Nothing About The War Today ... We Mean Nothing. Seriously!

The Schloss-Blog is serious today. The war is too depressing to right about, and too incendiary - figuratively and literally. 

So today we are about  anything but, like...

Mitchell Trubisky has signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Who will have a better season - him or Justin Fields?

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The coronavirusis is still surging in parts of the country and around the globe. In Hong Kong, where two-thirds of the residents are not vaccinated, they've had the worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

And there are still about 1,000 people dying of COVID everyday in the United States. Does that sound like "under control" and "in the rearview mirror" to you?

Or do we still need mask and vaccination mandates?

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Things have gotten so bad because of the price of gas (OK, in good part because of the war), that Uber and Lyft are now adding a surcharge to your ride with them.

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The Colorado House of Representatives has passed a bill in support of women's abortion rights. By the same token, Idaho passed one resembling the law in effect in Texas.

Can't we just let all the red states defect, secede, whatever, and get on with the business of the country?

Of course, that would make it more difficult to visit Mt. Rushmore, but also anywhere in Iowa (Chuck Grassley) and Kansas (Mike Pompeo). 

Yeah, let's do it.

*** 

Eileen Gu, a teenager, did trick skiing at the Olympics for China (her mom is Chinese). According to published reports, she had a 1580 SAT, a scholarship to Stanford and has made millions as a model, represented by the prestigious IMG agency.

With all of these American benefits, should she have skied for oppressive China (winning 3 medals) or the good ole U.S. of A? I say the latter. Prove me wrong.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars have signed NY Giants free-agent ight end Evan Engram and as a lifelong Giants fan I'm happy to say they can have a talented receiver who specializes in dropping passes in clutch situations.

As an adopted Arizonan, I'm baffled watching the Cardinals let their best receiver of 2021, Christian Kirk, walk away to the ... Jacksonville Jaguars. Really?

And pass-rushing ace Chandler Jones to Las Vegas.

But head coach Kliff Kingsbury, whose teams traditionally collapse late in a season, was extended through the season that would mark the average lifespan of anyone born the same year as me.

Huh?

***

Still have not mentioned the war. No, wait...

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Dolly Parton, you gotta' love her, has requested that her name be withdrawn for consideration to be elected to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Her request was denied, but she is a "rock" star, sort of, isn't she?

As an analogy, I tried to recuse myself from the committee that voted for all-conference consideration for my intramural football league in college.

Yet, somehow, I wound up as the all-conference quarterback.

Hold your enthusiasm and applause, please. Couldn't have done it without good friend and running back extraordinaire Rich Smyth.

***

The Rolling Stones are touring Europe on the "Sixty" tour as they are calling it.

If a Russian missile lands near one of their concert sites, is that enough to invoke Article 5 and go kick Russia's ass.

Damn it, I said I wouldn't mention...

***

Tom Brady's father blames the media for making Tom announce he was coming back after all.

Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors, their star forward, blames the media for reporting that he wasn't working hard enough in rehab to come back from an injury.

The media is also reporting that Russia is bombing apartment buildings and hospitals all over Ukraine, so, Tom Sr, Draymond, just chill.

Did it again, damn it...

***

In its February 2022 issue, GQ did a story on the three Russian athletes, all hockey players (Mikhail Sergachev, Alexander Ovechkin and Andrei Vasilevsky) who would be looking for redemption for Russia's (Russian Olympic Committee) team.

Then the NHL said no players allowed in the Olympics, what with COVID peaking at the time, and all. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. Ovechkin, superstar that he is, has called for peace but never denounced Putin. 

And GQ, well, they ran this real upbeat story about this troika of heroes. 

As they say in Russia, what a (журнал) zhurnal that GQ is.

***

Just so you know, the U.S House of Representatives has passed a resolution that if enacted, would remove Russia from "most-favored nation" status as a trading partner. In other words, trade with Russia would be restricted, its status severely downgraded, a further sanction on Russia's already crippled economy.

And just so you know, voting against this bill were Trump pit bulls GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Chip Roy of Texas.

They also believe Trump won the 2020 election.

Well, as the Snake Island Ukrainians said to the Russian warship, they can go fuck themselves.

Oops, I did it again, about the war, that is...

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

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

Ill and Fatigued...

The Schloss-Blog is as ill and fatigued - in other words, sick and tired of the news as you probably are and especially of the disturbing images coming out of Ukraine.

Or do you have a distraction from the inhumanity of the Russian forces, bombing maternity hospitals and leaving babies buried in the rubble; the blocking of the humanitarian corridors supposedly reserved for the wounded, the aged, the women and children to flee across the border; the deliberate destruction of civilian targets; the risk of causing leaks and explosions at nuclear plants?

Should we declare and enforce a no-fly zone (NFZ), essentially starting a formal war with Russia? Would Putin resort to nukes?

Or should we continue to watch the inhumanity of the Russian attack, while we wait for Putin to back down with all the deep, deep harm being done to his country, his economy, his citizens?

He won't.

So how do you deal with someone who acts irrationally?

You can't. It's like arguing with a Trump supporter who insists he won the election. You can't be rational with irrational people.

It seems, for the United States and NATO, it's more risky to transport fighter jets to Ukraine through Poland than to allow babies to die in the rubble of a maternity hospital that Russia has bombed.

Which one do do you think is more risky?

***

I can't watch the coverage of the war 24/7. Too depressing. Too disturbing.

I can't stand to watch Donald Trump, Lauren Boebert, Mike Pompeo and Crazy Marjorie Taylor Greene root for Putin and declare him a better "leader" than Biden.

And yet, I can't take my eyes off it.

Will Putin utterly destroy Ukraine or will economic sanctions so weaken him that he has to capitulate?

Do you want to see American soldiers at war in Ukraine? In Russia?

All of a sudden, all other news is almost trivial. Or is it?

Do you care that James Harden just got traded to the Philadelphia 76ers?

Do you care that baseball players and owners took 99 days to settle their lockout, curtailing spring training, hurting businesses in Florida and Arizona and generally causing public apathy about their millionaire and billionaire statuses?

Do you care that shootings at schools are up, up, up in this country?

Do you care that basketball star Brittney Griner is being held in a Russian jail?

Do you care that it seems like COVID is hardly reported on anymore, despite the "experts" saying we have to remain on guard for future variants?

Do you still wear a mask indoors?

Do you care that so many other people - about 1 in 4 Americans - have resisted being vaccinated and likely never will?

Do you have zero tolerance for those people? I do.

Do you want to go back to the office to avoid getting the virus? Most people don't. But at the same time, are you going to crowded concerts and sporting events, COVID be damned?

Do you care that Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, along with William "Roddie" Bryan, were convicted of a federal hate crime, in addition to the charges for which they were found guilty in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery?

Do you care that guys were breaking 40-yard sprint records at the "Underwear Olympics," otherwise known as the NFL Combine?

Do you care that Aaron "Immunized" Rodgers is going to become the highest-paid player in NFL history to stay with the Packers? 

He says he's happy. Bears fans have him on "wanted" posters.

Do you care?

Do you care that CNN and MSNBC are virtually 24/7 on the war in Ukraine and its fallout or that Fox, Newsmax and One America are covering Biden as the villain in the war?

Do you care that Trump has started "Truth Social," which has been a miserable flop so far?

Do you care that "Build Back Better" has still never been passed, nor parts thereof?

Do you care what the price of gas is? Or home heating?

Or do you care about the next baby that gets buried in a pile of exploded rubble thanks to a Russian missile?

This war is testing our patience, our limits, our stomachs and our loyalties.

Do you care? Or are you logging onto Truth Social?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

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

Emptying Out The Notebook

All this stuff piled up in the Schloss-Blog's notebook. Not anymore.

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Some 60 million Americans, about 1 in 4 of those eligible, remain unvaccinated against COVID.

They are leading the nation in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID.

They come from Red States for the most part and will vote for Trump and/or even further rightwing  Republicans.

Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing, huh?

***

In Arizona, candidates competing for the Republican nomination for Senate against Mark Kelly, are running despicable ads.

Against each other.

They focus almost exclusively on border control and what they term to be illegal immigration, blame Biden for everything but beat each other up anyway.

None of them talk about education, taxes, budgets or telling the truth.

Virtually all avoid mentioning Trump.

Has the orange-skinned one lost his stranglehold grip on the party? Is he poison? Look what Glenn Youngkin did in Virginia as an indication.

***

Serena Williams took the NY Times to task for a story it ran about her and a new venture fund she has founded.

Seems the Times used a picture of Venus in the story instead of Serena.

All the news that's fit to print, but apparently not the pictures.

***

I have some favorite and not-so-favorite ads running now.

One ad that continually puts a lump in my throat and makes me well up is the Colgate ad with Caleb, the young, visually-impaired boy, who boards a school bus and smiles his way into a conversation with a young girl named Grace.

His attitude in the ad is amazing. He deserves treatment, a procedure maybe a transplant if appropriate to fix his condition.

His heart is better than most people's vision.

***

Jimmy Kimmel managed to put obnoxious congresswomen Lauren Boebart and Marjorie Taylor Greene in their respective place.

After the pair of gun-toting (Boebert), foul-mouthed idiots (both) heckled Biden during his State of the Union address, Kimmel pointed out that Boebert's husband was convicted of exposing himself to a high school kid in a bowling alley and Greene spoke at a far-right, pro-Putin's white-nationalist conference.

Trump loves them. Both are conspiracy theorists extraordinaire. Shocker, right?

***

Hold on to to your old car. It is valuable for its chip.

It appears the war in Ukraine has caused Ukraine-based Cryoin to shut down. It is a leading maker of neon gas, which is key to making computer chips.

Cryoin is responsible for about half the world's chip-making possibilities.

***

Flying Jet Blue anytime soon?

A pilot of theirs was yanked from his assignment when he showed up measuring a reported four times the legal limit for alcohol in his system. 

Almost makes you want to fly Spirit or Frontier or whatever that merger is called now.

***

Hello, Michelob Light.

Please finish the Superior Bowl ad, y'know the one with Peyton Manning, Alex Morgan, Jimmy Butler and Brooks Koepka, and the whole room stops when Serena walks in at the end.

Love Steve Buscemi as the bowling alley manager and shoe distributor.

Does Serena kick everybody's ass on the lanes? Wouldn't surprise me.

***

The 'Underwear Olympics" were this week, otherwise known as the NFL Combine.

It has become "must-see" TV on the NFL Network, watching guys high jump, sprint 40 yards and make believe they're agile.

Hey NFL, skip this and cut to the draft already.

But no, next year the NFL Combine will be in the city that bids best for it.

I'm rooting for London.

***

Zion Williamson, the freight train with skills disguised as a basketball player, has hardly played a minute for the New Orleans Pelicans.

Injury notwithstanding, what is the most-exciting player to come out of college basketball in a decade doing wasting away in the league's smallest market when it should've been "arranged" in the lottery that he wound up in big-ticket TV markets LA or New York?

Oh yeah, because LeBron wanted to steal Anthony Davis from New Orleans.

GM LeBron ain't doing too well.

See Westbrook, Russell.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

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

War Is Hell

The Schloss-Blog is watching a brutal war going on and nothing being done about it. Nothing.

One side won't relent. The other won't yield.

One side plays dirty, illicitly. The other plays with nobility and bravery.

People are dying, bullets are flying, all across the country.

Both sides claim to be in the right.

Both sides are claiming the same territory.

Both sides are willing to fight and die for it.

No amount of negotiation, no amount of talk, no amount of public posturing has appeared to have an impact on the hatred between the sides.

They continue to fire at each other. They appear to be willing to die for their causes.

They have moved in heavy artillery. They scoff at each other, at what the public thinks, of what the world thinks of their respective positions.

They are illogical on the one side, bleeding hearts leaning on logic on the other side. They plead with the people, with the public, for understanding in siding with them, in believing them, even though only the one side is telling the truth.

But only half the people believe it. Not the half with the biggest weapons, the biggest mouthpieces, the biggest megaphones.

That half tells lies to justify its illicit actions, its unethical activity, to justify its lie after lie after historical lie.

And yet, we all watch on in disbelief.

As more and more people die. Unnecessarily, but they die.

They are shot in the streets. By the authorities. By each other.

Neither side yields.

They each want to impose their wills.

But they each only have half the people believing them.

One side tells the truth. The other lies incessantly. 

And gets away with it.

And no one does anything about it. Anything.

All the talking, all the lying on one side, all the integrity on the other.

For naught.

Bullets keep flying. People keep dying.

The people are ill and fatigued from it all.

Otherwise known as sick and tired.

And that's just in Congress.

There's also a war between good and evil going on in Ukraine, and all of us here,  courtesy of the liars and conspiracy-theorists, the cheaters and deniers of the truth, watch the war there unfold.

And by the time the sanctions against the liars in that war sink in, it will be too late for the good people paying the price.

They already are.

God bless the good people of Ukraine. What are we, the bastion of freedom and liberty, doing about it?

Good night Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

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