8.21.2020

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

 

  • Wise County active: 52 (+7 from yesterday).
  • Texas hospitalizations: -339 from yesterday.
  • A faithful reader tipped me off to a wild start of the school year in Jacksboro. Two students who were diagnosed with  COVID-19 on Monday were sent to school on Wednesday. <Insert record scratch.> They were immediately sent home. 
  • Now more than ever, tell your son to be careful around those sorority girls in Aggieland. Classes started on Wednesday:

  • Still not sure how this football thing is going to work out. Ten cases shut down the ECU program yesterday. So how is everyone going to feel with 10 UT players come down with COVID before OU/Texas?
  • Trump's 2016 campaign mastermind Steve Bannon being arrested on a yacht for defrauding people dumb enough and racist enough to want to donate their own money so a private wall can be built to keep out brown people is peak Trump World. And the fact that Junior promoted it calling it "private enterprise at its finest" is simply poetic. 

  • This just started this morning. It is going to be brutal. And it should be. 
  • These two, 11 and 13, went missing in Palo Pinto County yesterday but were later found in Waco. When they went missing, the only details were:  “It looks like they had assistance in leaving the house and running away. We believe they have been corresponding with an unknown person on the internet.”
  • The ATM at the old Wells Fargo bank off the Wise County courthouse square has been removed. (The county bought the building and will make it a courthouse annex.) The powers at be, in a genius move for the bank, offered a location close to the Wise County probation department. They were ignored by Big Banking. You know, there are a surprising number of people who still use ATMs in this cashless society.
  • They are going to have to drag him out of the White House. He said this just last night.
  • Last night at the DNC: After the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks sang the national anthem and before Joe Biden, who I had been lead to believe had suffered a major stroke rendering him unable to speak, gave a flawless acceptance speech, we got to hear from a kid who stutters but had been earnestly comforted by new nominee. (Watch it.) Say what you want about Biden, but his is a decent and compassionate man. 

  • I'm working on my Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Expert Certification to go along with my Expert Southwest Proper Weather Certification, and I think you should keep an eye on this storm. My Houston friends have gone a few months without a disaster, so they are due. 
  • Sports: TCU's quarterback, who was kind of a promising mini-Johnny Football, will probably miss the season (if there is one) because of a undisclosed condition "which he has had his whole life." It was only discovered, however, during COVID-19 precautions and testing. 
  • We ended up with 20 new arrestees in Wise County yesterday. And I'm counting an additional 12 as of 5:00 a.m. this morning. Translation: DPS and the WCSO are working the highways looking for the rent cars and out of state license plates who just happen to be committing traffic offense like "Left lane - not passing." 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:36 AM

8.20.2020

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • Wise County active: 45. (-7).  Deaths: 7 (+2). I've confirmed that at least part of the big jump we had was from a nursing home outbreak. 
  • Texas hospitalizations. That's -236 from yesterday so the drop resumes after a one day deviation.
  • If you've tried to mail a letter lately, you are acutely aware that the post office is being jacked with based upon how long it takes to be delivered. Here's a side effect: The delays are causing people to be hit with late charges on their bills if they pay them the old fashioned way or even if they use auto-pay if the bank has to cut and mail a physical check.
  • Breaking moments ago: Steve Bannon just got indicted. 
  • When a president wants to punish an American company for not allowing campaign slogans and doesn't realize that he desperately needs to hang onto Ohio in the 2020 election. 
  • It you missed what Thom Brennaman said last night when he didn't realize his mic was hot, here it is. And here's his apology less than an hour later. He was fired suspended before the game ended. 
  • Say what?
  • Russia is believed to have poisoned this guy's tea at an airport. Ever since I watched The Americans, I wonder about how they pull stuff like this off. More likely than not they used a hot girl to distract a waiter for a moment.
  • The current Democratic National Convention's biggest difference from 2016 is that this time the Democrats take Trump seriously.  The last time they considered him to be a joke, and it was not imaginable to them that a reality TV show host and known BSer could get elected. It's like Michigan having the chance at a rematch with Appalachian State.
  • Small talk about weather: Man, with the low humidity, the very early morning hours are incredibly nice for what will be 90 degree August days. It feels like Fall before Fall.
  • This guy's business used to have an exclusive tow truck contract with the city of Wichita Falls before his wheels kind of fell off. The story is a little strange, but if you ask about the president's course of travel while wearing an ankle monitor and having a gun in your car while in D.C., they get a little uptight. 
  • Ticket fans: I'm not sure what's going on but Mark "Look at the sky, Friedo" Friedman is in the hospital. Edit: The station actually said this morning he was "fighting for his life" due to pneumonia.
  • Speaking of The Ticket, the fill-in boys were discussing police searches today and briefly touched on civil right by using the standard of "if it solves crimes it's OK, right?" and "you shouldn't have anything to hide." Kill me. 
  • Since yesterday at noon, 18 people have been booked into the Wise County jail on new charges. That's an insane number. All but one were warrantless arrests  (i.e. DWI, drugs, etc.) That brings the total jail population to 189 which is a pre-COVID level. 


at 8:34 AM

8.19.2020

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Breaking local COVID news: The virus has hit the Wise County Sheriff's Office. My well placed deep throat sources tell me that someone very high up in the administrative ranks had been diagnosed with COVID-19. 
  • Wise County active cases: 52
  • Texas hospitalizations. The streak is over. We are +10 from yesterday. 
  • The University of North Carolina shut down online classes on Monday. Notre Dame shut it down yesterday. This is going very well. 
  • Failed bit?
  • The unexpected star of the Democratic National Convention last night was calamari which made an appearance during the states' roll call voting. 
    "Vote for Biden or the calamari gets it!" 

  • Something which would have destroyed any other president in American history: The Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee released its final report yesterday concluding that Russia disrupted the presidential election to help Trump get elected and that the Trump campaign welcomed the help with open arms.  Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and "I love WikiLeaks" were all part of a grand scheme. Who would have thunk? (Not to mention Kushner's and Junior's and Manafort's meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower. How on God' green Earth did that not get them all indicted?) 
  • Let's make is simple. Here's the conclusion of Republican Senate report for those in the back:
  • I can't tell you how great this four minute clip is of Anderson Cooper just destroying the My Pillow guy yesterday. It is glorious, and it is brutal.  Mike Lindell, who is a snake oil salesman, is trying to profit by promoting a supplement which he actually calls a "cure" (his word, not mine) for COVID-19. Lindell was just placed on the Board of Directors of the company trying to pull off this scam and is trying to make money off this ruse. Cooper isn't letting him off the hook. 

  • I can't believe the Cowboys had a provision in the Gerald McCoy contract which allowed them to cut him without receiving his "guaranteed money" if he received the specific injury that he did. I've said it before, they have the worst union in America. This is the actual provision: 
  • Heck of a fire in Grand Prairie this morning. (I don't know who the @Fox4Terry guy is, but he's always on the night shift and gets some really good photos.)
It's at a plastic manufacturing plant.
"Uh, Bob, we need ya down at the plant. We got a little problem."
(Honestly, I have no idea who this guy is.)
  • The S＆P has hit a new record. The New York Times has a headline today which reads, "The Market Is Nuts." It is. And it no longer reflects the realities of the economy. It's a barometer of how the rich are doing. 
  • I've never really thought about the fact that the guy from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was wearing a jacket and tie. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold.  (They have a front page story about something I have been griping about for over a decade: The death ramp at highway 380 and 287 which is home to the most abused guardrail in America.)


at 8:34 AM

8.18.2020

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

 
  • Wise County active: 62, but we haven't had an update since Friday. (The Update told me this morning that the county site will now be updated every afternoon by at least 3:00 p.m. instead of every evening. Regardless, someone must have not received the memo.)
  • Texas hospitalizations. The downward streak continues. Barely. I still think that thing is going to flatten out at around 5,000. 
  • I still don't have a handle on how schools are going to handle it once a student shows up with the COVID? How far will the quarantine and/or cancellations extend?
  • The real State of the Union 2020:
  • Random Sports: So Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres hit a grand slam against the Rangers last night (watch it) and the Rangers are whining about it because he broke the "unwritten rule" that you don't swing at an 0-3 pitch? And then the Padres manager even said he would have preferred that he take the pitch? What a bunch of babies. Here's Ranger manager Chris Woodward:
  • It has been announced that these two will make an appearance at the Republican National Convention? Are they trying to lose? 

  • The most brutal line from the Democratic National Convention last night:

  • The big rumor for the Establishment Pick to become the next state senator in Wise County's district: Drew Springer.
  • 100 years ago today, the 19th Amendment was ratified which forever gave women the right to vote. That's just 100 years ago. My own grandmother couldn't vote for a time in the greatest country in the world because she was female. That ain't that long ago. 
  • The botton pic is from Arlington yesterday. The top pic is from Arlington last Wednesday.

  • I had my first Zoom criminal hearing yesterday (they basically don't exist in the criminal law world). It went off without a hitch. The biggest change in technology over the last 10 years is that now things "just work."   
  • I missed this GIF from the Beirut blast.
  • New Dallas Cowboy Gerald McCoy blew out his quadriceps tendon in his first padded practice yesterday and is gone for the year. Here's the video of it happening. That's so weird. 
  • More injury news: QB Alex Smith, who was injured on November 18, 2018, has been cleared to return to play for the Washington Football Team. No way I'd be picking up a football. I'd be headed to the house.  (ESPN has a short documentary on his recovery on its E60 series called "Project 11." You can see it on ESPN+ if you want to pay for it.) 
    "Good morning to ya."

  • Bridgeport is under another "boil water" notice this morning. That should never happen, but it seems to happen all the time. 

at 8:35 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)