Monday Monday!

1) Justice and Tish James have the fucker right where they want him, looking all forlorn and realizing his 78 years of crime is coming home to roost. The resting I'm Fucked Face is all one needs to start a week off right. Oh yeah, the Defendant went on a rant for the cameras about witch hunts and how much his bed bug infested "resort" is worth (over a billion dollars) and "racist" Attorneys General and and how much the polls are with him and blah blah blah. He really should resist overinflating his Mar A Shithole hiding place for classified docs because thats why he's on trial for in the first place. Hey remember back when Florida tax officials valued Mar A Dumpo at $36 million and the Perp appealed the valuation as way too high and tried to get it lowered to $16 million?  He obviously just denies it happened. Throw the book at this fuckstick once and for all. The fact he's been gotten by a black woman is even more sweet. You go girl.

2) Over the weekend Rep Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm blocks away from the Capitol and the Republicans are shitting their khakis on how this is worse than Jan 6 and let all the feces throwing monkeys out of prison and throw his ass in prison and oh the drama. Republicans, already in a sort of pisser about Speakers and Ukraine and cutting safety nets and starving the elderly have their new "crisis" . A fucking fire alarm got pulled by a "Marxist" trying to overthrow the gubmint! The horror! While the GOP has serial statutory rapists and in public handjob givers and three toed sloths and yelling goateed screamers and frauds and ex felons on the payroll they want to expel Bowman for trying to get out a door to help them pass a spending bill. Meanwhile the friends over at Fox News are going to all the racist tropes they can insisting Bowman gets away with it cuz he's black. Cuz we all know the only oppressed people are MAGA white folks. This will blow over as soon as a new GOP "crisis" pops up and they can go apoplectic as they attempt to turn America into a fascist one party state.

3) The Nebraska Cornhuskers, a team I've been with since birth, a college football blue blood if you stop counting since 2003, is shit. Watching Michigan look like the 1995 Huskers in just pushing the entire team around like a bully for 3 1/2 hours was rock bottom? Or was it? We only stayed into the 3rd quarter when after stopping Michigan for once on a 3rd and 9 the Huskers were called for offsides which made it 3rd and 4 but noooo...a Husker was also called for an unsportsmanlike conduct giving the Blue a first down. The incompetence was too much and for maybe the 2nd time ever we left the stadium in quarter 3. The Michigan fans seated around us were almost more embarrassed for us than we were. Positive talk like "oh you guys will be back" and "just not your day" was abundant (funny thing is we heard the same thing back in 2018 when Michigan curb stomped us in Ann Arbor). Hey Blue, we are used to this sucking. Oh well, Husker fans ARE the Cubs fans of football. We just keep showing up no matter how bad it is. Go Big Red!

4) State Senator Katheen Kauth. God gawd what a hateful sour pussed woman .

She was appointed to the Nebraska Legislature by a trust fund baby named Pete Ricketts. Her bill to outlaw treatment for transgender youth was passed by the Lege after a contentious session that included a 12-week abortion ban to boot. Next session she vows to take on the next most important issue of our crazy times, forcing bathroom etiquette onto Nebraska schools. boys use boy's bathrooms and girls use girls bathrooms just like it is now. But because so many males are cutting off their junk just so they can leer at girls in a girl's bathroom this is priority one for the nutjobs like Kauth. Kauth recently had a campaign sign defaced with the word "facsist" and the anarchy symbol. Misspelled words and anarchy. Oh the humanity. Shes attempting to raise money off it because "Antifa" is obviously after her. Yeah, Kathleen, next time you go all Nancy Mace and have somebody deface your own sign get somebody who can fucking spell.

Friday Thoughts!

1) For the love of Bear Bryant, Alabama, you sent this ex football coach to the Senate instead of a decent guy named Doug Jones who had prosecuted the crackers who blew up the 16th Street Baptist church and killed 3 little black girls...Oh I get it now. Chinless crackers gotta chinless cracker. 

Tommy Tuberville is holding up military promotions because he dont care for those wimmen in the military gettin abortions and lettin the military pay for travel because certain states run by ex-football coach types and self-hating women won't let them get the procedure in states where the bases are. Tuberville, who without a doubt is the dumbest man in the Senate perhaps ever, continues to keep his stranglehold on national security because he wants all women to birth babies, especially the white ones,  he and his GOP colleagues can ignore after the first breath. I once saw Tuberville, coaching for Texas Tech, stick 14 players on the field during not one but two plays in a meaningless blow out of Kansas . Tuberville is not smart folks and he proves it every goddamned day. Thanks Alabama.

2) California Senator Diane Feinstein has died of being 90. She has been in bad shape for a few years now but stuck out the Weekend at Bernie's existence the Senate Democrats forced upon her because an even worse group of scumbags, the Senate GOP, would have refused to replace her on the Judiciary Committee and gummed up any new judges Joe Biden nominated with 7-7 votes. 

Feinstein was not perfect or even coherent the last few years but at one point she was in pure "First Woman (fill in the blank) " whether it be Mayor or Senator. She had her times at being brilliant and an advocate for gun regulations. Who can forget the 2013 version of a beardless ferret named Ted Cruz attempting to mansplain the 2nd Amendment to the 80-year-old Senate veteran who suffered no fools. She took Cruz's arrogance and shoved it back up his ass from whence it came.

RIP Diane. You were great for many years. I'm sure the GOP base will be very kind in its condolences 

3) Government shutdowns. They suck and they're always the results of far right wingnuts posturing for the GOP base prior to an election year. We need to cut spending and taxes, we need to reinforce the border to keep the browns out, we need to allow Russian murderers to do whatever they want, we need to starve the poor children we secretly enjoy to make our racist tropes. All day today the House and its really terrible actors faking outrage that it's not us shutting the government but the Democrats and their spending (the House is the purse not Joe Biden). 

The GOP House is being run by Neanderthals, ex strippers, statutory rapists, goateed yelling  confederates, self aggrandizing grifters and ex felons, GED failures, and power mad phonies.  As long as they exist the shit storm will continue. Vote them all out.

4) Curt Schilling is a piece of shit. He always has been whether he's smearing blood on his sock pitching for the Red Sox, taking government money because his business fails, expressing anti-Semitic tropes, or just being a MAGA asshole, Schilling is on a mission to be such a monster that he will never get into the Baseball Hall of Fame (which he doesn't belong in anyway) and thus can claim he's a martyr to the MAGA cause.

Schilling, a true teenager I wanna be first to tell you mode, disclosed that former Red Sox pitcher and general good dude, Tim Wakefield, has brain cancer. Then he also disclosed that Wakefield's wife also suffers from cancer just to compound his dickwadery. The problem is that Wakefield's family didn't want it out there. Being private people, it was NOT their wish to share this with the general public. But what does Schilling care? It's about him, not some beloved knuckleballer from the past. As far as I'm concerned, I'd put Tim Wakefield in the Hall of Fame (which will never happen) before I'd let a loud-mouthed cretin like Schilling in. 

Later

Division 3 Football Rocks!

 My first in person football game was in 1963 when my Dad took me to see Nebraska beat the shit out of South Dakota or South Dakota State I'm not sure. Then I saw the Steelers and the Vikings from a rickety bleacher at the old Rosenblatt. From then on it was Husker football, high school football, University of Nebraska at Omaha football (those were the days before Trev Alberts decided a hockey team was more important than football OR a national champion wrestling team), an occasional NFL game in Kansas City, and an occasional Kansas game (ugh). 

About 5 years ago or so, I discovered Division 3 college football. Because my nephew, Tad, was playing center at Nebraska Wesleyan and only because of that did I begin to notice that football for the love of the game actually existed on a college level. I know its all a cliche to say college players play for good old State U and the glory but we all know what bullshit that is. But Division 3 college players truly do play for the love of the game. There are NO scholarships, no NIL money (I think Tad once got $50 bucks for tweeting about Runza once), nuthin. They have no incentive to lift weights, work out, practice 6 days a week, take long ass bus rides to far away places and then back in the dead of night other than they love the game of football.

Nebraska Wesleyan began its 2023 season far away in Sherman, Texas against Austin College. Its ten hours away. Its in Texas for chrissakes. But Max's Mom and I decided what the hell, lets go. And go we did. To Sherman, Texas to watch Division 3 college football. This is exactly the type of adventure I love. An adventure nobody in their right mind, other than parents of players would endure. Aunts and uncles of players? Damn right.

The road to Texas consists of flat prairie, toll roads in Kansas (really, you haven't paid for freakin turnpike yet?), red dirt in Oklahoma, rest stops and Spotify and podcasts (thank god they exist what a time to be alive!). Sherman, Texas is a smaller town barely in Texas. It consists of I think one road in which you are constantly on in some form, the Sam Rayburn highway. You are on this road turning left going in circles so much it's like you actually drove in a NASCAR race.

Austin College is a small private college in Sherman with an NAIA athletic program. What's that mean? Well, they aren't in the NCAA Division 3, so they can give scholarships to play football (what that means I have no idea). They are called the Kangaroos or Roos for short and have a large stadium like all Texas schools do. They also went 1-9 last year and have a new coach so optimism reigns in Sherman. Nebraska Wesleyan also went 1-9 last season, so something has to give here.

The game itself is good football. These kids are out there in the Texas heat cramping up like crazy, getting hurt, giving it all they got, and what more can you ask? Nephew Tad is the starting center, all conference and a captain. Scoff if you wish but this kid is dedicated to being the best he can be as an undersized offensive lineman 24/7. I am proud of him and his ability to perform at a superior level and as a linemen get no glory. Dedication, man. 

Wesleyan broke Austin College early and held them off with two defensive goal line stands to take the season opener 19-7. As a point of pride, Tad made a serious block that saved a sack and allowed a long pass completion to be had (that it was called back for some reason is of no importance because the kid did his job). That's the play I remember and always will. 

After the night game, the NCAA forced Wesleyan to get back on their bus and ride home all night sore and tired and cramping (it was like a MASH unit on both sidelines there was so much cramping going on) because the NCAA sucks. Forcing a team to NOT stay an extra night at a hotel after a night game in the Texas heat is not only unsafe, but also downright cruel. But that's the NCAA, an organization stuck in the days of the flying wedge and sis boom bah. 

It was a long trip home also. A stop at Win Star Casino, a gigantic decadent resort that would fit right in out in Las Vegas, cut the drive from 10 hours to nine hours (woo hoo). 

Congrats to Nebraska Wesleyan. Back in Lincoln next Saturday to play somebody. But wait, my Huskers play at Colorado on TV at the same time. Oh well, I guess the Huskers will have to win without my help sitting on the couch screaming and scaring the dog. I'll be in Lincoln screaming Go P Wolves!

The Chicks!

 

Its been 14 years since the Dixie Chicks made new music and the Dixie Chicks never will make new music. but The Chicks will. Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer Robison blew into Omaha last night and were met by a 90% female audience of women and daughters and grandmas ready to become empowered by music.

After a 40-minute opener from singer songwriter Ben Harper (not my cup of tea and in fact a snooze IMO) the digital screen behind the stage played MTV videos of female rockers like Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, The Go Gos, The Eurythmics, The Runaways and finally the female rock legend Joan Jett's Bad Reputation to which the Chicks used as an opening to come to the stage and start.

Now I am not a Chicks connoisseur as I am not exactly their demo so a lot of the songs were unfamiliar to me though the experience of new music was actually thrilling because this is one helluva band. With Maines vocals, McGuire's fiddle and Strayers banjo and guitar, along with the three-part harmonies, these middle-aged moms delivered. From opening number Gaslight, a song off their new album, right up to the closing Goodbye Earl, I couldn't stop tapping my foot. I loved the song choices, the digital backdrop that featured shots of Trump floating on a lake with Putin and DeSantis floating on a rubber duck and sinking as Maines sang " you'll get what's coming to you" during a song called Tights On My Boat which I think was more directed at her ex-husband as she flipped a double bird during the song.

The hits were there. The beauty of Landslide, a song originally sung by a bleating goat (yeah not a fan of you know who) but with Natalie is a thing of wonder. Travelin Soldier, which for some reason I knew every word, Wide Open Spaces, and of course Not Ready To Make Nice and Goodbye Earl.

But the songs that I found most compelling were the ones I was not familiar with. A wonderful version of Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton's Rainbowland, a song that was banned in certain rural schools in Wisconsin cuz ya know, rainbows will turn you gay. A new song, March March, which Maines sang with a list of murdered black men showing on the digital screen. "March March to my own drum...Hey Hey I'm an army of one". For Her, another new song was also a standout to me ..."Stand up, show love, for her, for her". 

Look, Natalie Maines may be short, but she's been fighting all her life, whether its Toby Keith or George W Bush or the entire right wing smear machine along with the death threats that come from the goons it inspires, Maines truly has no fucks left to give. Never had any to give quite frankly. She says what's on her mind and she lets you know what it is. Between her defiant lyrics and the truly incredible musical talent of McGuire and Strayer, this band was meant to perform. And perform it does.

The arena was perhaps 75% full and most of it, a good majority of it, were women. Oh, there were men there, I was one, but the show was for women and their desires to be taken seriously. It was great because not once did I hear a typical Bro Country lyric about Friday nights, drinkin beer, trucks, and tight jeans. It was refreshing. I did see three men, all of whom looked like Jan 6 participants, wearing T shirts espousing the NRA, Back Rifle Coffee and one with a vulgarity regarding Joe Biden. Do these fucking idiots know where they are? That was not refreshing.

Vivek Ramaswamy!!

 That smile is so punchable. Its Vivek Ramaswamy , the "star" of the first Republican debate. The "star" because because the mush brains whose attention spans have wandered off the Mar A Lago grounds are looking for yet another loudmouth kook who owns the libs. Vivek was smiling his bleached teeth smile constantly even as Chris Christie and Nikki Haley gave the "star" a wedgie and stuffed him in the toilet bowl. 

Vivek Ramaswamy was a goofing voice of insanity and inanity all night as he advocated laying off 75% of government employees, climate change is a hoax, give Ukraine to Putin and Taiwan, elimination of the Department of Education AND teachers unions, and denying what he said on tape. It's no wonder the crazies are so smitten with the smiling cobra, he's a brand new grifter they can't wait to send money to. Ramassamy is the Trump of 2024. A smiling idiot with the gift of gab. For chrissakes he called Trump the greatest President of the 21st century which begs the question why the fuck are you running against him then?

The other parts of the debate. Ehhhh...Ron Desantis looked as if he needed somebody to unplug him and plug him back in. His creepy look and his constant repeating of his campaign talking points was nothing new. Tim Scott made no inroads. He's the guy the GOP says is good but would never support. He's just a feel good some of my best friends are black guy. Asa Hutchinson is up there for why? The leg challenged Governor of North Dakota has great Brezhnev like eyebrows but no substance. Besides he paid people $20 to give him $1. Economic "genius". Mike Pence is DOA for doing his constitutional duty. Oh he's still a piece of  crap but he is the one who MAGA wanted to hang.

Chris Christie is there because he hates Trump . Probably dumped by Trump and is still bitter. His calling Vivek a chatty AI bot pretty much was the funniest moment. But how long he sticks around is a guess. He has no chance and who knows how long before he'd crawl back to Trump begging forgiveness. 

Nikki Haley had perhaps the most logical moment when she attacked Ramaswamy for being a naive little bitch on foreign policy. Vivek's position to let Putin have Ukraine was an unfortunate position to have as yesterday was the day Putin murdered yet another guy who wronged him. I'm sure Trump was absolutely jealous and screaming why cant I do that while sitting there with fake Melania. Haley took Viveks manhood and flushed it down the toilet as the smiling idiot stood and watched. Oh sure, like Pence and Christie, Nimrata Haley is a low down scumbucket, just less so than the rest. 

But to the ADHD Republican base, because their god wasnt up there, they became distracted by the hollering little man with the Musk complex. And we all know to the base, money + crazy= Support.

Enjoy your "win" Vivek Ramaswamy. Your act will become tedious soon enough when the OG nutjob gets back.

Why??

 WHY isn't this loudmouthed crook not in jail yet?

Lincoln Salt Dogs!!

 The trip ends with a short jaunt down the road to Lincoln where the independent league Salt Dogs play at Haymarket Park, home to the underachieving Big Red baseball team.

On the way the traffic on I-80 came to a dead stop right past Exit 420 (IF Nebraska ever pulls its head out of its backwards conservative ass and legalizes marijuana what could be a better place for a dispensary than Exit 420?). The Husker traffic in the fall always does this but why on an August night when absolutely nothing is happening. Can the Salt Dogs be that popular? When the weigh station was within sight I saw the right lane was closed and the millions of trucks needed to get over and thus the standstill. At the weigh station were 5 State Patrol cars and about 8 or 9 officers standing in the right median, I dont know, discussing past glory on 2-pound pot busts, I have no idea. But that's what the holdup was, a State Patrol AA meeting or something.

Haymarket Park is right over the Interstate from the gigantic tomb like football stadium where lots of losses have occurred in the past few years. I mean seriously, before they put a fake side up and a fresh coat of paint on this pig, it was grey and dull and when it rained it looked like a home that Dracula would love. But thats another story.

Haymarket is a rather new stadium (20 years or so) with the modern walk around concourse though its not very wide. The price to get in is anywhere from $12-$25 a bit more expensive than the other places I went. The beer on Saturday night is $3 for the real low rent stuff like Hamms and PBR. Big deal I cant taste the difference any longer after that encounter with the on-fire tamales in Flagstaff.

The heat was unbearable, and I was under the overhang out of the sun. By inning 2 there were people leaving, by inning 4 there were lots of people leaving. I persisted. Switching from Hamms to water kept me from puking. As I wandered up to get water, I damn near passed out as I saw an older woman sitting with EMTs being tended to. JFC this heat and humidity is a killer.

The players are all 25-35 as Ive stated. Hanging onto a dream. A former Husker pitcher who had washed out in the minors was pitching and it became apparent why he had washed out. It was 5-0 by inning 3. But the decent sized crowd of Big Red/Saltdogs fans still stayed loyal and cheered him as he was pulled from the game losing 8-2. Go Big Red Forever baby!

Before the game, since the opposing team was from Winnipeg, the national anthem was preceded by the cheery tune of Oh Canada. That is a national anthem! My second fave. Too bad the opposing team wasn't from Paris or I'd have been even more happy. Once Oh Canada finished, that war promoting turd the Star Spangled Banner was sung and ruined it all. Ohhhhhhhhhhh Canada our home and native land.........,

I made it thru 7 innings and then had to go. I was dripping wet and and ready for A/C in the old Prius for the jaunt back home. The State Patrolman's meeting was over and it was clear sailing. Until next year, gawd willing, I sign off on the Minor league admiration tour.