FASHIONABLE BASEBALL - NOT

I am an old fashioned traditionalist when it comes to baseball. It still bothers me some to acknowledge the four finger walk. It hurts to see designated hitters in the lineup. There is more but artificial turf and moveable rooves that is progress, I guess.

But seeing player wearing  jewelry that would make Joan Rivers cry and open shirts that look like the 70’s disco era, that is not baseball.

When fielders get together with the pitcher, they look like an active Al Quaeda cell. Well trimmed beards, OK. But the scraggly beards (as Kershaw’s is) does not make the player a winner. There is an old saying that if you do not shave every day, you are a bum. Then there is the Chasidic look. Justin Turner, not being  Jewish ( I think) has that look down very well. There are other players that have beards that are not even a little trim.

In no way am I a Yankees fan. BUT, they do look professional. Clean shaven faces, shirts buttoned up and the drug dealer jewelry is at home. They say that a uniform is a uniform not a background for bangles and beards.

I saw a St. Louis player with his shirt opened to his waist with no undershirt to absorb sweat. He also had a terrible beard.

Grandal has such a heavy chain around his neck he has trouble negotiating a swing. Sixteen ounces of jewelry and a 32 ounce bat – that is a load to carry to the plate.  Bellinger has two necklaces, one black and the other gold.

Baseball is not clean cut – anymore. Tatoos up and down arms and necks. I know they say they have some significance  but we as spectators have no idea what the significance is. I know that it is personal but I am not ready for my grandsons (one already has them) to have ink ornamentation over his body that he will regret later on in life. Let’s face it, trends come and go but the tats stay.

Religious symbols hanging from the players neck are nice when they are in the locker room or out to dinner. I am not impressed with the size of the cross, how much gold it is, from m experience the size of the symbol and the number of diamonds in it does not indicate the character of the wearer.  It may be the opposite. Gang members sport large religious symbols - they don't appear to get in the way of their behavior or his character. The larger symbol is to show how dedicated he is to his faith but maybe his trying to say something that he feels inadequate in his faith and twenty ounces of gold will endear him to his god. A swing and miss won’t endear him to anyone, fan, players, managers or gods.

In the seventies MLB teams wore softball uniforms with the exception of a few teams such as the Yankees and the Dodgers. I hated the uniforms, as I said I am a traditionalist. I like stirrups not long pants. Some players are getting back to that and I enjoy seeing it. Since the softball uniform shirts had no buttons, they couldn’t be opened to the waist like in Saturday Night Fever.

The open shirt does not make Justin Turner a solid hitter (he is a favorite of mine – but not in a sartorial sense). The crazy beard does not make Turner a better third baseman, but he does look like a Chasidic Rabbi with a good arm. He is outdone by Charlie Blackmon in the beard department.

It is refreshing to a see ball players looking professional. Clean faces, clean arms and their uniforms worn as they were designed. When I visited the baseball Hall of Fame, I was struck by how the players dressed and comported themselves. The photos were inspirational. From their photos  I had no idea what their religious affiliation was nor did I want to know. That was their business. My business was their wins and losses and batting averages.

The old wool uniforms got so heavy and hot hen the player perspired they weighed an addition few pounds, yet their shirts stayed buttoned until they reached the club house.

One last gripe. There are a few players that wear their cap cockeyed. That drives me nuts because I am disoriented when I see the player. I saw a pitcher not long ago with his hat to one side and he got clobbered. So, it is a fashion statement that is not fashionable. That includes flat bills on the cap. The reason for the curved bill is to reduce sunlight coming into the player’s eyes from the sides.

I have vented. I know I will change no players dress habits but they need to know I am watching.

That is my take, you decide.

 

LIAR, LEAKER

Was the orange man looking in the mirror when he said those words? More than 2500 documented lies from Trump – but someone else who is not a fabricator is the “liar.” From someone who shared Israeli intelligence with Russian diplomats is not the leaker.

A man who has a record of not paying his bills calls out someone that fulfils his obligations in serving his country as weak and unreliable. A man who was so cowardly that he made sure he was deferred five times has no right to call out and criticize anyone. But he does. According to him, he would have gone into the high school to confront the shooter. That is so laughable it is beyond my comprehension.

Yet, there is about 30% of the population that loves this idiot, and that too is beyond my comprehension. My original theory was that those that support him, in addition to white supremacists, are people that want a major brown out. (That is, if you are brown – get out). I know many of these people and I am so disappointed with them.

The man has no moral compass, or maybe one that just points south. Where does he get off calling good people names?  It is the mirror. He sees himself and knows what he is and then says I will call others based on what I am – not a good person. Not a person of value. He is actually a school yard bully – real scum.

I am anxiously awaiting the video from Moscow. Even if we see him in his birthday suit, he will claim it is not him just like to voice on the NBC tape is not him, according to the lying blowhard.  This guy won’t see truth if it hit him the eyes.

He is also dangerous. He is dangerous to our democracy.  He wants to jail reporters for reporting the news.  Seems like Egypt, Russia just poisons them.  He has no consistency and blames everyone else for the mess he creates.  It come down to this, he talks we listen and then discount everything he says.

If his lips are moving and if his shoulder moves, he is lying. There is no doubt about it, he is lying. Or, he is exaggerating.  Did you hear how he saved the Olympics? How?  He didn’t go as president or an athlete.  His second banana did go and blew a major opportunity to some diplomatic good.

According to some foreign diplomats he is a one man Saturday Night live sketch. He has them all laughing to the point of peeing in their pants. The hookers just peed on him.

We have lost the trust from the rest of the world. World leaders do not believe him. Prime Minister Abe came to the US for the food, his facial expressions told you how he was responding to Orange Man. Mira Lago serves great, tremendous food. So, why not go?

“Mission Accomplished.”  President Bush tried that slogan and it diminished him. Having one airstrike is not winning the war, not even close. Next we will hear how he was in the Situation Room defining targets. His ego is his downfall or will be his major downfall. When he said he didn’t know about the $130,000 he threw his lawyer, not under the bus but in front of it.

There is no doubt in my mind that he will be remembered as a world class liar, world class ego maniac, world class betrayer of people and worst president that this country ever had. In that category he will be number one.

Another alarming thing is he love for “his generals.” He is undermining the Justice Department, the State Department  and others so that he can dissolve his administration and replace the cabinet secretaries with “his Generals.’ Marshal Law is on its way, if it is up to Trump. U.S. Troops on the border is a start. Watch these words,  I am so hopeful that I am wrong.

Bottom line is we created a big monster from a smaller monster. Now we have to find a way to destroy the monster we created. Maybe Mueller will chop him down to size. Maybe he will be wearing prison grays soon but not soon enough. The damage is ongoing and I see no let up from his destructive ways.

November seems so far away. If the government  changes and we get legislators that put country before party we have a chance.  So, let’s be hopeful that November brings about change, that  Mueller gets his man and we, Americans, can get back to our way of life.

That is my take – you decide.

THE EMERGING AMERICAN VERSION OF TASS

Tass, the wholly owned Russian News Agency is being replicated in the United States by The Sinclair Broadcast Group.  Just as our president is a wholly owned entity by Putin, Sinclair outlets have to repeat their "must air" reports along with the same wording use by the wholly owned Russian entity, Donald J. Trump.

Soon, with our government’s blessing, the Sinclair Group will own about 70% of the news outlets in the United States. This will be our version of Tass. Our Sinclair friendly government is complicit in Sinclair’s efforts.

Yes, their TV stations are required to read “must air” reports that Sinclair sends to them. Now that is true FAKE NEWS. Our “genius” president thinks they are terrific doing tremendous reporting. He now has a second source for intelligence briefings. Fox and Sinclair. The caravans coming from Central America to overrun the US was first reported by Fax News and only reported by Faux News.

How stupid do we have to be to keep dealing with this stupidity? All of the Fox News people should wear a T-shirt saying  ”I’m with stupid.” They have to air that shirt any time they talk about Trump. In fact, all of his “base” should wear that shirt along with the hat that says, “Make America White Again.”

For many years, decades actually, we had laws preventing one company or organization from monopolizing the media, printed or broadcast. We had these laws for a reason. Just look at Russia, Nazi Germany. China – Trumps idols.

When I studied Mass Communications we learned about the FCC rulings and why they were in place.  It was comforting to know that we could go to Channels, 4 (WBZ), 5 (WHDH) or 7 (WNAC) and get three different sources of the facts.  Now we have cable news, so we have traditional news outlets, religious news outlets and government news outlets (FOX and Sinclair).

If you are a Trumper you like the deportations, the browning of America has been curtailed as our government gets rid of brown and  beige Americans. You are an American If you are from North America (even Canada and Mexico) you are American.  If you hail from South America or Central America, you are American. “Americans for America.” A great idea. I am all for it. Explain that to the orange man.

The Trump base, on the other hand, doesn’t want brown Americans here, working or contributing to our society in any way. According to Trump some are good people – just some. Some have families, some work hard, some pay their bills on time, some are religious, some are actually American patriots – his “some” covers almost all of the people  -  like all Americans only 1% or less of us are not good people and some of them, I guess, even voted for Trump.

As I was writing this article, I got an email to sign the petition to stop Sinclair in their effort to create an Orwellian news organization. I signed, put it on my Facebook page so others can sign, too.

Our rights and our way of life are being challenged like never before. Trump idolizes Putin, Mouselini and Hitler along with the dictators in China, in Brazil, in Venezuela and the Philippines. Look out here he comes, Jack Boots and all. He wants a parade to show his strength. The parade according to him, will be largest show of force ever in the world, his will be the best Army, Navy, Airforce. He will have the “bigger dick.” His first step to dictatorship.

These are scary times. He just fired the VA Secretary because he did not want to privatize the agency. He is doing a good job so Trump can’t say it is a “dizaztah” and sell the idea that private companies can do a better job. That is part of his argument about the USPS. When actually the postal department, in spite of the rules on retirement funding, is doing OK and actually profiting from Amazon.  Just a note: Jeff Bezos never filed bankruptcy as did Trump, several times.

The failing Trump presidency is really a mess. They lie like they no other group and when they do it makes me sick – so I have stomach problems daily. The only dizaztah I see is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

If that Sinclair merger goes through, where will we get our news? John Oliver is just a half hour weekly. CNN is also a slave to ratings so they tread lightly on the truth. MSNBC appears to be more in touch, but still cable news.

The kids at the Easter Egg hunt are still trying to figure out what he said. So, is the rest of the population.

 

That is my take – you decide (soon, I hope)

 

 

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS - CHAPTER 18

After an abundance of mass shootings our country” s “leadership”  are still offering THOUGHTS and PRAYERS. The turtle , also known as the leader of the senate, reiterated that this is no time to politicize the issue. THEN WHEN? We have had enough killing just this year alone to create  a political climate that could eliminate assault weapons and bump stocks. Start NOW!

Be a politician and get some political movement with some spine to make this problem go away. Be a righteous person and get your legislation in gear. Be a religious politician and get the bill going after Schleiisem, after the wake, after Shivah, after you get off the pot. Get a spine and balls, get it done.

But no. It is a mental health problem so Trumps reduces our programs that cover mental health. Look at the president’s budget. Our “leadership” does the opposite of what they say needs to be done. That makes them gold star with the NRA. Is it now being pushed in the Senate that a concealed weapon permit is good in every state? The same idiots in the Congress that offer their thoughts and prayers are pushing this through.

The orange rube in the white house never mentioned guns in his offering of consolation to the victims. We know he needs mental health treatments and he isn’t getting it either – because he is a stable genius. Hey genius, figure this out. Eighteen mass shootings this year alone and we are just six weeks into the year. Along with Trump University, Trump Vodka and Trump ties, sell Trump bullets. Let that enterprise fail as so many other Trump enterprises have failed (including this presidency). It is not funny.

The argument that good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns is BS. At the Boston bombing, there were hundreds of good guys with guns – we call them police. The same in Las Vegas, the same each time. Give more people guns,  give more people the ability to take lives, more lives will be taken, some of the good guys with guns will go down, too.

“A well regulated Militia” means police, National Guard, Army, Marines  - not some uneducated white supremacists, even the ones, the president supposes,  are “good people.” Who is kidding who? Guns are a big business and the guns manufacturers do not want to lessen their distribution. So, hence the GUN LOBBY.”

The kids in Newtowm and Parkland, the people in Las Vegas and victims in the other mass shootings are giving their lives so the Gun Lobby may live. It is sickening. I am also sick of the those that defend it.

The time is NOW. FDR condemned the Japanese on December 8^th.  No one suggested that we cool off an then talk about the attack. The time is NOW.  The events of yesterday will fade as Newtown did, as Las Vegas did and nothing will get done, as the idiots in Congress and in the White House wants. The time is NOW.

We have eight months or so the get rid of the weasels. The cowards that want only to be re-elected have to go..  Think of a gun as way to have a late term abortion. Maybe that way the lovers of their “second amendment,”  the amendment that ignores the militia part, will be motivated to do something.

Again, the time is NOW. Today! Start NOW.

But we need leadership – something that this country sorely lacks. Our executive branch is in disarray. They are all, almost all are facing prison. Our legislative branch is cowering under their desks because of the hate mongers that don’t want immigration reform or less guns.

They got to get elected again and again because the perks of office are too good to pass up. No, they don’t and we do not have to elect them and we should not.

My thoughts and prayers are with the citizens of the United States – we really need them – especially the prayers.

That is my take – you decide -- PLEASE