Above The Fold

Full page pdf.

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

Don't worry, kid. That's good training for Wac-A-Mole later in life.

If Tiananmen Square occurred on a Texas ranch.

Now make this my cat at 22 pounds and have him ram into your chest.

Which one matches your personality? 

Mrs. LL telling a story while me and the Freshman In The House listen. 

Tarrant County Case Overturned

And the reason is something you don't see every day:

Opinion.
Information on case.
State's Brief (Interesting in that of the 75 pages long brief only pages 23-25 concerned this issue. Unrelated, but odd, is the reference to www.dummies.com on page 71 as authority to support an assertion.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Let's check in on Trump's mental health this morning. Uh, oh: 
  
• And that one replaced his first attempt (at 5:42 a.m EST.) when he went with "Alex" and "dieing": 
  
• And Another (Florida):
  
• And Another (Idaho):
  
• Someone commented yesterday that there might be more to this Atmos fiasco over in Dallas than just shifting soil. Atmos will inspect people's homes and make repairs inside the home. They have no obligation to do that. That's like you asking your water supplier to fix a leaky pipe in your bathroom. Did Atmos do something wrong? Is it possible to over-pressurize natural gas pipes?  There's more to this story. 
• Also on Atmos, the logistics of relocating the residents of 2,800 homes is mind-blowing. There's no way to know how many people were living in each home. So when you are providing vouchers and/or hotel rooms to all those "living" in the restricted area, you've got a heck of a problem on your hands. And the opportunity to fraud is beyond high. ("Hey, Bill, let's say you were living with us. That way you'll get a check.")
  
• Trump, unilaterally, declared he will raise tariffs on steel and aluminum. If you sell steel/aluminum you are ecstatic. If you purchase steel/aluminum or work for a company who does  (that's 99% of the rest of the country), you are screwed. Even conservatives went nuts about this attack on capitalism.
• No. 1 Virginia was down by four with under a second to go last night and won. 
• Johnny Football is working on his comeback by relaxing on vacation with his scantily clad girlfriend. 
• Michael W. Smith will sing at Billy Graham's funeral today. I want the Vegas odds on whether or not he sings Friends.
• Anyone know the back story on this crazy photo? Is it real? Is that really KISS?
  
• Message to any prosecutor anywhere in the country when talking to the press after a big court win: Don't say, "They jury sent a clear message that [insert crime] will not be tolerated in [insert county]." At least be original.
• Looks like the Wise County D.A.'s office has another murder case on their hands. 
• Every school in West Virginia will remain closed today due to a teacher's strike. That's the fifth straight day. West Virginia may be one of our most Wheels Off states, but their teachers sure are organized.

Shooting In Bridgeport?

I got a cryptic note that it happened this morning and the shooter was "at large."

Anyone?

Edit: Messenger has the story. Chico ISD is on "soft lockdown." Why Chico? One person told me the alleged shooter was given a ride to the Allsup's in Chico by a person who had no idea what had happened. (The Messenger says the alleged shooter had wrecked east of Chico.)

Edit at 2:00 p.m.: Source says, "Cops on 14th Street in Bridgeport right now staging up.   Tons of cops!    Putting on vests and more pouring in."

Edit: I don't think this is related . . .

Get Me This Chimp!

Sound On: This made my night. A baby chimp being rescued from poachers in the Congo and being flown to safety. I watched it three times and felt less stressed. The pilot is so kind and gentle. pic.twitter.com/nX1TOUCbyb

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 1, 2018

Someone Get Me A Picture!

I just saw a guy come out of the Wise County courthouse (using the ramp to the basement) wearing a suit and a derby hat and riding a Segway.

I have an elected official as a witness!

My effort to get a picture failed because he was moving too fast.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Atmos Energy held a press conference with all of its top brass this morning at 5:00 a.m. due to the home explosion in Dallas. That might be the earliest press conference I've seen. (Throw in men and women in suits and every local network affiliate covering it live, that was one early morning for a lot of people.)
• But I'd have the conference before dawn if I were announcing that the company was shutting down natural gas delivery to almost 3,000 homes in the area  for three weeks while they make repairs.
• Speaking of early. I woke up at 4:45, showered, got dressed, and then learned that the reason I got up early did not exist at all. Mrs. LL was guilty of some Fake News the evening before. 
• Trump throwing the AG under the bus on Twitter is bizarre. Make no mistake, Trump is still livid that Sessions recused himself from the Russian Investigation which gave rise to Mueller.   
  
• The Texas Wesleyan baseball coach had a strange response to a kid who wanted to play baseball for his team.
  
  
• If Hope Hicks is gone, how long will Sarah Huckabee Sanders put up with it? But I think, perhaps, she enjoys the pain. (Side note: Anyone else wonder what Hicks and Trump's relationship was really like considering his past?)
• He's 76. She's 38. The New England Patriots owner is a new father. (Jerry Jones needs to step up his game.)
  
• More Twin Peak Biker news: The DA "announced at a press conference Wednesday morning that he intends to dismiss 13 Twin Peaks shootout cases and will refuse 24 others that had not been indicted." That brings the total to 58 vindications of the 177 bikers arrested. Please, dear McLennan County, vote him out of office next week. I saw this coming from the start. 
• This is from the official ATF account posted yesterday. Talk about tone deaf. 
  
• That "mission" is nothing to be proud of. Seventy-six people died. 
  
• Jared Kushner's businesses received a half billion in loans from two companies after meeting with him in the White House? Of course "there's nothing to see here." 
• What? Am I just now hearing about this? They focused on the Cardinals in season one and the Rams in season two. I hadn't heard anything about the Cowboys. (And let me place my bet on "nothing".)
• 
• Shout out to the guy at the gas station yesterday who looked at me and asked, "Are you Barry Green? I read your stuff everyday." 

Life Comes At You Fast

This Will Not Play Well With The NRA Crowd

WATCH: President Trump says police should have taken away the Florida school shooter's guns away "whether they had the right or not." pic.twitter.com/SkJNjufKQX

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 28, 2018

Police should be the arbitrators of who has a gun? 

This Is Funny Yet Strange

And the narrator saying that the guy found someone else's wallet in the ceiling at least gives him some wiggle room. (Assuming the wallet can be linked to a guy who had been in that room.)

What else is up there?

Above The Fold

Full page pdf.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Saw an out-of-town lawyer just casually take a wad of hundreds from his client in the hallway of the courthouse yesterday. Hey, look, I understand having to be paid but can we at least do it in a dignified manner? 
• Dr. Ben Carson, the head of HUD, had a $31,000 dining set put in his office. And HUD's budget is being cut. 
• I had the chills all day yesterday, and it wasn't that cold out. That makes me a little nervous.
• Delkus telling us how smart he is. 
  
• Jared Kushner had his security clearance downgraded yesterday. Why does he have any type of clearance at all? 
• Mrs. LL had recorded a Lifetime movie and was watching it last night. When did that channel start injecting cursing/shocking language? I mean, one line wouldn't have been uttered on Southpark. (And, no, I don't watch them very often or by choice.) 
• The Denton County Sheriff was curiously doing a lot of grandstanding off the Parkland shooting yesterday proclaiming, "We do not take cover in a parking lot, and we do not wait for another agency. We go in and do our duty. We go in to engage and stop the shooter and save lives.” When is the last time DCSO had an "active shooter" situation like Parkland? (Not to mention that I bet most of Denton County is in the jurisdiction of local police departments and not the DCSO.)
• There were headlines everywhere last night in DFW that the NFL had now ruled Dez Bryant's "no catch" against the Packers a couple of years back was actually a catch. That's not true. The NFL said the rule going forward should make it a catch but didn't say it was the wrong call at the time.
• Getting past the meaning of "assault style weapons" look at this lede in the Dallas Morning News which, at first blush, looks like a pretty big announcement: "Dick's Sporting Goods, which has 10 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, will immediately stop the sale of assault-style weapons, it announced Wednesday." OK. Then I noticed this later in the story: 
  
• Hope Hicks appeared before the House Intelligence Committee but she didn't look worried. 
  
• The Parkland kids in Florida go back to school today. That would be hard. 
• The 22 Pound Cat In The House is acting weird.  He head butts dogs. And people. And doors. And he isn't gentle.

Lacrosse Mom To The Rescue

A post shared by The Crease Dive (@thecreasedive) on Feb 27, 2018 at 6:07am PST

Sir! They Are "Little People"!

More.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I haven't been out to the Decatur Swap Meet in years but, due to weather, Friday and early Saturday had to have been horrible. That had to be nothing but mud. 
• Cuban came across badly yesterday. For a staged press conference, his very limited role was horribly scripted. 
  
• Car dealer Clay Cooley reminds me of Joel Osteen. And I trust Cooley more. 
• Rangers TV broadcaster C.J. Nitkowski "liked" a Proud Boys post on Twitter and it might just cost him. (He has since deleted past tweets yet won't apologize.) I talked about that group a lot last year.  
  
• He would have run into the Parkland school even if unarmed? He won't even take a raindrop for his kid. 
  
• And he's really nervous again this morning: 
  
• Flashback: 
  
• President Obama said a cop "acted stupidly" and everyone went crazy. Trump calls a cop a "coward" and "disgusting" and we are all OK with it?
• Lots of headlines say Carroll ISD has "settled" with ex-coach Hal Wasson. Well, if "settle" means that they paid him what they promised to pay him, I guess they are correct. 
• Austin ISD has voted to eliminate all Confederate names on schools. 

Did I Say This Day Was Weird?

Report: Jerry Jones to be fined millions by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell https://t.co/YVkyvQgdkn

— FOX 4 Sports (@KDFWsports) February 26, 2018

With the support of many N.F.L. owners, Commissioner Roger Goodell is prepared to escalate his public feud with Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and long one of the most influential people in the league, by fining him millions of dollars for his efforts to derail negotiations to renew Goodell’s contract and for his outspoken defense of a star player who was suspended, according to five league officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

This Is A Weird Day And It Is Not Even Noon

Heather Locklear has been arrested for domestic violence and attacking three police officers; https://t.co/krUKr9b7PU

— Jenny Anchondo (@JennyAFox4) February 26, 2018

Edit:

Trump says of Parkland shooting: "I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon." The Latest on his meeting with state governors is here: https://t.co/kRGXxmN9ZC

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) February 26, 2018

29 Years Ago

The same amount of time that the Cowboys were in existence.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• That was some incredibly thick fog this morning. 
• Fox 4 did a segment on the Bridgeport's "off road" park. 
  
• There is a growing number of companies boycotting the NRA mostly in the travel industry. How many of their members fly or rent cars?
• Trump went off the rails at CPAC and his "Snake" poem about, as he said, immigration was maybe the most racist thing I've ever heard from a president of the U.S. 
• Jessie Ventura, who has said some crazy things, did say something one time that makes perfect sense: You have to be twenty-one to buy a beer, sixteen to drive, and eighteen to die on the battlefield. He didn't care what age we picked, but let's make it consistent across the board. 
• Mueller, the special counsel, got another guilty plea on Friday from a guy close to Trump for connections with the Ukraine. He does all of this on Friday to keep out of the news cycle as much as possible. I'll say it again: Tell your kids they are watching Watergate x 10. It's coming. 
• Last week a fifteen year old Russian won a gold medal in figure skating. I thought about asking the Freshman In The House, "See what you could do?" but I'm afraid she would come back with, "You're a lot older, tell me about your gold medals."
  
• Everyone dogs me for my "commercial disguised as content" stance, but I'll never give it up. My favorite radio station, The Ticket, over the last week has dedicated multiple segments to Black Panther where every member of the show (hosts and producer) went to see it -- and those guys never go to movies. And on Friday night, NBC Nightly News had a segment on a USA Network show about the deaths of Tupac and Biggie Smalls. I looked it up: The USA Network is an NBC property. 
• Since Sheriff Clarke is no longer a sheriff and can no longer show up with a hat and medals, Fox News has found a new one. 
  
• I finally have a car with remote start. Greatest. Invention. Ever. 
• When the news broke of the home that exploded in Dallas on Friday one station gave the exact address. When I googled it, its value came up and it was close to $300,000. (It's close to some high tone properties.)
  
• This was the dumbest editorial I have read in a long time. There's a law against student-teacher sex and an equivalent law about law enforcement-inmate sex. You simply can't do it. It's not a "loophole" at all. The penalties for non-consensual contact are harsher. 
  
• The Texas political ads are insane. It's Republican on Republican carnage. 
• I've got all the Waco episodes recorded. The more I watch it, the more infuriating it makes me. The whole thing from beginning to end was a cluster. (The Dallas Morning News put this on the front page yesterday.)
  
  
• Mrs. LL has bronchitis and it is not pleasant. (But I did laugh when she took a swig of cough syrup this morning and proclaimed, "This is good stuff!")