ScottishFox

That's just not so. We had the mortality rate down by about 75% for a bit. From the middle of April to mid June we cut the number of hospitalizations in half. Sure, we've borked it recently with a lot of the 30 and under crowd getting sick by way of ignoring the rules, but we absolutely did flatten the curve for awhile. The area in Texas I'm in is seeing an increase, but here you're more likely to be murdered than die of Coronavirus. However, we are likely to pass our average flu-season numbers in the next few weeks - 3,200 deaths and climbing. The worst recent flu season in Texas (2017-2018) took 11,000 lives according to the Texas DHS. We're way below that - so far.

Best of luck, Grailknight. Get plenty of rest.

If they were legit colliding with each other and getting injured - that would be fine. It's the theatrics of taking a fake dive to try to draw a penalty that look so bad.

Respectfully, these guys couldn't even be a warm-up act for Honolulu PD.

Well, that would make a pretty big difference. According to the NY times article I read the lawyers were still working through the possible ramifications to taxation, environmental rules and adoptions. If the only impact is prosecution of Native Americans then it's going to be relatively small overall. If it ends up interfering with taxation, House of Representatives seats, etc. then it's going to be a much bigger deal.

Great article - thanks. We'll see how it pans out in the long run. I suspect both sides of the aisle will be hyperbolic until we see how it all shakes out. One side wails, "Disaster and ruin!" The other says, "No big deal at all." and the truth will probably end up somewhere in the middle. It's possible that Oklahoma just lost about 1/2 of it's state and local tax base with this decision. As a potential precedent this could be very messy for whichever party wins the 2020 elections. How many other states failed to properly terminate their many poorly worded treaties (which both sides violated on a regular basis). One book I cannot recommend enough for a (in my opinion) really well balanced and historically contextualized look at the struggles between Native Americans and the growing country of America is Empire of the Summer Moon. They cover the treaties in pretty good detail here and there and my takeaway was that both sides violated the treaties whenever they felt like it. Often the treaties were agreed to by chieftains that didn't even have authority over the groups they were representing while signing the treaties. The cultural differences and incompatible value systems are really something in that book. Both sides have their heroes and their villains. And I've just talked myself into a second listening. https://www.amazon.com/Empire-of-Summer-Moon-audiobook/dp/B01KBD4IOE/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=summer+of+the+autumn+moon&qid=1594559593&sr=8-1

My brother-in-law and wife have both worked in law enforcement for quite awhile while my father was a judge and defense attorney at different parts of his career. I could NOT agree with this man more. Don't say a MF'ing thing, ever, for any reason. Hand them the card to your lawyer and get out of there. The only direction the situation can go is worse.

It's one of the very few sports where the men go to great lengths to show what fragile babies they are. Ooh, ooh, the man almost made contact with me. I shall throw myself to the ground with great enthusiasm and thrash in the throws of unbearable agony.

And, in the 2020 is Year of Endless Chaos category, The Supreme Court just gave half of Oklahoma back to the Muskogee nation. That includes Tulsa and a very large part of Oklahoma. Nearly two thousand convicted criminals will potentially be released as they were illegally (now) convicted by the State of Oklahoma on land they did not have jurisdiction on. Everything in Orange goes bye-bye and is no longer Oklahoma because the treaty wasn't terminated properly. Gorsuch was in favor of the 5-4 ruling. Another proof he's going by what he believes the law says and not what Trump wants.

If you're left-leaning I feel you have to be pleasantly surprised with Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. They have not turned out to be the blindly right-voting Trump-favoring justices many were concerned they would be.

A patron that is morally flexible can cause some angst and drama for the heroes. Get some slam dunk heroes vs. evil missions out of the way and then start to drive them into morally dicey endeavors. Something along the lines of secure funding for the orphanage by planting contraband on a political rival to make sure the patron's paying customers wins their election.

I thought after 1/2 a year of 2020 madness I was prepared for most anything and then... Kanye West running for President. * Campaign slogan: “YES!” * Vice presidential choice: Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming. * Platform: The Wakanda Management Model. * Party: The Birthday Party. My brain hurts.

The daily death counts have been WAY down lately. There are a couple of strange anomalies around 6/25 and 7/7. This must have something to do with timing of submissions and paperwork and whatnot because otherwise these weird spikes don't make much sense. Like 6/25 a huge number of people just died at a rate we haven't seen since March and then less than a week later we're seeing an 89% decrease in fatalities? Looks odd. Though as you can see for the last 3 weeks or so the death rate is vastly improved from the 2000 per day in March. Minus the huge spike on 6/25 and the medium large spike on 7/7. Certainly paints a different picture than what I've been seeing in the news. Cases are up, but death is way down. The data is available in pretty friendly format from covidtracking.com/data. And the Texas numbers because we are moving in the wrong direction, baby.

Spent most of the weekend with my sleep cycle inverted (going to bed at 6-7AM and napping all day because I can't sleep at night). Finally started having some success with @Grailknight 's suggestion. Got a solid 5 hours in last night and it felt great. Down 25 lbs in 33 days using the "meds make me not want to eat" diet.

This, I feel, is one of the most legitimate complaints against police. When they find a bad apple in their midst the blue wall goes up and nobody will admit anyone did anything wrong. Going so far as to throw away fellow officers who break rank and point out the bad actors in the bunch.