It Is St. Patrick's Day And That Means . . .

The Leader Board As Of Saturday Morning

Link.

Above The Fold

Full page PDF.

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

 Every new lawyer. They never see it coming.

 America.

 #MeToo

If I had a son, he would look like this.

When your dad is a jerk.

The Liberally Lean Leader Board

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Black Hawk Down. Seven service men are dead in a helicopter crash in Iraq. There is no evidence of hostile fire. This happens way too often. 
• Another one? He fired someone he affectionately called "Mad Dog!" Trump is unhinged. Edit: I screwed up the Mad Dog part.
  
• The Southlake Police Department does bits by telling people where they will be. (They probably won't be there.)
• 
• My radar went off when I saw this story. Something doesn't seem right. I'm still not sure what is going on. 
  
• Someone needs to find out whatever happened to Honey Boo Boo. 
• Junior has been acting weird lately. His wife seems to have noticed that, too. He is a pretentious, privileged jerk, and his wife is willing to walk away despite the fact he is the son of the President. Perhaps she knows more than we do?
  
• Always remember: He smirked as the held up an elephant's trunk while holding a knife: 
  
• I should start doing a Liberally Lean flashback bullet point. Example: 
  
• After Trump's economic adviser quit over the tariffs, he hired a guy from CNBC. This will certainty go well:
  
• Many people ask me if Mrs. LL gets mad about me posting the Random Thought Girls. The answer is never. She understands my concept of "They come for the picture but might just read what I write." 
• A bridge collapse kills six in Florida.

The Trump Family

How is this not the movie poster for a B-list screwball comedy pic.twitter.com/lPzqzBU0o4

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) March 14, 2018

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Have I said I'm going to retire to the jungle in Costa Rica?
• 
• There is a commercial on The Ticket which begins with references to your destiny. Paraphrasing: "How do you want to be remembered? A good guy? A good friend?" And then it goes on to tell you that's not enough. That you need to be "King of the Hill": Let me tell you something, the first part is enough. 
• From the Update this morning which updates us all on Wise County news: "TRAILER FALLS ON MAN – A man was flown to Medical City Denton from the intersection of Farm Road 407 and Martindale Lane in New Fairview after a double-wide mobile home fell on him Wednesday morning."
• Question for the masses: Do these things work better than a mop? I'm on a floor cleaning mission.
  
• A navy jet crashes off of Key West and kills two. (This happens so often.)  Fox News immediately blames Obama.
  

• I was piddling in the driveway yesterday and a childhood friend stopped, got out of his truck, hugged me, and we talked. 
• I've read the United Airlines story of the dog dying. I'd get off the plane and raise holy hell before I put my dog in the bin. 
• Your last chance last chance to enter the $20,000 Liberally Lean Tourney.

I'm Insane Now

A drag queen dressed as Elsa just single-handedly freed a stuck police wagon from a blizzard in the middle of March. If that sentence doesn't perfectly encapsulate the spirit of Boston, I don't know what does.

Video credit: Christopher Haynes pic.twitter.com/6IiXVWFVvw

— Sarah McGonagall (@sarahmcgbeauty) March 14, 2018

Credit to the guy who yells out: "Let it go!"

"And Mexico Is Going To Pay For It!"

“According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the $18 billion wall will pay for itself by curbing the importation of crime, drugs and illegal immigrants who tend to go on the federal dole...” https://t.co/NdLC6jZwWE

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

First them. Then us. And now it will pay for itself.

What a con man.

Above The Fold

Full PDF.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Stephen Hawking has died. A Texas legislature member sent his thoughts and prayers in Christian love:
  xcd 
  
• Man, that was a close race for Congress in Pennsylvania last night but, barring a recount, a Democrat has won. And that's in a district where Trump won by 20 points and where he traveled to campaign for him. The Day of Reckoning is coming. Fast. 
  
• Chico now has a curfew for those under 16 years old from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.  For the life of me, I've never understood the constitutionality of government imposed curfews. It is the ultimate Nanny State.
• Well done, New York Post. Well done.  I love call back jokes.
  
  
  
  
• The family of one of the guys killed in the helicopter crash in the East River has filed a lawsuit. Uh, you want to mourn and bury the guy first? 
• The Bradford Pear has two weeks of glory.
• Trump deleted this yesterday after someone pointed out the typo. (By the way, Mueller was a marine.)
  
• Random book-in photo:
  
• The Dallas Morning News picks up on a topic I've been preaching for years. The guy is an embarrassment.
  
• An Alabama Sheriff thinks it's OK to pocket $750,000 in grants for inmate food in a personal account and go off and buy a second house for $740,000. 

  

  "Give me a Diablo sandwich, a Dr. Pepper, and make it quick."

• Trump wants a "Space Force . . . ’cause we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space." Who is advising him? Trey Parker?
• I mocked the Redskins for taking Kirk Cousins in the same draft has RG3.  Cousins is expected to sign a three year fully guaranteed  contract with the Vikings for $84 million.  The last two years he has earned $20 million and $24 million from the Redskins when they put the franchise tag on him. And he is an average quarterback.
• Funny moment a couple of days ago when Mrs. LL and I were driving through Decatur and see a guy on a bicycle on the shoulder. of the road. I say to her, "You. On the bicycle. Tonight only. The Blues Brothers." She laughed out loud and said, "I cannot believe I understood that and laughed at it."
• Yesterday we learned our governor opposed the "bathroom bill" but was too much of a coward to say it publicly.
• Time is running out for the Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney. (Mrs. LL yelled at me about the $20,000 prize, but I explained it was impossible for anyone to correctly guess every single game. She looked at me with a "It'll probably happen to you" face.)

This Is Wild

The guy grabs a pen and goes after the witness and ends up being killed by bailiff/federal marshal. Both the defendant and the witness were gang members. This occurred in federal court in 2014, but the video was ordered released yesterday.

An original news story about the incident and the defendant's background is here.

If There Is Any Doubt Wise County Is Red

This is a pic a took of a fairly small magazine rack at an unnamed grocery store. I went up to it a few months ago looking for a football magazine and nothing sports related could be found. But if you have an interest in guns, that place is the mother-lode.

And what is not in the picture is the slew of magazines in the Doomsday Prepper genre.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Breaking: 
  
• More Breaking: The chaos continues. Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Calling Trump a "moron" probably didn't help with his job security, but how that decent guy didn't quit before now is a mystery.  (Shockingly, a Secretary of State Department spokesman just said Tillerson didn't know it was coming and had no idea why it happened. If true, Trump fired Tillerson via Twitter this morning.)
• Flashback from 12/1/17:
  
• And yesterday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn't name or blame Russia for poisoning an ex-spy in the U.K. with nerve gas. Their Prime Minister did. Tillerson did. 
  
• Package bombs are going off at homes in Austin. We may have a modern day Unabomber on our hands. 
  
• The helicopter crash in the East River which took the lives of two young Dallas men was more than preventable. The pilot "told investigators that one of the passenger's bags may have inadvertently bumped the emergency fuel shutoff." 
• And this is just in the primary: 
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• They just keep coming: 
  
• The Stormy Daniels scandal is delicious. Now we learn that she lives in Forney and that a notary public might have screwed up in not signing Trump's Don't-Tell-The-Public-About-Our-Affair-While-I-Was-Cheating-On-My-New-Third-Wife agreement. 
  
• There sure looks like a lot of fighting during Spring Break in Port Aransas.
  
• A Denton police officer was arrested on allegations of domestic violence (uh, biting) at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. Remember kids, nothing good happens at 5:30 in the morning. 
• The Republican on the committee made a decision without consulting the Democrats. That made Trump go ALL CAPS. You never go all caps. (And he doesn't quite realize the Mueller doesn't care about the committee or that Mueller has information they do not.)
  
• Just when I'm about to hit "publish" another one breaks. "Mr. McEntee was removed from the White House grounds on Monday afternoon without being allowed to collect his belongings." What's up with this?:
  
• Don't Forget about the $20,000 Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tournament. Sign up here. 

The Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tournament

The annual event has arrived. I think this link will work to sign up. In the spirit of Warren Buffett, I’ll reward a prize of $20,000 to anyone who picks a perfect bracket. And by that I mean EVERY single game. (That will never happen. Then again, a similar wager was made on Trump’s election.)

(The above is an ad in today's Dallas Morning News. I highly suggest picking one of those two teams to win it all.)

High School Basketball.

Would be DQ'd from further athletic competitions in any sport. https://t.co/RhzK3HlW4f

— "The Big D" Rusty Shackleford アダム (@TwoBitWhackJob) March 10, 2018

This is a crime. A literal crime.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Well, I survived my umbilical hernia surgery. They had some trouble cutting through my six pack, but all went well. 
• My surgeon did bits. Once it was done he told Mrs. LL that I now had an "innie" and could wear a Speedo again. 
• I got a prescription for hydrocodone. I took one. I haven't taken another since.  I hate that stuff. It makes me feel doped up but doesn't really change any pain. That seems to be what "pain killers" do. 
• On Friday, a U.S Citizen and a veteran killed three workers (all of them involved in mental health treatment and two of them doctors) at a VA Center in California.
• Someone yelled, "Does your husband play, too?" yesterday when Tiger Woods left a put short. 
• Told ya: Per Sarah Sanders Huckabee, the meeting between Trump and North Korea will not happen unless there are "concrete and verifiable" actions by North Korea. Yep, the White House is already backing off. 
• I'm still not sure what this was from UT's safeties coach ushering out the team for spring break:
  
• I'll get my Liberally Lean March Madness Pic 'Em Tourney up later today.
• In Trump's wheels off "rally" in Pennsylvania on Saturday (those are so weird), he said  "that allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug dealers . . . is 'a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.'” He's the most constitutionally illiterate president in history.
  
• The Bowie Jackrabbits won a state championship in basketball as did Northwest High School. Edit: I shot 50% on that bullet point.
• A guy caught at 15.48 pound bass at Lake Fork earlier this month. I just buy lures at Walmart and throw them it the lake. What did he use?:
  
• There may have never been more felony criminal trials in a two month span in Wise County than over the last two months.
• Someone explain these American soccer attendance figures this weekend. One of these things is not like the other. 
  
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• Every educator in America needs to watch the 60 Minutes interview of  Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss from last night. She's clueless. For example, what does this even mean?: 
  
• The dumbest lawyer in the country, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, is considering seeking an injunction to prevent 60 Minutes from airing its Stormy Daniels interview. Dude, ever heard of "prior restraint"? Ever heard of the Pentagon Papers? (Side note: What does she know? Trump normally wouldn't care about evidence of an affair. Is there something else?)