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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday’s job report was such a time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was an encouraging development on a more esoteric level.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some coincidence, huh?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps 204, or maybe 408? No?

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

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

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

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

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