U.S. Hits 59,000 Mark in Coronavirus Deaths

In 1975… I was a high school senior seventeen years of age. Before becoming a lawyer–my father was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. That’s why I was born in San Diego.

My Uncle George was a Purple Heart recipient in WWII as he was wounded serving as an expert marksman who was part of a force in Europe which cleaned out enemy snipers.

My Uncle George didn’t have blisters or some other bullshit excuse to avoid serving. In fact, he lied about his age at seventeen to be admitted into the Army.

Obviously–I’m grateful the Vietnam War ended my senior year of high school. But I would have gone if the draft hadn’t ended and my name was selected.

Today… the U.S. passed the 58,000 mark of Americans who were killed in the Vietnam War.

It’s a shame John McCain isn’t still living. Perhaps, he could have at some juncture at the least explained to Donald Trump what it means to serve your country with honor.

Will Elizabeth Warren Be A Watch Dog For Tara Reade?

We’ll see what serves the political purposes of Elizabeth Warren. She could actually in private be the frontrunner to be the VP pick for Joe Biden as I blog.

I mean, how do you make a big deal of Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg and Al Franken making inappropriate comments and possibly ignore this Tara Reade story?

I have no idea what Joe Biden did or didn’t do. Joe Biden would not have been my choice regardless. None of my choices ever became serious contenders in the Dem presidential primary race.

To date, I’ve never heard Elizabeth Warren say anything related to Hunter Biden so I’m to assume unlike with Michael Bloomberg she’ll be okay with all of this.

I’m curious to see how the moral guardian of the world as we know it handles all of this.

After Dark Karaoke

We’ll pass 58,000 fatalities tomorrow with somewhere near 28 million Americans displaced from their employment in the last six weeks. I could play today’s briefing from Donald Trump, but instead I think I’ll do this.

Ignore pretty much everything this dimwit suggests. Continue your social spacing, use sagacious judgment, and get thru this with your loved ones.

Be safe.

Dennis Rodman On The Last Dance

Dennis Rodman in and of himself would be a heckuva of a docu-film, but as a supporting role to Jordan, Pippen, Jackson, and Krause he fills this role perfectly in The Last Dance.

His story is remarkable as he makes it from Southeastern State in Durant, Oklahoma to become a five-time NBA champions with both the Pistons and the Bulls.

I had forgotten Rodman was traded to the Spurs and then of all things was traded to the Chicago Bulls for Will Perdue. Will Perdue for Dennis Rodman…..that’s an amusing NBA footnote.

The film is great and I hope many of the newer NBA fans in the Oklahoma City area fanbase are taking the time to watch the film.

Since it would appear doubtful there’s going to be anymore NBA basketball this season… I wish they would go to one episode a week to stretch this out as long as possible.

Maybe, just maybe, by Memorial Day–Major League Baseball without fans in the ball parks will have gotten some traction going with their season.

Bill Laimbeer: Captain Chaos

The Michael Jordan film gets going again tonight with episodes 3 & 4. I would guess there will be a heavy emphasis on Michael’s epic struggles with the Bad Boy Pistons.

What a great era of basketball it was. The toughness in the game which is sorely lacking in today’s game make today’s game quite frankly seem like Little League girls are playing in an Edmond rec league. Detroit literally mugged Michael every time he touched the ball. It was more like hockey than the bullshit we see today.

Can you imagine either frilly Kevin Durant or Steph Curry playing against the Pistons of the early 90’s?

OMG…not a chance. Kevie’s momma would have to walk out there on the floor and kick Bill Laimbeer’s ass for bullying her little Cupcake.

But Michael fought through it. It took him a couple of years to figure it out as Pippin elevated his game, but the Bulls finally got past the Bad Boys in the playoffs and basically never lost to them again in the Michael Jordan Era.

I have to admit…a part of me came to love Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, John Sally, and Dennis Rodman. I loved the physicality. The sheer passion of their checking game. They’re the only basketball team in history who played dump and chase with forecheck.

I loved it. It was like watching full checking ice hockey all over the ice.

If Michael touched the ball, it was simple….he was going to be hit.

It’s a shame David Stern had to close the Pistons’ mode down at some point. What a show it was.

The Magic of the Waffle House

This will be the first restaurant I sit down inside of following my coronavirus restaurant hiatus. You have not lived until you’ve sat at the counter of a Waffle House at one in the morning and taken in the whole experience.

In the spring of 2017… I somehow found myself at the Waffle House on Memorial and Western at one in the morning after the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight.

I was the only non-black person in the building as the place was packed with people just like me who had watched the fight. I was lucky enough to get to sit right at the counter as two white cooks started talking a little bit about the fight.

Calm was restored and the food orders were finally cooked, but it was epic.

That’s the whole thing about the Waffle House beyond the food…it’s about taking in the human experience.

You haven’t lived until you’ve done the five course breakfast starting off with a pecan waffle.

Trust me.

Smerconish Question of the Week

The show itself was pre-empted this morning for a Sesame Street Special with kids from all over the U.S. asking questions in relation to the coronavirus.

I’ll go ahead and sub for Michael Smerconish today with a question which was sent to me on my private line by a reader on this blog.

Kara from San Jose asks, ” Do you think this president has the ability to put this economy back together like a real president?”

My answer:

“No. Because he operates on the emotional level of an average third grader and is a pathological liar at every turn. Plus, he cares nothing about any other human being and operates with a complete lack of empathy for pretty much everyone except for his beloved Ivanka.

We’d have a better chance with a blind-folded chimpanzee throwing darts at a dartboard. I hope that wasn’t vague or ambiguous.

Beyond that he doesn’t possess the business chops to pull this off because in his life he’s never shown himself to be a successful business person. He’s a brand personality who inherited $420 million from his father and in reality didn’t do all that much with what was given to him by his father.

This will be a very complex and integrated puzzle to put back together as in certain segments like the restaurant, sports, and airline industries this is going to be very, very tricky as how to reboot human consumption of these services.

This would be right in Michael Bloomberg’s wheelhouse. You may not like his debate stage personality, but this isn’t a time for having an inept fool making decisions and running the country.

Plus, in many states their budgets have literally been eviscerated by the two previous months of business inactivity in their states.

Michael Bloomberg or a real problem solver would be a much better choice.”

Thanks for the question, Kara.