Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Everything is shut down today for a holiday, but guess who's here? #THWMISB
• Texas. I'm running out of things to say about this trajectory:

  

  Hospitalizations

  
  

  

  New daily cases

• Wise County: Active cases at 36.
• Listen up, Wise County. Since we've got more than 20 active cases, we have to put on a mask as of noon today. (Although I expect to see half the county gather at the Big Sandy to throw their masks into the water in protest.) 
  
• But I am kind of surprised that Gov. Abbott mandated it. Just a few days ago  . . . 
  
• But Abbott is a follower. And once Pence signaled on Sunday we should all wear masks, and even Trump signaled it was OK (so long as you look cool like the Lone Ranger), he thought he had his political cover to do it. 
• But, man, he is taking it in the shorts from the right . . . 
• Empower Texans is mad:
  
• The renegade Collin County Judge immediately slapped back utilizing a loophole on gatherings of groups of more than 10: 
  
• The Denton Sheriff, who has always struck me as simpleton, said he won't enforce the mask order.  (If we want to be consistent, wouldn't right wingers go absolutely nuts if he said he was "too busy" to enforce ICE detainers?)
  
• If you ever find yourself agreeing with Ag Commissioner Sid Miller, you need to re-evaluate your entire belief system. 
  
• The executive committee of Texas Republicans voted last night to move forward with their in person convention in Houston from July 13th through 18th.
• Another sign of the Apocalypse: Decatur shut down Reunion 2020. 
• And we are to believe the USC Trojans are going to fly into Texas to play Alabama at Jerry World two months from now?
  
• I present to you the Two Weeks In The Life of Herman Cain in Three Acts:
• Act I: June 20th
  
• Act II: July 1st
  
• Act III: Yesterday
  
• I understand where he got his genes, but how dumb is Eric Trump? He posted this yesterday and then deleted it once he got bombarded with tons of photos showing his dad yukking it up with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Did he seriously not know Trump ran with that guy? Birds of a feather? 
  
  
  
• I don't do any federal criminal practice, and I'm going to need someone to explain the Ghislaine Maxwell indictment to me. Is it now the the norm to put in an indictment a scandalous "Factual background" where they throw in some photos like a tabloid?  In state court, indictments just charge an offense with as little information as legally possible. The State's only obligation (which is exactly the same obligation as the feds in federal court) is to put the defendant on fair notice as to what crime it is the government says you committed and how. Nothing else.  Otherwise, prosecutors find themselves in the sometimes complicated fight of "If you plead it, you have to prove it."
  
  
  
  
• Random things I think: How much did that graphic -- which is 100% needless -- cost the taxpayers to produce? 
  
• It's the Fourth of July. Be careful out there:
  
• Trouble on the 40 Acres.
  
• Random facts I stole from someone else: (1) At this time last year, Dallas had 209 murders. The count right now is 37. That's astonishing. (2) We've not heard Jerry Jones speak in 70 days which is an all time record. Makes you think there might be more to it than the current Black Lives Matter resurgence which we think he is avoiding.
• Messenger: Above the Fold. (I bet they had to scramble yesterday to get the mask mandate and other changing stories on the front page.)