Of course, this will be fake news in places like Oklahoma, West Virginia, Alabama, and other outliers of the New Confederacy where books aren’t allowed while Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter shape the minds of the vacant rogue right zombies.
You don’t have to be F. Lee Bailey to see where Mueller is going with this as he connects these rogue Russians to the indictments he already made with the rogue Americans… Flynn, Manafort, Papadopolous, and Gates. What seems inevitable are the eventual indictments of Trump’s idiot son Don Jr. and his putz son in law. The Idiot Twins a.k.a. from this point moving forward if we might. Maybe there’s a caveat of the law of sorts which allows a gross stupidity plea for inherited DNA ignorance.
It’s hard to tell how the New Confederacy types will handle all of this. It really is. We all have friends and relatives who voted for this piece shit regardless of how hard we try to ignore that truth.
My question…what do we do with these people when the smoke has cleared? Do we suspend their right to vote for a decade? Do we sent them to internment work farms in Montana? What do we do with these people? It’s vexing for sure, maybe even more complex than Repeal/Replace or building a wall.
More details to come. This was nice in that it coincides with the NBA and NHL All-Star breaks. I don’t know if I could handled this workload during a normal slew of NBA games.
Just kidding, kind of.
But I think in every family, in every nook and cranny, in every slice of America, what we now need to do is decide what to do with the people who voted for Donald Trump.
What’s truly amazing is that Chris Christie doesn’t seem to be involved. Who would have thought he would be the GOP good guy of sorts?
This won’t be easy.
I’ve waited months to put this video back up. Now would seem to be the time.
My father was both a criminal defense and civil trial lawyer. He graduated No. 1 in his law class of 1963 and in his prime could hang with the best. I thought about becoming a lawyer even clerked somewhat for my dad when I was in high school, but decided to pursue another path when I finished my undergrad degrees. It worked out well for me, but in essence, I was raised by a man who told me bedtime stories on how to conduct voir dire or how to handle a hostile witness on cross examination. Or how to win over a jury or kiss up to a judge or when to plea bargain a sentence. All those things. So, even though I didn’t attend law school in body, I did in essence graduate from the Robert A. Jackson School of Law.
I find myself thinking about my father this morning because he hated Antonin Scalia’s writings for the most part. For those who don’t read the law, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was not a friend of criminal defense trial lawyers.
So, while the far right claims Scalia was/is their godlike constitutional defender of the 2nd Amendment, here’s what Scalia actually wrote in District of Columbia vs. Heller:
“Like most rights, the right served by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. It is… not a right to keep and carry any weapon in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
“Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill on laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
So there it was/is from the mouth of the most conservative member of the Court and a Ronald Reagan appointee at that. How simple can it be? Reagan himself was shot his first year in office in office and would be nodding his head in agreement with everything I just wrote on this post. But like I wrote last night, we are in unchartered waters as far as waters as far as whoredom. We truly are.
Like Joe Scarborough, I was a socially liberal Republican from 1976 -2000. Unlike Joe Scarborough, I left the party in 2000 and became an Independent because of my disgust for the party in that it was clear it was becoming a party for the rogue extreme right. Joe Scarborough left the GOP this year, so give me credit, it didn’t take me becoming engaged to Mika to figure things out.
Unless you’re a complete idiot, there is no reason whatsoever for an American citizen to possess a military automatic assault rifle. None.
This has nothing to do with protection of the 2nd Amendment. It does however have everything to do with the NRA wanting to sell more guns in America and owning the GOP lock, stock, and barrel. Pun intended.
If I hear one more Republican pretend to understand the constitutional legitimacy of possessing one of these weapons as per the writings of the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court…I’m going to puke. Again, this has nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment.
This has nothing to do with needing more background information to possess one of these guns. These guns should be prohibited to the public and the possession of one should be a felony.
Am I holding my breath to see if GOP lawmakers do anything? Not a chance. Because once a whore, always a whore. What an absolute disgrace.
Isn’t it interesting when Syrian children were gassed, Trump and Mattis had no problem whatsoever dropping a bomb on a deserted Syrian air base. So…I’m waiting to see if Donald Trump finds as much outrage for American children being murdered as he does for Syrian children being murdered.
Teddy Roosevelt would use the Bully Pulpit with his OWN PARTY IN POWER to get this law enacted. Just so we’re clear…Donald Trump is no Teddy Roosevelt regardless of what Mike Pence drools.
Granted, it was against the horrific Memphis Grizz, but behind Russell Westbrook and Paul George the OKC Thunder had enough pop in their gun to overcome the worst team in the NBA on their floor for a 121-114 win.
On the night OKC’s Big Two combined for 51 points, 19 rebounds, and 19 assists. It was like watching Westbrook and Durant. It really was. Paul George has found his comfort zone with Russell. Now if he can only ignore the Pacific Ocean and decide to stay in Tea Party Oklahoma. Can you believe it, the oil and gas companies volunteered to start paying more taxes to address the budget shortfall in Oklahoma…and it didn’t pass. There were other revenue enchancers attached, but when you rank dead last in education you need to address it. Unbelievable.
OKC went 17-37 from beyond the three point arc and set a team record for the 17 made threes. Of course, none of the made threes were made by Euro three point specialist savant Alex Abrines who has now gone scoreless in his last 45 minutes of play for Sam Presti. It’s one thing when you don’t score a point against the Cavs on national television, it’s another thing when you can’t score the next night in Memphis against this wretched Memphis team. But, hey guys— it’s okay because the Usual Suspects Thunder homers Brian Davis, Michael Cage, Royce Young, and Nick Gallo told you he was the real offensive deal. Are you kidding me? Even Andre Roberson found a way to score 6-8 points on most nights just by fucking running towards the basket. What a novel thought…running towards the basket on a backdoor screen to get yourself going offensively. Maybe a coach might that suggest that?
Even Billy Donovan couldn’t take anymore in this one and finally benched Abrines again in the second half giving Terrance Ferguson the opportunity to make two shots and be a part of the Thunder team record of 17 made threes in a game.
Josh Huestis didn’t score again, but that doesn’t really bother me because he’s a defensive/intangible guy, but not nearly as good as Andre. Anything he scores is gravy.
I wonder if Presti could have traded Abrines for Andrew Harrison heads up at the trade deadline given the fact Harrison went 5-5 shooting threes against the Thunder Wednesday night.
On a positive train of thought…Jerami Grant, Pat Patterson, and Ray Felton all had good nights from the bench. So, in essence, only Abrines really sucked and only Huestis moderately sucked. But Patterson playing well was a nice thing.
So the Thunder improve to 33-26 heading into the All-Star break with 23 games remaining on the slate.
I’ll probably keep OKC at No. 8 on my Power Poll next week, but I was hoping for more this week. Reality can suck at times. But the positive is when play resumes we as Thunder fans get to watch Westbrook and Paul George at least play another 23 regular season games together. See the glass half full.
Time for me to watch my surging Boston Bruins during the NBA All-Star break and read Forged in Crisis by Nancy Koehn.
At the deadline, Sam Presti opted to stay put with his underachieving roster and play his hand out to the final cut of the cards. Meanwhile, LeBron and his management team in Cleveland went to work and decided to salvage their basketball season. It was a sagacious piece of work by Team LeBron. They got rid of Isiah Thomas, Channing Frye, Jae Crowder, Dwayne Wade, and Derick Rose and replaced them with four honest two way basketball players. Enter George Hill at the point, Jordan Clarkson as a shooting guard, Rodney Hood as a scoring swing player, and a big in the mold of Nick Collison when he was in his prime by the name of Larry Nance. If you didn’t know who Larry Nance was then you do now if you’re a Thunder fan who only watches Thunder games.
Forget the fact All-Star forward Kevin Love didn’t play in this game due to his broken hand. Forget the fact Vegas got suckered by making the Thunder a home three point favorite. Forget the fact Cleveland played this game with only one All-Star player versus OKC’s Big Four. If you took OKC and gave the three you shouldn’t be betting NBA games. This wasn’t a surprise if you’ve been paying attention.
I went to the game and it was certainly entertaining, but I never had any feel whatsoever OKC was going to win this game despite what happened in OKC’s 148-124 win on January 20th. None. Because I watched every minute of the Cav’s win over Boston on the road on Sunday and pretty much felt this was what was going to happen.
If you break down this game it’s very simple. Ignore the fact LeBron scored 37 points and was magnificent. Ignore the fact OKC’s Big Four scored 92 points. Here’s the bottomline. Cleveland now has ten honest two way basketball players and LeBron. OKC has two stars in Westbrook and George, a semi-elite center in Steven Adams, an aging and overpriced Carmelo Anthony, an absent Andre Roberson, and a remaining roster absent of Jerami Grant and Raymond Felton which has serious flaws.
Alex Abrines, Pat Peterson, and Josh Huestis played a combined 45 minutes in this game and contributed a combined SUM of zero points.
Meanwhile, Cleveland’s new bench scored 51 points on the night. Let me be frank to the local OKC college level media in Oklahoma City, if these new Cavs played the Thunder in a series they would win in five games…and the thing is I don’t think Cleveland has enough to beat either Golden State or Houston. But–these Cavs should once again win the East.
Since Andre Roberson’s torn patella, the Thunder are 3-6 and still trying to find themselves. Did OKC miss Andre in this game? Of course they did as the Cavs torched the Thunder for 16 threes on the night while Billy Donovan replaced him in the starting lineup with a defensively suspect player in Abrines who’s alleged nich is offense.
Obviously…Sam Presti and Billy Donovan think Alex Abrines is a basketball player of some sort. My thought would be he’s not what I would have gone forward with moving beyond the trade deadline for the role Billy Donovan has given him post Andre. But it is what it is and since Clay Bennett isn’t paying me for my insights it’s his situation… not mine.
On a more positive note–the after game meal at the German beer hall was excellent. I had the German pretzel, the Italian sausage with the green and red peppers and the duck fries. And some sort of post Octoberfest German beer.
We then proceed to the outdoor for the postgame cigar. We ended up sitting next to a table of Hispanics. I immediately shared with them my thoughts on Donald Trump. We bonded.
I then pulled out these two massively long cigars for myself and my cousin. The Hispanics’ eyes got wide as they stared at the length. I nodded and smiled knowingly then said, “These are Cubans…Little Marco Rubios.”
They loved it and we laughed together at the ridiculous thought of Presidente Trump.
So even though the Thunder lost the post game we had fun. In that we realize this isn’t a Thunder team to take too seriously.
The Thunder at Memphis tonight to play the hapless Grizz.
Cleveland added George Hill at the point, Larry Nance as a big off the bench, Rodney Hood at small forward, and Jordan Clarkson as a shooting guard. It will be very interesting tonight to see how Billy Donovan mix and matches his bench lineups to have someone on the floor who can defend Hood and Clarkson. Cleveland should have an advantage with bench lineups tonight. It will be an interesting game from a coaching standpoint. This is actually a game worth seeing in person. I’m going.
As the years have passed, Kobe Bryant is a guy I enjoy listening to in regards to things going beyond basketball. He has the honesty to say things which at times others won’t do. I don’t per se agree with Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem, but I do agree with the brunt of what he’s saying about racial issues and stereotyping in this country. I found it very unfortunate Trump made the ‘sons of bitches’ comment as he did. Instead, Trump missed a golden opportunity to address race issues in our country and how we should work together versus just pandering to an angry white base which has never one day in their lives experienced what it is to live as a person with brown or black skin. To have lived one day in their lives being judged by the color of their skin instead of what is in their character.
So… I was glad to hear Kobe address this publicly from his viewpoint and look forward to more coming from him in the future.
I only rank eight teams in my Power Poll. The eight which I feel have any chance to get to a conference final or the NBA Finals. I’ve waited till this point to even mess with a Power Poll because it was almost certain Cleveland would change their team and I wanted to make sure Paul George was in OKC for the whole season. So here’s my first Power Poll of the season.
1 Golden State
2 Houston
3 Cleveland
4 Boston
5 Toronto
6 Minnesota
7 San Antonio
8 Oklahoma City
The game to watch on Sunday was the ABC game between the rebuilt LeBron Cavs and the Boston Celtics on a day when Paul Pierce’s jersey was retired in Boston. With the additions of George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, and Larry Nance Jr. the Cavs destroyed the Celtics. Just literally killed them and let the world know this Cleveland team will once again more than likely representing the East in the NBA Finals yet again.
I start with this because OKC plays the Cavs on Tuesday night in OKC and this Cleveland team will be nothing like the team OKC saw on January 20th in a 148-124 cakewalk. This Cleveland team just got much better defensively, offensively, athletically, and in fact–much younger.
So I’ll start with that before I get to OKC’s win over a horrible Memphis team. So horrible in fact these Grizzlies could very well end up with the overall worst record in the NBA before all is said and done this season. These Grizzlies stink–that much is clear.
Putting all this aside, OKC without Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony for the second straight game, pasted the Grizzlies 110-92 in a wire to wire win. Paul George led the way with 33 points as the Thunder improved to 32-25 on the season and is still in fifth place heading into Tuesday night’s home game against the new Cavs. The Thunder are now 2-5 in games since Andre Roberson’s season ending knee injury with two games remaining until the All-Star break is upon us.
The Thunder clearly played better in this game than they did against the Lakers without Westbrook, but I wouldn’t read too much into in that since the Thunder were awful offensively in the second half and shot 65% from the free throw line on forty attempts. I’m not trying to be negative, but even though the Thunder hit 16 threes, the thing which sticks out to me most is the fact this Thunder team ranks last in the league at the free throw line and went 25-40 from the line in a game in which there was no pressure–as in the game was never close.
Alex Abrines had 16 points and clearly his best game of the season, but again, it was arguably against the worst team in the league which just lost its sixth straight game and has collected a brutal assortment of ‘NBA’ players alongside Marc Gasol. But to the credit of Alex Abrines–he has been playing better of late and I probably shouldn’t call him Sam Prestis’s Spanish singing folk singing anymore. Looks like he’s been the focal point of the coaching staff in some private sessions would be my guess.
Jerami Grant was again very good and the Thunder very much need to resign him this summer after they hopefully keep Paul George around for at least one more season.
Ray Felton and Patrick Patterson were both solid with 14 points apiece and looked worlds better than they did against the Lakers. Steven Adams was okay, but again, he was the only Thunder player playing against what I would call a top half NBA player depending on how you value Tyreke Evans currently.
Memphis is tanking and it made me sad because this at one time was the greatest rivalry in the OKC Thunder era.
So to give Billy Donovan some credit, his team did actually look like they practiced before this game without Westbrook and had some semblance of game planning in hand before taking the floor. See the glass half full, right? You learn that shit in overcoming dysfunction.
I would hope and assume Russell will be back for the Cavs game or else that could flat out be a long night for the Thunder and the fan base.
Anyway, a nice night for Paul George and Alex Abrines. But clearly–the thought moving forward is Russell Westbrook needs to be on the floor Tuesday night in Oklahoma City with LeBron showing off his new play toys.
At some point in the recovery process you have to come to terms with your situation. You have to admit your frailties and face your demons. You have to be honest with yourself. So as a Thunder fan I’ve come to the inner conclusion this group of players Sam Presti has put together with head enabler Billy Donovan is a seriously flawed team. I’ve gone thru 56 games observing this collection of humans and can come to no other conclusion other than this is a dysfunctional basketball team which at times overcomes its own self inflicted shortcomings and plays really well against good teams as if it some sort of protest to show the world they can actually play brilliantly when the stars and planets align. Namely, when they play against an elite team.
I’m done fighting it. My face won’t be banged against my keyboard one more time this season. It’s not worth it.
But I’ve adjusted my other Thunder game day rituals as well. I never ever turn on the volume for a Thunder broadcast anymore. Because it’s worse than watching Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee-Sanders spin on behalf of Trump. I will say this though, both Brian Davis and Michael Cage have a future in the Trump White House media corps if they ever choose to alter their career paths. Those two dudes can look straight into a camera, not blink once, and lie their asses off. So there’s that.
I don’t buy tickets to games this season unless it’s a against a top eight overall league opponent. I don’t buy one hundred dollar tickets to see a team loaf. I just won’t do it. So basically…I only go see the Thunder play in person against Boston, Toronto, Cleveland, Golden State, Houston, San Antonio, and Minnesota. Since the Thunder don’t show up against the other twenty-two teams there’s no way I’m parting with cash to see this team play in person. Would you pay to see a Billy Joel concert where he forgets half the lyrics during his show? See my point.
When I’m watching at home with the sound turned off on the Fox telecasts I always have a good book ready for when the team goes into high frequency dysfunction mode against one of the bottom twenty-two teams. Again, you can only abuse yourself so much watching this team play and observing Billy Donovan not once going ape shit berserk on the bench and reading these humans the riot act. Right now I’m reading an excellent book entitled Dark Money by Jane Mayer. It chronicles the Koch Brothers history and how it is they came to own the United States of America much like Putin does in Russia only with more nuance. Excellent book.
Then there’s pulling out the chainsaw and cutting firewood. Since I live on a heavily wooded three acre lot what I’ve done is have the chainsaw ready when the Thunder go into total over the top berserk suck mode like they just did against the Lakers. I would guess I’ve cut enough firewood this season to heat half of Deer Creek, Oklahoma so far this season.
Another thing which helps is having the diva lab Pauli right there with me during the games in the Thunder game day watch studio in my house. She calms me. She brings me back to earth amidst the inner rage this team brings out in me. The other night when Billy Donovan was almost going down on Luke Walton after the game I had a book in my hand which I was about to throw through the flat screen and she put her head on my knee and said, “Mike, please. It’s just an NBA game. We’ll be okay. How does this really affect our lives?”
So here we sit fifty- six games into our Little Miss Sunshine NBA season and I’ve come to terms with it all. Kind of like when you realize one of your relatives are fucking crazy.
I’m good with it. I’ve come to terms with myself. I feel like I’ve grown as a person. I’m better for it.
But be certain I have my book and chainsaw ready for the Memphis Grizzles tomorrow night.