Pelosi, Planes, Prices and Privacy

The Schloss-Blog pretty much scrapped this week's planned post after being moved to tears by the class and dignity shown by Nancy Pelosi in her speech to the House, stepping down from Democratic caucus leadership.

She helped accomplish a lot, working with presidents from both parties. Healthcare. Infrastructure. Prescription medicine. Taxes. Inflation. Jobs.

She is a hall-of-famer in every sense of the word. And yet, irrational actors with ill intent attempted to kill her and might have if they'd encountered her on Jan. 6 or when a lone wolf broke into her house and attacked her husband.

A wing of the Capitol needs to be named in her honor.

***

In her stead, Republicans, with control of the House, are promising investigations into everything from Hunter Biden to Afghanistan to the border to various cabinet members to Anthony Fauci, for God's sake.

Let them.

They investigated Hillary Clinton. Twice. Came up empty. Twice.

Their associates investigated Mueller. Came up empty.

The Jan. 6 committee investigated the insurrection.

And found everything that Republicans are denying happened.

This goes right into the Democratic strategy playbook for 2024. The American people spoke loud and clear on Nov. 8 - get something done for us, not for yourselves. With no policy initiatives and only vitriol for Democrats, you would think they'll pay the price for that in 2024.

You can only hope.

***

Quick takes (the ones I wanted to write about at length before Pelosi's speech):

* Airplane seats have shrunk to 16-and-a-half inches wide from 18, CNN and Bloomberg are reporting. Prices for those seats have not shrunk.

* The last jobs report showed 261,000 added, not the 205,000 that had been estimated. Unemployment remains at 3.7%. Nice. But the tech sector (Meta, amazon, Twitter, et. al.) is laying people off like crazy. Perhaps the tech sector, during the pandemic, overestimated people remaining imprisoned at home and continuing to rely so heavily on them. Tik Tok, however, is supposedly scooping up many of the rest of the tech sector's newly unemployed. Oh, those sneaky Chinese.

* All those investigations Republicans in the House are promising, do they really think Democrats are going to show up unprepared? They'll bring wads of Trump administration orders and policies to these upcoming hearings. Good luck, Kevin McCarthy.

* You can feel the increased need for security at school campuses. After shootings at Virginia and Idaho and numerous grade school and high school shootings, I was challenged for admission at a school at which I have covered games many times. I've been wondering about my own safety at schools this season, more than ever before. You never know.

* Donald Trump, who still insists he won the 2020 election, is running again. But he can't - if he did win as he claims, he can't run for a third term. 

* MAGAS defied tradition in this midterm election cycle - they lost. No Democratic incumbent in the Senate lost.

* Trump's candidacy announcement was so compelling that guests attempting to leave before he was done droning on about his usual complaints and they were bored to death were blocked from leaving before he concluded.

* Finally, got your Taylor Swift tickets? Shoulda' called me. She called with my tickets for wherever I wanted them along her tour. Too late now, and see you soon, Taylor. And you thought Bruce Springsteen tickets were expensive.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, taylor Swift.

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

McRobots, McAfee and McElections - What a Week

The Schloss-Blog is sending up a flare - the McRobots are coming, the McRobots are coming! Now what?

Yes, the one place where you thought automation would not displace humans - the hospitality industry - is where it's happening. Fast-food restaurants are experimenting with robots to take, prepare and serve up your drive-thru order.

The Jetsons' Rosie is upon us. Bet you can't wait to meet her. When you hear a mechanical, Brooklyn accent at the drive-thru menu, you'll know.

***

If you're expecting the Schloss-Blog to blather about the elections, fuhgedaboudit. Democrats did better than expected because, IMHO, Americans woke up on Election Day, or whenever they filled in their mail-in and absentee ballots, and realized that long after inflation is under control - and it always gets under control - democracy will be erased for an even longer time if election-deniers and Trump sycophants are elected.

Now, Trump is a media darling again, just not the kind he wanted to be - just ask Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, which skewered him with a Humpty-Dumpty parody.

A well-deserved one.

***

Pat McAfee is a clown who ESPN hired to be on its College Game day Saturday show for some reason.

Maybe it's because they're grooming someone to be the class clown of the show as aging Lee Corso's health has him fading. Unfortunately, McAfee is a poor man's Bozo to Corso's classy and knowledgeable P.T. Barnum.

McAfee is a disaster. He rudely upstages guest pickers at the show's climactic conclusion. He exalts at and can't wait for the opportunity to mention or pick the North Carolina Wolfpack so he can howl at the moon.

Maybe ESPN brought him on because he has an open highway to Aaron Rodgers, who talks to him openly on his YouTube show (Sirius/XM dropped him without even making an offer or negotiating to continue his show on its platform).

McAfee gladly and patronizingly pantomimes what Rodgers says and has him because he's about the only "reporter" (reporter?) who didn't challenge him when Rodgers told the world he was "immunized" from COVID when he wasn't. He and Rodgers share fandom for hydroxychloroquine, or at least claim to.

McAfee makes inappropriate comments on the show, as he has done to at least two coaches the Game Day panel was interviewing. You can only imagine that Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Rece Davis cringe after the show over McAfee's on-air behavior and antics, although they quickly cut him off and cover for, humor and tolerate him on the air.

They would likely deny that publicly, but you can see the creases on their faces when McAfee speaks out of school.

ESPN had to be betting that McAfee would be an avenue to exclusives with Rodgers.

Hey, @JimmyPitaro, not happening.

***

Hello Silicon Valley.

While the employment picture is rosy around the United States (3.7% unemployment rate), at Meta (Facebook) and Twitter (Musk's swamp) thousands have been laid off. 

Meta is transforming to a metaverse world and Twitter is now highly leveraged after Musk's acquisition.

Where will those who were laid off find jobs? Mastodon? Tik Tok? Amazon?

Sure, when the NFL starts up Tuesday Nigh Football.

***

Hey SCOTUS, you took away women's rights to make their own decisions. Michigan, Montana, even Kentucky and Kansas have responded.

You geniuses got it wrong and for the wrong reasons and America is telling you so.

Now, how will you rule when Donald Trump appeals being indicted, let along convicted?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Gretchen Whitmer and Kathy Hochul.

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

Here's To the November Classic ... and More

The Schloss-Blog is watching politicians and election workers get threatened and attacked and is wondering what this country is coming to. 

Those polls you see just might be accurate - the country is headed in the wrong direction and the wrong people are making sure of it - militias, Mega-Magas, mass murderers (the Parkland shooter got life, not death), Elon Musk is off the rails and Kyrie Irving picked the wrong town in which to be a blatant anti-Semite.

Election deniers are on the ballot in so many states. Some will get elected.

The guy who attacked Paul Pelosi pleaded not guilty. I see an insanity plea coming, despite the cold calculation of his attack.

Oklahoma has a higher rate of violent crime than New York - really. The incumbent governor mocked his challenger for raising that point in a debate - but it's true. But Oklahomans will re-elect that prick, who is so proud to be denying women their privilege to their own bodies.

And as to election denial, there's no still NO PROOF that there was any fraud in the 2020 election. Yet, millions of Americans believe it.

This is scary.

***

On a lighter not, Saturday Night Live sucks this year, really. I'm watching so you don't have to. Where have you gone, Tina Fey?

***

Couldn't help but notice the wire-service item that Dustin Johnson's team won the LIV Golf Tour team tournament.

Who give a shit?

Johnson himself won $35 million meaningless dollars this season.

Who cares?

The sportswashing aspect of that blood money makes me sick.

***

LeBron James got the players he wanted and now the Lakers are struggling. Again.

Be careful what you ask for, LeBron.

Now, the rumor is he wants to play with his son in the NBA. That would mean he maintains his form until he's 40.

And when the Lakers trade it all to get little Bronny, or draft him ahead of someone more worthy, it'll be his team that struggles into the future. 

LeBron may be the GOAT, but he's not as a general manager.

***

I have made my decision and it is final.

When this high school football season is over, the one in which I contribute coverage to the Arizona Republic, I am quitting Twitter. Outright.

Elon Musk has turned it into a sewer in just a couple of weeks. It is a palace of filth, f-bombs and conspiracy theories and it won't be long until Trump is back.

That's where I get off. In mid-December, I'm gone from Twitter. Right now, I need it (under the banner of @hbssports1) to update from football games I cover. And it's fun. But Twitter isn't anymore and Musk is making sure of it.

I won't be part of that. In fact, rather than just walk away from Twitter, I will likely issue an insult so despicable to Musk himself that he banishes me.

Which would be a badge of honor.

***

The State of Mississippi would have you believe that the water in Jackson is now safe to drink again, but still has a boil-water order in effect.

Mississippi is the poorest state in the union. I don't think anything there is safe to drink.

Or eat.

***

Couldn't help but notice that hip-hopper/rapper Takeoff was shot. He was 28.

Before him,  PnB Rock was shot. He was 30. 

Nipsey Hussle was shot dead in front of his house three years ago. He was 33.

A year before that, XXXTentacion was shot dead. He was 20.

What trend am I missing here? Why are rappers and hip-hoppers being assassinated?

I thought the Super Bowl halftime show with six legendary rappers was terrific, and I'm no aficionado of rap.

Yet, rappers keep getting shot like politicians do lately.

***

Enjoying the November Classic, otherwise known as the World Series.

If Major League Baseball expands the playoffs anymore, game 7 should be played on Thanksgiving Day.

To lousy TV ratings opposite NFL games.

***

The tape of a 10-year-old girl talking to a 911 operator during the Robb Elementary School shooting is absolutely chilling.

And the police on the scene in Texas are absolutely disgraceful. Fire all of 'em.

***

To close ... trivia question to which I don't have the answer ...

...The Cardinals are one of six NFL teams whose nickname is not aligned with the city in which they play.

What are the other five? Honestly, I don't know and have not Googled it, but guessed Browns, Bengals, Titans, Jaguars and Chargers.

Anyone else, what have you got?

***

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

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

Durham is no substance, all bull and shootings continue everywhere

The Schloss-Blog is looking at the Durham investigation, which produced nothing (Trump said it would turn the "deep state" on its head - what deep state?), as well as shootings that continue to plague America and violence that continues to plague American officials, from Congress to your local election board.

John Durham, the federal prosecutor with a tough reputation out of Connecticut, was charged by then Trump-sycophant A.G. Bill Barr to investigate the investigators in the Mueller investigation.

So he did. For three years.

He came away with one misdemeanor charge and no convictions for anything.

Is he done? He's not saying, but it sure looks like it.

Next up: Trump gets indicted by Merrick Garland, who doesn't want to be the first Attorney General to indict a former president but with the overwhelming evidence, he doesn't have much choice.

Prediction: right after the midterm elections, Trump gets indicted in the Mar-a-Lago-Gate scandal.

***

No sooner did the Oxford, Michigan, school shooter enter a guilty plea than another shooter went to work in a St. Louis school.

The Oxford shooter's parents are being tried for enabling him. Meanwhile, they're still sorting things in St. Louis.

Now, the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, was beaten in his San Francisco home by an invader asking, "Where's Nancy?" reminiscent of the Jan. 6 insurrection crowd chant.

How do I feel about this? Let's ask David Bowie...

Snowman melting from the inside
Falcon spirals to the ground
(This could be the biggest sky)
So bloody red, tomorrow's clouds

A little piece of you
The little peace in me
Will die (This could be a miracle)
For this is not America

This is so not America.

On top of that, Republicans are promising, if they gain control of the House, to investigate everyone who has painted toenails and/or eyebrows, just plain old eyebrows.

This is so not America.

***

Do you watch Morning Joe? It starts at 3 a.m., Pacific time, in Arizona (which goes on Mountain time next week, but more on that in a future post).

Regularly, Steve Ratner, identified only as a "former Treasury official," appears on the show with charts and graphs explaining the latest finance and economic conditions and trends.

That's cool. He does a nice job putting things in layman's terms.

But what the heck does "former Treasury official" mean?

Googled him. Turns out he has had a distinguished career in finance and in journalism, writing about finance. And he served as an advisor to the Treasury Secretary during the automobile crisis that was part of the Great Recession at the end of the first decade of this century. No formal title - just advisor.

So why doesn't Morning Joe identify him as that (he was called the "car czar"). 

Hey, I'm an official fantasy football and baseball expert, with the winnings to prove it, but no one calls me a "former fantasy official" (OK, a few ex-girlfriends do). 

Former Treasury official and "car czar," huh? Sure, and I'm the former "fantasy czar."

Well, maybe, actually.

***

Tom and Gisele have filed, so I'll ask again: is it too soon to call her?

***

Back to gun violence, did you know ... more teens die from shootings than auto accidents?

They do.

***

Some 50 percent of Americans are not participating in Halloween this year by virtue of not distributing candy to trick-or-treaters. They say they'll sit home with the lights out and/or just not answer the doorbell.

Boo. Hoo.

About 25 percent of that 50 percent say inflation is keeping them from stocking up on sufficient amounts of candy.

***

This week was the anniversary of the Matt Damon "Fortune favors the brave" ad for crypto.com, which was valued at $60,608 at the time. It's now at $340.

***

Jennifer, Chad, it was so much fun watching Aubree play volleyball. #GoFalcons.

And Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Marge Hayashi.

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