Month: January 2020

The death yesterday of former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, only 41 years young, has really bummed me out.

Kobe was the heart and soul of the Los Angeles Lakers for twenty seasons, during which they won 5 world championships. Not only was he a scoring prodigy and a fierce defensive presence on the court, but he was the hardest worker on his team, as well.

Kobe was a gladiator in a league where a lot of players just show up for a paycheck. He had a relentless hunger to learn new moves, perfect his shots, improve all facets of his game and help his teammates do the same.

Some of his teammates didn’t share his pursuit of excellence.

Shaquille O’Neal, an enormously gifted player who teamed with Kobe to win three NBA titles, exhibited no desire to improve his game. This annoyed Kobe (and many L.A. Laker fans) tremendously. Shaq was a lackluster free thrower, who made about 50 percent of his shots…which is crappy for an NBA player, let alone a superstar. Many teams would foul him just to get him to the free throw line…they called it the “Hack a Shack” defense. He didn’t care, probably costing his team a couple of points each game.

Kobe hardly disguised his contempt for Shaq’s half-assed effort, and seemed pleased when the Lakers traded O’Neal after the 2004 season.

Kobe went on win two more NBA titles without Shaquille O’Neal. And two Olympic Gold Medals. (O’Neal won zero more titles, and the affable lug is now hawking numerous commercial products on cable TV.)

Bryant decided to hang up his sneakers after his 20^th season with the Lakers in 2016 when he was 37 years old. Out of his twenty years in the league, he was an NBA All-Star 15 times and made the NBA All-Defensive Team 12 times…demonstrating what a relentless competitor he was on both ends of the basketball court.

In his last game as a Los Angeles Laker, at age 37, Kobe Bryant scored 60 points. In the seventy-year history of the NBA, only six players have ever scored that much in a game. Kobe did it six times in his career, including an 81 point game in 2006; only Wilt Chamberlain ever scored more points in a game.

Kobe never went to college; he joined the NBA as a teenager, right out of high school. Very few NBA players have done this and then went on to become legendary superstars. Just a handful: LeBron James is another.

Kobe Bryant could have had just about any position in the Lakers’ organization when he retired as a player in 2016. Yet, he walked away from the game and never looked back. He had other world’s to conquer and an inherent thirst to excel in whatever he tackled.

Two years after hanging up his jockstrap, Kobe produced an animated short cartoon feature that won him an Academy Award!

Who knows what this man would have accomplished in his 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, etc.? He seemed to have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to excel. He was just starting to develop business entities and charitable organizations when he died. He could have, and would have, accomplished much more.

Among his proudest accomplishments was being a husband to wife Vanessa and father to four daughters.

He was a coach for his 13 year-old daughter’s basketball team; in fact, he and daughter Gigi were on the way to a youth basketball game yesterday when the helicopter crashed into the mountain.

I am so saddened that this great man and devoted father died at such a young age.

What was God thinking?

This week’s big sports story in our neck of the woods is the NFL Raiders football team’s official move (today) from Oakland to Las Vegas. A humongous stadium is under construction adjacent to Interstate 15 in Las Vegas, just across the freeway from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

Apparently, the “Silver and Black” is going to retain the “Raiders” name, like they did when they fled Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982 and then from Los Angeles back to Oakland in 1994. This team can’t seem to make up its mind where it wants to reside. I’m wondering how long they will stay in Las Vegas?  I’m guessing just as much time as it takes another city to cough up a bigger deal.

Four locations in forty years? What about their “fans”? What kind of community loyalty is this? I think they ought to be re-named the Las Vegas Traitors.

Of course, many of the teams in the NFL have moved about, chasing the almighty dollar.

The Los Angeles Rams were originally the Cleveland Rams. Then they moved to Los Angeles, re-located to St. Louis (where they won a Super Bowl), and then re-re-located back to Los Angeles, where a HUGE stadium is being built as we speak…at a cost of $5 billion.

Maybe they’ll stay put for a decade; who knows? How about a new name: the Los Angeles Shams.

I was a big-time Rams fan when I was young, but abandoned them when they abandoned Los Angeles. Because I was still living in Southern California, nearer to San Diego than Los Angeles, I shifted my football loyalty to the San Diego Chargers, and have followed that team for the past thirty years. The Chargers had a very popular franchise in San Diego for 56 years, were typically competitive, went to one Super Bowl, but never won.

Due to lack of financial support from the city government and the citizens of San Diego (to help build a modern stadium), the Chargers decided to re-locate their NFL franchise north to Los Angeles in 2019, to co-locate with the Los Angeles Shams. They got a killer deal from Stan Kronke, the Rams’ owner, who needs some tenants for his expensive stadium. The NFL helped, too, as it felt sorry for the Chargers’ futile efforts with San Diego politicians an voters.

Ironically, the Chargers are the only NFL team to never leave Southern California (i.e. never abandon their fans), but they will have a difficult time gaining fan support 100 miles north in Los Angeles, which is curiously supportive of the oft-relocated Shams and the Traitors.

Go figure!

If the Packers were to flee Green Bay for a megabucks deal, there would be a f’ing civil war in Wisconsin. In California, where there are hundreds of entertainment options, who cares about professional football: Los Angeles, the second largest metropolitan area in the United States, didn’t even have an NFL team from 1994 through 2018. Nobody cared.

It’s a weird country we’re living in.

When did society deem it acceptable to achieve a goal by doing something unethical, illegal, or morally reprehensible?

It seems that this is the state of society in which we live.

This past week’s ugly news concerns the Houston Astros major league baseball team, which won the World Series in 2017. It turns out that the team did so with the aid of electronic-aided sign stealing.

In the case of most sports, a champion is typically stripped of his title when cheating has been uncovered. Not so with MLB: a couple of management employees were fired, a very modest fine was levied, and some future draft picks were lost. That’s it…the cheating Houston Astros remain the 2017 World Series champs!

What kind of message does that send?

One wonders how many of the other 29 major league teams would gladly suffer these minor penalties in order to claim the World Series title? Probably every one of them, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were cheated out of a title by the Houston “Asterisks”.

As one sarcastic ballplayer said, “Evidently, if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’!”

Speaking of dishonorable behavior, the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump will convene shortly. He is accused of using his position as head of our government to extort the head of another nation to smear the President’s likely Democratic opponent in the 2020 election. And, then, he orchestrated an obstruction of a Congressional investigation into the same plot.

It is expected that the G.O.P. majority Senate will acquit the President, sending him the message, “Please feel free to make up your own rules, Sir!”

Of course, this unseemly drama closely follows the shenanigans of the 2016 Presidential campaign, wherein Russian interference helped elect Donald Trump in the first place. I wonder if the Houston Astros learned anything from this “win”?

(Which begs the question, “Why would our Russian enemies want Mr. Trump elected?”)

Amazingly, a large number of American citizens haven’t given much thought to that question…or don’t care what the answer is.

A sign of the times, I’m afraid.

When Donald Trump became President of the United States in 2017, our country possessed the largest military force in the world and the strongest economy among nations…both by large margins. America’s standard of living was envied by citizens of almost every country, and people were clamoring to immigrate to the U.S. legally or illegally.

And, yet, Mr. Trump’s campaign motto was “Make America Great Again”. One wonders what “great” means, in this context, and exactly when, in the past, America was greater than it was in 2017?

Certainly, our country is not perfect. Far from it. However, in Mr. Trump’s quest to make America greater (richer, stronger, more homogeneous?) do we run the risk of derailing that special something that got us to the top of the heap?

America has had a good run. We’re about 237 years into our democracy, and I’d say that we’ve been in the top rung of nations for the past 100 years. We forged a bicoastal nation, helped win a couple of World Wars, and became a diverse melting pot of creativity. Our democratic form of government became a model for many other countries. We worked with other countries to develop the global marketplace.

Greed?

Is that what is driving the MAGA political model? Is the belief that we somehow deserve more of the pie, that we have somehow been gypped out of our just desserts?

That appears to me to be Donald Trump’s driving belief, as evidenced in his attempts at revised deals with our global trading partners. Rather than being satisfied having so many trading partners, and enjoying a Gross Domestic Product that is about equal to the combined GDP of our three closest competitors (China, Japan and Germany), it appears that he wants MORE…that he wants to rub our trading partners/competitors noses in it, so to speak.

Why? Because we can…or, at least, that’s what Mr. Trump seems to think.

His whole private business model is based on (stupid) aggression, and he is a believer of taking what you want, when you want it. Donald Trump has been a bully for so long that he doesn’t know any other way to deal with problems or obstacles. One just pushes harder, yells louder, and threatens more. Most people or companies eventually fold in the face of this behavior, I guess.

The recent drama with Iran fits this model of “greatness”, I guess.

The United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom struck a deal with Iran in 2015 that limited the development of nuclear weapons by Iran in exchange for elimination of economic sanctions by participating countries. When Donald Trump was elected, one of the first things he did was to pull the United States out of the agreement and reimpose economic sanctions, despite the fact that the other signatories stayed in the deal. Then the Trump Administration began a campaign of ever-increasing economic sanctions in an attempt to buckle the Iranian government.

That didn’t happen, chiefly because the country is a tightly controlled theocracy that is supported by a citizenry that is 94 percent Shiite Muslim. Any attack, whether military or economic, upon Iran is viewed by its people as an attack on their religion. So, the Iranian government hasn’t folded and isn’t about to, despite the devastating impact of the economic sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration.

In the United States, the idea of Donald Trump putting his foot to the neck of a Muslim nation wins big points with the MAGA/Christian political base that elected the President. Greatness, in this respect, is apparently testosterone-filled behavior by a bully kicking the ass of a 100-pound weakling in the schoolyard.

In the past week or so, the drama has escalated. An American contractor was killed in Iraq during a rocket attack on an American base. The U.S. responded by bombing Iraqi militia units believed to be supported by Iran. In response, a mob of protestors swarmed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, set fire to some outbuildings, and held siege for a short time before leaving with no injuries inflicted. President Trump responded by authorizing a drone strike at the Baghdad Airport which killed Iran’s highest ranking military officer and the commander of the Iraqi militia units. The President also ordered that an additional 3,500 troops be deployed in Iraq. The government of Iran, not amused, authorized ballistic missile attacks on two U.S. bases in Iraq. The Iraqi parliament, within days, voted to expel all U.S. troops from Iraq.

As the saying goes, “Same old shit, different day.” We’ve been involved in this tit-for-tat for the past 40 years. Some things never change.

Donald Trump campaigned for President with the promise that he was going to get us the heck out of the mess in the Middle East: bring home the troops, let the Arabs go at it among themselves, not make the same blunders that Obama did, etc., because, as he said, he was smarter than all of the generals.

It appears that he isn’t. (And, it doesn’t help when he occasionally mentions, publicly, that we are over there “for the oil”, and that we should “just take it”. That smacks of colonialism and greed, to be honest.)

For the past seventy years, the Western powers have been micromanaging the Arab countries, trying to develop them into responsible democracies while availing themselves of their petroleum resources and, simultaneously, deterring the Muslim nations from annihilating the nation of Israel…which the Western powers created (out of Arab lands) in recompense for the Jewish Holocaust.

It hasn’t worked.

There’s just too much bad blood: the Palestinians hate the Israelis for taking their land, Shiite Muslims hate the Sunni Muslims, and all of them (Israel included) resent the United States for lording over them with military and economic leverage. The average American citizen despises the Muslims for 9/11 and other atrocities, and American Christians despise the Muslims because they’re…not Christians. Saudi Arabia, the oil behemoth that we curtsy to, gladly accepts our military protection, while it works clandestinely to fund Muslim terrorist organizations like Al Queda, which masterminded 9/11. The Saudis are our ally and our enemy…go figure.

And, so, whither goest the Mideast political policy strategy of the United States? Do we actually have a strategy or policy? Are we staying or going? More importantly, why do we still have troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria? What’s the end-game?

President Trump certainly didn’t create this mess, nor did President Obama, the Bushes, Clinton, Reagan, et al. The problem started with the Western powers playing Monopoly with the residue of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, and then continuing to manipulate lands and people in the Middle East after World War II. What the Western brain trust created, in effect, is tantamount to Johnny Cash’s “Chevymobile”: it looks goofy and doesn’t really work.

Perhaps the people who live in that part of the world should iron out their own problems? They couldn’t do any worse a job. Where do we come off telling them how to run their lives? By what right?

“Because we’re the United Fucking States!” our President might tweet.

(By the way, what does “sanction” mean? It means that the United States will punish you, economically, if your sovereign nation doesn’t do what the American President wants you to do. In essence, a sanctioned country becomes a vassal of the United States, directed from “above” in its military and economic behavior. No wonder the citizens of sanctioned-Arab and -Muslim countries resent America, the “Great Satan”!: they didn’t elect Trump.)

Wouldn’t it be interesting if the United States withdrew all of its land-based forces from the Middle East and let the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Saudis, and the Turks come up with their own solution? Maybe, after protecting them with our military umbrella and financial support for fifty years, we should cut the cord with Israel and Saudi Arabia…let them fend for themselves. Without the American ”boogeyman” in the equation, maybe a Middle East accommodation among the longtime foes could be worked out, like the European Economic Union?

This is actually what candidate Trump talked about, before he became President.

Then, he reneged.

I think America’s “greatness” has declined since World War II because of our military and political escapades in places like Vietnam and the Middle East. We’ve wasted trillions of dollars and suffered thousands of dead and injured/PTSD American soldiers for little tangible benefit. At the same time, poverty and crime have increased, our infrastructure has deteriorated, and our educational system is producing young people who aren’t competitive. How “great” could we have been had we spent those trillions of dollars domestically and saved those precious lives for more productive purposes?

I noticed this past weekend that Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign theme is “Keep America Great”. That would imply that our President, in just three years, has completed his mission of making the U.S. “great” again.

How exactly did he do that? By scuttling Obamacare? By packing the Federal judiciary with arch-Conservatives? By giving the top 1 percent of American taxpayers huge tax breaks, making them more wealthy? By dismantling regulatory agencies that protect citizens and the country’s natural resources? By ignoring his pledge to support and honor the Constitution of the United States? By using his office for personal and political gain?

Many would disagree that these accomplishments have moved the “greatness” needle. We will find out when we vote in 2020 to either re-elect Trump or move on to someone else.

However, I think that the President could take a giant leap forward toward greatness if he can find the courage to disentangle our nation from the Middle East. It’s a no-win situation over there, the American public is tired of it, and it’s time for those Arabs/Muslims/Jews to grow up and learn to live together.

If Trump can accomplish this, I might hold my nose and vote for him.

We spent the last week of 2019 at the RV resort property of Dan and Peggy Quinn in Yuma, Arizona. They are full-time RVers who we met years ago in West Yellowstone and have hooked up with us from time to time on the road.

Earlier last year the Quinns bought a property just east of Yuma that accommodates two RV’s on full hook-ups. It’s walled on all sides with nice wrought iron gates, so their Boston Terrier “Katie” can roam as she wishes within the 60’ wide by 120’ deep lot. The lot includes a paver patio, a 10’ by 20’ storage shed, and has gravel everywhere else. No dust.

The Quinns invited us up for Christmas and we came, driving 370 miles south through Nevada, California, and Arizona. We could have made it in one long day, but we stopped in Laughlin, Nevada for an overnight on 12/23 and arrived in Yuma early on Christmas Eve. Not a bad drive; however, it rained on us for over 300 miles of the trip, and my freshly-cleaned RV and tow car Jeep looked like dirt clods when we arrived.

The three Boston Terriers immediately commenced playing dog games as soon as they hooked up. They get along well, particularly Baby (3 yrs old) and Katie (1 yr old) who are still young at heart. Lots of toys to play with and people to throw them. Katie took every opportunity to investigate our rig and put her stamp of approval (pee!) on the place. HaHa.

As it was Christmas Eve, we decided to exchange presents with the Quinns. Everyone got something, including the dogs. I dressed up like a fool in an elf costume and a Santa beard. Good times!

In the afternoon we enjoyed a very nice munchie party at the Quinns’ neighbors’ home (Gordy and Maureen) along with two other nice couples. The appetizers were great, as was the company.

As I understood the conversation, Gordy and his wife bought several lots twenty years ago, built-out their lot, and then sold off some of the neighboring property. They planted a date palm seed way back then, along with a 2’ Saguaro cactus; both are now about 20’ tall. (The Quinns’ neighbor on the east side (?) has some huge specimen cactus growing up against the wall which are quite spectacular, including a huge Ocotillo.)

Our appetizer party hosts and friends are “snowbirds” from Canada as are thousands of Yuma residents in the Winter. One of the guests told me that Yuma’s population is maybe 150,000 higher now than it is in the Summer.

I took a drive to the grocery store the next morning, and I’ve never seen so many RV parks in my life. It reminds me of Hemet (“God’s Waiting Room”) but on steroids; lots of retirees here, livin’ cheap in a nice climate.

Except, of course, in the Summer, when Yuma is a broiler. It’s low desert here (150’ above sea level), as compared to high desert (1800’) in Mesquite, Nevada, so it gets even hotter than our city…as high as 120 in July and Aug, while Mesquite might hit 115 on a bad day. (“Not fit for man nor beast!”…that’s why we flee to Oregon in the Summer and the Quinns hit the road in their 5^th wheel RV.)

But, Arizona is a beautiful place, particularly when it isn’t 120.

On Christmas day, Dan cooked up a Prime Rib in his Big Green Egg smoker/BBQ. Then, we enjoyed dinner with Bill and Marsha, longtime friends of the Quinns who also hailed from Michigan before doing the Snowbird thing in Yuma. It was a scrumptious meal, including baked potatoes (Peggy), salad (Mannings), pasta salad (Marsha), and almost baked beans (Marsha). No one said anything about the baked beans until she’d left, but they probably needed another half-day of cooking to be edible. HaHa. Nice people, though. And, we all had some apple pie and whipped cream (Mannings) for dessert.

We had a day of rain on Thursday. That was a good thing, because our dogs’ poor feet were sore as Hell from running around for two days on the sharp gravel. Baby was the worst casualty…several blisters on her foot pads. So, we had to open up our amateur veterinary hospital and tend to their aching feet.

Charlie and I learned two new games, Pictionary and Wizard (cards), with the Quinns while the dogs recovered, and later enjoyed some Chile Verde burritos, courtesy of a pork loin that I had slow cooked all day. Good eatin’.

On Friday, we went to a local cactus nursery. It was an enormous place and had all manner of large, exotic cacti that are native to, or will survive, in Summertime super hot desert climates like Yuma and Mesquite. After extensive browsing and discussion with the owner, I bought a 42 inch Arizona Saguaro and a 30 inch Toothpick Cactus. Both will be very unusual specimens in our Mesquite neighborhood.

We also visited a store which specializes in Mexican yard art. I bought Charlie a large spider that she liked, and we closed out the morning with some drinks at a local bar.

Later, we had an early dinner at one of the Quinns’ favorite hamburger joints called the A&R Grill; the burgers were huge and delicious.

In the evening we played some more Pictionary in the Quinns’ coach; Peggy and I kicked ass.

On Saturday morning I picked up my packaged cacti from the nursery and washed the RV later in the day while Charlie worked in “the office”. After that, Peggy, Dan and I went to a large flea market where I got some awning strap for RV repairs, and later in the day I repaired our bedroom and dinette awnings. Afterwards, we all enjoyed some food from a local Italian take-out joint. It was a productive day.

Here’s Dan in his Man Cave:

On Sunday we went about 15 miles to the Mexican town of Los Algodones.

It’s a popular day trip for Yuma Snowbirds. Most visitors park their car, walk across the border, and return through Mexican customs, as opposed to the Algodones citizens who take advantage of the many underground tunnels in the area (!)

The big attractions in this Mexican city are cheap pharmaceuticals, dental and optical services, decent Mexican food, and Tequila. It’s a mini version of Ensenada, with lots of vendors hawking their wares: “Almost free today!”

Charlie and I have visited hundreds of Mexican towns just like Los Algodones, we always have fun and buy some crap that we really don’t need. That’s exactly what happened on Sunday, as we pumped a couple hundred American dollars into the local economy. The good news was that there was virtually no wait line walking back across the U.S. border. “Viva Los Estados Unidos!”

Monday was our last day at the Quinn’s Yuma ranchero. Charlie and I cleaned and packed up the RV in the morning and then joined the Quinns for an afternoon of food and drink. We first went to a huge bar called Lute’s Casino. It was about the size of my high school gym and totally festooned with memorabilia and goofy stuff hanging off the ceiling. I had a beer and some Buffalo wings.

Later, we headed across the street to a craft brewery called Prison Hill and had some beers.

We were then going to return home and have BBQ’d steaks but decided instead to continue our pub crawl and have some eats at a place called Weezy’s. We each ordered an appetizer item and ended up with a mountain of good food.

It was a great way to end a nice trip to Yuma. We hope to return next year if the Quinns will have us.

On New Year’s Eve we drove all day back to Mesquite, about 370 miles, in a little under 7 hours with stops. We had great weather. Yay!