How can I write this delicately with some dignity attached?
First I would write the world just became kinder, gentler and hopefully smarter.
My first voting experience came in the Election of 1976 with Jimmy Carter defeating Gerald Ford.
I registered as a Republican and voted for Ford inspite of the pardon of Nixon because I thought the pardon was the best option in not tearing our country apart. I then remained a Republican until the election of 2000 when I parted ways with the party and became a registered Independent. I consider myself an Independent to this day with no party affiliation. My voting in presidential elections to date has been six votes for the Republican candidate, five votes for the Democratic candidate. My sole independnt vote was for John Anderson in 1980.
My historical opinion of Rush Limbaugh is fairly parallel to what I think of Donald Trump…with the exception being Limbaugh at least didn’t run for or hold office.
As I look at the scorched earth of current American politics…I view five media people most responsible for where we are as a country circa February 2021.
The five I hold most responsible are in this chronological order…. 1 Rush Limbaugh, 2 Roger Ailes, 3 Rupert Murdoch, 4 Sean Hannity, and 5 Donald Trump.
As a decent person should I mourn the death of Rush Limbaugh or piss on him in eulogy?
I would say me pissing on anyone in death would be a bad reflection of my spiritual balance and not say much about me as a human being.
So instead of pissing on Rush Limbaugh today…instead, I’m going to pray for his soul and hope his next stop in his spiritual journey shows a significant upturn in the decency and empathy categories.
I can’t believe the party of family values and the Christian evangelical movement has sunk this low, but here we are.
The party of Liincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, even Nixon for god’s sake, Reagan, Bush 41, even Bush 43 for god’s sake….has sunk to this level.
There’s lesson to be learned for the Heritage Foundation types like James Lankford…that being, when you have political sex with a street whore—you become street whore as well.
The narrative in this country isn’t China, Islamic radicalized terrorists, or immigration, but how the Republican Party with its domestic terrorism wing of the party has become the number one threat to American democracy and soverignty.
It’s stunning. Like watching the fall of the Soviet Union.
I was going to do my Michelle Alexander book review for Black History month this morning, but how can I ignore Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are having a rap war.
As someone who went to John Marshall…how can I take my eyes off these old white men men rapping each other.
What’s next….Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham giving us a video of nude mud wrestling?
My, my, my….the acorn didn’t fall far from the tree.
O State hosted the worst team in the Big 12 per the Iowa State Cyclones and it went as it should have gone with the Cowboys coasting to an easy win.
These aren’t Fred Hoiberg’s Cyclones, but any Big 12 win this season is one you put in your pocket. Iowa State was a collective 4-28 in its previous thirty-two true road games so this a win O State had to have.
You always have to consider the level of the opponent, but Cade was excellent in this game. He looked like someone in the talk for the NPOTY award.
There was space much like he’ll see next year in the NBA and his overall game flowed for all to see. This is the Cade Cunningham I’m pretty sure we’ll see as his maturity and game evolve.
O State still has three conference games against the best two teams in the conference in Baylor and OU—with two of those being at home…so I’m very interested to see Cade play those games since he sat the first game versus Baylor because of Covid protocol.
I actually think both SGA and Bazely are somewhat soft—I’d love to see something with Cade and Dort plus whatever the Thunder could package for Bazely and SGA. I like Roby and Maledon. But I don’t like Maledon as a starter.
I’d love to see a private poll of NBA general managers choice if they had to pick between Ja Morant in Memphis and SGA. I’d personally take Ja Morant.
Nice win for O State and a game which I hope kick starts Cade turning it loose a bit with his overall game.
OU’s game with Texas has been kicked back to Thursday now due to the most recent snow storm of Tuesday night.
In a sidenote basketball footnote… my fourth or fifth tier storyline Oklahoma City Thunder lost at home to Portland by a 115-104 count when Damian Lillard finally got serios about the game in the final four minutes.
That’s one ‘graph on the Thunder on my blog. Right now they’re borderline two ‘graph worthy. We’ll leave multiple ‘graph’ stories to the Cupcake beat writers at Daily Thunder. It’s a good thing I have a sense of humor. Those kids are adorable.
This is a nice little ten minute trailer which is pretty much the bio outline the docu movie goes by, but the way the movie is put together takes two full two hour episodes.
O State beat Iowa State with relative ease as Cade had his first best half of the entire season to date.
Since the PBS mimi docu on Black Music in America doesn’t start until 8:00pm…I might actually turn down the volume on Michael Cage and Little Nick Gallo of Daily Thunder fame–and catch the first half.
I read somewhere today that the Thunder are one of four teams in the NBA who could be candidates to take on Blake Griffin’s league worse contract… minus of course the one Sam Presgi signed Russell Westbrook to after Durant fled the city because he actually wanted to win something before he retired.
If the Thunder are stupid enough to do this then I would propose they sell the franchise back to Seattle or maybe trade the Thunder to Seattle with their NHL expansion team coming back to Oklahoma City.
Everyday with these guys…it’s Operation Bongo. BTW…we had an earthquake on Saturday out here in Deer Creek.
Here’s the thing …you could in theory have fifty first round draft picks stockpiled, but if you don’t know how to monetize those picks into tangible team building pieces….where to you think you’re going beyond the core you traded away in Jerami Grant, Oladipo, and Doma Sabonis.
Portland picked Oden…then Kevin Durant fell to the Seattle Sonics. In historical retrospect I would challenge any Thunder fan to tell me which Presti pick beyond Durant translated into the Thunder winning one first round playoff series. You can’t name one..because there isn’t one.
Right now if things go well in OKC …I’d say best case scenario they become the Memphis Grizzlies West if they by the draft don’t find a franchise game changer.
This is probably my second or third favorite Jake Owen song. As the snow rolls in and we’re still an hour away from tip at Gallagher Iba Arena…I need a filler to keep me warm on yet another snowy day in Oklahoma. Hope you’re with someone you love today.
Clearly…for me on my okcthunderground.com blog…Lon Kruger’s No. 9 ranked surging Sooners are the basketball lead story as this basketball season heads into late February. The Sooners have won six of their last seven games with five of those wins coming against nationally ranked teams and the lone loss a one possession loss at ranked Texas Tech.
I have the Sooners on my preliminary bracket sheet as a Sweet Sixteen team. Depending on where the Sooners are placed in the tournament field in relation to Baylor and Gonzaga.. the Sooners could be a be a legit threat to make the Elite 8….and perhaps beyond.
OU is deep. They are multifaceted in that they can play small with three guards or they go with a big lineup with Kuath, Manek or Victor O. Victor O is a rebounding stud if you haven’t seen OU play yet.
The Sooners are especially deep at the guard position with Austin Reeves, Elijah Harkless, Moj Gibson, Olandis Williams and with true frosh 3 pt bomber Trey Phipps.. if that need ever occurs beyond the top ten rotational players.
The Sooners make free throws as well. Guard play, team defense, and free throw efficency are all winning ingredients for a team to make a deep run in March Madness.
Plus, the Sooners have a Hall of Fame coach in Lon Kruger who instead of getting older seems to be getting better with coaching age.
Again…I laugh at the notion Sam Presti has a head coach with the Thunder who has never been a head coach at either the NBA or Power 5 level of basketball coaching. G League—yes…and it appears that is what the Oklahoma City Thunder are for the time being…a glorified G League franchise like the Triple AAA Dodgers in Bricktown who develop players and then disperse them around Major League Baseball depending on the Dodger’s current needs.
But the difference is…the big boy Dodgers just won the world championship and are contenders every season whereas the Thunder haven’t won a first round playoff series since Kevin Durant escaped from the land of Donald Trump birtherism nut jobs.
BTW…Andre Roberson just signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Brooklyn Nets and has hooked up with former Thunder stars Kevin Durant and James Harden. Good for Andre. I hope his health will allow him to be a contributor. You’d have had one helluva a basketball team in Oklahoma City if……………. .
The Sooners host Texas tomorrow at 5:00pm in the second game of this season’s Red River Rivalry. OU won the first game in Texas without the Sooners most clutch finisher Austin Reeves and versatile wingman Olandis Williams. This is a big game for OU because if they get past this game with another win they have Baylor still coming bak to Norman which was postponed due to Baylor’s Covid issues.
If you haven’t seen the Sooners with EJ Harkless and Moj Gibson…you should take the time because the Sooners are a different basketball team with them in the lineup.
Keep this in mind, due to the NCAA’s ruling on Covid…every single starter on this OU team, much ilke the Iowa State football team, can come back and play again next season in Norman.
The NCAA for next season has already expanded scholarship limits to fifteen and Coach Kruger has already signed another nice guard and another nice foward. So– in essence OU’s roster is already full for next season. Another thing–if one of the seniors do leave…Coach Kruger has proved himself especically skilled in using the transfer portal to bring skilled players to Norman.. much like Billy Tubbs used to do in his hay days with bringing nationally elite jucos to OU.
What I’m saying is the basketball future at OU looks very bright right now and the Thunder need to get their ass in gear and come out of this summer’s NBA draft with something other than a project from Serbia if they want to sell tickets.
Mike Boynton’s No. 23rd ranked Cowboys host Iowa State at a special 3:00 pm start today due to the weather. Iowa State has some 3 pt bombers and should make this a somewhat entertaining win for Cade and Co.
I’m bumping the Thunder tonight with Portland in town because PBS has a special on black music in America and its impact on the country…and I still have to finish Frank Sinatra Week no less.
I’ll try to watch some of the Thunder game on the replay, but in all honesty the Thunder are a fifth tier story currently and I think its good we have interns at the Daily Thunder covering the team like the school newpapers do in Norman and Stillwater.
More snow coming this afternoon…stay warm and help others get through this historical weather event which has driven short term natural gas prices off the charts in Oklahoma and Texas. If Boone were only still living he’d have a big smile on his face today and could maybe buy out Mike Gundy’s contract feeling no angst.
On with the music as more snow rolls into Oklahoma.
It’s -8 degrees at the Deer Creek Weather Station at 10:00pm. I’m going to do an all-nighter because no way in hell I’m setting foot outside tomorrow until at least 1:00pm. No way..no how.
Frank Sinatra in his time on this earth was in essence almost for a century the alpha figure of American pop culture. Not only with his music, but he won Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1954 for From Here to Eternity and was nominated for Best Actor in 1956 for the film The Man With the Golden Arm.
Imagine if you will that Sinatra was to entertainment what Michael, Kobe, and LeBron combined have been to basketball just for half a century.
His impact on music has been eternal even after his death in 1998. Guys like me never stopped listening to his music, instead we go to concerts with Tony Bennett and Michael Buble singing his songs.
Do we consider Elvis or Michael Jackson or the Beatles timeless? I would say the Beatles yes for certain, but I’m not sure I can go all the way there with Elvis and Michael Jackson.
First thing tomorrow when its -10 degrees again…I’m going to post a ten minute capsule of the movie. I know it’s Oklahoma, but if you can waste your time watching the Tiger King…surely you can watch the Frank Sinatra docu film.
Frank Sinatra certainly wasn’t perfect. Like all of us … he did some things he probably wished he shouldn’/t have done. You could almost define part of his legacy as tragic. But the music lives on in all of us in multiple American generations.
It went -12 at the Deer Creek Weather Station before sunrise to set an all-time low out here since I’ve been recording weather stats. At 2:00pm today we crested to a balmy +1.
Out here on our five acre mini ranch-wildlife refuge which is wooded and runs parallel to Deer Creek itself…it’s like nirvana as far as the wildlife.
Deer, raccon, fox, coyote, rabbits, squirrels, hawks, dove, owls, woodpeckers, roadrunners…just magificent. Bob used to come out here after really bad days of practicing law to smoke a cigar and just watch the wildlife and birds.
I’d love to have a black bear if these frilly Edmond types would allow a change to the covenants.
We even have a 200lb black mountain lion which from time to time is spotted in the vicinity. Pauli the diva black lab and I have twice at dusk spotted this big cat. The hair on Pauli’s back literally goes berserk and it took all I had each time to hold her back from pursuing this mountain lion we’ve named Elsa. We have no idea if it’s a male or female, but we’ve named it Elsa from Born Free.
But to the point…we’ve adopted these four incredible male wild turkeys who’ve made our property their home so to speak for over fifteen years now. They’ve become like pets to us. Pauli loves on them and amazingly plays with them now and again. She won’t do that with dogs. She bares her alpha fangs to the dogs around her just to estbalish turf dominance just like I did on the Daily Thunder messageboard before I got banned for life. Teacher and the student, know what I mean? We’ve actually named the four males…Little Jerry Seinfeld, Little Kenrick Perkins, Little Baker Mayfield, and Little Mike Gundy.
Occassionaly their four female friends join them, but they’re extremely aloof and I haven’t named them.
Little Jerry Seinfeld is the brightest. Little Kendrick Perkins is the slowest. Little Baker Mayfield is the one who keeps grabbing his crotch with one of his wings…and Little Mike Gundy is the one wearing the special turkey sweater I bought for him with 1-15 on the front. He always gets his ass whipped when they get into the mating season rituals.
I almost brought them in last night, but held back given my wife might have had a problem with that if she woke up before I put them back out. That would be a scene worse than death itself.
They look okay this afternoon and I think or hope last night was the coldest temps we’re going to experience through this historic weather event which was obviously a result of Trump’s flagrant abuse of climate policy per pulling put of the Paris Accord. Just kidding on that, but you have to hope the Trump domestic terrorists out here in Deer Creek and Edmond have a sense of humor and can take a little joke here and there.
Be safe and do the right thing to help others in need get through this.
It’s friggin’ -4 degrees with a pretty tough wind at the Deer Creek Weather Station. I’m literally having to drag Pauli off her bed in front of the fireplace to go oustide and take care of her business.
The windchill is brutal. Pray for those who have to work outside during the week….and pray for those amongst us who are homeless in need of shelter. I’m an outdoors person and this is like nothing I’ve experienced in Oklahoma in my life.
What a horrible six month experience for trees, shrubs and plants as this weather follows the historic ice storm we just experienced in late October.
My son actually played in an outdoor hockey tournament in Durango, Colorado this week-end and it was 45 degrees on Saturday and mid twenties yesterday. Not too bad. No goalies. His team went 3-2 and lost one game by a 25-18 count to a team which had all minor league hockey players.
Stay inside with your animals and read or listen to music would be my advice. Make a donation to those who help the homeless. Be kind to those who need help.
I learned quite a bit about Frank Sinatra watching the docu movie. For instance…he was married five times. His first and final wives were not famous, but his second wife was Eva Gardner, his third wife was Lauren Bacall, and his fourth wife was the very young Mia Farrow.
My take was that Frank’s eternal love was Eva Gardner and he never got over the fact she somewhat blew him off in ending their short marriage.
I also learned that Frank’s favorite composer during his career was Nelson Riddle and they worked together on close to a hunderd different songs over the years.
His politics were very interesting and I’ll talk about that on another song.
I know this is Oklahoma and you’re breathlessly waiting for Tiger King II which features a Mike Gundy cameo appearance singing with Joe Exotic…but maybe you’ll like this docu movie as a holdover option.
Stay warm, eat Italian, and drink some great wine then follow it with some warm coffee. Take care.