- Wise County active cases: 25 (-1 from yesterday)
- Texas hospitalizations: -62 from yesterday.
- It's hard to keep up with, but there looks to be about a dozen Texas high school games canceled for Friday. The number of schools who have just up and canceled their entire season rose to 12 yesterday.
- Mask or no mask? It should be a no-brainer but it has become part of the culture war. Robert Redfeld, the director of the CDC, said it was an absolute must in front of Congress yesterday and then Trump reacted by saying he must have misunderstood the question because he was wrong. “As far as the mask is concerned, he made a mistake,” Trump said.
- I understand why Trump would lie about a vaccine being developed in two months, but why does he take this stand on masks? What's in it for him?
- Trump for some odd reason said (incorrectly, no less) that the number of COVID deaths in the U.S. wouldn't be that bad if you subtracted the blue states: "If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at." Look what someone dug up the The Atlantic from last May which now seems hauntingly true.
- I'm not sure how Gov. Abbott will reduce the COVID restrictions today in his noon press conference, but he will. The far-right in the state has been killing him.
- AG Bill Barr last night: “You know, putting a national lock down, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.” Good lord. 1. Slavery. 1A. Stay at home orders.
- I don't want to be a jerk here, but my reaction to this story is "So?!" He's just a city judge (there are 1,278 of them in Texas) and 10 years isn't a long time.
- Aric Maxwell Wrongful Arrest and Prosecution Update:
- I've now got a rough copy of the longer version of the CBS11 segment which I've put on youtube. You even get to see the Liberally Lean Headquarters.
- Thanks so much to those yesterday who wanted to engage me about the facts of the case.
- Everyone asks "What's this 'other evidence' against Aric the Sheriff keeps talking about?" That's a great question. There are no witnesses, there is no confession, there's no physical evidence, and Lauren Whitener's blood and/or DNA was not found in Aric's house nor was Aric's DNA found on the removed smoke detectors/batteries from the victim's home.
- Many people seem to think the "other evidence" is blood being found on lighter fluid in Aric's home. Nope. That's not true. But they believe it because a of a falsehood in the affidavit used to obtain the arrest warrant.The following sworn statement from the affidavit is 100% not true (it was contradicted by the sheriff's office official report in the case which said the test was negative):
- As always, there's more! A swab was collected from the floor by the lighter fluid, where a small particle of DNA was detected. It could have been from anything -- sweat, saliva, skin, or blood. However, Lauren Whitener was absolutely excluded by the lab as a donor to that DNA. This was memorialized in a lab report dated July 25, 2019 -- a date which is two weeks before Aric's arrest warrant was obtained. That critical fact was not mentioned in the affidavit to get the warrant. Instead, the above false statement was included to give the wrongful impression that Lauren's blood was found on the lighter fluid.
- See why I'm so mad about all this?! Again, my full press release is here.
- Big Tex is now a dirty lib. He's wearing a mask . . .
.jpg)
