7.17.2020

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out Of Here






at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




  • Wise County Active: 40. Huh? What? We are down 17 cases in two days? Side note: Have I been missing the large number of cases which have "pending" results? It's showing to be a whopping 394.
  • Texas: The rate of increasing cases might be slowing down. (That's my observation only.) But it all depends on the numbers which are released today and tomorrow. It might just be a three day illusion. Regardless, we set a record in deaths yesterday. 


  • We learned yesterday that Trump has required hospital numbers regarding the coronavirus to be sent to DHHS instead of the CDC. If suddenly numbers across the nation begin to show that we are being miraculously cured of COVID-19, we will being seeing some Hitleresque crap going on. If you can't control the virus, just control the information about it.
    Possible presidential consultant
  • The Governor of Georgia is suing the Mayor of Atlanta to prevent her from implementing a mask requirement.  This reminds me of a documentary I once saw about one layer of government overruling another layer of government on the issue of public safety. 
    "All of Georgia is open and we're ready for business!"
  • Idiocracy from yesterday. (I stole this. Come to think of it, I actually steal everything.)
    Trucks on the White House lawn

    Got to have a sponsor.
  • Let's continue with that Idiocracy theme.(Even in full context, this is still crazy.)
  • And one more (as he let's us know what is on his mind as he stood between the two trucks.)

  • I don't want to go all fascist theory here, but the news (and video footage) of people being taken off the street in Portland by people dressed in military gear and then put in unmarked vehicles is bizarre. And I'm not the only one who thinks this. 
  • A little weird for DPS: In the last two days, Texas DPS Troopers have shot two different men in two separate incidences. Little information is available other than one happened in Knox County and the other in San Marcos at a 7-11 (which is also a weird place for a trooper to be.)
  • The Washington Redskins Somethings were hit with a sexual harassment scandal yesterday. I know how to fix it: Hire someone named "Cynt" to hold a press conference who will say she'll get to the bottom of it and then never be heard from again. 
  • This is wild and weird: On June 6th, the Austin PD sent out a tweet which included a photo showing a bunch of "thank you" cards they were receiving while they were otherwise being criticized for heavy handed tactics. Some noticed that the writing on the cards seemed suspiciously similar so Texas Monthly sent an open records request to get access to the cards. Of the 185 cards seen, none had return addresses. Thirty were signed by "Cheryl Waters" or "Cheryl". But, and here's the wild part, forty-six of the cards had the same message of "your butt is perfect." (Insert record scratch sound effect.) 
  • Three things about the above bullet point: (1) The article says that Texas Monthly obtained photos of the card but they didn't reprint any of the photos. Why not? (2) The "your butt is perfect" inscription appears to be a bit by some commercial card company (see below) of which I was not aware. (3) Don't overlook the bottom line here: A police department blatantly lied to the public to serve their own purpose. And if they'll lie about that, well.  
  • I'm not familiar with Greg Sax who is going into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame this year, but I saw where "Sax received his first public gig at KWCS in Bridgeport, Texas." R.I.P. (Don't click on the link if you're on a desktop because you'll be taken to the Dallas Observer website which may be the most browser slowing/draining/killing website in the history of ever.)
  • Mortgage rates on a 30 year mortgage fell to 2.98% yesterday - the lowest ever.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold. (Fun fact I learned: During the heat wave of 1980, Lake Bridgeport was 34 feet low.)


at 8:36 AM

7.16.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts



  • Wise County Active Cases: Still at 57 because we didn't get an update yesterday. Sheesh.
  • Texas. Hospitalizations basically the same. Deaths set a record. Cases set a record.  It's still kind of hard to comprehend that we had a total lockdown in April when we were averaging 1,000 cases a day, and now we are averaging 10,000 a day. 


  • In the middle of the pandemic with 135,000 dead and counting, unemployment at record numbers, and things only looking worse, Trump posted the following picture yesterday. In the Oval Office. Behind the Resolute desk.  Imagine being handed this photo in 2010 and trying to figure out what had happened to us. (Oh, if you haven't seen Chris Cuomo on CNN last night losing it over this, it's worth a few seconds. He almost went full Network.)
  • Kevin Stitt, the governor of Oklahoma who mocked the coronavirus in March (below) has tested positive for the virus.  He hung out with Trump at the Tulsa rally about three weeks ago. 
  • Speaking of the Tulsa fiasco, Trump removed Brad Parscale as his campaign manager yesterday.  This was 70 days ago:
  • Twitter had what it called a "tough day" yesterday when several high profile accounts were hacked and some people were conned into transferring what ended up being $118,000 in bitcoins to the hackers.  Here's an example of what happened:
    • Of course, the big fear is the scenario of hackers doing something other than for  financial gain.  What about a hack broadcasting some crazy news on election day? Trump being hacked and then messaging about nuclear missiles being launched?  Instead, yesterday the hackers, despite their brazenness and tech savviness, were nothing other than common thieves. 
    • Here'a a timeline of the Twitter accounts which were hacked and which ones caused the most damage. 
      Source
      Agree.
  • Houston ISD announced yesterday they were delaying the start of classes until September 8th and that it would only offer virtual classes until at least October 19th. After that, assuming everything is back to "normal", parents would have the option of in-person classes. 
  • Should the schools be open in Texas? I've got two good sources who are privy to the feedback that schools are getting. I'm told the vast majority of teachers are against it, but that parents are for it on about a 70% to 30% split. But you have to factor in the great number of parents who just want their kids out their hair.
  • This really only hits home if you've ever had to take the bar exam, but I cannot describe the beat down it would be to have it cancelled 12 days before you take it like Louisiana did yesterday.
  • There was a NASCAR race in Tennessee yesterday.
  • Very random contract fun fact. Long time readers will know I deemed former Texas Ranger Chris Davis the Official Liberally Lean Major League Baseball Player years ago. He made big news when in 2016 he signed a $119 million, 7 year contract with the Baltimore Orioles.  (He immediately flamed out, by the way. He hit .179 last year and set a MLB record by going on a streak of 0 for 54. Nevertheless, the contract is guaranteed money.) But get this: After all of that money is paid, he even gets the following in deferred money! Yep, he'll be getting a $1.4 million check in the year 2037.
    • From 2023 to 2032: $3.5 million a year.
    • From 2033 to 2037: $1.4 million a year.
  • Man, they sure do love their district judge political races in Abilene. (Although it only took him 3,045 votes to win it.)  
at 8:31 AM

7.15.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts


  • Wise County Active Cases: 57 (new record)
  • Texas. Record, record, chicken dinner, as well.

  • The hot rumor is that Dallas, Travis, Harris, and Hidalgo counties will be locked down this week. I'd bet on that. 
  • There will be no fans at Philadelphia Eagle home games this year. That's assuming the NFL plays. If there are any football games played this fall, the NFL stands the greatest chance. But I'd give it a 50/50 proposition at best right now. 
    What my brain thinks of when I hear Philadelphia Eagles
  • Texas Motor Speedway is expecting about 30,000 fans for this weekend's NASCAR race. Virus issues aside, who in the world would go sit out their in 100 degree temperatures to see a spare NASCAR race? And by that I mean no offense. 
  • In the race to represent part of Wise County in Congress, Ronny Jackson, whose one time nomination for VA Secretary was derailed due to allegations of over-prescribing pills and drunkenness, beat cattle industry lobbyist Josh Winegarner.  Back in the general primary in March, Winegarner got 40% of all votes to Jackson's 20%, but run-offs are dangerous. Last night, Jackson got an amazing 20,000 more votes than he did in March while Winegarner is going to end up with almost 10,000 less. That's weird. 
  • Air Force vet M.J. Hegar beat Royce West. She'll face off against John Cornyn in the fall for the U.S. Senate.   BagofNothing mentioned it the other day: It was absolutely weird that Cornyn was running attack ads against West over the last two weeks. Was the reverse-engineering to get West to win? I mean, if you were a Democrat sitting on the fence between Hegar and West and you saw this big ad of Cornyn attacking West, you'd be edged towards voting for West, right? 
  • Wise County will now have a commissioner named "Biff." I support this. 
  • I now almost want to run under the name Biff "Hussein" Green just to cause ballot box confusion. 
  • If you were in Tarrant County and a Republican, there was just one race (for the court of appeals) on the ballot if you showed up to vote. Still, 34,638 of them did so. (Democrats doubled that number in the county, but they had the Hegar/West contest on the ballot which would create far more interest.)
  • In other political news, I bet Wise County is about to need a new state senator when our current one, Pat Fallon, ends up in Congress. Stay with me here: The guy currently set to be on the ballot this fall for the 4th Congressional District is John Ratcliffe. But he just got appointed to be the Director of National Intelligence, so he needs to be replaced with another Republican on the November ballot. And the people who choose to replace him aren't the voters but the district's precinct chairs, and Fallon has already told them he wants it. More importantly, two days ago Ted Cruz endorsed him to be placed on the ballot.  Something is in the works behind the scenes.


  • What a weird time to be alive.
  • Trump used the Rose Garden for an hour yesterday to do a rambling attempted attack on Joe Biden.  It was weird even by Trump standards.
  • Here's a weird law: In the City of Bridgeport, it is now a crime to buy synthetic urine even if you have absolutely no intent to use it to falsify a drug test.
  • CBS 11 will pay former traffic report Tammy Dombeck $215,000 in an age discrimination suit. I've always heard cases like that are hard to win, so that's a heck of a settlement. 
  • Regarding the guy who was executed yesterday by the U.S. Government, they had him strapped down on a gurney for four hours waiting for the courts to give them the go ahead to kill him. Barbaric.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:32 AM

7.14.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • Wise County new numbers: 54 active cases. (That ties a record, but I continue to have no faith in these figures.) 
  • Texas. The new daily cases and new deaths were down yesterday (charts not shown) because that's attributable to the typical weekend dip. Hospital numbers remained steady, however. Today's numbers will probably continue to skyrocket but it has to come to a peak at some point.  Right?
  • We are beginning to see cracks in the dam regarding school re-openings. Yesterday, Round Rock ISD decided to go virtual for the first three weeks. Fort Bend ISD, with 11 high schools, also voted last night to do the same and won't allow extracurricular activities (including football) during that time.  I think that three weeks is the maximum allowed by TEC for 100% virtual schooling. At least for now.
  • Notable.
  • I still can't get over this lie. 
  • The Texas Republican Party voted (53-4) last night  to have a "virtual convention" after they were left with no other option by the City of Houston (1-0) and the Texas Supreme Court (7-1). 
  • Western Wise County gets to vote for its new Congressman today between Ronny Jackson (supported by the morally vapid Empower Texans PAC and Trump) or Josh Winegarner (also supported by an ungodly amount of money and sleazy mailers from a questionable PAC). Be sure to wear your mask when you vote in that race so you won't catch anything.
  • I'm hearing reports of a second inmate in the Wise County Jail who wrapped a cord around his neck in a suicide attempt to the point of passing out. Both men were then sent for a "mental health evaluation."
  • My favorite race today is in Alabama between Jeff Sessions and Tommy Tuberville for the simple reason that one of Session's attacks on Tuberville is "you finished 5-7 and 4-8 in your last seasons at Auburn and Cincinnati."
  • Here's a pool party brawl from this weekend at Texas Tech. Guns up!
  • The creator of the overrated Dilbert comic strip, Scott Adams, 62, just married some gal who is 31. Attaboy. 

    I don't know what's going on with the t-shirt.
  • At 2:00 in the morning, the Supreme Court allowed the first federal execution in 17 years to proceed. The man was immediately killed by the government. It was a 5-4 vote with the two Trump appointees were in the majority. (The facts aren't going to get the guy any sympathy. He was a white supremacist convicted of killing a Jewish family of three in, of all places, Searcy County, Arkansas.)
  • The holder of the most useless position in the most useless professional organization in Texas is in trouble. 
  • Dak Prescott, baring a last minute contract, will play this year under the Franchise Tag which will pay him $31.4 million. I knew that if they don't reach a contract next year they'll either (1) be forced to cut him or (2) put the Franchise Tag on him again. What I did not know that the price of next year's Franchise Tag is 120% of this year's salary regardless of what happens to NFL revenues.  That's $37.7 million.
  • The Evil Empire has made some changes in response to Black Lives Matter and players' demands, the most notable being changing the name of the field from that of a plaintiff's lawyer to that of Ricky Williams and Earl Campbell. The deceased lawyer's family suggested the name change just as a token of good will, but fired off some hot Trump opinions in connection with decision. (This also seems a good time to remind you of the craziest video deposition you've ever seen involving said Plaintiff's lawyer, Joe Jamail.)


at 8:32 AM
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