It took Nixon a full term to get in trouble with the Watergate cover up. It took Clinton about the same period of time before he got into trouble with the whole Monica Lewinsky yarn. Yet, here we are not even two months into Caligula Lite’s governance and we have all this. Usually, it’s the perjury and obstruction of justice which gets politicians into trouble. Michael Flynn got canned not as much for the calls he made with the Russians, but more for the impression that he duped Mike Pence about the calls.
But now all hell has broken loose per the New York Times and Washington Post investigations into the whole Trump Russian thing. It turns out Trump’s Sec of Commerce Wilber Ross actually was an officer of a Cypriot bank which laundered money for Russian oligarchs. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, has his prints everywhere amidst much of this, and then of course, now we have Jeff Sessions perjuring himself as to his contacts with a Russian ambassador during the campaign.
Here’s the thing, putting aside these Russian entanglements, Sessions, Ross, Scott Pruitt at EPA, Price at Health, and Devos at Education never should have been confirmed because they’re simply not up to the task of running their various departments. Add to the fact Steven Bannon and Stephen Miller shouldn’t be a part of any president’s inner core unless of course he’s Caligula Lite.
With the Times and the Post in a contest for each new revelation I’m pretty sure we’re no where near the end of all this. As ultimately–it will be Trump himself with direct conflict of interests with Russian interests which comes to light. All he would have to do primarily to end much of this is simply show his tax returns.
It’s literally exhausting following the Trump presidency.
In steady pursuit of the American capitalists in Russia. The hunt for the truth continues.
Man, this is sad. I knew the site lost most of its swagger and mojo, but I had no idea things were this bleak. Hopefully, they can turn it around and do something different before too long. I can’t even post on Disqus, I won’t. I worked too hard on the dr el prez brand to tarnish it with a substandard posting forum. They should just close the message board and do Facebook among themselves for communal Thunder chat. Have some dignity. Remember the good times when there was a creative flow, but don’t end it like this. Even if I win the contest this season—I can’t even claim it. My detractors would call it bullying. What next? Jenni writing the recaps?
At some point, I think I’ll do my Ten Favorite Daily Thunder posters of all-time, or at least from the point I began reading it.
It’s a great day in Oklahoma. Fabulous weather, our basketball team is peaking at just the right time, and the fishing pretty is good as well. I worked so hard on that recap I thought I’d play one of my favorite music song scenes of all-time to get rid of the bad feeling of that very mediocre movie Moonlight winning Best Picture. This should get me out of that mood. For some reason, that’s really bothering me still.
With each passing game, Russell Westbrook’s impact on not only the Thunder, but to the state of Oklahoma as a whole is growing to mythical proportions. Tuesday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena was just another night in the process for Westbrook as he once again put his team on his back and just basically said, “We’re not losing this game.”
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Utah Jazz 109-106 in a wonderful playoff-like game which makes one hope maybe these two teams could do battle in a first round No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup. It was a great game between two teams on the rise who should only get better heading down the stretch.
Westbrook was Westbrook as he notched his 30th triple double of the season and now is only one behind Wilt and eleven behind Oscar with 22 games remaining. It was vintage Westbrook as with each passing game what we see is a mixture of Michael and Kobe emerging as Westbrook no longer has to make sure Kevin Durant and his handlers are happy with ball distribution issues.
Triple Double # 30 reads…43 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. But what makes this even more impressive is once again Westbrook revved up his game in the final four minutes of the game and made the shots his team had to have as he scored 14 of the Thunder’s last 15 points.
At one point, OKC led by as many as 13 points, but Utah is a good basketball team and did not go away. More to the point, they battled back and led by four heading down the stretch until Westbrook said enough and took matters into his own hands. As a kid in LA, Westbrook grew up watching Kobe. With the departure of Durant to the Warriors, in essence — Westbrook has now become Kobe and amidst all the angst Durant’s weak departure created in Oklahoma City, there is no longer sadness in looking back to what might have been. Because if Durant had stayed, we would never have fully seen Westbrook turn into his own Kobe butterfly.
But it isn’t just Westbrook which gives this city hope heading into March. It’s the fact piece by piece Sam Presti has crafted a basketball team to fit Russell Westbrook’s skill set, not Kevin Durant’s. First it was the trade which brought Oladipo, Sabonis, and Ilyasova to the Thunder. Then it was the trade which sent Ilyasova to Philadelphia for do everything player Jerami Grant. Last Thursday on the trading deadline, Presti sent Anthony Morrow, Joff Lauvergne, and Cam Payne to the Chicago Bulls for tough guy Taj Gibson and scoring savant Doug McDermott. And, if you haven’t been paying attention Sam Presti made one last move in acquiring veteran Norris Cole to man the backup point guard position early this week. It’s been amazing to watch, but piece by piece, Sam Presti has kept his word to Russell Westbrook and put a good basketball team around him.
Two things were evident on Tuesday night, Taj Gibson has supplanted rookie Domas Sabonis as the team’s go to power forward moving forward. Not a knock on Sabonis, but this isn’t a time for a rookie, it’s a time this team needs a hardened vet on the floor with Westbrook for as many minutes as possible. Same with McDermott as on Tuesday night he showed his immediate worth by scoring 16 points and giving the Thunder a 4-4 night from behind the arc on a night when the Thunder as a team went 15-22 shooting threes.
But here’s what’s truly amazing about this game–Victor Oladipo missed his third straight game due to back spasms and fellow starters Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, and Sabonis scored a combined 7 points in this basketball game. Translated–this means four of OKC’s starters scored a combined 7 points and yet Oklahoma City won perhaps their biggest game of the season to date.
Enes Kanter, Alex Abrines, and Jerami Grant were all excellent on Tuesday night as OKC’s bench along with McDermott and Gibson scored 48 points as a unit.
I haven’t mentioned Kevin Durant’s knee injury and I won’t until the final word comes out today regarding his MRI. But know this, if that MRI comes out the wrong way for the Super Team from Oakland all the sudden the Western Conference becomes very interesting heading into March.
I pretty much planned on playing this on Monday morning as a tribute to La La Land winning best picture. But since the Academy went all politically correct and picked a movie which made Will and Jada Smith feel better after what they perceived as a snub last year–I’ll play it now. In retrospect what the academy should gave done was give Denzel Washington Best Actor and then gone ahead and given La La Land Best Picture. But there was the Trump world anger and Jada Smith so I’m assuming the Academy thought this the more prudent path. I hate to pile on Moonlight, but it’s the worst Best Picture winner in my lifetime.
Howard Stern pretty much sees it my way. Howard and I are pretty much seeing things the same of late. We both think Trump is a poser and Moonlight sucked. I wish I could do his show and plug my blog.
I didn’t do a recap per se on the Sunday evening game as so much was going on in the world of movies. But I did watch the replay on Fox afterwards as OKC beat the New Orleans Pelicans by a 118-110 score in what was a fairly entertaining game to watch… if even on a delayed basis.
Victor Oladipo missed his second straight game, but it didn’t matter as Russell Westbrook was once again excellent and in this one as he got some substantial help from Steven Adams, Enes Kanter, Alex Abrines, and Andre Roberson.
But of course, when it mattered most in the fourth quarter it was Russell Westbrook leading his team and making the plays which cemented a much needed win for the Thunder as they improved to 34-25 on the season.
The play which will forever be remembered was the Westbrook dunk over Demarcus Cousins, the and one, the fouling out of Cousins, and in essence the dagger. A great play which in reality is a microcosm of Russell Westbrook’s season so far.
Enes Kanter was back to himself and scored 20 points off the bench which is what the Thunder need from Kanter on a regular basis. Steven Adams was solid. Alex Abrines kicked in some three point production once again and Andre Roberson was a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc. By my count, Andre hasn’t missed a three point shot since the All-Star break.
The surging Utah Jazz come to Oklahoma City tonight as one of the hottest teams in the NBA, the No. 4 seed in the West, and the leader of the Northwest Division. The Thunder are in second place in the Northwest and three games behind the Jazz. It’s a big game for Oklahoma City if they want to win the division and aspire for a No. 4 seed in the West when all is said and done. I would think it will be a playoff-like setting tonight in the Peake, no doubt.
Utah, along with the Houston Rockets, has been one of the league’s most improved teams this season under coach Quinn Snyder. In essence, this game potentially will provide a two game swing in the standings as OKC will either be two or four games back when all is aid and done after tonight.
Should be a great game and one which might give us some markers on what the remainder of this Thunder season might have in store for us.
Donald Trump might have had a deplorable smile on his face as he watched the ending of these Oscars and it wouldn’t be just for the reason of the confusion on the presentation of the Best Picture award. But more to the point, what we witnessed last night was political correctness to the ultimate degree claiming the Best Picture Award via the low budget film Moonlight.
Let me be clear before I go further, this was not a great year for movies. There was not one epic classic film in the mix. It was a field of flawed finalists—kind of like our recent election. Seems fitting, doesn’t it?
I saw Moonlight first on my list of Oscar finalist lists and it was completely and totally unimpressive. It was a depressing film about the plight of young black males in this country told through the voice of its main character—a young black male by the name of Sheron who is raised by his drug addicted mother. Granted—this film does give a hardcore realistic look at the black male situation as we see it in the politically charged year of 2017, but the story never moves, the writing is predictable, the performances were in no way inspiring or even overly interesting. When I walked out of the theatre I felt like I had wasted two hours of my life.
The main character Sheron isn’t all that compelling even though he’s both black and gay and turns out to be a drug dealer like his absent father. I couldn’t discover a silver lining message in the movie unless it’s that more black fathers throughout this country need to become responsible fathers or else the cycle of Sherons will continue to repeat itself regardless of what governmental programs are put in place. I hate to sound so callous, but as a country we’ve been having this national discussion since LBJ and nothing has really changed.
I in no way found this to be a story of self discovery or of one’s mission found in life, but rather a politically correct film which won the best picture award in the Year of Trump/Bannon. It just really wasn’t that good of a story and the writing at best was mediocre.
Over the years, I’ve seen some brilliant movies highlighting black actors with a black societal theme. This clearly is not in the club of these great movies. Sidney Poitier was exceptional in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and it rates in my top five movies of all-time. The epic film Twelve Years a Slave left me motionless in a theatre just several years ago. I literally sat in a darkened theatre with tears rolling off my face as the story and performances were of such strength.
The Color Purple was a magnificent movie. Forest Whitaker’s performance in The Last King of Scotland is one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen in any movie. Likewise, Jamie Fox’s depiction of Ray Charles was simply brilliant. And who could ever forget the racially charged A Time to Kill as Jake Brigance saves Carl Hailey’s life with a closing summation for the ages. Unfortunately, there was nothing brilliant, magnificent, or even interesting in the movie Moonlight, but rather a win for political correctness.
A bad night for the Oscars.
Here’s a breakdown of the movie. Maybe this story should have been told under the genre of a documentary and it would have served a better purpose. Or maybe in book form with it being told as a journal in the first person narrative of Sheron it would come off better for me. But as a two hour feature film–not so much.
I’m ready for my Oscar picks given the fact I’ve watched what I thought were the two best movies of the year in the past twenty-four hours. Given that this was not a great overall year for movies, I’m going with my sleeper underdog favorite as Best Picture of the Year, plus I’m pegging the performance by Jeff Bridges as my Best Actor of the Year. The movie is Hell or High Water and it had me from the opening scene to the classic ending scene.
Jeff Bridges was absolutely stunning portraying a Texas State Ranger who with his Hispanic partner are chasing two West Texas bank robbers on a robbing spree. If you haven’t seen it… it’s a must see with great writing, outstanding performances, uncanny direction, and a perfect ending which leaves you with a good feeling in your heart.
Getting the T-bone and baked potato scene. Classic.
My second favorite movie believe it or not was the musical love story…La La Land. Other than the cheesy opening scene, I genuinely enjoyed this movie. I thought Ryan Gossling and Emma Stone were both exceptional in a movie which in a way reminded me of The Fabulous Baker Boys. If not for Jeff Bridges’ performance, I’d be pegging Ryan Gossling for Best Actor. Emma Stone does get my nod for Best Actress though. A very good movie with an extremely interesting ending which would be a great date movie.
Rounding out my Top Five Pictures I’d go #3 Lion, #4 Fences, and #5 Manchester by the Sea. Lion was very good and a must see as well. Both Fences and Manchester had some great performances, but overall both movies kind of disappointed me. Watch at your own risk.
I know, I know….I’m not the Hollywood type. Just a dude in Oklahoma who didn’t get an official Oscar vote, and most of the experts say Hell or High Water doesn’t have a chance, but it’s my best picture of the year.
Thank you, Jeff Bridges. Bravo. You made my day, sir.
They should all just get drunk, rap to this before the ceremony, and save themselves and all of us of from the anguish we know is going to be shared with the world on Sunday evening. But it’s not just Hollywood. It’s everywhere in this country. In every state, even the red ones. The disgust and utter embarrassment that this happened in this country isn’t just a Hollywood thing. It’s quite frankly a global thing because around the world we were always perceived as being the voice which stood against every thing this clown embraces. Now–we’re that polar opposite voice for the time being.
Move over, Meryl Streep. This is more to the point.