Month: February 2020

Don’t look now, but with Oklahoma City’s solid 113-101 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night they could possibly be making the argument they have a team which could make some noise this post season.

Once again CP3 was the best player on the floor during Winning Time. Every metric stat even the Daily Thunder tweety bird nerds adhere to would support this claim so it’s okay for me to write this on my blog.

This is very simple. Chris Paul has been the NBA’s Drew Brees this basketball season and a viable MVP contender.

Chris Paul has been glorious. He’s taken a basketball season of predicted gloom and turned it into something memorable to date.

Say what you want about the Durant-Westbrook teams which made it to four conference finals and one NBA Finals—but in reality this is the first time in the Thunder era the team actually looks like they understand the basics of the game.

I don’t want to be on here dissing Billy Donovan or Scott Brooks or Maurice Cheeks, but for the first time since the team moved here from Seattle they don’t look like one of the dumbest teams in the league.

This team does little things. They win on the road. They win close games. They value the ball in the fourth period. They don’t play like a bunch of prima donnas. They pass the ball. They don’t pout. Lu Dort plays like Nick Collison. They find a way to win.

They play like a team

On a night when Gallo, SGA, and Dennis went a combined 20-55 from the field against a Denver team which was the No. 2 seed in the West coming into Chesapeake Energy Arena it didn’t matter because Chris Paul was clutch.

Bolt that Daily Thunder tweety-birds.

Chris Paul picked up the slack and scored 29 points on a 11-17 shooting night. But per the usual this season–most of the scoring came in the second half and the fourth period. Every time the Thunder needed a bucket Chris Paul obliged with a clutch basket to keep the Nuggets at bay.

And then there was Steven Adams. Fresh from a much needed All-Star break…Steven Adams looked like 2016 post season Stevo. He ran the floor, he jumped, and on a night Jokic went for 32 points–Adams off-set the Joker with a 19 point, 13 rebound game of his own. Without Adams the Thunder probably don’t win this game or at least by this comfortable of a margin.

Shai had a bad shooting night, but didn’t pout. Instead.. he almost triple- doubled with a 11-9-9 night.

On the night…seven Thunder players scored in double figures and not one Thunder player had a negative +/- rating on the night.

Darius Bazley was still out with a knee injury and Abdel Nader took his minutes while Diallo was a healthy DNP. In all…Billy Donovan played this like a post season game and used nine players on the night.

It was a big win for the Thunder and it showed what they could possibly do if they meet up with the Nuggets in the first round.

Next up the desperate for wins San Antonio Spurs come to the Peake for a Sunday evening game.

The Oklahoma City Thunder kick-off the remaining twenty-seven games of their schedule tonight in OKC with a much anticipated game with the Denver Nuggets.

This should be a great game between two playoff teams and a possible preview of the first round matchup of No. 3 versus No. 6. I’ve had this one circled for awhile as a barometer game of sorts for the Thunder.

I see Denver as the third best team in the West post-season wise despite their current No. 2 seed in the West. They’re deep and the matchup with Jokic always presents a challenge for Steven Adams on the perimeter.

To me, the two feel good stories in the West this season are Oklahoma City and Memphis. OKC has a moderately tough remaining schedule, while the Grizzlies have the toughest remaining schedule in the West.

OKC’s guards—what a story Sam Presti’s three-headed backcourt of Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Shai G. Alexander have been this season. I wouldn’t call it crazy talk to have them as one of the premier backcourts in the NBA this season.

When you walk the streets of Oklahoma City everyone is thrilled with the Thunder and reasonable of where they stand in the Western Conference foodchain.

But for a team which was possibly going to throw a 28-30 win or so season out there the 33-22 Thunder have been a breath of fresh air.

Westbrook is doing fine in Houston, Paul George is back home in LA, and Jerami Grant is a player in Denver who’s filling a valuable role for the Nuggets.

Everyone should be happy in all four cities.

Wednesday night’s takedown of Michael Bloomberg wasn’t a first for Elizabeth Warren in her never ending fight against what she deems sexist behavior.

She helped take down Al Franken from his U.S. Senate seat from the state of Minnesota.

This past May of 2019 she was one of the primary advocates voicing her concern of then front-runner Joe Biden for inappropriate touching of women.

From late May when Biden’s touching became a concern his lead started dwindling as each month passed. The Hunter Biden deal obviously hurt Biden as well, but it was when Biden became the unabashed leader in the polls her concern became a bigger issue.

Then there was the fight she had with poll leading Bernie Sanders at the end of the debate two debates ago when she claimed Sanders guilty of being sexist in his views towards women. Bernie may be a communist, but I’ve never viewed him as even slightly sexist.

Then of course there was Wednesday night in Vegas with her multiple problems with Mike Bloomberg as he was surging in the polls.

She never once mentioned the multiple women issues he’s donated to over the years. Not once. Nor the education foundations he’s been a a part of to aid African Americans. Google Jeff Canada if you want some of the truth.

So….. is this the Me Too movement which I thought was primarily in place to out Donald Trump as POTUS?

And yet in 2016– Ms. Warren gladly endorsed Hillary Clinton fully aware of Bill Clinton’s past problems as perhaps the most over the top sex offender in presidential history.

How do we align the juxtaposition of Elizabeth Warren’s multiple phobias of men in power?

I don’t know. It’s a little bit creepy.

We’ll see where she goes next week in the next debate in South Carolina. I would assume it will be Joe Biden’s turn to be taken down…again.

“Russia…. if you’re listening please dump the Bloomberg and Biden emails. The other four losers we’re good with.”

Elizabeth Warren saved the world last night in Las Vegas. We sleep knowing the world is safe from off color sexual jokes and feeling comfort her arm is always raised. She hasn’t saved us from the policies of her bud Bernie Sanders which would wreck the U.S. economy as we know it, but she has for the time being saved us from Michael Bloomberg and Al Franken.

Here’s Elizabeth Warren at the 2016 DNC Convention enthusiastically endorsing Team Clinton for the presidency. Evidently, she never heard the part about Bill’s penchant for cigars and ejaculating on dark blue dresses.

Here’s Elizabeth a year later stating the Clintons rigged the DNC process to screw fellow Bolshevik Bernie Sanders out of the Democratic nomination.

One would have thought she would have known this a year earlier, but apparently she was so focused on what Al Franken was doing with his hands this escaped her attention.

We would assume if Joe Biden’s numbers get back up after South Carolina his penchant for holding women will be her next target for saving women from the predators of the Dem presidential race this campaign season.

The former party of Bill Clinton and James Carville pretty much went splat last night in Vegas in a two hour debate which most probably will propel Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders to the party’s nomination in 2020.

It was such an odd evening as the same Donald Trump who has trampled the constitution with warp speed in these days following his impeachment acquittal wasn’t an issue. Trump wasn’t hardly even mentioned in a debate which resembled a one-sided cage fight with Michael Bloomberg not knowing what hit him in the first forty minutes or so.

Who would have ever known the British Labour Party could street fight like this in Las Vegas of all places.?

Putting the cage fight aside…it wasn’t much of a night for discussing gun control, budget deficits, climate change, immigration, job creation, realistic health care proposals, or America’s standing in the world.

It was however a huge night for horse-faced lesbian jokes or the prospect Michael Bloomberg has told such a joke somewhere in his sordid past in which he’s given his money away to help with the very issues mentioned above.

It didn’t matter either that like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other billionaires…. he does enjoy making money and then giving it away to help other people in pursuit of the American Dream or possibly making their lives better.

Forgive me for ever embracing the quaint notion the party of Bill Clinton’s dick was going to be lazer-focused on you know…maybe defeating Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

It was surreal that the same Elizabeth Warren who embraced the Team Clinton ticket in 2016 with all the sport fucking which has occurred in Bill Clinton’s life was suddenly so outraged over an off color joke or two by a New York billionaire.

Color me Al Franken and color Donald Trump as a prohibitive favorite to be re-elected this coming November unless the economy goes big-time south.

Some pundits this morning claim Mike Bloomberg might be able to pull himself off the canvass and redeem himself in the next debate. Good luck with that unless he takes a chain saw with him to the next debate and cuts off both of Elizabeth Warren’s arms so as she can’t be the only person talking for almost two hours.

I’m to assume Ms. Warren didn’t vote for Bush 41 in ’92 or Bob Dole in ’96…. that she in fact most probably voted for sports fuck savant Bill Clinton in both of those elections as well.

But at least when Bubba was playing Cigar Daddy with Monica Lewinsky he wasn’t telling any off color jokes, right.

Hypocrisy much?

But this isn’t a surprise to me and this is precisely why in 2000 when I left the GOP …. I never considered re-registering as a Democrat. I must not be alone in this thought as currently 70% of registered voters aren’t signed on to the Democratic Party as well.

So what does Elizabeth Warren get out of this? Does she get the nod to be Big Brother Bernie’s vice-presidential partner with the hope of ruling Denmark at some point?

Trump isn’t the only one giddy this morning. Steve Bannon is almost home with his master plan for America. Kellyanne Conway, Mitch McConnell, and the Mercer family are popping champagne corks. Fox News must be ecstatic as well. Rick Wilson, George Conway and George Will…not so much

It was a great night for the MAGA people and the British Labour Party.

Mike Bloomberg and lesbian horse jokes…not so much. Al Franken …we feel your pain, buddy.

They all love Bernie Sanders don’t they?

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the lone living Koch Brother, Rebekah Mercer, and Vlad Putin.

But especially…Steve Bannon. Because this is Bannon’s vision unfolding in front of the world as the status quo institutions in America are being diminished every day in front of our eyes.

Our rabble culture, the courts and the legal system being pushed aside, but most importantly the shift from democracy to a hybrid of government authoritarianism by intimidation.

Trump doesn’t have a doctrine per se other than the Roger Kahn always fight back harder dogma. This is Steve Bannon’s doctrine. His plan. He was the one who connected Cambridge Analytica with Rebekah Mercer even when the Mercers were still funding Ted Cruz at the time.

I mean, I begrudgingly have to give him credit for being one very smart dude.

Think of this…Donald Trump now owns every share of what was once known as the GOP coming into tonight’s debate in Vegas. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party after failing to even censor Donald Trump, let alone impeach him, has a seventy-seven year old Democratic Socialist with a bad heart and virtually no record whatsoever of accomplishment during his time in government as their leading candidate coming out of New Hampshire.

Who could write this other than Steve Bannon?

Tell me with a straight face anyone other than Steve Bannon could have written this script better … let alone hoped for such a scenario to unfold in real time.

So…in Vegas of all places, Steve Bannon has all his chips in the pot tonight betting Bernie Sanders and the other Democratic debaters can end Michael Bloomberg’s rise in the polls as a viable candidate to challenge our Manchurian POTUS.

I hate to admit it…it’s going to be very hard at this point betting against Steve Bannon.

One last thing. Let me add this brief interview Bernie did with the Young Turks. To me…it perfectly illustrates who Bernie Sanders is and isn’t.

Okay… I think most of us were appalled by Wall Street’s complicity in the 2008 economic crisis even though they all paid back their loans with interest. Now—we could have not bailed out Wall Street and let the entire U.S. economy burn to the ground. But you know what happens then….people who need the government most don’t get their Social Security, don’t get their VA benefits, the military goes unfunded, people don’t get their Medicare, don’t get Medicaid assistance, don’t get FEMA disaster aid, prisons go unfunded, don’t get their farm subsidy, don’t get their job in the automobile industry saved, don’t get federal or state unemployment assistance, don’t get educational grants, and or don’t get welfare assistance…. and states don’t get their federal grants which in essence keeps states like Oklahoma< Alabama, and West Virginia afloat. None of that happens if you just let if burn to the ground.

So…what was the plan, Bernie… to keep the American economy afloat? Short of eliminating every facet of the American economy you want to destroy which pays for all the above?

Michael Bloomberg has soared to the number two position in the most recent national poll. This qualifies the former NYC mayor to debate Crazy Bernie Sanders, Pete B, Joe Biden, Amy K, and Elizabeth Warren. I actually like everyone left standing with the exception of Bernie Sanders and would support any of them over Trump except Bernie Sanders.

This is my Bernie Sanders intervention moment on my small blog. You want to know the worst thing to happen to the Democratic party in the past four years? It wasn’t Hillary Clinton. More to the point it’s the do nothing fantasy pandering Democratic Socialist from Vermont.

BTW, speaking of Vermont… Bernie voted ‘no’ there around four times as a congressman on gun control measures because he withered from the hunting lobby in his tiny little state.

Bloomberg will be prepared, albeit probably a bit rusty, but he should be fine once he gets through the first fifteen minutes. Be careful what you ask tomorrow night, Bernie Boy. All those young Bloomberg staffers from places like Harvard and Yale know even more about you than the guy at okcthunderground.com.

Bloomberg is not a rock star debater like Obama or Bill Clinton. That won’t be him tomorrow night. He’s a steady grinder. Obama and Clinton are/were Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard…. Mike B is more like Smokin’ Joe Frazier per the boxing analogy.

I keep reading he did this horrible thing with the frisk and search in NYC in an effort to save black lives in what was then a war zone, but here’s what Michael Bloomberg didn’t do….he didn’t vote for Bill Clinton’s Crime Bill in 1994 which in reality was far more punitive towards blacks as far as excessive federal sentencing practices.

Bill Clinton put this into law, not Michael Bloomberg. Bernie Sanders voted for it as a congressman. Joe Biden voted for it as a senator. Amy Klobuchar enforced it as a federal prosecutor. All three participated in punitive and excessive sentencing towards the African-American community. Are we sure we want to go there on cross examination, guys?

Race and law enforcement are/were tough tasks. Ask Pete B how that’s gone as mayor of tiny South Bend. When Mike Bloomberg was mayor 80% of gun related homicides in NYC involved black males between the ages of 18-28 years of age.

You think Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were cool with that at the time? I don’t think so. In fact, the inverse argument was being made when Rudy Guliani started the stop and frisk policy: ‘Why are you indifferent to our black children being murdered?’

As far as tough talk–I mean, if you can’t handle some F bombs here and there in the highly intense world of trading and finance…you might be in the wrong line of work. The story about ‘killing it’…. I simply don’t believe. Who talks like that? Even the grifter pos fuck Trump wouldn’t say that.

As far as red-lining goes…read Michael Lewis’s The Big Short if you want to be up to speed on the practice on how bundled traunches of high risk high default mortgages were a part of the 2008 financial crisis.

New York guys talk tough and to the point. I coached hockey with a guy from Long Island for four years. It’s a different language…literally. I was in shock the first week.

But from what I’ve witnessed of late from the Democratic National Party is they could use a little tough talk if they want to beat Donald Trump this November.

This is famous author Michael Lewis. Lewis quit at Solomon and went on to write the iconic Liar’s Poker which kick-started his writing career and a list of NY Times bestsellers. Unlike Michael Lewis….. Michael Bloomberg was fired at Solomon Brothers then started his company Bloomberg after this setback at the age of thirty-nine. This is Lewis talking about his books Liar’s Poker and The Big Short.

For the past thirty-six months I’ve been somewhat conflicted on President’s Day. I know there aren’t many white guys in Oklahoma feeling like this today, but at least there was me. Because in these last three years I now fully realize how much I miss having a POTUS I respect and admire as a husband, a father, and a man.

As far as Trump’s economy…it’s the one he inherited from Barack Obama as this market continues its eleventh year for the longest bull market of any in history.

During Obama’s 96 months in the White House the S&P index rose from 7,550 to 19,827 for a net gain of 166%. Unemployment dropped from just below 9.8% to 4.8% in these same eight years. In all, 11.6 million new jobs were created.

Those without health insurance dropped 15.2 million in numbers, but with some higher rates as Mitch McConnell sat on the plan and didn’t allow the needed tweaks.

Oil production of all things even without Scott Pruitt running the EPA rose 77% making the United States the largest crude producer in the world under Obama. Funny…..Inhofe and Lankford never share this stat with their constituents in Oklahoma. Meanwhile… dirty coal production dropped by 30%. Auto emissions were down by 11%.

There were no 28 billion dollar bailouts required to bail out our farmers from our own president’s undisciplined trade treaties. But there was a bailout of the auto industry while later under Obama’s call Leon Panetta ordered our bravest men to kill Osama bin Laden.

You would never know it from what Birther Donald Trump has said to his cult followers, but during Obama’s eight years unauthorized illegal immigration dropped by 6%.

There were things called the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal, and the understanding with our allies in NATO that the Marshall Plan wasn’t a deep state myth propagated on MSNBC by Lawrence O’Donnell. Instead it was the most thought out successful plan which kept the world from initiating World War III for three-quarters of a century.

To date an Access Hollywood video hasn’t surfaced with Obama bragging about grabbing pussy whenever he felt the need. Or with Obama as president enduring the acute embarrassment of having a POTUS who’s skill set looked more in line with that of a sketchy owner of a strip bar versus that of the leader the world’s greatest democracy.

America was clearly viewed as the leader of the free world in which federal judges and lawyers from all over the country didn’t have to sign petitions to give the president a primer in appropriate American legal conduct by a sitting president.

We never dreamed there would be a president coming who would make Richard Nixon seem almost acceptable.

There wasn’t a Stormy Daniels or any playboy bunnies or Paul Manaforts , Michael Cohens, or Roger Stones… just Michelle, their two daughters, plus Michelle’s mother.

There weren’t any impeachment hearings.

There was just President Barack Obama…the leader of the free world growing into the role.

What a quaint time in history those eight years were in historical hindsight.

If you watch the farewell video above you’ll observe search and frisker Michael Bloomberg sitting next to Joe Biden at the Obama’s table.

This podcast took place about fourteen months ago. Pretty young kid asking the questions. Nice kid, kind of reminds me of the innocent millennials over at Daily Thunder. He’ll get better and learn to ask better, more pointed questions.

But still, it’s the iconic James Carville who got Bill Clinton elected in 1992 in spite of his client’s numerous electability issues.

Carville is a very sharp guy in my view. He doesn’t pull punches and gets right to the point…which I like. Fact he loves college football makes him even taller in stature with me.

Like me, he originally endorsed Michael Bennet. I actually endorsed Bennet before I knew Carville had done so….. which makes me feel good about my initial choice as a historian/political scientist. Carville is a guy I’d love to have lunch with some time.

I think Joe Biden is too old as does James.

We both agree Bernie Sanders might be a good choice if he was running in Denmark or Greenland.

Like Carville…I think Pete B is extremely bright and he drives down my moderate lane. I just honestly worry how he would hold up under the scrutiny of the Trump, Miller, Bannon, Rebeckah Mercer, Breitbart machine in a national general election.

Elizabeth Warren would make a nice attorney general.

Amy Klobuchar is very sharp and I think she’d make a helluva vice-president in her first national campaign. Bloomberg is too old to go beyond one term himself so maybe she should consider this as a resume builder for the Presidency.

Which brings me to Michael Bloomberg and why he’s now the candidate I’m endorsing even with some things he did while at Solomon Brothers or as mayor of NYC. I’m primarily going with Bloomberg because he’s smart as a whip, tough as a rattlesnake, and yet in these later years of his life has shown he has a heart of empathy for multiple causes of basic human decency.

The Little Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood faction of the Democratic Party needs a stark reality check. This is a unique election in our nation’s history.

Beating Donald Trump and removing him from office will require a unique set of smarts and toughness.

This isn’t the time to go beyond FDR’s New Deal.

Just beat Donald Trump and reset from there like pragmatic adults.