Category: Sports

American History, Movies, Sports

WHAT IS WITH THE GOP AND ITS REJECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT / SCIENCE?

We are facing the first double colossi tag team storms, that I’ve been able to find historically. Irma is the size of France over the Atlantic or 10 Delawares as Colbert said. I’m sure this happens in other places in the Universe, as they can really rip it up out there.This is something I hope we’re not moving towards.

When and why did the GOP become so inflexibly anti-environment/science? Forget that TR founded the nation’s National Park System. We might as well talk about Lincoln and race.

Was it the fundamentalists, believing that god will take care of the environment? Maybe god is sending a message, the size of France, it’s a woman and maybe it’s headed for Trump properties in Florida. If the fundamentalists can accept Trump and his disgusting package of characteristics, which I will not try to fit into their religion, how about the same tolerance towards science? How do you exclude science? It’s a pretty big category.

Moving to the non-fundamentalist deplorables, do you really believe that dealing with the environment costs jobs? Why is everyone so crazy about the 70,000 coal miners, when retail could lose 110,000 jobs this year alone? Do you not understand that the environmental field is one of the fastest growing job categories throughout the world and that the Big Jerk is jerking you all around about moving forward with coal, our most primitive fuel, being shunned around the world. Maybe there is a coal deal to be made with N. Korea, talking about primitive. We could help choke their ruling class. As for oil, natural gas will take care of that, until alternative fuels get full traction.** Hopefully, America will be a big part of that game, despite Trump and the Paris Accord stupidity.

Is the science rejection a battle against the elite? I didn’t know Einstein was part of the 1%. Science and learning are democratic. If a scientist in the FDA or NIH discovers a life saving drug, where does that fit, other than being overpriced by the time Big Pharma distributes it? Or is it just weather science? The GOP certainly likes to cut research budgets, one of the single most important reasons for America’s success and it feeds our businesses with new products.

Now the third part of the Unholy Alliance, Big Business. Most Big Business supports environmental progressivism, except most of the fossil fuel people, led by the Kochs. Science? How could business not be for science? They expand through science and create much of the scientific products. Why are they so passive? Don’t make waves? Is it all about taxes and no regulations?

Now that the Big Opportunist is a Democrat, maybe we’ll find out.

 

This article was planned before the hurricane sale, are there really 2 more coming? Good luck Mexico, 2 earthquakes, a hurricane and DACA.

 

**$50 oil has been one of the great things to watch, and it ain’t going up. Fracking, no matter what you think of it-government research by the way, has been a big reason. Russia now has a GDP slightly more than Mexico and less than Canada, which has 40 million people to Russia’s 125 million. There are not too many petro countries who have been reasonably good citizens, except those in North and South America, a little bias here. Putin’s budget is probably based on $80 oil-good luck! Putin’s given everything else away to the Oligarchs. No wonder Russia has to be a criminal country, otherwise the only thing they have is a large nuclear capacity. Let’s not let the Big Denier rescue Russia for family financial reasons.

 

ODDS&ENDS:

-Trump on Irma on 9/7: “Not good. Believe me. Not good.” But reassuring!

-Why you want to play poker with Trump-so many tells. “We’ll see.” That means nothing will happen or probably a bad hand. “Believe me.” He’s trying to cheat. Repeats the same thing twice-a big exaggeration. Repeats it 3 times-an out and out lie.

-Nice to have Stephen Colbert back. He mentioned an actual letter Obama left for Trump. Obama said there was no blueprint for success, but Colbert said we now have a detailed diagram of failure.

-Trump still wants to spend $40B on The Wall. Houston may have taken $160B of damage, while we await Irma. Trump is someone who really worships his own stupidity.

-Can you actually mix the King of the Deplorables with the Deferential, Defenseless Democrats?

-Bill Maher disclosed a new hurricane warning system: Yellow-Trump’s hair; Orange-Trump’s face; and Red-Trump’s ties to Russia.                                                                                                                                                                               -And Melania’s stilettos-flood me pumps.

-Sorry to say this to all the CBS Morning fans, but Steve Bannon made Charlie Rose look like he has never seriously debated political issues. He favorably interviews people and reads news. Why would 60 MINUTES choose him for this contentious interview? How many electronic people can do more than sound bites? Bannon took Charlie’s underwear off on national TV.

American History, Business and Law, Sports

IS LABOR DAY THE SADDEST DAY OF THE YEAR?

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-When you see ANYTHING Pre-Trump, do you get a feeling of warm nostalgia?

-As GoT’s is in hiatus. You can fill some of that time by reading  GoT’s showrunner David Benioff’s terrific City of Thieves. You may have seen another of his books as a movie, 25 Hours, starring Ed Norton. Both book and movie are very good.

-First year of OZARK on Netflix starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney is a real contender. It’s got a little of a  Breaking Bad premise. Jason Bateman works a lot, but is underrated, but may not be after this.

-After another of Trump’s classy speech/rallies in Phoenix, he slept out of the White House or a Trump property, only for the second time in his Presidency(besides overseas travel). It must be the pj’s, robe and chocolate milk and cookies.

-Don’t miss the article in the Washington Post on 8/24 about what Trump has Undone. It’s by Philip Bump, one of WaPo’s top Trump killers, who make The Untouchables look incompetent.

-Finally one dividend from Trump’s alternative reality  language-they’re calling the NFL’s 4th exhibition game-”fake football”. How about all 4 exhibitions?

Notice that the NFL has certain crypto-fascist tendencies?

-First serious rumors of real friction between Trump and General Kelly. Trump wants to have fun, with people streaming in and out of the White House. General Kelly wants basic training and as you might guess, is not a lot of fun. Trump has to sneak away from Kelly on a private phone to talk to Bannon, frequently. The next Chief of Staff may have to be Ghengis Khan. How about changing the President, instead of CoS?

-Trump thought his trip to Houston was a TV reality show

where he discussed HIS crowd size with the crowd. Is this like asking someone how much they weigh and you tell them no, you must be 50 lbs more? Very solicitous and understanding! Oprah would have done better giving away cars. He will now go back on Labor Day Weekend to try to act like a President.

-What should we call it when Trump accuses the media of constantly doing something like not showing his crowd sizes and their cameras are doing just that? “Can I Get a Witness” or delusional blindness?

-Melania, who has probably been voluntarily invisible,

realizing cyber bullying starts at home, showed up in Houston and immediately set the American record for height of stiletto shoes for First Ladies. This was in the largest flood in the history of America. On a normal sunny day, she could be a foot taller. Mamie Eisenhower is turning over in her grave.

-Trump “pledged”  a fake $1M to “Houston”. Compare this to a fake $5M for birther proof-I guess an Hawaiian birth certificate wasn’t enough. He can’t pay it out of his fake charitable foundation, as it’s under investigation in NYS, a real audit, not his fake income tax IRS audit. On the other hand Trump withdrew his lawsuit in 2013 when Bill Maher offered $5M to a charity of Trump’s choice, if he could prove he didn’t have orangutan DNA. Only comedians can handle the stupidity of Trump and his orangutan behavior, not the GOP, which is trying to hitch a ride on a fake President to get their “agenda” passed, an agenda such as “Repeal and Replace”. Al Franken warm up in the bullpen. I’ll take the over on when Trump pays the $1M, unless military vets threaten him. Look how much money his family and he have stolen in the last 11 months, since he was elected. Squeeze some out.

-Actually the Kushner family is having financial problems, based on the white elephant, 666 5th Avenue. What a shame. Do we think Wonder Kid is discussing this on his foreign trips with Sovereign Funds, etc.?Too bad 666 is not residential, or they could fill it up with Russian mobsters, like Trump Tower. Everyone says The Trump Mob won’t understand Washington, D.C., where they’re stealing pretty good and Congress is so confused, they need John McCain, after brain chemo, to remind them of separation of powers. It’s the Federal judges in places like Hawaii and good old New York, with Eric Schneiderman, the State AG, and 666 5th Avenue, hanging on to the Trumps’ like a mad dog biting their ankles.

-Bill Maher gems from 8/27 show:

     *Trump condemned the violence of Harvey-on both sides.

     *New psychological definition: Erratic bordering on Presidential.

     *New Trump schedule: TelePrompTer-Mon, Wed, Fri. Tweet and rally madness Tues and Thur.  

      *Fans starting to leave Trump rallies early.They say if we leave at “Build the wall” we’ll be on the road by “Drain the swamp”. [Attacks on the press getting a little creepy,. when Liar Numero Uno rails against the lying

press. His supporters cherish Trump’s lies. The new and better jobs? Repeal…was that really 7 years already? A Presidential lie, is a lie, but irrelevant with too many Trump supporters.]  [Original material].

       *Trump bragging about being able to change tones, is actually schizophrenia.

-Talking about lies, the Trumpsters were playing crowd games again. In order to show how many people couldn’t fit into the Phoenix arena, they posted a picture of the whole Quickens Arena crowd after the CAVS clinched its championship in ‘16 in Northern CA, while an arena full of Clevelanders watched on giant screens and then poured out to celebrate and mill around-no political flags from our WWII enemies.

-With Trump taking credit for any good occurrences, whether he had anything to do with it or even opposed it, I find myself doing something I never dreamed of, too often rooting against this country, not to speak of its President.

-Trump is now being called a “Bully without a pulpit”. Cannot think of another President who fit that description, with the U.S. having the largest military and economy in the world by far. Do you think people notice that Trump accomplishes nothing, but trying to unwrap Obama’s legacy. He thinks it’s his old magic slate.. But then again, other than the planets being drunk on November 8th, Trump never accomplished anything, unless you believe he built a successful business. Let’s hope the world’s record of 6 public company bankruptcies(with Wilbur Ross and Carl Icahn saving him from a personal bankruptcy in Atlantic City as well as the Chinese on the West Side of NYC) will not be analogous to military or domestic disasters.

-The world has noticed the depth of his tweeting diplomacy. In this new approach, he should keep his saliva dry. Threatening trade relations with S.Korea in the midst of his dead end approach to N. Korea, is typically Trump, who understands nothing about international trade. Maybe the S.Koreans should pull our air and base rights, as we’re no longer a consistent, trustworthy ally.

      Trump’s agenda is what came flying out of his mouth to a minority of Americans, when he never believed he would win, until the Russians pushed him across the goal line. Build a wall-fat chance; clean up the swamp-he is the swamp; bring back all the manufacturing jobs-the clock’s ticking; “Repeal and Replace”-enough is enough; ad nauseum.

-As for DACA, since Trump is a non-stop liar, he has no problem reneging on 600-800,000 Dreamers. We have a President who likes to inflict pain. Did he ever think of the economic effects of this kind of action on the relevant states? Where is American business, which wants reasonable immigration?

Movies, Politics, Sports, TV

TRUMP’S ULTIMATE SIN – THE POLITICALIZATION OF SPORTS

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“This has nothing to do with race. I never mentioned race.”

(This is long, but good, if I say so myself. Hopefully it explains much of this bizarre battle. Also good for reading during football on Sunday, after you’ve been kneeling during the commercials, as the NFL would actually prefer.)

For the last 10 days, Trump went on the attack against many patriotic citizens like me. One can only watch so much Trump/fake news, before seeking intense escapism. What else? Sports. How ‘bout those Yanks! Trump may be starting to run out of non-white targets to attack. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson are dead. LeBron James is too big, ain’t afraid and probably is richer than Trump. Frederick Douglas is dead, but don’t tell Trump.

So on one of the 3 times a day he speaks with Bannon, Bannon reminded Trump that the NFL is about 70% black, the NBA 74%, but baseball only about 7%. Even Bannon thought they’d worked the Hispanics over enough, particularly Puerto Rico, so they’d leave baseball alone for now-How ‘bout those Yanks! Bannon was watching NASCAR before Trump’s call. He told Trump he could only recall one black NASCAR driver. Trump, as of that moment, became a lifetime big NASCAR fan. Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of the NASCAR god, disagreed with the opportunistic new NASCAR fan.

Monday morning, ESPN was like 5 hours of Meet the Press, but better.    Here’s what I heard from disparate announcers and pundits, but not in panels of 4-8, or for 7&½ minutes. Monday was the anniversary of the 1st Amendment-any relevance there? There is complete distrust by the NFL players of Commissioner Goodell and a feeling of hypocrisy about the the owners. Where have they been the last year and do they still believe the players don’t think there’s a coordinated boycott of Colin Kaepernick? The owner of the Baltimore Ravens, Steve Bisciotti, overruled his coach and GM, who wanted to sign Kaepernick. That almost never happens. I also have been told by a perfectly credible source,  that  4 other teams contacted Kaepernick, but I don’t know further details. The owners prefer plantation style and the labor agreement should be written on cotton paper.

Best line, amongst lots of good ones, “Now the Trumps know what it really sounds like in a locker room!” There was some booing in Tennessee, Arizona and Boston(the most racist sports town in the North), although I didn’t do a sound check around the league. The most interesting fact is that the NFL has taken millions of dollars from the Pentagon to let them stage military events before NFL games, including those dramatic flyovers. Does anyone think that has anything to do with making the National Anthem, a mediocre song at best, such a sacred pre-game tradition?

The players have lots of relatives in the Armed Forces. This is upward mobility and equal rights for struggling families, the background of lots of players. Military personnel love sports, particularly when far away and in danger. The military wants to do its recruiting around sports and the NFL is the biggest show. The players used to stay in the locker room until the National Anthem was over. After the NFL found a way to make more money, the players now became the keeper of the flame and the NFL the keeper of the money.

Trump is a naked racist. Who’s the last white group he attacked, besides the Democratic Party, and about half of his staff. Actually, the NFL ownership-white, business and very rich. How rare is that, but there’s a backstory. The whites he doesn’t attack-Russia, Nazi’s, KKK, alt right, bad police and any strongman dictator. The NFL and NBA are black leagues. If the NFL ownership suffers from this Trump bullshit attack, they deserve it, no matter how many owners try to sing Kumbaya with their players in public.

Speaking of U.S. military, someone once said “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to slaughter.” George Washington. Yes Donald, he died recently. Very sad. Obama made a great speech. It’s the fakes who wrap themselves in the flag. Trump-four deferments during Vietnam. He’s even humped a flag in the White House. I didn’t see him grab it anywhere though. What does it take to get his fake charitable contributions to the vets?

There is a U.S. Flag Code. There’s nothing that says you can’t kneel before  the American flag, in fact that could be more respectful. What it does say is you can’t lay it out over a whole football field, even if Navy jets are flying overhead. The flag is supposed to be upright and unfurled. Maybe the players should file a complaint against the owners for abuse of the flag. If there’s a government Flag Office, Trump probably hasn’t filled that job. In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled burning the American flag was not unconstitutional. The majority opinion, that great liberal jurist, Antonin Scalia! Let’s not get to crazy about symbols. It was Dolly Madison, not Moses from the Mount, who delivered this sacred cloth, that does look good as clothes very often-illegal under the U.S. Flag Code.

Why does a protest about police treatment of blacks get spun into patriotism, anti-military(anti-who, the guys in the jets above the flag draped stadium?)disrespect and disloyalty? My dentist or plumber don’t have to stand up and sing the National Anthem before they start work. If it’s so nationally critical for athletes to do this, start giving your players contracts that reflect that, instead of holding the Kaepernick guillotine over their heads. Rock’n’rollers with 80,000 in their audience, aren’t asked to do this. The NFL acts like a crypto nazi military organization, led by Adjutant Führer Goodell. His father was a good, moderate GOP U.S. Senator from NY., who lost his seat by coming out against the Vietnam War. No ethical stances for the Commissioner son.

What is very clear is how much more supportive and together the NBA owners, players and Commissioner are on player issues. It’s more like a partnership. People used to call the NBA a black league. Look at the NFL numbers now. For some of us, we can never forgive the NFL ownership/management for hiding all of the early CTE proof and how cheap and difficult the NFL proved to be after they finally came to the table.

No matter how many letters a Bob Kraft writes supporting the NFL and the 1st Amendment rights of its players, the players know how many of these effect that, instead of owners remain strong Trump supporters and live with what the the owners have done to Kaepernick. Goodell’s letter was more like a longer, well-written exchange between N. Korea and Trump. “How can you insult the sovereignty of the mighty NFL nation? As for the players, they can be replaced”(this is exaggerated realism). There is no love lost here.

With Trump there’s always a backstory, and it’s usually sleazy. In the early 80’s, the USFL was a fledgling football league trying to merge into the successful, but nothing like now, NFL. Trump bought the New York franchise, the New Jersey Generals, probably on credit. Somehow he fooled his fellow USFL owners to let him spearhead the effort. He made very significant and ultimately unsuccessful changes in the player salary structure as well as other critical mistakes. Trump’s business history includes a pattern of dropping turds into the punch bowl, particularly if it’s someone else’s punch bowl/or money. The NFL rejected the USFL and made no secret of their negative reaction to Trump. The USFL was bankrupt by 1985. Trump lives for revenge, and obviously 32 years later is not too long. Trump’s revenge was re-stoked, when the NFL turned him down on his bid, probably credit, for the Buffalo Bills franchise in 2014. I wish Trump was an owner in the NFL. They deserve each other.