Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Texas Coronavirus update: We have a problem. But Gov. Abbott said yesterday that we don't need to worry because there are "abundant numbers" of hospital beds. (No word on the abundance of  grave sites still available.) The mayors of Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Arlington, Plano and Grand Prairie wrote the governor yesterday asking him to at least mandate masks. He won't. But he blamed 20-somethings and protesters for the surge. Is this going to turn into a disaster? Did the Shelley Luthers of the world screw this up?

  

  Hospitalizations

  
• And how are we feeling about fall sports? Or school for that matter? Arlington Martin, Krum, and Frisco Lebanon have already shutdown their summer conditioning programs that just started due to positive 'Rona.  Baylor reported three athletes testing positive yesterday. 
• Wise County: 60 total, and 7 active. Expect that to change. 
• The fact Trump is going to have an indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday is unfathomable.  He tried to pretend the coronavirus was just going to go away -- those White House task force briefings suddenly stopped on April 27th -- but it has come back with a fury. But he doesn't care about the health consequences of having the rally so long as he gets to appear in front of a roaring crowd. The demands of his ego will cause the sacrifice of the health and lives of those who will attend that rally. Then again, that group is willing to die for him. 
  
• And let's not forget the Republican convention in Jacksonville, Florida.  And the NBA plans to resume the schedule their in a self contained "bubble?" They might want to tap the brakes on that. Florida is exploding. 

  

  Remember this? 

  
• There were a lot of these videos appearing (and dissappearing) yesterday on social media in regards to the Decatur protest. I have no idea of the identity of the voice that can be heard.

  A Decatur resident got footage of someone saying “we still got ropes” at Sunday’s BLM protest held outside the Wise County Courthouse. pic.twitter.com/GXVT6BaK8o

  — Austin Jackson (@a_jack17) June 16, 2020

• If you watched 13th, you'd know exactly why Trump constantly tweets "Law and Order." He knows what he is doing. It's code. 
  
  
• Trump announced yesterday that he was banning the choke hold by law enforcement unless they fear for their lives which means absolutely nothing has changed.  And he offered no words of unity. We went through the greatest amount of civil unrest since the 1960s (and maybe worse) and the President of the United States never gave us a unifying address from the Oval Office. Instead, we got this yesterday: 

  

  Heritage

  
  

  

  I don't know why a blatant lie on an unrelated subject was uttered.

• The Justice Department, acting as Trump's personal law firm, sued John Bolton yesterday to try and stop the release of his new book. (Which only gives the book more publicity.) Shockingly, they put Bolton's home address in the caption of the lawsuit. That’s bush league. There's no better barometer of Trump's competency than the number of the "best people", all who were considered Republican right wing golden children, who worked for him but then turned on him once they got an inside look.
  
• Just when I had my head wrapped around the Proud Boys, now I've got to learn about the Boogaloos. (Fox News' Tucker Carlson blamed the officer's death on "rioters" which is, of course, code for angry black people.) 
  
  
• You might remember this case. He is the former deputy city manager of Wichita Falls whose  30-year-long career with the city, and salary of $177,220, were destroyed when cops raided his home looking for weed. (Too many cops?™) They found a tiny amount of weed.  He was sentenced to one day in jail (time served) and a $1,000 fine via a plea bargain.  Note: It's not mentioned in the story but a little known Texas law will kick in which will require his driver's license to be suspended and he'll have to go through an arse whip of a "Drug Education Course" in order to get it back. And the case has nothing to do with driving. 

  

  Is this Pablo Escobar? No, that's
  not Pablo Escobar.

• I heard from a few people yesterday as to whether other states teach its own state's history. Yes: New Mexico, Colorado, and Mississippi. No: California.
• Interesting radio question this morning: In addition to the no questionable mascot of the Washington Redskins, how do we feel about the Texas Rangers and the Oklahoma Sooners -- two groups with a questionable history.
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Coronavirus: Texas. From Dallas to Wichita Falls, there were several restaurants close down because employees have contracted the 'rona, Zeke Elliott has it, and Dallas County and the state reported a record number of hospitalizations yesterday. All is well. The charts:

  

  Hospitalizations

  
  

  

  New daily cases reported 

• Wise County remains low: Total 58. Active 7.   
• But we have Wise County breaking rumor news: I've got a very unconfirmed report that we have a coronavirus case in a Decatur law office which was then potentially transmitted to the courthouse. (Let me say it again: This is a rumor which wouldn't make it past any editor.)
• The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the the 1964 Civil Rights Act covered discrimination against gays and transgendered people. Thoughts:
• Everyone needs to understand this is not a constitutional decision at all. This is simply a case of looking at a federal law passed by Congress and then deciding what it means.  Since I'm a recognized legal genius (at least in western Wise County) with the gift to explain esoteric concepts into the simplest of terms, here's the way I characterized the case late last year. Compare it to the opening paragraph of yesterday's decision.
  



My explanation



Judge Gorsuch

• And another tidbit my faithful readers were tipped off on: Late last year, I began seeing a rumor floated around about the case by people who don't deal in rumors. I thought it was worthy of a bullet point. And it was dead on: 
  
• I think I officially like Trump appointee Judge Gorsuch. I've already mentioned before how he has, thus far, been a huge Fourth Amendment proponent, and he dissented in the case holding it was not double jeopardy to be prosecuted by the State and the Federal government for the exact same crime. Plus, I like the way he writes. 
  
   
• Lost in the decision is how groundbreaking the Civil Rights Act was.  It was a federal law which mandated to a private business on private property who it could hire and fire and who it could open its doors to. (It was JFK's brainchild which was passed with the strong-arming of LBJ.)
• The first question is how does Congress have the power to do that? The answer is the "commerce clause" which has been interpreted to let Congress do anything they want.
• The next question is how can there still be entities which can legally not allow blacks to be members or not allow blacks to work there (like the Dallas Country Club did for years even after the passage of the Act)? The answer is that it's OK so long as you are a truly private club and don't open up the facilities as a "public accommodation." 
• Empower Texans (the oil money SuperPAC) is a weird group. They somehow managed to take the Title VII decision and use it to attack the company which got the huge contract for coronavirus "contract tracing." Hey, it's one thing to justifiably question the size of the contract to a possibly unqualified firm, but it's quite another to say, "Oh, and by the way, that company also supports the gays!!!"
  
  
• Trump, who had to be angered by the decision since he has undercut gay rights left and right, said it was a "powerful decision." It wasn't "powerful" at all. The Obergefell decision which interpreted the constitution as preventing states from outlawing gay marriage was powerful. This was a case which just interpreted a statute. 
• The graphic below shows the  2019 Wise County racial profiling stats which are required to be  kept by law pursuant to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure §2.132. Source of the data is here. Honestly, these numbers don't make much sense because the Hispanic detentions greatly exceed detentions of whites (except in Bridgeport.) The data is supposed to be collected "relating to motor vehicle stops in which a ticket, citation, or warning is issued and to arrests made as a result of those stops." I'll have to get some clarification from my law enforcement friends as to why the numbers seem jacked up. 
  
• Oklahoma State football went into a tail-spin yesterday after there was a player revolt upon seeing coach Mike Gundy in an OAN shirt. (He's made it no secret that the watches the conspiracy/white supremacist network saying the OAN was a "refreshing" news station that "just report the news" with "no opinions." ). His star runningback, Chuba Hubbard, attacked him and then other current and former players joined in.  OSU scrambled and hastily arranged to get the two to put together a joint video message which was wildly critized. Reacting, Hubbard then tweeted, "It's not over." It isn't over. And there is more going on that just an OAN shirt.

  • 

    Gundy is the homeless guy on the right

    
    

    

    Hubbard's reaction

    
    

    

    Hubbard after the joint video was released and panned

• A bunch of gun toting nutcases finally shot a protester last night who was trying to help tear down a statue in Albuquerque, NM. Here is a massive thread with tons of photos and videos, and here is a link to a post where the shots can be heard being fired. The statue was of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate which makes me realize I didn't pay enough attention in history. (Although I doubt Juan came up.) 
  
• It's hard to wrap your brain around how almost everyone is walking around with high definition video cameras in their pockets which we can be activated in seconds and then distributed, without geographical limitations, within a minute. 
• Speaking of history, the Senior in the House asked a good question the other day:  Texas obviously mandates a "Texas History" class in high school, but do other states have classes dedicate to their state's history? Or is Texas so cocky that we are a rarity in that regard?
• Why didn't I think of this? Of course the Official Liberally Lean Girl can bring us together! (I'm committing voter fraud as we speak as I'm trying to stuff the petition ballot box with mail-in ballots from dead people.)
  
• The Fort Worth PD issued a statement last night calling Fox News' Tucker Carlson a liar. It wasn't so much as he was a liar in general (we all know that), it was that he lied specifically about them. 

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Coronavirus in Texas update. This is fine? 

  

  Hospitalizations

  
  
  
• Wise County: No updated numbers since Thursday. 
• As expected hoped, the Black Lives Matter protest in Wise County went off without a hitch.  But the fact that there were "two sides" is a little embarrassing.
  
• The "other side's" position had a nice graphic to go along with it.  And what exactly did they mean by "outside influence(s)?"  And I'm proud to announced the "rule of law" as well as "democracy" survived a simple protest in Wise County by a group seeking (gasp) equality. Incredible. 
• 
  
  
  
• How in the world did the Atlanta police shooting of Rayshard Brooks happen? The New York Times has a great break down of it with annotated video. Thoughts:
  
• How a situation can escalate from a guy sleeping in his car to being shot with a handgun by the cops is a little hard to explain. 
• Someone falling asleep in a drive-through happens all the time. Ask any of your cop friends if he has dealt with it before. Also ask him or her if she ever considered using the ultimate lethal force on the person.
• It says something about society in general where a Wendy's employee's first inclination is to call the cops when a customer doses off. But that reaction by an employee also happens all the time. 
• Sure you don't resist arrest and you don't take a cops taser, but you don't need to die for it. If you think that a reasonable consequence, you need to really re-evaluate yourself.
• Shooting the guy two times in the back as he runs away doesn't help the cop's position.
• Somewhere along the way, the mission of most cops changed from "we are here to help and to keep the peace" to "we are here to get you."  For example, the guy asks if he can just leave his car and walk home. The cop responds with the question shown below for one reason: He wants the guy to say "because I'm drunk" or "because I shouldn't be driving" so he can have an admission for his DWI case.
  
• Should the cops have just let him park the car and walk home or let someone come get him? It makes sense to me. But then the problem becomes you have to then give that option to everyone. Then again, why not have a system where that option is given to everyone yet the DWI case could still be filed with the court? 
• I absolutely agree with those who think the cops should have just let the guy go when he began to run. At that point all we've got is a couple of misdemeanor charges of DWI and Resisting. You've got his car. You've got his ID. You're going to get him. 
• Portions of the field sobriety tests can be seen at on the New York Times site. He looks pretty good and interacts reasonably with the officer.   He ended up dying after a DWI investigation which might not have resulted in a DWI conviction. 
• I seriously doubt that the cop will ever be convicted of anything. And even I think he probably shouldn't. A reasonable doubt exists as to whether his split second decision was unreasonable under the circumstances. And a reasonable doubt is all it takes. 
• Who knew?
  
• Don't underestimate the stance taken by football players at the University of Texas.  Their demands are just socially justice related, but if all the pre-predominately black teams (meaning all of them) would realize they hold the bargaining power in a system which exploits them for millions and millions of dollars, we'd have a heck of a movement. 
  
• We are going to have a hard time explaining just how extremely stupid this time in American history was. 
  
• Speaking of, Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan had a statesman like twitter fight with actor Ron Perlman over the weekend.  Idiocracy.
  
• Just the President of the United States using the power of his office to try and break a private company because he doesn't like the news coverage that they have a constitutional right to provide and express.
  
• I've found my new campaign video from a guy out of Georgia! But not only is the video worth watching, but the fact that he got arrested for it really ramps up this story.
  
• I'm four episodes into HBO's Watchmen, and I'm really sucked in to something which has a lot of characteristics that normally don't appeal to me. And the fact that it has its roots in the Tulsa Massacre makes it timely. (Like most of you, I had never heard of the Tulsa incident until this year.)
  
• There's so much going on that I barely have time to mention Fox News literally becoming Fake News by photoshopping photos from Seattle. 
  
• It looks like I'll be shutting down my First Warn Alert Thunder Truck Live Action Weather Laboratory for the next two to three months. We're on cruise control. 

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

These the pranks I can get behind 😂 pic.twitter.com/GLz5ExhfKj

— danny ocean 🌊 (@dannypasifika) June 7, 2020

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i cannot stop thinking about her pic.twitter.com/dAwMsncMug

— maddy (@vennicebitch) June 8, 2020

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Let’s take a break from the heavy stuff. Here’s a good old fashioned wave smash pic.twitter.com/meanODiTxs

— influencersinthewild (@influencersitw) June 6, 2020

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That dog is on human mode @icanteven (via ig:pvmal) pic.twitter.com/IkJpoA9yHD

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 12, 2020

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Block or charge?🏀🤷‍♂️🐎😱🤭😂 pic.twitter.com/ye4quzglQz

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 11, 2020

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• 'Rona in Texas: Both hospitalizations and active cases are lower than the day before but both were near all time highs: 
  
  
• Wise County update: No new data was reported yesterday for the county website, but the official Texas site puts us at 11 active cases up from 6 yesterday. Edit after clarification from local official: There was a technical malfunction with the normally updated data but it should show 6 active cases. Why the confusion? "Notice we are also reporting 57 total cases, which is what DSHS reports to us, yet DSHS dashboard shows 55.  Also note that their active cases on DSHS dashboard are 'estimated' - they have had us 'estimated' at 11 since May 20, but that does not correlate with what they report to us daily."
• If you want to go to Trump's Tulsa rally, you'll have to sign a coronavirus waiver.  As long as you cheer, they don't care if you die. It's like a Jim Jones Liability Waiver.
  
• Sunday's "rally" at the the Wise County Courthouse on Sunday should be a calm affair that we all should want to take part in. Who could be against a peaceful gathering of people exercising their First Amendment protected rights in support of equality for all? It should be encouraged.  But some social media chatter makes me feel like I'm living in Selma in the the 1960s.
• Trump came to Dallas yesterday and held court at a church.  Dr. Robert Jeffress, however, was left on the sideline as a different pastor of a feel-good-gospel-mega-church was chosen by Trump to sit next to him instead.  Someone needs to check on Jeffress this morning.
  
• Trump said at the gathering in the church that he throws so much money at Texas that we are hoping for another hurricane. Note: Two days earlier the federal government denied Dallas' appeal to federal funds because of the tornado that wiped out a large part of the city last year. 
  
  
• Conspiracy theory! (Here's a pretty fun thread trying to figure out what the image over his left shoulder was.)
• 
• According to the Messenger, the coronavirus shutdown in April didn't impact Wise County cities' sales tax receipts at all. In fact, they went up. Color me confused. 2020: The year where nothing makes sense to me. 
• Life comes at you fast.
  
  
  
  
  
• I just finished reading this book about a murder in Houston which occurred in 2013.  The author said the case received "international attention", but I don't remember a single thing about it back then. (But my memory is so bad it's probably one of my bullet point somewhere.)
  
• I just started this one. "In 2019, Hulu began developing a series based on the book. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese will executive produce the project."
  
  
• Apology or not, that was extremely poor judgment for Gen. Milley to take part in Trump's street clearing photo-op in order to use the Bible as a prop. Milley says he considered resigning. He still should.
  

  

  "I should not have been there."

• Of course, he doesn't. 
  
• Whatever happened to that "task force" on gun violence that Greg Abbott formed after the mass shooting in El Paso? It couldn't have possibly have been all for show in order to give the impression you care about an issue when you don't, right?  (Compare and contrast Trump's visit to Dallas yesterday.)
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold