7.10.2020

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
















at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • Wise County Active Cases: 37. That is down 17 from just yesterday. So let me get this straight. The whole state is exploding with cases and we had a one day 30% plummet in cases? And if you attribute it to some type of bookkeeping clean-up, what's the point of having any bookkeeping at all? I continue to be skeptical of the Wise County numbers. 
  • Texas. Look at these numbers. And Gov. Abbott says next week will be worse. 


  • I finally talked to one of the conronavirus victims in Wise County yesterday. "If one more person asks me if it was 'like the flu', I'm going to kill 'em. It's not the flu," he told me. And he is still feeling the fatigue effects and fogginess despite the fact its been over two weeks since he was deemed "recovered." 
  • The Big 10 announced yesterday that it would limit its college football play to conference games over. Folks, the season is going to be cancelled. That announcement is just to soften the final death knell which is coming. (Side note: Man, the Big 10 is the cockiest conference in the country. That announcement was a nuclear bomb which had a ripple effect throughout college football, and they just hauled off an made the decision without consulting with any other conference.)
  • I wasn't familiar with "The Pickles" fine work, but its got some funny observations.

  • I've said it for weeks: There is no way we are having Texas high school football this fall. No. Way. 
  • Not many details are known about this other than a "woman who escaped the home told police her son shot a woman." The whole incidence was pretty close to the Wise County line. 
  • When a Supreme Court opinion starts like this, you know how it is going to end. I've said it before: I continue to be a big fan of Gorsuch and a bigger fan of the way he writes. And it's noteworthy that as the Supreme Court was putting the final touches on this opinion a couple of weeks back, protesters were at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue trying to tear down the statue of Andrew Jackson.
  • Ted Cruz knows this is a lie. (The case simply says that certain major crimes committed in the disputed territory can only be prosecuted by the federal government instead of Oklahoma state authorities.)  He's just lying to get people riled up. But this pretty much demonstrates that Cruz was not born in Texas. He doesn't realize most Texans aren't going to get riled up about Oklahoma losing a lawsuit.
  • I saw this yesterday and didn't remember it from the news recently. Found out it's from 2017 and quite the nationwide who-done-it now.
  • The Texas Republicans are suing the City of Houston for cancelling their convention. The phrase "mere pandemic" is a very odd one. But it legitimately would be a good band name.
  • Look at the bad news: August starts in three weeks.
  • Speaking of Idiocracy, a post by Flavor Flav posing with the Secretary of Treasury and offering a hot political opinion is something I didn't expect to see yesterday. Then again, why am I surprised? 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold
  • Michael Cohen is going back to prison for not agreeing to the terms of his home confinement. Trump's personal lawyer is one of the dumbest men in America. (His lawyer says he wasn't returned to prison for dining out as the Post implies below but because he wouldn't agree to refrain from talking to the media while on house arrest. Still dumb.) 

at 8:32 AM

7.09.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • Wise County Active Cases: 54 (A new record.) 
  • Texas. Talk about record setting, we get another "Oh, my!" day. And you want death numbers because you are still skeptical? I'll give you death numbers.



  • Decatur anecdotal evidence of mask enforcement: Walmart wasn't letting people in yesterday who did not have a mask on. That was causing some anger from the give-me-liberty-because-I-want-to-risk-spreading-death crowd.
  • This "Should schools be open?" question is a really wild one. Teachers, by and large, want the beginning of school delayed.  And, despite all these threats of "We will open the schools!" by Trump, I don't think we are factoring in the possibility of a collective "Screw that!" from teachers across the country who then stage a walk out. 
  • Oh, here's a first grade teacher from Arizona who just died after teaching virtual summer school in Arizona. She worked  "in the same room as two other teachers [who went] above and beyond in taking precautions against the spread of the virus while teaching in the same room, but all three contracted COVID-19."
  • The chance for fall sports? (1) The Ivy League announced yesterday that it was shutting down all sports, including football, (2) The University of North Carolina shut down voluntary workouts after 37 athletes and staff tested positive, (3) The NFL player's union is working on an agreed "opt out" policy for any player that wants without repercussions.
  • Other 'Rona news: (1) The City of Houston announced the Texas Republican Party can't hold their convention there, (2) The Texas Sheriff's Convention scheduled for July in Fort Worth has been cancelled. 
  • Huh? (If you can get past the highlighted part, someone needs to tell him to give up on that insane rant.)
  • The Supreme Court decision on his taxes comes out at 9:00 a.m. today. He hasn't been tipped off, has he? (That's not a prediction on the outcome of the decision on my part.)

  • A little while back, a long time city police officer in Wise County was relieved of his duties after an incident of violence following an arrest. (It's been so hard to confirm anything, that's the best I can do.) 
  • TxDOT is going to put in an overpass on 287 at NRS Ranch Road in Wise County. You know, when the county took over and paved NRS Ranch Road one of the reasons given was that an overpass would be there one day. I didn't think that would ever happen.  I was wrong. But of all the the dangerous areas along 287 in Wise County, that area isn't even on the radar.  What about that death trap right past Rhome where CR 4840 meets 287?  
  • In other traffic news: Expect to see red lights going in at 287 and 380 very soon. 
  • I never watched a complete episode of Glee although the rest of the Family Unit ate it back in the day. I presume they are depressed this morning because one of its stars is missing and presumed dead.
  • My innate ability, known far and wide, to detect a person of questionable character is beginning to go off very loudly whenever I listen to golfer Bryson DeChambeau.
  • On the front page of the Wichita Falls paper this morning we've got a story about whether a very wheels off courthouse lawn area is racist along with comments defending it from the sheriff who has the very wheels off name of David Duke. 



at 8:33 AM

7.08.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




  • Wise County Active Cases: 49. It's ties the record.  And although it's just a small sample of data since we've resumed getting new numbers from the State, but this trend is not good.   
  • Texas: Hospitalizations continue to rise, and my predicted explosion of the reporting of new cases because of the holiday weekend came true. 

  • Trump said yesterday that he'll "put pressure" of the States to open schools this fall.  He has no guidelines to offer, yet he just wants to damn the torpedoes and try to force us into normalcy two months before an election in the middle of a pandemic. I don't know if it is safe to open schools or not, but safety isn't even a factor he is considering.
  • He' just 65 but  "falls" and has to be taken by ambulance to a hospital last month and we aren't told about it? The official line is that it is not related to at least two seizures he has suffered in the past. Oh, it seems fitting that the the leader of a court that we depend on to ensure justice and equality fell at a country club.
  • The original extreme "And Another" has died.  I had forgotten how absolutely wild the facts of that case were. (She later married the kid and they stayed married from 2004 to 2019 which is a longer run than a lot of us have had).
  • "You minion delegates go ahead and cozy up to one another. As for those of us you have elected, we'll just do this remotely if that's OK. But we're all in this together 100%!"
  • My alarms go off whenever I hear "our heritage" these days. 
  • With each passing day, I don't think college football is going to happen this fall. OU and Texas are going to play a football game in an empty stadium surrounded by a State Fair which was cancelled due to health concerns? I don't see it happening. 
  • "Miami lawyer wears hazmat uniform to federal court for sentencing hearing." He's either seriously concerned or he is doing a bit in protest of the court being in session. I think I would have slapped on a tie to make my intentions even more ambiguous.
  • Since I did an Old Timer's football note yesterday, I'll do another. It's this guy's birthday today. He's the first player I ever remember who I absolutely hated but also wanted him to be on my team. 
  • Here's a hot grocery opinion: Fruit, already cut up and packaged, is ridiculously expensive. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold




at 8:32 AM

7.07.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • Texas
    Hospitalizations: This is will stop rising. Someday. Maybe.

    Still wonky reporting from the weekend. Expect a numbers explosion today
    when we to catch up.
  • Wise County Active cases: 49 (an all time record and 9 above yesterday's record). As always, these numbers are suspect. We've got more than that. 
  • I think there are more people scheduled to be at the Wise County Courthouse today than at any time in the last four months. (The dockets went out way before the recent crazy jump in COVID-19 cases.)
  • The federal government released a list (that's a searchable database link) of 660,000 firms who received a don't-have-to-pay-it-back PPP loan of at least $150,000. That's a whole lot of businesses gettin' them a piece of socialism, right? And get this: That's only 15% of the whole PPP pie. 
    • My favorite on the list: Robert Jeffress' First Baptist Church of Dallas which got between $2 million and $5 million (the government just gave a range and not a specific amount) in order to pay 293 employees.
    • There were 12,473 churches on that list who received your taxpayer money. So much for the separation of church and state.
  • A part-time assistant DA in Decatur was arrested for DWI over the weekend.  I hate it because I like the guy. He's honest, respected, and good at his job. But it's newsworthy.
  • It's 2020 and the President of the United States doesn't have a position on the Confederate flag. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone yesterday. 
  • Just like I led the way in explaining Zeke Elliott's contract, let me explain Patrick Mahomes "record breaking 12 year, $500 million contact."  As always in the NFL, the key is the guaranteed money. Mahomes should care about how much he's going to get if he gets hurt or (miraculously) cut at any point.  In this case, it's weird.  In the beginning the guaranteed amount changes from year to year.  After year five, the deal basically become this: We can cut you at any time but we will have to pay you $40-$45 million once we do.  If the contract ends anytime during the first five years, the amount is significantly bigger. 
  • Look at how much ultra-conservative Empower Texans PAC money man Farris Wilks is handing over to try and get his son-in-law elected to Congress. 
  • The Texas bar exam was cancelled, but it will be offered online in October. I would have been crushed to have it cancelled three weeks before it was supposed to occur since I would have had at least six weeks of full time studying already invested.  In barely-related news, I learned that Virginia makes those sitting for the bar wear "court-appropriate attire" (although they'll let you leave the tie at home this year since tens of thousands of people in the country are dying.) And the tone of this notice makes me think that the person(s) who wrote it is insufferable. 
  • Ticket fans: This morning, Junior Miller talked about his trip to Colorado and his curiosity about the "Ludlow Massacre" since he passed a sign about it on the highway. After I made that trip last year, I made Ludlow a bullet point. He also compared it to Tienanmen Square which, as long time listeners know, I have a picture of Tank Man hanging on my office wall. Weird. Or not. 

at 8:33 AM

7.06.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts



  • Wise County active cases: 40 (but it hasn't been updated in over 48 hours)
  • Texas:
    The hospital numbers are still rising 

    Daily new case numbers will be wonky because of holiday weekend reporting
  • Wait a second!
  • So the resumption of sports is going to happen without a hitch? (1) The Milwaukee Bucks and Sacramento Kings have shut down their practices before heading to the "bubble" because of positive cases.  (2) Below is a shot of the Seattle Mariners eating lunch together while social distancing at their abbreviated spring training. As those teams are going to get on planes for a 60 game season? (3) The quote of the weekend: “Sports are like the reward of a functional society.”
  • Someone needs to tell Trump he doesn't need the Klan vote.  Getting passed that Bubba Wallace had nothing to do with the noose controversy, he just hugged and kissed the Confederate flag. What a crazy hill to die on. Even Mississippi has turned on the Confederate flag.
  • The Supreme Court is about to rule on whether he has to release his taxes. That could come as early at 9:00 a.m. today. He's already on the brink of losing his mind. That could be the tipping point. 
  • Alan Dershowitz has always acted very odd about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And it doesn't help when he tweets out things like this. Harvard Law's reputation takes a hit when one of its most notable graduates and professors (1) uses "hereby" in a tweet like it has some magical meaning, and (2) thinks he needs to "waive any right of privacy" in videos that he supposedly is not in. 
  • Junior's girlfriend has caught the 'Rona. She had just spoken at a gathering in South Dakota after attending a (maskless) high tone party in the Hamptons. 
  • At least he was polite after giving his order. 

  • Look, no one is going to get a ticket for not wearing a mask as required by Gov. Abbott's executive order -- especially in Wise County. And, per the order, you are supposed to only get a warning for a first offense.  Here's a legal question: How can can a ticket or warning be given if a cop doesn't have the authority to even momentarily "detain" anyone in violation of the order?  Answer: It can't be. Abbott is flying be the seat of his pants.
  • As of late last night, there's a bass boat at the bottom of Lake Bridgeport if anyone wants it. 

  • Fireworks!
  • The UT football player, DeMarvion Overshown, who announced late last week that he was boycotting playing until "changes" were made posted a screenshot of a reaction to his announcement.
  • I've watched the first full season of The Leftovers, and I have no idea if I love it or hate it.
  • Very random sports flashback for you old-timers out there: Quick loading video of Joe Theisman returning a punt. I had no idea.
  • Ticket fans only: Here's a clip of Mike Rhyner being interviewed by Julie Dobbs saying he left because "the station was no longer going to be able to play to my strengths and that I was going to be able to do the thing that I do. And it was just time for me to jump off and see if I could do it somewhere else and that's what's going to happen." 

at 8:34 AM
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