Novac Djokovic is the latest in a long string of bad sports in the tennis world.  I must confess that the only real sport I follow, and indeed still play, is tennis.  It’s a great sport you can play well into…er…uh…maturity, and helps those of us who play stay in shape.  It’s also a brilliant sport to watch in person and even on television, though it is better in person.

All that said, like other professional sports, tennis has its bad guys.  Back in the 70s it was John McEnroe, who raised being an asshole on the court to a fine art form, but players like Jimmy Connors, who on occasion acted out; Ilie Nastase, nicknamed Nasty Nastase; Dennis Ralston in the 60s, and a few others were all close seconds.  There were fewer on the women’s side, but Serena Williams is famous for smashing racquets and screaming during the match to throw off her opponents when she’s behind.  Nick Kyrgios is also well known for being a jerk on the court.

Bad sportsmanship is one thing.  Being a shitty person is a whole other thing, and that’s the spot Djoker occupies.  He’s famous for smashing racquets, screaming at crowds who don’t worship him, and was booted from the US Open in 2020 after he hit a line judge in the throat with a ball he had slapped during one of his rages.  On top of all that, he’s a notorious anti-vaxxer.  At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Djoker held a private tournament in Serbia that turned into a super spreader event and where he himself contracted the virus.  It got so bad that the final match was cancelled.

Learning nothing from that disaster, Djoker has flouted public health rules in many countries; he did it again in Australia last week, but this time got caught by a functioning government not star struck by the world’s number one player.  First, he refused to get vaccinated, and then refused to disclose that fact to the public.  Then he lied on his immigration form saying that he had not traveled internationally in the last 2 weeks when, in fact, had traveled to Spain for an event the previous week.  Worse yet, he appeared in person for an interview the day after he had tested positive for COVID.  Appropriately, Australia cancelled his visa and ordered him to leave the country.  He refused, of course, and was then isolated in a quarantine hotel while his lawyers appealed the ruling.  The judge in the case restored his visa based on a narrow ruling that he was not given sufficient time to respond to the government’s decision.

What did Djoker do then?  He immediately started practicing for the tournament exposing who knows how many people to possible infection.  Wisely, the minister of immigration for Australia cancelled his visa again today, but rather than just getting on a plane and leaving, Djoker then immediately appealed the ruling again; another hearing is scheduled for Sunday.  It’s expected that he’ll lose this appeal.

Australia has some of the most strict COVID policies of any country in the world, and has had relatively low infections as a result.  Melbourne was especially strict, with almost 300 days of lockdown over the last 2 years.  Djoker’s flouting of Australia’s health policy and wanton self-interest has turned the Australian Open into a circus where everyone is talking about Djoker, and actual tennis has taken a back seat to his malignant narcissism.  In fact, he has become TFG of tennis with all the bad traits that label carries with it.  He couldn’t care less about other people; rules don’t apply to him; he ignores science and good public policy; he’s simply a shitty person.

Fingers crossed that he gets his on Sunday and is sent packing back to Serbia so he can fume and watch great players not him compete for the first Grand Slam win of the year.  I’ll be celebrating his deportation.

You’ve probably already met Jenna Ryan, a 51 year old Texas realtor who attended the January 6th attempted overthrow of the United States government.

Bless her heart, she never learned that there’s a difference between guts and gall.  And she has parlayed herownself into a little ole 60 day stunt in prison, where she intends to do a lot of yoga and lose 30 pounds. I am hoping it’s 30 pounds of gall.

Jenna took the trip to the capitol on a private jet where she had been invited by “a cute guy” on Twitter or TikTok or Instagram or some damn place you meet other nice people.  She marched into the capitol tweeting on her cell phone, promoting her business, and trying to make a name for herself on rightwing radio.  Seriously. Oh yeah, and she also wanted a book deal.

She then decided that she’s a victim. Yeah, y’all are suppressing her.

She went so far as to assert that the backlash she has received is akin to the experience of “the Jews in Germany.”

“They’re making fun of my skin color. They’re calling me an ‘insurrection Barbie,’” she said.

I dunno, Jenna, but it seems to me they’re making fun of everything about you.  I mean, you weren’t born with that stoopid hat on. And women didn’t die for your right to vote so you could push your business while overthrowing democracy.

“You guys, will you believe this?” Ryan said on Facebook Live while inside the Capitol, according to the sentencing memo. “I am not messing around. When I come to sell your house, this is what I will do. I will f—ing sell your house.”

So, anyway, Jenna went to prison last month and I hope she’s shedding some of her privilege.

Meanwhile, some really mean people set up a political PAC for her to enjoy while she’s doing yoga. It’s called Stop the Persecution of MAGA Blondies.  It claims she filed it but she’s in prison right now so I kinda doubt that. Cue the whine machine – they’re making fun of Jenna again.

Amidst all of the shenanigans between Rand Paul and Dr. Fauci, more statistics seem to be bandied about. Some of them are actually thought provoking and deserve some exploration. Paul has taken it upon himself to be the fly in Fauci’s ointment. At every step of the way he has been there to question his findings and disagree with his conclusions. After all, he’s a doctor. Despite popular belief, he is still licensed to practice as an ophthalmologist. I guess he has that going for him.

This is where we get bogged down into the small details of pitting one expert against another. See, Rand Paul did go to medical school. I’m sure he did take classes in immunology. He probably knows more than the average bear. Yet, when compared with a medical doctor that has spent the past four plus decades studying immunology exclusively there can be no real comparison.

The numbers I saw last night would allow you to question all of this. In 2018, the world death rate was 0.76 percent. That was the same death rate as 2019 and the same as 2020. That nugget of information would lead one to believe that COVID hasn’t impacted the world population at all. I suppose if we looked at this through a vacuum we’d close the book and move on.

Sadly though, we don’t live in the world. We live in the United States. In the United States, death rates have not been level. When one looks at the world rates for just COVID we see something else entirely. Sure, there are disputes about how deaths should be counted, but these deaths are counted the same way around the world and they have yielded very clear results.

So, two things are clear based on the data we do see. First, the overall mortality rate IN THE UNITED STATES has gone up since COVID has been a thing. So, releasing world data is nice, but that demonstrates that most of the world has gotten this thing under control. That’s because when health experts in those countries have proposed ways to get the virus under control, the people in those countries actually listened.

There are nearly eight billion people in the world. The U.S. population represents around four percent of that total. Basic math tells us that the mortality rate would really need to spike in the U.S. for it to have a dent in the overall world mortality rate. This is especially true when we consider that things like masking and heightened hygiene have decreased the amount of flu deaths we normally have and probably improved health on the other end.

Fauci already has earned his keep and faith in his expertise. In addition to all of the potential disasters he has helped prevent in the intervening decades, he had to listen to Trump prattle on with his nonsense for over a year. One can forgive him if he loses his cool even this one time.

So, we can debate whether we should count people who die because of COVID or whether people die with COVID. We can argue as if those verbs, pronouns, and adjectives even matter. The point is that an expert that has been doing this for going on 50 years tells us it matters. Sure, he could be wrong I guess. Science continually improves itself throughout time. If you are prepared to take the word of an eye doctor over him then you take your life into your own hands. Good luck.

There’s a guy named Don Huffines who is a former Texas State Senator running to the right of Greg Abbott in the Republican primary for Governor.

Huffines is a crazy Republican with a plan to eliminate property taxes, but do it in stages so people won’t feel it all it once, you know – kinda like cooking a lobster.

Sneaky Republicans with links to the Huffines campaign that would pretty much fit the category of cahoots, found some guy named Rick Perry who ain’t the real Rick Perry and got him to run for Governor hoping to take votes away from Abbott. They are hoping the ignorant Republican voters will get snookered by the fake Rick Perry.

Well, Darlin’, it’s working like a fifty dollar hammer on a greased nail. The local newspaper says it’s the former Governor who is running for Governor.

It’s a pay per view newspaper so I just screen-shot the article. Click here to see the whole article. Last paragraph.

Odd it came out at a Huffines events, right? And, it’s odd that it came out at a very Republican newspaper. Wait, wait, let me correct that – a very Republican newspaper with egg on their face.

Yeah, and the real Allen B West who is running is the former Florida congressman but he was too damn wacky for Florida and that right there is saying something.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

You couldn’t have set up the punchline any better. Our parish priest announced that the bishop was lifting the dispensation on attending mass virtually. So, no more live streaming of mass. No more simulcasts over the radio. Of course, that came with the usual caveats about health and what not. The punchline? Half of the choir was out with COVID and the high school confirmation night had been cancelled due to COVID. I guess irony isn’t lost on the church.

It was that moment that hit me like a ton of bricks. All of us desperately want to be back to normal. No one likes quarantine. No one likes masks. No one likes getting two rounds of shots and then a third. No one likes rapid tests or blood tests or antibody tests or any other kind of test. Some don’t like it and so they don’t do it. So, he we are.

A friend posted on Facebook about the unemployment rate and it created quite the stir. Unemployment rates are based on the number of people actively seeking employment. If I stop looking for whatever reason then I no longer count. That is a stark contrast with counting the number of people actually working. In 2019, 157.54 million people were working. In 2021, that number dropped to 152.72 million. If you click on the link you’ll notice that 2020 was even lower.

When you have competing numbers it becomes important to talk about context. Clearly, there is a gap between the number of people seeking jobs (which is historically low) and the number of people actually working. Understanding the gap is the key to understanding everything. I really can only speak intelligently about my industry. There is a huge teacher shortage throughout the state of Texas and nationwide. COVID plays a role in that, but it isn’t necessarily the only thing.

It would be more accurate to say there are a variety of factors that have come together to create this situation. COVID simply was a catalyst in bringing these factors all together. Suddenly, hundreds if not thousands of teachers realized they were being asked to do the impossible. Student to teacher ratios were increasing, more pressure was coming from on high about test scores, and support from the central office and from the average home was dwindling. Add that to a pandemic and the need to somehow socially distance 30 children while teaching an interactive lesson without people interacting and it was enough for thousands to throw in the towel.

This is just education. Those in other industries could tell their own tales. Working for a living involves trade offs. We all work for an income and that income allows us to afford certain things. Yet, we exchange some risk in return. That risk takes the form of stress, aggravation, and certainly our time. When those costs become too high then workers will decline the paycheck and live with the consequences of that decision.

Meanwhile, many on the employer side are waiting with bated breath like the bishop. They are waiting for that special day when everything will go back to the way it had always been. Like the bishop, they fail to see the irony of that belief system. We can certainly choose to believe what we want to believe about whether this change is a good or bad thing. If we want, we can call workers lazy and ungrateful for the opportunities they have. We can call employers greedy and unwilling to change with the changing times. Maybe it took COVID to create this new reality, but it doesn’t change what is. Somehow we will have to manage.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” — William Shakespeare

If the Texas GOP political delegation were a cast of characters they would almost certainly come from the Wizard of Oz. Louie Gohmert would almost certainly be the scarecrow in search of a brain. Dan Patrick would play the role of the Tin Man searching for a heart. That would place Ted Cruz as the lion searching for courage.

Whether he’s bailing the state when the freeze comes, buckling under to Donald Trump even after Trump insulted his wife and father, or assuming the position with Tucker Carlson, Cruz has long established that he is far from being the king of the jungle.

One could analyze his statements about the insurrectionists and then his overwhelming desire to somehow take it back. Psychologists could analyze the whys and what fors until the cows come home. I think what we know and what we suspect are not all that far away from each other. Cruz was a part of a plan to delay the certification of the election. I’m sure they trusted him with the parliamentarian side of the plot. No one ever accused Cruz of being dumb.

The less you know in a conspiracy the better. I’m willing to guess he didn’t know about the violence before January 6th. Goodness knows what he would have done with that information had he known. Maybe he would have assumed the position. Maybe he would have blown the whistle. My guess is that the human part of him was horrified at what transpired.

That’s the part that came out and called the participants terrorists. It is one thing to steal an election through parlor tricks and slight of hand. It’s another to steal it on the tip of a sword. As per usual, his first words spoke the truth before he forgot who was in charge.

This brings us to the real scary part of this dilemma. The story is not that Cruz was groveling, but who he was groveling to. We would expect him to grovel to Trump. Having him grovel to a prime time talking head is a cross between bizarre and unsettling. How did Carlson get this much power and who exactly is Carlson accountable to?

A number of folks have thought Carlson could make a run for president. I suppose it makes sense. He has money. He has name recognition. He has a brain. He can match being an outsider with his knowledge of the key players on the inside. However, this would involve him getting in the game. He can snipe from the outside and wield much more power. Power and a lack of responsibility is a dangerous combination. No one on the left has this kind of power. It could be about Carlson, but it really isn’t. Democratic politicians don’t grovel to the talking heads. As long as the wizard denies Cruz and others their courage people like Carlson will be in total control.