Category Archives: events

The Hating Terrorists

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preserving the Truth of History

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A few days ago, I went to Springfield to speak at the annual meeting of the National Trail of Tears Association.

The Association represents the volunteers who preserve the heritage of the trail and of the forced removal, 1831-1838, of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and the Muscogee (Creek) Nations from their ancestral homes in the southeast to what is now eastern Oklahoma.

Various sources indicate 55,400-64,275 people were removed. Before the caravans reached athe place that President Jackson said would let them “cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community,” ten to 12,800 had died.

This is how the speech concluded:

It has been an honor to speak to this group at this time in our history when a concerted effort is underway to treat a lot of things as if they never happened —and when a 21st Century Trail of Tears is tragically underway, another time when people who are considered “as unqualified residents near civilized communities” are being sent off to uncertain futures in strange lands.

I wonder, as we look back 200 years to commemorate the Trail of Tears and to honor those who were forced to travel it, as well as those who showed those travelers mercy, if our descendants 200 years from now will look at the mass deportation program the same way we look at the Trail of Tears. Or the Trail of Death*.

As Chief Hoskin** noted last night, on March 27th, President Trump signed an executive order he called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” by ordering the rewriting of it so that embarrassing moments would be wiped from the public telling of our heritage.

It appears no historic site will be immune to his efforts to, as he put it, “restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.”  

Have no doubt about what this is.  It is more than an executive order. It is a declaration of cultural war on the people of this nation, and the nations within this nation.

I am not sure that reminding Americans “of our extraordinary heritage” is consistent with effort to whitewash reality.

He also referred to “ideological indoctrination of divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” or, at least, his warped view of it. He appears not to understand that truth is not “ideological indoctrination.”

He complained that “the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.” 

He is right…but he is right about himself.

The danger is that such rewriting of history can be little more than returning to a past where societal divides were deeper, where acts of national shame were more acceptable, and the progress we have made that inspires millions around the world is wiped out.

I want to hear how he and his enablers can sanitize the smallpox blanket.

I want to hear how the destruction of the friendly Wampanoags and King Phillip’s War is “ideological indoctrination.

I want to hear how they can describe Sand Creek, Washita, and Wounded Knee as “consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect union.”

I want to know how the subjugation of the Apaches, the story of Chief Joseph, and the betrayal of Red Cloud is an “unmatched record of advancing liberty.”

How did the Indian Boarding School lead to “human flourishing.”

How the markers of the Trail of Tears are “uplifting public moments.”

I want to know which is more sacred: The Chinese-published Trump Bible with the lyrics of “Proud to be an American,” or Black Elk’s prayer on Harney Peak to the Great Mysterious One.***

That is why we cannot allow stories such as the Trail of Tears to be rewritten, with truth being excised by a person with limited or no appreciation for the work this organization does and what it stands for.

A President who threatens actions against professional sports teams unless they start calling themselves Redskins and Indians again will never understand the nobility of the kind of cause this group advocates..

Some politicians only seek the truth to distort it for their own ends. Greatness does not flow from distorted truth that hides our flaws, but—instead—flows from protecting the truth so we may grow beyond those flaws.

That is what museums are for. That is what historic sites and parks are for and that is what historical organizations are for—to remind us that this country is not a finished work, that it does not become better, let alone greater, by ignoring our past mistakes, our nation’s wrongs, and those who lived them and worked to correct them.

One reason to study history is to understand that greatness is created by today’s honesty about yesterday facts—and understanding that truth, not the obscuring  of it, builds a stronger people.  And a stronger people are a free-er people than demagogues and despots want us to be. 

A nation that hides its truths will not become great. REVEALING the truth is what gives a nation the opportunity to be better than before.

That is our responsibility, our challenge, as historians.

Others might fear us because of that. But we must never fear them.

We must never allow ourselves to be silenced—-for history is the nation’s conscience and we must never abandon the search for the truth in it.

We cannot escape history.  Indeed, our challenge today is to save it, to fight those who would rewrite it for their own benefit.

Reveal the truth, preserve the truth, speak the truth, BE the truth—and our nation will remain free.

*The Trail of Death crosses north Missouri, the path the Potawatomi Nation followed to what became Kansas when they were removed from their ancestral lands in Indiana and Illinois. It was a much smaller group but an estimated 40 of the 859 participants died en route.

**Chuck Hoskin Jr., is the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest Native American Nation, with 45,000 citizens.

***You can learn about each of these issues with internet searches.  I recommend a YouTube video of the speech of Black Elk, described by narrator John G. Neihardt, a personal friend and biographer who described Black Elk as the “last of the great Sioux Indian Holy Men.”)

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 We are Victims of Trump’s Absurd Tariffs

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—-and I am furious.

(My monthly guest column on the editorial page of the Jefferson City News-Tribune addressed this topic yesterday but of necessity it was much shorter and somewhat less candid, perhaps because I had lowered the steam pressure after starting on this version.)

There must be a reason why the highly-praised Wharton School that President Trump attended has never invited him back as a speaker. I wonder if anyone has investigated to find out who wrote his papers for him or even took tests for him.

His favorite course must have been Bankruptcy 101 and he must have slept through class every day the word “tariff” came up. The graduation program for his class does not list him for any honors and just has his name among all of the other graduates.

Stop me before I tell you what I really think.

Here is a story some nice people in a gentle English town. Stay with us. By the time we are finished the story will be about a person in a big American town who puts the “bully” into the ;political phrase “bully pulpit.”

(The phrase began with Theodore Roosevelt, one of the four faces on Mt. Rushmore, a monument he thinks he should—something even less possible than him winning the Nobel Price for Peace.)  TR used the word “bully” as an adjective for “wonderful” or “superb.”

Sorry about that. We have wandered off the path.

Grasmere, a village of about 4,500 people in England’s Lake District, has been known for decades as the home of numerous poets, writers, artists, philosophers and other notables.

Poets William and sister Dorothy Wordsworth described it as “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.”

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) are considered the founders of English Literature’s “Romantic Age.” Coleridge is said to have “muttered stanzas” of the Rime” while walking about the countryside nearby. The Wordsworths lived for a few years in Dove Cottage, where Coleridge also lodged for a time.

The Dove Cottage is still there as is The Swan, an inn where William sometimes dined with the famous poet Walter Scott.

More recently, Gordon Matthews Thomas Sumner had a home there. The world knows him better as the musical artist, Sting.

Perhaps better known than the poets, philosophers, and other notables who have lived there is Beatrix Potter, who gave the world Peter Rabbit and his friends. She also lived in the Lake District.

It was a coolish, dampish English day when we were there and we didn’t get to spend as much time as we wished, but that’s a penalty we paid for trying to hit some of the highlights of three countries—England, Wales, and Scotland in two weeks.

We had our lunch at the Grasmere Tea Room, ate outside on that pleasantly cool afternoon. I think we had Paninis, having a desire to break from fish and chips (we call them French Fries here). But we had been warned of interlopers that we were told were particularly aggressive that day—Jackdaws, a relative of crows and ravens. They liked to snatch food from tables.

Grasmere is, as is the case with many European communities, an old place, one where a 200-year old building is still relatively new.  We have avoided describing it as “picturesque” because we imagine the locals have heard their town referred to that way and it has become cloying to them.

And “quaint” is a condescending word, too, so we didn’t use it.  We liked Grasmere. It’s one of several small places we visited that we’d like to return to, despite the Jackdaws.

To the ancient Celts, Jackdaws were sacred birds that nested in church steeples, symbolic church guards. Like their Crow and Raven relatives, they are considered quite intelligent. We kind of thought the one perched on the back of a chair about twenty feet from our table was scheming to poach some of our lunch. But we kept a sharp eye on it and never let it have a chance.

What has all of this to do with Trump’s politically silly and nationally-damaging tariffs? We have vented about this in earlier posts but this time it’s personal.

Our excellent tour guide, Charlie Reader, gave us something else for which Grasmere is widely known.

We each got a couple of hand-wrapped gingerbreads. And we loved them.

More than 170 years ago, Victorian Cook Sarah Nelson began making gingerbreads in her 17th century home, using her “secret recipe” (that is still secret).  Grasmere Gingerbreads are a cross between a cake and what the English call a biscuit—a cracker to us.

Sarah’s secret recipe now is guarded by Joanne and Andrew Hunter, third generation owners of the business which still operates from Sarah’s house. I wish we had known of the gingerbread house before we left the town—and had the time to visit it.  But bus tours being bus tours, we had to be on our way after lunch.

The BBC has provided some looks at Sarah’s story and the wonderful products she created.

Bing Videos

Bing Videos

When we got home, I decided to secretly order a dozen of these gingerbreads to be delivered to our home each month. It was going to be a surprise Christmas present for Nancy but the surprise fell though when Diane Gallagher (probably) called from Grasmere and Nancy answered the phone. “There’s a lady from Grasmere on the phone asking for you,” she announced before listening to the conversation. Diane was calling to confirm the order.  The first order came in the tin you see here. Subsequent orders have come in hand-wrapped paper packaging and are refills for the tin.

Each month we have looked forward to finding our little package by our front door about the 10th of each month.  But on September 5, we received a note from Diane announcing the package had been shipped three days earlier but she understood “there have been delays at Customs and your parcel is due for delivery today.”

Then she wrote:

We believe the delays are because the US Government has now abolished the exemption for any parcel under a value of $800 from import duties.  This may mean that you will be liable for import duties on delivery of the parcel.  We are still trying to find out exactly what this will mean in monetary terms, but have reason to believe that for the next six months there will be a flat fee of $80 per parcel being sent from the UK. 

Eighty dollars on a $30 package!!!

This is the results of Donald Trump’s ill-advised removal of the “de minimis” exemption for small packages from foreign countries. Packages worth less than $800 were exempt from tariffs until August 29 when he decided even the smallest item would cost a lot more.

The Universal Postal Union says postal deliveries from around the world to the United States dropped by EIGHTY PERCENT within two weeks after our economic genius President scribbled his name on the bottom of his executive order.

We were supposed to take delivery on Wednesday, September 10. Instead we got a “reschedule” notice from UPS telling us, “UPS is preparing your package for clearance. We will notify you if additional information is needed.”

Diane told us it would be okay to refuse to pay the duties. Afterward the company could tell the UPS to destroy the parcel and the amount remaining on our order would be refunded.

The order from Grasmere was held up for the better part of a week before it cleared customs in Louisville, Kentucky (why Louisville, we don’t know), and was to arrive at our house on Wednesday, September 10.

We decided to pay the duty because the folks in Grasmere had produced the gingerbreads and had shipped them to us in good faith but we decided to have them hold onto the rest of our funds until our country regained this small part of its sanity and allows something so benign as Grasmere Gingerbread to be shipped to Missouri without a duty or a tariff that our President is unable to admit punishes his own citizens.

Trump says his tariffs will force foreign manufacturers to build factories in this country. I am quite sure that Joann and Andrew Hunter are not going to establish a gingerbread manufacturing plant in this country because of this petty policy.

But if you are accumulating evidence of how idiotic Trump’s tariff policy is working, we offer this observation as a good example.

We are puzzled by the whole tariff/duty business even more because while we were waiting for our gingerbreads to trickle through the customs bureaucracy, we found a book on our doorstep that we had ordered from a company in Delhi, India.  It took only ten days from the day I ordered it for it to arrive. I ordered the book on September 5. The company in Delhi gave it to FedEx on the tenth and five days later it was on my doorstep. Clearly, somebody in the customs office was asleep at the switch.

The gingerbreads?  They were mailed on September 2, three days before the book was ordered and eight days before the book was shipped.

On Friday, September 25, we got a notice from UPS:

The status of your package has changed.

Exception Reason: The customs clearance has failed and the shipment is abandoned

UPS told us on September 10 that the package was being prepared for clearance. We were to be notified if more information was needed.  We were not notified of anything until the message that Grasmere Gingerbread package apparently is such a threat to our national security that it would be dangerous for it to be shipped from Louisville, Kentucky where it has been losing its freshness for three weeks.

We got a new note from from Diane;

On 18th September we asked UPS to destroy the parcels that had not cleared Customs, but it appears that this has not yet happened for all parcels.  As well as the severe delays through Customs, it appears that parcels valued at less than £20 are incurring import duties of just under $70, which is just not viable.  For these reasons, our directors have taken the decision to suspend shipping to the US and Canada temporarily. 

I am very sorry about this. 

UPS told us:

Exception Reason: Package cannot clear due to customs delay or missing info. Attempt to contact sender made. Package has been disposed of.

Amazing. After all these months, UPS told us the reason UPS apparently could not get a straight answer from the customs people about the reason—it’s either “customs delay” or it’s “missing info.”  What missing info?   We are unlikely to ever learn why there was a delay and what information was missing in this shipment that wasn’t a problem earlier.

It’s a little package of a dozen Gingerbreads, for God’s sake!!!

It’s disgusting. But our president has taken “disgusting” to unprecedented levels in so many things.

I have notified Diane of our sincere apologies for the embarrassment this administration is. I wish we could go back to that beautiful part of our world to do it in person—-

—because he is creating so many things to apologize to the world for.

Is it too late for Wharton to ask for its diploma back?

(photos by BP. Gingerbread by the Grasmere Gingerbread Co., videos from the BBC)

Sports: Another tune-up for Mizzou; a Tiger loss; Baseball Teams Drifting Out of Contention

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZZFB)—The Missouri Tigers finished their tune-up schedule by rushing past, over, and through the Ragin’ Cajins from Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday.

Ahmad Hardy was the big battering ram, gaining 250 of the team’s 427 rushing yards and scoring three of the seven touchdowns in a 52-10 win. Only six players in Tiger history have gained more yards in a game than Hardy did Saturday. And he went to the bench with the other starters after the first series on the second half.

For the second straight week, Missouri had two running backs gain more than 100 yards. Marquise Davis rushed for 113 and a touchdown.

The 52-10 score wasn’t as close at the score makes it seem.

Missouri totaled 606 yards to Louisiana’s 121. The defense held Louisiana’s passing game to only two completions in 14 attempts for just four yards. Most of Louisiana’s 121 offensive yards came on an 84-yard run by Zylan Perry in the second quarter.

Quarterback Beau Pribula, coming off his recognition as the Maxwell Player of the Week after his performance against Kansas, had his worst yardage day of his three-game Missouri career, gaining only 174 yards passing on a 15/22 day. Of course that’s because he only played slightly more than one half of football. In his three games as a starter, he is 68/89 passing (76.4%) for 791 yards.

Next up for Mizzou is their first SEC game, against South Carolina, which went into Saturday night’s game as the nation’s 11th ranked team and was clobbered by Vanderbilt 31-7. CBS Sports dropped South Carolina to 36th, down 20 from its previous ranking. CBS says Missouri is 20th, a couple of positions below Vanderbilt, the team that beat South Carolina last weekend.

The Tigers are 23rd in both AP sportswriters poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll.

(HORN)—The Sam Horn era as a Mizzou quarterback is over. His leg injury turns out to be a fractured tibia, the large bone in the right lower leg. He’s undergone surgery and is out for the football season of course. He’s expected to make a full recovery.

Getting the surgery done now will give him to rehab his right leg, important because that’s the push-off leg that helps a right-handed pitcher gain momentum on his pitches, an important factor for Horn who was a 17th round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year’s MLB draft. He has signed a contract with the Dodgers that left him with the opportunity to play football this year for Missouri.

(MIZZHOF)—MIAHOF has inducted six new members—that’s the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame we’re talking about.

Former Athletics Director Mike Alden, who led the athletics department 1998-2015 and engineered MU’s move to the Southeastern Conference called the shift, “transformational…for our university and the state.”  His 17-years in that position is the second-longest in school history. Only Don Faurot served longer, his first stint being eight years, 1935-1941 and his second one the longest, 22 years, from 1946-1967.

Longtime Sports Information Director Bob Brendel (1980-2000) is credited with modernizing the sports information office and for helping create the Hall of Fame. After several years in the information office at the State Transportation Department, Brendel has returned to the MU information office as its historian.

One still-active athlete was elected to the Hall this year—WNBA star Sophie Cunningham, who says, “I bleed black and gold to the core,” is the women’s basketball team’s all-time leading scorer who helped the Lady Tigers get to four NCAA tournaments and was a first-team all SEC choice three years.

Volleyball star Alyssa Munlyn, the first four-time AVCA All-American from Mizzou, played 2015-2018 and still holds the record for most blocks in a career.

A member of Coach Eli Drinkwitz’s staff and former record-setting running back Brock Olivo referred to Mizzou “home for me” in his inaugural remarks. Olivo is now the special teams consultant for the Tigers. When he left Mizzou after the 1997 season for a career in the NFL and the Italian Football League, he was the Mu career rushing and touchdown leader.

The final inductee is basketball player Kareem Rush, a first-round NBA draft pick, the key guy in Mizzou’s run to the Elight Eight. He played for five NBA teams and several minor-league pro basketball teams.

They are the most recent of the 262 members of the Hall who are recognized in the concourse of the Mizzou Field House. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—A 14-point turnaround play was the difference for the Philadelphia Eagles, who flew out of Kansas City with a 20-=17 win, giving the Chiefs losses in their first two games for the first time since 2014, and handing Patrick Mahomes his third straight loss for the first time in his pro career.

The backbreaker for the Chiefs was a touchdown-bound pass Travis Kelce couldn’t handle at the goal line that wound up in the hands of the Eagles’ Andrew Makuba, who took it back 41 yards before being knocked out of bounds by the last Chiefs player who could have stopped him.  From where the Eagles scored the touchdown that turned a possible 17-13 Chiefs lead into a 20-10 Eagles advantage.

The Chiefs came back to score a touchdown at the two-minute mark but an on-sides kick failed and the Eagles ran out the clock.

Rashee Rice has started practicing with the team but wasn’t ready to play against the Eagles.

(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals’ faint hopes of making the playoffs are almost invisible. The Royals seem to be drifting out of the picture.  Neither is likely to play more than 162 games this year. The only real question is whether either team will finish with a winning season.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals stopped their five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win in Milwaukee Sunday, a day after the Brewers became the first MLB team to clinch a playoff berth.

Miles Mikolas had an up day in this up and down season. He went five innings and gave up only two home runs to move closer to a .500 record for the season. He’s 8-10 now and probably has a couple more starts. The Cardinals scored all three of their runs in the second inning on RBI singles by Jose Fermin and Nathan Church. Reliever Riley O’Brien struck out the last batter of the game to get his fourth save in seven chances one day after he bave p three runs without recording an out in Saturday’s 10-inning 9-8 loss.

Mikolas is finishing strong. In his last four starts, he’s thrown 21 innings and given up six runs, no more than two in any of those four games. He has his ERA down to 4.80.

The Cardinals ended the road trip and the week with a 73-77 record. They need to win nine of their next 12 games to finish over .500, eight of 12 to finish break-even.

Yesterday, the Cardinals announced that Nolan Arenado is being reactivated after a rehab stint shows his throwing shoulder is ready for regulatr duty. He hasn’t played July. 30.  Freddie Fermin has been sent down to Memphis to make roster room for his return.  He’s had a below-average year at the plate this season, coming back to his usual third base position with a .235 average.

(CARDSWYNN)—The Cardinals and shortstop Masyn Winn have decided not to wait for the end of the season to have surgery done on his torn meniscus cartilage.  He had hoped to play through the pain to the end of what was being a historic season in which he was well-positioned to win a gold glove.

He’s officially on the ten-day disabled list but that will take him through the end of a solid season highlighted by his defense. He’s made only three errors all year and his .994 fielding average is the best in the National League.  He leaves with 22 outs above average, also tops in the National League, equaled only at the time of his departure by the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr.

He’s being replaced on the roster by infielder Jose Fermin, called up from triple-A.

The Cardinals have activated Brendan Donovan, who has been on the IL while recovering from a straight left groin that has kept him out of 25 games. He made his first All-Star game appearance this year. Also coming back is left-handed reliever John King, who has been recovering from a back strain since August 26. To make room for Donovan and King, the Redbirds have optioned pitcher Nick Racquet to Memphis and have released second baseman Garrett Hampson.

(ROYALS)—Kanss City’s loss to the Phillies Saturday dropped them below break-even for the first time in a month as the bullpen gave up a lead. The loss left the Royals 6 ½ games behind Seattle for the last playoff spot in the American League and ruined a night that otherwise would have been a big celebration for a landmark game by Salvador Perez.

Perez hit a home run that gave him 300 for his career AND resulted in his 1,000th RBI.  He got number 301 later in the game.  Perez now ranks eighth on the all time list of homer-hitting catchers. Mike Piazza leads the list with 399.

Sunday, Perez brought the Royals back to .500 to wrap up the week on Sunday. They’re 75-75 gong into the last dozen games. Perez had a three-run homer and finished the day driving in half of the Royals’ runs in a 10-3 win over the Phillies.

Despite the loss, Philadelphia became the second team to clinch a playoff position after San Fancisco lost to the Dogers.

With a dozen games to go, the Royals pretty much have to win all of their remaining twelve games.

(KCRAGANS)—Cole Ragans will be back on the mound for the Royals. He’s missed the entire second half of the season so far. He’s expected to start tomorrow night’s game against Seattle.

(NASCAR)—A fiery night race at Bristol Saturday night reduced the playoff field to a dozen and produced the fourth win of the year for Christopher Bell. Only teammate Denny Hamlin has more victories this year—his fifth coming at World Wide Technology a week ago.

Bell’s win gives Joe Gibbs Racing a sweep of the first round of the playoffs. Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin won the first two races.

Bristol was the end of the line for four of the playoff contenders—Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry.

Joining the three JGR drivers for the first of three races in round two (at Loudon, NH) are Ryan Bleny, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logan (who on his third Cup title last year), Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott and Austin Cindric.

(NASCAR)—The after-race behavior of a three competitors in the race at WWTR has drawn a warning from NASCAR officials.

 

Cars of Ross Chastain, on the left and teammate Shane Von Gisbergen (right), were seen dropping off the inside of the track on the lap after the checkered flag, a technique sometimes used to pick up some rocks and dirt that adds weight to a car that might be fudging on the lioght side of the weight limit.

Joey Logano also was caught taking a dive into the infield on his cool-down lap.

NASCAR has told teams that similar behavior from now on could incur penalties, including disqualifications.  Logano was fifth, Chastain finished 24th, and Van Gisbergen finished 25th in the race.

(NHRA)—We don’t usually say much about the National Hot Rod Association, but the retirement of one of its best drivers to focus on raising a family topped a lot of the NHRA news this week. It’s a historic announcement.

Brittany Force announced she will end her 13-year drag racing career, for now, at the end of the season so she and her husband, Bobby Lyons can start a family.

She is the two-time top Fuel world Champion who recently set a record with a top speed of 343.51 mph (did you know that drag strips for the fastest cars are only 1,000 feet long; the traditional quarter mile having been abandoned in 2008 because of the extreme speeds cars were reaching at that distance?).  She and her three sisters are daughters of 16-time NHRA Champion John Force. With her departure there will be no one named Force running in NHRA for the first since her father entered the business in 1971.

She is following the lead of Leah Pruett, who stepped aside to give birth to her first child last November. Her husband, former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, has taken her place in the car and has become the NHRA Top Fuel regular season champion.  He recently survived a 300 mph-plus crash with a competitor’s car  in the shutoff zone that saw his car  land on its side and slide some distance before righting itself and hitting a wall.. He later said he had a bad headache and had banged up his left hand.  But he later said, “I’ve been through sprint car crashes way worse than this, I’m pretty sure. We’re good. We’re good. We’re fine. I promise we’re fine.”

Leah says she’s taking back her seat next year.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—The Indianapolis Speedway isn’t done with racing yet this year.  IMSA brings its sports car racing series to the track this coming weekend.

Next month, The Indy 8 Hour race will be run October 16-18. Cars from seven classes will compete on the road course, the last event until next spring at the Speedway.

(Photo Credits: Hardy—Instagram; Perez—MLB;  Meniscus—orthoedge.com; Chastain & Van Gisbergen—Bob Priddy)

 

 

 

 

Sellout

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The Missouri General Assembly has sold out the people of Missouri and more than two centuries of our heritage in following President Trump’s dictate on congressional elections.

The quick obedience of our legislature came less than a month after Trump issued a wholly unconstitutional rant on his social media page on August 18—

Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.

While we might have had other presidents who THOUGHT that, only Donald Trump has said so clearly and unmistakably that he is a dictator, the Congress, the Courts, and the Constitution be damned. He, he claims, can order states to do his bidding.

It is nothing short of a political tragedy that our Governor and our Missouri General Assembly have so unabashedly acknowledged that he is what he says he is and they will take orders from him, to the detriment of their constituents.

The legislative journals will be testimony for decades to come how completely the people from our home towns that we chose to represent us have sold out to a president who respects no bounds, including those of the United States Constitution, as well as forfeiting the rights of independence asserted by our State Constitutions for more than two centuries.

To be clear: What Trump and our legislature have done is NOT for the good of our country or our state. Their actions are an abdication by the majority of their oath of office to defend the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Missouri:

“I do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Missouri, and faithfully perform the duties of my office……”

The attitude by legislators who have endorsed the Trump congressional district map raises serious questions whether the people in the House and the Senate that we elected to serve and to protect US have “faithfully performed” the duties of their office—which do not include following the dictates of a President of the United States who demands service only for the good of Donald J. Trump, a man either ignorant of the Constitution HE swore to uphold or who flagrantly ignores Section Four, which reserves the power to the states to regulate elections and the counting of votes and they in no way must do what the President tells them to do.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.

The loophole in the language, however, does allow the legislature to carry out a President’s wishes and there’s nothing to stop a power-hungry President from telling the legislature to do his bidding and the majority of the legislative members can rationalize reasons for doing so—which they have done although the legislature is under no legal obligation to do so.

The legislature also has ignored the wording of every Missouri Constitution in the 204-year history of our state by agreeing Missouri, and other states “are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes.”

States are not agents. They are independent subdivisions and Missouri has repeatedly claimed that distinction. Article Ten of the Bill of Rights, often cited—especially by Republicans—establishes that:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Missouri has always firmly claimed those powers, beginning with our first constitution.

1820: “We, the people of Missouri, inhabiting the limits hereinafter designated, by our representatives in convention assembled, at St. Louis, on Monday the 12th day of June, 1820, do mutually agree to form and establish a free and independent republic, by the name of ‘the State of Missouri;’ and for the government thereof, do ordain and establish this constitution.”

1865: Article 1, Section 5: That the people of this state have the inherent, sole, and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and police thereof, and of altering and abolishing their Constitution and form of government, whenever it may be necessary to their safety and happiness; but every such right should be exercised in pursuance of law, and consistently with the Constitution of the United States.

1875:  BILL OF RIGHTS. In order to assert our rights, acknowledge our duties, and proclaim the principles on which our government is founded, we declare-.

Section 1. Political power, origin of. —That all political power is vested in and derived from the people; that all government of right originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole. [Same as Const. 1865, Art. 1, Sec. 4.]

Sec. 2. Internal affairs, regulation of. —That the people of this State have the inherent, sole and exclusive right to regulate the internal government and police thereof, and to alter and abolish their Constitution and form of government whenever they may deem it necessary to their safety and happiness : Provided, Such change be not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.  (same, in substance, as language from 1865 Constitution)

1945 Constitution: Bill of Rights:

Section 4. Independence of Missouri—submission of certain amendments to Constitution of the United States.—That Missouri is a free and independent state, subject only to the Constitution of the United States; that all proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States qualifying or affecting the individual liberties of the people or which in any wise may impair the right of local self-government belonging to the people of this state, should be submitted to conventions of the people.

Free and Independent state?  Not anymore.  Not as long as a President can say “jump” and the Missouri legislature leaps.

How high would it leap?  Senator Lincoln Hough of Springfield is the answer. Hough has been a trusted figure among the Republican super majority. You don’t get much more trusted than by being put in charge of the committee that decided what gets how much of a $50 billion budget.

He and Senator Mike Moon of Ash Grove  voted against both the petition proposal and against Trump’s gerrymandered map.

Hough has told The Missouri Independent that Senate leader Cindy O’Laughlin within minutes of the vote removed him as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee because he defied orders to vote for the petition and redistricting bills.

Hough told The Independent, “She said, ‘​w​e are tired of fighting with you.’  To which my response was, ‘did you fight with me this week, or did I just go out here and vote no on something that was handed down to the Missouri Senate and a bunch of elected members who are not allowed to talk?’”

“What I’ve seen at the end of last session, and what I saw this week, is a dismantling of what the Senate is supposed to be.”

The Senate as an institution nationally and in this state has always—until now—held itself to be the careful, deliberative chamber that allowed all voices to be heard, even if those voices tried to defeat or  modify legislation.  What happened in that chamber last week ended that important role in which one chamber of the Congress or of the legislature cooly evaluates the value and the honesty of legislation.

The Senate leadership, not even pretending to honor that tradition and that role in the system of government checks and balances that our nation’s creators gave us, destroyed that tradition. It twice voted to silence opposing voices and go straight to a vote, the outcome of which was guaranteed even with the two GOP defectors (Republicans control 2/3 of the seats in both chambers).

O’Laughlin several days ago fell back on the questionable excuse that the bills should be rammed through the special session to protect “Christian conservative values.” We are still waiting for her definition of them.

Whether the government should force Christian views—-or the perceived views of politicians who consider themselves Christians—on others seems clearly violative of the First Amendment’s establishment clause.

The Pew Research Center recently released its survey on religion in Missouri, showing 62% of Missourians identify themselves as Protestant Christians. Catholic Christians represent 14%.  Historically Black Protestants make up five percent. Four percent of adults identify with other religions—Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindus and other world religions.

One-third of the responding adults say they are “nones,” religiously-unaffiliated. Five percent are atheists and eight percent are agnostic. “Nothing in particular” adds up to 20%.

If our legislature was interested in a representative congressional map, especially one based on those “Christian Conservative Values,” the map would be 5-3 Republican based on the perentages in the Pew study. Instead, it has caved to political greed and created a 7-1 map that does away with the only ordained Christian in our delegation and one of only of two active Christian ministers in the U.S. House of Representatives. Then it punished one of the caucus’s own members for taking a principled stand while the rest of his party colleagues sold out.

Whether it is a matter of religion or just raw politics, the Senate by its actions, got far under the covers with our President, and—in effect—endorsed his great desire to be a dictator.

Ultimately, these actions will reach the federal courts. Sadly, we no longer have confidence that the ultimate federal court will find our legislature’s bowing to a President seeking total power is far out of Constitutional bounds.

Some of the protestors at the Capitol when the House voted pointed to the state motto, “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.”  Pretty clearly, the legislature has chosen the welfare of Donald Trump as its priority.

You and I have been sold out by those closest to us that we trust to defend our freedoms from a President who wants to become a tyrant.

Remember those who have done this to us. Remember it next year when they ask for your vote.

We do still have the right to vote for our legislators.

For now.

T&P

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We’ve been thinking more about this “thoughts and prayers” thing and we decided to look up a time when a political leader offered more than a trite phrase.

Abraham Lincoln’s letter to the Widow Bixby is considered a classic although it is surrounded by controversy. The supposedly had lost five sons in the Civil War (she lost three) and there is considerable evidence the letter was written by Lincoln’s Secretary John Hay. The original does not exist.

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which would attempt to beguile  you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming,” the letter said. “But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly father assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

Thoughts, yes he had them for her. Prayers, yes, that she be comforted.

The letter is noted for its sincerity, its realness, its tenderness. It is a stark contrast to the cold thoughts and prayers message that has been sucked dry by repeated use after repeated tragedies.

There are many versions of an old saying and many reported originators of it.  But it is useful for us to ponder it today in light of the defense by some prominent Republicans that “thoughts and prayers” is somehow adequate, even sacred.   The operative quotation that applies to this phrase is, “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

Substitute  “piety” for “success” in this instance and you’ve nailed their defense for mouthing words but showing no interest in doing anything meaningful to those who are suffering, have suffered, or will suffer.

Here’s the thing about “thoughts and prayers:”

The phrase has been used so often that it long ago lost any personal sincerity.  The people who fall back on this hackneyed expression have well-paid public relations staffers who surely could come up with something far better and more personal than the cold, tired, “thoughts and prayers” thing.

Using it is fake sincerity and suggests the people who have fallen back on it don’t really feel sorry for those who are suffering. The fact that there’s no follow-up action or even discussion of what can be done to combat repeated tragedies renders T&P even more hollow, even more nothing but fake sincerity. Put out the statement and then move on.

Making things even worse are the political attacks on those such as Psaki who come right out and describe what the statement really is.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had a typical response: “It’s incredible to me that Jen Psaki, Gavin Newsom and others would attack religion, diminish the faith of millions of Americans at a time of such great tragedy. There are a lot of common-sense things that can be done to protect children at school. This is not a time to politicize these issues.”

The National Rifle Association has had absolutely nothing to say but former Congressman Trey Gowdy, a favorite of the NRA when he was in the Congress told his FOX News viewers, “The only thing that can give us any modicum of peace at all, is those two children are with the person who loved them the very most, the person who created them, that being Jesus.”

At least he didn’t say thoughts and prayers. We wonder if his “us” includes the parents of the dead children or their classmates, or the children of families, wounded or unharmed except for the emotional damage of the event. Right now the idea that the two children are with “the person who loved them the very most” doesn’t mean much to the parents who loved them more than anybody in this life.

This is where Johnson and the others who have turned the overdue discussion about sincerity into a personal attack have it all wrong. Psaki wasn’t disrespecting religion or anyone’s faith. If anything she was challenging those who loudly proclaim their piety but do not demonstrate it in their actions. Her comments seem rooted in the admonition from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Thoughts and prayers has become the “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”  And assurances that their children are now with Jesus likely has limited comfort value to their parents. Pious assurances don’t go any farther than worn-out standard responses.

T&P and pious assurances are condescending at a time when condescension means little or less.

The Hill, a D.C. political newsletter quoted a national Democratic strategist who said last weekend,  “On this, Republicans are trying to own the space of faith just like they do patriotism. Scripture says faith without works is dead. The difference between us and them is we follow our thoughts and prayers up with action and they do not.”

Whether the Democrats follow through is questionable given the paltry record of really meaningful accomplishment, but Johnson was correct when he said, “This is not a time to politicize these issues.” It is, instead, a time for a meaningful reaction that seeks to help. There are plenty of people in times such as this who think, “Is that all they have to offer?”

Unfortunately, for Johnson and his cohorts including Tulsi Gabbard who charged Psaki is not someone who believes in God or His love, that IS all they have to offer. And to be honest, Democrats have very little to justify crowing.

Faith without action.  Professed faith without action. Clang, Clang, Clang.

Once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.

There was nothing fake about the shootings and the deaths and Jen Psaki’s reaction. It’s clear where and who  the fakes are.

Sports: The Good and Sad Tiger Opener; We Explain “The Practice Squad,” and Other Sports Stuff

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—-The Missouri Tigers were expected to roll over Central Arkansas in their season opener but few thought they would run up 61 points. Central Arkansas has a student body of less than one-third of the student body in Columbia. The Bears didn’t score until 22 seconds were left in the game.

Sam Horn’s dream of being a starting quarterback for the Tigers are likely gone because of a serious right leg injury suffered on his first play in the game.  He underwent an MRI and more tests will be run this week but Coach Drinkwitz says he’s gone “for an extended period of time.”

Beau Pribula, however, left no doubt that he’s capable of running the Missouri offense. He accounted for more than 400 yards running and passing.

The Tiger also lost starting place kicker Blake Craig, who suffered a leg injury making a tackle on a kickoff.  True freshman Robert Meyer was good on all four of his extra points as Craig’s replacement.

The next opponent is a more substantial one. Missouri and Kansas will play for the first time in fourteen years next Saturday, in Columbia. Kansas has won its first games, also against lower-level teams. They’re shown they also can score bunches of points in their wins, 31-7 against Fresno State and 46-7 against Wagner.

Missouri leads the series 56-55. There have ben nine ties. Missouri has a one-game edge because kU had to forfeit its 23-7 win over the then-#1Tigers in 1960 because Kansas halfback Bert Coan was ineligible.

(MIZNFL)—Some made the teams. Some didn’t but are sticking around. Some are hurt. SI.com has this list of former Missouri Tigers who are connected, or not, to NFL teams:

Former Missouri Tigers on NFL Rosters

Kris Abrams-Draine, Denver Broncos, Cornerback
Tyler Badie, Denver Broncos, Running back
Nick Bolton, Kansas City Chiefs, Linebacker
Larry Borom, Miami Dolphins, Tackle
Marcus Bryant, New England Patriots, Tackle
Luther Burden III, Chicago Bears, Wide receiver
Jordan Elliott, San Francisco 49ers, Defensive tackle
Akayleb Evans, Carolina Panthers, Cornerback
Ty’Ron Hopper, Green Bay Packers, Linebacker
Marcellis Johnson, Indianapolis Colts, Tackle
Drew Lock, Seattle Seahawks, Quarterback
Isaiah McGuire, Cleveland Browns, Defensive end
Armand Membou, New York Jets, Tackle
Darius Robinson, Arizona Cardinals, Defensive end

Released (some have been signed to practice squads)
Joshuah Bledsoe, Tennessee Titans, Safety
Jaylon Carlies, Indianapolis Colts, Linebacker
Trystan Colon, Detroit Lions, Center
Brady Cook, New York Jets,  Quarterback
Jacon Foster, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tackle
Harrison Mevis, New York Jets, Kicker
Nate Noel, Indianapolis Colts, Running back
Albert Okwuegbunam, Las Vegas Raiders, Tight end
Cody Schrader, Los Angeles Rams, Running back
Theo Wease Jr., Miami Dolphins, Wide receiver
Kristian Williams, Denver Broncos, Defensive tackle

Injured List
Yasir Durant, T, New England Patriots
Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB, Detroit Lions
Johnny Walker, OLB, Denver Broncos
Kristian Williams, DT, Denver Broncos

Reserve/Designated to Returm
Jaylon Carlies, LB, Indianapolis Colts

Practice Squads
Trystan Colon, C, Detroit Lions
Brady Cook, QB, New York Jets
Marcellus Johnson, OT, Indianapolis Colts
Harrison Mevis, K, New York Jets
Albert Okwuegbunam Jr., TE, Las Vegas Raiders
Cody Schrader, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Theo Wease Jr., WR, Miami Dolphins

Profootballnetork.com’s Piiyanshu Choudhary has a good explanation of what practice squad members are paid:

Close to 1,000 players hit the free agent market simultaneously, allowing teams to stock up on depth pieces at positions of need. All practice squad players are eligible to make the team on game day, giving coaches some flexibility with their lineups. But what is the compensation for the players on these practice squads? How much do they earn for the role? And what are the rules that govern their standing across the NFL?

NFL Practice Squad Salaries

The NFL separates players on the practice squad into two distinct categories. Any member with two or fewer years of experience falls into the first group, while those with more than two years of experience fall into the other category.

For the relatively newcomers to the league, the weekly salary amounts to $13,000 in 2025, as agreed upon by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. However, that number is not static and continues to increase each year.

  • 2025: $13,000
  • 2026: $13,750
  • 2027: $14,500
  • 2028: $15,250
  • 2029: $16,000
  • 2030: $16,750

The salary is also defined by the CBA for players who qualify in the veteran portion of the agreement. However, their value can be set within a specified range rather than a fixed number, depending on what their agents can negotiate.

That designation falls in the $17,500 to $22,000 range for the 2025 season. However, like the previous list, these numbers continue to grow until the current CBA’s extension of 2030.

  • 2025: $17,500 – $22,000
  • 2026: $18,350 – $22,850
  • 2027: $19,200 – $23,700
  • 2028: $20,900 – $25,400
  • 2029: $20,900 – $25,400
  • 2030: $21,750 – $26,250

How Many Players Can Be on an NFL Practice Squad?

The first unofficial practice squad was established in 1946, courtesy of Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown. Four years later, the NFL made it official for each franchise to have a practice squad.

In 1993, the official count for players on the practice squad was limited to five, courtesy of the CBA. However, that number doubled to 10 in April 2004 and remained stagnant til 2019. The onset of COVID-19 led to a change once again, with the pool expanding to 16 players.

This year, though, that number is taking another slight bump, with 17 total players allowed on the roster. However, two further guidelines are in place for the squad’s constituents.

One player must be a member of the NFL’s International Pathway Program. Of the remaining 16 players, at least 10 should qualify for the two-year or less criteria in relation to their experience in the league.

Each week, teams have a chance of locking in four players to protect them from making a different team’s active roster. However, a team can only activate a player twice before giving him an official contract.

Who Is Eligible To Be on an NFL Practice Squad?

Not all players are eligible to be on an NFL team’s practice squad. Rookies cannot be placed on the practice squad. Additionally, players on the active list for fewer than nine regular-season games during their only accrued NFL season are also ineligible.

When players are elevated from the practice squad on game days, they count toward the 48-player limit each roster must present.

Only two practice-squad players can be elevated for the same game, and players can only be elevated three times until they need to be signed onto the active roster.

ESPN adds more information:

What does an average day look like for a member of an NFL practice squad?

He does everything an active player would during the week. He practices, does film work and eats meals at the team facility. He travels with the team for road games. But on game day, he’s in street clothes unless he gets called up.

Can NFL practice squad members get traded? How much stability do they have?

Only players on the active roster can be traded. But teams can sign a practice squad player for one week, only to release him the next.

What happens to NFL practice squad members at the end of the season?

Practice squads are only active during the regular season and postseason. Once the season is over, practice squad members are typically signed to reserve/futures contracts by their teams. With those contracts, players can be members of the team’s offseason roster at the start of the new league year in March. Most practice squad contracts automatically terminate one week after the team’s final game of the regular season or postseason.

Do NFL practice squad members receive Super Bowl rings?

Per the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, practice squad members are entitled to Super Bowl rings, though they may be of lesser value than the rings their full-time active counterparts receive on the team.

And finally, from fluentrugby.com:

NFL practice squad players receive a range of benefits including pension (if they play at least 3 seasons), player insurance, 401(k) and disability payments.

NFL practice squad players receive the following benefits:

Player insurance – Practice squad NFL players receive  Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Drug, and Life Insurance.
401(k) – NFL practice squad members can defer salary and place it in their 401(k) where they make tax free investments.
Disability plan – NFL practice squad players receive a range of different disability payments and support.

(CHIEFS)—Brazil gets a taste of Chiefs football when Kansas City opens its season against the Los Angeles Chargers in Arena Corinthians in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The Chiefs are no stranger to taking NFL football into foreign countries but this will be their first game in South America. The game is on ESPN and can be streamed with an app.

Receiver Rashee Rice will miss the first six games as he pays a suspension penalty for his reckless driving crash that injured people in other cars last year. He’ll play his first game on October 19th against the Raiders. He is barred from the team practice facility until preparations for that game.

(BASEBALL)—Holy Smokes, folks!  There are only 23 games left in the regular baseball season! The Royals are only three games out of a wild card playoff position. The Cardinals are 5½  games out.  Detroit shut out the Royals Sunday on only four hits and kept KC from pulling within two games of the wildcard.

(CARDINALS)—Michael McGreevy is emerging as a potential Cardinals star next year. His win in an unusual game on Saturday makes him 6-2. How he got that sixth win is historic. For the first time since 2009 the Cardinals won a game in their pitchers recorded zero strikeouts. McGreevy and three relievers inducted 17 groundouts and beat the Reds 4-2.

Sunday, the Cardinals struck out 15 times in dropping a 7-4 game that kept them from getting back to .500. They have split their last ten games and started the week 68-70.

(ROYALS)—Kansas City also has split their last ten and started this week with the reverse of the Cardinals at 70-68.

Going a longways to get back to where you started—

(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden has ended his most difficult IndyCar season with a win in the last race of the year, only the second victories in 17 races for Team Penske. Newgarden broke an uncharacteristic twenty-race winless streak He held off series champion Alex Palou for the last eleven laps on his hometown oval in Nashville.

He picked up the guitar trophy for winning the Music City Grand Prix. Palou received the Astor Challenge Cup for the fourth time, the third time in a row, for being the national champion and Louis Foster shaded Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Robert Schwartzman for Rookie of the Year.

Newgarden teammate Scott McLaughlin equaled his second best with his third third-place finish to put two Penske drivers on the podium for only the second time this year.

IndyCar racing,  known for its high-speed competition, recorded a dozen leaders, twenty lead changes, and 284 passes for position in the 225-lap race.

But IndyCar is done for the year now. Not until next March 1 when IndyCar’s 31st season begins on the streets of St. Petersburg. It also will be the 115th year when a champion of American open-wheel racing will be crowned.

(WHITHER POWER IN ’26)—The biggest question about who will drive for who next year is waiting for one big decision from Penske Racing and whether its senior driver, Will Power, will sign a new contract or will move on. David Malukis, who has driven for A. J. Foyt Racing is being talked about Power’s heir-apparent at Penske.

Power had the best year of any Penske driver this year. He finished eighth in the points; Mclaughlin was tenth and Newgarden was 16th. Power had one of the two poles won by Penske this year and, until Newgarden’s season-ending win last weekend, had the team’s only win.

The end of the race and the end of the season came just before a meeting with team owner Roger Penske from which he emerged still not knowing if he’ll have a contract for next year.  But it’s clear from reports and from his emotional reactions at the end of the race and at the end of the meeting that he seems to have accepted the idea that he’ll be moving on.

He told reporters, “Either way, no matter what happens, Roger has been extremely good to me. Very, very good to me. I’ve been lucky for the chance to win championships, Indy 500, a lot of races, poles. So whatever happens, I think I was so lucky to drive for Roger Penske.”

It’s been quite a ride—the 2018 Indianapolis 500, forty other race wins, a record 71 pole positions and two championships. Power will be 45 about the time the next season starts. Malukis is 23.  Only Scott Dixon is older among active IndyCar Drivers. Dixon, a six-time champion who trails only A. J. Foyt in total victories will be 45 next year. Dixon, like Power, has driven for only one team throughout his IndyCar career.

(NASCAR)—Chase Briscoe is making the most of his off-season move from the now-defunct Stewart-Haas team to Joe Gibbs Racing, picking up his second win of the year at an opportune time—the first race in the playoffs. The race celebrating the 75th Southern 500 at Darlington scrambled the playoff standings with only Briscoe, Tyler  Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin finishing in the top ten. Only six of the sixteen drivers finish in the top 15.

Briscoe, who drives the only car sponsored by a Missouri company in the Cup Series, also has won five poles this year and narrowly lost his sixth one to Denny Hamlin, led 307 of the 367 laps two win his second straight race at “the track too tough to tame.” The last time anyone won two straight races at Darlington was when Greg Biffle did it in 2005 and 2006.

Two more races remain before the field is cut to a dozen drivers. Last year’s champion, Joey Logano is three points below the cutline, followed by Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry.

(Photo credits: Power—Bob Priddy; Newgarden—IndyCar; Pribula—Instagram; Briscoe car—Rick Gevers; Rice—Kansas City Chiefs)

The Disaster 

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We pause today to pay tribute to the humble and often-maligned FEMA trailer, the refuge for those who have watched all that they have wash away, be blown away, burned away in a natural disaster.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given hundreds of thousand of victims of fires, floods, earthquakes, and windstorms places to live while they begin to reassemble their lives.

FEMA Trailers often are criticized for their condition or their environmental problems. But they also are symbols of a nation that believes all of us must help some of us in times of disaster.

That concept is strange to the people in charge in Washington, led by a person who has never known and has no sympathy for those socially and mentally beneath him.  And that is why the trailers and the federal agency that provides these crucial shelters are endangered.

The administration in Washington is reacting poorly to reports that the emergency management system locally and federally was broken when more than 150 people lost their lives in the July 6 Texas flash flood.

The New York Times has described some of the dimensions of the disaster that the administration has inflicted on the nation’s disaster agency:

“On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.

“The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show.”

Unbelievably, a statement from FEMA claimed, “When a natural disaster strikes, phone calls surge, and wait times can subsequently increase. Despite this expected influx, FEMA’s disaster call center responded to every caller swiftly and efficiently, ensuring no one was left without assistance.”

And what one person appears to be behind that totally untrue statement, delivered to the newspaper through an unsigned email?

On that very day, July 5, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem failed to renew or extend the agreements with the contract operators of those call centers leading to layoffs of thousands of employees. She has to approve any expenses of more than $100,000 and she didn’t do it for five days.

Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also say Noem did not authorize deployment of search and rescue teams until three days after the flooding began.

Earlier this year, President Trump called for elimination of the entire agency and in June, FEMA stopped going door to door in disaster areas to find those needing help.

The Times identified the acting administrator of FEMA as David Richardson, “who has no background in emergency management.” He took the position May 8 and a week later, according to The Wall Street Journal, admitted privately that he did not have a plan for the spring Atlantic hurricane season. Reuters reported on June 2 that he had told the staff he didn’t know there was such a thing—a comment the agency claimed later was a joke. CNN has reported he went to Kerrville, Texas on July 12 but refused to answer any questions from reporters.

The President has said often he wants to transfer much of the responsibility for disaster response to the states that already are facing struggles because of large cuts in federal funds going to them for various programs.

If you are old enough to recall the great 103-day1993 flood, you are likely to remember the thousands of FEMA trailers brought to Missouri from numerous other states to be temporary homes for our people.  Imagine the state having to find—and pay for—those trailers while also dealing with the costs of fixing destroyed roads, bridges, and public buildings and paying for the massive extra personnel costs of first responders, National Guard sandbaggers, and healthcare givers among thousands of other expenses.  The Weather Service estimated the damages totaled twelve to sixteen billion 1993 dollars.

Or more recently:

Sure, the state of Missouri can handle something like this. Easily. The amateurs and idealogues in Washington know it can. Without doing any research.

These things are permanent parts of our lives. There were 27 disasters causing at least one billion dollars damage reported last year alone.

The Times has reported FEMA grants totaling $3.6 billion dollars already have been revoked. The money was earmarked for protection of communities from wildfires, hurricanes, and other disasters.  One in five agency staff members are likely to be gone by the end of the year.

Trump wants to shut down ten NOAA laboratories in the next fiscal year that research changes in weather patterns. The studies are based on global warming, something the President doesn’t believe in. One of the targeted labs is the one that sends hurricane hunter airplanes into storms to collect important forecasting data and other information.

Another cut that’s important to us in Missouri would cut programs that use river gauges to forecast floods. Those gauges check river levels every fifteen seconds and are used to issue flood alerts.  They showed the sudden rise of the river in Texas July 5th.  They measured the weeks of Missouri and Mississippi River floodwaters in 1993. Trum wants to eliminate more than twenty percent of the budget of that program.

Times reporters say the Weather service did issue appropriate warnings for the area flooded in Texas but staff cutbacks had left the San Antonio office without a warning coordination meteorologist.  That’s the person that works with local emergency managers to warn people of floods and helps them get to safe ground.

From gutting the national weather service to hamstringing the call centers and other response entities and reducing abilities to forecast hurricanes and floods and to crippling disaster responses, the administration is once again acknowledging that the word “humane” is not in its dictionary.

The real disaster is not wind, fire, and water.

(Photo credits: Trailers–Magnolia Reporter; Joplin Tornado–National Standards for Technology; Flood–USGS)

Sports: Lows and highs at Mizzou; Chiefs Lock In Two, Third Escapes Lockup;  Bad Baseball, And More.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZBB)—It might be the dawn of Tiger football season but the big Mizzou sports story of the week is with the roundballers. And it is a really big deal.

Guard Jason Crowe Junior also had been courted by UCLA, USC, and Kentucky. It’s a verbal commitment. Signing day isn’t until November so he could bolt.

247 sports ranks him as the sixth best player in the class of 2026. He’s from Inglewood, Califoornia, 6-3 with arms of a player two inches taller. He’s considered so good that some see him going to the NBA after one season at Missouri.

He’s the second-best recruit in Tiger basketball history. Number one is Michael Porter Jr., whose career didn’t turn out too well because of injuries.

(MIZFB1)—When former Tiger wide receiver Luther Burden I11 unexpectedly dropped off the list of first round NFL draft picks, he said, “That’s staying with me forever. Everybody who passed up on me gotta pay.”

But first, the team that took him as the 39th overall pick is GOING to pay.  The Chicago Bears have signed Burden to a guaranteed eleven million dollar contract. He is the first 39th pick in the NFL draft to sign a guaranteed deal.

(MIZFB2)—Once again, the Southeastern Conference media have picked Missouri to be in the lower tier of the football standings this year.

Twelfth, to be exact.

The Tigers play eight conference games, five against teams ranked higher: Alabama is third; South Carolina is ranked fifth. Texas A&M ranks number 8 with Oklahoma tenth. Auburn is forecast to finish one slot above Missouri. Below Missouri are Vanderbilt (13th), Arkansas (14), and Mississippi State, picked for last, at 16th.

The sportswriters think left guard Cayden Green is a first-team all-conference player. Wide receiver Kevin Coleman has been picked for the third team.

Here’s how the fulltime sports writers think the conference will look at the end (first place votes in parenthesis:

  1. Texas (96)
  2. Georgia (44)
  3. Alabama (29)
  4. LSU (20)
  5. South Carolina (5)
  6. Florida (2)
  7. Ole Miss (1)
  8. Texas A&M
  9. Tennessee (1)
  10. Oklahoma (3)
  11.  Auburn (1)
  12. Missouri
  13. Vanderbilt (2)
  14. Arkansas
  15. Kentucky
  16. Mississippi State

Vanderbilt got TWO first-place votes???

Missouri starts its fall practices one week from today.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs start their pre-season camp today in St. Joseph. They’ll have wide receiver Rashee Rice on hand but they don’t yet know how much of the season he will miss. Rice has avoided a serious prison sentence with a plea bargain growing out of his big traffic crash in Dallas in 2024 that will put him on probation for five years and let him serve thirty days in jail at his convenience. He also has paid the medical bills of those he hurt, about $115,000 worth.

The NFL has not yet announced what IT plans to do about him, but a multi-game suspension appears to be looming—the Chiefs think he’ll be gone for two to five games. The Chiefs, however, are not totally without speedy wide receivers. This year’s fourth-round pick, Jalen Royals is on the depth chart behind Rice,  Xavier Worthy, and Marquise Brown.

A few days ago the Chiefs made sure two key players on the line would be around for several more years—offensive lineman Trey Smith and defensive end George Karlaftis.

Smith, originally a sixth-round draft pick, is the highest-paid player in his position in the whole NFL—$94 million for four years, with $70 million guaranteed.

 

 

 

George Karlaftis, a number one draft pick in 2022 and an immediate impact player at defensive end also is locked up for four more years. He gets $92 million with $62 million guaranteed.

 

 

(BASEBALL)—This wasn’t the post-All Star Game start that either of our MLB teams wanted. They went 1-5, the Cardinals being swept by the Diamondbacks and the Royals salvaging a win in the third game against the Marlins.

The Royals, behind a couple of Salvador Perez home runs, clubbed the cubs last night 12-4. Joe Caglianone and John Rave also joined the power show.

The Royals have the oldest player in the major leagues on the mound tonight—Rich Hill, who is 45, has been called up from Omaha. He was drafted by the Cubs in 1999 and made his major league debut in 2005. The Royals will be his fourteenth major league team. That ties him with Edwin Jackson as the player who has been part of the most major league teams in their careers. Jackson did it by the time he was 35, a decade younger than Hill.

Hill has made nine starts for Omaha this year and has lasted 42 innings. He has struck out 61 batters but has an ERA of 5.36. He’s 90-74 in his big league career.

The Cardinals opened a series last night against the Rockies who are headed for the worst season in modern MLB history. They’s won only 24 of their first 100 games after losing to the Cardinals 6-2.  The Cardinals racked Colorado pitching for fifteen hits, to get back to three games over .500 at 52-49.  Michael McGreevy went seven solid innings in his latest callup from Memphis.

If the Rockies can improve to win eighteen of their next 44 games, they will avoid breaking last year’s modern baseball loss record, 121 games, set by the White Sox.

The Cardinals have a chance to pour it on tonight as they face Colorado’s Bradley Blalock who has lost both of his decisions this year and has a 9.97 ERA. But that means the disappointing Erick Fedde will have to avoid losing his tenth game of the year (he has three wins) and should lower his 4.83 ERA.

Now, the More:

(INDYCAR)—It’s starting to develop into the Palou and Pato show in Indycar with Pato O’Ward’s win at Toronto

Monterey, CA – during the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey in Monterey, California. (Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)

O’Ward’s win cuts  Alex Palou’s championship points lead by thirty. It’s his second win in eight days; he and Palou split visits to victory lane in the to races at Iowa the weekend before.

The Toronto race course winds its way for 1.786 curvy (11 curves) miles through downtown Toronto.  The race produced the most on-track passes (226) since the 2014 event and the most passes for position (201) for position since the 2019 race.

Palou finished twelfth at Toronto. O’Ward was joined on the podium by two guys not familiar with the ceremony—Rinus Veekay, who hasn’t had a top-three finish since 2022, and Kyffin Simpson, who’s never been there in his two years in the series.

Palou still leads by 99 points, though, a  challenging figure for O’Ward to overcome in the four races remaining on the INDYCAR schedule.

The miserable season of INDYCAR’s most prestigious team added another chapter at Toronto. Scott McLaughlin went into the wall when a left rear lug nut came off  on the second turn after a pit stop. He finished 26th. Josef Newgarden was caught up in a crash that found the car of Jacob Abel on top of his, relegating him to 23rd.  Once again, the best finish for the Penske team was by Will Power, who finished 11th after brushing a wall.

Santino Ferrucci finished 27th, and last, although he did not start the race. He crashed in practice, damaging his car and injuring his right hand.

INDYCAR heads west to race at Laguna Seca next weekend.

(NASCAR)—THIS, I have to see to believe:

Your reporter is off to Indianapolis this coming weekend for the Brickyard 400, an annual trek we make.  He’s gone to a lot of automobile races in his long life, but this one……

Last weekend, in a more normal setting, the CUP series was at Dover, where Denny Hamlin edged teammate Chase Briscoe for the win in a two-lap overtime shootout.  The win is his fourth of the  year, the best of all drivers in the series. It’s his 58th career Cup win. Only Kyle Busch, with 63, has more victories among full-time drivers in the series. He needs two more to tie Kevin Harvick for tenth on the all-time winners list.

Hamlin was in charge late in the race until a rainstorm stopped the race with fewer than twenty laps to go. He got good jumps on the first two restarts after the track was dried, and got ahead of Brisco for the green-white-checker laps.

Chase Elliott, who led 238 of the 407 laps, couldn’t match Hamlin’s late run and dropped back to sixth at the end. But that was good enough to take the regular season points lead away from teammate William Byron.

The fight for the sixteenth playoff spot remains tight. Bubba Wallace is sixteen points ahead of Ryan Preece and 39 up on Kyle Busch with five races to go before the sixteen driver playoff field is set.

(Photo credits: Smith and Karlaftis—KC Chiefs; O’Ward—Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Hamlin—Rick Gevers; Cookie Monster—NASCAR)

Well, There Goes the Nobel Peace Prize 

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Hours after President Trump proclaimed on Truth Social that he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize several times, he guaranteed he will never get it.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee never has and never will give the prize to someone who bombs another country.  Or rounds up thousands of people he stereotypes with his lies and ships them off to prisons in strange places to face indefinite futures.  Or refuses to support a small country that has fought off the aggression by a supposedly overpowering enemy.

Trump claims he deserves it because of his administration’s work in getting a cease fire between Pakistan and India.

He also claims to have brought about a cease fire between Iran and Israel.

Cease fires are not peace treaties. And they have a bad habit of not lasting.  In fact, Israel and Iran have already have accused each other of firing missiles after the cease fire.

Who invited him and his B-2s to the Iran-Israel party anyway?  It’s one thing to work out a cease fire with diplomacy. It’s something else to unilaterally send in the bombers.

Trump’s claim that the attacks obliterated Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons has been disputed by the New York Times, citing a preliminary U.S. damage assessment report saying the bombs only collapsed a few tunnels but not the main underground production rooms. The newspaper says the truth is that production could resume in a matter of months or just weeks. Perhaps Trump was exaggerating which is not uncommon. Regardless, his attacks did not end the nuclear threat from Iran. Instead the attacks seem to have guaranteed that Iran WILL HAVE nuclear weapons if it wants them.

Former Russian President Dimitry Medvedev wasted no time making that point. He posted on social media, “What have the Americans accomplished with their nighttime strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran? The enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue. A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.”

While Trump might want the bombings to lead to regime change in Iran, Medvedev says the regime might have survived “even stronger.”

One of the countries with nukes that says it will supply Iran with nuclear warheads, if it wants them, is Pakistan, which called the attacks “deeply disturbing and an “unprecedented escalation of tension and violence, owing to ongoing aggression against Iran.”

China said it “stands ready to work with the international community to pool efforts together and uphold justice, and work for restoring peace and stability in the Middle East.”

That’s the kind of language the United States used to use.  Iran has asked for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn the United States.  That’s the kind of thing the United States used to seek in times such as this.

People win the Nobel Peace Prize for doing good without thinking they deserve honor.

Then there’s Trump, who says he should have received the prize “four or five times.”  However, he complains,  “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!”

No. That’s not all that matters to him. He wants a prize he cannot buy, cannot bully anyone into giving him, and cannot primary.

The prize for Russia/Ukraine?

The prize for giving his good friend Putin an excuse to ship ready-made atomic weapons to Iran?

Adolph Hitler didn’t win the prize for pacifying Poland and Czechoslovakia and rounding up stereotyped undesirables and shipping them off to uncertain and certainly undesirable futures.  Mussolini didn’t win the prize for bombing and gassing Ethiopia into submission.  Stalin didn’t win the prize for establishing gulags where he sent undesirables by the tens of thousands and creating persecutions and killings behind the Iron Curtain.

At least they didn’t complain about not winning the prize.