Two years ago it didn’t seem as if I’d make it to 67, but here’s the thing…when you put your faith in God and have the wife, son, wonderful family, friends, inner core, and Dr. Showalter as I do… then I would say literally anything is possible–even little miracles here and there.
Mike J feels like a little miracle on October 3rd, circa 2024. I do.
A special thanks to my good friend Dr. Sandy Price for the awesome Thai lunch today and as always the support you and Christy have always been to me. Words do not adequately express how I feel. I love both of you.
Sandy told me today to let the Trump angst go and pretend to be a Trump supporter for a week and see how that goes.
I asked, “How long did you last on that program?”
He answered, ” Less than a week, but I think you should give it a try.”
So next week here on the blog I’m going to do my best to point out the best in Donald Trump and his followers. Vegas has this experiment lasting until 10:12am CST on Monday morning. We’ll see how that goes.
Anyway…I love this song. I had it going tonight on the back patio looking out into the forest-line as the sunset lingered and seemingly toyed with me for what seemed like forever. It was beautiful.
Always remember no matter how dark things might appear to be…put your faith in God and believe.
‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’ Mark 9:23
As a historian…I would have to say … yes. He was horrific even worse than Jackson Arnold in the first half of the Tennessee game. In that instance at least Tennessee was a Vegas 7.5 road favorite. Where in this pathetic performance by Tim Walz on home turf with CBS moderators…Tim Walz got his ass kicked by a JD Vance who came into this debate with a historically bad approval rating of -22.
My neighbor’s dog, Harley…could have beaten JD Vance with CBS moderators.
So if you’re some radical left wing liberal who reads my blog…that’s just the way it was. Tim Walz couldn’t have beaten Mary Fallin with the lameass bullshit he brought to the stage in New York. Clearly, Governor Walz did not look as if he belonged on the big stage under the bright lights.
And just so we’re clear…Maty Fallin left the Governors’ Mansion in Oklahoma City with a 19% approval rating which was the worst ever of any governor leaving office in U.S. history.
Tim Walz was so bad in fact Nate Silver and four prominent Vegas gambling institutions immediately backed away from Kamala Harris being their favorite to win the election. Now…they all have the convicted felon Donald Trump listed as their Election Day favorite.
But here’s my thought of the week..’.Was this abysmal performance by Tim Walz the worst ever in a U.S. Vice-Oresidential debate’?
Almost, but not quite.
The Election of 1992 with Admiral James Stockdale gets that nod in Mike J’s Pantheon of feeble debate performances.
So…historically MJ goes in this order for the four worst performance ever by a U.S. Vice-President nominee:
1 Admiral James Stockdale, 1992
2 Dan Quayle, 1988 with absurd JFK line he tried to slip by Lloyd Bentsen
3 Tim Walz, 2024
4 Sarah Palin, 2008
I’v got to cut this short right now. I may or may not revisit this. Margaret Hoover of PBS e-mailed me this morning and wanted my insightful narratives for her next show.
Anyway…God bless you and have a wonderful Thursday in godforsaken Oklahoma.
I want to give a warning before I forge ahead with this preview of sorts on tomorrow night’s VP debate. There might be some ‘inappropriate’ language as I as usual ‘tell it like it is’ from my studio within the godforsaken borders of rogue red radical right Oklahoma.
I’ve tried to steer away from inappropriate language on this blog most of the time, but this might be one of those instances where that might be an impossible task for Mike J.
There’s a reason in my mind why I’ve posted this video of Lindsey Graham the day before JD Vance takes the stage tomorrow night in New York for what I’m certain will be a contentious debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz.
That reason being…there’s only one current U.S. Senator other than JD Vance who has lied, flip-flopped, and in a political sense sucked Donald Trump’s dick more than JD Vance. And of course, that U.S. Senator is Lindsey Graham… the ultimate GOP Donald Trump psychophant.
But even Lindsey Graham to my knowledge never called Donald Trump America’s version of Hitler. Even I haven’t done that on my blog and my consistent disdain for Trump hasn’t wavered once since he came down that escalotor with his paid escort.
I read JD’s book. Quite a tale. Right there with the Switzer book Bootlegger’s Boy, which I enjoyed. The NY Times had Hillbilly’s Elegy on their non-fiction bestseller list, but I’m pretty sure JD slurred the lines between non-fiction and aspirational fiction in the book.
Either way…it was an interesting read on dysfunction, alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic abuse, and how a kid who was almost flunking out in high school turned it around and became a graduate of Ohio State and subsequently Yale Law School as well.
Where the novel stopped is the part where JD then moved to San Franciso and became a high tech venture capitalist. Nothing wrong with that for certain. That’s American Dream stuff and I talk about the American Dream all the time on this blog.
Then JD defeated the highly qualified Tim Ryan for a United States Senate seat.
JD back in 2016 basically assailed Donald Trump for being a human being lacking the basic human qualities one would think requisite of becoming the President of the United States. You know, pretty much like the majority of GOP senators who straddle the ethical fence with Trump, but who all know they can’t go anywhere in contemporary American politics without kissing Donald Trump’s ring or something else near the beltline.
Truth hurts.
How as voters do we decide in 2024 which is darker and slimier….American politics or the American Christian Evangelical movement?
You Trump fake Christians…you tell me.
So I guess in today’s GOP the fact JD called his current running mate America’s verson of Hitler is pretty much a non-starter for the Trump base as we near this general election.
I’l say this for JD…I don’t think he’s stupid and I don’t think he will melt down like Donald Trump did in his debate loss against Kamala Harris.
My advice to Tim Walz would be…be careful. Don’t just go in there thinking this is going to be easy. Because I don’t it will be. This dude is slippery.
I think it will be an interesting and contentious debate.
I’m going fishing tomorrow in my quest to touch all of Oklahoma’s Top Fifty Lakes and Rivers so as I won’t be in a dark mood before watching this spectacle.
Before this college football season started I thought linebacker Kip Lewis and Cheetah-back Kendall Dolby would be two significant keys for the OU defense heading into the big boy SEC.
Kendall, a transfer from juco Northeastern Oklahoma, was playing beautifully, but unfortuntely was seriously injured in the first half loss (before Michael Hawkins) /second half win versus Tennessee. He will be out for the season, but I’m hoping since this injury occured in the fourth game of the season…he’ll be granted a medical hardship redshirt and come back to play another season at OU.
BTW…by Mike J’s metrics OU’s record is now 4-0-1 for the season with an SEC record of 1-0-1. I would love for the Sooners to play Tennessee again with Michael Hawkins not gifting Josh Heupel’s team 19 first half points.
I would think…since Oklahoma State appears to have multiple players in their seventh year out of high school still playing, this shouldn’t be a problem for Kendall. I’m praying for you, Kendall. Get healthy.
So…with Kendall down this means players like Kip Lewis, Kobie McKenzie, and*** Sammy Omosigho–these guys plus maybe Woodi Washington and others will have to play at a consistently high level at the Cheetah-back position for OU to remain as one of the nation’s top defenses this season.
Above is an informal pre-season chat with Mike J’s SEC Defensive Player of the Week….Kip Lewis. Now let’s be clear here…OU’s defense can play much better than they did for much of the game at Jordan-Hare on Saturday.
Kip in fact said this in his interview just following OU’s Sooner Magic photo-finish win versus my wife’s alma mater. BTW…she has been somewhat quiet since that last six minutes or so on Saturday. Just saying.
Kip knows, Brent Venable knows, and certainly Mike J knows… OU will need to be much better defensively if they want to beat No. 2 ranked Texas in two weeks.
From my vantage point….OU will need to be more agressive early in the game with their pass rush and makes sure and get off the field on third and long situations. Auburn converted a third and twelve, a third and ten…and a third an eight on their scoring touchdown drives.
This can’t happen for OU in the Red River Rivalry. OU cannot allow Ewers or Arch Manning to sit back there with time to go through their progressions. It just can’t happen if OU wants to improve to 5-0-1 on the season.
So Kip Lewis, buddy–you’re not only MJ’s SEC Defensive Player of the Week, you’re my OKCTHUNDERGROUND.COM PERSON OF THE MONTH for September 2024.
Great play at wiining time, Kip. I thought I was watching Torrance Marshall in College Station out there.
Tomorrow…I think I’ll preview what I think of JD Vance before his debate performane on Tuesday evening in New York.
Just when it appeared the Oklahoma Sooners were headed for an 0-2 start in their inaugural SEC season a beautiful, almost surreal thing happened inside of Jordan-Hare Stadium. That thing being…. the first appearance of Sooner Magic in the Brent Venables head coaching era at OU.
There is no way OU should have won this game as they entered this contest with their top five receivers not available. Yet somehow, some way, these gritty Sooners never surrendered. Never made excuses. Just basically kept working while pulling on the proverbial chain until a Kip Lewis late fourth quarter pick six put OU over the top overcoming a 21-10 fourth quarter deficit.
The Auburn faithful appeared shell-shocked as they once again lost to the Oklahoma Sooners and are now 0-3 vs. OU all-time. Rumor has it….’Independence’, the mascot live war eagle contacted Sooner officials after the game to inquire if the NCAA Mascot NIL program would allow him to transfer to OU and sit perched atop of the Sooner Schooner the rest of this season.
I don’t blame Independence for this simple reason….’THERE’S ONLY ONE OKLAHOMA, BABY!!!!!!
But it wasn’t just the Kip Lewis pick six. No it was not…it was Michael Hawkins and this new mindset the Sooners have collectively embraced since he took over for Jackson Arnold in the second half of the Tennessee game.
Since Hawkins was inserted as the starter these Sooners have outscored Tennessee and Auburn 33-27 in six halves of SEC football. Think about my previous sentence….in ninety minutes of SEC play–OU has given up only 27 points. And you know what else has occured….the Sooners haven’t turned over the ball one time.
Michael Hawkins has been turnover free. He has not put the OU defense in bad situations with soft turovers as Jackson Arnold was doing. OU has a really good defense, and if this OU offense can get Deion Burks, A. Anthony, and Nic Anderson back for the Texas game in two weeks this staff reporter feels pretty good about the Sooners’ chances of pulling off a stunner in the Red River Rivalry.
OU’s kicking game was what I would describe as excellent on Saturday. OU’s punt game was superb. Zach Schmidt was 2-2 kicking field goals and the Sooners are 6 for 7 in that category after five games. Last season without the Sooner Magic…Zach Schmidt would have at the least missed one of those field goal attempts.
What Venables has now brought to OU is what Lincoln Riley never acheived…that being, two-way complimentary football with a kicking game attached.
Does this mean I think the Sooners are a Top 8 type of team with this offense playing the way they are currently?
No…that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is if Michael Hawkins can continue to remain turnover clean with his play these Sooners should get collectively better on the offensive side of the ball as they hopefully get back to full strength health-wise.
But first and foremost you have to have defense and physicality to be elite in today’s college football landscape. OU has both and now the offense needs to improve incrementally every practice, every week. That has to be the mantra of OC Seth Littrell and his offensive coaches.
One last thing before closing this postgame recap piece…loose talk on the internet has it ‘Independence’ isn’t the only mascot seeking an NCAA Mascot NIL transfer. This reporter has it from a ‘reliable’ off the record source that Pistol Pete has contacted Joe C to see if his role could somehow be incorporated into the OU SEC Game Day experience.
I always thought Shai would be a good NBA player and even an All-Star at some point while watching him as a rookie with the Clippers, but I honestly did not think he would ascend to the heights he did this past season.
As an NBA fan I must write on my blog it was a delight watching this extremely classy young man ascend to the point where in reality we would be talking about Shai being right there with players like Jokic, Embiid, Luka, Jason Tatum, and the Greek Freak.
I thought maybe he’d level out at the same level as Anthony Edwards and be a really good All-Star level player, but I in no way saw him being dominant enough to make the the Thunder the No. 1 seed in the West last season and the pick by most to win the West this season and advance to the NBA finals.
His demeanor is refreshing given some of the things I’ve witnessed at times with the elite level players in the NBA. Now of course…we have to take a cautious pause and hope this continues with Shai as we hope he can avoid the affliction I call the NBA Superstar Diva Syndrome. Maybe the fact he’s Canadian will help him to remain true to himself and his inner core. We’ll see.
Wouldn’t it be so nice if Shai turned out to be the Tim Duncan of this NBA decade. It would be so cool to see given all the roil I otherwise observe in Oklahoma from the extreme rogue red right of the state government.
This beautiful evolution of Shai for me makes Oklahoma a nicer place to live. You know…like all these beautiful lakes, parks and spots on Route 66 I’ve enjoyed so far on my cancer journey.
I have to give Sam Presti full credit on this. He thought Shai would eventually turn into the face of the franchise to replace Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook… and that is precisely what has transpired.
Now…what we as serious NBA fans need to see is if this group of young Thunder players can win games in the post season when it really matters. OKC played a ton of games last season when the other teams’ top three players were sitting as DNPs. Even in the playoffs… in the first round versus the Pelicans…Zion never saw the floor.
Now… I know in this homery AAA level college market that most people think Zion sitting wasn’t that big of a deal. So what I would say to you people on the flipside is do you think the Thunder would have almost beaten Dallas in the second round without Shai playing a single game?
So the Thunder at this point heading into this NBA season is going to be my third favorite team in the West. 1 Denver, 2 Steph, Johnny Kuminga and the Warriors, and 3 the OKC Thunder.
If I see the same bullshit from Draymond Green that I’ve witnessed the previous two NBA seasons, then the Denver-OKC battle in the Northwest will probably overcome me. And of course Dallas with Klay…and Anthony Edwards in Minnesota will draw my fervent attention.
I’m so excited. It’s been awhile for me with the Thunder to actually think the OKC Thunder could be one of the top six teams in the entire league and are in what I would officially describe as a ‘championship window.’
Hopefully, OU can score enough points without Deion Burks to beat my wife’s alma mater this afternoon at Auburn.
Have a wonderful autumn college football Saturday and please take the time to marvel in this gorgeous fall weather in godforsaken Oklahoma.
And by the way….Nate Silver has already put Oklahoma’s Electoral College votes in the Trump column.
Despite the fact I often refer to Oklahoma as godforsaken….I actually love Oklahoma. I do. I bleed crimson and actually am a memeber of both the UCO and Oklahoma State alumni associations as a graduate of both.
When the Sooners come out of that tunnel in both football and basketball it’s literally like a drug for me. I admit it is. I still bounce off the walls.
I’m currently working on a history Masters degree of sorts with OU through my own program with the iconic history professor Dr. Rufus Fears. A teacher perhaps even better than the iconic Juanita Elijah from the English department of John Marshall high school.
I plan at some point to be a contributor to the OU mens’ baseball and basketball programs through their NIL program.
But what I’m saying here on the award winning okcthunerground.com…… I actually love Oklahoma and its 77 counties. This state has more beautiful lakes, rivers, streams and ponds than I’ve ever been able to hike and fish.
Here’s what I’m doing as a Stage 4 cancer survivor…in memory and honor of my fishing mentor, Joe Carter, Sr. and this isn’t a Bucket List. It’s more of Mike J in his closing years making sure he fishes the Top 50 lakes and rivers per John Gifford and his wonderful book–Oklahoma Sportfishing… I’m making sure I’ve explored and fished every locale he’s written about in his incredible book.
And I’m loving it so much in fact I’m exploring lakes even he didn’t cover in his book. Yesterday… in the morning I scouted Lake Konawa in the morning for a trip I want to take in November when I go fishing for big stripers and hybrid bass in the warm waters near the OG&E plant. Then yesterday afternoon..I took the ‘esteemed’ Air Force General Francis Augustus with me to Lake Okemah for a beautiful afternoon excursion.
He didn’t fish. He’s not into fishing. But he did do some much needed meditation…while I caught some small bluegill on light tackle and unfortunately caught a snapping turtle as well. I didn’t bass fish yesterday. I wasn’t like really focused being that I was with a non-fisherman. My ‘A’ game wasn’t there.
Sometimes it just go likes that. But the beauty of these lakes in Oklaoma makes me ‘almost’ forget these people in rural Oklahoma are going to vote for Donald Trump a third time.
But here’s the thing….when I’m out here in rural Oklahoma on these trips–I keep my thoughts on the pathetic Donald Trump to myself because the fact of the matter is if it weren’t for Trump… I meld beautifully with these people.
In fact…I’ve become friends with this dude in Seminole named Big Ray who might in fact at some point become a podcast partner with me of sorts. Go figure. We both agree…our first guest should be James Carvell.
What a beautiful place Oklahoma could be if these rural Oklahoma people would just let the Trump bullshit fade away.
Let me be clear about this right here and now on my modest underground blog…Mike J is not an enormous fan of all of the policies of Kamala Harris. Just like I’m not a huge fan of everything Liz Cheney holds close to her heart.
But the three of us… MJ, Kamala, and Liz do share several beliefs. We believe in the Rule of Law, American democracy, the American Dream, and the rapidly fleeting concept every legally admitted human in America is considered an equal and afforded the basic principle of ‘ equal due process’.
As a history, political science, and Bob Jackson Law School graduate….I know precisely how my father, an Navy lieutenant at one time just like Tom Cruise’s character, would feel about the convicted felon Donald Trump.
The only debate my father and I would be having is which federal prison Donald Trump should serve time.
My father went off the charts on the Supreme Court decision in 2000 when the vote count was stopped in Florida. Happily for my father…he passed in August of 2016 and didn’t have to watch from Oklahoma the past eight years of American law decline in the matter in which it has.
Lucky for him, not so much for me because I’m the only male surviving relative in our family who agrees with him on Donald Trump and the Rule of the Law.
The only one.
Do you have any idea what this does to my heart? It has killed my heart in a certain respect. I seriously want to continue living…but this has seriously damaged my heart. MJ in a sense is a dead man walking.
It blows me away, but it is what it is. My time here won’t hopefully be too long, and my dad and I will get to reunite and discuss these matters at some point.
Do all of you Trump fake Christians know the real reason Donald Trump won’t debate Kamala Harris second time?
In my own NBA basketball mind/heart I’ve been trying decide where my loyalty will be this coming NBA season. It’s complex for me in that I don’t love my hometown Thunder, but I don’t hate them either.
Fact of the matter is….I love their players. I love Shai. There’s not one player on the Thunder roster I don’t like. So it’s not like I’ve got a hardon against the Thunder… it’s just that I’ve moved on from a team twenty minutes from my front door which is being picked by quite a few people to play the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals this coming season.
The analogy would be like when I was young and single and somewhat immature there was this beautiful young woman and we met and had sex. Then we had a series of shallow conversation and I just decided the sex didn’t warrant me having to hang around and continue with the conversation. That’s where I’m at with the Thunder. I’ve moved on. Sam Presti, Royce Young, and Little Nick Gallo do not tittilate MJ’s interest. They bore me to death with their homery brand even though they may indeed have the best team in the Western Conference.
So there’s that…an honest explanation of my feelings about this upcoming Western Conference NBA season.
So probably my passion this season will go in this order…1 Denver Nuggets, 2 Golden State Warriors, and 3 OKC Thunder. But if OKC were to emerge and make the NBA Finals vs. the Boston Celtics then I would clearly be rooting for the Thunder while praying it wasn’t Donald Trump hosting them for the White House congratulatory welcome.
Now…Russell Westbrook. This Dan Patrick podcast on Russell’s legacy is pretty much spot on as far as I’m concerned.
To me Russell’s legacy is this… he will go down as a great NBA regular season player who has amassed some gaudy stats in games against bad to midling teams in regular season play which for the most part don’t mean all that much.
Post season is where it’s at as far as establishing a legacy. What a player does in any sport at the goal acheiving portion of the season should define their legacy.
Think about this…Russell to date has played with Kevin Durant, James Harden (twice), Bradley Beal, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George (twice) and only made it to a conference final or an NBA Final with one of these players.
That player would be Kevin Durant. Four times Kevin carried Russell Westbrook on his back and made it to the Western Conference Finals. One time, in 2012, Cupcake, as he’s still called in Oklahoma City by their basketball ‘intuitive’ fanbase…. carried Russell to the NBA Finals opposite the Miami Heat.
The legacy Russell has defined by his erratic play is Kevin Durant’s, not his own. For Kevin Durant to carry a team to the heights he did in OKC speaks volumes as to Kevin’s greatness…not Russell’s.
But despite what I’ve just written…I like Russell Westbrook and I’m praying for him to take this opportunity with Denver and redefine his legacy. I’m fervently praying Russell can clean up his game and give Mike Malone 18-20 minutes a game of smart, winning, consistent basketball as a role player off the bench.
I love Russell. My OU boy Austin Reaves said Russell was the best teammate he had when he made the LA Lakers as a free agent his rookie season. He said Russell took him under his wing so to speak. Knowing this…how can I not love Russell Westbrook?
What Russell primarily needs to do is QUIT shooting three point shots because he sucks at this skill as far as NBA players go. Last season while playing for the LA Clippers..Russell did not shoot 30% from any spot on the floor along the three point arc. Not even from either baseline which is usually the easiest location to make three point shots.
Denver desperately needs Russell Westbrook to be a level, mature, heady player since both Bruce Brown and Kentavius Caldwell-Pope have moved on since the Denver championship season. Christian Braun is now the fifth starter and he needs to fill KCP’s minutes.
Mike Malone can only hope Russell, Julian Strawther, Dario Sarcic, and Peyton Watson can give him some semblance of a bench this upcoming season.
So I’m genuinely hoping Russell can make the most of this opportunity to re-write his own legacy.