I love these kids from the School of Rock in Seattle. The Thunder losing streak should hit fifteen tomorrow night in Boston. If the Celtics somehow lose to the Thunder …Brad Stevens should be fired on the floor.
The three games versus Sacramento will decide if Sam Presti’s squad of sustainability can close the season on a twenty five game losing streak.
Let’s go 25…bring on Cade, baby!!!
Be steadfast and be at peace within yourself as we finish the season.
As Jake Owen sings in The Journey of Life…’Sometimes you have to lose to become a winner.’ This is one of those times.
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Smerconish question on my blog. Since the attempt by racist white domestic terrorists to overthrow our government on January 6th….I pretty much decided to be calm since I live in a Proud Boy state.
The question yesterday on Michael’s show was excellent. Should D.C. and the 700,000 people who live there be admitted as the 51st state so they can have senatorial representation?
By a 75% margin the vote was yes. However, I voted no, but with a caveat attached.
My rational to Michael was these 700,000 people can be be represented in the U.S. Senate very ably by the senators in either Virginia or Maryland. Neither of those states fall into the batfuck crazy category. So, in essence, these 700,000 people could be considered constituents of either of these states.
My primary caveat was in order to make the U.S. Senate functional again what we should be doing is reducing the number of senators from 100 to 90 by stripping the rights of five existing states to be represented in this once austere chamber.
The five states who would in essence be put on NCAA probation from being reprented in the U.S. Senate are Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arkansas. We don’t need these five states states sending senators. These five have proven they’re never going to change and in no way are coachable. We could actually make it a trial probation of four years to be reviewed on say May 1st, 2025.
The. U.S. will keep military bases in operation in these five ‘state-territories’ and such programs as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will remain in place if these states so desire.
Instead of having two senators each of these five states will have one federal provost who is the conduit in matters of state and federal business.
This way nobody has to secede and hopefully the white domestic terrorists will have designated zones where they can still live in their 1866 bubble. College football and the SEC and the Big 12 will in no way be affected.
Russell and his Wizard teammates needed two easy wins this week to stay in the hunt for a spot in the NBA’s playin tournament and they got what they needed from the Thunder.
I thought Russell played well in both games. He and Bradley Beal seem to be playing with a nice symbiotic flow as the NBA’s highest scoring tandem in the league. The Wizards are in a dogfight to stay in the 10th seeding position, but as a fan of not only Russell, but the NBA as well…I hope we get to see the Wizards play Jimmy Butler, Bam, and Tyler Herro.
It’s been such an odd week for me watching Russell this week and the result of the Chauvin verdict and seeing the reation from others. As an honors graduate of the Bob Jackson School of Law I predicted there would be a murder conviction and the jury did the right thing. The law is the law and there was an abundance of evidence. CNN should have given me some run…just saying.
There is a part of Russell Westbrook of which I love. Granted, I wanted to strangle him about a half a dozen times, but there is a core there I love. If he never wins an NBA ring that’s okay with me because on every other front Russell checks the boxes for me.
Russell is the same age as my son Chris and there are some similarities.
I know Russell as a father is going to put everything of himself into Noah as Chris is going to do with Little Robert. I feel good about the souls of those two young men and their sons.
Being the father of a son in these times in which we live is a very serious business. It requires you put everything of your soul and heart into the job. Literally everything. But I can ensure you at the end of the road it’s a very gratifying feeling.
The clip from above is from the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. In reality… since this film was released some things have changed, but a great deal hasn’t changed at all as evidenced by the past four years.
Seeing Russell this week made me think of this epic scene which is probably my favorite movie scene of all-time.
Russell, Bad Little Dude…the invitation for you and the family is always an open-ended one to get the kids together for a cook-out.
Take care, buddy.
And I need to to do this for the tanking Thunder now losers of thirteen straight and headed to Philly and Boston for two more losses. It’s going to get better. This will be over in three weeks. Basketball is the easiest sport to rebuild because if you have two really good players you can fit other pieces around them and be relevant pretty quick. And the Thunder are going to have two pretty good players next season to lead all this youth.
This is awesome. Russ is my son’s favorite player even though his family now lives in Denver.
I wish there was some way Little Robert could hook up with Noah and play some time. We could play Baby Shark, High Hopes and feed the wild turkeys with the diva lab Pauli and everything. Maybe go fishing.
C’mon, Russ. Ray Jr. knows me. He signed in here on the blog once and everything. It would be fun. We could sit and talk about the Michelle Obama book…which btw was a great book.
We all just wonder if Tramel had been at this presser and asked a stupid question if Noah would have rolled his eyes looked at him and said, “Next question.”
What a great looking kid.
Russell Westbrook, you are blessed Bad Little Dude. Family is everything.
This After Dark selection is dedicated to my seventeen month-old grandson Little Robert. Don’t get me wrong….I love Baby Shark as much as any two year-old, but I’m hoping to broaden LR’s music playlist next time we see them.
Life seems reasonable right now.
I have to admit…I love Baby Shark. Some day I’ll explain to Little Robert the whole Howie Kendrick thing.
I could listen to Diana Krall and leave this earth. This seems appropriate given the cold April weather in Oklahoma. If they played Diana Krall at church…I’d start going to church. Just saying.
This will be a game I watch from wire to wire. It means something for the Wizards because they’re holding on to the last spot for a playin game in the playoffs.
There were high moments with Russell in Oklahoma City, and some tough moments, but the good so far outweighs any of the bad there will always be a part of my basketball heart attached to him.
I love his committemnt to his family, his inner circle, and his beliefs.
Russell is the only other male I know of besides me who will admit to reading Michelle Obama’s book…so there’s that as well.
I hope his son Noah is at the game tomorrow night…I’d love to see him now that I’m a grandfather myself. I’d like to see if Noah runs like Little Robert who runs like Forest Gump.
I thought of Russell on Wednesday as I was waiting for the verdict. I thought of his night in Utah with the two fans. I thought back on what Russell was trying to convey to his family and to the rest of us.
Anyway, I know I speak for most Thunder fans when I say our hearts will always be with you.
I can’t even watch the Thunder this week. It’s too much. There comes a point a human can only watch so much of whatever it is Sam Presti is doing right now.
Maybe I can watch Friday when Russell comes back to town. Russell Westbrook…the calm one. Who would have ever thought?
It’s too much what with all the other things going on in the world.
‘This songs always relaxes me. A great karaoke song.
Enjoy the song. Be at peace if you can.
I’ve always loved Russell. Even if he did drive off Kevin. There’s just something about him I still love. He’s his own man. How can you not love that in a player?
There’s a real chance Washington could hookup with Tyler Herro and the Miami Heat in one of the playin games in the East. Trustme…I’ve been charting it.
At this point…that would be something I could cling to this NBA season.
Let’s go, Russell.
This is the famous Rachel Nichols-Tyler Herro interview before Game 4 of the Finals last summer. The only thing which could hve made this better for me would have been Doris Burke and Rachel interviewing Tyler simultaneously.
So what will be the lasting historical legacy of Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd?
We don’t for sure know given that within our hour of the conviction a sixteen year old black girl in Ohio called the police reporting a public disturbance and was shot to death in her own front yard by the police.
Not even a single day passed without another black person in America being killed by the police.
I just hope and pray our country can at some point come to terms with systemic racism.
That we treat people of color with at least the same humanity and compassion in which we treat our dogs.
Can anyone envision Derek Chauvin choking a dog to death on a street in broad daylight and no one intervening?
As Will Smith the actor said, “Nothing has really changed. He was just caught on film this time.”
I don’t really know that the government can legislate decency and empathy. We did this in the 60’s when LBJ passed the civil rights legislation and in hindsight all that has done was turn the Solid South from blue to red to this day still minus Georgia in this past election.
Barack Obama won the Whie House twice and if anything it seems to have fueled even more hate from certain white sectors of America.
What made Donald Trump unique from the other GOP candidates in the 2016 primaries? The race card. He played the birther race card and was the first U.S Senator to step on a stage endorsing Trump was Jeff Sessions from Alabama. You think that was a chance accident?
The insurrection of the White House was fueled by people like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mo Brooks. This was white domestic terrorists in essence ready to hang white Mike Pence because he wouldn’t go along with their plans to overthrow the government.
So I don’t really look at yesterday as an inflection or permanent turning point, but maybe a baby step of sorts that if you catch a white policeman executing a black person on the the streets of America and you have it on film you might haave a chance of winning in court if the jurisdicction is in a blue state.
An interesting day of American history. Our judicial system stood tall with the world watching.
Fortunately…one of Donald Trump’s puppet Banana Republic Attorney Generals are not in office currently.
Our legal sysytem held down the fort much as they did during the interim following the election and leading up to the Trump Insurrection of Stupidity circa January 6th, 2021.
And btw..that was whites killing whites and in search of killing white Mike Pence and white Nancy Pelosi.
We can bitch and moan about partisan politics all we must, but today was a Shining Moment for the American legal system.
Minnesota finally got it right. There should have been no legal questions on the outcome of this trial. A virtual slam dunk of evidence and witnesses for the skilled prosecutorial team to present to a diverse jury which was selected in voir dire in a diverse jurisdiction.
Now…would there be a jury pool in either Oklahoma, Alabama or from any state in the George Wallace-Donald Trump SEC Solid South who would convict Chauvin….I would be hesitant on laying down that bet.
I can still hear Professor Jackson’s voice booming in my ears…’Jurisdiction and voir dire are everything. That’s when you win or lose a criminal case. There are no Perry Mason moments unless its you finding out your client has lied to you from the beginning.’
I’m relieved for the family of George Floyd. There can never be closure for how his life was terminated, but perhaps for the rest of us in this country this can be turning point on how we begin to treat one another.
Not all white people are racist. Not even close… despite what we just witnessed in the previous four years. Somewhere between 20-25 million American whites marched in Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd.
What I hope happens is that today was an inflection of sorts in that all 330 Americans begin to realize All Lives Matter…not just those who are white and in the top five per cent bracket.
Poor white lives matter, black lives matter, Hispanic lives matter, Asian lives matter, Muslim lives matter, Jewish lives matter, Indian lives matter….HUMAN LIFE MATTERS.
America is an amalgam of diversity. This is what made us great.
It’s very sad and ironic for me to have to write this to the forty million or so humans who would still vote for the pathetic grifter Donald Trump if an election were held today.
How is it that you forty million or so are so fervently pro-life for life in the womb, but not for the life of living breathing humans of color on the streets of America?
HOW CAN ANY INTELLECTUALLY HONEST PERSON DEFEND THAT JUXTAPOSITION OF FACT FROM THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE?
The answer is…you can’t.
But enough of that. Today was a good day. An inflection point, perhaps.
Maybe even a new beginning reminding all of us on what it means to be an American.
The law should be very simple on this one. We as a nation do not condone executing people in our streets.
The world is watching and waiting to witness this verdict.
This should be a murder conviction.
The Three Rules of Closing Statements very much were in evidence yesterday in Minnesota:
1 If the facts on are on your side …you pound the facts.
2 If the law is on your side… you pound the law.
3 If neither are on your side…you pound the table and hope to hang one juror who will become your advocate in jury deliberations.
That’s what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis. We saw the defense ramble on incoherently for almost three hours hoping he can get one juror to bite on the notion Derek Chauvin acted in a legally responsible manner on the fateful day in question.
Conversely…the prosecutor went basically Frankie Galvin-Paul Newman with the jury. He appealed to their common sense and human decency. He reminded the jury they are the law right now.
Not the books. Not the trappings of the courtroom. Not the politicians. Not the cable news networks
THEY ARE THE LAW and within their own life experiences and prisms of human decency this will be their moment to define the law.
If we as nation want to show the rest of the world the Doctrine of Equal Justice for All is in place in America…this will be a murder conviction.
The movie The Verdict was produced in 1982 by Sidney Lumet. It is my favorite movie based on a legal courtroom drama. The Paul Newman character Frankie Galvin reminds me to this day of my father.
Frankie Galvin didn’t graduate from Harvard. He was a Boston College grad. Bob Jackson didn’t graduate from Harvard either. He was an Oklahoma City University grad.
But both had the same basic underpinnings of what their role should be in practicing law.
That being….those who need legal representation against either the rich and/or powerful are entitled to their day in court with the best possible legal representation.
The law is in place to make us all equal… to protect the weak from the powerful… who for various reasons can lose their sense of what it means for all us to live the American Dream with our own sense of human dignity.