4.13.2020

Random Monday Morning Thoughts


  • The Board: Cases Saturday: 30,003. Cases Sunday: 27,421. We are probably into the plateau but the weekend numbers are always under-reported. 
  • Deaths on Saturday: 1,830. Deaths on Sunday: 1,528. 
  • Wise County cases: 5.
  • Texas Deaths: 11 yesterday bringing the total to 278. (I can't find a death chart for Texas alone.)
  • The USS Theodore Roosevelt has turned out to be a disaster with 600 sailors testing positive and, this morning, we have reports of the first death.
  • I don't see Dallas or Tarrant County "opening up" by May 1st. Wise County? Man, that's a tough one. 
  • And I agree that the economy isn't a light switch you can just turn on. Say Wise County restaurants are allowed to open up on May 1st? Does the amount of business being conduted just magically go back to where it was? For restaurants, do the vast majority of people think, "I'll give it another month before I dine inside"?  Or what do we do it the converse is true: What if the line is around the block at Sweetie Pie's because people from Fort Worth and Denton will make the drive just for the chance to eat out? Are we comfortable with that? 
  • From the onset, I've been amazed how everyone just cowered down at a governmental mandate. I can't have a gathering of more than 10 in my own private home? Ok, sure. I cannot go to church? Yes, sir. I'll obey. You want to destroy my business? Fine. If America ever moves into a Totalitarian State, I think we've seen proof that the masses will go along with it with absolutely no opposition whatsoever.
  • There is some resistance to all of this: Some new federal judges who have a new style and a new attitude.
  • I am that guy. 
  • Trump was mad at Fox News this weekend.

  • You want to know how bad OANN is? When they reported that the coronavirus was possibly designed in a lab in South Carolina based upon the investigation of a “a monitored source amongst a certain set in the D.C. intelligence community", they used this picture of that source  in their report because he had used it on his Twitter profile. OANN didn't realize that it was a still from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 
  • Mark Cuban wouldn't rule out running for President this year. The filing deadline in almost all states has already passed, and he knows that. And four years ago he complained that even when was within the deadline to file as an Independent in Texas, the hurdles make it impossible to pull off. Like Trump, he's got a lot of conman in him. And why anyone thinks he's worthy of time on any Sunday news show is beyond me. 
  • I need more "Not Robert Jeffress" in my life. (The actual gif is even better.)
  • Pete Delkus missed the forecast completely on Saturday as he was predicting 100% chance of rain across the metroplex. He whined that night claiming he was technically right and all the rest of us just aren't smart enough to understand him. 
  • Bud Kennedy posted the image below over the weekend with a link to this story about Bonnie and Clyde. That occurred right off 114. Last year the Tarrant County District Clerk found the indictment in the case. The image of it is here.
  • I stumbled upon this late night movie on network TV over the weekend. Anyone ever heard of Undrafted which was executively produced by Tony Romo and starring his brother-in-law Chace Crawford? It was horrible. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

4.10.2020

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here.







at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts



  • The Board. Wednesday's new cases: 31,935. Yesterday's new cases: 33,536. 
  • Deaths. Wednesday's deaths: 1,940. Yesterday's deaths: 1,900.
  • Wise County confirmed cases: Still at 4.  (Some guy finally officially got counted.) Side note: If I got the coronavirus, I wouldn't keep it a secret. I'd tell everybody. 
  • Texas Deaths on Wednesday: 28. Texas deaths yesterday: 27
  • If we are entering the peak of the curve and you feel pretty good, this footage will be a bit disturbing. (I even initially thought it might be fake. It's not.)
  • Let's pause for a moment of silence.
  • TCU has announced it will conduct online classes only for the summer semester. That may be the first definitive plans I've heard about summer changes. 
  • Trump has completely abandoned calling it the "Chinese virus." I wonder who got to him? 
  • If you listen to any right wing radio, it takes only about 30 seconds to realize the vast majority of its callers absolutely believe the coronavirus pandemic is completely overblown. Most of the hosts won't go there, but they are having a hard time controlling what is normally an echo chamber. (But, man, the nutcases and conspiracy theorists on the coronavirus are out there big time. Death counts are fake. Dr. Fauci is a Hillary plant. There was even a "have you noticed that gold fringe on  the American flag in our courtrooms?" caller on Dennis Prager yesterday.)
  • If Trump does want to "open the country" on a particular day for some type of glorious event, he needs to absolutely have a MAGA rally in a packed house on that on date. No masks. No social distancing. 
  • "Wreckless"
  • Mrs. LL found an authentic mask and told me, "I know you probably won't wear it, but I want you to promise me you'll take it with you tomorrow."  I think that's a "hey, if you die it ain't on me" sort of thing, but I'm not sure. 
  • There's something not right about this mask worn by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) this morning. It's like something out of the old West during a bank robbery yet made out of panty hose. 
  • Both New Jersey and Kansas are looking for programmers who know the old language of COBOL. You know who has in storage in Bridgeport a massive binder of computer programs he wrote in COBOL in the 1980s? That's right. The hardest working man in show business: Me.
  • I saw this picture of people lining up for food from a food bank in San Antonio, and I've got a lot of questions regarding the organization of the distribution here. And if you look closely, those lines go from neatly organized to chaos. I also wonder how the human phenomenon of being willing to wait forever for anything free, regardless of need, comes into play here. 

  • Yesterday, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals allowed a lawsuit in Wise County to continue. It's not remarkable other than you learned a family who owned an oil field service trucking company in Paradise sold it for $11 million a few years back. Here's a brief in the case that outlines the facts. (And, regarding the sale, that looks like perfect timing in retrospect.)

at 8:28 AM

4.09.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • The Board. New cases Tuesday: 33,436. New cases yesterday: 31,395.
  • Deaths. On Tuesday: 1,971. Yesterday: 1,941.
  • Wise County: 4 cases (although state records still show 3.) One of those has fully recovered. Question: Were any of them ever hospitalized?
  • Texas Deaths. On Tuesday: Tuesday: 16. Yesterday: 28.
  • Hannity was promoting the Rural Uprising™ last night. 
  • Coronavirus image of the day:
  • Last week's unemployment claims were just announced. 
  • How does any restaurant survive this shutdown? They all seem to live by a thread to start with.
  • No one is gonna cry for criminal defense lawyers, but new clients come in for two reasons: Recent arrests and court dates. And neither of those are happening. (I just looked at the Wise County Jail list and no one was arrested in the last 24 hours. That's becoming routine. I'd guess five to ten new arrests is the number you would normally see before the shutdown.) 
  • Linda Tripp has died. Politics aside, recording a private conversation of a young person who believes you to be their friend is the definition of sorriness. 
  • Since 2011, Texas law has allowed you to use certain specified words in order to bypass a notary public altogether. I thought that law was a "bombshell" when it was passed back then, but that turned out not to be the case because no one knows about it. Like the Governor. Or a judge on the Texas Supreme Court. So instead we hear about how the governor just changed a different portion of the law to allow notarization by video. 
  • Texas Monthly has taken down it's paywall during the pandemic.  If you've got some time, this may be the best article I've ever read.
  • I think I could win a competition for speed in the self-check out line. I'm great. But for some reason I always get behind a person who, after taking each item out of his basket and holding it with both hands, stares at the machine for three seconds each time as if has never scanned anything before. 
  • I took advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program, and obtained a loan I don't have to pay back. I submitted the application and documentation online (took less than an hour) and had a banker call me in less than 48 hours to tell me it had been submitted. I never left the office.  I can't believe the program is real. And it confounded a person in my family who has preached to me all my life that "There ain't no free lunch."
  • Legal stuff: The Supreme Court on Tuesday continued to erode the 4th Amendment when it held that an officer can stop you if a computer check shows the registered owner of the vehicle you are driving has a revoked license. (They called it a "limited holding" but it never is.) Remember how I mentioned yesterday that constitutional law is 100% making stuff up? They made up a rule that a detention requires a "reasonable suspicion" in 1968  and now "reasonable" is defined by whatever particular judges are on the court. 
  • The Texas Supreme Court held oral arguments by Zoom yesterday which reminded me that in every oral argument I've watched or participated in that most of the judges act like they haven't even read the briefs. And I'm not sure that's an act.
  • CenturyLink catches some heat in Wise County but the three times I've had them send a tech to my home or office over the last decade they've been fantastic. Here's something wild I learned yesterday: A few versions of a school issued Chromebook, when it tries to update itself when you don't even know it, can destroy bandwidth for a house in some limited situations. I was skeptical, but I saw with my own two eyes the bandwidth get wiped out by 80% by simply turning its wifi connection on and off. It's rare, but it can happen. 
  • I missed that the Carolina Panthers released Bridgeport great Colin Jones after signing him to a two year contract last year. The Athletic says that Jones asked for the release which seems odd. (Baylor's Matt Rhule became the new coach earlier this year.) 

at 8:34 AM

4.08.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • The Board. Monday new cases: 30,311.Yesterday's new cases: 33,331
    They added a 7 day average
  • Deaths. Monday: 1,55.  Tuesday: 1,970. (That's a pretty big jump.)
  • Wise County cases: 3 (unofficially it is 4 because some how it takes a "few days" for it to be officially included.) Our population was just estimated to be 70,000. So what do you think our final total will be? Under 20? Under 15? Under 10? That stagnant and low number is more ammo for the Rural Uprising crowd. 
  • Texas Deaths: 167 total. New yesterday: 16.  The State's new peak day for new cases is now projected to be April 22nd. 
  • It's about time some commissioner courts stood up. 
  • Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy got in hot water yesterday saying he wanted his players back on campus by May 1st.  But here's the quote that actually proves he's a nutcase: 
  • All my life I been told to be worried about the national debt. Have I been lied to? Or can the government just print $2 trillion in the blink of an eye and there will be no repercussions? 
  • Doc needs to chill. (Video here.) Side note: I wouldn't confront a group of high school girls about anything. 
  • The Fifth Circuit held yesterday that Texas' temporary ban on abortions because of the coronavirus was legal. Constitutional law is 100% making things up. During emergencies (which are defined as anyone wants to define it), any constitutional right can be "reasonably restricted" as safety "demands." That's such a murky standard that the law is whatever a particular panel of judges says it is.   But you are cheering the ruling? The court threw in that banning churches during an emergency is probably fair game, too:
  • Lawyers only: Would you want these deadlines? 
  • One thing I know nothing about is music: I had no idea who John Prine was. (Ticket fans only: George Dunham makes me cry every time he tears up, and it doesn't matter what the subject is.)
  • The police in Wichita Falls need to be put back in their place by some competent judges or prosecutors. It's bad enough they issued a shelter-in-place ticket to this homeless guy, but they also arrested him for stealing a police vehicle. What he do? As he was going back to his homeless shelter "he approached the police car and lifted on the driver’s side door handle." That's it. #TooManyCops. 
  • Yesterday Trump got rid of his press secretary after nine months who never even had one single press conference. (At least Sarah Sanders would give us the time of day by lying to our face every once in a while.) She is replaced with Kayleigh McEnany, a Fox News contributor, who said on February 25th that the coronavirus would "never come here."
  • No, I won't pick three. In fact, I won't pick any at all. 
  • This is a big feature in The Dallas Morning News today. The answer, after you stop laughing, should be an emphatic "NO!"
  • Messenger: Above the Fold 


at 8:33 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)