8.19.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Breaking local COVID news: The virus has hit the Wise County Sheriff's Office. My well placed deep throat sources tell me that someone very high up in the administrative ranks had been diagnosed with COVID-19. 
  • Wise County active cases: 52
  • Texas hospitalizations. The streak is over. We are +10 from yesterday. 
  • The University of North Carolina shut down online classes on Monday. Notre Dame shut it down yesterday. This is going very well. 
  • Failed bit?
  • The unexpected star of the Democratic National Convention last night was calamari which made an appearance during the states' roll call voting. 
    "Vote for Biden or the calamari gets it!" 

  • Something which would have destroyed any other president in American history: The Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee released its final report yesterday concluding that Russia disrupted the presidential election to help Trump get elected and that the Trump campaign welcomed the help with open arms.  Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and "I love WikiLeaks" were all part of a grand scheme. Who would have thunk? (Not to mention Kushner's and Junior's and Manafort's meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower. How on God' green Earth did that not get them all indicted?) 
  • Let's make is simple. Here's the conclusion of Republican Senate report for those in the back:
  • I can't tell you how great this four minute clip is of Anderson Cooper just destroying the My Pillow guy yesterday. It is glorious, and it is brutal.  Mike Lindell, who is a snake oil salesman, is trying to profit by promoting a supplement which he actually calls a "cure" (his word, not mine) for COVID-19. Lindell was just placed on the Board of Directors of the company trying to pull off this scam and is trying to make money off this ruse. Cooper isn't letting him off the hook. 

  • I can't believe the Cowboys had a provision in the Gerald McCoy contract which allowed them to cut him without receiving his "guaranteed money" if he received the specific injury that he did. I've said it before, they have the worst union in America. This is the actual provision: 
  • Heck of a fire in Grand Prairie this morning. (I don't know who the @Fox4Terry guy is, but he's always on the night shift and gets some really good photos.)
It's at a plastic manufacturing plant.
"Uh, Bob, we need ya down at the plant. We got a little problem."
(Honestly, I have no idea who this guy is.)
  • The S＆P has hit a new record. The New York Times has a headline today which reads, "The Market Is Nuts." It is. And it no longer reflects the realities of the economy. It's a barometer of how the rich are doing. 
  • I've never really thought about the fact that the guy from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was wearing a jacket and tie. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold.  (They have a front page story about something I have been griping about for over a decade: The death ramp at highway 380 and 287 which is home to the most abused guardrail in America.)


at 8:34 AM

8.18.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Wise County active: 62, but we haven't had an update since Friday. (The Update told me this morning that the county site will now be updated every afternoon by at least 3:00 p.m. instead of every evening. Regardless, someone must have not received the memo.)
  • Texas hospitalizations. The downward streak continues. Barely. I still think that thing is going to flatten out at around 5,000. 
  • I still don't have a handle on how schools are going to handle it once a student shows up with the COVID? How far will the quarantine and/or cancellations extend?
  • The real State of the Union 2020:
  • Random Sports: So Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres hit a grand slam against the Rangers last night (watch it) and the Rangers are whining about it because he broke the "unwritten rule" that you don't swing at an 0-3 pitch? And then the Padres manager even said he would have preferred that he take the pitch? What a bunch of babies. Here's Ranger manager Chris Woodward:
  • It has been announced that these two will make an appearance at the Republican National Convention? Are they trying to lose? 

  • The most brutal line from the Democratic National Convention last night:

  • The big rumor for the Establishment Pick to become the next state senator in Wise County's district: Drew Springer.
  • 100 years ago today, the 19th Amendment was ratified which forever gave women the right to vote. That's just 100 years ago. My own grandmother couldn't vote for a time in the greatest country in the world because she was female. That ain't that long ago. 
  • The botton pic is from Arlington yesterday. The top pic is from Arlington last Wednesday.

  • I had my first Zoom criminal hearing yesterday (they basically don't exist in the criminal law world). It went off without a hitch. The biggest change in technology over the last 10 years is that now things "just work."   
  • I missed this GIF from the Beirut blast.
  • New Dallas Cowboy Gerald McCoy blew out his quadriceps tendon in his first padded practice yesterday and is gone for the year. Here's the video of it happening. That's so weird. 
  • More injury news: QB Alex Smith, who was injured on November 18, 2018, has been cleared to return to play for the Washington Football Team. No way I'd be picking up a football. I'd be headed to the house.  (ESPN has a short documentary on his recovery on its E60 series called "Project 11." You can see it on ESPN+ if you want to pay for it.) 
    "Good morning to ya."

  • Bridgeport is under another "boil water" notice this morning. That should never happen, but it seems to happen all the time. 

at 8:35 AM

8.17.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • Wise County active: 62 (New record. Last data was Friday night.)
  • Texas hospitalizations. Consistency continues.
  • As colleges begin to reopen: 
    • Oklahoma State had 23 cases reported in one sorority.
    • The University of North Carolina reported four clusters including at a fraternity and a dorm. (They only say a "cluster" is "at least" five.)
    • The Sooners had nine players contract the COVID.
  • The commute of the I-30 bridge from Rockwall into Dallas has to be one of the biggest beatings of all time.  This happened in the middle of the night last night and was still there this morning. There isn't an easy alternative route.
  • Being a top weatherman in the Southwest Proper, I felt obligated to go stand outside yesterday evening when the cold front blew through. Looking north down a dusty road, I could literally see it coming at me. It was weird. (Sorry for the technical scientific terminology I'm throwing at you.)
  • I didn't expect "Dismantle the Post Office" to be a campaign strategy. (Note: If you think the Post Office is "supposed to turn a profit", just wait until you hear about the Department of Defense.)
  • August 15th was Saturday. Trump golfed on Saturday. That's also the say day as his brother, his "best friend", died in hospital. 

  • She wanted nothing to do with that hand. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MOMENTS AGO: President Trump, First Lady Melania, and Barron arrive at Joint Base Andrews from Morristown, NJ. <a href="https://t.co/f6z3m5gx8w">pic.twitter.com/f6z3m5gx8w</a></p>&mdash; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1295122580907720705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  • This Fort Worth lawyer started his walk from Austin on August 9th to talk to Gov. Greg Abbott about civil rights. I'm trying to track his progress especially because it was so brutally hot last week. The last I can figure out is that he was around Waco. He might be rethinking that plan. 
  • The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas has a strong headline game. 
  • Now ask him about the Loch Ness monster. 
  • I wonder what the "feels like" temperature was? (I stole that joke.)
  • I steal most of my jokes. 
  • Sports: The Evil Empire got a verbal commitment from a top quarterback but he won't be a freshman until 2022. But get this, Quinn Ewers started as a sophomore for Southlake Carroll and put up these stats: 72% completion rate for with 3,998 yards, 45 passing touchdowns and only three interceptions. But cf. Garrett Gilbert.
  • Very random office debate: Before they moved the post office in Decatur from what is now the Visitor's Center, were the outside mailboxes in front of it or to the side of it? 
  • The guy is still barricaded inside of a home this morning:

at 8:36 AM

8.14.2020

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Wise County active cases: 61. That's a record. I've got an unconfirmed tip that our crazy jump in the numbers is due to a nursing home outbreak. 
  • Texas hospitalizations. I'm impressed by the consistency of this decline. But is anyone else a little suspicious that the decline started at the exact same time as the Trump Administration took the official reporting away from the CDC?
  • Texas schools are opening but late yesterday Stanford decided to shut the campus down. Yep. Stanford thinks it is not safe.
  • I wonder Trump is OK. He'd normally lose it over something like this. Video.
  • The United States Postal Service is going the way of Trump University and Trump Atlantic City Casino.  But this time he's trying to kill it. 
  • A Denton Guyer cross country runner died after practice yesterday morning. 
  • The sorriness of Mike Pence is so often over looked. This was incredible. We lost 22 million jobs this year and then Pence celebrated that just 9 million came back. (And, to boot, that 9 million figure, which isn't even true, is still less than the 11 million jobs added during the Obama administration.)


  • I'm convinced 30% of the population is nuts. Case in point, the host of The Mark Davis Show played this video on Tuesday of a Hasbro Troll Doll which, very weirdly, has a button in its private area which prompts it to make odd responsive noises. Is it a little crazy? Yep. How'd it get made? I have no idea. But his callers lit into him for not 100% buying into the theory that Hasbro intentional made the doll in order to groom children for pedophiles. (You can listen to it here. 8/11/20 at 8:00 a.m.) So people are crazy or most of Davis' listeners are members of QAnon. Both are possible.
  • Hot August Night Day.
    108?!
  • I'm finally watching Outcry - the Showtime documentary about the Williamson County wrongful prosecution of the Leander High School football player. I get so pissed off watching things like this because I know how easily this good happen in our current system. And if this show doesn't burn these prosecutors to the ground, I'll be even more pissed off. The first episode (which is available on Amazon - the rest are on Showtime) even recaps the Michael Morton case calling out the prosecutors by name. It's great.
  • Williamson County is always a criminal justice train wreck. It even made the news today.
  • I almost hit a opossum in downtown Decatur this morning. (Put that on my bragging montage.)
  • "Sure, winning isn't every thing, It's the only thing." - Oft attributed to Vince Lombardi but was actually said by UCLA coach Red Sanders. Sanders died this day in 1958 of a heart attack while shirtless in a hotel room with a prostitute and an elderly man. Which just goes to show you, people have always been wheels off. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM
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