From Blocked Roads to Distressed Jeans

The Schloss-Blog has seen people lifting protestors off of highways, protestors who were blocking highways to express their dissatisfaction with Israel's prosecution of the war with Hamas in Gaza and the United States' support thereof.

But Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who advocates that drivers personally remove said protestors in what ever manner they have to (violently?), even said so in his online posts.

Incidentally, Cotton was critical of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for dispersing such protestors when they blocked a bridge in Quebec in protest of Trudeau's government's policies, in other words, for doing just what he is advocating that any and all American citizens do now.

Typical Republican hypocrisy from a typical Republican hypocrite.

Really, Tom!

***

Still want to send your kids and grandkids to an Ivy League school?

At least the president of one of them knows how to testify for hours before Congress and still keep her job.

Minouche Shafik, Columbia's president, told a House committee that, no, her school does not tolerate antisemitism or hate speech and disciplines faculty and staff for such.

Did she mention the students who got arrested for protesting? They're still out there, btw.

Universities, once havens for free speech and protest, have becomes pivot points for what is free speech and what is hate speech that endangers.

I remember marching with the protest-the-Vietnam-War crowd on the federal building in my undergrad alma mater's city and shutting it down. Temporarily.

As punishment, we were dispersed, the semester was ended halfway through and we were given the option of taking our midterm grades as our final grades or negotiating something with our professors. I had all B's and B+'s at midterm time and guess which option I took?

As a retired college professor, I encourage student voices to rise. As a Jew, I encourage them not to hate.

Let's remember who the bad guys are here and who will be if innocent Gazans keep dying and there is failure to establish a two-state solution that the rest of the world appears to want but Palestinians and Israelis don't. They kind of don't trust each other.

***

By the way, the presidents of Harvard and Penn lost their jobs over this. Claudine Gay of Harvard and Elizabeth Magill of Penn are no longer university presidents.

At least no one marched through campus at either school shooting at and killing people randomly. Other colleges have been shut down, like the University of Colorado earlier this year and at UNLV in December.

Believe me, I think about school shootings every time I cover a high school football game. Every. Time.

***

Caitlin Clark is getting an 8-figure contract with Nike, reportedly. And she deserves it.

***

When the Lakers needed a center, they got Wilt Chamberlain. When they again needed a center, they got Kareem. When they again needed a center, they got A.D.

When you're LA, you get what you want from the NBA.

Yet, when America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, need attention, they call ESPN, which fawns over them, even though they haven't played in their conference championship game since - wait for it, 1995.

Between that and Aaron Rodgers running for VP, I am getting to the point of only watching ESPN for live sports programming.

Usually.

***

Is it just me or does anyone else get their toes caught in the holes in their distressed jeans when they slip their legs into them?

It's not just me, is it? Is it?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Caitlin Clark (and you too Connor).

More Sunday afternoon (4-6 p.m. Pacific) and night (9 p.m.- midnight) on my rock 'n' roll show on Radio Free Phoenix.

Open Letter To..

Schloss-Blog Open Letter to Joe Biden:

Hi Joe.

Your messaging sucks. Totally sucks.

You're way too nice. Trump isn't nice - he's filthy, in fact.

You don't have to be filthy, but you have to be honest. I heard Nicolle Wallace on "Deadline: White House," say that you're messaging is too timid. 

Just saying that Donald Trump "doesn't like" or "doesn't trust" women isn't cutting it.

He hates women. Degrades them. In his speech, In deposition testimony.

He hates immigrants. Despises them. Degrades them. Every day.

Yet, he's gaining ground with minorities in polling.

Why? Because you're losing ground with them. The public is clearly saying the border and immigration are a problem.

Yes, Trump sank the solution for that. In fact, use that video clip of Republican Sen. James Lankford mouthing, "That's true," at your State of the Union speech regarding the problem-solving legislation he helped negotiate on the border that Trump sank. Use that in your messaging, in your ads, and make sure people know how conservative Lankford is and how he accomplished exactly everything Republicans wanted in that bill.

And Trump submarined it.

So, in no uncertain terms, remind people of that. Again. And again, And again.

Trump is a narcissistic sociopath. Remind people of that. Remind people that if he's president again, the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights he takes away from people he despises will be gone for everyone.

Like you and me.

Trump has done nothing but make sure Ukrainians are the bad guys while his sycophants in Congress have accomplished no domestic-policy legislation whatsoever.

Remind people of that.

And at the grocery store, which is where you are losing the election, find a way to remind people this is Trump's fault.

How?

It's the fallout from his pandemic-policy failure, which left supply chains knotted, prices inflated, where they've remained, and 1 million-plus people dead.

One million-plus.

By the way, corporate America, whose pricing needs to come down in grocery stores, are exactly the ones whose taxes you want increase. 

Might want to rethink that. 

Trump, meanwhile, for all intents and purposes, killed those 1 million-plus. He did, with his denial of the pandemic. Do you think for one minute he'd fail to call you a murderer if the situation were reversed? In fact, if he's president, he'll try to prosecute you for it.

Stop being polite but stop short of being as divisive as Trump, let alone disgusting.

You're better than he is. Start reminding people of it.

And best to Jill. Regards,

Howard

P.S. - prep up the look and the talk, please.

***

Post post script:

*Most Americans need to retire with $1.46 million in savings. Most Americans have $88,400 in savings for retirement on average.

*As they said on SNL, the women's NCAA Tournament has been the more interesting.

*If you never heard of Mark Elias, by the time the next election is over, you'll be glad you did.

*Indiana State won the NIT. So, there are 68 teams better than them?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Kristin Wiig.

More Sunday Night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show, and I sub for Sharon Kelley on Sunday at 4 Pacific (6 Central, 7 Eastern).

Frozen and Sawed Off; Successful and Unpopular; ...and Other Things That Repel Each Other

The Schloss-Blog is noticing that fans in Kansas City really would give an arm and a leg for their Chiefs. OK, fingers and toes, but really... And why is Joe Biden so unpopular when the economy is so good?

***

Are you loyal enough to give an arm and a leg for your team?

Some Kansas City Chiefs fans who attended the team's Jan. 13 home playoff game against the Miami Dolphins have had fingers and toes amputated as a result of sitting through the game's below-zero temperatures and wind chills of some minus-26 degrees.

Really.

The exact number of fans who suffered amputations is not clear, but it happened, the Medical Research Center of Kansas City reported to the NY Times. 

Are you that loyal to your team? I don't know about you, but I would've watched the whole game - from my living room.

***

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) officers and personnel have all been gotten rid of at the University of Florida and apparently will be throughout the state's university system.

Doesn't it make you want to send your kids and grandkids to school there?

In other words though, the state of Florida doesn't believe in diversity, equity and inclusion, although the state is saying it's getting rid of it to promote equity and purge anything that promotes unfair bias.

Maybe they should start with the governor.

***

Congress is considering a ban on TikTok in this country.

Maybe those old, gray-haired, technophobes should learn what the heck it is first.

***

While the United States economy continues to sparkle, Joe Biden's popularity rating (33% approval) continues to plummet.

Pew found 44% of Democrats find the economy to be performing extremely well and more than 25% of Americans overall (yes, Republicans continue to pull the rating down).

How are you doing, Elmo wants to know. 

I'm pretty good - but if you believe in Trump, you are likely responding, "pretty bad."

Well, Trump's finances aren't too good, are they, what with all the money he owes E. Jean Carroll and the state of New York.

***

Katie Britt used that disgusting survivor story in her SOTU response despite it being totally misleading. 

A bigger problem was that Britt mislead about the story instead of describing what she was doing something about it - which is nothing, like the rest of the Republicans in Congress.

Republicans are like your ex - complained and complained and did nothing about it.

***

There are some 650,000 homeless people in America, as of 2023.

SIX-HUNDRED FIFTY-THOUSAND. It's a record high number and a double-digit percentage increase from 2022.

New York City and Los Angeles have one quarter of that, combined, and more than half are in our 50 largest cities.

Or as Bill Maher calls LA, "Tentsville."

America has done little or nothing for these people.

And will undoubtedly do even less going forward.

***

Lynn Pattison passed away on March 7. I worked with her at Barrington Press for 7 years. She was a bulldog of a reporter who produced quality work.

And was a quality person.

RIP, Lynn. You'll be missed,

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Lynn Pattison.

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