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SPORTS: A Season Ending With a Whimper, not a Roar; Jones Stays; Training Camps; and Newgarden stars hot.  And a teenage sensation. 

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS, JONES)—Chris Jones has said all along, even during last year’s holdout, that he wanted to retire a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Just two days before the beginning of the free agent scramble, it became more possible with Jones signing a five-year extension, front-loaded for the first three years to the tune of $95 million, guaranteed. His agents say he’ll be the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history. The total package is expected to be worth $160 million.
Jones is a five-time Pro Bowl player and a two-time all=pro. He has 75.5 sacks in his eight-year career, and earned an extra million dollars by racking up 10.5 of them last season despite missing the season opener.

(CHIEFS, AMPUTATIONS)—The coldest game in Arrowhead Stadium history is proving tragically costly for some of the fans who were there. Kansas City’s Research Medical Center says some of those fans have undergone amputations of fingers and toes because they suffered frostbite. Hospital officials say the number is likely to increase in the next month as “injuries evolve.”
Whether the Chiefs bear any legal lability for holding the game despite warnings the windchill would be in the minus-20 range is not known.

(CHIEFS—BURNER)—One of the things the Chiefs did NOT have last season was a receiver fast enough to blow past the defense, as Tyreek Hill did for the before going to Miami. Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy raised Patrick Machomes’ eyebrows last week at the Scouting Combine when he ran a record 4.21 forty-yard dash.
Mahomes is one of a handful of NFL quarterbacks who send him congratulations. And Worthy says he’d love to go to the Chiefs. It’s been reported that he pushed the Chiefs last year to pick Rashee Rice in the second round. A big question, however, is whether he will still be available when the Chiefs get to choose.
The Chiefs, at this point, have seven picks in this year’s draft.

Let’s shift from the boys of winter to the boys of spring:

(CARINALS)—Injury updates:
Pitcher Sonny Gray has done some long-tossing (120 feed) and is doing agility drills and could start throwing bullpen sessions this week if his recovery from a hamstring injury continues. Whether he’ll be the starter in the season opener in a couple of weeks will be determined later.
Looking doubtful for the season opener is Lars Nootbar, who has four broken ribs. The team will closely watch him for the next couple of weeks. He is able to do minimal work.
Whether Tommy Edman will be recovered enough from off=season wrist surgery also is up in the air. If he isn’t, look for rookie Victor Scott II to come north with the team.

(ROYALS)—Salvador Perez appears likely to see more action at first base this year. He made his first start at first during the weekend. He says he still loves catching, “but I try to play first base to help my team (field) the best lineiup we can get that day.”
The opportunity to play first opened up last year when Vinnie Pasquintio wen on the DL for surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Perez started 21 games at first base last year/
Veteran reliever Tyler Duffey, who is a non-roster signee during the winter, has revealed that he had a cancerous mole removed from his left shoulder last week. He says all testing since then has come back negative. He threw a scoreless inning against the Cubs before having the surgery. He’s been cleared for light baseball activities for almost a week.
Former Royals pitcher Brad keller has signed a deal with the White Sox. He was on the IL for most of last year with a shoulder impingement. He’s back on the shelf because he’s showing “symptoms associated with thoracic outlet syndrome,”

(miz)—Tomorrow night could be it for this year’s Missouri Tiger men’s basketball team. They meet Georgia in the first round of the SEC tournament and the betting is that they’ll finish the season with their 19th loss in a row and their 24th loss of the year.
Missouri’s last regular-season game againt LSU was symbolic of the frustrating year Mizzou has had. The tigers led 35-29 at the half and led 45-41 with 14:26 to go in the game. But in the next ten minutes, LSU ran past Missouri to take a 21-point lead, fueled by a 14-0 run, another typical feature of a Tigers game this year.
The Tigers stormed backto within a shot of tying the game but again, couldn’t get stops and lost a game 84-80.
Missouri has gone winless in conference play for the first time since 1908 when they were 0-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. They were 8-10 overall that year.
Eleven of Missouri’s 18 conference losses were by sindle digits. In each of those games, the Tigers went several minutes without scoring while the opponent took the lead or built a lead that Missouri could not overcome when it woke up.
One of those single-digit losses was to Georgia. The Bulldogs started the losing streak with a 75-68 win.
In truth, not much was expected of Missouri this year in the conference—although it was more than we got. The pre-season polling predicted the Tigers would finish ninth. No Missouri players were listed as pre-season all-conference players on the first or the second teams.
Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas were the only teams to finish the regular season scoring fewer points that their opponents.
No Missouri player was the SEC player of any week this year. Sean East finished with the fifth highest scoring average in the conference, 17.3 and had the second-best field goal percentage. He also ranked third in minutes played—No Missouri player finished in the top 20 in rebounds. He also was third in most minutes played per game: 32.57.
Missouri finished last in offensive rebounds, 34.08. Florida led the league with 45.38. The Tigers were 13th in defensive rebounds. A team with three 7-footers finished last in the league in total rebounds.

(MIZ)—The football team, in spring practice, got some good news with the signing of a veteran quarterback to back up—and, perhaps, push—Brady Cook. Missouri will be the third stop for Drew Pyne, who is 8-3 in his starts at Notre Dame and at Arizona State. He won eight of his ten starts at Notre Dame when he threw for 2,032 yards, with 22 TDs and eight interceptions. Should he decide to stick around at Missouri he’ll have three years of eligibility and could challenge Sam Horn, who was presumed to be the QB-in-waiting until he tore up his pitching arm and had Tommy John surgery. He is not expected back next season. (ZOU)

Speeding right along—

(INDYCAR)—-IndyCar open its 2024 season with Josef Newgarden dominating the field on the streets of St. Petersburg, finish eight tens of a second ahead of Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power. Power, McLaughlin, and Newgarden are teammaes with Penske racing, giving that operation three of the top four finishing positions to start the year.
The only time Newgarden gave up the lead was when he made pit stops.

He started from the pole and led 92 of the 100 laps. The win is his 30th, breaking a tie with former Penske driver Rick Mears for 13th on the all-time IndyCar wins list. IndyCar has its all-star race in two weeks. The $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club will be the the next action for these teams. Their next points-paying race will be on the streets of Long Beach on April 23.
The Thermal Club is an exclusive racing-oriented private club in California. The exclusive club requires purchase one of the 70 luxury villas (minimum cost, about $2.3 million) overlooking he circuit. There is a $!75,000 initiation fee.
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NASCAR)—Christopher Bell, who saw his chances for a Cup championship disappear at Phoenix Raceway lasta fall, locked himself in to one of next fall’s playoff spots with a win in the desert.
Bell roared back from 20th place on the last restart forty-six laps from the end, to take the lead when Martin Truex had to pit for tires on lap 240 of the 267-lap race. Tyler Reddick finished second, four-tenths of a second back, with defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney third and Ross Chastain rounding out the top five.

(FORMULA 1) Max Verstappen won his ninth race in a row, the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia. But the attention was focused on teenaged British driver Ollie Bearman, who finished seventh, one spot ahead of sevent-time F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton.
Bearman, a Formula 2 driver who climbed into Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari when Sainz became ill, was two months short of his 19th birthday, is now the youngest British driver to start an F1 race. He’s the first Englishman to race in Formula 1 for Ferrari in 34 years.
Verstappen has now won 19 of the last 20 Grands Prix.

 

A Wagnerian, Arthurian Campaign 

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Watched the State of the Union address last week.  Have watched several events featuring the other guy lately.

The day after the State of the Union address, while others were analyzing the speech, I found myself looking at the battle ahead and Wagnerian music began to play in my mind.

And images.

Listen as you read:

(5) Wagner Götterdämmerung – Siegfried’s death and Funeral march Klaus Tennstedt London Philharmonic – YouTube

A chill late evening on an ancient battlefield, smoke and fog intermingling to turn the setting sun a deep orange in the aftermath of an epic life-and-death confrontation between two legendary opponents.. Think of Arthur and Mordred from medieval England.

The State of the Union address was one of them drawing the sword that is a traditional symbol of power, of justice, of the best interests of the people and throwing away the scabbard to enter the final struggle with one whom he sees as a brooding, vengeful foe seeking to destroy everything good and honorable; a rival of equally waning strength, knowing this is his last, desperate chance to prevail.

In Arthurian legend, Arthur and, Mordred, variously referred to in the tellings of the tale as Arthur’s traitorous nephew or the traitorous son of Arthur’s nephew Gawain, or Arthur’s bastard son born of Arthur’s relationship with his half-sister (and there are other descriptions). They are two of the few survivors of the Battle of Camlann. Arthur, seeking to regain the throne Mordred had seized in his absence, impales Mordred on a spear.  But Mordred uses the last of his waning energy to pull himself along the spear and strikes Arthur with a mortal blow to the head.

Arthur, knowing his end is near, commands Bedivere to throw the great sword, Excalibur, into a nearby lake, which Bedivere finally does, reluctantly. He sees a hand part the waters, catch the sword, shake it three times, and pull it beneath the quiet waters of the pool.

(The climactic last scene, accompanied by Wagner’s “Death and Funeral” music from Gotterdammerung, was used in the concluding scenes of the 1981 movie “Excalibur,” considered one of the greatest Arthur legend films ever made. In the movie, Percival rather than Bedivere throws the sword.

(5) Excalibur – Finale – YouTube)

Arthur’s body is buried later at Glastonbury. His former ally, Launcelot, returned from France, learned that Guenevere had become a nun, went to Glastonbury to hear the story of Arthur’s final battle, and became a monk.

Six years later, after Guenevere had died, he and other surviving Knights of the Round Table went to Almesbury to take her remains to Glastonbury to be interred next to Arthur.

So it is told in one of the many versions of the Arthur legend.

Will this battle in future decades be seen as Arthurian as the English legend describes the final battle between Arthur and Mordred, between good and evil? Will, in the end, we be left with the thought neither survived (politically) but the kingdom endured?

(screen shots are from the motion picture Excalibur, produced by Orion Pictures)

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(Perhaps these thoughts have some distant genetic origin.  Glastonbury is about ten miles from the ancient lead-mining community of Priddy, England. The patron saint of Glastonbury is Joseph of Arimathea, perhaps an uncle of Jesus, and a tin trader who took a young Jesus with him during Jesus’ “lost years” when Joseph was involved in the tin trade with pre-Roman England. Local legend in Priddy has it that a young Jesus, traveling with Joseph, also visited Priddy.

The Gospels, of course, identify Joseph of Arimathea as the person who got permission to remove Jesus’s body form the cross and to place it in his personal tomb.)

The County, The Man  

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One of our counties is named for a man who was the nation’s fifth Chief Justice of the United States.  Before that, he was the 12th man to be Secretary of the Treasury. Before that, he was the 11th United States Attorney General.

We pronounce the name of the county “Tainey.”  But his name was really pronounced “Tawney.”   Roger Brooke Taney represents the dual nature of history and the fame and the infamy that comes from it, a duality that we cannot escape and from which we must not hide.

This man who is best remembered for delivering a historic anti-freedom decision in 1857 was part of the court that ruled on a historic pro-freedom case in 1841.

The Amistad case involved Africans who broke free and seized their ship, eventually landing at Long Island.  The owners of the ship sued for recovery of their property—the ship and its cargo. Former President John Quincy Adams argued for the slaves and the court ruled 6-1 with Taney in the majority that the slaves belonged to no one and were therefore free because, “in no sense could they possibly intend to import themselves here, as slaves, or for sale as slaves.”

The point of slave law ruled upon by the Taney court sixteen years later was entirely different. Taney is best remembered for delivering the decision that denied freedom to Missouri slave Dred Scott.

Missouri courts had handled hundreds of “freedom suits” filed by slaves who claimed they had gained their freedom because their owners had taken them to free states before coming to slaveholding Missouri. Some 300 of those cases were filed in St. Louis where a monument now stands honoring those slaves. Many of the suits succeeded but they ended with the Scott case.

The case was heard twice by the U. S. Supreme Court, a second hearing held because, as Taney wrote in the final decision, “differences of opinion were found to exist among the members of the court; and as the questions in controversy are of the highest importance…it was deemed advisable to continue the case, and direct a re-argument on some of the points, in order that we might have an opportunity of giving to the whole subject a more deliberate consideration.”

You can read the entire decision at Dred Scott v. Sandford Full Text – Text of the Case – Owl Eyes

The court voted 7-2 that Scott, as a slave, had no constitutional right to sue for his freedom. It is a long, long decision written by Taney and announced on March 6, 1857.

“The question is simply this: Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guarantied by that instrument to the citizen? One of which rights is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution,” Taney wrote the long opinion that includes:

The words ‘people of the United States’ and ‘citizens’ are synonymous terms, and mean the same thing..,The question before us is, whether the class of persons described in the plea in abatement compose a portion of this people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty? We think they are not, and that they are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them.”

…The legislation of the States therefore shows, in a manner not to be mistaken, the inferior and subject condition of that race at the time the Constitution was adopted, and long afterwards, throughout the thirteen States by which that instrument was framed; and it is hardly consistent with the respect due to these States, to suppose that they regarded at that time, as fellow-citizens and members of the sovereignty, a class of beings whom they had thus stigmatized; whom, as we are bound, out of respect to the State sovereignties, to assume they had deemed it just and necessary thus to stigmatize, and upon whom they had impressed such deep and enduring marks of inferiority and degradation; or, that when they met in convention to form the Constitution, they looked upon them as a portion of their constituents, or designed to include them in the provisions so carefully inserted for the security and protection of the liberties and rights of their citizens…

 Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of this court, that it appears by the record before us that the plaintiff in error is not a citizen of Missouri, in the sense in which that word is used in the Constitution; and that the Circuit Court of the United States, for that reason, had no jurisdiction in the case, and could give no judgment in it. Its judgment for the defendant must, consequently, be reversed, and a mandate issued, directing the suit to be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

The opinion fueled fears of those who felt the slave economy eventually would collapse that the opposite would happen if the institution were to spread into new territories to the west. The 1821 Missouri Compromise forbade that but Taney’s ruling threw out that compromise:

“Every citizen has a right to take with him into the Territory any article of property which the Constitution of the United States recognises as property.”

It has been called the worst Supreme Court ruling in our history and a direct contributor to the Civil War.

Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had eyes on a presidential run in 1860, told a crowd at the Illinois Capitol that those who disagreed with the ruling were “enemies of the constitution. One of his listeners was Springfield lawyer Abraham Lincoln, who had his eyes on Douglas’ seat in the Senate. One of Lincoln’s newest biographers, Steve Inskeep, wrote that Lincoln responded two weeks later that Douglas “dreads the slightest restraints on the spread of slavery” and asserted that the decision did not “establish a settled doctrine for the country.” Inskeep says Lincoln felt the Scott case was more than a bad ruling; “It was part of a conspiracy to spread slavery everywhere.”

The next June, Lincoln told another meeting in the statehouse, the conflict over slavery had not been resolved.

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new – North as well as South.”

The Lincoln-Douglas debates that came afterward elevated Lincoln to the national spotlight and in 1860 into the presidency.

Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, just two days short of the fourth anniversary of the Scott case, showed how rapidly the decision had changed the nation. It began with a dramatic moment when the tall, young abolitionist president-elect, in his first public appearance with a beard, filed in “arm in arm” with the Chief Justice who would swear him in.  Roger Taney, days short of his 84th birthday, “looked very agitated and his hands shook very perceptively with emotion,” as one reporter put it, as Lincoln placed his large hand on the Bible and took an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

We do not know if the walk “arm in arm” or Taney’s shaking hands were matters of emotion or of the infirmities of age.  He died a little more than three years later, having witnessed the imposition of the Emancipation Proclamation that declared slaves in southern states were free, and, six months before his death, the passage by the United States Senate of what would become the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude.

On March 6, 2017, the sixtieth anniversary of the decision, descendants of the Taneys and the Scotts met at the Maryland State Capitol, where a statue of Taney stood, for a ceremony of reconciliation. Charlie Taney, great-great-great grand nephew of the judge, acknowledged, “I’m sure he wouldn’t be happy with this,”  but continued, “There’s totally something about seeing the Scotts and the Taneys side by side working together on reconciliation that strikes a real chord in people.”

Another descendant, Kate Taney Billingsley, said, there had been mixed feelings in the family about Taney: “A lot of people, it was like, they were proud of the name because it was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for other rulings he had made that was not the Dred Scott decision, and yet everybody agreed that it was a complete smear on our name and it was a terrible, terrible decision.”

On the other side was Lynn Jackson, the great-great-granddaughter of Dred Scott, who runs the Dred Scott Foundation of St. Louis, who hoped the event could foster something bigger. “It’s an open door for us to say if the Scotts and the Taneys can reconcile, can’t you?” she asked. “If you look at relationships in our nation, these are supposed to be the two who are really supposed to hate each other. But it’s not about hatred, it’s about understanding, and then relationship building and trust.”

There had been discussions about removing Taney’s statue from the Maryland Capitol grounds at the time but the families opposed it.  They suggested it would be more appropriate to put up a statue of Scott and one of Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery in Maryland and became a national abolitionist leader.

It wasn’t to be.  The state removed Taney’s statue in 2017, two days after Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered removal of a replica of the statue from city property.

In December of 2022, the United States House of Representatives completed the process of ordering the removal of a bust of Taney from the old House Chamber that was used by the Supreme Court until its own building was constructed.  Maryland Congressman Stenny Hoyer, who noted that every day he served in a chamber that had been built by slaves, said, “While we cannot remove the stones and bricks that were placed here in bondage, we can ensure that the moveable pieces of art we display here celebrate freedom, not slavery, not sedition, not segregation….”His narrow-minded originalist philosophy failed to acknowledge America’s capacity for moral growth and for progress. Indeed, the genius of our Constitution is that it did have moral growth, it did have expanded vision, it did have greater wisdom. Taney’s ruling denied Black Americans citizenship, upheld slavery, and contributed, frankly, to the outbreak of the Civil War.”

The bust was removed on February 9, 2023 and replaced by a bust of Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights attorney who played a key role in the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that ended segregated schools in America, and later the first black member of the U. S. Supreme Court.

Taney County, Missouri was carved out of Wayne County by the state legislature in 1835, the year that Andrew Jackson appointed Taney to succeed Chief Justice John Marshall, who had died earlier that year.  Taney’s nomination was confirmed in 1836, making him the first Catholic to serve on the court. Taney County was formally recognized as an organized county in 1837, almost twenty years before the ruling that became the deciding “smear” on his record and on his descendants’ name.

In advocating for the removal of the Taney bust from the national capital, Congressman Stenny Hoyer noted the duality of history when he said, “We ought to know who Roger Brooke Taney was, a man who was greatly admired in his time in the state of Maryland. But he was wrong. Over 3 million people visit our Capitol each year. The people we choose to honor in our halls signal to those visitors which principles we cherish as a nation.”

There are no known statues of Taney in Taney County and there has been no overt move to change the name of the county. The name honors the distinguished public servant that he was, not the jurist who wrote one opinion that overshadows everything else he wrote or was.

Taney, the man, is a reminder of something else said by the man he swore in as President of the United States when he delivered his annual message to Congress late in 1862:

“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.”

Sometimes words cross all barriers of time. Taney’s words. Lincoln’s words. Words of yesterday become words of today. It is up to us to decide what to do with them.

(Photo credits: National Judicial College, Library of Congress)

 

SPORTS: A Look at the New Arrowhead; Tigers Eye Unwanted Record; Baseball, Hockey, and the Future of an Indy Car

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(STADIA)—The decision on whether Jackson Countians will support a new baseball stadium for the Kansas City Royals and a massive overhaul of Arrowhead Stadium is less than a month away. The decision could affect the futures of the two teams in the Kansas City metro area.

Construction of the new baseball stadium downtown and the subsequent destruction of Kauffman stadium will clear a lot of land for the Chiefs to re-develop around a 21st century Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs have released a video of the redesigned Arrowhead area. Here are some screenshots:

And there will be new sideline and end zone suites—

Estimated cost of the improvements: $800 million.  The team-owning Hunt family says it will kick in $300 million with proceeds from the forty-year continuation of the present 3.8-percent sales tax raising the rest. Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt says the team won’t sign a new 25-year lease on the stadium without the funding to re-invent Arrowhead, which is now 55 years old.

The Royals’ new stadium and the baseball business complex around it is estimated to cost $200-milllion.

(miz)—The Missouri Tigers continue slouching toward the end of their season with only two more chances to get a conference win.  Their loss to Ole Miss on Saturday makes them the first SEC team to lock down its seeding in the post-season tournament.  Missouri is guaranteed the last-place seed.  They’ll play their final home game of the year tonight against Auburn and finish up the regular season next Saturday against LSU.

Ole Miss was just the same song, sixteenth straight verse. In this case, they let the game get away from them when Mississippi went on a 22-3 run in the first half, and not even a 52-point second half could overcome the usual cold first-half spell that has typified this season.  Missouri has lost 16 in a row.  The Tigers are now 8-21, the seventh team in school history to lose twenty or more games, tied for the third-most losses in MU history. If they lose their two remaining regular conference games and a tournament game, they’ll set a new school record with 24 losses.  The present record, 23, was set in the 2014-15 season and died in the 2016-17 season. (zoo)

(CARDINALS)—Uh Oh…..

The first significant possible hiccup in the Cardinals plans to bounce back from their terrible 2022 season has hit.  Sonny Gray, penciled-in as the opening day starter, left his second outing of the spring early yesterday with an apparent hamstring injury.  He was scheduled to go three innings but left, with a trainer, four outs early. He’ll be evaluated day to day. In his inning and two-thirds yesterday, he gave up one hit, and had oen strikeout but had faced only the minimum of five batters. .

Everybody’s in the house for the Cardinals.  All forty players on the major league roster are under contract, including those with less than three years of service who are not eligible for arbitration. Saturday was the deadline for all players with less than three years of service to agree to deals for 2024. If they had not, the team would set the salary.  The team announced on Saturday that the remaining 22 players had agreed for this year.

(ROYALS)—Former Royals shortstop UL Washington died yesterday. He was 70.  He was with the Royals for eight seasons.  UL wasn’t an abreviation for anything. It was his name. You-ell.

We’ll always remember him because of his toothpick. Others recall him the same way, the player who made it okay to play with a toothpick in his mouth.

Back when the Royals had an academy to develop players, he was the third graduate to make the team (the most famous being Frank White, then Ron Washington, not related to You-ell).

Team historian Bradford Lee says UL and Frank White became the first all-African-American double play combination in American League history.

He was traded to Montreal after the 1984 season so he missed getting the Royal’s first World Series Ring but he was a key player on the Royals first American League pennant-winning season in 1980. He finished his 11-year major league career three years later.

(BLUES)—Crunch time is here for any hopes the St. Louis Blues have of making the National Hockey League Playoff. They start the week in fifth place in their division with a lot of ground to make u to get to fourth.  The Blues have not missed the playoffs two years in a row since 2008. They’ve been in the playoffs ten time in the last dozen years and have missed them only ten times since their debut season of 1967.

The Motorsports—

(INDYCAR)—We might be seeing a redesigned IndyCar in about three years. It will replace the current Dallara DW12 chassis that will have served  the series for fifteen years by then. Mark Miles, the CEO of Penske Entertainment that owns the series, has told Indianapolis reporters a decision about going ahead could come relatively soon.

It would be powered by a second-generatin hybrid powerplant that is to make its debut later this year. Miles hopes the change will help recruit another engine manufacturer who will join Chevrolet and Honda.

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson outran Tyler Reddick in the closing laps to pick up the win at Las Vegas.

It was his 24th career win and his third in Vegas. He dominated the race statistically but had to hold off Reddick for the last 27 laps after a restart. Reddick got to within a tenth of a second but Larson beat him to the finish line by a car length.

Ryan Blaney was third with Ross Chastain completing a spirited drive from the back of the field coming home fourth.  He had to start from the rear because part of the wrap—the big sponsor decal that covers the car—had come loose wand had to be replaced.  He also ncurred a speeding penalty on pit road.

Larson is the third different driver to win the first three races of the year. But Chevrolet is the only manufacturer to be in victory lane so far this season.

(FORMULA 1)—This season has started much as 2023 ended, with Max Verstappen dominating the field at the Bahrain GP.  Teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz were more than twenty seconds back.

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(Photo credits: Kansas City Chiefs, Bravestarr Cards; Bob Priddy (Brickyard, 2023)

BONUS:  SCOTUS SAYS TRUMP CAN STAY; MISSOURI PRECEDENT

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We interrupt today’s regular entry to bring you this perspective on the big news of the morning, so far:

The United States Supreme Court today unanimously ruled that Colorado cannot keep Donald Trump off its presidential primary ballot. All nine judges wrote separate opinions explaining why states cannot determine who will run in national elections based on Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, which Colorado and some other states had cited to kick Trump off the ballot for taking part in an insurrection.

The Supreme Court says the authority to enforce that section that bars those involved in insurrections from holding office rests with Congress, not the states.

Would Congress do that?  Some of those disappointed in today’s ruling say a Congress that works the way a Congress is supposed to work would be far more likely to do it than today’s dysfunctional bunch.

Today’s ruling has a Missouri precedent, sort of.

In the early 1990s, when Missouri and 22 other states made the mistake of enacting term limits on members of their legislatures, an effort also was made to limit the amount of time members of Congress could serve. The Arkansas Supreme Court threw out the law in that state and U. S. Term Limits took the case to the Supremes, where justices voted 5-4 in 1995 that the requirements for service in the United States House and the United States Senate are established in the U. S. Constitution which trumps state laws or state constitutions.

Books and Beyond

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I am not happy if I do not have a book within reach.

I have upstairs books (Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers). I have downstairs books (Bob Edwards’ A Voice in a Box). I have doctor’s office books (finished reading Steve Inskeep’s Disagree We Must in an office this week). When we go on a trip, I pack at least two paperback whodunnits (John Grisham has shortened a lot of flights over water) that won’t be much of a loss if I leave one in a hotel room or an airline seat pocket.

The box next to the chair is waiting to be re-filled at the Missouri River Regional Library’s used book sale in a couple of weeks.  I have a porch book—-to take out on the screen porch on nice days and sit in the glider with Minnie Mayhem, one of our cats who likes to glide, and I read a bit, nap a bit, read some more and then come inside to write.  Or fix a salad for dinner or something. The book is called Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History from the Alphabet to the Internet by William J. Bernstein.

The preservation of language, he argues, did not begin with writing; it began with mathematics in “a small area of southern Mesopotamia about five millennia ago…The first writing arose not from the desire to record history or produce literature, but rather to measure grain, count livestock, and organize and control the labor of the human animal. Accounting, not prose, invented writing.”

It is a long way from then to now and our emphasis on technology and all of the uncertainties we feel as we plunge into worlds of information that we could not have imagined as recently as yesterday. Bernstein is an optimist:

“When viewed over the ages, technologies do matter; a writing system that is simple to master is inherently more democratic than one that is difficult; a printing press capable of inexpensively turning out thousands or millions  of tracts is inherently more democratic than limiting book production to a few Church-controlled scriptoria, and two-way cell-phone and Internet communications are inherently more democratic than mass-market one-way radio and television…Over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, an ever greater portion of the human race lives under democratic rule, and it is not difficult to credit this happy result to recent advances in two-way communications technologies.”

He concludes by noting that the technology of information distribution did not change much after Gutenberg’s invention of movable type moved Martin Luther’s status from being a dissatisfied German Catholic priest to being the creator of the Protestant Reformation and the 1840s that saw the development of the high-speed press and the telegraph. But the ongoing, though slow “empowerment of ordinary people” took a step back in the late 1800s and early 1900s—-an era most of us might think was a time of great growth in the flow of democratizing information. To the contrary, he argues, that era brought “the advent of the penny newspapers, radio, and television—expensive, complex media that could be controlled by only a few hands.”

But, “Fortunately, the new digital media have once again dramatically moved the empowerment needle back toward ordinary citizens. For the first time, a significant fraction of the world’s citizens can be in instant communication with one another.”

He is confident MOST of the changes affecting our political, social, and cultural lives will be positive.  But he warns this new world also could give governments more ways to control their citizens.

It seems from our high observation position that we are just entering that era in which we as free or potentially free people will be the determining factors in whether technology continues to enhance more democracy in our country and in the world—-or if we allow that technology to turn us against one another, which will only ennoble and enhance those who wish to use communication technology for repression and control rather than for Expression and freedom.

We have to control technology, not let technology control us.

RIPPLES  

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A Michigan jury recently convicted the mother of a 15-year old school shooter of involuntary manslaughter.

The issue was whether Jennifer Crumbley had any responsibility for her son’s murder of four students in 2021.  She was accused of gross negligence because she failed to tell school officials the family had guns, including a 9 mm handgun that son Ethan used on a shooting range the weekend before the attack. The charges said she had a duty under Michigan law to keep Ethan from harming others, of failing to secure a gun and ammunition, and failing to get her some mental health help.

The morning of the shooting, Ethan’s parents were summoned to the school after staff members had seen a violent drawing of a gun, bullet, and a wounded man along with “desparate phrases” on his math assignment.  The parents did not take him home and not long afterwards, the boy pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot ten fellow students and a teacher. For students were killed. The gun was he same 9mm pistol his father had bought with him and that he had practiced with on the shooting range.  She said she had seen no signs of mental problems with her son and that it was her husband’s job, not hers, to keep track of the gun. Father James Crumbley goes on trial later in March.

Ethan, now 17, is in prison for life. His journal complains, “I have zero help for my mental problems.”

This is a landmark legal case.  The Crumbleys are the first parents in this country to be held criminally liable for the killings their children commit.  We’ll be watching to see what ripples might flow from Michigan to other states when other mass shootings happen.  The shooter might not always be the only one held responsible. And what changes in laws might that threat bring about?

We wonder what kind of ripples will be caused by by the Michigan approach of filing negligence against parents for the crimes of their children.  We wonder if any of OUR state’s prosecutors would go after Missouri parents when such an incident happens here.

The Centers for Disease Control, etc., say Missouri is ninth in gun deaths and is ranked by Everytown for Gun Safety 38th in gun law strength

The legislature has gone to extremes at times “defending” Second Amendment rights. Case in point: A 2021 law banning the state from enforcing any federal laws the state thinks infringe on those rights. The U. S. Supreme Court threw out that law as unconstitutional last fall.

A few state lawmakers spoke out against the states laissez-fare attitude about gun violence.  But others have sidestepped any serious thought about it, admitting only—in effect, “Yes, it’s a problem.”  Or sidestepping the other way by saying, “It’s not a gun problem; it’s a mental health problem” and then puttiing little or no emphasis on dealing with that mental health problem.

But Missouri prosecutors might learn from the Michigan experience—filing negligence charges against those who should have known better than to let a friend, a relative, or a child have access to a gun and bullets if that person is known to be troubled.

It’s a small thing.  But it might be a way to bring about some justice in a high-murder state with seemingly little interest from the political powers-that-be to do anything meaningful about it.

 

For Everything There is a Season; Who’s the “Greatest?”

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

One Historic season is winding down. A new season is beginning. And a third season is on the way. And, man oh man, was that a race in Atlanta!

(miz)—Fourteen in a row. A new record for consecutive losses in a basketball program that is more than 115 years old.  And it’s a familiar tale. Things fall apart down the stretch.  Missouri had Arkansas tied at 50-50 about halfway through the second half and took a 52-50 lead with 9:3 left. But they didn’t hit a field goal for six minutes while the Razorbacks pulled away. Final score, despite Sean East’s career high 33 points: Arkansas 88  Missouri 73.

The Tigers went through a first-half scoring drought, too—not hitting a field goal in the firsts five minutes of the game.

Four games are left. They’ll be on the road again Wednesday against Number 24 Florida.

—But they’re playing baseball in Florida and Arizona!!!

(CARDINALS)—Cardinals lost to Marlins 9-8 in opening game of Grapefruit League. Good first outings. though, for relievers Ryan Helsley and JoJo Romero. Helsley threw 18 pitches, gave up a double and a single then got a third strike looking, a force out at second and then a three-pitch swinging strikeout. His fastball averaged 96.2, topped out at 98.3

Romero had a 26-pitch scoreless inning and his go-to slider looked good.

A couple of rookies showed well with Victor Scott II singled then reached beat a potential double-play ball to second, took third on a balk and then outran a ground ball to third and a throw home and when the throw rolled away from the catcher, the runner behind him also scored.

The Redbirds shut down the Houston Astros on four hits Sunday. Drew Rom threw two scoreless innings to start and allowed only one runner. Gordon Graceffo, Connor Thomas, and Tink Hence also went two scoreless innings.  Masyn Winn, making his first start, led off the game with a single, then singled against in the third and doubled in the fifth before going to the showers.

The Cardinals and the Marlins played to a 1-1 tie on Monday. Pitching again looked strong as he Marlins had only three hits. Sem Robberse was impressive in his first start—one hit, two innings.

New Redbird Sonny Gray will make his spring training debut today with Miles Mikolas making is first one tomorrow. Kyle Gibson, another off-season free agent, goes to the mound Thursday.

As we were going to press this week, Katie Woo with The Athletic reported that the Cardinals were adding Brandon Crawford to the team. Crawford, 37, is a three-time All-Star shortstop who has spent his thirteen-year career with the Giants, with whom he has won two World Series rings and four Gold Gloves. He hit only .194 last year but he’s a double backup because it’s not known when utility man Tommy Edman can return after his October wrist surgery.  Manager Oliver Marmol reported yesterday that Edman is hitting off a tee and with soft tosses from coaches. He’s farther along in his recovery from the right side than the left (he’s a switch-hitter).

(ROYALS)—The Royals split their first two games in the Cactus League, falling to the Rangers 5-4 on Saturday then shutting out the Angels on Sunday 1-0.

Vinnie Pasquantino played his first game since his shoulder surgery last June, went 0-3 but made pretty good contact. He hit a one-hopper to first base hisfirst time up, popped up the second time, then hit a long fly to right that came down just short of the fence. He played five solid innings in the field.

Also making a return was starter Daniel Lynch IV, who got in one scorless inning in his first start since last July when he developed shoulder problems. He’ll be working up during spring training to be part of the starting rotation. He was throwing 91=92 mph and hopes to pick that up as the training season progresses.

Seven pitchers held the Cubs to just six hits in a 6-0 shutout win yesterday. Off-season veteran pickup Seth Lugo went two innings working on his new cutter, threw 19 strikes in his 27 pitches, gave up a hit, got a strikeout and hit a batter.

Another off-season veteran pickup, former Cardinals starter Michael Wacha, gets his first start of the spring today against the Padres.

(Football)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have quarterback A. J. McCarron back in the fold.  He led the team last season then signed with the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL as a backup quarterback for the NFL season and is completing his year-around career by returning to St. Louis for the first season of the United Football League.

He got into four games for the Bengals in the most recent season, was 4 fo 5 passing for 19 yards. He says he’s back because his son wondered why he was at home instead of playing football.

He got into four games for the Bengals in the most recent season, was 4 fo 5 passing for 19 yards. He says he’s back because his son wondered why he was at home instead of playing football.

He started nine games for the Battlehawks last year in the now-defunct XFL, setting a league record with 24 touchdown passes and completing almost 70% of all of his throws. He was on the active roster for the Bengals for the last six weeks of sthe season.

The Battlehawks and the other seven teams of the UFL started their joint training camp in Arlington, Texas on Sunday. The first weekend of the ten-week schedule is March 30.

Now, the wheeled sports.

(THE GREATEST)—-Broadcaster Sid Collins, the long-time voice of the Indianapolis 500, spoke the words into a microphone for the first time during the 1955 race broadcast: “Stay Tuned for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

(It was the first 500 broadcast I can remember hearing—but any recollection of hearing the phrase is overshadowed because I remember Sid’s announcement of the death of Bill Vukovich in a backstretch crash as he tried to win his third straight 500.)

Announcers on the radio broadcast of the 500 have used it as the cue for a commercial break from that day to this. And the phrase, originally created by copywriter Alice Greene at WIBC Radio, the anchor station of the annual broadcast.  It was trademarked in 1986 by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The phrase has gone far beyond the radio broadcast. It has become the motto of the 500. And it has become a major point of conflict in the world of big-time auto racing.

But, of late, several others have been throwing the phrase around and the Speedway is rightfully and royally agitated about it. Speedway President Doug Boles has told Motorsport.com, “We…are prepared to take every measure possible to rotect our brand’s intellectual property. It continues to be disappointing that others can’t create their own brand identity without infringing upon ours.”

One of he biggest offenders has been Formula 1 and its owner, Liberty Media.  Liberty started promoting last year’s Las Vegas Race as “the greatest racing spectacle on the planet.”  Liberty piled on by calling Las Vegas “the sports and entertainment capital of the world,” which is uncomfortably close to another Speedway trademark as “The Racing Capital of the World.” Boles reported after talking to F1 management that they “got it” and “couldn’t have been more gracious.”

But it appears Liberty didn’t really mean it.  During pre-race ceremonies staged by Liberty at the Miami Grand Prix, rapper LL Cool J, in scripted remarks, called that race “the greatest spectacle in motorsports,”  a phrase ESPN used in a commercial promoting its F1 coverage this year..

NASCAR, in one of its promotions for its 2024 season opening Daytona 500 called it “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” ignoring the traditional description for that race coined by its broadcasting legend, Ken Squier, who began calling the Daytona 500 “The Great American Race” after watching a “dinger” of a race in Australia and on the way home thinking Daytona was a great AMERICAN race.  NASCAR quickly removed the offending phrase from a social media post before IMS called it out.

The phrase is sacred to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway owners—and the fans of the 500, a race that abounds with traditions and history, an institution to generations.  Beyond that, in the gritty world of big business, it’s a phrase that is part of the identity of a multi-billion dollar institution and racing empire.

And the Speedway has let it be known it’s not going to stand for this mis-appropriation of its brand. Boles recently told the Indianapolis Star, “You have to enforce it every single time.” He stopped short of telling the newspaper that IMS will send Libery a cease-and-desist letter but it’s clear he’s close to his limit. “We will once again address it with the appropriate people and are prepared to take every measure possible to protect our brand’s intellectual property. It continues to be disappointing that others can’t create their own brand identify without infringing upon ours.”

A word about Doug Boles, as we lapse into commentary and beyond reporting, which is not altogether comfortable for us. In our many years around motorsports, we have never seen another top official of any series out mixing with the fans as Doug Boles does.  When there are hundreds of thousands of fans dressed in everything from as little as possible to outlandish outfits that commemorate the race, it’s not unusual to see a guy in a light blue suit with tie tied all the way up, circulating through the crowd, talking to the folks. He’s the face of IMS.  Roger Penske might own it, but Doug Boles is the place’s personification.  And you never know where you’ll see him just being part of the crowd, although the best dressed one by far.

(NASCAR)—Now that’s racin!

Four-hundred miles on the high banks at Atlanta. Forty-eight lead changes among fourteen drivers. Cars going into corners four-wide.  Ten yellow flags that left only a handful of cars that finished the race without body damage. The top three cars finish within 0.007 seconds of one another.

Daniel Suarez wins by .003 over Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch.  It’s Suarez’s first win since June of 2022 on the Sonoma road course, his second in his career. He came back from being involved in a 16-car mashup on the second lap that left him with hood damage. But his crew made the fix and kept him in contention.

The win is his second in 253 races.  He’s the only Mexican-born driver to win a Cup race in NASCAR’s 75-year history.

Some of his friends suggested he can relax now that he is the second driver to qualify for the playoffs.  “Hell, no,” he said in a post-race news conference. “My goal is not to win one race…This is not relaxing here. This is only the beginning. We have to continue to work, to continue to build.  There are a few things we could have done better today…I’m happy that we are secure in the playoffs but to be able to win the championship, you won’t do it winning one or two races. You have to win at least a handful of races to create points.”  He told reporters, “The goal for me is for you guys not to be surprised the 99 (his car number) is in victory lane.”

(Photo Credits: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum; Bob Priddy (Boles and Suarez) NASCAR finish: Alex Slitz, Getty Images)

THE TIME HAS COME

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“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”

That part of the Lewis Carroll (creator of Alice in Wonderland) poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” came to mind a few days ago.  It’s an absurd poem and maybe that’s why we thought of it when the issue of golden tennis shoes became part of our absurdist political discussion a few days ago.

We have to find a word that is more fitting to these times than “unprecedented.”  Trump World has pulverized that word. It has become a sail possum word.

The sail possum theory is this (I usually apply the theory to over-covered news stories)—

Imagine on a hot August day you see an opossum in the road.  It appears to be dead and over a period of days traffic makes sure it is as cars and trucks run over the poor creature until all that is left is a pavement-baked and flattened piece of skin with some fur still attached so that someone can peel the remnants up off the pavement and sail it frisbee-like into the median.

That’s a sail possum.

“Unprecedented” has become a sail possum word because it has been applied to so many outrageous statements and actions of Trump World that repeatedly validates the phrase, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Case in point:

The time has come to talk of shoes.

Not in our wildest nightmares could we ever have conceived of the idea that the presumptive presidential nominee of one of our two major political parties would be hawking golden high-top tennis shoes to raise money to pay his legal bills.

And who will make them?  This bears close watch.  Allamerica.org put out a news release last December 11 that reported:

  • 99% of all shoes sold in the United States are imported.
  • 7 billion pairs of shoes were imported to the US in 2022 – an all-time record.
  • 25 million pairs of shoes were manufactured in the US in 2022 – the US imports 108x more shoes than it produces.
  • China is the top footwear importer to the US, exporting 1.6 billion pairs of shoes to the US in 2022. Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and India comprise the rest of the top five US importers – all unchanged from 2021.
  • Over 81% of Americans want to buy shoes made in the USA vs. imported ones.
  • Over 58% of Americans cite high prices and difficulty finding footwear made in the USA as their primary obstacles to buying.

The sneaker industry found the announcement peculiar, to say the least, but very typical of someone whose inconsistencies matter not to him.  Shosy Ciment, writing for Footwear News, refers to his announcement s “an ironic move for the politician who, during his presidency, introduced the burdensome Section 301 tariffs on China that have had a direct negative impact on the footwear industry in the U.S., which largely relies on imports from China.”  She comments, “These tariffs have constributed to soaring footwear prices in the U.S. and have hurt American businesses and working class consumers.”

The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America calculates footwear prices went up 4.6 percent from 2021 to 2022, and an other two-tenths of a percent in ’23.

The President and CEO of the FDRA, Matt Priest, told Ciment, “[Trump] had a direct hand in driving up costs for consumers and sneakerheads alike that added an additional upwards of $20 billion in costs to those shoes.” Matt Priest, president and chief executive officer of FDRA, told FN in an interview.

President and CEO Steve Lamar of the American Aapparel and Footware Association said, “Americans also love affordable and authentic fashion, and that is why we continue to urge for a commonsense approach to tariffs – not the reckless tariff increases proposed by former President Trump should he be re-elected, or the reckless tariff increases former President Trump imposed when he was last in office.”

Affordability is a big issue, says the Allamerica.org survey. That doesn’t seem to count with the golden sneakers. Here’s a screenshot from ebay.com taken on February 20:

Note:  TWO  pair already had been sold at the absurd price of $45,000..

Forget about Air Jordans. Get your order in now for these Hot Air Trump Pumps.

Will the golden sneakers sold to pay legal bills help make America great again or will they help pay low-salaried shoemakers in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and India?  And will they be made cheaply enough to maximize the profits—-and it’s going to take a LOT of profits to pay lawyers and to pay the damage assessments in fraud and defamation suits.

The longer we think about it, can we envision the reputed thousands who attend his rallies being the kind of folks who would wear red, white, and gold tennis shoes?

(To be honest, the red ones and the white ones kind of look pretty nice except for the logos on them.)

Will he wear ever wear them?  They’d really look great with his black suit, white shirt, and red tie, don’t you think?

It would help him identify with the common folks more, don’t you think? We sure don’t see may neckties and black suits in the audience at the rallies.

Some think these pricey slippers will make him increasingly acceptable to a particular demographic segment. FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo opined the sneakers are “connecting with Black America because they love sneakers. This is a big deal, certainly in the inner city. So when you have Trump roll out his sneaker line, they’re like, ‘Wait a minute, this is cool.’ He’s reaching them on a level that defies and is above politics.”

Some folks find that kind of talk to be racist, among them MSNBC contributor Michael Steele, the first African-American to lead the Republican National committee,  who responded on MSNBC: “Seriously?  Why didn’t I think of this when I ran the RNC?  Let’s see.  Black folks love sneakers—and we can paint them gold.  This can’t miss! Trust me. It’s a big miss. And they ugly as Hell….Are they really this cynical over there at FOX?”

He seems to see Arroyo’s comments as political reductio ad absurdum, “reduction to absurdity.”

Wouldn’t Melania look stunningly fashionable in a pair as she shows her support for her spouse in his unprecedented financially difficult time although she likely wouldn’t be caught dead in the gold ones.

As for the red or white ones, in truth we probably will see them on her feet only when “pigs have wings.”

Oh, one other thing—there are no refunds and so far, there have been no delivery dates, which brings to mind more Latin—

Caveat Emptor, big time.

 

NO VICTIM, NO LOSS

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Author Ally Carter has this perspective:

“Denying the undeniable just makes you sound like a fool as well as a liar.”

Who might she be talking about if she had said that recently?

A high-rolling braggart lies about the value of his property so he can get better loan terms for the acquisition of other properties.  He makes all of his payments, bless his heart.

But a judge says he is a major fraudster and nails him with a big penalty and tells him not to do any more of his shady business in the state for three years.

And the judge gets hammered by apologists for the liar who say making timely payments on fraudulently–obtained loans excuses the lies that were told to get those loans at favorable rates.  Some say it’s the banks’ own fault if they were harmed because they didn’t check the records to see if they had been lied to.

To set the record straight:

It all began with the lies.  Whatever resulted, including the loss of additional fund through required higher payments began with lies. It is inescapable that the liar is responsible for whatever is the unfavorable result for the lenders.

Lies have victims.  And if those lies result in lost income because they resulted in lower-than-usual interest rates on loans, there is a loss.

Timely payments are not a factor; Congenital lying is a factor.

Fraud is fraud no matter how consistently a fraudulently-obtained loan is paid off.

There was a victim, or there were victims.

They lost because a customer lied to them.

The liar’s denial of it, whining about it, blaming someone else for it is just deepening the lie.

It all started with lies.  A lot of lies.

The liar profited from his lies.

There were losses.

There were victims.

And there must be consequences lest we say lies are acceptable.

Liars succeed when people lack the courage or the involvement to call them to task.  This time a judge who carefully looked at the long track record of deceit decided  to set a price on the lying,.

We wonder if, in his private moments, the liar admits to himself that he is and has been a liar. Surely he must know that. Perhaps that is why his only defense is to keep lying.

But slowly, slowly, it is harder for those with a shred of honesty about them to keep defending the liar.

How many more times will the integrity of the legal system have to rule before the followers of the liar realize they have reached a tipping point?

How long before they realize THEY are the biggest victims?  How long before they realize what they have lost?