- Texas hospitalizations: Uh, oh.
- COVID quick hits:
- The Baylor/Oklahoma State scheduled for this Saturday has been moved to the end of the year due to an outbreak at Baylor.
- And although I feel like we are about to have a second wave, we sure aren't acting like it. Here's a list of schools ending remote learning.
- Slidell didn't like the state basketball tournament being cancelled because of COVID and, based upon the lack of masks, they don't think too much about the threat now.
- Speaking of.
- We had another killing at a protest over the weekend -- this time in Denver. Everyone is now acting like we live in a first person shooter video game. Good lord, people. What went down is complicated but start with this incredible photo. You can see the casing being ejected.
- There are an additional series of photos taken of the incident by a photographer with the Denver Post. We know there was a slap before the spraying.
- The shooter, by the way, was working security for a local Denver TV station although he didn't have an active license. The dead guy's T-Shirt reads "BLM. Ya Right. All ------- lives matter."
- And just when you think it all happened in slow motion, watch this 45 second video of the now dead guy arguing with someone else immediately before his death. He goes off screen at 36 seconds and you hear the very loud shot from feet away nine seconds later. Chilling.
- Trump has released a nationwide commercial which gives the impression that Dr. Fauci is talking about how great he is. We will be deceived until the very end.
- It just began. Amy Coney Barrett will be confirmed, and I seriously doubt the confirmation hearing will be cantankerous. The Democrats, rightly or wrongly, believe that the White House will be theirs if they don't do something to screw it up in the next 22 days. They don't want to make any mistakes in a hearing they have no ultimate control over.
- Sheriffs are having a banner year.
- I'm guessing Tom Herman's reign at the Evil Empire is seeing its last couple of months.
- Dak should be able to make it back from his injury, but you never know. Financially, he should still be in good shape. He'll get his $31.4 million this year. As for next year, Jerry Jones is now in quite the pickle. If he doesn't want to give Dak a long term deal, his only choice is (1) slap the franchise tag him again for 2021 which means a guaranteed pay day of $38 million or (2) let him go to free agency. If he lets him go to free agency, someone will take a chance on a long term contract with a guaranteed deal of more than $38 million. I'd mangle my own ankle to be in that position.
- Thanks to the Fifth Circuit on Saturday, we are now back to the Greg Abbott edict of only one drop off voting box per county in Texas. All three judges who issued the ruling are Trump appointees. One of them is the former goofy tweeting Texas Supreme Court judge who got promoted for being an online Ward Cleaver. (He doesn't tweet any longer.)
- Mrs. LL had never seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so we watched it on Saturday. I think she is still rocked by it. "I didn't expect it to end that way."
- At least John Cornyn's opponent doesn't beat around the bush. (Coincidentally, eight simple possession of marijuana cases, each carrying with it up to 180 days in jail in Texas, were filed in Wise County on Friday alone.)
- A Joe Duty photo makes an appearance. Cool shot.
- Big fan of the Messenger, but I don't think the emergency landing of a private plane by Bridgeport physician Dr. David Ray got the coverage it deserved. And, honestly, I just thought it was a guy with the same name as the longtime physician when I looked at the story.
- It's Columbus Day. Or not.
- Texas Hospitalizations: 3,556 (+37). I think that's five positive days in a row.
- Here are five of the six* men charged in federal court in Michigan in a plan conceived this Spring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (*You'll see references to 13 people but seven are charged only in state court with slightly different allegations. Regardless, they all pretty much look like these boys.)
- Where in the world did those bubba nutcases get inspired to overthrow the Michigan government simply because they didn't like COVID restrictions? Who is their leader? Who do they admire?
- Everyone knew what he was talking about in April. He even got grilled about it during one of his COVID updates on the day of the tweets.
- And you wonder why so much of modern day religion is called the "Prosperity Gospel."
- Texas AG Ken Paxton has been in the news all week about bribery allegations and other corruption. It looks like it all revolves around the protection of this guy who the Texas Tribune profiled yesterday. Is everyone a conman out there?
- Yep. I'll say it again: This is going to be bad.
- Legal stuff: Rod Rosenstein got torched online yesterday for this tweet. Everyone, including me, wanted to dog him because the standard to indict someone is legally one of only probable cause (and, in practice and reality, much, much less than that.) But, I'll be dang, I "did a little research" and found that the official federal prosecutor manual from the Department of Justice proves him to be, at least in print, correct. It says don't indict unless you believe you have enough "admissible evidence" to "sustain a conviction." I doubt they honor it, but it does technically back up Rosenstein's tweet.
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From the manual
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- Well, I would certainly hope so.
- Messenger: Above the Fold
- Texas hospitalizations. +125.
- Gov. Greg Abbott, who has somehow become the boogeyman for the Far Right, is now allowing bars to open at 50% capacity but only if the local county judges give it the OK. Wise County Judge J.D. Clark immediately said he would. Harris, Dallas, and Bexar county judges said no. The Tarrant County Judge is in a pickle and is currently deciding.
- There was a time in Wise County, in my lifetime in fact, where the County Judge would have shut down every bar or beer store for any reason he could legally find to do so just to insure he would get re-elected. And he would have been hailed as a hero if he did. That's not a political opinion, just an observation of how times change.
- Breaking: The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that next week's presidential debate will be virtual. The Contagious President immediately said he won't take part in it. (That was after he called Kamala Harris "this monster." And you wonder why he's not doing well with women?)
- Here's the billboard I was talking about on 287 north of Decatur.
- In the end, this is all we will remember from last night.
- Regarding the killing of a black man in Wolfe City by police, I told you that I bet there was a bodycam and that it had to be really bad based upon the quick arrest of the officer. Well, I was right about the bodycam according to the Probable Cause Affidavit. Now they need to release the video. The only reason they won't is that the fear a national reaction like after the George Floyd murder.
- Legal stuff: An interesting case was refused for review by Texas' highest criminal court yesterday (they were one vote short of the the required four.) The issue: Is it a due process violation if the prosecutor's brother-in-law and the judge's brother are seated on the jury and neither the prosecutor or judge says a thing? Yes, the defense lawyer failed to ask the questions to discover the problem but, still, is a constitutionally required fair trial destroyed if the prosecutor and judge just sit back, remain quiet, and smile? Here's the Petition which asked the court to review the case. (It did something I do from time to time: Cite to the TDCAA Weekly Case Summaries commentary which can sometimes be shockingly candid.)
- Maybe it's just a fluke, but I'm seeing a lot of high profile stories of violent crimes being committed by teenagers. Pandemic related? Social media upbringing related? We've got the story below out of Denton and about 10 days ago there was a horrific crime spree by a an 18 year old in Arlington (stabbed a store clerk, later attacked a couple walking and killed a man, and then stole a car and ran over another pedestrian on person.) And I could have sworn I saw a story out of Mesquite (?) about a gang of teenagers involved in a killing or robbery.
- I kept seeing this and thinking it was a parody account, but it has the verified blue check mark.
- I think I'd be so outraged I'd say, "That's odd but what time is Texas/OU?" (It's also a story from August.)
- If you really like legal stuff and First Amendment law, here is a great explanation why the Netflix prosecution by the fashion model D.A. over Cuties will go down in flames.
- Delkus is mad over something other than people ragging on him for being a bad weatherman. In his defense, this really is insane. How hard is it to process an application? And I wonder if he lives
- Fun fact about Wise County Jail population (after studying it for years): At any given time, 1/3 of the inmates have been in jail for under 30 days while 1/4 of them have been in jail for over 100 days. Those numbers are bizarrely consistent. The jail population seems to stay in a range from 175 to 195.
- Texas hospitalizations: A couple of days of increases.
- COVID and football:
- #2 in 6A-Division 1 Denton Ryan has cancelled its next two games. (Side note: I like spelling "cancelled" with two Ls.)
- New this morning: New England Patriots Stephon Gilmore has tested positive. Here he is with Pat Mahomes from Monday night:
- And, look out, we've got reports this morning that a player on the Las Vegas Raiders has tested positive.
- And another: Just saw that the Titans have two new positive tests and have cancelled today's practice. The game with the Bills on Sunday is now in jeopardy.
- There's a new billboard on 287 as you are entering Wise County from Montague County warning drivers to be on the lookout for ticky-tacky traffic violations that cops use as a pre-text to pull you over and spend an hour searching your car. Anyone got a photo? (I think the billboard is more of a shot at the Wise County Sheriff's Office than DPS although both are guilty.)
- A play called The Medicated President in Three Acts.
- Act I: Trump tweets at 1:48 p.m.
- Act II: Stock market reacts.
- Act III: Last night at 8:54 p.m.
- Netflix has been indicted out of deep East Texas.
- The D.A. in Tyler County (not Tyler, Texas) indicted Netflix for "Promotion of Lewd Visual Material Depicting Child" because of the film Cuties. That county is about the third of the size of Wise County. There is no way this indictment does not get dismissed. Disclaimer: I haven't seen Cuties, and most hard liners who have aren't particularly alarmed. (And "alarmed" isn't enough to criminalize speech in the United States anyway. This isn't hard.)
- Now is a good time for my trademarked slogan to be reissued again: "Too many cops. Too many prosecutors."™
- As much as I was surprised about that indictment, I was more stunned to learn that the photo below is of the actual elected district attorney in Tyler County. Really! I'm dead serious. His name is Lucas Babin who Wikipedia describes as "an American attorney, actor and fashion model."
- I really can't get over that. And District Attorney Babin was also "Spider" in School of Rock.
- I'm not sure what property got everyone's attention, but there was a large crowd for the monthly foreclosure auction on the Wise County courthouse steps yesterday.
The death of Eddie Van Halen made me realize (1) we are all getting old, and (2) I don't care who it is, I've always hated the extended electric guitar solo.
Messenger: Above the Fold
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