Just Got Back From Illinois...

The Schloss-Blog is going to try to get back to 'normalcy,' whatever that is, after last week's difficult but necessary post about the how divisive America has become because of Trump. Merry Chrismahanukwzukah to all.

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Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe Trump committed serious federal crimes.

Twenty-seven percent of Republicans think so.

They don't care.

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Did I mention I'm making the only New Year's resolution I ever make once again this year.

And never keep. Please continue reading to find out what it is for weak-kneed me.

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Al Michaels will not be calling any playoff games for NBC this year, as he has for-seemingly-ever.

Seems he has taken criticism for not being enthusiastic enough on his current amazon gig on Thursday nights.

With some of the trashy games he's had to call, can you blame him?

A lot of the games have been close, but not exciting. And who doesn't want to call a Bears-Commanders game?

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Inmates at Alabama prisons are suing over what they say is treatment like slaves and slavery-like conditions.

The 10 inmates, all Black, are claiming they get little or no pay and little or no sleep. Nor nourishment.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville promised to look into it.

Never.

Or as soon as he's sure the United States Military has learned the lesson he imposed on it.

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Once upon a time, Donald Trump tried to disqualify Barack Obama from being president by virtue of not having a U.S. birth certificate.

Now, the state of Colorado wants to disqualify Trump from being president.

For being an asshole.

And for leading and inspiring an insurrection, in violation of the 14th amendment.

Like I said, for being an asshole.

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Price of bread down. Price of gas down. Mortgage rates down.

Consumer concerns about the economy more optimistic than they've been in a long time.

Biden just might win this damn election, despite looking like he's feeble.

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My New Year's resolution, which I will fail to keep, as usual, is to finally return Cindy Crawford's phone calls.

Damn.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jocelyn (your retirement imminent).

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

Me

In case you're wondering, yes, the Schloss-Blog has noticed how divisive America has become and most of it started since Trump entered politics.

It has impacted me and my personal relationships too, let alone my interactions with friends and some relatives, mostly in-laws.

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Eight years ago, when I had a disagreement with friends, relatives, with anyone, over things political, we agreed to disagree, hugged, kissed, shook hands and moved on.

No more.

Some of my longest-standing and closest relationships have dissolved.

My friend Gary, who stood up at my first wedding, lived across the hall from me in grad school. We joked about everything. He called me "Schloss." 

He's no longer in my life.

What I believe are Trump's discriminatory policies and scorching comments that have put people's lives in jeopardy have no space in my world.

Gary thinks Trump next to God. Is Gary racist? Not the Gary I know, or knew. But if he supports Trump then he supports the racism Trump espouses and thinks Trump was fraudulently denied the 2020 election. (Full disclosure, he wasn't.) 

Me and Gary will likely never talk again.

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Same to a lesser degree for me and Steve, a fraternity brother. Not the biggest guy, but a pretty good basketball player. Could dependably hit the open jumper.

Now he goes to bat for Trump, something I'll never do.

We don't exchange comments anymore, via email, text, after having had some intensive exchanges on Facebook, on Facebook Messenger, on anything, although the last time we did was when he notified me of the death of another fraternity brother, a good friend with whom I was part of a six-person suite at school.

You guessed it, a Trump supporter as well.

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I was as close with my friend Keith, with whom I grew up in Brooklyn, as I was with anyone. Since we were 13.

He was a dependable basketball partner and a great receiver in football. Wish he'd gone to UAlbany and joined my frat so I could've had him on the flag football team which I quarterbacked for my fraternity. He would've been the missing piece we needed to get over the top on a pretty-good third-place, flag football team

Now, we rarely talk or communicate. Trump took him to what I think is the dark side. The once friendly banter we grew up exchanging has all but disappeared, despite his living in California and me commuting back and forth between Illinois and Arizona.

Belief in Trump turns disagreement into outright spite, even between the oldest and closest of friends.

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Finally, and there are many more examples, I'll end with my relatives on my wife's side.

I adore them. They are generous to a fault.

We watch football together, exchange generous birthday and Christmas/Hanukkah gifts.

And we can't talk politics. They likely think I'm off my rocker for my political beliefs while I think they perhaps read and believe too many conspiracy theories.

My wife is a true believer and is probably more firmly entrenched in her denial of Trump than I am, his actions and the justice he should get as his trials proceed.

She knows to keep her mouth shut about politics in her family's presence.

The whole thing can but somehow doesn't make gatherings uncomfortable. But political opinions do.

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The bitter truth is that since Trump emerged on the political scene, America is a country of divisiveness and spite. (See Republicans, House of Representatives.)

Friends across the country  have parted ways. Holiday gatherings around Christmas trees or over a Thanksgiving table setting are no longer places where anything goes in conversation.

Please know, if I mentioned you in this piece, or if you think I mentioned you, it wasn't because I don't like you anymore.

It was because I love you and miss the things about our relationships that made them as special as they always were.

And I want them back.

With Trump in the house, claiming fraud and promising militaristic vengeance, that likely won't happen.

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Good night Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jenni Golz (great to see you).

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

Back to School, and If The Economy's So Good, Why Don't Peopl Think So

The Schloss-Blog went to college once and taught at the college level for a long time. But these days, colleges are in the news for all the wrong reasons.

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The University of Pennsylvania needs a new president because its former president doesn't know how to define genocide or at least what a threat genocide is on a college campus or anywhere else.

Makes you wonder about the quality of people who run our colleges and their decision-making processes. Apparently those processes are faulty at MIT, Harvard, Penn and likely schools of lesser stature too.

How comforting and yet how disgraceful.

And there is no truth to the rumor that Penn's applications include a question of whether the prospective applicant endorses genocide.

We know the now-former president does. 

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As if it's not bad enough that the presidents of MIT, Harvard and Penn embarrassed themselves, their schools and the whole concept of free speech at college campuses, a shooter let loose at UNLV, killed three and set a sad record for the number of shootings on schools' grounds this year: 306.

Three-hundred and six.

If you're rethinking how safe your kids, your grandkids are when they go off to school each day, you're right to do so.

But Ted Cruz thinks we need more armed gunmen on campuses to provide security.

Yeah, Ted, good idea.

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Hey, colleges, we're not through.

Just what was the College Football Playoff committee thinking when it omitted unbeaten Florida State and defending two-time national champ Georgia out of the upcoming playoff?

Were they not good enough (combined 25-1 record)?

Did they have to get paired against each other in the Orange Bowl? As if that's going to settle any arguments.

And of course, if those two get in, who gets taken out?

Alabama? They beat Georgia.

Texas? They beat Alabama.

Speaking of which, because of the final rankings, either Texas or Washington is going to play for the national title.

Texas. Or Washington.

Instead of unbeaten Florida State or two-time defending national champion Georgia.

They can't start the 12-team playoff soon enough.

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Outside of college, the Schloss-Blog is asking questions.

• Like, why do Republicans vote to toss lying George Santos out of Congress but also vote to overturn a legitimate election in favor of lying Donald Trump?
• What were the fake electors thinking about in Nevada and Wisconsin that got them indicted and to admit publicly that Trump lost, respectively?
• Why, if the economy's so good do so many people think it's so bad?
• And what will the LIV-PGA merger look like now that it is full tilt after Jon Rahm took what is a reported $500 million to play carnival golf for LIV?

Golf as we know it will now never be the same.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you Ofelia Roitman.

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

King Charles, SI goes AI and F... you Elon

The Schloss-Blog is examining the debut of King Charles on CNN, SI's use of AI and Elon mouthing off, per usual.

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Anyone else watch the debut of "(Gayle) King Charles (Barkley)" on CNN last Wednesday, the network's next attempt at finding a hit weekday prime time show.

The new twist featured these media stars as the hosts of their own, play-it-by-ear, criticize-all, no-holds-barred, hour-long show about anything out there and everything relevant. Or irrelevant.

To me, the show was irrelevant. Sir Charles provided nothing like his irreverent persona on the TNT/TBS NBA studio show, where he mouths off freely with Kenny Smith, Shaq and Ernie Johnson.

That Charles was not there on sister network CNN. The show had the potential to be as irreverent as its lead characters can be when they want to be, what with King's subtle witticism capabilities and Barkley's capability not to do such.

If I'm going to watch Charles, I want to see him as irreverent as Elon, without being Elon, tempered by King's ability to rein him in.

She never had to. He never showed up. Stay tuned for next Wednesday.

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Trump wants to do away with the 1st Amendment, the 5th Amendment and 14th Amendment. In other words, good-bye free speech and due process for all.

There are some people out there who believe there was fraud in the 2020 election because Trump says so.

If Trump is elected, those people will be the first to complain when they lose their free speech and their due process.

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Sports Illustrated has become the next media outlet to be tainted by AI. Supposedly, the once great bastion of sports journalism has been using AI-generated articles.

Although the Bears, Giants, Commanders and Cardinals are using AI-generated offense.

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OK, so what's this about?

Daryl Hall has filed a restraining order against once pop-partner recording artist John Oates, allegedly over plans to ... sell interests in their musical rights?

Isn't it always the money when partners break up?

Enjoy the next Hall and Hall concert you go to.

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Many of the same Republican representatives who voted to remove George Santos from the House for his incessant lying that got him elected in the first place are the same Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results which were a product of Donald Trump's incessant lying.

You can have it both ways if you're a Republican.  

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Elon Musk told his major advertisers, at a public forum sponsored by the NY Times, to go 'F' themselves, for all intents and purposes, after they abandoned 'X' (nee, Twitter) in the wake of an antisemitic post he put up. But Disney CEO Bob Iger, at the same forum, revealed the same sentiment as many major media companies who pulled their advertising from 'X:' "And by him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily a positive one for us, and we decided we would pull our advertising."

Antisemitism does not pay.

If you want to tell off Elon on 'X,' do so quickly - you never know - you could wake up tomorrow with the cash-strapped platform shut down.

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Nobody knows what it will do, but the world's largest iceberg is afloat after breaking off in the Antarctic. It is three times the size of New York City.

Awaiting the next Titanic to come along.

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Black Friday (almost $10 billion) and Cyber Monday (~$12 billion) set records for consumer online purchases this year.

Don't know about you, but I haven't been to a mall, not even Woodfield, since before the pandemic.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Yocheved Lipschitz.

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