Month: January 2020

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.

Only the Union’s Buckeyes of Urban Myer have won a national championship in the current state of college football in the playoff era.

College football has become a Confederate exclusive thing during the reign of Donald Jefferson Trump. If you gave Trump a chance to take credit for the South’s dominance in college football this past decade he probably would like he does with Obama’s economy. But I think most of us realize when Nick Saban returned the Tide to the glory years of Bear Bryant is when this actually took place. Saban turned the Tide back into a monster and bordering programs had to follow suit or else.

Auburn overtly cheated… got better and won a national championship with Cam Newton. LSU was pretty good with Les Miles even without a spread offense. Dabo Sweeney hired Brent Venables to run his defenses at Clemson. Georgia hired Kirby Smart away from Saban and the Bulldogs suddenly became nationally elite while weakening Bama’s defense.

So from my view this is how the Super 5 conference came into being and pretty much has been dominant over the other 115 or so schools playing DI football currently.

Just to paraphrase the Super 5 consists of Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Auburn, and Georgia. David Boren and OU…like Kevin Durant opted for an easier path by staying in the Big 12, but to date don’t have two rings to show for it as does Cupcake.

For the fourth straight year we have an all Super South 5 national championship final with LSU hosting Clemson in the raucous Super Dome.

It should be a good game if Venables’ defense can somehow ‘slow’ the spread offense of Heisman winner Joe Burrows. What I mean by slowing is holding LSU to somewhere around or between 38-42 points.OU was done in nine minutes against these LSU Tigers. It was the most pathetic performance in recent OU football history since the ‘no mas’ debacle against Pete Carroll’s USC team in 2005. How ironic current LSU head coach Ed Orgeron was on that USC staff of Pete Carrol

Lincoln Riley’s Sooners looked like little girls against LSU. If it had been a high school game parents would have been bitching about redistricting or some other Bernie Sanders-like act of creating parity in college football like getting your homes for free or having oligarchs paying your credit card bills.

If elected…maybe Bernie could stonewall Congress into lobbying the NCAA to limit these five schools from recruiting too heavily in Florida and Georgia.

So here’s the real truth…. there is college football and then there is the Super South 5. The Super 5 doesn’t stay stagnant every season as Clemson has challenged Alabama for supremacy. Georgia is offensively hamstrung like LSU was with Les Miles. Auburn is up and down and has to beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl just to advance to the Super South 5 conference final.

Don’t look, but Dan Mullen at Florida is probably about two years away from entering his Gators and expanding the elite conference to six teams.

I have to like LSU tonight on their home field. I would guess somewhere in that melee of drunken Cajun humanity James Carvel will be wearing his LSU ballcap and beaming when his Tigers have added another national championship trophy to the case in Baton Rouge.

Just another Super South 5 national championship final.

I hope I have the score right because I didn’t watch all that much of this game as I was consumed watching the Tennessee Titans destroy the Baltimore Ravens by a 28-12 count on NFL Divisional Saturday.

I love the NFL Divisional Weekend. It consumes me. Both games yesterday were routs with San Francisco and Tennessee routing teams which should have been much more competitive.

The Niners look uber tough with home field and a healthy hungry young team which hits opponents in the mouth on both sides of the ball.

I’m a Green Bay fan so I’ll be totally consumed today as the Packers host Russell Wilson and Co. at Lambeau Field for the right to play the Niners in Santa Clara. I would compare that feeling akin for a Clemson wanting the Tigers to beat Ohio State for the right to play LSU in the New Orleans Super Dome. I love the Packers and I want them to advance, but there’s a part of me which can’t forget the beatdown the Niners gave Green Bay earlier this season out West.

The AFC looks wide open though. Tennessee, Kansas City, and Houston all have young quarterbacks who can beat you with their legs as well as their arms. Tannehill, Mahomes, and Deshaun Watson could all conceivably have the best stuff still standing to give the Niners a tough game in the Super Bowl. Maybe.

As far as the Thunder being routed by a Lakers team which didn’t play either Anthony Davis or LeBron last night–you have to figure the Thunder were due for an emotional no show since they’d been on a roll since the December 26th home loss to Memphis.

From the small parts of the game I actually watched it appeared Billy Donovan and his staff maybe should have told his team Kyle Kuzma can actually make shots when no one is defending him.

The Thunder didn’t show up to play and gave 41 points in the first quarter. Ball game.

Even teams with magic and destiny sprinkled in their shorts have to play defense.

This is a football Sunday for me. Let’s go Packers!

Don’t look now, but the Oklahoma City Thunder without Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, or Paul George are 22-16 and just on the cusp of being considered as a second tier NBA championship contender this basketball season.

On Russell Westbrook’s first return to Chesapeake Energy Arena it was a perfect night.

The crowd adored Westbrook for his loyalty to the city. Oklahomans will never forget Westbrook stayed in the aftermath of Durant’s exit and the gut wrenching death of Aubrey McClendon.

Westbrook in the three years without Durant never got his team beyond the first round or even close for that matter. Truth be known, the Thunder went a collective 4-12. Those three opponents of OKC…. Houston, Utah, and Portland did not go on to win the West. So it wasn’t like the Thunder ran into a juggernaut in any of those three first round matchups.

But none of that matters in the present because Chris Paul is the point guard present tense for the Thunder in this improbable 22-16 start for Sam Presti’s sustainable Thunder.

This game really wasn’t even close as all five of OKC’s best five players scored in double figures. Those five in my view would be in this order… 1 Chris Paul, 2 Shai, 3 Steven Adams, 4 Big Gallo, and 5 Dennis Schroder. These are the five who night in and night out have been finding a way to make the Thunder the darlings of the NBA just short a few games of the midway point of the regular season.

Thunder fandom now knows what they’re witnessing…they’ve bought in. The arena is full again and there’s a bit of magic in the air as you walk throughout the city.

There is an inherit beauty to basketball when it’s played the right way. When defense is played with smarts and toughness. When transition occurs with a crisp purpose. When the ball moves. When your highest percentage finishers are getting their touches on the right spots in the offensive zone.

I hate to write this paragraph, but I have to. With Chris Paul as the point guard in Oklahoma City the Thunder have gone from one of the dumbest teams in the NBA to perhaps the smartest squad in the league.

The Thunder don’t beat themselves in the final eight minutes of games any longer. They play with grit, smarts, and poise.

This is on Chris Paul.

None of this is being written to diminish Russell Westbrook. He’s a great son, brother, husband, and philanthropist.

But the truth be known as soon as the pregame video and introductions were over the gauntlet in Oklahoma City was officially passed from Westbrook to Chris Paul. People know what they’re seeing with their own eyes.

Sam Presti will have to decide what to do with Danilo Gallinari on February 6th at the deadline. He’s a key part of this current Thunder success.

Should Presti do with Gallinari what Mike Rizzo did with Anthony Rendon and go all in this season and see where the chips fall?

That probably wouldn’t be the percentage hedge play. But sometimes, just sometimes…a GM has to look deep into his own inner soul and ask himself if he believes he has a viable contender at the trade deadline and play his hand.

Next up…the Lakers in town on Saturday.

Beat LA!

20-15.

13-4 since the first of December and winners of five in a row and eight of their last nine.

Nobody was forecasting this.

When you looked at the Thunder pre-season roster it wasn’t terrible or absent of potential, but no one knew how many games this group would be playing together as a team this NBA season.

I have no idea what Sam Presti is thinking, but for me this a red line evaluation week for the Thunder of sorts.

The four games this week consist of a road back to back starting tonight in Philadelphia. Then versus the Nets tomorrow night in Brooklyn. Then an emotional first return to Chesapeake Energy Arena for Russell Westbrook and the Rockets coming to town on Thursday in what could possibly be a preview of a first round matchup. Then a Saturday game against the first place Lakers.

If the Thunder can salvage a 2-2 split through these four games they’d be sitting on 22-17 at pretty much the mid-point of the season.

Was this the Presti Plan all along? To get to this point and evaluate what the Thunder are with this roster? Are they a viable contender in the West? Are they an automatic first round exit?

Could this team do what no Thunder team has done since Kevin Durant sneaked out the back door to get his two rings with Steph, Klay, and Draymond?

That being, win a first round series in the West.

Does this team with this roster have in them what the Portland Trailblazers had last season when they advanced to the Western Conference Finals with Enes Kanter playing a significant role?

My response is fairly simple.

Of course they do.

Depending on where you rank Damian Lillard amongst the current greats of the game–at the least this team is as good as that Portland team last season.

1 thru 13 this Thunder team is solid.

If I were ranking the Thunder roster as of today this is how I’d rate the roster: 1 Chris Paul, 2 Shai Gilgeous Alexander, 3 Danilo Gallinari, 4 Steven Adams, 5 Dennis Schroder, 6 Nerlens Noel, 7 Terrance Ferguson, 8 Hami Diallo, 9 Darius Bazely, 10 Abdel Nadar, 11 Mike Muscala, 12 Lu Dort, 13 Deonte Burton.

That’s not a bad NBA roster as long as Chris Paul and Big Gallo stay healthy.

As we get closer to February 6th and the trade deadline the question I have is if Sam Presti is already locked in on what he’s going to do at the deadline or if this team will stay together if they climb to either the 6th the 5th or 4th seed in the West by the trade deadline.

Thunder on the road tonight in Philly as a 4.5 or so Vegas road underdog I’d guesstimate.