Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Coronavirus in Texas update. This is fine? 

  

  Hospitalizations

  
  
  
• Wise County: No updated numbers since Thursday. 
• As expected hoped, the Black Lives Matter protest in Wise County went off without a hitch.  But the fact that there were "two sides" is a little embarrassing.
  
• The "other side's" position had a nice graphic to go along with it.  And what exactly did they mean by "outside influence(s)?"  And I'm proud to announced the "rule of law" as well as "democracy" survived a simple protest in Wise County by a group seeking (gasp) equality. Incredible. 
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• How in the world did the Atlanta police shooting of Rayshard Brooks happen? The New York Times has a great break down of it with annotated video. Thoughts:
  
• How a situation can escalate from a guy sleeping in his car to being shot with a handgun by the cops is a little hard to explain. 
• Someone falling asleep in a drive-through happens all the time. Ask any of your cop friends if he has dealt with it before. Also ask him or her if she ever considered using the ultimate lethal force on the person.
• It says something about society in general where a Wendy's employee's first inclination is to call the cops when a customer doses off. But that reaction by an employee also happens all the time. 
• Sure you don't resist arrest and you don't take a cops taser, but you don't need to die for it. If you think that a reasonable consequence, you need to really re-evaluate yourself.
• Shooting the guy two times in the back as he runs away doesn't help the cop's position.
• Somewhere along the way, the mission of most cops changed from "we are here to help and to keep the peace" to "we are here to get you."  For example, the guy asks if he can just leave his car and walk home. The cop responds with the question shown below for one reason: He wants the guy to say "because I'm drunk" or "because I shouldn't be driving" so he can have an admission for his DWI case.
  
• Should the cops have just let him park the car and walk home or let someone come get him? It makes sense to me. But then the problem becomes you have to then give that option to everyone. Then again, why not have a system where that option is given to everyone yet the DWI case could still be filed with the court? 
• I absolutely agree with those who think the cops should have just let the guy go when he began to run. At that point all we've got is a couple of misdemeanor charges of DWI and Resisting. You've got his car. You've got his ID. You're going to get him. 
• Portions of the field sobriety tests can be seen at on the New York Times site. He looks pretty good and interacts reasonably with the officer.   He ended up dying after a DWI investigation which might not have resulted in a DWI conviction. 
• I seriously doubt that the cop will ever be convicted of anything. And even I think he probably shouldn't. A reasonable doubt exists as to whether his split second decision was unreasonable under the circumstances. And a reasonable doubt is all it takes. 
• Who knew?
  
• Don't underestimate the stance taken by football players at the University of Texas.  Their demands are just socially justice related, but if all the pre-predominately black teams (meaning all of them) would realize they hold the bargaining power in a system which exploits them for millions and millions of dollars, we'd have a heck of a movement. 
  
• We are going to have a hard time explaining just how extremely stupid this time in American history was. 
  
• Speaking of, Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan had a statesman like twitter fight with actor Ron Perlman over the weekend.  Idiocracy.
  
• Just the President of the United States using the power of his office to try and break a private company because he doesn't like the news coverage that they have a constitutional right to provide and express.
  
• I've found my new campaign video from a guy out of Georgia! But not only is the video worth watching, but the fact that he got arrested for it really ramps up this story.
  
• I'm four episodes into HBO's Watchmen, and I'm really sucked in to something which has a lot of characteristics that normally don't appeal to me. And the fact that it has its roots in the Tulsa Massacre makes it timely. (Like most of you, I had never heard of the Tulsa incident until this year.)
  
• There's so much going on that I barely have time to mention Fox News literally becoming Fake News by photoshopping photos from Seattle. 
  
• It looks like I'll be shutting down my First Warn Alert Thunder Truck Live Action Weather Laboratory for the next two to three months. We're on cruise control.