There is apparently nothing that will change their minds...

This is a political post. 

Angeli Rose Gomez is a mom in Uvalde, TX. During the shooting she drove to the school to get her kids. And the cops put her in handcuffs. So, she then got out of the handcuffs, jumped the fence and went into the school and got her kids. While the city police stood outside waiting for backup for nearly an hour.

The same city police who bragged on social media about how every officer had Level 4 body armor. The same city police who in a town of 16,000 maintained it's own SWAT team. The same city police whose budget ate up over 40% of the jurisdiction's budget.  The same police who, after couple of officers were grazed after being fired upon, stood outside an active shooter situation at a still occupied public school for more than FORTY MINUTES. I'm going to be honest, the response of Uvalde police department is beyond the pale. The law enforcement who did finally enter were Federal Agents whom the police onsite actually instructed to wait because... well, something.

Ironically, the state's commission on law enforcement's 2020 training manual states clearly "a first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field."

The fact that we're still having to discuss mass shootings is horrifying. The fact that we haven't had the time and are still processing the previous week when someone walked into a public space and opened fire is even more horrifying. And now we're hearing the kids 911 calls and finding out that some of the children may have "bled out" from their wounds and  could have been saved had there been earlier intervention. We should all be outraged by children now relating stories of covering themselves with blood as camouflage and crawling out of windows to escape while law enforcement stood by. Hell, the Canadians are so outraged by what happened to US that they're changing their gun laws. But we aren't.

Or we should. Because the NRA convention (which by the way was a gun free event due to safety concerns) was held down the road not five days later. And the same folks who swore this was a terrible tragedy spoke at the event about the importance of being able to own a gun. Because the only thing that beats a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. This is the part where you should be really upset. Because the argument that a "good guy" with a gun could have stopped this tragedy is upended by the reality that at least 19 "good guys" stood idly by trying to formulate an attack plan/waiting for backup while children died. Some argue that if the teacher had been armed maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. I guess in a way, making clear that teachers are much braver than police officers.    

Isn't it weird how the story officials are telling us keeps changing? And how if this were someone explaining to the officials, like maybe the police, that they'd immediately get suspicious in regards to what actually happened. But we're not.  

Even as I write this the fallout gets worse and worse. The day after the Governor sat on a stage and lauded the heroism of the brave police officers. Various officials couldn't sing their praises loud enough. But social media is the devil, and video from the scene and those 911 calls rose from the ether and made them out to be fools. Now they're all backtracking, pointing fingers and whatnot. Abbott has revised his story to the ol' tried and true 'say it was a mental health issue', conveniently forgetting HE just cut the state's mental health budget. Officials in that Uvalde city police department are now ducking calls from the state.Because whatever caused this, easy access to guns and ammo did NOT add to the problem. Or so they say.

Seriously, WTF?

This is the America we live in. The conservatives want to Make America Great Again. Like in the 50's. And considering this rampant gun culture and the Supreme Courts latest rulings, I guess they meant the 1850s. 

I Woke up to a Nightmare

This is a political post.  

"Men and women of good conscience can disagree, and we suppose some always shall disagree, about the profound moral and spiritual implications of terminating a pregnancy, even in its earliest stage. Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that cannot control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code."

GOP appointees Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, joint opinion.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1992

One of the fundamental issues with a number of our current Democratic leaders is that they still believe that these types of Republicans are in control of that party to some degree. Today, I think we have enough evidence that we can firmly say that they are not. And thus, the republic begins to teeter.

I was quite frankly stunned when I saw the article about the leak from Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade has long been held to be the third rail of American politics. An issue so hot, so divisive, that it was better to just let it lie where it was and yell back and forth over it, a lesson I thought was well entrenched in the political mind. I'll admit I was one of those who thought that even the now firmly conservative court would use the death by a thousand cuts approach since all they had was time. But impatience makes for odd decisions, so now somebody has pulled out an axe. And so it's about to get messy. 

All these justices sat there as nominees during their hearings and said the "right" things. Alito called Roe an important precedent. Kavanaugh said that Roe had been affirmed many times. Goursh said that Roe was the law of the land and he accepted it. And Barrett swore that a judge just can't impose their will on the American people. And it appears that none of them were telling the whole truth. Or really any parts of it, as all have booked seats on this train and are standing at the station eager to leave. My law school professor used to call the Supreme Court America's council of wise men (and women). And they were supposed to be above it all, unshackled from politics. But here we are. And the republic begins the sway.

I read about half of Alito's draft and the arguments I see are weak, if not in areas absolutely cartoonish. It's obvious he has it in for Roe. His argument hangs heavily on the idea that constitutional protection only applies to "deeply rooted traditions," which he seems to think have to have started prior to the 20th century to have any validity. In that vein, he goes on to cite "quickening" laws from the 1860's as the precedent for how abortion should be considered in the eyes of current law. You know tradition and all. Further, he seems confused and insulted as to why the 1973 Roe court would have consulted the American Medical Association instead of case law from Andrew Johnson's administration. I dunno, perhaps for medical facts? He then takes every measure of fetus growth listed in the plaintiff's argument as gospel (although it's been frequently noted by medical professionals as questionable if not just plain incorrect), gives no weight to the past almost 50 years of Roe's legal application or to the vast and tectonic shift in social mores and public viewpoints since, um, the Beatles ruled the music charts, all while working hard trying to awkwardly give deference to a viewpoint determined when a contemporary hot topic was whether or not Freedmen (former slaves) should be allowed to vote. It would considered be a work of insanely convoluted legal comic art if wasn't the project of a sitting Supreme Court Justice.

The misinformation and fakery is so obvious. I mean, the Conservatives say that this will to give the right back to the people so they can decide. But instead of the states putting it on the ballot and actually asking what the citizens really want, a lot of the conservative loaded legislatures are teeing up draconian regulations in wet eyed anticipation of the ruling. Which should be a telling sign of bad faith. I'm guessing someone (The Grand High Conservative Poobah?) did the math in their head and figured that with the gerrymandering they've already done, getting it banned outright in the majority of states wouldn't be an issue. And I heard that the real plan is try for a national ban after they win the midterms. If they win the midterms? It just sounds crazy right now that they still might win. Right now we're all hoping that long feared political backlash actually and that blue wave finally washes in. We hope.

By the way, has anyone considered the possibility that one of the Justices leaked the draft. I mean, as we've made it clear, there would be no consequences in that case, right?

And for the uninformed, please stop screaming at the Democrats to do something. They're not lazy or playing a game, they just don't have enough firepower to combat this. They control the Senate by a tie-breaker and two Senator are DINOs. Most of our leaders, with odd exception Hillary Clinton, didn't see the long game and have gotten caught unawares. They, like Biden, see the guys they've known for years and still think they're dealing with reasonable people. They're not.  No, here, it's not the Democratic will to do something here, it's the ability. They've tried, they just haven't been able to pull it off.

So the answer is to vote, to agitate, to get out there and move some furniture. Give the people who want to give you universal healthcare and an end to corporate welfare some more ammo. There is no magic bullet, we won't get this done in a single march or one term of the Presidency. We need it all to put this living, breathing and evolving Republic back on firm foundation. Because I think a long fight has just begun.

Five Minutes watching....Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

I don't watch a lot of movies because, well, at this point I just don't. I don't watch a lot of TV either. As I've said before, a lot of movies and television as of late have become much more niche oriented. And I ain't in their niche. Plus I'm STILL trying to be productive. And do some writing. Well, a little bit, I need to get back to it. I also still have a ton of video games I bought on sale I still want to play. Wait, I don't watch TV, play games or write...what am I doing?  

Winning Time surprised me by being a pretty good show.

But, Winning Time on NOT the true story of the behind the scenes of the creation of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball dynasty, which also just coincidentally is the beginning of the rise of the modern NBA. It's just not. It says so in the bumper of every episode. It states clearly it's all be dramatized. It is Historical Fiction, right up there with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Each week there is a podcast and about twenty Youtube shows picking through the script looking for where they stretched if not outright lied about what happened. This is very clear.

And yet people are upset that the show is not a documentary. Go figure.

The show is an ensemble piece, following the story of hedonistic wheeler-dealer owner Dr. Jerry Buss taking a big gamble on basketball, the slow growth of Pat Riley from junior announcer to legendary coach, and the maturation of Magic Johnson from college star to NBA superstardom. Along the way you learn about some the machinations Dr. Buss had to pull off to make it all work, a fresh look at a long forgotten coaching drama and see an idea of the shift from the young wet behind the ears rookie Ervin learning the ropes to Magic, the leader of a championship team. And while it's a great story, it's there is a lot of bullshit. A lot. 

It's a...um, gumbo if you will, of fact and fiction for dramatic purposes. Norm Nixon, the point guard of the Lakers when Magic was drafted has explained that no, he did not play Magic one on one while wearing a white fur coat at a party the summer before the rookie's first year. But it's a hell of scene. Jerry West is portrayed as angrily obsessed with winning. But a lot of this version of him are as I understand it, is taken from his own stories about his life, in that he broke a lot of golf clubs and could not watch the teams he assembled actually play the games. Pat Riley had left the announcing booth long before signing on as Westhead's assistant, but the idea of him sending down notes to the sidelines during games shows a hunger. Dr. Jerry Buss comes across as a guy with everything to lose but who refuses to back away from the table. Well, I understand his daughter is very involved in the show, so maybe that part is true. The starting coach that season, the man who actually designed the foundation for the Lakers fabled Showtime offense was only in a coma for three days, not weeks and the fight with Westhead didn't happen. And yes, even the games are out of order, but they way they were arranged builds drama, which is why we watch. I mean, we know the ending...it's in the title of the show, so filling out this space in the middle has to be good television. And it is.  

Good television? You find yourself rooting for characters you didn't even like or notice. Or realizing there is more to a portrayal than there first seemed. Or recognizing a character arc halfway through without the changes being spoon fed to you. Or appreciating the characterization of even the supporting roles. Now, it's not the Wire or Breaking Bad, but it is good writing and very good acting. The editing feels a bit frantic at first, and they do show some portions of games but not much the real drama isn't in the seconds left on the clock but the tension between the front office, coaches and what goes on between dribbles.   

Half the fun of watching are the these characters meet other actors playing other famous people. It is LA after all. From early court-side Jack to Richard Pryor, Iman and Milton Berle, as well as other legendary NBA notables throughout the season, including more than a few unexpected drop-ins and quite a few actual history lessons. .

More, one of the cool aspects of the show is that those actors for the most part fit. And while John C. Reilly and Sean Patrick Small give what are apparently inspired impression of Dr. Buss and Larry Bird, I'm not sure where they even found Quincy Isiah. There are times he appears to become a young Magic Johnson. I don't know if it's the way he holds his face, the angle, the lighting or even a little CGI trickery, but it's there. The actor portraying Kareem I think gives the elder statesman of the game the proper gravitas considering where he was in life. The show takes the time to cover a portion of his personal growth, as well as explain a number of things about a number of other players. Plus, the ball players are all actually tall, it's not camera tricks.

It really is worth a watch. If only to see just what Jerry West is ready to sue everybody involved for.  

Barkeep. One for the Lakers. On Dr. Buss' tab.

Note - Yes, Magic did actually pass on signing with Nike, which at the time made sense. But oh what could have been.

One way to get your ratings up

Ramblings Post #402
Love makes you do many things. Strange things. Dumb things. I my case, not even for actual love, but in an effort to get someone to love me (this is before I came the realization it does not work that way). But I hope that love never makes me go up on stage during a national television broadcast and slap another man because my wife gave me a look. Really.

Well, that was stupid.

It was a throwaway line, a joke at the end of four or five other jokes that would have faded into nothing. It was a lame joke about a film most people don't remember. But no one would have remembered it a week from now. Then this shit happened.

I don't watch the Oscars broadcast, but someone posted a clip on Reddit that caught my eye. I thought it was a skit, a funny little thing that they'd done to liven up the show in some way. The Sporty texted me and asked me did I see it, and how Will was big mad. Now, the first clip I'd seen was short, Will walking on stage, slapping Rock and stalking off. The clip Sporty linked was longer, included the joke about Jada - which as I've said was kinda lame - and the slap, then it went quiet although the video kept running. And you'd didn't have to be from the hood to be able read Will's lips. He was for real big mad. Then I found the uncensored Japanese clip where you can hear Will cursing on live television and I realized that this wasn't at all staged in any way shape or form.

By the way, I must applaud Chris Rock's professionalism. As a long time standup comic he's probably faced down plenty of hecklers and can feel when it's best to not press an issue due to outsized anger. As such, he did what a pro would do and tried to make light of it and keep the show moving. And after the show he indicated he would not press charges, most likely at the suggestion of the Academy. He is being the bigger man here. Because truth be told if it had been me, I'm not so sure I wouldn't have embarrassed myself, my momma and the entirety of Black America.

Then after Will was dragged from the auditorium by secur....what? He wasn't? He sat back down, and a half-hour later won the Oscar for his leading man role in King Richard, got a standing ovation, and went to the Vanity Fair after-party like ain't shit happened?  Really? Wow. I guess liberal Hollywood is behind the idea of "standing up for the wifey." Because that's how Smith's defenders, including a number of those in the black community, are framing it. A number of women seem to think a lame joke was a good enough reason to slap someone on national TV if its in the defense of the wife. But it's not like Jada isn't in the game, she got her own talk show and her own roles. If she wasn't in the industry, maybe, possibly, there could have been some umbrage - but an actor in the front row of an awards show is fair game for roasting. And she is an actor, isn't she? Another argument seems to be she has a medical condition called alopecia, and medical conditions shouldn't be joked about. But um, alopecia is a medical term for hair loss, not cancer. It's not as far as I know terminal. We joke about bald dudes all the time, but they too are suffering form a form of aloepica. So, what about that? And there are plenty of beautiful women who've cut their hair short or near bald by choice. What about them?

No, this whole episode was a massive overreaction to a nothing. Which as a number of folks have pointed out gives rise to the idea that things aren't as happy at the Smith household as one might think, given their reconciliation after Jada's entanglement situation last year. What Tupac would have done jokes aside, one theory is that Jada's sour reaction combined with their rocky history prompted Will into action to openly demonstrate his love and support of her at all costs. Which is also problematic in and of itself. But that's another whole post.

So, what should Will have done? He could have done the cursing from seat thing by itself. That alone would have been enough of a shock to accomplish his point. Or, at the Vanity Fair after party when he ran into Rock he could have just said "Hey man, that joke about Jada wasn't cool." And then explained the aloepica. And let Rock say my bad and apologize to Jada. And then kept it moving. But would it have been cool? YES, way better than this.

It was a throwaway line, a joke at the end of four or five other jokes that would have faded into nothing by the time the award Rock was presenting three minutes later. It was a lame joke about a film most people don't remember and as it turns out, in poor taste to boot. No one would have remembered it by the end of the show. But now that joke and Will's reaction to it will be the subject of a thousand think pieces and evaluations. The incident is going to be object of ridicule of every late night talk show host worth his salt, SNL is going to have a field day, overshadows his own triumph and will be brought up on every other award show this season. This image has already shot up 50,000% to the very top of the meme market, is going to be a trivia question someday and will also most certainly be in the trailer of his biography film years from now.

Yeah, that was stupid.

Barkeep. The good whiskey and just a dash of apple juice. Boy, I just don't know.

The NFL Offseason Should Be a Show

Ramblings Post #401
The NFL off-season this year has been wild. The AFC West has turned into a arms race, Green Bay gave Aaron Rodgers the keys to the franchise, and I'm veering between trusting the Jones boys in Dallas to put talent on the field and screaming "What are they doing!" over and over again to anyone who'll listen. And no, I'm probably not going to watch the USFL. Are we sure that wasn't an elaborate hoax anyway? 

It is said that because of how a grand jury works, that a semi-decent prosecutor can get a conviction against a ham sandwich if they really wanted to. So, last week when the people in a Grand Jury decided not to bring charges against Texan's QB Deshaun Watson, please know that I raised an eyebrow in disbelief. It may have hit my slightly receding hairline. Allegedly receding.

For those who don't know, last season the NFL avoided addressing the issue at all when the Texans decided to not even suit up Watson to play. By the way, as long as Watson showed up to the facility, did his workouts and stayed ready, he still got paid like he was playing. A whole bunch of money. Only without the physical stress of actually playing. In the interim the Texans found new ways to embarrass themselves, aside from letting all the talent walk out the door. I mean, at one point the Texans found themselves torn between hiring as their next head coach a ...long time coaching veteran who been part of a Superbowl coaching staff and who'd just won two of the last three seasons as head coach with his previous team who happened to black and...checks notes... a former player and part time assistant high school coach who happened to be white. So, obviously it was a toss up. But that aside, they had at least been smart enough not to play Watson.

I had a discussion about it right after it happened, I figured that a media savvy league would make it clear that even if there were to be no charges, that a serious suspension would still be assessed upon Watson's return to the field. I mean, they'd just suspended a player for the whole season for a single bet using the LEAGUE sponsored app. (Okay, there is a sign in the locker room specifically prohibiting betting, so there is a difference. Although I wouldn't think you'd need a sign to say don't assault women, would you?"). Would teams try for him? Sure, but this was a player who hadn't suited up in a year, and football comes at you fast. No, others said, it would be a free for all. The game is all about money now and they would not care. I argued that even from just a PR viewpoint, the league would not let that happen.  

And I was completely and unequivocally wrong.

The new NFL is QB driven. There was a time about twenty years ago where Trent Dilfer won a Superbowl. Who? He was the backup who took over halfway through the season and rode the defense of the Ravens to the NFL's promised land. And although he's an excellent analyst, he was also so mediocre he's the first starting and winning QB in history to not be resigned by his team for the next season. That's not possible with the way the game is now called and schemed. And everyone knows it. Hell, the Cowboys found it out after Dak went down and suddenly it seemed like the secrets of the completed forward pass were lost. And as it turns out Watson is a QB. And was a fairly good one. And as it turns out winning, or even the promise of winning, trumps everything.

I heard analysts decry that half the league need to take a look at Watson. The Saints were talked about, Atlanta was in the mix, the Colts and Chicago discussed. And what other QB might go where depending on what could be worked out with Deshaun. You would have thought Watson was the second coming of Micheal Vick...no, the pun actually intended,... only with a less offensive charge. Yes, apparently to the NFL Animal Cruelty is worse than Sexual Assault, go figure. So after listening to Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless rag about how the Cleveland Browns had blown up their own dicey QB situation to even talk to Watson and how they'd been unceremoniously spurned I was shocked to see this....

The Brown fans online that I've seen are not especially happy at this turn of events. People in desperate need of a stable football situation, considering all the drama that happened with team during the season, weren't happy. You know, and they know, just because the state decided not to bring charges doesn't mean you're innocent. And did everyone in the league's media gang FORGET the twenty two civil suits still in the mix? This is one of those situations involving millions of dollars that makes you wonder just how smart some rich people really are. Did the Browns forget that quite a few of their fans are women? Did they forget that their fan base just in general might have a basic sense of decency? I mean, damn. It is very possible the Browns play a few home games this season to an empty stadium, and it won't be because of Covid.

What's really weird is that the league is handing out top-tier QB money to a player who hasn't touched turf in a season. No, I kid, that's not weird, that's the NFL. What's weird is that Watson wasn't banished from the league for at least a season. Not sat out of his own free will, but formally banished with no pay for at least a season. And between you and me, people don't offer someone a quarter of a billion dollars, a large portion guaranteed, unless you're pretty damn sure that player is gonna suit up. Which means unless the league blindsides because of backlash, it's already a done thing. One of my old running partners stopped watching football altogether because he was mad Rothlesberger never got any punishment for his...indiscretions. I guess my boy is gonna be an Atlanta United fan from here on out.   

The NFL is something, ain't it. 

I need Shooters, not an Uber...

 This is a political post.

At this point I check everyday for the news that I'm certain no one wants to hear: that a Russian team has tracked down Zelensky. This comedian turned actor turned politician turned honest to god hero is defying the odds with both his bravery and his charm. "I need ammo, not a ride" he responded when the US offered to airlift him out. He's doing what all of us hope we have the ability to do when we're attacked - Stand your ground and fight. And it looks like he's pulling off this long-shot play for the most part. I hope he does, for Ukraine's sake. The problem for Putin now is if he kills him, it will only make things tougher. Because you can stop a man, but a legend is a hard thing to put into a cell. And a Zelensky who goes down swinging defending his country is the kind of guy whose name you scream before you go over the top.

Which means Putin has no out.

Because the longer it takes, the more likely that the Ukrainians finally drive them out. After taking much ground the first few days, the grand Russian might has been unable to hold onto much. And as it turns out their soldiers don't really have the stomach for what they're being asked to do, as errant men show up at farms asking for gas for their useless tanks, surrendering en masse and others using dating apps to find more amenable company. And with each passing day, the furor and outside support in form of weapons and money pours in. The longer this takes, the worse the eventual failure to a grass roots guerilla army would look for a modern "world power."

 But to get victory in this invasion the Russians may have to destroy the country. Only the idea was never to take a shell, or just the territory, but a functioning country. Yes, they needed Sevastopol, but Putin claimed he wanted to reunite the former USSR. And yet despite bold claims that sanctions would only strengthen his position, being kicked out of SWIFT, the bank run, the collapse of the ruble to loss of outside investment in general, the motherland doesn't have the resources to rebuild their new holding if it comes to that. Russia's economy is basically the size of the state of California's. Or rather it was. And that won't change anytime soon as long as Putin remains in power. The term Pyrrhic victory might be changed to a Ukrainian victory if he keeps this up, with the whole of Russia collapsing under the weight of one man's ego.

Which leaves capitulation and retreat. Which would leave this world leader looking weak, which might just be the ultimate insult in Putin's mind. One believes that the self imposed isolation caused by Covid, along with an apparatus designed to keep bad news at bay would mean that when the real news that he can't win finally, inevitably shows up, it's not gonna be pretty. As it stands, he'll have to back down on his nuclear deterrent threat and in the near future will see that that thing he feared most of all - a united Europe and NATO that includes Ukraine, Finland and Sweden, placing all access to the Atlantic via a NATO window - actually coming to fruition. And although it's really a old geopolitical situation that may or may not be still as relevant in this age of non-state actors, it was the thing he was working most diligently on, with international election interference and a world wide disinformation campaign to avoid. 

I'm not sure who told him this invasion this was a good idea, but I can say this with certainty: They were wrong. 

Yeah, the real problem now is that Putin has no out that he's willing to accept. 

I'm not going to get into all the other sundry items - the detainment of Africans trying to escape the conflict by some Ukrainians, why this time the world seems to have stood up and taken notice, etc and so forth. Or the buffoonery that is Cheato's response. No, I say let's just get through this and get to the other thing - back to virus that's still could kill us all if we're not careful.

Uncle Joe, call your boy Barry.

If you want we take this outside, ain't nobody gots' to know...