5.29.2020

It's Friday. Let's Get Out of Here.












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Random Friday Morning Thoughts




  • I almost don't want to lead with the Board because of a wild night, but let's do it:
  • Texas (oh, my):
  • Wise County: Total 48. Active 9. Deaths 3. Yep, we have a new death. 
  • Now to Minneapolis.  We had some insane rioting last night. It's bad. We all know it's bad. It takes away from the cause. But here's how it all went down.
    • It wasn't a major player to get the violence started, but Trump finally spoke about the death of George Floyd yesterday afternoon with these words which were obviously crafted by a gifted speech writer after hours of deliberations and revisions:
    • But it all got cranked up later in the afternoon when the moron lead prosecuting attorney in Minneapolis of any of the officers involved in George Floyd's killing thought it would be a good idea to say the following. He later issued a "clarification" which only clarified he was either totally unprepared for the press conference, doesn't understand the importance of words at moments like this, or he's a police lapdog. 
    • A couple of hours later while it was still daylight, people began gathering around the police station in Precinct 3. As they began to breach the perimeter, cops appeared on the rooftop and began firing those stun/flash grenades into the crowd. I saw this live on MSNBC, but I'm having trouble finding a video of it. 
    • Then it got wild as cops fled (video) and protestors burned the place down. I've never seen that in my life.  And the fireworks made it even more bizarre. 

    • Here's a warning about fake news: You might see this photo all over the place today. It is not the Precinct 3 building.
    • The violence spread across the country including Kentucky and Arizona and several others states.
  • And then, as we have come to expect, Trump fueled the flames of a Race Riot with this shocking tweet that had to be censored by Twitter. Yep, "THUGS" and the calling for the military to execute looters. LBJ, who dealt with similar riots and agonized for hours upon hours on what to say to calm the country, is rolling over in his grave this morning. 
  • That's a blatant call for extrajudicial killings. And if "Make America Great Again" means going back to the "good old days", maybe he means 1967.  The phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" is not original. It was a threat coined by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, who promised violent reprisals on black protesters in 1967. He also said: “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.”
  • But I'm sure after Trump woke up he would have a few words to calm the nation. Leaders and decent men do that. Nope, this morning the most powerful man in the world is whining about how Twitter is hurting his feelings. Is he trying to lose in a landslide in November?  
  • And then the official White House twitter account doubled down calling for the murder of protesters. It's now the official policy statement of the United States of America. Edit: Twitter just slapped the warning label on it, too. 
  • In case everyone needs to be reminded what this is all about: 
  • Minnesota State Police, who apparently need a course on civil liberties and public/media relations, thought it would be a good look early this morning to arrest a black CNN reporter while he was live on the air. Within an hour, the governor was apologizing and saying he'd be released. Think about it: They arrested a CNN reporter before the killer of George Floyd. 
  • Have you ever seen a country to to hell in a hand basket so quickly.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold. 

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5.28.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • The Board. It finally happened. 
  • Texas. (I have reclaimed the title of Dr. Fauci of Wise County. Just as I predicted, we have a massive two day increase after the holiday weekend.)
  • Wise County: Total 45. Active 11.
  • There has been an arrest. All we know is that it is a juvenile. 
  • I'll never understand rioting, but I understand history. And this is right out of the 1960s. Well, the 1960s without the mask. 
  • The destruction of property bugs me to death.   Then again, where did the conservative Tea Party get its name? 
  • I'm old enough to remember when the federal government threatening to shutter free political speech would send shock waves throughout the country. It was way back in, oh, 2016 and every year before that. (Side note: Any executive order limiting how Twitter runs their private company won't be worth the paper it is written on. The First Amendment doesn't protect Trump from Twitter -- it protects Twitter from Trump.)
  • I'm seeing rumors that he'll try to modify section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which provides protection from silly lawsuits. Am I missing something, or didn't Congress used to have a say in lawmaking? Does that not matter any longer? Heck, who needs Congress when you have a wannabe Führer, right?
  • Trump threatening Twitter is like an addict threatening his drug dealer. And, buddy, if you didn't lie all the time this wouldn't even be an issue. 
    Did they notice that 100,000 number yesterday?
  • The headlines of a ruling late yesterday by the Texas Supreme Court drove me nuts. "Texas Supreme Court Blocks Absentee Voting."  That's not true at all. Let me explain. 
    • All you need to do in order to get an absentee ballot is to check a box. Are you 65 years old or more? Check the box and you get a ballot. Going to be out of town of election day? Check a box and you get a ballot. Do you suffer from a disability? Check box. Get ballot.  (Get your application here.)
    • So what did the court rule? That you don't suffer a disability just because, without more, you fear getting the coronavirus. Ok, fine. (This is a good time to note that all the judges are working from home because they fear going to the office.) 
    • But that doesn't mean you have to lie about a disability to get the ballot. The court made it real easy to justify requesting the ballot: If you fear the coronavirus and there's anything else (i.e. any pre-existing condition of any type and of any degree which in your mind qualifies as a disability) you get the ballot you can legally get the ballot.  
    • And here's an additional kicker: When you check the disability box, you don't have to say what your disability is and officials don't have the responsibility of questioning it. You check. You get. You vote. The State conceded that, and the court acknowledged it. 
    • The Texas Tribune is the best at getting the headline right. 


    • As Texas turns Blue, those in power sure do fear making it easy to vote.
  • This is an odd twist on  "Let them eat cake."  And isn't it a hallmark of modern day America that we don't stand in line for anything? It better be immediately available or we want it delivered to our door.
  • I've learned the Decatur graduation ceremony, like Southlake's, will begin at 8:20 p.m. That's still too late, but at least they don't have a million diplomas to handout. 
  • The Tarrant County Sheriff, the same one who referred to undocumented immigrants released from his jail as "these drunks who will run over your children", doesn't know how to run a jail -- and that's his main job. Over the last month, an inmate committed suicide on April 26th, a coronavirus death occurred on May 23rd which the Sheriff didn't bother voluntarily disclosing, and an inmate had a baby last week without anyone noticing. Oh, and the State of Texas just temporarily revoked the jail's certification. Look at this twitter thread and related story by the Star-Telegram's Nichol Manna who is doing a great job trying to pry information out of the Sheriff. 
  • They just keep coming despite the court shutdown: 20 new Class A and B misdemeanors filed yesterday. 

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5.27.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • The Board. (A month ago I didn't think the number would ever get to 100,000.):
  • Texas. (My prediction from yesterday that the numbers would dramatically spike after the holidays came true yesterday but not enough to impact the seven day average yet): 
  • Wise County: Positive 45. Active 12.  My cries from yesterday have been heard:
  • Cops in Minnesota decided to kill a guy, and four of them were immediately fired because of it. If you haven't seen the video, here it is. It's hard to argue with this meme that circulated yesterday: 
  • I completely dropped the ball on the Waco lawyers murder-for-hire story I posted on Monday. A faithful reader told me I was an idiot for not remembering that the female actually worked in Decatur right out of law school for about a year with an office on the courthouse square.  She was even on the court appointed criminal defense list. Note to self: Get out more. 
  • Twitter finally decided to label a tweet by Trump a lie when it is a lie. (That means there should be a lot of labels forthcoming.)  
  • This, of course, made him mad so he demonstrated it by revealing he has the understanding of a Fourth Grader when it comes to First Amendment. Twitter is not capable of violating the Free Speech Clause, and you as President, and as the government, would violate the First Amendment if you tried to do anything about it. 
  • The Central Park Imma-Gonna-Report-You lady was fired yesterday.  I don't know how much she made, but I'm guessing it was a pretty penny.  But I hope someone checked on her good puppy dog. 
  • My random post about "good writing" yesterday had me making fun of the sentence, "The ability to say a thing clearly and directly is rather to be chosen than great riches." A faithful reader pointed out Proverbs 22:1 which reads “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches . . . . "   Getting past the fact I overlooked a scriptural reference despite being a Bible expert, am I to understand that the verse is supposed to be so well know to the masses that the author of the article in The Wall Street Journal thought he could paraphrase it without attribution? 
  • I was just kidding when six days ago I wrote that her husband's $1 million donation to a Trump SuperPAC should be called a donation to the "Please Don't Let Your Lapdog Justice Department Indict Me PAC."
  • This has Dateline written all over it.  
  • Southlake Carroll will hold it's graduation ceremony on Friday beginning at 8:20 p.m. to coincide with military time of 2020.  Never do a bit where the payoff is more of beating than the bit itself.  That's too late to start. 
  • Something seems very weird about this: Trump appointed U.S. Attorney Joseph Brown of the Eastern District of Texas will abruptly quit on May 31st. He was the Grayson County district attorney from 2000 to 2018. And his father was a state district judge in Sherman, and his uncle was federal judge in Sherman. So what's up? 
  • Good lord, he just did this. The widow of Lori Klausutis has begged him to stop this. The Atlantic had is right yesterday. Trump is cruel. The Wall Street Journal has it right today. "Mr. Trump is debasing his office, and he’s hurting the country in doing so."
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

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