Author Archives: bpriddy

A Slightly Warped Sense of Humor

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If reporters didn’t have a warped sense of humor, we probably couldn’t do what we do.  Humor, even dark humor, helps us deal with the often tragic, often weird, often absurd things and people we have to cover.

Perhaps that’s why I used to have a series of offbeat posters that I changed monthly at my desk in the Missourinet newsroom.

These posters, from a company called Despair, Inc., are the opposite of the supposedly inspirational posters found in many workplaces.  Beautiful pictures with some saccharine sentiment beneath them.

The folks at Despair turn that concept on its head.

I suppose this could be seen as a blatant plug for this company’s products.  Actually, it’s more of a paen to the creative folks who tell us that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.

We badly need those who try to tell us that.  We wonder if a sense of humor can be found in our today’s politics. Everybody is so blasted serious—-and for those of us who abhor all of the divisiveness in our system today—-Good Lord, we have reached the point of physical confrontations in the hallways of the House of Representatives in Washington to an instigated near-brawl in the Senate committee hearing—there is no shortage of seriousness. One of my reporters once told me, “They have it all backwards. They take themselves seriously, not their jobs.”

We need a Will Rogers IN the government, the guy who remarked:

“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”

“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.”

“The more you read and observe about this politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”

“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”

“On account of us being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.”

“If all politicians fished instead of speaking publicly, we would have peace in the world.”

Or Mark Russell, who used to entertain us at the piano, on PBS from 1975 into 2004, whose death last March 30th escaped our notice.  He was 90.   He was introduced once by someone who noted, “Before there ws a John Stewart or a Stephen Colbert, there was Mark Russell.”

That was 2018, when Russell told the audience, “I’m not going to do any new political humor. Why?  Because there’s no material.”

He once asked about the Adopt A Highway program, “If a gay couple adopts a highway, will the highway grow up straight?”

The difference between Republicans and Democrats: “A Republican says,’We’re in a recovery.’  A Democrat says, ‘You shouldn’t enjoy it.’”

“A fool and his money is a lobbyist.”

Here’s a compilation of some of his performances:

Bing Videos

The story is told of the day in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln called a special meeting of his War Cabinet.  When the members filed into the room, they found Lincoln reading a humor book. He laughed as he shared a story from the book. When nobody else laughed, Lincoln read another story. Again, no response. Lincoln looked at his cabinet and asked, “Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh?  With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh, I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.”

And after that, he showed the cabinet the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.

And so we need people like those at Despair who turn our contemporary cares on their heads with their demotivational posters.

There’s one I wish was available in my working days.  It shows a stack of papers and the poster is entitled “Media.”  The text reads, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies right to our faces.”

I think I’ll buy that one for the good folks in today’s Missourinet newsroom

Take the 25th 

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Something to ponder.

If Donald Trump becomes an imprisoned felon after winning election, can he become President?

Yes, even if he is inaugurated in his cell. Then we have to wonder if he will pardon himself before beginning his inaugural address to the smallest audience in inauguration history.

Ah, but there could be mischief afoot.

Let’s see if we can start a conspiracy theory.  We are not attributing it to anyone famous.  We’ll leave that to others because a conspiracy theory won’t work unless somebody famous is leading an organization behind it.

We are going to try to stage this so that anyone trying to pin it on the Left will have to acknowledge that there are quislings* also involved on the Right.

The only qualifications to become President of the United States are in the U. S. Constitution—that the person be at least 35, a natural-born citizen and a resident hee for at least fourteen years .  There is no morals clause in the document.

Congress could pass a Constitutional Amendment banning a convicted felon but that will take a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Congress  and ratification by three-fourths of the states, a tall order to get done before inauguration day, 2025.

The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits anyone who has engaged in rebellion or insurrection against the United States from holding any office. But none of the 91 charges against our former president specifically accuse him of “engaging in rebellion or insurrection.’ Whether a case for insurrection-by-association can be built is being tested in some courts now.

We’ve never had a president who has a felony conviction. They’ve done all kinds of other things (fought in wars, impregnated mistresses, hanged someone, etc.,) and suspected of others, but they’ve never been convicted of a felony.

Convicted felons can serve in Congress. State laws might keep them from voting for themselves back home or from having guns, but the Constitution has no ban on them serving, either.

And that brings to the 25th Amendment.

Suppose Trump is convicted. And suppose he is elected.

The New Congress will have convened a couple of weeks before inauguration day. Let’s assume the D’s have regained control.  Here is what the 25th Amendment says about a president’s inability to serve:

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department [sic][note 2][7] or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Now we get to the conspiracy theory:

The Vice-President is sworn in before the President is.  Always.  This person is the key to the entire drama. This person is in cahoots with those who want the former president to keep putting a golf ball into a plastic cup on the other end of his cell.

Look at the first section of the amendment which says that the VP and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments (the cabinet) or of such other body as Congress by law may provide transmit to the leaders of the Senate and the House a written declaration that the President can’t do his job…..

Immediately upon the imprisoned President finishing his oath, a committee created by a Congress controlled by the other party submits a declaration against the President before he can sign his own pardon. The VP takes over and the inaugurated president remains in his cell.

Now, the next section comes to the fore.  The imprisoned President immediately files a letter that declares “no inability exists” and, therefore, he shall resume the duties of the office UNLESS the VP and a majority of the cabinet OR that special committee that wrote the original declaration maintains the President still cannot perform his duties from a prison cell. The Congress by a two-thirds vote can declare the president, indeed, still can’t perform his duties and the Veep will remain in charge and the replaced president remains in his cell.

This is, of course, only a layman’s reading of the amendment and it is likely there are first-year law students who could demolish this idea.

But look, this IS the age of conspiracy theories.  I smell a television mini-series opportunity here.

The weakness in this idea is that Trump will pick a running mate who would throw him under the bus as he threw Mike Pence under the bus, and that voters will turn both houses of the Congress decidedly blue and the D’s will successfully connive with the R Veep to pull this off.

So it might not be practical in the real world.

But I still maintain it might make a riveting TV miniseries.  There would have to be a role for Kevin Kline and another for Kiefer Sutherland and one for Martin Sheen  and others for Tea Leone. Michael Douglas, and Anette Benning.

And what would we call it?

Go back to the top of this column.

*From time to time we try to throw in a word or phrase that we can use to teach a little lesson in language and in history.  Vidkun Quisling, a World War II leader of Norway who was a Nazi collaborator and who tried unsuccessfully to take over the government and end resistance to the invading Nazi Army. He formed a second, puppet government supported by the Nazis, and was involved in the shipment of Norwegian Jews to concentration camps in occupied Poland.  He later was convicted of high treason, among other crimes, and was executed by firing squad in October, 1945.

His name is considered a synonym for “traitor.”

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Sports:  Cookin’ with Cody, Rest for the Chiefs; A Basketball Split; Waiting for Baseball Action

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Here’s how Nashville Tennessean Senior Columnist John Adams saw it Saturday evening: “Saturday’s 36-7 loss to Missouri is just as inexplicable {as last year’s 63-38 loss to a middle-rated  South Carolina}. It wasn’t just a loss. It was an embarrassing loss…They played defense as though they were trying to make Cody Schrader a Heisman Trophy candidate and their offense was just as lacking.”

He got that right.

This was a statement game.  Missouri deserves the Number 11 rating it has claimed in both major polls after pounding the Volunteers into submission.

It was a game of delicious statistics for Missouri fans, the kind of satisfaction-in-numbers that we haven’t seen for a long time.  Tme of Possession: Missouri 39:56, Tennessee 20:04.  Tennessee had only three plays in the first quarter.

Total Offense: Schrader 321 yards. Tennessed 350 yards.

The SEC was formed in 1951. Schrader of Missouri is the first SEC player to have 200 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving  in a game.  Nobody from Alabama has ever done it. Nobody from George has ever done it. Nor from Auburn. Nobody.

Brady Cook and Cory Schrader where the show on offense thanks to an offensive line  that gave them time and openings to do their thing.  The two combined for 47 rushing plays that produced 260 yards. Cook had an average day passing, going 18 for 24 for 275 yards, throwing to seven Missouri receivers and one Tennessee defensive back.

Those guys were the fireworks who overshadowed a defense that held Tennessee to its lowest point total in the three years under Josh Heupel. Twenty Tigers made the 56 tackles that kept Tennessee from gaining any traction other than a first half touchdown.  Twenty-six of the tackles were solos, another indication that Tennessee just could not spring The Big One.

Schrader now leads the conference rushing statistics by almost 200 yards over Kentucky’s  Ray Davis (1124-926).  Cook is fourth in passing yards (2746), a category headed by LSU’s Jayden Daniels, who is about 400 yards ahead of him.

Next up is Florda, 5-5 overall, 3-4 in conference play.  And then Arkansas, now 3-7 overall and 1-6 in the conference.

Missouri is 8-2, the 23rd time in program history the Tigers have  won eight games. Don Faurot’s 1939 team (8-2) was the first. His 1941 and 42 teams  also got to eight wins.  It didn’t happen again until Dan Devine’s “undefeated” season of 11-0 in 1960.  He had five years with at least eight wins. Al Onofrio had one year of eight wins.  Warren Powers did it twice. Larry Smith’s 1998 team hit the eight mark once.  GaryPinkel won eight or more games nine times including the Tigers’ 12-win seasons in 2007 and 2013, an eleven win season in 2014, and ten wins in 200 and 2010.  Barry Odom had an eight win year in 2018.

The last double-figure win year for Missouri was 2014.  This year’s squad has a chance to become only the 7th team in 134 seasons to finish with wins in double figures.  (ZOU)

(TIGERS BASKETBALL)—These are the games in which a coach tries to sort out who will be the starters, who will be next off the bench and who will fill the last seats on the bench.

Last week’s game against Memphis State was part of that process. The Tigers led 33-26 at the half but only four players found the net in the whole second half. Missouri scored only 22 points in the last 20 minutes and shot only 19 percent from the field. Memphis enjoyed a 70-55 win.  Sean East II had 14 points to lead Missouri in the first half.  He did not attempt a shot in the second half.

A somewhat weaker opponent provided the Tigers with a chance to heal last night. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville couldn’t buy a bucket for 16 minutes of the second half, finally getting a three-pointer with 1:21 left, ending an 0 for 16 “streak.”  Missouri walked away with a 68-50 win, with Sean East scoring 20.

A sterner test awaits Thursday night at Minnesota.

(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs emerged from the weekend as winners although they didn’t play.  Lucas Strozinsky on Arrowheadaddict.com that the Chiefs went into the weekend tied for the best record in the AFC although holding a tiebreaker.  Baltimore and the Chiefs were both 7-2. The Jaguars were in at 6-2 and the Dolphins 6-2.

If the Ravens beat Cleveland, Baltimore would be up to 8-2. The Jaguars and the Dolphins had a shot at joining Kansas City at 7-2.

Didn’t happen.  The Ravens coughed up a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost to Cleveland. The 49ers beat Jacksonville. Houston ended Cincinnati’s four-game winning streak. Miami also had a bye week. Strozinsky puts the AFC playoff standings this way:

Chiefs  7-2

Ravens 7-3

Jaguars, Dolphins, Steelers, Browns  6-3

The Chiefs don’t play again until next Monday night when they meet the Eagles, who are 8-1 and rank second in scoring in the NFL.  But they are 20th in points-against.

Motoring along:

(MOTORSPORTS)—Big-time auto racing in the United States has wrapped up with teams from IndyCar and NASCAR retreating to their shops to prepare for next year and looking for bodies to fill seats being vacated for various reasons or negotiating new deals with returning drivers.

Formula 1 races in Las Vegas next weekend.  The next race, in Abu Dhabi, will end racing for that series although the championship was decided weeks ago.  The course includes almost a mile of The Strip, a situation that has upset many folks in Vegas.

The event is being billed as a spectacle—which turns off Max Verstappen, who locked up the championship last month and who says, “We are there more for the show than the race itself, looking at the layout of the circuit.  I’m not actually much into that, I’m more: ‘I’ll go there, do mything, and be gone.”

 

The Year Ahead 

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Sheldon Harnick, who wrote the music for the great Broadway hit, Fiddler on the Roof¸ wrote a song earlier (1955) that seems fitting today.

They’re rioting in Africa,
They’re starving in Spain.
There are hurricanes in Florida.
And Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans,
Italians hate Yugoslavs,
South Africans hate the Dutch,
And I don’t like anyone very much.

He called it “The Merry Minuet,” and it became a big hit in ’56 for the Kingston Trio.

It seems to fit our times, almost 70 years later, with a few nationality changes.  Palestinians, Jews, Russians, Ukranians, Republicans, Democrats.   And so forth.

While the world seethes with 2023 Merry Minuets, we’re are reminded that we are only a year away from The Big Political Dance of ’24—The Election.

The pundits made sure last week that we know it.

Biden wants to shuffle onto the podium in January 2025 and be sworn in again.  Trump wants to rant his way to the podium to begin his revenge tour in earnest.

Will the zoo animals in the Capitol have passed a budget by then?

A year away from the national election and you and I are in a runaway stage coach driven by headless horsemen.

Donald, who promised to drain the swamp in 2016 is now living proof of the old adage that, “If you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s too late to drain the swamp.”

Joe, who has presided over a pretty strong economic recovery can’t find enough ears who can hear abot it over the cacophony of today’s politics when he tells us how good we have it.

A year away, and—-what?

A year is a long time in politics.  Nothing is a given a year out in politics.

Kelly Gordon and Dean Kay put it this way in a song popularizd by Frank Sinatra;

You’re riding high in April, shot down in May.

A political career can become political careening in a matter of days or hours.  We’ve seen it happen time and again in Missouri politics as well as nationally.

Joe is growing older and vows to run for re-election. Trump is growing older, too, and is running from coviction.

What is the backup plan for both parties if decisions are made by others for both of these guys’ goals?  And a key issue, not often on the front page despite its great importance a year away, is who will be their running mate—because, at their ages and the different uncertainties about their abilities to serve second terms, our parties might wind up nominating someone who either won’t make it to inauguration day or, if inaugurated, might not last the next four years?

Both parties do have rules allowing replacement of candidats on the national ticket. Older Missourians will remember when Tom Eagleton resigned as George McGovern’s running mate in 1972 after information was leaked that Eagleton had undergone shock therapy for depression and exhaustion three times in the early to mid-60s. He was replaced by Sargent Shriver, a brother-in-law of President Kennedy and founder of the Peace Corps.

Ballotpedia lists these folks as potential VP candidates in 2024:

For the Democrats:

Incumbent Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Congressman Lauren Underwood of Illinois, U. S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgie, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

On the Republican side: U. S. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee,             Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida, Congresswoman marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, 2022 failed governor candidate Kari Lake of Arizona, Congresswoman Nancy Made of South Carolina, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, New York Congresswoman Elise Stevanik.

They have a year to show that they not only are Vice-Presidential material, but would be logical people to pick up the torch if either of the old men lay it down or are forced to lay it down.

If, within the next year, Joe winds up in a home and Donald winds up in the big house, who becomes the most viable person to take their places on the ticket?  Are there others who will emerge in the months ahead?  Any number of circumstances could lead to the most chaotic but interesting and significant conventions in decades, events that could lead to a lot of negotiations in vape-filled rooms if the two people most determined to fight for the job suddenly drop out of the picture after the primaries and before the conventions or are determined by the conventioneers to be bad choices after all.

Although the two leading figures in both parties don’t want us to think about it, there is no sure thing about politics in 2024.

You’re riding high in April, shot down in MayBut I know I’m gonna change that tuneWhen I’m back on top, back on top in June

…I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet
A pawn and a king
I’ve been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself
Flat on my face
I pick myself up and get
Back in the race

That’s life (that’s life)
I tell you, I can’t deny it
I thought of quitting, baby
But my heart just ain’t gonna buy it

We only hope our heart can stand it.

We’re a year away.  A long time.

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A Missouri Precedent

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Missourians have seen this before.  But not recently.

Thirty-one Democratic members of the U. S. House joined Republicans a few days ago in voting down a resolution to expel New York Congressman George Santos.  Some of those 31 have taken to social media to explain why they did that.

It’s a matter of due process for them.  Santos has not been convicted of any of the 23 felony crimes he’s charged with committing.  Beyond that, though, is the way the House deals with due process.  It’s called the House Ethics Committee.

The committee is considering action against Santos after reviewing more than 170-thousand pages of documents, authorizing 37 subpoenas, and interviewing about 40 witnesses. The committee says it will announce its next action by November 17.

The committee is acting under Article I, section 5 of the U. S. Constitution’s provision that, “Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.”

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a former professor of constitutional law, explains, “If and when Santos is convicted of these serious criminal offenses or ethics charges, I will certainly vote to expel. Until then, it is a very risky road to go down and we have to stick by due process and the rule of law, as obvious as the eventual results may seem.”

Innocent until proven guilty. It’s the way we dispense justice in this country. It’s the presumption that protects you and me. It’s a trial by peers, whether it is a jury or an ethics committee, that determines guilt. We have a word for inflicting punishment based on obvious but unproven guilt.  It is called lynching.

But the Ethics Committee has a problem, too.  Santos has not been convicted of any of the charges against him.  He remains innocent until proven guilty, at least on those counts. But Santos remains vulnerable on political issues connected with his candidacy, his claims of qualification during his campaign and afterwards, including during his time in office, and other actions and statements for which he is responsible as a member or potential member of the House.

Throughout its history, Congress has only expelled five members of the House, the most recent being the colorful Ohio Congressman James Traficant, in 2002, after he was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice.  The last Congressman before him was Michael Myers of Pennsylvania, who was convicted of bribery in the 1980 ABSCAM scandal.

Two Missourians in the House and two more in the Senate are key figures in the history of congressional expulsions.  House members John B. Clark and John W. Reid were Missourians.  The third expulsion was given to Kentucky Congressman Henry Burnett.

John Clark Sr., left his House seat to join the secessionist military forces organized under former governor Sterling Price at the start of the Civil War.  He led his division against Franz Sigel’s Union forces at Carthage on July 5, 1861, a minor battle but a decisive one because is was a sound retreat for Sigel and his men.  Eight days later the House voted 94-45 to expel him. He resigned his military commission after he was wounded at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri’s Confederate government appointed him a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and then was appointed to the Confederate States Senate. He was not appointed to a second term because of allegations that he was a drunk, a liar, and a womanizer.  Clark was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives and at the end of the war fled to Texas to avoid prosecution.  When that turned out to be a bad idea, he came back to this country, and found his way back to Missouri in 1870, where he practiced law.

Missouri Congressman John W. Reid was a pro-slavery member of the Missouri House for two years in the 1850s. Reid was an active participant in the Missouri-Kansas Border War during which Missourians tried to get Kansas into the Union as a slave state. On August 30, 1856 he was one of the leaders of a 200-man force of pro-slavery raiders that sacked Osawatomie Kansas, the home of abolitionist John Brown.  When his men failed to dislodge forces led by Brown’s son from their rock fortification, they chased the abolitionists back to Osawatomie where they killed Frederick Brown and burned almost all of the buildings in town.

The Kansas Historical Society says this attack led John Brown to begin to see himself as a national leader in, and potentially a martyr to, the abolitionist cause. “ God sees it. I have only a short time to live—only one death to die, and I will die fighting for his cause,” he said. “There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them somethine else to do that extend slave territory. I will carry this war into Africa.” The KHS says that’s when he started thinking of a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, to seize the weapons to organize a slave revolt in the South.”

Reid was elected to Congress in 1861. He withdrew on August 3 that year and soon after was expelled on a charge of disloyalty to the Union. He became a volunteer aide to General Price. After the war he was a lawyer, banker, and real-estate owner in Kansas City. He was one of the founders of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

On the Senate side, Senators Waldo P. Johnson and Trusten Polk were expelled on the same day.  They were among fourteen senators expelled early in the Civil War because they had gone to the Confederacy.

Trusten Polk served 51 days as governor in 1857, the shortest term of any Missouri governor, before becoming a U. S. Senator.  Early in 1861 he called for constitutional amendments protecting slavery and argued they should contain wording that prevented them from being appealed.  He, and Johnson, did not return to Washington for the 1862 meeting of the Congress.  On January 10, 1862, the Senate voted 35-0 to expel him for disloyalty, a day after receiving a committee report recommending expulsion..  He was part of General Price’s Arkansas command until Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him presiding judge of he Trans-Mississippi Department.  He was captured in 1863 and imprisoned at Johnon’s Island prison camp in Ohio. When his health turned bad, he was given parole.  He returned to Arkansas and was part of Price’s final raid into Missouri in 1863. When the defeated Price fled back to Arkansas, Polk went with him, fleeing to Mexico for a sort time at war’s end before coming back to St. Louis and resuming his law career.

Waldo Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1860. He served about ten months before he was expelled on the same day Polk was kicked out. The Senate voted 36-0 to get rid of him, also a day after getting a committee report recommending expulsion. Same reason as Polk: disloyalty. During the war, he recruited a battalion that fought in the Battle of Pea Ridge, near  Bentonville, Arkansas, a Confederate defeat. In 1863 he was appointed to the Confederate Senate. He fled to Canada after the war and eventually got a presidential pardon and returned to his home in Osceola to resume his legal practice.  He presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1875.

Clark, Reid, Polk, and Johnson paved the way for the possible expulsion of George Santos. They were kicked out for political disloyalty.  So, too, he might be.  Disloyalty to common morality, to his constituents, to the law.

Is there guilt enough?

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Sports: Football Tigers Can’t Get Over the Hump; Basketball Tigers crack the century mark; Chiefs stifle Miami. And a Racing Champion is Crowned  

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers have proved they can play with the big guys. Now they have to prove they can beat the big guys.  Thirteen penalties, some at crucial moments, and a couple of bad passes led to a 30-21 loss to Georgia, the nation’s number one team in the AP and USA Today Coaches poll (but #2 in the bowl playoff list).

Missouri went into the game ranked 14th in the polls but 12th in the playoff list.  The loss likely dooms Missouri’s changes for an SEC division title or one of the playoff bowls but its performance likely impressed several top-level bowl scouts.

Missouri traded leads with Georgia and the game was in doubt until the four-minute mark when a Georgia interception led to a field goal that boosted the Bulldogs’ lead to nine points.  The game turned in the fourth quarter when a Brady Cook pass aimed at a receiver cutting across to the left was intercepted by 300-pound defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse, who lumbered deep into Tiger territory before going down.

The game stats showed Missouri out-rushed Georga and had more tackles for loss on defense. Cody Schrader toughed his way to 112 yards rushing with a touchdown in the fourth quarter that tightened the game.  But Missouri couldn’t get a dagger play that would put them back on top.

Tiger Kicker Harrison Mevis helped Missouri to a first-half tie with a 38-yard field goal  and gave the Tigers a second-half lead at 13-10 when he hit from 42 yards out, a kick that made him the top scorer in MU football history.

Next up for the Tigers is Tennessee. Both teams go into the game at 7-2.  Tennessee beat up on Connecticut 59-3 Saturday. Both teams are likely to be ranked in the second half of the top 20 going into that game. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—What many thought would be a shootout became a tight defensive win for the Chiefs Sunday. The Chiefs’ 21-14 win was the result of an tough and opportunistic defense that held Miami scoreless in the first half and sealed the win with a huge play that stopped a Miami drive for a tying score in the closing seconds.  Kansas City scored 21 points in the first half, with the ultimate winning points coming on a 59-yard fumble return by Bryan Cook.

Perhaps most satisfying for Kansas City fans was that the fumble was by former Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who caught what was intended to be a screen pass two yards behind the line, but was immediately hit by defender Trent McDuffie and dropped the ball, which was scooped up by Mike Edwards. Edwards, about to be taken down, lateraled the ball to Cook who streaked down the sideline for the touchdown.

The Chiefs couldn’t score in the second half but Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa let a shot at tying the games slip through his fingers—really slip.  The last snap for the Dolphins went slightly to his right and off his fingers. He fell on the ball, but it was Chiefs’ ball with seconds left.

While the Chiefs offense again struggled to put big points on the board, the defense forced Miami to punt five times in the first half, more times than they have punted in any full game all year.  The first-half shutout was the fewest points scored in a first half in the Dolphins’ last forty games. And the scoreless first half was the first since last year’s Christmas loss to the Packers. Tagovailoa’s 193 yards passing in the game was his lowest total of the season. And Hill never could break free, finishing with eight catches for 62 yards.

The Dolphins shut down Travis Kelce, who had only three catches for 14 yards.  But his final catch of the day put him a yard past Tony Gonzalez former team record of 10,940 yards receiving. He broke the record in his 152nd game.  Gonzalez reached the 11,000 yard mark in his 191st game. Kelce needs only 59 yards to get there and become only the fourth tight end in NFL history with 11,000 yards.

He still needs a lot of work to catch Gonzales, who caught passes for 15,127 yards.  Others who topped 11K yards: Jason Witten, who had 13,046, and Antonio Gates, with 11,841.

There are some other Gonzalez records within Kelce’s reach. He’s within 46 receptions of Gonazalez’s 916 catches and is within three of the 76 touchdowns Gonzalez scored while with the Chiefs.

Hill had told his teammates not to let Kelce out of their sight.  If that’s what they did, the Dolphins were soft on a lot of others. Patrick Mahomes completed passes to nine receivers. Kelce, Hardman, and Gray had three each. Nobody else had more than two.

The win makes the Chiefs the first NFL team to win games in four different countries: Germany, Mexico, England and——*

(TIGER ROUNDBALL)—We got our first look at this year’s talent assembled by Mizzou basketball coach Dennis Gates last night.  Missouri opened with a 101-79 win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Sean East II, with 21 points lead the team in scoring as Gates gave fans a first look at a dozen players.  Tamar Bates played ten flashy minutes and scored 18 points including 10 within a minute and a half.  Aiden Shaw chipped in with five blocks and nine rebounds as the team racked up 17 assists with only 13 turnovers.

The new Tigers shot 56% from the field, 40% from behind the line.

The Lady Tigers opened their season with a 72-61 victory over Belmont, with new players, including freshmen, scoring all of the points in the first quarter.

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals will play a special game in a special place next June 20—Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States.  They’ll play the Giants in a game honoring the Negro Leagues.

A special guest for the game will be Willie Mays, who played at Rickwood Field as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons.  Tickets will be hard to come by—the stadium seats only 11,000.

The park opened August 18, 1910, the realization of a dream by Birmingham industrialist Rick Woodward, who asked Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack to help him design it.

Want to take a look?

https://youtu.be/FW9_nQDMDCo

Rickwood Field was shared by the Birmingham Barons, a white team, and the Black Barons. Future Hall of Famers played on the diamond through the years, as the park’s history tells us:

History of Rickwood Field | Rickwood Field

Now, on to the end of NASCAR for the  year—

(NASCAR)—-The checkered flag has fallen on the 2023 NASCAR season with two winners at Phoenix: Ross Chastian gets the race but Ryan Blaney gets the Cup after a day of close racing among the remaining competitors for the championship.

Chastain, Blaney, Kyle Larson, and William Byron—the latter three being in contention for the Cup—raced each other intensely for almost sixty laps including a pit stop and a restart after a caution flag.  Blaney’s car owner, Roger Penske, had to tell Blaney to turn down his intensity as he battled Chastain, assuring him he could with the championship by conserving his car and settling for a secod-place race finish.

Blaney contented himself to second place after that, finishing 1.2 seconds behind Chastain with Larson third and Byron fourth.  The fourth driver who entered the race running for the championship, Christopher Bell, broke a brake rotor just past the one-third mark and finished last.

Blaney becomes the fourteenth driver in NASCAR’s 75-year history to win a Cup championship before turning thirty (Jeff Gordon did it three times).  The youngest was Bill Rexford in 1950.

He sees the championship as a responsibility in addition to being an accomplishment because the championship brings a platform. “I feel like if you get the privilege to be a champion of your sport, it is part of your job to promote your sport and do the best you can to be the best champion that you can,” he said afterwards. “I think it’s part of your job to kind of, hey, embrace it, push the sport. You have this awesome platform now to where you’ve done something incredible; use that, promote the sport. I’m excited to see what happens this offseason, see what comes up, to where you’re not only growing yourself, you are growing the sport of NASCAR as well.”

Racing is in his blood.  His father, Dave, ran 473 Cup races in a 17-year career. His grandfather and an uncle also were racers. He won his first race at the age of nine in a quarter midget.  He won in NASCAR’s top series three times this year and finished in the top ten in half of the 36 races. He has finished in the top ten in points in seven of his eight full-time seasons.

The race was the finale for Kevin Harvick’s career.  He led 23 laps early in the race but his car lost some of its handling as the sun faded. He finished seventh, the 21st consecutive top-ten finish at Phoenix.

The next race that counts toward the 2023 championship is only 101 days away, the Daytona 500, February 18.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen has won the Grand Prix of Brazil with Lando Norris in a McLaren and Fernando Alonso in an Aston Martin sharing the podium with him. The victory extends his record for most wins in a season, now at 17.  Each race is a new recordfor Verstappen this year.  Even if he fails to win any of the final two races, will finish the year having won more than 77% of the races on the schedule.  That would break the record set in the hearly days of F1 when Alberto Ascari won six of he eight races in 1952. He has won 32 races (so far) in the last two seasons, another record. He’s been on the podium nineteen times this year, another  record. His 922 laps-led is also a new record. He will far surpass the record for the greatest winning margin for a championship. Sebastien Vettel won the title by 155 points ten years ago. Verstappen leads his nearest competitor by 256. He has a record run of 39 consecutive races leading the points. He has won eleven times from pole this year, another record.

Verstappen has led the championship standings across two seasons, since the Spanish Grand Prix of May 2022, and is guaranteed to end the season with a record run of 39 races in a row as leader.

*The United States, of course!!!

(Photo credit:  NASCAR/Chris Gaythen/Getty Images)

Bigots are People, Too

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And don’t they deserve to be represented in our Congress just as the rest of are?  Those of us who are saints?

One person’s bigot is another person’s saint.  But which one is which?

The question has been played out in our dysfunctional Congress where easy name-calling has taken the place of hard work and consensus.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia might have grounds to complain about bigot-abuse after Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint of Vermont went off on her a few days ago on the floor of the House of Representatives.  And Representative Rashida Tlaib of Minnesota might complain of bigot-abuse from Greene. In fact she has. We’ll get to that later.

Greene had introduced a resolution to censure Representative Tlaib, a Muslim, for participating in a pro-Palestine rally that Greene claims is “an anti-American and anti-Semitic Insurrection.” She also claimed that Tlaib “followed Hezbollah’s orders to carry out a day of unprecedented anger.”  It took her five minutes to explain her resolution.

Video: Marjorie Taylor Greene Introduces Resolution to Censure Rashida Tlaib | C-SPAN.org

Balint was on the floor hours later with her counter-resolution that took her eleven minutes to sum up what she sees as Green’s sins.

Video: Rep. Balint Offers Resolution Censuring Marjorie Taylor Greene | C-SPAN.org

Tlaib has called Greene’s resolution “unhinged” and has said it is “deeply Islamaphobic and attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates” who want a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza. “I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced,” she said. “I will continue to call for ceasefire, for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, for the release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained, and for every American to be brought home. I will continue to work for a just and lasting peace that upholds the human rights and dignity of all people, and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in fear of violence.”

This exchange puts us in mind of a song from the motion picture South Pacific.

(Video) You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught – Song from South Pacific by Rodgers & Hammerstein (rodgersandhammerstein.com)

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were attacked, especially in the South, for putting the song in the musical.  James Michener, who wrote the story in his book Tales of the South Pacific on which the play was based, told Hammerstein biographer, “The authors replied stubbornly that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play, and even if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay in.”

When the play was presented in Georgia, State Representative David C. Jones considered the son a threat to the American way of life because it sanctioned interracial marriage. Some suggested the song was inspired by Communists.

Hammerstein wrote to one critic, “I am most anxious to make the point not only that prejudice exists and is a problem, but that its birth in teaching and not in the fallacious belief that there are basic biological and psychological and mental differences between the races.”

The play came out in 1949.  The movie came out in 1958. The song was kept for the film. It has been recorded many times since in various forms.  And the lyrics are still powerful.  And accurate.

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught

In today’s world we see the accuracy of this song being played out in so many places, even in the halls of our national government and in some of our statehouses.  We see blatant efforts being made to make sure our children—and even we adults—are “carefully taught,” and we are seeing some places, including some of our pulpits, where edicts and laws are being issued to make sure  our children and our grandchildren are “carefully taught” to “hate and fear.”

Maintaining silence in the face of those who profit personally or politically by that careful teaching should never be an option. Let us be  unafraid to learn our history, warts and all as Tom Benton would put it.

Sports: Denver Plays Trick, no Treat; Tigers Under the Dog; Final 4 in NASCAR

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

This one is probably going to be pretty short.

(CHIEFS)—It seemed to be inevitable.  The malaise that has infected major league sports in Missouri this year finally caught up with the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that has not lived up to the expectations of their fans or themselves this year.

The Denver Broncos, who never let the Chiefs get away from them in their first game together this year, never let the Chiefs get off the mat in Mile High Stadium Sunday.  Five (count ‘em, FIVE) turnovers, failures on fourth down, and the inability to make their usual big plays doomed Kansas City, which didn’t even get a touchdown during the game, something that last happened almost two years to the day.

“I saw things that I haven’t seen before,” said Coach Andy Reid in his news conference yesterday. “They did a better job than we did.”

It was a team loss.  The next game is in Germany against the Miami Dolphins and their fleet of fleet=footed receivers led by Chiefs expatriate Tyreek Hill who already has more than 1,000 yards receiving and is averaging almost 17 yards per catch.

The Dolphins’ field goal kicker, Jason Sanders, has only had to kick nine times, hitting seven  of them.  The Chiefs have 18 field goals and only 19 touchdowns. The Dolphins have 36 touchdowns.

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers will have had two weeks to heal and work up some new plays and get some ideas how to stop the nation’s number one team by the time they play Georgia next weekend.  Oddsmakers have installed Georgia as almost-three touchdown favorites.

Last year, Georgia had to score two touchdowns in the last quarter to squeeze out a 26-22 win in Columbia as Missouri held George to its second-lowest total of the year.  This is the first time since the 1960 Orange Bowl that Missouri and Georgia have met with both teams inside the top 20.  Missouri will go  into the game ranked 14th in both major polls.

For what it’s worth, Georgia was a FOUR touchdown favorite last year. (ZOU)

A baseball note:

(XCARD)—Former Cardinals second baseman Tommy Pham didn’t know what he was doing Saturday night when he told teammate Jace Peterson to bat for him in Arizona’s 9-1 blowout of the Texas Rangers.  Pham was 4 for 4 on the night and had a chance to be the third player to get five hits in a World Series game and the first to do it in five at-bats.  Peterson ran the count to 3-2 before grounding out.

The only players in World Series history with five hits in one game are Albert Pujols in 2011 and Paul Molitor of the Twins in 1982.  But they batted six times.

Now for the zoom stuff:

(NASCAR)—Ryan Blaney raced his way into the NASCAR final four who will run for the 2023 championship next weekend in Phoenix.  He’ll be joined by 2021 champion Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell (who won races previously in the cut-down round) and William Byron, who struggled to a 13th place finish Sunday at Martinsville and squeezed in on points.

(L-R:  Byron, Bell, Larson, Blaney)

These four are the top young guns of the sport, at least for this year.  Their average age is 28 (Larson is 31, the oldest, and Byron is 25, the youngest. Larson has been in the Cup series for a decade, Blaney for eight years, Byron for six, and Bell for only four.

Denny Hamlin is still without a NASCAR championship in his 18-year career that has seen him record 51 victories, finishing in the top ten in the standings 15 times, and in the top five nine times. Hamlin appeared on the way to the top four until the final pit stops that dropped him and Blaney behind several cars that didn’t stop.  Hamlin got back to third, behind Byron, but came up four points short of the final four.

Martin Truex Jr., was one of the top three finishers in the first stage but later was caught speeding when he left pit road and had to start at the end of the line of cars on the leader’s lap.  He got as high as 12th at the finish, but the speeding penalty torpedoed his chance for the final four.

Next weekend’s race will be the final Cup appearances for Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola. Harvick will be stepping away after 23 years in NASCAR’s top series, with 60 wins (so far), a championship in 2014 and 17 years finishing in the top 10 in the standings.

Almirola has been in the Cup series for 16 years. His best finish in the standings was fifth in 2016.

(Formula 1)—Max Verstappen broke his own record by winning his 16th race of the year during the weekend. It’s his 51st career win, tied for fourth on the all-time list. Lewis Hamilton, who finished second in the Mexico Grand Prix, is the all-time leader with 103 victories. Hamilton finished second in the race, 14 seconds back.

(Photo credits: Kansas City Chiefs, NASCAR)

 

 

OMG!!!

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While our Congress has been acting like children who should be spanked and sent to bed without dinner—

While the Israel and Hamas are blowing each other up===

While Ukraine is hoping to hold on somehow to its own survival—

While hurricanes are growing more severe, water shortages are getting more serious, millions of people are still starving in Africa, China is building islands in the South Pacific to extend its reach, gas prices are as difficult to understand as airline fares, and Covid is on the rise again—

It is news that baseball great Alex Rodriguez has

Ta-dah!!!!

Gum disease!

Oh, the horror.

“I just recently went to see my dentist and not thinking anything about any gum disease and the dentist tells me the news, and then I come to find out over 65 million Americans have this gum disease.”

He made the heart-stopping announcement on the “CBS Mornings show a few days ago.

But it’s only early-stage gum disease.

Whew…..we were really concerned until we learned it’s been caught early and is treatable.

As sometimes happens when big star people contract some dreaded disease, A-Rod, as he’s called, is becoming a mouthpiece for a cause.  He has “partnered” with OraPharma, a  health products company to increase public knowledge about this ailment.

(We wonder if he knew he had gum disease before OraPharma contacted his agent.)

His advice:

See your dentist for regular checks.  And take care of your teeth.

You bet, A-Rod.  I’ve already made my next dental appointment. It will be in December.

But there are other major ailments that require celebrity spokespeople with courage enough to go public with their problem so the public will be more aware and seek proper medical attention.

Hangnails.

Ingrown toenails

Dandruff

Think of the possibilities for TV commercials with your favorite sports stars or has-been sports stars elbowing their way between insurance, patent medicine, and medicare commercials.  We need the variety.  Flo and Doug and their associates are getting so monotonous.

In A-Rod’s case, be watching for him telling you that Arestin and Ossix are essential fighters for good oral health.

But until that happens, we hope you’ll send your thoughts and prayers to A-Rod as he enters a long fight against his early stage gum disease.

 

The Team Player

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Being a team player means placing greater value on a team’s success than on individual achievement.

In sports it might mean passing up a chance to hit a home run when a sacrifice bunt is necessary.  In business it might mean supporting the competitor who got the job you wanted because the company is more important than one job, more important than one individual.

Sometimes being a team player means figure out what your team is.

The issue came up recently when Congresswoman Ann Wagner, who represents a district in eastern Missouri, announced she would support Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who had the backing of former President Trump, for Speaker of the House just days after she said she would “absolutely not” support him.  She complained that when Jordan lost the original caucus vote to Congressman Steve Scalise, “He gave the most disgraceful, ungracious—I can’t call it a concession speech—of all time.”

Talk about a turnaround!

She justified her change by saying it is because she is a team player.

In baseball terms, she tore off her Cardinals uniform and put on one for the Cubs. Instantly.

More and more, though, it appears we don’t have teams in Washington.  We have tribes.  At least four of them: the extreme right tribe, the center right tribe, the center left tribe, and the extreme left tribe.

Jordan, whose record of getting bills passed is so thin it is, well, non-eixtent*, got the Republican conference’s majority vote as its candidate for Speaker—-but with substantial opposition, casting doubt on whether he could get the 217 Republican votes he needed to take the gavel. He came out of the conference caucus 65 votes short of what he needed in a floor vote. He and his supporters spent the days getting people like Wagner to turn around. But 65 votes was a whole lot of turning. And Jordan couldn’t do it.

Some of his opponents had the temerity to suggest that the Republican minority within the Republican majority might align with Democrats to pick a Speaker, an impracticality at the time because a Democrat in charge of a chaotic Republican House would be unable to bring sanity to the large room that seemingly needs to add padding to its walls and to rewrite its recently-rewritten dress code to include canvas blazers with long sleeves that tie in the back.

But give credit to those who have had the courage to suggest that the other side is not the enemy; they’re just friends who have different ideas.  And if they can find areas of agreement and move forward, it sure beats focusing on differences that stand in the way of service.

We do not mean to target Wagner in this entry because there are others who have misunderstood the concept of team when they proclaim in word and deed that they, too, are team players, an observation that applies to both of our political parties.  She just happened to use the phrase.

Minority Democrats, who have seemingly been inessential to the slim-majority Republicans and therefore beneath respect by them, have had the luxury of sitting back and watching the GOP House fall into a state of extreme disarray without addressing the possibly troublesome fringe of their own party and the mischief it might cause if Democrats regain control of the House—which a lot of pundits think the Republicans are proving should be the case.

It appears the only teams that matter in that climate are Republican and Democrat.  Anyone who has spent a lot of time inside the political system at the national or state level can understand how consuming that world becomes, so consuming that the real team is forgotten.

As we said earlier, there are four tribes in the House, not two teams.

Who IS the team?

Look in your mirrors.

Somebody in Washington or Jefferson City wants to be a team player?  The first step is to get rid of tribes. The second step is remembering who the team really is.

WE are the team.

Reaching across the aisle in a way that benefits the team more than it benefits any one tribe isn’t a crucifiable offense.

Was Jim Jordan interested in taking one for the team?  No, he was in it for Jim Jordan (and his big booster at the time).  And he lost three times, each time with fewer members of his own party supporting him.

So what is the team’s responsibility for straightening out the whole mess? Simple. Pay attention to what our congressional delegation is saying and doing and make sure that whomever we send to Washington next November is more loyal to country than to tribe and certainly more loyal to country than to a disgraceful former leader.

*The New Republic, an unabashedly liberal publication, said in its October 17 webpage entry,  “Jordan stands out among his predecessors and colleagues because he is not a real lawmaker… The Center for Effective Lawmaking, a project by Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, rates House members based on their legislative performance. In the 117th Congress, Jordan was tied for fourth place among the least effective lawmakers.

Jordan sponsored only a single bill in the last Congress—on social media censorship, a perennial issue among some conservatives—and it did not advance out of committee. He has never successfully drafted a bill that became law…Meredith Lee Hill, who covers all agriculture-related goings-on on Capitol Hill for Politico, reported that Jordan’s supporters pitched his speakership to agriculture-minded Republicans as the “best way to get the huge [Farm] bill to the floor” in what remains of this Congress’s term. As Hill noted, Jordan has never himself voted for a farm bill at any time in his career.”

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