Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• What city is that?
• The Board:  You know, I might need to find some other graphic because I'm beginning to feel this doesn't do it justice. There were 11,100 new cases yesterday bringing the total to 54,881. Exactly two weeks ago, on March 13th, we were concerned there were 531 new cases. It doesn't feel like this graph reflects that with the necessary punch.
  
• There were 225 new deaths yesterday bringing the total to 780.
  
• Does anyone for a minute think Texas actually has only 857 cases when New York, where they are testing left and right, has over 25,000? Aren't we about to be in for a major shock once Houston and the Metroplex get tested properly?
• Notable new cases: Prince Charles and Jackson Browne. Both are 71.

  

  I miss album covers.

• New Orleans has exploded with cases. Is that the effect of Mardi Gras? 
• Sheesh, my "Rural Uprising" theory is being put into place by Trump. Yesterday he said he would "love to have the country opened up and raring to go" by Easter on April 12th and see  “packed churches all over our country."  Just how is this going to go down? Is he going to proclaim Texas open while county judges declare it to still be "shelter-in-place"? Will Republican county judges go along with him? Will Democratic judges not? And if that's the case, isn't the public just doing what they want anyway?  This is going to get wild. 
  
• Speaking of counties, the following ones are now shelter-in-place: Tarrant, Dallas, and Denton. Throw in Hunt County, too, which is on the other side of Collin County with a population of 90,000. Wise County is not. I absolutely support out county judge J.D. Clark, but I wouldn't want to be him right now. 
• As for Collin County, they are doing something interesting and, frankly, deceitful: They have imposed shelter-in-place but declared all businesses essential so they are all free to open. Practically speaking, that's no restrictions on anyone at all.  If every job is essential and every product or service they provide is essential, everyone can go to work and everyone who goes and patronizes them is doing something essential, too. 
  
• All of these county judges firing off emergency orders gives rise to a great legal question I don't think anyone has the answer to: Can county judges hand down an edict which controls incorporated cities within the county? In Texas, the county judges and the county commissioners normally have jurisdiction over unincorporated areas. Mayors and city councils run incorporated cities and the land within its boundaries. You want to build in the city of Decatur? You go to the City of Decatur to see what rules apply. You want to build in Cottondale? The county controls the rules for your septic system. Does all of this suddenly all go out the window just because it's an "emergency declaration"? 
• And, I'll say it again, all of these "orders" are nothing more than recommendations that, for now, everyone is going along with. If every restaurant in, uh, hypothetical Bridgeport wanted to open up today, no one is going to do anything about it. You think hypothetical Chief Steve Stanford is going to write every business owner, and every customer in it, a ticket? You think the hypothetical mayor would want him to? Heck, no. All we are doing right now is engaging in voluntary compliance for the greater good. That is, until the "Rural Uprising" changes what we define as the "greater good." 
• And here's the problem for counties like Wise County right now: How long can this voluntary compliance hold when there hasn't been a single case, much less one single death, from the coronavirus? How quickly does it all become a particular Game of Thrones meme?:
  
  
  

• Let me be 100% clear: I don't know the answer. You look around Texas and everything seems fine. Then you look at New York, and especially what it's about to look like, and you think its the Apocalypse that could happen here. But one thing that has served me well my entire life is know what I don't know. With that, I'll rely on smarter people than me and go along with it.  
• Then again, I expect to see a "Social Distancing Is For Libs" bumper sticker on an F-250 on 380 this afternoon. 
• After this very extended Spring Break, I wonder how many parents have thought, "You know, maybe it wasn't the fault of the teachers and the coaches after all."
• Stolen from Update: "NO MARRIAGE LICENSES – Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) health concerns, the Wise County Clerk’s office will not issue marriage licenses because they are considered non-essential service and the office currently has limited staffing." (Emphasis added.)
• Messenger: Above the Fold