Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

Add to the list of things sure to enrage a leftist, besides confusing their pronouns, asking if they are eligible to vote, or maybe if they’re in the country legally, is to email the bureaucratic drones among their number requesting a list of what they did last week on the job.

Oh, the indignity.

I recall as a child one of the teachers’ go-to requests early in a new school year was to get the students writing by having them outline what they did on their summer vacations. For someone who grew up in a household such as mine, a family for whom going for a Sunday drive, maybe visiting relatives, was quite the outing, I had limited source material.

Somehow, though, I answered the call and wrote something each year. I did well on those essays, even went on and got a job for three-plus decades writing for my keep.

It seems too many of our work-from-home, do-as-little-as-possible bureaucrats must have had it too easy on those summer essays, having raw material like going to the beach, to Disney World, to foreign lands.

Faced with a simple request to outline what they did last week, they freeze. Oh, you skeptics, who say they did nothing.

Baloney. I just read where hundreds of NSA employees (the spy folks) were on transgender chat sites talking about turning penises into vaginas surgically and celebrating it all.

I’m sure thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats were doing similar productive things on the taxpayers’ dimes, just last week.

We’ll excuse the USAid people, who saw their slush fund closed down. We know what they were doing, packing personal items in cardboard boxes and scribbling snarky messages on them. There is no group more shrewish than do-nothing slackers deprived of their spot on the gravy train and left to wonder if there is another organization as idiotic as the federal government that will pay them to spend other peoples’ money on their political causes.

Beyond the USAid types, we want more NSA-type tomfoolery. Don’t be shy, people. Details make the stories.

Judging by the ongoing string of reports regarding left-wing news hacks losing their jobs, this whole DOGE concept apparently is being co-opted by media organizations.

From Abilio “Jim” Acosta, to Joy (less) Reid, to Lester Holt, to Norah O’Donnell, or even MSNBC demanding her highness Rachel “Mad Cow” Maddow stop acting like a bureaucrat and start doing more than one show a week, it seems too many prominent leftists were asked to tell the bosses what they did in recent weeks, and it wasn’t nearly enough.

Or maybe it was too much, things such as calling half the country racists, Nazis, Russian agents and just, plain stupid for not kissing the hem of the radical left.

Although I never in my work life had to tell my bosses what I did the past week – presumably they saw enough of my bylines in the publications I worked for that they knew – I could have provided them a list.

Even now, despite being retired, if the wife emails me tomorrow asking what productive things I did last week, I can provide her an answer. It would be an eclectic list, including shoveling snow (multiple days), helping mind the grandkids, running the family investments, doing odds and ends about the house and writing entries for this blog.

There’s more, but I won’t bore you.

I bumped into a former co-worker over the weekend at the Pete Vizza memorial service. She was a Trump supporter before it was fashionable, and has been to numerous Trump rallies, along with the recent inauguration.

I asked her if she was tired of winning yet. She wasn’t and neither am I.

Reading the ongoing whining about Trump and his team taking on the deep state, cutting off its lifeblood of taxpayer funding, makes every day like another Christmas.

A recent poll indicates I’m not alone, with majorities in the 80- and 70-percent ranges approving of Trump closing the border and pruning government, among other things.

This email request to outline the past work week has been the gift that keeps on giving, providing daily amusement as Democrats find yet another losing cause to die for.

Have at it, you donkeys.

The biggest concern on my plate ahead of tonight’s USA-Canada championship game in the 4 Nations Face-Off is whether or not I’ll be able to watch the game.

I’m sitting her at the mercy of DISH, and the inability of its satellite signals to penetrate through much worse than sunny skies. I couldn’t watch the Finland-Sweden game Saturday due to my signal evaporating, touching off a phone conversation stretching more than hour with uncooperative DISH people who don’t understand that their signal guarantee specifically mentions receiving account credit for weather outages.

My backup for DISH crapping out again tonight would be trying to watch the game online. That, too, is less than a certainty because my Breezeline internet provider already has greeted me with outages earlier today.

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be on pins and needles worried whether the U.S. can win it all. I’d settle for being able to watch the game.

Spoiler alert, I expect Canada to win.

I’m as patriotic as the next guy, maybe even a little moreso. I’m not saying the U.S. can’t win, or even won’t win. I just understand that if the guys in red, white and blue triumph, it would be a momumental surprise.

As legendary sportswriter Damon Runyon is said to have quipped, “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.”

First off, it’s hard to consistently beat an opposing team when the talent levels are close. The U.S. already has beaten Canada 3-1 in the round-robin portion of this tournament. As long as the games are played by humans, emotions intrude and it’s natural for the winner to have a touch less urgency the next time, while the losers are driven to atone.

It seems to me the U.S. has more depth, but Canada has more top-end offensive talent.

This is altered by the U.S. entering this game tonight in Boston toting a lot of injury baggage.

Begin with three top-echelon forwards – Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk – who are less than 100 percent. Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk sat out the last game vs. Sweden with injuries, and Brady left it early after wiping out into the goal upright. Even if all play tonight as expected, will they be anywhere near 100 percent?

Some think Matthews has been hurt all tournament. His defense has been dogged, but this gifted goal scorer has yet to put one in the net.

Take Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby away from Canada and you might notice a dropoff.

The injury news continues for the U.S., who will be without defenseman Charlie McAvoy. Supposedly McAvoy got hurt in the opener vs. Finland, but still played vs. Canada. The Canadians will recall this because McAvoy delivered huge hits on Crosby and McDavid (twice) that had an effect on the outcome.

It was Crosby, perhaps a bit tentative after his run-in with McAvoy, who coughed up the puck for the game-winning U.S. goal. McDavid scored early, but was not a huge factor after the hits he absorbed.

Not seeing McAvoy in uniform will bring joy to Canada’s team.

The U.S. also has arguably its best defenseman, Quinn Hughes, missing the entire tournament due to injury.

Meanwhile, the Canadians were missing star defenseman Cale Makar for the first meeting with the U.S. He’s back and is a weapon.

That the game is being played in Boston, a supposed home-ice advantage, is mostly a non-factor in my view. How much did playing in Montreal and having the insecure Canadian fans boo our national anthem before the game help Canada? The hosts did lose, right, after going on top 1-0, which further hyped the crowd.

Vocal home crowds can raise the emotions of the visitors, too, spurring them to great heights if only to shove it back in the faces of the spit droolers.

This game is being pitched as much more than a hockey contest due to Canada’s hurt feelings over President Trump calling them out regarding unfair trade practices, noting how they depend on us for national defense and Trump kidding girl-boy prime minister Justin Trudeau that he’s just the soon-to-be-ousted governor of our soon-to-be-51^st state.

Canadians are overly invested in their hockey identity and should they somehow blow this game, it will be a national day of mourning.

If the U.S. somehow can prevail, it will 1980 Miracle on Ice, the sequel.

I just hope I get to watch it all unfold.

Fast-moving news events have raised a flood of questions, with less than a trickle of answers in response.

Here are some of the questions I’ve love to have answered, sooner rather than later.

Why, all these days after the Delta plane in Toronto did an upside-down runway slide, do we not know the name of the pilot? (There has been a lot of online speculation, including putting forth the name of a 26-year-old female only recently upgraded from flying tiny prop planes, as well as one listing the name and photo of a male TV aviation expert and, most amusing, another with the name and image of a prominent male porn star).

What is up with the cretins who rushed to blame the Toronto crash on President Trump, despite it happening in Canada?

Do Democrats realize how silly they look opposing cutting government waste, fraud and abuse?

Are Johnstown’s Myopia 2025 people serious about building houses on all the vacant lots in the city and selling them for $100,000 each?

Do these people realize average citizens need to do real jobs to earn their money and don’t have access to all the governmental handouts these behind-the-scenes elitists are used to raking in to fund the various nonprofits, charities, foundations and not-for-profits from which they draw their lavish salaries?

Do they really think people looking to purchase a house for $100,000 are eager to buy within the city limits, not Richland, Westmont, Southmont, Upper Yoder, etc.?

How many Myopia 2025 types live within the city limits?

Is ungrateful pipsqueak Zelenskyy crazy for deciding to attack Trump publicly as Trump tries to end the war that is destroying Zelenskyy’s country?

Should Mexican cartels be nervous that they’ve been designated as terrorist organizations, basically taking the gloves off regarding how they can be attacked?

In view of cartels running her country, shouldn’t Mexico la presidente Claudia Sheinbaum be more concerned with that than the renaming of the Gulf of America?

Can Democrats give the Elon-Musk-was-not-elected rants a rest considering the judges they rush to in attempts to stop DOGE were appointed, not elected?

Do Democrats take an oath “I will support illegal immigrants over U.S. citizens, trans males over females in women’s sports, gays over straights, any minority over whites, thieves over auditors, Muslims over Christians, Jews or members of any other religion, criminals over law-abiding types, climate crazies over rational folks, and misinformed left-wing media types over the truth?”

Are you upset to learn that Biden’s Energy Department funneled a $2 million grant to boondoggle electric truck company Nikola in 2021, despite the company’s founder being under federal investigation for shareholder deceit at the time, and now Nikola has filed for bankruptcy Wednesday morning?

Do you think they’re going to find all the gold on-hand at Fort Knox when DOGE gets around to opening the vaults?

Having spent two hours this morning shoveling the predicted 1-3 inches of snow – we got about six in Southmont — I’m not feeling kindly toward the weather geeks.

Their ridiculous, unending, inaccuracy seems to be across the board, like maybe they’re all reading from the same hymnal, just as Lame-Stream Media sing in unison, Russia, Russia, Russia, or Constitutional Crisis, Constitutional Crisis, Constitutional Crisis at any given time.

Why this is so with weather I can’t understand. These local TV stations all proudly proclaim the presence of their staff metereologist, plus assorted similary credentialed minions. They have super gigabillion watt radar, cameras and weather stations scattered throughout their viewing area, and access to a seemingly endless amount of weather services and online weather tools.

You’d think they could spit out some different, and accurate forecasts. But, no, they are a low-accuracy echo chamber where it seems to be better to be wrong in lockstep than to take the risk of being right alone.

Forgive me for noting they seemed to do better when they looked out the window and just went with their observations.

If you live where I live, they’ve absolutely blown the past three or four winter storms, but with a twist of constantly underestimating snow fall and/or how cold it would get.

In the past, they pushed weather porn, predicting virtual Armageddon on each occasion of an approaching storm and, when these dire predictions almost never proved accurate, they would come on the air with some version of “Whew, we dodged a big one.”

Terrified viewers, who had rushed to stores in prior days to buy out supplies of milk, bread and toilet paper, never seemed to hold a grudge with the weather people. Instead, they were grateful that they had not come face-to-face with disaster, forgetting that the only indication of said impending disaster was the over-active imaginations of the weather people.

Long ago, I swore off the local weather people and their changing cast of characters. In the case of the NBC affiliate headquartered nearby that thinks it’s in Centre County, weather guy turnover in the past in some cases has had to do with legal problems.

But even the formerly trustworthy sources such as AccuWeather.com or Weather.com, have failed miserably this winter.

They have become so predictably bad that I make allowances. Today that meant setting my alarm for two hours earlier than I might have needed to shovel away an inch of snow and clean a car. The way I looked at it, if they finally got one right, I could shovel, come in and relax with a cup of tea, then send the various household members off on their appointed rounds.

As I hefted my first shovelful of snow this morning, I was extremely grateful for that extra time.

Upon returning from one errand, we commiserated with a neighbor out shoveling snow for the umpteenth time in recent days. She noted, without prompting, that she’s tired of these 1-3 inch predictions that always undershoot.

Join the crowd.

We parted with shared envy — that professionals could be so consistently wrong and still maintain their jobs.

Can we get DOGE to look into weather types?

Canada’s inferiority complex regarding the United States, already an open sore due to President Donald Trump trolling about it becoming our 51^st state, or Trump’s tariff talk, now must cope with the effects of a defeat in the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey event Saturday.

On a night in Montreal that began with Canadian fans roundly booing the U.S. National Anthem, and saw the game start with not one, not two, but three fights in the first nine seconds, the U.S. team overcame a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1 and quiet those formerly loud and obnoxious home fans.

By game’s end, the American fans among the now diminished crowd could be heard chanting U-S-A, sounding a lot like a Trump political rally. Probably the Big Guy was doing a little cheering himself somewhere, maybe even having a Y-M-C-A celebratory dance.

It’s not bad enough that Canadian culture is dominated by our music and movies, that its economy is heavily depending on the U.S., now the U.S. has struck a blow in hockey, something smug Canadians love to call “our game.”

The funny thing is, even though hockey is easily the number one sport in Canada, it probably is No. 4 in the U.S. But that has not prevented our hockey players from winning two straight World Junior titles and three of the past five.

Those smug Canadians answer that with a yea, but. Yes, the younger U.S. players are dominating, but the so-called best-on-best international competition with NHL players involved, which we haven’t had for about a decade, should go to Canada.

It still could. It didn’t Saturday.

The U.S. won, and dominated during long stretches. Excuse makers among the Canada crowd will note defenseman Cal Makar didn’t play due to illness. OK, but American defenseman Quinn Hughes, generally considered in the argument with Makar as the best defenseman in the NHL, has not played the entire tournament due to injury.

Also, Canada was playing at home so to speak, before a raucous crowd, and got the game’s first goal, usually significant in games of this magnitude and talent level.

The win had its roots in a Trump-like mentality — fight, fight, fight.

One perhaps biased announcer noted that the Brothers Tkachuk (Matthew and Brady) were bigger than their fight opponents in the opening seconds of play. Matt (6-2, 202) is the same height as his opponent Brandon Hagel (6-2, 180) but does outweigh him. Brady (6-4, 225) has the size edge on his fight mate Sam Bennett (6-1, 193).

The announcer said nothing about the third fight pairing, pitting American J.T. Miller (6-1, 218) against Canadian Colton Parayko (6-6, 230).

I would hasten to add that the Tkachuk brothers had scored two goals apiece in the United States’ opening win vs. Finland, so the fights cost the U.S. the services of two key players for five minutes each, while the Canadians had two lesser lights forced to sit in the penalty box.

The third fight was more of an even loss in terms of talent.

Apparently the decision was made among U.S. players during a group chat that it was important to fight and send a message early, then deal with being temporarily short-handed.

Bottom line: The U.S. team has one remaining round-robin game, Monday with Sweden, but advances to the Thursday championship game regardless of that outcome.

Canada must beat Finland Monday to set up a rematch with the U.S. in the title game.

Those Monday and Thursday games move to Boston, where presumably the crowd won’t be booing our national anthem, but might return the favor regarding O Canada.

If you missed this game, be sure to catch a potential rematch. The Saturday game reinforced my preference for hockey over other sports. The players still put the team concept first, the games are a mix of speed and grace with physical violence, and seldom do you see players merely going through the motions. When they are wearing their nation’s colors, it adds another level to all the above aspects.

Fights don’t hurt the appeal. The talking heads were giddy over the three fights so quickly and were searching their memory banks for reference points.

Social media was buzzing over it all, too.

For those of us who grew up here in Johnstown, and witnessed the Jets teams upon which the movie Slap Shot was based, it was nothing special.

Hell, I can recall entire teams from Johnstown and Syracuse brawling in pregame warmups, before any officials were present to break up fights, One Jets tough guy beat a Syracuse player’s head on the ice repeatedly, leaving a pool of blood on the ice that spread to resemble yet another faceoff dot.

Three fights in the first nine seconds was entertaining, but I’ve seen much worse.

Let me tell you about Pete Vizza, who died Thursday.

Pete was many things to me, but most of all, a long-time friend.

We shared a philosophy, that people such as us, with jobs that caused us to deal with the public, have many acquaintances, but just a few friends in the way we defined it – that being friends are someone who would do just about anything for you, at any time, no questions asked.

Pete was that kind of person. I’d known him slightly since when I lived briefly in Hornerstown and attended the old Meadowvale School as a 6^th grader. Pete was in fifth grade at the time.

We became friends later in life, when I worked as a reporter and sportswriter at The Tribune-Democrat and he was a photographer.

In the late 1970s, Pete and I got our first new vehicles within a short time period. He bought a Plymouth Trail Duster SUV and I got a 1979 Jeep CJ-7. From then on, I’d call him Pete “Trail Duster” Vizza and he’d call me Sam “CJ” Ross.

Even after we’d both left the local newspaper, we remained in contact. I’d see him at summer union picnics or winter Christmas parties, until the membership banned retirees. Often, we’d go to AAABA games together, or he’d stop by my house for a visit.

Pete was a fixture at the Super Bowl parties I used to give, always arriving with a greeting card and gift certificate for some area eatery, despite my wife and I telling him constantly it was not necessary.

That was Pete, always looking to do something nice for others. And, when you did something for him, things as simple as my wife making sure he had a plate of homemade Christmas cookies every year, or the night I swung by his downtown apartment and took him for a long ride in my newly acquired Mustang convertible, Pete made sure you realized he was grateful.

I have so many fond recollections of Pete.

There was the time I was covering a state playoff high school football game in Altoona and Pete was the scheduled photographer. We went in separate vehicles because he would need to leave early. I arrived first, then got a message that Pete was stranded atop Cresson Mountain, having taken out five deer with his company car.

There were so many emergency vehicles with flashing lights when I got there to pick him up, it looked like a plane crash scene. But Pete calmly rode to the game with me, shot his pictures and I covered the game and wrote my story. It did provide a lot of laughs, though, in subsequent years.

Although slight of stature, Pete went through a period when he did a lot of weightlifting. They called him “Mighty Mouse” at the Johnstown YMCA.

At night, Pete would turn off the water faucets in the photo department darkroom with such force that on more than one occasion, the people trying to turn them on in the morning needed to get a maintenance man and a wrench.

Pete was an officer in our union at the newspaper and there was a story about Pete mentioning to the publisher – perhaps during contract negotiations – that he wanted to buy a Mercedes-Benz and the publisher laughing about it being some sort of unobtainable dream.

Not long after that, Pete stopped in at the office and offered the publisher a ride – in his new Mercedes. I’m not sure whether or not the publisher went for the ride.

I do know that Pete stopped by my house with the Mercedes one afternoon and took my wife and my then young son Tony out to Shaffer’s for ice cream. He was not afraid my son would get ice cream on the interior. Vintage Pete.

Pete took some memorable photos of my son as a younger child. One, Pete snapped while on our street during winter and it ran in our in-house publication, Office Chatter, with a caption of Tony telling Pete he was making snowballs to throw at old people.

On another occasion, my wife Ruby brought toddler Tony into the office at night to see me and Pete snapped a photo of Tony, in a Pirates ballcap, holding a phone while sitting on my desk. This black and white image remains one of my favorites, displayed on a wall by the staircase of my home.

Years later, when Tony had a daughter of his own, my son and I recreated the scene, with the original picture included in the new image.

Pete was a Democrat, but not in the modern, far-left way. He was a man of traditional values and eventually got out of local politics because he found himself out of step philosophically with his party.

Health reasons caused Pete to leave the area in recent years and I lost contact with him, sadly.

And now his run on Earth has ended. But the memories he made still linger. I’ll miss you, Pete “Trail Duster” Vizza. We all will.

‘Tis Valentine’s Day, yet another holiday usurped by commercial interests.

Just the other day, two granddaughters, exhibiting all the anticipation of Christmas, pondered what gifts they might be receiving on this day.

I guess there is some sort of parallel, with Christmas celebrating a holy birth and Valentine’s Day supposedly honoring the death of one, and possibly as many as three, St. Valentines in martyr fashion at the hands of Romans.

Jesus is the reason for the season, Christians note in the face of the commercialization of Christmas. But, when it comes to Valentine’s Day, there is not a lot of pushback regarding the message that presents are required on this day.

The granddaughters’ Valentine’s Day gifts were cards with money inside, which seemed to thrill them. It will be spent during a Monday family shopping trip.

But what about all the others seeking gifts on this day? Allow me to offer some ideas, not necessarily hearts and flowers, for them.

For gin-slinger-turned-House-member AOC, a brain. Every time she opens her mouth, she comes off as the Scarecrow character from The Wizard of Oz (if I only had a brain). AOC has blasted Elon Musk as an “unintelligent billionaire” and now wonders if ICE head Tom Homan can read. Sounds like more projection from a leftist.

For the uninformed leftist protesters who interrupted a USAID hearing Thursday in Washington, D.C., some brains from the AOC gift box. Even as they were ushered from the room after decrying funding cuts for PEPFAR, a program that deals with AIDS, chairman Brian Mast told the fools the program funding has NOT BEEN CUT!!!!!!!. He also advised them to stop watching leftist propaganda and perhaps tune in Fox News.

For Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, an honorary Mensa membership. Fetterman is the lone voice of reason in his party who won’t buy into the constitutional crisis hysteria of raging leftist idiots spouting absurd talking points. “There isn’t a constitutional crisis, and all of those things – it’s just a lot of noise,” said Fetterman.

For hyperventilating Canadians and Danes, a boatload of Preparation H, the better to heal their butt hurt over President Trump mentioning Canada as a 51^st state, or Greenland as a potential U.S. territory. As to outraged types in either country wanting to claim California, Minnesota or other states in return, yes, take them, please!. And can we throw in New York and Washington, D.C., just to sweeten the deal?

For Mitch McConnell, a course in backstabbing from Nancy Pelosi. Clueless Joe Biden can provide a rave review on Pelosi’s effectiveness. McConnell, whose doddering ways and rides to votes in a wheelchair have him reminding many of Biden, could use improved backstabbing technique. Despite Mitch acting like a petulant child in voting against prominent Trump proposed cabinet members, all of them were confirmed regardless.

For Issa Rae, who canceled a Kennedy Center appearance because of Trump taking over the operation, a note reminding her that unlike no-show bureaucrats and countless virtue signalling projects funded by USAID, she can’t expect to be paid regardless of not performing the contracted task.

For Canadians who have taken to booing Americans and our National Anthem at sporting events, more of that Preparation H should the U.S. hockey team take care of business Saturday night in Montreal during the Four Nations Faceoff.

For Democrats spouting the “unelected” Elon Musk tripe, a basic civics lesson to help them comprehend that those left-wing activist judges they shop for to subvert the will of the people in electing Trump to shrink government and send illegals packing, are appointed, not elected.

For Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, unhappy that Trump is moving to end the Russia-Ukraine hostilities, a one-way train ticket to the front so that he might do something productive to try to win the conflict. The days are gone of him being allowed to spend/lose a few hundred billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money.

For the motley crew of trans types who took over a Worcester, Mass., city council meeting, demanding and getting trans sanctuary city designation, a lifetime supply of perspective and attention, the first of which they desperately lack, and the second of which they seem to crave incessantly.

For 80-year-old, terminally confused Democrat House member Jan Schakowsky, an ambulance ride to the nearest nursing home, where she can spend her remaining delusional time on this planet not harming others or interfering with the nation’s business. It was Schakowsky who shocked her House committee hearing by suggesting manufacturing was a sexist word since it contains “man.” And that, she continues, perhaps explains why more women don’t work in manufacturing jobs. As someone who took a couple of years of Latin, I can assure Schakowsky the “man” part refers to hands being used. Social media has a wave of responses, including one woman asking if the term “menstruate” excludes women due to having ‘men’ in the term. Another wondered about the presence of ‘rat” in Democrat.

At least Schakowsky apologists can note that she’s 80 years old and apparently losing it, just like Biden, McConnell and other ancients. But how do we explain AOC?

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?