Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Texas Hospitalizations:
  
  
  
• I don't have an update on Judge Cude, and I didn't want to bug anyone over the weekend to get one.
• Notable people diagnosed since Friday:
• The Tarrant County Sheriff who keeps allowing inmates to die in his jail got some news. 
  
  
  
• Junior!
  
  
  
• In addition to insider trading to profit off of COVID, Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was also diagnosed with it.
  
  
  
• Legendary coach Lou Holtz joined the list. When teams were considering cancelling the season earlier this year, Holtz said: "Let's move on with our life. When they stormed Normandy, they knew there were going to be casualties and there would be risks."
  
  
  
• Ted Cruz has not caught the COVID, but he was still being Ted Cruz over the weekend. Compare and contrast:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It's hard to summarize, but let me try. Here is what has happened in connection with Trump's hopeless and desperate attempt to hold onto power by a coup. 
• My rant over the coronavirus on Friday temporarily distracted me from mentioning the insane Rudy Giuliani melting-hair-die-press-conference where it was announced that an "Elite Strike Force" team of Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Texas lawyer Sidney Powell were there to save the day. I want you to remember crazy Powell for a second. Her name is coming back up. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump then invited Michigan legislators to the White House to try and strong arm them to change the election results. They declined and then drank $500 a bottle champagne at the Trump Hotel. (I wonder if Trump paid for it before he could cancel the comp.) 
  
  
  
• On Friday, the Pennsylvania court in which Rudy Giuliani rambled in front of last week, dismissed the case in a scathing opinion. It was brutal. 
  
  
  
• Trump golfed.
• Remember crazy Trump lawyer Powell? I told you to! Anyway, she appeared on Newsmax and said that the reason Trump lost Georgia is because Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has been bribed by a Venezuelan front company in cahoots with the CIA to throw elections to Communists. Seriously. She said it.  Watch it. 
  
  
  
• Then last night, the Elite Strike Force team broke up when Giuliani and Ellis distanced from Powell because, and I didn't think it was possible, she was too crazy for them and Trump. 
  
  
  
• Make no mistake about how dangerous Trump's election fraud claims are. America is young. And right now it, through Trump, America is acting like a reckless teenager behind the wheel. She should know, but doesn't know, how her life can all end suddenly. 
• But people believe the fraud claim. In fact, a lot of people believe it. Get this: 77% of those who voted for Trump believe his baseless fraud claims. 
  
  
  
• I did some number crunching: 77% of Trump's 73,775,569 voters = 56,791,788.  The total number of votes at this moment is 153,578,855 (79,803,286 voted for Biden + 73,775,569 Trump voters).  So 56,791,788/153,578,855 means that 36% of the total voting population believes the fraud claim. That's exactly the percentage of America who make up Trump's very hard core base -- the exact same people who would have voted for him if he shot a man of 5th Avenue. Those people are extremely gullible. 
• I learned a frightening fact about America over the last four years: People believe what they want to believe.
• A buddy was joking to me that the easiest way to win a DWI trial in the future is to simply suggest, despite having no evidence, that the Intoxilyzer machine was made in Wuhan, China and, thus, cannot be trusted. At least I think he was joking. 
• This story got my attention. A DA in the Texas Panhandle is offering pre-trial diversion in THC cases (those cases involving legally purchased edibles in Colorado which magically become a felony, regardless of amount, when you enter into Texas.) There's one issue: The DA makes the defendant donate money to the DA (generally $3,500) to "enter" the program and then the DA turns around a donates the money to a various community charities. Apparently, she likes seeing her name on the checks to the charitable organizations.  The story questions its legality since "entry" fees to pre-trial diversion programs are capped at $500 by statute. 
  
  
  
• There was lots of JFK posts yesterday including this photo taken seconds after the shooting. shooting. I'm not sure I was familiar with. (The Book Depository in the background is ominous.) But that got me thinking. Who was the driver of the limo? About 10 minutes later I was reading his testimony in front of the Warren Commission as to what he saw. You can learn anything if you want to. 
  
  
  
• The NFC East is doing a bit:
  
  
  
• I was little scarred by this yesterday. 
  
  
  
  
• Decatur's high school volleyball team won the State Championship on Saturday. Here's a video of the celebration on the courthouse square late that night