Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The Board:
  
• Texas (this remains bizarre):
  
• Wise County: Total: 36. Active: 11.
• Since the Texas numbers continue to trend up, of course they do this: 
  
• The leader of the free world: 
  
• I'm in the minority here, but I think we could all learn a lesson from the baseball players union: No, we're not going to let my employer make me work at half pay, in completely unconventional working conditions, and be exposed to a disease for which there is no cure. (And the amount of the "half pay" involved is absolutely irrelevant to that principle.)
• How long will this recession last? I have no idea. The problem is that it wasn't a natural occurrence. So will the recovery be unnaturally fast as well?
  
• This is the food line in Dallas yesterday. I'm sooooo uncomfortable saying this, but I still think we have to factor in that people will come out of the woodwork for free stuff regardless of need. My anecdotal evidence of this was when the First National Bank of Bridgeport had a grand opening after it remodeled one time and decided to give away free hot dogs in the middle of the afternoon. The length of line was insane. It was like they were giving away CDs (the money kind).  That has always stuck with me. 
  
• Ransomware update: The web sites of the Texas courts of appeal are still held hostage this morning. This makes one week. 
  
• This is a picture of a Come and Take It guy showing up at the capitol for an Open Michigan protest.  Actually, it's a protest on the street where Ahmaud Aubery was killed. You feel the same, right? 
  
• Speaking of the Aubery case, the guy who videotaped the event showed up on CNN with his lawyer.  A law firm across the street from that lawyer decided to roast him by posting the interview on youtube with a scathing critique. 
  
• Very random note: I've been eating instant oatmeal lately -- the kind where you measure the water in the empty bag and then shove it all in the microwave. I've discovered that changing the cook time by seconds and changing the water mixture by a tablespoon can make dramatic difference. At this point I'm like Walter White cooking meth looking for the perfect combination of the two.
  
• Legal stuff: The Fifth Circuit is temporarily moving from oral arguments to basically "take home tests." Look at these questions and the crazy deadlines they issued in a case yesterday. (Hey, I do criminal law, but I have no idea what this stuff means. It's the specialty of federal post-conviction writs of habeas corpus after state claims are exhausted. All the questions are procedural and they make my head spin. And a majority of the questions have a feel of "we just want to jack with you and make you work" instead of "we'd really like to know the answer.")
  
• For some reason I get a lot of enjoyment of watching Snoop Dogg sitting in his car listening to the Frozen soundtrack.
  
• The Far Right Winging Trump Worshipers don't understand the concept of "unmasking." Hint: It has occurred over 26,000 times in the last two years.
• Adding to the total from earlier this week, there were 31 class A and B criminal misdemeanors filed in Wise County yesterday.