5 things I know: Get the shovels or brooms out, Cardinals!
Violence is still people's favorite way of communication
“So much violence.”
Kevin Costner said those words so delicately back in The Untouchables, a stamp of damnation near the end of the movie when two of his friends were dead due to a succession of violence that played out between Chicago law enforcement and the mob. Costner made you feel them without having to shout. Elliott Ness may have put Al Capone in jail for tax evasion, but he recognized the cost of such actions. I wonder if the city leaders wonder about the cost of their city’s crime rate?
More often than not, that’s the call these days. Use a gun or explosives to make your point, because words are too hard to say or put out there. A couple weeks ago in a protest that started peacefully for the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, a cop was critically injured. A protester was running away from the area after the cops started making people clear out and go home, and he literally bulldozed an officer into a convenience store wall. The man hit the cop so hard that it sent the man crashing into a concrete wall.
Here’s a tip: The next time the cops tell you to stay put, just do it. Obey the law, even if it doesn’t seem cool enough. You’re caught, so suck it up and don’t cause more violence. For decades and centuries, the results have taught us that violence isn’t usually a good idea. All due to someone being violent, a cop could face brain damage the rest of his life. Two kids and a job thrown into chaos, and for what?!
Last night, a neighborhood pretty close to my own-I’m in Princeton Heights and this was in Lindenwood-someone heard about six shots ring out later in the evening after 10pm. Six bullets that all run faster than any human ripping through the night, startling families and making parents wonder if it’s time to move out. That’s what my parents did back in the early 90s.
We were living on Tholozan down off Kingshighway Boulevard, and it was becoming too rough for my mom and dad’s liking. My brother Bryan was 15, and I was just four years old when we moved. The city location was home to me, a comfy spot to go prowling around during the day and drive around with my dad at night. But it was becoming more dangerous by the month, so we moved to Brentwood. All of this due to a large group of asshats being too violent.
Do the world a favor, and resist the urge to buy a big gun and make some noise in a rather peaceful neighborhood. Keep the movie in the movies. Also, slow down! That was the opener, so let’s get to the latest round of material hanging out on top of my cerebellum.
1) If you can’t protest peacefully, stay home
Write a long note to the city instead, and deliver it hand to hand. Save a life. Some nights, you could save a couple people by staying home. If you can’t be peaceful in a protest, your entire action is tainted and doesn’t matter. If you cause more violence in relation to another tragedy, your entire case goes up in flames.
Most of the people at a protest don’t even know what they’re protesting, but they’d want to show you a TikTok video while the shit hits the fan. Being angry is like a drug to too many souls. Happiness is overrated, I guess. Going out to cause more violence is catnip for folks that think life hasn’t been fair to them. A tale as old as time should die right where the innocence used to be. Leave the weapons at home, but take the anger with you. Once it becomes anti-peaceful, your entire reason for being there vanishes.
2) Donald Trump disrespects veterans, his own intelligence
They should stuff a piece of soap in the guy’s mouth or something when he starts to move his hands and explain things in a feverish manner. In a ceremony for the Presidential Civilian Award, Trump called it better than the Medal of Honor. Imagine a leader saying something like that, and all the veterans who gave a pound of flesh or more shaking their heads. Weeks ago, he told a reporter that he didn’t know what the soldiers who fought and died for this country were in it for. Again, he didn’t understand what they were in it for.
These are actual things he says. No lying, which is his specialty. Trump’s supporters want you to believe that the Democrats or their supporters made them up. In a perfect world, they would be fictional. They could have been written by a bad Saturday Night Live comedy team, but in this case the words are real. He doesn’t understand what someone who is defending the freedom of our country is doing it for. Whew. Muzzle the guy. Let him run his campaign, talk about his relationships and connections, and continue to see if he can worm his way back into the Oval Office.
For the sake of this country, let’s hope not. He doesn’t understand sacrifice. Memorial Day must be confusing for poor Donnie.
Sidenote: If you don’t like my political discussions and want to go unpaid and leave the 50 or so other paid readers, be my guest. I would caution the swift exit due to the rest of material being handed out here, but some people make a difference in their voting preference the absolute sole reason to detach. I just wish they knew who they were defending. Unless you’re rich, Donnie can’t help you. He can only hurt.
3) Get the shovels or brooms out, Cardinals
The Milwaukee Brewers are in town, and it’s late enough in the season where every series win is crucial and just about each game is huge for a team sitting on the absolute fringes of the playoff picture. St. Louis badly needs a sweep, which seems as far-fetched right now as a Fast & Furious movie. Remember a couple weeks ago when the team was within catching distance of the first place Brewers? Yeah, that’s ancient history now, because they’re 11 games out as the pivotal three-game series begins tonight at Busch.
There are 5 teams ahead of St. Louis in the wildcard race, which the Cardinals sit five games behind at the moment. All of those teams have won their last game, but the Cardinals are coming off a loss. Anything that doesn’t involve a series win against Milwaukee will be a disaster for St. Louis.
A series loss or sweep will bury them in the standings. This is it, as Mark Strong told a room of CIA agents researching the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden in the great Zero Dark Thirty. There’s no else waiting to help the team outside of Luken Baker, Thomas Saggese, and a third of the Memphis roster. There isn’t much time left to save the day. It’s getting into late August, with roughly 5 weeks left in the season.
At 61-63, the Cardinals aren’t as bad as the 2023 team, but the rehab is definitely slowing down and the areas of need are piling up. With 60 million dollars locked up in two vastly underachieving players, the ability to improve was limited at the deadline. The players brought in weren’t enough. The players on the roster aren’t good enough to secure a playoff spot or pulse.
Milwaukee can push the Birds over, or perhaps the boys of summer here in a sea formerly known as red can push off the inevitable. If not, start firing folks and cutting roster spots. St. Louis can’t afford to waste more time. They should take a page from the Blues up the street.
4) Armstrong savviness continues
While I don’t know much about the Edmonton Oilers players that the Blues acquired today after the offer sheet submitted by Doug Armstrong wasn’t matched, I assure you that the Blues are on a much better course than the Cardinals.
He did overpay, according to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, but the dividends outweigh the risk of acquiring two high round draft picks with a need for more minutes. It fits the model that Armstrong and owner Tom Stillman are going for in this current rebuild.
Rutherford is rarely off in his initial projections and reviews of big moves, so this feels like a win for St. Louis. Unlike the Cardinals, they have a plan and it’s happening instead of being talked about and planned for down the road. They’ll be back in the playoffs before the Cardinals, and it won’t be a lousy wildcard berth.
Armstrong had brass balls, and it’s not giving in as he prepares to step into a new role in two years. He hasn’t always made the right calls and I grill him for it when necessary to keep him accountable (we locked eyes one day while I was delivering a toilet), but he is a hungry son of a bitch when it comes to putting a roster together.
Here’s the money quote when asked about the supposedly gray reputation that offer sheets have, which I presumed looked like a GM making a call to a restricted player to see if he wants to date a little.
5) Everything is so expensive!
Anything. Everywhere. All the time. Inflation may be down, but the prices are slipping at a very slow pace. Netflix used to cost $10 per month, and now it’s $23. Eggs used to be cheaper than a gallon of gas, but not anymore. Anything and everything at the grocery store has grown by a dollar or two at least. You can’t go to the store for a few things and spend less than $20, unless you are a big fan of romaine lettuce.
Streaming platforms are wisely striking the pot while it’s showing gold, raising prices slowly but surely and gauging customers for virtually the same product. I don’t how many medium-heated true crime stories that Netflix can overproduce; they’re still the same shop. I can’t quit them, or 2/3 of the ones I currently have. When you’re trying to determine how to watch an upcoming John Woo movie because it’s on Peacock, things have changed.
So much violence, and everything is so damn expensive. The day job is tough, but so am I. Writing keeps the mind young.