Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

I’m taking a break from impeachment as a great day is on tap with the Times’ presidential endorsement plus the NFL conference championship games.

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete B, and Joe Biden made this very easy for me. They all have one thing in common, that being, none of them should be the candidate to run against Donald Trump.

Pete B is interesting, but I honestly don’t think America between the coasts is ready for an openly gay POTUS. Plus, I think he needs some experience in a more demanding position than being the mayor of South Bend.

Removing Trump from access to the White House is the primary goal. This isn’t the time to go beyond FDR’s New Deal. Win the damn election and go from there in a deliberate pragmatic manner.

Bernie and Lizbeth should kiss and make up. That nonsense at the end of the last debate would almost make me vote for Trump if they were my only choice. Not really, but almost. Maybe we’ll see them with Rick Perry on Dancing With the Stars this season.

Trump is a different animal and he won the White House running the most ruthless unconventional campaign in American presidential history. Clearly, this explains why ninety per cent of evangelicals adore him. Again…I reiterate, I firmly believe evangelicals pose a more dire threat to America than climate change, Isis, or the debt.

It will take some new ideas and some actual effort which was sorely lacking from Robbie Mook’s disastrous leadership of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. Showing up in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan could you know actually prove helpful in winning the Electoral College.

Newspaper endorsements don’t mean much in our current times. Hillary had almost every major newspaper endorsement and still lost the election despite the Hollywood Access clip.

Our culture has devolved to where Twitter and Facebook are unfortunately where many get their political information. Barack Obama ran two very clever social media campaigns. Maybe David Axelrod could help the Dems again this time around.

Beating Trump will take a tough in your face ticket. Politics isn’t a rainbows and butterflies proposition. It’s a hard ass endeavor which requires a cut-throat mentality at times. I’m not saying it should be that way, but it is when Donald Trump and the descendants of Lee Atwater are the opposition. Winning won’t be pretty. Some blood will be let if the Dems want to win.

Out of the veritable plethora of Dem candidates my final selections are three moving forward for the ticket and in this order as we are two weeks away from Iowa;

1 Mike Bloomberg

2 Michael Bennett

3 Amy Klobuchar

In the NFC Championship Game… I like the 49’ers unless the Packers can break George Kittles’ leg sometime in the first period. Kittles in the new Gronk. Get him out of the game.

On the AFC side the Titans have beaten both New England and Baltimore on the road with the most dominant player in post season being Derrick Henry. Ryan Tannehill’s rebirth is a good story as well. Plus, Vrable is a hard ass disciple of Belichick. I’ll take the Titans.

As I enter the twilight of my life I can say with open candor I’ve witnessed weak pathetic little white men on both sides of the political aisle in my lifetime.

Clearly though as each year has passed not one I can think of measures down to the virtually worthless piece of southern white human debris who goes by the name of Lindsey Graham.

I won’t lower myself to speculate as to or even waste too much human breath from my lungs to chronicle every act of manly cowardice this ‘man’ has put on public display since the rogue grifter Trump assumed the White House.

I will state this though…if I were a juror in a case where the defendant was charged with chaining up this virtually piece of shit to a tree and then leaving him there…. I as a juror would see that as justifiable human conduct for the better good of the world we all habitat together as one.

Lindsey Graham is why we have birth control in the Union and border states. Someone should have told this to his momma. To this very day… I still wonder in amazement as to why John McCain wasted time on this person. It baffles me still.

And as embarrassed as I am at times to admit I live in Oklahoma and not under legal order to do so, it would shame me even more to admit I live in the sovereign Confederate state of South Carolina.

Neil Young wouldn’t even lower himself to write a song about South Carolina. But if he had — this would have been it.

Can you believe these people? It never stops. The sirens of hypocrisy which at times are heard by some of us at times are never heard by these members of the evangelical right. I’ve come to this conclusion in regards to our country…Isis nor climate change are the greatest threats to the United States–the evangelical right very well could be the primary threat.

It leaves me literally ‘almost’ speechless.

I was never enamored with what Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky did with his dick…so there’s no reason for me feign any interest in that regard now. I voted for 41 and almost voted for Perot…but not because of what Clinton did or didn’t do with Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, or Monica Lewinsky.

I just didn’t think he had the maturity to be president. I guess I was right, but I’ve never held it against Clinton later in life as he with Bush 41 did so many good deeds in life after the White House. In a sense, they both did far greater things after serving in the White House.

But should we have expected anything else from Donald Trump?

You know why Ken Starr ignored the rapes? Because they were perpetrated by program game changer level football players. You know what those players did for Baylor other than winning football games? They helped Ken Star and his regents raise record setting amounts of money never seen before in the coffers of little Baptist Baylor University.

So it makes perfect sense Ken Starr should be a member of Donald Trump’s Dream Legal Team because in the end pond scum begats pond scum.

I was a junior in high school when Peter Rodino made this speech to the House as Chair of the Judiciary Committee. He came by his place in history because the previous chair had been defeated in the congressional mid-terms. Many in his own party doubted if he was ready for an assignment of this historical magnitude. He bristled at the doubters within his party and proved equal to the task while cementing his place in history.

The Dems were in control of both the House and the Senate. Any yet one thing which bears noting is the vote in the House to conduct the impeachment hearings of Nixon was almost unanimous.

Partisanship was blunted by patriotism for the constitution. It was a process which took time…almost two years. But in the end …. FINALLY the GOP members took stock of their responsibility to the constitution.

Now…45 years later-I’m not sure I see this from the House and the Senate. The vote in the House to impeach Trump purely followed party lines. I will be shocked if regardless of the evidence the Senate vote isn’t purely partisan as well.

Out constitution and democracy stands at a crossroads beginning on Tuesday. I don’t think this has escaped John Roberts whereas Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham don’t seem to grasp the gravity of this juncture in American history.

There isn’t just one American Dream for older white men. That isn’t the American Dream. The American Dream consists of 330 million unique individual dream for those who in their own right hope and pray the dream is there to pursue. But not just to sons of rich white men. But to women, to people of all color and religions to individuals who in their hearts aspire the privilege to pursue the American Dream.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s why we fought WWII and won the Cold War. That’s why America has been looked upon as the leader of the free world still eighty-five years later.

Politics and the cash, power, and ego which comes with power can corrupt. It can in places like Ukraine as well as in the United States Senate. I laughed when Lev Parnas was trying to make Rachael Maddow understand about corruption in his homeland.

Dude—where do you think your people learned of such corruption and money grubbing?

Just observe the United States Senate and there you have the template for unfettered greed and corruption which should make every Ukrainian aspire to become a United States Senator.

So we now will set out on this trial of sorts where the people who own Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham lock, stock, and barrel already know how they want it to end.

But for the rest of us…I hope we understand where we are right now. I truly hope all Americans are paying attention to what’s at stake.

I can’t imagine Chief Justice John Roberts has any private admiration for Donald Trump. As recently as 2018 the Chief Justice publicly rebuked Trump for referring to certain federal judges as ‘Obama judges’.

With Roberts his decisions will be based on the Constitution and the law. You know…the two things which Donald Trump tramples on a daily basis in his presidency. He’s a conservative justice, but one for the most part I respect.

If you take the time to study the individual cases of Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton you will come to understand the framers of the Constitution did not view impeachment lightly. The Madisonian view was impeachment should not be implemented just because a certain faction of lawmakers don’t like a sitting president.

Rather to impeach it must be proven the law and the Constitution must have been broken to an extent to show the Republic’s ability to govern itself as a true democracy has been damaged or altered from the framer’s intent. Premeditated malice with intent to break the law must be shown. In legalese Latin it’s called mens rea. The knowing premeditated intent to break the law.

Most sons have fathers who teach them how to build a tree house. My father as a trial lawyer never tired of explaining to me the importance of mens rea.

My dad never showed me how to build a tree house. But when he went into a court room it was all business. I’d even say at times he had some Atticus Finch in him in fighting for the little guy.

Did Donald Trump have the premeditated intent to break the law so as to compromise the upcoming election and improve his chances of being re-elected? Based on what any reasonable person observed from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders at the end of the last debate…I would surmise that any action which would enchance either of those people being the nominee would enchance Donald Trump’s odds at being re-elected regardless of Joe Biden’s other warts.

But I’m straying with all of this.

Was there a knowing premeditated action or actions by Trump and his mafia minions to break the law?

I would say yes. But again–we haven’t seen the case presented or defended just yet.

John Roberts is an avid golfer and a pretty salty one. Unlike Trump—he doesn’t cheat and is a stickler for adhering to the rules. He hits balls out of the rough and sand traps. He takes a penalty when his ball goes into the water. All things which Trump doesn’t adhere to during a round of golf.

Unlike our buffoonish POTUS… Roberts has a respect for golf and the law. I can’t imagine in John Roberts’ private thoughts he has much if any admiration for our big fat orange 45th POTUS.

Yikes.

After the Part I deposition of Lev Parnas last night on cable television I’m sitting here wondering who’s the heir apparent face of the GOP and it’s evangelical family values base.

Holy shit.

At least in Watergate there was the minority leader Gerald Ford to fill a plug in presidential succession. But who’s left on the GOP ledge to be president given they all whored themselves to Donald Trump for the tax cuts and the two Supreme Court justices?

I’m going to call James Lankford for the second morning in a row and suggest it be him. That was over the top sarcasm. But I’m still going to do it.

This is where have I have to be careful and reel myself in somewhat. Because like Michelle Obama I’m going to go high while all these white people will be crawling thru Donald Trump’s shit from now till eternity.

Here’s the thing. It’s one thing to say you couldn’t vote for Hillary. I sure didn’t. But for three years I didn’t have my head up my ass and allow this grifter to openly lie to my ‘face’ on a 24/7 basis.

I think more of myself as a human being than this. I KNOW I’M BETTER THAN THIS AND WOULD NEVER CONDONE THIS.

Mitch McConnell has some heavy lifting spinning in front of him this week. But he’ll probably pull it off within his party.

I mean…what is their defense at this point other than claiming complete and utter greed and stupidity?

I just unfortunately read a biography of Melania Trump titled Free Melania. The book begins with Melania getting confused and accidently plagiarizing Michelle Obama in her 2016 GOP convention speech.

It was the only chapter in the book worth reading. But really—I don’t want to be an internet bully and have to rely on Melania Trump’s Be Best advocacy group to protect me from her husband.

I mean, whoa. Really…whoa.

We do need to build a wall, but not for Hispanics. We need to build a wall around a land mass large enough to house the sixty million or so dumbasses who have supported this president for over three years.

I’m okay though. I’ll be okay.

I don’t really need to see the trial, but I wrote all that yesterday already understanding even ‘humans’ like Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, William Barr, Mike Pompeo, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, and Devin Nunes to name several are entitled to due process in our system before we place them in prison.

Since apparently even Kevin McCarthy best case scenario was at bars drunk with Robert Hyde…who will be the Gerald Ford in this GOP horror show?

Who is left standing in this party apparatus who didn’t sell their soul for tax cuts and two Supreme Court appointments?

That’s the really sad part in all of this. That being, we’ve come to realize the party of Lincoln, TR, and perhaps Eisenhower have devolved into this sad pathetic rendition of something between Jerry Springer Live and the Gong Show.

But here’s what is even sadder the night before at the end of the last debate before Iowa we witnessed a farcical ending to the Democrats’ debate as twin delusional idealists Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were telling each other to fuck off at the conclusion of the debate and who really amongst us thinks Joe and Hunter Biden would hold up during a cross examination my father would have easily nailed in his prime?

Here’s the deal. I’ll be the grownup on the internet. Both parties absolutely suck. They are an acute embarrassment to George Washington and our forefathers. They truly are. This is beyond pathetic.

Maybe this should be like the final episode of Seinfeld where the judge throws Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine in jail to contemplate how it came to be they evolved into humans who would run over the Bubble Boy in the midst of running out of a fire.

I’m sitting here totally calm. Not even slightly ruffled. None of this surprises me. My only question is why it took so long for Lev Parnas to get us here.

I’m assuming of course Michael Bloomberg and Michael Bennett together talked this out in private months ago. They had to know just as I did. Neither party can govern on the national scale. They remind me of my HOA somewhat. They don’t have this in them.

So..in reality it was a good night for the Thunder to get down to the Raptors by thirty points in the second period so as I could watch Rachel Maddow depose Lev Parnas on cable television. Because that’s what we just saw whether Mitch McConnell wants to admit it or not.

I’ve tried to refrain myself from commenting of late on the rogue presidency of reality grifter Donald Trump. Instead…I’ve remained somewhat silent on my blog and spent time reading up on the impeachments of Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.

In our system of justice one is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond doubt. In this case what the House did was in essence conduct a grand jury indictment and bound our most corrupt POTUS ever over for a ‘trial’ in the Senate.

In a real trial both sides go through the process of voir dire so as both sides can remove biased jurors from sitting in unfair judgement of the defendant or of the seriousness of the state’s case. Ideally—you want impartial jurors.

You also want all the evidence. You want all of the witnesses of whom are relevant. You want the truth.

Evidently—Mitch McConnell and William Barr adhere to the doctrine a sitting POTUS is above the law and the constitution.

Granted—a Senate trial is not the same as a trial in other jurisdictions and will be presided over by Chief Justice John Roberts. Only twice in American history have we traveled this road before as Chief Justice Salmon Chase presided over the impeachment case of Andrew Johnson and William Rehnquist presided over the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

It takes a two-thirds vote of the Senate to impeach a sitting president which has never happened before in American history.

But one would hope with the question being has our sitting president rigged one election and attempted to rig a second election….. that at the least John Roberts would want to conduct something beyond an obvious partisan sham.

Given the additional evidence which was revealed yesterday in relation to the sordid conduct performed by Donald Trump’s pro bono legal agent Rudy Giuliani… I would suspect at least four GOP senators will now side with the notion that having a real trial might not be a crazy notion….even with the tax cuts in place.

Pelosi was fairly smart in how she put this team of seven together. There are no crazies like Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, or Lindsey Graham on the team. All seven are litigators. Maxine Waters has been quarantined so to speak. How sad it is I had to refer to John McCain’s old friend as a partisan hack. But he has left with no choice. At least one of us is here to cover John McCain’s back. Just to be clear…Lindsey Graham is nothing more than a political hack who was allowed to stay around way too long in the Senate.

We now move on to a real Senate trial…. we hope. This is a serious matter. While it’s hard to contemplate our buffoon president as much of anything serious or presidential— he was elected POTUS.

Trump is presumed innocent of trampling the constitution and obstructing justice on multiple counts. Even though I openly disdain the grifter human junk bond he truly is…my father was a trial lawyer. He ingrained in me no matter the case of defendant—one is entitled to their day in court and a presentation of the facts.

So even though I clearly have my own personal views on Donald Trump as a human being and why I wouldn’t waste five minutes of my life being around him…I do have the ability to absorb the evidence and be fair in relation to the law and our constitution.

Let’s see the evidence. All of it.

Chief Justice John Roberts is an avid golfer and a good one. Unlike Trump who is regarded as an unabashed cheater on his golf courses…John Roberts is a stickler for the rules. John Roberts doesn’t cheat beyond a first tee mulligan. Whereas Trump kicks, moves, and places his balls all over the course to his scorecard’s benefit. For a reference please read Commander in Cheat by SI’s Rick Reilly.

Perhaps…it will be this golf analogy of sorts which might give us a hint as to how John Roberts views the rogue grifter Trump and his overt disdain for the Constitution.

Here’s Rick Reilly explaining how Donald Trump in his mind has won eighteen different club championships over the years.

I wish we had a real newspaper in Oklahoma City instead of the razor thin Oklahoman which is owned by a leverage company in New York which cow tows to the racist Trump. I wish there was some passion coming from our sports department nowadays from the Oklahoman staff. Quite frankly–I wish I was a columnist alongside Tramel telling everyone why Sam Presti shouldn’t automatically trade Danilo Galinari.

I wish.

So this is Mike Rizzo before Game 7 versus the cheating Houston Astros in this past fall classic.

Rizzo had two star free agents after this game was played. Anthony Rendon and Steven Strasburg.

He was able to keep Strasburg, but lost Rendon in free agency. This is a tough loss for the Nats unless they can possibly sign another power hitting third baseman from another team.

But they won a franchise first ever World Series.

Here’s the decision Mike Rizzo had to make….does he run the risk of losing Rendon as he did or play his cards with a team and a fanbase who no one thought would get past the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild card game?

When as a GM do you play a gut feel and play your cards and risk losing a good player for nothing?

Here’s what I would say. Presti wouldn’t be losing Paul George for nothing. He already got his next star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Galinari, and a slew of draft picks for Paul George.

Sam Presti and the Thunder have already been compensated for Paul George.

Why in the world wouldn’t we possibly view Galinari as we did Kevin Martin as a one year rental as was the case in the Harden trade?

Why if the Thunder did lose Big Gallo in free agency would that be any different than losing Kevin Martin?

I don’t really see a difference.

I wish we had a newspaper in Oklahoma City. Not only sports, but a real Op-Ed page where someone would tell the Okies the truth now and again about the world they live in. Maybe David Holt could raise some money from MAPS 5 and start a newspaper in Oklahoma City to go along with the NBA team, the Riverwalk, the baseball park, and the world class rowing river. Just some random thoughts from a wannabe sports messiah.

Dream big, Oklahoma City.

I was completely absorbed by the first half of Clemson vs. LSU for the Super South 5 National Championship so I honestly didn’t watch much of the Thunder first half at Minnesota.

But when Joe Burrow connected with Thaddeus Moss for a TD right before half to extend the Bayou Bengals lead to 28-17… I focused on the Thunder the remainder of the night because I pretty much knew unless Burrow had suffered some broken ribs on the TD pass to Moss it was over.

Which it very much was as the Bengals cruised home to a 42-25 win for the national title. In fairness to OU, this was the kind of loss I expected the Sooners to suffer in the Peach Bowl until the grass smoking suspensions and the injury to Turner-Yell diluted an already thin defensive roster.

As far as the Thunder, they bounced right back from the bad home loss to the Lakers with a solid road win over a Minnesota team which was without Karl Anthony-Townes.

Seven Thunder players scored in double figures with Big Gallo leading the way with a thirty point night. Shai had a remarkable 20-20-10 triple double which of course evokes memories of Westbrook in his Wild Thing mode ‘somewhat.’ I just hope Shai doesn’t become enamored with triple dubs to the extent we start seeing some whoring for rebounds in certain situations.

The triple double is fine, but here’s what I primarily take from this game more than anything…since the 8-12 start of which the Thunder were 1-7 on the road…this team is 9-3 on the road on their way to this remarkable turnaround.

Last week the Thunder were ranked by ESPN as the No. 11 team in the entire thirty team NBA. I would guess with a win over Toronto at home on Wednesday night the Thunder will move even higher in the poll.

Even with the injury loss of valuable sub Nerlens Noel these past few games the Thunder just keep chugging along following the lead of Chris Paul.

Of course the question remains…what will Presti do at the deadline? Does he go all in like Mike Rizzo did with the Nats and shore up his team in the bullpen or does he start unloading with some sort of deal for Danilo Galinari and a future piece to put alongside Shai?

I mean—let’s say hypothetically the Thunder keep trending and are in the top eight seeded teams in the entire NBA just before the deadline?

How does Sam Presti make this trade as a GM whose primary roles are twofold: 1 to contend for a championship, and 2 to make moves which sustains the long-term viability of the team in OKC.

It’s a tough call for sure with Galinari becoming a free agent this summer, but if there’s a window to a run then how do you do this to your fanbase?

The Toronto Raptors are in town on Wednesday night with a hopefully healthy Pascal Siakam on the floor. With a win, the Thunder could improve to 24-17 and hit seven games over .500 for the first time this season.