Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

It was late October when last we took a look at the state of the Steelers, as well as the then-unbeaten football teams at Penn State and Pitt.

Much has happened in the interim, including Donald Trump being picked as president No. 47 and the political left losing its collective mind as a result. In a curious melding of politics and pop culture, Trump dances have come into fashion in the football world to celebrate successes.

The progress of the three football teams cited earlier has been a mixed bag, sometimes meriting Trump dances and sometimes not so much.

The Steelers are on the rise, but with an asterisk. They came out of their bye week to beat good Washington and Baltimore teams back-to-back, albeit by a combined victory margin of just three points.

The Sunday win over the Ravens, an 18-16 affair, was aided and abetted by ridiculously poor play by the losers, beginning with quarterback Lamar Jackson, who now is 1-4 in his career vs. the Steelers. Jackson’s reputation for coming up small in big games is deserved judging by that Steelers record, along with Jackson’s career 2-4 playoff tally.

The Steelers won vs. the Ravens on the strength of six field goals and now sit atop the AFC North at 8-2 facing two games vs. the pathetic Cleveland Browns sandwiched around a game with the stumbling Cincinnati Bengals.

The record likely will be 11-2 three weeks hence and the thoughts of Steelers fans will turn to the Super Bowl. I’m thinking 9-1 Kansas City, which lost Sunday for the first time this season, might have something to say about that despite an offense short on weapons. Buffalo (9-2), the conqueror of Kansas City, also is looking strong.

Others meriting consideration to make the big game from the American Conference are the Los Angeles Chargers (7-3) and Ravens (7-4).

In the mid-1970s, the Steelers won a couple of Super Bowls based on a dominant defense and a so-so offense. This defense is not as good as that 70s version. The 1974 unit allowed an average of 13.5 points in each of 14 regular-season games and had another gear for the playoffs, dropping that average to 11 points allowed in each of three games.

This season’s Steelers defense yields 16.2 points a game.

The 2024 Steelers offense is arguably a bit better than its 1974 counterpart. But the league is different and I can’t see the Steelers as a Super Bowl team with their current level of play on offense.

Penn State was 7-0 and ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25 when we checked in on them. The Nittany Lions now are 9-1 and ranked No. 4.

Penn State is about what we expected, having lost yet again to Ohio State, then rebounding to hammer so-so Washington and pathetic 1-9 Purdue. The Nittany Lions almost assuredly will coast into the 12-team national championship playoff field.

The Nittany Lions then would host a playoff game, in the days just before Christmas. Some bracket projections have Penn State hosting SEC, warm-weather teams such as Ole Miss or Georgia.

Considering Tennessee wide receivers were whining about their heated bench not working Saturday, with the temperature 55 degrees at Georgia, I’m thinking a brutally cold day up north would be an edge for Penn State vs. a southern team.

Whether it would be enough to overcome the James Franklin, can’t-win-a-big-game factor is open to debate. Even if it is, the Penn State ride likely would end in the next round.

Last, we have Pitt, 7-0 and ranked No. 18 when previously discussed here.

Since then, the Panthers have reeled off three straight defeats and disappeared from the rankings. This is not particularly surprising since that 7-0 record had more than the expected number of great escapes when the Panthers trailed, yet somehow found a way to win.

These days, Pitt finds ways to lose. Saturday’s home setback vs. Clemson, played before the customary scene of garishly yellow empty seats, was a stellar example.

In the first half, the Pitt defense managed to jump offside not one, not two, but three consecutive snaps.

Hard to believe, but things got worse in the second half. During an offensive series from the Clemson two-yard line, Pitt got hit with an illegal formation call, following a Pitt timeout! Then there was a delay of game call, followed by an illegal procedure call against the Panthers, who went from threatening to score a touchdown to having to salvage a field goal.

It was horrendous and that’s not just my assessment. Greg McElroy, the analyst on the broadcast, was horrified by it all. “It cannot get any worse than what I’ve just seen the last few plays, “ he said. “Unbelievable. Inexcusable. Can’t happen.”

But it did.

Amazingly, Pitt was up 20-17 late, but surrendered a game-winning 50-yard touchdown run by the Clemson quarterback to lose yet again.

This Pitt slide was entirely predictable.

Let’s see how our Steelers and Penn State assessments play out down the line.

Quick, hand me the duct tape lest my head explode. Another leftist is torturing both language and reality.

In this case, we speak of New York governor Kathy Hochul, who just this past September had a former top aide of hers arrested for acting as a Chinese secret agent here.

We pause at this point to ask, what is it with so many on the left and their improper business/sexual relationships with Chinese communists? From Big Guy Clueless Joe Biden, to failed VP pick Tim Walz, to Eric Swalwell, to Dianne Feinstein, and on and on. Do an internet search with each name and Chinese scandal if you want details.

The point is we all ought to be screaming China, China, China, to trash the leftists in politics, just as they scream Russia, Russia, Russia regarding Donald Trump. The difference is, these leftist Chinese associations and allegiances are documented and proven. They are not some Shillary political operative’s wet dream fantasy, as was the case with Trump and Russia.

But wee Adam Schiff was out yet again on the weekend propaganda shows flogging the Russia hoax.

This pales with a bit of ridiculous logic from Hochul, who noted a planned $9 get-into-Manhattan commuter fee was actually saving commuters 40 percent because it was not the originally planned $15.

So, I punch you in the face with my fist and you should be grateful it wasn’t a hammer used to hit you? And that neatly summarizes the warped world of leftists.

But there is daily evidence of this as Trump’s picks for cabinet and other posts in his administration are flayed by leftists as unqualified and inappropriate.

Where were these righteous voices when Clueless Joe was stocking his administration with gender confused individuals, incompetents, or often a combination of both attributes?

A post on zerohedge.com was a summation of this. Remember, Clueless Joe gave us former guy now a gal Rachel Levine in Health and Human services and cross-dressing and accused luggage stealer Sam Brinton in nuclear energy as nods to LGBTQXXXXXXXX interests.

Add to that cast, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who had no transportation background, but was a smalltown mayor and is gay, so that ticked a box or two. Pete’s absence anytime he was needed to do his job during this regime speaks to his quality.

Jared Bernstein, chair of the council of economic advisors, is not an economist, but he does have degrees in music and sociology.

Xavier Becerra, head of Health and Human services, is no more a doctor than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for the post. Becerra is a lawyer and ex-California attorney general, yet you heard not a peep from people when this appointment was made. He is, after all, Latino

The list is long. Jennifer Granholm, energy secretary, no energy background, but was a leftist Michigan governor. And she is a woman — so far.

Gina Raimondo, commerce secretary, another lawyer and politician. Also another woman, so far. She’s most notable for saying in September — on MSNBC of course — that voters should “extinguish” Trump. Previously, while being interviewed at the Democratic National Convention, she said a report of job numbers being revised downward by more than 800,000 was a Trump lie. When the questioner showed some guts and noted it was a statistic from the Department of Labor, Raimondo played the Sgt. Schultz “I hear nothing. I see nothing. I know nothing” defense by now claiming she was not familiar with the statistic.

Alejandro Mayorkas, homeland security, is yet another lawyer and political activist who rose through the ranks leveraging one appointment after another until he reached a level where his lack of proficiency was shown to the world. This was via our wide-open southern border which Mayorkas insisted – repeatedly– was secure and closed.

You wouldn’t trust Mayorkas to watch your car in a bad neighborhood, let alone protect our nation.

And you can’t trust LameStream media and leftist operatives any further than you could throw Whoopi Goldberg and her ample butt.

Keep this summation of Biden picks in mind the next time you hear about Trump’s all-time worst nominations.

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More Donald Trump cabinet nominations have been announced, producing typical hysteria among Democrats and their lapdog pals in the LameStream media.

You might have heard that Trump wants Pete Hegseth for his Secretary of Defense, and the usual suspects went crazy that Trump had put up a Fox News host to hold this vital role.

Typical of the ridiculous hyperbole, and omission of pertinent information, was that spewed by stereotypical whiner panelist of The View, Whoopi Goldberg.

Remember Whoopi for her recent absurd assertion that she understands problems of the working class and she works only because she needs the money. This from a Hollywood type estimated to have a net worth of $36 million.

I guess Whoopi spends like the Kamala Chameleon campaign, which turned $1 billion in contributions into a $20 million deficit by the time the election was held. Or could Whoopi be exaggerating her need to work?

Regarding Hegseth, the seldom-amusing Whoopi tried to make hay of Hegseth being on a “weekend” show, insinuating he was not even good enough to be a first-teamer for Fox.

What Whoopi and her fellow leftist sycophants don’t bother to tell you is that Hegseth is a decorated combat veteran, having been awarded not one, but two Bronze Stars.

Unlike Tampon Tim Walz, Hegseth did face enemy fire. The Bronze Star requires having been involved with “military operations against an armed enemy.”

Also omitted from the Hegseth story is that he’s a graduate of Princeton and Harvard. He’s been a veterans’ advocate for many years.

I would much rather have Hegseth in this Secretary of Defense role than some of the political animals who have held the post recently.

Even as the Hegseth nomination was drawing fire in a metaphorical sense, Trump further poked the hornets’ nest by proposing Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

Allow me to repeat what you already likely have heard, that being Gaetz was investigated for sex trafficking a minor girl.

This would be by the Federal Department of Justice, the same fine folks who have persecuted Trump even before he was elected the first time. And, to no one’s surprise, after two years spent investigating Gaetz ZERO charges were filed.

Gaetz still has an ethics investigation open in the House, which could be a moot point since he has resigned his office.

Regardless, the Gaetz allegations will be trotted out to impugn his legitimacy to head the department that once conducted one of those familiar political witch hunts against him.

Curiously, Democrats are not similarly offended by sex scandals in their party, from Bill Clinton and Monica,, to the more recent U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell being removed from the intelligence committee due to reports of a dalliance with an alleged Chinese spy in his campaign.

Proposing Gaetz as attorney general is a prototypical in-your-face move by Trump. Whether Gaetz can be approved for the post is but one aspect of the matter. It is more important that his nomination is the first move of a political chess game.

First, some are speculating that Gaetz could be put into office by an appointment while the Senate is in recess. According to a Newsweek article, Barack Obama made 32 recess appointments, George W. Bush made 171 and Clinton, 132.

Second, some have suggested that if Gaetz is not confirmed for attorney general, Florida governor Ron DeSantis could appoint Gaetz to the Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio, who is likely to be our next Secretary of State.

It’s your move, leftists.

Politics and cannibalism are unlikely bedfellows, yet the association has been with us for months. And it continued today as Republicans picked Donald Trump-hating John Thune as the new Senate majority leader.

Flash back to April of this year, when Clueless Joe Biden, still the Democrat president and candidate to run against Trump, told people at two Pennsylvania stops about his uncle Ambrose “Bosie” Finnegan supposedly being eaten by cannibals in Papaua New Guinea during World War II.

Outrage ensued after this due to the bumbling president providing more evidence that he wasn’t firing on all cylinders mentally.

There were basic factual errors, along with the usual Biden hyperbole. Bosie had joined the military the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, not the day after the allied D-Day invasion of Europe, as Biden said.

Bosie was riding in the plane, not piloting it as Biden implied.

Remains were not found, which is how Biden made the leap to Bosie having been eaten. By that logic, we must presume Amelia Earhart ended up on some native chafing dish, too.

Democrats were mortified that Biden had glitched publicly yet again. It was another example of why they’d kept him hidden during the 2020 campaign. Yes, even then, Democrats knew Joe was not all there.

Notable, however, is the fact they were not sufficiently taken aback by the 2020 reality, or continuing evidence such as this cannibal flap, to do anything about the situation. It was not until Clueless Joe melted down in a debate with Trump and all hope seemed lost for the pending election that action was taken.

It was then that the Democrats ate their own, by throwing Biden into the cooking pot and installing Kamala Chameleon as the candidate. I’ll bet her throat now is sore from nervous laughter, watching over her shoulder for the Democrats looking to put her on the dinner menu, too,

Political cannibalism is a bipartisan issue.

Trump is filling his administration with many Republican bright lights who currently are serving in the Senate or House. Yes, they are in states where a Republican will be picked to replace them, temporarily. But special elections will be held and the Republican majorities in the Senate and House are not such that they can withstand massive depletion.

Fortunately, word has come that Trump plans to stop cannibalizing the ranks of Congress for administration posts.

The latest case of cannibalism is establishment Republicans, the Republicans In Name Only (RINO) types who cannot stand that Trump is the face of the party and the only reason this ridiculous band of petty tyrants still can win national elections.

Without Trump, Republicans are toast when it comes to winning the presidency. Their revenge is to vote in Thune, whose history of Trump hatred is a matter of public record.

These RINOs are eating their own leader (Trump) in a show that the D.C. Swamp of which they are a part, intends to fight for its survival.

It stinks to high heaven that the Senate Republicans held a secret ballot on this, first dumping Trump loyalist Rick Scott from the leadership election, then going with Thune in the final head-to-head contest.

Moves like this will allow the dysfunctional Republican party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Expect Thune to do his best to throw sand in the gears of the Trump machine, which won the presidency, House and Senate. That’s a Republican mandate, if a person could expect the party to act in good faith.

If Thune is as bad as anticipated, just two words for him: Liz Cheney. That RINO Trump hater got her butt booted out of her House seat – losing by 30 percentage points or so in a PRIMARY election.

This reduced Liz to making the scene promoting Kamala Chameleon, and coming up a loser again. I wonder which Democrat Thune will be supporting in 2028?

Thune would do well to note that karma is a female dog, and revenge is a dish best served cold.

It has been a week since Americans went to the polls to repudiate the Woke Democratic Party, coastal elites, socialists and Soros-backed district attorneys, among others.

The voting trend was clear, yet still we await final results as some states and precincts seem to be counting ballots for as much as 10 minutes a day before breaking to go out and protest what they are finding.

All of this has come in the wake of a multi-year campaign in which the main Democrats’ talking point was Donald Trump was Hitler and his supporters were Nazis/fascists.

I’m moved by it all to compile a news and views blog post, Hitler/Nazi/fascist edition.

NEWS: Clueless Joe Biden has invited Trump over for lunch Wednesday to discuss the transition.

VIEWS: I’m not sure I’d be inviting Hitler over to share a meal. On a side note, Trump will be there, but his wife Melania (Eva Braun, presumably) told the Bidens to shove it regarding the invite, labeling the would-be hosts as “disgusting” according to one report.

NEWS: The Kamala Chameleon campaign is credited with collecting $1 billion or so in campaign contributions and still somehow sitting $20 million in debt at this date. A list of expenses reported to the Federal Election Commission included $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo.

VIEWS: Video shot by a TMZ reporter is circulating in which Oprah says she was paid “nothing. Ever” to endorse Kamala. Followers of linguistic gymnastics note she did not deny her company was paid, presumably to host that so-called Detroit townhall meeting. You would have thought billionaire Oprah needed another million like Hitler needed another bullet in the brain. And, considering the election opponent was Hitler, shouldn’t Oprah have done her “sista” a solid by doing the gig for free? Side note: Oprah never should go out in public without her customarily heavy makeup job.

NEWS: When Kamala Chameleon eventually got around to making a concession speech, she assured the crowd, and presumably the nation and world, “It’s going to be okay.”

VIEWS: To recap, if you bought into Democrat talking points, control of the United States has been won by an alleged Hitler and his gang of Nazis and fascists. But, there are no worries according to Kamala Chameleon? Could it be the people pushing this narrative didn’t even believe it themselves?

NEWS: A prominent theme of the election buildup was that many celebrities – including one, ironically named America – would be rushing out of the United States if Trump won.

VIEWS: It would seem “Hitler” anticipated this and closed the border to trap them here. How else to explain no movement on this front? But, no, Trump only wants to close the border to incoming illegals. Celebrities are free to leave, and not let the border gate hit them on the butt on their way out. On a related note, leftist media types had whined for months about being rounded up and put in concentration camps, ironically their prescription for Trump and his supporters had the Democrats prevailed. Consider this yet more hysteria not based in fact. Hitler’s propagandists would be so proud.

NEWS: Stock markets have been on a sharply upward trajectory since Trump won.

VIEWS: I presumed the German stock market didn’t celebrate Hitler coming to power. To confirm this, I searched for “Did German stock market soar when Hitler came to power?” Google’s AI overview response was “No, the German stock market did not soar when Hitler came to power.” In summation, to believe Trump is Hitler, you must also believe that investors, be they professionals or amateurs, are asleep at the switch on this matter and willing to lose big due to their ignorance.

NEWS: The very same Democrats who in the past have accused skeptical Republicans of being election deniers, now are denying election results.

VIEWS: One would think any election deniers in the Hitler years would have had the lifespan of an adult mayfly – about one or two days. Yet, here we sit a week after voting has closed and Democrats are sending in the lawyers to contest Dave McCormick’s apparent Senate win in Pennsylvania, which had been called for the Republican McCormick by Associated Press on Nov. 7. No one is reported to have died due to this election denying. And the apparent House control by Republicans also remains unofficial. No less a source than decisiondeskhq,com called the House for Republicans days back. But others have been slow-walking making final declarations, despite Republicans leading in most races with votes still to be counted and Democrats needing a miracle to prevail. These self-righteous deniers scream that all votes must be counted first. This did not stop LameStream media from calling California for Kamala Harris early. In a story posted on NPR.org at 10:38 p.m. eastern time on election night, AP was cited as having called the state for Kamala. The same story noted that polls closed at 11 p.m. Eastern in California, about 22 minutes AFTER the story had been posted.

NEWS: Far left cable news network viewer ratings are plummeting, with MSNBC down 23 percent post-election and CNN down 40 percent.

VIEWS: Viewers are voting with their feet. Having been sold a bill of goods for years, they are dropping out, or moving to more reliable purveyors of information. It seems these biased cable news outlets have borrowed a page from Hitler and committed suicide.

There’s a fine line between being Nostradamus or Nostradumbaxx. Sometimes, with a little help from our friends, we are on the right side of history.

I say this because, sometime back, I parroted here the thinking of a cousin that Kamala Harris was destined to be our first woman president, with her also being non-white (either black or Indian) thrown in as the topping on the cake.

This cousin theorized Kamala might win the election vs. Donald Trump after having been tossed into the fray when Democrats ran a coup on the sitting president who also was the party’s nominee for a second term, Clueless Joe Biden.

Failing that – and God knows Kamala Chameleon messed up royally in the election undertaking despite having a $1 billion war chest – cynical Democrats just might have Joe step aside and let her be president until Trump takes over in late January.

She’d be president 47, or maybe just 46 ½. When I was a young man, there was a game show, Queen for a day. Kamala would be a winner on Prez for a few weeks.

Already, the suggestion is being floated as a trial balloon on the left-wing cable news sites. Predictably, these propagandists love it. I got an email today from my cousin, in case I’d missed the story. I had not.

Alas, it still might not happen. First off, Joe still gets back pains from the dagger Kamala, Nancy Pelosi and the Obama clan shoved into his spine to get him off the ticket. His rapid-fire endorsement of Kamala after that coup, some argue, was more an attempt to lock those interlopers into having to go with her as a candidate likely to lose than it was an atta girl for Kamala.

Biden’s various verbal “gaffes” and other strange acts during her campaign suggest Clueless Joe was less than a white dude for Kamala.

Once again, Joe might opt to be slow to go.

Plus, I doubt there is time to 25^th Amendment his aging butt and get Kamala seated in the Oval Office before the Trump administration barges in the door and starts measuring for new drapes.

Joe making a move along the lines of what the lads of the movie “Animal House” tabbed a “stupid and futile gesture” to give Kamala a ride on the merry-go-round seems unlikely.

Admittedly, it again might not be Joe’s choice. But this time I expect DR. JILL BIDEN!!!!!!! to be even more intractable as her days as a modern day Marie Antoinette draw to a close. They’ll need the jaws of life to force her through the White House door even a minute early.

This all fails to take into consideration how cheesy and unseemly such a tawdry gesture of seating Kamala would be.

Are Democrats willing to be so transparent on the matter of cheapening what otherwise would be an outcome of historic dimension? Never mind, we all know they would.

Today is Veterans Day, once a time of celebration and acknowledgement of the great contributions to our nation and our freedoms made by those who served in our military.

These days, not so much. It’s more viewed as just another day off work or school.

A quick trip to my front porch this morning showed four houses on the block flying American Flags. All four of us fly them virtually every day. Not a single household had felt moved to share in the day’s celebration by joining us.

Growing up, my family had been big on respecting Veterans Day. My late father fought in the Korean War and had a multi-decade run in both the National Guard and Naval Reserve. I still remember my joy when he came back from one of those summer camp deployments with army fatigues uniforms for me and my brother. We were probably nine and five years old at the time.

Pictures of three uncles on my mother’s side of the family, all in their World War II uniforms, were on walls of my one grandmother’s house every day of every year.

I had cousins who fought in Vietnam.

My son has a close friend who has made the U.S. Army his career. I have had several friends who did the same.

And what of me? I reached 18 years of age in 1973 just as we were slinking out of Vietnam. I had registered for the draft, but it was almost over by then. For all of you who think history began when you were born and never bother to learn otherwise, the draft was a process in which the government would demand some join the military and contribute for a period of years.

It’s all volunteer now.

Back then, I got classified into some sort of holding category, denoted with an H on my draft card. If they needed to do more drafting, they’d let me know, Otherwise, continue with our life.

I joked that the H meant in case of war, I’d be held as a hostage.

There are no pictures of me in military uniform, except maybe as a kid in those aforementioned gift fatigues from my dad, and one I can remember when I wore an actual uniform top of my dad’s.

You will not hear me telling false tales of carrying weapons of war in combat, as Tampon Tim claimed to have done.

I never served, but I have great respect for those who did serve honorably and without false valor claims. I wish I had more company on that front.

To borrow from supporters of cranky Vermont socialist senator Bernie “Feel the Bern” Sanders, today is Feel the Burns time in these parts.

The laborious Cambria County vote-counting procedure that was conducted in the wake of a technical and leadership failure on election day, at last has produced a verdict. According to several media sources, most notably the Associated Press, Frank Burns has beaten back a concerted effort by outside interests to replace Burns with Amy Bradley for the seat representing the 72^nd Legislative District.

Bradley now can retreat to her place in the area’s elite power base that controls non-profits, not-for-profits, charities, foundations and other behind-the-scenes groups.

Meanwhile, Burns will keep working for the area — right out in the public.

I have written that Burns is a Donald Trump-like figure in his party. Neither is true to traditional party policies and methods, but both win elections by connecting with the people, not party leaders.

To quote from the Associated Press story reporting the Burns win, “Burns, a conservative Democrat who supports gun rights and opposes abortion, has regularly found himself voting against his fellow House Democrats. He has long been an electoral target of Republicans, while many other similarly situated western Pennsylvania districts long ago flipped to the GOP.”

Burns staying in office is a triumph for many, a repudiation of area elitists, and a positive reflection on Trump Make America Great Again supporters who didn’t blindly vote for Bradley even if she did have ads touting a Trump endorsement.

I voted for Trump. I did not vote for Bradley. Apparently, judging by the many Republicans for Burns yard signs I saw in past months, I was not alone in making this calculation.

Count me in the group that believes, had Trump known of Amy’s association with once-secret plans to bring Afghan refugees to Johnstown, he might not have been offering an endorsement.

But even if Trump was fully aware, this is what’s great about MAGA people. Despite assertions to the contrary made by LameStream media and leftist zealots, we are not in a cult. We do reserve the right to think for ourselves.

We did exactly that in the race between Burns and Bradley.

Common sense has prevailed, and yet another candidate endorsed by our local Woke Gazette has lost. These election gifts keep on coming.

As of Thursday night, the latest vote count I was able to find for the Burns-Bradley race for the District 72 seat in the Pennsylvania House had reached a reported 53 percent of the total. That’s almost two days after voting ended.

Have they farmed out the vote count to a stereotypical PennDOT road crew, with eight watching for every two actually working?

Too bad Myopia 2025’s plan to slip Afghan immigrants into the area behind the backs of the public was outed and dropped. I’m sure those unskilled newcomers would have worked cheap and counted well.

If the goal of those in charge of the county election process this time was to make Cambria County a statewide and national laughingstock, mission accomplished.

The noon broadcast of Johnstown’s NBC affiliate, which seems to think it’s State College’s NBC affiliate, had an amusing, perhaps Freudian slip. A reporter covering the Burns-Bradley story said a county commissioner was “overlooking” the vote-counting procedure.

I’d think “overseeing” the procedure would be more accurate verbiage. But “overlooking” seems to work, too, in some ways.

The delay in finalizing results is drawing attention because there is a lot at stake here.

Perhaps Cambria County can provide enough votes for declared U.S. Senate victor Dave McCormick to push his lead above the mandatory recount differential.

The control of the state house appears to hinge on whether Frank Burns or Amy Bradley prevails.

Last, but not least, Bradley is the final hope that the Johnstown Woke Gazette might have one high-profile endorsement actually win a race.

The predictably left Johnstown operation where, in the interest of full disclosure, I worked for 20 years or so, had to endorse Democrat Kamala Harris for president and Democrat Bob Casey for Senate, just because they’re Democrats and Donald Trump is a very bad man. McCormick is bad, too, since he backs Trump.

Understand, editorial management seems to think it serves readership more politically aligned with liberal hotbed San Francisco than conservative outposts such as Jacksonville, Fla.

Newsroom staff is similarly mis-aligned politically with the area and there were reports of dour faces among the crew when national election results began pouring in Tuesday night.

Also, they’ve taken to locking the front door of the place, with a sign telling people to knock. I’m guessing they fear that Hitler Trump will come looking for them to exact revenge because he was not endorsed.

Relax, he’s not that kind of guy. More to the point, with a circulation that on a good day challenges 12,000, you’re not exactly a national voice.

That didn’t prevent the publisher from writing an editorial that appeared in the Nov. 2, 2024, edition seeming to imply the local offering was superior to the Washington Post or L.A. Times because it had the courage to endorse candidates, circulation be damned!

How disappointing for this self-proclaimed crusader that Kamala went down in flames to Trump and his MAGA supporters.

Then there was Casey, who had stayed closer to MAGA guy, McCormick, by showing himself to be the consummate, desperate politician that he is. That meant Casey running ads attempting to link himself to Trump on issues of trade and tariffs.

How ironic, since no less a source than the venerable New York Times, in the same Oct. 19, 2024, story outing Casey for his hypocrisy in embracing Trump, noted that Casey “gained prominence for his resistance to many of former President Donald J. Trump’s policies.”

That Casey was and is a political animal, willing to say or do anything to stay in power, was the theme of many McCormick ads. They seem to have worked.

But hypocrisy is no stranger to politics – or endorsements. I’ve received mailers from the Bradley campaign basically accusing Burns of being a stooge of Philadelphia politicians, not showing up for work, and doing nothing to help our area. Bradley’s TV ads don’t have a lot of good things to say about Burns, either. And the bulk of those Bradley ads attacking Burns are said to be on the dime of a Philadelphia backer.

The Woke Gazette people explained their Bradley endorsement was due to the “professional and mature campaigning” method she and Kamala shared. That would be Bradley sharing methodology with Kamala, who called Trump a fascist, a Hitler, and had surrogates, including Joe Biden, calling Trump supporters garbage, racists and misogynists.

If that’s professional and mature, I don’t want to see unprofessional and immature.

Perhaps the Woke Gazette, in the spirit of full disclosure, might have shared that Bradley was aligned with Myopia 2025 on the Afghan plan, as is/was the newspaper. Can it be mere coincidence that the man who held the paper’s publisher title before the current guy, left the media operation in February 2023 to become – wait for it – executive director of Myopia 2025?

Considering that the Woke Gazette’s Nov. 2 piece went to great lengths to rip Trump, it seems more than a bit inconsistent to accept that the “professional and mature” campaign of Bradley included ads making great hay of Trump endorsing her, seemingly during his Johnstown campaign stop.

I’m not sure how someone with a Trump endorsement would be worthy of a Woke Gazette endorsement.

Keep on preaching, Woke Gazette, and indulging in copious amounts of self-congratulation. But be aware, your flock is dwindling with each day.

While we wait for Cambria County to share with us the outcome of the Burns-Bradley state house race, let’s call roll on the losers and winners from the national election.

LOSERS

Sunny Hostin (The View host handed Kamala Chameleon a softball question about what she’d do differently than Biden and it turned into a friendly fire grenade when Kamala couldn’t think of a thing).

Robert De Niro, Willie Nelson, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and Mark Cuban (All celebrity white dudes for Kamala who should be red with embarrassment over how little their advocacy helped her campaign).

Lamestream media (Ratings were down, Washington Post circulation is tanking, and they all were in mourning after their candidate lost).

Pollster “Alka” Selzer (Her attempt to boost Kamala morale with a late Iowa poll showing the Chameleon ahead by three points looked bad when Donald Trump carried the state by 13 points or so),

Beggar boy Zelenskyy (The money spigot for Ukraine is about to be turned off).

Illegal immigrants inside the U.S. and approaching the border (Enjoy it while it lasts).

Democratic elites (Go find someone else besides the working class to tell how stupid and vile they are)

Precious metals (Gold and silver dropped on Trump’s election, because he eliminates a lot of problems).

Iranian currency (The rial hit an all-time low after Trump’s election).

Lawyers (A landslide outcome reduced their election workload).

Made up pronouns and genders (We now can go back to he and she, men and women).

Trite cliches like “unburdened by the past” (No more trips to Kamala’s word salad bar).

Kamala’s Dougie (Her angry side seeped out on occasion during the campaign and I doubt she’s taking this loss well – plus, she’s going to be around the house a lot more now).

Tampon Tim Walz (He’s reduced to being Minnesota’s governor, but he might get a side gig as an Elmer Fudd impersonator).

Manufacturers of the Walz everyman wardrobe of blaze orange and camo (Now they just have their customary clientele, not a lot of leftist posers).

Kamala and Tampon Tim impersonators (That ship has sailed)

Minnesota residents (They get Walz back as governor).

Censors and other heavy-handed, self-appointed guardians of discourse (We’ll take it from here, thanks).

DR. JILL BIDEN!!!!!! (She really liked being relevant, chairing cabinet meetings and living in that big White House).

The Democrat’s Blue Wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (It proved about as effective as France’s Maginot Line in World War II. Trump won all three blue wall states).

Dour women named Whoopi, Joy or Sunny (Just my View of things).

WINNERS

Atlas Intelligence, Quantus, Rasmussen and Trafalgar (Unlike Alka Selzer, these pollsters were very accurate).

The American populace (Many probably don’t yet realize that this election saved the nation).

Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom and Josh Shapiro (Kamala losing benefits all three).

Cryptocurrency fans (You people got a big boost).

Stock markets (All raced higher on the Trump victory).

The world (This globe’s beat cop is back on duty and bad actors know it).

Working men and women (No longer will you need to endure being called garbage).

Truth, justice and the American way (Sounds like something Superman would say).

Men of all races (They proved they finally could do something right — vote for Trump).

Trump supporters in general (Those Nazi, deplorable, bitter clinging, pieces of garbage shoved it in the face of the ruling elites).

Tyrus (This regular panelist on Fox’s Gutfeld show has been saying for weeks that the election would not be close, and it wasn’t).

Elon Musk (Tesla stock was up big in price Wednesday and now he need not worry about MSNBC harpy Maddow getting her wish of him having zero government contracts moving forward).

Freedom of speech (Musk buying Twitter (X) got the ball rolling on that front and the Trump election seals the deal).

Peanut the Squirrel (His death at the hands of the New York deep state was avenged by the election outcome).

Secret Service members (Soon they no longer will need to fear bites from Biden’s dog – at least 25 such occurrences according to published reports).

Diddy (Being in jail made him unavailable, so he was not shamed into making a Kamala endorsement. His former squeeze Jennifer Lopez probably wished she had been in jail, too).