Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• The Board.

  

  Total cases: 1,188,122

  
  

  

  Total deaths: 68,598

• Texas (we headed in the right direction?)
  
• Tarrant (red), Dallas (blue), Denton (purple)
  
• Wise County: 24 total but with only 4 active cases. Have I missed it, or have none of the 24 agreed to be identified and interviewed? If I caught it, I'd talk about it in a New York minute just to let people know what it was like. Side note: As the most trusted newsman in the southwest proper, I'm going to need more updated stats than this: 
  
• He's a punk, but he doesn't need to be locked up (assuming he'll now say the right things.) Although even my first reaction is to have him sit in the hoosegow for a little while. Video.
  
• If you want to vote by mail because you fear contracting the 'rona, Texas AG Ken Paxton says you can't because you're just being an emotional big baby.
  
• I appreciate a young reporter actually handing the mic over to the Grim Reaper on a Florida beach. (The guy in the outfit is some lawyer who likes bits.)
  
  
  
  
• These "very good people" showed up to protect the hair salon in Dallas which opened in violation of state and county orders. Is there some kind of Dog Protective Services that we can call to check on the welfare of the good puppy dog? 
  
• Texas sales tax collections were down 9% from April compared to a year ago. And although that's a heck of a blow to the budgets of governmental entities, I'm stunned it's only 9%.
• How do the airlines survive this?
  
• The Grab Em By The P crowd was pretty excited about the sexual assault allegations made by Tara Reade against Joe Biden. However, that seemed to have petered out over the weekend after Biden's appearance on Morning Joe and Reade's cancellation of her interview on Fox News. Oh, by the way, this tweet below which was shared thousands and thousands of times, shows Biden with Zoe Baird. (Side note: I had completely forgotten about Zoe Baird, but her claim to fame was the first Nanny-gate.)
  
• The family of Otto Warmbier probably doesn't feel the same way. 
  
• It's the anniversary of the Kent State Massacre. We've all seen the famous photo, but I don't think I had ever seen the pictures of all the victims. 
  
• A Houston PD helicopter crashed and killed one. Video. No one knows the cause, but the police chief wouldn't rule out the aircraft being shot down by saying, "It is not commonly known that law enforcement aviation comes under fire on a regular basis across our country." 
• Andy Dalton is now the backup quarterback for the Cowboys. Flashback: I'm still amazed Dalton wasn't scarred for life.
  
• It's May 4th and time for my sporadic reminder that I've always thought Star Wars was a boring dud. And I actually saw it the first time in a theater. Give me any TV episode of Captain Kirk looking at the big video screen plotting his strategy any day of the week.
• I'm sorry, but I think Vernon's thermometer is on the fritz. There's no way it was 108 on Saturday.
  
• Very random thing I watched this weekend: Texas losing to Kansas (which had lost 19 Big 12 games in a row) in Charlie Strong's last year in 2016. Odd notes: Texas scored on the first play of the game with a 75 yard touchdown pass, and they had a running back that carried the ball 51 times for 251 yards.  And lost.
  
• I'm not particularly stressed by the Coronavirus Problems, but I've been dreaming like nobody's business lately. And although they aren't my usual back-in-school-and-unprepared dream, in all of them I'm in a situation facing a massive problem that I can't solve. 
  
• The Blue Angels will waste your taxpayer dollars in Fort Worth on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. 
• Messenger: Above the Fold

(Yeah, I know.)