Hours before I described in my last column how Donald Trump plans to take this country down the fascist rabbit hole, his top recipient of the Failed Upwards Award, Kash Patel, was on Steve Bannon’s podcast detailing Trump’s plans to investigate, detain, and indict members of the media, chiefly those from MSNBC and its parent company, NBC, for “crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Correction: I left out the first name of the lunatic who threatened Mehdi Hasan with arrest and incarceration and deportation. He is Trump lawyer and MAGA spokesman MIKE Davis. h/t Lawrence Dietz.
Most of the media I read covered some of Trump's made many outrageous remarks in Iowa. He made them in what appeared to be a high school gym. The Demoines Register said "hundreds" attended, not thousands. This shabby crowd (in every sense) was in a solidly Republican state. The public had advance notice, and only hundreds showed up. Where would Trump be without this constant media attention? He has visually and audibly assaulted us for eight long years; I think a majority of people have had enough of him.
After growing up in the Hawkeye State for the first eighteen years of my life, I especially want to see some serious pushback to Trump, even from within his "base" there.
Des Moines Register, when my father worked there for his 41 years covering sports, had a very serious Washington Bureau, staffed by people like Clark Mollenhoff* and Nick Kotz,* * winning Pulitzer Prizes in the National Reporting category, now, after Gannett has applied their "chain gang strategy," not so much serious reporting from their Washington Bureau, as it doesn't exist!
Clark R. Mollenhoff (April 16, 1921 – March 2, 1991) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, an attorney who served as Presidential Special ...
**
Nathan K. "Nick" Kotz (September 16, 1932 – April 26, 2020) was an American journalist, author, and historian.
His most recent book, The Harness Makers Dream: Nathan Kallison and the Rise of South Texas, tells the story of Ukrainian immigrant Nathan Kallison's journey to the United States. He is best known for his 2005 book Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws that Changed America[3] chronicling the roles of US President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. in the passage of the 1964, 1965, and 1968 civil rights laws. Kotz won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1968 for his reporting of unsanitary conditions in many meat packing plants, which helped ensure the passage of the Wholesome Meat Act.[4][5]
With your father's newspaper background, and your Iowa background, perhaps you can explain something to me: how the f did the word "Populist" ever get attached to Trump?
In school I learned that the late 19th Century word "populist" was for the like of people such as William Jennings Bryant and Robert LaFollette, men who tried to improve the lives of farmers and factory workers---the common man. Sen. Paul Harkness was a later version. So, how could Trump, a fascist pig, ever be considered a Populist? By my definition, no modern Republican could ever be described as a Populist. Am I wrong?
You are correct as can be, but with the added consideration that Trump's propaganda messaging poses as policies that will, in your concise, accurate summary "improve the lives of farmers and factory workers---the common man."
Of course it's nonsense on stilts. And of course both the Iowa Democratic Party and the national Democratic party leadership and strategists have failed to relentlessly counter it effectively enough, when they have even grasped the nettle at all.
After posting links to Clark Mollenhoff and Nick Kotz's wikipedia bios, I wondered what was up there for Buck, no wiki bio, but arguably even better I found this - I knew from talking with some of the hundred plus people at his memorial service in 2017, he was much appreciated, just didn't realize how much, I also heard him condemn Trump in characteristically laconic terms, as "Dumb Donny" "Trump the chump." [He was an "Ohio Republican" in terms of roots, by way of Bound Brook, New Jersey and Staunton Military Academy]
Peterson: Buck Turnbull — consummate professional whose writing and friendship touched many lives
Randy Peterson
The Des Moines Register
Buck Turnbull died Friday night, but the legacy he built during 41 years as a sports writer at The Des Moines Register, lives on.
Buck was the creator of Hilton Magic . . . he was the man who Dan Gable said helped inspire him to further greatness . . . he influenced young upstarts in this profession without ever treating them like the rookies they were during four decades of loyalty to Register readers before retiring in 1993.
An illustration of Buck Turnbull from an 1993 article announcing his retirement.
Turnbull died Friday night, his battle against spinocerebellar ataxia finally too much. He was 88.
“Buck loved his job,” his wife, Jay, said Saturday. “He loved the people he met. He didn’t know anything about a 40-hour week.”
Buck and Jay had three sons: Rick, who lives in Minneapolis; Gary, who died two years ago; and Curt, who lives in Las Vegas.
A memorial for John "Buck" Turnbull will be held in August.
“Buck loved being around coaches and athletes,” said longtime sports reporter and columnist Rick Brown. “He loved telling a story.
“Whenever he got a scoop, when he got that little smirk on his face, you knew he had something big. But he wouldn’t tell you what it was.
“You knew what he had when you saw the newspaper.”
Former Des Moines Register Editor Michael Gartner visited Turnbull frequently after his retirement.
“I had coffee with him every day for 15 years, then every week when the coffee group went to weekly," Gartner said Saturday. "When I started working at the Register when I was 15, he was on the copy desk. From there, he became one of the most respected reporters the newspaper had.
“He wasn’t curmudgeon. He was a professional. He was a guy who loved sports and loved the University of Iowa. He liked all the schools.”
Buck Turnbull had a 41-year career in the Register. Turnbull died on Friday, June 23, 2017, at the age of 88.
Turnbull graduated from Iowa, but he wasn’t just about the Hawkeyes — he covered legendary wrestler Dan Gable’s career as an Iowa State wrestler and during Gable’s time as Iowa’s ultra successful wrestling coach.
“I’ve been through a lot of writers during the years, and amazingly, I can’t recall too many times that they weren’t on my side,” Gable said when informed of Turnbull’s death. “Buck was great to me. Sometimes I went a little nuts, not so much as an athlete, but sometimes as a coach. Buck — I can’t remember any times when he was what I would classify as unfair.”
Gable, however, said Turnbull wrote some things that he felt — at the time — were critical after Washington’s Larry Owings ended his 181-match high school and Iowa State winning streak in 1970.
“I do remember The Des Moines Register being a little hard on me, but sometimes you have to have some rude awakenings,” Gable said Saturday. “Buck probably did me a favor. He was pretty hard on me at that time, but you know what?
“What he wrote was fair. What he wrote were words that I used as motivation throughout the rest of my career. He was honest.”
That’s the important part. He wasn’t fake.
“People thought Buck was a Hawk; that’s where he went to school, but I never noticed it in anything he wrote,” former Iowa State sports information director Tom Kroeschell said Saturday. “Buck is on the Mount Rushmore of guys who covered the old Big Eight Conference — not just locally, but nationally.”
A page from the Des Moines Register Sports section in 1993 announcing Buck Turnbull's retirement.
Turnbull worked back in a pre-Internet day when reporters and coaches had close, yet professional relationships — a bond that allowed the Register to get a head start on composing the Johnny Majors to Pittsburgh story in 1972.
“Johnny called Buck the morning of the game; he told Buck he wanted to see him at the team hotel,” Kroeschell recalled.
Coaches even talking to reporters on mornings of big games isn’t something that’s exactly common these days, let alone doing it in the coach's hotel room.
But with Turnbull, it was different.
“Johnny respected Buck so much that he wanted Buck to be the first to know that he was going to announce after the game that he was going to Pitt,” Kroeschell said. “That’s the kind of relationship Buck had with coaches.
“They respected him.”
So did younger reporters with whom Buck worked, traveled and mentored.
“He wasn’t just a guy that could write about complicated issues in a way the average person could understand, he was a role model for us,” said Marc Hansen, a former Register columnist. “He didn’t treat us like young upstarts; he treated us like we were already professionals.”
Turnbull was an ironman, covering everything from golf to big-time football and basketball games. He wrote about sports figures ranging from golfer Lonnie Nielsen to Gable, Johnny Orr and Hayden Fry.
“Buck knew everyone,” said Brown, another revered Register alumni. “I’d be covering a golf tournament, and I was amazed how many people asked 'Where’s Buck?'”
Turnbull worked in a day when reporters didn’t know anything about a 40-hour work week. It was common back then to mingle with coaches away from the locker room, away from the field and far away from the scripted press conference settings.
“Buck had sources for everything,” Brown said.
He also had a way with words. After the Cyclones upset third-ranked Missouri in basketball at home nearly 30 years ago, Turnbull wrote that Iowa State needed another dose of Hilton Coliseum magic to beat Oklahoma State its next game.
"Hilton Magic."
Words first written by one of the greatest ever to write sports. *****
Saved my life, literally, two times: from drowning off Manasquan, and a few years later
slightly wrong, Richard. he said that the older he got, the smarter he realized his father was getting. Mark Twain most certainly was NOT a college guy.
I just hope the Democrats are prepared! We need to win big if that is possible! I heard the American Bar Association is getting involved as well as the State Bar Associations. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House needs to go too! Another shooting in Las Vegas now! Don't know how many were killed, however, the suspect is deceased. Gun Control must be a priority!
Keep bringing details Lucian! It’s scary depressing, but hopefully the magnitude of it all will sink in. Your readers are probably all aware already, but who knows who else they’re reaching! Thanks.
Lucian, do you honestly believe this would come to pass? I feel as though the media is just fear mongering to an incredible degree, and I’d really rather start hearing about how he is going down, one trial after another. About how contrary to my fears, Jack Smith is working very quietly to make sure Donnie Boy has his ass nailed to the wall on his Jan 6 trial. Many years ago, Arianna Huffington called this phenomenon (before the grip of social media) stimulating the lizard brain which keeps people on such edge that they have to keep following what’s going on out of fear. My personal feeling is that he is ranting and raving for two reasons. First he’s raising a lot of money. This is his last cash grab on his way out the door. And two, he is riling up his mob which is already actively denying the election results, and Jan 6 as an insurrection in a massive way that I was unaware of. Jeff Tiedrich wrote a good column about that this morning. More people need to be made aware that that’s going on. I certainly didn’t know. We should also be very frightened, that somebody as corrupt as Mike Johnson is only two steps away from the presidency. But Danny boy is going down. I see no way in which he is going to make it to election in 2024
I wish I could think its fear-mongering but don't under-estimate Drumpf's ability to delay delay delay. He may well succeed in putting off all his trials until after the election, and even if convicted in one or more, appeal those verdicts. Look at what happened with his tax returns, they were finally produced, mass fraud proven, and yet years later no repercussions. He's been doing this all his life and getting away with it. I agree that these prosecutors are deadly serious, but the court system largely relies on cooperation and an anarchist like Drumpf has learned to seize this soft underbelly.
Until now. Look at Judge Chutkin’s rulings on the Jan 6 trial. She smacked him down in the way that I’ve read was clearly also meant to short circuit any appeal. Don’t make yourself sick his day is done. It really is which is not to say we’re in the clear we are in for a lot of trouble with all of his riled up base and the incredible cottage industry of Jan 6, and election denial. Prepare for 2024 shit show but not for another Trump presidency
Oh, I am not optimistic about a lot of things. I am a Jew and the situation in Israel and the response by people i previously respected has driven me into the emotional ground. But I look at Trump and I know I see somebody who is about to get crushed. And he knows it. And honestly you don’t speak out about your plan to suppress America if elected, it’s almost a guarantee that it will rile up enough people to vote against you. It’s my hope anyway.
More and more Trump seems like the political Wizard of Oz: lots of scary roars and threats and noises meant to keep us all trembling in our shoes. And yes he is indeed a dangerous psychopath, but his roar is worse than his bite.
I think in this election, the anger of young people is going to win out. In 2020 they did not turn out to vote for Biden. He was too old. They were not interested in somebody deeply embedded in the system like he is. But I think they’ve seen what he’s managed to do. More important is the abortion issue that has finally lit a fire under a lot of people because they understand it’s not about abortion. It’s about curtailing women’s rights. Look what happened in some recent red state elections where blue candidates were elected and it was purely the abortion issue. There’s a lot more going on here than trumps raving.
The thing about these guys is that they’re just not competent and they are terrible cowards. They’re scary and a they say and mean terrible things, but they couldn’t run a bingo game if you gave them a hall and six nuns, and not one of those guys could hold back tears if his nose got punched. Courage, folks!
Nominating LSAZ to join all the others -- NSFW, LOL, and on, ad infinitum. I just looked. As of now, LSAZ is only initials for the airport code of a regional airport near Zurich. To be clear, that's Zurich, Switzerland, not Zurich, Kansas (2020 census population 89).
I have spoken to so many friends who have been setting up foreign or dual-national passports and boltholes, if they are lucky enough to be able to do so. Most of us are not so privileged.
When I read your column, I was instantly reminded of a editorial I had recently seen (but damn if I can find it now) in the NY Times saying that we should not worry too much about Trump or his goons because our 'guardrails' against them destroying the institutions would hold against them doing so if we get out and vote. Or some such nonsense.
Which is all BS, for me and anyone who has eyes, ears and a good memory.
Trump fully intends to do what he promises with the likes of Patel and Bannon, both of whom are just salivating over the idea of having another chance to take a wrecking ball to this country, exact revenge on their enemies and make life miserable for the rest of us.
People have to wake up-this turd you quoted is but one of them. The rest (I particularly loathe Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon) are just as dangerous and like minded.
Trump won't have to do a damn thing. They'll do it for him, eagerly, happily and with such vigor nobody will ever say that we weren't warned in advance.
We've seen this movie. It sucked the first time. It's often said that sequels never live up to the original and I'm not too sure that's going to be the case this time.
The sequel will be far worse than the original because now the principals know what they're doing and how they're going to do it next time.
These reptiles will do exactly what they've said they'll do, if given the chance, and it will be up to the rest of us to do more than throw our hands over our heads and shriek, "How can this be happening??!" while running around in confused circles.
Great summary of some truly awful diatribe. No doubt some of this is performative in order to grab more milk and cookie money from the deplorables basket. But I also remember quite well back to 2015 - 2016 when tDuMp supporters were laughing at my concerns and splaining me how when hisself was elected he'd "pivot" to being a serious leader. It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now. We fail to take him and his minions seriously at our peril.
There is not an asylum big enough for these people. I am thoroughly sickened by this gang of addled mediocrities who somehow gained a following. We have to be in the political version of end times.
So freaking outrageously Nazi. Who talks like this ffs? Sometimes a part of me thinks they must be kidding. Does it ever seem that they are taking this to farce level purposely? That their ultimate defense will be “how could you take this seriously?”
It's no joke. Wish I could think otherwise. I admit to miniscule book learning about, and no internet searching for, the sense of humor, or farce, exhibited by either maggots or piranha fish, but I doubt either species has any. (Two maggots walk into a bar and say to the piranha bartender...) Add to maggots and piranha these followers of Deranged Dictatorette Trump (DDT). Not a laugh in a carload.
A message has been sent to Robin Williams, in the afterlife, to finish the "Two maggots walk into a bar" joke. Apparently his spirit is as dumfounded by these junior league Brownshirts as the rest of us are, up close.
This is what happens when the feckless Merrick Garland diddles and fiddles until shamed into a full investigation and indictment by a 25 year old low level staffer who went before Congress and blew the lid off. Trump should have been tried, convicted and imprisoned by now and likely would have been had Jack Smith been appointed by March 2021.
That all said, I'm not even sure Trump can pull off a disbarred Attorney General nor will he be able to locate Rudy Giuliani after he flees the country to avoid paying all the lawyers and plaintiffs, not to mention ex-wives he owes.
Garland did exactly the right thing. If he had gone after Trump during the first 2 years Biden would have accomplished nothing and would be behind in the polls by 20 points. FBI investigations take many years to complete and that's during good times when 75% of the agents don't politically support the criminal they are investigating. Again, take a look how long the investigation of Gillam, who ran against DeSantis, took. I think it was either 6 or 8 years? And that was a fairly straight-forward corruption case.
I take serious issue with any criticism of Garland who is one of the finest civil servants in US history.
With all respect, I disagree. Your argument is strangely reminiscent of the argument Obama used for "look forward not backward", letting all of the Bush war crimes and bank fraudsters off the hook. Trump should have been arrested on the day after Biden's inauguration and held pending trial. We knew then what we know now. He stole documents. He instigated the insurrection. His businesses were all a fraud. And he conspired with others to substitute fraudulent electors for the real ones. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Republicans opposed every single thing Biden proposed in the first two years of his term. If they had been in a snit over Trump it would have made no difference in McConnell filibusters or House actions.
Final note, the documents case is the most absurd of all of them. This is an open and shut case with only three questions to answer. 1) Did he have the documents? 2) Should he have had the documents? 3) Did he try to hide those documents from the National Archives and the FBI? This is a one week trial at most that will be delayed until the twelfth of never by a corrupt, incompetent judge that would have sent you or me to prison for life.
So the way the criminal justice system works in your mind now is, "Let's arrest this guy first. Then we'll do all the interviews later and worry about whether or not we have a case then. There's some guy named Peter who is getting anxious and we have to do something."
That's exactly the kind of system the Trump nut cases think we have. And aside from the fact that it would never happen, it would also be a political disaster for the Biden Administration. You have a very naive opinion of justice and no understanding of how it works. For example are you aware that the House Committee refused to share their interviews with the DOJ? And that wasn't a problem because they needed the evidence. It was a problem because the DOJ could not proceed until they knew whether or not those interviews conflicted with their own.
I was involved with federal investigations for 23 years. There is a process involved and when you try to cut corners you lose verdicts. That's why the FBI has like a 95% conviction rate.
In this particular case, yes. But let's be honest, how many black or brown people are rounded up every day on less evidence? Why should Trump be treated differently? He's white? He's rich? He's a defeated president? No matter how you slice it, he is a common citizen and should be treated as such. As I said, if you or I had done what we know Trump did we would have been in prison for life long ago.
Let me again post my description of why t-Rump gets away with everything: He's a Perfect Seven: powerful, rich, old, white, gentile, heterosexual and male.
And yes, it would have made a huge difference. With Trump being prosecuted prematurely all the focus would have been on him. Nothing would have passed. It would have been a complete quagmire.
"Trump should have been arrested on the day after Biden's inauguration and held pending trial."
Arrested on 21 Jan? That means a Federal Grand Jury would have to be impaneled by the Trump Adm. DOJ to hear the evidence against Trump for whatever crime(s) you have in mind, then voted to indict him. (Feds only arrest people w/o indicting them when they catch them in the commission a crime.)
-AG Garland was not confirmed by the Senate until late Feb or early March. Prior to his being sworn in there was no holdovers in DOJ investigating whatever crimes you have in mind. Haven't seen or heard of any preliminary investigations opened by the FBI under DIR Wray during the time between 7 Jan and until AG Garland took office.
-Not a single member of the Trump Adm., to include Ms Hutchinson, called the FBI before 6Jan, during 6Jan or in its aftermath to report any crimes may have been committed. Not one. Not the WHC Office, not the acting AG or the USA for DC, not VP Pence's legal counsel, nor VP Pence. If you listened/watched the aforementioned 6JSC interviews not a single one alleged a single crime was committed while simultaneously advancing they did all they could to prevent criming. Not one said I shoulda tipped off the authorities of their suspicions. They're not going to emerge from cross-examinations looking like the heroes they made themselves appear to be during the Jan6SC interviews. Not only were all the dots in plain sight, they had enough Scriptos available to connect all of them long before 6Jan.
I understand the frustration about the timing. In federal law enforcement this was a complaint we heard constantly and I'm not saying there weren't times when there was a little bit too much wool gathering.
Not so with Garland. I had friends who worked closely with him on the Oklahoma City bombing. And they all said there never was a more smart, serious and dedicated professional than Garland.
So glad to hear this stellar view of Garland! My son was executive assistant to the one of the producers of Discovery channel's "Manhunt: Unibomber" about the successful Ted Kazinsky investigation Garland ran. I have a picture of Paul Bettany in character on my night stand to remind me that Garland knows best how to make sure the bad guys get caught, tried and put away.
Everyone: Follow Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Lucid (https://ruthbenghiat.com) and read her book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She has deconstructed the fascist playbook and analyzes current affairs against known history. There's nothing new going on except it's happening right here, right now, for real. They're telling us exactly what they plan to do, and they mean it.
Here is the reality. A goodly portion of our electorate is all in on this fanatical fantasy as the means by which they can get their revenge on those they believe are responsible for their own inadequacies and petty grievances.
We need to face the reality a way too large segment of the American voting public would be perfectly OK putting a fascist in the White House in order to achieve their fantasies. And not give a second thought to the possible consequences to them and their loved ones. Why? For the simplest reason of all. They are too damn dumb to figure it out and/or blinded by hatred.
These people are maniacs using word salad to try to make the plan for their coup sound like 'political business as usual'. Just conspiracy out there for all to see. They all need to go.
Correction: I left out the first name of the lunatic who threatened Mehdi Hasan with arrest and incarceration and deportation. He is Trump lawyer and MAGA spokesman MIKE Davis. h/t Lawrence Dietz.
Most of the media I read covered some of Trump's made many outrageous remarks in Iowa. He made them in what appeared to be a high school gym. The Demoines Register said "hundreds" attended, not thousands. This shabby crowd (in every sense) was in a solidly Republican state. The public had advance notice, and only hundreds showed up. Where would Trump be without this constant media attention? He has visually and audibly assaulted us for eight long years; I think a majority of people have had enough of him.
I think this is the case, and I believe that Trump's not going to the debates (while that's a very good thing) is definitely hurting him.
As the Queen once said, ""I have to be seen to be believed."
In Trump's case it's very true because you just can't make up the shit he says.
After growing up in the Hawkeye State for the first eighteen years of my life, I especially want to see some serious pushback to Trump, even from within his "base" there.
Des Moines Register, when my father worked there for his 41 years covering sports, had a very serious Washington Bureau, staffed by people like Clark Mollenhoff* and Nick Kotz,* * winning Pulitzer Prizes in the National Reporting category, now, after Gannett has applied their "chain gang strategy," not so much serious reporting from their Washington Bureau, as it doesn't exist!
* Clark R. Mollenhoff
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Clark_R._Mollenhoff
Clark R. Mollenhoff (April 16, 1921 – March 2, 1991) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, an attorney who served as Presidential Special ...
**
Nathan K. "Nick" Kotz (September 16, 1932 – April 26, 2020) was an American journalist, author, and historian.
His most recent book, The Harness Makers Dream: Nathan Kallison and the Rise of South Texas, tells the story of Ukrainian immigrant Nathan Kallison's journey to the United States. He is best known for his 2005 book Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws that Changed America[3] chronicling the roles of US President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. in the passage of the 1964, 1965, and 1968 civil rights laws. Kotz won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1968 for his reporting of unsanitary conditions in many meat packing plants, which helped ensure the passage of the Wholesome Meat Act.[4][5]
*******
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Kotz
*****
A stirring musical answer to Trump from "Iowa Legend," Greg Brown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI_VkjbBLXo
0:00 / 4:01
Greg Brown - Trump Can't Have That
1.65K subscribers
151,472 views Feb 16, 2017
Greg Browns' official music video for 'Trump Can't Have That'.
With your father's newspaper background, and your Iowa background, perhaps you can explain something to me: how the f did the word "Populist" ever get attached to Trump?
In school I learned that the late 19th Century word "populist" was for the like of people such as William Jennings Bryant and Robert LaFollette, men who tried to improve the lives of farmers and factory workers---the common man. Sen. Paul Harkness was a later version. So, how could Trump, a fascist pig, ever be considered a Populist? By my definition, no modern Republican could ever be described as a Populist. Am I wrong?
You are correct as can be, but with the added consideration that Trump's propaganda messaging poses as policies that will, in your concise, accurate summary "improve the lives of farmers and factory workers---the common man."
Of course it's nonsense on stilts. And of course both the Iowa Democratic Party and the national Democratic party leadership and strategists have failed to relentlessly counter it effectively enough, when they have even grasped the nettle at all.
After posting links to Clark Mollenhoff and Nick Kotz's wikipedia bios, I wondered what was up there for Buck, no wiki bio, but arguably even better I found this - I knew from talking with some of the hundred plus people at his memorial service in 2017, he was much appreciated, just didn't realize how much, I also heard him condemn Trump in characteristically laconic terms, as "Dumb Donny" "Trump the chump." [He was an "Ohio Republican" in terms of roots, by way of Bound Brook, New Jersey and Staunton Military Academy]
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/columnists/2017/06/24/peterson-buck-turnbull-consummate-professional-whos-writing-and-friendship-touched-many-lives/426487001/
COLUMNISTS
Peterson: Buck Turnbull — consummate professional whose writing and friendship touched many lives
Randy Peterson
The Des Moines Register
Buck Turnbull died Friday night, but the legacy he built during 41 years as a sports writer at The Des Moines Register, lives on.
Buck was the creator of Hilton Magic . . . he was the man who Dan Gable said helped inspire him to further greatness . . . he influenced young upstarts in this profession without ever treating them like the rookies they were during four decades of loyalty to Register readers before retiring in 1993.
An illustration of Buck Turnbull from an 1993 article announcing his retirement.
Turnbull died Friday night, his battle against spinocerebellar ataxia finally too much. He was 88.
“Buck loved his job,” his wife, Jay, said Saturday. “He loved the people he met. He didn’t know anything about a 40-hour week.”
Buck and Jay had three sons: Rick, who lives in Minneapolis; Gary, who died two years ago; and Curt, who lives in Las Vegas.
A memorial for John "Buck" Turnbull will be held in August.
“Buck loved being around coaches and athletes,” said longtime sports reporter and columnist Rick Brown. “He loved telling a story.
“Whenever he got a scoop, when he got that little smirk on his face, you knew he had something big. But he wouldn’t tell you what it was.
“You knew what he had when you saw the newspaper.”
Former Des Moines Register Editor Michael Gartner visited Turnbull frequently after his retirement.
“I had coffee with him every day for 15 years, then every week when the coffee group went to weekly," Gartner said Saturday. "When I started working at the Register when I was 15, he was on the copy desk. From there, he became one of the most respected reporters the newspaper had.
“He wasn’t curmudgeon. He was a professional. He was a guy who loved sports and loved the University of Iowa. He liked all the schools.”
Buck Turnbull had a 41-year career in the Register. Turnbull died on Friday, June 23, 2017, at the age of 88.
Turnbull graduated from Iowa, but he wasn’t just about the Hawkeyes — he covered legendary wrestler Dan Gable’s career as an Iowa State wrestler and during Gable’s time as Iowa’s ultra successful wrestling coach.
“I’ve been through a lot of writers during the years, and amazingly, I can’t recall too many times that they weren’t on my side,” Gable said when informed of Turnbull’s death. “Buck was great to me. Sometimes I went a little nuts, not so much as an athlete, but sometimes as a coach. Buck — I can’t remember any times when he was what I would classify as unfair.”
Gable, however, said Turnbull wrote some things that he felt — at the time — were critical after Washington’s Larry Owings ended his 181-match high school and Iowa State winning streak in 1970.
“I do remember The Des Moines Register being a little hard on me, but sometimes you have to have some rude awakenings,” Gable said Saturday. “Buck probably did me a favor. He was pretty hard on me at that time, but you know what?
“What he wrote was fair. What he wrote were words that I used as motivation throughout the rest of my career. He was honest.”
That’s the important part. He wasn’t fake.
“People thought Buck was a Hawk; that’s where he went to school, but I never noticed it in anything he wrote,” former Iowa State sports information director Tom Kroeschell said Saturday. “Buck is on the Mount Rushmore of guys who covered the old Big Eight Conference — not just locally, but nationally.”
A page from the Des Moines Register Sports section in 1993 announcing Buck Turnbull's retirement.
Turnbull worked back in a pre-Internet day when reporters and coaches had close, yet professional relationships — a bond that allowed the Register to get a head start on composing the Johnny Majors to Pittsburgh story in 1972.
“Johnny called Buck the morning of the game; he told Buck he wanted to see him at the team hotel,” Kroeschell recalled.
Coaches even talking to reporters on mornings of big games isn’t something that’s exactly common these days, let alone doing it in the coach's hotel room.
But with Turnbull, it was different.
“Johnny respected Buck so much that he wanted Buck to be the first to know that he was going to announce after the game that he was going to Pitt,” Kroeschell said. “That’s the kind of relationship Buck had with coaches.
“They respected him.”
So did younger reporters with whom Buck worked, traveled and mentored.
“He wasn’t just a guy that could write about complicated issues in a way the average person could understand, he was a role model for us,” said Marc Hansen, a former Register columnist. “He didn’t treat us like young upstarts; he treated us like we were already professionals.”
Turnbull was an ironman, covering everything from golf to big-time football and basketball games. He wrote about sports figures ranging from golfer Lonnie Nielsen to Gable, Johnny Orr and Hayden Fry.
“Buck knew everyone,” said Brown, another revered Register alumni. “I’d be covering a golf tournament, and I was amazed how many people asked 'Where’s Buck?'”
Turnbull worked in a day when reporters didn’t know anything about a 40-hour work week. It was common back then to mingle with coaches away from the locker room, away from the field and far away from the scripted press conference settings.
“Buck had sources for everything,” Brown said.
He also had a way with words. After the Cyclones upset third-ranked Missouri in basketball at home nearly 30 years ago, Turnbull wrote that Iowa State needed another dose of Hilton Coliseum magic to beat Oklahoma State its next game.
"Hilton Magic."
Words first written by one of the greatest ever to write sports. *****
Saved my life, literally, two times: from drowning off Manasquan, and a few years later
in a surprise riptide off Siesta Key.
What a legacy. Great man.
It was a bit like the Mark Twain anecdote, that Twain went away for four years to college, and
was amazed at how much smarter his father was when he returned!
I like to think my kids had this epiphany. In your dad’s case it should have been much more evident
slightly wrong, Richard. he said that the older he got, the smarter he realized his father was getting. Mark Twain most certainly was NOT a college guy.
I just hope the Democrats are prepared! We need to win big if that is possible! I heard the American Bar Association is getting involved as well as the State Bar Associations. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House needs to go too! Another shooting in Las Vegas now! Don't know how many were killed, however, the suspect is deceased. Gun Control must be a priority!
One is too many killed.
Keep bringing details Lucian! It’s scary depressing, but hopefully the magnitude of it all will sink in. Your readers are probably all aware already, but who knows who else they’re reaching! Thanks.
Lucian, do you honestly believe this would come to pass? I feel as though the media is just fear mongering to an incredible degree, and I’d really rather start hearing about how he is going down, one trial after another. About how contrary to my fears, Jack Smith is working very quietly to make sure Donnie Boy has his ass nailed to the wall on his Jan 6 trial. Many years ago, Arianna Huffington called this phenomenon (before the grip of social media) stimulating the lizard brain which keeps people on such edge that they have to keep following what’s going on out of fear. My personal feeling is that he is ranting and raving for two reasons. First he’s raising a lot of money. This is his last cash grab on his way out the door. And two, he is riling up his mob which is already actively denying the election results, and Jan 6 as an insurrection in a massive way that I was unaware of. Jeff Tiedrich wrote a good column about that this morning. More people need to be made aware that that’s going on. I certainly didn’t know. We should also be very frightened, that somebody as corrupt as Mike Johnson is only two steps away from the presidency. But Danny boy is going down. I see no way in which he is going to make it to election in 2024
I wish I could think its fear-mongering but don't under-estimate Drumpf's ability to delay delay delay. He may well succeed in putting off all his trials until after the election, and even if convicted in one or more, appeal those verdicts. Look at what happened with his tax returns, they were finally produced, mass fraud proven, and yet years later no repercussions. He's been doing this all his life and getting away with it. I agree that these prosecutors are deadly serious, but the court system largely relies on cooperation and an anarchist like Drumpf has learned to seize this soft underbelly.
Until now. Look at Judge Chutkin’s rulings on the Jan 6 trial. She smacked him down in the way that I’ve read was clearly also meant to short circuit any appeal. Don’t make yourself sick his day is done. It really is which is not to say we’re in the clear we are in for a lot of trouble with all of his riled up base and the incredible cottage industry of Jan 6, and election denial. Prepare for 2024 shit show but not for another Trump presidency
🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
I wish I shared your optimism.
Oh, I am not optimistic about a lot of things. I am a Jew and the situation in Israel and the response by people i previously respected has driven me into the emotional ground. But I look at Trump and I know I see somebody who is about to get crushed. And he knows it. And honestly you don’t speak out about your plan to suppress America if elected, it’s almost a guarantee that it will rile up enough people to vote against you. It’s my hope anyway.
Let's hope so, for all our sakes!
More and more Trump seems like the political Wizard of Oz: lots of scary roars and threats and noises meant to keep us all trembling in our shoes. And yes he is indeed a dangerous psychopath, but his roar is worse than his bite.
Yes!
when you say this, you're insulting opium.
I hope you are right - but fear is a great motivator to VOTE.
I think in this election, the anger of young people is going to win out. In 2020 they did not turn out to vote for Biden. He was too old. They were not interested in somebody deeply embedded in the system like he is. But I think they’ve seen what he’s managed to do. More important is the abortion issue that has finally lit a fire under a lot of people because they understand it’s not about abortion. It’s about curtailing women’s rights. Look what happened in some recent red state elections where blue candidates were elected and it was purely the abortion issue. There’s a lot more going on here than trumps raving.
Bless you, AJ Bernstein!
The thing about these guys is that they’re just not competent and they are terrible cowards. They’re scary and a they say and mean terrible things, but they couldn’t run a bingo game if you gave them a hall and six nuns, and not one of those guys could hold back tears if his nose got punched. Courage, folks!
Absolutely! They’d need a dozen nuns at the very least.
"Lickspittle suck-a-zoid!" I doff my hat in fellow writer honor with a splash of admiring envy to that sharp and fulsome coinage, LKTIV.
We do live in an age where kissing noxious behinds to get ahead is sadly rampant.
Reminder to self: Renew passport just in case....
Nominating LSAZ to join all the others -- NSFW, LOL, and on, ad infinitum. I just looked. As of now, LSAZ is only initials for the airport code of a regional airport near Zurich. To be clear, that's Zurich, Switzerland, not Zurich, Kansas (2020 census population 89).
I have spoken to so many friends who have been setting up foreign or dual-national passports and boltholes, if they are lucky enough to be able to do so. Most of us are not so privileged.
When I read your column, I was instantly reminded of a editorial I had recently seen (but damn if I can find it now) in the NY Times saying that we should not worry too much about Trump or his goons because our 'guardrails' against them destroying the institutions would hold against them doing so if we get out and vote. Or some such nonsense.
Which is all BS, for me and anyone who has eyes, ears and a good memory.
Trump fully intends to do what he promises with the likes of Patel and Bannon, both of whom are just salivating over the idea of having another chance to take a wrecking ball to this country, exact revenge on their enemies and make life miserable for the rest of us.
People have to wake up-this turd you quoted is but one of them. The rest (I particularly loathe Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon) are just as dangerous and like minded.
Trump won't have to do a damn thing. They'll do it for him, eagerly, happily and with such vigor nobody will ever say that we weren't warned in advance.
We've seen this movie. It sucked the first time. It's often said that sequels never live up to the original and I'm not too sure that's going to be the case this time.
The sequel will be far worse than the original because now the principals know what they're doing and how they're going to do it next time.
These reptiles will do exactly what they've said they'll do, if given the chance, and it will be up to the rest of us to do more than throw our hands over our heads and shriek, "How can this be happening??!" while running around in confused circles.
And we thought McCarthyism was undemocratic and scary! We ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Great summary of some truly awful diatribe. No doubt some of this is performative in order to grab more milk and cookie money from the deplorables basket. But I also remember quite well back to 2015 - 2016 when tDuMp supporters were laughing at my concerns and splaining me how when hisself was elected he'd "pivot" to being a serious leader. It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now. We fail to take him and his minions seriously at our peril.
There is not an asylum big enough for these people. I am thoroughly sickened by this gang of addled mediocrities who somehow gained a following. We have to be in the political version of end times.
So freaking outrageously Nazi. Who talks like this ffs? Sometimes a part of me thinks they must be kidding. Does it ever seem that they are taking this to farce level purposely? That their ultimate defense will be “how could you take this seriously?”
It's no joke. Wish I could think otherwise. I admit to miniscule book learning about, and no internet searching for, the sense of humor, or farce, exhibited by either maggots or piranha fish, but I doubt either species has any. (Two maggots walk into a bar and say to the piranha bartender...) Add to maggots and piranha these followers of Deranged Dictatorette Trump (DDT). Not a laugh in a carload.
Two maggots wriggle into a bar (they didn't have a leg to stand on).
<dead>
[bows, exits stage left]
Oh, perfect!
I like the “two maggots walk into a bar..” otherwise agree there’s nothing funny about these people
A message has been sent to Robin Williams, in the afterlife, to finish the "Two maggots walk into a bar" joke. Apparently his spirit is as dumfounded by these junior league Brownshirts as the rest of us are, up close.
I love this, Lawrence
This is what happens when the feckless Merrick Garland diddles and fiddles until shamed into a full investigation and indictment by a 25 year old low level staffer who went before Congress and blew the lid off. Trump should have been tried, convicted and imprisoned by now and likely would have been had Jack Smith been appointed by March 2021.
That all said, I'm not even sure Trump can pull off a disbarred Attorney General nor will he be able to locate Rudy Giuliani after he flees the country to avoid paying all the lawyers and plaintiffs, not to mention ex-wives he owes.
Garland did exactly the right thing. If he had gone after Trump during the first 2 years Biden would have accomplished nothing and would be behind in the polls by 20 points. FBI investigations take many years to complete and that's during good times when 75% of the agents don't politically support the criminal they are investigating. Again, take a look how long the investigation of Gillam, who ran against DeSantis, took. I think it was either 6 or 8 years? And that was a fairly straight-forward corruption case.
I take serious issue with any criticism of Garland who is one of the finest civil servants in US history.
With all respect, I disagree. Your argument is strangely reminiscent of the argument Obama used for "look forward not backward", letting all of the Bush war crimes and bank fraudsters off the hook. Trump should have been arrested on the day after Biden's inauguration and held pending trial. We knew then what we know now. He stole documents. He instigated the insurrection. His businesses were all a fraud. And he conspired with others to substitute fraudulent electors for the real ones. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Republicans opposed every single thing Biden proposed in the first two years of his term. If they had been in a snit over Trump it would have made no difference in McConnell filibusters or House actions.
Final note, the documents case is the most absurd of all of them. This is an open and shut case with only three questions to answer. 1) Did he have the documents? 2) Should he have had the documents? 3) Did he try to hide those documents from the National Archives and the FBI? This is a one week trial at most that will be delayed until the twelfth of never by a corrupt, incompetent judge that would have sent you or me to prison for life.
So the way the criminal justice system works in your mind now is, "Let's arrest this guy first. Then we'll do all the interviews later and worry about whether or not we have a case then. There's some guy named Peter who is getting anxious and we have to do something."
That's exactly the kind of system the Trump nut cases think we have. And aside from the fact that it would never happen, it would also be a political disaster for the Biden Administration. You have a very naive opinion of justice and no understanding of how it works. For example are you aware that the House Committee refused to share their interviews with the DOJ? And that wasn't a problem because they needed the evidence. It was a problem because the DOJ could not proceed until they knew whether or not those interviews conflicted with their own.
I was involved with federal investigations for 23 years. There is a process involved and when you try to cut corners you lose verdicts. That's why the FBI has like a 95% conviction rate.
In this particular case, yes. But let's be honest, how many black or brown people are rounded up every day on less evidence? Why should Trump be treated differently? He's white? He's rich? He's a defeated president? No matter how you slice it, he is a common citizen and should be treated as such. As I said, if you or I had done what we know Trump did we would have been in prison for life long ago.
Let me again post my description of why t-Rump gets away with everything: He's a Perfect Seven: powerful, rich, old, white, gentile, heterosexual and male.
And he offers bribes believe they’ll receive if only they help him
And yes, it would have made a huge difference. With Trump being prosecuted prematurely all the focus would have been on him. Nothing would have passed. It would have been a complete quagmire.
"Trump should have been arrested on the day after Biden's inauguration and held pending trial."
Arrested on 21 Jan? That means a Federal Grand Jury would have to be impaneled by the Trump Adm. DOJ to hear the evidence against Trump for whatever crime(s) you have in mind, then voted to indict him. (Feds only arrest people w/o indicting them when they catch them in the commission a crime.)
-AG Garland was not confirmed by the Senate until late Feb or early March. Prior to his being sworn in there was no holdovers in DOJ investigating whatever crimes you have in mind. Haven't seen or heard of any preliminary investigations opened by the FBI under DIR Wray during the time between 7 Jan and until AG Garland took office.
-Not a single member of the Trump Adm., to include Ms Hutchinson, called the FBI before 6Jan, during 6Jan or in its aftermath to report any crimes may have been committed. Not one. Not the WHC Office, not the acting AG or the USA for DC, not VP Pence's legal counsel, nor VP Pence. If you listened/watched the aforementioned 6JSC interviews not a single one alleged a single crime was committed while simultaneously advancing they did all they could to prevent criming. Not one said I shoulda tipped off the authorities of their suspicions. They're not going to emerge from cross-examinations looking like the heroes they made themselves appear to be during the Jan6SC interviews. Not only were all the dots in plain sight, they had enough Scriptos available to connect all of them long before 6Jan.
Agree 100%. Not only is AG Garland doing a superb job (as evidenced by the Trump Team's accelerated mania), but Jack Smith has got this.
Right.
I understand the frustration about the timing. In federal law enforcement this was a complaint we heard constantly and I'm not saying there weren't times when there was a little bit too much wool gathering.
Not so with Garland. I had friends who worked closely with him on the Oklahoma City bombing. And they all said there never was a more smart, serious and dedicated professional than Garland.
So glad to hear this stellar view of Garland! My son was executive assistant to the one of the producers of Discovery channel's "Manhunt: Unibomber" about the successful Ted Kazinsky investigation Garland ran. I have a picture of Paul Bettany in character on my night stand to remind me that Garland knows best how to make sure the bad guys get caught, tried and put away.
Yes indeed, the SOB might just skate because of this timing!! Outrageous!
Everyone: Follow Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Lucid (https://ruthbenghiat.com) and read her book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She has deconstructed the fascist playbook and analyzes current affairs against known history. There's nothing new going on except it's happening right here, right now, for real. They're telling us exactly what they plan to do, and they mean it.
Here is the reality. A goodly portion of our electorate is all in on this fanatical fantasy as the means by which they can get their revenge on those they believe are responsible for their own inadequacies and petty grievances.
We need to face the reality a way too large segment of the American voting public would be perfectly OK putting a fascist in the White House in order to achieve their fantasies. And not give a second thought to the possible consequences to them and their loved ones. Why? For the simplest reason of all. They are too damn dumb to figure it out and/or blinded by hatred.
Keep up the excellent writing. It's difficult to keep up this level of alarm, but we all need to.
These people are maniacs using word salad to try to make the plan for their coup sound like 'political business as usual'. Just conspiracy out there for all to see. They all need to go.