5.13.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • The Board. The death projections have been all over the place the last few weeks, but some think 110,000 is now a pretty good estimate.  Then we have the corona and flu season this fall. 
    Total cases: 1,408,636. Total deaths: 83,425.
  • Texas (Maybe if we turned the graph upside down we'd feel better.)
  • Wise County: Positive tests - 30. Active cases - 10.  Hey! It was just 7 yesterday. Isn't that technically a 42% increase?
  • This appears to be legit, but I'm not sure what the social distancing rules would be at a prom.
  • Ken Paxton threatened Clay Jenkins yesterday. No one is an adult any longer. 
  • Paxton was on the Mark Davis Show on Friday to talk about Shelley Luther (since obviously there is nothing more important to the the State of Texas.) What got my attention was that three separate times he referred to Judge Moye sentencing Luther to seven days in "prison."  This wasn't a simple mistake. The Attorney General of Texas does not know the difference between jails and prisons. 
  • Trump news: (1) Paul Manafort was released from prison overnight because of  'rona fears. (2) The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on whether his tax returns, which he promised to give us four years ago, are subject to subpoena. (3) And the judge in the Michael Flynn case issued a weird "what do the rest of you guys out there think" order about Barr's justice department wanting to drop charges. 
  • College football season is in jeopardy. With many California colleges already announcing they will go to online classes this fall (and with Cal and UCLA leaning that way), there is also talk of the PAC-10 moving its football schedule to the spring or just playing conference games. That'll cause some major problems.  Potential cancellations have already caused speculation of TCU and Alabama scrambling to meet at JerryWorld in the season opener if both of their California opponent games get called off. (Then again, why would they play at JerryWorld if there won't be any fans?)
  • All of the Texas court websites are still being held hostage by ransomware this morning. The state still not going to pay?
  • Me: Elon Musk is also a "genuine nutcase."
  • I haven't watched a second of the Michael Jordan documentary. I understand the interest, but I don't really care about the man. 
  • Dak Prescott ought to give serious thought to taking the path of Kirk Cousins -- an average quarterback who continues to make big money despite having the Redskins place the Franchise Tag on him for the maximum two years. With Franchise Tag salaries being predetermined,  Cousins got $19 million his first tag year and $23 million the second. He then move on to short term deals with a 3 year $84 million deal with the Vikings and then a 2 year $65 million extension. If Dak goes that route, he starts out with $32 million for this year's tag and then $37 million for next year if the Cowboys franchise him again. 
  • With the Wise County courts basically shut down, there were 32 Class A and Class B misdemeanors filed yesterday.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold (link fixed)