Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Let me start off by sending condolences to the family of James Wood who passed away yesterday. There may be no better obituary for any man other than to be referred to as a really good guy. And Mr. Wood was a really, really good guy. 
• The Board:

  

  Total cases: 848,717

  
  

  

  Total deaths: 47,659

• Texas:
  
• Tarrant (I'm using the same source as I always do, but this chart looks to have been significantly revised from yesterday.):
  
• Wise: Another new one that gets us to 14 cases (with 1.15% of our population tested.) 
• For the first time since 1956, Miami has gone six weeks without a homicide.  There's a lot to be said for not being forced to hang out with people. 
• I'm no government financial planner, but this seems like a huge waste of money for a financially strapped Treasury. 
  
• The mayor of Las Vegas wants to open everything up, and wouldn't mind the city being a "control group" for the impact of coronavirus on the population. This is an actual screenshot of Anderson Cooper's reaction: 
  
• Let's check in on Hood County. (Credit.)
  
   
• She ain't wrong. (But that was a heck of an attempted recovery). 

  I absolutely need you all to watch this fully wild news clip in its entirety!!!! pic.twitter.com/0tK3P9jrJM

  — Madison Malone Kircher (@4evrmalone) April 21, 2020

• It was announced this morning that 4.4 million people applied for unemployment last week. That brings the pandemic five week total to 26 million. I don't think we are even close to comprehending how bad this is all going to get in the coming months (years?). Just look at that chart:
  
• 50,000 dead and 26 million out of work is one heck of a way to start 2020. 
• I don't know anything about Ohio's handling of the coronavirus, but I appreciate this attitude:
  
• Trump had a bad day at his press conference yesterday. First, we got this concerning his CDC director's Robert Redfield's  comments to The Washington Post where he said: “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through." Trump, right off the bat, complained that: "He was misquoted. He was entirely misquoted." So he brought Redfield up to the podium who was then confronted by a reporter who, after reading him his quote, asked if it was accurate. His response: “I’m accurately quoted in The Washington Post.” Ooof.
  
  
• So Trump then pivoted to say the coronavirus "might not come back at all this Fall" because "I've spoken to ten different people." So Dr. Fauci takes the spotlight and says: "There will be corona virus in the Fall." Double ooof. 
  
• I don't know why we take advice from a guy who has managed to turn $3 billion into $3 billion over a period of 20 years. (I wish I had the audio of him saying that Google would never buy Youtube because they "would be sued into oblivion" because of copyright issues or that video over the Internet would never become commonplace because of limited bandwith.) And this is a medical question anyway. 
  
• I'll watch the NFL draft for technological meltdown. (Fun fact: I got blocked in the early days of Twitter by Gil Brandt because I reminded him he drafted Rod Hill and Billy Cannon, Jr. Edit: He was bragging about what a draft genius he is.) 
• In response to my post yesterday regarding the fancy stadium of six-man school Hermleigh ISD, I had a couple of faithful readers explain why: Taxes from wind farms. The school was dirt poor before they came in.