the background.
- I'm still trying to figure out what's going on here. It looks like some DA was dragging his feet but at least has been shamed enough to get the case to a grand jury.
- More (but mundane) legal stuff: I've complained before about license plate readers being used by cops to track a car coming from Colorado and then coming up with a pretext reason to stop the vehicle to see if it contains legally purchased weed. There are now legal challenges beginning which are pretty creative.
- There is no greater train wreck of county government and law enforcement than Williamson County. That place is always making the news.
- I stumbled upon this article from an Oklahoma State news site about a recent Bridgeport High School valedictorian who attempted suicide.
- Messenger: Above the Fold
