The Thin Line

Posted on November 10, 2025 by bpriddy

Sometimes when we get all puffed up about how important we are, we need to be reminded not much separates us from our knuckle-dragging ancestors or our three-living cousins.

I have a t-shirt given to me by a good friend who just retired as the Executive Vice President of the Indianapolis Zoological Society. More important for our discussion today, Karen Burns is the Executive Director of the Indianapolis Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for animal conservation. Every two years, the organization recognizes an animal conservationist “who has achieved major victories in advancing the sustainability of an animal sp;ecies or group of species” with a $250,000 award.

This year’s award has gone to Dr. Rene deRoland, a Malagasy scientist who has discovered several new species or re-discovered some species thought to be extinct. He has helped establish four national protected areas and heads a team of 48 conservationists wildlife and landscapes in his home country.

The t-shirt is a reminder that there is a thin line between us and members of other branches of our genetic tree, a reminder, perhaps, that Genesis gives humans dominion over other creatures in the sea, in the air, and on the ground. Dominion, not domination.

Dominion, as in caring for. Domination, as in destroying.

The Indianapolis Zoo has special facilities for Orangutans and for Chimpanzees.

There are times when I have to fill in as a Sunday school teacher and when I do, I like to turn to a source called The Wired Word that tries to place contemporary events within the scriptures. One of the recent lessons focused on Jane Goodall’s life and our place in creation. I’m passing part of it along because her life story and its worldwide impact go beyond standard death news stories and gets to one of the ongoing great challenges humans must consider.

Regardless of whether you follow the lesson’s efforts to tie her work to scripture or whether the direction of the lesson raises questions about your personal view of the world and our place in it, I think you might find a thing or two to think about.

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Famed Primatologist Jane Goodall Dead at 91
The Wired Word for the Week of October 12, 2025

In the News

The Jane Goodall Institute announced its founder, Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, died of natural causes on October 1 while in California for one of the 300 speeches she gave most years even into her ninth decade. The 91-year-old animal welfare advocate is survived by her son, Hugo, and three grandchildren.

In 1957, paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey recruited Goodall to conduct the first intensive study of wild chimpanzees in their natural habitat in Gombe, Tanzania.

Goodall noted the complex structure of the primate world, noting their distinct personalities, intelligence, sense of humor and wide range of emotions, from happiness, love, empathy, kindness and tenderness, to anger, sorrow, fear, depression and hostility. The primatologist witnessed the chimps hunting, grooming, playing, fighting, showing affection, adopting other chimpanzees, and comforting each other.

Her reports of a chimpanzee she named David Greybeard making a tool from twigs to fish termites from a nest mesmerized the scientific community, which had previously held the view that tool-making was a skill only humans possessed.

When Leakey learned of her discovery, he responded with this telegram:

NOW WE MUST REDEFINE TOOL STOP

REDEFINE MAN STOP

OR ACCEPT CHIMPANZEES AS HUMAN

“What the chimps have taught me over the years is they’re so like us. They’ve blurred the line between humans and animals,” Goodall said. Her discoveries nudged the public, including the scientific community, to reexamine how we understand who we are as a species.

In 1986, Goodall attended a conference of chimpanzee researchers where she was devastated by reports of how wild habitat destruction was negatively impacting chimpanzee populations.

“I arrived at the conference as a scientist. I left as an activist,” she remarked. Determined to do everything in her power to protect and preserve the environment, she became a kind of “global educator-at-large.”

“The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves,” the zoologist said.

“In the rainforest [is] … where I felt that deep, spiritual connection to the natural world, and also came to understand the interconnectedness of all living things in this tapestry of life where each species, no matter how insignificant, plays a probably vital role in the whole pattern.”

Goodall remarked that indigenous people and those who practice various religions often see animals as our brothers and sisters, as those who should be cared for by humans, and who provide humans with various benefits as well. She realized that working for animal welfare went hand in hand with addressing human needs as well.

In a 2020 interview with Krista Tippett, Goodall remarked about our ability “to ask questions like, Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of it all? Is there a purpose? Is there a spiritual guiding force out there? … there is no way that what’s happened is just chance. What that intelligence behind the universe is — what it is, who it is; probably what it is — I haven’t the faintest idea, but I’m absolutely sure that there is something. And seeking for that something is part of being human.”

In a video interview recorded shortly before Goodall’s death, released only after her passing, she shared the final message she felt compelled to give the world, which included these words: “each and every one of you has a role to play. … your life matters, and you are here for a reason, … every single day you live, you make a difference in the world, and you get to choose the difference that you make. … Don’t lose hope. … And if you want to save what is still beautiful in this world, if you want to save the planet for the future generations, your grandchildren, their grandchildren, then think about the actions you take each day, because multiplied a million, a billion times, even small actions will make for great change.”

Applying the News Story

As Goodall’s celebrity increased, she sometimes had to gently correct fans who idolized her. One woman once greeted her, shrieking, “Oh my God!” to which she wryly replied, “I’m not your God. I’m just Jane.”

The incident is reminiscent of the time when crowds of people wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas as though they were gods, after Paul healed a lame man, when Paul insisted, “We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them” (Acts 14:8-18).

Use the news to consider what nature and our faith have to teach us about what it means to be human and how we fit into God’s design for creation.

The Big Questions

What is your earliest memory of some aspect of the natural world?
How are humans and other creatures alike? How are humans different from other creatures?
How would you describe the relationship between faith and science?
Goodall seemed to delight in the knowledge that humans are part of the natural world. But some theorize that humans are superior to or separate from the rest of creation. How do you see your own relationship to nature, and what role does your faith play in how you understand that relationship?
Where in the Bible do you find indications of high regard and care for animals, and what does that suggest to you about how we should interact with other creatures on Earth?

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Genesis 2:18-20
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every animal of the field, but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. (For context, read Genesis 2:18-24.)

Goodall was criticized by some scientists for giving the chimps with whom she lived names like David Greybeard, Flo, Flint and Fifi, because the prevailing practice was to give animals numbers rather than names. Eventually, Goodall’s unconventional method became more accepted, because it helped people view chimps as unique individuals.

Questions: Why do you think God gave the man the task of naming the animals? In what contexts might humans be given a number rather than a name? What difference does it make whether an animal or a human is given a number rather than a name?

Genesis 6:19-21
And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” (For context, read Genesis 6:11-22.)

This flood narrative begins with an explanation for the coming destruction: that the earth was filled with violence and corruption (vv. 11-13). God gave Noah instructions for the building of an ark, to save him and his family, as well as representatives of all the animals on the earth, “to keep them alive with you” (vv. 14-21). He was also to take provisions to sustain them and the animals, so that they would not suffer extinction.

Questions: Whether you interpret the flood narrative literally or figuratively, what impresses you about God’s instructions to Noah, with regard to the animals? Why not exclude certain creatures that might be troublesome or dangerous at times?

Job 12:7-10
[Job said,] “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.” (For context, read Job 12:7-16.)

Job was frustrated by the sanctimonious attitude of his friends, who suggested that his adversities were probably due to some moral failure on his part. But Job claimed that they needed to learn a lesson from the animals, birds, plants and fish, who were all aware that the life of every living thing is in the hand of the Lord. What is true for every aspect of creation, from whether it thrives, survives, or perishes, to what kind of weather happens on any given day, is also true of humans: All of this depends on God’s sovereign will.

Questions: How does one go about “asking animals, birds, plants and fish” questions? Goodall said Leakey chose her to research wild chimps because she had an “open mind.” How can we open our minds to learn what God’s creatures might have to teach us — about God? About creation? About ourselves? About our relationships with other humans and with God?

Colossians 1:15-16
[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. (For context, read Colossians 1:15-20.)

John of Patmos echoes the sentiment in this text when he writes that in his vision of heaven, the four living creatures worship God and the 24 elders cast their crowns before the throne of God, declaring, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11). Elsewhere Paul writes that “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1 Corinthians 8:5-6).

Goodall often spoke of a “Great Spirit in Whom ‘we live and move and have our being.'”

Questions: In what sense are all things created for God and for Christ? If it is true that we exist for God and for Christ, how will we fulfill the purpose for which we were created?

For Further Discussion

“According to my calculations, reality is this very second,” wrote Barbara Johnson, in “A Hearty Ha, Ha, Ha!” in the anthology, She Who Laughs, Lasts!“You see, yesterday is only a memory, and tomorrow is merely a dream. Today is an illusion. That leaves this one second. Every day you have 86,400 seconds. But they come only one at a time. In your bank account of time, no balance is carried over until the next day. You use those seconds or lose them. There is no chance to reinvest. Make your investment wisely …”How can we ensure that we are using our 86,400 seconds wisely, so that at the end of our lives, we can be confident that we have fulfilled the role for which God put us on the Earth?
Comment on this, from Pope Francis, in his encyclical On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si’]: “A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. … Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.”
In a 2020 interview, Goodall said: “I think probably, my very favorite individual tree has to be Beech, in my garden. And when Beech began to grow, over 100 years ago, actually, it was from a pretty tiny seed. And if I had picked it up at that time, it would’ve seemed so small and weak, a little growing shoot and a few little roots.”And yet, there is what I call magic. It’s a life force in that little seed, so powerful that to reach the water that the tree will need, those little roots can work through rocks and eventually, push them aside. And that little shoot, to reach the sunlight which the tree will need for photosynthesis, can work its way through cracks in a brick wall, and eventually, knock it down.
“And so we see the bricks and the walls as all the problems, social and environmental, that we have inflicted on the planet. So it’s a message of hope: hundreds and thousands of young people around the world can break through and can make this a better world.”

What message does the Parable of the Beech Seed convey to you today?
Discuss this: Educator Rachel Klinger Cain distinguishes between what she calls vertical morality (“the idea that morality comes from authority above”) and horizontal morality (which “prioritizes the well-being of our neighbors, communities and personal relationships,” according to author April Ajoy).”We act in ways that cause the least amount of harm to those around us, regardless of beliefs,” explains Ajoy. “Someone with vertical morality may help someone in need because they believe that’s what God wants them to do, … [while] someone with horizontal morality may help that same person for the benefit of the person that needs help.”
People who practice horizontal morality, Ajoy says, actually come closest to a Christ-like approach, because doing so also acknowledges vertical morality. She points to Matthew 25, where Jesus says those who met the needs of the hungry, the naked, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner (horizontal morality) were showing love to him (vertical morality).

“There’s a quote I heard often growing up … that says, ‘Some Christians are so heavenly-minded that they’re no earthly good.’ And I think that perfectly sums up the risks of holding solely to a vertical morality,” Ajoy says. “Our history is full of instances of Christians causing human suffering because they believed they were obeying God. And God’s will can be manipulated and weaponized for all sorts of harm.”

Responding to the News

Brainstorm how you and your church can encourage greater connection with the natural world, as a way to worship the Creator and learn how to more effectively care for the world God made.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. You provided plants for humans and animals to eat, and gave humans the responsibility to care for the natural world, and that design was very good. All that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; we all belong to you. Teach us to care for your creation just as you care for the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the lowliest earthworm and the grass which is here today and gone tomorrow, so that you may rejoice in your human children just as you rejoice in all the rest of your creation. For your glory, we pray. Amen.

And let us add—-don’t forget: 96.4%.

The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear (of Ourselves)

Posted on November 7, 2025 by bpriddy

It was a cool-ish morning, a few degrees above chilly and several degrees above cold, the early sun making the warmth inside my car welcoming a few hours after results of this week’s elections had been announced.

As I had fast-walked my mile around the track at the Knowles YMCA in Jefferson City a few minutes earlier, two moments in history came to me as I thought about the first elections since Donald Trump began his second term. Two phrases from those events seemed appropriate:

“The people are coming, armed with pitchforks” and “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

And I thought the Tuesday results amounted to the people armed with political pitchforks, a story springing from the French Revolution of 1789. And my mind added a phrase: “and the grooves in the guillotine are being greased.”

It was October 5, 1789 when 7,000 angry women, armed not only with pitchforks but with pikes and muskets, marched six miles in the rain from Paris to the palace at Versailles to confront Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette about the people in Paris who were starving while the Royal First Family of France ate well in their palace. There had been significant events preceding the march including the famous Storming of the Bastille, the infamous Paris fortress and a prison for Parisians charged with various offenses against the crown, and the circulation of “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

Four days before the march, a banquet was thrown at the palace, welcoming the troops that had arrived to protect the royal family. There were toasts and expressions of loyalty to the throne, a lavish banquet that outraged the hungry people in Paris when the newspapers publicized it.

Now, on October 5, those 7,000 rain-dampened working women were at the palace chanting “Bread, Bread,” to the rhythm of a beating drum, a moment captured two centuries later in the Broadway musical Les Miserables:

When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

The twenty-thousand French National Guardsmen were unable to keep the women from breaching the gates and demanding Marie face them alone, which she did from a balcony. The mob by now recognized the strength of its position and demanded that she and the King accompany them back to Paris to witness the misery of the people from whom bread had been withheld.

They had no choice. The next day, they became prisoners of the revolution and two years later went to the guillotine.

The dropping of the blade on the neck of Louis XVI meant the future of France would involve no kings.

We will learn more a year from now how much the story of the No Kings movement in France almost 250 years ago will be played out in our streets against President Trump, who held a sumptuous Great Gatsby Party at Mar-a-Lago hours before the Food Stamp Program expired, leaving millions of his citizens wondering how they could afford bread and other necessities of life as he and his friends dined on fine food.

Tuesday’s election results from coast to coast showed an undeniable revolt against Donald Trump. It is easy and perhaps simplistic to draw parallels with his party and the banquet at Versailles in 1789, when a ruler and his supporters ate very well at a time when many Americans wondered if they could afford bread—and other necessities.

Trump’s reaction to the results illustrates his tone-deaf self-centeredness, his attitude that he is above the mob: “Trump wasn’t on the ballot, and shutdown, were two reasons that Republicans lost elections tonight, according to pollsters,” he wrote in all capital letters on his social media page. As usual, he did not cite any pollsters supporting his attitude.

The fact is, Trump WAS on the ballot Tuesday. And his party loyalists who have tried to blame the shutdown entirely on minority Democrats clearly have not convinced a lot of voters they are speaking the truth.

Trump never campaigned for any of his party’s candidates in this election cycle. In the New York Mayor’s race, he didn’t even endorse his party’s candidate and his name-calling against the eventual winner failed bigly.

Our two political parties face important decisions in the aftermath.. Democrats need to keep the public pot boiling for 2026, perhaps not a huge problem as long as Donald Trump keeps doing and saying Donald Trump things.

Is it already too late for Republicans to keep control? A year is a long time in politics. Candidates and parties historically have found ways to get off the mat. The Democrats did it Tuesday. But Republicans surely must be questioning how much continued slavish loyalty to Donald Trump will be a major liability for them as individuals and as a party in 2026.

How relevant will Donald Trump be to what the party needs to do in the next year to avoid being irrelevant to voters? The party surely must confront the reality of the danger Donald Trump embodies to its continued power. How will the party move beyond him for its self-preservation?

Mayor-elect Zahron Mamdani of New York told well-wishers Tuesday night, “We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”

On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt opened his first inaugural address this way:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.

Republicans surely understand that they have been warned, that the No Kings rallies are now emboldened, the pitchforks are out, and the pikes are ready for Republican heads next year. The beating of the drum and the beating of the national heart will intensify.

After Tuesday’s elections, it appears the only thing the Republican Party has to fear is itself.

Brent

Posted on November 5, 2025 by bpriddy

Last weekend, Nancy and I drove to St. Joseph for the retirement party of my longtime Missourinet managing editor, Brent Martin. Brent and I sat about four feet apart in the Missourinet newsroom for fifteen years before the company sent him to Lincoln, Nebraska to breathe new life into the Nebraska News Network.

He built the organization into a respected part of the Nebraska Capitol Press Corps before our parent company decided there just wasn’t enough money in Nebraska to continue support of the NRNs and abruptly shut it down.

We had hired Brent from our affiliate in St. Joseph, KFEQ, a historic station serving northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas, southwest Nebraska, and southeast Iowa. But we had known Brent since he was a student at Central Missouri State (now the University of Central Missouri) in Warrensburg where he did the news on affiliate KOKO.

Brent wrapped up a 45-year career in broadcast journalism last week, having returned to his St. Joseph roots at KFEQ after the abrupt shutdown in Nebraska.

Brent was on top of a number of major stories in St. Jo and in Jefferson City and in Lincoln. CBS relied on him to cover the 1993 flood and its impact on northwest Missouri’s biggest city. I trusted him implicitly to maintain the quality of the Missourinet operations when I was out of town.

That included the night 25 years ago when we lost Governor Carnahan. Nancy and I were in Albuquerque, having just come down from our annual archaeological work in southwest Colorado, and watching the 10 .p.m. news on KOB-TV when the anchor reported that the airplane carrying Missour Governor and senatorial candidate Mel Carnahan was missing. We immediately switched to CNN and got the updated information that the plane had crashed.

I knew that Brent would be in the newsroom along with the other members of our staff and other staffers who would be drawn there by the events, and I knew he would have things well in hand.

And he did. I told him to send someone to the Capitol and find Lieutenant Govenror Roger Wilson, who would become the new governor at almost any time. One of the people who had rushed to the newsroom that night was my former assistant news director at KLIK, a Jefferson City Station that no longer exists—Clyde Lear, now the owner of Learfield Communications.

Brent gave Clyde a recorder and sent him to the Capitol to stick to Wilson. When Wilson was sworn in and, understandably under the circumstances, said he didn’t have anything to say, Clyde—ever the journalist—asked him one and got an answer.

Brent told me that as the a time grew closer to our first newscast of the day, at 5:55 a.m., he paused and collected himself after the intensive hours that had passed, and reminded himself that in a few minutes, thousands of Missourians would learn from him that Mel Carnahan was dead.

Throughout that long day, as Nancy and I drove almost 1,000 miles back to Jefferson City, the Missourinet, led by Brent, told Missourians about what things were developing in the wake of the tragedy.

Less than a year later, I was in Nashville for the opening of the national convention of radio and television news directors, due to start on September 12. Just as we were to start our pre-convention board meeting, the first airplane crashed into the first of the World Trade Center towers in Washington. Again, it was Brent in charge of the Missourinet newsroom, running our coverage of state events that were affected by those two crashes.

Fortunately, I had driven to Nashville so I was not trapped as were several other news directors because all airline flights had been grounded indefinitely. When I got back to the newsroom, our operation hadn’t missed a beat.

I missed him when he went to Nebraska—-more because he was a dear friend more than anything else. We talked about all kinds of stuff in our years together; politics, government, religion, families, cars—-Brent bled blue and white during the Kansas City Royals seasons and he bled red and yellow during the NFL season. Our sports director, Bill Pollack, once confided to me, tongue in cheek, that he was always glad to see me back in the newsroom so he could get his sports business done because Brent always wanted to talk about the Royals or the Chiefs or the Tigers.

Being a journalist requires enduring energy for a long number of years. It’s exciting to be on the front row of history, whether it’s in city hall or a state capitol. Sometimes it is frustrating. Sometimes it is boring. But it is always human and the role of a reporter is vitally necessary to our state and country. Brent spent his fifteen years as Missourinet Managing Editor covering the House while I camped out in the Senate trying to make the complicated process of making laws simple enough to explain to Missourians who need to know what their government does to, with, and for them.

Sometimes, it wasn’t fun at all—the Carnahan crash, the floods, the twin towers attacks. And executions. Brent and I covered 34 of them; he covered twelve before going to Nebraska where he became not only a reporter but also a source for other reporters when Nebraska had its first execution by lethal injection in 2018. We felt that the state should not exact its most serious penalty against someone without witnesses from the two statewide media organizations as witnesses.

Brent’s wife and daughter planned the retirement party at the church the family attends in St. Joseph. One of the gifts he was given was a Chiefs jacket. And there was a special guest:

Brent is looking forward to time to read and to write poetry and to spoil his two granddaughters. The big retirement gift from his family and friends is a trip to England next year. I gave him a small gift, something a baseball fan might appreciate—an official 1994 World Series baseball. The Royals weren’t in it but a baseball fan such as Brent Martin would appreciate it because nobody was in the World Series that year because of a players strike.

He’ll have plenty of time for Royals games after missing so many because he had to be up early the next morning to tell the people of St. Joseph, and for a few years the people Missouri and Nebraska what was going on around them.

I wrote a little poem in the card we gave him that began something like:

Guilt-free naps

With a cat on the lap

And the Chiefs on the TV….

And it went downhill from there.

I reminded him and Tammi of something Christopher Bond told me after he had retired from the U.S. Senate—that his wife said she married him for better or worse, but not for lunch.

We hope the Martins have better luck at figuring out the lunch thing that we have had. We’re okay with Monday through Wednesday and the weekends. But after eleven years, we still havne’t figured out Thursday and Friday.

I hope my friend Brent is more successful than I have been about lunch.

Sports (and the cruelties thereof)

Posted on November 4, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”

The truth in that observation by newspaper humor columnist Erma Bombeck many years ago was carried out in our sports venues in the past several days.

In baseball, the World Series ended in laughter for the Dodgers and great pain for the Blue Jays, an underdog team that carried a dream of baseball superiority into the into the final two outs of the seventh game when the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning, the first such blast World Series history. Scintillating defensive plays forced the game into the eleventh when the Dodgers got the winning run and the silent Toronto crowd realized their hopes for their first championship in 32 years were dead.

In football, the Chiefs played their way out of the playoff picture, for now, falling once more to the Buffalo Bills in Bufalo 28-21, dropping to 5-4. There was a time when Patrick Mahomes was unique and a unique offense generated points by the hands full. But the game has caught up with them. Joe Burrows at Cincinnati and Josh Allen at Buffalo also started displaying magic. Last year it was clear the rest of the league had caught up to the Chiefs in terms of talent and innovation. Last year’s run to the Super Bowl for the Chiefs was a matter of breaks. This year the breaks aren’t coming but opponents have adapted to the KC style and have gathered talent to be a stronger match for Kansas City. Burrows still is out with a turf tow problem but Allen was the superior quarterback with a better team last Sunday.

The thin line between laughter and pain was no better carried out in sports last weekend than in the NASCAR race at Phoenix Sunday. Denny Hamlin, desperate to win his first NASCAR Cup championship in his 22-year career, wanting to win it for his dying father, had command of the race with only a couple of laps to go when a flat tire by one of his competitors for the title, William Byron, that sent his car into the wall and brought out a caution flag. While several drivers hit the pits for two tires, Hamlin’s crew gave him four—-a decision that put him eighth for the restart, with several cars between him and rival Kyle Larson—-too many to work around in those last two laps.

Larson finished third in the race and won the championship without leading a single lap in the final race, a circumstance that might emphasize the demands for NASCAR to change its playoff system after Joey Logano’s championship last year in which he got into the playoff field on a tecnicalty.

Hamlin, who started on the pole and led 208 of the 319 laps, got back to fifth. “We were 40 seconds from a championship. It’s just unfortunate,” Hamlin said. “…It’s just, gosh, you work so hard. It’s just this sport can drive you absolutely crazy because it’s just that sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff just does not matter.”

Someone who can appreciate Hamlin’s situation is Carl Ewards, who saw his championship hopes vanish in a late-final race collision, and left racing, feeling that he had accomplished all of his personal goals in driving a race car at its maximum level, and realizing he wanted to live a fully life after racing with all of his physical and mental faculties intact.

Hamlin earlier this year signed a two-year contract extension that he says will be his last contract, motivated by some of the same things that Edwards cites—-wanting to leave the sport on his terms.

Ryan Blaney won the race but he wasn’t among the final four that fought for the title in the last race of the year. Blaney won his championship in 2023.

And finally, this week brought an end to the Andretti family’s hopes that one of them would win another Indianapolis 500. Marco Andretti, grandson of 1969 winner Mario, announced that he would not be back for a 21^st 500 and would retire from racing at age 38 to spend time with his daughter, his outside-racing ventures, and writing a memoir he’ll call “Defending the Dynasty.”

Marco (on the right) with father Michael and grandfather Mario, finished second once and third three times in the 500. Father Michael, in fifteen 500s as a driver was second once, third twice. Mario ran twenty-nine 500s was the runner up twice and crossed the finish line in another race.

In 1992, when Marco was five, the Andrettis were the first family to have four drivers competing in the same racing series.

Jeff, John, Michael and Mario. Michael and Jeff were Mario’s boys. John, who died in 2020, was the son of Mario’s brother, Aldo.

Next years race will be the first 500 since 1954 without an Andretti in it. The four Andrettis combined for 79 starts in the Indianapolis 500. They finished in the top ten 32 times, in the top five 16 times, ran second four times and third six times. John also competed in NASCAR for seventeen seasons.

John was the first driver to try to do “the double,” competing at the Indianapolis 500 and then running the 600-mile race at Charlotte that night. He was tenth at Indianapolis and was 36^th at Charlotte after dropping out with engine trouble just past the halfway point.

Michael hold the record for the driver leading the most laps (431) in the 500 without ever winning. However, as a team owner, his drivers won six 500s.

(MIZFB)—The football Tigers had the weekend off, an important bye for their new starting quarterback, true freshman Matt Zollars, who finished the Vanderbilt game after the ankle injury to beau Pribula. His backup will be reshirt junior Brett Brown, who came back to Missouri in September.

Zollars showed outstanding composure in finishing the game 14 of 23 for 138 passing yards. One of the passe was for a game-tying touchdown. His last one, as time ran out, was compoete to the six-inch line. It would have sent the game into overtime.

The Tigers are at home against third-ranked Texas A&M Saturday afternoon. They’re now 6-2 with four regular season games and a bowl game left as they try to win ten games in a season for an unprecedented third straight time. They’ll go into the game ranked 17^th and 19^th in the polls.

(MIZBB)—Missouri’s basketball season opened with a win on the road, 88-67, against Howard University.

Seven-foot Center Shawn Phillips dominated on the inside with a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds—Missouri outrebounded the Bison 47-28.

Freshman Guard Jayden Stone came off the bench for 13. Transfers Luke Norweather and Jevon Porter combined to match Phillips’ totals. Anthony Robinson II had eight points, four assists, and three steals.

The women’s team opened at the Hearnes Center with a 78-71 win over Central Arkansas. Shannon Dowell had 21 points and a dozen rebounds. Jordana Reisman also had a double-double for Missouri with a dozen points and ten rebounds.

(MORE BASEBAL)—The best-fielding shortstops in major league baseball are from Missouri. The Cadinals Masyn Wynn and the Royals Bobby Witt Jr., have been awarded gold gloves, the first of the off-season awards presented.

Wynn is the youngest gold-glove winner in Cardinals history at 23 years and 191 days. That breaks the record of third baseman Ken Reitz, who was 24 years, 96 days in (can it be so long ago?) 1975. He is the 100^th GG winner in Cardinals history. He’s the fourth shortstop to win it (Edgar Reneteria, Ozzie Smith, and Dal Maxwell). He had only three errors in 501 chances this year.

Witt has won two of the gloves. Also winning a Gold Glove teammate and third baseman Maikel Garcia, who joins George Brett as the only Third Basement gold glovers in Royals history.

(FREE AGENTS)—The end of the World Series is the beginning of the free agent and trade season. Royals outfielder, and former Cardinals outfielder, Randal Grichuk declined a $5 million mutual option yesterday and is in the market for a new team. The Royals also have exercised their $1.5 million buyout option for pitcher Michael Lorenzen, another mid-season addition who made 26 starts and one relief appearance and posted a 4.64 ERA.

The Cardinals and Mike Mikolas are parting ways. He is the only free agent listed in the first batch out.

(Photo credits: Chiefs vs. Bills—Paramount Plus; Three Andrettis—USA Today; Four Andrettis—RACER; Kyle Larson—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis)

Redistricting and You—and Me

Posted on October 29, 2025 by bpriddy

You and I have no business questioning the Missouri Legislature’s quick obedience to an order from President Trump to redraw our congressional districts so longtime incumbent Democrat will have to leave his congressional office and presumably give President Trump an additional Republican seat in the House of Representatives.

At least that’s what the latest occupant of the Attorney General’s office thinks.

A group called People Not Politicians is gathering referendum petition signatures to put the legislature’s Trumpmandered congressional district map to a statewide vote. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway says they have no business doing that. Congressional redistricting, she says, is sacred to the Missouri legislature. She issued a statement to St. Louis Public Radio saying her lawsuit to block the referendum on the map drawn by the legislature is an effort to “stop out-of-state dark-money groups from hijacking Missouri’s electoral process and silencing the voices of Missouri voters.”

That is a stunning statement. Absolutely stunning. A politician, especially one whose party has a chokehold on state government, saying “out of state dark-money groups” should be prohibited “from hijacking Missouri’s electoral process” is a landmark statement. Since when is out of state dark money something either of our political parties is against?

We will believe accepting out of state dark money is a political sin when we see the state Republican party pass a law outlawing it. We expect Democrats would be excited to work with their GOP colleagues to take that step.

But all of us know the Sun will go dark before that happens.

As for “silencing the voices of Missouri voters:” Doesn’t her lawsuit keeping Missouri voters from having a say on the issue doing exactly that?

Did I even need to ask that question?

Missouri’s constitution allows its citizens to propose laws and to question actions by the General Assembly. There is no carve-out for congressional redistricting.

Congressional redistricting is, indeed, the job of the legislature IF IT IS DONE LEGALLY AND THE DISTRICTS MEET LEGAL STANDARDS. The petition campaign represents the people’s voice expressing concerns about the legality of what the legislature did.

We have a character in Washington who believes he is above the law and above the U.S. Constitution and he’s looking around and seeing a lot of the public has come to the realization of how dangerous he is to our country—and he is scared to death that voters next year will elect a Congress that is not afraid of him.

His solution is to do everything he can to rig next year’s elections. Unfortunately, Missouri has said “Yes, sir (“sir” is one of his favorite words) how high do you want us to jump?”

It’s one thing for the legislature to pass a law protecting him. But to say the people who elected the legislators to protect their interests have no right to object when those legislators choose, instead, to protect the interests of one individual who is deathly afraid of facing voter consequences for his actions is flatly un-American.

At least, it used to be—-

back when being an American was not anti-American.

Sports: Chiefs Roll; Tough Losses for MU Football; A Glimpse at Basketball; A Speedy Final Four

Posted on October 28, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense sputtered in the first half against the Washington Commanders last night but outran them with three touchdowns in the second half. The 28-7 win moves them to 5-3 for the year. Washington drops to 3-5, equaling last year’s loss total when the Commanders made it to the playoffs.

Patrick Mahomes, who had only two interceptions in the first seven games this year threw two picks in the first half against Washington. Mahomes, who turned 31 on September 17 after breaking Peyton Manning’s record for young quarterbacks, connected for two touchdown passes in the second half.

One of those touchdown passes went to Travis Kelce, giving him 83 TDs to tie Priest Holmes for mot all-purpose touchdowns. Kelce finished with 99 yards receiving. Rashee Rice had nine catches for 93 yards and rushed for twelve more as Mahomes came up one yard short of 300.

Kareem Hunt has the other two touchdowns for Kansas City.

The Chiefs are one game behind Denver in the division standings. They’re at Buffalo next weekend. They’ll play the Broncos two weeks later.

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers have the next weekend off before facing Texas A&M, ranked third in both major polls this week. When they take the field against the Aggies they will be without Beau Pribula and likely will not have him back for the rest of the regular season. Pribula tore three ligaments in his left ankle when it was dislocated during a tackle in last weekend’s game against Vanderbilt. In most cases, such injuries result in broken bones but not in Pribula’s case. No surgical repairs are needed.

Recovery from the ligament injury generally comes after six weeks of being in a cast and/or a boot to immobilize the injured area and then rehabilitation sessions. The Tigers play their last game before that recovery period is over. After being off this week, Missouri has five games left, making his return more likely for a bowl game than for a regular season game.

Before exiting, Pribula had passed for eleven touchdowns and 1,685 yards and had run for five more TDS.

His replacement, true freshman Matt Zollers, has played impressively in the limited time he has had, most of it in the closing minutes of the Vanderbilt loss. He has two weeks to take snaps as the number one quarterback. His performance in the last five games could determine how deeply into December the Tigers will go in the bowl schedule—and whether Coach Drinkwitz will have a difficult decision to make on who will start the bowl game.

Missouri is 19^th and 20^th after the tough loss to then-number 10 Vanderbilt, one of those games that often hinges on which team gets The Big Play. Vanderbilt got it with the 80 yard touchdown run by Makhilyn Young that put the Commodores up 10-3 in the third quarter. Mizzou tied the game before Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia got the winning score on a one-yard plunge.

The win moved Vanderbilt up to ninth in one poll and dropped it to 11^th in the other.

(MIZ BIG QUESTION)—-With Mizzoui’s third-string quarterback now number one, who slots in as his backup. None of the other four quarterbacks listed on the pre-season roster have ever played a down in college. The two most likely number one backup to the number three quarterback are Tommy Lock, cousin Drew and nephew of Andy, who is 6-feet-3 and from Lee’s Summit, and Brett Brown, a Tennessee native who is 6-1, 185. Both Lock and Brown are graduate students who got their degrees in August.

(MIZBB)—The game didn’t count but it was hardly the typical pre-season game we often see teams play as exhibition contests. Missouri’s basketball exhibition against Kansas State had the look and the feel of a regular season game built on the rivalry intensified by Missouri’s defection to the SEC a long time ago.

It had a familiar feel—a full tilt race to get more points at the end that the other team got. The two teams combined for 105 points in the last twenty minutes.

The point total should not have been a surprise. Missouri has three returning starters and seven lettermen back from last year’s team that was ninth nationally in scoring (83.6 ppg).

The tendency in a 100-91 game is to wonder who was playing defense. In this game, Missouri played enough defense to keep Kansas State down by double figures most of the way and it looked pretty impressive offensively doing it. Missouri shot 54.8% from the field, scored 54 points in the paint and got 29 points off of fast breaks. Missouri was also good at the free throw line, going 26 of 34.

The game was the 238^th between the Missouri and K-Sate but the first one that doesn’t count in the season standings. Missouri and Kansas State were rivals through the Missouri Valley, Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight and finally the Big 12. They’ll play another exhibition game against each other in Manhattan next year. (ZOU)

(THE BASEBALL)—a phrase used by Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea. By this time next week, the season will be over and players and money will be moving. Until then, the Royals and the Cardinals are watching prospects in the Arizona Fall League. Anne Rogers with her Royals Beat newsletter has been keeping tabs on KC’s seven players.

Right-handed pitcher A. J. Causey, impressive in his first season out of the Universitys of Tennessee in High-A has found the AFL more challenging. Four appearances, seven runs in 4.2 innings, but with seven strikeouts.

Righty Dennis Colleran, who moved up three levels to Double A this year, pitching 66.1 innings with a combined 2.85 ERA has three scoreless AFL innings with four K’s and two walks in three games.

L. P. Langevin, a product of Louisiana-Lafayette missed part of the minor league season with a right lat strain has yet to allow a hit in limited action in the AFL, three and three in the strikeout-walk department and one unearned run.

Pitcher Logan Martin, a righty out of the University of Kentucky, started 22 games in High A this year and put up a 3.45 ERA in 91.1 innings. In Arizona he has pitched 5.2 innings, given up four runs with four walks and one strikeout.

Lefty Hunter Owens, a Vanderbilt product, spent this year in Double A, had nineteen starts and three relief appearances in which he gave up 3.8 runs per nine innings. He missed parts of the year with shoulder tenderness but struck out 107 batters in 94.2 innings. In Arizona he’s had some problems in his two appearances. Six runs, 11 hits, four strikeouts and a walk in 4.1 innings.

Catcher Blake Mitchell, who signed out of Sinton Texas High School had surgery on a broken wrist but got into 49 High-A games. He struggled after coming back from the injury and hit only .209 with one home run. In Arizona he also has struggled and is hitting .167 but has taken a dozen walks. Defensively, he’s fine behind the plate.

Shortstop Daniel Vazquez, a 2021 International Free Agent, is making up for missed time in the regular season by hitting .357 in Arizona with five stolen baes and eleven RBIs in eleven games.

Center Fielder Carson Roccaforte has hit .294 in his first nine games of the AFL after posting an .862 OPA in High A. Bottom of Form

(SLUGGER)—Louisville Slugger has announced its finalists for its annual American League Silver Slugger Awards. National League winners will be announced on November 6, with American League winners announced the next day. Managers and coaches cast the ballots for the best hitters at each position.

Two Cardinals are on the National League nominees list, both listed as utility players: Alex Burleson and Brendan Donovan.

The Royals have first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Catcher Salvador Perez, and utility man Maikel Garcia.

(ROONEY and BUCK)—-There’s a personal angle to a wonderful recognition for a kid who once asked the Missourinet for a job. And I told our boss, Clyde Lear, we needed to hire him as our first sports director when we got ready to have one. Somewhere in the company files now at the State Historical Society in Columbia is the pencil-written job application for John Rooney.

John is one of the ten finalists for the highest honor a baseball broadcaster can have—the Ford Frick Award at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

And there’s Joe Buck who has done baseball games on FOX Spors for 26 years. He also called 17 years of Cardinals games and has broadcast a couple-dozen World Series.

That kid has just finished his 39^th year broadcasting major league baseball games for the Twins, the White Sox, and now for the Cardinals. He’s also called some games for FOX Sports and in his younger days he was a CBS radio voice for the NCAA Tournament and for other games.

Also on the list is Skip Caray, son Harry, who was going sportscasts on Columbia radio station KFRU when this correspondent was in college.

The winner will be announced December 10 during the winter baseball meetings. Induction will take place in late July when the Hall announces its latest honored players.

One of those who nominated this year’s slate is another familiar name to Missouri sports fans: Bob Costas. Among those who will make the selection is longtime Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews.

Another sport has a final four—

(NASCAR)—NASCAR has narrowed the number of drivers with a change at the NASCAR Cup to four. The big difference in this sport when compared to stick and ball sports is that the racing field remains full throughout the run-off. As many as forty drivers might be on the track at Phoenix next Sunday when the championship will go to one of those four who is highest in the finishing order.

Actually, eight of the biggest names in NASCAR will decide whose driver will be this year’s NASCAR Cup Champion:

Joe Gibbs Racing

Hendrick Motorsports

Chevrolet

Toyota

Byron

Briscoe

Hamlin

Larson

Three of the four drivers want their first Cup. Kyle Larson won the Cup in 2021. William Byron, Chase Briscoe, and Denny Hamlin are looking for their first. Briscoe and Hamlin drive for Gibbs. Larson and Byron run for Hendrick. Hendrick uses Chevrolet engines. Briscoe and Hamlin drive for Toyota.

Byron raced his way into the final four with a dominating rim on the tight half-mile flat track at Martinsville, starting from the pole and leading 304 of the 500 laps, the last 44 after getting past Ryan Blaney, who had to win to make the final four.

Christopher Bell became the odd man out when Larson claimed the fourth and final slot, seven points ahead of Bell. But with Hamlin, Byron, and Briscoe guaranteed in the final four by winning the three final cutdown races, Bell, seven points behind Larson in the regular points standings, was out of the finale.

(Photo Credits: Mahomes—NFL; Byron—Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2025; Logo—Louisville Slugger; Zollars—Reddit; Rooney and Buck–St. Louis Cardinals)

Pimples

Posted on October 27, 2025 by bpriddy

Back in the Twentieth Century, when your correspondent enrolled at the University of Missouri, male freshmen and sophomores were required to enroll in what we called “rot-see,” more properly, ROTC—the Reserve Officers Training Corps. Two years of military education designed to encourage students to join the Army, Navy, or Air Force after two more years of military education.

I decided to focus my energies on becoming a journalist.

One of our instructors in Crowder Hall, a Sergeant whose name I might be able to recall in the middle of the night, once referred to Fort Leonard Wood as “a pimple on the ass of humanity.”

I think of him almost every time I walk into a convenience store and see a line or two or more of machines that are or are not slot machines (according to their owners) but are instead Video Lottery Terminals.

Owners of the machines say they’re legal because there aren’t slot machines that are state-regulated. The casinos, which want a monopoly on all things gambling (except the state lottery that they can’t lay their hands on, so far) say they are slot machines and state law allows only casinos to have legal slot machines.

The question of their legality tied up the Missouri Senate so badly that for three years in a row that almost no legislation was passed except for a state budget. Most of the instigators of that deplorable era have moved on or moved out, allowing the legislature to actually accomplish several things for good or for ill in the most recent regular session.

The legacy of those deadlocks is Amendment 2, the sports wagering proposal barely grafted onto our state constitution last November that will have almost no benefit to the citizens but will greatly fatten the pocked of casinos and our sports teams. Backers of legalized convenience store slot machines refused to let sports wagering legislation, or almost any other legislation, go anywhere unless those bills also legalized the slot machines.

The backers of the VLTs, therefore, are largely to blame for Missouri now having a constitutional amendment rather than a law. Laws are easier to correct or to make more fair for the people of the state than amendment is.

The casino industry also is largely to blame because it refused any kind of a compromise. The legislature refused to be the adult in the rooms (the House and the Senate) and put it collective foot down and resolve the issue in a way that protected the state’s interests.

The stage is now set to decide in the court system if those “gray market” machines are or are not legal. A few days ago, a St. Louis federal jury ruled that the biggest supplier of those slot machines has been engaging in unfair competition and has misled players and stores about how the games operated.

The jury had no trouble deciding—in only two hours after a five-day trial. The owner of traditional bar games had sued Torch Electronics and won a half-million dollars, four times what was sought.

The jury’s finding could clear the way for Federal District Judge John Ross to rule whether these machines are legal. He has indicated a reluctance to wade into the “politically fraught” waters involving this issue but indicated he would rule after the Torch case was decided.

Gambling generates a lot of Money in Missouri and it’s important that those in the biz make sure those who make decisions on laws and regulations are friendly.

Tthose who make that money have not been shy about buying high-level political friendships with it, thanks in large parts to the financially-persuasive involvement of former House Speaker Steven Tilley, now an influential lobbyist who has endeared himself to key figures such as Governor Kehoe, whose political action committee account was fattened by a quarter-million dollars last year, and former Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who kept Torch money and who backed away from defending the Highway Patrol—which had been sued by Torch to keep it from seizing machines.

Bailey’s predecessor, now-U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt, returned $5,800 in campaign donations from Torch’s owners after questions were raised about possible conflicts of interest. State Treasurer Vivek Malek, after a Tilley-arranged meeting with Torch’s owner, put stickers on the VLTs advertising the state’s unclaimed property program, which had nothing to do with those machines but drew criticism from those who thought they indicated the state had licensed them.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the plaintiff’s attorney in the case told the jury that 101 of Torch’s 6,000 machines throughout Missouri took in $32 million in seven years and generated $11million in profits to Torch, a payout rate of about 65% while regulated casino slots pay out more than 90%. No law requires operators of those machines to share their wealth with state programs and services.

There has been a general reluctance by city and county prosecutors to declare the machines beyond the law. One county and one city have taken that step but a ruling by Ross of illegality could give others the backbone to challenge the machines’ presence.

Regardless of how Judge Ross rules, the conflict about whether they are or whether they aren’t slot machines has left Missouri with an unfortunate result. Sports wagering is now in the Missouri Constitution rather than in the Missouri Revised Statutes. Putting something in the Constitution doesn’t make it immune from change but the opportunity for constitutional change is much harder than it is to change a law.

Regardless of how Judge Ross rules, Missourians are losers because the people we elected to represent us in the Capitol didn’t do their jobs in voting video lottery machines legal or illegal and failed to pass a sports gambling law that serves the people.

You might ask them why they lacked the backbone to put the state in control of the gambling industry rather than the other way around. Check their campaign contribution reports on file at the Missouri Ethics Commission and you might find some answers.

The Hating Terrorists

Posted on October 22, 2025 by bpriddy

President Trump has branded antifa a terrorist organization. It’s just more hot air because there is no organization named antifa. If there was, the word would be capitalized and would have a campaign bank account and would have officers he could arrest.

But if he wanted to see the face(s) of his enemy, all he had to do was watch some non-football news coverage last Saturday when organizers of more than 2,600 No Kings protests say more than seven million people had something to say to and about Donald Trump.

Organizers claimed a total of more than 7 million people turned out at more than 2,600 protests across the nation.

He missed a great chance by not dispatching his ICE goons to those rallies to round up antifa terrorists as well as brown people or people with names ending in “z,” and some plain American citizens while they were at it.

In an Air Force One news scrum, Trump called he rallies “a joke.”

“I look at the people and they’re not representatives of this country,” he continued. “I looked a all the brand new signs paid for, I guess it was made by Soros and other radical left lunatics…The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective, and the people who worked out, when you look at these people, those are not representatives of the people of the country. “

“And by the way,” he concluded. ”I’m not a King…I work my ass off to make our country great.”

George Soros is one of Trumpisms favorite boogeymen. And the phrase “radical left lunatics” was tiresome the second time he said it. But it’s his phrase of the moment so he’ll beat all the blood out of it.

The Speaker of the House and some other Republicans are calling these events “Hate America Rallies.” But polls and rally turnouts indicate an awful lot of people aren’t buying the name game that Trump addicts try to apply to these gatherings.

And we don’t know what television coverage he was looking at, but those demonstrations were NOT “very small.” And he is likely to learn in next year’s mid-term elections if they were, in fact, ineffective.

Organizers of anti-fascist or anti-kings rallies have to be careful, though It’s ten months before the 2026 primaries, more than a year before the general elections, especially in the Trumpmandered congressional districts. The people behind the “No Kings” rallies—-that’s what they prefer to call themselves regardless of those who try to convince the public that these folks hate America—don’t want to peak too soon.

As far as these people being haters? Au Contraire, mon frere. These are people who love America and they love it enough to hold mass rallies that so far have burned no stores, looted no television shops, and broken no large numbers of windows. In the sixties, anti-war demonstrators sometimes stuck flowers down the barrels of guns that soldiers were carrying. Today, maybe some will give flowers to the ICE goons.

What organizers have to be careful about is peaking too soon. This is a time for Democrats to be finding their strongest candidates and rounding up big money from Democrat or Independent million-and-billion-aires.

Antifa might need to go into what the Continental Army called “winter quarters,” to conserve energy and to let Mr. Trump give himself more and more rope.

Republicans who might notice the declining favorability of the Trump administration might wish to quit dismissing these events as “Hate America Rallies” and recognize them for what they are—people who love America and are concerned with the direction that President Trump is taking America. Name-calling will not eliminate the threat these rallies could be to their side of the aisle in a few months and might, in fact, only fuel the efforts of the No Kings folks. Finding a platform that is BETTER than what the “No Kings” voices are expressing and offering candidates more loyal to their oaths than to their president might be a better use of their time and resources.

What is happening now is likely to only intensify as elections draw closer and if the present direction of national leadership follows its present arc.

Those of us who remember the demonstrations of the sixties know that dismissal is the wrong direction to go.

It is dangerous to shake a beehive and believe you can ignore the swarm.

Sports: Tigers Gut One Out; Chiefs Showing What a Healthy Team Can Do; And a Cinderfella Story in NASCAR)

Posted on October 21, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor;

(CHIEFS—-We seldom see one NFL team dominate another one as completely as the Kansas City Chiefs overwhelmed the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday. The final score of 31-0 with five minutes left in the third quarter was enough for Coach Andy Reid to pull many of his starters.

By then, Patrick Mahomes had throw for 286 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to the newly-returned Rashee Rice. He completed passes to nine different receivers.

The Chiefs scored on their first five possessions and racked up 434 total yards. The Raiders ran only thirty plays, the fewest in more than two daces by an NFL team. They had only two first downs by plays and one on a penalty, and totaled only 91 yards of total offense.

The Chiefs had a 21-2 advantage in first downs. They had a 275-51 edge in yards, and that includes six meaningless yards that Jeanty gained on the final run of the half. And the Chiefs became the first team since at least 2000 to start a game with three TD drives of at least 80 yards, allowing them to consume nearly 21 minutes of the first half. At the end of the game, they had controlled the ball for more than 42 minutes.

The shutout was the first by the Chiefs’ defense in ten years.

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers played one of those games where both teams had a chance to put a dagger in the other team’s hopes but neither team could put the other one away.

So they played an overtime. And then they played another one before, at last, Missouri got the first big break, and the winning touchdown on a three-yard run by quarter back Bo Pribula and a second break with a sack of Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold to end the second overtime and let Missouri walk wearily away with a 23-17 win. Missouri goes to 6-1 and is now eligible for an early December bowl. How late in December they will play depends on their next five games. Auburn lost its fourth straight game after three season-opening wins.

For the second straight week, the other guys’ defense stopped Ahmad Hardy from any ground-gobbling runs, holding him to an average of less than three yards a carry although he did power his way to two short-yardage touchdowns.

Things don’t get any easier next week when the Tigers are on the road against Vanderbilt. The Commodores are no longer the conference door mat. They beat then 10^th ranked LSU Saturday to also reach 5-1. It will be another match of ranked teams. Vanderbilt has climbed to 10^th in the AP sportswriters poll. Missouri is up two slots to 15^th. In the Coaches poll, Vanderbilt is 12^th and Missouri is 14th.

(MIZEAST)—Former Tiger standout guard Sean East has signed with the Utah Jazz after spending a year with the Edmonton Stingers in the Canadian Elite Basketball Leag. He started 25 games, average more than 23 points a game, almost five assists and more than 4 rebounds each game.

East was a Tiger for two years and averaged 17.6 points per game in his second year, 2023-24, a down year for Missouri but a solid year for East, who led the team in scoring and assists and was the team leader from outside the arc. (ZOU)

(BASEBALL)—Until the World Series is over and the big time wheeling and dealing starts, the Arizona Fall League is offering a chance to see into the long-term future. The Cardinals have nine players considered among their best in the minors: Five are right-handed pitchers: Chen-Wei Lin, Randel Clemente, Darlin Saladin, Tyler Bradt, and D. J. Carpenter. There are two outfielders: Travis Honeyman and Miguel Ugueto. Catcher Graysen Tarlow rounds out the group.

There might be some guys with better shots next spring to come north with the team, but the Fall League is giving the front office a chance to evaluate others with possibilities—

Some observers put Lin near the top of the field although he had a mediocre season at Springfield (AA). He made 15 starts but gave up more than six earned runs a game. He walked 37 batters in 46 innings but had 61 strikeouts. He’s from Taiwan, stands 6-7 and

Another one high on the evaluation list is Darlin Saladin, a starter/reliever this year who split his starts and his relief appearances equally through 26 games with High-A Peoria. 94.2 innings, 4.85 ERA. But they like his live arm.

Travis Honeyman missed all of the 2024 season but came back to hit .284 in 289 at-bats. The Fall League will give him mor at-bats to build on those numbers. He played in both LowA and High A ball last summer.

Then there’s Randel Clemente, right-hander from the Dominican Republic. He’ll be 24 soon who climbed through three levels of the minor leagues before finish the year at Springfield.

(ROYALS)—The AFL will give Royals catcher prospect Blake Mitchell is a non-roster invitee. He suffered broken wrist bone that shortened his minor league season. He missed spring training and had a setback that lasted until July 8. But in 2024 he was the George Brett Hitter of the year for the Royals farm system. He struggled in the batter’s box this year but the team liked his place discipline that saw his chase low and away pitchers only 20 percent of the a time. He walked almost 22 percent of the time although he had a 34% swing and miss percentage.

The Royals also will be watching shortstop prospect Daniel Vazquez who hit .260 for the Quad Cities last summer.

Outfielder Carson Roccaforte was the Frank White Defensive Player of the Year for the Royals. He hit .290 for Double-A Arkansas this year.

Four pitchers are in the fall league for Kansas City. Left-hander Hunter Owens had some injury problems this year but when hew as healthy he had a 3.80 ERA for Nothwest Arkansas (AA) with 107 Ks in 94 2/3 innings. He’s 6-6.

A.J. Causey throws from the right side, a former University of Tennessee reliever who looked awfully good in High A ball—73 1/3 innings, 75 strikeouts. He had a whiff rate of better than 40%.

Right hander Dennis Colelran already has had Tommy John Surgery. He was a reliever for the first time this year who went 66.1 innings with 72 strikeouts and a 2.,85 ERA in three levels of work this year.

Right hander Dennis Langevin started the season on the injured list and only made 14 apperances but they were impressive enough to get him an invited for baseball in the desert.

And righty Logan Martin, who was a starter in High A Quad cities this year. 78 strikeouts in 91.1 innings. 3.45 ERA.

Now, from fastballs to fast cars:

(NASCAR)—A year ago at this time, Chase Briscoe was with a dying team and uncertain about his future. Today he’s with one of the premier teams in the sport and in two weeks will be one of four drivers running for the NASCAR Cup.

Briscoe’s survival of Talladega and his last-lap pass that brought him the win that puts him in the final four, along with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. In the usual Talladega Superspeedway last turn scramble for the finish line, Briscoe beat Todd Gilliland to the checkered flag by .145 of a second.

The leaders coming into the green-white-checker two lap shootout began with William Byron and Kyle Larson on the lead row. Larson ran out of fuel on the final lap after Bubba Wallace had grabbed the lead but Briscoe got to the front and took Gilliland and Ty Gibbs with him to the finish line ahead of Wallace.

The win is his third this year, the fifth of his career.

Next weekend is the last race to set the four-driver final championship field. More than 35 drivers will crowd the small Martinsville track with six drivers fighting for the last two spots in the Championship race at Phoenix in a couple of weeks.

Briscoe drives one of the two cars on the circuit sponsored by Misouri businesses. Johnny Morris’s Bass Pro Shops sponsors his car. Anheuser-Busch backs the car driven by Clay Chastain.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power made his first race at Indianapolis since losing his ride with Roger Penske and moving over to Andretti Global for the 2026 IndyCar season. But his return was in a Mercedes-AMG competing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, an eight-hour endurance race on the Speedway road course. He was one of three drivers in the car, joined by fellow Australians Kenny Habul and Chaz Mostert. It was Power’s first sports car race in 22 years.

“I have been meaning to do, and wanting to do, some GT racing for some time,” Power said ina pre-race interview.”It’s different, and I’ve wanted to feel it and see how I go. This is a good start at a track I know, and if I do a good job and if I like it, I’d like to do some more.”

The race was stopped for two hours by lightning in the area. Power and his teammates were running fourth at the end but wound up sixth after taking a 30-second time penalty for unauthorized work being done in the pits during the stoppage.

Another IndyCar veteran, Connor Daly, was part of the team that finished fourth

(Photo credits: Missouri vs. Auburn t-shirt: JNJ Apparel Store; Briscoe: Bob Priddy; Power at Indianapolis; Richard S. James, RACER Magazine.)

Keep Them Ignorant and Pay the Cost

Posted on October 20, 2025 by bpriddy

I was in Romania a little more than a year after the Iron Curtain fell and the people of Romania revolted against one of the most oppressive regimes that had been behind it. The Romanian Revolution was part of a historic period when unrest boiled over in several former Iron Curtain Countries that were still controlled by dictators—-it was the same year of the Tiananmen Square Protests in China that did not turn out as well.

In December of 1989, a church leader’s speech against the government triggered huge protests in Timisoara, which led to a military crackdown under Premier Nicolai Ceausescu (Chow-chess-kew). He made a speech from his palace, which wasn’t too far from the hotel where I later stayed, and from the Hall of the People where I lectured and interacted with young journalists wanting to learn how to be free journalists.

The crowd at Ceausescu’s speech began booing and chanting “Timisoara!”

The military turned on him. Ceausescu and his wife, who also was the Deputy Prime Minister were driven out of the palace and captured by some of the angry citizens. They were take into some woods near Bucharest and shot to death on Christmas.

A new government took over. The death penalty was abolished. An election was held the next May and the new government was overwhelmingly approved and quickly moved to enact democratic reforms.

While I was there, Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union. I remember seeing people sitting in their cars listening to reports of what was happening in their neighboring Soviet satellite, now a free country. It was of particular interest because many of the people in Moldova are of Romanian ancestry.

Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007.

I have thought often of the people of Romania—and of Poland, where I did seminars in Warsaw after traveling from Bucharest—as I have watched Ukraine hold on against Vladimir Putin’s major effort to reassemble the USSR and I know from those long-ago days that the people of Romania and Poland are living with uncertainty, knowing that if Putin wins in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania and Poland might be next.

All of this is the long way around another impression I had in Bucharest, where my hotel, still displaying bullet marks in its stone walls, once was a nice hotel in the pre-Communist times but now was reminiscent of a 1950s hotel that had never been updated. My room had a big square television set, black and white, and there were only two or three channels, all former government-run stations, none of which told viewers much about the outside world or even about Romania.

Were it not for a small Radio Shack shortwave radio I had brought with me to listen to the Voice of America, I would have been ignorant of what was happening in Romania and Poland, in Europe, and in the word. The Iron Curtain was down. But the window of open information was still being opened.

You will understand, then, why I watch the Trump administration’s increasing efforts to choke off the free flow of information and discussion in this country whether it is by threatening broadcast licenses or the recent despicable action by the Secretary of Defense (Sorry, Donald, I’m not going to use your word for the department any more than I am going to call the Gulf of Mexico by the name you demand it be called).

A few days ago, somebody posted this sign in the correspondents’ corridor near the Pentagon press room.

“Journalism is not a crime.” To Pete Hegseth and his boss, Donald Trump, it would be, complete with prison sentences, if they could get away with it. And it would not surprise me if Trump someday accuses a particularly persistent reporter doing the job reporters must do in a free society with treason or some other crime.

Trump heartily endorses Hegseth’s ban on reporters doing stories questioning what he says and does, and banning those who do not agree to be just a mouthpiece for Hegseth’s part of the administration. “I think he finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace,” said the man who calls people such as me “enemies of the people.” He went on, “The press is very dishonest.”

Only one news organization is now accredited by the Pentagon, The One America News Network, an organization that wants to curry a lot of favor with Trump. Even other networks that lean more to the right such as FOX, the Washington Post, and NewsMax have refused to abide by Hegseth’s rules to limit the flow of information to only that which is politically favorable.

It’s another effort to keep the people at large ignorant not just of what is happening but who is making it happen, often for their own great benefit.

The thing about trying to repress journalism in this country is that it just makes journalists work harder. But if Trump/Hegseth think they can control the flow of information to the public in this country, they are mistaken. We will learn of their increased militarism at home and abroad no matter how many press room doors are closed in however many places.

Trump knows his policies have turned many of his supporters away from him. Newsweek reported last week that every swing state—-the ones he constantly interrupts his speeches to brag about carrying in ’24—is now against him. He’s -8 in Wisconsin, underwater by five points in Michigan, down by three in Nevada and North Carolina. He’s minus-2 in Pennsylvania and Arizona and minus-1 in Georgia.

You might not like to listen to or see CNN or MSNBC or any of the three over the air major networks and I’m not saying you should like them. But this nation was great long before the MAGA crowd came along and decided greatness should be determined not by the people but by one person. And he seems determined every day to burnish his future credentials as the worst president in American history. Taking abusive steps to shut off any reporter questioning his administration’s actions or his personal statements will not go well.

It is never good to poke a Tiger with a stick.

The swing states are sending a message that Trump can bluster about and lie about his own magnificent popularity. But a lot of people aren’t buying his garbage anymore.

We aren’t going to see an Army revolt and military overthrow of our government, as has happened in many countries but we have to ask how far he can push our military without the first blowup.

He’s not going to be taken to the woods, Ceausescu-style. But the people are stirring; many are up-to-here with this man and his cronies. The “No Kings” movement is growing. His polls are tanking. He is deathly afraid that a measure of political justice will be brought down upon him after next year’s elections, which might bring a measure of political justice down on a political party that, like Ceausescu’s loyalists, pays the price for blindly following and defending him.

He will do anything to keep journalists from their rounds, from questioning his policies, his actions, his intimidations, his lies, his business dealings as President, his character–

He will fail. Dictators always fail. I saw the past, the present, and got a glimpse of the future in those days in Romania and in Poland. It is in my mind as I watch our president’s grasp for absolute power and the people’s growing disgust of it.

Our system provides for a peaceful overthrow of a tyrant. History shows the people will use whatever means their system gives them to do just that.

Carl Sandburg:

The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it….

Time is a great teacher.
Who can live without hope?

…In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for
keeps, the people march:
“Where to? what next?”

The poem is called “The People, Yes.” We must find strength in one another to resist the worst that he can do. He wants us to forget that long ago this country placed its faith in the concept that government flows from the consent of the governed.

But in this darkness with our great bundle of grief, we know and more are coming to know and the people are starting to march, for we are “the people so peculiar in renewal and comeback.”

That is the spirit behind the “No Kings” protests.

And neither National Guard troops invading other states nor goons from ICE snatching people from our streets can stop that march.

It has become, to borrow a phrase from another purpose and another time, “too big to fail.”

Bob Priddy

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Keep Them Ignorant and Pay the Cost

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