There's a Hen In the Fox News House, and it's Trouble. Plus, No-No's and Kasrol G on Vevo

As disappointed as the Schloss-Blog is, like so many others, that Fox News' most-boisterous and overrated on-air personalities won't have to testify in person, let alone apologize publicly, it was still nice to know that Fox had to write a check for $787.5 million to Dominion to avoid having to do all that.

We'll see if that keeps them from doing more of that going forward to other fine, upstanding businesses. And they still have the Smartmatic case for $2.7 billion staring them in the face, and Smartmatic says this will go the distance.

Can't wait.

***

Want to get gun-loving Republicans to vote in favor of more restrictive legislation when it comes to gun-toting?

Greg Moore, in a USA Today column, contends that releasing the crime-scene photos of the victims killed with AR-15s will sway a good number of people.

And he's right.

I can feel my stomach churning already at the sight of 9-year olds, or what's left of them, with AR-15 bullet holes in them.

Moore literally contends that we should show photos from the carnage, like what just happened in Louisville and in Nashville.

It would be so sickening. But it would work.

***

Ninety-three (93) runs.

In one softball game.

But that's what happened when South Mountain played Metro Tech in Phoenix.

Yes, the game ended by slaughter rule (it was 54-39 after 6 innings), but not before Metro Tech's four pitchers walked 44 South Mountain players. South Mountain's sole pitcher, in her masterpiece, only walked nine.

The game went on so long that the scoreboard lights supposedly went out automatically beyond "curfew" and had to be rekindled each time.

Kinda' makes you want to be a softball mom or dad, huh?

***

Quick takes:

• Damar Hamlin is back. The Buffalo Bills safety, who suffered a heart attack in the Cincinnati game, has been cleared for full-contact participation. God love him!
• What's the most-populous country in the world? China, for now, India soon. Before the end of the year, India is projected to pass China in population. Combined with the United States, the three countries will account for nearly half the world's population.
• What does $787.5 million buy you? No admission of guilt.
• What are the four traits you have that can blunt AI? Fast Company says it's empathy, self-awareness, curiosity and humility. You mean AI can't copy that? Hmm...
• Space X's rocket blew up. But the mission was successful. Huh?
• My Pillow's Mike Lindell has been ordered to pay $5 million to Robert Zeidman, a software developer who proved that Lindell's data does not show that the 2020 election was rigged. Lindell is saying that Zeidman's analysis was rigged. Zeidman, by the way, voted for Trump. He just wanted the $5 million.
• Blue Jays' pitcher Anthony Bass was lit up on Twitter after contending a flight attendant should not have forced his 22 weeks-pregnant wife to clean up after their kid on a flight where the kid schmeared popcorn all over. What do you think?

***

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

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

Shoot! AR-15s and Donald Trump are still on the loose

The Schloss-Blog is wondering today why shootings have become so commonplace in our everyday conversations and why Donald Trump isn't in jail already (because he likely never will be).

***

Five dead, eight wounded in Louisvlle, Kentucky. Six dead in Nashville, Tennessee.

A week apart.

As of the Louisville shooting, at a bank's offices, there were 145 mass-shooting incidents in the United States so far this year and 11,623 were dead overall in shootings as well.

Why?

Maybe because more than 30 states allow no-permit/open-carry of weapons. More than 30. Only five states prohibit open carry.

Five.

And the District of Columbia.

Comforting, huh?

Three 9-year olds were killed in the Tennessee shooting. Their parents sent them off to school that morning not even suspecting they'd never come home or that they'd be planning their funerals before that day was over.

9-year olds!

An AR-15 bullet rips into someone of that age and body mass like a ballistic missile. They might as well have stood out in the middle of an Interstate highway.

Yet, in Tennessee, the Republican-controlled state legislature expelled two Black members for protesting that the body has done nothing to mitigate against shooting incidents like this. This is the same body where State Representative Paul Sherrill suggested adding "death by hanging" to the state's death-penalty statute.

Racist sweetheart, huh?

In Kentucky, one of the state's most-respected legal minds who was a close friend of the governor was shot and killed.

This is the United States of America. Republicans formerly swore by law and order. Now they swear by allowing weapons of mass destruction to be carried openly while they restrict women's health by legislating against their reproductive rights.

Republican legislators are pretty shitty people. Pretty, pretty shitty.

***

Taking a look at Republican candidates for president and seeing a lot of people totally afraid to invoke Donald Trump's name.

Why?

Political pundits say they're afraid Trump will go after them.

Really? Because prosecutors from New York to Atlanta are not afraid of going after Trump. Can't imagine that one of those prosecutions won't stick, between Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis and DOJ Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, let alone E. Jean Carroll and her civil suit for rape and defamation.

Maybe all those prosecutions are what Asa Hutchinson, Nikki Haley and prospectively Tim Scott see as Trump's vulnerabilities that will do what they can't; knock him out of the race.

Hutchinson has been openly critical of Trump, saying the party has to move past him. Haley, for all of her courteous campaign stops, has been privately critical of Trump in fundraising solicitations to big-time Republican donors.

However, almost universally, the Republican field has been critical of Joe Biden and the Democrats, despite Trump being critical of the rest of the Republican candidates. Well, DeSantis.

We'll see what happens on a debate stage, when they criticize Biden but Trump insults them.

***

Quick takes:

Is it just me, or do we talk about mass shootings the same way we mention hurricanes, floods and, dare I say, people getting cancer or COVID?

PassGAN AI, in a test, cracked 51 percent of common passwords - in under one minute!

Thirty-four-year-old Jeremy David Hanson was sentenced to prison for making threats to the publishers of the Merriam-Webster dictionary for having "inclusive" words in their latest edition. In other words, for updating their LGBTQ definitions.

Finally, FAST COMPANY published a list of five things you should do every morning to get your day started right. They include: setting your pace; getting moving; rewiring your brain; finding stillness; and eating healthy. Gee, how come they left out making your bed and brushing your teeth?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, E. Jean Carroll.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. And stay tuned for Bohemian Night Cat John Kirk DeRitis immediately thereafter.

Romance, Trash Talking, Tennessee, FanFix and Fast Company

The Schloss-Blog is following up on reporting that American men are not serious enough about love - uh, relationships, that is - so American women are seeking it abroad. We're also looking at the flak that LSU's Angel Reese is catching for her apparent trash talk directed at Iowa's Caitlin Clark. And we're also looking at influencers - no, creators - who are monetizing themselves quite successfully on something called FanFix.

***

According to a report in the NY Times, American women are tired of looking for love in all the wrong places. So they're looking for it in European places, because they say that American men are not up to maintaining it, let alone achieving it.

American women who have had, what one woman the Times talked to described as "disappointing dating experiences," have subsequently taken jobs with European companies and moved over there and found - you guessed it - lasting romance, let alone a better lifestyle maintainable on a lower salary. 

Why do they find European men this way? They describe them as just being more serious about romantic relationships. They just are.

Or, perhaps they look at it this way: American men meet a woman and think, wonder if she's good in bed. American women meet a guy and think, wonder what color the kids' eyes would be.

***

Speaking of relationships, don't invite LSU's Angel Reese and Iowa's Caitlin Clark to the same party. There's not enough space in any one room for their apparent mutual disrespect in the wake of LSU's win over the Hawkeyes in the NCAA women's basketball championship.

LSU took it personally that the Hawkeyes played one-foot-in-the-paint defense against them and against their SEC sisters from South Carolina, who the Hawkeyes vanquished in the semifinals behind that defensive strategy and Clark's incredible performance.

But it was Clark, playing defense, who waved off LSU's Alexis Morris - physically waved her off, disrespectfully to the Tigers - regarding her and her teammates' shooting ability.

As the game wound along, Reese, the Final Four's MVP, returned the favor with a John Cena "You can't see me" wave as her teammates burned Iowa's defensive maneuvering. Or as Reese told Yardbarker after the game: "Caitlin Clark is a hell of a player for sure, but I don’t take disrespect lightly. She disrespected Alexis (Morris) and my girls, South Carolina, they’re my SEC girls too."

In case you're wondering, Reese has cashed in on the activity, generating some near $400,000 in endorsements in NIL (Name/Image/Licensing) activity. 

Yo, Caitlin Clark: sharpshooting and slick assists may look flashy and win games, but trash talking is cash talking, disrespect notwithstanding.

***

Meanwhile, the Schloss-Blog had not even heard of FanFix before reading that it has 10 million users and about 3,000 "creators" - OK, influencers - some of whom have more than 2,000 followers who pay $8 month to keep up with them, or $13,500 a month, en totale.

Some creators, Gen Z'ers catering to other Gen Z'ers - are earning $70K a year. That's people between 13-24.

What are they selling? You go to FanFix and tell me. I don't get it.

But SuperOrdinary does. The website spent $65 million to acquire FanFix.

*** In Tennessee, it's apparently not good to be a black state legislator or a a 9-year-old school kid. Two of the former were expelled by their Republican colleagues from the state legislature for being - well, black - and complaining that their Republican colleagues were not doing enough - let alone anything - to help preserve the lives of latter, who were shot and killed in a senseless mass shooting last week. The two black legislators will apparently be reinstated by their local party overseers. No one can bring back the three 9-year olds, nor the three adults senselessly slaughtered along with them at Covenant School in Nashville. Republicans in Tennessee, and the people there who voted for them, are assholes. *** This week's Fast Company tip: Five things would-be managers should ask themselves before accepting that promotion to management. They include: what would you miss about your current role (answer: being trusted); are you 'ready' to be one 'them' (answer: the distrusted); do you enjoy teaching (answer: considering no one will trust what you're teaching); is 'managing upward' appealing (answer: whatever that means); and how do you feel about being proactive (answer: being trusted). You want to be a manager? In other words, it's not a popularity contest. Gird yourself. *** Two quick takes: I'm still sick of the UpWork ads' zombie. If they wanted one as the face of their company, they just shoud've hired Ozzy Osbourne to be in their ads, like Workday did. And...finally, remember when Republicans were the party of law and order? Now they're the party of guns and racism, of scofflaws and disorder. *** Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Molly Shannon. More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show, ahead of the Bohemian Night Cat, John Kirk DeRitis.

Nashville, New York, Indiana - The Song Remains The Same

The Schloss-Blog is crying over the shooting in Nashville and lamenting over the lack of response from Congress, particularly from Republicans.

Don't know about you, but I'm ill, fatigued over it all. In other words, sick and tired of hearing "thoughts and prayers." 

***

In Tennessee, it's OK to pass laws restricting women's reproductive rights - or what Republicans call "protecting life." But they won't protect lives by passing the restrictive gun laws that require deep background checks and provide red-flag alerts on people who probably shouldn't be allowed to purchase guns.

Tennessee legislators, local and national, promote automatic-weapon ownership and they outright refuse to legislate about the weapon that took 6 lives, including three 9-year olds.

If you support this, if you vote for people like this, you are as much to blame as they are.

Hmm ... tornados rip across the south in the wake of these shootings. Maybe God is sending a message.

***

Fast Company, God bless 'em, this week has six things you should never say that would otherwise make people hate you, especially at work.

They include: "No problem;" "Whatever;" "It is what it is;" " Pissed off;" "Can't;" and "Hope."

This has been a public service message, courtesy of The Schloss-Blog, just spreading the gospel.

I can't be sure, but I hope you don't consider that it is what it is. Whatever, it's no problem and please don't be pissed off about it.

***

Indiana has passed a bill that prohibits gender-affirming care for trans people.

Just another way for backwoods racists in this country to marginalize another minority.

What's next, voting restrictions? No, wait...

***

Hey Tennessee, you can't be pro-life and pro-gun, and thank you, Bo Mitchell of the Tennessee legislature, for asserting that.

***

Watching Iowa and Caitlan Clark upset South Carolina in the women's NCAA Final Four semifinals and wondering...

...Dawn Staley, why didn't you take the ball out of Caitlan Clark's hands? Why? She killed you and you let her. She should've been doubled every time she touched the ball, every time, no hesitation, pick and roll notwithstanding. Anyone but Clark should've had to beat you, instead, Clark beat you.

She gets 41 of Iowa's 76 points, assists on most of the rest.

And you let her. And on offense, with Iowa playing four in the paint and letting you have the 3-point shot, you took it. And you shot 20 percent on them.

Twenty percent!

Your bigs, who are so good, couldn't get the ball in the post. Why didn't you play two-high on offense and keep the lane clear for your guards? Y'know, like the dynamic Zia Cooke, who took it to the hoop so effectively all game.

No adjustments at halftime. Kept relying on offensive boards and waiting for Clark to slow down. You can bet LSU will not let Clark beat them. She will be doubled and forced to give up the ball as much as possible. Which doesn't mean Iowa won't win.

But it sure meant, Dawn Staley, that you wouldn't win.

*** 

The COVID-19 emergency, according to Congress and the President, is officially over. 

So go get your vaccination or updated shot to keep it that way.

***

Jalen Carter (Georgia football) and Brandon MIller (Alabama basketball) will both be lottery picks in their respective sports' pro drafts.

Isn't participating in criminal activity wonderful, rewarding?

***

There are five thing, according to a Fast Company article, that ruin an employee-manager relationship.

They are: "Bare-minimum Monday;" "Trust;" "Being too Busy;" "Keeping secrets;" and, of course, "Being overly critical."

So, if you show up for work on Monday still hung over from the weekend and do the bare minimum because you don't trust your manager (and vice versa), and you keep up an appearance of being too busy, which, of course, is a secret while you're overly critical, of each other, that is, then you and your boss probably don't get along too well.

Have a nice week.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jill Biden.

More Sunday night, Catie, on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show, and a riff on my R&I friends, and stay tuned for the Bohemian Night Cat, John Kirk DeRitis. 

Scott/Cheryl Service - Sargassum Algae - FC: 7 commons qualities of credible people - Wyoming bans abortion pill - Chichen Itza

The Schloss-Blog is watching so many things: from Chichen Itza (yeah, it's a thing); to Finland (and not because it's getting into NATO); to illicit (or not) uses of Chat GPT (it can do the job but can it do it well); to ways to improve your resume without - ahem - enhancing; to the CDC standing down (for all the wrong reasons); and finally, to how Millennials and Gen Z'ers pick vacation spots (it's stupidly easy).

But first, we're gonna' drop some 'F' bombs. No, really; right here, right now.

Those nasty 'F' bombs: Fairleigh Dickinson, Furman, Florida Atlantic and Final Four. The first three probably wrecked your bracket. And the Final Four, well there's no telling how much Fairleigh Dickinson, Furman and Florida Atlantic effed up the prospective Final Four, your prospective Final Four.

Ain't it the effin' truth!

***

Meanwhile, Chichen Itza, the famed pyramid among the Mayan ruins in Mexico, on March 20, an equinox day, is struck by the setting sun in such a way that a slithering snake image appears on it.

Really.

Click it out on the link, right here (it's a 30-second video, so be patient).

***

Speaking of 'F' bombs, here's one: Finland.

According to a Gallup Poll survey, Finland is the happiest place to live and has been for six years running.

Denmark is second. The United States is ... 15th.

***

A recent survey of 11,000-plus people on Fishbowl, a social network for professionals, found 43% of workers have now used tools like ChatGPT on the job.

The kicker? The survey also found ~70% of them are doing so without their bosses knowing.

Are you doing it? Does your boss know? Would your boss care?

***

Despite knowing outright that COVID was killing people and was about to kill them by the tens of thousands more, the CDC was obliged to keep quiet about it and not warn Americans about it because, during the Trump administration, they weren't allowed to due to Trump's outright dismissal of the pandemic.

Nowadays, Trump has turned to killing people by having his supporters get inspired to kill the Black prosecutors (Jewish backed, don't forget, Trump hasn't) who are investigating him and are likely to indict him.

He'll kill ya' one way or another, racist, antisemitic SOB that he is.

***

There's a 5,000 mile-wide wave of Sargassum Algae headed for Florida. 

It's carrying multiple indictments.

***

In our weekly Fast Company spot, there are five ways to improve your resume without lying. They include: using less hyperbole and more facts; "persuasively framing your experience" (whatever that means); name dropping (showing off who you've worked with); eliminating outdated information (like people you worked with last century); and formatting flatteringly (?).

Good luck with all that.

***

...and you thought violence by youths was the only thing primarily inspired by what they see in TV shows and movies.

When it comes to vacationing, if you film it, they will come. In a survey from American Express, 70% of Gen Z'ers and millennials said they were inspired to travel to a destination after seeing it in a TV show, movie or news source. In other words, HBO is influencing vacation selections for those demographics by showcasing posh hotels in Maui and Sicily in The White Lotus. For instance, the Four Seasons Maui’s website had a 425% annual increase in traffic during season one of the show. And as to Sicily, good luck finding a place to stay this summer in the now-popularly showcased Taormina region.

***

Proud to be a Michigander...?

The state's GOP posted an image equating gun-control legislation to the Holocaust.

These are despicable, despicable people.

Who other people vote for.

***

Willis Reed is gone, at age 80. 

He was the gentle giant who limped out onto the court and hit the two shots that launched the Knicks, my beloved Knicks, to a championship.

R.I.P.

***

Wyoming has passed legislation banning the "abortion pill" from being distributed there.

It has since been put on hold by a judge while under review, but kinda' makes you realize why Wyoming is the where the Dutton family dumps its dead bodies.

***

Kari Lake has finally had her lawsuit dumped by the Arizona Supreme Court, the lawsuit saying she's the rightful governor of Arizona.

She's out of options now but wouldn't answer my question about it when I saw her in line at my local Fry's grocery store (she lives nearby).

She's the cashier.

***

Finally, attended a beautiful memorial service last weekend, celebrating the lives of Scott Campbell and his beloved Cheryl Schmidt.

It was so good to reunite with Scott's softball teammates from the champion Buffalo Grove Bruins and other friends: Terry Griffin, Bob Volkman, Fred Kruse, Bill Leber, Dave Wilhelm, Jay Gaynor, or Jaybird as he liked to call himself.

The next morning, Gaynor died. I had been looking forward to more celebratory times with these guys, including Jay, like the annual Kegger celebration honoring Dave Millay and the Kaiser Open Golf Outing.

R.I.P. Jaybird, R.I.P. 

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Katie Hobbs.

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