Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

In a triumph of hope over experience, I tried to watch the vice-presidential debate Tuesday night. I made it only until the second question was asked before punting to watch DVRd Maverick episodes and the end of some tepid playoff baseball.

I gave up on the debate when one moderator tried to prop up Tim Walz at the top and, shortly thereafter, when the second question of this debate was regarding climate change.

Climate change? There was nothing more timely and significant for Waltz and Republican JD Vance to discuss?

Iran was raining missiles on Israel earlier today, a large swath of our south is reeling from effects of a hurricane and wondering where federal help is. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement admitted Biden-Harris has let 500,000 or so criminals into this country via our porous border, including tens of thousands of murderers and rapists.

And high on the priority list of the vapid moderators is the old reliable leftist lament of climate change, the very same topic which prompted failed presidential candidate John Kerry to rail against the First Amendment recently because it makes it so hard for the government to advance agendas the public neither wants nor needs.

That’s precisely what the First Amendment is supposed to do, Kerry. Go back to spending your wife’s money and riding in her private jet.

Walz and these moderators ought to thank their lucky stars that the First Amendment covers them when they mislead and/or outright lie.

The moderators let Walz blame all the current woes of this nation and the world on Donald Trump and, even weighed in with support of one of Walz’s ridiculous assertions saying Trump had let Iran out of the sanctions box. We got this as the moderator pre-empted a Vance response by repeating that incorrect claim.

I understand Vance later did a great job punching back at the biased moderators and, perhaps their resulting confusion explained them screwing up by asking Walz about one of his many outright lies he has been spreading, this about being in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Just as with his false claims of having combat experience, Walz tried to explain away the China fib by saying he had “misspoke” on this. Later, Walz summed it all up, saying “I’m a knucklehead at times.”

At times?

By the way, the initial debate question posed to Walz was whether or not he’d approve of Israel doing a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure due to today’s Iran missile attack on Israel.

Walz recited his rehearsed attacks on Trump, but never did answer the question.

Then, Vance got his chance. First, he gave his backstory, but he eventually got around to answering the question, his response being that Israel should be free to make its own decisions on that.

And then it was climate change time for them, and channel change time for me.

As had been my plan, I came back to watch post-debate coverage on Fox. For those who rail about Fox being one-sided, understand that Brit Hume, in the wake of the Trump-Harris presidential debate, had given the edge to Harris.

Before this VP debate, the same Hume had predicted the moderators would be one-sided, just as I had thought would be the case. Afterward, Hume said he had seen his prediction come to pass.

What surprised me was that even the Fox token panel leftist, former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford, gave Vance the edge over Walz in the debate, noting Walz had started poorly and stumbled at times. Ford praised Vance for being on-message, and perhaps more important, likeable.

Will it make a difference in the election? Probably not. I’m just glad LameStream media is so predictable that anticipating biased moderation of a debate in favor of the Democrat is such a sure bet.

Thank God this is it, for about four years.

Republican vice president candidate JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz are set to debate tonight.

Based on presidential debates of recent vintage, allow me to save you some time with a tale of what is likely to happen.

The host is CBS, yet another LameStream media outlet that hates Donald Trump and, by extension, his VP running mate Vance.

Meanwhile, Tampon Tim will be given a ride on the Kamala media love train simply due to his association with her. Can you say joy, opportunity, holistic? Repeatedly?

Unlike past attempts to make moderating teams “look like America” by presenting gender, nationality, racial and perhaps even sexual-orientation diversity, tonight’s two moderators are a pair of white women who wake up asking “How can I be mean to Donald Trump today?”

CBS has a deep bench in this regard. Somehow, the network passed on Lesley Stahl, another dependable Anti-Trump type who derided Trump regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop computer before the 2020 election.

Back then, LameStream media was willing to torture truth and insist despite mounting evidence that it wasn’t necessarily Hunter’s and couldn’t implicate Clueless Joe, too.

Stahl famously lectured Trump “This is ’60 Minutes” and we can’t put on things that we can’t verify.”

Where was Lesley two months before the 2004 election when Dan Rather put on George W. Bush allegations regarding him skipping out on military service that Rather and CBS could not verify? And this was on 60 Minutes, no less!

Those smear attempts were debunked and Rather’s career was over as a legitimate news source. These days, he’d still be propagandizing and likely hosting debates, because that is the state of LameStream media circa 2024.

Tonight’s co-moderators, Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, showed their even-handedness by both taking to the air to blame Trump for his assassination attempts due to him failing to lower the temperature of political rhetoric.

Victim-shaming, that’s fair game if it’s Trump.

Expect Vance to be asked to expand on the idea that he might be shot at – justifiably – due to his political views.

Expect Tampon Tim to be congratulated for exiting his military unit to avoid deployment to a combat zone, then quite inexplicably claiming to have carried weapons of war, in war during an anti-gun speech.

Expect Vance to be called upon to defend anything he’s ever said or did that does not comport with Woke ideology.

Expect Walz to get a pass on his penchant for flailing arms, namecalling, and being proud that the state he governs, Minnnesota, due to legislation he signed is a virtual sanctuary state for illegal migrants, granting them various handouts including free health care and tuition.

Expect Vance to be asked in detail about every strange internet rumor regarding him that has been floated by leftists, and Tampon Tim to be congratulated for labeling Vance as “weird.”

Expect nary a mention of the lengthy record of a cozy relationship between Walz and China.

Expect plenty of mention of Vance’s supposed use of eyeliner, an interesting topic in an era when suggesting Shrillary Clinton increasingly looks to be cosmetically ready for the role of one of the witches in The Wizard of Oz, would be totally out of bounds.

Basically, if you tune in tonight expecting a fair shake for Vance, not more of those 3-on-1 Democratic dogpiles that debates have become, shame on you.

It is Sunday, a day of rest – at least a respite from the flood of those over-sized postcard political mailings that cram my mailbox.

Mostly, these political communiques are from the warring sides in the Frank Burns-Amy Bradley battle for a state representative seat from the 72^nd district.

They come in two sizes, 6-by-11 inches and 8 1/2-by-11 inches, but follow the same format.

They take kernels of truth and embellish them into figurative corn fields.

They show their candidate in vibrant color and the opponent in dystopian, washed-out tones. The opponent photos also appear to be of someone just awakened from a deep sleep, or released from prison.

Many questions arise, beginning with the obvious: Do these work?

A quick internet search turns up lots of positive opinions. But examine the search results closer and these also are input from people who do these campaigns and are soliciting more business. Not exactly unbiased.

I did find an independent report – admittedly dated as it was September 2017 in The Atlantic – that said mailers, TV ads and even door-to-door canvassing “almost never change people’s minds.”

This was a story on a research paper compiled by political scientists.

Due to confirmation bias on my part – this was exactly what I had thought beforehand – I’m going with the assessment from The Atlantic report.

Back to Amy and Frank: The Bradley people say Burns has allegiance to Philadelphia, not this area, but these assertions sometimes are made on Bradley mailers that seem to be paid for by a Philadelphia group.

Burns mailers paint Bradley as to blame for the sale, and decline in service at area hospitals.

I agree that the sale was not Bradley’s fault, which was a major point made by the two exercised guys at the Cambria County Republican storefront in Richland who lectured me at great length, an encounter documented previously on this very blog, along with their defense of Amy’s involvement in plans to import Afghans, without public awareness of same. Yes, Virginia.

But, Bradley does not come away with clean hands on this hospital sale. She was the propagandist who assured the area the care would not decline and people would be pleasantly surprised by improvements.

It struck me as Obama promising I could keep my doctor if I wanted to do so when the Affordable Care Act was being debated. It passed and my doctor exited the profession due to it. Wrong, Barack.

I’ve been to the Johnstown hospital many times since its sale to a for-profit company, either as a patient or a visitor, and I can attest personally to filthy conditions, lengthy delays either for treatment or admission, and a general decline in the experience since the sale.

Bradley apologists stress that she merely was doing her job putting a positive spin on the sale. It reminds me of the Nuremberg defense following World War II – just following orders.

I speak from personal experience in these matters, having been employed by the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat when it had its first sale to out-of-town ownership (MediaNews) in 1987.

I knew at the time it was bad for the workers and the community. These groups buy what they consider inefficient assets and wring them dry – financially speaking – before selling the husk to another operation sure it can extract even more from it.

In the case of the Johnstown newspaper, this is a rinse-repeat situation that has been repeated twice since then.

As I recall, there was a flowery, upbeat report of the initial sale printed in the newspaper. But here is what is important: I didn’t write it, nor would I have done so.

Instead, I was the guy who, when the new owners held a brief chat in the newsroom the day the sale was announced, wanted answers.

I confirmed my recollections of that day with another fellow employee during a Saturday phone call.

Me: Why here, Dean? (I asked of Dean Singleton, one of the new owners)

Dean: Probably for the same reason you’re here.

Me: I was born here.

Dean: Next question.

To repeat, I never was asked to write a glowing report on the new ownership. But, if I had, unlike Amy, I would have refused and let the chips fall where they may. Those who know me will assure you this is true.

The way I view it, there are two diametrically opposed possibilities regarding Bradley and the hospital sale.

Either she truly believed it was a positive, which paints her as extremely naive considering her background in TV news.

Or, it could be she knew or suspected the truth, but fibbed a bit just to keep the paychecks coming.

Naive or disingenuous? You make the call. But neither is a quality I want in my state representative.

Of late, when I open my AOL email, I am greeted by communications from the Kamala Chameleon camp.

Not long ago, they were begging for money by noting there was a very real chance Trump could win the election. But, if I just dug deep, I could help change that. Whether their concern was real, or merely a cynical attempt to gin up donations through spreading fear, I cannot answer.

In recent days, it’s been a telethon of sorts on AOL email for the Harris Victory Fund. I’ve read the goal is $2.5 million more by Sept. 30.

That sure would provide a lot of those $25,000 gift housing down payments the Chameleon has proposed handing out – if she’s elected.

So far, I have resisted the urge to donate to the Chameleon. It’s a holistic approach on my part, looking at a problem in a holistic way and coming up with a holistic solution – federal, state and local – that won’t put a hole (istic) in my wallet.

Even as the Harris gang begs for money, Alex Soros has plastered on social media pictures of Tampon Tim Walz at the luxury penthouse home of Soros in New York City. One unkind fellow on Gutfeld last night suggested this was the Soros equivalent of a Trump scion posting pictures of an animal he had bagged while hunting.

I’m thinking if Walz just checked the Soros sofa cushions, he might have found that $2.5 million in loose coinage. It’s chump change for the Soros family, that is on a mission to change America one leftist District Attorney at a time.

I was surprised to hear a remark in passing last night that this younger Soros is in a relationship with Huma Abedin.

You might recall Abedin from yet another classified documents scandal that led to no charges for Democrats. Abedin, as Shillary Clinton’s trusted aide, had classified documents show up on the laptop computer of her then-husband, Congressman Anthony Weiner.

That’s the same Weiner (ironically appropriate last name) who had a sexting problem and eventually entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of transferring obscene material to a minor.

Abedin, coated apparently with Clinton Teflon, skated because she was thought to lack criminal intent and/or was clueless on whether this mishandling of classified information violated any laws.

In effect, Abedin and Shillary were Clueless Joe before we had been exposed fully to Clueless Joe. Forgive them, they know now what they do.

But it’s good to hear that Huma has landed on her feet, with a billionaire who can afford to buy her tutors on how to handle classified information.

Just maybe, Huma can slip in some pillow talk about the need of the Chameleon and Tampon Tim to raise $2.5 million more in coming days. Can you say joy and opportunity?

To quote Elon Musk posting on his X social media platform “Mark Cuban is proof that morons can become billionaires.”

Well said, as usual, Elon.

I first became aware of Pittsburgh native Cuban in the 1990s, when media types in that city looked to the newly minted tech billionaire as a guy who could buy the Pirates and keep them in the city.

Even back then, it seemed to me that Cuban, when traveling, would need to book an extra room for his inflated, often misguided, ego. Nothing has happened since to make me change this initial take.

Cuban’s exploits as owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks include a fine for “conduct unbecoming of an owner” in his words, as reported on the web site CNBC.com in April of this year.

Cuban has been a staple of a show on that CNBC business channel, in which rich types listen to pitches from entrepreneurs and cherry-pick the best ideas by contributing a bit of money for a large slice of potential profits.

Cuban comes off as a bit snarky and entitled in the admittedly small slices of that program I’ve watched – usually waiting for something that follows.

It was during a CNBC interview Thursday morning that Cuban made the remarks that set off Musk,

Specifically, Cuban is an avid Chameleon Kamala supporter who insists – wait for it – that lamestream media leans hard right and so doesn’t give the Chameleon a fair shake.

This prompted a raft of critical social media commentary, as relayed on zerohedge.com, including Musk’s.

Cuban – his parents would have named him Fidel if they had an ironic sense of humor – seems to have an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Facts? He don’t need no stinkin’ facts.

But just in case Cuban is open to same, let him consider reality.

First, here is some personal experience of mine. From 1994 through my retirement in early 2009, I worked for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which was owned by billionaire Richard Scaife. Scaife had made his money the old-fashioned way, inheriting it as an heir to the Mellon Bank fortune.

Scaife was right-wing politically, and was a large funder of what Hillary Clinton referred to as the “vast right-wing conspiracy” to out her and husband, Bill, in the media for their misdeeds ranging from Whitewater to Monica Lewinsky.

In a touch of irony one cannot make up, Bill Clinton spoke at Scaife’s private memorial service in 2014. Considering the Clintons’ penchant for income enhancement, it’s possible it was a paid speech.

Regardless, during my time at Scaife’s newspaper, I was amazed that the vast majority of my fellow newsroom employees leaned left, many of them hard left, politically.

I saw this with my own two eyes.

But, ignore my anecdotal evidence. After the ridiculous ABC presidential debate, I read that one media watchdog group had, prior to the event, judged ABC’s coverage of Kamala Chameleon 100 percent positive and its Trump coverage, about 95 percent negative.

Survey after survey shows media types are mostly Democrats. In the 2016 presidential election between Trump and Shrillary, media donations were roughly 96 percent Shrillary.

Supposedly “right-leaning” types such as one MSNBC propagandist, defended Kamala Chameleon’s non-answers to the death on one program of late and was rewarded with a sitdown interview, at a contrived work scene, in which softball economic questions were lobbed at the Chameleon.

Alas, Kamala Chameleon still struck out, prompting the interviewer to admit afterward she had gotten no answers. But, she was quick to add, that’s OK.

Against this backdrop, Cuban thinking that large media leans right, and being willing to assert as much publicly, suggests he’s having some of what Clueless Joe Biden has been drinking.

The evidence admittedly is both anecdotal and arguable. And yet it appears to this observer that Team Kamala is getting nervous about the prospects of pushing their empty pants suit across the electoral finish line in first place.

We already have the two attempted assassinations of Donald Trump. They are security failures blamed on various “mistakes,” including communication errors. Once was too many, but two, and possibly more attempts to snuff our Trump’s life, are the stuff that fuels conspiracy theories.

I’ve heard more than a few people say aloud, If you can’t beat him, have him killed.

Along that line, recall how the transgender type who shot up a Nashville Christian school had her/its “manifesto” withheld from the public due to concerns it might be inflammatory.

Fast-forward to September 2024 and the Biden-Harris regime has no problem making public a letter supposedly written by Trump’s latest would-be assassin offering a $150,000 bounty to anyone who finishes the job for him.

All the diligent idiots who now populate the LameStream media fail to ask the obvious question – How does a guy using a public defender and who professes to be poor, come up with the $150,000 bounty?

Bonus question No. 2: How does the successful assassin claim the bounty without enduring legal blowback, even though the weaponized Biden-Harris Department of Justice is, shall we say, less than eager to pursue such things?

So, keeping the ravings of a trans school shooter out of the public arena is good, but sharing the ravings of a similarly deranged attempted assassin is necessary. If you understand this tortured logic, you probably have a Kamala sign in your yard – stuck there hurriedly in recent weeks to replace your Biden sign.

Then there was Ukraine Mini-Me Zelenskyy, touring the U.S. in military aircraft, at the expense of American taxpayers this week. What does Mini-Me do, but take to the pages of the New Yorker (york as in verbal Pennsylvania slang for vomit) to enter the political fray on Chameleon Kamala’s side.

They might as well have painted Kamala on the side of the plane Zelenskyy’s small frame occupied as he flitted about.

In the pages of the New Barfer, New Retcher, little Zelenskyy was critical of Trump VP candidate J.D. Vance because Vance, like Trump, doesn’t think Zelenskyy should have unlimited access to our checkbook in pursuit of igniting World War III.

And what was tiny Zelenskyy doing in Pennsylvania? Why, he was visiting a munitions plant, autographing some artillery shells along with stooge Governor Shapiro. Dare we dream that Zelenskyy instead might be signing an agreement to pay for some of this? Didn’t think so.

Linking this to the Secret Service failings, we’ve read and heard that a shortage of money and people is to blame for the recurring problems protecting Trump. I suggest taking some of the billions of dollars that we hand to Zelenskyy so he might sacrifice his population as our proxy in a war with Russia, and instead spend that domestically to protect Trump from the never-ending stream of deranged leftists who would see him dead.

In an interesting development, polls of late seem to be turning Trump’s way, both nationally and in key battleground states.

There is panic to be seen (via videotaped examples shared on other outlets) that CNN, MSNBC and other predictably left sources are speculating openly that Kamala could be in trouble.

Hulking Fox News panelist and former wrestler Tyrus has gone on record, repeatedly, that this election is not even as close as polls suggest and it should be over quickly on election day.

This sentiment seems to be catching. Two of three panelists on a show on America’s Real Voice cable channel, which followed that outlet’s live coverage of Trump’s rally speech Monday in Indiana, Pa., think Trump is up 10, or more percentage points in Pennsylvania.

The host disagreed, as do I, but when the onsite reporter in Indiana was called upon to weigh in, he sided with the 10-point guys.

Wikipedia paints America’s Real Voice as “right-wing to far-right.” And Wikipedia labels Fox News as “conservative.”

Just so you know, Wikipedia makes no such value judgements on CNN or MSNBC, two cable operations that are at least as left-wing, far-left, or liberal, as America’s Real Voice and Fox are right.

But that’s par for the course in 2024. Always, it seems, propagandizing and slanting is the norm.

Thankfully, there is only so much that can be gained by such labeling.

The public, at least those with a functioning brain unlike Clueless “Who’s next?” Joe (from his weekend introduction of India Prime Minister Modi) see through Kamala Chameleon’s policy flip-flops and her annoying penchant to me-too Trump proposals ranging from no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security, to building a border wall!

Kamala’s handlers continue to hold her in protective custody, avoiding at all costs press conferences or interviews with those who cannot be trusted to fawn over her. And even at that, Chameleon Kamala often blows it.

And so, it has been determined that Kamala will skip the Al Smith dinner, a fund-raiser for Catholic Charities, to be held in October.

Kamala is too busy on the campaign trail. Trump will appear.

This latest development brought forth clips of Trump and Hillary Clinton trading good-spirited barbs at the 2016 dinner. There were laughs all around.

Alas, Kamala doesn’t have the “chops” to flourish in this sort of atmosphere and so she will be elsewhere, trying to run away from her past in pursuit of the future.

In an interesting side note, the last time a presidential candidate skipped this dinner in an election year was 1984. That was Walter Mondale.

Less than a month later Mondale lost what even Wikipedia notes was a “landslide” election, carrying just the state of Minnesota and Washington, D.C., and losing the Electoral College by a resounding 525-13 to some guy named Ronald Reagan.

Here’s hoping Kamala Chameleon is this year’s Walter Mondale.

It is fitting in a sad way that a society intent on punishing achievers and boosting the inept would have pro sports leagues that reflect that mindset.

The topic came up yesterday, while we held a birthday party for granddaughter No. 2. She turns seven years of age Tuesday, but Sunday was our best party option. My brother was in attendance and he was picking my brain about sports.

His mistake. I regaled him with a lengthy diatribe that there seem to be no great pro teams – just good, mediocre and bad.

I railed how even the supposedly best teams play poor fundamentals at times or have glaring weaknesses.

It’s true in Major League Baseball. It’s true in the NFL.

Begin with baseball, which will field exactly zero 100-win teams in the majors this year. So what? So this. It hasn’t happened since 2014.

Last year there were three MLB teams that won 100-plus games. In 2022, the number was four. And the average of 100-win teams each season for the past 10 years has been 2.75, smack dab between those recent results.

Simply put, MLB has invited this with expanded playoffs. Once upon a time, a team needed to win its league, or at least its division, to advance to the postseason. Now there are more divisions and three wild-card teams who advance in each league.

It reduces the 162-game season to a lengthy preliminary, with minimal reward for sustained excellence.

Just last season, none of the 100-win teams made it to the World Series, which was contested by a pair of wild-card entrants, Texas and Arizona, with Texas winning.

MLB teams figure – correctly in many instances – it’s better to aim for mediocrity and try to get lucky once in awhile in the playoffs rather than spending $300 million-plus annually on salaries, as both the New York Mets and Yankees have done this year.

The Yankees are in the playoffs and the Mets are in good shape to slip in as a wild-card. But other playoff entrants or contenders spent a fraction of what the Mets did. Division winners Milwaukee and Cleveland and wild-card contenders Detroit and Kansas City spent about $200 million less apiece than the Mets.

Moving on to the NFL, your Pittsburgh Steelers are a surprising 3-0, joining the likes of Kansas City, Seattle, Minnesota and, with a win tonight, Buffalo, as early season unbeatens at 3-0.

Based on franchise history, the Steelers are in the playoffs. They’ve begun 3-0 three previous times in the Mike Tomlin era, and every time they’ve made the postseason.

But are the Steelers a serious Super Bowl contender? My calculus says no. An offense that only got around to scoring multiple touchdowns in a game in week three, doesn’t seem like a Super Bowl winner to me.

Regardless, the Steelers are sharing the NFL penthouse early in the season, while a couple of expected contenders for that position from within the Steelers AFC North Division are stumbling and bumbling.

The Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals, ranking No. 4 and No. 3, respectively, in 2024 salary totals, are the equivalent of buying baloney for $25 a pound. Somehow the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons are able to spend more for less, but that doesn’t change the fact Baltimore and Cincinnati are huge disappointments.

Again, why spend money and aspire to greatness when it doesn’t seem to pay off?

The NFL is the leader in seeking mediocrity, as purveyed by former commissioner Pete Rozelle under the guise of parity. Penalizing success with poor drafting position and tougher scheduling, then mixing in a salary cap making it difficult to keep good teams together, produces a lot of churning.

Notable exceptions have been the New England Patriots with Tom Brady at quarterback and, more recently, the Chiefs as led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

If a team has a Hall of Fame quarterback for the ages, it can rise above mediocrity. But how many of those players are there?

This is a week that began with yet another Donald Trump assassination attempt – Trump’s fault, of course, if you buy the arguments of Democrats and their lapdog media sycophants – and has continued through a series of stunning revelations.

I’ve got a lot of questions. Maybe you should want answers to these questions, too.

1. ABC news hack and pretend debate moderator David Muir, according to ratings, has lost about one million viewers per night after he was half of his network’s moderator team for the sham Trump-Harris debate and we ask, why isn’t it more like two million, or three?

2. What’s the over/under on how long it takes for rap idol Sean “Diddy” Combs to commit suicide, inexplicably, while being held in prison and supposedly under observation, just like Jeffrey Epstein?

3. How come these perverts, either convicted or accused, so often are associated with Democrats and assorted leftists and progressives in general?

4. Is convicted and admitted felon Hunter Biden pals with Diddy?

5. Why aren’t we hearing more about the alleged wrongdoings of Tony West, Cackling Kamala Harris’ brother-in-law and longtime political confidant?

6. Why isn’t more being made in the media over the Department of Justice’s national crime victimization survey release that, just as Trump said in the debate and Muir falsely fact-checked, violent crime has surged under the Biden-Harris regime?

7. Did you know that this crime victimization survey relies on first-hand data from victims, not merely relying on crime reports that often aren’t made, or are put in the circular file once the victim leaves the premises.

8. Did you know that the increase in violent crime as reported by this JUSTICE DEPARTMENT survey is the highest of any three-year period in history, more than doubling the previous high?

9. Can someone call David Muir to fact-check that?

9. Are you surprised that the Biden-Harris dummkopf duo has an ignore-it-all strategy regarding the border, with yet another whistleblower testifying before Congress he was ordered not to report on the increasing encounters with suspected terrorists on our southern border?
10. Is there anyone left in these United States who hasn’t heard – ad nauseam – that Cackling Kamala was raised in a middle class home, in a neighborhood of people who loved their lawns, that she worked at McDonald’s, that she was a prosecutor and that she’s offering joy and opportunity?

9. Is there anyone who can quote specifics from Cackling Kamala as to how she proposes to undo the three-plus years of carnage inflicted on the nation by her and her brain donor boss?

13. Should we be shocked that a Congressional investigation has found potential “criminal activity” in the efforts of ActBlue, a Democratic online fund-raising platform?
14. Are we expected to feel all warm and fuzzy now that Clueless Joe Biden has convened his cabinet Friday, for the first time in about one year, not that anything significant has happened in the past year?
15. Is Cackling Kamala’s “opportunity and joy” the equally vague and vacuous update of “hope and change”?

In a bit of cosmic confluence that sums up the helpless state of Johnstown and its beggar bowl economy, we had two news events I became aware of on the very same day earlier this week that highlighted the insanity.

First, our local NBC television affiliate reported that the Greater Johnstown Housing Authority had garnered yet another grant, this for $500,000 from HUD.

Take it from someone who knows residents of Johnstown public housing, this is money that could be well-spent on things such as restoring inoperative security cameras or addressing balky elevators, to name but a few items.

The $500,000 will NOT be used for such mundane, albeit necessary, items. No, this grant will be spent, to quote from the web site report, to “perform market studies and organize events to hear from community members.”

Translation, it will be thrown into the wind, producing no concrete (literally or figuratively) results.

I’m thinking that the community members at the proposed events just might refer to inoperative security cameras and those darned elevators. So, where do I go to collect my share of the $500,000? And I did my research simply by some firsthand observation, a few emails and/or phone calls.

I’m not sure how, but I am confident the local elites who use area charities, nonprofits and not-for-profits as their power base, will get their hands on some or most of this $500,000.

Don’t you feel better knowing they care?

If HUD is dishing out wasted money like this nationwide – and I suspect it is – that helps explain why our annual federal budget deficit is going to push $2 trillion this fiscal year.

But always, it seems, Johnstown is able to shake the begging cup and get some handout money from federal or state government agencies. None of this goes toward establishing productive private industry jobs, understand. What a waste that would be!

That is, there is no effort to create private industry jobs unless you count unflinching attempts to establish Johnstown as a tourism Mecca. And nothing says seasonal, low-paying work like tourism.

Instead, the money gets spent, as in the case of plans for that $500,000 HUD grant, in the interest of making all the incoming Philadelphians and assorted immigrant classes moving, or hoped to be moving here, and into our existing base of public housing, comfortable with that relocation.

Our disproportionate amount of public housing has been estimated by State Rep. Frank Burns in an April 2023 interview at about 10 times the rate of other cities.

Afghan Amy needs somewhere for all the Myopia 2025 proposed immigrants to live, and it’s not going to be in her basement.

Now, we move to the employment ad from the City of Johnstown. It seeks, as far as we can tell, a Woke Czar to come in and lead us in the pursuit of addressing “housing, social justice and climate change.” The job title in the ad is “Residential Program Officer.”

Further down in the listing, it gets around to the true goal, that being to help make Johnstown every Wokester’s wet dream. I paraphrase, of course.

Understand that just early last year, Johnstown was able to claw its way off the distressed community list, after a stay there of more than 30 years.

Despite this technical improvement, one might look around and note that Johnstown is not exactly thriving economically. Beyond such anecdotal observation, according to 2024 figures posted on worldpopulationreview.com, Johnstown’s poverty rate is just a touch under 33 percent.

Martha’s Vineyard, we’re not. A survey put the 2022 poverty rate for Dukes County, which houses Martha’s Vineyard, at 6.7 percent. And, rest assured, that poverty mostly is year-round residents, working in tourism.

Our high poverty level is in part why we are viewed as something of a dumping ground for excess unwanted or undesirable population, alongside such places such as Charleroi, Pa., Springfield, Ohio, and others.

If a busload of immigrants shows up here, they are rushed into public housing and likely registered to vote – Democratic, of course – and not sent elsewhere in a heartbeat.

We need a Woke Czar like we need another public housing project. But likely that is what the $500,000 survey will show to be exactly the cure for all that ails us.

I re-watched the 1979 Al Pacino courtroom classic movie “. . . And Justice For All” over the weekend, ironically sandwiched around yet another Donald Trump assassination attempt.

I began the film Saturday night, DVRd the second half due to the late hour, and finished it Sunday evening.

For those unfamiliar with the film, it’s a study of a dysfunctional legal system, made so by a stew of corrupt and unhinged judges, inept and uncaring prosecutors, and similarly limited defense lawyers.

The underlying theme is that innocents suffer from these systemic breakdowns. And that brings us to the present, with our corrupt legal system, ineffective and inefficient bureaucracy, lapdog media and various other institutional failings combining to punish the populace.

Heading the list of wronged individuals is Donald Trump. His offenses include, but are not limited to, failing to kiss the far-left ring, speaking out for the rights of Americans, running yet again for the presidency, and doing so in his typical bold, brash style.

Trump’s success in the face of never-ending harassment from all the above, bewilders those on the left who wish him ill, if not dead.

They laughed when Trump, the candidate in his first political run, said he was being spied upon by U.S. intelligence. He was!

They falsely floated and promoted the Russian hoax.

They lied to judges to get wiretap authorization on Trump and associates.

They denied Hunter’s laptop was, indeed, Hunter’s laptop. Several felony convictions later, even Hunter admitted it was his.

Clueless Joe Biden was given a pass on mishandling classified documents, beginning when he was Obama’s lackey vice president. But Trump is being threatened continually for classified document offenses.

Trump also is being persecuted in the legal system with charges that gradually seem to be dropped, but cost him valuable time and money. No less a Democratic partisan than former New York governor Andrew Cuomo has said the suspect charges brought against Trump in his state never should have been pursued.

And on, and on, and on.

These days the lapdog media has taken to blaming Trump for the assassination attempts, a variation of the rape victim “asked for it” by dressing provocatively. Trump’s offense is speaking passionately. Against that backdrop, it somehow is judged fair commentary for lapdog media and wild-eyed Democrats alike to liken him continually to Hitler.

They are frustrated. Too many of them want him dead and yet he survives. One meme I saw mixed the ongoing Haitians-eating-cats drama of the moment with the supposed nine lives cats possess. By the count of the meme, Trump already has spent two.

First, he dodged a potentially fatal bullet while speaking near Butler, taking an ear injury when he turned his head at the time of the shot. And the critics for a time floated the idea he had not been shot at all and it had been a campaign ploy.

Now, while golfing on one of his courses Sunday, Trump seems to have been shot at by a domestic malcontent fixated on giving money and aid to Ukraine. Again, Trump survives.

But it is fair to ask if he can keep beating the odds.

It’s hard not to see regime cooperation in this. This is the same group that constantly denied Secret Service protection to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, offered it belatedly after the first Trump assassination try, then pulled it as soon as RFK Jr. endorsed Trump.

Similarly, the Butler attempt was aided greatly by high level Secret Service incompetence. And this latest shooting at Trump was explained away afterward by some local incompetent, that Trump didn’t merit protection on par with, say, a sitting president.

This man was the president and could be again in months. He has been the target now of at least two assassination attempts. Yet, protection levels are limited when he’s involved. Hmmmm.

It’s like they are flashing the green light for any would-be Trump assassins. We’re there, but not in sufficient numbers to protect him if you are serious about succeeding.

The whole thing stinks like week-old fish. And the clock keeps ticking.