Author Archives: bpriddy

Monstrosity

Posted on by
Reply

President Trump says he wants to build a 250-foot tall arch to celebrate this country’s 250th anniversary.  It is yet another project that wreaks of excess and of self-promotion.  Whatever its official name becomes, it’s always going to be known as the arch that Trump built. Arch deTrump, some already are calling it.

The only thing taller in the area that stretches from the Arlington National Cemetery east to the Library of Congress across from the Capitol is the Capitol itself, and by only a few feet.

Grace, beauty, and appropriateness have never been in his lexicon.  Gross, ugly, and inappropriate too often define him to an increasing number of people.  Last week, in an oval office reveal of the design for this monstrosity. CBS reporter Ed O’Keefe asked the President who the arch is for.  “Me,” he said.

The fact checkers who have built their careers on Trump’s lies had a day off on that one.

The Commission on Fine Arts refers to it as the Triumphal Arch. To be honest, the  letter “i” should replace the “h.”

The only manmade arch that we have been able to find that is bigger than this is the one on the St. Louis riverfront.

Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe in Paris is almost 100 feet shorter, at 164 feet.  The Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City is only 220 feet. The Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, North Korea tops out at 197 feet.

The four-sided arch that is the Pennsylvania State Memorial at Gettysburg, honoring the 34,500 Pennsylvania soldiers who fought there, checks in at 110 feet. Not far away, the National Memorial Arch at Valley Forge honoring those who wintered there 1777-78 is sixty feet high.

The top of the Memorial Arch in Huntington, West Virginia is only 42 feet from the ground. The Camp Randall, Wisconsin arch honoring Civil War veterans from that state needs only thirty feet to dignify them. The Bushnell Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford, Connecticut is but 116 feet and the Washington Square Arch that commemorates George Washington’s inauguration in New York City gets the job done in 77 feet.

“It’s going to be beautiful,” he says.  Philip Kennicott with the Washington Post offers a brutal opposing view:

It is an insult to the men and women who risk their lives to protect democracy, who have fought in wars against fascism, who have actually achieved victory rather than merely declared and celebrated it. Its symbolism is borrowed and confused, and it will block a sacred vista that connects the Lincoln Memorial to the final resting place of the Civil War dead, and veterans from every major war and conflict this country has fought.

This is a subtly that escapes people such as Trump who think symbolic as well as real sledgehammers and wrecking balls are among mankind’s greatest inventions. The arch will stand at the southern end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, interrupting the flow of history from the Lincoln Memorial to the peaceful hillside that is Arlington National Cemetery, a cemetery on land confiscated from Confederate commander Robert E. Lee as a resting place for those who defended the Union in the Civil War.

Some critics say the planned arch will obscure much of he cemetery but will frame Lee’s mansion at the top of the hill beyond. Is that intentional?  Who knows, although Trump has expressed a fondness for honoring Confederate leaders.

Trump has said it will be 250 feet high as a symbol of the nation’s 250th birthday. As of last week, however, it is only colored drawings.  The first shovel of dirt for the project has not yet been turned and Independence Day is less than 90 days away.  As one critic put it, “If it isn’t going to be done this year, it really has nothing to do with the 250th Anniversary, and as Trump said, it’s for him.”.

Kennecott concludes, “It perverts a fundamentally American idea about war. We have fought them, we have died in them, and we have brought war to too many people who did not deserve our meddling with their politics and sovereignty.

“But no matter the cause, no matter how great the victory, we fundamentally honor sacrifice and service. We celebrate the end of wars and the achievement of peace, not victory. Roman victory arches are lovely to look at, but they were primarily political statements, assertions of personal power and propaganda by ambitious men”.

Caesar Trumpus wants his arch.

If it can’t be finished by July 4, maybe he can complete it in time to celebrate his glorious victory over Iran.

Ozymandias Trump  

Posted on by
1

President Trump’s insatiable need to memorialize himself, whether it’s by putting his name on a long-standing building such as the Kennedy Center, minting gold coins, putting his signature on our currency, building a disgracefully tacky ballroom onto the White House, building a Trump Arch in Washington and now we have seen the plans for his presidential library.

All of this is his vain effort to immortalize himself as something far more than what he is brings to mind a couple of 19th Century British poet friends who engaged in a friendly competition to see whose work would be published first. They probably had heard the announcement that the British Museum had acquired an eight-ton statue of Rameses II.

Both had experienced the classical education of the day, which probably led them to a story by the First Century, BCE, Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who described a great Egyptian statue with the inscription, “King of Kings Ozymandias am I. if any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my works.”

Horace Smith wrote:

In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
“I am great OZYMANDIAS,” saith the stone,
“The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand.”— The City’s gone,—
Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.

We wonder — and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

The better-known of the poems is the one with the same name, Ozymandias¸ by Percy Bysshe Shelley, considered one of the greatest of the English romantic poets, who drowned in a sailing accident at the age of 29.  This is the one we are most likely to see in our English textbooks and in the compilations of great poems.

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The poem is considered a commentary on the impermanence of power and the fleeting of time.  Litcharts.com puts it this way:

The speaker relates a story a traveler told him about the ruins of a “colossal wreck” of a sculpture whose decaying physical state mirrors the dissolution of its subject’s—Ozymandias’s—power. Only two upright legs, a face, and a pedestal remain of Ozymandias’s original statue, and even these individual parts of the statue are not in great shape: the face, for instance, is “shattered.” Clearly, time hasn’t been kind to this statue, whose pitiful state undercuts the bold assertion of its inscription. The fact that even this “king of kings” lies decaying in a distant desert suggests that no amount of power can withstand the merciless and unceasing passage of time.

Less poetic but nonetheless powerful on its own is a quote attributed to General George S. Patton; you might recognize it as it was spoken by George C. Scott at the end of the movie about the general:

““For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”

Donald Trump  doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who would know who Percy Bysshe Shelley was (it has been widely reported that he seldom reads anything, even his daily security reports—there have been stories that staff members dumb them down for his short attention span) and while it would not be surprising to learn that he did see the Patton movie, he likely is incapable of understanding that all of his efforts to immortalize himself will someday be nothing more than the equivalent of a pile of ancient stones in the desert of history, an ancient 21st Century Ozymandias.

(Image credits: Statue—Society of Classical Poets; Trump Library—Youtube)

Sports: The Portal Opens; Barrett Bails; Baseball Teams Break Even. (3/17/26)

Posted on by
Reply

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZZPORT)—The college basketball transfer portal opens today and the Missouri Tiger guards are bolting. Late last night, word came that T. O. Barrett, whose insertion as a started added intensity to the defense and toughness to the inside game, was bolting. We already knew the ptjer two top guards were moving on. Anthony Robinson II, who lost his starting guard position in mid-season to Barrett, and reserve guard Sebastian Mack, who never rose above a backup role after transferring in from UCLA, are leaving.  Both are seniors. Barrett has a couple of years of eligibility left.

He was exciting in his sophomore breakout season, but had a problem with turnovers, scored a career high 28 points against Tennessee but also had games where he had no offensive impact.

Mizzou has a five star guard, Jason Crowe Jr., coming in, joining the only guard left on the roster—redshirt Aaron Rowe of Columbia.  Crowe is considered a top ten national prospect.

Mizzou has one of the best recruiting classes in the nation for the 26-27 seasons as it looks to improve on this year’s fadeout with four straight losses, including first round games in the SEC tournament and in the NCAA.

(BILLSPORT)—Two players from the St. Louis University Billikens are going into the portal but reports indicate other players with eligibility remaining will stick around. Department are forwards Brady Dunlap and Kalu Anya. Dunlap had the best three-point parentage for the team this year—45 percent. But in terms of minutes played he was seventh in the nine-man rotation and his playing time was reduced in the last ten games.

Anya was crowded out of the rotation this year and took a redshirt so he’ll have one year of eligibility left. He’s a 6-8 forward who started all 34 games for the Bills in the 2024-25 season when he led the team in rebounds, shot a respectable percentage from the field but hit less than one-third of his free throws.

(BEARSPORT)—Missouri State’s only portal entry so far is Amar Kuljuhovic, a 6-8 power forward. He transferred to Springfield after two years at North Dakota State but played in only two games this year.

(BASEBALL)—Both of our major league teams have finished the first full week of the season with so-so records. The Cardinals winning five of their first nine and the Royals losing five of their first nine.

(ROYALS)—The Royals opened a series against the Cleveland Guardians last night, looking to get back to .500 after the first ten games of the year. Before the game, the team activated infielder Michael Massey from the ten-day injured list and sent utility man Nick Loftin to Omaha.

Massey had been recovering from a calf strain. He hit .244 last year. He’s mostly a second-baseman but has played third and left field, too.

The first of three games against the Guardians was moved from last night to the afternoon because temperatures were expected to drop for a game under the lights. Kansas City evened is record at 5-5 with a 4-2 win. Jonathan India’s two-run homer in the eighth gave the Royals a needed cushion in the win. He also drove in Kansas City’ s first run. Catcher Carter Jensen also homered.

(CARDINALS)—The last piece of the Sonny Gray trade to the Red Sox has fallen into place with the Cardinals getting Class-A pitcher Patrick Galle as the player to be named later. Galle was a 17th round pick last year projected to be a reliever.  He’s the third player to move to the Cardinals in the trade.  Galle is 22 with a triple digit fastball that produced a 1.04 ERA in eight appearances with the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League, a collegiate wood bat summer league.

Last night, the Cardinals dropped back to .500 (5-5) with a 9-6 loss to the Washington Nationals. One nice development in the opening games of the season is Jordan Walker, who was 2 for 5 last night an is hitting .314 in the early going after a lot of work on his swing while in Florida. Rookie J.J. Wetherholt was one for three and is hitting .278 so far in his first pass through major league pitching.

(TIGERFB)—The Mizzou football class of 2927 is starting to assemble; the question will be how many will stick with their verbal commitments. Coach Drinkwitz wants 18-22 recruits in the last. Six already have committed

The top name on the tentative list is Tight End Jack Brown Francis Howell Central, considered the top talent in Missouri, a 6-5, 215 pounder who catches footballs. Jack Brown is a four-star recruit.  More than thirty schools will try to get him to change his mind.

(CHIEFS)—Coach Andy Reid isn’t forecasting whether Patrick Mahomes will be ready to go for game one of the NFL season but there is a video that shows him dropping back and throwing a pass in the Chiefs training facility. His left let is wrapped from ankle to thigh but he appears to be moving normally.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The Battlehawks play tonight, a rarity in UFL scheduling. They will take their 1-0 record against the Dallas Renegades, who also have won their first game this year. The ‘Hawks will have to find a way to stop Dallas quarterback Austin Reed, who set a league record with 376 passing yards in a 36-16 win against Houston.

On the track—

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar heads to the streets of  Long Beach on the 19th for its last race before everyone heads to Indianapolis for a road course race and the buildup to it’s greatest race on Memorial Day weekend.

The car count for the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 stands at 31, two short of the traditional staring field of 33. RACER magazine’s Marshall Pruett reports Abel Motorsports is working getting a car ready for Jacob Abel, son of the team owner, who was bumped from las year’s starting field by a faster driver in qualifications. Andretti Global appeared ready with a car for Colton Herta, who is running Formula 2 in Europe this year. But his availability has come into question. PREMA Motorsports, which has not been able to field a car for the starting grids of any of four races so far this year but could put one on the track if a driver with adequate sponsorship appears on the scene.

Alex Palou won last year’s 500 and has won two of the four races this year with Kyle Kirkwood and Joef Newgarden winning the other two. Kirkwood’s consistent runs in the first four races has put him in the points lead.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR returns after the Easter break to run at Bristol. It’s the eight race of the season. The standings are starting to look familiar as drivers race to be in the top 16 in points for a ten race runoff that will crown a champion who accumulates the most points during those ten races.

NASCAR has abandoned its street race in downtown Chicago to return to the Chicagoland Speedway. It’ called ChicagoLAND because the track is in Joliet. Because no Cup races have been run there since 2019, Goodyear plans tire tests on the 21st.  The race is July 5.

Reaching To the Stars

Posted on by
Reply

They’re there.

Our “Star Sailors” travelling farther away from their source of life than anyone ever has traveled before, are circling the Moon today, four thousand miles beyond the flight of three men of Apollo 13, seeing parts of the noon only mechanical recording system have seen.

They are spending about six hours in their Orion spacecraft photographing places on the back side of the moon. And then they will sling shot back for a fiery return to our blue marble

Fifty-seven years ago, at Christmas 1968, three men from the planet earth saw what only had been seen with telescopes and the naked eye for millennia. Apollo 8’s Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders described the black and white images we saw of a gray and black world below them as they looped around the moon.

To those of us who could not take our eyes from our television screens showing us a desolate place almost a quarter-million miles away, the event was astounding. All of the science fiction we had read since we were in grade school dissolved in the reality of what we and the rest of his precious planet were witnessing along with those three men.

The men of Apollo 8 later showed us color photographs of earthrise over the Moon and the first photograph of the round blue marble as they left it behind and to which they gratefully returned.

It was Anders who is credited with seeing the entire earth at a glance who likened it to a fragile “little Christmas tree ornament against an infinite backdrop of space, the only color in the whole universe we could see. It seemed so very finite.” This image from Apollo 8 was the first time we saw what they saw—how alone we are.

The four astronauts aboard the Artemis II flight these five decades later, are the first people since December 1972 and Apollo 17 to let us see it again. To a new generation, to whom the daring dash to the Moon by Apollo 8 is only a page in a history books, the adventure is renewed.  Its goal, different from the Apollo landings, an exciting reach for humanity, perhaps re-establishes a focus on something greater than petty politics and near-constant wars.

Perhaps in these and other photographs to come will end decades of looking inward and increasingly finding the worst of ourselves and once again lift us to rediscover a time when, as one of the original Apollo astronauts said, “nothing was impossible.”

It brings back echoes of President Kennedy’s speech at Rice University in 1962 when called for this country to send astronauts to the moon and bring them back safely.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. 

He saw he mission to the Moon would “serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skill.”

A new generation now picks up that challenge as the last of the old generation waits to learn what “new knowledge is gained, what new rights will be won and used for the benefit of all people.”

Carl Sagan, an astronomer of another generation whose television series Cosmos explained the wonders of the universe and mankind’s place in one tiny place in the vast emptiness of space, once showed a photograph taken far, far, farther away than these from Apollo and Artemis.

The photograph taken from 3.7 billion miles from us show only a tiny blue dot.  “Look again at that dot,” he said. “That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

The next step will be to send a new generation of Moonwalkers to make the dangerous descent,  to find new discoveries, and—we all hope—leave new footprints behind before they come home.

Geologist Harrison Schmitt was the last man to set foot on the Moon, the only true scientist to be there so far.  But Mission Commander Gene Cernan was the last man to leave a footprint on the Moon as he climbed the ladder to the Lunar Lander behind Schmitt.  He looked forward to the return and had some advice for the next people who step onto the lunar soil:

Cernan told Politico a few years ago:

There are times when I find myself almost involuntarily gazing at the moon — looking back on a time in my life that seems unreal. Oh, I’ve been there, all right, and know that my last footprints, along with Tracy’s initials, will be there forever — however long forever is. But it is not the past that any longer challenges me, but rather the future. Our destiny is to explore, discovery is our goal — curiosity being the essence of human existence. I often ask myself if we will ever go again where humans have never been before and see again what has never been seen before. The answer is absolutely yes.

In 1969, the world took a giant leap into the future as the result of that one small step by Neil Armstrong. Many more steps were to follow Neil’s, launching us into a new era of science, technology and, perhaps most important, discovery led by a new generation of young, eager scientists, engineers and educators who were inspired to accept the challenge and committed to see their dreams fulfilled. Today’s media coverage of that epic moment seems to many like science fiction. But it wasn’t. It was science fact and continues to this day to have significant impact on our lives, on our future, and, indeed, on the entire world. The benefits that have followed were hardly imaginable at the time. One of the core lessons from Apollo is that the greatest advances in science and technology happen as a byproduct of the bold steps we take when committing ourselves to expanding human knowledge and understanding. Perhaps the most important byproduct of Kennedy’s vision that took us to the moon is the passion inspired in the hearts and minds of those generations who follow in our footsteps.

We have again reached a challenge in human history. The moon, Mars and beyond — they are calling. The technology and systems to again reach for the stars are now within our reach. The benefits are there for us to claim. However, it will take the will of the American people, a sustained political commitment, and, once again, a leader with foresight and vision. Now is the time for America to recognize with pride our nation’s exceptionalism, regain our leadership in space and lead the free world on the next giant leap for mankind.

Today’s highly evolved and improved answer to Apollo is the Space Launch System and the Orion crew exploration spacecraft. Together they can open the door to the future, providing the capabilities we need, allowing us to finally reach the furthest frontiers of space. NASA and industry are making significant progress with the development of these deep space systems. American workers across the nation are making the probability of future space exploration again attainable. If I can call the moon my home before today’s generation was even born, what challenge can be beyond their reach? The driving force is the understanding that human space exploration is essential to the vitality of our nation, providing untold opportunity for generations to come.

Bipartisan support for space has remained strong since the days of Sputnik continuing to the present time. With determined leadership from the administration and ongoing support from Congress, we can enable NASA and industry to complete their work to build the systems we need to explore beyond the moon.

With SLS/Orion we are ready to seek out what the heavens have to offer — it is time for our nation’s leaders to commit to a clear logical destination, a mission, a goal with a timetable, plotting a course of new discovery. It is time to re-ignite, to re-energize the meaning of American exceptionalism. It is time to recognize what it takes to inspire young minds to dream big and accept the challenges their generation faces. We have the responsibility to provide them the direction and the opportunity to once again reach beyond their grasp in leading mankind into the future of discovery.

In a later interview, Cernan said, “Their future is going to depend on what we did a half a century ago. I’d like to be here to congratulate them, to thank them, and ask them what people ask me all the time, ‘What did it feel like?’

”Enjoy. Take advantage of the opportunity. Don’t take anything for granted. Be prepared for what you don’t expect to happen, and know that you, whoever you are, can do it. Not only can you do it, but can do it better than it’s ever been done before.“

Gene Cernan didn’t make it to this day. He died nine years ago.

Those who are sharing their view of the Moon with all of us here on “the good green earth” of Apollo 8’s Christmas message are the table-setters for those who will next land. Perhaps in this new era of exploration we will rediscover a belief in ourselves that has been dwindling since those days when “nothing was impossible.”

Only four of those who walked on the Moon survive.  Buzz Aldrin is 95 and in poor health. Dave Scott is 93. Charlie Duke, the youngest man to walk on the moon at age 36, is now 90. And Harrison Schmitte, the geologist who later became a U.S. Senator from New Mexico, also is 90. A dozen other men flew to the moon but did not walk upon it. Only Fred Haise of Apollo 13 survives from that group.

Just for the record: The remaining Apollo capsules were used to send nine astronauts to Skylab, our first space station. Joe Kerwin, 94, Jack Lousma, 90, and Edward (Hoot) Gibson, 89 are still with us.

Lousma and Haise were involved in the early flights of the Space Shuttle, as was moonwalker John Young (who died in 2018 as the only man to fly in the Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle programs). Vance Brand, who would have commanded Apollo 18 if the program had not been cancelled, took part in the Skylab and Shuttle programs. He will be 95 next month.

NASA doesn’t plan a Moon landing until September 2028. We hope at least one of this generation will be here to welcome that crew back home.

(Earth pictures: NASA; Apollo astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, an accomplished artist who spent the rest of his life depicting that earlier era of moon flights died in 2018. His work that gave its name to the title of this entry, is signed by more than twenty of the Apollo astronauts. Several of his prints are available through Novaspace.com or on various other internet sies)

 

IGNORANCE

Posted on by
Reply

Any good journalist abhors ignorance, even personal ignorance. Consumers of our products in all of their forms probably have no idea of the number of stories, programs, and books that spring from seeing something and thinking “?” and then learning the answer.

Most people don’t have or don’t take the time to pursue an answer. But it’s the old “who, what, when, where and how” that defines the journalist’s mind and the journalist’s work product.

I often have told people that it is the unknown that journalist face at the start of every day that makes getting up long before the rooster crows and staying up long after the sun sets. At the end of the day we have done something that science says is impossible: We have made something out of nothing. It’s called “news,” the unpredictability of life captured and the story told, a vanquishing of ignorance—-sometimes whether you want it vanquished or not.

Ignorance is dangerous whether it is in common courtesies, traffic codes, health warnings, but especially in politics where ignorance not only is preyed upon by candidates and advocates but by those who have been given great responsibility.

We are alarmed by steps being taken to erase the unpleasant parts of our past and to be dishonest about our heritage and the responsibilities we have as citizens to conquer our baser relations with others, based on how we have overcome them in the past.

Today’s observation was triggered by the appearance of President Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, who recently denied to host Joe Kernan of  CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the President’s interest in Greenland amounts to American imperialism:

“When has the United States engaged in imperialism? Never. Europe has engaged in imperialism. The reason the Danish have Greenland is because of imperialism.”

When has the United States engaged in imperialism? How about two centuries of it.  We would not be the United States if it was not for imperialism.

I reached onto my bookshelf for Daniel Immerwahr’s How to Hide an Empire, a volume Landry should read if he wants to rise above the ignorance that soaks this administration. What might we call the administration’s takeover of Venezuela and its threatened takeover of Cuba and Greenland and the earlier blabbering of making Canada the 51st state if not “imperialism?”  Added to that discussion is the frequent dismissal in this administration that Puerto Ricans are not Americans.

The administration in its efforts to cleanse or whitewash our history prefers we are ignorant of many things including that the imperialistic spirit was part of this nation from the beginning, when early explorers operating under an already-ancient papal proclamation that it was proper to seize lands from “infidels,” claimed lands occupied for thousands of years by others in the name of God and Country.

Just 55 years after the landing of businessmen the a few religious dissenters landed at Plymouth, the first war broke out between Europeans and Native Americans when the Europeans wanted to expand the borders of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island. It was the beginning of a 200 year-plus takeover of territories occupied by dozens of previously independent nations.

Two especially egregious examples are the subjugation of the Cherokees, a people with their own constitution and their own written language, with their own plantations is six southern states, their own capital and their own system of slavery.  They were given a new territory to occupy in the 1830s so the Europeans could have their ancestral lands.

Throughout the rest of the 19th century, similar measures were enforced with the forced movement of other nations, some of whom wound up in the same place, a place set aside for Indians. But the attraction of unassigned territory in that area created the 1889 Land Rush when 50,000 settlers roared in to take over the area. The now-“American” area was recognized in 1907 as the state of Oklahoma.  Not until seventeen years had passed did the people displaced through the decades and now disrupted by the land rush—the people of the Indian nations forced there— become recognized by congressional action as American citizens although it was not until 1948 that Congress passed the Indian Voting Rights Act.

The 1846 Mexican war made one-third of Mexico part of the United States. Fifty years later, we went to war with Spain and fought the Philippine War to claim that land.

Immerwahr looks at 1941 as an example of our imperialist holdings: Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states. But these also were NOT foreign countries: Philippines, Puerto Rico, Panama Canal Zone, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. (Panama was Panamanian but it was leased to the United States at the time.) One out of eight people in the United States lived outside the 48-state “logo map” as he calls it.

He also notes a “stream of smaller engagements” that have bought at least parts of other nations under our control for military bases. He cites 211 times that American troops have been deployed to 67 other countries since 1945.

The book came out before Venezuela and Iran.

Immerwahr concludes the introduction to his book, “At various times, the inhabitants of the U.S. Empire have been shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured, and experimented on. What they haven’t been, by and large, is seen”

Landry asked, with his ignorance on full display, “”When has the United States engaged in imperialism?”  The truth is in Immerwahr’s book should he care to read it although this seems to be an administration led by a President whose questionable reading habits and abilities have been much discussed and whose preference for historical literacy seems non-existent, a “blessing” he demands be extended to all of us in a year when accurate recall of our history should be our guiding interest.

We leave you with these cautionary words from President Calvin Coolidge:

“It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.”

And ignorant.

 

 

Season Openers for Baseball—and Football.  

Posted on by
Reply

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CARDINALS)—The first weekend of the 2026 left the Cardinals 2-1 after Sunday’s loss to the Rays, 11=7. Dustin May’s debut was forgettable.  Former Cardinals pitcher Steven Matz had a better day.

May was gone after four innings and six runs on ten hits. Matz was making his first start since September, 2024. He threw five innings and gave up four runs.

The Rays Yandy Diaz had five hits—a career  high— and four RBIs. The top three hitters in the Tampa Bay lineup had nine hits and eight RBIs, with Jonathan Aranda getting three hits and driving in a pair of runs. Cedric Mulllins also drove in a pair.

The Cardinals played long-ball with home runs from Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman and Pedro Pages.

The Cardinals’ Kyle Leahy made his second career start for the Cardinals last night and made it into the sixth inning. Along the way he gave up four runs on eight hits as the Mets left the Cardinals at .500 after the first four games of the year

(ROYALS)—Seth Lugo went 6.1 scoreless innings to give the Royals their first win of the year, 4-1 over the Braves Sunday.  Lugo struck out three, had no walks, and gave up five hits.

The Royals started their first full week of the season yesterday with another impressive performance by a starting pitcher and some home runs from a couple of unlikely sources to beat the Twins 3-1 on a day that felt more like a spring training outing in Arizona. The temperature for Kris Bubic’s first pitch was 85 degrees. Bubic became the third straight starter to go at least six innings and give up only one run. He gave up one run and two hits and got offensive support from an uncharacteristic source—two guys who combined for 21 homers all last year. Kyle Isbell and Isaac Collins hit the ball hard enough that it would have been in the grandstand even before Kansas City moved outfield fences in by ten feet this year.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—A FOUR point field goal highlighted the game won win by the UFL’s most popular team, the St. Louis Battlehawsks, on the league’s opening weekend.  The Battlehawks beat the league’s defending champion franchise, the Washington Defenders 16-10. More than 16,00 fans watched the game in the St. Louis domes stadium.

Defenders field goal kicker Matt McCrane made league and pro football history with that kick that gave the Defenders a 4-0 lead.

The UFL awards four points for any field goal of more than 60 yards. The Battlehawks kept the score a baseball-like 4-3 with a 58 yarder. Washington a touchdown and the ‘Hawks got a second field goal to go the locker room u 10-3. The Battlehawks won the game with a touchdown and a field goal in the second half.

It’s the first win in the pro football coaching career of Ricky Proehl, a star the St. Louis Rams’ Super Bowl season.

(BILLIKENS)—St. Louis U’s basketball coach became a hot property after his team’s big season but he has rejected his first offer.  North Carolina State put out some feelers after coach Will Wade jumped ship after one year. The first person called in for an interview was Josh Schertz from SLU.  Schertz, who got a contract extension during the season, was interviewed at NC State Saturday but told them he wants to stay in St. Louis.

(WHEREARETHEYNOW)

BASEBALL—Former Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, signed by the Washington Nationals  in the offseason, looked like the same guy that frustrated Cardinals fans n his first outing Saturday against the Cubs. He lasted five innings, gave up six runs (only four were earned), struck out four and walked three in the Nationals’ loss.

BASKETBALL—Travis Ford, the kid who was supposed to be the great guard for the Tiger basketball team in 1989-90, has a new coaching job.  Ford left Missouri to return to his home state of Kentucky and the point guard as a senior when Kentucky reached the final four. He’s 56 now and the new coach of Arkansas-Little Rock. He was out of coaching last year after his departure from St. Louis University after eight seasons and did some work as an analyst with the SEC Network. He’s 491-366 in his career. He was 146-109 at St. Louis University.

(HOCKEY)===The St. Louis Blues have launched a late-season surge to snatch the last wild card playoff spot in the NHL. The Blues won their fourth in a row on Saturday to go to 31-30-11. They haven’t been above .500 since they were 3-2-1. In their last 13 games, the Blues have 10-1-2 in their last 13 games.

From the diamond and the gridiron and the ice arena to the oval and a crooked course:

(INDYCAR)—Nobody had anything  for Alex Palou at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama Sunday.  Palou started from the pole, led 79 of the 92 laps and finished more than thirteen seconds ahead of runner-up Christian Lundgaard.

Palou now has won ten of the last 21 IndyCar races on road courses and ovals.. He’s 6-2 on road courses with podium finishes in the two “losers.”  Overall, he has twelve wins in 21 road course races.

Any chance Lundgaard had to challenge Palou was wiped out by a bad final pit stop. But his  second place finish makes him the only driver to finish in the top ten in all four IndyCar races so far this year.

Graham Rahal was third, his best finish in three years, his first podium since August, 2023.  Penske rookie David Malukis continued his solid beginning by coming in fourth. Series points leader Kyle Kirkwood was fifth and saw his lead over Palou shrink from 29 points to two.

Two of the big names wiped out their primary cars in hard crashes during qualifications.  Scott McLaughlin crashed rear-first in a tire barrier, hitting it so hard that his car went partially through the the catch fence behind it. Will Power went head-on into the safer barrier. Power, in a backup car, started 23rd and worked his way up to 12.  McLaughlin started 14th but was stuck in mid-pack throughout the race, finishing 15th in the 25-car field.

(NASCAR)—-The first short track race of the season has gone to Chase Elliott, who led the last 67 laps of the 400 laps on the .526 mile Martinsville (Va.) speedway.  He had to outrun pole-sitter Denny Hamlin, who dominated most of the race, leading almost three-fourths of the laps.

Elliott credited Crew Chief Alan Gustafson for making a daring pit stop call that put him at the front.

The race moved Elliott into fourth place in the points standings. Although leader Tyler Reddick, who has won four races already finished 15th, he is still more than 100 points behind Reddick, who is 82 ahead of Ryan Blaney and 94 up on Denny Hamlin.

It’s the first win for Chevrolet this year after Toyotas had won the first five and Ford the only other one.

(NASCARHOF)—Larry Phillips, arguably Missouri’s greatest short track racer, has been nominated, again, for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Phillips, from Springfield, was the first person to win the NASCAR  Weekly national championship five times, the last time in 1996, thanks to his dominance of tracks at Lebanon and Bolivar.   He also won seven regional championships and thirteen track championships in a forty-year career. He was first nominated for the Hall in 2013.  He died in 2004.

(FORMULA 1)—The new wunderkind of Formul1 is Kimi Antonelli, who became the second-youngest winner in F! history at the GP of China and the youngest driver to win twice in the series. He also was the first Italian to win a Grand Prix in two decades.

Antonelli, driving for Mercedes, is six months away from his 20th birthday. His second victory puts him atop the points standings—the youngest driver to have that distinction.

Photo credits: Palou—Rick Gevers; Phillips—alchetron.com)

A Congressman Steps Down; Thousands Protest 

Posted on by
Reply

It would be nice if the headline reflected reality.  But in the case of Congressman Sam Graves, a native of Tarkio in the far northwest corner of Missouri, it’s not his retirement that has triggered the protests.  We’re going to offer some quick, surface, observations about these two separate events and how Missouri’s chaotic 2026 elections just got more interesting.

I remember Sam Graves mostly because he caused me some sleepless nights. More on that later.

Sam is now 62. He has served 26 of those years in Congress. He might just be hitting his prime and he’s leaving. The website legistorm.com calculates the average age of members of the U.S. House is 58 (for all of Congress it’s 61.5). However, he has served twice as long as the average length of service for U.S. Representatives. In fact, Graves is 32nd in seniority among the 435 members of the House (the Dean of the House is Kentucky Congressman Harold Rogers who is 88 and in his 45th year, his 23rd term and he will seek a 24th.).

The longest-serving Congressman from Missouri was Clarence Cannon, from Elsberry, in northeast Missouri. He died in office after 41 years 69 days and planning for more before a fatal heart attack in 1964. He ranks 29th as the longest-serving member of the U.S. House, 49th  on a list that also includes Senators.

In 1963, the year Graves was born, country music star Jim Reeves put out a song by fellow singer and songwriter Bill Anderson called “I’ve Enjoyed About as Much of This as I Can Stand.”  We don’t know if he has heard the song but in joining 35 other Republicans who are leaving, we wouldn’t be surprised if several of them felt that way (there are 21 Democrats who have decided there’s more to life, too).

Already, several fellow Republicans and at least three Democrats have filed or expressed an interest in filing for his seat and it would be no surprise if the numbers did not increase on both sides.

The Sixth Congressional District is a rural one that covers the entire sparsely-settled rural north Missouri—36 of our 114 counties. It has been solidly conservative for a long, long time.

But the political climate nationwide seems to be changing. Last weekend there were at least 33 “No Kings” rallies in Missouri, nine in the Kansas City area, eight in the St. Louis area, thirteen outstate and three more in northwest Missouri.

Here is something to ponder for the sixth district.  A “No Kings” rally in Quincy, Illinois—not listed among 33—probably had some attraction for some northeast Missourians in the sixth district. TEN of the scheduled rallies on the Missouri side of the Mississippi were in Graves’ present district.  Ten of them. Excelsior Springs, Harrisonville, Kearney, Liberty, Platte City, Madison, Moberly, Maryville, Chillicothe, and St. Joseph.

The “No Kings” movement has survived the winter and the Trump administration’s headline activities from Minnesota to Iran.  The sixth district will not have an incumbent with all of the vote-getting power that goes with incumbency.

The sixth district—in whatever form it winds up being after legislative action and courts reviews—might be more in play than it has been for two decades. And both parties know it full well.

Getting back to Sam—pardon the unfamiliarity but he was “Senator” when I covered him in the legislature and the last time I saw him I called him, “Sam,” an uncharacteristic familiarity that I almost never allow myself with present or past political figures.

There he is from the Missouri Official Manual (the Blue Book by more familiar name) for his first term in the Senate. He was in the Senate for the last years of Democrat-domination of state government.  I recall that he was collegial with good relationships on the other side of the aisle.

But the main thing about him that I recall is that he kept me up all night on at least two occasions.  Sam was not afraid of a filibuster but he rarely took a leading role and didn’t do it so often as to be tiring—as some have done more recently. And he was entertaining, something most filibuster participants never approach.

There were some senators after him who were so boring that I gave one of them a list of books to read that would at least educate those who had to endure them.  Sadly, the list went unused.

He talked about being a poor farm boy whose only pet, a three-legged dog named “Tripod,” was the star of some of his stories. The best performance, however, was the night he threatened to read the names of every high school student in his district who was graduating that year. Every time he was interrupted, he started over. As I recall, he finally forced a compromise on the issue under discussion—which is what filibusters should be for if participants respect them.

The only better filibuster story-teller than Sam Graves was Senator Danny Staples of Eminence.  I made sure I turned on my recorder whenever he asked another member, “Senator, did you know…..” because I knew what was coming.  The State Historical Society has several hours of Staples’ recordings. There are hundreds of other cassettes in the oral history collection that I have to listen to and label one of these days and there has to be some Sam Graves stories on them.  Or on the memory chips we used in later recorders.

He was a work horse not a show horse in his political career, as we observed him up close and from a distance. He’s young enough to have a long and prosperous K-Street career in Washington. K-Street is a street known for its offices of the special interest groups.

The folks in the sixth district would be well-served to seek out another work horse in November.

-o-

The Sounds of Their Voices

Posted on by
1

I’ve been working on some of the history of my church and once again I have become curious about how the denomination’s founders sounded when they spoke, exhorted, preached, etc.

Two of the group that established the denomination were former Scottish Presbyterian ministers who broke with the church over limits in participation at the Lord’s Table.  But both men had been born and raised in Ireland. One live 57 years after coming to this country. Did he still sound Scots-Irish at the end?

When Andrew Jackson shouted his favorite oath, “By the Eternal!” did he have a southern accent? It probably wouldn’t have been as deep as the accents we associate with Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama, but would there have been something?

Did Benjamin Franklin speak as Howard DeSilva portrays him in the musical 1776 or as Robert Preston portrayed him in the musical some years earlier, Ben Franklin in Paris?

Two people in particular intrigue me, one because I’m a native of Illinois and wonder about Abraham Lincoln’s voice at Gettysburg,  and the other because he is such a towering historical figure and a national founder, Thomas Jefferson.

Lena Torres has written about Jefferson on soundcy.com:

Descriptions suggest he spoke with a soft, measured tone, reflecting his reserved and thoughtful nature, while his Virginia upbringing likely influenced his accent, which would have been characteristic of the Tidewater region. Additionally, his extensive education and role as a diplomat may have imbued his speech with a formal, articulate quality. While we can only speculate, piecing together these details offers a glimpse into how one of America’s Founding Fathers might have sounded.

Thomas Jefferson’s voice, though lost to time, likely carried the distinct cadence of Tidewater Virginia, a region steeped in colonial history. This accent, shaped by the linguistic currents of 18th-century Britain, would have been a hallmark of his speech. Imagine a voice that blended the formality of British English with the emerging nuances of American pronunciation—a linguistic bridge between the Old World and the New…

A practical way to approximate Jefferson’s accent is to listen to recordings of modern British Received Pronunciation (RP) and then soften it with the gentle rhythms of the American South. Think of it as a hybrid—not quite British, yet not fully American as we know it today. For instance, the word “water” might have sounded more like “wah-tuh,” with a subtle elongation of the vowel, a relic of his British-influenced upbringing.

She writes a lot more at Unveiling Thomas Jefferson’s Voice: Reconstructing The Third President’s Speech | SoundCy

And Lincoln?  Was he like some actors who have portrayed him—Gregory Peck, or Raymond Massey, as deep voices and deliberate delivery, or the softer and higher-pitched voice of actor Royal Dano at Disneyland ((2098) GREAT MOMENTS WITH MR. LINCOLN Restored Disneyland Vinyl LP – YouTube 28:19 in for the audio animatronic figure’s speech)

A 2011 article for Smithsonian Magazine quotes Lincoln researcher Harold Holzer liked the way actor Sam Waterston (of Law & Order fame) voiced him in Ken Burns’ documentary about the Civil War and in other performances (Sam Waterston Reading The Gettysburg Address #gettysburg #gettysburgaddress).

But the closest might have been Daniel Day Lewis’ interpretation in the movie Lincoln. (Lincoln “Now” scene)

(He explained in an interview how he developed it (BBC News – Daniel Day-Lewis on finding Lincoln’s voice).

Holzer says in the article, “Lincoln’s voice, as far as period descriptions go, was a little shriller, a little higher…People said that his voice carried into crowds beautifully. Just because the tone was high doesn’t mean it wasn’t far-reaching.”

Getting back to Jefferson, Torres has some thoughts about then and now:

…In a world where loudness often equates to importance, Jefferson’s soft-spoken, low-pitched, and deliberate style reminds us of the power of restraint. Whether in leadership, education, or personal interactions, adopting a measured tone can elevate your message, making it more memorable and impactful. Experiment with this approach in your next presentation or conversation, and observe how a quieter, more intentional voice can command respect and foster deeper engagement.

I hope we rediscover that in our political discourses.

 

 

Sports: Typical Tigers, Billikens Short Run; Opening Day Nearing; Royals’ Venezuelan Connection and more.

Posted on by
Reply

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZZGONE)—We saw this kind of Missouri Tigers a lot in the last part of the season, especially in the last four games—all losses.  Inconsistent offense, turnovers, comebacks, brief leads but couldn’t get the dagger basket or keep the other team from hitting it. They had Miami down by a handful late and lost by fourteen.

Missouri lost six of its last nine games to finish 20-13.

It took a 9-0 run at the end of a struggling first half to draw the Tigers to a mere 27-26 deficit at halftime. But all-to-familiar scoring droughts in the second half doomed the Tigers. In one stretch they missed ten straight shots. While Missouri was going without a basket for more than two minutes near the end, Miami ran off 12 straight points.

Miami kept Mark Mitchell bottled up in the first half and held him to only four points while dominating the offensive boards throughout the game.  Mitchell finished with 19 points. Trent Pierce and T. O. Barrett, who were the third and fourth top scorers for the team this year, were two for 15 shooting, and combined for only seven points.

“We just couldn’t keep those guys off the boards,” Coach Dennis Gates said afterward (Miami outrebounded the Tigers 42-29).

Four or five guys suited up for the last time Saturday night:  Mark Mitchell, who became the first since Albert White in the 1998-99 season to lead the team in scoring, rebounds, and assists; Shawn Philips, who came from Arizona for his last season of college ball in Missouri; Jayden Stone, who had 21 points in the Miami game,  sixth year senior and who played the second-most minutes this year; and  Jacob Crews, a transfer from UT-Martin.

The fifth player might or might not be Javon Porter, who joins the family tradition of physical brittleness at Mizzou.  He is on the bubble for a medical redshirt.   His last game was December 14 and he’s been on the bench with a “lower leg injury.” To get the redshirt, a player must be hurt before the halfway point of the season which he was. But the rule also says the player must appear in less than 30 percent of the team’s total games.  He was in 12 of 33, which work out to 36%, two games beyond the limit.

(LADY TIGERS)—The Missouri women’s team topped Seton Hall 67-57 in the first round of the National Women’s Invitational Basketball Tournament. They ran into the top-seeded Brigham Young aggregation late last night and never led on the way to a season-ending 93-75 loss to finish 17-17. BYU advances at 24-11

(BILLIKENS)—The St. Louis University Billikens left Georgia coach Mike White stunned in their first-round game, demolishing the Bulldogs 102-77, leading by as much as forty points at one time. Georgia was an 8 seed; St. Louis a 9. “We weren’t very prepared to compete at the level that I thought we would. Did not see this coming…Didn’t give St. Louis much of a game.”

Georgia, from the mighty SEC, never led in the game, was outscored by an astounding 66-28 in the paint and out-rebounded 47-36. SLU also had 27 assists, three times more than Georgia.

The win was the first in the NCAA tournament for St. Louis since 2014, and a record-setting 29 for the year. But the win just set the Bills up for a game against Michigan, which pulled away from St. Louis Saturday to a 90-75 win.

(MOSTATEWMN)—The Missouri State Lady Bears played their way into the NCAA tournament with an 85-75 win over Stephen F. Austin to get a 16th seed and an immediate game against top-seeded Texas that did not turn out well.  Texas steamrollered Missouri State 87-45.

(COLCOL)—We need to recognize Columbia College in, well, Columbia.  The Lions, 15th in the country, finished 29-4, including a game against Central Christian Bible in which they scored 134 points, second most in school history. They were 13-1 in the American Midwest Conference and winning the conference championship for the sixteenth time. They won the conference tournament for the thirteenth time. They won their first round game in the NAIA Tournament against McPherson College of Kansas in overtime 74-72 before losing to Faulkner University in the second round.

(BASEBALL)—Next week well be reporting on the first weekend of games that aren’t in Arizona or Florida.

(CARDINALS)—One of the biggest questions of Cardinals spring training was whether J. J. Wetherholt would come north for opening day.

The announcement game in a video yesterday morning:

https://x.com/Cardinals/status/2036179257123119350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2036179257123119350%7Ctwgr%5E9c078eb1c1ccb3cc6e7d1f4222d7fa024e45dcaa%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fmlb%2Fcardinals%2Fonsi%2Fst-louis-cardinals-news%2Fjj-wetherholt-era-begins-as-cardinals-make-right-call-pat3

Okay, we’ll save you the trouble—the video shows the Cardinals making Wetherholt’s jersey, swapping his spring training number 77 for his preferred 26. He is considered the number five prospect in all of baseball. He was the seventh pick in the first round of the 2024 draft and had a solid spring—fifteen games, nine walks, two homers and seven RBIs, OBP of .780.  He jumps to the bigs after only 138 games in the minors in which he hit a combined .304 with 19 home runs, 79 runs batted in and 100 runs scored, 25 stolen bases, 33 doubles and a couple of triples.

The Cardinals will give the ball to Matthew Liberatore for opening day against the Tampa Bay Rays, the team that drafted him in 2018. He came to St. Louis in the 2020 Randy Arozarena trade.  Liberatore is considered the ace of the rotation with the departure of Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas.  He was named the starter after giving up only one walk in 13.1 innings in Florida.

(ROYALS)—The opening day starter for the Royals was Cole Ragans for the third year in a row.

Ragans missed much of last year (only 13 starts) but hopes he returns to his 2024 form this year. Two years ago, he led all American League pitchers with 10.77 strikeouts per nine innings, was second in total Ks with 223.  “I’m more motivated than ever,” he said after being named the starter for game one. He leads a seemingly sold starting pitching corps for the Royals with Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Krus Bubic and Noah Cameron coming back from sold 2025 seasons.

(KCWBC)—The Baseball Hall of Fame is getting a lot of gear from Kansas City Royals players who had major roles in the World Baseball Congress tournament—the winning team’s captain and the tournament’s MVP particularly. But the Hall also is getting a bat from a Royals hitter.

The USA team drew some boos at the start of the last game of tournament from a Miami crowd that had a lot of Venezuelans in it—who are not fond of President Trump’s actions in their home country.  The Venezuelan team won the tournament with a 3-2 win over Team USA.

After the game, team captain and catcher Salvador Perez told reporters,  “I’m gonna be honest with you guys, and there’s nothing that I can hide, you know?  All you guys see, what happened, all that … and … I know people are super happy right now in my country …“Where I come from, all my family, it’s hard to get to see me play in the big league. I got some family that never had that opportunity. So now they’ve seen me play. I know they’re super happy and me as well, for my family and for other people from Venezuela.”

Royals third baseman Mikel Garcia was the tournament Most Valuable Player.  “I’m proud to be part of this group, and I’m proud to be representing 30 million Venezuelans back in my country,” he told interviewers.

 The USA team had tied the game before Garcia got the game-winning RBI in the top of the ninth. In that final half inning?

“I only was thinking what was going to happen after we win the game. I had full confidence in our closer and I knew that we were going to win this game,” Garcia said.

Garcia He hit .385 for the tournament with seven runs batted in and a home run. He’s sending his helmet to Cooperstown.  Perez is sending his Venezuelan colors catching gear

Among other items from the series going to the Hall of Fame is the bat that Royals first basement, Vinnie Pasquantino, used to become the first player in WBC history to hit three home runs in a game. Pasquantino played for Italy.

(CHIEFS)—Travis Kelce is not only coming back for the 2026-27 season—–he could be coming back for two more years after that.  Word came out yesterday that his new contract is not for one, but for three years and $54 million dollars and maybe more.

The deal is set up for him to still walk away after this coming season in which he’ll be paid $12 million with another three million dollars in bonuses.

The  restructuring of the otherwise continues with the exit of Hollywood Brown after two seasons. Brown was signed as a fast big-play threat who could replace the departed Tyreek Hill. But he missed almost all of 2024 with an injury and his numbers in 2025 were not game-breaking impressive (49 catches, 587 yards and five touchdowns. He’s gone now, to the Eagles, reflecting, “In this league, the margin for error is so small,” Brown said on “Speakeasy.” “I feel like the group of guys and the staff we had with coach Reid, I wouldn’t be able to handle that adversity anywhere else … It wasn’t the season we wanted to have, but it was a season that we all learned from.”

The Chiefs hope James Worthy and Rashee Rice can return to their previous forms and the retention of Tyquann Thornton provides some depth.

Plus, there’s the draft…….

On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs have re-signed popular special teams leader Jack Cochrane, who’s been with the team since signing as an undrafted free agent in ’22.  He’s missed only four of 68 games in his career.

UFL)—The St. Louis Battlehawks start the new UFL season next Saturday against the Washington Defenders in the dome.

Now: V8 is not just a drink

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick says he’s in an “incredible” position after picking up his fourth win in six races this year, this time at Darlington despite early electrical problems that buried him deep in the field. He rallied back to pass Brad Keslowski with 27 laps left.

It’s Keselowski’s best finish of the year, even as he continues to recover from a leg broke in an off-season incident.

Reddick started from the pole despite brushing the wall during qualifications.

(INDYCAR)—-Two races left before The Month.

IndyCar is back on track next weekend with the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park with the GP of Long Beach on April 19.

The Month of kicks off on the 9th with a run on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

After that, it’s all about Memorial Day weekend and the 110th Indianapolis 500, when 33 cars line up and less than three hours later one driver will achieve an adjective that will stay with him the rest of his life: Indianapolis 500 winner.

Several drivers will make their only run in IndyCar this year.  Helio Castroneves continues his quest to be the first five-time winner. Two-time winner Takuma Sato also is lined up to run. Others signed for just this race are Conor Daley, Jack Harvey, former winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ed Carpenter, who owns the car he’ll drive.

It’s expected Andretti Global will provide a car for Colton Herta who has dropped off the IndyCar circuit to seek his fortune in Europe, hoping to pick up a Formula 1 ride next year. He’s a reserve driver for the Cadillac team that’s making its first season in F1.

Notably absent so far is Prema Racing, the team that put rookie Robert Schwartzman on the pole last year.  The team has some internal ownership problems that have kept it from fielding a car in the early seasons races.

It has been 79 years since the race started with fewer than 33 cars.

Practice for the 500 starts on May 12, a Tuesday, with qualifying the next weekend and the race on Sunday, May 4.

(Photo credits: Kelce—Kansas City Chiefs; Ragans—Royals; WBC—Getty Images—Cochrane; Indy Car driver banners, Indianapolis—Bob Priddy)

It’s Time to Order Another Obelisk 

Posted on by
Reply

The Missouri Veterans Memorial at the Capitol is a quiet place,  of a slow-moving cascade of water flowing into a reflecting pool around which people can ponder how much is lost to war.

And how much will be.

To the east of the pool is a shaded walk that takes visitors past nine memorial obelisks remembering the nine wars in which Missourians have fought since statehood in 1821—Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and finally the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, less than a year after the ninth obelisk was dedicated—after an end date of that long war was determined—it is time to plan for a tenth one.

As this is written, no Missourian has been killed in Trump’s War—-which is not what it will be called in the black granite when the tenth obelisk is installed.  As of now, it probably will say “Iran War,” but it’s too early to carve anything into stone because we don’t know what the scope of this conflict will finally be.

Nor, apparently, does the man who ordered it. He started the war and now he is whining that NATO is giving him no help.

NATO, the people he has spent the last several years insulting and threatening, seems content to letting President Trump stew in his own juice.  NATO is more about protecting Ukraine (remember Ukraine, Mr, President?) and itself than helping President Trump.

The Coalition of the Willing has become the Coalition of the Unwilling.

To refresh our minds:  then-President George W. Bush declared at a NATO summit in 2002 that if Iraq President Saddam Hussein did not disarm (he was accused of having weapons of mass destruction), that the United States would assemble a “coalition of the willing” to do it for him.

Saddam didn’t. So George Bush’s United States and troops from 48 other countries backed the plan. Four countries eventually put boots on the ground—us, the UK, Australia, and Poland). More than three dozen other countries provided some troops but not major numbers. Some don’t even had standing armies but provide other kinds of help.

The coalition did not hold and it became a topic of political ridicule (Busch had offered foreign aid to participants, a policy that one columnist termed “a coalition of the billing” and another observer considered “a coalition of the shilling.”) By mid-2009 everybody but the United States and the United Kingdom coalition had backed away.  The Coalition of the Willing was considered ended in 2010.

President Bush assembled his coalition before the fight began.  President Trump just barged right in—BOMBED his way right in—to a new war and did not ask for help until Iran fought back and closed the Straits of Hormuz. Only then did he look for friends in NATO only to find he didn’t have very many anymore.

He’s watching his foreign policy by sledgehammer wielded by amateurs turn into quicksand. He is so desperate that he has lessened some sanctions against Russia—imposed as a reaction to the invasion of Ukraine—in an effort to relieve some pressure on the oil supply which seemingly could help finance further Russian operations against Ukraine, if we understand where this policy is leading.  He’s firing missiles the way kids fire bottle rockets on July 4th while China watches our war-making or defensive armaments dwindle and also watches Taiwan. The early talk about not using troops is ominously sounding like —using troops.

Some observers have suggested that Iran is Trump’s Ukraine.

“Some people will die, I guess,” the President has said.

Order the tenth obelisk. Too bad the state can’t send the bill for it to President Trump.

A few weeks ago, my state representative, Dave Griffith, asked me if I could find how many Missourians died in the wars of the eighth and ninth obelisks (Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan).  I could not locate numbers but I did find a website that listed the names of all of the military people who died in those conflicts. I picked out the Missouri names and sent them to him.

Their names won’t be on the obelisks although the number of those who died will be someday.

Their names are on their own monuments scattered throughout the graveyards of Missouri and elsewhere, unfortunately soon to be joined by similar monuments from Trump’s War.  Here is the list from President Bush’s War, with the date of official notification.  We pray their tragic coalition will not be joined by a new coalition from Mr. Trump’s War, but we fear it will be.

Let us know if your loved one killed in these long wars is not on the list.

Continue reading →