Things Are Different Now, For Real

This special, mid-week Schloss-Blog cannot be held for the weekend.

The Milwaukee Bucks voiced their protest by not showing up for their game in the bubble, a protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, a Wisconsin town with a lot of Bucks fans.

Then the NBA canceled the rest of its games that night.

Then the WNBA.

And MLS. And some MLB.

Some baseball players said they didn't have enough time to discuss doing the same.

Hockey too.

I looked at all this and realized how lucky I am and how legitimate all these athletes are in their protest voices, their boycotts and their frustration.

When I go out and drive around, run errands or am on my way out to dinner or a game to cover, I am not worried that a police officer will pull me over.

Because I'm white.

But all these athletes are saying they are worried, for themselves, that they've lived through it, that they often tool around in fear.

They're worried for their kids, especially when they reach driving age.

I never had to worry about that with my daughter. No one in my family ever had to worry about that with their kids.

No one.

But black athletes do. Blacks do.

Now, with these protests, I see for real the legitimacy of their concerns and those of the entire black community. I was always aware of it, but now I'm not just seeing it, I'm feeling it.

I attended segregated public schools growing up in Brooklyn. My friends and I would ride out to Lost Battalion Hall just to play pickup games and test our skills with some of the best schoolyard players in Nu Yawk in the facility where our beloved Knicks practice at in those days. 

And then I attended the same environment in college.

And taught for 23 years at a college famous for its diversity of student body. And covered and wrote about athletes of color and still do.

Meanwhile, idiot Clay Travis is exploiting this racial element to rant about how stupid the athletes are in their protests, that they're proverbially shooting themselves in their feet.

The next time he has a black athlete on his show will likely be the first time.

This whole thing - George Floyd, LaQuan McDonald, Breonna Taylor and now Jacob Blake - makes it all too real, even for someone like me, who, like I said, grew up in and attended schools in mixed environments all the way through my education and into my professional life.

I'm listening to athletes, retired and otherwise, say, "I'm tired of being tired," which Jay Williams of ESPN just said on air.

I'm listening to athletes, like the most-high profile of them all, LeBron James, and respected coaches, like Doc Rivers, who I actually saw play when he was in high school, speak out in frustration that the white community does not understand the fear that blacks live in.

I wouldn't blame the NBA for not finishing its season. I might blame them if they do.

It's time for a change. But I've heard that before.

One more thing: to watch the Republican National Convention this week, you'd never know any of this is going on and when they do decide to recognize it, it will be to quiet and shame the protesters and not to address what they are protesting. And it will be to shame the athletes in their protests.

Which is exactly the point - the White House, the president, the First Lady, the Republican Party have no shame.

Not such a good night, is it, Mrs. Calabash? Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

So, I've Been Thinking...

So much on the Schloss-Blog's mind and not enough time to process everything. Need your help.

With the post office "slowed" by Trump and DeJoy, we know that many absentee ballots will not be delivered in time to be counted. Trump is counting on that.

But it's not the only thing being "slowed" by the post office debacle the president is trying to create.

Did you know that there was a 20 percent increase in prescription medicine delivery since the pandemic hit earlier this year? That means people's lives are stake. Now, those medicines will arrive that much later. Literally.

Is your prescription medicine delivery threatened? Is a loved one's? 

If economic stimulus checks ever get approved again and begin being dispatched to people, most will go electronically. But did you know that for people making less than $15,000 a year (there's lots of 'em too), 28 percent of them do not have a bank account. Which means they'd have to get a stimulus check, let alone an unemployment insurance check, by mail. 

Or, more likely, not get it. Not before food, meds and other critical supplies run out.

By the way, 10 percent of the U.S. population makes less than $15,000 a year. Could you live on $15,000 a year? Could a loved one?

And by the way, some 12 million Americans do not have a checking or savings account and therefore have no way to electronically receive a stimulus or unemployment check. They have to get it by ... yeah, you know it, U.S. Mail.

Which is being deliberately delayed.

The U.S. Mail is not the U.S. Mail anymore. It's a vehicle to prevent voting which is becoming a vehicle to prevent critical care for so many.

Hopefully, not you nor any of your loved ones. But some of of you likely are being impacted.

Speaking of being at risk, college students have been chased off campus and classes have gone back to being virtual around the country as "clusters" of coronavirus have erupted at colleges across the nation, in good part due to welcome-back-to-school parties that paid no particular attention to face masks nor social distancing.

But the football teams are still practicing at so many of those institutions, despite the way the University of North Carolina student newspaper termed the "clusters" of spikes:

Cool, huh? Not making this up. The college newspaper published this story and headline on its front page.

So, how are you feeling about sending your kids back to school? Are you confident that your kids' schools are doing what it takes to protect their health and safety and prevent them from eventually bringing it home as well?

Me, a retired college professor, I'm not that confident.

Yet, parents at many major colleges, especially at the Big Ten, are angry and sounding off that their kids should be allowed to play football this year, despite the conference postponing it for the fall.

So, to me, these parents are silent about and willing to send their children into mosh pits where they are likely to get life-shortening, life-threatening brain injuries with no protest to the schools to raise the level of protection from that but are angry that the schools are protecting their kids from contracting a deadly virus from which there is no known cure.

Me, I'm wondering, when did parents did take over college athletic administration?

One solution I've seen suggested is spreading out the kids along almost the full length of the sideline to keep them socially distanced when they're not in the game but to throw them into the mosh pit that is the offensive and defensive lines colliding when they're in the game. Yeah, that makes sense.

I am as much in favor of football being played as anyone in America. But I am in favor of doing it in such a way that keeps players, coaches and officials as safe as possible.

Like, maybe in the spring, when there is the prospect of a vaccine or herd immunity.

But these parents have never herd - uh, heard - of that. Fans in Utah and Alabama, where high school football is underway, are seen in droves not wearing masks nor observing social distancing. They can likely kiss their seasons good-bye sometime in October, if not before.

For me,it's time to say good night Mrs. Calabash and here's to you Mrs. Robinson.

More on my show tonight on radiofreephoenix.com, the station celebrating its 16th anniversary.

And Now, The Schloss-Blog Is Back....

We're back and thankful to be. So glad so many of you appreciated last week's respite from vitriolic diatribe and calling out lies and misleading claims.

We warned though, months ago, that Trump would announce before the election that a virus vaccine would be ready by election day and he's at it already. He is desperate to be re-elected because he knows he will be indicted if he is not.

But me, I have a little dispute with Clay Travis, sports talk-radio host (on Fox, where else?), who claims that Black Lives Matter is the reason NBA ratings have not peaked yet since the league's return and that NBA athletes especially are to blame for the increase in shootings across America because of their stands on Black Lives Matter.

He has offered no proof whatsoever other than he is Clay and he is God. Yo, Clay, the NBA format sucks and nobody cares about the tournament-to-be-in-tournament. The NHL got right into its playoffs, golf is doing well because it is naturally socially distanced (I play once a week) and baseball, ratings notwithstanding, sucks. A man on second to start extra innings sucks. Seven-inning doubleheader games suck.

If someone pitches a 7-inning no-hitter or perfect game, by the way, should they get official credit for it? If someone throws a 7-inning perfecto, should it be No. 24 in baseball history? Why not? The game would count in the standings, wouldn't it?

Have not heard you, Clay, address that. And so far, Clay, 24 games have been canceled or postponed by the virus. Maybe they'll be made up as part of 7-inning-game doubleheaders. What a joke.

Sort of like you, Clay. You claim that white elites are the moving force behind Black Lives Matter. Your proof, please. You claim that not only are fans turning away from the NBA because it is politically active but that NBA players being politically active is the driving force behind the increase in shootings in America.

By the way, Clay, Black athletes have long been reacting to political machinations, especially Trump's.

So, your proof, please, Clay, your proof.

Gee, Clay, who do you sound like who makes outlandish claims like that with no proof?

Mitch McConnell? Unqualified DNI John Ratcliffe? Mike Pence?

All of the above or the man above them, whose name we won't mention but whose initials are Donald Trump.

He wants all our children sent back to school, all of them. Sort of like the scene of the crowded hallway in Georgia, the school where Trump's "immune" children are packed together, super-spreading the virus and inviting it home with them after school. The kids who took that pic, btw, were disciplined.

Your children might die. How do you feel about that? I see you're sending your kids back to school. We'll see if the schools stay open.

But you're the great Clay Travis, whose Donald Trump-deplorable listeners have indicted themselves by believing that black athletes are spurring shootings in America via their politicking for Black Lives Matter.

So I guess Black Lives Matter doesn't matter to you and your WWE Monday broadcast partner Jason Whitlock, as both of you blame black athletes for the shootings yet offer no proof to back up your claim.

Hey Clay, Donald Trump thinks your kids are "immune" from the virus, so, no sweat sending them back to school, right? Right?

One more thing - our elected representatives in Washington, D.C., are negotiating - negotiating - the lives of our children, our relatives, our friends and neighbors and how much to spend to keep them alive and thriving. NEGOTIATING! OUR LIVES! And btw, Donald Trump's executive orders about money to people have no teeth. Only Congress controls monetary disbursement and the Republicans in the Senate refuse to negotiate about it and would rather let people die.

Makes you feel confident in D.C. policymaking, doesn't it? Trump can make policy, he can declare policy, but he can't finance it. But he can send United States military personnel into American urban areas to "enforce" the law. And that is entirely unconstitutional.

On that note, good night, Mrs. Calabash and here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More on Sunday night on my rock 'n' roll show on Radio Free Phoenix.