- The Board. It's trending down but not as quickly as it rose. And additional testing might turn it into more of a plateau than a peak. Or maybe not.
- Deaths.
- Texas:
- Tarrant County (Where the persons in charge of reporting numbers must take the day off on Sunday. There's definitely a pattern. ):
- Wise County: 9 cases. 2 deaths.
- It's been 40 days since the night of Tom Hanks announcement, the NBA shut down, and Trump held his oval office press address.
- I didn't know that Trump would take my Rural Uprising™ theory and make it a call for civil war and law breaking. This is shockingly reckless.
- Especially in light of the protesters looking very responsible.
- Wow: This morning oil dropped below $12 a barrel. I've said it before: If there were no pandemic and the collapse of the oil field were the only story, Texas would still be in dire straits right now.
- Gov. Abbott thought his task force on reopening Texas would instill confidence if he named it "Strike Force." It doesn't.
- For the legal community, it doesn't look like anything will be happening at the courthouses at least until June per new state guidelines. "In-person proceedings of any size should be delayed until at least June 1." Courthouses may be the very last to open. It's one thing for people to make their own decisions as to when and where they will congregate, but forced co-mingling by the government in tight quarters is a totally different matter.
- This was left on a business owner's door in Denton. He put the orange "no" mark on it before posting it online.
- Speaking of Denton, the city government is considering layoffs. The loss of sales tax revenue for the cities and state will be a massive story in the upcoming months.
- Rep. Phil King on the Rural Uprising™. He's for it.
- We finally found something Senator John Cornyn cares about: A high end store that caters to to the rich.
- There aren't many details but a man was shot and killed during a turkey hunting accident in Young County. A group of three men, all in their twenties, were from Jack County. Edit: The victim might have been from Bridgeport and worked in Decatur.
- I watched some of the Global Citizen concert on the TV box on Saturday night and, even though I'm a music idiot, I stopped down for Eddie Vedder playing an organ, the Killers, and Billie Joe of Green Day. All of those performances stripped down to simplicity make them arguably better than the original. (Quick loading videos in the links). But most people were fascinated with the concept of Elton John shooting hoops in his spare time.
- If you want to educate yourself on our criminal justice system, Netflix is killing it right now. Its newly released The Innocence Files and How To Fix a Drug Scandal will make you question, as you always should, what prosecutors and their "experts" feed you.
- Bud Kennedy has a column on metroplex local officials supporting "Q." The post below is from the mayor pro-tem of Colleyville who was part of a wild lawsuit a year or so ago (which I still think is ongoing.)
- Messenger: Above the Fold
- We've got our second Wise County coronavirus death. I wonder if that'll make us tap the brakes on the re-opening sentiment.
- The nationwide Board: Wednesday's new cases: 30,342. Thursday: 29,567
- Deaths on Wednesday: 2,618. Thursday: 2,174. (The seven day average is still ticking upwards)
- Texas: Wednesday's new cases: 945. Thursday: 973. (The average still trends down.)
- Wise County total cases: 7 (2 deaths, as noted.)
- Jack County total cases: 3. Clay County: 3. Montague County: 5.
- Tarrant County new cases on Wednesday: 61. Thursday: 103.
- Politico stole my Rural Uprising™ theory yesterday.
- I have no idea about when we should "re-open" or how it should be done.
- If you're interested in a series of photos of an empty Broadway at night, here ya go.
- Facebook (the company) has cancelled any gathering involving greater than 50 people through June 2021.
- A new Gallop poll shows that the Rural Uprising™ sentiment is not widespread. At all.
- Decatur's gas is cheap. I never thought I'd see those prices again. (Photo from yesterday.) Bridgeport was still at $1.65 yesterday evening.
- So it's going to be like this? Sheesh.
- I'm always confused how sometimes I'm in total agreement with a far right wing Empower Texans Republican. Especially him.
- If you had an appointment with Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, or Dr. Drew you might want to rethink that.
- Wichita Falls County deputy news. Legal stuff: That statute is getting complicated.
- Brian Dennehy died yesterday. I felt like I saw him in everything, but looking at his filmography makes me second guess myself. But one of my favorite rolls of his was a pretty small one: The D.A. in Presumed Innocent.
- He was also in Cocoon, but I didn't remember that (which probably means I've not seen Cocoon in over twenty years). Speaking of, we have an impressive Brimley/Cocoon line this morning. Remember the Super Bowl halftime?
- Andrew Cuomo always has a slick powerpoint presentation running while he speaks at his daily press conferences. This made me laugh.
- I had a college geology teacher who told the class that midnight and noon were neither a.m. or p.m. There are few things which have stuck with like that. (Fun fact: A current candidate for the Bridgeport
City Council School Board was sitting next to me when he said that, and we both looked at each other with "That can't possibly be right" expressions.)
- Today's cold front will hit Wise County in about 15 minutes.
- Wise County now has a coronavirus death. No details were provided. I suppose we can look at the Update funeral service notices and speculate.
- The Board. New cases on Tuesday: 26,942. Wednesday: 30,206
- Deaths on Tuesday: 2,407. Wednesday: 2,482.
- Texas:
- Wise County: 7 cases total. 1 death.
- Tarrant: 61 new cases yesterday.
- Yesterday I said I thought Wise County would open up no earlier than May 1st and no later than May 15th. Like I've done throughout the pandemic, I've rethought that -- primarily because I considered the Wise County Courthouse. You ever been in there on docket days? It's packed. There is no room, and you're inevitably standing shoulder to shoulder with someone. Everyone is touching the same doorknobs, step rails, pens and paper. And then I thought about juries being called in where you have 75 people sitting shoulder to shoulder. Yep, I'm not so sure about my window any longer.
- I guess there could be some type of "gradual opening", but I don't know how you could pull it off.
- Am I going to win some type of award for predicting the Rural Uprising™ drawn along political lines?
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| Museum worthy. |
- New Hampshire is next. What's keeping the South from doing this? That's where you would think these protests would be the most likely to occur.
- Per The Wall Street Journal, in Trump's conference call with business leaders yesterday about reopening the country, they told him "that his administration needed to dramatically increase the availability of coronavirus testing before the public would be confident enough to return to work, eat at restaurants or shop in retail establishments." I think that's also code for "we've got liability out the arse unless there some way we can prove we took steps to insure our employees on the floor didn't have the coronavirus."
- Are the political conventions going to happen this summer?
- There was a hearing yesterday in the 353rd District Court in Travis County where the issue was whether Texas voters should be allowed to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. The Zoom conference was broadcast on Youtube so I tuned in just to see the logistical cluster. Amazingly, it went off very well. (That's the court reporter's hands you see there. The oldest guy on the screen did a bit with a background of a snowy mountain.)
- The position of Ken Paxton was that the government should be able to lock you up for even applying for a mail-in ballot. The district court ruled against them so, for now, mail-in balloting is a legal way to go.
- The Republicans always use the fear of "fraud" as the reason they are against mail-in ballots although there's no proof of that whatsoever. Somehow we can send a $1,200 check to everyone in the country but we fear fraud for mail-in voting?
- "A Crowley woman has sued Princess Cruise Lines this week, alleging the company knowingly exposed her and her husband to the novel coronavirus in February, which resulted in his death." I found it interesting that her attorney is Houston's Rusty Hardin. He's most famous for representing Roger Clemens who was accused of obstructed justice and lying to Congress during the steroid hysteria. I didn't know he did PI work.
- As I continue to watch The Staircase -- which is absolutely fantastic -- I was reminded of how much I truly despise Nancy Grace. I love how her Wikipedia page breaks down into sections all the crazy things she's said.
- I didn't know someone named Big Mama Thornton was the first to record Hound Dog. (Youtube.) That's a better version than Elvis'.
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