by Michael DePaoli

1. Conservative Movement Is Over

Larry Kudlow advised Reagan and now he’s advising Trump

As reported last week in Huffington Post and Salon, the current 2017 GOP House Budget proposal includes an additional NINE TRILLION DOLLARS in Federal debt over the next decade. Nine Trillion More! Because of this GOP proposal, I am going to declare the so-called “conservative movement” to be over, because those people never did try to conserve anything. Instead, the conservative ideology is and always has been an excuse to be mean to people.

You see, the conservative fascination with austerity and cutting spending on social programs is only used to hurt people when times are bad, or when a Democrat is in the White House. For example, back in 2009, when President Obama was trying to create a massive stimulus package to help get the USA out of a bad recession that was caused by the GOP, the GOP reacted vehemently and squeezed tight and they objected to the economic stimulus. Indeed, according to The New York Times published on January 28, 2009, the House of Representatives passed the stimulus plan without a single GOP vote. The GOP fell back on their fake ideology of wanting to balance the budget, which ideology we now know is completely bogus. As soon as the GOP captures control (i.e. today) they want to ramp up our spending and increase our total debt.

Whatever the GOP might be, it is not conservative. This conclusion is consistent with history. According to White House budget archives, these are the facts: Debt under Republican President Reagan went from 900 million to 2.6 trillion; Debt under Republican President Bush went from 2.6 trillion to 4 trillion; Debt under Republican President Baby Bush went from 5.6 trillion to 9.9 trillion. The GOP is all about debt. The GOP is not conservative.

2. MOVIE REVIEW: MOONLIGHT 

Why did Moonlight win Best Picture Drama at the Golden Globes? The movie is extraordinarily intelligent and exquisitely beautiful. The story presents the main character Chiron in three different stages of his life: grammar school, high school, and adulthood. The genius of the movie is in the way it uses Chiron to weave together the various aspects of our culture that act as roadblocks to living a happy life. Moonlight is not simply a movie about the violence, the ghetto, the poverty, the sexual identity, the bullying, nor the drugs. Instead, Moonlight is an intensely intimate story about delicate lives wherein the promise of something better can transcend through the grossly unfair circumstances of human existence.

Screenwriter and director Barry Jenkins has taken the source material from Tarell Alvin McCraney to create a masterpiece of dialogue, hope, and beauty. This is the type of movie that sinks into your brain because the fictional characters leap into your consciousness.

The actors in Moonlight are amazing. Naomie Harris is stunningly real. Janelle Monae electrifies the screen. Mahershala Ali’s internal conflict is palpable. Trevante Rhodes brilliantly straddles his role of being brutally tough and emotionally damaged. Andre Holland’s few short minutes on the screen are like an epiphany.

3. Answer to Susie B., Re: American Shame and Blame 

I do not know Susie B but as a general rule I like her comments (Ed. Note: His first submission and he’s already sucking up). So, I am going to take the time to respond to what Susie B wrote as a comment to Medium Happy last week under the article entitled “Enigmatic.” To paraphrase, Susie B identifies the shame and “blame” that we shall all feel (assuming we might be alive fifty years from now) about the Trump inauguration and the “following reign of terror.”

My response: Why do we need Trump to feel shame for what our country has already done? Why do we not own up to our own bad acts that have already been committed? Indeed, perhaps it is our abject refusal to acknowledge our current shame that has allowed someone like Trump to come onto the scene and up the ante by doing more bad things.

Here is an abbreviated list of shameful acts committed by the USA: Slavery, The Wars Against Native Americans, The Civil War, Jim Crow Laws, Lynching, the Tuskegee Experiment, Shooting Unarmed People In The Streets, Largest Prison Population, Allowing Our Own Citizens To Die From Preventable Diseases (Ed. Note: Nobody’s perfect).

Our infrastructure is falling apart, our roads have potholes, our politicians are corrupt, there is no justice in our justice system, our reality television shows are scripted fiction, and the first thing we do to our kids is lie to them about Santa Claus.

All told, we have targeted and killed millions of innocent civilians, including the following places: Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, North Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. How many bombs have we sold around the world, and how many guns have we sold around the world, and how could it be possible to count all the innocent dead people killed by American weaponry that we have sold to just about anyone who wanted to kill someone else?

There are probably only a handful of American citizens who feel even an inkling of shame for the crimes we committed against the people of North Korea. The people of that small nation were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, they were nothing more than pawns in the global war of superpowers. But, despite their innocence, we bombed everything in sight in North Korea. We dropped firebombs on the people, and we blew up every road, dam, bridge, and power plant. It is difficult to know how many civilians we killed during the Korean War, but a fair estimate would be somewhere between one million and two million people. For those innocent human beings who survived, they faced economic sanctions, blockades, and starvation.

So, yes, Trump is a sociopathic menace and a pathological liar who brags about and laughs about molesting women. Oh, and he is our next President. But, fifty years from now, I am not certain very many people will feel any shame. We will treat the memory of Trump in the same way we treat the memory of the Korean War: “Meh, whatever.”

(Michael DePaoli is a licensed lawyer in Arizona and California. He is the author of the eBook: Movie Theatre Therapy; and he is the creator of videos on YouTube: Tachistoscope, and Tachistoscope Sunsets.)

by John Walters

Starting Five

Love the classic duds and the classic dreds. Dr. J. and George McGinnis would be proud.

1. Joel To The Hole

Of course, of course the NBA is going to want TNT to air a game between the Cavs and Warriors, who this spring could become the first two teams in NBA history to meet in three consecutive NBA Finals. And, sure, they wanted to hire Thunder-Clippers because the Clips will become the team with the most endorsement deals to never make the Finals.

What they should’ve done, though, is move Cavs-Warriors to 10:30 p.m.—still only 7:30 p.m. out west—and air Sixers-Bucks, because these are the two most entertaining young teams in the the league. Joel Embiid. Giannis Antetokounmpo (the steal of the 2013 NBA draft, taken 15th; Anthony Bennett was selected first). Dunks galore.

Did Giannis just win the next three dunk contests?

Do you realize that the Sixers are 6-4 in their past 10 games and that’s while observing their tradition of not having their No. 1 overall drat pick even playing for them? Ben Simmons still has yet to suit up.

Embiid was the 3rd overall pick in the 2014 draft, but due to injuries is making his debut this season. He’s averaging 19.7 ppg and 7.7 rpg and is having as much fun as anyone in the NBA. Jahlil Okafor, the 3rd overall pick last season, has been All-Meh team for Philly. But wait until Simmons joins this cast. The Sixers, who won last night to improve to 13-26, have already won three more games than last season. They haven’t won 20 games in a season since 2013 and haven’t finished above .500 (that’ll be tough, but possible) since 2005

Giannis is averaging 23.4 and 8.6 and oughta be selected to the East All-Star team if there’s a (Greek) god. The Bucks are 20-20 and in eighth place in the East. But like Philly, better days are on the way.

2. Locker Room Talk

As you know by now, in the wake of Pittsburgh’s 18-16 win Sunday evening in Kansas City, Antonio Brown posted 17 minutes of the Steelers’ locker room scene to Facebook Live. Every sports blog oughta send Brown a bouquet of chocolate roses (Deadspin‘s write-up actually began, “Bless Antonio Brown…”

Inadvertently, Brown caught coach Mike Tomlin saying the following, which really isn’t even that bad, about their upcoming opponents, the Patriots:

“Let’s start our preparations. We just spotted these assholes a day and a half. They played yesterday. Our game got moved to tonight. We’re going to touch down at 4:00 in the f***ing morning. So be it. We’ll be ready for their ass. But you ain’t got to tell them we’re coming.”

Bill Belichick will get over it. I’m not sure that Phyllis will, but Belichick will.

3. To Stay Home Or Go?

On Friday Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as this nation’s 45th president (you may have heard), providing parents coast-to-coast with the opportunity to explain the meaning of the word “nadir” to their kids.

Beyond that, more than 40 Democratic Congressmen have pledged not to attend the ceremony. I’m a little torn on this and I’d like your help. I’m no fan of Trump (NO! C’MON!) nor am I a Dem or GOP’er, but he did win the election and even if you think Russia played some dirty games along the way, Putin didn’t actually pull the lever from anyone. Trump won. Fair (by the Electoral College) and square. You respect the outcome, even if Russia may have meddled.

Why are they covering up “Don’s Johns?” I don’t get it. Pee Pee Party?

By not attending, you can argue, lawmakers are being petty and not offering Trump the same fresh start, clean state as he takes office that they were so bent out-of-shape about the 44th president not receiving.

On the other hand, when you get past Trump’ s Insult-Per-Day Twitter style (and that doesn’t bother me so much), here’s a man who spent five years brazenly trying to humiliate his predecessor with the birther movement. A ploy, by the way, which is a major reason for why he got elected. No one who will move into the White House has ever publicly shown more contempt for a sitting president, so what has he done to earn the respect usually associated with that office?

Rep. Lewis. You are a great person. But Dr. King didn’t give in to his anger or his hurt. That is how he accomplished & won Civil Rights.

— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) January 16, 2017

Oh, Rob!

I’d never tell a John Lewis or any other legislator what he or she should do (especially if they’re a minority), I’m no Rob Schneider (“Making copies!”). It’s just that this one has me flummoxed.

Trump is going to give everyone enough opportunities to defy him from moves he makes starting Friday. I think my feeling is I’d wait until next week to demonstrate against him. Let him soil his own bed. Don’t give him an excuse to say that everyone was against him and never gave him a fair chance (though his predecessor rarely whined about being openly defied simply because of the color of his skin).

Your thoughts?

4. Cadaverliers

Golden State 126, Cleveland 91.

Kevin Love goes for three points and three rebounds in 16 minutes and might I remind you that he was considered the star of that UCLA team that also had Russell Westbrook.

No one called a Flagrant 1 on the Vietcong. Sad!

The Cavs were on the final game of a six-game road trip that began in Brooklyn of all places and then did Mountain Time (Phoenix and Salt Lake City) before three games on the coast. Man, I can’t wait for the NBA to put a franchise in Las Vegas. Either can most NBA players.

The Mandible Sweater is questionable.

Anyway, other than the Dubs ending a four-game losing streak to the LeBronskis, it was pretty meaningless. Although LeBron may have suffered a bruised beard (no relation to Butch Beard) on that foul from Draymond Green in the first half.

5. Dinosaur, Jr.

This is the “Humpback of Circle B,” a massive alligator spotted in Lakeland, Florida, the other day. God bless. Now, please, nobody go all Duck Dynasty on this beautiful creature. If he got that large without eating any humans, he probably isn’t about to start now (maybe the odd Golden retriever or two, but hey…). Besides, given the way Floridians make news, would a reduction in them be all that awful?

Word Up

Desultory (adj.) lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm

After years of providing passionate insight, Jon Gruden put in another desultory effort alongside Sean McDonough in the Monday Night Football booth.

Music 101

Sunday Morning Comin’ Down*

Kris Kristofferson must wonder what he has to do. He has written some of the best songs in country music, including this one and “Me and Bobby McGee”, and he was a handsome feller’ in his day, but the artists who performed his tunes already had better luck with them. This version by Johnny Cash rose to No. 1 on the country charts and was named Country Song of the Year in 1970.

*This one’s dedicated to you, A.J.

Remote Patrol

Charlie Wilson’s War

HBO Now

The beauty of this above scene is that it’s Gust’s (Hoffman’s) first line in the entire film. This is how we meet him.

This wasn’t even nominate for Best Picture from the field of 2007 films, which in retrospect seems a heinous crime. The winner was No Country For Old Men (no argument there), but this film starring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts, with Amy Adams, Ned Beatty, John Slattery (still blond) and a va-va-voom Emily Blunt in supporting roles, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Mike Nichols, is outstanding. Over-hyped films such as Atonement, There Will Be Blood and Juno go much more love that year, and my guess is because in part America wasn’t ready to watch a movie telling us that we made a fatal mistake by taking our eyes off the ball in Afghanistan.

But the script is as good as Sorkin has ever written—he only goes about 75% Sorkin. It’s hilarious and a treat, while telling a story that is every bit as fascinating as Argo would later be. These actors, Hanks included, have never been better. It’s a shame that it was so unappreciated when it was released.

by John Walters

Starting Five

Crosby’s grandfather, Bing, would be so proud of him. Wait, what?

Split-The-Uprights Citizens Brigade*

The judges will not accept “The Mason-Kicks ‘Em Line”

On a day when all four teams (Green Bay, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Kansas City) 1) showed that it’s still cool to wear the same uniforms you wore in 1970, 2) represented franchises that won Super Bowls in the first 10 years of the game and 3) commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first Super Bowl by having the Packers win and the Chiefs lose, field goals ruled.

Colorado alum Mason Crosby kicked a pair of 50-plus yards in the final two minutes as the Packers outlasted the Cowboys, 31-28. Crosby has now made 23 consecutive postseason field goals, an NFL record. Crosby became the first NFL kicker to connect on a pair of 50-plus yarders (they were 56 and 51 yards, excluding the third he made that was nullified by a timeout) in the final two minutes of a playoff game. And, yes, Dallas’ Dan Bailey made a 52-yarder in between those two to tie the game.

In Kansas City, the biggest “Killer B” for the Steelers was 6’2″, 201-pound Chris Boswell, who set an NFL record with six field goals (in sub-freezing temps, by the way) of 22, 38, 36, 45, 43 and 43 yards in a win that did a lot for kids all over to help learn their three-times table, 18-16. It was the first time in 11 years (Indy) that a team won a playoff game without scoring a touchdown.

2. Six-Ring Circus

The AFC Championship Game in Foxboro, Mass., will pit (Pitt?) Ben Roethlisberger (2 Super Bowl wins) versus Tom Brady (4 Super Bowl wins). There has never been an NFL playoff game between two quarterbacks who’ve won a combined six Super Bowl rings before. We checked. Not assiduously, but we checked.

Your four ring guys, like Brady, include Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, who never met in a playoff game. Troy Aikman won three, but he never faced off against Montana. When the Cowboys and Steelers met in Super Bowl XIII, Roger Staubach (your author’s favorite all-time player) and Bradshaw had “only” won a combined four SB’s. Likewise, when Peyton Manning squared off against Brady in last year’s AFC title game, it only was a combined five rings because Peyton was still yet to win his second.

This will be the first six-ring playoff game.

3. Aaron Rodgers: Chico and The Man

We old souls find that Rodgers’ playoff play is similar to Roger’s (Staubach’s, that is)

The Green Bay Packers started 4-6. Since then the Pack are 8-0 and Aaron Rodgers has thrown 21 touchdowns, just one interception (nice pick, Chris Heath) and had zero conversations with his family. The New York Times (which, I haven’t yet checked this morning, may be a “dying’ newspaper or “a pile of trash” ) published a story yesterday backing up a previous Bleacher Report article about the rift between the two-time MVP and his parents back in Chico, Calif., and also his brother, Jordan, who won or lost The Bachelorette, depending on how you score those deals.

Staubach invented the postseason Hail Mary and was the king of “Don’t Give Him Enough Time To Come Back.” He led Dallas to four Super Bowls, winning every one that he didn’t have to play against the Steel Curtain (2)

Regardless, Rodgers’ play this postseason (and in the latter half of the regular season) has been Don’t-wait-for-it LEGENDARY. Yesterday, he was sacked late and by all laws of physics should have fumbled, but he held on. Two plays later he literally drew up the 35-yard pass that would allow Green Bay to kick the game-winner in the huddle, and without benefit of the dirt.

Rodgers hasn’t spoken to his family, reportedly, since he began dating Olivia Munn. We lament that, but a Super Bowl between the two greatest quarterbacks (okay, Peyton, you’re in the conversation) of the past decade, one whose SigOthers are Gisele Bundchen and Olivia Munn just needs to happen, no?

By the way, Rodgers, 33, is six years younger than Brady and grew up 182 miles due north of Brady’s hometown of San Mateo.

4. The Man In The High Tower

It is a week that begins with Martin Luther King Day (he attracted a fairly large crowd on the National Mall once) and ends with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump taking the oath of office at the other end of both the Mall and the spectrum. The Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald decided to have a little fun with its TV listing of the event. Or maybe it was just hoping to be the subject of a tweet….

By the way, does this guy, “a bush-league fuhrer,” remind you of anyone?

Also, and this is no joke, on Friday TCM will air (5:45 pm.) A Face In The Crowd, a film that came out 60 years ago starring Andy Griffith as “a megalomaniacal TV personality, whose guitar and folksy humor take him from an Arkansas jail to national popularity. The movie offers a satire of television, pop culture and the public fascination with celebrity.”

Your life hack begins in just four days. Are you ready?

5. Un-led Vs. Unleaded

There will come a day when this site is as much of an anachronism as a hitching post…

So, let’s define the term market capitalization. It is, as I understand it, the number of shares of outstanding stock a publicly traded company has times the price of that stock. In short, the total value of that company in the price of its stock times the number of shares.

Now, from 2004 through 2014, do you know what company was consistently ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in market capitalization, or Market Cap? Exxon. Every year for 11 years in a row. Exxon. The company run by Lawrence Tillerson, the presumptive next Secretary of State.

Now, if you look at the ranks of Market Capitalization as of last Friday, here are the top seven companies in the USA by rank: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, Facebook and THEN Exxon. That’s five tech companies, none of which existed before 1980, and one holding company owned by Warren Buffett, all ahead of America’s largest oil company.

Another notable Amazon

If you happen to be a non-coastal, non-elite and believe that voting for Trump will reverse the course of history, you may as well get into your wood-paneled station wagon and head to the drive-in theater. You may hate us coastal elites and our libtard ways, but you are likely reading this on a computer made by Microsoft or Apple, you likely used Amazon to purchase Christmas gifts (or something in your closet), and you will almost certainly be on Google or Facebook today if you haven’t been already.

Trump will bring some jobs back, but he’s not bringing 1975 back. Or 1955. As much as you may want him to. That’s what so much of this discord is all about. But the numbers above don’t lie. There was a time when owning a railroad was the peak of American success (or Boardwalk and Park Place). In the 21st century, the trick is to own a social media platform. Like it or not.

Music 101

Monday Monday

I’m going to make the argument here that Denny Doherty was not only the most underrated member of The Mamas & The Papas, but the most criminally neglected signature voice of the Sixties (and, thirdly, the greatest pop culture figure ever to hail from Halifax). Doherty, who passed away in 2007, sang lead on both this song and the folk group’s other 1966 hit,”California Dreamin'”: two quintessential time-capsule Sixties songs. And he is also the least-discussed member of the group, as he was not one of Chynna Phillips‘ parents (far as we know; Doherty and Michelle Phillips did have an affair in 1965, three years before Chynna was born) and he was not Mama Cass. But what a creamy smooth voice.

This song hit No. 1 in 1966 (that’s like winning Miss California in the Miss USA pageant) and also won a Grammy. I love its mournful mood. Captures the spirit of driving beneath the marine layer on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Remote Patrol

Cavs at Warriors

TNT 8 p.m.

Two of the minimum five future Hall of Famers who will be on the floor this evening….

The Amazing Adventures of Cavaliers and Klay (cont.). So do these two only meet on national holidays now? Recall that the Dubs (34-6) blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead on Christmas Day to the Cavs (29-10) to lose their fourth straight to the LeBronskis. Should be a fun atmosphere at Oracle. The Cavs are 3-2 on this current road trip.

by John Walters

Starting Five

1. All In The Family-ish

Some good friends of mine—let’s call them Midwestern elites—have been chiding me to tune in to Black-ish for awhile now, but I just have yet to do so. Earlier this week they did a post-election episode that was the closest thing to something from All In The Family I’ve seen since, well, perhaps The Sopranos. 

I can’t pull the clip independently from YouTube, but you can and should watch it on this link. It’s where the male lead, Dre (Anthony Anderson), is admonished by his boss for “not caring” about the outcome of last November’s election. Strong stuff. But I’m sure Clay would burp,  pump out 25 push-ups and cry, “DBAP!”

If you’re looking for a lighter touch, but definitely redolent of a conversation Archie Bunker and George Jefferson might have had in the house on 704 Hauser Street, here’s a funny N-word debate from earlier in the series.

2. Get Real, Madrid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw_LNyXHOt8

In the Spy vs. Spy intertwined careers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (who may wind up being remembered as the two best soccer players ever—sorry, Pele—but who will be No. 1 and who will be No. 2?), Ronaldo has taken the latest advantage. Yesterday Ronaldo’s squad, Real Madrid recorded its 40th unbeaten match in a row, surpassing the La Liga record of 39 set only last year by Messi’s F.C. Barcelona club.

It wasn’t easy. With Ronaldo resting, as this was the second leg of a home-and-home versus Sevilla in the Copa del Rey and Real enjoying a 3-0 advantage after their first match (aggregate goals and all; if you don’t understand, tweet at Paul Carr or Grant Wahl), the team struggled. Real Madrid trailed 3-1 on the road after 80 minutes, but then scored in the 83rd minute and then subbed in superstar Karim Benzema in extra time, on the final kick of the game.

Did it matter all that much in terms of the Copa del Ray or La Liga overall? No, but Ronaldo (again, he sat out) and Messi have been playing this legacy tug-of-war for awhile now.

Real Madrid’s last defeat came last spring to German side Wolfsburg in the Champions League.

3. This Honey Mustered Courage

The young heroine of this story better star in her own McD’s ad soon….

“She had a McNugget in her hand, a gun to her head, and no fear in her heart…”

—Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News

Where’s Rosco?* He’s out writing hilarious ledes to true-crime, teen-crime stories. This one happened in East Harlem, on 103rd and Third Avenue. Take a bow, sir.

*That’s a familiar catch phrase for a local NYC ad about a bed bug-hunting hound.

4. Want Trump Off Twitter? Easy. Buy It.

I don’t know how you suck things from the outside of something, but I’m no viscous flow expert

I follow @realDonaldTrump on Twitter. And I actually think it’s to everyone’s benefit to have the Prez-Elect on Twitter. You can’t get a man to hang himself if you don’t give him the rope to do so, after all.

But for those of you who’d rather have him off, Vanity Fair–you know, this magazine:

Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016

floated an intriguing solution. Simply buy Twitter. They estimate it would cost you about $12 billion to do so and suggested it would be a 21st-century Montezuma’s Revenge of sorts for our neighbors to the south. Don’t wanna pay for the wall? Great. Buy this. And then delete Trump’s account.

Falling In Love, one of a plethora of films in which Streep gave a commanding performance but that no one ever wants to see again

Also this week, People published a transcript of the note Robert De Niro sent Meryl Streep after her Sunday night Golden Globes speech:

Meryl, 

What you said was great. It needed to be said, and you said it beautifully. I have so much respect for you that you did it while the world was celebrating your achievements.

I share your sentiments about punks and bullies. Enough is enough. You, with your elegance and intelligence, have a powerful voice—one that inspires others to speak up as they should so their voices will be heard too. It is so important that we ALL speak up.

We love you,

Bob

5. Hunter Renfrow v. Hunter Renfroe

Renfrow here: Down, but definitely not out.

Who’s your favorite Hunter Renfrow(e)? Is it the former Clemson walk-on wideout, Hunter Renfrow, who caught the game-winning pass in Monday’s national championship game and has four touchdowns and 17 catches against Alabama the past two Januarys (I couldn’t love him more if he were a Domer)?

Renfroe is also on the rise

Or is it the San Diego Padre outfielder, Hunter Renfroe, who got called up to majors in the final two weeks of last season and hit .371 in 13 games with four home runs and 14 RBI? Turns out the latter is a Mississippi lad, a former Mississippi State player, and an “S-E-C!” fan, but still was cheering for his homophone on Monday. And they’ve become buddies through Twitter.

Music 101

This Is Us

Before it was a TV show, it was an mid-tempo duet pairing Dire Straits’ front man Mark Knopfler and one of the loveliest women in music, Emmylou Harris. The song was released in late 2006. I’ve never looked into whether it inspired the NBC series, but it must have, no?

Remote Patrol

Saturday

No. 21 St. Mary’s at No. 5 Gonzaga

10 p.m. ESPN2

Peak WCC rivalry: Olynyk vs. Dellavedova

Hooray for the Catholic schools! There are six Catholic institutions in the Top 25 and none of them are Georgetown (even better, none of them are Boston College). The other four are defending national champion Villanova (3), Creighton (8), Xavier (15) and Notre Dame (20). The Gaels head to Spokane with a 15-1 record and the Zags, of course, are 16-0, the country’s last unbeaten team. This is a great way to settle in on a dark winter’s Saturday night.

by John Walters

I do not know how to put up dry wall. I’m not handy with tools. I am lost under the hood of a car (although I can fix a flat) or under a bathroom sink. I cop to all of it, and I respect people who learn these trades or simply know how to perform these jobs. There is value in what they do, and just because I likely have more book-learning than they do or earned better grades in school does not make me better than they are.

Likewise, not being well-educated does not make someone better-suited to perform jobs that demand an education. The tide of anti-intellectualism that is sweeping the country, the vainglory in being poorly educated or uneducated, is beyond distasteful. It is dangerous.

How can you not know truth if you don’t believe in a virgin mother who gave birth to someone who rose from the dead? What are you, an idiot?

Earlier this week Senator Jeff Sessions, President-Elect Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. Attorney General, was asked flat-out during his ratification hearing, “A secular person has just as good a claim to understanding the truth as a religious person, correct?” 

Sessions’ reply: “Well, I’m not sure.”

This wasn’t a conversation in the men’s room, or in a backroom office. This was televised for America, for the world to see. A man who, by the way is dead-set against radicalized members of another religion, was suggesting that you cannot measure truth as well unless you are religious while aspiring to the highest law enforcement position in the land. Justice is blind, but it carries rosary beads in its pocket.

Donald Trump wants Sessions to be your Attorney General. He wants a climate-change denial dude to head the EPA. He wants as his vice-president a man who ardently believes that homosexuals need to be sent away to be re-trained. As his commissioner on “vaccine safety” a man who does not believe in the safety of vaccines.

Let me be blunt: This is not bad for progressives and liberals. This is bad for everyone inside and outside the United States.

Allow me to introduce you to, if you don’t already know his story, Alan Turing. If you don’t know who Turing was, he was a brilliant British mathematician, a genuine genius, who in 1940 approached the English military and asked to be of service. At the time the Nazis were using an encryption machine, codenamed “Enigma,” that sent coded messages throughout Europe and into the Atlantic to coordinate maneuvers.

The simplest way to explain the Enigma machine: Imagine a typewriter. Now imagine that every key on that typewriter is attached to another typewriter full of keys. Now imagine that every key on those secondary typewriters is attached to yet another typewriter full of keys. Now consider that every day all the Germans would need to do is change the setting of one key on one of those typewriters to change the coded messages they sent.

Solving Enigma seemed virtually impossible. But Turing, who was socially awkward, introverted and, oh yeah, a closeted homosexual, insisted that he be allowed to help. The Brits relented. It’s worth noting here that being gay in Great Britain then was against the law. If word had gotten out that Turing was homosexual, he’d have been thrown in jail.

Fortunately, word did not get out. And after two years Turing, by building what was essentially the world’s first computer, cracked the Enigma code. But then Turing did something just as ingenious: He convinced his military superiors not to simply thwart every German maneuver. Turing saw the long game. He recognized that if the Allies simply used all of their new-found knowledge to undo Axis attacks that the Germans would be on to them and stop using Enigma.

Instead, Turing and his peers developed a calculus of only stopping certain attacks and allowing the Germans to succeed as well. Yes, they could have saved lives right away by stopping attacks on civilian ships, etc., but who knows how many lives that would have cost later on? That sort of long-term thinking takes intelligence and wisdom as well.

(And yes, you can watch The Imitation Game on Netflix right now if you didn’t see it in the theaters and learn most all of this).

The Allies won the war. The Nazis were defeated. Military experts later estimated that the cracking of the Enigma code shortened World War II by two years and saved 14 million lives. Fourteen million lives. That’s like the populations of New York City and Chicago combined.

That’s a pretty significant contribution from someone who, if the law of the day had been properly executed, would have been forbidden to lend his expertise. He’d have been rotting away in jail (If you don’t know how Turing met his end, I’ll spare you, but it wasn’t good and no one even knew of his contributions until 50 years after the war ended; the world owes him a huge thank you and a bigger apology).

The point is, people who are best trained to deal with a problem, be it drywall or an encryption machine, are the ones who should hold those jobs. Not people who simply think the way you do or are looking for the most efficient path to profit.

I’m reminded of another British World War II hero, Winston Churchill, who had been laughed out of office as an old fart and a worry wart in the mid-1930s, only to be called back after the Luftwaffe started flying bombing missions over London. In the mid-1930s Stanley Baldwin had been the Prime Minister and he adamantly refused to listen to Churchill’s repeated attempts to warn the House of Commons that the Germans were amping up their war machine. It was Baldwin and his party who led the  ouster of Churchill out of public life—temporarily.

Unlike Trump, who received at least three military deferments, Chuchill, a fellow child of privilege, volunteered and fought in Cuba, India, Africa twice, and Europe.

Ten years later, in 1947, the war was won, Churchill was a national hero, and Baldwin was turning 80. There was to be a huge birthday party and Churchill was asked to come and speak at it. Never one not to be forthright, Churchill wrote Baldwin a short note that said, and I paraphrase, “I wish you a Happy 80th birthday but I will not attend. I must be honest: it would have been far better for Great Britain if you had never been born.”‘

He was correct, of course. As we stand just one week until inauguration day, I wonder if we’ll all be thinking (or saying) that about the 45th president in a matter of weeks, months, or years. There are serious problems facing the planet, from climate change to the extinction of species, and we have installed as the most powerful man in the world someone who tweets about “Fake News” because he’s butt-hurt about someone trying to compromise his glory.

Intelligence matters. Training matters. Wisdom matters. Alan Turing, even if you completely downgrade his contribution, saved a minimum of 5 million lives. Anti-intellectualism benefits no one. Your grandfather or uncle or dad may have died in World War II if it weren’t for Turing. This is not a game.