Random Thoughts: Former Mayor Gets New Bribery Trial

Tweets from May, 2020:

• 2020-05-02: Former Mayor Laura Maczka of Richardson Gets New Bribery Trial After Court Officer Spoke to Juror
• 2020-05-02: Trump cares more about Kim Jong Un's health than Mitt Romney's. "Romney's in isolation? Gee, that's too bad," the president said. Asked if there was any sarcasm in his remarks, Trump said, "None whatsoever." Which suggests Trump *doesn't* understand sarcasm.
• 2020-05-04: Cold War (2018): Poland. Three Oscar noms. Arty. Ill-fated love story set in post-war Europe, mostly Poland and Paris. Beautiful B&W cinematography evocative of the times. Characters can find passion but can't find happiness with each other. Why not is a recurring mystery. A-
• 2020-05-05: Pete Sessions has spent $80,000 on legal fees to a criminal defense attorney, and they began in October, the same month his name surfaced in the Ukraine scandal that led to President Donald Trump's impeachment. Why would Waco want to buy this trouble?
• 2020-05-05: Irony is dead: "Trump does not wear coronavirus mask at Honeywell factory that makes masks"

After the jump, more random thoughts.

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• 2020-05-05: Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick has won: "There Are More Important Things Than Living."
• 2020-05-06: American Factory (2019): Former GM plant in Ohio reopens as Chinese-owned auto glass factory. Cinema verité documentary. It's crazy that Chinese owners allowed cameras fly-on-the-wall access. Culture clash in America's heartland is sharp and unsettling. You feel for workers. A-
• 2020-05-06: "We need a plan, not a date to reopen our economy." -- Rep. Colin Allred
• 2020-05-06: It's ironic how so few people are willing to crowd together to fly on an airplane but so many are willing to crowd together to watch an airplane fly over.
• 2020-05-07: Irony is dead: "Trump's DOJ Says It Can't Prove Michael Flynn Did the Crime He Confessed To"
• 2020-05-07: I'm old enough to remember when the GOP presidential candidate called Russia "without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe." Turns out Mitt Romney was right (although China, being more powerful than Russia, might still be No. 1).
• 2020-05-07: Jailing political protesters has always been a counter-productive strategy for the government (see Letter from Birmingham Jail). In a pandemic, it's dumb, too. We should releasing prisoners during COVID-19, not adding them.
• 2020-05-08: Planet of the Humans (2020): Michael Moore's takedown of environmental movement, rejecting solar, wind and biomass because they aren't 100% clean. Also pissed that capitalism finds ways to profit and big environmentalists can be hypocrites. The movie's solution: depopulation. C-
• 2020-05-08: I'm old enough to remember when Republicans believed that "laws are laws" and we shouldn't be allowed to pick and choose which laws to follow or which to enforce.
• 2020-05-09: Ironically, it would be a different race if Trump had shown leadership and focused on actually controlling coronavirus, instead of making it all about himself. Almost every other leader around the world is more popular now than before. Not Trump.
• 2020-05-10: Here are the Facebook groups at the hub of making Plandemic go viral: Chemtrails Global Skywatch; OFFICIAL Q / QANON; Drain The Swamp; X22Report[Geopolitical]; The Official Rush Limbaugh Facebook Group; Collective Action Against Bill Gates. We Wont Be Vaccinated!!
• 2020-05-11: Making the Cut (TV 2020): Tim & Heidi's successor to Project Runway, worse in every way. Contestants are experienced, not new designers. They get seamstress help. Emphasis is on selling on Amazon and building a "global brand." Runway fashion is unrewarded. Auf wiedersehen. C-
• 2020-05-11: Jennifer Rubin uses John Cornyn as the poster boy of Republicans threatened at the polls this fall. That's probably too big a get for Dems, but if he and Trump keep it up, who knows?
• 2020-05-12: The Art of the Deal: "Afghan President orders resumption of offensive operations against the Taliban in blow to Trump's deal."
• 2020-05-13: This Tender Land: Four children in a cruel Minnesota orphanage escape and embark on an adventure down river. Tornado, kidnapping, guns, snakes, and first love. A quest. Think Homer's Odysseus or Huck Finn during the Great Depression. A great tale for young readers. A-
• 2020-05-13: At Dunkin' Donuts, a single doughnut costs $0.99. We've reached the point where that old saying, "I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut" has gone from meaning "a sure thing" to meaning "a tossup." No wonder my kids don't understand me.
• 2020-05-15: From the senator who is still trying to kill Obamacare: "The good news is that if you lose your employer-provided coverage, that is a significant life event, which makes you then eligible to sign up for the Affordable Care Act." -- John Cornyn
• 2020-05-15: Which movies were better than the book? 2001: A Space Odyssey. But ironically, the movie makes little sense without the novel. The movie was great because it soared above literal storytelling.
• 2020-05-16: "True faith, Søren Kierkegaard insists, believes "by virtue of the absurd" -- which is why almost no one has it."
• 2020-05-18: I once had a blue book yes/no question that I didn't understand. I guessed "No" and proceeded to write everything I knew on the subject. The professor who graded it wrote, "Then you mean Yes" and gave me full credit. Lesson? You probably know more than you think you do.
• 2020-05-19: Our democracy, our republic, is teetering. "Georgia GOP cancels Supreme Court election, meaning GOP governor can appoint a Republican."
• 2020-05-19: What if this is what making America great again looks like?
• 2020-05-20: The Edge of Democracy (2019): How Brazil's fragile democracy was overthrown "legally" by right wing authoritarians. I thought this stuff happened in "banana republics," not in America, but the same script is now playing out here. Constitutions can be subverted everywhere. B+
• 2020-05-20: So 34% think he's honest and another 10% or so think he's dishonest but they accept that because they like his tax cuts for the rich and/or SCOTUS picks. Is that about right?
• 2020-05-22: Upload (TV 2020): On death, people choose to upload their consciousness to a CGI afterlife. Much of this explores what that's like (not always smartly), but there's also a love story and even a murder mystery. Still, writers didn't have enough material for a whole season. C+
• 2020-05-22: Govt didn't "spy on Trump." In fact, our government monitored Russian spies and caught Trump officials trying to collude with them. Texas Senator John Cornyn is acting like Putin's defense attorney. Texas is a red state, not a Red state.
• 2020-05-22: Trump latched onto the red gimme cap with MAGA printed on it and sold it in the millions. Trump could have marketed a red MAGA face mask. Instead, Trump decided to make *not* wearing a mask a sign of MAGA-hood. It's not like Trump to miss a business opportunity this obvious.
• 2020-05-22: Trump decided that global warming and a pandemic weren't enough things to deal with. He decided now is a great time to restart the nuclear arms race.
• 2020-05-23: There was no N.Y.C. Ebola outbreak. But there have been over 90,000 deaths from COVID-19. Still Trump decided to play golf! #TheresAlwaysATweet
• 2020-05-24: "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age." -- US Constitution. Allowing only some to vote by mail on the basis of age is unconstitutional.
• 2020-05-24: We could make significant strides in getting people to wear face masks in public if we tell people that the face masks prevent Bill Gates from identifying you with his facial recognition software that's everywhere.
• 2020-05-25: This woman! New Zealand's Prime Minister has had admirable command and control during her country's COVID-19 outbreak and then shows fearlessness as an earthquake strikes during a live interview about the pandemic.
• 2020-05-26: The Lovebirds (2020): Rom-com plays more like a buddy cop comedy. Chemistry and banter between Nanjiani and Rae are worth watching as they investigate a crime to keep from being arrested themselvs. Silly plot played silly but just seriously enough to overlook its silliness. B+
• 2020-05-28: Interest in COVID-19 is dying in Dallas as deaths across the country continue to mount up. The milestone of 100,000 deaths is noted by The Dallas Morning News in a little box in the lower right corner of the front page.
• 2020-05-28: "Even the most distant available futures contract, for February 2031, last traded at $56.65, implying expectations that a decade from now oil prices will still be below their pre-pandemic level." Let that sink in.
• 2020-05-28: She said: "To global-minded Technocrats..."
  He said: "To conspiracy-minded Nutters..."
• 2020-05-28: A convincing argument that the phrase "human capital" did not come out of slavery is the point that economists of the time talked of "slave capital", not "human capital", as they didn't consider slaves to be humans.
• 2020-05-29: 40 million unemployed Americans and Cornyn wants to throw open our borders to cheap labor from the South. What is he? A Democrat?
• 2020-05-29: The Need: Molly, young mother of two, hears an intruder's footsteps. Molly, paleobotanist, discovers very odd objects in a dig. Is it a sci-fi novel about parallel universes? Is it a psychological thriller about the anxieties of motherhood? Mostly the latter. C+
• 2020-05-29: The whole world is watching!
  The whole world is watching!
• 2020-05-31: 1. Racist policing.
  2. Protests by public.
  3. Protests and police response escalate until cities are in ashes.
  4. No reforms follow.
  5. Repeat.
• 2020-05-31: "Police erupt in violence nationwide."
• 2020-05-31: "The police don't change. Police chiefs may have condemned the killing of George Floyd, but the actions of their officers since show that nothing's shifted."