Category Archives: people

Our Bilingual Country

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My monthly opinion piece in the Jefferson City News Tribune this month focused on Canada’s recognition of its bilingual heritage—English and French—with our country’s failure to recognize our bilingual heritage of English and Spanish.

English is the mother tongue of 57% of Canadians. French is the mother tongue of 20%, most of whom live in Quebec where Canadian federal law protects the language and the culture.

About 78% of USA homes are English-speaking.  About 12% are Spanish speakers but some of our states are much heavier with Spanish speakers. Our nation, however, offers no Canada-like appreciations accorded Quebec, especially a region almost as large as that province. We’ll get to that later.

Our country language has not always been English-dominated. English was a just a minor language when our pious Pilgrim Protestant forbears landed in the late 1500s and early 1600s. There were many Native American Languages but in terms of competing European languages, Catholic Spanish predominated.

I couldn’t put this map in the newspaper, but it shows that English was very much THE OTHER language.

It is too easy for us to get all sniffy about the superiority of our Christian English ancestors (and for those who go for the “Christian nation” myth, we will only suggest that most would not have wanted to live in such a place where the religious freedom concept applied only to THEIR religious freedom, dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson being exiled for questioning some Puritan tenets. There are, however, more than enough today who want no questions about their version.).

We are becoming more bilingual or even multi-lingual but we show no signs of being like Canada in respecting the original language of others. American Community Survey data from 2024 shows 43-45% of the population of California is non-English home speakers. Texas is about 36%. New Mexico is 34%. Various estimates put Arizona at 30-30%.

Quebec, by the way, is about the same size as Texas. California, and New Mexico combined.  Texas and New Mexico do not have English official laws. President Trump has taken care of that with an executive order declaring English the official language in all of our states.

We’ll have more in a later entry about the languages of our states.  You might be as surprised as I am about what the second and third languages of Missouri are.

In the newspaper article I cited Walt Whitman’s letter refusing to write a poem for Santa Fe’s 333rd anniversary:

We Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents, and sort them, to unify them. They will be found ampler than has been supposed and in widely different sources. Thus far, impressed by New England writers and schoolmasters, we tacitly abandon ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashioned from the British Islands only, and essentially form a second England only—which is a great mistake. Many leading traits for our future national personality, and some of the best ones, will certainly prove to have originated from other than British stock. As it is, the British and German, valuable as they are in the concrete, already threaten excess. Or rather, I should say, they have certainly reach’d​ that excess. To-day, something outside of them, and to counterbalance them, is seriously needed.

Thus seething materialistic and business vortices of the United States, in their present devouring relations, controlling and belittling everything else, are, in my opinion, but a vast and indispensable stage in the new world’s development, and are certainly to be follow’d​ by something entirely different—at least by immense modifications. Character, literature, a society worthy the name, are yet to be establish’d​ , through a nationality of noblest spiritual, heroic and democratic attributes—not one of which at present definitely exists—entirely different from the past, though unerringly founded on it, and to justify it.

To that composite American identity of the future, Spanish character will supply some of the most needed parts. No stock shows a grander historic retrospect—grander in religiousness and loyalty, or for patriotism, courage, decorum, gravity and honor. (It is time to dismiss utterly the illusion-compound, half raw-head-and-bloody-bones and half Mysteries-of-Udolpho, inherited from the English writers of the past 200 years. It is time to realize—for it is certainly true—that there will not be found any more cruelty, tryanny, superstition, &c., in the résumé of past Spanish history than in the corresponding résumé of Anglo-Norman history. Nay, I think there will not be found so much.)

Then another point, relating to American ethnology, past and to come, I will here touch upon at a venture. As to our aboriginal or Indian population—the Aztec in the South, and many a tribe in the North and West—I know it seems to be agreed that they must gradually dwindle as time rolls on, and in a few generations more leave only a reminiscence, a blank. But I am not at all clear about that. As America, from its many far-back sources and current supplies, develops, adapts, entwines, faithfully identifies its own—are we to see it cheerfully accepting and using all the contributions of foreign lands from the whole outside globe—and then rejecting the only ones distinctively its own—the autochthonic ones?

As to the Spanish stock of our Southwest, it is certain to me that we do not begin to appreciate the splendor and sterling value of its race element. Who knows but that element, like the course of some subterranean river, dipping invisibly for a hundred or two years, is now to emerge in broadest flow and permanent action?

We are living in a time when diversity in language and in so many parts of life is a living presence among us but an official target of disrespect from a president who has never lived outside his small cultural bubble.

I concluded in the article, “Language might separate us culturally one from another, but we should learn from better-taught history not to allow it to divide us as Americans.  We are one out of many. This is a time to understand and honor that sentiment, not ignore it.

Canada can teach us an important lesson about tolerance and respect.”

(map from appswm.com)

What’s Left After Contempt and Concession 

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Records in the State Supreme Court Historical Society indicate Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ contempt of court case is the first contempt case before the court since 1878 and might be only the fifteenth in state history, none of which involved a statewide office holder.  All of the old cases were appeals of lower court contempt holdings. This could be the first time someone was held in contempt of the Missouri Supreme Court itself.

In my sixty years of reporting in Jefferson City, this is the first contempt of the Supreme Court case that I have ever seen.

Shortly before the court was to return with its finding Thursday afternoon, Hoskins buckled to the inevitable and notified local election officials that the congressional district map approved by the legislature in 2022 would be used in the November election.

His earlier notice said that the Republican gerrymandered districts adopted to please President Trump would be used—although other court rulings had blocked that usage.

The tricky issue of deciding a proper penalty for violating the court’s earlier order forbidding use of the gerrymandered districts was thus avoided.  Chief Justice W. Brent Powell noted that Hoskins could purge himself of his previous statement and orders and that he had done so with his letter to election authorities. The contempt ruling stands but there will be no punishment from the court. Whether feelings of voters when Hoskins is up for re-election in two years will take their due is something we’ll have to wait for.

There might be many bottom lines from this series of actions.  Legislative Republicans are 0-for-3 on major public policy decisions this year with two really hot issues on the ballot in November—

Amendment 3 prohibits abortion in most cases, and blocks gender transition procedures for people younger than 18. The amendment would overturn a more pro-choice amendment adopted by voters in 2024 after a petition campaign generated enough signatures for a ballot position. It got about 52% of the vote.

Amendment 6 says the legislature cannot change a law proposed by a petition and approved by voters without 80% percent of the voters agreeing with the change.

The other proposition is the one that upholds the gerrymandered redistricting plan, proposition A. What all of this fuss and feathers has resolved is that voters still can approve the new districts by adopting proposition A, which will make the districts available in the 2028 elections but not useful in protecting President Trump from a House and/or Senate controlled by Democrats after November’s election.

Republicans could go 0 for 6 this year on ballot issues if the People Not Politicians movement maintains its momentum or, with these court rulings, picks up strength.

There still remains one piece of absurdity in this ugly worship of The Donald.

A few hours before the court’s hearing and its ultimate ruling on contempt, fourteen members of the legislature threatened the court with impeachment.

The seven judges didn’t even blink when hearing of this threat.  They not only went ahead with the hearing and found Hoskins in contempt.

So now what?

The only thing goofier than the threat would be for these fourteen Republicans (and their colleagues) to file articles of impeachment in this week’s veto session. The court’s lack of interest in their threat gives them a choice: Look foolish for filing the threat or look foolish for going ahead with it.

How would they go about impeaching and convicting the court—all seven members?

Guess who conducts the trial of an impeached state official?   The Supreme Court, that’s who.  Impeaching one at a time leaves the other six to run a trial of a colleague, a pretty goofy idea. Maybe they could import the supreme court of a surrounding state to do it.

Goofiness seems to be the order of the day.

Will their threats generate votes for them and their party in November?  It’s hard to see that it will because of national surveys showing that President Trump’s behavior as a political bully isn’t going over anymore and in fact is turning people off, way off. .

What we have here, folks, seems to be that too many Republicans are lowering the anchor of the ship of state, not realizing the chain is wrapped around their own ankles.

The Republicans have handed Democrats wheelbarrows full of campaign issues that the D’s can use in the next two months or so to pound on R’s.

And in two more years, when the Governor, Attorney General (who represented Hoskins), and Hoskins come up for re-election along with legislative Republicans seeking re-election or election to a higher office, the Democrats still will be well-armed.

Republicans need to do some serious image repair. They need to pick up a major issue (or many major issues) that will sympathetically resonate with the people.

(Picture credit:  Front row (from left): Judge Fischer, Chief Justice Powell, Judge Ransom; Back row (from left): Judge Gooch, Judge Wilson, Judge Broniec, Judge Russell —Missouri Supreme Court;  Goofy—Etsy)

Chaos 

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(Two important updates to this posting occurred overnight as the gigantic mess that will be our congressional elections in November has gotten even worse)  Look for  the boldface additions in this revised–for the third time—column).  

The two people in this household are going to vote in the November election. As of today, we are not sure who we will want to be our member of Congress because we aren’t sure which congressional district we will be in.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh might have settled it yesterday when he flatly rejected the appeal of the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling that the old districts will be used for the election.  Kavanaugh is a Trump appointee and we would not be in this mess if Trump had not asked his loyal Republican-dominated legislature to skew congressional districts to help keep him in power.

However, shortly after that, a lower federal court judge ruled the other way.  We went to bed last night glad the day was over but knowing it is likely today will produce more political and judicial mayhem that none of us deserves but that all of us are getting, thanks to a President thinks our political system was invented just to keep him happy.

But since then, things have really heated up.

Shortly after that, the Chief Federal District Judge of this region, Stephen Clark, ruled the other way, issuing a temporary restraining order telling Hoskins to use the gerrymandered map while the case goes forward in the federal court system.  We went to bed last night glad the day was over but knowing it is likely today will produce more political and judicial mayhem that none of us deserves but that all of us are getting, thanks to a President thinks our political system was invented just to keep him happy. 

Governor Kehoe thanked the judge for providing “much needed clarity for Missouri voters and the election process.”  Since yesterday was the last day to make changes to the November ballot, he said, “the Missouri First Map will be used in the general election.”

He said, “Voters and candidates deserve consistency, certainty, and not to have the rules changed between elections,” an observation that is interesting because that is exactly what President Trump, the legislature, and Governor Kehoe have done “between elections” in 2024 and 2026. 

The scramble yesterday has left the Missouri Supreme Court, shall we say, in a state of high urinary agitation.  We awoke this morning to read a Missouri Independent report that the court has ordered Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to appear before it in person at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning to show why he should not be held in contempt of court for telling election officials to go ahead with a district map the court has forbidden him from using. It seems Hoskins had, as soon as Clark’s order came down, certified the official state ballot using the rejiggered congressional districts and sent the order, and his certification of the districts out to local election officials.  He says the Clark order, in effect, overrules the Missouri court’s order. 

The Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court wants Hoskins to explain exactly why his actions “is not an affirmative violation” of the court’s injunction which has the backing of a United States Supreme Court judge (who ranks higher on the judicial food chain than Clark) and, “if he is not willing to comply with this court’s injunction, he should take no action in all things related to the congressional district map until guidance is received from a higher court…”

Chief Justice W. Brent Powell made it clear this hearing is a face-off between Hoskins and the court.  Nobody else will be allowed to intervene.  

The last time we can recall a sitting state official to answer to the Missouri Supreme Court was when the court tried and convicted Secretary of State Judy Moriarty in 1994 of committing impeachable offenses—-  

—–which raises a question about how all of this could eventually play out for Hoskins, should anyone want to make a case of it.  If the GOP continues to control the legislature, that question likely is going to be moot.

This whole ugly thing is compliments of the same political party that gave us two amendments that were stomped flat by voters in August, allowed a small number of maverick state senators to produce two or three of the least productive legislative sessions—probably since the Civil War when we had a government supported by the U. S. Army in Jefferson City and a bunch of exiles pretending to be a Confederate government based in Texas, and who so badly fumbled a chance to pass a sports gambling law that the interested parties gave us a constitutional amendment that is of grave disservice to the people of Missouri

Republicans have no one to blame but themselves if voter in November seek retribution for this craziness by promoting many GOP lawmakers back to private life. Will the majorities in the House and Senate switch in November? Probably not.  But we’ll be watching to see if the two-third majorities and the accompanying arrogance that comes with such margins disappears at the hands of voters who think these lawmakers have gone too far.

The Missouri Supreme court has blamed our Secretary of State, who was one of those maverick senators, for this mess.  And the court underlined its feelings with a unanimous vote.

The court suspended the congressional district maps drawn because President Trump is afraid he’ll lose control of Congress in November and asked the Missouri legislature to approve maps that will oust one of our senior congressmen, Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. That would giving the GOP one more Congressman from Missouri who can protect Trump..  The legislature was more than happy to oblige him.

But then some citizens who felt such manipulation of the political system more focused on government of one person, by one person, and for one person is not exactly what this country is all about.  They went around and collected signatures of about 300,000 other dissenters demanding the new map not go into effect until the people had agreed to it.  The number of signatures was more than adequate to put the question on the ballot.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins apparently found some wiggle room in a federal district judge’s ruling last December that the new map would be suspended if the petition had enough signatures and a vote could be held on overturning that map. The judge’s opinion noted, however, that Hoskins believed he had the power to declare the petition itself was unconstitutional.

The Missouri Supreme Court told him, twice, that he had to rule on whether the petitions had enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

Rather than do that before the primary election that used the questionable new districts, Hoskins waited until the primary election was already underway before proclaiming the petition unconstitutional.

The Missouri Supreme Court said he screwed up, saying there actually are no new districts because opponents had gathered adequate signatures to have an election on their legitimacy. Unless voters approved the districts, they did not exist.

But Hoskins let the election proceed with the new districts.  So now we have candidates in our eight districts and—-

?

Justice Kavanaugh’s terse rejection of the districts is a second loud slap in the face of Hoskins and the obedient Trumpicans in our Capitol, coming after our Supreme Court’s ruling.

As we understand it these two rulings, we have no districts except the old ones and the candidates did not run in the old districts. They ran in the new ones which the court says don’t exist. The Missouri court has said rather clearly that Hoskins is responsible for any confusion the people of Missouri might have.

That’s a very heavy load of responsibility.  Hoskins will be up for re-election in 2028. Missourians are likely to be reminded of these events.

Out of this complicated embarrassment so far, however, is something vitally important. The Constitutional right of Missouri citizens “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”     to enact laws through a petition process and to overturn offensive laws enacted by the people who are supposed to represent us has been upheld. The court decisions have upheld Missourians’ right to initiative and petition in overwhelming numbers. (Next year will be the 120th anniversary of the adoption of initiative and referendum in Missouri. We need to have a big celebration.)

Hoskins disputes the Missouri court’s ruling that he’s the one to blame.  He seemed to argue in a radio interview (KFTK) that the Trumpian map should be valid for November because voters used it in the primary election.

—although the State Supreme Court says they (we) voted in illegal and therefore nonexistent districts.  Justice Kavanaugh obviously didn’t buy Hoskins’ arguments either.

We must confess that we are as befuddled as most people are and we’re not convinced we understand all of this folderol or if we have explained the situation correctly.

If the districts were not legal, then there actually was no congressional primary election, right?   And those of us who voted were just rehearsing for the real thing. Can that be correct?  Are we headed to November with candidates nominated in a non-election?

And since the petition issue gathered enough signatures to merit a vote and no districts, old or new, will be established until voters have decided on the petition issue, how can we vote for our congressional delegation in November?

If it turns out that one of the winners in August is not a resident of the old district that might be in effect in November—-

Well?

I feel as if I am wading in the dark through an endless swamp of mashed potatoes and the legislature led me to it.  Lawmakers are back at the Capitol for a day or two next week to consider overriding any of the Governor’s vetoes from the spring session.  Can they, will they, do anything to restore some orderliness in our state political system?

To paraphrase an old saying:

“To err is human. To really screw up things you need a politician.”

I am now going to take some aspirin and lie down and hope this all passes.

(picture credit: Demotivators)

 

The Phrase Becomes Real: A Political Football 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

We usually offer a roundup of the week’s Missouri sports news on Tuesdays but before we do that, we want to observe how Donald Trump is not the only person in Washington who thinks history needs to be re-written.

(MIZTHEN)—I was there that day the Missouri Tigers lost to the Kansas Jayhawks 23-7 at Memorial Stadium (it was not then Faurot Field).

But that’s not the way Congress and the NCAA record it. Congress has done something the sportswriters and the coaches did not do in 1960 when Missouri lost a game it later won, later won a conference championship it had lost, and until recently a national championship it could not reclaim.

Kansas and Missouri fought for superiority in the Big Eight Conference that year. Kansas temporarily won its first outright conference championship in thirty years.  The Jayhawks finished ranked 11th in the AP Sportswriters poll, only the second time the Jayhawks were ranked (the first time was 1947).

However—-KU running back Bert Coan, who scored the only two Kansas touchdowns that day was found to have been ineligible in games against Colorado and Missouri and on December 8, the Big Eight declared that KU big-bucks recruiter Bud Adams had illegally recruited Coan while he was at TCU. The two Kansas victories had to be forfeited.  The Big Eight and MU consider the Tigers record to be 10-0 in the regular season. But KU and the NCAA still consider the record is 9-1.

Coan later played seven years in the American Football League, six of those years with (it seems appropriate) the Kansas City Chiefs, the team right between the two states. He caught a 19-yard touchdown pass and ran for 37 yard TD in the Missouri game.

Coan and most of the other players from both sides in that 23-7 Kansas victory are gone now.  The AP and the competing UPI (United Press International) did not do polls after the bowl season—which concluded on January 2 in those years before the national championship playoff system came along.  The last polls put Minnesota first and Missouri 4th and 5th.

But the Golden Gophers lost to Washington in the Rose Bowl. Ole Miss, which went 10-0-1 and Iowa (also with one loss) also got some championship votes.

Missouri went to the Orange Bowl to face a Navy team that was ranked 4 and 6,  and starred Heisman Trophy winner Joe Belino.  The opening minutes were electrifying with Navy picking a fumble out of the air and returning it 98 yards for a touchdown. Navy threatened again until the Tigers’ Norm Beal ran a pick-6 back 90 yards for the tie.

CBS television had the game that year with one of the greatest pairs in the booth at the time making the calls—Ray Scott and Paul Christman.  Christman was Missouri’s first great star as a pre-war quarterback who later played for the Chicago Cardinals which he led to the NFL championship in 1947, the franchise’s only championship (they now play in Arizona after stop in St. Louis for a while). You won’t hear Christman but you can catch the game highlights with Scott making the calls:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zKUfYF84h8

(QB Ron Taylor hands off to Donnie Smith–who led the conference with 13 touchdowns—with Ed Mehrer (35) and Norm Beal (21) with Gordon Smith (89) looking to take out the right side of Navy’s defensive line)

Missouri stuffed Navy’s run game in the 1961 Orange Bowl while Dan Devine’s “student body right,” and “student body left” running game that featuring pulling guards and blocking backs ground out more than 200 yards and ate up a lot of clock.

The Tiger rush was led by Norris Stevenson and Mel West, the first two African-American Tiger football players.

Coach Devine always thought Missouri would have finished the year with the national championship if there had been a post-season poll, but the University has never claimed the national title.  Missouri finished 11-0* with the asterisk noting the game on the last day of the regular season, that they actually lost.

Well, if the University of Missouri and the now-Big 12 Conference won’t claim the national championship, it’s time for the politicians to get all huffy and fluffy about it these 66 years later and say, “Ignore the asterisk.”

One of our intrepid United States Senators, Eric Schmitt, has stepped boldly forth and introduced a Senate resolution declaring the Tigers were undefeated national champions. Such resolutions have no force of law and certainly have no authority over the Big 12, the NCAA, or the history of the game (which Missouri played poorly, by the way).  But the Senate has had bigger things to do than take time with this resolution and there were no objections, not even from Kansas’ Senators, so it stands as passed.

The University of Missouri will take the resolution for whatever value it has and will celebrate the 1960 national championship during its September 19 game against the Troy Trojans.  The halftime event also will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Memorial Stadium.

It would be greater fun if the celebration could be done when MU plays KU this year, but that game will be in Lawrence and the Jayhawks are not just about to let Missouri do any whoopeeing that day.

Memorial Stadium’s original capacity was 25,000. We were one of the 41,000 who watched Kansas win that loss in 1960.

With the new quarter-billion addition intended for use by high-roller Tiger supporters, the stadium will hold almost 65,000, including those sitting in 2,280 new premium seats, 628 loge box seats, 270 mezzanine club seats and mingling in 71 suites.

And in a few weeks there will be a celebration of a game that truly has become a political football.

(MIZZNOW)—The season kicks off Thursday night shortly after Mizzou alumnae Sheryl Crow sings the national anthem. The game is a sellout. Arkansas-Pine Bluff will give the Tigers someone wearing a different uniform to hit.

Ahmad Hardy won’t play but ESPN’s Pete Thamel says the Tigers hope he can be ready my mid-September.  After the Thursday game, Missouri plays Kansas in Lawrence on September 11 and then is at home against Troy on the 19th.  SEC play starts with Mississippi State on the 26th.

(MIZCUTS)—Twenty-five former Tigers will start the season on NFL 53-man rosters.  On3.com lists:

  • Kris Abrams-Draine – CB, Denver Broncos
  • Tyler Badie – RB, Denver Broncos
  • Nick Bolton – LB, Kansas City Chiefs
  • Larry Borom – OL, Detroit Lions
  • Luther Burden III – WR, Chicago Bears
  • Jaylon Carlies – LB, Indianapolis Colts
  • Kevin Coleman Jr. – WR, Miami Dolphins
  • Brady Cook – QB, Miami Dolphins
  • Jordan Elliott – DL, Tennessee Titans
  • Akayleb Evans – CB, Carolina Panthers
  • Javon Foster – OL, Cincinnati Bengals
  • Ty’Ron Hopper – LB, Green Bay Packers
  • Khalil Jacobs – LB, New England Patriots
  • Drew Lock – QB, Seattle Seahawks
  • Chris McClellan – DL, Green Bay Packers
  • Isaiah McGuire – DL, Cleveland Browns
  • Armand Membou – OL, New York Jets
  • Harrison Mevis – K, Los Angeles Rams
  • Toriano Pride Jr. – CB, Cleveland Browns
  • Ennis Rakestraw Jr. – CB, Detroit Lions
  • Darius Robinson – DL, Arizona Cardinals
  • Keagen Trost – OL, Los Angeles Rams
  • Josiah Trotter – LB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • Zion Young – EDGE, Baltimore Ravens

Players Waived or Released

  • Marcus Bryant – OL, New England Patriots (injured reserve)
  • Joshuah Bledsoe – S, Washington Commanders
  • Stephen Hall – CB, Houston Texans
  • Xavier Loyd – WR, Kansas City Chiefs
  • Albert Okwuegbunam – TE, Las Vegas Raiders
  • Cody Schrader – RB, Denver Broncos
  • Theo Wease Jr. – WR, Miami Dolphins

Injured Reserve

  • Jaylon Carlies – LB, Indianapolis Colts
  • Yasir Durant – CB, New England Patriots
  • Johnny Walker – WR, Denver Broncos

(TRAGEDY)—A William Jewell College football player who had; just scored the first touchdown of the year for his team collapsed on the sidelines Saturday and was pronounced dead at a Liberty hospital a short time later. MicahJo Barnett. He was 20, a business administration major.  The game was suspended and later canceled.

Barnett was a home-town boy, the captain of the Liberty Eagles when they won their first state championship when he was a senior. He ran for 1,450 yards, scored 20 touchdowns and made the all-state team that year.

(MIZBB)—Former Tiger basketball star Mark Mitchell might be a Tiger basketball star again.  He’s enrolled at the University of Missouri.  The court system will decide if he can have a fifth year of eligibility.

Mitchell went undrafted by the NBA after his all-SEC year last year. He played for the Denver Nuggets Summer League team and appeared to be headed to the Nuggets training camp before he changed his mind.

He’s one of several players—more than 25—who were not grandfathered in by the NCAA’s “five for five”  rule. His future is in the hands of a federal district judge in Colorado, Charlotte Sweeney, who has granted fifth years of eligibility in other cases before her. In all of those cases, the players had not signed a professional contract. The NCAA opposes such rulings and the SEC doesn’t like it either.

Financially, returning to Mizzou is a better deal.  He made $45,000 playing in the G-league last season and would get as much as $85,000 if he goes to camp. Sources indicate he’ll make more at Mizzou under the NIL system.

(BASEBALL)—Baseball seems to be eternal during the summer months and it is something akin to a shock to realize there are only 25 games left for our two teams. One has a slight chance of making the playoffs but it’s going to have to get its act together in a significant way to do it.

Our two teams seem to be headed in different directions again. It’s the Royals that have been hot for the last couple of weeks. Although they were hammered by the Guardians on Sunday, they have won 11 of their last 13, 13 of their last 16,  and remain in the playoff picture, as unlikely as that might seem. But they are playing in the weakest division in baseball.

Royals reliever John Schreiber, put on waivers during the weekend, was quickly snapped up by the New York Yankees. He had been in 55 games this year and had put up a 3.65 ERA. He held right-handed batters to a .143 average but lefties were hitting .326.   Schreiber likely on his way out anyway. He was going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

The Cardinals have dropped to two games under .500 again and now they’ve put J. J. Wetherholt on the IL.  He’s been dealing with tendinitis in his right wrist.  The Cardinals started the week 68-70.

One notable achievement, however—Alex Burleson, who was a much-discussed trade possibility in the offseason, has become the first left-handed Cardinals batter to drive in 100 runs since Jim Edmunds did it in 2004, with 111—a number Burlison has 23 games to beat.

He came into this week ranked number two among first basemen in all of baseball in batting , base hits, and doubles.

The Cardinals have decided during the weekend that Caleb Ferguson wasn’t such a good deal after all and cut him loose. He was designated for assignment three weeks after the Redbirds picked him up from Cincinnati. He pitched 8.1 innings in relief, gave up eight walks, 11 hits and eight earned runs in his short stint after doing pretty well for the Reds where he had 22Ks in 24.2 innings and a 4.01 ERA.

His roster spot will be taken by pitcher Hancel Rincon when rosters expand. Also coming up will be Leo Bernal. Rincon has spent eight years in the minors although he’s only 24. He’d been a starter but was moved to long relief this year. In 41 games this year in Memphis he has thrown 71.1 innings with a 4.04 ERA.

Bernal is a catcher prospect, a minor league gold glove winner last year and has been voted the best defensive catcher in the International League this year. He has hit .278 with 16 home runs and 77 runs batted in through 101 games. His callup leaves the Cardinals with some choices to make. Their roster already carries three catchers—Ivan Herrera, Padro Pages, and Jimmy Crooks.

—-Moving along, quickly:

TWO FOR PATO; FIVE FOR PALOU; AND A BIG ONE FOR PREECE

(NASCAR)—Somehow the NCAA Tournament phrase “Sweet Sixteen” isn’t appropriate for the field that will run for the NASCAR Cup Championship in the next ten races. But sixteen it is, the field established with a dramatic win Saturday night on the high banks of Daytona Saturday night with the sixteenth driver making it by winning while a big part of the field crashed behind him.

Ryan Preece had never won a Cup race until then. The win boosted him past Shane Van Gisbergen into the sixteenth and final playoff slot.  It’s his first win in 249 races covering eight seasons.

The race, run with a new aero package for the cars, was fairly sedate for a Daytona race until four laps from the finish when a crash and subsequent cleanup sent the race into overtime. Zane Smith led at the start but when he tried to block an oncoming Tyler Reddick, he was turned with the rest of the field bearing down upon him.  Preece got through the melee first and was leading when the caution flag was thrown, locking him into the position.

The sixteen drivers who will try to accumulate the most points in the next ten races to claim the cup are regular season champion Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, and Preece.

The field includes the winners of the last seven championships: Logano in 2018, 2022, and 2024; Larson in 2021 and 2025, Blaney in 2023 and Elliott in 2020.

The Chase begins at Darlington next weekend.

(INDYCAR)— Two for O’Ward; Four of Five for Palou

Pato O’Ward has won both weekend IndyCar races on the Milwaukee Mile but he had to do it on the same day.  Saturday’s race was stopped by rain before the halfway mark, with O’Ward in the lead, forcing the race to be completed Sunday, after the regularly-scheduled Sunday race also went his way.

The day was a historic one for O’Ward, who became the first IndyCar driver to win two races on the same day since Rick Mears did it 45 years ago.  Only six other drivers in the series have achieved that distinction—and they’re pretty big names.  Mears, Mario Andretti, Al and Bobby Unser, Dan Gurney, and Johnny Rutherford.

 

“Those are heavy names. Then you hear mine, you’re like, ‘What?'” he said in a post-race interview. “I’m just writing my own story. I really don’t know what’s in store for my IndyCar career. So far I’ve dedicated my whole life to this. I always really dedicate myself to everything that I do to the best of my ability. I’m one hungry competitor. I love to go out there and compete and to challenge.”

His double victory was overshadowed by Alex Palou, who did not win but accumulated enough points to guarantee his fourth championship in a row, his fifth in six years. Only Scott Dixon, with six, and A. J. Foyt with seven, have more series championships than Palou, who is by far the youngest driver to win five.

 

“I never thought I would be, first of all, an IndyCar driver. Never thought I could make it. Never thought that I would have the chance to be a professional race car driver. That was my dream,” Palou said after the race. “When I had the opportunity to be an IndyCar driver, that was already a huge achievement for me. I was living the dream. I remember also then Chip (Ganassi) giving me that chance to drive for a championship-winning team at that moment. They just won in 2020 with Scott. That was mind-blowing. Since then I feel like I’ve been on this incredible cloud where everything has been so good for me… It’s just super fun.”

The last driver to win four straight titles was Sebastien Bourdais, who took his fourth one in 2007.

One race is left on the IndyCar schedule. It’s next week at Laguna Seca.

(Photo credits: Student Body Left—1961 Savitar; Stadium—MLR Group; Preece—Bob Priddy at Brickyard ’26; Palou—Rick Gevers, WWTR;  O’Ward—Bob Priddy, Indy, 2026; NASCAR playoff field—Facebook)

The Carrier 

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There are no golf courses on aircraft carriers, no places where our military people can fly off to for a leisure weekend no matter that the world is falling apart.

There are no gold-plated ballrooms where admiring throngs can gather to pat the Commander in Chief on the back while thousands of Americans are stuck on Navy ships, at Air Force bases, and in Army compounds where weekend is mostly just a word and the world is dangerous.

Some of those young people have died and might die and others have been wounded and more will be wounded while their commander in chief plays golf and suggests that nine months of isolation on a boat isn’t long enough.

He putters while miliary families pray; they are Charlie Browns and he is a petty, vindictive, uncaring Lucy with a football.

There is something he can’t feel, has never written, and shows no capacity for: empathy.

I am not, a veteran and I have no family members who are in the active military so my feelings of outrage at the cavalier attitude the President and his Secretary of Defense toady have shown toward our service people in this needless war on Iran must be small compared to the feeling of friends and families of those who prosecute Trump’s game of playing soldiers with the real thing.

Several years ago I was privileged to be a guest for 24 hours on the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and of spending a day on the USS Jefferson City submarine, so I have had a taste of the small and a taste of the huge in our arsenal. A miniscule taste which is far more than their biggest commander has had.

A man whose greatest personal link to the military is his obligatory presence when the coffins come home is incapable of respecting those unfortunate enough to be carrying out his irrational orders.

My experiences left me incredibly impressed with the deep commitment and the high-level of professionalism of the young people who crew these vessels. When we visited the bridge of the Roosevelt about 120 miles out in the Atlantic, we saw a 24-year-old woman driving the ship.  Down on the deck, a large number of her generation was efficiently and safely launching and landing F-16 fighter/bombers.

On the submarine we watched young sailors running a boat that was more than 400 feet underwater.  We peered through a periscope and lined up possible shot, knowing that someone in their 20s might someday be responsible for programming the torpedoes and determining if the target is an enemy or a friend before a commander far younger than we were makes the firing decision, .

These are people who not only are on duty for weeks at a time; some are underwater for weeks while their commander in chief plays golf, spends his overnights writing insults, and who cannot wait for each weekend so he can get aboard a luxurious jet to take him away from whatever cares he has, has no appreciation for the people who live on highest alert 24 hours a day while he thinks up new ways to honor himself and denigrate others.. Stories that an aircraft carrier is short of everything from food to feminine hygiene products cause him no sleep loss.

And now might be the greatest insult to those on the front lines:

The Navy, cleansed by the administration of Navy loyalists and largely run by Trump amateur appointee-loyalists, reportedly wants to name a new aircraft carrier for Donald Trump.  Of course, he who recently posted an AI generated image of himself as a highly decorated Army General despite his personal record of avoiding the draft, and who suggested the Abraham Lincoln had not been on alert in a war zone long enough, has no objections at all to removing the name of a Pearl Harbor hero and replacing it with his own—despite the custom of naming the current class of carriers after dead Presidents.

The racial overtone of this case cannot be overlooked, given President Trump’s track record. The planned name had honored Cook Petty Officer First Class Doris “Dorie” Miller.  It was going to be the first carrier named after a black person—who also was the first African-American to be awarded the Navy Cross and to be nominated for a Medal of Honor.

WKTR-TV in Newport News, Virginia talked to Miller’s great-nephew, Thomas Bledsoe, who said he was shocked by the reports.  He told the station, “One of the things about Doris Miller’s story is not only about him being the hero that he was on that day at Pearl Harbor but it was also about an individual stepping beyond the means of what they were assigned to do and going above and beyond. That ‘why not me’ moment was very significant, not only for the African American community but for Americans overall.”

The Navy says the suggested change has not been made official.

Miller helped wounded crew members to safety during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and even operated a machine gun—although he had no training—and shot down two of the attacking airplanes. In 1943, Miller was assigned to the escort carrier Liscombe Bay that was torpedoed in November and sank within 23 minutes, taking Miller with it.

Some have suggested his name would be better applied to a destroyer or to a cruiser.  A frigate was christened with his name in 1973.

The keel of the new carrier is to be laide later this year. At the 2023 ceremony announcing the naming of the carrier, President Trump lamented that he hasn’t had a ship named for him.

As for the Abraham Lincoln, 

It finally is headed to port.  Ship spotters on Saturday saw it passing through the Singapore Strait apparently headed to a port in Thailand where at last the crew can step onto dry land and have some time to unwind—-

—while their well-fed commander in chief lines up his next putt on the soft green grass of a Florida golf course, having taken time away from his stressful thinking about invading Greenland, Cuba and maybe the Falkland Islands, making Canada the 51st state among other adventures both foreign and domestic, and what the next memorial to himself should be.

(Photo Credit: Miller—WTKR; Lincoln—U. S. Navy)

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A Start, A Streak, A Stumble, and a Race

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Fall camp is over at the University of Missouri. Arkansas-Pine Bluff will be the cannon fodder for the Thursday night opener.  APB is a school of 2100 students that has gone 9-27 in the last four years.

Coach Drinkwitz says Ahmad Hardy will not play. He says Hardy is “working is rear end off” but is still rehabilitating his wounded leg. Hardy has not practiced and will not be activated untoil he has completed two full weeks of practive at full speed before he will be activated.  Drinkwitz has no timetable for his return.

His replacement will be Jamal Roberts, who is hardly chopped liver.  He ran for 753 yards and six touchdowns last year, averaging 5.5 yards per carry in his three-year collegiate career,   eighteen inches less than Hardy’s career average. Teammates have voted him team captain.

The Tigers also have transfers Xai’Shaun Edwards and Malae Fonoti as backups.

Hardy’s status has not kept SEC coaches from making him one if four Tigers on the pre-season all conference team.  Joining him on the first team is LT Cayden Green. Long Snapper Brett LeBlanc is on the second team. LB Robert Woodyard Jr., is on the third team.

Missouri starts the season ranked 25 by the AP and the Coaches polls. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are 0-2 with little sign of offense in their first two preseason games. The biggest highlight of the 16-15 loss to the Bucs was Harrison Butker’s 69-yard field goal with room to spare. The kick sent the Chiefs to the halftime locker room up 9-0.

But he missed a PAT and a potential game-winning kick near the end.

(ROYALS)—The hottest team in baseball has been the lowly Kansas City Royals, who won their 8th straight game Sunday, 11-7 against the Tigers, a game highlighted (with tongue in cheek) by a stolen base by Salvador Perez, who broke a five-year steal-less streak.  He now has seven in his career. The Royals have outscored opponents 47-27 in those games.

The streak is the Royals’ longest since May, 2024. Although they are now 16 games under .500, they are only 7.5 games out of the last AL playoff spot.

Stay tuned.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have cooled off after last week’s surge and dropped back to .500 with their Sunday sweep loss to the  Phillies—a disastrous loss that resulted from the Phillies scoring six times in the ninth to snatch a 6-4 win. Kyle Schwarber his a 459 foot walk-off homer the first walk-off homer for the Phillies since he did it in July of ’23. Schwarber leads the major leagues with 39 homers.

Now, to the nation’s capital—-

(INDYCAR)—The first automobile race through the streets of the U.S. Capital was a huge hit with fans and drivers,  Kyle Kirkwood dominated the race, tightening his points chase with Alex Palou, who encountered problems throughout the race.

Event organizers counted 215,000 spectators in the two days and noted souvenir sales of almost one million dollars. Event chairman Bud Denker says the door is open for another run next year, that series owner Roger Penske and his friend Donald Trump will talk about a race in 2027. Washingtoh Mayor Muriel Bowser is upbeat.

Kirkwood’s win cuts Palou’s points lead to 31 with three races left. Christian Lundgard chased him trough the closing laps but could not get close enough to try pass. Kirkwood teammates Will Power and Marcus Ericsson gave the Andretti Global team three of the four positions.

The cost of the event—reportedly $35 million—might be discouraging for those hoping for another run next year, but the race was $25 million dollars cheaper than the UFC event at the White House last summer.

About 100,000 complimentary tickets were given away but some individual tickets cost $5,000 and rental of luxury suites cost a cool quarter-mil.  Organizers think they suffered a net loss of about $30 million because of all of the free tickets. The city thinks the race generated $100 to 200 million in revenues for it.

Regardless, the event was a major success for IndyCar, a major visibility boost for the series. And all it takes for a second one is another executive order from Roger Penske’s longtime friend.

(NASCAR)—The cream is rising to the top aa NASCAR’s regular season nears its end.  Ryan Blaney won his second straight race at New Hampshire Sunday, his third victory of the year.

Blaney is second in the point standings to Denny Hamlin, who locked up the regular season championship with his 7th place finish.  The win is his 20th career vicory,

The race started on rain tires after a heavy rain and cars were switched to the usual racing slicks during  the first round of pit stops. A two-tire change on the last stops gave him a lead he never relinquished.

Bubba Wallace chased him across the line, followed by Josh Berry, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs and Hamlin. Tyler Reddick, the pole winner, finished ninth, ahead of Ryan Preece.

Berry’s finish was his third straight on he podium and his fourth straight top ten, a run that his Wood Brothers team has not seen sine 1994 when Morgan Shepherd scored five straight top tens. Unfortunately for him, Wood Brothers had announced before the string began that he would be replaced in the 21-car next year.

Thirteen of the 16 drivers who will chase the championship during the next ten races are locked in. Five drivers will fight for the last three slots next Saturday night at Daytona: Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Shane Van Gisbergen, Preece and Brad Keselowski.

A blown engine wiped out even the remote chance that Ross Chastain had to make the chase. He finished last, 36th.

(GORDON RETURNS, WINS)—Jeff Gordon is 55 years old now but the competitive fire still burns. 

Before the IndyCar race in Washington, the old IROC (International Race of Champions) was resurrected, using the Pontiac Firebirds used in the last years of the original IROC series that last ran twenty years ago.

Retired NASCAR champions Bill Ellott, Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace were joined by Indianapolis 500 winners Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves and road racer Tommy Kendall.   for a two-heat race.  Gordon smoked ‘em all. Both heats.  Gordon started last as the field was inverted for the second race, but he took the lead early in the second race and led the way home again.

 

 

Honors and Accolades  

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I have noticed the universal self-praise President Trump has been receiving as the number of his golf tournament championships increases annually.

I have been too humble to mention the comparable national attention this blog has received. But I have been encouraged by the presidents pride in his golf course prowess to fill you in on the honors and accolades this blog has achieved in the decade-plus in which it has been published.

This is the tenth consecutive year that this blog has won the international prize for the best blog published on bobpriddy.net.  Unlike the winner of the president’s club championship, this blog first must win the local, regional, and national prizes.

The humility that has prevented me from making these announcements has been eased by  President Trump’s self-generated humble displays of his great linksmanship, exemplified by his announcement three years ago.

It is an added tribute to his strength & stamina that he was able to win the tournament that year although he missed the first day of play. He had played a round of golf somewhere else a couple of days earlier and he counted that score for his Mar-a=Lago tournament. I have not read his tournament rules although I am sure there is a past-champion’s exemption for times such as those.

It was an innovative approach that the PGA should consider.

An added distinction came earlier this year in recognition that this series of insightful writings has neither caused nor ended a war when I was awarded the bobpriddy.net Peace Prize. I was not invited to the White House to celebrate that victory. But that’s fair because I haven’t invited him to the Priddy house to celebrate his gold victories.

It takes considerable strength and stamina to compile these entries each day—-and I don’t have a big airplane to take me someplace to compose them.

Strength and stamina are qualities we share in achieving these honors and accolades. He uses a golf cart.  I have a chair from which each of my fingers makes letters appear on a screen. In fact, I probably had far more key strokes than he had golf strokes, so my strength and stamina actually might be superior to his.

I differ, however, that golfing and blogging are “in a real way” like a physical examination because neither involves a prostate check.

Although I cannot match his claim that the same strength and stamina that it takes to win a golf tournament is the same kind of strength and stamina that it takes to govern because cats govern my house more than I do and often sit on my lap to supervise. He has no supervision.

He and I share the same ability to preserve our strength and stamina for the important times by maintaining an attitude that any time is a good time for a nap.

On rare occasions I have been forced to miss some days of posting, much as Mr. Trump missed the entire first day of his 2023 tournament that he won, although I think his number of missed days governing exceeds my missed days of posting.

For many years, bobpriddy.net also had a golf championship and, as is the case with Mr. Trump’s club tournament, I won every year whether it was on the glamorous Pirate’s Cove Course at the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, or at courses in Michigan and Colorado or near Jefferson City.  Sometimes there were other competitors but club rules categorized all of them as amateurs and scoring records were not kept.

I would show you my wall of medals and my shelves of trophies but all of you know that I differ somewhat from the president by not being as prone to gratuitous displays as he seems to be. I can’t afford a ballroom. The best we can do is a walk-in shower and two walk-in closets.

I wonder if his club trophy is a new one each year or if it is a large trophy such as the Stanley Cup that is engraved with the winner’s name annually. I also wonder if it’s 24-carat gold. Mine are more modest although several are artistic creations in Lucite.

The burden of the passing years is a concern and it is hard to anticipate what will happen when this blog’s greatest inspiration exits the stage. There will be no bobpriddy.net museum and library.  I don’t think there will be room in my urn.

Nonetheless, congratulations to me for winning this important international award again. In all honesty, I could not have done it without him.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Smithsonian Museum of Un-American History 

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If Donald Trump thought he could get away with naming the Smithsonian Museum of American History something such as a Museum of Un-American History, he would already have signed an executive order doing it.

While most of us were paying attention to celebrating Independence Day, Trump’s White House Domestic Policy Council was issuing its latest accusations targeting that museum. For months his administration has been busy “reforming” our national parks, monuments, and museums to get rid of “anti-Americanism.”  He prefers to pretend that slavery was a friendly relationship between master and slave, that the Confederacy and its key figures who repudiated the United States Constitution and fought with a breakaway segment of our country openly based on protecting slavery were just advocating for state’s rights, that nothing serious happened to Native American nations, and that his White Christians are the only important religious policy setters of our society.

Last year, Trump ordered the Smithsonian to remove anti-American ideology from the 21 museums and galleries (and the National Zoo) that fall under the Smithsonian system.

The Trump Domestic Policy Council’s 162-page report refers to “thinly veiled anti-Americanism” at the history museum and accuses it of showing this country is “a fundamentally oppressive nation.”  The council accuses the museum of moving “toward an extreme political activism.”

Then it breaks down that activism as “anti-white activism,” and “illegal alien activism,” and “transgender activism.”  It is also critical of the museum for having exhibits and programs depicting slavery, race, and systemic inequality, as ABC News put it in one of its reports.

I have been to many of those 21 museums, some of them—including American history—many times.  I am a white Christian with an ancestor who settled in Virginia on a land grant given him by the first Queen Elizabeth and I can tell you the council report, as is the case with the majority of Trump’s appraisals of the general history of our nation, is pure BS.

Perhaps Trump doesn’t like to see (as if he has ever visited the place) the whites-only Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where four black college students sat down on February 1, 1960 and politely asked for service.  They refused to leave when asked to leave, setting off demonstrations that led to eventual integration of the lunch counter and helped trigger the civil rights movement in the south and its large student base. Four years later, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

One of the museum’s directors, Anthea Hartig, has called the exhibit in question, “central to our mission to explore, preserve and share the complexity of our past (that would be part of the America 250 celebration)…a bold and immersive experience across all three exhibition floors of the National Museum of American History. Suggestions that the Smithsonian had planned or intended to remove the lunch counter and stools are false. Daily, thousands of visitors view and learn from these cherished objects in the national collection.”

The Organization of American Historians charged the Trump administration with trying to “coerce Smithsonian leadership to shape ​its presentation of ⁠U.S. history so that it serves the administration’s political agenda – part of an ongoing and multi-pronged assault by the Trump administration against accurate and evidence-based history in American public life.”

Trump has issued an executive order directing notices be put at the entrances to the history museum with a warning that “the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.”

It is precisely love of country that makes Trump’s signs and his attacks on this and other Smithsonian museums so putrid.

This statue in the history museum by Horatio Greenough might be the symbol of Trump’s America.  Washington, all-victorious and all-virtuous, a symbol of American courage, a legendary figure whose human shortcomings are overlooked—including owning 317 slaves at the time of his death and dispatching the Army to punish Native Americans in the new Northwest Territory objecting to white settlers taking their lands (resulting in an ignominious defeat), a man who refused a $48,000 salary to lead the army and asked only to be reimbursed for his expenses that turned out to be about $450,000.

Next thing you know, the man who thinks Mount Rushmore is incomplete without him will decide this museum needs a Trumpian figure like the one of George Washington. I’m afraid a marble image of Donald Trump without his shirt might make the museum for adults-only because the statue would be too frightening for children.

One wonders if Trump ever saw The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the great western film about a man credited with killing a dangerous outlaw who actually was killed by another man.  After telling the truth to a newspaper editor near the end of the film, James Stewart’s character asked, “You’re not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?”  And editor Maxwell Scott (played by Carleton Young) responds, “This is the West, sir.  When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

That’s Trump’s preferred history. Ignore the truth. Ignore the reality. Believe a legend—and he’ll tell you what the legend will be.

But this isn’t the West.  It’s America. Our history has had its troublesome times (including this seemingly endless period). How we overcome those troubles is a part of history that says we can always do and be better, a concept he has trouble grasping for himself as well as for the nation.

In this time of heightened awareness of our nation’s history, we cannot let the bigotry of our historically-illiterate President prevail. We cannot become a better people if we ignore the times when we were at our worst and a President who desires a return to that era should be resisted strongly by an unafraid nation.

We are likely to have more about Trump’s desire to make us as historically ignorant as he prefers to be.

(Photo credits: Smithsonian)

Secretary of Censorship 

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Let’s be clear about what I am about to discuss.  As a journalist, a writer, an author, a parent, grandparent and great-grandparent, and a long-time library board member, I will not let someone else, particularly a government official, dictate what is appropriate for me to read, to think, or to speak. Nor will I allow someone else, government official or private citizen, to tell me I do not have the right to decide what is appropriate reading material for my family.

It appears our latest Secretary of State has assumed the odious role his predecessor took on as a censor for our libraries.

Denny Hoskins has decided he has the authority to take state funding away from the Columbia Public Library because it has books in it that he doesn’t like and furthermore tells people it has them, taking it upon himself to decide that some members of the public who want to go to the public library should not make their own decisions about what they or their children can read.

Hoskkins had a fit recently when he learned the Columbia Public Library was going to have a “rainbow story time” for families who wanted to participate.  Josh Hancock of The Missouri independent reported library staff read books called “Rainbowsaurus” and “Big Wig” to the children and their parents. The first book is about a rainbow-dinosaur. The other book is, says Josh, “about a child who wins a costume contest in drag.”

The library spent all of $26 for a wig and contact paper for the event. Eighteen dollars went for the wig. Hoskins wants to withhold thousands of dollars in state library aid because the event was held.

Hoskins heard about it before the event and warned the library that it would lose all of its state and federal aid if it held the $26 event for people to willingly attend.

Then when the library, where like all libraries the freedom to read, to  think, to learn, and to form one of the most dangerous things allowed in a Democracy—ideas—are cherished held the event anyway, Hoskins and State Senator Rick Brattin threw together a news conference to announce punishment for the library’s refusal to follow their dictates.

Brattin is hoping to be a Congressman in one of the gerrymandered districts he and other legislative Trumpians drew up to protect the political interests of a president who is only interested in libraries in terms of a potential library that will preserve his greatness, and his surplus Qatar 747 that is costing a billion dollars to convert to presidential transportation.

“Unconscionable if not criminal,” Hoskins called the event. It was, he said, an effort to groom children.

Groom children? It’s a pejorative that has become popular on the Right, defined by the Cleveland Clinic as the “process of manipulation and abuse {that} can stem from what may initially seem to be an innocent relationship with a stranger or adult authority figure.”

A story time at a public library designed to foster “manipulation and abuse of children?”

These two justified their outburst with a letter from Attorney General Catherine Hanaway.  But the Independent story said that Hanaway “acknowledged the library’s right to determine its own programming and said she was prepared to act only if a program broke the law.”

It doesn’t break the law, which talks about giving pornography to minors or making a public display of sexually explicit material in public.

It’s quite a leap for these self-righteous officials to declare a rainbow-colored dinosaur is pornographic or a cheap wig as sexually explicit material.

Apparently Hoskins and Brattin have superior thoughts of such evaluations. Brattin complained the books had “a message that’s meant to sexualize” and advocated a “lifestyle” that would weaken the defenses of the children.

We wonder how the parents feel about being categorized as enablers of such behavior..

Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson told Columbia TV station KOMU that talking about LGBTQ+ issues is not a crime. Hoskins admitted at the ;press conference that “pornography is OK to be talked about because it’s a First Amendment right.”

The Independent says neither he nor Brattin could identify any laws that had been broken but Hoskins vowed that he would ask future legislatures “to ensure that this is illegal in the future.”

First Amendment to the contrary, of course.

One of the all-time great science fiction books is Ray Bradury’s dystopian novel about book-burning, Fahrenheit 451. Midway through story, one of those who burn books is confronted by one of those who memorizes them before they can be destroyed—

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They’re Caesar’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, ‘Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.’ Most of us can’t rush around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don’t ask for guarantees. And don’t look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.

—Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Sometimes books do  indeed “remind us what asses and fools we are.”

Notes From a Quiet Hill (Worst Campaign Commercials, Best movie scenes, Cavernous Man-Made Potholes edition)

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We’re hoping to have enough time between automated Medicare phone calls to put these thoughts together. We did get a real person once a few days ago. He wound up apologizing.

Moving on to the pithy observations:

I can understand naturally-occurring potholes.  But I’m having trouble dealing with some man-made potholes in Jefferson City. A couple of years ago I had an expensive encounter with a pothole on I-70. We don’t have anything such as that in town but we do have some that give pretty big jolts.

The resurfacing of some of our streets has left some manhole covers below the street surface. Readers in Jefferson City might be intimately familiar with a real suspension banger for cars turning right from Jefferson Street onto East Capitol Avenue. For example.

It has taken me too long to decide on an alternate way to church.  That’s not the only man-made pothole in our street system but it’s the worst I’ve encountered so far.

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Nancy and I are college graduates.  I even went to graduate school until I discovered her, at which point I got a real job so we could get married (This is only partly true but I’m not sure which part).  We, as educated people, have trouble accepting how awful the commercials are for the income tax elimination proposal on the August ballot.  In the case I’m about to cite, they are so intellectually silly that the point they want to make is lost, assuming they make a point.

Here’s the script for one that is a total turn-off in our household;

Some uninvited guests have been eating at your table for years. Property taxes and income taxes, helping themselves to money that belongs to your family. Amendment 5 shows them the door: it cuts property taxes, phases out the income tax, and shifts the burden to the big corporations that have been getting a free meal. This is your table. It’s time you had room at it. Vote YES on Amendment 5. August 4.

The shifting of the tax burden to big corporations is exactly the opposite of what we have understood the proposal to be about and the ad’s targeting of them is pretty bewildering.  As we understand the rational explanations of Amendment 5, the shift of the tax burden would be from the wealthy and the big corporations to the little guy.

Further, aren’t “big corporations” supposed to flock to Missouri because we’re cutting the taxes?  Not according to this awful commercial that says we need to “show them the door,” presumably the door out, not in.

000

The famous archaeologist Dr. Alan Grant died a few days ago.  We will always remember him for one of the most magical sequences in movie history—the day Dr. Grant saw his first living dinosaur—and when we saw it with him—and then the first dinosaur herd.

We know Dr. Grant, of course, by his real name—Sam Neill

Remember, he and the rest of the cast were not seeing what we saw on the screen, which made the acting that carried the impact of the scene so extraordinary. We were as emotionally awed as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) were.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sam%20neill%20sees%20a%20dinosaur&view=detail&mid=883E4913FA95A4A0FD448

Everything about the Jurassic Park movie franchise seemed formulaic after this.  But these first few moments are pure magic—and we saw them with the eyes of Alan and Ellie.

Off the top of our head we can think of few other movie scenes with the visual scope and emotional impact of those few minutes.

Perhaps our first view of the slowly revolving space station in 2001 (with perfectly chosen music making it even better). Maybe the great pull-back scene in Gone With the Wind that showed all of the casualties of the Battle of Atlanta.  Maybe the intensity of Pickett’s Charge in Ted Turner’s “Gettysburg” series.

You might have comparable scenes in your memory. Share them, if you like, in the box below.

(picture credits: Instagram)