What’s happening this week?
Well, die-hard baseball fans are not happy. Major League Baseball has postponed the beginning of the 2022 season because the greedy owners and greedy players can’t come to agreement on sharing the enormous and lucrative MLB pie. This has happened before (on eight occasions) and this is the first one since the players’ strike of 1994-95.
Each time the owners and players get into one of these unseemly wrestling matches, the fan base declines. Last time this happened, fans were fed up and many revolted. It took some extraordinary measures (i.e. performance enhancing drug-induced home run hitting) to attract disgruntled fans back into the fold. Owners and players were both complicit in this scheme; however, when it became victim to the political “war on drugs”, the owners expressed indignity and cooperated with investigations targeted with ferreting out “the cheaters”.
The whole charade tarnished the sport forever and many fans just shifted their sports enthusiasm to NFL professional football and moved on.
I used to be a L.A. Dodgers fan, and put up with the shenanigans, but pretty much lost interest after the Houston Astros beat the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series by cheating, something reluctantly acknowledged by Major League Baseball (who allowed the Astros to keep their illegally obtained World Championship).
Not one player involved in the cheating scheme was punished by MLB. Contrast that with the lifelong ban that Pete Rose has endured for betting on baseball games. This “professional” sport is messed up.
So, who cares how much money the bums split up? Hopefully, fans will abandon them and there will be less filthy lucre to share.
The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. Ex-President Trump has softened his praise of his buddy Vladimir Putin as have Trump’s fawning Fox News sidekicks. G.O.P. leaders who initially remained silent as Trump congratulated Putin on his “genius” move, have belatedly expressed indignation at Russia’s aggression and are now, of course, blaming the Biden Administration for not doing enough to support the Ukrainians.
What chutzpah! Everyone recalls how the Trump Administration withheld previously-authorized military weapons foreign aid to the Ukrainian government in 2020 in an effort to extort assistance in Trump’s reelection campaign. This coordinated Russia-U.S. effort (to smear Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son and the Ukrainian President Zelensky) resulted in a second impeachment for Donald Trump. Those “concerned” Senators, ostensible supporters of the Ukraine, are the same ones who saved Putin’s buddy in the impeachment trial.
Have they no shame? Unfortunately, you know the answer to that one.
Gas prices are on the rise again. Now, how can that possibly happen? It must be “ineptness” on the part of the Biden Administration, say those same Republicans shade throwers.
Now, I’m certainly not as smart as a professional politician, but even I know that the President of the United States doesn’t control the cost of petroleum. No President does or ever has. Unfortunately, petroleum is a commodity on the world market, the price of which is determined by cartels that are external to our nation. Big producers like the Saudis, Venezuela, the U.S., North Sea (Britain and Norway), and Russia all have a say in the price of crude. Multi-national corporations make the decisions, not anyone in the White House.
Anything that impacts oil production negatively causes the speculative price of oil to rise. World markets are messed up right now because of the Ukraine war and the economic sanctions that Western powers are exerting upon Russia as punishment for its aggression. Who knows where this game of arm-twisting will end up? A broader war is possible. So, speculation drives up the price of strategic commodities, like oil. And we pay more for gas at the pump.
Other horrible things could be in the offing because of the Ukraine war. Like cyberattacks on our infrastructure. Tighten your seatbelts, Folks.
The “awards season” has begun in Hollywood. Nominations for Oscars, Golden Globes, the S.A.G. Awards, Directors’ Guild, People’s Choice, Emmies, and the other 100 self-congratulatory orgies are being announced. Who really cares anymore? There are so many of these overblown events that they’ve become trivialized and pretty much ignored by everyone except the participants, who spend a couple of months patting themselves on the back.
Most of the movies being produced nowadays are Marvel Comic’s derivatives, animation fantasies aimed at children, or sequels of prior successful action movies. I mean, how many Rambos and Batmans do we really need? Or cute Disney cartoons? It’s hard to find an original story line anymore; everything seems to be re-worked scripts that we’re pretty familiar with and can predict what will happen. Special effects have gotten better with time, I will grant that. Those guys earn their recognition.
Who will win the Oscar? Who cares?
The nomination for the next Supreme Court justice has been made by President Biden: it’s a woman and she’s African American, to boot. The lady, Ketanji Brown Jackson, seems to be pretty qualified: a Harvard Law School grad, served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Breyer, and is a current Federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C.
The Republican Party, which has played some games with Supreme Court nominations in the past, will probably try again to dirty up the water in Senate confirmation hearings. This is what they do. However, the Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate and should be able to confirm Mrs. Jackson. Hopefully, the proceedings won’t get too rancorous, although several Senators like to get publicity by acting the fool. After all, there is an election cycle coming up. Maybe someone will accuse the nominee of being born in Africa? Or, that she keeps secret information on her laptop computer?
In other news, there’s some type of protest convoy of irate truckers approaching Washington D.C. It’s not exactly clear what the purpose of the protest is (it seems to be evolving), but the genesis seems to have been the Covid-19 restrictions that are mostly, thanks goodness, being lifted throughout the Nation and the world. A similar trucker “protest” occurred awhile back in Canada and was cheered on by Fox News talking heads (yeah, those same nitwits who applauded Vladimir Putin’s attack of Ukraine!).
I suspect that the truckers are being orchestrated by an unseen hand and that the protest is simply another iteration of the “legitimate political discourse” supported by the January 6th Capitol Riot apologists on the Republican National Committee. The bottom line, I think, is that these supposedly irate truckers simply do not like a Democrat in the White House and want some press attention so that they can flaunt their 2024 Trump for President banners. (Hey, by the way, who’s paying for their diesel fuel and time off from work? Just saying.)
Hopefully, the redneck goons won’t attack the Capitol this time.
In local news, our motorhome continues to reside at Temecula Valley RV (400 miles away in Southern California) where repairmen there have been completing a checklist of to-do’s since January 5th. There have been delays due to “supply chain issues”, which is fairly common of late. (Maybe those “protest” truckers need to get back to work and do their jobs?)
The RV repair delay is, thankfully, not a big deal at this point, since we don’t have plans to use the rig until late June. However, it would be nice to get it back to Mesquite, as my friggin’ golf clubs are in the storage compartment under the motorhome. I would like to try out my bum right shoulder and see if there’s been any improvement since my cortisone injection. I’m scheduled to meet with my orthopedic surgeon soon to decide on surgery, if needed.
In other local news, our good neighbor/friend Sandy has a new puppy (“Sadie”), a Cavapoo.
The little thing, only about 5 pounds, is a cutie and really gets along with our three rambunctious Boston Terrier bruisers. The best part of all of this is that Sandy now has a 24/7 companion, and her mood is markedly improved.
That’s what dogs do: they put “life” into a home.
The state of the union here in Mesquite is, accordingly, very good this week.