Monthly Archives: May 2023

“1776” in 2023

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We still don’t have sports wagering in Missouri.  But we do have video lottery terminals—and that really aggravates the casino folks and the pro sports teams that have seen another year of huffing and puffing on their parts gone to waste.

Watching the annual efforts of the gaming industry to bully the legislature into giving it as sweet a sweetheart deal as possible on sports wagering while VLT advocates argue that they have a right to the gambling dollar, too, has become tiresome.  Casinos see VLTs as competition.  VLT people don’t disagree but say the idea that casinos should have a monopoly on emptying the pockets of gullible Missourians is, well, unfair.

There is, of course, nothing fair about commercial gambling regardless of whether it is conducted in noisy, gaudily decorated casinos or whether it’s conducted next to the pork rinds rack or the beer cooler at the convenience store.

Neither side is interested in compromise.  And the result has been for several years the same: a deadlock at the end of a legislative session that runs the session off the rails and kills a lot of legislation that has the possibility of a greater positive impact on the lives of Missourians.  Or maybe negative impact.  But those points haven’t gotten argued.

We are reminded of John Adams’ rant early in the musical “1776,” as he rails against Congress’s inability to decide whether to declare independence from Britain:

You see, we piddle, twiddle, and resolve
Not one damn thing do we solve
Piddle, twiddle, and resolve
Nothing’s ever solved in
Foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy
Philadephia!

Now, to be honest, Jefferson City is none of those things. Well, mostly. It’s not foul or fetid or fuming and filthy, although at times in the spring and the fall when the water temperature of the Missouri River is several degrees different from the air temperature, there’s plenty of fog. One almost has to get out and lead their car across the bridge, the fog is so thick.

Casino gambling is legal. Sports wagering is not.  VLTs are legal as far as their advocates are concerned but there is no law allowing them or regulating them. One county has a court ruling that says VLTs are illegal in that county.

The future?  The people who can step in and solve the problem won’t do it.  There are no grownups in the room on this one.

One person is position to provide some leadership is Attorney General Andrew Bailey.  But the Post-Dispatch reported the other day that the issue is too “complex” for him to say whether VLTs are or are not legal or to take action to find out.

He apparently is not interested in determining what machines are legal and which ones are not—or to offer suggestions to legislators who might want to put the definition in the statute books.  The article quotes Bailey saying on St. Louis radio station KTRS, “It’s impossible to make a blanket determination that everything that looks like an illegal gaming machine must therefore by definition be an illegal gambling machine.”

Others, however, say a duck is a duck.

It’s a local issue, he says, not something for the state to determine.

So, does that mean that the legislature should just butt out of the VLT discussion?

Should the state butt out of the discussion of sports wagering, too?  Should that be a local issue?

Just imagine how much fun it would be to be able to place a sports bet while standing next to a gas hose attached to your car in Callaway County but not be able to try your luck at a VLT when you go inside to get some fake bacon to snack on while you drive to Boone County, where you can spend a few minutes risking the family fortune on a VLT but not be able to bet on a sporting event when you get a beer to wash down the fake bacon.

Then you go to Cooper County to empty your pockets at the blackjack table in a legal casino.

It wouldn’t hurt if the state’s top legal officer, instead of just brushing off the issue, offered to be a mediator.  It’s not one of his constitutional duties but our attorneys general of late have set a precedent, regrettable though it might be, of straying far beyond their constitutional duties—all the way to the southern border or into the elections held in selected states.

But that’s not going to happen.  The Post-Dispatch also reported that money is fueling the Piddling and the Twiddling.

It seems that two VLT companies have taken the state to court charging it is harassing them by trying to remove their machines from convenience stores although there’s no proven law making them illegal.  Normally the Attorney General is the defense attorney for the state when it is sued. Not Bailey.  The newspaper reports he took a $25,000 campaign donation from a political action committee with ties to former House Speaker Steve Tilley, now a lobbyist for a gambling company. The story also says Bailey had taken “tens of thousands of dollars” from the two VLT companies involved in the lawsuit.

Boy oh boy.  These folks certainly know how to cultivate the public’s confidence in government, don’t they?

Will the issue of sports wagering versus video lottery terminals be resolved by the 2024 legislature?

We consulted the most reliable predictor of future events, the Magic 8 Ball.  “Don’t count on it,” the ball said.   “My sources say no,” was another response. But there were three versions of “yes” when I kept asking.

Will there be more piddling and twiddling? “Sources point to yes,” said the ball.

So—there’s your definitive answer to this matter where the issues are so clear-cut and the participants are so vitally interested in what’s in the best public interest.

 

Sports:  Have the Cardinals peaked too early?  Racing’s Biggest Weekend

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Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(THE BASEBALL)—The St. Louis Cardinals appear to be closing out the promising month of may not with a bang—as they lifted fans’ hopes with in mid-month—but with a whimper, as they have demonstrated in a 3-4 road trip and a holiday loss to one of the worst teams in major league baseball, their cross-state rivals, the Kansas City Royals.

Inconsistent starting and relief pitching—the Redbirds are hoping somebody can consistently finish the sixth inning—and the sudden lightening of briefly-heavy lumber has St. Louis struggling for hits and scratching for runs.

The 7-0 shutout by the Royals on Memorial Day indicates St. Louis is not likely to make much or any post-season noise, an observation that could produce ridicule if the team makes it deep in the post season.

The Royals had the pitching, with reliever John Staumont pitching the first inning and starter Mike Mayers held the Cardinals without a baserunner through seven innings until Nolan Arenado broke up the perfect game in the 8th. The Cardinals wound up with two hits in the game. The Royals jumped on Adam Wainright going his usual five innings, for nine hits and three runs.  The bullpen remained unevenly unimpressive.

The Cardinals and Royals finish their odd two-game series today (Tuesday) with Miles Mikolas, who went seven scoreless innings against Cincinnati last week, against Zack Greinke, whose final season is an unproductive 1-5.

For those holding out hope the Cardinals can be a playoff team, they’ll have go to 58-48 just to break even, let along make the playoffs.

(RACING)—It was Josef Newgarden’s turn to “unleash the dragon” at the Indianapolis 500…and when he did, the monkey left his back.

Newgarden snatched the lead from defending 500 champion Marcus Ericsson in a dramatic final lap,

then held off Ericsson in the fourth-closest finish in the race’s 107-year history, watched by a crowd estimated at 330,0000 people, the second largest crowd in Indianapolis 500 history.

Newgarden had to make a desperate move called “the dragon” to keep Ericsson from slingshottig out of the draft past him before the finish line, coming out of the fourth turn and diving far to the inside to break the draft, limiting Ericsson’s opportunity to make the race’s 53rd pass for the lead.

Newgarden beat him to the finish line by 0.974 seconds.

Newgarden, a two-time INDYCAR champion, had high personal aspirations and high public expectations that he would have won the 500 before now. He said after the race, ““Everyone just kept asking me why I haven’t won this race. They looked at you like you’re a failure if you don’t win it. I wanted to win it so bad. I knew we could. I knew we were capable. It’s a huge team effort, as everybody knows. I’m so glad to be here.”

Santino Ferucci finished third, driving for A. J. Foyt’s team. It’s the best finish for a Foyt-owned car since Kenny Brack won the race for Foyt in 1999.   Pole-sitter Alex Palou survived a pit-road shunt early in the race to climb back to fourth and 2016 winner Alexander Rossi was fifth.

Ericsson and Rossi were among nine former winners of the race trying for another win of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.  Scott Dixon and two-time winner Takuma Sato were sixth and seventh. Ryan Hunter-Reay was 11th.  Four-time winner Helio Castroneves was 15th, one spot ahead fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan, who was running his 23rd and last Indianapolis 500.

Newgarden teammate Will Power, who won the 500 on his elventh try, was 23rd  and Simon Pagenaud was 25th.

Newgarden and his team earned a $3.666 million check for winning the race, a new record. Ericsson earned $1.043 million. The total purse topped $17 million.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s longest day took an extra day to run. Rain washed out the 600-mile race at Charlotte on Sunday night and interrupted the race on Memorial Day before Ryan Blaney held off pole-sitter William Byron to end a 59-race winless streak.

Blaney gave Roger Penske his first same-year sweep of both races on the Memorial Day weekend.

Blaney dominated the race, leading 163 of the 400 laps, getting the jump on Byron on the last restart with 20 laps left.

The pair finished ahead of teammates Martin Truex Jr., and Bubba Wallace, who drive for 23XZIZ Racing.

Ross Chastain, who led late in the race before falling to 22nd, remains in the points lead—by one point over Byron.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen made sure Team Red Bull’s winning streak continued by taking the trophy at the Grand Prix of Monaco, the six win in six races this year for Red Bull.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, a two-time F1 champion, had his best finish since he finished second in the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2014.

Red Bull is playing down paddock talk about whether Red Bull will win all 22 Formula 1 races this year.  No team has run the table in an F1 season. The closest to a perfect season any team has achieved was McLaren’s victories in 15 of the 16 races in 1988.

 

 

 

The demise of local news

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A friend has passed along an article written a few years ago by Jonathan Bernstein, a columnist on the Bloomberg Views website in which he lamented that the “demise of local news may be ruining Congress.”  Bernstein wrote that several senators facing re-election found that “no one in their home states knows who they are.”   He cited a piece by Washington Post writer Paul Kane, who saids, “A prime cause of this fight for name recognition is the increasingly fragmented media in which partisans largely receive their news from ideologically driven cable news and social media. Middle-of-the-road voters, reliant on their local news, are often left in the dark.”

Kane noted, “Overall, there are more reporters covering Congress than ever, except they increasingly write for inside Washington publications whose readers are lawmakers, lobbyists and Wall Street investors.”   He cites North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, began his Washington career in the House before moving to the Senate in 2005.  When he arrived in Washington, three newspapers from North Carolina had Washington Bureaus.  Now, none of them do.  “I can give a major policy speech, and no newspaper in Charlotte or Raleigh or Winston-Salem will even cover that I was there, much less that I gave a policy speech.”

Bernstein offers a scenario:  The president proposes a new initiative.  If the local newspaper has a Washington bureau, a member of Congress might figure out how district voters feel and then endorse whatever constituents want.  The constituents can then read the news coverage in the local paper.  But that’s not how things work anymore.

He wrote, “More and more politically active voters get their news from national partisan TV, radio and digital outlets. Less engaged voters can easily tune out all political news, at least until the height of election season. So the safest bet for an incumbent is going to be to echo the party line (which will normally mean no coverage at all) or, better, just to keep his or her mouth shut. Why stick with the district’s needs over party loyalty when no one in the district will ever hear about it — except the die-hards who support the party line no matter what?”

He also worried that the changing face of the news business works against the local Senator or Representative proposing things that benefit the district.  “If the rewards for action are reduced, fewer and fewer members of Congress are going to bother,” he says.  The end result: “The demise of state and local political reporting is often thought of as a potential threat because without a vigorous press, no one will expose malfeasance, and politicians will have weaker reasons to avoid corruption.  But perhaps the reduced incentives for good behavior by these elected officials are an even bigger reason to despair.”

This is not just a national issue.  It is a matter of concern in every state.  The same concerns Bernstein voices apply to our state and city governments.

There probably are fewer reporters covering state capitols full-time than there are reporters covering Congress.  Newspapers from St. Joseph, Cape Girardeau, Springfield, and Joplin once had year-around reporters at the capitol.  Not today, although Springfield still sends a reporter to the Capitol during sessions.  There once were two wire services covering state government. The Associated Press is the only one left.  Second newspapers from Kansas City and St. Louis went out of business years ago.  Don’t expect to learn much from metropolitan TV or radio stations about what’s happening in Jefferson City although what happens at the capitol affects their viewers every minute of their lives.  Missouri Independent, a new and aggressive news organization whose articles appear in several newspapers, is an important addition and works hard to fill the yawning gap in coverage of state government and politics.

Missouri newspaper subscribers are more likely to get their news about state politics and government from weekly columns written by their legislators than they are to read anything from a local reporter that details or questions what the local lawmaker is doing or saying because few local news outlets have anyone focusing on covering the actions of their area lawmakers. The weekly columns from office holders must not be acceptable substitutes for reporters who are the fires to which political feet are held.

The situation is worse when it comes to local radio or television news telling of what lawmakers or even city council members are doing.   The corporatization of radio stations has eliminated many vigorous local news departments.  When stations that once had people covering city hall, the courthouse, the school board, and other local events become only one of a half dozen (or more) formats under one roof—and sometimes not even in the same town they are licensed for—with one person who does some news on all of the stations only during morning drive, citizens are not well-informed.

And in an election year, the voters are left to the mercy of manipulative commercials and partisan podcasts.

The economics and the technology of the news business have changed.  In general, those changes have led to more concerns about the bottom line and less concerns about informing the increasingly less-educated, more self-centered electorate who make up a political system that favors agendas over broad public service. The public is in danger of being the frog in the pot of water not realizing it is being boiled to death.

It has been observed that the best thing to happen to newspapers in many towns is the disappearance of local radio news.  People have only the local newspaper to turn to if they want to know about events at city hall and elsewhere. But it is unlikely those newspapers have anybody specifically assigned to make local and federal legislators accountable to their constituents. And in too many instances, local newspapers have come under ownerships that have no local commitments and thus provide few safeguards against poor public policy to their readers.

Some cities are fortunate that new owners step in who have a dedication to their communities and who believe in the responsibility the press has to them.

It is easy to blame the media for the shortcomings in political awareness among the public.  But to do so is to ignore the responsibility that we, the public, carry in a free society. Bernstein spoke of irresponsibility when he wrote, “More and more politically active voters get their news from national partisan TV, radio and digital outlets. Less engaged voters can easily tune out all political news, at least until the height of election season.”

If we despair of today’s politics, we must despair of ourselves.  While the too-often bottom-line-only news media share the blame (some might say “the credit) for what we have become as a political people, we cannot escape our own personal civic responsibility to pay attention, to ignore the manipulator and the self-serving promoter, to question claims and concepts, to ask if those who claim they can do anything unilaterally really have the power to do so in a three-branch system of checks and balances, and to evaluate, think, and act for ourselves.  Citizens cannot allow themselves to be victims of “the demise of local news.”  It is better to live and ask questions than to exist and accept self-serving answers or comfortable assurances.

Think about that as we sit in the pan of water while the political stove gets hotter.

You can read Bernstein’s article at : https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-31/demise-of-local-news-may-be-ruining-congress

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Remembering the Shade Tree Mechanic

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You have to own a really old car these days to do your own significant repairs.

Back when I was in college, there was a day when I helped someone replace a head gasket on their car’s engine.  We did it in the yard, under a shade tree, on a warm July day.

Changing the oil, changing the spark plugs, replacing burned out bulbs in the tail lights—-simple enough work; putting on a new head gasket was a little more complicated, but it would be done.

When I bought my car  nine years ago (gasp!), I popped open the hood about the second or third time I got gas so I could check the oil.  I spent several minutes trying to find the dipstick.

Heck, I couldn’t even find the engine!  It was, and is, under some big plastic cover. The only things readily visible were the radiator overflow tank, the windshield washer fluid reservoir, and access to one pole on the battery.

I got frustrated and resorted to reading the owner’s manual.

My car does not have a dipstick.

If I want to check the oil I have to turn on the car, turn a knob that brings up the correct maintenance category on the screen, scroll down until I get to “oil,” and it tells me how much I have left and how many miles I can go before I need to add more.

I have had my car now for more than nine years.  I bet I haven’t opened the hood more than ten times for anything other than cleaning dead leaves out of the windshield wiper resting areas and pouring stuff into the windshield washer fluid reservoir.

A few days ago I got a warning on my dashboard that my right turn signal wasn’t working correctly.  A few days later my dashboard told me my right brake light wasn’t working correctly either.

Understand that I am no more mechanically oriented that my cat is capable of typing Hamlet on my computer.  So I took the car to the dealership in Columbia where, after it was plugged into a shop computer, the dealership learned that indeed, my turn signal and tail light weren’t working.  The cost of this computer diagnosis was $99.

In the old days I would have had Nancy go stand at the right rear corner of the car and I would ask her to tell me if the lights were working.

Then the service manager told me they couldn’t fix the car that day because they had to order a new taillight assembly.   So I’m headed back to Columbia Wednesday, the seventh day after paying $99 dollars to have a computer tell me something Nancy would have told me for free.

And replacing a light bulb is out of the question.  I need a whole new “assembly.”   I don’t know how much the assembly will cost or how much the labor will be to install it.

Probably a whole lot more than I would have spent at the local auto parts store for two light bulbs in the old days.

Spring training finally ends for Cardinals; Royals on record run; AP is P1 at Indy; KL is an all-star again.

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UPDATE FOR INDYCAR  12:50 A.M.:

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—St. Louis Cardinals emerge from extra-long spring-training (well, it sure seemed like it)  by winning four straight series, going 11-3 in that span and averaging more than seven runs a game (which is significant because the pitching staff’s ERA is 4.30 and is 16th in the league).

Newcomer Oscar Mercado and rejuvenated veteran Paul DeJong accounted for nine of the ten runs in the 10-5 win against the Dodgers Sunday.

The Redbirds took three of four from the Western Division leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers, during the weekend to climb into a tie for third in the division with the Cubs. Both are five games behind Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, the only teams in the division with winning records.

The Cardinals now have won more games since hitting bottom than they won in the first 34 games of the year.  They’ve won eight of their last ten and now are only six games below .500.

They’re up to sixth in team batting average and in runs scored.  But the starting pitchers still struggle to make it past the sixth inning. They rank 27th in the league by giving up 1.44 walks or hits per inning.

Jack Flaherty, who looked so good his last time out, lasted only 4 2/3 innings in the Dodger series wrapup.  He did induce his 14th double play of the year, a major league-leading number.

The Cardinals will be tested in the next couple of weeks, with 13 of their next 15 games on the road.

(ROYALS)—A .300 hitter is considered pretty good.  A .300 TEAM is something else.   The Kansas City Royals aren’t even that good.  They lost their 34th game of the year Sunday, and coupled with their 14 wins, they’re at only .296 and are on track to lose 114 games this year (48 wins).  That would beat their 2005 record of 106 losses. Home fans have seen only six winning games so far this season.

But it could be worse.  The Royals’ predecessor in Kansas City, the Oakland Athletics are 10-38.

(HOS)—The star first baseman for the Royals’ 2015 championship team, Eric Hosmer, has been cut loose by the Chicago Cubs.  It’s been a long fall for Hosmer, who signed an eight-year $144 million deal with the San Diego Padres for the 2018 season. San Diego sent him to Boston at the end of last year and he signed a one-year deal with the Cubs at the minimum MLB salary for this year. He’s 33 now, was in 31 games as a Cubs DH and was hitting .234 when the Cubs  cut him loose last week.

–The Biggest weekend in Motorsports is next weekend with the focus on Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Monaco.  But this past weekend—–

(INDYCAR)—Alex Palou ran the fastest pole-winning speed in Indianapolis 500 history during the weekend and will lead the race’s fastest first row into the first turn next Sunday morning.

Palou is the first driver born in Spain to win the 500 pole.  He became the first Spanish driver to win the INDYCAR championship in 2021.  He was leading the 500 that year when Helio Castroneves passed him on the 199th lap and stayed ahead one more time around to win his fourth 500, beating Palou to the finish by less than one-half second. It was the fastest Indianapolis 500 in history.

Palou made his four-lap, ten-mile run in two-minutes, 33.7037 seconds, edging Dutch driver Rinus VeeKay by six one-thousandth of a second for the ten mile run.  Felix Rosenquist joins them on the front row, finishing six-one-hundredth of a second behind Palou.  All three drivers averaged more than 234 miles an hour.

Thirty-four drivers competed for the 33 spots in the race.  The one left outside is veteran Graham Rahal, who missed the field by .007 second. His story is reminiscent of the story of his father and the owner of his team, Bobby Rahal, who won the race in 1986 and failed to make the race in 1993.  He was bumped from the field by teammate Jack Harvey, who will line up 33rd, outside of the 11th row, on Sunday. Another teammate, Christian Lundgard, will start 31st.

Rahal has run fifteen straight 500s. He has four top ten finishes with a best at third in 2011 and in 2020.

UPDATE:  A crash during practice yesterday involving Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan driver Katherine Legge and Stefan Wilson left Wilson with a fractured vertebra and unable to race next Sunday.  Rahal has been picked to drive in his place, in a backup car that as of Tuesday had not been on the track all month. Rahal will start 33rd alongside Harvey and rookie Sting Ray Robb, who was faster than either of the Rahal team cars.

One woman will start the race.  Katherine Legge will start from outside the tenth row with a qualifying run of 231.070 mph to gain a spot in her third race. Her wrecked car is being rebuilt.

Rahal will have a chance to test his new ride and Legge will have a chance to get the settings right on her rebuilt car on Friday, the last opportunity the field will have to make sure the cars are race-ready.

The average speed of all 33 drivers in the race is 232.184 mph, a record.  That means the average car in the race on Sunday traveled 340.53 feet every second during its ten-mile qualifying run.

That’s the equivalent of traveling from the south wall of Memorial Stadium in Columbia to the wall in front of the Big M in a second.

(NASCAR)—A couple of hours after INDYCARS were topping 230 mph, NASCAR returned to a track where it hasn’t run a race since 1996 for its annual all-star run during the weekend. North Wilkesboro had been one of the oldest racks on the circuit before it was shut down. New owners bought it a couple of years ago and put it back into racing condition for the all-star race although the race was run on the old, patched, pavement. North Wilkesboro’s future as a Cup venue is uncertain.

Kyle Larson dominated the race on the .625 mile track although he was sent to the back of the field because of a pit road speeding penalty. Within 35 laps he had driven back to the front and won by more than four seconds.  It’s his third all-star race win.  There was little passing for the lead, few yellow flags, and a winning speed far less than half the speed INDYCARS were running earlier in the day.

The winner got one-million dollars. Other competitors get nothing.  Larson joins Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Jeff Gordon as a three-time winner of the event. Jimmie Johnson won it four times.

The Cup series holds its longest race next Sunday night, 600 miles at Charlotte.

(Formula 1)—Heavy rains in Italy forced the cancellation of this weekend’s Imola Grand Prix. The Emilia Romagna region has been soaked in recent weeks, leaving at least nine people dead in local flooding and forcing the evacuation of about 5,000 others.  F1 cancelled this weekend’s race so relief efforts could go on.

The series moves to the streets of Monte Carlo for next Sunday’s Grand Prix of Monaco.

(picture credits:  Bob Priddy, Rick Gevers)

 

The genetic pull

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No, not the genetic pool.  The pull.

Some of the few who read these profound thoughts will understand when I ask if  you’ve ever felt drawn to a place or to an event because its in your genes—-because something was planted in your DNA early in your life and your life isn’t complete if you can’t see or do something?  Because there are instinctual longings that drive you to do, to be, or to go—-just as instinct drives the gees south in the fall and north in the spring, as the Wildebeest is driven in constant migration following the good grass from north to south to north to south, despite the lions, leopards, jaguars, and cheetahs, or big crocs in the streams.

A few years ago we were in the middle of it, on the Masai Mara in Kenya (in a balloon over it, in fact, one morning), and in the Serengetti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation area of Tanzania.  In the lower right corner is the Ngoroongoro Crater, where even an elephant is overpowered by the magnificence of the surroundings.

Go there if you ever get the chance.  We’ve been.  And right now our next big trip will be across Kansas, where there used to be gigantic fish-things whose bones have turned to rock—and you can stop in Hays and see them.

Many folks hate to drive across Kansas.  Not us.  In fact we feel it whenever we go to something in Kansas City. There is a faint whisper in our genes that says, “Don’t stop here.”

We think it’s because her mother’s family was from the Larned area and my ancestors, on both sides, moved to north-central Kansas’ Mitchell County not long after the last Indian raid.  We have a Kansas Gene.

The Flint Hills and the Tall Grass Prairie, the rolling prairies that stretch before us as the sky grows larger as we head beyond Salina.  Not until Hays, the home of the Sternberg Museum’s fish things and the remains of other fascinating beings, is the rising flatness something we notice. But the sky is all around us (as are big trucks) and the sky is open and uplifting.

The Garden of Eden is out there, you know.  We’ll let you look it up.  But it’s worth a jaunt a little to the north to break up the trip.

As we cross the Colorado line, we confess, we have to remind ourselves we’re still at least two hours from seeing the first faint outlines of mountains. But we’re done with the quiet stateliness of Kansas.  Let’s get to the dramatic stuff now.

The problem is—there’s too much Kansas in Colorado.

The other problem is that it’s I-70.  We understand why people get bored crossing Kansas on I-70 but we wish they appreciated the fact that it’s the road, not the landscape or the places along the way, that is boring.  It’s I-70 on the land beyond the windmills and before the sighting of the mountains that becomes tedious, even for us.

We are going to answer the call of our genes in a few days.  Time to visit the granddaughters at the foot of the Rockies in Longmont.  That means a day and a half on the road, most of it enjoying Kansas in warm weather.

But before than I have a personal gene pull that has to be satisfied.  I’m off later this week to the east, to the City of Indianapolis—a prototype for a big city that wants to reclaim itself—and to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

There are those who are surprised that an educated and literate person can also like to watch noisy very fast cars going so fast that it’s impossible to read a sponsor’s message  on the side of the car.  This corrupted gene was planted almost (Oh, Lord!  Just saying this give me chills) seventy years ago.  Something about the unique climate of the event, as well as the event itself, is a magnet.

In my working days, the trip to Indianapolis was a step toward freedom after being cooped up for four and a half months inside the pressure cooker that is the Missouri Capitol in the closing days of the legislative session.

And I’m going to watch 33 people hurl themselves around a 2.5-mile squared oval at 230 mph-plus, turns included. I have tried to think of something else that is so frightening yet so remarkable and the closest I can come is Olympic downhill skiing.

Why go?  Because it’s the Indianapolis 500.  It is part of my genetic programming. My parents took me there for the first two or three times. I have taken my self there for as long as I have had a driver’s license.

I do not know if the those I will watch ever think about Theodore Roosevelt’s famous remarks about “the man in the arena,”  those who “strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at best know the triumph of high achievement and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never been with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

Some people like to watch birds. Some like to chase little white balls around well-manicured courses. Let me admire the courage and the remarkable precision of 33 cars going 230 mph and turning left, perfectly putting wheels where they must, running within inches of one another. In my genetic makeup, that beats the tar out of watching a little white ball slowly curl its way into a hole.

So, pick the adventure your genes call on you to take. If it’s genetic, it can’t be wrong.  And don’t pay attention to those who think you are odd.

Greatness is not achieved by those who think those who push the envelope are odd.

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The Mistake

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The Mistake

The man St. Louis Cardinals fans have loved to hate for almost forty years died last week. Don Denkinger was 86.  Cardinals fans have been whining about his missed call at first base during game six of the 1985 World Series, claiming Denkinger cost them the series championship.

He didn’t.  The St. Louis Cardinals cost the St. Louis Cardinals the championship that year. The Kansas City Royals took opportunities to beat them.  Denkinger’s call was one of those opportunities.

Major League Basebll didn’t have instant replay in 1985. In fact, MLB was the last of the fourmajor sports in North America to allow it.  And that didn’t happen until 23 years after that World Series. Had it been in effect then, the play would have been overturned.

Let’s look closely at that play because there’s a lot that had happened before it, a whole lot that went on during it, and a lot that came afterwards.

The series opened in Kansas City and the Cardinals won the first two games. In the first game, John Tudor and reliever Todd Worrell held the Royals to just one run and the Cardinals won 3-1.  The Cardinals also won game two.  Royals pitcher Charlie Liebrandt shut down the Redbirds through eight innings but manager Dick Howser decided to let him finish the game instead of bringing in ace reliever Dan Quisenberry. Liebrandt was one out away from tying the series at a game a apiece but allowed four runs before Quisenberry came in for the final out.  The Cardinals won 4-2 and headed back to St. Louis two games up and headed for their home field. That inning was the only inning during the entire series that the Cardinals scored more than one run.

Governor Ashcroft booked a special World Series Special train that carried St. Louis and Kansas City fans to St. Louis and I was one of the media persons on board.  Recalling that the Royals had fallen behind Toronto in the American League Championshp Series and then rallied to winthe series, I visited the Cardinals fans car and asked one of the red-capped celebrants, “Do the Royals have the Cardinals right where they want them?”  I was assured that wasn’t the case.

But they did.

Brett Saberhagen beat the Cardinals and Joaquin Andujr in game three 6-1.

Tudor was back for game four and threw a complete game five-hit shutout.  The Cardinals were up three games to one and could win the Series at home the next day.  Only four times in baseball history had a team down three games to one rallied to win the World Series.

Danny Jackson held the Cardinals to just five hits and one run in game five with the Royals winning 6-1,  Jackson pitched an immaculate 7th inning—three strikeouts on nine itches—and to this day is the only pitcher to do that in a World Series. The Royals headed back to Kansas City and that famous sixth game down three games to two.

Game Six:  Most fans forget that Denkinger’s missed call was not the only missed call in the game.  The Royals’ Frank White appeared to have stolen second in the fourth inning but was called out.  Two pitchers later, Pat Sheridan singled to right, a hit that likely would have scored Whie from second and put the Royals up 1-0

Danny Cox and Charlie Liebrandt held their opponents scoreless through seven innings before the Cardinals Brian Harper got the first hit of the game with a runner in scoring position and gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Worrell came in to protect that lead. Pinch-hitter Jorge Orta hit a ball toward the hole between first and second but Jack Clark was able to get to it and flipped the ball to Worrell, who tagged the bag.  But Denkinger called Orta safe.

Let’s look more closely at the dynamics of the play. Remember, all of this happened in about four seconds or less. :

Worrell throws his pitch to the left-handed swinging Orta who hits the ball to the right of the mound.  As Orta completes his swing and starts to run, Worrell stops his pitching motion, sees the ball is past him, and breaks toward first. It’s a foot race to the bag between the pitcher and the runner. The ball is a slow roller that Jack clark ranges to his right to pick up right at the line where infield turf changes to dirt.

Worrell is sprinting to firt and Ora is at full speed and closing. Denkinger is moving to the bag, too, to make the call.  Clark has to focus on the bag and not be distracted by the three other people running towards it.  In a play such as this, the order is to throw to the base and the pitcher should be there in time to catch it.

Worrell’s momentum carries him to the bag but Clark’s throw is slightly behind him, forcing Worrell to rech backward. Orta is in his final leaping strike to first base. It appears the throw beats him by a quarter or half a step. It is a bang-bang play.

Denkinger is in foul territory as Orta flashes past and as Worrell closes his glove around the throw. Orta hits the bag and falls forward. Worrell hangs onto the ball and turns around to see Denkinger calling Orta safe.

The argument with Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, Clark, Worrell, and Denkinger is brief and the call stands.  Denkinger was in a good position for the call. But Worrell was six feet-five and the throw was high. “I couldn’t watch his glove and his feet at the same time. It was a soft toss, and there was so much crowd noise, I couldn’t hear the ball hit the glove,”

So the Royals have a base runner. Nobody is out. But Todd Worell, one of the best closers in baseball, can shut things down. Next up is power-hitter teve Balboni who lifts a foul ball toward the first-base dugout.  Clark, who was still transitioning from being an outfielder to being a first baseman, lost track of the ball as he tried to avoid falling into the dugout and the ball fell on the dugout’s first step.  Balboni then singled, advancing Orta to second.

Onix Concepcion pinch runs for Balboni and Royals catcher Jim Sundberg tries to lay down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over.  But Worrell goes to third with the throw and forces Orta.  That brings up pinch-hitter Hal McRae, a .259 hitter in the regular season. Herzog orders an intentional walk to set up a potential double play.

Howser sends Dane Iorg up as a pinch-hitter. Iorg, who had won a Series with the Cardinals in 1982, bloops a single over the infield, driving in the only two runs the Royals score that night.

The Series was tied at three games apiece.

The Cardinals gave the ball to Tudor, already a two-time winner, to close out the Series.  Howser picked Saberhagen, who shut down the Cardinals on five hits.. The Royals pounded them 11-0 to win their first World Series championship.

None of the games lasted three hours.  Six of the seven were played between 2:44 and 2:59.  Game four, the Cardinals’ 3-0 shutout of the Royals, lasted only 2:19.  It ws the first series with all games at night.

The Cardinals were up two games to none, then three games to one. Denkinger’s call was in the sixth, not the seventh game so the Cardinals still had a big chance to win.  But they blew it—-although many of those who blame Denkinger for the Cardinal defeat don’t recall how badly the Cardinals played in game seven and don’t recall the bad call was in game six.

Don Denkinger spent three decades as a major league umpire. The World Series call did not seem to affect his career.  He umpired his fourth world series in 1991. He umpired three All-Star games, including calling balls and sgtrikes in 1987. He took part in a half=dozen American League Championships, two of them after the ’85 World Series. At his death he was one of seven umpires to have worked two perfect games (Len Barker, May 15, 1991 and Kenny Rogers, June 29, 1994). When Nolan Ryan threw his sixth no-hitter, Don Denkinger was behind the plate.

He had a distinguished career, a good life.  But he’s remembered for something that happened in a split second.

But in looking into that split second we learned about his other contributions to The Game.

There’s a lesson here for all of us, I suppose.  A decision we make in a split second can change our lives forever.   And the lives of others. We often don’t have time to worry about that when action is required.  And in most instances it’s not worth worrying about. And worrying about a mistake shouldn’t be part of what we become.

Sports: Cardinals become birds of prey; Royals remain Commoners; Running hot and fast at Indy; Carl Edwards steps out of the NASCAR shadows.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—-It was dusty and covered in cobwebs in the corner of the garage, but the Cardinals were able to find their broom this weekend against the Red Sox.  The Brewers had theirs closer-by and used it on the Royals

(CARDINALS)—All of the sudden, the Cardinals are starting to look like a contending team again.  They finished a 5-1 week with a sweep of the Red Sox in Boston, culminating in a 9-1 pounding Sunday night.  After taking two of three from the Cubs, the Cardinals took all three form Boston. They’ve gone six out of seven after an eight-game losing streak left them at the bottom of the division and their fans at the bottom of their tolerance.

The Birds still roost in last place but they’re only 2½ behind the Reds and 3½ behind the Cubs, who are only two games under .500 as we start the second half of May.  St. Louis is the only team in the division with a winning record in the last ten games (6-4).

They opened a three-game series last (Monday) night with a chance to make a big move on the division-leading Brewers. The Cardinals jumed out with three runs in the bottom of the first, added a single run in the second, add four in the sixth and demolish the Brewers with ten runs in the Cardinal half of the ninth.  The Cardinals hammered the Brewers 18-1 to start the week.

Jack Flaherty, who has struggled, went seven full, struck out ten, and gave up only one run.

(ROYALS)—When a team goes 4-6 in its last ten games and it’s considered progress, you know things are, well, terrible.

The Royals finished the weekend 12-30, a .218 percentage.  Milwaukee took all three games as the Royals once again were blasted by one big inning by opponents.

The Royals are a better team on the road than at home, which is damning by faint praise. They’re 6-13 on the road but 6-17 at home.  They started the week at home against the Padres with a disappointing performance—held hitless by former Cardinals Michael Wacha through seven innings before Michael Massey got a hit to start the 8th. Vinnie Pasquantino had the only other Royals hit, the ninth as the Padres shut them down 4-0, dropping Kansas City to 12-31 for the year. Oakland is worse, still, at 9-34.

(RACING)—Retired NASCAR driver Carl Edwards of Columbia admits he’s getting the itch to get back on the track.  Edwards made a rare public appearance this weekend at Darlington, where NASCAR officially introduced its list of 75 greatest drivers in its 75-year history. He retired in 2016 and has seldom appeared at a race since. He told FOX’s Mike Joy, “I got to race with my dream, got to do all the fun stuff. I’ve been on adventures around the world, been farming a little, been raising my family.”  Being at Darlington “is very important for me to come here and just show how much appreciation I have for NASCAR, all the fans, all the drivers. It’s been great.”

Edwards was a guest in the FOX broadcast booth for the second stage of the race and was asked by long-time competitor on Missouri tracks and on the NASCAR circuit, Clint Bowyer, if he’d consider returning to NASCAR, he noted, “It was easy to not race when I first stepped away, but it’s getting harder and harder,” he admitted. “I like sliding stuff around and driving cars. So there’ll be a time when I go do something. Maybe sim work, something like that … to see if I could still drive. It’s a step-by-step process.”

Edwards, always a fitness geek, looked trim and could still fit into his old fire suit. His hair is longer now and we thought we noticed a little touch of gray at the temple (after all, he’ll turn 44 on August 15).

In the race—William Byron took advantage of a late-race collision between front-runners Clay Chastain and Kyle Larson to clam his third win of the year, the first driver with three victories this year.

(INDYCAR)—Practice begins on the oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 in two weeks.  INDYCAR kicked off its month of May with Alex Palou winning on the road course, his first win of the season. The victory moved him into first place in the points standings.

He finished almost 17 seconds ahead of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi.  Pole-sitter Christian Lundgaard had his best finish of the year, in fourth, with Felix Rosenqvist fifth.  O’ Ward, Rossi, and Rosenqvist are teammates with Arrow McLaren.

The Leopard Hasn’t Changed His Spots

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CNN has gotten some undeserved criticism for holding a town hall meeting with Republican likely voters and Donald Trump in New Hampshire last week.

Kaitlin Collins knew that she was going to have to try to lasso a tornado.  She knew that Trump would show no respect for anyone except himself and maybe such admirable figures as Putin and Xi and that he would try to steamroller her.

She did such a good job that Trump called her a “nasty person.”  He didn’t like it that she kept correcting him and challenging his lies, even if it was like trying to take a sip from Niagara Falls.

If I were her, I’d wear that comment with a certain degree of professional pride.

Some Democrats were critical afterwards, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for one: “CNN should be ashamed of themselves.  They have lost control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into performing election disinformation, defense of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.”

From the Republican side of the aisle came this from Erin Perrine, the spokesman for the Never Back Down super PAC backing Ron DeSantis: “The CNN town hall was, as expected, over an hour of nonsense that proved Trump is stuck in the past. After 76 years, Trump still doesn’t know where he stands on important conservative issues like supporting life and the 2nd amendment. How does that make America Great Again?”

Niall Stanage, writing for The Hill, said “Trump did not so much win the event as CNN lost it—catastrophically.” Stanage didn’t like the audience whooping and hollering and applauding Trump, even when he attacked Collins and E. Jean Carroll, the woman who earlier in the week won a five-million dollar damage suit against Trump for sexual battery and defamation.

Rival network commentator Joy Reid on MSNBC referred to the show as “blatant fascism meets the Jerry Springer Show.”  We think that’s a little over the top because no fist fight broke out over somebody’s claim that Trump fathered her child, although the program aired just a day after a civil court jury found Trump liable in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.

And what did Trump think?  With his typical modesty, he called the show a “very smart thing” that got “Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time…Many minds were changed on Wednesday night by listening to Common Sense, and sheer ‘Brilliance.’”

Well, of course. Would you expect anything less from a “stable genius?”

While the soundtrack certainly sounded like the audience ate it up, audience cutaways during the broadcast showed plenty of audience members were silent and non-demonstrative.  Republican consultant Matthew Bartlett told correspondent Tara Palmeri of Puck News, a digital media company covering politics, finance, technology, and entertainment news, that many in the audience were “quietly disgusted or bewildered.. In a TV setting you hear the applause but you don’t see the disgust, “ he said.

He was critical of Collins for sparring with Trump instead of taking more audience questions because some disgusted audience members “were ready to confront him” if they had been given the chance.

Here’s why the CNN town hall was not a train wreck:

1.The first such gathering in the campaign cycle showed what our democracy is up against. And it showed the GOP frontrunner for what he (still) is.  And what he is, is what he has been.  He has not learned from his 2020 defeat or from the Carroll lawsuit for from the House January 6 Committee hearings or even from many of his former supporters and enablers who have told him his loud whining about losing the election and doing nothing wrong in trying to intimidate elections officials, the media, prosecutors, and opponents is not doing him any good. He is not a surprise anymore. Republicans can complain about the event, but the energy spent complaining is wasted. Better it be channelled it into keeping his minority segment of the party from keeping the entire party down to his level.

  1. The program provided plenty of evidence for supporters who are thinking about moving past Trump that they should waste no time doing it. For those who are finding him tiresome and his bluster wearing thin, this program gave them an early opportunity to look for a grownup who can life the party out of Swamp Trumpy.
  2. The program showed that he has a core group of supporters that for reasons normal people cannot understand still buy into his egotistical irrationality no matter what.
  3. Clearly, other Republicans know they need to find a way to unify during the primaries to deny him enough delegates for an assured convention nomination (as was the case in 2016).
  4. Trump’s performance might have shown why some believe his firm grip on the party is eroding. Mainline party members can figure out how to put him in the rearview mirror. It’s the old saying, “The enemy you know is better than the enemy you don’t know.”   Trump delivered an opportunity to his party. Several Republicans are making noises about running.  Before they form a circular firing squad, they need to eliminate the outsider who has more bullets than each of them have individually.
  5. If Democrats haven’t cut that broadcast into hundreds of segments they can campaign against, they’re asleep at the switch.
  6. AOC is wrong. Trump might have taken control of the program but he didn’t run over Collins. At the end of the show she was standing almost nose to nose with him, showing control many people would have lost long before, and not backing down to his windstorm, always reminding viewers and listeners that the words “Trump” and “truth” are only remotely related.

He thought she was “nasty.”  This observer thought she was quietly tough enough that he called her a name. I hope somebody creates a bumper sticker to pin to her office bulletin board.

In months to come, there will be other town halls involving both parties.  The cumulative impact of those other town halls should weigh heavily against Trump.  But it would be a mistake if those other town halls focus too much on attacking Trump instead of offering clear, positive, honest alternatives to him.

In fact, he probably hopes they do spend too much time attacking him instead of offering their party and the general public something better.  People like Trump enjoy being attacked by better people because it makes him look bigger and makes them look smaller.

It’s better to have the worst possibility first.  After that things can only get better.  God knows this program succeeded in showing us all why he deserved to lose in 2020 and why he deserves to lose in 2024.

Then again, as we’ve said a few times, Mr. Trump needs to be less worried about whether he’ll get four more years and more worried about whether he’ll get ten to fifteen.

Blood Right

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Ten years ago, I threatened to break a new law within thirty seconds of when it went into effect.   I think of that circumstance from time to time and it has come to my mind more than once of late as the number of mass shootings piles up.  And as one shooting in particular has touched me.

I was still a reporter in the Senate in 2013 when Governor Nixon vetoed a bill that would have exempted Missouri from recognizing any federal gun laws  that “infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms.”  Any federal official who tried to enforce such a law could be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor.  AND if made it illegal to make public the names of gun owners.

That meant that I could not publish the names of the legislators who carried guns into the House and Senate Chambers and voted for the bill.  Yes, some did carry guns in the chambers. And to be truthful, there were times when debate got overheated that I did not feel entirely secure.

I don’t know if we have lawmakers packing today. I’m not down amongst them anymore. But a sign on the entrance door to the building indicates they’re allowed to have guns inside.

The Missouri legislature from time to time has tried to say it has the power to declare particular federal laws are not effective here, the United States Constitution notwithstanding. The legislature has at times protected the Second Amendment the way a Doberman would protect his raw steak.

That might be justifiable if all federal constitutional rights are absolute. The Second Amendment is to its most ardent defenders a Doberman Amendment. Touch it and I’ll bite off your arm.

As we’ve noted before, declared rights do not erase personal responsibility.  Free speech still allows lawsuits for libel and slander.  Freedom of Religion does not allow the state to insist that any of us must follow a particular faith to live and prosper.  The right to assemble does not grant a right to smash windows and doors at the United States Capitol and interfere with a mandated role of Congress.

So it is with the Second Amendment. It assumes those with guns will use them to protect the nation’s security (in some interpretations), and that those with guns will be responsible citizens.

As with any right, or any privilege, irresponsibility has its penalties.  The responsible citizen suffers because the irresponsible citizen is allowed free reign (as others might interpret the situation).  In today’s culture, the issue is whether responsible citizens are defending the irresponsible ones to the detriment of the citizenry as a whole.

The mass shooting last weekend in Allen, Texas again raises the question that passionate Second Amendment defenders brush off.  But once again we are told that the answer to mass shootings is the same solution Archie Bunker had in the days when airline hijackings were regular things—issue every passenger  a gun. So it is in these incidents that one answer is to have more people with guns.

Or—instead of limiting access to guns originally designed with one purpose—to kill an enemy on the battlefield using a large magazine of bullets—we are told the answer is better mental health treatment.

The problem seems to be that this corner of our political universe also is one that seems to vehemently oppose providing funding that will pay for those services—-or any of the services the “advocates” say need to be improved.

One of the cable networks covering the shooting in Allen took special note that the shooter might have worn body armor and asked program commentators if there should be limits placed on the sale of body armor, making it available only to law enforcement officers and other first responders.

As this is written, there has been no howl that such a proposal infringes on somebody’s right to shoot and not be shot back.  But it is a serious issue.  The idea that our children should go off to school every morning in their cleaned and pressed body armor, or that the dress code of teachers and administrator requires coat, tie, and bulletproof vest—and a Dirty Harry pistol in the holster that’s in plain view—is absurd.

It is said that money is the life-blood of politics. It has been said that a society is measured by how well it protects its most vulnerable.  One question asked during coverage of the Allen incident is, “Is there anyplace any more where we aren’t vulnerable?”

Political life-blood.  Innocents’ life-blood.  A decision about which is more valuable seems beyond expectation. Death awaits us all but in today’s America, we face uncertainty about whether we shall die in bed surrounded by our loved ones or die on the floor of a mall or a church or a school surrounded by a growing pool of blood.

Getting back to the veto override.   After Governor Nixon vetoed that particular Missouri Secession effort, the legislature had a chance to override it.   And the House did. 109-49, exactly the number needed. It was a stunning event to many, including the person sitting in my chair at the Senate press table.

The bill came over to the Senate and it was 22-10, needing one of the two remaining Senators to vote for the override for that bill to become law.  President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey and Majority Floor Leader Ron Richard had not voted. If one of them voted “yes,” the override would be complete.

I am not taking credit for what happened next. I don’t know if they were aware of what I had told some of my colleagues at the press table. I already had written a piece for the Missourinet blog about that bill.  I had three photographs I was going to use. One was of me, standing in front of an American Flag proudly holding my Daisy BB gun.  Another showed Governor Nixon with Wayne LaPierre, the President of the NRA, and the owner of the Midway Exchange west of Columbia. They were cutting the ribbon on a new gun shop at that complex.

The third picture showed the daughter of Missourinet reporter Jessica Machetta posing with her grandfather. They were with the deer that Macy had shot with her grandfather’s gun. It was her first deer.

Dempsey and Richard both voted “no.”  The override failed by one vote.  I never got to publish that entry on that blog. I really wanted to publish it.  And then tell the legislature, “Come and get me.”

Jessica lives in the Denver area now.  A few days ago, Macy was murdered by her boyfriend, who then shot himself to death.

One dead. Two dead.  Twenty dead.

Say what you want. Make sure you sound sincere.  But don’t do anything to really look for a solution to gun violence.  Don’t mess with the Doberman.