Schloss-Blog Part II: Everything Else Not Trump This Week - Sorta'

The Schloss-Blog, for part II, is looking at:

**...champagne being spritzed all over baseball locker rooms after a team wins a wild-card or divisional playoff series.

WHO CARES? I'll buy the champagne when you win something significant - like the league pennant and even better, the World Series.

The wild-card series? You won nothing! Yet.

Champagne? Go out for a beer. I'll buy.

***

If you work in downtown Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Portland, how do you feel or how are you going to feel with National Guard troops walking around, step by step, with you.

They so have nothing to do that in Washington, D.C., where Trump first deployed them, they have been seen raking leaves, doing lawn care.

Whew, because I thought things were getting really bad there.

***

Hey, New York Times: every front page should have a lead, banner headline, everyday, notifying America that we are becoming an autocracy.

Because we are.

Yet, you don't do it. Shots fired - where are you?

***

Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon was fined $100,000 for the scolding he administered on the sideline to Emari Demercado after the running back dropped the ball as he crossed the goal line, uncontested.

It would've been a 70-yard TD run and would've put the likely finishing touches on a Cardinals win over the Tennessee Titans.

But upon replay review, the refs ruled correctly that he had fumbled the ball as he crossed the goal line (watch the video, he did). It resulted in a touchback. The Titans proceeded to pull a miracle comeback for the win.

The fine was fitting. If the Cardinals miss the playoffs, Gannon will be fired and Lincoln Riley will be brought in from USC, where he will promptly trade away Kyler Murray and the net worth of the Cardinals to get his Heisman-winning college quarterback, Caleb Williams, from the Bears.

Am I crazy? Yes. Have crazier things happened in football? Definitely.

***

The most-interesting thing about the Chicago Marathon this weekend, beyond the impressive winning runs, was who got detained by ICE, as sporting events have become ICE agents' new favorite hangouts.

***

It's going to be a La Nina winter.

In other words, warmer, drier than usual for Arizona.

Just what we need out here - less water.

***

Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Venezuelan courageously stood up for freedom in the face of the autocracy being run in her country.

As opposed to Donald Trump, who is complaining already that he should have gotten it. 

Yes, it should go to someone who accommodates killings overseas while authorizing U.S. troops to use force against American citizens, domestically, citizens who protest peacefully against what is becoming an autocracy.

Not.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Adelita Grijalva.

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

And one more time, here's to Andy Olson who slogged through the remnants of the flooding in Globe to produce this week's playlists for all of us jocks at the station. Kudos to you, Andy, kudos.

Hey Democrats, What Are You Doing? (Schloss-Blog, Part I for today):

Schloss-Blog, Part I:

The Schloss-Blog wants to know - hey Democrats, what are you doing with all these fumbles the 

Republicans keep handing you?

Wait, I know ... you're doing nothing!

***

Tariffs driving up prices.

Troops being deployed into cities in Blue States.

Military-looking ICE officers picking off people on "racial profiling, " breaking into their homes and apartments.

Getting Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel thrown off the air (permanently and temporarily, respectively).

Inflation hovering.

Shooting at passenger boats off the coast of Venezuela, with no evidence of drugs on board.

Trying to get Fed Board members fired.

Dictatorship in motion.

***

That's the short list.

And peace in Gaza - lasting peace - is not guaranteed by a long shot just yet.

Here's the killer - get Adelita Grijalva seated in Congress so her vote can force the House to force the administration to release the Epstein files (or Epstein list, whatever it is).

That ought to set off Trump on Truth Social.

America is becoming a third-world autocracy. What, Democrats, are you doing about it?

Being too polite and talking too much politics.

People vote with their wallets - remind them how much the Trump presidency is costing them, will cost them when healthcare goes away. 

Then, maybe, you'll arouse America. Scare me, shock me into voting. Right now, you're too passive, too polite.

Watch the late-night comedians and take your cues there. They have a knack for cutting up Trump and his cronies. You should adopt it.

***

Welcome to Schloss-Blog, Part I, for today... Part II to follow...

...and more to come Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

I love Arizona.

Hey Venezuela, What Are You Going To Do About It?

The Schloss-Blog sees America (Trump, that is), declaring war on ... passenger boats? Venezuela? Venezuelan passenger boats? 

Passenger boats in the Caribbean? 

Somebody tell the administration that most or close to all of the fentanyl coming into the United States is not from Venezuela - it is produced and shipped from Mexico.

Yes, Mexico.

The country that was going to pay for the wall. But it seems the wall has not adequately kept fentanyl out to the point that Trump has to attack passenger ships coming from Venezuela, which are not carrying fentanyl.

WTF?

So, as long as Trump is attacking Venezuelan shipping interests, is he going to attack Mexico? Is Trump going to send troops into Mexico? Is Trump going to attack SUV's coming out of Mexico. Even the ones with American tourists coming back from vacation?

***

Why aren't we attacking Mexico?

Mexico is the source of most if not all the fentanyl coming into the United States. Why aren't they under attack by our military? 

You know, the same military patrolling the streets in LA, Portland (soon), Chicago (sooner), and Memphis (a Red State deployment, shocking). While we're at it, why not Miami (talk about smugglers ports of call), Houston and, where the mayor and the governor are screaming for help, New Orleans, y'know, in that blue state, Louisiana.

Except that same call for help from the governor of Louisiana is being met with statistical backlash from AH Datalyst Jeff Asher, a statistical analyst who reports that in New Orleans: “Carjackings are down 80% relative to 2022, vehicle burglaries are down 70%, [and] shootings are down 63%,” Asher also wrote, adding in part: “This is a wholly unnecessary stunt.”

Stunts are what Trump is famous for. And he uses the military to try to pull them off. Like his gathering of generals from all over the world to be bored to death listening to dreck from Trump and Sec'y of War Pete Hegseth encouraging them to be ready for war with ...

...wait for it ...

...peaceful protesters in American urban centers (especially the ones in Blue States with Black mayors).

And they better lose weight and all of their morals to be ready to do it.

***

Meanwhile, Bad Bunny, who hosted Saturday Night Live last night, is no longer touring the U.S., fearing for the safety of his crew and his fans from ICE detainment.

However, he will perform at halftime of the Super Bowl in February, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. even though ICE has announced it will have a presence at the game, although it's not clear what that will look like, only that it will target Bad Bunny's crew and fans at the game.

He's from Puerto Rico; that's the United States.

ICE at the Super Bowl. Should provide a chill. Although Bad Bunny may have a surprise in store for them.  

***

Meanwhile, my favorite Starbucks in Phoenix has closed. Just gone, just like that. The place was always jumping, full of patrons talking and working on their laptops, or reading the paper on a Sunday morning. 

It's part of a massive closing spree and layoff pattern for Starbucks, which is closing 1% (400) of its stores and laying off 900 employees at headquarters in Seattle.

***

Between Venezuela and Iran, it is incomprehensible that neither or both have not struck back at the United States with terrorist-like action after the brutal attacks they have suffered at U.S. hands and continue to suffer in the Caribbean. Four passenger/tourist boats have been attacked by the U.S. in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, allegedly carrying drugs. Were they? No evidence has been offered that they were. None, Zero. Zip.

***

This week's Charlie Kirk quote of the week: "...gun deaths are “unfortunately worth it” to preserve the Second Amendment.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Napheesa Collier.

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

And Andy Olson, here's to you for keeping Radio Free Phoenix afloat, literally, this past week.

Ryder-ing off into the sunset; kiss U.S. Golf good-bye for now.

The Schoss-Blog, for all you golf fans out there, is still waiting for Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world, to show up at the Ryder Cup. Oh, wait, it's over? (Don't worry, Tom Veeck, getting to Comey shortly.)

Scheffler and his teammates can't make putts, hit greens or fairways. Otherwise, they're playing great. Europe's team is well managed and has had solid pairings for four-ball and/or alternate-shot. Luke Donald, the Northwestern grad and one-time, long-time Illinois resident, has done a fabulous job with his lineup.

Keegan Bradley, who should be playing, instead is playing checkers and/or Scrabble with his lineups, and they keep getting beat. Bradley is a great golfer who should be out there playing, helping the team with his outstanding sticks while a more-experienced golfer, perhaps a Champions Tour member, is managing the squad (perhaps the suddenly unwelcome Phil Mickelson? WTF.). 

As the President would say: PROSECUTE THESE GUYS. THEY'RE GUILTY (of playing uninspired golf).

Must be the tariffs.

***

Sam Burns, the American who was the best putter on the PGA Tour all season, can't make a putt. And wasn't paired with his best friend, Scottie Scheffler. Why? Why not?

This team is playing like it has never seen Bethpage Black before. They should've been playing practice rounds there once a week all year long and everyday since the end of the Fed Ex Cup, in hopes they'd be on the team.

Clearly, they didn't.

I used to go sledding there every winter when I was a kid. Then, even I could find the greens.

***

Meanwhile, back in D.C., anyone notice that Jim Comey has been indicted? No sooner did the prosecutor assigned to indict (not investigate, but indict) the former FBI director get pushed out, than a celebrity model-turned-Trump personal lawyer got an indictment.

Not only did Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump personal lawyer with no prosecutorial experience get an indictment, it had less than unilateral support from the grand jury, which threw out one of the three charges. A judge could very well toss the other two, they're so weak.

The indictment is so weak, in fact, that Comey, the former FBI director, can't wait to go to trial, he says. "Let's have a trial," he was quoted as saying almost as soon as the indictment was issued.

Trump is losing public confidence as he ignores the economy, poisons foreign relations with foes (Russia) and allies (NATO) alike and deports anyone who ICE agents think doesn't speak English and works a low-paying job. And the Supreme Court has blessed this tactic after lower courts called racial profiling what it is: unconstitutional.

***

All of this has distracted Trump from ... America. From inflation, from rising prices, from pain-causing tariffs and, of course, the Epstein Files. Sorry, Donald, that was your artwork and signature on the birthday greeting.

Don't worry, he hasn't forgotten those. But knowing his approval ratings are in the dumpster and midterm elections are around the corner, where he could lose control of Congress, he is trying to get his Department of Justice to act quickly.

Decisively? Meh...with what's left over there in quality of personnel, not likely.

The Supreme Court seems to want to let Trump act beyond the limits of the Constitution. We'll see if they continue to.

***

Trump has not been quiet about his intentions to get Adam Schiff, James Comey and Letitia James indicted, but his words may come back to undercut the indictments.

Instead of letting DOJ operate on its own independently, he is ordering them aloud to seek these charges and prosecutions. The kind of things defense lawyers salivate over.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, "107."

And in memory of Lenny Marks.

Anyway, more Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

***

This week's (and for the next few weeks), the Charlie Kirk quote of the week:

Transgender identity is a mental disease, needing "brain treatment."