11.10.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

 

  • Texas hospitalizations: +23. 

    • Despite the mild increases in state hospitalizations, I have an announcement: As the most trusted man in COVID monitoring, I'm officially moving Wise County up a DEFCON level. It's worse right now in our area than at any other time this year. 
    • Chico had to forfeit their bi-district game yesterday, and Boyd High and Alvord ISD have been hit hard forcing online learning edicts.
    • Unlike the last two waves, I think those in the county all know someone who has contracted COVID this time around. It's anecdotal evidence, but it is good evidence. 
    • Nearby Tarrant County set a record high for new cases yesterday.
  • Back in April, every day I would post the national chart of new cases.  So from a national perspective, compare then to right now: 

  • Wise County's new congressional representative is no rocket scientist, is he? 

  • There's no way Trump goes to the inauguration of President-Elect Biden, does he? I think there is absolutely no chance of it, but I have had a couple of people I respect tell me I'm wrong. Heck, I think there is a good possibility he goes to Mara-a-Lago for Christmas and never comes back. (Or sooner. He has nothing on his schedule today which is the seventh day in a row -- his second longest stretch.)
  • Despite all the screaming about "the polls were wrong!", they really weren't. 538.com, the great poll aggregator and weighting site, missed on only two states: Florida and North Carolina. And even those weren't exactly earth-shaking misses. They only gave Biden a 50.9% chance of winning Florida and a 50.5% of winning North Carolina. That's pretty darn good. 

  • The greatest gift of Facebook is how it has revealed the shocking percentage of dumb people there are out there. I mean, folks who are just utterly gullible morons. P. T. Barnum, who realized that very thing decades ago, needs a memorial built to him in D.C. alongside those to Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson. He knew America better than anyone else.  
  • I've got to check with my family, but back in the day I think we had one of those turkeys for Thanksgiving every year. We always had two: A regular turkey and a smoked turkey. (Put that on my bragging montage.)

  • Speaking of, my immediate family unit had turkey and dressing about a month ago on a weekday. I'm not sure what type of witchcraft Mrs. LL was practicing that day, but it was very unnerving. 
  • Nothing like a lame duck President firing the Secretary of Defense via Twitter to make you feel secure. 

  • Fox News cut away from a Kayley McEnany's press conference yesterday because of her lying. Now the carnival barkers during the evening will parrot those lies, but at least the network takes a stand in the afternoon.

  • I've never had a good feel for the politics of the Texas legislature because it just seems to be various factions of hard line conservatives stabbing each other. Case in point, they are now attacking each other over who will be the next House Speaker. Here's very right wing conservative Jeff Leach going after the very nutty Texas Republican Party Chief Allen West.

  • COVID in sports: The Aggies have put practice on hold, the Cowboys have done the same after a Steeler player tested positive, LSU/Alabama might be cancelled, and Arkansas head coach has the COVID.  It's all beginning to unravel.  
  • This just got posted. I have questions. 

  • Trump running again in 2024 would be delicious. Just think about the insanity of the Republican presidential primary debates. 
  • Twenty-three death notices in the Update. That has to be a record. 


at 8:35 AM

11.09.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

 


  • Texas Hospitalizations: We've cracked 6,000 and, with as many new cases that we've heard about over the last week, I think we're about to see a big jump (since hospitalizations are a lagging indicator.) 

  • Breaking COVID news this morning: Pfizer basically says they may have developed a vaccine that is 90% effective. They are on track to see an emergency use application later this month for the distribution of 1.3 billion vaccine does next year. (And every seems to believe them -- the Dow is expected to open 1,500 points higher and oil has jumped up to 15%.)

  • I'm not going to do a lot of score-boarding on Trump's loss, but I'll share this. It was never about policy with me. It was about character. Every single thing I had been taught as a boy was on the line: From honesty and truthfulness to empathy for the less fortunate. It was always as simple as that. And the fact that he didn't care to hide his contempt for the values, and how his groupies simply turned a blind eye to it,  is never something I will never understand. 
  • Van Jones had me literally on tears as he his voice cracked moments after CNN made the call on Saturday. "It's easier to be a parent this morning. It's easier to be a dad. It's easier to tell your kids character matters. It matters. Telling the truth matters. Being a good person matters." Watch it. 

  • And the author of Bloom County (my all time favorite) is right there with me. 

  • Ok, now I feel like I'm score-boarding. 

  • Of everything crazy over the last four years, nothing sums it up better than, as the election was being called, Rudy Giuliani standing in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping which is situated next to Fantasy Island Adult Books and Novelties and across the street from the Delaware Valley Cremation Center. Here's the link for best summary I've found of what happened, but there is no way I'm believing the Trump Campaign's explanation of "We meant to do that all along." 

  • You can get Four Seasons Total Landscaping merchandise here or Zoom backgrounds here.

  • If you think the election was "stolen", just look at that press conference photo again. That's his legal team leading the charge.  Oh, and this Texas legislator wanted to join in:

  • If you think Trump's silly claim that the election was stolen sounds familiar, you're right. It's in his playbook of deceit. 

  • I'm officially making a retraction. This man no longer holds Nemeses Status. 

  • When Trump was announced the winner in 2016, Obama invited him to the White House. It's the way things ought to be. 

  • If you haven't seen Copeland's moment of being possessed, you need to.

  • I think I'm the only one amazed of the video presentation by drones after Biden's speech on Saturday. Watch. On another note, those things are going to kill us all one day just like an episode of Black Mirror.

  • In case you missed it, this guy, Rep. Matt Gaetz, had to announce that he contracted COVID. 

  • Cancer is so frightening. A person can fight if for months and look like they are doing well, and then, within a matter of two weeks, it just overcomes them with a vengeance. Of all of the Alex Trebek tributes, my favorite is this clip and especially the part of his reaction. 

  • I'm a big fan of Texas criminal justice policy wonk Scott Henson and was aware that he hadn't done many blog posts over the last few months, but I didn't know this. 

  • With everything going on so much news got buried, the story of this Fort Worth couple needs to be told. Fox 4 had photos of the wreckage.  He has ties to Weatherford College and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

  • There are 21 death notices in the Update. 


at 8:32 AM

11.06.2020

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Breaking at 7:50 a.m.: Pennsylvania finally has Biden in the lead. 

  • About four hours ago, Georgia finally tipped towards Biden. Fox News reporting . . . 

  • But with all this focus on Pennsylvania and Georgia over the last two days, they might be just gravy on what now appears to be an "overwhelming" landslide. If Biden holds onto Arizona (still tight there), those two states aren't even needed.  It would end up 306 to 232. Flashback: 

  • It's over. 
  • What kind of award do you guys think I'll win for being the Best Political Prognosticating Expert in the Southwest Proper? Do I have to apply somewhere, or will a truck just show up with a bunch of trophies?
  • Trump's first appearance yesterday was a sad and embarrassing for him. He had the tone and words of a defeated man. Quick thoughts: 

    • First, that's not my Liberally Lean spin. The Trump-friendly New York Post lambasted him immediately afterwards.

    • If he thinks there is election fraud, prove it. Heck, I want to see it! But he can't. Everyone knows he can't. That's why this is, uh, "so sad."

    • He's been planning this strategy for months. Every time he opened his mouth he would say that if he lost it would only be because of fraud. We knew this was exactly what he would say if he lost. 
    • He's really a simple man led by a simple proposition. For a reason I'll never understand, he sees every moment as having a winner or a loser. And there's nothing worse to him than being branded a loser. That's why he's trying to brand himself as the victim because that makes him, in his eyes, not a "loser." This isn't hard to understand. 
    • As for his disciples, why do you  find it so hard to believe that a guy, who Hillary beat by 3 million votes four years ago, lost the popular vote and the electoral college this time? 
    • Democrats are so good at fraudulent voting they failed to take control of the Senate and lost seats in the House? Republicans performed fantastically. It's Trump who did not. 
  • Fox News has a moment of truth coming: When do they finally make the call and project Joe Biden as the next President of the United States?  Or is there a chance they don't? Make no mistake about it, Rupert Murdoch, as hard as it is to believe, is a newsman at heart. Yes, he has his pseudo-entertainment and money-making stars of Hannity, Carlson, and a Ingraham but he is a newsman. And the news section, although decimated with departures over the last four years, is still much different than the Fox News opinion section.  Chris Wallace is in charge. And my prediction is that Fox News, just like they did with Arizona, will do the responsible and truthful thing and make that call . . . today. 


  • Junior is a clear and present danger to the United States. 

  • If you think that these remaining battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, etc. have been doing a horrible job of getting the votes counted, you're wrong. For example, did you know that Texas is at 96%, Florida is at 95% and California is only at 77%.  But you don't hear about that because the margin of victory is so large that those states can be safely "called." 
  • Speaking of votes being counted, Biden took the lead in Tarrant County yesterday 403,698 to 403,271. Despite others proclaiming "Tarrant has turned Blue!", I disagree. And my proof is the results for races down the ballot, specifically judges. Let's face it, no one knows who to vote for when you get down that far and a voter is only going to do one thing: Default to their party of Republican or Democrat. In those judgeships in Tarrant, they all had consistent numbers of 53% for the Republican judge and 46% for the Democrat.  That's not by coincidence. That is straight party voting without the straight party button. And, as a result, Tarrant County for now still leans Red. Here are just four random judicial race results:

  • Ken Paxton, who is always in trouble, is in bigger trouble.  Go to the link if interested. 
  • Texas hospitalizations: +82

  • Time that has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener at Lake Bridgeport: 1 year, 4 months, 1 day.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:38 AM

11.05.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

 

  • Texas hospitalizations: -64. During the surge in the summer, we would never get these random negative days. The curve is going to be so much flatter this time. That being said,  Wise County schools seem to be getting hit quite a bit right now.

  • A small fire at McCarroll Middle School in Decatur has closed the campus today. As with 99% of all fires, "the cause of it is still under investigation." Ands that never really changes. 
  • Still a tiny bit of drama in the presidential election but, as the most trusted in man in weather and political prognostication, I'm telling you it's over. Arizona might/possibly/could be slipping away from Biden, but Pennsylvania -- which is headed towards Biden with 11% of the votes still to be counted -- should flip in his favor this morning after tons of ballots from the Philadelphia area are counted. Once Pennsylvania goes for Biden, it's a done deal regardless of what happens in Arizona. And I'm not that concerned about Arizona. (After all, Fox News promised me on Tuesday night it would go to Biden.) 
    (First update this morning was at 8:08 a.m. and decreased deficit by over 10,000 )

  • What's happening in Pennsylvania shouldn't come as a shock. I'm not talking about the ultimate result -- no one had strong convictions about that -- I mean the fact that it would start in Trump's favor and then moved towards Biden. The question was always going to be how much. Like I said yesterday, it's all because the state didn't count mail-in ballots until after the polls closed. And everyone told us this would happen. Bernie Sanders prediction on Jimmy Fallon's show was amazingly spot on. And 538 wrote about it last week. 

  • Georgia, for what it's worth, will come down to the wire. Trump's lead has now shrunk to 18,540 votes, but there's only 4% left to be counted. A Biden win makes everything else irrelevant. I'm not ruling that out. I think they will have a big update at 10:00 CST. 

  • After watching footage of the workers do it, I think we can all agree that the job of opening up mail-in ballots looks like an absolute beating. 
  • The various legal challenges yesterday by the Trump campaign are silly and not a good look. They are going nowhere. And when you bring in as your point men your second favorite son and a guy who was just fooled by a fake Kazakhstan teenage reporter, it's a bad omen. 
    "Do you think we're stupid? Do you think we're fools?" - Rudy

  • Speaking of not a good look, don't do this. 


  • Or this. 

  • Is there a chance that Trump could still pull this off? Mathematically, yes. And you can't rule out the impact of their new back up plan from Trump's press secretary:

  • But that's a better plan than this guy had yesterday. (It's worth a watch if you haven't seen it.)
  • And they do mean "impassioned." Or it could be a dance club hit if someone would put it to music. Watch. (Bonus fun is just to watch a guy stroll across in the background from time to time.)  Edit: Someone put it to music. Not bad. 

  • A reminder that having a joint in Texas subjects you to up to 180 days in county jail and a $2,000 fine. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold (I forgot yesterday.)



at 8:32 AM
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