No More Extra Innings and No More Colbert! Maybe Even John Stewart Too.

The Schloss-Blog is on a campaign to end extra innings forever. And we'll miss Stephen Colbert, but he's still got a whole season to go.

Maybe.

***

If the All-Star Game can end on a "swing-off" (i.e., Home Run Derby), why not all games?

Hey, it was done to avoid injuries, to avoid a lengthy game, to prevent wearing out pitchers and to hold on to both the in-stadium and on-TV audiences.

And it worked. The players loved it. The fans loved it. I hated it at first, but I've come around. Let's keep players healthy, keep the audience and get the games over with in the name of "speed it up," an MLB mandate.

NO MORE EXTRA INNINGS!!!

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Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert and his Late Show have been canceled by CBS, after the 2025-'26 season, in other words, next May,

With his biting sense of humor and political bent, we'll see if he even lasts that long with friends of Trump now in control of the network.

We'll see where he ends up as well. He likely already has a no-compete clause in his contract that will restrict his movement for 6-12 months.

But a podcast, night club apperances, talk show guest slots, ets., will have to suffice. He 'll be missed.

***

Who's next?

No, not my favorite Who album (on their farewell tour now), but who's next to get canned by the new Paramount/CBS ownership.

Oh yeah, John Stewart, that's who.

He came back from "reetirement" to resume hosting and producing "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central last season, heading into the election.

Now. with Trump's friends taking over the network, Stewart could be out of a job, not by his own choosing. He has even outright said, on air, he could be done, during one of his Monday night hosting appearances.

Trump doesn';t like those who don't like him, so keep an eye on Stewart.

While you still can.

***

Did you know..

**Donald Trump's uncle was a prominent professor at Harvard. 

**No, MIT.

**He was friends with the Unabomber.

**He taught the Unabomber everything.

**Except how to tell the truth

**And he exposed the Unabomber to the world before he - Trump's uncle, that is - died in 1985.

**Except the world wouldn't discover who the Unabomber was ... until 1996.

***

At the same event at which Trump told the odd, untrue, twisted story about his uncle and the Unabomber, Trump mentioned that it was a mistake when Biden appointed Jerome Powell as chair of  the Federal Reserve.

That's because Trump appointed him.

In 2017.

***

They call them "Deep Nudes."

You call them whatever you want, but the software is out there - the same software that allows "deep fakes" - that enables someone to use AI, for instance, to change a photo of someone into a naked photo of that same someone.

The trend is particularly unnerving for the people who are victimized by it and the people who employ it. Revenge porn and just outright embarrassment and shame run rampant because of this and little can be done about it.

Politicians have talked about doing something about it and activists scream about the evils of it, but no one has been able to do anytning about it.

Get used to it.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jim Whittington.

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

200 Deals And A 100 Percent American Workforce. Yeah, Right.

The Schloss-Blog is watching the Trump administration come through with those 200 trade deals it says it has.

Sort of has.

Might have.

Heck, deal a day, right?

OK, three so far. Three.

And they're not even deals. They're deals to do deals.

***

While trade deals flounder, Trump can say whatever he wants to about the Texas floods and the warnings residents received beforehand.

But they didn't.

More than 100 are dead (129 estimated), many are children as Camp Mystic for girls along the Guadalupe River was swept away.

FEMA has been invisible and DHS Director Kristi Noem denies that the agency was caught shorthanded and redhanded when it failed to answer thousands of calls for help when the floods hit.

But they did.

The same way that the pandemic killed more than a million Americans as Trump dismissed the serousness of COVID's epidemic potential, so too did FEMA find itself not prepared when the floods hit.

People are dying, Donald. Do something.

***

Heard of Velvet Sundown?

One of the hottest bands out there right now. The band's new album has had a million monthly listens on Spotify.

The band is red hot. And doesn't exist.

The band is strictly an AI creation, right down to its profile pictures.

It doesn't exist. 

How long before so much else with which you interact doesn't exist? Stick around...

***

A 100% American workforce will soon be manning the farm fields, picking the berries that come to market that U.S. citizens want.

Yeah, right.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says ICE will continue raids against migrant farm workers, despite Trump saying they would be eased so farmers don't have their work forces sharply cut into.

She also says U.S. citizens will scoop up these jobs and create a 100% American workforce.

Uh, not they won't. No American wants these jobs that pay so little and have so few benefits.

***

Canada, Brazil.

Who is Trump treatening with tariffs as high as 35% and 50%, respectively, an all goods.

Why?

There is no reason for the Canada threat and the Brazil threat is in part because tts former president, Jair Bolsonaro, is being prosecuted.

Trump thinks that's not fair.

Boo hoo.

And Brazil says it will respond with reciprocal tariffs.

Take that, Donny.

***

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

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

The Future Of The Democratic Party ... And Shootings, Shootings Everywhere

The Schloss-Blog is wondering  ...  what's the future of the Democratic Party? Is there one?

And what is going on with all the shootings around America of late? Firefighters getting shot at after being lured into an ambush in Idaho. Partygoers killed and wounded outside of a rapper's mixtape release event in what is virtually downtown Chicago. And even mre people bushwhacked in Indianapolis.

***

But, as mentioned, as if Democratic messaging isn't bad enough, let's see what they can't do with the gift handed to them via the "Big, Ugly Bill." 

The legislation, which almost guarantees some $3.3 trillion in a national debt increase over the next decade, let alone the virtual impossibility for those of low income to get health insurance, will likely throw those same people off of Medicaid as well.

Although the legislation will require some to be eligible for Medicaid only by virtue of working 80-some hours a month, not everyone is healthy enough or otherwise capable.

Or as Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) says of the subsequent GOP healthcare plan, "We're all going to die."

***

The "Big, Ugly Bill" should be such a loud, clear, foundational warcry for Democrats across the country, but they have blown bigger and better opportunities for messaging before. 

For instance:

"They're eating the dogs ... they'e eating the cats."

It says MS 13 right on his figners!

And the classic ... "They don't know what the f_ck they're doing."

Dems have not jumped all over those classic opportunities. Let's see if they jump all over this one.

***

The WNBA announced that is expanding into three more markets between now and 2030. Being awarded franchises are Cleveland, Detroit and a town that could use a real basketball team, Philadelphia. 

***

Shootings across the country marred the July 4th holiday weekend.

In Idaho, two firefighters are dead, a third seriously wounded after a fake alarm call lured them to the scene where 20-year-old and now dead Wess Roley allegedly started a fire and then shot them.

Two kids are dead in Indianapolis as are four more people in Chicago in respective downtown drive-by shootings that appeared to be anything but random.

Republicans can no more stop this than they keep millions from losing their healthcare insurance thanks to the "Big, Ugly Bill."

***

Donald Trump is in the process of devaluing everything, like the dollar, which is currently worth 85 cents against the euro.

Oh boy.

***

On July 1, which is "Bobby Bonilla Liberation Day," the Mets paid Bobby Bonilla his annual $119 million they pay him every year.

On July 3, it was revealed that the NBA is investigating Pistons' sharpshooter Malik Beasley on gambling charges.

Which means the Pistons are looking for a 3-point shooter and the Knicks just found one.

***

If Zohran Mamdani's win signifies the future and the opportunity for Democrats to knock the GOP from power, then call me a socialist.

***

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

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

Iran's Nukes and The 14-Year Auto Itch

The Schloss-Blog has noticed that Iran still has nuclear capability, regardless of what Trump says.

***

So we dropped all these bombs, including bunker busters, on Iran's supposed nuclear production facilities.

Did they do any good?

Maybe.

Supposedly.

Probably.

Perhaps.

Estimates by our own intelligence agencies say not as much as the Trump administration would have us believe. Apparently, the Iranians were able to move much of their production capacity away from their strongholds.

Or did they?

We don't know. Intel says maybe. Probably. Perhaps. Supposedly. Trump and his acolyte appointees say Iran was obliterated.

Not so fast, say Trump's own intelligence agencies. 

Of course, it's probably not such a good idea to use the words "Trump" and "intelligence" in the same sentence.

***

This just in: the Supreme Court has ruled that Trump can pick his nose in public.

Why not? They let him otherwise do everything else in plain sight.

***

The average car in the United States is 14 years old.

Yes, it has been bar mitzvah'ed. 

But people are holding onto their cars longer and longer, what with the price of both new and used cars and the cost to finance the purchase of the one or the other.

The economy is not good.

***

Did you watch the NBA Finals, especially game 7, as Oklahoma City won the championship?

More important than that win was what else happened during that game - the announcement that KD - Kevin Durant - had been traded by the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets for two mediocre players and some draft picks.

So what was the bigger story that night: Oklahoma City winning the title or Durant being traded?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

***

Have you seen Sabrina Carpenter's album cover?

No, the old one (https://www.instagram.com/p/DKxDWGBxybt/?img_index=1)

***

Two things I'm tired of: the number of pitchers about whom it is reported have had Tommy John surgery (it's a badge of honor) ... and ... the number of times I've seen Tyrese Haliburton slamming his fist on the court, laying prone after tearing his Achilles Tendon.

Enough.

***

Sleeper cells have supposedly been awakened in the United States in the wake of the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Wait, they woke up Mitch McDonnell?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Erika Hatcher.

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

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