Hey, Joe (You Too Caitlin)

 The Schloss-Blog has a message for Joe Biden.

Joe, have you been to the grocery store lately? That is where you are losing the election.

Yeah, the economy is great (stocks, 401k accounts). But the economy is "inflation" to most people and at the grocery store, the economy SUCKS.

What have you done about it? America blames you although it started because of Trump's indifference toward the COVID crisis and his virtual assassination of 1 million Americans.

Minorities, meanwhile, feel you have not done enough to improve their economic position nor their voting rights.

Republicans blocked border and immigration improvements. You got blamed.

You send Israel weapons to fight Hamas.

And you send aid to Gazans who Israel bombs.

Yes, Hamas is the bad guy but Israel presumptively has been since Oct. 8.

You're getting blamed. Hamas will never release the hostages. Those negotiations are going nowhere. What are you going to do about it?

Student protests are the focus of the news, even though it's a small minority of students protesting, The media would have you think otherwise. And they're disruptive enough to get graduations canceled.

Not a good look for you.

Joe, get prices down and the war over and you'll win. Otherwise, we'll be invaded by Norway.

***

Driving through America, noticed a big hypocrisy.

In Texas, where oil is king, we drove through the Panhandle and a never-ending view of windmill farms, which provide power for 9 million (NINE MILLION) homes in Texas (there are 10.5 million). There are 11,000 windmills alone in the Panhandle of the 17,000 in the hypocrisy state, where Greg Abbott wants immigrants arrested, shot or both.

By the way, Texas has the most windmills in the United States. Iowa is second. Ruby Red Iowa.

***

Caitlin Clark has been relearning basketball this week. She isn't being guarded by Liberty University but by the New York Liberty and Breanna Stewart instead.

Statistically, she has been a roller coaster, with records for points scored en totale but turnovers recorded as well for the first three games of a rookie season.

***

So it gives rise to the Schloss-Blog, the question, who is the athlete you most want to see in person?

Caitlin Clark?

Shohei Ohtani?

Patrick Mahomes?

Lionel Messi?

For whom would you shell out the most for a ticket?

Almost forgot: Taylor Swift? Uh, no, just kidding, we mean Travis Kelce (hah).

***

I've already said this aloud and I'll say it again, Arizona Republic, I love you  (I work for you), but what have you done?

To the Sunday paper, that is, the only one I actually purchase and spread out with, along with a favorite Starbucks.

Where's E.J. Montini, one of the best columnists in the country? Not there on Sundays anymore.

Where's Doonesbury, in what has been rendered now an otherwise worthless comics section?

What are the obits doing starting immediately after the op eds? Same section. Not a good look.

And the 6-point-type sports page, with all the standings, late scores, stats, statistical leaders, upcoming schedules, pitching matchups, injury reports and roster moves. They were always on one page, for all sports. Now I have to look up each individually. That's time consuming. 

This is me, one of your sports correspondents, begging you to bring all that back.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Caitlin Clark.

More Sunday night, as the Bohemian Night Cat, @JohnKirkDeRitis, sits in for me on my regular Radio Free Phoenix shift.

From The Met To Meet The Protesters, Just Not At Graduation

The Schloss-Blog has found Met Gala fashion to be alluring, especially Zendaya's, but, like Bill Maher, we ask, how do they go to the bathroom in those things? Whatever anyone was wearing at The Met Gala (check it out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mB3RYX9aS8), it was more interesting than New York's Mets.

***

In case you've forgotten, it was Hamas that started all this in Israel and Gaza, it was Hamas that illicitly crossed the border, kidnapped and killed Israelis and Americans and grossly raped and sodomized women. It's still Hamas that refuses to release all the hostages, obviously because they'll give up what little leverage they have left.

Hamas are the bad guys. And when this is all over, still will be, with sights still set on eliminating Israel and Jews and the United States.

Uck Foo them.

***

Attention every newspaper in America:

Front page, every day, should start with an above-the-fold headline that says:

"DONALD TRUMP IS BAD FOR AMERICA!" 

Because he is. And what should be below it is your editorial board's expression of how democracy will end if Trump is elected.

My newspaper would be doing it if I was in charge. There's nothing illegal nor unethical about it.

NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post - get on it already.

Before it's too late.

***

In case you've forgotten, it's Donald Trump who tried to overthrow the United States government on Jan. 6, 2021.

In case you've forgotten, it's Donald Trump who paid off a porn star to not talk about a sex act he had with her (appearing in his boxers and a T shirt) that he said never happened.

So why did he pay her off not to talk about it?

In case you've forgotten, it's Donald Trump who was found liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and defaming her. Twice. To the tune of more than $80 million.

In case you've forgotten, it's Donald Trump who was found liable for fraud in valuations of his properties and the tax implications that go with all that, to the tune of almost $500 million.

In case you've forgotten, Donald Trump is a fraud. And a racist.

In case you've forgotten, voting for him puts you in the basket of deplorables that supports him.

***

You have a choice on vacation. Do you go for...

• A 7-day cruise of the Caribbean, with lots of T-shirt shop stops?
• A 5-7 day cruise out of LA, with stops at and along the way to Cabo, down the Baja?
• Or a vacation at a resort in Mexico.

***

*Consumers believe that inflation will continue to be a problem. Not good news, @JoeBiden.

*McDonald's has an $18 Big Mac Meal. Eighteen dollars.

*Taylor Swift is attracting many Americans for the European stops on her Eras Tour. They say it's cheaper and easier to get tickets.

*Steve Bannon is going to jail. At last.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Caitlin Clark.

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

On and Off Campus And Venturing Into Iran

The Schloss-Blog remembers well the days of marching in protest of the Vietnam War, of helping barricade and temporarily close down government facilities and chanting slogans reminiscent of Country Joe McDonald's Woodstock refrain of ...

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.

Now though, college students, some spurred by outside agitators who are not students at those schools, are doing the same, calling upon their colleges to divest investment in companies that do business with or supply weaponry to Israel. They maintain that Israel is conducting genocide in Gaza in the attempt to eradicate the terrorist group Hamas.

Do the students know they are protesting in good part on behalf of Hamas?

Let's not forget nor lose sight of who the bad guys here?

***

But if Joe Biden wants to win reelection, he has to find a way to generate a ceasefire in Gaza. but that is almost impossible, what with Hamas' unwillingness to release all the hostages, which are their only trump card.

So how to do that? Well, how is Hamas funded and from where? Iran, and Iran. Even the United States Government has concluded this.

Call me crazy, and I've always been a peace-nik, but it's time to erase Iran's nuclear development, oil production, military preparedness and weaponry and financial readiness.

Take that all away, and Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are pretty much done, their primary sources of war cut off.

Antony Blinken running all over the Middle East to generate a ceasefire is getting nowhere, especially in Israel but forever with Hamas. All we have to show for it is volatile, often misguided protests on college campuses, unknowingly expressing support for Hamas, and scarily growing antisemitism.

Blinken ran all over trying to keep Russia from invading Ukraine. How'd that work out? Now, Trump says he would let Russia have Ukraine and anything else it wants in Europe.

The United States has the finest and best military fighting force in the world. I'll leave it at that. Iran, Hamas have sworn to eliminating Israel, Jews and even the United States, ceasefire notwithstanding. Remember Oct. 7 because with Iran's backing, it could happen again.

***

Hey Joe, it's time to tame inflation.

Bring manufacturer heads of companies in for a summit and find out what it takes to lower prices and do it, damn it.

Bring grocery store company heads in for a summit and do the same. Find out what's going on on the ground and get it done.

Grocery store prices are killing you and your voters.

Yes, Trump started this because he disavowed COVID and then supply chain woes set it. Now, fix it. Assertively.

And get Jerome Powell in line so people can afford houses and cars again.

***

The Arizona Republic Sunday paper, the only one I actually get (I read the rest online), is not the same. The Comics suck.

No more Doonesbury makes the section worthless. And Doonesbury is not available online either. I have to read the Sunday Chicago Tribune for that.

The Sports section, meanwhile, for which I work (full disclosure), has abandoned the 6-point page with all the standings. stats, statistical leaders, pitching matchups, team personnel moves, golf event tee times and so much more. You could get all the sports news you needed if you're a fantasy junkie.

Now it's gone. The coverage and writing remains crisp, insightful, thorough, timely. Bring back the stats page.

Please.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Caitlin Clark.

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

And Don't Forget To Crawl Under The Desk And Kiss Your Ass Good-Bye

The Schloss-Blog can't turn on the TV anymore without hearing about Trump - hush-money trial in New York;  no insurrection trial - yet - in D.C.; Supreme Court leaning toward granting limited immunity (from what, himself?); indictment for his cohorts in Arizona; no trial date set yet in Florida; and his 2025 plan to cancel all civil rights for America if he's reelected. He's an asshole trying hard to intimidate judges, jurors, witnesses and anyone else who doesn't like him. Unless you or your parents or grandparents are from Norway 

A vote for Trump is a vote in support of racism.

***

The Schloss-Blog still laments that we have friends we can't, we don't talk to or communicate with anymore because of Trump.

Our differences are still so deeply entrenched because of him that there are no more conversations, just extreme disagreements and arguments.

Except Trump supporters are so irrational that you can't talk to them. You can't have a rational conversation with an irrational person. They believe the 2020 election was stolen. They believe Biden is not the legitimately elected president. They believe there was fraud in the 2020 election. Some of them are U.S. Congressmen.

They also believe in the Easter Bunny and the Great Pumpkin.

***

A vote for Trump is a vote in support of racism.

***

Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, shot and killed her dog. She also boasts about the dental work she got in Texas.

Tribes in South Dakota are so ticked at her they ban her from reservation land in the state. Apparently, she accuses many of them of acting as agents for drug cartels.

She wants to be vice-president of the United Staters.

Holy "Sugar-Honey-Ice-Tea" as my mother would've said!

As Bill Maher says, why do we even have 'Dakotas?' and there are more people named 'Dakota' in California alone than the population of the Dakotas.

Combined.

***

On college campuses, protests abound against Israel and against respective colleges' support for their endowments going toward companies that do business in or with Israel.

Maybe they should try protesting what Russia is doing to Ukraine, its moms, its children. Or why Russian athletes are still allowed to compete in the Olympics. Or the slaughter going on in Sudan. 

So far, they've succeeded in canceling graduation at USC.

***

A guy at the local gas station where I always fill up, on his first day of work there, or so he said, was walking the pumps, striking up conversations with customers filling up their gas tanks.

He tried to convince me to do something to straighten out the 'fake-news' media that lies about Trump.

I'll never fill up there again.

***

Mark Faller just retired as longtime sports editor at the Arizona Republic, where I am still a sports correspondent.

When I first worked there, during a sabbatical semester, he welcomed me with a nice email. Two years later, after retiring at Columbia College Chicago, I returned to do it again there.

A year later, the new prep sports editor forgot to call me (even though I urged him to), so I went back to work for the Daily Herald in Illinois again for the football season. It was two years later that I returned. Mark had a habit of reminding me I was on the every-other-year plan.

He'll be missed there every year.

(P.S. - the sports editor who didn't respond, who has moved on from there, wrote me the week before the season started and told me he had a game for me to cover. Yikes! The guy there now, Chris Coppola, is great to work for and with.)

***

College students, need something to protest besides Israel? Bill Maher says try this...

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Bill Maher.

More Sunday 7-9 pm Eastern on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show as I sit in for my friend Sharon Kelley and again at 9 pm Pacific on my regular shift.