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Its no secret that I love baseball. Now that Shohei Ohtani has rejected his qualifying offer, he is reputed set to receive a record free agent contract. A qualifying offer is made to free agents by their current team. A qualifying offer is the average of the top 125 contracts by annual value. This year that figure is $20,325,000. Ohtani was one of 7 who rejected their offers. The others were Cody Bellinger (who is rumored to go to the Yankees), Josh Hader, Blake Snell (who may win the Cy Young in the National League), Aaron Nola (who is from New Orleans!), Sonny Gray and Matt Chapman. Gray and Chapman were surprises to me. I would have taken the money.

I really like Ohtani. He will win another American League MVP. If he pitched full time he would win the Cy Young. If he DH’ed full time he would win the Triple Crown. But doing both has resulted in his getting hurt too often. But he is worth the price of admission. We go to St Petersburg and camp for a week and go to two Rays’ games when the Angels come to visit. Ohtani will likely get a guaranteed contract in excess of $60 million a year. The question is how many years. Naturally the Yankees are listed as a possible suitor. But they should know better. They got GianCarlo Stanton in free agency from the Marlins. Stanton has been a bust mainly because of his frail health. He was awful last year batting .191 with 24 home runs. The Yankees may waive him but are on the hook for the $94 million remaining on his contract.

Currently the richest contract in the majors is Ohtani’s teammate Mike Trout. Yet with Ohtani, Trout and a former high priced free agent in Antony Rendon the Angels have never made the playoffs. That got me to wondering if these free agents are worth the money. I know you will say the Texas Rangers who paid dearly for Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager and Matt Scherzer. But deGrom was hurt all year and Scherzer came via trade late. But Corey Seager may have been worth the $325 million. He has been a consistent all star, won the World Series with the Dodgers and Rangers and was MVP in both. Nevertheless, the Rangers are a collection of no names. The same is true of the Tampa Bay Rays who have of late out performed the high priced Yankees and Red Sox in their division despite having very little fan support and one of the lowest payrolls in baseball.

All this leads me to wonder if the team with the highest payroll ever won the World Series. The answer is yes. The Yankees in 2009 and the Red Sox in 2018. I was surprised that the Dodgers were not on that list when they won the World Series in 2020. They had Mookie Betts and Clayton Kershaw but were second in payroll to the Yankees. Corey Seager was MVP was paid “only” $13.75 million. So expect Ohtani to get record bucks, be a huge attraction and win MVPs. But don’t expect his team to win the World Series.

Harold A Black

I am not an expert on immigration. But neither are the vast majority of our politicians who are expected to enact laws on immigration. There are some common sense (to me) actions that would address the problem of the massive movement of illegals to our southern border. One of my friends asked me how would I deal with the crisis. Here are my ideas. Please tell me where I am wrong and how to fix it.

Suggestions on illegal immigration:

Provide pathway to citizenship to the “Dreamers”

End citizenship for children born in the country to noncitizens

Require work permits for all able bodied adults

Deport those without work permits

Deport “got-aways”

Provide an easier pathway to citizenship to legal immigrants

Provide financial support to communities on the border

Require visas for entry at border (obtained through US Embassies or consulates)

Return all unaccompanied minors to their home country

Reinstitute ICE removals

Tie aid to foreign countries to assistance with illegals migrating from those countries

Reinstitute remain in Mexico policy

End catch and release and replace it with catch and deport

End the hearings where illegals are held in detention for 20 days and then released with a hearing date

Require those with visas and work permits to renew or be deported

I know that some will say that this will result in profiling where those who look foreign will be required to prove that they are legal, resulting in harassment of Latinos and people of color. It will be akin to my being pulled over for driving while black (DWB). I admit this bothers me but the alternative bothers me more.

By the way, the photo was taken by me in during a hunting trip to Eagle Pass, TX

A reader of my column in the Knoxville Focus (knoxfocus.com) asked me to cite Biden’s failures. I told him that if he had to ask, then there was no use for me to cite them. He insisted and said that I might be able to convince him. Again I told him that I didn’t consider it my duty to convince anyone of anything. What I have found is that those things that I consider a failure, those on the left consider it a success. But here goes.

Afghanistan pullout

Afghan aid

Iran nuclear deal

Iran blackmail dollars

Paris Accord

Foreign policy

Domestic policy

Incompetent cabinet

Keystone pipeline

Woke military

Illegals

Green new deal

Spending

Inflation

Economy

Bidenomics

Woke administrative state

Weaponization of DoJ

School trans policy

COVID 19 tyranny

Energy dependence

Federal debt

“Gender affirming” care

Gaffes and Blunders (too numerous to list)

Most divisive president since Abraham Lincoln

Did I leave anything out?

November 8, 2023

I am going on my annual deer hunting trip to Eagle Pass, TX, the epicenter of the illegal crisis. Seemingly every night Fox News has a report from there. I wonder why they only interview white ranchers. Even though the rancher where I hunt is at his wits end, the people most severely impacted are the residents of Eagle Pass whose town is inundated with illegals. Most of the residents are Hispanic as are the town officials. Why Fox doesn’t interview ordinary citizens is beyond me. Las year while sitting in a shooting tower, we saw two groups of illegals walking through the ranch all wearing backpacks and looking at their cell phones. In addition to hunting deer, I guess I’ll wave at them as they stroll by. At last count the border patrol had apprehended “migrants” from 160 countries. Mind you there are only 195 countries in the world. There are over 40,000 from India along with those from China, the Middle East and who knows where.

I don’t understand the Taylor Swift phenomena. Sure she is cute but I have yet to get past her videos.

Why is it that all the burglars on the security commercials are white males?

Previously the anti-Israel crowd claimed that it was not anti-Semitic. It supposedly was against the Israeli occupation of Palestine denying the Palestinians access to their homelands. Of course, the same ground is the homelands of Israel too. The attacks on Jews in this country and others puts a lie to the claim of not being anti-Semitic. It is pitiful to hear the Biden folks warn against Islamophobia when the attacks on Jews are tenfold that on Muslims.

The news coverage of pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses makes it appear that most students are anti-Semitic. I wonder if that is true. It seems that all the quotes are from professors in the humanities. What about the professors of business and engineering? I wonder how many business and engineering students are in the protests.

I applaud Brandeis University for expelling the radical Jewish hate group Students for Justice in Palestine from its campus. Florida has done the same. I wish more universities had the guts to follow suit. Imagine what would be the consequences of another student group using the same rhetoric against blacks. I am waiting with baited breath for the SPLC to label Students for Justice in Palestine a hate group.

The Deep State has reared its head in the Israel-Hamas war. Civil servants in high places in the Federal government are criticizing Biden for supporting aid and arms to Israel. We know that the Deep State worked to thwart Trump when he was in office. Now it is doing the same with Biden. Something has to be done about this. Civil servants should be agenda free carrying out the wishes of their bosses. You always hear about term limits for politicians. What about term limits for civil servants?

As I have noted before, Israel is creating a schism in the Democrat party. Yet all those that I have seen interviewed who are members of the Hamas Caucus at the state and federal level are all politicians of color. Aren’t there some white progressives who hate Isreal too?

We were at the Georgia – Missouri game and for the first time in four years were able to sit with my granddaughter who is a graduating senior at Georgia. She is a recruiting specialist and at every home game is with the recruits. She was able to be excused during this game to come sit with us in the Terry College’s box. My thanks to the Dean for making this happen. It was great. I am proud of her achievements at UGA and look forward to being her commencement speaker December 15.

Knoxville Focus

knoxfocus.com

November 6, 2023

I am suffering from Trump Fatigue Syndrome (TFS).

Trump dominates the news. When he was president 92 percent of the media coverage of him was negative. Amazingly – but not surprising – Biden has received less negative media coverage than any president on record. Who was it that said that the legacy media was the PR arm of the democrat party?

There is a new COVID variant afoot. The CDC and the media are already starting to raise the possibility of masks and mandatory vaccinations. I thought this was the “my body my choice” crowd?

Trump has a video in which he says “The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fearmongering about the new variants that are coming.” “But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: We will not comply, so don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates, and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates.” 

I guess that he forgot that he was the first to impose mandates that shut the economy down, issued mask mandates and closed the schools. Remember flattening the curve? Remember 15 days to stop the spread? That was Trump. Remember Operation Warp Speed and the rush to produce mRNA experimental vaccines that indemnified Big Pharma? That was Trump. 

I don’t blame Trump for his initial response with all the fear mongering from Fauci, the CDC and all the models predicting the end of the world. But Fauci and the CDC were lying and the models were bogus. I do blame Trump for shutting down small businesses while allowing the giants to remain open leading to thousands of small business failure. I do blame Trump for not pivoting when the evidence came in showing the folly of masks and vaccines for less vulnerable groups. Masking and vaccinating children are akin to child abuse. Those who are most vulnerable should be protected and the rest of us left alone. For the vast majority of us, COVID is a bad cold or the flu and we don’t shut down and mask for either even though 50,000 die from the flu yearly.

The vaccines have come with serious adverse effects. I have two otherwise healthy friends who almost died from the Moderna vaccine. There were also adverse reactions to the Pfizer/AstraZeneca vaccine with myocarditis and pericarditis risks. It just stands to reason that if Big Pharma is indemnified then they would be less careful in the production of the drug.

It’s no wonder that the new booster is sitting on the shelves gathering dust. I don’t know anyone who has gotten it. Do you?

Biden is so bad that he has made Trump look good. We tend to forget Trump’s inability to govern and his disastrous cabinet appointments. He pledged to end the administrative state and reform the Civil Service. He did neither. Instead he wasted his time on trying to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. That was a mistake. The two should have been separate. The first should be to repeal and then introduce an act to replace. The effort failed due to the one vote of John McCain who likely voted “no” simply because he hated Trump. Now Obamacare with all its warts is imbedded and will never be repealed.

Trump also ranted and raved about NAFTA claiming that it was the worse trade deal ever. Studies had shown that those states most adversely affected by NAFTA actually had positive gains in employment post NAFTA. But facts don’t matter in politics. So Trump and his people worked for countless hours to replace NAFTA with USMCA – the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Rolls right off the tongue. Close scrutiny shows that there is not much difference in the two despite the rhetoric.  

But Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices, made America energy independent and stemmed the flow of illegals crossing the southern border. He also reduced the regulatory burden on Americans. Those positives mean four more years of Trump will be better for the country than four more years of Biden who seems intent on destroying the economy.

I am a baseball fan. When the NFL and MLB seasons overlap I invariably watch baseball. I find the NFL boring while most find baseball boring. Yet this year I did not watch a single inning of the World Series. Neither did many others making this World Series one of the least watched in history. However, I was glad that the Texas Rangers won. They are the only MLB team that does not have a “Pride” night. That was enough for me to buy a Rangers cap.

The new speaker is causing much consternation among the left. They hate him. He would be wise to ignore all their criticism and follow his own muse. As expected, the Israel support bill coming out of the House did not contain funding for the Ukraine. What was unexpected is that the bill did not include new funding, rather the $14 b was drawn from the ludicrous $80 b slated to go to the IRS in the likewise ludicrous “Inflation Reduction” Act. The Senate Democrats howled and said the bill was dead on arrival. Mitch McConnell was not apparently happy either. Good. Although I thank McConnell for not allowing the hack attorney general Merrick Garland a seat on the Supreme Court, he has been too much of an establishment Republican for my taste. You know the type: content with the status quo, big spender but not as big as the Democrats. 

McConnell and the establishment Republicans act as if they want the approval of the mainstream media. Right now the media hates Mike Johnson. I hope he does not try to curry their favor. Let’s hope he sees their criticism as evidence that he is doing a good job.

Empirical research has been always suspect but never more so than now. Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases handed out over $45 b in research grants with some institutions receiving over $300 m a year. It should not be surprising that the recipients of the grants seldom produced results that ran afoul of Fauci. ”Research” supported Fauci’s claim that COVID did not come from the Wuhan lab, even though that made the most sense. The Center for Disease Control was in lock step with Fauci and its woeful director Rochelle Walensky was embarrassing. The result being that few people believed her utterances and fewer belied the results of their reported “research” results. Not surprisingly, the new COVID boosters are sitting on the shelves.

The Southern Poverty and Law Center brands organizations as hate groups and brands conservative groups with the label. So the Alliance Defending Freedom where Johnson was an attorney is labelled a “hate group”. Why? Because it is an anti LGBTQ advocacy group and is anti-abortion. The SPLC also brands Moms for Liberty as a hate group for their opposition to imposing LBGTQ, critical race theory and transgender curricula in public schools. However, the SPLC does not list Antifa as a hate group. Go figure.

The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, demonstrations on and off college campuses are clearly anti-Semitic. Why else would Jews be targeted by the demonstrators and attacked? Why else are Jewish businesses attacked?  That the left is anti-Israel and labelled it an apartheid state is puzzling. Is Israel practicing apartheid within is borders? Are its Muslim citizens second-class? Apparently not. Yet Israel’s actions in the West Bank are clearly apartheid-like. Nonetheless, all of Israel’s Muslim neighbors are clearly apartheid states. They do not tolerate LGBTQ. They do not tolerate other religions and are clearly racist. Yet the progressives would rather support the Muslims over Israel. Why? The only reason that I can figure is that it is racial. The Israelis are being portrayed as the white oppressor of brown people.

Automobile manufacturers in the US and Europe are scaling back their production of EVs. The majority of the public would rather not have them. The initial sales spurts are over. The save the world crowd has gotten their EVs and the rest of us are buying the gasoline/diesel vehicles. The only way to get EVs widely purchased is to mandate them and ban internal combustion engines. Europe has moved in that direction as have California and other states. Biden’s new fleet milage requirements can only be met by EVs. This will lead to increased demand for used cars. The question is whether people will rebel and vote out the greenies.

EVs are evidence of Harold Black’s Laws 4-7.

4. If something fails the market test and exists only because of the government, it is bad.
5. If it is mandated it is bad.
6. If it is subsidized, it is bad.
7. If it is protected, it is bad.

The Republican caucus is a mess. Unlike the Democrats who seem to be able to vote unanimously on most issues despite some ideological differences, the Republicans have difficulty getting their act together. Being Speaker for them is like trying to herd cats. Contrast what the Republicans were doing with the relative ease that Hakeem Jeffries was voted in as minority leader, replacing Nancy Pelosi. Although Pelosi was an anathema to most Republicans, she was the unchallenged leader of the House Democrats. When she was challenged in her congressional races, it was always from the left who asserted that she was too moderate and not progressive enough. Yet she was elected to Speaker unanimously by the Democrats. Jeffries is in the same mold. Although many on the right try to paint him as a socialist, in fact he is anything but. By New York standards he is a “moderate” and actively campaigns against candidates of the Democratic Socialists of America. He would like nothing better than the socialists to lose in state races and in particular in races for the House. It is clear that he does not care for Jamaal Bowman and would like to see him defeated. I have written previously of how the Democrats could enact certain parts of their agenda even with the House Republican majority. All it would take would be seven defections from the Republicans and a unanimous Democrat vote. Thank goodness the Republicans finally elected a speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Who? Mike Johnson. Perhaps Johnson was the beneficiary of fatigue and exasperation, but finally we have a speaker. None to soon. The world is blowing up, the government shutdown is looming and the image in my mind is Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burns.

As expected, the Democrats and their allies have taken out the sharp knives to go after Johnson, instantly labelling him as the MAGA speaker. They have attacked his devout Christianity, his stand against abortion, against gay marriage and the administration’s trans policies. He was a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund defending conservative Christian interests. The ADF has been branded as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is becoming a badge of honor.

Johnson is a devout Christian with solid conservative credentials. He voted for McCarthy. He did not join Gaetz’ gang to ouster McCarthy. But he voted against the Ukrainian supplemental appropriations bill and supported the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the Trump defeats in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Johnson also voted for the resolution to impeach Joe Biden and is an advocate for single appropriations bills rather than the omnibus bills of Nancy Pelosi that no one had the time to read. Remember “We will find out what is in the bill after we pass it?” No wonder Trump endorsed him – but of course he also endorsed McCarthy. What will be interesting is that Johnson has only been in his fourth term making him one of the least experienced speakers in history. Hopefully he can successfully herd cats.

At least the Republicans tired of as my mother would say “making a fool out of themselves” and elected a speaker. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the House, especially with regards to the Federal budget. Expect any bill not to be passed by the Senate. Instead, the bills will go to conference to find a compromise. In the past, compromise mean Republican surrender. I have the feeling that with Johnson, it will be a true compromise. However, expect the Democrats to test him and maybe even force a government “shutdown” thinking that the Republicans will fold given the pressure from the Democrats’ allies in the media.

October 24, 2023

Current events have opened up differences that pose existential threats to both the Republican and Democrat parties. For the Republicans the inability to coalesce around a Speaker has exposed pure venom being directed at the eight who toppled Kevin McCarthy. But there has been considerable friction caused by Republican members of the Freedom Caucus who oppose continued funding for the Ukraine. There is some pushback in the Senate but it is minor compared to what is coming out of the House. The question is whether the Republicans can come together and act as a party or will they continue to conduct a circular firing squad. One likely outcome is for the Freedom Caucus and its supporters of Donald Trump to splinter off into a new party. Let’s call it the Conservative Party. 

For the Democrats, the schism is over Israel. The “progressives” have come to the aid of Hamas under the guise of protecting the Palestinians. They have protested in rallies with the pro-Palestinians groups condemning Israel and calling for a cease fire – which would only save Hamas from the Israelis’ vengeance. At many of the rallies, some have carried swastikas. Previously, when white supremacists would rally and brandish swastikas, the press was full of pictures and talking heads on CNN and MSNBC who literally go crazy. Now that the antiIstraeli student organizations and groups are waving swastikas and calling for the elimination of Israel itself – the chant from river to sea – the criticism from the media is totally absent and the silence is deafening. Maybe AOC, the Squad, the Democratic Socialists of America and Antifa have more in common with the Aryan Brotherhood and the American Nazi Party than they want to admit. 

The anti-Israelis in the Democratic party are not limited to the Congress. At many state legislators, Democrat members refused to support resolutions supporting Israel. In North Carolina, a resolution passed unanimously only because the Democratic members walked out before the vote. Jewish legislators see this. Steve Cohen of Memphis has appeared in the media more in the past three weeks than he has in his previous15 years in the Congress. Other Jewish legislators on the state level have been critical of their “progressive” colleagues. Many comments are scathing. One wonders what is being said in private? I have previously wondered why the majority of Jews are Democrats when Israel’s most vocal critics tend to be on the left. Even the far left is splintering as one of the leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America has resigned over that organization’s support of Hamas. It seems reasonable that if the Democrats do not censure these members, that the Jews will scale back their support financially and splinter the legislative caucuses. Perhaps the antiIsraeli faction leave the party and create their own political party. Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, Bowman and AOC would likely be more comfortable in another party than in one with Steve Cohen and Chuck Schumer. Let’s call it the Progressive party.

That would give us four parties with enough supporters to influence elections and could lead to a coalition government. Those governments make for strange bedfellows. Just look at many European governments.

Knoxville Focus

knoxfocus.com

October 23, 2023

Of course it won’t happen but suppose everyone decided to follow the lead of John Fetterman and dress casually? Fetterman if you don’t know is a senator from Pennsylvania who seldom wears suits and ties. Rather he favors hoodies and shorts. Since senate rules barred anyone from the chambers who was not dressed appropriately, Fetterman would stand outside the doors to vote. For some reason unbeknownst to us all the senate majority leader waived the dress code for senators. I guess that no vote was needed. Mind you everyone else still had to adhere to dressing professionally. I can’t figure out why Schumer capitulated to allow Fetterman to come into the senate chambers dressed like a slob. The democrats own a 51-49 majority thanks to the republicans blowing the last election, so Schumer didn’t need Fetterman’s vote. Yet he is now for allowing him to wear his hoodies and shorts on the senate floor. Of course, if Fetterman were a Republican Schumer would have never changed policy. Susan Collins remarked that she could now wear a bikini if she wanted. Thank goodness she will spare us of that horrid sight. Surprisingly, some democrat senators have objected. Not surprisingly, one of them is Joe Manchin. Surprisingly, one is Dick Durbin. Under pressure from both some Democrats and all Republicans, the Senate formally adopted a dress code mandating coat and tie for its male members. Women were not mentioned in the resolution.

At first I thought it was of little importance as to what Fetterman wanted to wear. But I changed my mind. Some have pointed out that this is another example of the coarsening of America and the lowering of standards. They are right. Suppose everyone decided to dress slovenly and all of our elected officials and bureaucrats wore hoodies and shorts or worse. Would they govern even worse than they do now? That is a frightening thought. My parents bemoaned the loosening of the dress code for teachers. They contended that when standards regarding dress were lowered so went academic standards and respect for the teachers. They didn’t object as much to wearing a nice shirt and pants but not hoodies, shorts and sneakers. They also bemoaned the change in the churches. No longer did one have to wear their Sunday best to church. I remember growing up in a Baptist church in Atlanta where the men wore coat and tie and the women looked splendid in their dresses, heels and hats. In the winter I remarked while looking over the congregation that the mink population had been severely reduced given all the women’s fur coats. I loved going to church probably more to look good and to feel good than for any other reason. Now even our southern Baptist churches have gone casual and I wonder if the spirit moves less because of it.

I admit guilt. Once I wore coat and tie to teach in. Then one day I rode a motorcycle to work. I showed up in all leather. When I first did that as a young assistant professor it was a wonder I didn’t get fired. It was obvious that my colleagues did not approve. However, I had the best classes ever. After the students got over their initial shock, they were livelier and more participatory. I never wore suit and tie again. Of course my parents objected profusely stating that the students would respect me less if I looked like one of them rather than one who “dressed right.” They were right if I showed up in a hoodie and shorts (naturally being black if I wore a hoodie and shorts I would be labelled a thug). However, shirts and slacks might be appropriate dress for teachers but not for senators. But as Deion Sanders aka Coach Prime so eloquently puts it, “If you dress good, you look good. If you look good, you play good. If you play good, they pay good!” So dress appropriately.

The Republicans can’t elect a speaker and they keep making things worse. There was no possible way for Jim Jordan to be speaker and I was puzzled that he would try. Jordan has been a non productive member of Congress for 16 years with a dismal legislative record. He is famous for yelling at people and does not build coalitions. In his quest for speakership, he had his minions actually threatened members of Congress and their families. Such shameful and despicable behavior should not be rewarded. It would be akin to the Democrats nominating AOC as speaker and even the Democrats are not that dumb. 

I would not vote for Jim Jordan. Although there may be someone in the Congress that could garner 217 votes, that person has not emerged. Even Patrick McHenry whom all sides seem to coalesce around to be interim speaker has come under scathing criticism from the far right. I know how to solve the problem. There are two people that come to mind that would make an excellent speaker – if they wanted the job: Newt Gingrich and Phil Gramm. Both are super smart, ex-professors, superb legislators with solid records, and have emeritus status in the Republican party. So come on Republicans, think out of the box for a change and nominate Gingrich or Gramm!