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.

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.

Asleep But Studying, Maybe - Trump Slurring and Dune Popcorn

The Schloss-Blog is noticing a study that says students who don't get enough sleep curse more. We also noticed Katie Britt in the kitchen. Yikes.

***

Apparently, if students - college students - don't get enough sleep, they curse more. Probably. Let alone have poorer performance (in the classroom, that is - anywhere else, who knows).

According to Current Psychology, this is the case. They curse about aches and pains and tend to curse about just being tired.

Think about it - what did you say - what do you say - when you had, when you have aches and pains? And feel tired after, perhaps, a not-so-good night's sleep.

Yeah, me to, God __in'  damn it.

***

Got a Dune Popcorn Bucket?

They are going for more than $100 and the internet is going crazy for them.

You tell me why (heck, I know).

***

In Arizona, Kari Lake has dropped her lawsuit to inspect mail-in ballot signatures in Maricopa County, which she claims would have revealed that there was voter fraud.

Because there was none.

Also, the lawsuit against her, for libel, filed by Maricopa County's Republican Recorder, Stephen Richer, has been allowed to proceed, after she allegedly defamed him after she lost the gubernatorial election in 2022.

She'll lose that one, or settle.

But Republicans don't lose elections - they are victims of fraud. Or as President Biden said in his State of the Union address -  "You can't love your country only when you win."

***

Katie Britt.

In the kitchen.

Sounding as scripted as she looked.

Will not be Den Mother nor PTA Mother of the Year.

Was she barefoot?

***

Adam Sandler earned $73 million in 2023. SEVENTY-THREE MILLION.

His films were watched on Netflix some 500 million hours in the first half of 2023 alone.

FIVE-HUNDRED MILLION HOURS.

I guess it pays to get bounced from Saturday Night Live. Shane Gillis, there's hope for you.

Sandler, by the way, beat our Margot (Barbie) Robbie and Tom (Mission Impossible) Cruise.

***

About Arizona, one more time, according to Axios Phoenix, it takes singles 19 times longer to save up to buy a house than it take couples.

NINETEEN TIMES LONGER.

(No, I'm not going Trumpian here with the all CAPS).

Can you imagine being a confirmed bachelor and waiting 18 more years, perhaps, longer than your married and/or cohabitating friends to buy a house?

Me neither. Get married guys.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jill Biden.

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