Above The Fold

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

 This is the opposite of my dumb dogs. 

For some reason, I enjoy this. 

 Get me this cat!

 A lot going on there. 

I've never wanted to know the back story more than now. 

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• It was a crazy day at the Capitol yesterday especially after Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein met with the Senate behind closed doors. A million reporters it seemed were trying to corner every Senator coming out the meeting, and it was right out of House of Cards. 
• I love it when Trump says, "Believe me!"
• The greatest job in the world right now has to be a Congressional intern whose boss will tell her or him what is going on behind the scenes. 
• Which way do you face in the shower? I can't imagine a more obvious answer. 
• He will "reveal"?
  
  
• The Kid In Rwanda says she has a stomach ache and has been throwing up. Mrs. LL is freaking out. 
• That guy: 
  
• A tree at my dad's lake house blew down. A neighbor sent a crew over with chainsaws to chop it up and haul it away. Wise County roots run deep. 
• One of my favorite movies is Love, Actually but the scene where Billy Bob Thornton plays the woman grabbing arrogant U.S. President has a new meaning. 
  
• Fox News turned into Alex Jones and InfoWars last night. 
  
• Local Fox 4 News last night spent the first 9  minutes dedicated to non-existent storms. (Poor Brandon Todd had to report nothing on the scene from Grapevine. (They put a tarp over an ATM for protection!).
• There's a judge in the Wise County Courthouse who has pointed out that if I predict failure on the Rangers they immediately turn their game around. 
• Pete Delkus was upset when viewers noted he screwed up the forecast last night: 
  
• And he got madder: 
  
• Trump said yesterday that he is the victim of "witch hunt." 
  
• A meal described "with all the fixings" is a phrase I haven't heard in years. (It's in today's Update.) 

Did We Just See A Smoking Gun Go Off?

Trump just held a new conference, and I'm not sure he had been briefed on what had happened one hour ago. Remember that Trump put in writing that he fired FBI Director Comey, who was investigating Trump/Russians ties, because of a memo of Rosenstein. The earlier news when Rosenstein, who is not happy, met with the Senate: 

One hour later, Trump doubles down and says he fired the FBI Director because of the recommendation of Rosenstein.

Not to mention that he said, "There is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign . . .I can always speak for myself and the Russians."

Good lord.

My Hope Is That This Is Only An Accident

BREAKING NEWS: Several people hurt after car drives onto sidewalk in Times Square. pic.twitter.com/acrwORJNIc

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 18, 2017

And it is sad that I have to have that thought in this day and time.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Wow. Former Fox News head and disgraced Roger Ailes has died. 
• Wow Part 2: There may have been a Road Rage shooting in Richardson during rush hour this morning off of Central. Remember that I told you about the Sardine Theory the other day. 
• I've never seen allergy "season" last for months like this. 
• There's an unusual amount of coverage about a 14 year old girl from Forney killed after accidentally being run/ran over by a softball teammate. I only say "unusual" because there are tragedies like that every day which the media never mentions.
• "Black hole sun. Won't you come. And wash away the rain." If you know those lyrics, you'll be  sad to learn that the singer of those lines died overnight. 
• Mrs. LL has has a "one eye problem" which causes her to wear an eye patch every now and then. I make pirate jokes. She, in return, is not pleased.
• "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel to oversee the previously confirmed FBI investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters." Finally!
• When Trump doesn't tweet in the early morning hours it makes me think he's in a fetal position in depression.
• And just as I wrote the above bullet point, this happened. Incredible: 

  

  Whataboutism!

• And you guys dog me for not being able to spell. 
• But wait, there's more! 
  
• I'd pay money to see a Live Cam of Sean Spicer right now. 
• At 7:30 this morning, Fox News' Dan Godwin expressed confusion as to why golfers at the Byron Nelson weren't on the 17th fairway. 
• My Found Dog Problem yesterday was weird. I stayed home to take care of Mrs. LL so, since I had the time, I just hooked the Big Dog I found up to a tree in the front yard hoping the owner would come by. I took a seat and waited. The guy showed up within 10 minutes. Mrs. LL told me my idea was dumb and could not believe it worked. I agree. 
• BagOfNothing once again advocates for Trump to Wag The Dog. The scary part is that I think he'll do it. 

When Things Aren't Going Well

Let's start with today's news:

"They don't respect my authority!"

"You don't know what I went through.
Seriously. I don't think you even know who  I am."

"Give me a call. Or send a pic."

"I just screamed after a primary win and got disqualified.

You can say,  'grab them by the [deleted]' and get a pass?"

""I'm a Republican who likes foot tapping in a stall. Keep me out of this."

"Oh, yeah, Keep me out of this, too.. (In an Arrested Development voice:) 

"I made a huge mistake."

Someone Claim This Dog!

Edit: I'll be. The owner showed up 10 minutes later. (I'm kind of sad. I was getting close to making it my Ultra-Mega-Secret-Service-Dog-Protection-You-Can-Count-On-Canine who would put the Dogs In The House in their place.) 

Above The Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• "A state court has publicly reprimanded a Tarrant County judge for engaging in sexual conduct with his chief clerk, according to court documents." It's a J.P.  For some reason, that makes the story less exciting. 
• Motorcycle death in Wise County. (And I'll say it for the millionth time: Requiring a J.P. to go to the scene of an accident to pronounce someone dead is an archaic law.)
• Trump. Oh, Trump. Now the New York Times is reporting (and confirmed by other organizations) that FBI Director Comey, whom he later fired, documented in a memo that Trump said, “I hope you can let this go.” Trump was referring to the investigation by the FBI of former NSA Director Michael Flynn who Trump had just fired for his ties to Russia which he hadn't disclosed.  My head is spinning. Worst case: Obstruction of Justice. What Will Happen: The statement is vague enough that the story will die.
• Is Trump some calculating mastermind? Not a chance. He's simply oblivious as a child. The following is from 2014.  We are living in the strange days.
  
  
• Comey documented everything -- that is,  every conversation that was related to his job. I do the same thing immediately after every work related meeting whether formal or casual. I don't do it for sinister reasons, I do it because I don't trust my memory. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to pull the notes up at the courthouse and say, "I wrote [this] on [this date]."
• Richard Nixon's letter to Trump is now borderline creepy. Nixon thinks he would be a winner. So much winning. 
  
• What are the Las Vegas odds on these four: (1) Trump is impeached, (2) Trump resigns, (3) Trump completes the four year term and doesn't run for re-election, or (4) He serves two terms. The resignation option is intriguing to me. 
• The firing of 10 shots into an Uber driver's car by an Army vet in Dallas to "defend" a shirtless (but tie wearing) passenger who was showing off his gun is the kind of a criminal case that prosecutors and defense lawyers and jurors will all say, "This is really weird." (That was one hard sentence to write.) Both the passenger and the outside shooter had concealed handgun licenses. More guns!
• There is no way they convict that Fort Worth officer on trial for Agg Assault. That prosecution, like I said yesterday, makes no sense. He's going to be found not guilty.
• And news organizations drive me nuts reporting stories like that because they always end, with a serious look at the camera (i.e. Steve Eagar married to the teleprompter), with the phrase, "He faces [x years] in prison." He also faces probation. 
• KXAS Channel 5 News this morning had a story about a grandmother being scammed by a caller who said her grandson was in jail. I wrote about how this scam almost hit my family a couple of years ago. 
• Heard from a Wise County Courthouse employee yesterday: "I had an orbital fracture when I was younger so I can no longer roll my eyes." 
• The "American Sniper" widow doing commercials for a DFW Ford dealership as an on-screen graphic references her dead husband says a lot about her. 
• I've got a dog problem again. I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I had left Gatorade in the car that Mrs. LL needed since she's having minor health issues. I walked out into the driveway during a break in the rain and was met by a beautiful, huge, fat, and soaking wet Lab who was panting and shaking. I told him, "No! No! No! Go away!" and then 30 seconds later I had submitted to my instincts and had him in the garage. He's as big as I am which I learned when he jumped up on me to say, "Thank you." He has a collar but no tags. Please! Please! Have a chip.
• I was really surprised by the Folsom Prison comments yesterday. Who knew that Fictional Criminal Jurisdiction Lyrics would be so popular?

Carnage At The Star-Telegram Sports Department

Who else?

Weirdest Junk Email I've Ever Received

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Well, Trump continues to amaze us all:
• 
  
• And he is scrambling this morning in another tweet storm. (This is bizarre. The White House went from "Denial Mode" to "I Have The Absolute Right To Mode" in a little over 12 hours.)
  
  
• 
  
• Let's get the reaction from Fox News: 

  

  Translated: "Be loyal Comrade!"

• And this is supposed to be Trump's honeymoon period. He's been in office for just 115 days. 
• Changing gears. Someone commented yesterday on one of my posts that Dak Prescott will eventually make more money than Bryce Harper. You, sir, need to learn at the feet of the Sports Expert.
• I've mentioned the Netflix series, but I didn't know the book was an equal problem. 
  
• There's some lawyer who advertises on The Ticket warning about am upcoming "Warrant Roundup" for traffic tickets. He's done it for months. I've preached for years that it is my belief there is no such thing.  Think about the manpower that it would take to locate (if at all possible), arrest, and book-in, say, just three people for traffic tickets. It would be the dumbest use of taxpayer dollars ever. 
• Junior Miller on The Ticket has always championed The Sardine Theory. That is, the metroplex is so packed that everyone will eventually go crazy.
  
• I've heard a lot about the Leftovers and actually watched the first episode. It was really disturbing. 
• There's a weird criminal case starting today in Fort Worth where a cop is charged with Aggravated Assault. I've seen the video and there's reasonable doubt all over the place (the officer thought the guy had a gun). Why is this being prosecuted? I'm not sure that we didn't have a renegade grand jury, and the DA's office is just going to go through the motions until a "not guilty" verdict is received. 
  
• If you bought $1,000 of Amazon stock twenty years ago it would now be worth $638,000.
• Random Johnny Cash song reference: He shot a man in Reno just to watch him die and ended up in Folsom Prison.  How do you shoot a man in Nevada and end up in prison in California? 

And You Wonder About The Power of Unions?

He's 24. Harper was going into his arbitration year and this is how it works: After normally three years of being on a major league baseball team, you become entitled to arbitration if you don't have a contract. The player and his current team can go in front of a binding arbitrator. The player says, "I want [x] amount", and the team counters with a different figure. The arbitrator can't split the difference. He must choose either one of the two numbers. The team and player can simply avoid the process by agreeing to a deal. That's what happened her -- the biggest salary for someone in their arbitration year.

Next year, Harper becomes a free agent to the highest bidder. The mind boggles.

Hey, mommas: Get your kids out of football and put a baseball in their hands. The NFL Union is a punching bag.

This is Dak Prescott's scheduled salary:

2017: $540,000
2018: $630,000
2019: $720,000