Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I almost don't want to lead with the Board because of a wild night, but let's do it:
  
• Texas (oh, my):
  
• Wise County: Total 48. Active 9. Deaths 3. Yep, we have a new death. 
• Now to Minneapolis.  We had some insane rioting last night. It's bad. We all know it's bad. It takes away from the cause. But here's how it all went down.
• It wasn't a major player to get the violence started, but Trump finally spoke about the death of George Floyd yesterday afternoon with these words which were obviously crafted by a gifted speech writer after hours of deliberations and revisions:
  
• But it all got cranked up later in the afternoon when the moron lead prosecuting attorney in Minneapolis of any of the officers involved in George Floyd's killing thought it would be a good idea to say the following. He later issued a "clarification" which only clarified he was either totally unprepared for the press conference, doesn't understand the importance of words at moments like this, or he's a police lapdog. 
  
• A couple of hours later while it was still daylight, people began gathering around the police station in Precinct 3. As they began to breach the perimeter, cops appeared on the rooftop and began firing those stun/flash grenades into the crowd. I saw this live on MSNBC, but I'm having trouble finding a video of it. 
  
  
• Then it got wild as cops fled (video) and protestors burned the place down. I've never seen that in my life.  And the fireworks made it even more bizarre. 
  

  

  
  

  
• Here's a warning about fake news: You might see this photo all over the place today. It is not the Precinct 3 building.
  
• The violence spread across the country including Kentucky and Arizona and several others states.
  
• And then, as we have come to expect, Trump fueled the flames of a Race Riot with this shocking tweet that had to be censored by Twitter. Yep, "THUGS" and the calling for the military to execute looters. LBJ, who dealt with similar riots and agonized for hours upon hours on what to say to calm the country, is rolling over in his grave this morning. 
  
  
• That's a blatant call for extrajudicial killings. And if "Make America Great Again" means going back to the "good old days", maybe he means 1967.  The phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" is not original. It was a threat coined by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, who promised violent reprisals on black protesters in 1967. He also said: “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.”
  
• But I'm sure after Trump woke up he would have a few words to calm the nation. Leaders and decent men do that. Nope, this morning the most powerful man in the world is whining about how Twitter is hurting his feelings. Is he trying to lose in a landslide in November?  
  
• And then the official White House twitter account doubled down calling for the murder of protesters. It's now the official policy statement of the United States of America. Edit: Twitter just slapped the warning label on it, too. 
  
• In case everyone needs to be reminded what this is all about: 
  
• Minnesota State Police, who apparently need a course on civil liberties and public/media relations, thought it would be a good look early this morning to arrest a black CNN reporter while he was live on the air. Within an hour, the governor was apologizing and saying he'd be released. Think about it: They arrested a CNN reporter before the killer of George Floyd. 
  
• Have you ever seen a country to to hell in a hand basket so quickly.
• Messenger: Above the Fold.