by John Walters

Starting Five

St.Valentine’s Day Massacre

Expelled from his high school one year earlier, Nikolas Cruz returned just before the last bell of school yesterday and murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Yes, it IS the right time to talk about gun legislation. Cruz had posted violent photos on Instagram and had lost his mother as a teen (a family had taken him in). He was attending another high school and working at The Dollar Store. Was he a troubled teen? Absolutely. But he was a troubled teen with no criminal past who was able to purchase an AR-15 rifle two years earlier in life before he was able to purchase a Bud Light.

 

My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. I’m fucking scared right now. pic.twitter.com/mjiEmPvGNb

— Aidan Minoff (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018

There was a former Florida Congressman, a Republican, on CNN late last night, and what he said should resonate. Jolly said that the most hallowed ground for most Republicans in Congress is to be invited to speak at the NRA convention, to demonstrate that they are further to the right than their predecessors. As long as that mentality exists, sane gun legislation is not about to happen. He said our best hope is to flip the House and Senate. This from a Republican.

Meanwhile, three of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history (Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, this) have taken place in the last five months. Homeland Security begins at home.

2. Shiffrin Gears

After a few days’ delay, American Mikaela Shiffrin earned gold in the Giant Slalom. For the record, there is no Miniature Slalom. This is her second gold in the event: the Vail, Colo., native is still just 22 years old.

3. The Russia Connection

On May 12, 2016, The New York Times ran this exhaustively reported piece describing in detail and with diagrams how the Russians systematically beat the drug testing process at the Sochi Olympics, which they of course hosted. This piece of journalism was terribly embarrassing to the Russian government and it extended all the way up to Vladimir Putin. If only the IOC had any balls, Russia would have been completely banned from Pyeongchang (the “OAR” designation is a sham).

But what if, and this is only a pet theory, that story catalyzed Putin to seek payback? What if this article inspired Russia to seek that Trump Tower meeting just one month later? What if the Russians, who are fiercely proud of their Olympic prowess no matter if it has often been illegally gained, decided to get payback by telling the Trumps of the dirt they had on Donald, and explaining how all of this was going to go down in their favor with the possibility, eventually, of sanctions being lifted?

Suddenly the appointment of Exxon’s Rex Tillerson (whose former company stands to make the most from sanctions being lifted and is one of the few Yanks whom the Russians adore) to Secretary of State makes sense. As does Trump’s unwillingness to say a single negative thing about Putin while he trashes pro athletes. As does Trump’s unwillingness to admit that Russia meddled in the 2016 election while the FBI and CIA overtly state that it did.

4. Reince Comes Clean

The MH staff predicted this a year ago. There would be two types of Trump staffers: 1) Kool-Aid gulping loyalists (e.g. Stephen Miller) who would gladly kill for Herr Fuhrer, many of them family members or 2) those who’d stick around long enough to be able to write a lascivious book proposal. Count original Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who always seemed to nice a guy to work with Trump, among the latter.

In excerpts from Priebus’ new book that appear in Vanity Fair, he writes, “Take everything you’ve heard [about working for Trump] and multiply it by 50. [It was] like riding the strongest and most independent horse.”

5. It’s All Downhill From Here

When the MH staff were lads, the men’s downhill was the highlight of the Winter Olympics. We loved two things about it: the simplicity and the danger. Be the fastest is something any five year-old can comprehend, and then when you watch men fly more than 40 yards in the air, that’s something.

This run from Austrian Franz Klammer before his home crowd in Innsbruck in 1976 remains our all-time favorite Olympic moment. Notice the crowds lining the course, something that is missing at Pyeongchang (safety reasons?). It’s more fun with the crowds lining the course.

Last night 35 year-old Aksel Lund Svindal (above, and above terra firm) became the first Norwegian ever to capture gold in this event, which seems rather surprising to us. The Norwegians are in first place in the medal standings overall with 17. Germany is first in terms of gold medals, with 9, even though their figure skating pair that took gold last night, Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, have been citizens of Russia and France, respectively, for almost their entire lives. Mason, in fact, needed three tries to pass his German language test in order to be granted citizenship just a few months ago.

 

Music 101

Nothing Left To Lose (But Myself)

Eugene, Oregon, native Mat Kearney is a Coffee House All-Star. The adult contemporary star had this breakout hit in 2006 that went to No. 41 on the Billboard chart, while the producers at Grey’s Anatomy cried, “Get us the rights to that song, STAT!”

Remote Patrol

Winter Olympics

8 p.m. NBC

2006, Turin. Props to the NBC announcer who calls it bluntly about Lindsey Jacobellis’ epic fall/epic fail: “She went down on a showboat trick!” That remains the closest she has come to a gold medal (the silver here is her only Olympic medal), but the 32 year-old from Stratton, Vermont, will go for it perhaps for the final time tonight.