Author Archives: bpriddy

Don’t you just wish he would just shut the Hell up? 

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I was almost desperately wanting to post something today that wasn’t about the most disreputable, dismal, destructive, disruptive, delusional politician of my long lifetime. And then he did something so sleazy that the only relief I can have is the steam pouring out of my fingers as they type these letters.

Actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife were stabbed to death in their home last week and our President could not wait to post a typically utterly distasteful and disgraceful rant about it on his social media page.

There is no class, no dignity to this man—especially after some graceful things Reiner said about the assassination of one of the president’s most loyal and most-recognized supporters.

Reiner was an unabashed active liberal but he was capable of respecting those starkly different from him in numerous ways.  When Charlie Kirk was murdered, Reiner told talk show host Piers Morgan who asked him how he felt about the killing, “Absolute horror and I unfortunately saw the video of it. It’s beyond belief what happened to him. That should never happen to anybody. I don’t care what your political beliefs are. That’s not acceptable. That’s not a solution so solving problems.”

“And I felt like what his wife said at the service at the memorial they had, was exactly right. I’m Jewish but I believe in the teachings of Jesus and I believe in ‘do unto others’ and I believe in forgiveness and what she said, to me, was beautiful. She forgave his assassin. And I think that is admirable.”

Contrast that with this disgraceful attack from someone who enjoyed being idolized by Charlie Kirk:

Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!

To their credit, a significant number of Republicans have repudiated Trump’s comments, but not Trump influencer Laura Loomer, who thinks Trump is spot on, commenting, “Rob Reiner had a level of TDS that likely exuded a level of craziness around those he spent time with. Many people who have crazy kids have psychiatric issues themselves.”

Reiner’s son, who is reported to have mental health issues, is considered the suspect in the killings, prompting Loomer to say he’s typical of children of celebrities who often become “total dead beat losers because many were raised to have no accountability by parents who subscribe to hardcore liberalism. Trump is right. Reiner himself sounded insane when he would speak. Imagine how crazy his own kid was… on drugs. We have a mental health crisis in America.”

Good Lord!

Rob Reiner, no matter how his liberality might be interpreted, is far more of a man than a president who could not resist immediately spitting venom on his life. The only person who truly suffers from TDS is Donald J. Trump, a political Typhoid Mary who has infected tens of thousands of others with help from vocal manure-spreaders such as Loomer.

I want to live long enough to read Trump’s obituary. Whatever good he does will be buried under descriptions of his lack of character and lack of empathy, his arrogance and his narrowness.

Chilon of Sparta, one of ancient Greece’s Sages, said about 600 BC, “Of the dead man, do not speak ill.”  I doubt that Trump knows about Greek philosophers or Roman stoics but I suspect the tone of his comments about Rob Reiner will lead many other to violate Chilon’s advice with Trump’s own demise.

He wants only praise when that time comes—and afterward.  Surely he knows or fears it’s not going to happen. But he still believes he can bully his way to some kind of political immortality—by repeatedly displaying political immorality.

Thankfully, most of us want to be remembered as being better people than he is. And we will be.

Sports: Not a Great Recruiting Class but a Good One; A Worsening Season; A Bowl Game to Wrap Up a Season and other stuff (

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MOSTATEBOWL)—-The Missouri State Bears are wrapping up their preparations for Thursday night’s bowl game against Arkansas State Red Wolves in Frisco, Texas—the home of the Dallas Cowboys training camp.  It’s the first Xbox Bowl and only the third time Missouri State has played a game in December (They were in the FCS playoffs in 1989, played in the 1948 Mo-Kan Bowl and played a cross-town game in 1910 against Dury. The game matches the Bears (7-5) against A-State (6-6).  The Bears are 88th in this week’s CBS Sports Rankings (Arkansas State is 101) and 100 in the MasseyRatings.com (Arkansas State is 108).

The game will be a week after Bears coach Ryan Beard left to become the new head coach at Coastal Carolina.   Offensive coordinator Nick Petrino, Beard’s brother-in-law, will make his head coaching debut in the game. Petrino’s offense is credited with developing quarterback Jacob Clark, who set several program records as the Bears posted their first back-to-back winning seasons in thirty-five years. Clark is finishing his record-setting career in Springfield. He needs 97 yards in total offense to reach 3,000 yards this year. He also can get there with 105 passing yards. He already is the only Bears quarterback to do that—and he’s done it twice. He holds the school record for completion percentage (.671), pass efficiency (162.80) and 200-yard passing games (21 of them). He’s second on the career passing yardags (7,587) and total offense (7,671).

Running back Shomari Lawrence will become the 11th Missouri State player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season when he get his 36th yard in the game. He’ll be the first one to hit that milestone since Chris Douglas did it fifteen years ago. Lawrence ranks 25th nationally with ten carries of at least twenty yards this year and his three rushing touchdowns of 50 yards or more ties him for third in the Conference USA in  that category.

(CHIEFS)—It’s over for the Chiefs this year although they’ll play out the string.  It appears all over for Patrick Machomes, who went down trying in another game to lead his team to a late go-ahead score against the Chargers. It’s a torn ACL and surgery is being contemplated.

Depending on the severity of the injury, Mahomes could be sidelined until well into the 2026 season, meaning the Chiefs have some serious thinking to do about a starting quarterback next year—and probably for a few games at least, a backup.

It appears Gardner Minshew will finish out the season for the Chiefs. He’s still young at 29. He was a starter in his first year, at Jacksonville where he went 6-6. Since then he’s been mostly a backup with Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and the Raiders.  He was 3 for 5 for 22 yards and a game-ending interception when he replaced Mahomes for the last couple of minutes in the 16-`3 loss to the Chargers that dropped Kansas City to 6-8 and headed for a lot of playoff watching.

In this otherwise futile year, Travis Kelce is having a superb season. He leads the team with 67 receptions for 797 yards and is tied for the team lead with five touchdowns. He was 11 for 70 against the Chargers and needs just 26 more yards to equal last year’s total—which needed thirty more catches than he has now. He needs 52 yards to reach 13,000 for his career. He needs 96 yards to reach number two on the all-time yardage list for tight ends. Former Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez hold the record, 15,127.

(MIZDRINK)—It says something about college football (maybe more than something) that the name of Eliah Drinkwitz is being mentioned as the future head coach at Michigan. The conjecture goes on even after Mizzou signed him to a lucrative extension.

(MIZKIDS)—A lot of schools fared worse than the Missouri Tigers in the early signings of recruits for next year’s team. But among the real powers, Missouri appears to have been about average, ranking 34th nationally and 13th out of the 16 SEC teams.  Five SEC teams (Alaama, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Texas AM) ranked in the top ten recruiting classes nationally—or at least 247Sports thinks so.

Missouri announced 19 commits on signing day. Six teams reported fewer with four of them ranked above Missouri.

Whether rating the commitment classes on the basis of first-day signings seems questionable, though.  The whole business is a guess, a look at potential on a much bigger stage, just as the NFL draft is based on potential on the largest stage of all.

Plus, there’s the transfer portal that can reduce recruiting classes to shamble.

A better gauge of who had the best requiting class won’t be available unit until the end of  the 2029 season, he fourth season for this bunch.

247Sports a few days ago ranked Missouri’s 2026 class as fifteenth in the country at the end of the traditional four-year collegiate playing career. The Tigers in 2019 had one five star, eight four star and nine three star athletes among 22 commits.

Here’s the SEC rankings (national rankings in parenthesis): Alabama (2), Georgia (5), Tennessee (7), Texas (8), Texas A&M (9), LSU (13), Oklahoma (15), Florida (16), South Carolina (20),  Mississippi (22), Mississippi state 27), Vanderbilt (31), Missouri (34), Auburn (41), Arkansas (57), Kentucky (61).

The rankings can change with later signings. And the overall incoming class will be affected by portal transfers in and out before the start of the next season.

(MIZPORTAL)—The first Tiger starter to look for greater fortune elsewhere this year is wide receiver Joshua Manning. He’s been taken off the MU roster and now waits for the portal to open January 2 for two weeks.  He’s the fifth Missouri player to make he portal announcement.

Manning started all but one game in 2025, caught 29 passes on 51 targets for 318 yards and two touchdowns.

(MIZMOORE)—Missouri’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Kirby Moore has jumped ship before the Tigers’ bowl game, signing on as the head coach of the Washington State Cougars. School officials say he’ll get a five-year contract when the formal announcement is made today. School President Elizabeth Cantwell refers to Moore as “the real deal” who cares about the players being winners off the field as well as on.

Moore grew up in Washington. His father was a legendary high school coach. Washington State officials have praised him as an offensive-minded innovator and one of best young coaches in the country.  Moore calls the new job “a dream come true.”

Moore is credited with developing quarterback Brady Cook and running back Cody Schraeder and wide receiver Luther Burden III at Mizzou. He came to Missouri after one season in the same job at California State-Fresno, where he earlier was the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.

(MIZCOOK)—Speaking of Brady Cook: how did he do in his first NFL start Sunday?

To read MacGregor Walz on the Jets’ fan page, Gang Green Nation, it was a historically awful game:

The New York Jets took an early holiday break yesterday as they failed to show up for their game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars steamrolled the Jets in one of the more disgraceful displays of ineptitude in a disgraceful year of ineptitude from a disgracefully inept franchise. Someday the Jets will not be a disgrace. That day is not today. It may not be in my lifetime.

But The Athletic was less sanguine about Cook, saying his debut offered “hope, not results,” and continuing, “Cook’s final numbers in his first career start weren’t particularly impressive, but Cook showed enough that it should allow the Jets to wonder if he’s a prospect worth developing as a long-term backup for whoever they add in the upcoming NFL Draft — assuming they add a rookie quarterback. Cook authored an impressive scoring in the first quarter, capped by a perfectly placed 9-yard touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell.

The touchdown brought the score to 14-7 — making it seem, if even for a brief moment, that the Jets had a shot at keeping things close against the Jaguars. He did throw an interception before halftime, though the pick was an impressive play on the ball by Jaguars defensive back Montaric Brown. His interception in the fourth quarter was less forgivable, a ball floated to Jaguars defensive back Ventrel Miller in the end zone at the end of what should’ve been another touchdown drive. Call it a rookie mistake — a brutal one.”

MIZLUTHER)—Before Luther Burden III left Sunday’s Bear’s win 31-3 against the Browns, he was 5 for 7 targets with 84 receiving yards. His seven targets were the most of his first NFL season.  He has 36 catches for 479 yards for the season.

(MIZBB)—The Missouri men’s basketball team polished off Bethune-Cookman in their last warmup game before the season turns serious, 82-60.  Missouri is halfway to a 20-win season.  Bethune-Cookman is 3-7.  Next up is 13th-ranked Illinois, 8-3 (the losses are to UConn, Nebraska, and Alabama).

The Missouri women’s team is 10-3 after their weekend win 82-66 over the St. Louis Billikens after a 70-62 loss to Illinois a few days earlier.

The Baseball—

The winter meetings finally got some bodies moving around. But no eye-popping huge-name free agent signings have been arranged. Our teams have had some action, though.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have been active in the Rule 5 draft. They’ve lost pitcher Cade Windquest to he Yankees and right-hander Zane Mills to the Cubs. Righthander Sean Harney has gone to the Diamondbacks. Third baseman Matt Lloyd joins the Red Sox organization.

The Cardinals have picked up Matt Pushard from Miami. He’s a 6-4 righty with what is called a “dominating fastball.”

(A lot of baseball fans don’t know what the Rule 5 draft is (we were very fuzzy about it), so here’s what it’s all about:  Teams that do not have a full 40-man roster are allowed to poach players who are not part of the 40-man rosters of other teams. Any player signed at age 18 or younger have to be exposed to the draft if they haven’t been called up to the bigs after five years. Players signed at age 19 or older become eligible for the draft after four seasons.

Teams must pay $100,000 to the team whose player was taken. The player immediately becomes part of the 26-man roster for the next season. If he can’t cut it, he can be put on waivers and if nobody claims him, he must be offered to his original team for $50,000.  The player can be outrighted to the minors if the original team doesn’t want him back.)

Pushard is 28. He was 4-5 last year in Triple-A, had a 3.61 ERA in 49 appearances with 73 Ks in 62.1 innings.

The Cardinals also got right hander Ryan Murphy who was picked out of Lemoyne College by the Giants in 2020. He’s had some injury problems and finished the year on the DL. He was with the Richmond Flying Squirrels in Double-A this past season.

He has 387 career strikeouts and only 123 walks and a 3.72 ERA.

And the Cardinals picked up Zak Kent from the Guardians. He’s a 27-year old reliever who threw 17.2 innings in a dozen games last year, went 1-0 with 16 strikeouts.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have locked in third baseman Maikel Garcia for a long time. He had a breakout year last year, hitting .286 with 16 homers and 61 ribbies.

The Royals sent reliever Angel Zerpa to Milwaukee and got outfielder Isaac Collins and pitcher Nick Mears in return. Collins is mostly an outfielder but he also has time at third base and second base, showing a versatility the Royals like to see.  Zerpa was in 69 games last year for Kansas City with a 4.18 ERA and a 5-2 record.

The Royals also have signed three right-handed pitchers to minor league contracts: Jose Cuas, Adrian Rumardo and Andy Sanchez.

Cuas has been with the Phillies. Two years ago the Cubs claimed him from Kansas City then put him on waivers last year. The Phillies picked him up for the rest of the season. He’s 30.

The other two guys are unknowns.

(HOCKEY)—Every now and then we check in on the St. Louis Blues, who haven’t given much reason to be checked in on this year. They are 12-24-7, next to last in their conference. They are among four teams with the fewest wins at this point in the season.

Motoring right along:

(NASCAR)—The big anti-trust lawsuit between NASCAR and two of its teams was settled out of court with NASCAR giving two teams charters they were denied last year and some money on top of that. The settlement covers the 36 charters that guarantee starting positions and prize money in all races.  Two teams, 23XI—owned by NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin and retired NBA legend Michael Jordan—and Front Row Motorsports, one of the strongest second-tier teams in Cup racing get their six charters back and all teams get additional guarantees and a louder voice in determining NASCAR policy.

The Daytona 500 is now less than sixty days away.

(INDYCAR) The first INDYCAR race of the new year is less than 75 days away—and it will be run by an independent officiating system.

IndyCar had been in a somewhat awkward situation for sometime with the series owned by Penske Entertainment, an arm of the mega-corporation owned by Roger Penske, whose teams have won many series championships and Indianapolis 500s.

The new non-profit organization will be run by a three-person Independent Officiating Board. The news release announcing the new structure says it means there will be no oversight from Penske Entertainment or from INDYCAR.

The first race under the new system takes place March 1, a street race in St. Petersburg, Florida.

(Photo credit: Instagram)

Kakistocracy

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My fellow scribes have used various “tocracy” words to describe the deplorable condition of our national government but I think I have found the correct one.

Writers have a tendency to collect volumes of famous quotations, historical quickfacts, and thesauri, dictionaries—-I even have one by James Lipton that gives the proper word to describe flocks of various animals (a murder of crows,

The other night I was loafing through Peter Bowler’s The Superior Person’s Book of Words, a tiny thing packed with words such as usufruct and bucentaur and manque or noyade or quakebuttock or (the last word in the book) zzxjoanw.

Bowler defines “kakistocracy” as:

Government by the worst citizens. For reasons which can only be speculated upon, there is no word for government by the best citizens. Aristarchy means government by the best-qualified persons, but the latter are not necessarily the best—indeed, an aristarchy could quite conceivably be a kakistocracy. 

‘Nuf said.

Married to a Feminist 

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The perils of doing research that involves going through old newspapers is that it is easy to be distracted from the purpose at hand when the eyes drift to an article unrelated to the topic.

So it was one day several months ago when I came across an article from Grand Forks, North Dakota republished in the Jefferson City Tribune on January 24,1922 about a man who married a FEMINIST.

Not just a feminist but a “blazing feminist” according to the article.

This was the era in which women had achieved the right to vote after years of public and private pressure. Two or three generations of descendants of those women would set fire to some of their “unmentionables” and force their way to even more significant standing in society.

The lead character in the article was university of North Dakota Professor Albert Levitt, who secretly married Elsie Hill, at the time an assistant law professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Elsie Hill was a self-proclaimed militant suffragette and also was the Chairman of the National Woman’s Party.

Levitt proclaimed himself the “luckiest married man in the world.”  He solemnly said he was content, “even eager to lose his ‘sex arrogance.’”

“I am in luck because I married not a plaything but a companion; not a chattel but a a chum. LA man who marries a feminist sees clearly that problems of civilization cannot be solved until they are approached from the feminine as well as the masculine point of view,” he said.

Here’s another thing about stumbling across a story such as this that gets in the way of time-efficient research: What happened to this luckiest man in the world and his feminist wife?

They turn out to have been quite a couple, actually, although his luck ran out and they divorced after 35 years of marriage.

Here’s a picture of Albert in 1937 on his way to the U. S. Supreme Court.  He was there to challenge the seating of a new member of the court as part of a historic collision between the Executive and the Judicial branches of government.   But we’re getting ahead our story.

Albert, described at his death as “the unbelievable, improbable little character,”  was born in Maryland and waited until he was about 35 to get married. He was 17 when he joined the Army and went to a seminary for a while after he got out and then picked up degrees from three Ivy League schools and served as an assistant pastor at a Unitarian  chapel before he went back into the Army where he served as an ambulance corpsman for the French and then became a U.S. Army chaplain, during which time he was wounded and survived a German gas attack.

Post-war, he became a lawyer where he helped National Women’s Party leader Alice Paul write an Equal Rights Amendment (he wrote 75 drafts before the NWP was satisfied) that failed to go anywhere in those times.

He and Elsie eventually settled in Connecticut where he dabbled in politics. He ran for office several times in his career and was never elected. Ahe helped Wilbur Cross, a Democrat, become governor in 1939 and hen campaigned against Cross’ re-election.

His support of Democrats caught the attention of President Roosevelt, who gave him a job in the Justice Department and in 1935 he was appointed by FDR as the judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands. He lasted a year in that job and returned to the department.  But his break with Roosevelt in 1937 cost him his department job.

He objected to Roosevelt’s appointment of Alabama Senator Hugo Black, whose past association with the Ku Klux Klan and his anti-Catholic public positions made him a target of opponents, to the Supreme Court in 1937. He charged Black had violated the emoluments clause to the Constitution.

The case was based on Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution that says no member of Congress can be appointed to any civil office for which the salary had been increased during that member’s term.  In other words, a member of Congress cannot take a government job made more lucrative by the actions of Congress.

During Black’s term in the Senate, Congress had created a new pension program that allowed Supreme Court Justices to retire and continue to collect their salaries. for members of the Supreme Court during Black’s membership. When Justice Willis Van Devanter took advantage of that clause, Senator Black was appointed to succeed him. The Supreme Court refused to hear his case and held he lacked legal standing to file it, a decision that University of Chicago Law professor William Baude wrote in a 2019 Texas Law Review article was worth closer examination.

“Upon closer inspection, it turns out that Levitt’s standing is more plausible than the Court acknowledged. Indeed, such a plaintiff would likely have standing today. Worse, on the merits his claims were correct: Hugo Black was unconstitutionally appointed to the Supreme Court. The Court’s treatment of the case and the broader controversy suggests some uncomfortable facts about the role of the Supreme Court in settling constitutional questions.”

Black went on to a 35-year career on the Supreme Court, the fifth-longest term in court history.

Levitts stayed in the Justice Department until his opposition to Roosevelt’s plan to pack the Supreme Court cost him that job. He returned to Connecticut, practiced law and became involved in Republican politics although he endorsed FDR’s fourth-term campaign in 1940..

Albert and Elsie moved to California in the 1940s.  His name became a familiar one on various California ballots through the years, always as a fringe candidate (he was last in a field of six in the 1950 election that made Richard Nixon a U.S. Senator). He also became a strong critic of the Catholic Church and considered it a threat to American Democracy.  He and Elsie divorced in 1956. He soon remarried and died twelve years later, two years before Elsie’s death in 1970.

And Elsie?

She stayed a dedicated feminist the rest of her life. She was born in Connecticut, the daughter of a ten-term Congressman and his wife. In 1901, her father traveled on the first trans-Siberian train during an around-the world trip. Elsie, at the age of 84, was on Pan-American Airlines’ first New York-Moscow flight.

While teaching high school French in Washington, D.C. in 1913, she became involved with the College Equal Suffrage League and quickly moved into the leadership. She was a big supporter of the 19th Amendment—the women’s suffrage amendment

She was arrested for speaking at a rally in Washington in 1918 and later in Boston. She did some jail time.

She kept her own name after marrying Albert, chaired the NWP and led the party’s national council for four years.

Her marriage to Albert merited a story in the New York Times that referred to her as a “militant” who was “Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Woman’s Pary and a prominent picketer.” It was a secret event with only relatives present. He told some of her suffragist friends about it the next day.

“Miss Hill will not change her Christian or maiden name, thus following the example of several other women—artists, authors, actresses, suffrage leaders and others.,” said the Times. The two didn’t have much of a honeymoon.  Albert had to return to his law-teaching duties at the University of North Dakota while her duties with the NWP kept her in Washington until June when they could get together for the summer in Connecticut.

. The ERA that Albert drafted was submitted to Congress in 1923 and was not ratified.  It was reintroduced in 1971 and approved by the House and, in 1972, by the Senate. It lacked three states of being ratified when its time limit ran out in 1982. Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018) and Virginia (2020) have passed ratification resolutions.

Missouri has never ratified the ERA.

A Bad Weekend in KC; Bowling for Two; NFL Debut 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(KC)—Missouri’s men’s basketball team had a disastrous game against KU in KC and the Chiefs had a disastrous game Sunday night in Arrowhead Stadium against the Texans.  We’ll get to them later but first, let’s look at some better news.

(BOWLING)—-Both of our top Division I football teams have another game to play before the shoulder pads get put away until Spring.

(TIGERS AND A GATOR)—The Missouri Tigers are headed to the Gator Bowl on December 27 to play Virginia. Virgina, from the ACC, finished its season 10-3 with an upset loss to Duke, 27-20 in overtime—just two weeks after beating Duke in the regular season 34-17.  The Cavaliers head into the bowl season ranked 20th and 19th in the polls. They were 3-1 this year in overtime games. Quarterback Chandler Morris threw for more than 2800 yards, going 257/398, sixteen touchdowns and 9 interceptions.  Running back J’mari Turner ran for 1,962 yards on 222 carries and also caught 43 passes for 253 yards.  Trell Haris led the receiving corps with 59 receptions and 847 yards. Two other players had more than 500 yards receiving. Defensively, the Cavaliers had 31 sacks for 211 yards in losses and 13 interceptions.

Missouri Quarterback Beau Pribula had a similar passing percentage: 182/270 after missing some action with an injury. Virginia will be the latest team to try to contain Ahmad Hardy, who finished he regular year number two in rushing with 1,569 yards.  The Tigers ran for well over 2,000 yards.  Kevin Coleman caught 63 passes for 715 yards, one of five players with 25 or more catches. Missouri’s defense racked up 35 sacks and seven interceptions.

Missouri crept back into the top 25 with its last game win over Arkansas.  The Tigers played four top ten teams and lost all of those games, two by one score. Virginia played no to ten teams. The early line has Missouri winning by a touchdown.

(BEARS AND WOLVES)—The Missouri State Bears meet the Arkansas State Red Wolves in a borderline battle in the Xbox Bowl on the 18th.  Ark-State  is 6-6. The Bears are 7-5. Both teams played Kennesaw State this year. Arkansas State lost 28-21. Missouri sate lost 41-34.

State’s Jaylon Raynor hit two-thirds of his passes this year for almost 3,100 yards, sixteen TDs and 11 interceptions.  The Red Wolves’ top rusher, Devin Spencer, ran for 529 yards on 102 carries. Cary Rucker led the team in reception with 69 catches for 866 yards. The defense had 31 sacks and 33 interceptions.

Missouri State played six one score games and went 5-1, leading some to refer to them as the Cardiac Bears.  Jacob Clark was 222/341 passing for 2,895 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.  Shomari Lawrence should go past the 1,000 yard mark in the bowl game. Jmariyea Robinson caught 40 passes for 536 yards, one of five players with at least 400 yards receiving. The defense wracked up 33 sacks and eight interceptions.

This is the first bowl game in school history for the Missouri State Bears and the prognosticators  think the Bears will be a touchdown better.

(NIL SUIT)—Sooner or later, somebody was going to get nasty about this NIL stuff.  The University of Georgia is going to court to recover $390,000 it invested in edge rusher Damon Wilson II. Georgia says he broke his NIL agreement when he transferred from Georgia to Missouri.  The lawsuit says Wilson signed a contract a year ago that would pay him $30,000 a month with bonuses that made the whole package worth one-half million dollars. The lawsuit says Wilson informed the university a few weeks later that he was transferring to Missouri.

Wilson was in 11 games with Georgia as a freshman. He had nine sacks and an interception this year for Missouri.

(CHIEFS)—-It is increasingly likely that Kansas City Chiefs players will be watching the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl from the comfort of their favorite chairs at home.  Their dispiriting 20-10 loss to the Houston Texans—at Arrowhead—has left them 6-7, needing to win every game from here on and few observers thinking they can do it.

Injuries that made the front line more porous than usual, penalties, and (in particular) dropped passes all made for a frustrating evening.  Harrison Butker continued his unaccustomed erratic season by missing his eighth kick for a field goal or extra point this year when be dinked a field goal attempt off the coal post upright.

And this final note, an update on a former Tiger—

(BRADY)—-Brady Cook got his first extended time as an NFL quarterback Sunday as the backup to the backup quarterback when both guys ahead of him were sidelined with injuries. Starter Justin Fields was inactive because of a knee injury and backup Tyrod Taylor left with a groin injury six play into the game. Cook connected on 14 of his thirty pass attempts for 163 yards. Two of his passes wound up in the wrong hands.  He was sacked six times and fumbled twice, one of which was recovered. The Jets lost 34-10 to Miami to fall to 3-10 for the year.

Head coach Aaron Glenn said after the game, “He was put in a tough situation. It’s always tough for a backup quarterback to actually go in and get the rhythm that he needs from not getting as many reps as you want ot get during the week…I thought he really had true command of the huddle with the players. ..It’s a tough situation because of the score at that point. [It] put him in a situation where he had to drop back and throw the ball probably more than we wanted him to. But I thought he handled that well.”

As for Cook: “It was definitely a challenge, but a great challenge. One that comes with the job of being the backup quarterback. I felt ready to play today, and obviously I didn’t do enough to get a win, Coming in at half, talking it over, just taking a deep breath, and then coming back out there, I definitely did (settle down). I think you definitely saw flashes there in the fourth quarter of us moving the ball. So, we need more of it.”

As for whether Cook will see more action next weekend?  Glenn says that depends on how the other two quarterbacks recover during the week.

(MUBB)—The last few minutes of the first half and the critical opening minutes of the second half became the dagger in the heart of the Missouri basketball Tigers Sunday. Kansas outscored the Tigers 23-3 during that span and maintained the 20-point lead at the end. The game was played in Kansas City.  Turnovers (10) and 21 for 61 shooting against the number eight defense in the nation during the first half led to the deficit at the break that grew in the second half.

Alabama State and Bethune Cookman should get Missouri to the ten-win mark before their game against Illinois on the 22nd.

(BASEBALL)—This is the week we might expect some significant news about the Royals and the Cardinals. It’s time for the Winter meetings.

The Cardinals have picked up right-handed reliever Richard Fitt from the Red Sox. Fitts’ pitching arm went numb for a couple of weeks in the last season but he’s healthy again and hopes he can make a mark in St. Louis. he’s pitched in parts of two seasons and has a 2-3 record with a 3.97 career ERA. He’s been in 15 games, all but one as a starter. He’s 25.

The Royals haven’t caused many ripples this winter as they consider ways to beef up their offense. One thing they did make clear is that pitcher Cole Ragans is not on the trading table.

As the Royals continue to search for ways to elevate their offense for 2026, the conversation usually takes a turn toward their pitching. The Royals have a lot of rotation depth and could use it to land a bat in a trade this offseason. That’s a logical connection, and one the club has continued to discuss as this week’s Winter Meetings kick off in Orlando.

But who would the Royals really be willing to part with, and does it actually include their ace, lefty Cole Ragans? Not as far as General Manager J. J. Piccollo is concerned. He says it would be “really difficult” to trade Ragans. “If we didn’t have Cole Ragans in our rotation, we’d feel like we’re missing something really big.”

On to the fast stuff:

(NASCAR)—The big antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR has dominated the automobile racing headlines for several days. Things have turned increasingly nasty in the first week with the entrance into the evidence file of internal messages, letters, and documents belittling the teams and drivers who have filed the suit. NASCAR’s franchise system is being challenged by 23XI racing (owned by Michael Jordan whose uniform number was 23) and driver Denny Hamlin (whose car number is XI—eleven).

(INDYCAR)—We are 81 days away from the first IndyCar race of 2026.

Seats are being filled for the next season.  The driver with the most appropriate name in the series will return to Juncos Racing.  Sting Ray Robb is considered “a key pillar” in the team efforts to improve its standing.

Kyle Kirkwood has a contract extension from Andretti Global. He’s been with the team for the last three years during which he has become serious contender with five wins, three poles and six podium finishes.

(Credits; Xbox Bowl, Gator Bowl, New York Jets)

 

 

 

Traditional?

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Donald Trump, who often has accused his accusers of engaging in witch hunts, appears to be off on a witch hunt of his own, a witch being anyone who does not advocate “traditional views.”  HIS “traditional views.”

We hope somebody asks him for a comprehensive definition of “traditional views” so that I know whether I am involved in “domestic terrorism,” another subject that it would be entertaining to hear him define.

During the weekend a memo written by loyalist Pam Bondi, whom Trump has designated to supervise the Justice (rather loosely defined these day) Department, was leaked. It tells the DOJ to put together a list of “domestic terrorism” groups.

What constitutes such a group?

It is what the Trump/Bondi DOJ chooses to consider “extreme viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti-American sentiment.”

In other words, it’s those who disagree with President Trump who, in our observation, is never going to rival Noah Webster in defining words and terms.

Reporter Ken Klippenstein revealed the memo.  And who is he?

An interesting character. Young, used to work for The Intercept, a nonprofit news organization considered to be well into the political west wing, a former correspondent for The Nation, a  liberal magazine, and a part of the growing online news world. His father is a theoretical chemist at the Argonne National Laboratory. He says his mother’s family was undocumented immigrants from El Salvador.  College grad with a degree in English literature. He has broken other stories using leaked material, too.

We wonder how quickly his name is in a Pamagram sent to the list.

Trump is not the first ruler to impose his “traditional views” on the people.

Tomás de Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition from 1483 to 1498 under appointment of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, the patrons of Christopher Columbus who ventured forth during a period of extreme persecution of Jews and Muslims to spread those traditional (Christian) views to whatever heathens he found when he arrived someplace that he did not know he was going to.

Going back even earlier, we can talk about Pope Stephen VI, who in a remarkable fifteen months pulled all kinds of stunts including the calling of the infamous Cadaver Synod in which he put his dead predecessor on trial for perjury and the illegal assumption of the papacy.  He dug up the corpse of Pope Formosus, put papal vestments on it, propped it up on a throne and had a mock trial.

The corpse did not mount much of a defense and after being found guilty was stripped of his vestments and ceremonially maimed (three of his fingers were cut off) before the remains of his remains were thrown into the Tiber River. There was widespread disapproval of Pope Steve’s definition of “traditional views” and he wound up in prison where he was strangled to death, apparently by non-traditionalists.

Long before Russia had Stalin and his “traditional views,” it had Ivan the Terrible—Ivan IV—who reigned for more than fifty years. He, too, started by promising reforms but quickly was consumed by paranoia and formed his own secret police that terrorized and murdered his subjects by the thousands, one of who was his own son.

Romania in 15th century had Vlad III who once ordered 20,000 enemy soldiers impaled, their bodies remaining on display as a warning against disloyalty. Vlad the Impaler, he is still called.

His cruelty wasn’t just reserved for outsiders; he targeted his own people as well. Vlad would punish dishonesty and laziness with extreme torture, sometimes impaling entire villages. Laziness and dishonesty also were abhorred by our Puritan ancestors, but they just stuck people in the stocks for a few hours—

—Unless they were witches.  Hanging, pressing, and drowning seemed to have been the Puritan Christian cures for those tendencies.

As far as I know, nobody has accused President Trump of being a Puritan. So we’d appreciate it if he’d offer a clear explanation of his terms sometime when he’s awake and not playing the Game of Invective all night on his social media account.

We don’t want to spend any more time—although we could—listing other rulers who sought to protect “traditional values” as they defined them. And we certainly don’t want to suggest that President Trump fits the mold of those we have cited and others on various lists of vengeful rulers. But punishment for differing with any ruler who considers himself the only one to define “traditional values” has a past that must raise questions about a person of questionable personal ethics setting a national agenda for you and me.

The Trump memo also demands creation of “a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.”

The President’s definition of “domestic terrorism threat” as being any organization that uses “violence or the threat of violence” to oppose “law and immigration enforcement, extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders, adherence to radical gender theology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government” and the aforementioned “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality.”

Except for MAGA and January 6, 2021 celebrants.

You will excuse me, I hope, if I cannot consider Donald J. Trump in any way fit to determine nation’s views “on family, religion, and morality.”

The Constitution aside, this is a pretty broad mission for our national ruler. Just about everybody falls into one of these categories in one way or another, including me. And you.

Apparently, however, there is a way that we can become immune to prosecution under this policy. We just have to cough up a nine or ten-figure amount to pay for decoration of the monstrosity of a Trump Worship Center that will stand for decades as a tribute to his bad tase and his desire to have more monuments to himself than anybody since the ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

I’m going to put an orange jumpsuit on my Christmas gift list to make sure I’m properly dressed when the traditional values Pamgoons come for me.

 

 

Sister State

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I want to tell you about a special place that should be our sister state.

Most of us are familiar with sister cities and other sister states—-usually, in Jefferson City’s case, a town with similar cultural roots in Germany.  Missouri has a sister state relationship with Nagano Prefecture in Japan. Jefferson City’s sister city is Munchberg, Germany.

Missouri, a state, should have this place as a sister CITY for a reason I’ll mention later.

The scenic town is six-thousand feed up in the Himalayan foothills of India, about 180 miles north of New Delhi and is known affectionately as the “Queen of the Hills.”

It’s a Hill Station, a British phrase used to describe a popular tourist town at higher elevations where people who visit to escape the summer heat in the valleys below. Although the phrase has been used in other countries, India has more hill stations than any other country.

The city has been a popular tourist destination since a British miliary officer established it in 1825.

Seven years later, the Surveyor General of India, George Everest, wanted to make it an anchor of the Great Trigonometric Survey that provided a detailed map of the Indian subcontinent.

The what? It was a comprehensive survey that used mathematics to provide a precise map of the whole Indian subcontinent. It was started in 1802 by the East India Company in the days when the British Empire was being put together.  The company was created in 1600 as a trading company that at one time controlled the subcontinent and Hong Kong and was the largest corporation in the world—so large that it had its own army of 260,000-man army, double the size of the regular British Army at times.  The survey took almost seventy years. Its most important feature was the first measurement of the highest peaks in the Himalayas, including the one named for Surveyor General George Everest.

By the start of the Twentieth Century, the town had about 65-hundred permanent residents. But the population more than doubled in the summers. Among the prominent families to spend summers here were the Nehrus. For a time, the Dalai Lama lived there. The population in the first decade of the Twenty-first century had gone past 30-thouand.

It is said that a good set of binoculars will provide a nice view of the Himalayas

Visitors today can travel on Camel’s Back Road, named for a rocky outcrop that reminds people of a camel’s hump. It’s a popular hiking trail that includes the oldest Christian Church in the Himalaya Mountains, on a nearby road.  The snowy peaks of the big Himalayan peaks are visible through binoculars from the road.

The forty-foot high Kempty Falls, one of several waterfalls in the area, is about nine miles from the town, and Lake Mist, where the Kempty river flows, is a popular stop for hikers and other tourists. There’s a municipal garden and a lake where visitors can rent padd  boats.

The remains of Sir George Everest’s laboratory are in a park. Happy Valley includes an academy, a municipal garden and a Tibetan sanctuary. An ancient Hindu temple dedicated to the Snake God Shiva is nearby.

And then there is Cloud End, a dense forest, and Van Chetna Kendra, a bird sanctuary that was the last refuge of the now-extinct Mountain Quail.

One of the oldest and most highly-regarded colleges in India, St. George’s College, is there. It’s been run by the Patrician Brothers since 1893.

There’s a lot more to see and to do in the multinational community of Mussoorie, the “Queen of the Hills” of India.

Sounds like an interesting place.  Maybe we should get to know it better.

Save me a place on the flight, Governor.

 

Sports; Tigers Having a Long Drink and Wait for a Bowl; Chief Playing for Highest Draft Pick in Years; It’s Basketball Season 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—Missouri ground up Arkansas and spit it out as it wrapped up its 8-4 season that leaves fans with several “what ifs.”   What if Sam Horn hadn’t lost his season in his first game of the year? What if Beau Pribula had not lost three games with his ankle injury and wasn’t mobile for a fourth? What if the team’s field goal kicker had not been hurt.

—all of which is meaningless, of course. Missouri is 29-9 in these last three seasons with a chance to win 30 games in three years for only the third time (Missouri was 30-11 twice, from 2007-09 and from 2006-2008) in school history. For the record, Missouri went 40-14 from 2007-2010, 38-16 from 2006-2009 and 36-17 from 2008-2011.

Three Tigers had more than 100 yard of offense in the game: Ahmad Hardy with 149 rushing yards, Jamal Roberts with another 100, and Pribula, who was 4-7 passing for only 25 yards but who ran for 78.  It’s Hardy’s eighth 100-yard game of the year.

(POTY)—Despite Hardy’s performance, including his astonishing tackle-busting TD run, SEC Player of the Week honors went to two other Tigers.

Wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr., was named Special Teams POTW for his 67-yard punt return for a touchdown, the first return for a Missouri touchdown since 2022.  Defensive tackle Chris McClellan was the defensive lineman of the week for recording two sacks and three pressures. His sack after Coleman’s return created a six-yard loss on first down, putting the Razorbacks in a hole they couldn’t get out of, forcing a three-and-out that stifled any chance for a rally.

(MIZPOLLS)—Missouri will go to its bowl game as a ranked team, but just barely. The AP sportswriters led Missouri squeak in at 25 in their poll, only a couple of votes ahead of Tennessee.  The Tigers aren’t so highly regarded by coaches. Iowa and Houston are ahead of Missouri as the first teams outside the top 25 of their poll.

(DOAK)—Ahmad Hardy’s yardage against Arkansas moves him to 1,560 for the year, just 28 yards behind Jacksonville State’s Cam Cook.  He is one of the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the best running back in college football for the year. It’s named for the SMU All-American who won the Maxwell Award in 1947 and the Heisman Trophy in 1948.

How do the three stack up statistically?  Physically, really close. Performance-wise, close.

Ahmad Hardy  Missouri  5-10  206 pounds  241 carries 1560 yds.   6.5 average 16 TD

Kewan Lacy Ole Miss  5-11  200 pounds  258 carries 1279 yds.  5.0 average  20 TD

Jeremiah Love  Notre Dame  6-0  214 pounds   199 carries  1372 yds.  6.9 average  18 TD

Love is a Junior. Hardy and Lacy are Sophomores.

Here’s one stat that might give Hardy a leg-up, if you will: More than 1,000 of his yards have come after breaking at least one tackle.  His 53-yard touchdown run through, it seemed, the entire Arkansas defense could be a clincher.

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(DRINKWITZ)—His team won’t win ten games this year but Tiger Coach Eli Drinkwitz has won a bid extension to his contract—six years with an average paycheck of #10.75 million. The University Board of Curators authorized the extension through the 2031 season after rumor increased that he was on the short list of coach choices in several major universities.

The six-year deal is two more years than the extension he signed earlier. It’s worth $64.5 million, putting Drinkwitz in the top-ten list of football coach salaries.

He was frustrated by all of the speculation about his possible candidacy for a job elsewhere. He said he was never interviewed for any of the high-profile positions that gossip put as a favorite to take: Penn Sate, LSU, Florida, or Auburn. He said after the Arkansas game, “We’ve got to figure this out, where we’re not putting pressure on coaches and programs and people during the middle of the week where there’s nothing but speculation…We’ve got Twitter trending with bets on who’s going to be leading or get this job… That’s annoying. That’s bullcrap. OK? And it’s just speculation, it’s just media throwing stuff on the wall, and it’s tough on everybody. It’s tough on players, it’s tough on coaches…I just felt like we weren’t done yet. That north end zone isn’t completed. And, so, my job here is not completed yet.”

In his six years at Mizzou, the Tigers are 46-28 and 26-24 in the SEC. He’s 58-29 in his career after gpomg12-1 as a first-year coach at Appalachian State. The Mountaineers finished 18th and 19th in the polls that year.

(MIZMBB)—The undefeated season-opening string for the Missouri Tigers has reached eight games with a Dennis Gates homecoming win at Cleveland State, the school from which Missouri hired him four years ago. The hiring became something of a swap because Cleveland hired former Missouri coach (and former Gates assistant), Rob Summers, as its head coach.

The Tigers were never challenged in their 86-59 win, running off the first 23 points of the game. The Vikings were scoreless for half of the first half. Five Tigers were in double figures with Jacob Crews finishing with 19.

Seven-foot-five center Trent Burns saw action in his second straight game as he works his way back into shape after foot surgery. Although he was in for only six minutes and didn’t score, he two rebounds, a block, and a pair of assists.

Things get more serious now. The Tigers play Notre Dame tonight before facing the Kansas Jayhawks in Kansas City on the 7th.

Missouri got the 28th most vote from the AP, the 29th most from the coaches. Notre Dame did not receive any points in either poll. The Fighting Irish roundballers are 5-3.

Kansas is 21st in both with a 6-2 record.

(MIZWBB) The women’s team is off to a 7-2 start after a big win against Northwestern in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida. The Lady Tigers used Grace Slaughter’s 33 points to win 85-70. It was a landmark day for two people.  Slaughter’s last bucket got her to 1,000 career points. It also lifted coach Kellie Harper to her 400 win.

Five players racked up double figures for Mizzou with Shanno Dowell getting her fourth double-double of the year—12 points and 13 rebounds.  Northwestern drops to 6-1.

Missouri faces California in the ACC/SEC Challenge Thursday night in Columbia. The Tiger women received no votes in this week’s Ap women’s basketball poll.  (ZOU)

(POST-SEASON)—Northwest Missouri State made it to the Division II playoffs but didn’t make it past Harding, losing 38-16 in the first round.

Missouri State and Delaware are the last two teams to get into the 82-team FBS post-season tournament. The Bears will learn next Sunday who their first-round opponent will be. They’re 7-5 (5-3 in Conference USA) after losing their last regular-season game, 42-30 to Louisiana Tech.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs continue to make it appear likely they’ll be in the best position inyears for the college draft next Spring. Their 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys dropped their record to 6-6.

There still is time to mess up their draft status, though. Last year the Chiefs also had split their first dozen games and wound up in the Super Bowl.

It was a familiar story against Dallas—inconsistency, a leaky offensive line, momentum-robbing penalties, and a vulnerable defense.

(BASEBALL)—Other than the Sonny Gray trade to the Red Sox for two minor league pitchers, the Cardinals have been pretty quiet. Any speculation that reliever Ryan Helsley would come back to St. Louis after his trade last season to the Mets has been killed by Halsley’s two-year $28 million dollar deal with the Orioles.

The Royals have been quiet, too.

Nineteen of the game’s top 25 free agents remain unsigned as we head to the winter meetings, starting December 10 in Dallas.

As we experience our first bitter cold and snow of the winter, here’s a warming reminder—Pitchers and catchers report for spring training on February 11. The days can’t pass fast enough.

Speaking of things that are fast—

(INDYCAR)—The 110th Indianapolis 500 next May will have an even more patriotic mood about it than usual, as the race and the nation celebrate the 250th anniversary of the document that created our nation, the Declaration of Independence.

The first part of the race’s promotion is the unveiling of next year’s logo.

The speedway says, “the logo colors directly match those of the American flag. The shield harkens back to the coat of arms, now called the Great Seal of the United States. The red stripes represent the stripes of the flag, as well as the wings of the IMS Wing & Wheel logo, while the four stars represent IMS’s four “founding father.”

At least one of the cars will carry the theme.  A. J. Foyt Racing will have this car for Santino Ferrucci next year.

HFOT stands for Homes For Our Troops a nonprofit organization that provides custom homes for severely injured post 9/11 veterans. A team statement says, “Most of these veterans have sustained injuries, including multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, blindness, severe burns, and/or severe traumatic brain injury.

(NASCAR)—The antitrust lawsuit filed by two NASCAR Cup teams against the sanctioning body (and owner of most of the tracks where the series’ major races are run has begun. The pre-trial climate has been increasingly ugly and the trial is expected to follow suit.

(FORMULA1)—The last race of the last major racing series to call it a year will be Abu Dabi next weekend. Max Verstappen’s win last weekend moves him to only 12 points behind Lado Naorris.

 

 

T-shirts

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It is Christmas catalog time and several of the catalogs we’ve gotten already are peddling t-shirts.

I found one, though, that is a pre-Christmas one, good for this season. It commemorates one of the great moments in broadcast journalism. This REAL fake news.

WKRP Turkey Drop

Why are they called t-shirts?  We’ll save you a trip to Wikipedia where you will find a history that, like the shirts, covers the topic and doesn’t require a lot of material.  They’ve been around for thousands of years and in ancient times were called tunics.  But here’s the simple reason they’re called t-shirts:

When you lay them down flat, they look like the letter “T”

That’s kind of disappointing. I was hoping for something more ancient, a more colorful story.  But the Wikipedia article about t-shirts is what you’d expect—something simple, not particularly interesting, just something simple for a simple topic.

Well, anyway, these catalogs often have amusing t-shirts in them. I’m not talking about some of the gross stuff printed on t-shirts that most of us wouldn’t be caught dead wearing but that some people think are amusing enough to wear with pride in the Wal-Mart or fast food place checkout line.

I don’t much like standing in line at a fast food restaurant with people wearing t-shirts referring to excrement, sex, or that are generally an insult.  But I do like a clever one.

“I’m a multitasker. I can listen, ignore, and forget at the same time.”

“Bigfoot saw me, but nobody believes him.”

“Everyone is born right-handed. Only the gifted overcome it.”

“I don’t have my ducks in a row. I have squirrels and they’re everywhere.”

“I have a hen who could count her own eggs. She was a mathemachicken.”

“Hunkle. Like a normal uncle but way better looking.”

(I can identify with this one): “It’s weird being the same age as old people”

“I don’t want to go through things that don’t kill me but make me stronger anymore.”\

“When 2 people argue online I believe whoever spells correctly.

(For a nurse): “Cute enough to stop your heart. Skilled enough to restart it.”

“Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.”

“90 percent of being married is yelling “WHAT” from other rooms”

“Either you love dogs or you’re wrong.”

“Octogenarian: A chronologically gifted person in their 80s.’

“Being a trophy husband is exhausting.”

“I don’t mind getting older but my body is taking it badly”

“If I said I’d fix it, I will. There is no need to remind me every six months.’

“I do not think, therefore I do not am.”

“Be alert. The World Needs More Lerts.

“I wish more people were fluent in silence.”

“Your design here.”

“I have selective hearing. Sorry you weren’t selected”

“A Little More Kindness, a Litle less Judgment.”

“Please be patient with me. I’m from the 1900s.”

“This is my stepladder (illustration). I never knew my real ladder.”

“Fat People are Harder to Kidnap”

“Retired. I’m free to do whatever my wife wants whenever she wants me to do it.”

“I was addicted to the Hokey Pokey. Then I turned myself around.”
“I was Normal two Kids Ago.”

“I am often mistaken for an adult because of my age.”

Or a bid more seriously:

“When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty—Thomas Jefferson”

“Think—while it’s still legal”

“We Are Not Descended From Fearful Men.”

“The Constitution. I Read It For The Articles.”

These things often show up on cars and trucks as bumper stickers. Pulling up to someone close enough to read the sticker breaks the boredom of a long drive, hoping they don’t stop suddenly.

Want to share your favorite t-shirt?  Preferably one that is not insulting or profane. Try to remember you’re a responsible person in polite society when you write it in the comment box below and hit enter.

The Magnetic Personality

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Magnetism is a property of certain metals that causes them to attract or repel one another. Iron, cobalt, and nickel are among the metals having those properties. There is nothing rare about these metals.

Magnetism has provided President Trump with another opportunity to cause jaws to drop, heads to shake, and speculation about his mental faculties (we’ll have a serious discussion about that in a little bit).

A few days ago, during an Oval Office press conference, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked him about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green’s suggestion that he put more focus on domestic policy.  His answer was an all-too-common digression into nonsense. He eventually got around to talking about China.

The transcript of his remarks was published by the internet side Mediaite.

“China was going to hit us with rare-earth. Now, everybody says, ‘Oh, what does that mean?’

“Magnets. If China refused to give magnets, ’cause they have a monopoly on magnets ’cause they’re allowed to happen over a 32-year period, there wouldn’t be a car made in the entire world. There wouldn’t be a radio. There wouldn’t be a television. There wouldn’t be internet. There wouldn’t be anything because magnets are such a part.

“Now, nobody knows what magnets are. And not overly sophisticated, but to build magnet system would take two years. So if I weren’t able to say to China, “Look, if you’re gonna do that to us, we’re gonna charge you a 158% tariff.” It was 100% on top of 58%. And China called up immediately and, “Listen, we will make peace.” And we made peace. We made a great deal. We made an unbelievable deal. China’s paying tariffs to the United States. Not the United States paying tariffs to China, which has always been the way it was. Nobody can believe these deals.”

Did he just call himself a “nobody?”  Or did he admit he’s ignorant?   Or both?

I’ve known what magnets are from my youngest years when I played with a couple of little scotty dogs, one black and one white, who were attracted to each other by magnetism.  We don’t know if he had a similar toy although we do know he doesn’t have a pet—dog, cat, hamster, or what seems appropriate—a gold fish. He has indicated, however, that he thinks he has a certain animal magnetism.

A few days ago he came up with an astounding scientific theory.

Somehow, it appears, Trump knows how to make magnets quit working, information that might earn a Nobel Price in Physics to make for the peace prize he is unlikely to get. He told a campaign rally in Iowa last year, “Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that’s the end of the magnets.”

He got on the topic a few weeks ago in his dislocated ramblings with American soldiers in Japan. “You know, the new thing is magnets,” he advised them before wandering into even deeper into his mental swamp. “So instead of using hydraulic that can be hit by lightning and it’s fine. You take a little glass of water, you drop it on magnets, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

We need some clarification, Mr. President, on a couple of things. First, you apparently do not know what will happen when you pour water on magnets.  But would you please explain what you mean by “hydraulic that can be hit by lightning and it’s fine?”

We think we know what he thought he knew that he was talking about.

Somebody must have mentioned to him that the newest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, uses an electromagnetic launch system and an advanced system of arresting gear for landing planes.  The Navy has spent years perfecting the technology replacing the steam launch systems and the hydraulic cable-arresting system.

He has a tendency to seize on something he doesn’t understand and babble about it, unaware of the level of ignorance he unabashedly displays.

He does this so much that there is real concern that he is deteriorating mentally. An interview with a psychologist on a Times Radio podcast offers in-depth concern:

‘Trump will not make it to the end of this term compos mentis’ | Psychologist analyses Trump

Times Radio is part of the London Times and The London Sunday Times, two Murdoch-owned newspapers in the United Kingdom.

(Photo credit: Vermont Country Store)

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