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!!!

***

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. 

• 

***

Obliteration! What's Next? 28 Hours? 28 Days? 28 Weeks? 28 ... (gasp!) Years?

The Schloss-Blog is willing to wait 28 years to see if Iran retaliates, but will Iran retaliate?

***

Donald Trump says we have "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capacity. But have we obliterated their capacity to strike back at us?

We'll see, even if it take 28 hours.

***

Hey Evan Cohen at ESPN's "Unsportsmanlike" radio show - Dillon Gabriel will not be the Cleveland Brown's starting quarterback this season.

Unless the rest of their prospective starters get obliterated in an attack by the U.S. or the Pittsburgh Steelers, whichever comes first.

***

28 days?

***

Columbia College Chicago, where I taught for 23 years, has just laid off 20 full-time and/or tenured faculty and reduced its number of major tracks to 33, plus seven graduate programs.

The layoffs were in addition to the 23 faculty told in January they would not be renewed this fall. Half the layoffs were from the School of Communication and Culture, in which I taught journalism until my retirement from the institution in 2017. 

Columbia was always a leading institution, noted for the elite graduates it has produced in film, TV, journalism, music and entertainment.. It was always a less-expensive, open-admissions college ideal for students who were left without an option because classes didn't start until after Labor Day.

Will classes start again on Labor Day, 2026? Hope so.

***

28 weeks?

***

So, if you've been watching, you probably tuned into ABC/ESPN coverage of the WWE and UFC anticipating to see premium, quality championship battles.

Instead, an NBA playoff basketball game broke out.

Commissioner Adam Silver has to be exasperated the way the refs are letting such a quantity of hard contact, virtual muggings occur on court, this from the league that once banned handchecking.

UFC 317 is June 28. NBA 317 was tonight.

***

28 months?

***

In this column's ongoing efforts to periodically define the differences between men and women (i.e., men wear jeans; women wear jeans that fit), and in deference to Will Smith's recent release of "Pretty Girls," we respectfully note that:

**When male recording artists sing about love, they sing about sex. Female artists, when they sing about love, on the other hand, sing about romance (candlelight dinners, nice wines, then a little sex).

**Men like to dance. Women know how to twerk. Uh, dance.

**Bill Maher of "Real Time with Bill Maher," thinks men deserve more respect than they get in commericals and sitcoms in which they come off as having less sophistication and common sense than women.

**Really, Bill?

***

28 years?

***

Chris Canty's top 5 superstars in sports by definiton of Magic Johnson (you'd pay to see this athlete), as he mentioned on "Unsportmanlike" on ESPN Radio, were ... Caitlin Clark on top, then everybody else (LeBron, Messi, Shohei, Coco). 

What about Aaron Judge? Cooper Flagg? Paul Skenes? Luka?

Do you agree? 

***

28 seconds? Yeah, probably.

***

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

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

A Killing In Minnesota

The Schloss-Blog is disgusted by the shootings in Minnesota - which authorities say were targeted assassinations - that took the lives of the state's Speaker Emirita of the House and her husband and, previously that same night, seriously wounded a state senator and his wife.

So far, Trump has said .. crickets by way of condolences.

***

A suspect has been identified in these shootings, a man who identified himself as law enforcement at the respective homes of these victims in the middle of the night and then shot them when they answered the door.

Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, a Democratic, and her husband, Mark, were shot dead in their suburban Minneapolis home. State Senator John Hoffman, another Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their nearby home and are reportedly recovering in a nearby hospital.

Trump has said violence like this cannot be tolerated but we did not read anywhere that he offered condolences.

***

And it's one of those weeks for sad news.

Brian Wilson, founding member of the Beach Boys, died at 82 last week.

We saw the Beach Boys on their 50th anniversary tour in 2012 at the Chicago Theater and they were fabulous. Did all of their hits, great harmonies throughout, backed by a terrific 9-piece band.

I'm glad we caught them at that time. Now, it won't happen again.

R.I.P. Brian, somewhere playing again with Carl and Dennis.

***

"Dance to the Music." 

"I Want To Take You Higher."

"Hot Fun In The Summertime."

Those are just a few of the hits that Sly Stone composed and performed with The Family Stone.

He died at 82 last week as well.

Wilson and Stone deserve the recognition that our Radio Free Phoenix playlists will bestow upon them.

***

Speaking of deaths, the NY Knicks front office died this past week. In the wake of the firing of head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks - oops - forgot to have a replacement, let alone a worthy replacement, in line and ready to go.

And were subsequently denied permission to discuss the job with the head coaches, respectively, of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Atlanta Hawks, the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks, the latter being a former Knick.

Did they really believe that just mentioning the team name would unlock all obstacles?

Apparently, yes.

And why let "Thibs" go at all? He got them further in the playoffs than any other coach, these past 25 years.

But the Knicks still have James Dolan Ownership Disease, which is sort of like Matt Ishbia Ownership Disease in Phoenix. It's an ailment that infects owners with the belief they can do a better job than real basketball people at managing team personnel.

***

Courtney Vandersloot, the leading scorer and assist maker in Chicago Sky history, is out for the season with a torn ACL, suffered last weekend against the Indiana Fever.

She had broken the respective records held by her wife and former teammate Allie Quigley.

Here's hoping she comes back next season, at age 37, and finishes her career in the appropriate daylight it deserves.

***

So much death, so much injury, so much violence. America, so much of this was emboldened in the last decade.

When you know who came along in politics.

We need America back. 

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Melissa Hortman.

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

Biden Is Dead, Long Live Biden

The Schloss-Blog has noticed that the Trump administration says Joe Biden is dead and we say, "Long Live Biden!" What movie is "The king is dead, long live the king" from, anyway?

*** 

It's not just from a fantasy, although this book would have you think otherwise.

***

Meanwhile, have you seen this video? It's about the current administration and it's pretty ... taxing. Check it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ4Z-F1xaP0

***

Recently realized that I'm willing to fly seven-plus hours to France, but drive into downtown Chicago. on the construction-laden Kennedy Expressway, for two-and-a-half hours, not for me.

***

Congrats to Columbia grad Kacy Hintz, now reporting sports for WPLG in Miami (just in time for the Florida Panthers-Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup Finals matchup) after all those successful years at WRAL in North Carolina.

***

The Knicks fired Head Coach Tom Thibodeau, who had five successful years there and took the team further in the playoffs than any of the nine coaches who preceded him.

NINE!!!

He was fired for one reason only though: losing game one of the conference finals to Indiana, blowing a 17-point, fourth-quarter lead in the process and a 7-point lead with less than a minute, less than 30 seconds, in fact, to go.

Now, there's a standard for the next coach.

***

Apparently, the phrase "The King is dead, Long live the king," goes back to 15th century France.

OK, but I didn't see any evidence of that while in France in April, although Colbert says Biden was there then.

***

The states of Maryland and Rhode Island had automatic gun bans upheld by virtue of the Supreme Court declining to hear challenges to their respective laws thereon.

Take that, MAGA.

***

Sen, Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told a townhall assembly in her home state that the Republican proposal to cut Medicaid drastically and eliminate millions from coverage under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) would ostensibly be replaced, for all intents and purposes, because, "We are all going to die." 

The next day, from what appeared to be a cemetery, she  apologized and then doubled down, saying, "I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth."

Or, as the senator is now known around parts of Iowa, Joni Hearse.

***

The Trump Administration has opened up the largest area of open, public land in the United States, in Alaska, to oil company drilling. It's believed to be a vast area of annual wildlife migration.

Next, he's going to open up The Loop here is Chicago, another vast areas of annual wildlife migration, into which he already drills for immigrants with legal standing.

***

Have you seen "MountainHead" on HBO, where four tech titans gather for a weekend on one of their mansions atop a snowpacked peak? It's supposed to be a weekend of poker, fast-food gorging and joking around.

It quickly degenerates (spoiler alert) into a near-comedic drama about life values, money, U.S. direction, money, stock valuations, money, life and death, money and WTF do tech titans really think about?

Not you and me, apparently.

***

Alas, "The King is dead, Long live the king," did appear in a movie. 

Oh Robin Hood, you sneaky devil.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Claire's Boutiques.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. While you're listening, remember to buy a T-shirt, a coffee mug, a poster, because we're commercial free and receive no public financing.

Whatsoever.

***

Joe Biden is still alive, btw.