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The Barack Obama presidency ends in a few hours. He leaves the White House with a 60% approval rating while Donald Trump enters the White House with a 38% approval rating. Character matters, as does the lack of it. As I wrote earlier, I’m not an ideologue, not even close. I’m more what I’d describe as a pragmatic survivor who thinks things like character and honesty still somewhat matter. In my adult voting life, I’ve voted in eleven presidential elections. Six times I’ve voted for a Republican, four times for a Democrat, one time for an Independent. Of the four votes for a Democrat, two went for Barack Obama, and the truth be known, he would have gotten my vote a third time if the constitution had allowed given that the GOP nominated Caligula Lite as their nominee.

As time passes, historians will view Barack Obama favorably in spite of what transpired in Syria and in spite of the world being a complete mess. U.S. foreign policy has been a mess since Bush 41 left the White House in 1992 as America has struggled with its own role after ‘winning’ the Cold War. Maybe there’s something to be said for actually being qualified to assume the office as surely Bush 41 was given his resume included two terms as vice-president, a stinct as ambassador to China, and head of the CIA before ever ascending to the White House. Before I continue further with Barack Obama, pray for George Bush senior, he and his family could use our prayers right now. And, yes, Bush 41 got my vote twice. I told you I wasn’t an ideologue. Character matters.

Now back to Barack Obama’s legacy. There was not a single scandal, but instead genuine grace and dignity displayed by the First Family. He didn’t sleep with any White House interns and to date he hasn’t surfaced on any videos with Billy Bush. Not one single time was the country plagued with the thought of a special prosecutor as was the case with Nixon and Bill Clinton. Conversely, who amongst us thinks Hillary Clinton if elected or Donald Trump now elected would/will escape the examination of a special prosecutor tearing the country apart even further.

Barack Obama, Michelle, and their two daughters were always available to the country and to the country as role models white America should strive to emulate. The press corps were never asked to be moved from the White House. There was complete access when things were going well and when things weren’t going well.

To me at least, the contrast in Barack Obama and Donald Trump is simple. Barack Obama entered the White during the darkest period of American history in my adult life. He inherited two tragically misguided wars.Even Donald Trump said as much towards the Bush family in the GOP primaries. He inherited an economy which was losing 800,000 job a month as he entered the White House. He inherited a Dow down in the 6,000s. He inherited a U.S. auto industry on the virtual edge of collapse. And he inherited a health care system which was already broken and in need of new ideas on how health care should be addressed in this country. Keep in mind, during those years of complete Republican rule from 2000-06 none of this was addressed. Not once can I recall the remembrance of Cheneycare. Not once, even though even then health care in America was already in need of new ideas.

So here’s how Obama leaves office in just about two hours…. he leaves with the unemployment rate at 4.5% instead of 10%. He leaves with the Dow at 19,000 and change instead of in total freefall as it was when John McCain literally suspended his presidential run in September of 2008 because of the worldwide economic meltdown. He leaves with the U.S. auto industry still here and Donald Trump actually being able to deal with Ford on keeping more jobs in the U.S. He leaves with the legacy of seriously addressing health care even though the Affordable Health Care Act will probably be repealed if indeed the Koch Brothers have a replacement plan and tell McConnell and Ryan to go ahead and repeal Obamacare.

He leaves with the U.S. being the world leader in addressing climate change instead of ignoring it. He leaves with Bin Laden dead. He leaves being the president who had the compassion to recognize gay marriage and treat all people with equal compassion. But most of all he leaves with his character intact.

So what was Donald Trump doing during this tumultuous period of American history when our country was groping (no pun intended) to rise to all of these challenges? Again, I repeat, what was Donald Trump doing to help the America he now says he wants to make great again?

This is what he was doing. He wasn’t paying any individual federal income tax because of a carryover loss mechanism loophole which isn’t even allowed any longer. But most of all he was being a Birther for almost five years. Let’s be clear, this in no way was an intention to help America, but rather another example of Donald Trump being divisive and at the same time pandering to the segment of our white population which still lives in the year 1957 instead of 2017. That’s pretty much what he was doing and he now becomes president in two hours. How ironic and sad for our country. How sad for some of those who voted for Trump, yet have been hit the hardest by globalization and tragically will be the hardest hit by what his presidency will be mostly about.

My family will be fine. We’ll be okay, but I worry about the significant part of America who maybe won’t be okay. Pray for Donald Trump and the hope that possibly the weight of the office will change him in some way as a human being. Pray hard, America. Pray hard.

I guess this is actually going to happen tomorrow. American voters have elected a man even Jerry Springer admitted he couldn’t vote for. Maybe he’ll surprise us and not get into a showdown of nuclear chicken on his Twitter account with North Korea and Iran. Maybe he won’t get us into a trade war with China. Maybe one of the spinoff companies he owns will actually make a product in America at some point and time. Maybe. But this is for you, Trump supporters. For you and you alone.

And then of course, there was this. Oh, you Trumpers. You did it. This is what you did.

I’m not a moral victory guy, but in fact this was kind of a moral victory for Oklahoma City on Wednesday night in Oakland. Even with Steven Adams, the Thunder aren’t in the same class with Golden State. But then again other than LeBron who is. OKC competed hard and actually were tied with the Warriors 56-56 at the half, but then a run came and it came as we knew it would with the Warriors winning the third period by a score of 37-22 as Kevin Durant flexed his scoring prowess with a 40 point night which featured 13-16 shooting prowess. Make no mistake about it, Kevin Durant was Golden State’s best player on this night.

Without Adams, Donovan went small starting Jerami Grant for the second straight game with Adams still in the midst of the NBA concussion protocol program and back in Oklahoma City resting. And for the most part, OKC stayed small with Enes Kanter being the primary big for most of the game. Lauvernge and Nick Collison never saw the floor and Domas Sabonis was not a factor at all. Donovan went small, stayed small, and for a half it actually worked.

Even with Adams, OKC isn’t in Golden State’s class because it’s brutally transparent you’re not going to hang with a team like the Warriors with a player like Andre Roberson on the floor who is offensively challenged. Unless, a team can hang at least 116 points themselves it’s going to be tough beating these guys on most nights.

Russell Westbrook triple doubled with 27 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists. He played hard and did his best, Sam Presti just doesn’t have enough talent on this roster currently if he wants to hang with the Warriors and Cavs. It’s fairly evident.

Enes Kanter and Victor Oladipo both played well and actually gave Westbrook some much needed help. Kanter scored 22 points and Oladipo chipped in 20 points. Combined, Westbrook, Kanter, Oladipo scored 69 of the Thunder’s points, which means the rest of the roster scored 31 points. To me, most glaring in this loss was the fact the other three starters—Roberson, Sabonis, and Grant scored a combined 15 points. The Warriors aren’t the Grizzlies, you have to score and score big to hang with these guys because they have the best three pure shooters in the league in their starting lineup with Durant, Curry, and Thompson.

OKC drops to 25-19 on the season and is in 7th place in the West, and now firmly in second place in the Northwest Division behind the streaking Utah Jazz. The Thunder get a much needed rest and thankfully don’t play again until Monday night in Utah, which of course is good for me so as I can now focus on the Green Bay Packers NFC Championship Game and Caligula Lite’s inauguration ball in the interim. We can only hope Billy Bush isn’t there with a large supply of Tic Tacs so as to tempt our president elect to get carried away with the setting and grab a big ol’ handful of you know what with Putin and the world watching.

Nobody in Thunder Nation should be too down, unless you’re either Brian Davis or Michael Cage you had to know this was going to be a tough January. The Thunder are now 4-6 in the month with a very tough assignment at Utah next on the radar.

Keep your heads up, stay positive, and GO PACKERS!

Dear Donald,

Where do I possibly start? I’m not Meryl Streep and I haven’t won any Oscars so this might not be as graceful or eloquent, but here goes.

You won even though in actuality you lost by almost three million votes. I don’t want to dwell too long or much at all on what Putin did for you in the Electoral College or what he didn’t do. The truth of the matter is if Hillary Clinton couldn’t beat you with all the deplorable things you said throughout your campaign then she shouldn’t be president, but then of course neither should you. Quite frankly, I found both of you to be deplorable and how ironic it would be if both of you ended up together in the same basket full of deplorables at a later time. Que sera, sera.

I could waste a page or two once listing all of the despicable things you said during your campaign, but at this point what would be the point? It’s obvious you either weren’t breast fed as a child, never had a dog, or that you have an extremely small dick which if combined I guess these three things cause all this inner Hitler turmoil in you. Like I said, I’m no Meryl Streep.

So why am I writing this letter to you? I’m writing because I love the concept of America, but the way you behave genuinely concerns me in regards to America’s future with you being the CEO. Like you, I’m not an ideologue or a partisan. In my adult voting life in presidential elections, I’ve voted for six Repbulicans, four Democrats, and one Independent. Of course, there’s no way in hell I voted for you, but I do respect the fact other Americans did and that’s the process whether I like it or not.

Unlike you, I’m not a reality television star, a regular guest on Howard Stern, or a member of the Billionaires Trophy Wife Club. But rather just a guy in Deer Creek, Oklahoma with a wife, a son, a dog, and a fairly rewarding life which means a great deal to me as does the concept of our country and the notion of something called the American Dream.

You did kind of win, but in no way did you receive a mandate of any kind because your opponent got three million more votes than you did. I know you’re a Republican now and math and science don’t mean that much….but still, it was three million votes. That’s not a mandate, but more an error our founding fathers made in the process. But I’m not the whining type, I’m really not so you’re the leader of the free world starting on Friday. But you enter your presidency with the lowest approval rating in our history as a nation. That’s not a mandate to overhaul the constitution, but more the fact Hillary Clinton’s character was as much in question as yours and Bernie Sanders said it himself many, many times.

So as you enter the White House may I suggest several things which might help you in being viewed as something other than a freak of the electoral process and a puppet of Preibus, Ryan, and McConnell?

1 Get a dog. I’ve read you don’t have a dog and will be the first president in 150 years to enter the White House without either a dog or a cat. Trust me, if ever there was a sick fuck who needed a loving dog it’s you. Please get a dog it might help you come to terms with yourself.

2 Put the Twitter handle away–you’re not Charlie Sheen or one of the Kardashians, you’re the leader of the free world and it’s an immense responsibility. You said you wanted to be president, some of my friends who voted for you said you’d change once elected. You not only haven’t changed, you’ve gotten worse. America needs a smart, balanced, pragmatic leader, not a spoiled fifth grader who can’t control himself on Twitter. So–I guess what I’m saying is grow the fuck up. In a hurry. Like now maybe.

3 Maybe read our Constitution. I know you don’t like to read much other than the National Enquirer, but let’s be bold here since you are on the verge of becoming the 45 POTUS. Maybe two books a month would be a nice start. I’ll pick the books out, not Steven Bannon. It’ll be like we’ve got our own private book club.

4 Don’t be a puppet of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell or Priebus. You said you were going to drain the swamp when in fact those three are the swamp.

5 Take the time to apologize to Barack Obama for the asinine, idiotic Birther Movement you started and kept going during the course of his presidency. He seems like a good person and in reality you’re going to need a new friend you can talk to besides me and the dog once you start waking up every morning with the weight of the world on your shoulders.

That’s it pretty much. I told you I wasn’t as eloquent as Meryl Streep. Grow up. Open your heart. Start reading some. Learn to love someone other than yourself. It’s a virtually impossible job, but if you do these things if nothing else the American people will stand with you instead of marching against you. Remember, America is already great, we just pray you don’t diminish it. One last thing, put the stupid ball caps away. I think that’s it for now.

Mike from Deer Creek

No Steven Adams in Oakland versus the league best Warriors tonight. This is not good in any way for the Thunder. Adams is the only Oklahoma City big who can play defense with any consistency against the small ball lineups the Warriors throw at opposing teams. Although Enes Kanter can do some things offensively, I cringe thinking about how OKC will be able to defend tonight in Oakland without Adams. Could even be a night we see a little of Nick Collison if for no other reason than his smarts.

Oklahoma City’s tough January schedule was already going to be a struggle with a healthy Adams, now the mountain got even steeper. I haven’t looked to see how Vegas has this game listed tonight, but if you offered to me the Thunder and 20 points I’d politely say ‘pass.’ Not to be negative, but without Adams, I’m not sure what Billy Donovan does tonight. He could go with Jerami Grant and go small from the get go. He can try Kanter and see how that goes. Maybe he can even go with Lauvergne or give Nick Collison a run. I don’t know. But I know this, minus Westbrook, Adams is the most valuable player on the team for what he does on both ends of the floor.

Meanwhile, Golden State is on a nice little run after bouncing back from the Christmas Day collapse against Cleveland and the embarrassing home loss to Memphis. The Warriors stand with a league best 35-6 record and are on pace for another 70 win season as we all thought they would be given the talent of their ball team.

Conversely, OKC is just kind of surviving while trying to get through this murderous January schedule the NBA gave them as a New Year’s present of sorts. Add this Adams injury to the mix and the notion of the Thunder getting out of the month with a 6-9 mark wouldn’t seem terrible given that the Thunder will most likely be 4-6 in January after tonight with Cleveland, San Antonio, and Utah all on the road still remaining this month.

I feel sorry for Russell Westbrook. He’s not getting any consistent support. This is the second injury for Adams this season as the team was just getting back in sync ‘somewhat’ with the return of both Oladipo and Payne. Without Adams, the entire Golden State team will be sagging in the paint and just waiting for Westbrook.

But you can’t just not go out there and not compete. So the mantra tonight for OKC should be compete, compete, and compete—and do the best they can given the situation. I’m not a big ‘moral victory’ guy, but tonight if OKC can just play smart, compete for forty-eight minutes and get themselves back together with the next four days off after tonight before playing again in Utah that might be the best way for the Thunder to approach tonight’s game.

But the key word tonight is compete.

Historically, I would say this is pretty much what Donald Trump did and it actually began with his idiotic five year Birther Movement campaign which began when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. This gave Trump an immediate voice with not only the Tea Party, but in essence, it afforded Trump the opportunity to grab the Solid South away from GOP establishment canidates such as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich in the GOP primaries as he refined this entire election caper which culminated with him now listed as the 45th POTUS come Friday.

The difference as I see it though, is that Trump never intended to run as an Independent like Wallace, but rather he intended to kidnap and then use the GOP party as his own personal political apparatus to win the presidency over both major parties. Donald Trump isn’t even a conservative. For crying out loud, he was a Democrat up until Obama torched him at the D.C. Correspondent’s Dinner. Staid, patrician Republicans who grovel for love from the Heritage Foundation don’t admit ‘to swallowing handfuls of Tic Tacs and then brag about grabbing a handful of pussy’ in the immediate aftermath. Donald Trump doesn’t belong to any party. He just primarily belongs to himself and unless you’re an extreme partisan you would have realized this way back when he was disparaging Marco’s Rubio’s penis, Ted Cruz’s veracity, and Carly Fiorina’s face. Just saying.

So I have to admit, I laugh my ass off when I hear fundamentalist Republicans admit they voted for Donald Trump. Really? I wouldn’t brag about it publicly. Keep it to yourself. Please. I mean think of this, 82% of religious fundamentalists voted for the ‘Tic Tac Grab a Handful of Pussy’ canidate. Think about that and keep a straight face.

So–is Donald Trump a richer, more financed version of George Wallace from back in 1968… I’d have to say yes he is but with a Twitter handle George Wallace never even knew about way back when.

I saw this video and actually like this kid’s spunk. I’m surprised he’s not writing at Daily Thunder. So I’m putting it on my blog as America lurches toward the presidency of Donald Trump.

Granted, Steven Adams missed this game do to being in the NBA’s concussion protocol program after sustaining a hit to his head against the Kings on Sunday night. But keep in mind, Blake Griffin is still in street clothes rehabbing his knee from a recent surgery. Also to be mentioned is Chris Paul only played 13 minutes in this game after sustaining a thumb injury in the second quarter.

This was OKC playing on the second night of a road back to back, but to be brutally honest it never appeared the Thunder ever had any intention of putting much energy into this game even in the first half. I guess, the Thunder just wore themselves out nurturing that 17 point lead against the hapless Kings the night before.

I’m not sure if this ranks as the worst Thunder game of this season, but it must be mentioned in the same breath with the road loss to the Kings on the night before Thanksgiving and the loss at Memphis on Dec. 29th. It was a performance of boo-able proportions, perhaps even gong-able.

Without Adams, the Thunder gave up 62 points in the paint and allowed the Clippers to shoot 55% from the field and 43% from three point territory. Without Adams, the Thunder defense was literally a sieve of nothingness. And again this happened with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul playing a combined 13 minutes.

DeAndre Jordan did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to in this game scoring 19 points, grabbing 17 rebounds, and blocking 4 shots. His performance along side of Steven Adams’ absence were the primary storylines.

Russell Westbrook not only didn’t triple double, he basically wasn’t even the best point guard on the floor even after Chris Paul’s early departure, that would have been Raymond Felton on this night. So what I’m writing here is that even without Griffin and Paul playing, the Thunder with Westbrook, Kanter, Oladipo, Roberson, and Payne were never even remotely competitive in this game.

OKC drops to 25-18 on the season and is 4-5 in this very challenging month of January for a Thunder team which in all candor hasn’t shown much overall team improvement since opening the season at 4-0 coming out of the gates. There’s been no jumpstart to date from having Cam Payne back as far as I can discern either. Truth be known, parts of Semaj Christon’s game are about on a par from what we’ve seen from Payne to date. But like I wrote a week ago, Cameron Payne hasn’t played all that much basketball at this level in quite some time.

OKC plays at the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in what is Round II of the Durant-Westbrook thing. If Steven Adams isn’t able to go Round II could look even worse than what we witnessed last night in Los Angeles. In Round I, OKC actually came out fast with Adams exposing Za Za Pachulia, but then Adams got two fouls and had to sit. The game then changed immediately and it was a rout moving forward with a lot of kissing and groping from Steph, Klay, Durant, and Draymond. You’d have thought those four had been on a bus with Trump and Billy Bush before the game. I know it made me feel akward.

I almost forgot the score…LA 120–OKC 98. Gotta put the score on the recap even when the team plays like they weren’t there.

OKC at Golden State on Wednesday night. Pray for Steven Adams to get well fast.

I won’t lie, the Thunder’s 122-118 win over the still dysfunctional Sacramento Kings was a very anti-climatic event for me. After living through Mason Crosby kicking two plus fifty yard field goals in the last two minutes to propel the Packers to the NFC Championship Game in Atlanta next Sunday, I’ll admit it was hard to summon passion in watching the Thunder almost blow a 17 point lead against the still hapless Kings.

I was very gentle with my wife after the game. Win with grace, lose with grace is the way it should always be. Dallas had a heckuva season and should be proud they almost came all the way back from being down 21-3. But like I wrote yesterday before the game–Green Bay has Aaron Rodgers. He never ceases to amaze me. He’s simply an amazing quarterback.

The Thunder game actually depressed me even though Oklahoma City won the game to improve to 25-17. Russell Westbrook had another triple double with 36 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists so there was that. Enes Kanter had a huge game with 29 points, 12 rebounds, and a +19 rating. But mainly the thing which clings to me about this game was that OKC almost blew a seventeen point lead while turning the ball over 19 times.

But still OKC improves to 4-4 in January and 25-17 overall. Given what I predicted from OKC before the season with OKC winning somewhere between 46-48 games they’re on that pace and I shouldn’t be greedy other than just wanting to see them play smarter basketball.

Steven Adams suffered what appeared to be a concussion last night and only played twenty minutes so we’ll have to see if he’s available tonight in Los Angeles against the Clippers.

Like I wrote, with the Packers very much in the Super Bowl hunt– I’m having trouble focusing on the Thunder right now. Here’s Aaron Rodger’s girlfriend, Olivia Munn, who btw very much has an Oklahoma connection in that she attended Putnam City North high school and the University of Oklahoma. This is cute, Olivia on Stephen Colbert talking about the engagement, the dog, and such.

We’ve had six NFL playoff games so far this January and not one has been what could be described as a good football game. I don’t believe any of the six have even been a one possession game. Today could be potentially the best day of NFL football in quite some time if both games play out to their potential with Green Bay at Dallas in the first game and the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Kansas City Chiefs in the second game.

And for me it’s NFL nirvana as the Green Bay Packers are my favorite NFL team period, while the Steelers are my favorite AFC team easily. Probably the two classiest, successful NFL franchises with the Dallas Cowboys, the New England Patriots, and 49’ers (pre self implosion) right there in the mix as well. But I would give the Packers, the Steelers, and the Cowboys the edge because they’ve all three won multiple championships with different quarterbacks and different coaches, while in New England it’s basically just been Tom Brady and Bill Bilichick. As far as the 49’ers, they’re so bad currently I’m not even sure Joe Montana and Steve Young actually existed or if Bill Walsh was just a figment of the Bay area’s collective imagination.

Conversely, the Packers have won championships with three different three head coach-quarterback duos in the Super Bowl era…Vince Lombardi-Bart Starr, Mike Holmgren-Bret Favre, and Mike McCarthy-Aaron Rodgers. The Cowboys have done it with four different coach-quarterback combos…Tom Landry-Craig Morton, Tom Landry-Roger Staubach, Jimmy Johnson-Troy Aikman, and Barry Switzer-Troy Aikman, Suffice it to say if the Jason Garrett-Dak Prescott combo garners the Cowboys another Super Bowl Trophy it will be a testament to how great the Cowboys’ offensive line truly is in this era of collective bargaining.

Packers vs. the Cowboys will pit the most talented quarterback in the league in Aaron Rodgers vs. that Cowboys’ offensive line and the two rookie sensations in Prescott and Elliott. In the history of the NFL, rookie starting quarterbacks have gotten their teams into the playoffs nine times, but they have a collective record of 8-15. Of the nine quarterbacks, only four have gotten their teams to the conference championship game. No rookie starting NFL quarterback has ever won a Super Bowl. Okay, so you must be wondering, who were the four? The answer to this great NFL trivia question is Shaun King of the Tampa Bay Bucs, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens, and Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets.

But here’s the thing which gives Dallas Cowboy fans hope, none of those four quarterbacks had this offensive line and a running back like Zeke Elliott alongside him. So even though Aaron Rodgers is the most talented QB in the league, I don’t feel it’s improbable the Cowboys could get to the Super Bowl with Prescott, that offensive line, Elliott, Dez Bryant, and home field potentially in the NFC Championship Game.

The Packers are my favorite team, the Cowboys are my wife’s favorite team, though I’m not sure we’ll be able to watch this game in the same room.

Two games like the ones on tap in Dallas and Kansas City later today are what you hunger for as an NFL fan in January. I’m set with the pizza and the wine. Not sure what arrangements my wife has made for food and drink. If she’s nice she can have some of my mine. Can’t wait.