Author: Mike

Gosh…you would have to be a nuclear physicist to have seen this one coming down the tracks.

That was was sarcasm if you’re reading this with your Little Donald Trump MAGA red ball cap on. I’m not sure how the blood is streaming to your brain these days….so let’s get that out of the way in paragraphs one and two.

There is a moral to this story, even though there’s not many, if any political morals left in America. Here’s the moral…if you openly lie to defend a human junk bond like Donald Trump long enough…. there eventually is a day of reckoning.

Yesterday was that day. You can call it karma. You can call it whatever you like. Ask Michael Cohen what we should call it. But if you lie long enough and big enough to cover all of Donald Trump’s lies…eventually it will go full boomerang and bite you in the ass.

Yesterday was that day for Kevin McCarthy. Another sad and tragic day for American democracy as we now have the House shut down without a majority leader of any sort.

You don’t have to be a current member of the House to be Speaker of the House. Hmmn.

Some suggest Donald Trump become that person. I’m laughing my ass off at that one. Not a chance. Donald Trump doesn’t know how to govern. It’s not in his DNA. Grifting, scamming, lying, and defrauding are in his DNA, but no governing genes exist.

Besides…he’s too busy appearing in multiple jurisdictions defending himself in his hundred or so criminal and civil acts he’s perpetrated to date.

Double besides…that would limit Donald Trump from touring the country doing his bullshit rallies and grifting additional millions from you ‘puzzling’ white people who continue to support him.

POTUS 45 has got Trump You Can Grab My Pussy T-shirts and Free Trump coffee mugs to sell. Governing….I don’t think so. There’s not enough time left in the day to actually do something which might help another human being.

So who’s fault was it for what happened yesterday?

It wasn’t the Dem’s fault. They just finally tired of Kevin McCarthy’s lies and sat to the side and allowed McCarthy’s own party to execute him. That’s precisely what happened yesterday.

What Kevin McCarthy said afterwards is total bullshit. He was never able to control Matt Gaetz and his six fellow Freedom Caucus followers.

The mysterious one in all of this is South Carolina’s Nancy Mace. She’s actually what I would describe as a semi-credible GOP member…almost a maverick of sorts. I’m keeping an eye on her. I’ve got her circled in red. She’s up to something.

So if it’s not the Dem’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the American Freedom Caucus crazies…who’s fault is it?

It’s you people out there…you know who you are. Hillary calls you deplorable, but like Dave Chappelle….I just think some of you white people out there are kind of dazed and confused by all of this.

We reap what we sow….and you people have turned the GOP into a five star dumpster fire shit show befitting an audience who needed something to replace the Gong Show, Jerry Springer Live, and the Tiger King.

If you people are going to make a mockery of American democracy…this is what you get.

This is ON YOU.

The end.

Hakeem Jeffries, by my count, would need our GOP crossover votes to become the Speaker of the House. FOUR VOTES. Are there four current Republicans with any soul whatsoever to do the right thing and end this bullshit? FOUR VOTES.

Are there FOUR moderate GOP congress members from New York and California willing to be an American first?

Just FOUR if I have my math right.

You Trump enablers are wearing me out. How many times do I have to use this video to inspire myself that just ONE time…..you might do the right thing. FOUR VOTES…ONE TIME…to do the right thing. I’m not holding my breath.

It’s my birthday and I no way wanted to be writing about the disgraceful piece of dogshit viral variant which has overtaken the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

Honestly…I planned on blogiing about Jrue Holiday being traded to the Boston Celtics or maybe even about the redemption of Baker Mayfield as an NFL signal caller for the Tampa Bay Bucs.

But here I find myself utterly disgraced by a party of which I registered to join in 1976, but was at least smart enough to leave in 2000 and become an Independent.

Eighteen words of advice to Kevin McCarthy…Step up and follow the light of rightousness or go home.

Find your better angels in a hurry.

I’m going to work out and then go out to celebrate my birthday this evening with some friends…who read books.

Democracy is a beautiful thing. But it has to be fought for at times…even in your own country.

How sad I have to write this yet again on my blog.

Peace

MJ.

I was so busy this week-end… I didn’t have time to blog. On Friday night… I attended a party of older players from the Oklahoma Racquetball Association and had a ball. It was truly a blast and now they know….I’m alive and healthy. I had tears in my eyes at the end of the evening.

On Saturday evening we attended the Annual Johnny Bermuda North Edmond Big 12 Octoberfest and had a wonderful time as well. Probably 90% of this group were O Stater’s and emeshed in various conversations as to how they feel about one Michael Gundy. Very dark comments.

Given I’m a compassionate human…I ‘intially’ abstained from said conversations. But when Sooner DB Key Lawrence went whiff on an early game oskie attempt and an Iowa State touchdown ensued….a catcall was directed my way from an agitated O Stater to the effect, “Same old Sooner defense.”

I cooly replied, ” Don’t fret it. Key’s just amped for Dallas. We’ll be okay. He wanted a Pick Six to follow Billy Bowman’s. Don’t worry…this is the last year you have to get your ass beat in Bedlam and next season it’ll be Utah, BYU, Colorado Cincy, K State, Kansas, UCF, and whoever playing the part of Big Daddy. 92-19-7….get off the drugs and deal with it.”

And then on Sunday…I watched Baker and Jalen direct the Tampa Bay Bucs and Philadelphia Eagles to thrilling victories. I think everyone knew Philly would be a serious contender, but Baker’s 3-1 Bucs are one of the NFL surprise stories one-fourth of the way thru this season. I’m happy for Baker.

As far as the Sooners…they are now 5-0 and ranked No. 12 in this week’s rankings. I think that’s about right. I’m not in any way fretting OU’s ranking at all. If you’re good…you’re good, and the Sooners will have a chance to prove it starting Saturday.

OU is a five point Vegas dog here on Monday. It will be interesting to see how the spread moves during the week. I think OU is pretty good and clearly headed in the right direction. But I’m not sure yet if the Sooners have the interior toughness to beat Texas in this ‘first’ Red River Rivalry of the season.

For me the thing with OU…is get incrementally better every week and just get to Jerry’s World to play in the Dr. Pepper Big 12 Championship Game. Just do the little things as a team thoughout the season to get to Jerry’s World and the rankings will take care of themselves.

So far…both Dillion Gabriel and Danny Stutsman have been stellar leaders. This is what you need. Mature leadership from within the team to in essence coach the team from within. It can’t just be coaches screaming and yelling to play the ‘right way’. It has to be a roster filled with leadership from top to bottom. That’s what it takes to become a championship team.

Dillion Gabriel has a chance this week-end to propel himself into the Heisman conversation with a clean performance against Texas. This will the first game to date the Horns have played against a stellar QB this season given the rawness of Alabama’s Jalen Milroe in the early season.

In reality….we really don’t know all that much about the back seven of Texas because they haven’t to date played against an offense which can do the things the Sooners are capable of doing offensively.

I’m circling the health availability of Horns’ tight end Sanders as a big key to the game. He and Xavier Worthy scare me. Those two dudes are both the type of receivers the Green Bay Packers need to add to their team to help Jordan Love evolve as a significant NFL starting QB.

Up top is the video of the kid from Los Alamos, Calfornia the Sooners just signed. OU sorely needs to improve at the TE position heading into the much overhyped SEC.

I mean…other than Georgia at Athens, LSU at Baton Rouge, and Alabama at Tuscaloossa…I’m not seeing anything from the rest of the league that has me all that concerned as long as Coach Venables keeps the Sooners on their current rebuild track.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if OU ended up playing a third game at Jerry’s World this season vs. the defenseless USC Trojans?

Peace.

MJ

I watched all of the GOP ‘debate’ last night televised from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. What a complete waste of two hours of my life.

Of those seven people on that stage… Chris Christie is the only one of two I will mention on my blog this evening with any degree of a positive response. The other six were a collective disgrace of historical proportion.

And here’s the thing …… Donald Trump wasn’t even there. So any of you who think the instant Donald Trump either loses this next election or is put in federal prison where he belongs and who think our country will find its way back are delusional as a group.

Our country is broken…maybe beyond repair.

How does a rational human being respond to Mike Pence? After almost being hung on January 6th by Trump’s Pround Boy thugs and 91 federal indictments later on POTUS 45….Mike Pence with a straight face says he’ll vote for Donald Trump if he’s the eventual GOP candidate.

I mean, seriously…wow. How does a rational adult even respond to that level of thinking?

What the GOP should have done last night was put Adam Kinsinger, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, Bill Cassidy, and Lisa Murkowski on that stage and show our country what it means to have the balls to say the difficult truth.

What a shame….this GOP doesn’t even grasp its own history…let alone that of our country. Lincoln would be aghast.

You cannot sustain a democracy if your citizens don’t even know who they are and how they fit into this delicate thing called America.

Every past and living Republican president not named Donald Trump cringed through those two hours last night in Simi Valley. I assure you of that salinent fact.

I’m done for tonight.

Peace.

MJ

I guess Damian Lillard got traded to the Milwaukee Bucks today in a three way deal between Portland, Phoenix, and Milwaukee. I’ll go into this later in greater detail as to how I see the trade. Jrue Holiday for me is really the only other player involved in this trade who I think moves the potential championship needle. The two big guys…in my book are valued very low for their lack of TSNS and just basically their will to win and raise their games at the goal acheiving portion of the season.

Cam Johnson might be the only other living body in this trade I might want on the Warriors.

I love Jrue Holiday. I’m wondering to myself since Jrue was a UCLA kid if there’s any way Mike Dunleavy Jr. could get rid of the high maintenance Chris Paul and make Jrue a Warrior just like me. I think Jrue is around thirty-three and he in no way needs to be wasting the next few years involved in a Portland rebuild.

I might send Mike Dunleavy an email…what could it hurt?

I’m locked and loaded for this GOP farcical debate tonight in California with Trump doing his own thing in front of Proud Boy Nation in Detroit.

The fact Sam Presti gave his pre-season Thunder State of the Union in no way interests me. I’m a Warriors’ guy. I like teams who try to win. Period. I don’t have five additional years of rebuild in my forcast.

My scathing take on these GOP debates oncoming next on the Oklahoma leader of world news and sports….okcthunderground.com.

MJ

I had a great week-end. I think I watched parts of eight different games after watching the entirety of OU’s solid 20-6 road win over a decent Cincinnati Bearcat ball club.

It was a good day. Maybe not so good for Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman, but, you know…shit happens.

From my view…OU is coming along very nicely and getting better every week. That’s what you want as a coach. To win…and incrementally get better every week with greater attention to cleaning up the parts of your game which are holding you back a bit.

I think in OU’s case right now…that’s primarily the offensive line coming of age each week as a collective unit. As an OU fan/blogger…I don’t worry about this because I believe OU has the best offensive line coach in the nation in Bill Bedenbaugh.

I’m loving what I’m seeing from OU’s defense. The tackling is night and day more efficient over what it was last season. Yards after point of intial contact is much improved as well. The third down problems on getting off the field is much better.

OU’s defense is better, bigger, faster, and smarter than it was a year ago. In four games…the Sooners have given up 34 points…total. This is what Brent Venables wants…..complimentary football where OU doesn’t have to go out there and score 45 points every week like it was during the Lincoln Riley era at OU.

Now…OU may need to score a bunch to run with Texas in two weeks, but you shouldn’t have to score that many points every week.

Iowa State comes to Norman this week-end and in the Matt Campbell era they always play OU tough to the end. In the last three games in Norman, OU has gone 2-1 versus Iowa State…but collectively been outscored 104-101 by the Cyclones. These guys aren’t like O State…they come to Norman expecting to win the game and that’s a credit to their coach and players.

I mean…they’ll play that funky 3-5-3 defense and try to make OU make a mistake in front of them. If OU wants to win this game with a ‘comfort level’ they better be prepared this Saturday is all I’m going write.

My OU players of the Game last Saturday were Dillion Gabriel and the immensely improved Danny Stutsman.

So…OU needs to have a great week of practice and get locked in for what should be a tough football game and not just a walk thru before the Red River Rivalry.

I think I’ll blog about the second GOP presidential debate tomorrow night.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

MJ

This is a huge game for the Sooners today in Cincy. This is huge. This is where OU shows it’s on the path back to national elite relevance or it isn’t. This is a road game you have to go out and play well and win.

I’m going OU 34-23.

Not just for this year, but for the future ability to recruit nationally elite talent in the NIL-Portal era. This is where you show Jackson Arnold and other SEC level talent that OU is still a place to consider.

Lest we forget…OU was 3-6 in Big 12 play last year in the most disappointing football season since John Blake’s final season. OU only beat O State, Kansas, and Iowa State. SEC football only has Vanderbilt as a bye. Just saying….. Kansas currently the direction of Coach Leopold. Th battle for Big 12 Patsy of the Year could well be decided in Ames today and the Sooners can only play those two teams once apiece this season. Just sayin. Phone home, Boone.

I don’t think think this is hyperbole on my part…this game could define the Brent Venables era at Oklahoma. Heck…it could define Joe C.

As Berry Tramel once wrote at the end of the John Blake area…’Just because you work at a Taco Bell…doesn’t mean you should be managing a Taco Bell.’

If you look at the video I posted above… the coaching faces have changed. Only Patti Gasso remains as a current coach at the U of O. Sure….Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops still remain close to the program, but let’s be brutally candid on here…the current faces of the University of Oklahoma are Patti Gasso and Joe C….and in that order.

Not a doubt in my mind on the above paragraph.

As long as Jeff Lebby spreads out his offensive touches and doesn’t revert to SMU form I feel okay about the OU offense. This is where we start to find out if the OU defense is improved or has just played three straight dogs.

That’s it for me today. There are great games all across the country today excluding the one to be played in Ames, Iowa.

I don’t think Team Prime can win at Oregon without Travis Hunter so I think that train hits a bump today. Ohio State-Notre Dame should be a telling game as should Ole Miss at Alabama. And on the Big 12 front….UCF at Kansas State and BYU at Kansas. Plus…the Florida State at Clemson game.

Enjoy the first official week-end of autumn college football.

I’m locked and loaded.

MJ

We’re not far away from mid-October and the start of the NBA season. At this point on the calendar I want to start dropping an NBA post at least every third day. I think I’ve almost seen enough college football and the NFL to get a pretty good feel about who’s going be left standing at the goal acheiving portion of the season.

For instance, Joe B and his Bengals better get their 0-2 act together this Sunday or it will be a cold, dark winter in Cincy football wise.

For instance, the SEC ain’t so bad this season primarily because the quarterback play in the league minus perhaps LSU is extremely ordinary. Georgia of course has defensive first round talent everywhere so they can maybe get away with this shortcoming. Maybe.

I think what I’d like to do on my blog this NBA basketball season is follow four teams primarily in the regular season from the Western Conference. These four teams will be the Golden State Warriors, the defending champ Denver Nuggets, the LA Lakers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

I’m just going to flow from team to team. This doen’t mean I think the Thunder are a top four team in the West, but it means I think their season will be interesting to observe and blog about without the fanboy bullshit you get on the Daily Thunder or blogs of that sort.

So this is my first entry of the basketball season with Pat Bev interviewing Draymond Green. The podcast covers Draymond’s new contract, the magic formula of the Warriors, why everyone hates Chris Paul, and why Draymond punched Jordan Poole and got Jordan’s very soft ass shipped to the Washington Wizards.

But more than that…this podcast is about the value of BBI or basketball IQ. It’s the only metric I’ll ever use on my blog…..my own metric which I use to evaluate limited players from Austin Reaves to Klay Thompson to Jamal Murray.

I’ve tweaked my metric to TSNS…Toughness, Smarts, Nasty, Soul of a player. How much and how badly do you want to win?

If you were to ask someone from the Thunder organization for the most intelligent takes…I would suggest Nick Collison be the teacher. In the history of the Thunder in Oklahoma City…I would grade Nick and Kevin as the two smartest players to play in Oklahoma City. Then maybe Derek Fisher. Then maybe Paul George, then Perk, and/or Carmelo or Russell on a calmer night (sigh). My take on James Harden has dropped dramatically these past two seasons.

Who are my five smartest players in the league currently? I’d go 1 LeBron, 2 KD, 3 Jimmy Butler, 4 Draymond, 5 Jrue Holiday, 6 Klay, 7 PJ Tucker, 8 Jamal Murray, 9 Austin Reaves, and 10 Lu Dort… if he’d remove some of the bad threes from his game.

Oklahoma City obviously isn’t a contender for the Western Conference…the other three teams are for certain. In Oklahoma City I’m looking at certain things…1 Chet Holmgren, 2 the Sixth Man and bench, 3 how much Josh Giddey improves his defense and perimeter defense.

And…what is the last piece for Sam Presti to put in place if it isn’t Josh Giddey?

If you want to learn the NBA game…I’d highly suggest this podcast because hate him or love him…Draymond Green is one tough, smart, nasty, soulful two-way basketball player.

Have a nice Week 4 college football week-end.

MJ

Damn…as Michael Gundy’s unofficial biographer… I forgot this is the 16th anniversary of the infamous Mike Gundy Rant directed at Jenni Carlson. Jenni per Mike Baldwin-Daily Oklahoman assist… wrote the infamous article the week after the horrific road loss at Troy State. A game in which Bobby Reid was replaced as the starter by white quarterback Zac Robinson.

It was alleged by Jenni that after the loss… Bobby Reid’s mother was hand feeding her son fried chicken after the game near the O State bus. Jenni used this snapshot in her piece to illustrate her take on Bobby Reid’s lack of toughness which lead to his benching even though we was being hailed as the next Vince Young.

Both Jenni and Mike Gundy became famous for this rant. So did Bobby Reid, but for all of the wrong reasons.

Bobby Reid was the black quarterback from Texas who was the national high school player of the year, or at least Texas his senior year of high school. This rant not only runied Bobby Reid’s football career… it went viral and became pretty much became Mike Gundy’s national brand moving forward.

Incredible as it may seem…The Rant is going viral again today. Sixteen years later.

This encourages me as the author of Mullet King: The Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy College Football Saga. It makes me think there’s still an audience for my book even though Mike Gundy as the head coach at O State has literally won nothing of note in his almost twenty year tenure at Oklahoma State.

At this summer’s Big 12 Media Week…Mike Gundy picked O State to win the Big 12 Championship. Go figure.

Anyway…Even though I somewhat bleed Crimson…an improbable O state championship at Jerry’s World would be the perfect ending for my story of how Mike Gundy in reality was the one who in fact leveraged T Boone Pickens and now has a current net worth of $16 million and an additional $25 million buyout on his current contact.

Not bad for a blue collar kid from Midwest City.

So…in the end there’s a oart of me which somewhat admires what Mike Gundy and his agent Jimmy Sexton have done here.

You would think after tax considerations and such….what Mike Gundy has in fact done with his New York Yankees job is create fourth generational wealth while never once winning the Big 12 Champion.

That my friends is monetary acumen and Midwest City Bomber hubris.

Note: I’ll shift the Draymond Green-Chris Paul podcast for tomorrow morning.

I’m off to the terrain bike, the weight room and basketball court. Have a great college football week-end.

MJ

Being a Stage 4 cancer survivor of sorts has become my full-time job. I’ve learned so much about myself in the past seven months it is truly incredible. I will never be the same person again regardless of how long I live.

It is simply one day at a time and never take a day for granted. Live every day to its fullest.

The entire holistic approach Dr. Showalter suggested I follow has fit me perfectly. I know I’m lucky and blessed. My grandson Robert turns four on Friday. I honestly didn’t know if I’d be around for this milestone. My birthday is just around the corner as well. I’m pinching myself and smiling.

Life is a journey and it can be brutally hard at certain junctures. But if you put you faith in God and work hard miraculous things can happen. They really can.

I will forever remember every patient at the Integris Cancer Center and how they’ve had to fight cancer in their own journeys. That part of all this will never leave me, nor will all the love and support I received from my family and friends.

Life is good.

I’m at peace.

I think my next blog post will be on Chris Paul and Draymond Green and how that might work for the Warriors this basketball season.

MJ