LeBron James! LeBron James! LeBron James!

Michael Jordan had his time as the best player in the world, short as it was.

I got a little excited last night watching LeBron James, the Ohio Man with more NBA Finals appearances than all but three franchises, lay waste to the odious Miami Heat with his partner-in-crime Anthony Davis. That led to me drinking Tito’s and chalking the newsletter up to this morning.

Then I woke up and realized I have to be in court in two hours, so hopefully the judge’s wife didn’t hand him divorce papers on his way out the door this morning or I might not make tomorrow’s deadline on account of being jailed for misconduct in an emergency zone.

In retrospect, the tragic death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter was the official “on notice” moment of 2020. Celebrity deaths don’t bother me much — what a blessing it must be to be relieved of this godforsaken planet — but I’m not ashamed to admit I cried my little blue eyes out over it.

I used to watch every single Lakers game because as a college student I could stay up until 2:30 on a random Thursday night watching my boys put the clamps on the Jazz in Salt Lake City. Then that awful thing called “life” got in my way and now I can only watch marquee regular season match-ups and the playoffs.

I have yet to adjust to watching live sports without fans. Anthony Davis’ game-winner against Denver should have led to the Lakers crowd throwing rubies and diamonds at his feet.

Still, last night offered a break, no matter how brief, from the slow march to Civil War that our president seems intent into leading us.

Earlier in the day Nancy Pelosi said America needed the old Republican party back, and that it had been “hijacked” as if Donald Trump came to power overnight.

This is what qualifies as an opposition leader in this country: The most powerful Democrat in the country failing to understand that guys like Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney and Dennis Hassert cultivated the lunatic base that looked at a career criminal carnival barker and thought him fit for the highest office in the land. That genie ain’t going back in the bottle, but that’s no actual concern to Nancy because her wealth insulates her from the failures of her politics.

MAY WAS OHIO’S DEADLIEST OVERDOSE MONTH IN AT LEAST 14 YEARS

Remember when right-wing trolls insisted they were concerned about overdoses, suicides and other mental health issues in March when the government told us we couldn’t go outside?

I’m sure this news will lead them to see the light and investing in things like well-regulated rehabilitation facilities or fully funding county health departments rather than re-opening the bars until 2:30 a.m.

From Max Filby of dispatch.com:

Drug overdoses killed more Ohioans in May than in any month in at least 14 years, a potential side effect of the coronavirus pandemic that leaders fear could flare up again before things get back to normal.

At least 532 Ohioans died of an overdose in May, preliminary statistics from the Ohio Department of Health's mortality database shows. By comparison, 381 Ohioans died of an unintentional drug overdose in April, according to state data.

The May data is still incomplete; county coroners and medical examiners have six months to investigate, meaning overdose deaths could still climb for that month, a state health department spokeswoman said.

The startling trend is one that many saw coming, as overdoses often skyrocket in times of despair and economic uncertainty, said Blyth Barnow, harm reduction manager for Faith in Public Life Ohio, which is part of a national network of faith leaders that advocates for legislative reform regarding drug abuse and other issues.

Whenever we talk about spending government money on anything other than a cruise missile or other murder device, we always have to explain how we’re going to pay for it.

We need to start asking what we’re paying by being the only industrialized country in the world without nationalized healthcare. There are drugs in every country in the world, but nowhere are more people trying to poison away their reality than in America… the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

Right-wing Christians would undoubtedly blame us walking away from their preferred flavor of death cult. I would point to the exacerbated wealth inequality that has been waged on this country since our country elected our Ronald Reagan, the hellspawn that was our first president with dementia. Somehow people in this country get more mad over some busted windows at a Target than the trillions of dollars that have been looted from working people in that time.

What’s truly infuriating is having to vote for Joe Biden, the multimillionaire Senator who represented America’s most prominent tax haven for four decades. He would veto Medicare for All legislation if it arrived on his desk in the middle of a pandemic. Definitely going to dress like Bozo the Clown when I go to pull the lever for that bum.

Kudos to you if you’re one of those people who think all our nation’s ills will suddenly fall away if Trump is booted from office. Must be nice.

REQUESTED AN ABSENTEE BALLOT BUT NOW WANT TO VOTE IN PERSON? BETTER DO IT EARLY

Two months ago I would have sworn I would be voting by mail for the first time in my life. Of course it’s 2020 and we could probably do this on an app on our phone but our state’s leaders want to make voting as difficult as possible.

From what I remember, I had to print out a request for an absentee ballot, fill it out, pay for postage (poll tax), and then do the same thing again when the ballot arrives in the mail.

Then I read all these stories about what Trump flunkie Louis DeJoy has done to my beloved Postal Service in his attempt to slowdown the mail in key Democratic areas before the election. Then I watched the President tell his people to vote on Election Day while laying out his plan to challenge as many mail ballots in the federal court system his minions now control from top to bottom.

Fuck that, I decided. I’m voting on Election Day because it’s a three-hour round trip on COTA to cast a ballot in the one drop box allocated to my county with 1.37 million people.

Perhaps you have made a similar decision but were a more civic patriot who had already requested an absentee ballot. Well, it’s not too late to change course.

From Jo Ingles of wosu.org:

DiBiasio’s board of elections in Cuyahoga County told him if he voted in person instead, he’d have to vote using a provisional ballot. That’s only true if he votes on Election Day itself.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has issued a directive proving some clarification. People who decide they want to vote in person after requesting an absentee ballot can still cast a regular ballot by voting early at the county boards of elections. Early voting takes places in Ohio from October 6 until November 2.

Ain’t no way I’m voting provisional in this Republican hobgoblin state. Especially because I purposely have a signature that changes every time. (The one on my driver’s license is a simple ‘X.’ for example.

CHEVY SORRY FOR OUR LOSS, REFUNDS $28 MILLION IN LOOTED CASH

American leaders in both parties love handing out tax credits to corporations as a last-ditch effort to keep wealthy capitalists from outsourcing their factories to country with cheaper labor pools and laxer labor laws.

These are always hailed as some sort of victory because they come attached to that famous word, “Jobs!" that every politician loves to brag about without describing what kind of jobs these are.

General Motors closed its unionized labor plant in Lordstown last year despite receiving $60 million in tax breaks from the state that could have been spent on things like roads, schools, and mental health clinics.

Instead it went into corporate pockets and didn’t stop them from leaving Lordstown out to dry over a decade later. But hey! At least we’re getting some of that money back rom the vampires.

From Andy Chow of radio.wosu.org:

The Ohio Tax Credit Authority says GM is out of compliance with its tax incentive agreement after closing the factory in Northeast Ohio. The deal was reached in 2008 and has steered $60 million to GM.

The state has reached a new agreement with GM to claw back $28 million and requiring GM to invest another $12 million into the Mahoning Valley.

Dan Flores, GM corporate spokesperson, says market conditions led to closing the Lordstown plant.

Can’t wait to see how General Motors plans to “invest” $12 million into the Mahoning Valley. I totally trust these backstabbers to do it in a way that repairs some of the human damage they left in their wake and not something that will amount to a tax write-off. I also have a memory of a goldfish and can’t remember anything that happened more than 12 minutes ago.

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