Short of our President I’m not sure I have seen worse leadership, with worse repercussions, than our current Texas Governor.  This is what happens when you have a weak, “business friendly” government.  Business gets it way, at the expense of, well, just about everyone and everything.  Usually the costs in both money and lives are harder to see (I’m thinking of you, Texas oil industry) but this time the price of our Business Friendly government is on display for all to see.  BTW, this article is very sympathetic, at times, to the difficult plight of Gov Abbott.  I’m have no such sympathy.  From the Texas Tribune.

A singular figure in Texas’ coronavirus response, Gov. Greg Abbott leads a state headed in an alarming direction

The coronavirus pandemic has proved a leadership test like no other for the second-term governor. He holds nearly all power over the state’s response as it careens toward crisis.

Happened across these two quotes from William S. Burroughs The Place of Dead Roads.

“The Industrial Revolution is primarily a virus revolution, dedicated to proliferation of identical objects and persons.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads

“A chaotic situation is always deliberately produced. Ask yourself who or what sort of creature could benefit from such a situation.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads

Was listening to the last Bowie album, Blackstar.  I didn’t give it enough attention when it came out.  Very good stuff.  I was listening to it on Apple TV and my daughter came downstairs and asked: is this “Hamilton”?  Easy mistake to make.

I love this idea.

From the Texas Medical Association.  Sadly one of the riskiest things I do right now is live in Texas. Thanks, Governor Abbott!  PDF also available.

When you think of a car purposely driving through a crowd, you might think of radicalized suicide bombers in other parts of the world.  Turns out it going on regularly  right here in the US.  From NPR.

Vehicle Attacks Rise As Extremists Target Protesters

At least 18 are categorized as deliberate attacks; another two dozen are unclear as to motivation or are still under investigation, according to a count released Friday by Ari Weil, a terrorism researcher at the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats. Weil has tracked vehicle-ramming attacks, or VRAs, since protests began.

Otherwise known as the Reagan Revolution.  From the New York Times.

A good resource from the Harvard Global Health Institute called Pandemics Explained.  Contains a good map of risk levels at the county level.  FL and AZ aren’t looking good. And these are popular retirement states with lots of older Americans.

The Amazon algorithm seems to think I should start making sausage.  Who am I to argue?