Five years ago today...

That's right...it happened.

46-year-old Houston-born George Floyd was murdered in his adopting city, Minneapolis, by police officer Derek Chauvin.

Floyd was a father of five...and he entered a convenience store to buy some cigarettes. A clerk at that store suspected Floyd had used a $20 bill to purchase the smokes, so the store's manager called the police. When MPD officers arrived at the store, they pulled guns on Floyd...who cooperated with the cops during the arrest. But then, he told the officers he had claustrophobia...so he resisted going into the squad car. Once they pulled Floyd out, Chauvin pinned him to the ground.

The whole thing was caught on video...and the footage made it to Facebook.

After nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds underneath Chauvin, Floyd was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at a Minneapolis hospital.

Protests took place almost immediately...and Minneapolis was the first city where demonstrations took place in the wake of the murder. In the next week or two, two hundred US cities had imposed curfews. Roughly twenty-five states used the National Guard...on top of police departments nationwide using riot-control tactics.

Things got to the point here in America where more than 2,000 protests happened in the wake of the murder of Floyd...in a year where Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor had already lost their lives to police brutality.

Bigwigs in all walks of American life started talking about the role of police departments...and started talking about how to end racism (let's face it, this country's original sin...and I'm quoting bestselling author Jim Wallis) and how to make these United States a truly inclusive nation.

I can't help but ask: How much have we actually learned as a nation since 5-25-2020?

For starters, the same man who, in the light of these protests, wanted the police to "dominate the streets" is back in office.

Speaking of police...Chauvin was arrested on 5-29-2020; he was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. A jury found him guilty of all those charges on 4-20-2021. (Those seventeen misconduct complaints Chauvin racked up coming into 2020's Memorial Day weekend sure didn't help him.)

He's now serving a 22.5-year prison sentence...whether the Charlie Kirks of the world like it or not.

The protests MUST continue

Last week, two encounters with coworkers at the plastics factory that employs me made it personally crystal clear why the worldwide protests against the brutality shown by America's police forces MUST continue.

Last Sunday, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert issued a 72-hour curfew in light of the Big O being one of the many American cities holding demonstrations not only against police brutality, but also against the militarization of this country's police forces...and against vigilante brutality. In the curfew, people couldn't go out between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM...unless they had vital jobs. (The company I work at makes, among other things, personal protective equipment...no, not coronavirus masks, but the masks worn by assembly-line employees at dairy factories and by soldiers.)

So...on 6-1-2020, as I got off my second-shift job at 11:00 PM and was heading for my car to drive home, a supervisor from another plant within the same building headed for his own car to go to his own home.

I held the door for him (just trying to be polite, that's all)...and he started talking about the local curfew.

And then he praised this country's chief White House occupant, talking about how "honest" this occupant is...and how this one-time reality-TV show host "says what's on his mind."

Guess what? 

Just because the former host of NBC's The Apprentice says what's on his mind doesn't make what's on his mind cool...especially when he declares war on the nation's own citizens by vowing to sic the military on protesters if governors don't do his bidding and "dominate the streets."

That's dictatorial talk...no ifs, no maybes, no buts.

Sorry, folks. The way I see it, we started having a dictator here the afternoon of 1-20-2017.

A couple of nights ago, a fellow second-shift employee of mine at the same plant I work at weighed in on the continuing protests.

She wondered when the demonstrators would get off the streets "so that people can get on with their lives." What's more, she wondered what good the protests are doing.

So I told her.

Not only did I tell this fellow machine operator that the demonstrations have, at long last, gotten the attention of some corporate leaders (one of the leaders took to the electronic billboard at 72nd and Pacific Sts. here in O and loaded a message: "We Need Each Other")...I told her I'm glad the protests continue to take place.

The sign on the east facade of Omaha's Do Space (at 72nd and Dodge Sts., in a building that previously housed a Borders book store) proclaimed: "BLACK LIVES MATTER."

By the way...some of the protests here in Omaha happened at 72nd and Dodge.

Hours before second shift began that day (6-5-2020), NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement admitting that the league was wrong in the way it's been handling player protest ever since San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick went to one knee in 2016.

Eleven days after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis cop named Derek Chauvin (with an assist from four other members of Minneapolis' Supposedly Finest), Goodell finally gave the okay for the NFL's players to speak out and peacefully protest.

What's more, he stated: "We, the National Football League, believe Black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country."

Goodell also admitted that "Without Black players, there would be no National Football League." 

Now, Roger...if you and the league's 32 team owners get rid of that kneeling ban, I'll be glad to get back to spending Sunday afternoons and evenings (and any Monday night or Thursday night I can get off during the season) watching NFL action.

And what about US Sen. Willard Mitt Romney (R-UT), the most recent Republican to lose a presidential election, marching with protesters in the nation's capital?

We'll see what happens in the days/weeks/months/years to come...but Romney's and Goodell's actions are a start. So are those taken by corporate bigwigs everywhere.

So if you're still upset because the protests, as this fellow machine operator of mine put it, prevent people from going "on with their lives," let me tell you something:

Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and too damned many others weren't allowed to get on with their own lives.

Vigilantes took it upon themselves to snuff Martin's and Arbery's lives out.

FOR NOTHING.

And I'd like to ask you something:

Do you REALLY believe in freedom for all to live their lives peacefully...to go about their everyday business just as you do?

Do you REALLY believe people have a right to petition this country's government...especially this current garbage fire of a government, one built on hatred and bigotry?

 

It sure didn't have to be this way

On Wednesday, 5-24-2020, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States became the first country to suffer 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

That's just about like wiping a Billings, MT off the map...or a Davenport, IA...or a Sparks, NV.

Think about that.

And it sure didn't have to be this way.

I read an online article at theintercept.com that stated America's first confirmed case of COVID-19 was made public on 1-20-2020. That same article said that Vietnam saw its first case of the disease three days later.

Vietnam still has yet, as of 5-24-2020, to record its first COVID death.

Yes, yes, yes...Vietnam doesn't have as many people in it as the US; the 2020 edition of "The World Almanac" states that Vietnam has 97.9 million people in it compared to America's 327.2 million people (a 2018 estimate).

Now take a look at the world's most heavily-populated country, China.

Not counting Hong Kong or Macao, China's population is 1.39 billion people. Billion. 

If you go right now to worldometers.info, you'll find that the latest figures show that 4,634 Chinese have died from COVID.

Nope. That's not a typo. 

As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to the White House's totally inadequate and completely halfhearted response to the coronavirus pandemic.

And yes...it's an utterly racist response.

Maybe you've heard that deaths from the disease have been disproportionately Black and Brown...the two biggest ethnic groups America's Republicans love to defecate on.

If you're thinking about cutting out on this post, just understand that the same article from theintercept.com yielded a quote from HHS Secretary Alex Azar: "Unfortunately, the American population is...very diverse."  

That's Azar trying to justify the world's highest COVID casualty total.

Remember: Azar is part of the first White Supremacist administration in Washington since Woodrow Wilson slept at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

The Republicans- especially those in the White House- made this whole coronavirus pandemic political. They, not I.

To them, it's all about winning on 11-3-2020. The Con Artist in Chief knows that the fewer people out there casting ballots this year, the better his chances of staying in the Oval Office.

And to The Adolf...oops, I mean The Donald, the pandemic is just another weapon in the GOP arsenal. Just like the call to keep the country's meatpacking facilities running, labeling meat as a vital item.

A significant percentage of immigrants and non-White people works at those plants.

And too many of the employees at those plants have complained about the lack of coronavirus (or any other kind of) protection at too many of those facilities.

Listen, if protein's the issue, cookinglight.com lists 21 other sources of protein.

For instance, you can get protein from peanuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, kidney beans, peanut butter, veggie burgers, lima beans, and all kinds of cheeses from Swiss to mozzarella to Colby Jack.

Okay...is social distancing the issue?

I get that millions of us are chafing to Get Back to Normal...even if it's not going to be all that simple. Millions are chafing to hear the nation's cash registers "KA-CHING!" at the same rate as when 2020 began and we were looking forward to a whole new decade.

Coming back to the article from theintercept.com, epidemiologists Britta L. Jewell and Nicholas P. Jewell said that about 90% of America's COVID-19 deaths could've been prevented if social-distancing policies had been put into effect on 3-2-2020.

At that time, only 11 Americans had died from the biggest global pandemic since the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918-20.

In response to COVID, social spacing finally got placed into effect on 3-15-2020.

Think where we'd be right now if the United States had REAL leadership at the top...instead of the con job that commenced on 1-20-2017. 

For now, let's think about saving lives first.

Then we can worry about saving the economy.  

I sure could've used a helpful smile last Thursday

I'll never again shop at the Hy-Vee Food Store at 7910 Cass St. here in Omaha.

Chalk that up to a young sacker named Kyle.

At 1:34 PM on 4-18-2019, I pulled into the parking lot of the supermarket in question. I'd been a steady, loyal customer at that Hy-Vee for twenty years, and that Thursday, I was in a hurry and trying to get shopping done prior to going to my own job in a local plastics factory.

After putting a trio of letters in the mailbox in front of the store, I ran inside the store...ahead of two other customers who were about to walk in.

Kyle, who was changing the trash bag in a wastebasket in front of the store, saw me, and told me: "Don't ever do that again...cutting in front of customers."

I turned around and saw Kyle.

I was flabbergasted.

I tried to explain myself, and that I was in a hurry, and that the week hadn't been too cool for me...but Kyle didn't want to hear from me.

I tried to apologize. Kyle still didn't want to hear from me.

Kyle told me- three times- to move on. Each time, he gestured me away from his view.

The way I see it, young Kyle was trying hard to show off his White Supremacist views.

I'VE BEEN ANGRY EVER SINCE!

At 1:36 PM, I found a manager on duty: Chris. And I told him about Kyle and about the way Kyle treated me.

Chris assured me he'd talk to Kyle, and assured me that I'd done nothing wrong and that I had no reason to apologize.

Got my shopping done at 1:48 PM that Thursday, still angry about the way Kyle treated me.

I even yelled inside the store...and that got me a reprimand from another manager on duty, Wendy.

So, to try and smooth things over, I apologized to Wendy and to the cashier who waited on me, Kay Lynne. (Kay Lynne and I had been able to get along quite well...and in fact, Kay Lynne showed much more understanding of the situation than Wendy.)

I continued to fume at my own job and couldn't wait to get home to send a nasty email to the store director at that Cass Street Hy-Vee (also known as the Peony Park Hy-Vee; a famous amusement park previously stood where that supermarket now does).

The angry email got sent off early last Friday; the next day, I heeded the message at the bottom of the receipt and took Hy-Vee's survey...and doggone right, I mentioned the 4-18-2019 incident.

In both documents, I mentioned that I'd never again shop at that particular Hy-Vee.

The store director emailed me and apologized for the whole thing.

Still, I'm going to start shopping at the Hy-Vee at 51st and Center Sts. here in the Big O.

I don't want to turn my back on the chain that promises "a helpful smile in every aisle."

I like Hy-Vee's wide selection...and that's the biggest reason I'd been shopping there all these years.

What I don't like is seeing racism in action.

And that's what Kyle, like too many others in my life, showed me.

Too many millions of Americans have felt emboldened ever since that walking toilet bowl gave that inaugural address on 1-20-2017...or ever since he won on 11-8-2016.

Kyle showed me he's one of the emboldened.

And I don't EVER want to be in his company again...for any damn reason. 

 

Guess what I'll be doing on Sundays this fall?

Well, I won't be watching National Football League action, that's for sure.

It's all because the owners of the league's 32 clubs have decided to ban kneeling during the singing/playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Players must now stand during Francis Scott Key's claim to fame...or risk getting fined. 

The only other option for the NFL's athletes: Stay in the locker room until the song's finished.

I remember all the letters that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald during the 2017 NFL campaign...letters that asked those protesting football players to air their grievances "on their own time" rather than in front of stadiums full of people (as well as in front of millions of TV viewers).

Well, those Americans who gave their newspapers such letters have now gotten what they've been on their own knees begging for.

And it probably won't take long before some of those same letter writers attack any NFL players who actually use "their own time" to address issues such as police brutality. 

In time for last Wednesday's Washington Post, Shaun R. Harper (a professor at USC who runs the school's Race and Equity Center) turned in a heck of an editorial about the circuit's new kneeling ban. 

Harper talked about how the new edict is all about ethnicity. 

Out of over 1,700 NFL players who suited up last season, 70% are Black. Seven of the teams had African Americans as their head coaches.

Every last squad in the league is owned by White people.

And starting with head honcho Roger Goodell, most of the people who make up the power structure at NFL headquarters in New York City are Caucasian Americans.

Add it all up. 

Harper did just that, talking about how the kneeling ban signals that the team owners don't give a good, good hoot about fighting racism in America. In addition, he stated that "the league is only interested in Black men as laborers and entertainers, not as citizens with the right to use their influence to awaken our nation's racial consciousness, disrupt racism, and improve circumstances for members of their communities who are harmed by racist policies and practices."

The key word is "citizens."

Later on in that editorial, Harper (he's written a dozen books; his most famous one: "Scandals in College Sports") called on NFL players to sue the league over its efforts to hold back gridders' freedom of expression (we're talking First Amendment rights, you know!).  

SRH also talked about how he joined many other African-American football lovers in boycotting last year's NFL contests to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and other activist players.

Shaun, I'm a year late to the "party," but here I am.

I'll continue to read about the games in the paper and online.

I just won't watch the games on TV anymore...until the Jerry Joneses and Daniel Snyders lift that stupid kneeling ban and stop cozying up to a man who wanted one of those NFL teams earlier in this decade.

That's right...Donald John Trump.

Even if Trump and his enablers/supporters don't really get it, patriotism involves more than standing at attention when you hear, as George Carlin put it, the world's only national anthem that mentions rockets and bombs.

Much more. 

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

This date, too, will live in infamy.

That's because yesterday, hatred and bigotry won out.

That's all there is to it.  

Yesterday, American voters- as a whole- chose to replace Barack Obama with a PROVEN racist/sexist/misogynist/homophobe/Islamophobe who's studied Adolf Hitler's speeches.

And they were aided and abetted by the reporters, producers, and executives from the nation's biggest media companies...as well as by FBI director James Comey.

Many claim they never saw this coming. But they might have forgotten about how, in 2010, voters joined with those Democrats who chose to stay home in giving the US House of Representatives back to the Republicans...and, four years later, repeated the process with this country's Senate. 

Handing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue back to the Elephants was the next step. 

Those who decided to go with Donald Trump just spat on the graves of all those American veterans who died during World War 2- people who gave up their lives in an effort to keep German/Italian/Japanese totalitarian rule from reaching America's shores. 

So now, as early as 1-20-2017, Trump could call a fascist government. 

I wouldn't put it past him, knowing his supersized ego.

It isn't as if we weren't warned, what with years of evidence that DJT doesn't give a hoot about rank-and-file citizens.

And when many of this country's Trump supporters find out he really doesn't give a crap about them, they'll express remorse over giving control of the US government to the one-time host of TV's The Apprentice...instead of letting one of the most qualified presidential nominees in history take the reins. 

Those Trump supporters' eventual tears and sadness will prove useless and meaningless. 

What's more, media personalities such as CNN's Dana Bash and NBC's Matt Lauer might privately express grief over allowing this con artist to become this year's Republican nominee, let alone the leader of the American people. And Bash's boss, Jeff Zucker (the same man who, when he was president of NBC Entertainment, got The Apprentice on the air), might eventually start expressing sadness...if only in private.

Me, I stopped watching corporate news programs the night of 11-4-2014. After all, news is news, not entertainment...contrary to what Zucker and CBS CEO Les Moonves teach.

But now, I'm going to stop watching ANYTHING the Big Media companies have to offer, now that this has happened. 

They have to pay for their part in bringing eventual (if not immediate) full-fledged fascist rule to the United States...just as those voters who thought Trump would be better than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton must pay for their decision. 

If you're just as worked up about what just took place at the polls as I am (and yes, I voted yesterday), then you're welcome to join me in this boycott of CBS', Comcast's, Disney's, News Corporation's, and Time Warner's shows. 

Yesterday, America threw it all away.

With the whole world watching.

Northwest Iowa, Haven't You Had Enough?

I was born in Iowa, raised in Iowa, and educated in Iowa.

And I'm ashamed that US Rep. Steve King (R-IA) was born in the Hawkeye State, too.

Matter of fact, I'm heavily ashamed.   

I remember when he decided he wanted to go out for a seat in this country's House of Representatives. 

The year was 2002, and King was seeking the seat that, at the time, was held by fellow Republican Tom Latham. (Redistricting sent Latham to head for another Iowa Congressional district to fight to keep his place in the US House.) 

The reconfigured 5th District- the prize King was looking for- included Council Bluffs. (Meanwhile, Latham ended up having to fight another Republican incumbent, Greg Ganske, for the right to represent Iowa's 4th District.) 

At the time, I read an Omaha World-Herald article that talked about one of King's early campaign stops...a church in Council Bluffs. In the article, it talked about how some African-American people were standing in the back of the same room where the then Iowa state senator was campaigning.

Storm Lake native King asked: "Is this the back of the bus?" 

I thought to myself: "Jim...can you say 'red flag?'"  

King (a state senator since 1997) went on to top three other GOP hopefuls in the 5th District's House primary; on 11-5-2002, he crushed his Democratic opponent, a Council Bluffs city council member named Paul Shomshor, 62%-38%. 

SAK grabbed every county in the district except Pottawattamie...the one that contains Council Bluffs. 

He went on to win the next four elections by landslides, winning reelection during that eight-year period by an average margin of 26.5%. In 2008 and 2010, King snared all 32 counties in his district. 

Then came 2012.

Because of the 2010 Census, a House seat was taken away from the Hawkeye State. (Iowa's population grew by 4% between 2000 and 2010- not nearly enough of an increase to allow the state to keep five places in the 435-member House of Reps.)

While the new 3rd District (Southwest Iowa) resulted in Latham having to fight Democratic incumbent Leonard Boswell for the right to represent it, the reshaped 4th District (Northwest Iowa) placed King in competition with Christie Vilsack, the former Iowa first lady who moved back to the state to try to kick King out of Congress. 

King went forth, 53%-45%; then in 2014, he mowed down Jim Mowrer, 62%-38%. 

You know what hurt about King's win over Vilsack?

Six months after launching his sixth term of office, the man who calls Kiron, IA home popped off about proposed immigration legislation: "For every [undocumented immigrant] who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds- and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."

I cringed when I found out ol' Kingie said this.

*It wasn't the first time I cringed over something King said or did as a US representative. Three years earlier, King defended the use of racial profiling by law-enforcement officials: "It's not wrong to use race or other indicators for the sake of identifying people that are violating the law." 

*In an early (2005) House vote, King voted against the $52 billion package earmarked for victims of Hurricane Katrina. His excuse: "Whatever happened to fiscal responsibility?" 

I'll bet the next time a major atmospheric disaster hits Northwest Iowa, Steven Arnold King- if he's still in the House- will be the first to scream for money to repair the damage (especially if a tornado levels Kiron).  

*A lot of the information going into this post came from Wikipedia; because of wikipedia.org, I found out that King has a Dixie Swastika (oops...I mean Confederate flag) on his office desk. 

Didn't somebody tell this man that Iowa was part of the Union during this country's Civil War? 

*King's one of the many, many reasons the Republicans can't draw Latino/a/x American voters...thanks to remarks like this about HUD Secretary Julian Castro: "What does Julian Castro know? Does he know that I'm as Hispanic and Latino as he?"

Yeah, Steven.

And I'm Spongebob Squarepants.  

*And how about Steve King's recent efforts to prevent Harriet Tubman's profile from replacing that of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill?

In trying to block this country's Treasury Department from modifying the currency, King called the attempt to put Tubman on the $20 "sexist" and "racist."

To him, it's not about the Underground Railroad's conductor. "It's about keeping the picture on the $20. Y'know? Why would you want to change that? I am a conservative. I like to keep what we have." 

It's a good thing King was in high school in 1964 (the year he turned fifteen)...when Benjamin Franklin's profile on the half dollar was replaced with John F. Kennedy's. (But then, King probably wrote a letter to the editor of his high-school paper to complain about the change.)

*If you're not cringing along with me right now, maybe this is the tip of the iceberg for you: King's equally infamous remarks delivered at last week's Cleveland Hatefest (oops...I mean Republican National Convention). 

Iowa's longest-tenured current US rep appeared on MSNBC's coverage of this year's GOP confab. He was part of a panel moderated by Chris Hayes (of All In fame); Esquire columnist Charles Pierce was there, too.

Pierce talked about how the 2016 Republican assembly could be the last one where "old White people would command the Republican Party's attention." 

The message made King bristle, so he said: "I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you are talking about? Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?" 

Well, if this gun-rights advocate from Northwest Iowa had calmed down for a little bit, he would've realized the Chinese gave the world gunpowder. And he would've come to understand that we use Arabic numerals (that's right, 0 through 9) in our everyday lives.

Plus, King would've come to dig that the corn harvester (what's Iowa without corn?) came from the mind of Henry Blair, a Marylander who came up with this invention in 1834. 

Blair was the first African American (or one of the first) to receive a patent after coming up with an invention. 

And all that's just scratching the surface. 

So, there you have it. If you live in Sioux City, LeMars, Spencer, Storm Lake, Spirit Lake, or some other community in Northwest Iowa, ask yourself what Steven A. King has done for your House district...other than keeping it in the headlines. 

Are you really proud to get "represented" by the man InsideGov labeled as the least productive member of Congress? (What legislation of his has King managed to get out of committee?)

What keeps you voting for this proven bigot?

You Reap What You Sow

After I got home from work last night, I turned on my TV set to watch a rerun of MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell (with Lawrence on vacation, it was actually The Last Word with Ari Melber instead)...and I couldn't believe what I heard.

I saw a clip of (Men's) NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressing his first major crisis since he replaced David Stern this past February:

"Donald Sterling...has been banned...for life."

The Los Angeles Clippers (the team Sterling bought in 1981, when the club still lived in San Diego) will have to find a new owner...as soon as possible.

You know what I say about that?

I say: "RIGHT ON!!!" 

It's more than that hour-long conversation this 80-year-old billionaire had with his 29-year-old girlfriend, V. Stiviano. You know, where the real-estate magnate let the cat out of the bag...and demonstrated that he thought of his West Coast basketball team as a Southern plantation.

Sterling's desire that African Americans stay away from the Staples Center when the Clips are the home team (meaning keeping Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, among others, out of the building) was the icing on the cake.

Here's the rest of the cake: 

Until just the last couple of seasons, the Clippers had been a laughingstock...courtesy of The West Coast Donald.

Today, the NBA is thirty teams strong. But in time for the 1970-71 season, the team owners okayed a triple expansion- to seventeen squads. (This at a time when we still had the ABA- at that time, a league with eleven clubs, four of which were six years away from joining the NBA in a partial merger.)

In time for that campaign, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Portland Trail Blazers debuted.

So did the Los Angeles Clippers.

But at first, they lived in Buffalo and were nicknamed the Braves.  

*To make a long story short, the Blazers have made it to the league playoffs 30 times since entering the circuit. Portland became the first of the NBA's 1970-71 newcomers to win it all; under Jack Ramsay (a Basketball Hall of Famer who just passed away recently), the Trail Blazers- led by HOF'er Bill Walton- knocked down a heavily-favored Philadelphia 76ers squad, four games to two, in 1976-77...the year the partial merger took effect.

Rip City got to the league finals in 1989-90 (only to lose to the Detroit Pistons) and 1991-92 (when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls stopped the Blazers), too.

*The Cavaliers got to the playoffs 18 times in club history...none of them since LeBron James left Cleveland. In fact, the Cavs finally got to the (Men's) NBA championship series in 2006-07...only the San Antonio Spurs- one of those former ABA contingents- proved to be too much for King James and Co. 

*The Clippers are still looking for their first contact with the NBA finals.  

Portland's got four division titles to its credit. Cleveland has topped its division three times.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers are two-time division champs.

The 2012-13 and 2013-14 Pacific Division titles are the first ones for this franchise that Donald Sterling purchased 33 years ago. What's more, the Clips' 57-25 mark for this past regular season (one-time Boston Celtics head man Doc Rivers' first as the Clips' head coach) was the best in team history.

But even with Rivers' and predecessor Vinny Del Negro's efforts these last three seasons (and those of players like Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Jamal Crawford, and J.J. Redick), the team did better in Buffalo (259-397 from 1970-71 to 1977-78). Still, the Clips' two division titles enabled the club's Los Angeles history (915-1,497 since 1984-85, the team's first campaign in Tinseltown) to finally top its San Diego tenure (186-306 from 1978-79 to 1983-84).  

In terms of winning percentage, that means .395 in Buffalo, .378 in Ess Dee, and .379 in El Lay. 

Speaking of Buffalo...Ramsay was the first head coach to guide the franchise to postseason action (1973-74 to 1975-76). The bottom had dropped out for the club by the late 1970s, and its then owner, KFC magnate John Y. Brown, swapped clubs with the then owner of the Celtics, Irv Levin. 

Levin moved the Braves to San Diego in time for the 1978-79 season...the team's first under the Clippers name. 

That first season in California, the team went 43-39...and missed a playoff spot. The team's record got worse and worse with each passing season...until a disastrous 1981-82, when the Clippers limped home 17-65.  

By then, Levin had sold the team to Sterling...who was itching to move the Clippers up Interstate 5.

I wasn't too impressed with Sterling's rationale for bringing his club to America's second largest city: "I always thought there should be a team in the Los Angeles Sports Arena." (The Los Angeles Lakers used the Sports Arena from 1960-61- their first campaign since leaving Minneapolis- to 1966-67. Then they switched to a facility in Englewood, the Staples Center predecessor called the Great Western Forum.) 

While the Lakers became Showtime (thanks to a cast headed up by Johnson and fellow HOF'er Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), the Clippers couldn't draw flies, let alone people. 

The Lakers (under Jerry Buss) became the textbook example of how to run an NBA franchise...and Sterling's questionable decisions (like running the team like a plantation) kept many of the Sports Arena's seats empty. And things stayed the same when both teams moved into the Staples Center at the start of the 1999-2000 campaign. 

It wasn't enough that Sterling's antics killed men's pro basketball in San Diego. 

The wasted draft choices, the questionable choices for head coaches (with a few exceptions- like Larry Brown), other questionable decisions (like the canning of Brown after the 1992-93 season, a rare playoff campaign for the Clippers), and so on and so forth...all of that made Sterling's club the NBA's laughingstock.

It's only since Paul left the Big Easy and came to the Big Orange that the Clippers have been able to fill up Staples...game after game, season after season.

This is the best this once-lowly franchise has been able to do. Ever.

And Donald Sterling's racist rants had put excrement in the punch bowl. 

I'm so glad that Silver and the players in the league got together to throw out that punch bowl and get a new one...as well as a new punch recipe.

If you're going to buy a franchise in one of the most diverse sports leagues in the world, only to treat your team like a plantation, and you have plenty of contempt for not only your players and coaches, but your team's fans as well (and all of this at a time when your team's playing the best ball in the club's history)...you're barking up the wrong tree.

Here's hoping the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers will be able to help the team get up to the next level...namely, the top of the NBA. 

Yep...I STILL Think about It

The recent George Zimmerman trial, along with a subsequent episode of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, got me to thinking about what I'd have to tell my biological children...that is, if I'd ever helped bring any biological children into this world. 

One of the reasons I've never been a biological father is this: I would've had to tell my sons and/or daughters that "Way too many of the people you meet just don't want to make you feel welcome here in this country you've been born in." 

In a way, those children would've been welcome here...but not REALLY welcome. 

I take a look at how so many Americans automatically assume that those of Trayvon Martin's color are the nation's archcriminals. Let's face it...let's not kid ourselves. If you're the color Trayvon was (my color), you're going to be more heavily scrutinized and held up to a harsher standard than if you're George Zimmerman's color.

You're going to be forced to constantly prove you're just as human as anybody else on the face of this planet called Earth. 

You learn that you're going to have to be twice as good at something as the average Caucasian person in your field...just to get half the acclaim.

It hurts. 

And you don't want to bring into the world in general, and right here in the world's most talked-about nation in particular, one more child who's going to end up on the wrong end of somebody else's racism...somebody else's sexism...somebody else's ageism...somebody else's homophobia/heterophobia...somebody else's paranoia about that child's religion...somebody else's axe to grind about that child not growing up wealthy.  

Some personal memories came welling up as a result of what happened in Sanford, FL.

One that came to mind happened on 9-1-2002, the day I went to Avoca, IA, to participate in that year's Old-Time Country and Bluegrass Festival and Contest. (That day- the seventh and final day of festivities at the Pottawattamie County Fairgrounds- they had the festival's ragtime piano competition. I didn't win...but I had a good, good time.)

That night, I went to the concession stand (underneath the grandstand) to buy something to eat...in this case, a hot dog and a can of pop (Mountain Dew).

The young woman running the concession stand looked at me as if I was one of the participants in the previous year's terrorist attacks.

She all but threw the hot dog (bun and all) and the pop can at me as I paid for the items. I felt so deflated that I had to tell her it was the fourth year I'd been to the festival...but all it got me was a snide version of "I hope you keep coming back."

I've NEVER set foot in Avoca since then.  

And I'm lucky the festival moved to Missouri Valley, IA the next year. (Now it's in another Iowa burg, LeMars.)  

I've also stopped shopping at the Hy-Vee food store at 51st and Center here in Omaha...because a late-night employee named Shirley spoiled it all for me. I'd been there many times before...but when Shirley asked me if she could help me (and she said this in a condescending way, as usual), that did it.  

Also on my mind was 11-1-2003...the day an Omaha Police officer named Richard Lucero (his first name does begin with "R;" I hope I've got his first name right) stopped me as I was on my way to my church's 5:00 PM service. 

While still in my car, I went to my wallet to pull out my driver's license...but he, assuming I had a gun (I've never owned a gun and don't own one now), told me to freeze or he'd shoot me. 

After he asked for my driver's license and received it to run a make on me, the officer told me my car (at the time, I owned a 1975 Lincoln Mark 4 that I bought at auction in 1999) had a broken taillight. 

He ordered me to fix the taillight (I did, with reflector tape)...and also wrote me a ticket (I paid it a week later). Then he snarled: "Have a nice day."

That day was totally ruined.  

From 1980 to 1987 (covering most of my first residency here in the Big O), I worked for Washington Inventory Service, the San Diego-based firm (since bought out by a rival company, RGIS) that had offices nationwide.

One of my fellow WIS employees was a man who liked to advertise his religion...heavily. And he liked to let everyone know he was a political conservative. I was one of his few friends.

Even so, I didn't feel good about his asking me: "Jim...what do you want to be called?"

I knew darn good and well he was wondering what I call my ethnic background. (And I didn't want to answer that way.)

So I just told him: "I just want to be called Jim. That's my name."

That's how I see myself: I'm a human being first, an American second, and an African American third.  

Another thing: The trial down in Florida got me to thinking about how President Barack Obama's been treated by this country's Republican lawmakers and by their cheerleaders...the people with the shows on this country's so-called news and information stations. 

I'm still burned up by Arizona Gov. Janet Brewer wagging her finger at Obama at Phoenix' Sky Harbor Airport. Utter disrespect from Brewer and so many of her fellow Republicans.

Sure, US Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who lost in 2008 to Obama (at that time a US senator from Illinois), praised him for his speech about the Zimmerman trial. According to McCain, maybe we can finally have That Talk (about ethnicity in America).

It's really not going to happen as long as US Reps. Michael Burgess and Louie Gohmert (both R-TX) keep getting in the way. Burgess has echoed Donald Trump by constantly questioning Obama's educational standing: "He didn't go to Harvard Law School!"

And all Gohmert has done these last four years is question the president's religion, claiming Obama to be a Muslim, not the Christian he really is.

The Republicans continue to "mourn" the alleged "death" of so-called traditional America. They refuse to accept how the country's face is changing, becoming more inclusive of people of ALL backgrounds.

One of those Republicans, US Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, has urged Martin's supporters to get over the recent verdict finding Zimmerman not guilty.

Tell you what, Mr. Harris: Why don't you and other Republicans get over the fact that America's face is changing?

Why don't you all get over the fact that we've now got a president named Barack Obama...and start learning to work together with him and other non-Republicans? 

Why don't you stop having all these phony investigations in the hope that you'll impeach Obama and start passing laws the people can actually use...like a jobs bill, for crying out loud?

Why don't you people start putting us rank-and-file citizens first...and not your party?

If you want the votes of this country's Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow people of both genders...as well as women of all colors...why don't you STOP dehumanizing and demonizing them?  

You folks ever do that, those of us who don't feel welcome here will start to feel better. 

And we'll finally get closer to the postracial environment so many pundits predicted would come out of Obama beating McCain in 2008.

Thanks for reading "Boston's Blog!"