Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

Customarily, when we have a multitude of topics coursing through our brain, we disperse them to you, dear readers, via the News and Views format, or even an installment of Answer Man.

But, right now there are so many notable current events, be they local, national or international, just begging for commentary, that we introduce Shooting From The Lip, in which subjects are addressed with a few sentences, tops.

Bang. Unsolicited advice to Mainline Pharmacy ahead of tonight’s AAABA Tournament championship game vs. New Orleans, don’t pull a Martella’s or Maryland State and become comfortable with any lead until the final out has been recorded. Think of New Orleans as so many vampires, requiring wooden bats sharpened into stakes to finish them off, or as a team of Rasputin The Mad Monks from Russian history, who is said not to have expired until after being stabbed, poisoned, shot and drowned.

Bang. Even as I write this, sore-butted Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who has been throwing sand in the gears ever since he was successfully primaried into retirement at the behest of President Donald Trump, has revealed he will vote for Todd Blanche as attorney general. Too bad, Bill, it took you this long to remember you were elected as a Republican, not a gutless fence-straddler.

Bang. Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, whose face always looks like she took a long suck on the world’s sourest lemon, and Maine’s Republican Susan Collins, who never met a Democrat initiative she couldn’t get behind, won’t be voting for Blanche. And I continue to ponder whether it would have been better to have seen Nazi Graham Platner run against Collins, that horrific tattoo and all, and possibly spare us from more Collins betrayals.

Bang. Time for the WNBA to put up or shut up with its very vocal trans promotion. Take Clay Travis up on his offer of $10 million to the winner of a game between the WNBA champions and a high school boys team of his choice. Even better, draft former NBA player Enes Kanter (6-10, 250 in his playing days) who has gone public with his willingness to identify as a woman and so play in the WNBA.

Bang. Does anyone else see a similarity between Tony Fauci’s alleged fascination with gain-of-function research, which just might have led to the COVID-19 pandemic when it escaped a Wuhan lab, and the Democrat Party, whose flirtation with socialists, communists, radical leftists, Muslim extremists, trannys and general weirdos, that has seen these infect the party with a perhaps fatal case of Hate America virus?

Bang. It was heartening to see Mamdani The Commie booed off a Staten Island stage this week. It almost was as amusing as him backtracking from customers needing to present photo ID to get into one of the city-run grocery stores, which are alleged to be making big bucks for some of the communist’s family members.

Bang. The Senate cast is racing to take another break away from their do-nothing jobs, but can’t get around to attempting to pass the Save America Act, the greatest legislation yet offered to make elections secure. IDs for elections are preposterous, Democrats and RINOs argue, yet Barack Hussein Obama’s library still requires photo ID to get free or reduced-rate admission to the great one’s hideous Chicago monument to himself.

Bang. My condolences, Pirates fans, on your latest loss, the 9^th in the past 11 games. All those bullpen upgrades made at the trade deadline, and argued against in this space, only mean something if you are not consistently behind by hideously large margins early in games.

Bang. Enough of these stop-and-go Iran peace deals, President Trump. Return to your basic instinct and bomb them back into the Stone Age (a relatively short journey). Only then will these smarmy used camel salesmen totally understand their lot in life.

And then there was one, as in Johnstown entries remaining alive in this 81^st AAABA Tournament.

For the second consecutive day, I passed on attending the games, for various reasons. But I had an emissary at both.

While I skipped the afternoon game, I instead took my 2004 Mustang GT out for a cruise and, looking for an ironic twist, stopped by the observation platform at the still dormant Inclined Plane to take a peek at the game from on high. It was a quintessential Johnstown moment, with a rather rotund gentlemen sitting on said platform, beneath a sign prohibiting smoking or vaping. He was smoking.

I walked to the edge, where one could see most of the playing surface at Point Stadium down on the valley floor. There was a runner on second base, for which team I could not tell.

The call was made to my man in the stands and even as we spoke, Martella’s went up on New Orleans. We chatted for a time and then I headed back to the car. The smoking scofflaw offered to take my car for a ride and fill up the gas tank for me, but he couldn’t guarantee he’d bring it back. Even though I declined the offer, he did profess a like for the ride.

Later, back home, I checked online and found some videos posted to Facebook, apparently by a New Orleans fan. Martella’s eventually went up 4-0 through six innings and I stopped checking.

I did, however, call my guy for an update a tad later, figuring the game was over and the news would be good. It was not good news. This laid-back individual, who makes it a habit not to get worked up, was frothing at the mouth over how Martella’s had thrown away the game, literally and figuratively, losing 5-4.

I had told him earlier Thursday, when he’d tried to entice me to go, that I had a bad feeling about the game and would just as soon not see New Orleans win. The ending as described to me would have put me into a catatonic state.

This helped me decide also to pass on the Mainline nightcap at the Point because, simply put, I figured Mainline would make short work of the Altoona team it was facing and if I ended up being wrong about that, I’d rather not witness it.

This time I got it right, with Mainline advancing by virtue of a 12-2, seven-inning romp. The remaining Johnstown entry, the defending AAABA champion, gets to play Buffalo in a semifinal game Friday night.

I told my man I’d likely join him for that Mainline-Buffalo game Friday, which no doubt means much-threatened rain will at last visit us.

Life, and human nature, double-teamed me Wednesday, which is the convoluted way of saying I watched no AAABA Tournament games in-person.

The wife’s car needed inspected this month, a local shop had a 1 p.m. opening and I eagerly grabbed the slot to get those new stickers. Even though the car was done quickly, I punted on an afternoon trip downtown.

I wasn’t up for baking in the heat and humidity to watch Johnstown-2, AKA Martella’s Pharmacy, play a 2 p.m. game at Point Stadium. As it turns out, seeing Martella’s disembowel Brooklyn to finish second in Pool D and advance to the knockout round of tournament play probably wouldn’t have been that interesting. Plus, there was a Chicago Cubs-Los Angeles Dodgers game on the magic mirror at the same time. When in doubt, take the easy route.

The often-wrong online weather sites I’ve been monitoring again called for rain Wednesday and, according to the radio broadcast of the night game at the Point, some rain eventually did fall into the life of the tournament, But it was not enough rain to stop Mainline from beating Cleveland to claim the top spot in Pool C.

Because of the weather threat, the fact that many from my opening night posse opted for other pursuits on this evening, plus there was a Wacky Wednesday pizza deal offered at Papa John’s, and also the ability to watch the Pirates play Milwaukee on ESPN in a night game, with Paul Skenes pitching, meant after picking up the pizza, I sat in air-conditioned comfort and watched the Pirates lose, again.

I did monitor the progress of the Mainline game via the radio broadcast.

Back to the Pirates game, Skenes was not sharp and his Milwaukee counterpart, Kyle Harrison, just back from a stint on the disabled list, sparkled, including striking out the last eight Pirates batters he faced. The Brewers won, 4-2, leaving the slumping Pirates 4.5 games out of a wild-card slot, with three other teams between them and that third spot.

According to the good folks at fangraphs.com, the Pirates have about a 16.5 percent likelihood of making the playoffs as a wild-card team.

To borrow from the movie Dumb And Dumber, “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

Speaking of chances, let us ponder the AAABA Tournament prospects of Martella’s and Mainline.

Martella’s (2-1) drew the short straw, facing perennial tournament heavyweight New Orleans (3-0) in a 2 p.m. Game Thursday at the Point.

Mainline (3-0) draws Altoona-1 (2-1) in the night game at the Point.

If either team is to win the tournament, it will require someone beating New Orleans in the knockout play. So if it is to be, it might as well happen in the quarterfinals. If not, such is life.

Mainline stands three wins away from defending the title it won last tournament.

No longer is there any margin of error, for any of the eight remaining teams. Lose and you’re done.

Let’s just hope the online weather gurus, again predicting more rain for throughout today, are wrong yet again.

Day 3 of this 81st AAABA Tournament arrives Wednesday with a new theme song, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”

Just when things were going swimmingly Tuesday for Johnstown’s entries – Mainline Pharmacy rallying to thump Youngstown in Pool C and improve to 2-0 and Martella’s Pharmacy outlasting Altoona-2 to even its Pool D record at 1-1 – Mother Nature is about to throw the event a curve, or is it a change-up, regarding weather.

Pre-tournament rainfall had forced some game location changes already in the tournament, but the games were played on days one and two without incident. That figures to change in the near future.

Accuweather.com and Weather.com do not agree on the percentages of unfavorable weather in coming days, but they do agree that most days will be punctuated with showers and thunderstorms, beginning today and running into Sunday.

With all 16 teams still alive, and today’s slate of games necessary to thin that field to eight, weather has become the tournament topic. There is little to be done to solve the potential problem, beyond crossing fingers and toes and maybe some manipulation of rosary beads.

The weather looms as an unwelcome interruption of a tournament that saw Mainline trailing 6-4 going into the bottom of the eighth at Point Stadium Tuesday, only to throw an eight-spot on the board in its half of the inning.

Colin Dinyar’s three-run homer, a titanic shot that surely traveled more than 400 feet as it disappeared over the center-field fence, was the highlight of the breakout inning.

The win, weather permitting, sets up a game tonight vs. Cleveland, also 2-0 in Pool C. With other pool members, Youngstown and New York City, each 0-2, the top two finishers who will advance to knockout play seemingly are set.

It’s not as clear in Pool D, where Butler is 2-0, Brooklyn is 0-2, and Martella’s and Altoona-2 each are 1-1. Martella’s is scheduled to play Brooklyn in its final game of the pool play this afternoon most likely needing to win to further its chances to advance out of the pool’s round-robin play.

Accuweather.com puts the chance of rain at 88 percent today, 89 percent Thursday and 88 percent both Friday and Saturday.

Weather.com is more encouraging, but far from sanguine on the matter, predicting a 38 percent likelihood of rain today, 39 percent Thursday, 75 percent Friday, and 66 percent Saturday.

Now we sit and wait, hoping the weather people are wrong.

For all its shortcomings, and they are many, Johnstown has its moments when you almost forget all the bad. Such a moment is opening night of the AAABA Tournament.

This is the 81^st tournament, which for all but two of those years has been hosted here. It’s a combination of Hollywood premiere, fan reunion and sporting contest.

These things have become more fun lately, now that Johnstown teams enter with the ability and likelihood to win games. But, even back in the days of the double-defeat elimination – so what’s new, out in two – opening night was an event circled on the calendars of both the sporting cognoscenti and the general populace.

Monday had the usual trappings of players parading into Point Stadium, the procession of Ambassadors in their fine gowns, most of them perched on Corvettes. Awards for the local league are dispensed and, at last, a game ensues. This time, Mainline Pharmacy dispatched New York City 13-3 in a seven-inning mercy-rule game.

My party included my wife, two granddaughters, my son, two of his friends and an assortment of their children numbering one girl and three boys. We occupied a space in the green seats, on the first-base line near home plate, and basked in the evening, both the picture postcard weather and the ambience.

Before the game, the two granddaughters and I made a pilgrimage to the small brick room in right-center field where the AAABA Hall of Fame is housed. The girls wanted to see my plaque and we took some photos.

Also, we bought two AAABA T-shirts for the girls, a deal at $10 each and when the granddaughters started looking at the box of AAABA pins, I asked the price and the nice man selling the shirts told the girls each to take one – free.

Earlier, I had bought each girl a black rubber AAABA wristband, at the giveaway price of $1 apiece.

Alas, concession prices were on the steep side. After the wife came back having spent $12 on three hot dogs and some fries, I was told of $4 Gatorade and $4 bottles of water, not to mention $7 funnel cakes that were the size of a postcard.

About the fourth inning, after the girls returned from a trip seeking cotton candy only to be told they were sold out – in the fourth inning, I tell you – they were looking to call a concession audible to some other treat. Eventually they got popcorn.

I only half-jokingly told them to hold off until after the game and I’d use the money we saved from not buying another round of concessions to buy them a new car.

It turns out, I still know a lot of people in this town, which tends to amuse the grandkids. I saw former colleagues from the sports department, Mike Mastovich and John James, and bumped into photographer John Rucosky, current publisher Chip Minemyer and Valerie Deater of personnel.

Eric Dinyar, a standout athlete I covered during his days at Johnstown High School, has a son starring for Mainline and I chatted with Eric after the game. Before the game, I’d parked near John DeFazio, and walked into the stadium with the longstanding Bishop McCort figure who does radio broadcasts of the game with Don Stanton.

Speaking of Stanton, when he saw me outside the the press box before the game chatting with Mastovich and Keith Rummell, he called me in to see he had my blog as a favorite pick on his cell phone.

The Oldtimers’ Mike Hudak was manning a ticket window and yelled out a hello as we walked into the stadium.

I bumped into the Oldtimers’ George Arcurio III for a brief hello just before the pregame festivities began.

Before, during, and after the game, I saw and exchanged waves with many others, such as Sam Zambanini.

Jim Kleban, the unofficial mayor of Windber, Scalp Level and Paint Borough, sat with our group much of the game and walked out with us.

Before leaving, the wife said she had yet to see my Hall of Fame plaque so we made another visit to the room.

Once again, the AAABA official opener had delivered a memorable night for a town short on such positives.

The network baseball guys provided a good laugh during a Saturday night broadcast when they shared a graphic with the Pirates listed first as possible suitors for then-Detroit ace pitcher Tarik Skubal.

Even recalling it makes me chuckle. Yeah. Right. That graphic had the shelf life of a mayfly as, by the end of Saturday night, Skubal had been traded to, wait for it, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The rich get richer and the Pirates continue their existence of champagne tastes on a beer budget. But, they no doubt will tell the fans they were in there making a pitch for Skubal.

What the Pirates did do is acquire disappointing right-handed relief pitcher Camilo Doval, a deal that prompted a C-minus grade from the gurus at ESPN. Doval once was an effective pitcher, as was, ironically, Babe Ruth. But Doval has lost his ability to throw strikes or command his pitchers in the strike zone.

Think of the sudden demise of former Pirates star Steve Blass, who once upon a time pitched two complete game victories (they once were a thing) to lead the Pirates past the Baltimore Orioles in the 1971 World Series.

By April 1974 Blass had pitched his final Major League game. He lost his control in the 1972 season and in 1973 his ERA was a scary 9.85. His name has been linked to pitchers suddenly losing command – Steve Blass Disease.

It is too early to see if Doval, a one-time All-Star, has a terminal case of the ailment, but he did debut with the Pirates Sunday in a blowout loss to Cincinnati and surrendered a home run. Meanwhile, former Pirates closer David Bednar, dealt away at last year’s trade deadline, was wrapping up another save for the New York Yankees.

Restless Pirates fans want more as the trade deadline of 6 p.m. today approaches. This is the point where you might expect me to agree with them.

But, surprise, I do not.

It’s time for a dose or realism. The Pirates are third in the NL Central, but a whopping 14 games behind division-leading Milwaukee.

The Pirates’ 56-57 record going into today ranks them 3.5 games out of a wild-card spot. Both San Diego (1 game out) and Miami (1.5 games out) are between them and that playoff spot, currently shared by Philadelphia and Arizona.

The playoff contention is a mirage based on an abundance of mediocre baseball teams, in both the National and American leagues.

The Pirates have a light-switch offense, either scoring in bunches, or flirting with being shut out. The defense is so-so, relief pitching is poor and the starting pitching suffers from having anticipated ace Paul Skenes struggling.

Skenes, who came into the 2026 season considered among baseball’s elite starting pitchers, dropped a bomb on opening day, but seemed to recover. More recently, he’s posted a first and not a good one, yielding five earned runs in consecutive starts for the first time in his career.

Skenes’ velocity is down and his command has slipped.

Even with Skenes at peak form, the Pirates don’t have the look of a legitimate playoff team, no matter if they somehow would slip into the playoff field.

To get the sort of help the Pirates need would require draining either the middle-of-the-pack farm system or giving up help from the current majors roster. Either prospect is not the best option.

Milwaukee and the Dodgers generally are rated as having the top two farm systems, with the pecking order dependent on the person doing the evaluating. But, they are a consistent 1-2, just some disagreeing on who’s No. 1.

Those franchises, already doing well in the playoff hunt, can afford to trade away talent, as the Dodgers did to acquire Skubal to help their World Series prospects.

The Pirates cannot, and so it is best that they stop at the Doval trade and, forgive me, ask the fans to wait until next year.

There is Dickensian tone as the 81^st AAABA Tournament approaches Monday – a tale of two tournaments.

The 2025 example was clearly the best of times. Two Johnstown teams competed in the championship game, won by Mainline Pharmacy over Martella’s Pharmacy. The weather cooperated all week. It was, to stress again, the best of tournament times, at least for the local interests.

Now, as I write this early Sunday afternoon, elements seem to be aligning to give us a more normal tournament experience. If not the worst of times, it certainly will not be the best.

Begin with the weather forecast, which even our hit-or-miss local meteorologists could agree is iffy. I prefer online sources such as accuweather.com and weather.com when I need accuracy, and both seem to agree the upcoming tournament week will be an exercise in dodging raindrops.

This is significant for reasons beyond the mere challenge of getting in the games. The longer the teams remain in town, the longer they need to be fed and housed. Think of your electric meter spinning wildly while you ran air-conditioners nonstop during the heat wave earlier this summer.

And, just as those electric prices are higher than last year, it’s safe to assume the food and lodging costs for the Johnstown Oldtimers have escalated since 2025.

Even if games do get played, threatening weather dampens (pun intended) the turnout of paying customers. I recall in my days working in sports at the local paper, before it became The Johnstown Woke Gazette, promoters of area race tracks and other outside summer events lamenting how it was almost better to get rained out completely than to have a window of good weather open up allowing the event to be held before a crowd thinned by the fear of getting drenched.

I already have bought my six tickets for opening night – the granddaughters love the pageantry of the parade and ambassadors in their formal wear (hopefully no trannys are involved). The girls tolerate the game, as long as they are fortified with snacks from the concession stand.

Last year I bought souvenir baseballs for each, but one found a leftover baseball in the stands, perhaps from a Mill Rats game, and that prompted some unhappiness, further complicated when a well-meaning friend took the girl down to get signatures on that found ball from players.

A preliminary forecast indicates there might be a window of opportunity to take in that opening night spectacle. Keep your fingers crossed.

But, as for the rest of the tournament, it figures to be a damp slog. Already, a field planned for use has come up as unavailable due to construction delays, and at least one has been marked down to unlikely due to drainage shortcomings.

As for the prospects of the Johnstown entries in this event, who knows? Again, it is Mainline and Martella’s advancing to the AAABA tourney. Mainline will benefit from being in the lower bracket of pool play.

Just going by basic math, it’s no given either will make the title game and an incredible longshot to expect a repeat of 2025.

I just hope the weather is not as poor as predicted and the event can unfold without inflicting grievous financial harm on the sponsoring Oldtimers. Anything beyond that would be a bonus.

Life has become one nightmarish day after another, proving and proving again that an uncomfortable percentage of the population has gone crazy.

Just today I had to wrap my head with duct tape to prevent an explosion after listening to Tony Fauci’s 5^th amendment fetish testimony before Congress. And then there were the contradictory utterances of Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, who I wish had borrowed Fauci’s 5^th amendment disclaimer card and just refused to answer the insipid questions at his press conference.

Toss in the usual assortment of brain-dead Democrats in Congress lionizing Fauci, child-like celebrities so eager to inflict their political views on us, or the upstart Democratic Socialists of America crowd who want to do away with capitalism, property rights, police, prisons and any other of the niceties that make for a civilized society, unlike, say, the wreckage we have in most Middle East countries, and their counterparts in Africa and Europe.

It particularly annoys me when the so-called artists of music and film feel their celebrity status imbues them with wisdom we in the lower castes could only dream of possessing.

Let us turn the tables on them by borrowing their tunes. We will begin with an update on “Imagine” the left-wing dreamer anthem by John Lennon, who helped break up the Beatles by marrying a groupie with a face that looked like the north end of a south-bound mule and, like his band mates, fled Jolly Old England looking to escape the taxman, the same one they whined about in the song “Taxman.”

Somehow, they didn’t want to pay increased taxes as high earners. Lennon left that out of “Imagine.” We will help him out with updates in other timely areas.

Imagine there are no prisons

It’s easy if you try

No bars before them

Above them only sky

Imagine all the prisoners

Free to rob and slay

Oooh, hooo…..

Imagine no more coppers

Just please don’t ask me why

No one to bust the bad guys

Just leaving us to cry

Imagine all the people

Hiding in their homes

Ah, ah . . .

You may say that I’m a moron

But I’m not the only one

We decree that you will join us

And the world we know will be quite done.

With apologies to the rock band Three Dog Night, I kept hearing the tune “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)” as I watched Fauci invoking the 5^th amendment a reported 111 times today.

What’s Rand Paul got in mind

With his current committee

What’s all these crazy questions they’re askin’ me?

Seems like they all read my diary

Don’t turn on the lights, and put me on TV

Mama told me just play dumb

Mama told me just play dumb

Just you sit sit there and be mum (uh-uh)

Open up the window and let my lawyers in the room

I need their help just to keep me acting a buffoon

That gavel that you’re wavin’ bout scare me half to death

Open up the window, sucker, get some COVID in my breath

Mama told me just play dumb

Mama told me just play dumb

Just you sit there and be mum

Just you sit there and be mum (uh-uh)

Questions keep on coming and my throat is getting sore

I’m looking at my lawyer who’s escorted out the door

I’m seeing looks in faces I ain’t never seen before

I’m closing my eyes, but still I hear the roar

Mama told me just play dumb

Mama told me just play dumb

Just you sit there and be mum

Just you sit there and be mum (no-no)

Before we leave, let us give a nod in song to prominent celebrities with reported mental health issues. Begin with quixotic Greta Thunberg, whose leaping about from cause to cause (climate change, Gaza, etc.) might be a symptom of reported Asperberger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and selective mutism. Let’s add minor Hollywood star Alan Ritchson, apparently having added Trump Derangement Syndrome to his already long list of ailments including bipolar disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and at least one attempted suicide attempt (obviously unsuccessful).

We salute them with updated words to “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” a 1966 novelty song written and performed by Jerry Samuels, aka Napoleon XIV.

Remember when I sailed away

To Gaza on my boat

But Israelis would not let me land and I thought I’d go berserk

I sailed away so unfulfilled

And cried and cried all day

Alas, please let me tell you I’ve completely lost my mind

And they’re coming to take me away, ha-ha

They’re coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-ha

They laughed at me, the Reacher Man, fighting over bikes

I play a tough guy on TV, but oh real life is rough.

The demons in my head tell me that Trump is all at fault

And so each chance I get I swear and just say FUXX Old Trump

I hate that Donald Trump, I say

He’s driving me (more) insane

And they’re coming to take me away, ha-ha

The’re coming to take away, ho-ho, hee-ee, ha-ha

Just Greta T and me

The past weekend a couple of guys spreading their religion alit on my front porch.

Their opening salvo – the older guy did virtually all of the talking – alluded to the crazy state of world affairs, with the inquiry as to whether or not I was concerned. Of course, I’m concerned. Only a fool would not be.

Ah, but keep the faith, I was told. That is quite the challenge.

Consider what we are facing just this week.

Eighth dwarf, Tony Fauci is testifying before Congress, allegedly to answer some nagging questions of what he knew and when he knew it, not to mention charges he and his minions did much to conceal things regarding COVID-19.

At mid-week, our friends at the Federal Reserve have another meeting to decide interest rate policy. Some expect a hike, some a pause, but no one, it seems, expects a decrease in interest rates.

This all takes place against the background of hostilities in the Middle East, which has broadened to include Ukraine, which supposedly at the behest of the ninth dwarf, Zelensky, harmed an Iranian-linked ship in the Caspian Sea.

Zelensky, perhaps seeking to ingratiate himself further with U.S. leadership, and, more importantly plunge his hand ever deeper in our public purse, is said to have proof Russians are helping Iran target our assets in the Middle East.

Houthi (sounds like a cry of joy) rebels have become active spreading Middle East mischief, too, even as President Trump has temporarily paused strikes on Iran, supposedly because yet another overture of peace has been made.

Troubling events are not limited to the Middle East.

In Germany, a crazed Muslim has been shot after running a van into a Berlin Pride parade, killing one and injuring 29.

Three women were stabbed today by – wait for it – a Muslim claiming Allah told him to do it.

Also in recent days, a California grandmother was stabbed 11 times in broad daylight near a shopping mall, a “troubled juvenile” killed a Mississippi couple trying to help him by hiring him to do odd jobs, Hawaii’s Democrat lieutenant governor has been indicted for allegedly accepting bribes while she was a state legislator.

We have more. The Democrat party insists on running Anti-American socialists for various political offices, more people are killed in Chicago on any given weekend than U.S. troops falling in the Middle East and Republicans and Democrat legislators alike refuse to pass the Save America Act, a proposal that would shore up election integrity, something that polls indicate is much desired by voters of both parties.

Housing, food and gasoline prices are rising. Consumer confidence is falling. Mid-term elections near and, if the crazed electorate gets its wish, the country will be thrown into a state of political frenzy.

Am I concerned? Are you kidding?

While I await a callback from my union pension people, a response promised via recorded message to be delivered within 24 hours, but now has been nine-plus days and still I wait, it is a good time to put out some News And Views.

NEWS: A video has gone viral of an “Older Man” Chicago Cubs fan smacking a “Younger Man” who at first refused to stand for our National Anthem prior to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

VIEWS: This does not horrify me, which is the effect it seems to be having on the wimpy leftists. Such slaps to the back of the head were the sort of thing my “Older Man” was fond of giving to us kids when we forgot our manners. Let the record show that the “Younger Man” dutifully stood after the “Older Man” called him on his lack of respect by cuffing the back of his head. When dealing with young punks, or Iranian zealots, force tends to cut through the crap.

NEWS: Speaking of crap, that is the word English soccer legend Wayne Rooney chose as a commentator to describe the elongated halftime show at the World Cup final Sunday.

VIEWS: Anticipating it would be the sort of “crap” foisted upon us each Super Bowl, I didn’t watch. But, from various reports, Rooney seems to have gotten it right. This unprecedented lengthy halftime display was the price the World Cup had to pay for being held here, along with “hydration” breaks instituted in each half, ostensibly to give players a chance to drink some water, but really about fitting more ads into the broadcast. When pregame and postgame shows are about three or four times as long as the games themselves, you have a problem. But, the magic of digital satellite television allows people to pause the garbage and fast-forward through it. Ah, technology.

NEWS: DISH emailed me Monday about an exciting new channel, DOGTV, available for a brief time at a reduced cost of $2.50 a month.

VIEWS: Continuing on a theme, dog crap. Alas, there was a free preview recently and my wife had tried it on our adopted canine, who suffers separation anxiety any time we leave the house, or the room for that matter. The hype from DISH alludes to programming in colors dogs actually can detect, and soothing audio designed to ease their fears. Considering the stark reality that I already am paying $170 a month for a mishmash of shopping channels, Spanish language TV, various ethnic offerings and assorted other pap, I’m not inclined to add $2.50 to the bill and $4.99 a month after the six-month promotion period. Sorry, Virgil, you just will have to get past your problems by howling and whining when we are gone.

NEWS: Axios reports Democrat Party senior leadership was required to sign non-disclosure agreements before attending a recent meeting on the organization’s finances.

VIEWS: That financial status reportedly included that, through the end of May, the Democrats had $15 million of cash onhand, while owing $18 million. Republicans, meanwhile, were reported to have $125 million with zero debt. I guess there is a cost to the Democrats’ infatuation with communists, socialists, Muslims, illegal immigrants, transgenders, criminals and other, to borrow Shrillary’s word, “deplorables.”

Hold on, the cell is ringing. Dare I dream, the union people calling? No, just more spam.

As you were.