Trump does his thing with Bartiromo

Directions to the TV news media?

Is Donald Trump losing his mind because of having power? I wasn't going to write this morning but I'm being "subjected" to a TV interview of Trump on Fox News. The interviewer is Maria Bartiromo whose last name has given a pronunciation challenge for "Reverend Al." Bless the Reverend. 

We cannot bless the president at this time, and if you're inclined to do so, please try to get a prescription for something. What kind of Christmas month lies ahead? How can we cope with the dark cloud of Trump's instability, now on display to total caricature? 

Christmas has the power to overcome all sorts of looming distractions. I have neighbors on Northridge Drive who already have Christmas lights up. If the wind were not so strong today (Sunday), I'd put some out. I string them on the branches of arborvitae trees along the driveway. It's more visible from there than from the actual house, I have found. 

One of my neighbors, the new one, has major league Christmas decorations, maybe not rivaling Chevy Chase - remember the "nuclear override?" - but totally top-notch. Does this put pressure on the rest of us? Oh I'm just joking - of course it doesn't. 

Can the resilient Christmas spirit push aside the disturbing aspects of Trump's rhetoric now? Was that dude in Iran assassinated on direct instructions from this man? We can only pray now that there is no domino effect of violence. History does have precedent. I hate to even mention the "Sum of All Fears" endgame. The fall of Berlin was once an endgame. How wonderful if the world could have been spared all that violence. And then backtrack to World War I: wasn't that powder keg lit by an assassination? 

Have we forgotten how delicate the whole world order is? Is Trump overreacting to Iran, as a gesture toward Israel, which fears Iran, and this in turn pleases the U.S. evangelicals who see Israel as helping fulfill Biblical prophecy? Do you think Trump even gives a damn about Christianity? Do you think he prioritizes anything much beyond his own narrowest interests? 

Look at all the scoundrels who have been close to Trump. Roger Stone? Steve Bannon? Michael Flynn who loved leading the "lock her up" chants about Hillary Clinton? Flynn, who was fired by Trump after lying to the quintessential caddy, Mike Pence? 

Michael Cohen has become a good guy only after being drawn into a vise legally. He could have resisted that in the hope he'd be pardoned. He looks right into the camera now and you know he's desperately trying to tell the truth. For that he has a target on his forehead in the eyes of Trump supporters. "Target on his forehead" is a figure of speech. When Steve Bannon talks about "beheading" Dr. Anthony Fauci, there is no hint of exaggeration. We have to assume he's exaggerating but in this age of Trump, benign assumptions are risky. 

Rudy Giuliani has gotten into the heads-lopped-off talk too and it's incredibly dangerous, based on the precedent of world history. This kind of stuff has happened. Are we totally certain there won't be a calamitous economic crisis that would induce some toward violence? Bannon and Giuliani should know that the violence might not come from their crowd: the political far right. I would in fact suggest the opposite, that a sense of being oppressed among the masses could foment trouble from the other side. And I most certainly wouldn't condone violence. All I'm saying is that based on history, desperation brings about some very disturbing things. 

Washington D.C. cannot get together on a relief package to get our citizenry through the immediate rough waters. I think the Kochs sense what is happening. One of those dudes has left us after a bout of cancer. The survivor was recently quoted saying something shocking, which should have gotten more media attention. He regretted his organization funding the conservative tea party. He made no bones about this. I laud him for such impressive candor. I laud him for "seeing the light" and to not be blinded by the crazed political right led by the Trumps. Yes, a ruling family. 

I cannot assume there will be anything like a routine transfer of power. Michael Cohen in his under-oath testimony looked us in the eye and said Trump would not leave office in a peaceful or routine way. And, the rhetoric since the election has reinforced the likelihood of what Cohen talked about. 

Again, how can the considerable dark clouds affect our attitude toward Christmas this year? The month of December awaits. We're in a near-total shutdown. The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that churches cannot be limited in their activity in the name of public health measures. "Freedom of religion." Even if the availability of hospital beds becomes strained. As if the government has a bone to pick with religion. As if worshiping actually requires going to a big brick building - no substitute. Of course there's a substitute today. You've heard of the Internet, right? 

So Trump drones on and on this Sunday a.m., guided by Bartiromo. Maria Bartiromo was once a basically credible reporter on the business side of things. She began acquiescing with Trump, as did so many other commentators, because of opportunism. Talk up Trump, be sympathetic to Trump, and there's a big herd of listeners out there who will be at your beck and call. Your TV screen time will be guaranteed. 

Jeff Flake resisted Trump and how often do you see him on TV these days? Bob Corker was "sort of" a skeptic although he too got cold feet some, and how often do you see him on TV now? I guess there's one "trooper" who is hanging in there and that's Mitt Romney. Ronna McDaniel once had Romney as part of her name, in the middle, and she had to excise it. Trump people put their master ahead of their own family. 

One ray of hope is that a faction or cult like the Trumpists can begin crumbling if they start fighting with each other. With power comes paranoia. People jockey for influence and attention. Bartiromo has cast her lot. We cannot predict the future, but if the Trump dynasty goes down, we will see the likes of her removed from our TV screen. All those people are disposable and they know it. 

The TV media world is just a big make-believe place anyway, like the haunted forest in "The Wizard of Oz." It is not real. It can seem real but it isn't. The O.J. trial turned into entertainment. And because of that, many of us were sort of hypnotized into thinking it was a "whodunit" and maybe O.J. really didn't do it. The late Vince Bugliosi got apoplectic over that. 

But such is the nature of popular media. "Cable news" is in the ecosystem. As with the O.J. trial, the cable news universe encourages us to take Trump more seriously than we should. The consequences? We have the assassination in Iran which John Brennan has said was "state sponsored terrorism." Do you realize what this could lead to? Remember the movie "Sum of All Fears?"

 

Addendum: I finally learned how to type "arborvitae," pronounced "arbovida." My father called them "pyramid arborvitaes" which we have beside our driveway on Northridge Drive. Once when he brought our dog "Heidi" back in from a walk, I asked if our dog had "accomplished anything," and you know what I mean. Dad said she did so, "in the shadow of the pyramid arborvitae." Sounds romantic.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Nice to get outdoors for Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving 2020 is in its evening hours as I write this. My mood reflects the brisk refreshing walk I took all around the biking/walking trail east of town. Others availed themselves of the terrific weather too. So nice to see Randy Thielke and his smile. I worked with Randy a fair amount when I wrote sports for the now-defunct Hancock newspaper. Does that make me a dinosaur? 

The Fargo Forum killed the Hancock paper. Maybe we're all progressing beyond newspapers anyway. We tap into the online world like never before. A trend that had already started, has accelerated due to the pandemic. I almost feel like a member of Triumphant Love Lutheran Church of Austin TX. I have become fond of calling up their online services. The pastor is Danielle Casey. 

Someone commented that fitness businesses are going to become strained because people can get their "Pelotons" for at home. We are all certainly hunkered down now. And getting frustrated? Angry? We should not be angry, not yet. We are greatly relieved to know that Donald Trump will no longer be our representative on the international stage. We will have a professional and civilized public servant leading us, who refrains from openly insulting people all over the place. It's Joe Biden. 

So we can feel heartened, but at the same time there is fear over Trump having a month and a half left. It is also terribly sobering to know that Trump came close to winning. Are we really wanting to see doom and gloom on ourselves? Look at what is happening in our close neighbor to the west: South Dakota. So bad is South Dakota's inattentiveness to the pandemic, the state is being called out by the governor of West Virginia, a Republican. 

Jim Justice of West Virginia is not cowed by Kristi Noem being "good looking." He talks like he could not care less. Noem and Justice are both Republicans. But Justice is the one with brains. He says "I don't want to be South Dakota." Two weeks ago, the West Virginia governor installed a strict new mask mandate for his state. Oh, he does have detractors. We always hear about how such measures may violate a state constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has now decided that state government cannot restrict church attendance. The Court cites the free worship ideal. Many young people are probably laughing at that: since when does anyone have to go to a building and be in a group of people just to affirm Christian faith? I don't have to go to Austin TX, I can listen to Pastor Casey's sermons right at home. No "freedom" is being abridged. 

Shame on Neil Gorsuch of the U.S. Supreme Court. He second-guesses the law from a frame of mind that ought to belong to elected officials. He says it's not fair if certain other entities are allowed full access while churches are limited. Why such rules? Well, the short answer is that politicians have their reasons. Certainly they have no nefarious motive of wanting to suppress religion - Gov. Cuomo of New York is as committed a Catholic as you'll find. 

We all can survive without going to church buildings. But going to church buildings now could kill us. The Supreme Court appears not to care about that. Are we in America in some sort of grand death cult now? Remember that the Nazi regime was not so much fascist as it was a death cult. 

We elected Donald Trump. Can you imagine the "greatest generation" that came out of WWII, choosing as president such a crude and ignorant individual? What has become of us? 

The long walk I took today served to calm me down from some of these feelings. What a long winter we are about to embark on. The worst of the pandemic has arrived. No light at the end of the tunnel, and if you watched the news earlier today, you learned that the vaccine prospects are likely not as bright as we've been led to believe. People are trying to feed us encouraging news just to keep us subdued. The dark clouds could continue for a very long time. 

 

Personal perspective

Thanksgiving is nothing like what it was when my parents were alive. We'd get together with my uncle in Glenwood, Howard and his wife Vi. Sometimes we'd be at their place, sometimes at ours. Howard was the banker and my father was the musician. We'd arrive at Howard's place, a humble middle class house, and Vi would have krumkake and coffee ready to serve. Later we had the full spread for Thanksgiving. 

Year after year we kept this tradition going. Eventually such a tradition ends. So I'm alone in the Thanksgiving of 2020 and my fare for the day was: two bacon-egg-cheese bagels from Caribou Coffee, and then later a package of krumkake with a Mountain Dew. Oh, it was wonderful. Not the same but wonderful. And the walk along the full route of the biking/talking trail was the biggest blessing: no wind, temperature decent, sun out from midday on. 

Let's pray for everyone's health. Oh, South Dakota has the highest per capita Covid death rate in the world. Just thought I'd mention it.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Bruns scores first three TDs in finale win

Tigers 45, Paynesville 26

Suddenly it's over. The health crisis necessitates that we shut down again. The exhilaration over the MACA football team's Friday success thus might be tempered. It has to be a letdown. I'll assert again that the federal government could have led a much more concerted effort to get the virus under control last spring. We are paying the fiddler now. 

There was a push to get football and volleyball reinstated for fall, remember? And it was realized. But the door gets shut after the 5AA championship game. MACA fans have the contentment of knowing their team ruled the roost. But it ends there. Done. Just memories now. It's sad but it's necessary. 

A far better scenario might have been realized if Hillary Clinton had been elected president. Some of you would react to that comment with profanities. Well, good for you. Enjoy your winter. 

The Paynesville Bulldogs came to Morris seeking their fourth straight Section 5AA championship. They owned the No. 2 seed. But they'd have to get past our No. 1-seeded Tigers. 

The Bulldogs had just one regular season loss and that was at the hands of the Tigers. The Oct. 30 game was a wild one with a score of 33-31. It was wild too because of how Paynesville surged to try to wipe out a deficit. The Oct. 30 game had a 33-7 score after three quarters, MACA dominating, then Paynesville scored 24 fourth quarter points. We held on. 

So on Friday the two teams donned their respective colors, green for Paynesville and orange/black for our heroes. "Wild" is kind of a relative term and it seems the high-scoring complexion has become the norm. I should contact Lyle Rambow and ask him why he thinks this is. Do fans like it? I suspect so, until things start getting too much out of hand. Too much of a good thing? 

Paynesville entered Friday as the top scoring team in Class AA at 47.3 points per game. That's awesome. But our Tigers had the trick to win on Friday as they showed their own brand of authoritative offense. But would you believe the first quarter ended with the score just 6-0? It was the Tigers getting the first quarter touchdown. It was a one-yard run by Zach Bruns. 

The second quarter was a quite different story. The Tigers turned on the jets and muzzled the Bulldogs 26-6. So, four touchdowns by the home team. Bruns scored twice more on runs from the one. Our conversion plays were not clicking. Paynesville got on the board with a big 62-yard pass from Chase Bayer to Tanner Stanley. They too failed on the conversion. 

The Tigers struck back with a big pass of their own: 46 yards from Bruns to Kenny Soderberg. Eureka: the conversion play works with a Durgin Decker run. Drew Tangen carried the ball into the end zone from the one for Paynesville. Conversion fails. Next the Tigers score: Toby Gonnerman on an eight-yard pass reception from Bruns. Conversion fails. 

One more TD to go for the Tigers: Decker runs in from the two, and Bruns kicks for the conversion point. 

Paynesville came on strong late but it wasn't enough. Tangen caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Bayer. Bayer runs for two. Blake Hiltner carries in from the five. Conversion fails, so the night's scoring is wrapped up, score of 45-26. Season is done. Lots of satisfaction, lots of disappointment too. 

I covered the Tigers way back when they played in Prep Bowl. Oh, the Spartans too, twice! I know all about the excitement. 

We had 27 first downs on Friday. Bruns had another top-notch night passing the football: 12 completions, 20 attempts, 212 yards. Soderberg had monster receiving stats: three catches, 102 yards. He was complemented in that department by: Gonnerman (four catches, 51 yards), Decker (2-30), Jackson Loge (2-29) and Josh Rohloff (1-0). 

Decker posted the most rushing yards: 118 yards on 25 carries. Bruns powered forward for 99 yards on 18 carries. Tristan Raths added 29 yards on seven. Negligible yards came from Soderberg and Lewis Nohl. Our defense intercepted two passes. We had one fumble recovery. 

Paynesville had 16 first downs. Hiltner rushed for 102 yards on 12 carries. Bayer completed eleven passes in 26 attempts for 184 yards and had two picked off. He really spread his passes around among receivers. Here we see: Stanley (two catches, 60 yards), Eli Nelson (1-40), Schmitz (1-33), Tangen (3-25), Grayson Fuchs (2-18), Max Athmann (1-6) and Hiltner (1-2). 

See you next season.

 

Volleyball: Minnewaska 3, Tigers 2

The Tigers battled the Minnewaska Area Lakers Thursday in an extended five-game affair. A huge highlight was Tiger LaRae Kram getting her 1000th career assist. She got 40 assists on the night but the Tiger effort came up short. Action was at the Tiger Center. 

The Tigers flirted with victory as they led 14-13 and 15-14 in the fifth game. But it wasn't to be. The Lakers came away with a season sweep of the Tigers. The Thursday scores were 12-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-22 and 15-17. 

Sophia Carlsen came at the Lakers with 18 kills. Brianna Marty executed 13 kills and Emma Bowman had eight. Our record at night's end: 5-6. Looks like MACA played again Friday, again at home, and was stopped by C-G-B. Now, the shutdown rules. It's the way it has to be. The Lakers entered Friday at 6-5. 

The Minnewaska story had Rylee Metz performing five serve aces. Avery Hoeper had one. Britta Nelson led assists with 13 followed by Metz (12), Haley Shea (11), Hoeper (5) and Avery Fier (3). Brecklyn Beyer came at the Tigers with 18 kills. MaKena Panitzke had eight kills while Brooklyn Larson and Hoeper each had seven. Kristen Glover had five and Fier one. 

In ace blocks we see Hoeper (3.5), Panitzke (2.5), Larson (2) and Beyer (1.5). Panitzke topped the digs list with 25. Others with digs were Hoeper (17), Fier (17), Glover (16), Shea (7), Metz (7) and Nelson (6). 

See you next fall.

 

Please visit my podcast

"Our lives change again" is the title for my podcast entry on "Morris Mojo" for today. Yes we are forced into another change due to our efforts in dealing with the pandemic. You can't blame Governor Walz. We must minimize the reach of the virus, but that doesn't mean we have to be happy about it. Please click on permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Our-lives-change-again-emq7jb 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Christianity ought to feel some catharsis

Churches have all sorts of approaches to their online representation. I can feel as though I'm actually visiting the sanctuary of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Morris. This is something I could not accomplish in the past. So that's an interesting step forward. 

How many churches with the "Lutheran" name exist in and around Morris? It seems too many. We have to wonder if consolidation lies ahead. There has already been some of that in the rural Upper Midwest, along with closures. I remember being at St. Theresia's Catholic Church in Donnelly for its service of closure. The bishop was here. I remember him talking about how maybe Donnelly could have a "titular" parish. The ceremony was grand and with lots of people - it belied the purpose which was shutdown. 

Churches with the Lutheran name are far from being on the same page, heavens. Maybe parishioners will have to get over some of their differences. Some of them might lecture me in the same way, touche. St. Paul's is in the Wisconsin Synod - a fringe synod? - which believes the pope to be the antichrist. And you wonder why young people have been drifting away from traditional church? 

A fracture occurred several years ago over gay rights/gay ordination. Seems passe to discuss that now. Society has moved on with general agreement over gay rights, the sanction on discrimination. 

Our ELCA churches in Morris are the politically progressive ones. They have faced some headwinds because of this. A Sunday sermon at First or Faith will be as pure and uplifting as any Christian would want. Why have a bone to pick over something like gay rights, or perhaps the belief that a church ought to crusade against abortion? And you wonder why young people aren't eager to get on board? 

It is fun to randomly check Lutheran church websites around the country. Some churches show real savvy in media outreach, others have a more token approach. Should such a presentation only be of service for the parishioners of the church, or should it try to attract the interest of others, maybe in a "recruiting" way? Some churches have a presentation that makes you want to come back in the future. Others clearly don't. 

I suppose "media savvy" should not be an essential skill for people who run churches. It's not supposed to be entertainment. But it sure is communications. I try to write in a way that gets repeat readers. 

Can the various Morris area churches known as "Lutheran" find a little more common ground? Enough so that there could be a "coming together?" An old high school classmate of mine in the Twin Cities says the trend there is for the smaller churches to fade away and for the "mega churches" to take over. I suppose a larger church can summon much better resources. Is bigger better? The question should be: Is the church performing its essential function? 

One problem with the big churches I've noticed: they tend to cultivate pastors who start to feel like celebrities, and this can lead them down the trail of sin. We read of an occasional scandal. Jerry Falwell Jr. was supposed to be running a virtuous institution. He should have felt thankful to the Lord. He went astray. It's a slippery slope for celebrity preachers everywhere, it seems. Kenneth Copeland came on like a jerk, laughing uproariously and in a spirit of caricature at the simple election of Joe Biden. Yeah, like Biden represents the devil or something. And you wonder why young people are drifting away from church?

Young people are sympathetic to socialism because they experience such an uphill climb in life. Old people don't show enough understanding of the generational differences, to say the least. The oldsters hold down the fort with the old way and old set of values, rock-ribbed. They aren't just indifferent to the younger progressive crowd, they can be surprisingly mean-spirited. And so now they populate pews in a much more sparse setting, yes in pre-pandemic times. And now? The pandemic has cleaned out pews everywhere. 

I suspect churches are becoming more financially strapped than they would acknowledge. They have kept the ship righted up until now. However, get up in the morning and you hear all sorts of panicky news about the pandemic. It hits older people especially hard. Yet this group of reverent souls appears to have gone out of its way to support Donald Trump. 

The Federal government should have shown an assertive hand from the start, calling for drastic but relatively short-term sacrifice, yes last spring. We would be in so much better shape now. Can't you all wake up to the simple fact that Republicans don't want people to like government? I mean the kind of government that actually helps people, that shows a Christ-like caring for the disadvantaged and downtrodden? 

What horrible choices so many of you have made. I mean, to get taken advantage of by this flim-flam artist, this grifter, this con man. Trump exudes this weird and scary power over so many people. Mostly the mainstream media has not come out and called a spade a spade. People in the media have their jobs to protect. And they are scared like everyone else. 

Sometimes I grope in trying to understand the Trump phenomenon, but a parallel occurred to me the other day. Remember the people who rooted for O.J. Simpson? I'm talking about the general nature of this, not the racial. I see similarities between the fascination with O.J. and the fascination with Donald Trump. These people are/were celebrities who we had welcomed into our homes so often through TV. We ought to know that we do not really know these people, not at all. We delude ourselves into thinking we do. 

Lawrence O'Donnell has talked about this disconnect on his MSNBC show. He looks into the camera and implores: "You probably think you know me but you don't." He was just addressing the reality of celebrity. Trump was a grade 'A' celebrity before going down the escalator. Some people, especially older white men, are just turned on my him, by the persona. 

Barack Obama? Well he seems like "the other." But you don't really know him either. I'll bet that if you met both Obama and Trump, you'd find Obama to be much more sincere and trustworthy, tons more empathy. Well, Trump appears to have no empathy at all. He's concentrating too much on his next golf shot. 

Trump has committed so many absurdities that are not called out adequately by the press. Where to start? Remember how he (belatedly) used the Defense Production Act, but for what purpose? To direct meat processing plants to remain running. Obviously that is not the purpose of the Defense Production act. Yet the media gets quotes from the White House in a way to spin the legitimacy of this. Yes, they'll get a program guest or two to rebut. But the effect of all this, like water spilling over rapids, is to suggest there's a foggy sort of justification for much of what Trump does. 

Neil Cavuto

Why was it such a shocking event for Neil Cavuto to cut away from the presidential spokesman the other day? Cavuto only did what normal judgment would command. Yet people were shocked that someone on Fox News, of all places, would do this. 

Evangelicals only slightly withdrew some support for Trump in the election. And you wonder why young people are drifting away from religion?

 

My podcast for November 16

I talk about the nice weather on this Monday, but by the time this is posted, it has gotten cold and blustery! Darn. But we enjoyed sunshine this morning along Northridge Drive in Morris. I give a plug to the "Ralph Nader Radio Hour" today. This is available on YouTube. What isn't available on YouTube? I invite you to listen to my "Morris Mojo" podcast. Thanks.

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/A-plug-for-Ralph-Nader-emiftr 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

The echoes of Nicholas von Hoffman

(Washington Post image)

Do you recognize the name Nicholas von Hoffman? His name was once pretty recognizable, then it faded. You might say he was "ahead of his time" in the same way as Garner Ted Armstrong. These two offered commentary in the media in a way that has become ubiquitous now. But those were pre-Internet times, quite long before. 

I was part of a group that enjoyed listening to Garner Ted Armstrong as we made trips along eastern North Dakota. That was the '70s. As a departure from radio we might punch in an 8-track tape. Mercy! So that dates me. Fun and interesting times to be sure. But we were not showered with histrionics of commentators in an unrestrained way. There was restraint. Thoughts were condensed. There was a sense of decorum and it just seemed to be understood. 

Who wanted to listen to extended "talk" back then? Everyone was appealing to a mass audience. This meant a limited attention span or more confined interest. Sometimes today when I get sick of the cacophony of ideological-based talk, I'll retreat to a show like Kelly Clarkson or Jenna Bush, but only briefly. Such fare is undoubtedly wholesome. I admire what they're doing but it's a failed experiment for me. So I return to the panoply of gossip-type or spin-oriented talk coming out of politics. 

But the cacophony aspect, the limitless aspect, the drone-on aspect? It seems a pastime with liabilities. Tune in at 7 p.m. to catch what's new with the "Russia investigation?" And after prolonged breathless anticipation, where did that get people like me? Seems like something was afoul with Trump's behavior, yes, but the conclusion landed in the mud. Rhetoric just blew aside our normal senses. What was that all about? 

Surely it seems Russia and Putin "had something" on Trump and exerted influence toward some pretty bad stuff. Russia paying the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers? K.T. McFarland rushes on Fox News to say "it was just a preliminary report." Jared Kushner having a "back-channel to Russia?" Can't we sort through all this and find some real suspicious stuff in connection to Trump, Kushner and others? The media drones on with "talking heads" trying to persuade us one way or the other. 

Are these program "guests" really looking at things in an unfiltered way? Well, some are but many are not. CNN had a "talk radio" host appear and guess what he does? Histrionics and hand-wringing, all with the purpose of defending Trump. Does the person really hold this view? Or, is he just "reading" his audience and calculating how to give them red meat? CNN had a guest named Ferguson who was right in this mold - could be abrasive and rude. 

Garner Ted Armstrong

So, I bring up Garner Ted Armstrong because his radio show of the '70s was a precursor to the present-day din. He was not a "shock" commentator. But unlike his peers he didn't just gravitate to a safe and bland middle of the road. He had beliefs. 

And now let's proceed on to Nicholas von Hoffman. I'm 65 and if you're close, name rings a bell. Yes, from the "60 Minutes" program on CBS. He was in a segment that actually seemed novel at the time: a clearly-labeled liberal and conservative butting heads. 

Let's make an analogy with Canada geese (believe it or not): they were once rarely seen in the skies over our Stevens County, and we'd gaze skyward in fascination when we saw them. That situation sure changed, to where the late Doug Rasmusson, another fellow ahead of his time, described them as "sky carp." Doug was a self-published author. He would love the Internet. 

 

Through mists of time

I have to confess: upon having von Hoffman's name enter my thoughts, I couldn't instantly remember if he was "right" or "left." I did remember one clear thing about him: he was caustic in how he described Nixon on occasion of Nixon's descent from power. This did not prove that von Hoffman was a liberal. Nixon crashed and burned with lots of across-the-aisle criticism or condemnation. 

OK, von Hoffman was liberal. Hooray. And he got in trouble for how he commented about Nixon at the end. I remember watching the TV contemporaneously: the commentator compared Nixon to a dead mouse. 

Von Hoffman jousted with James Kilpatrick on the "60 Minutes" "point-counterpoint," remember? So Kilpatrick was the righty. Remember how the movie "Airplane" lampooned this feature? "They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say 'let 'em crash.' " A little spooky to remember that now, in light of how the Republican crowd began suggesting in the pandemic that elderly people would maybe have to accept the sacrifice of death in order to allow everyone else to keep on with normal life. Life imitates art? 

Von Hoffman gained some infamy by comparing Richard Nixon to a dead mouse on a kitchen floor. "The question," he said of RN, "is who is going to pick it up by the tail and drop it in the trash." I remember thinking that was pretty pointed, but I didn't consider it justification for firing. Well, from my viewpoint as a boomer, I associated Nixon with the tragically prolonged nature of the Vietnam war. There was no forgiveness for that. 

But von Hoffman was removed from his spot. Von Hoffman's commentary also included: "We've got to get that decomposing political corpse out of the White House." 

Now, why would these comments be returning to my head now, on November 14, 2020? Why?

 

"Morris Mojo" podcast for today, Saturday

I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast where again we weigh politics, the period of time between the election and inauguration. "We're in Bizarro world." The permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Were-in-Bizarro-world-emfqok

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Was there "understanding" for football game?

Can we really feel glad that the fall high school football season, originally postponed, got reinstated, albeit in a limited way? Were the two teams at our Big Cat Stadium not really fine-tuned for playing their normal game? It would seem skepticism is called for. 

I checked the game at halftime via the YouTube channel and it seemed odd, I mean the number of points scored by Barnesville. 

Well congratulations to the third-ranked Trojans, they won. They beat our fifth-ranked Tigers by a very implausible score. It struck me as not a legitimate football game. 

Why did this happen? Was it because the players are dealing with a limited season, perhaps affecting their sharpness? Or, maybe there was a mutual agreement between the teams, the players by themselves or involving the coaches?

Maybe there was an agreement to back off on the usual approach to defense. We are seeing winter-like conditions now. Who would want to exchange bone-crunching hits on a football field now? The sport of football has already entered controversy with its dangerous nature. With each passing year, the players must be more and more conscious of this. Maybe the Tigers and Trojans decided it would be more fun and safer to let the game become more of a track meet with less of the heavy hitting, or what former Morris coach Jerry Witt would call "smash-mouth football." I don't think a coach would use that term now for the public media. 

I guess I was fortunate to never want to play football, probably wouldn't have been good enough anyway, and for that possible "shortcoming" I'm grateful. 

The MN High School League board of directors voted in September to reverse course and put football and volleyball back on the fall slate. Seems to me now, given that the virus is showing no signs of backing down, the original no-go decision might have been most prudent. Yes it's tough to live with these things. If back in March we had gotten a call for real but temporary sacrifice from our leaders at the federal government level, we might be in a quite different position now, a better one. 

South Dakota is now being singled out as a state with especially severe Covid issues, and this is being laid at the doorstep of political leaders with a Republican bent. Governor Kristi Noem is becoming the focus for the second-guessing, and it impacts us here in Minnesota because we are a proverbial stone's throw from South Dakota. 

Our High School League originally decided on a spring start date for football and volleyball. They were totally focused on dealing with Covid. The concern was about the proximity of athletes like in football where physical contact is a defining feature. 

Do you suppose the Tigers and Trojans felt that a more wide-open track meet style of game would be good for limiting physical contact? Is this far-fetched? 

Seems a little conspiratorial, but I remember when Minneapolis newspaper columnist Dick Cullum had similar thoughts after the first-ever Fiesta Bowl game. I didn't just look this up, I remember it. Cullum was usually pretty straight-laced and restrained. But he speculated after an unusually wild and close initial Fiesta Bowl game, that maybe the coaches mutually agreed on a defensive approach that would lift the odds for this type of game. Games then were generally not as high-scoring as today. The marketing minds have been allowed in? 

Obviously the Fiesta Bowl leaders wanted a good "sell" for the event's start, to get it established. Unethical? Maybe, but at least the winner wasn't "fixed." Still there's an opening for ethics discussion you could drive a truck through. The "pure" form of sport is when both contestants are going all-out playing the percentages to try to win. 

Our MACA Tigers had a perfect won-lost record going into Wednesday. For them to give up so many points in the first half promotes suspicion that maybe the usual principles of competition were suspended. I guess I could get locked in an argument with people about this. Maybe on the other side, people would say the limited intense defensive contact would be good for everyone on such a winter-like evening. Good from a Covid consideration standpoint and good in a general sense because "smash-mouth football" cannot be justified IMHO. 

I guess I took the most logical approach in my life: I never played football. Don't have to worry about cognitive issues now at 65 due to my sports background. Getting old is tough enough. 

You weigh this risk against the rewards of the experience. I can't imagine having any warm thoughts about football had I actually played it so many years ago. I would cringe. 

What was the score Wednesday night at Big Cat? I am not even going to report it. It would be nothing but a tedious exercise to go through the scoring and stats. I guess the West Central Tribune of Willmar went through these gymnastics. Hah! 

My priority now is to emphasize that we need to protect everyone's health, with the situation apparently going to heck in South Dakota. We are becoming ever more like our neighbor to the west, as shown in how we elected a Republican congressperson, Michelle Fischbach. The Covid dilemma is one thing we do not want to have in common with the Kristi Noem state. Men say she's good-looking. Who gives a rip? 

I had thought previously there would be no football playoffs in the shortened season. Guess I was wrong. So what's next for MACA? I really don't care about the competition now, I say let's hunker down and make some sacrifices like we should have done a long time ago, what we would have done under Democratic Party leadership, the party that really cares about human beings. Intense sacrifice would have been declared over a relatively short time, then we would be past the worst of it. But no, we chose another course. 

We have two months left of the Trump presidency in which he won't do anything. Oh, but he fired that Esper guy. 

Coronavirus attacks the heart. Some patients have suffered heart damage. Some Ohio State players came down with myocarditis. 

I know, I'm a "Trump hater." Isn't he just one person? Why has he been elevated to near-divinity status? What has happened to my fellow man here in the USA? We are a government of laws, not of people.

 

Volleyball: Melrose 3, Tigers 1

Amidst the warmth of a gymnasium, the MACA girls faced Melrose Tuesday at Melrose. It was the host team enjoying the upper hand in the four-game affair. The scores with Melrose numbers first were: 21-25, 25-19, 25-15 and 32-30. Melrose achieved its sixth win against one loss, best record in the conference. Our Tigers are 3-5 in league and 4-5 overall. 

LaRae Kram and Sydney Dietz paced our hitting attack with 12 and 11 kills respectively. Sophia Carlsen and Brianna Dybdahl each added seven kills. Emma Bowman supplied six and Maddy Grove four. 

Carlsen came at the Dutchmen with four ace blocks. Grove had three, and Dietz and Kram one each. Kram and Dybdahl facilitated in setting with eight and seven respectively. Dybdahl led the charge in serve aces with four and she was complemented by Camryn Ostby (3) and Kram (2).

 

My podcast for Nov. 12

My "Morris Mojo" podcast for today ruminates about this lame duck period we're in, w/ the president. I should say "supposed" lame duck because he is not giving any ground. I wonder why we chose to elect a person like this. We wouldn't want such a person to even be our mayor, or for Rudy Giuliani to be our attorney. Please click on permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/A-dangerous-lame-duck-emd7d5 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Now they're 5-0! Tigers upend Silverstreaks

Tigers 28, Osakis 14

One night it was fireworks and then on Friday it was the P.A. system at Big Cat Stadium. Things are happening in Morris even with the pandemic still unfortunately hovering. The fireworks were a surprise (or shock) for me. On Friday I surmised quickly the sounds were connected to home football. 

We hope the school activities proceed with little if any risk health-wise. We pray everyone can have their health safeguarded. But we sure want normal events again. So, fans had lots to feel excitement about Friday. Fans of the Tigers cheered the orange and black in a 28-14 win. 

Visiting fans couldn't cheer a win but the weather was most pleasant for this early November night. Early November can spell some unpleasantness. I personally took one of my long walks on the biking/waking trail in the afternoon. Wonderful conditions. So it was likewise for the game. 

I'm writing my first draft of this at 10:30 a.m. Saturday as word has officially come out: Joe Biden is president! It's official. We just got done electing a Republican congressperson from our district. But I think Biden will be quite palatable for y'all. He will not be nutty and unpredictable like the outgoing slob. God bless this nation. 

The Tigers' opponent on Friday was Osakis, the Silverstreaks. Yes, it's one word not two - I've had to look it up. I have always loved that nickname. The Tigers clawed at the Silverstreaks pretty good. 

There is a problem with information from the West Central Tribune, Willmar. A sentence above the stats says we took a 14-0 first half lead. However, the score-by-quarters report shows six points by us in the first quarter, none in the second. According to that report we scored our second touchdown in the third quarter and picked up steam in the fourth with 14 points. 

The final score was 28-14.

Big plays were a big part of our scoring formula. First it was Durgin Decker breaking loose on a 51-yard run for six. The PAT was no-go. Kenny Soderberg caught a 51-yard TD pass from Zach Bruns for our second score. Bruns ran for two. Osakis was able to answer with a five-yard run by Isaac Hetland. The Tigers stopped the conversion run try. 

Ethan Lebrija turned on the jets on an 80-yard kickoff return for our third score. Bruns kicked the PAT. Bruns wrapped up our scoring with a four-yard run and he kicked the PAT. Osakis added a score as Hetland ran from 22 yards out. He also carried the football on a successful conversion. 

Sorry, I cannot totally square the contradictions in the Willmar paper's report, but hopefully the MACA scoring plays are reported correctly here. Morris people are historically harder on my reporting than the reporting in the Willmar paper. Not sure why that is. 

 

Unblemished record!

MACA upped its record to 5-0. Our success was with ten first downs. Decker's big scoring run was part of 83 total rushing yards on seven carries. Bruns covered 51 yards with the running game on 13 carries. Tristan Raths added six yards. 

The passing game saw Bruns complete four of eight attempts for 132 yards with one interception. Soderberg had two big catches for 77 yards. Brandon Jergenson gathered in a pass for 32 yards, and Jackson Loge had a catch for 23. 

There are several "N/A" abbreviations (for "not available") in the stat report in the Willmar paper. And the paper sometimes tries to charge for reading online? Remember, any time you run into a "paywall," you should be aware there are tricks for getting around it. A common one, one that I have found works with the Willmar paper, is "incognito." I used this to read Dana Milbank's column in the Washington Post last night. You can call up Google and type in: bypass newspaper paywall. 

Osakis actually outdid the Tigers in first downs with their 23. We obviously struck with the "big plays." 

Osakis' Hetland had a huge night with the running game: 200 yards even on 29 carries. But he wasn't totally dominant, as Duncan Vandergon was a complementary piece with 102 yards in 18 carries. Bauer Klimek contributed 38 yards on eight. 

Klimek operated the aerial attack for the Silverstreaks: four completions in ten attempts for 48 yards, no interceptions. His favorite target was Carter Watnaas: three catches, 46 yards. Tyson Hagedorn had Osakis' other catch. We see still more "N/As" in the stat report.

The Tigers have a short rest before playing Royalton on Wednesday. It'll be destination Royalton for the 7 p.m. game. Back in the '70s there were some "Burma Shave" signs close to the community along the highway. Those were dated even back then.

 

Volleyball: Tigers 3, BOLD 1

Fans here in Motown saw the orange and black prevail on the volleyball court Thursday. Success came by a 3-1 outcome over the BOLD Warriors. The success put our W/L at .500, 4-4. 

BOLD started out with a winning flair but we owned the rest of the night. A review of the scores: 14-25, 25-21, 25-14 and 25-23. 

Our hitting attack was led by Sophia Carlsen who delivered ten kills. Brianna Dybdahl pounded nine. The rest of the list: LaRae Kram 6, Emma Bowman 5, Sydney Dietz 4, Maddy Grove 4, Camryn Ostby 2 and Brianna Marty 1. Grove executed two ace blocks and Kram had one. The MACA coach is apparently not reporting digs. 

Carlsen led in serve aces as well as kills. This Tiger came at the Warriors with six aces. Marty was sharp with her five aces, and also on the list were Hottovy (2), Ostby (2) and Bowman (1). Kram contributed six set assists and Dybdahl five. 

BOLD's serving department showed Emily Salinas with three aces, Leslie Snow with two and Delaney Tersteeg with one. Tersteeg was the workhorse setter with 18 assists. In hitting it was Caylee Weber leading with six kills followed by Mari Ryberg and Abby Meyers each with five. Three Warriors each had one ace block: Meyers, Weber and Ryberg. 

The BOLD coach compiles digs, and here we see Tersteeg with ten, Weber with eight and Snow with seven. 

The pandemic still looms but we're still getting our share of rich memories from MACA school activities. 

I hate it when there is contradictory or wrong info in the Willmar paper. I try plowing through to patch things up as best I can, but I feel a little discouraged or demoralized. Again, critics in this community will pounce on me much faster than on the Willmar paper. Well, I can feel buoyed today by Joe Biden's success. Congrats, America! But it's scary how close Trump came. 

Congrats to Joe!

I suppose Trump's fall will devastate the Superior Industries people locally. Here's my little violin. We will now have a president who talks with praise about this nation's soldiers, fallen and extant, not calling them "losers and suckers." And we'll have a First Lady who builds total joy around Christmas, not like Trump's wife who says "who gives a fuck about Christmas?" There are no posed photos of the Bidens with Jeffrey Epstein. I simply prefer the new image and attitude. Is that so radical?

I'm sure Claudia Conway is elated.

It was Valu Ford that gave us the fireworks on the recent night. Hope it didn't give anyone a heart attack. I can think of a better reason to have fireworks: Joe Biden being elected president, Donald Trump being shown the door! Let's raise a toast!

 

My September 7 podcast

I invite you to click to listen to my "Morris Mojo" podcast on this historic day. I react to the fresh news that Joe Biden is officially president. I also wonder why the election was so close.

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Biden-is-U-S--president-em5mv5

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

So it's the day after election 2020

So glad I slept well last night. "Sleeping well," for me, means waking up at 5 a.m. instead of 3. I might make a quick bathroom trip during the night but that doesn't count. It would count if I felt the impulse to turn on the TV because of the election. After such prolonged obsessive coverage of politics by the media, we finally get the orgasmic day of the election. Heads would explode. 

The only thing missing now seems to be Chris Matthews. Imagine a national election without Matthews who was such a staple for so long discussing politics. His star faded awfully fast. 

These national media people probably deserve credit just for being willing to be in the arena. Matthews did his thing for so long. His network once put him forward as perhaps its brightest or most emblematic star. These stars can fade and disappear in a hurry. Imagine living in such a fishbowl. 

Well, you can argue that some of these people "had it coming." Thing is, we are all human beings with human failures, openings for weaknesses to show. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

So Matthews made a comment one night, something about "listening to a woman" as if gender should affect credibility, and yes it comes off bad. A more ambiguous misstep was of "flirting talk" with a program guest off camera. Heaven help us all if there is a professional prohibition on simple flirting. What if the target of the overture is receptive? Surely you won't be Pollyannish and suggest that affairs do not happen.

So, it's the morning after election 2020 and the best hopes of Wall Street were not realized: a clear outcome. We do know for sure the Democrats are peeing in the hay with how they did. Beyond that one assumed fact is the dreaded uncertainty with the presidential race where we have this bull in the china closet named Trump. He "steps on it" continually although his fervent supporters are never dissuaded. 

I have breakfast at a Morris restaurant where there is often a pickup parked outside with a profile of Trump on a side window. It's just one example of the reverence shown out and about toward a man whose wife, the First Lady, has said "who gives a fuck about Christmas." Well, I will continue having warm thoughts about the Christmas holiday, Melania notwithstanding. 

We can't be sure as I write this that Trump will exit the presidency. He is so predictable and he never surprises us on the positive side. He did the most feared thing last night, incorrectly proclaiming victory. And then his army of lawyers will obviously fight hammer and tongs to discourage any further vote counting that might favor Biden. So this is what it has come to, America 2020: armies of lawyers in hand-to-hand in the closing stages of vote-counting. 

All the well-known media anchors have appeared to assail Trump on his election night behavior as he proclaimed victory. But as we continually hear: do the old voices of established media have that much standing anymore? They were almost like the voices of God in the pre-digital days. The state of tech was such then, only a select few people could address the nation from their media perches. Joe Scarborough has talked about how these people would be "let past the velvet rope." It was as if they addressed us from a pulpit. Such was their power that when Walter Cronkite finally broke taboo to make a skeptical comment about Vietnam, it was widely thought to be a turning point. Lyndon Johnson commented something to the effect that "if I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the country." 

Who in his right mind would have wanted to talk up the Vietnam war? I mean, even in its earliest stages? John Wayne felt a movie had to be made to build up the war effort. My generation never gave a damn about it. We protested in all sorts of ways but it was tough getting a real media platform in those days before the Internet was even a twinkle in anyone's eye. 

Today? "Sea change" hardly describes. And it appears that conservative more than liberal voices have been able to harness the new landscape. I say "conservative" but what I mean is people trying to sell themselves as conservative. There's a difference. 

Sell yourself as liberal? That's almost impossible today. Or if you do, you are highly on the defensive. What was left of the media establishment decided in 2016 to restrain themselves on covering Bernie Sanders. The late Ed Schultz told a very revealing story about this. No such artificial restraint would have ever been thrown up for a "conservative" candidate. I heard a commentator of very good standing make the argument that if Sanders had eked out the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton, he really could have beaten Donald Trump. 

Before fainting, you conservatives, realize that Sanders would not have been able to push much legislation through. Republicans had power and would have asserted themselves, but Sanders would have appointed judges. Most importantly, Sanders would have been a classy person with his conduct, his treatment of people and his respect for rules. I believe he calls himself a "non-practicing Jew." As a Jew he probably has no personal attachment to Christmas. But he would have respected Christians who did. I would choose his attitude over Melania Trump's. 

I look down on Jews who mistreat the Palestinian people but outside of that, I have much admiration for them. They support education and are hard workers. I much prefer company with a Jewish intellectual over almost any other category of human being. Do you like Mel Brooks movies? My all-time favorite movie is "My Favorite Year." 

I did vote on Tuesday here at the National Guard Armory in Morris MN. I put fears of the pandemic aside. The people there were very friendly and helpful. No sign of voter intimidation such as the "Proud Boys" to whom Trump had said "stand by." Trump promised that "sheriffs" would be at polling locations to watch for "voting irregularities" but I saw no uniformed law enforcement at the armory. How would they have done that anyway? "Excuse me, sir, is it possible you're not voting for Trump? We know you have relatives in America." 

Isn't that funny? Give Trump four more years as president and we won't be laughing, as his autocratic inclinations burgeon with an acquiescent Republican Party. 

I did one anomalous thing Tuesday: I voted for Michelle Fischbach even though I didn't like her. It's so sickening to see our fossil of a congressman, Collin Peterson, campaign like he's trying to tell us he's really a Republican. He emphasizes how he has disagreed with Nancy Pelosi, who happens to be speaker of the House on behalf of Collin's party. Well Collin, what's holding you back? If you really want to be a Republican, just announce you're switching. 

Michelle Fischbach

So I felt that if our congressional district really wants a Republican, let's have a REAL Republican elected. Pretty logical. 

I vote "no" on any proposal to spend money for school purposes. A few years from now we'll realize we're way over-extended with our sprawling school campus and its bells/whistles. The pandemic will result in more and more families realizing they can handle many educational needs at home. School buildings will become more and more utilitarian, the way it should have been all along. 

I voted for the two non-incumbents in the city council race, for reasons that should be obvious to you if you've been to my blogs before. Our current council put up a ridiculous fog of confusion over the water treatment plant. What a disgrace. No leadership at all. Ridiculous. Maybe we need Jewish people on the city council. 

Stay tuned. Trump will stay the center of attention for the foreseeable future. I'd like to hear Chris Matthews' take.

 

Addendum: So what happens with Sue Dieter now that Peterson lost? I believe she was "communications director" even though the congressman already had a press secretary. My theory is that her position may have been ceremonial. She was out of work, no longer with the Morris paper. Her husband was once chairman of the Stevens County DFL. My guess is that she worked at home and probably spent a lot of time exchanging emails with people in a mostly pointless routine. Her work appears not to have helped him much.

 

My podcast for Nov. 4

As I ponder the election and Fischbach's win, I conclude we in the Morris area are much like an extension of the Dakotas. So I comment a little on South Dakota's governor, who many men like to describe as attractive. The permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Were-extension-of-the-Dakotas-em114d

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - morris mn minnesota

A growing impulse to just resume normal life

Quick heads-up: My coverage of the Friday MACA Tiger football win, 34-30, is on my "Morris Mojo" podcast. Here's the permalink:

https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Tigers-beat-Paynesville-34-30-elsl2q 

 

We have heard the comment that "the virus doesn't care that people are getting tired of it." Interesting comment and rings of truth. Part of the truth is that everyone around us seems more inclined to gravitate back to normal activity. 

Virus be damned? Maybe that's the conclusion. Of course the virus "doesn't care." We know that. We also know as we plunge into the upcoming winter months, we'll go mad this time around as the limitations are prolonged. Part of us seems to want to defy the limitations. 

I make this conclusion on our first morning of being back on standard time. You know, it would be real easy to miss this. I'll bet some people do. I was aware and so went to my chosen restaurant at the desired time. I was quite surprised to see so many people in there. I noticed only one server at work - used to call them "waitresses" - and she seemed rather harried. I sat in the least busy section but there were four young dudes at a table there, talking and laughing vigorously and with an iPhone that had sound activated. Does it bother you to hear those? From a distance it's just "noise" like the speaker at a fast food drive-through. 

I decided to relieve the restaurant of my business on this hectic morning there, so an hour later I proceeded over to good ol' Don's Cafe. Their hours are more limited than pre-pandemic. Again I noticed that business was brisk. I congratulate both restaurants on attracting decent clientele, but the question is this: are people deciding to just defy the pandemic, to get out of the house and make usual rounds? 

Certainly we don't have a death wish, do we? Maybe we feel the threat of the virus is overblown and that if you're not very old or with substantial health issues already, it's a risk you can survive or at least tolerate. Heck, life has tons of risks anyway. Think of that dude who was struck and killed by the South Dakota attorney general's car at night. You never know when the end will come. 

The investigation into that tragedy should have concluded by now. Quite weird that it has not. Wait 'til after the election? I have actually read that theory, and such is the nature of our times: partisan motivations explain almost everything. (The AG is a Republican.)

The Girl Scouts offered a standard congratulations to the new female Supreme Court justice. If only the justice were a nice mainstream jurist like we would get under a Democratic president like Obama. We can expect nothing like that now, so we have three new justices in the Federalist Society mold. Are you all really prepared to live with the reality of America under that? Have you even thought about all the consequences, or are you Trump supporters just "fans" of this oddball charismatic personality who got into the White House? Maybe you think it's "fun." Harsh realities could be at your doorstep. 

Amy Coney Barrett has a checkered background with her beliefs. The Girl Scouts have gotten fierce pushback and will likely suffer as an organization. What would be so terrible about Merrick Garland being on the Supreme Court? You wouldn't even notice the guy much. Maybe you wouldn't consider that "fun." A pox on all of you. 

Trump could win. We must brace for that reality. 

Looks like my church of First Lutheran tried an in-person service today (Sunday, All Saints Day). The church announced lots of special rules and restrictions of course. It's strange because if in-person is practicable now, we could have done it all along. So what gives? What gives, I think, is that people just can't take the severe shutdown-type restrictions any longer. They don't want to hear lectures about the necessity of precautions any more, even if those lectures would have merit. 

The cold weather is here. We'll be pretty much stuck inside for about five months now. We "bought time" through the warmer months. We could get outdoors for a reprieve. The reprieve is over. 

I might have attended church this morning on impulse but I hadn't signed up. Sign up to attend church? That's the way it is now. I think it would sadden me to be in church because of being aware of all the limitations. I would want so much for the activity to be "normal" again. 

I'll remind you that I attend a church, First Lutheran, with a reputation these days for being politically progressive. What a sea change, because in my younger years, First Lutheran was the epitome of a proper conservative type of organization. Today the fold includes people who vote Democratic. But I'm proud to be associated. 

I'm scared of pushback from the arrogant Trump crowd if their guy should win. I won't seek to be a voice in the wilderness. Sometimes you just have to admit defeat. I told a friend this morning I would tape over the small "Kamala" bumper sticker I have on my Chevy Malibu. Will known Biden supporters end up being sent to the guillotine? I'd say "let's say a prayer" but then I'd be reminded of all the "evangelicals" out there who will be the first to administer the guillotine. There was a plot to put Gretchen Whitmer on trial and execute her. Would it be with a beheading? 

Such is the reality of America in 2020, it would seem.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Here's the "chain gang" for the Lac qui Parle Valley football game! Rimshot!