Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

ELI5 sounds like it might be a federal job classification level, or maybe a fifth-generation robot, or even yet another made-up gender.

But, no, it’s slang shorthand for Explain Like I’m 5, a concept of simplifying complex explanations so as to make topics understandable, even to someone very young and naive.

It seems Democrats need a lot of ELI5 lessons to help them comprehend why the nation voted for President Donald Trump and his campaign promise to cut federal government spending.

Oh, the leftists are petulant that anyone might question such extreme affronts as using taxpayers dollars to pay college tuition for a terrorist, or funding various transgender causes with large amounts of tax revenues, or treating illegal immigrants like visiting royalty while American citizens in North Carolina sleep in tents after a national disaster.

Trump orders a halt to DEI absurdities, or misusing FEMA money, and career leftist bureaucrats try their typical end runs to slip the money to their pet causes regardless.

It is obvious from the past election that the voting populace bought what Trump was selling. It’s time for Democrats to wake up and the smell the coffee, which in their case would be about $50 a cup as long as it was on the taxpayers’ dime.

Pay attention, kids (Democrats), and try to comprehend. We’ve dumbed it down just for you.

Imagine your mommy and daddy worked making toys, but they didn’t like the way the owner of the factory ran things, They wanted more toys shipped to gender-confused types, or illegal immigrants. So, on their own, they sneaked toys out of the shop to give away and, even worse, they broke into the accounting department and stole a bunch of blank checks so that they could hand out money to the people they perceived to be in need.

Is this OK, kids?

Or, try this one. Mommy and daddy collected money from the public under the guise of helping feed and clothe the poor. But, instead, mommy and daddy only gave the money to families that voted for Cackling Kamala Harris and not to any families that voted for Trump?

Does this sound fair, kids.

One more point to ponder. Mommy and daddy have strict rules for you kids. You can’t say mean things. You have to follow the law. You have to answer any questions they choose to ask you, at any time. You are expected to help around the house and treat others with respect. And you are always expected to tell the truth. Yet mommy and daddy call Trump and his supporters Nazis, deplorables, and bitter folks clinging to guns and religion. They scream Fxxk Trump. Mommy and daddy operate in an information vacuum when you ask them questions – deny, deny, deny. They say the law doesn’t apply to them when they decide it doesn’t work for their agenda. Mommy and daddy haven’t cleaned the house since Obama was president and they lie about things ranging from marital fidelity to their income taxes.

Hard to accept as fair, right, kids?

Maybe it’s time for the kids in these examples to demand an end to this ongoing hypocrisy, or else find new parents.

Maybe it’s time for the nation just to skip step one and find new Democrat lawmakers.

We now know the melange of leftist bureaucrats, illegal immigrants, gender-confused types, and generally deranged zealots who have become the face of the Democrat party are as tone-deaf musically as they are politically.

I base this on a clip shown on Fox News Tuesday night, during which a small, musically challenged group of protesters tried to ask the musical question of which side we were on in the continuing struggle to defund and thereby drain the D.C. Swamp.

They were, in a word, horrendous when it came to singing.

But, beyond the fact they sounded like so many cats having sexual relations while also reacting to their tails being caught under rocking chairs, and getting past the apparent urge of several speakers to have sex with President Trump – expressing the desire to FXXX him – they asked a question and I will answer.

I’m on the side of American citizens, not illegal immigrants.

I’m on the side of rooting out fraud, abuse and waste in government, not allowing USAID style operations to continue throughout The Swamp.

I’m on the side of law, not the judges who seek to bastardize their position to advance political views.

I’m on the side of the majority of the voting populace that elected Donald Trump to do something about all the ills that afflict this nation, not those who would seek to thwart him by any means possible.

I’m on the side of sending illegal immigrants back to their points of origin immediately, if not sooner, and not allowing them to live like royalty here on the taxpayer dime.

I’m on the side of shrinking government payrolls and not funding make-work programs to fill DEI quotas.

I’m on the side of looking into people running government operations and earning relatively modest salaries of $200,000 or so annually, somehow acquiring $30 million net worths in a few short years.

I’m on the side of DOGE and Elon Musk, not USAID and Samantha Powers.

I’m on the side of Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld, not any pair of CNN, MSNBC or LameStream media hacks you’d care to name.

I’m on the side of asking morons lamenting Musk not being elected how they felt having their lives run by unelected Tony Fauci or any other number of unelected bureaucratic dictators.

I’m on the side of avoiding cheap talking points like “constitutional crisis” or “death of democracy” when what the left really is talking about is their crisis and their death if their behind-the-scenes funding is withdrawn.

Finally, I’m on the side of calling out the left when they threaten to take it to the streets and get physical with the opposition. I suspect they might find themselves as overmatched in that event as the metaphorical dog that finally catches the car it was chasing.

Pinch me, I must be dreaming. I awoke this morning to learn the Kansas City Swifts (Chiefs) had lost the Super Bowl in one-sided fashion, 40-22, and at least one Chiefs player was lamenting — wait for it — the officials.

Talk about pots disparaging kettles.

The reason that word of the Chiefs’ loss came late to me is due to the family skipping the Super Bowl entirely for the second consecutive year. One can only take so much NFL virtue-signalling, ridiculous officiating and over-the-top orgies of self-congratulation regarding it all before crying uncle.

Yesterday, we did the final celebration of Granddaughter No. 3’s sixth birthday (carried over from last month) with the bestowing of gifts from her great uncle who “always gives the best presents.”

GUC, as he’s called, delivered on his reputation, with a miniature birthday playset and remote-control snake, both hits, plus a birthday card so complex it came with instructions. It, too, was a hit.

We celebrated together with pizza and ice cream cake, and watched a lot of the Puppy Bowl, a bit of a disapointment weighed against past examples. But the officiating was on the up and up.

Later, there was much playing by the granddaughters with the new toys, watching assorted cartoons, and just enjoying life without annoying football as a backdrop.

In early evening the wife prepared some Super Bowl party-esque food, from shrimp, chicken tenders and corndogs, to a meat, cheese and crackers platter.

After the young ‘uns were put to bed, I ended up playing a lot of online chess, going 2-4 before rallying to win four straight games to end 6-4. It turns out, unlike the Chiefs, I was able to turn around a bad start.

I was in bed by 10:30 and as far as I knew, the Chiefs had pulled off their three-peat.

But, no three-peat; no massive payday for NBA guy Pat Riley, who had trademarked three-peat way back when.

DeAndre Hopkins, Chiefs wide receiver, whined about the officiating after the game. From what I’ve read, Hopkins must have been astonished that for the first time in his brief Chiefs career, having joined via trade at mid-season, all the close calls didn’t go the way of his team.

Announcer Tom Brady is reported to have criticized two calls early, one benefitting the Chiefs and the second, the victorious Philadelphia Eagles.

Other quick hits from reporting I’ve read about the game.

Not since DR JILL BIDEN!!!!!!!!!! wore Republican red to vote in the presidential election has outfit color choice created the stir that resulted from the Eagles’ green suit worn by KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Speaking of pregame attire, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce wore a red example that looked like the love child result of a union between a zoot suit and a 1970s leisure suit.

It was heartwarming to watch videos of the crowd booing Taylor Swift and cheering President Donald Trump, prompting Serena Williams to rush to social media to back up Swift. Don’t worry, Serena, Swift will get at least two poor-me songs out of this, one about mean fans and the other when she dumps boy pal Kelce, as she almost assuredly now will since he’s no longer useful.

If you are keeping score at home, Swift came up short as a Kamala Chameleon backer, too, and now her favorite NFL team got trampled in its bid for history.

Skipping the entire broadcasts makes it much easier to miss the Woke pregame and halftime shows. I can recall when Up With People and the Grambling State University marching band were Super Bowl halftime staples and The Beach Boys performed at one Super Bowl pregame I attended.

The conspiracy crowd will see a bit of pro wrestling thinking in this loss, with the league favorite Chiefs taking one for the cause to set up a titanic rematch down the line, for sure during next regular season and perhaps again in the Super Bowl.

If possible, I’d have preferred to have seen both teams lose. But since that was not an option, Philadelphia winning was the lesser of two evils.

And, finally, because Johnstown now is populated by a flood of ex-Philadelphians, what time will the victory parade be held here? Plus, how will our non-profit elite masters find ways to benefit themselves from it?

A record $1.4 billion or so is projected to be bet – legally – on Sunday’s Super Bowl, or about the amount the USAID office used to dispense weekly to questionable causes, before the DOGE guys shut it down.

Leftists are screaming into the night over having their taxpayer-funded piggy bank closed for business. Maybe they should take whatever money stuck to their fingers along the way – I would presume there has been much of that – and rush to leverage that remaining money by making can’t-miss Super Bowl bets, the better to fund more trans operas and comic books throughout the world.

Here is one man’s list of such safe bets they might want to consider booking.

Bet on there being more gratuitous shots of Taylor Swift in her luxury box than of President Trump, who also plans to attend the game.

Bet the 1000 over on the over/under regarding the number of fans around the nation being rushed to hospitals with uncontrollable nauseau over the Swift overkill.

Bet on the announcers to mention ball or balls at least 200 times, but never “big balls” as in the youthful DOGE guy of that screen name.

Bet no on the rumored prospect of Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce proposing to Swift during the coverage, either in-game or postgame.

Take the 50-1 odds that the people who stencil the platitudes on the field might screw up and plaster “Choose Racism” along the end zones, accidentaly conflating the preferred “Choose Love” virtue signal chosen to replace “End Racism.” Think of the hapless guy in the Snickers commercial painting “Chefs” in the end zone instead of “Chiefs,” and the resulting amusement of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.

Bet that one of the announcers will slip up verbally and refer to the Chiefs as the Swifts.

Bet on the Chiefs to get at least one favorable officiating call that leaves unbiased observers scratching their heads.

Bet on the halftime show to last long enough to order Chinese food or pizza at its outset and have it delivered before the second half begins.

Bet on at least one video review lasting longer than the National Anthem.

Bet on “three-peat” being mentioned more than 50 times.

Bet on Tom Brady saying “pardon me” or “excuse me” at least 10 times.

Bet on Trump posting on social media during the game that he’s denying NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s security clearance, and hitting NFL teams with 100 percent tariffs if they play in lavish stadiums paid for by taxpayers.

Bet on Trump also posting a proposal for a new NFL franchise in Gaza.

Bet on Trump posting, should the Chiefs lose, that Kamala supporter Swift backed yet another loser.

Most of all, bet on the Swifts (Chiefs) to win, because that’s the only outcome acceptable to the NFL.

Making predictions too often is a mug’s game. But, there are times when it’s pretty easy to come off as Nostradamus instead of NostradumbaXX.

Friday’s job report was such a time.

As I wrote here in the wee hours of the day, about seven hours before the official report was released, the payroll numbers were likely to disappoint to the downside vs. estimates. They did.

No need to kiss the hem of my robe regarding this. It was just a case of knowing government bureaucrats, such as those of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (which should bear the BS acronym) seem to do more making up numbers than reporting actual statistics.

This gives a large degree of latitude when it comes to making the numbers tell your story.

These people also seem to be almost entirely on the political left, willing to shade things to make Democrats look good, as they have been doing for months, but not similarly inclined when a Repbulican rules the roost.

Because of that, and because the Deep State is desperate for something, anything, to blunt Trump’s momentum, a miss today was as predictable as Chuck Schumer histrionics, Al Green impeachment threats and Kamala Harris cackles.

In the long run, it’s virtually meaningless. But, for the short term, it’s a talking point for Democrats and their sycophants in the LameStream media.

The employment numbers also provided cover for those who are pained by the upward march of gold and silver prices. They hit gold for about $25 an ounce on the release and dropped silver 60-plus cents.

Again, this is short-term noise rather than long-term enlightment.

Any rational human would have a hard time blaming the numbers on Trump, since he didn’t take office until three weeks into the month that was being reported upon.

But, rational thought is in short supply these days. So, allow the left a day to celebrate (yes, they’ve put themselves in a position where they celebrate any hiccup for the nation), but know that they will continue to lose, lose, lose with a great degree of predictability.

The plan had been to hammer out this blog post much earlier, but life intrudes. Not in a bad way, mind you.

At the risk of being one of those annoying people, I’m going to share that I got great news today, but I can’t provide details of this.

For a change, the positive news had nothing to do with the human dynamo that is Donald John Trump, nor yet another increase in my investment portfolio due to gold and silver continuing to rise.

It was an encouraging development on a more esoteric level.

And yet, it served to remind me again that Americans in general have much to be thankful for these days. On an overall level, all should be grateful every waking hour that Trump won the election and Cackling Kamala has been left to serve up her latest word salad in relative obscurity, unburdened by what has been.

We never should get tired of winning, nor should we take it for granted.

This was the day we learned that the leftist deep staters at USAID had sent $20 million to Afghanistan to fund a Sesame Street version for that country. Bert and Ernie do Baghdad?

Leftist Democrats continue to howl in outrage that their USAID slush fund has been exposed to the world and the funding has been slashed.

These people are unhinged. They take every issue in which the nation’s populace is split about 80-20, and vow to defend to the death the 20 percent viewpoint.

And the hypocrisy they display along the way is staggering. Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren, with her discredited claims to be a Native American, should be disqualified from ever questioning the honesty of another.

So it is with the likes of Dick Blumenthal and his false claims of having served in Vietnam, sort of like Tampon Tim claiming to have done combat duty. Wrong on both claims.

AOC, whose crowning career achievement has been learning to mix a Sloe Gin Fizz, dares to question the intellect of the likes of Elon Musk.

Not to be left out, Shrillary Clinton has chimed in to blame Trump and his administration for the plane crashes of late. This from someone who should be serving time for playing fast and loose with classified information on her personal computer server.

Don’t forget, too, that Shrillary as Secretary of State played a prominent role in the American deaths in Benghazi. This wrinkled prune, neatly forgets her many failures, and takes to social media to note she is concerned that young blood is being used to cure problems with our air traffic control system.

She also, of course, blames Trump, just because.

Expect Shrillary to be wagging that serpent’s tongue of hers today, because the employment report for January will be released. I would suspect bad news for several reasons.

First, these bureaucratic hacks in charge, who kept making the numbers look good trying to prop up Biden and Kamala, then quietly revising them later (remember the 800,000 jobs that disappeared in one revision?) no longer have that motivation to massage the numbers.

Instead, they want to make Trump look bad. Never mind that most of January was on the old guy’s watch. If the numbers are poor, as I suspect they will be, Shrillary and her fellow lunatic leftists will be eager to put the blame on Trump.

All of this would be discouraging were it not for mounting evidence that these deranged leftists and the LameStream media that backs them largely are being ignored, with an ever-increasing number of their old warhorses fading into retirement.

It also would be discouraging if we weren’t getting daily evidence that this time Trump knows what he’s up against in the D.C. Swamp and he’s going to get that promised draining accomplished by acting boldly.

The good news is, the wins keep coming. Attempts by irrelevant has-beens, or current never-weres among Democrats, or their failing Lapdog media, to diminish the successes only serve to paint these naysayers as even more absurd than we had imagined them to be.

The NFL and its officials union are sounding a lot like aggrieved Democrats, complaining loudly and longly about perceived insults, slights, and accusations. At least they aren’t taking it to the streets and threatening physical violence. At least, not yet.

You might have heard many have suggested that one-half of Sunday’s Super Bowl pairing got a little help – actually a lot of help – in making it to the big game. That would be the Kansas City (Chiefs) Swifts.

Critics say the Swifts (Chiefs) don’t get all the calls from the officials, just the ones that matter most at big moments. A story posted on MSN.com, from Total Pro Sports, cited 10 big calls that were unclear, questionable or flat-out wrong, but all went the way of the Swifts just this season, including a couple in each of the playoff games.

Some coincidence, huh?

I confess to having seen myself what I deemed to be some suspect calls, which is one reason I tuned out the Swifts’ first playoff game early, ignored totally the next round, and won’t be watching Sunday’s Super Bowl, for the second consecutive year.

This is a big change in habit for me. I’ve watched most Super Bowls, even been there to cover six of them during my career as a sports columnist.

I threw quite a few Super Bowl parties in my days, but those went by the wayside years back and, to repeat, I no longer am inclined even to watch the game.

The righteous indignation of the NFL, from DEI commissioner Roger Goodell on down, is loud regarding suspicions about the officiating.

Sure, it benefits the league to have a story line of the Swifts going for a record third consecutive Super Bowl title. And having songstress Taylor Swift as a parmour of one of the Swifts players added to the attraction for viewers beyond football fans.

But there is no tangible proof, at least not what used to be the standard to hold up in court. On what has become the sliding scale, in which there are different legal standards for different people, maybe.

One argument against a conspiracy – that being that it would take a great deal of organization and thereby is impossible – falls into the laughable category.

Anyone with their head screwed on straight realizes it’s better for the league if the Kansas City story continues. You don’t need exchanges of emails between would-be conspirators to know that.

Again, there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, just a lot of rulings that, when taken in total, don’t necessarily pass the smell test.

Perhaps this all is fallout from the recognition of just how far the deep state has gone in bastardizing this nation’s government.

People who believe the Swifts get some help, just might think the U.S. government would fund a news outlet such as Politco to spew misinformation and government talking points, even to kickstart impeachment of a sitting president. And, yes, that happened.

Moving on, people supporting a Swifts conspiracy theory might suggest the FBI and CIA were weaponized to damage a sitting president and eventual successful candidate for yet another term. That happened, too.

A plan to help the Swifts doesn’t stretch the bounds of possibility any more than proposing that members of the government bureaucracy would actively work to subvert an administration’s policy, right?

Surely such an NFL plot would not be as absurd as Democrats and assorted enablers propping up a mentally incompetent president for four years and even endorsing him, for a time, to run for another term.

Maybe the NFL can round up a list of 51 former or current intelligence officials to sign an open letter swearing rumors of NFL officiating bias are merely Russian disinformation? It sounds vaguely familiar to me — something having to do with Hunter Biden’s laptop and, well, it wasn’t disinformation.

What if we got 102 former or current intelligent officials to certify NFL officiating is even-handed?

Perhaps 204, or maybe 408? No?

OK, let’s move on. Suggesting an ongoing NFL officiating conspiracy certainly is far-fetched, as ridiculous as assertions that 60 Minutes might doctor a Kamala Harris quote to eliminate her word salad, that COVID-19 was a lab leak from China, that the FBI would lie to get illegal wiretap permission, that an elected official in Bucks County would vow to count illegal votes, or that a New Jersey governor would brag about hiding an illegal immigrant in rooms over his garage and defy ICE to do anything about it.

The problem the NFL has is that there seems to be a lot of evidence of, at minimum, inexplicable calls.

Where the whole JFK assassination speculation had to lean very heavily on the Zapruder video, under 30 seconds of 8mm film, NFL games result in hours of videos, from different angles, with slow motion and stop-action thrown into the mix.

Under all that scrutiny, it does seem the Swifts get more than their share of the close calls.

Whether that is by design or pure happenstance is unknowable, and there is no hope of an election throwing out Goodell and bringing in someone intent on throwing sunlight on the matter.

My expectations for Donald Trump and his team in this second go-round were great. I’m happy to report that those expectations are being exceeded.

From sending illegal immigrants packing, to backing down Mexico and Canada on border issues by wielding the tarrif stick, to beating back China’s control of the Panama Canal, to floating ideas to expand U.S. territory to Greenland and even the Gaza Strip, Trump and his people have been a whirlwind of activity.

But the more I read, the more I have come to believe the singlest greatest dagger into the heart of the deep state was the taking over of the U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID).

Cut off the water – the funding – and the animal or plant dies.

Make no mistake, it seems USAID was quite the slush fund for all things leftist.

Sound bites enumerating the funding of various politically absurd projects, such as a DEI musical in Ireland, or a transgender opera in Colombia, had the intended shock value. Don’t forget $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbian workplaces.

But these are just the ridiculous cherries on a sundae of absurdity. There was $2 million British pounds ($2.5 millon dollars) a year to the BBC to train foreign reporters.

It gets worse. Think of $122 million in U.S. taxpayer money being funneled through USAID to Islamic terrorist organizations in Gaza, Syria and Afghanistan.

One story I read credited the Biden regime with sending $1.3 billion to groups that committed or sponsored terrorism.

The hogs feeding at this trough were not just foreigners. It’s safe to presume that some of the taxpayer money stuck to the fingers of domestic operators, too.

And this helps explain the absolute hysteria on the left over USAID being hamstrung financially.

The left screams about taking it to the streets in violent protest.

Wait a minute, violence as a reponse to the acts of duly elected representatives, isn’t that insurrection? Are the Democrats, particularly their leftist fringe, still trying to protect democracy? Or, are they coming clean finally that their goal is to destroy democracy?

Consider the case of New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, whose toothy grin and vacant stare suggest he’d be the chosen dictionary image to illustrate the word doofus.

Murphy took to a stage recently to suggest he might be hiding an illegal immigrant in a room over his garage, and dared Tom Homan and ICE to do anything about it.

It was Murphy’s Corn Pop, Uncle Bosey moment. When called on it, and informed there could be jail time for such activity, Murphy said he was just kidding

Domestic tough guys are as soft as the international variety. Call them on their BS and they fold like tents in a strong wind.

Trump is a genius, melding the strength of a Ronald Reagan and a Teddy Roosevelt. But, where Teddy professed to speak softly, while carrying a big stick, Trump speaks loudly and has the big stick, too

I recall vividly weak-kneed leftists and apologists on both sides of the political spectrum, worrying that Regan would ignite World War III by calling out the Soviets. Instead, he precipitated the fall of what he called their “evil empire.”

Trump is Reagan’s 2025 successor, willing to do the hard things to make the nation great. Meanwhile, the petty resistance types, such as Chuck Schumer, hold a beer can in one hand and an avocado in the other suggesting we should forget the whole illegal immigrant thing lest we need to pay more for beer and dip.

No, Chuck, the left has plenty of dips to amuse us, free of charge now that their funding has been axed.

You can judge the degree of their hurt by the unhinged rants at protests and on social media. They are threatening Elon Musk with physical harm should he venture onto the streets and dismissing him as someone who was not elected for his job.

This just in, constitutional and political scholars, your administrations have been run by plenty of unelected types. How about George Soros, Bill Gates, John Podesta, Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett?

Have you forgotten that Obama and Shillary, long after they held no elected offices, ran things behind the scenes?

Did you really believe Clueless Joe Biden was allowed to be around sharp objects or key policy matters while he slept away his term as president?

And, when it came time to ditch Clueless Joe, it was unelected actor George Clooney who led the charge.

These same Democratic hypocrites see no problem that Zelenskyy can’t account for $100 billion or so of U.S. aid that has flowed to his corrupt land.

And, make no mistake, if these leftists can get back in power, the money spigot will be turned on full to fund anew all these ridiculous missions.

I’m sure of that after watching some highlights (lowlights) of a recent DNC leadership event, which looked like the collection of oddballs from the Star Wars bar scene.

They lost an election based on their lack of common sense and they still can’t understand.

It is up to Trump to keep providing them remedial education on the matter. And, based on his performance so far, he will continue to do just that.

Add Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-predicting rodent, to the list of those who should be grateful for one Donald John Trump and his MAGA movement.

Like Trump and all too many conservatives, Phil had fallen into the web of leftist censorship and selective fact-checking, said web having been ripped asunder by Trump’s rise to power. Even the PETA types were trying to do away with Phil.

Today is Phil’s day, Groundhog Day, and he issued a prediction of six more weeks of winter weather. I must confess, I thought Phil’s handlers might have checked the encouraging long-range forecasts and nudged Phil in the direction of proclaiming spring to be just around the corner.

But, no, Phil is true to himself and despite anticipation of warmer weather and not a lot of snow in coming weeks, Phil hung himself out with a prognostication of the opposite.

The Associated Press report on Phil today, borrowing a page from its political reporting, was eager to slip in a fact-checking paragraph intimating Phil is less than accurate.

It included a link to a government site under the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration banner, which gives Phil a 30-percent correct rate for the past 10 years. If you want to check, hurry, because a note says the site will be down for maintenance from midday Feb. 6 until 8 p.m. Feb. 8.

And so, it has come to this: Your tax dollars being spent to pay some statistical nerd to calculate the accuracy of a bit of folk lore. I guess it’s better than spending $50 million on condoms for Gaza, to be inflated with helium there and used to float bombs into Israel.

Someone please alert DOGE to the Punxsy Phil fact-checking by NOAA and have it axed immediately, if not sooner.

It strikes me that Phil might use his high-profile platform on this day to offer predictions on things other than weather. In view of recent history, it might be a lot easier and even help his accuracy as reported by AP.

Along that line, here are some things Phil might have predicted today:

Six more weeks of inane Democrat criticism of Trump appointees

Six more weeks of general left-wing media absurdity.

Six more weeks of crying leftists on social media.

Six more weeks of illegal immigrant misinformation.

Six more weeks of Biden pardon fallout.

Six more weeks of revelations of governmental misspending and abuse.

Six more weeks of tariffs

Six more weeks of dead terrorists

Six more weeks of executive orders.

Six more weeks of transgender wailings

Six more weeks of left-wing media types hitting the pavement a la Acosta, Todd and O’Donnell.

And, lastly, one more week (this season) of questionable officiating calls favoring the Kansas City (Chiefs) Swifts.

I came to be aware of the passing of an old friend Thursday, a common occurrence once one reaches my age.

Such things remind me of a Joe Paterno press conference I attended, late in the career of the late Penn State coach, during which he lamented that reaching his age meant most of your friends and family were dead.

But it is not only people who pass into history and become mere memories. It is businesses, schools, assorted goods and services, too.

I can recall 5-cent candy bars (Three Musketeers, Milky Ways and the like) .26.9-cent a gallon gasoline, .28-cent loaves of bread, massive downtown department stores such as Glosser’s and Penn Traffic, milk being delivered to homes. And on, and on, and on.

An ongoing price anachronism had been the car wash along Bridge Street. Sure, it was largely decrepit, a tin shack with multiple stalls. It had a history of violence having occurred there and many were a tad shy about venturing to the area to take advantage of the low price.

Still, when last I used it the past fall, it still was $1.50 for five minutes, give or take, to wash off one’s car.

Take it from a guy with six vehicles – two hobby Mustangs, a hobby Corvette, two SUVs and the wife’s four-door sedan – I wash cars quite often.

And so it was that Thursday, following a doctor appointment, I decided to rinse accumulated salt off the Kia Sorento.

But, having motored to the Bridge Street facility, I was shocked to see some stalls closed and others filled with assorted junk. I am pretty sure I saw a truck bed, sans truck, wedged in one stall.

Alas, poor car wash, I knew thee well. You survived COVID and life’s other indignities, but I presume you have fallen to inflation and assorted business realities.

Understand, I can wash cars at home. But, this time of year, it’s a bit silly to trot out the hoses, turn on the outside faucet, rinse a car, then reverse the process.

And I used to do a prewash at the Bridge Street facility even in warmer days, just to take advantage of the high-pressure wand. Again, the wife owns high-pressure washers, one electric and another gas powered. But, it was simpler to drive to Bridge Street, plunk six quarters in the slot, wash and go home to finish it all off with waxing and detailing.

After learning the car wash was no longer operating, I went home. I briefly pondered trying other such sites, but not having a roll of quarters, I despaired I could not foot the bill.

Here’s where being cheap – I mean frugal – comes in handy. I checked the weather forecast, saw predictions of sustained rain, and instead of putting the Kia back in its garage stall, I let it sit outside to anticipate the cleansing Friday/Saturday rainfall.

It was a chance to allow Mother Nature do the rinse job for me and she has showed up to work.

Sure, it is not as efficient as the Bridge Street high-pressure hose. But Mother Nature doesn’t have a coin slot.