Fox News' Diamond and Silk

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries confronts Diamond and Silk with the FEC record showing the duo were paid $1,274.94 for field consulting work despite them repeatedly telling a congressional committee that they’ve never been paid by the Trump campaign. (via ABC)pic.twitter.com/HBQVYYu38o

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 26, 2018

Crooks and liars.

And the fact they are testifying before Congress also makes me insane.

Idiocracy.

I'm Fake News?

I've been called out this morning for being "Fake News" for saying that Trump, during the campaign, called for a Muslim ban. Uh....take a look at this. But I'm guessing you won't. As our respected leaders, back in the day, said, "“Facts are stubborn things."

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Warning: This is Trump heavy due to what came down this morning. 
• Breaking: Trump went on Fox and Friends this morning and admitted that Cohen represented him in the Stormy Daniels payoff when he previously has said he had no knowledge of it. "Like with this crazy Stormy Daniels thing, he represented me," he said. What a moron. 
  
• He sounds like a madman in that interview. 
• Cohen said yesterday that he would take the Fifth Amendment in the lawsuit filed against him by Stormy Daniels. That led to the resurfacing of Trump saying last year, “The mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” This is becoming a clown car.
• 
• Breaking: Trump's VA nominee, Ronny Jackson, has withdrawn after allegations that he drunkenly banged on a female's hotel room door, crashed a government car while drunk, and handed out opiods like candy. He says the allegations are not true. Sure. 
• Yesterday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Jackson had been "properly vetted."
• That girl is going to have a nervous breakdown. She needs to walk away. Now. 
  
• I feel dumb for never having heard of the "Golden State Killer." That cold case led to an arrest this week of an ex-cop. It's fascinating. 
• The French president said yesterday he would not meet with the Dalai Lama. I would have at least been his caddy. You know, I might "get something for the effort." 
  
• The NFL draft today will be on ABC and FOX on prime time. That's in addition to ESPN and the NFL Network. That's crazy.
• I think Baker Mayfield may be one of the greatest college football quarterbacks of all time. But there is no way I would draft him. 
• There's a movement to have long time sports personality Norm Hitzges announce the very last pick in the draft.  If Jerry Jones and the NFL doesn't make it happen, something is very wrong. It would be great PR. My bet: It will happen. 
• I've said for a long time that some Ticket segments are nothing more than paid ads. An online debate broke out about it which I wasn't involved in. 
• It was brutal in the Supreme Court which heard oral arguments on Trump's travel ban yesterday. Trump said during the campaign that he would ban all Muslims from entering the country. Justice Kagan seized on it and asked this hypothetical:
  
• Ford announced yesterday "it will phase out most cars it sells in North America. According to its latest financial release, the auto giant 'will transition to two vehicles' — the Mustang and an unannounced vehicle, the Focus Active, being the only traditional cars it sells in the region." It's all trucks and SUV's now.
• This guy is going to get crushed today for his reckless spending of taxpayer dollars. #MAGA
  
• Allergies might kill all of us. 

I'm Not Saying It Is Right. I'm Not Saying It Is Wrong.

But while watching a video of a Wise County Sheriff's Deputy pursuing an alleged reckless driver, that speed got my attention. Everything, and I mean everything, is recorded these days.

(This is the top portion of the video. I've edited out the date.)

Another deputy will show up later to do field sobriety testing. He tells the person to walk over in front of his "nice Charger."

No!!!!!!!

Story.

Above The Fold

Full page PDF.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• It was horrible that two Dallas police officers were shot yesterday. (They, at this moment,  survived). But what happened later was ridiculous. Having a ton of officers run from the hospital in a frenzy to get into a police chase for the suspect is 100% irresponsible. They are too emotional at that point to be involved. 
  
• Concerning the suspect, Fox 4 got an interview with his grandmother who said, "He was raised in a Christian church. He's so sweet, and I've never seen him do anything wrong."
• The Dallas Chief of Police is not politically astute for doing this. 
  
• Alright. Alright. Alright.
  
• The President of France and Trump spent the day together. This is my favorite photo. 
  
• And I stole this from BagOfNothing. This is amazing. The First Lady's outfit is right out of Scarface: 
  
• But at least she is classier than she used to be when Trump decided to make her his third wife.
  
  
  
• I used to be skeptical about whether sex trafficking exists. Now I'm 100% convinced it does. 
• The NFL draft in Dallas this weekend will be insane. (But don't worry about how the majority of players drafted are black men who will be forced to take a designated salary without any bargaining power. It reminds me of something. Nevermind, I'll go back to watching Roots right now.)
  
• Trump thought this guy, with no experience, would be best to lead the VA. There is no way he gets approval. What did Trump tell you? "I'll hire the best people."
  
• Mrs. LL had an amazing ability to never cry. As she gets older, that is changing. The lyrics from Fleetwood Mac's Landslide come to mind: "But time makes you bolder. Even children get older. And I'm getting older, too."

Jerrry Jones Drops an F Bomb

That time Jerry Jones purposely drops an f-bomb during the @dallascowboys pre-draft press conference.#UncleJerry #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/X0uNeoJZY4

— Joe Trahan (@JoeTrahan) April 24, 2018

Edit: A previous version of this said Jason Garrett dropped the bomb.  The research department at Liberally Lean regrets this error. People will be fired.

Honorable?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump says North Korea wants meeting 'as soon as possible,' praises Kim Jong Un as 'very open' and 'very honorable'

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 24, 2018

There Is No Commercial That Drives Me Crazier Than This

How do you want to be remembered? Being a decent person, not a bad guy, or a good friend? Nope. That is not enough. You need a big truck.

The ad firm which created this knows exactly what America is becoming.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I had heard of "Purple Drank" before but I learned yesterday of basically the same thing called "Lean" is going around. 
• It's allergy season which is killing me, but, believable or not, it is causing some "vertigo, or dizzy spells" in Austin. 
• If you haven't gone down 287 to Fort Worth to see the flowers in the median, you need to. But they aren't bluebonnets, they are pink. (Unless I'm color blind.) 
• I completely missed that Major League Baseball had a batter set a record for the longest at bat of all time which lasted 12 minutes and 45 seconds. The batter fouled off 16 pitches, including 10 in a row before finally flying out.
• There are a lot of new faces on Fox 4 News. Something is going on over there. 
• I'm now reading Elmer Gantry (yep, I had never read it before.) It is completely different than I expected and pretty hard hitting. The prose by Sinclair Lewis are beautiful, but I wonder if that book would even get published today. 
• Grand Prairie police shot and killed a man at Ikea. 
• Alabama closed state offices yesterday for "Confederate Memorial Day." Those people won't give it up. 
  
• How I've never been to the Civil War Museum in White Settlement (pause), is a mystery to my own mind. The great Robert Wilonsky did. 
  
• Any chance this is the first time Trump has ever picked up a shovel?:
  
• Mrs. LL and I have a bit about who can create the best hummingbird water for a feeder. She now says, "Say my name!"

Make America Great Again?

A white shooter.
People of color murdered.
A black, gunless hero.
A silent white President.#WaffleHouseShooting https://t.co/dAsJc3M2a7

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) April 23, 2018

He'll tweet when he gets his feelings hurt. But now silent. I wonder why?

Edit: BREAKING: Nashville Waffle House shooter, Travis Reinking, who was part of a right wing extremist movement, "Sovereign Citizen" has been arrested.

Album Cover With A Wise County Reference

I know I've posted this before but can't remember the background of the story. If you spell a destination "Rhome" you are talking about Wise County.

(Credit: A Houston lawyer who once successfully ate a 72 oz. steak at The Big Texas Steak Ranch in Amarillo.)

At Barbara Bush's Funeral

Obviously, Trump was not there. His wife was.

But if you want to go down a rabbit hole, start researching whether a sitting President normally attends the funeral of a former First Lady. They don't. It's an American tradition. A tradition of treating women as second class citizens.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Funniest thing I've heard lately about those who hate the Confederate statues being taken down: "You should have won the war."
• Anyone else notice that some cars were driving very slowly on 4/20?
• As a guy who now has seen two kids experiencing high school, watching The Breakfast Club seems much different than when I first saw it. John Hughes was a master at understanding the human condition. 
• Mrs. LL and I are now five episodes deep into Green Acres. Mrs. LL loves it. 
• Ted Cruz writes an article praising Trump in Time magazine? That after what Trump did to him in the election? ("Lyin' Ted"). And Cruz once said we would "plunge into the abyss" under a Donald Trump presidency. Crooks and Liars. 
• This should freak us all out: 
  
• Mark Cuban once said: If you can't spot the sucker in the room in a business meeting, that person is you. That's the dumbest thing ever said. It presumes you are the smartest man in the room. 
• This photo, posted by a former NFL kicker, caused controversy this weekend. I'll cut him a break. #BitsAreFun
  
• This was in the Messenger this week and it referenced one of the greatest articles of all time that they published. One of their young reporters went and ran naked at a Wise County nudist colony.:
  
• I watched Gladiator again this weekend. This line stuck out to me: "Fear and wonder. A powerful combination." (I'll put that movie in my Top 10.)
• Trump went on a crazy Twitter rant this weekend. It is too much to keep up with.
  
• You have to love politics to do want to see this, but Kellyanne Conway losing it over the weekend during a CNN interview borders on bizarre. 
• My father disclosed yesterday that as a young man he was paid $1 to dispose of a dead dog at the request of Bridgeport's Chief of Police, was allowed to take the Chief's car, and decided he would do comedy by firing up the siren as he came back into downtown Bridgeport. I'm still laughing. (He pulled up behind two DPS Troopers' cars -- the only two troopers assigned to Wise County at the time.)
• Four people were killed, and many more injured, by a white naked guy with an AR-15 this weekend in Tennessee. The insanity was stopped by an unarmed black guy.  
  
• Sean Hannity uses government welfare and prays on the poor? Who would have thought? And the fact this came to light because he is one of the three clients for the Dumbest Lawyer In America is gold. 
  

Above The Fold

Full page pdf. 

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

 On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give her an E for effort. 

 Get me this . . . goat. 

 I hope the crowd is coming out to beat him senseless, but I don't think so.

 Life comes at you fast. 

I may divorce Mrs. LL for this woman.
And just because of her golfing abilities, of course.

This Is A Great Photo

Here's what you need to know about the final day of the softball regular season @FridayNghtGlory @DFWfastpitch @TXPrepSoftball @KISDAthletics @NISDAthletics @MISDathletics @FWISDAthletics @caralinew https://t.co/Wao9f0sbpA

— Brian Gosset (@Gosset41) April 20, 2018

For those of you who have ever followed high school level baseball or softball, you'll appreciate this photo. The joy of being "safe."