Recent years have seen much of the joy removed from watching and following many sports, from Major League Baseball, to college football and basketball, to the NFL.

College sports, at least on the men’s side, have become nothing more than semi-pro leagues, filled with mercenary players whose recruitment and retention is based more on Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) payments and the sort rather than allegiance to the school.

Perhaps you’ve heard that one of the Deion Sanders progeny, a college football player, is in the midst of a bankruptcy case having to do with a judgment against him, and is in the courts pleading to keep his NIL deals nonpublic.

Ohio State, which plays for the national college football title Monday night, is widely reported to be the team that $20 million in NIL funds put together.

In a bit of hypocrisy, I probably will watch at least some of the Ohio State-Notre Dame game. But my appetite for college sports in general is far from what it once was.

It is the same, sad story, all about the bucks, with other sports enumerated above.

My viewing solution is to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. And that is why my experience with the Kansas City-Houston NFL playoff game Saturday was a brief one.

Once the first questionable officiating call in favor of the Kansas City Swifts was made, a phantom personal foul penalty against a Houston defender for breathing on KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes, it was time to leave the broadcast for other diversions lest my television succumb to a thrown remote.

Having covered sports for a living during much of my 35 or so years in journalism, I used to chuckle at fans who were quick to blame officials for their teams’ failures. Not that I never encountered what I thought was officiating bias. It’s just it was not nearly as apparent on a widespread basis when one had no rooting interest in the outcome.

I checked the score periodically on that eventual Chiefs win yesterday, just to be sure my initial assessment had been correct, and then watched the entire Washington-Detroit nightcap without anything happening that caused me to think the invisible hand was weighing on the scales to benefit either side.

It also was interesting to scan various internet feeds, both yesterday and today, and find there is much being written about apparently bad calls favoring the KC Swifts.

No less a source than Troy Aikman, who was on the game broadcast team, is reported to have lamented with fervor a questionable penalty against Texas for hitting Mahomes while he was sliding. This happened after I’d stopped watching.

“Oh, come one,” Aikman reportedly said. “I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit.”

Yo, Troy, it is in the best interest of the NFL ratings and general interest to have Mahomes and crew continue in the playoffs, the better to allow gratuitous shots of Taylor Swift cheering for paramour Travis Kelce, AKA Mr. Swift, who catches a lot of passes from Mahomes and presumably Taylor is OK with it.

We should be empathizing with Swift, a prominent Kamala supporter who could have used some officiating help to turn that one into a winner.

Back to the NFL, if you think the product on sale here is competition and football, you are a tad naive. Consider all the WOKE platitudes that still adorn many helmets and the edges of the playing fields.

Were this latest KC game an isolated instance, it could be overlooked. But favorable officiating for the Swifts, which in this game included Swift boy pal Kelce not being flagged for celebrating over a fallen defender, a staple of the NFL these days, was hard to ignore.

Throughout the years, the Swifts seem to have gotten do-overs when plays failed at first, kid glove treatment for their stars, and the general nod on close calls. KC has a great program and really shouldn’t need the help.

Yet, we ask, could all involved be fair and pure as the driven snow that pelts my house as I write this Sunday afternoon? Sure. Could there be a bias, either stated or implied, to give the Swifts the benefit of the doubt? That seems to be possibility.

Either way, it’s annoying to watch. Hopefully, today’s NFL playoff games unfold with less controversy. But, if they do not, there is an abundance of options to otherwise invest the time that would have been spent watching it all.

Watching segments of the confirmation hearings/inquests of Donald Trump’s cabinet has produced several epiphanies for me.

Begin with some excerpts involving proposed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. I loved it when he pointed out to one hack Democrat Senator who was pursuing Clueless Joe Biden’s oligarch witch hunt path, that Clueless Joe himself recently had awarded medals to several guys who would fit the oligarch definition.

But it was another segment of Bessent’s testimony that struck me. If you pay attention, you recognize what these antagonists are trying to put on the record simply by the way they get around to asking their questions. In this example, the Democrat woman’s goal seemed to be to let the public know that Bessent is gay. She made a great point of congratulating him for having his “husband” there. It seemed she even paused for effect.

So, why would a leftist Democrat want to make that point, seemingly in a negative way? Perhaps to hope that supposedly homophobic MAGA types would be shocked and outraged.

I’m going to confess right here and now that I didn’t know Bessent is gay. I didn’t care and I still don’t.

And that’s where Trump and his cabinet picks have differed from the Biden Potemkin Village cabinet, which was picked largely for appearances over substance.

This is a common theme of the DEI crowd. Recently Michelle Obama has been displaying her equal opportunity ways, saying she’d pull a daily double by skipping both Jimmy Carter’s funeral and the Trump inauguration. On the latter, Michelle said she couldn’t sit there again and smile when there was not enough diversity on display.

I guess, considering Trump’s election victory, Michelle no longer is proud of our nation.

But, ostensibly she is proud that the Biden cabinet includes a lot of hapless DEI hires. For example, Mayor Pete Butt (something) seems to be the Transportation Secretary largely because he is gay, not because he brings any particular skills to the job.

So it is with DEI hires, long on filling quotas such as being gay, nonwhite, women, or just generally sexually confused, but short on qualifications and production.

The person Bessent is in line to replace, Mother Hubbard Janet Yellen, qualifies as DEI in part because she is a woman. More important, her life has been spent either in academia or in the public sector, where one never has to live with the economic consequences of spewing misinformed tripe. Janet is a complete stranger to the private economy.

She’s made a mess of things fiscally by refusing to go out the yield curve on refinancing U.S. debt, and thereby missing the chance to lock in interest rates before they started what now is a steep upward trajectory. Instead, Mother Hubbard ran cover for Clueless Joe in trying to artificially keep long-term interest rates low by not re-financing debt long-term and instead leaving a flood of short-term refinancing that will be a challenge for Bessent.

At least Yellen isn’t like another poster child Biden employee, a cross-dressing, luggage-stealing guy/girl formerly working in the nuclear energy office.

Bessent, by all accounts, is brilliant. He has been nominated not as a nod to the gay community, but rather because he is the best person available. That he is gay does not enter the calculus, nor should it.

And so it is with other Trump nominees, some of them accomplished and strong women (despite Mark Cuban’s venom), some of them talented non-whites of various ethnicity, and, yes, there are some white men who don’t carry DEI cred by being gay, but who are equipped to do their job.

You want an idea of what this nation would be headed for had Trump not won? Look to California, a DEI dreamland currently in the process of paying the price for putting the unqualified in positions of influence, authority and responsibility.

There but for the grace of God and Trump go we.

Monday can’t get here soon enough.

I skipped Joe Biden’s farewell address Wednesday night. Face it, he’s been checked out for months if not years.

Taking a victory lap after presiding over four miserable years is just further indication the guy has taken complete leave of his senses.

Based on Biden’s history attempting to exit stages or rooms, I’m not sure he’s going to be able to find the White House door without the help of his handlers and maybe some Trump acolytes to boot Scranton Joe in the butt to help him leave.

In a curious bit of timing, Biden is just about gone even as a self-important, largely ineffective group should be heading into the dustbin of history. I refer to Myopia 2025, the group of Johnstown elitists determined to help us heathens too stupid to realize we need their help.

I kick myself for not having broached this subject already. After all, these people did include a year and theoretically a use-by date for themselves.

Yet, although I’ve been making the conscious effort to put 2025 on all checks for weeks now, fully aware it is a new year, I failed to link this to Myopia and that 2025. It took a text exchange with a friend and former co-worker to change that.

There is a bromide about making predictions on such things as investments – if you give a price, don’t give a date. The Myopia types did a good job of keeping promises and goals vague, but they slipped up with the date.

I’m sure Myopia 2025 can and will take credit for many successes. I associate them with failure, like trying to flood the area with Afghan refugees, something that failed under the light of public disclosure, or trying to run one of their own for the state House, yet another failure.

Greater Johnstown remains an area long on crime, but short on economic vitality, presumably things some group like Myopia 2025 would address. Our income levels are pathetic.

But those seem to be a good things when you are fishing around for government grants to pave Central Park or figuratively gild lilies.

I confess to being curious over whether that 2025 part of Myopia 2025 is relevant, so I took the time to check the organization web site.

Under the FAQ (frequently asked questions) area I found it all got started in 2014 or was it 2025. The goals included some of what I presumed earlier.

But, the chilling part is that, despite that 2025 year being included in the group name, this creature plans to live on indefinitely. The words, taken from the web site, are: “There is no end point, per se.”

Imagine if Biden had stumbled to the microphone and said, “Hey, you dog-faced pony soldiers, no joke, I’m not leaving. My term has no end point, per se.”

It seems Myopia 2025 is our equivalent of those Soviet five-year plans of my youth, that accomplished little, other than to spawn more five-year plans.

Maybe there will be new names for the same old stuff down the line? Cataracts 2030? Glaucoma 2035? Astigmatism 2040? Amblyopia 2045?

The underlying mission seems to be unchanged – keeping unelected elites pulling the strings of local power from a base in nonprofits, not for profits, foundations and charities.

Yes, Myopia 2025 is a nonprofit. Surprise.

If we raise a big enough donation, do you think they just might disband?

Better yet, let’s suggest they take their community help elsewhere.

From California to Ukraine, Canada to Mexico, Greenland to Panama, the possible landing places are many.

Anywhere beyond Cambria County would be nice.

I’m taking a break from watching another one-sided NFL playoff game Monday night to contemplate what all the alleged college football experts would say about this.

I mean, the LA Rams are up 24-3 at the half against Minnesota. So, the Vikings obviously don’t belong in the playoffs, right?

That has been the sort of continuing mantra heard from the people who sit at those pre-game, halftime and post-game tables, sometimes ridiculously placed at the end of the playing field, and turn thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the worthiness of competing college football teams, largely based on the score.

They are the people who told you, after the fact, that teams such as SMU, Boise State, Indiana, didn’t belong in the 12-team college football playoff field. Those teams lost by 28, 17 and 10 points, respectively. Curiously, when SEC team Tennessee went to Columbus and laid a 25-point loss egg against Ohio States we heard crickets.

Of course Tennessee belonged because, well, it’s an SEC team. Forget the way the Volunteers put up, shall we say, limited resistance.

As an aside, zero SEC teams remain in the college playoffs. Our next national champion is going to be either Ohio State of the Big Ten or independent Notre Dame, the latter of which rankles Penn State coach James Franklin, who could better spend his time figuring out to beat tough competition for a change.

The college experts were struck similarly mum when Ohio State dominated Oregon, 41-21. That would be Oregon, No. 1 for much of the season, unbeaten until that loss to the Buckeyes. But the Ducks lost by 20 points, so obviously they didn’t belong here.

Neither, apparently, did Georgia, which dropped a 23-10 decision to Notre Dame. And so it goes.

Back to the NFL. Through five games completed thus far this weekend, there has been only one with a margin of victory under 12 points. That was Washington’s 23-20 win over Tampa Bay.

The other games were decided by 24, 20 and 14 points in the AFC and 12 and in the NFC. It didn’t look like the serial choker Vikings were going to be competitive in the second half of this ongoing game, either. They weren’t and ended up losing, 27-9. Yet another blowout.

But, nary a word is heard that all these overmatched teams didn’t deserve to be in the NFL playoffs.

Why?

In a curious common feature, the seedings have been off-kilter both in college and pro playoffs. Technically, the Rams were the host team in the Monday night game, although it was moved to Arizona due to Los Angeles wild fires. But the Rams got the home call based on winning their division, despite a record of just 10-7. The Vikings, second-place finishers in their division, traveled despite a 14-3 record.

As whining Franklin would say, we need to have everyone in conferences so we can make assessments and get seedings correct. But all NFL teams are in divisions, conferences and the same league. And still we get this.

Washington (12-5) also got to go on the road for its first-round game against Tampa Bay (10-7) Sunday night. Tampa won its division and Washington did not.

Stuff happens. Just play the cards you are dealt and win the games.

All the college teams whose coaches, fans and media sycophants whined about their playoff exclusion, could have made it by winning just one more game. Whine about that, guys, while looking in the mirror.

It’s both unfair and unintelligent to presume to determine the relative worth and legitimacy of teams based on a single outing, something the NFL playoffs are proving in spades. Are you college gurus paying attention?

With our national debt above $36 trillion, and our friends at the federal government having overspent by $85 billion in December alone, worries about the nation’s fiscal picture are growing.

But forget DOGE and other plans to attack the spending. We have the answer to our fiscal woes sitting in Congress, which has a number of absolutely phenomenal stock traders judging by their 2024 returns.

Tell them to forget bickering over legislation and instead invest on the behalf of the United States. We could be solvent again after a few more of their good years.

I mean, these people are uncanny when it comes to investing their money.

The year 2024 was a good one for stock investors in general, with the S&P 500 rising 24.9 percent. Chump change, say I. More than 20 members of Congress made about double that with their stock trading and the Top 5 among those ranks increased their portfolio by more than 100 percent.

You wonder why these investment geniuses are wasting their time in Congress. Or maybe, as cynics suggest, they are taking advantage of their time there.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among the best yet again, with a portfolio increase reported at unusualwhales.com of nearly 71 percent.

David Rouzer was reported by that same site to be at the top of Congress with a 149 percent gain last year and Debbie Schultz was second, 142.3 percent.

Dan Crenshaw, who was credited with a 61.3 percent gain in 2024, was quoted on the site defending Congress members trading stocks, despite the possibility of possessing inside knowledge due to their work on legislation or contracts that just might affect individual companies.

Crenshaw as reported on the unusualwhales.com site, rationalized trading as a way to make money for members who “haven’t gotten a pay raise since 2008.”

I repeat, let these people trade for themselves. But create a fund of $3 trillion or so for them to trade on behalf of the country.

Getting those 140 percent gains, and starting with that $3 trillion, they could have the debt covered in five years or so, a year less than a Senator’s term. Eat your heart out, DOGE!

Instead of limiting the stock trading, which has been the subject of a bi-partisan attempts in recent years, turn these people loose to help someone beyond themselves. I’m sure they’d be happy to do it, as long as they can keep their profit machine going, too.

Pssst, the Steelers lost again in the playoffs Saturday night, pass it on.

I’ve read reports that this happened, by a 28-14 score at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens, a game whose television footprint was in the relative obscurity of Amazon Prime. I didn’t watch, but I’ve seen enough highlights posted on various Internet sites to concede this is true.

It wasn’t even as close as the final score.

The Steelers ended the season 10-8, losers of five consecutive games. But optimists and apologists alike will note the playoff appearance and the fact that coach Mike Tomlin continues his run of never having presided over a losing season.

That’s sure to thrill the cockles of the hearts of Steelers fans more attuned to thoughts of Super Bowl trophies, of which the franchise has six, rather than being content with stringing together winning seasons and failing miserably in the playoffs.

Tomlin qualifies on both counts, his teams not having won a playoff game since 2016.

By avoiding losing seasons, specifically the sort of lost seasons that provide lofty draft position as compensation, and with it the opportunity to pick future stars, the Steelers continue to deal in mediocrity.

Creative minds, such as those on si.com, are suggesting a trade – for Tomlin.

They note that as recently as 2023, Denver acquired head coach Sean Payton from New Orleans for first-, second- and third-round picks.

Surely Tomlin might be worth similar return in the coach trade market.

It would be a notable irony of sorts. Once upon a time, the Pirates acquired a manager, Chuck Tanner, in the trade market, sending catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000 to the Oakland A’s following the 1976 season in exchange for Tanner, who would lead the Pirates to their last World Series appearance and victory in 1979.

Some would argue it’s better to keep Tomlin and wait for him to regain past playoff success. History, including that of the Steelers franchise, suggests this will not happen.

Chuck Noll coached the Steelers to four Super Bowl wins in a six-season stretch from the 1974 through 1979 seasons.

The Steelers made the playoffs just four times in the next 12 seasons, with Noll retiring under the weight of it all following the 1991 season.

The Steelers had gone 2-4 in those four post-Super Bowl playoff appearances, which means even though he suffered losing seasons, Noll never suffered the sort of playoff win drought Tomlin has currently.

Banking on Tomlin getting the Steelers back to Super Bowl status is a stretch. Trading Tomlin is no guarantee to change any of this. But, it would be a start.

Penn State has been bounced from the college football playoffs and James Franklin’s pathetic record in big games grows even worse.

Notre Dame walked off with a 27-24 win in this semifinal Orange Bowl game, and heads to the national title game. Penn State and Franklin head back to State College to lick the wounds of yet another setback in a showdown game.

An ESPN graphic Thursday night noted Franklin has the third-worst record against Top 5 opposition (1-18) since the college polls began in the 1936. It’s not just the losses, it’s the details.

Some thoughts on this latest example:

• I plead guilty to falling into the trap of investing, sports and life in general, that being thinking this time is different. I wrote that I thought Penn State, despite Franklin’s checkered coaching past, would pull out a win over Notre Dame, factoring in the shorter prep time for the Fighting Irish, notable injuries and the fact Notre Dame was hit with a flu outbreak ahead of the game. But I got Franklined.

• Penn State had a 10-0 lead vs. Notre Dame, just as it had in a regular-season loss to Ohio State, but still couldn’t win the games. Inexcusable.

• Franklin apologists were singing his praises after playoff wins over SMU and Boise State, yet when first he met up with another college football heavyweight in the playoffs, the streak ended and that speaks volumes about Penn State under Franklin. The Nittany Lions lost all three of their games with prominent opposition this year. Penn State is supposed to beat the SMUs and Boise States of the world, but also occasionally should beat the Ohio States, Notre Dames, Oregons.

• Anyone else thinking if Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman was coaching Penn State, the score would have been reversed?

• On that 54-yard ND touchdown pass to Jaden Greathouse that led to a 24-all tie with under 5 minutes remaining, why did the Penn State corner and safety both look like bears on roller skates, one falling after a Greathouse fake coming off the line of scrimmage and the other over-running Greathouse and falling as the receiver cut back to the middle of the field?

• The third time was the charm for Penn State quarterback Drew Allar, who had two apparent interceptions erased by calls on the Notre Dame defense. And, on a third apparent pick, Allar committed what ESPN analyst Greg McElroy labeled the “cardinal sin” of throwing late across the middle while under a pass rush. The interception went to a video review, but for once in this game, an official’s call could not bail out Allar. And Notre Dame eventually kicked the winning field goal with seconds remaining.

• One wonders what Penn State was thinking being so aggressive late when Allar was having a poor night in terms of throwing accuracy. It was aggressive to have Allar throwing from his own 28 with 40 seconds or so remaining in a tie game. Good coaching is not asking players to do what they cannot.

• Some thought Allar might win this game and, if he played well in the national championship game, decide to declare for the NFL draft, where some had him challenging to be the top quarterback taken. Unsolicited advice to Allar – stay in school, son.

• Now Franklin can go back to his routine of getting into verbal altercations with home fans after big losses, running up the score on Maryland and lamenting Notre Dame not belonging to a conference.

This year’s college football playoffs, fast becoming an exercise seemingly set on proving bigger is not better, stumbles into its Final Four Thursday and Friday nights.

The starting field of 12 teams has been whittled down to the point that Penn State plays Notre Dame Thursday night in the Orange Bowl semifinal game and Texas meets Ohio State Friday night in the Cotton Bowl semifinal.

How we got here has been a sad stew of questionable pairings, equally questionable officiating and lots of talk about Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) revenues for the players.

Some of these guys will be taking a pay cut when they officially turn pro. If you ask me, someone making millions of bucks because they play college football already is a pro.

Can we be far removed from NIL salary caps in college?

Through it all, Penn State coach James Franklin has come across as the epitome of the apocryphal guy who gets a free lunch and complains it wasn’t a free dinner.

To recap, Penn State lost its two biggest games of the season, a regular season contest with traditional tormentor Ohio State, and a setback to Oregon in the Big Ten title game.

As a reward, Penn State was gifted a home first-round playoff game with overmatched SMU. What followed the predictable win was a neutral field Fiesta Bowl matchup with similarly overmatched Boise State.

Meanwhile, Penn State’s two conquerors this season, Ohio State and Oregon, were forced to play each other in the other half of the bracket in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal round. Ohio State won handily, 41-21, after leading 34-0 in the first half.

Yet, Franklin has the cajones to show up for the Orange Bowl and gripe that Notre Dame isn’t in a conference like Penn State, presumably suggesting Notre Dame had an easier road to this point.

I find this thinking hypocritical on several counts. First, Penn State did not play Oregon in the regular season, despite being in the same conference, and had Michigan, which dominates Penn State about as soundly as Ohio State does, off the schedule, too.

One can argue about Indiana’s relative strength, but the Hoosiers were yet another team that had a strong Big Ten season but wasn’t on Franklin’s dance card.

And it would be hard to find a reliable college football analyst who didn’t think Penn State’s playoff path has been soft, including having extra time to prepare for this game compared with Notre Dame, due to the Sugar Bowl being delayed a day after the act of terrorism in New Orleans.

Notre Dame, it could be argued, didn’t face the most strenuous path, either. A first-round home win over Indiana and a battle vs. an uneven Georgia team with a quarterback making his first college start, isn’t the greatest resume.

The winner of the Texas-Ohio State game looks to be Ohio State, unless the Buckeyes have yet another inexplicably bad performance, something for which they have become noted.

Penn State has a lot going for it against Notre Dame. Will that outweigh the Franklin factor? An unlikely duo of USA Today and The Wall Street Journal in recent days ran lengthy stories about Franklin, who has earned the mocking nickname of Big Game James by coaching his teams to a 1-14 record vs. opposition ranked in the Top 5, a 1-10 record vs. Ohio State, and 3-7 vs. Michigan. You get the picture.

The headline on the Wall Street Journal story: “The Football Coach Who Wins Every Game – Except the Ones That Matter.”

The USA Today story mentioned what some see as similarities between Michigan’s national champions last year – including two dominant running backs, a pro level tight end, strong defense, veteran quarterback – and Penn State this year.

Differences noted in the story are Penn State lost two games and Michigan lost none. The story concludes former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh just might have taken Penn State to the national title this season. Can Franklin? Bookmakers give Franklin and Penn State the longest odds against such victory among the remaining four teams.

I’m thinking Franklin pulls a rabbit out of his hat and beats a Notre Dame team that did, after all, lose at home to Northern Illinois this year.

Texas is here after two wins in games it dominated early, but had trouble closing. Only a non-call on an obvious targeting infraction rescued Texas against Arizona State.

If Ohio State and its $20 million NIL roster plays up to form, Texas sees its playoff run end here. A wild card in the game is weather reports, which seemingly change by the hour, but could include uncharacteristic cold and even some snow.

Either way, barring catastrophic injury or other such vagaries, I’m thinking the Texas-Ohio State winner moves on to win the national championship.

Former president Jimmy Carter is dead and the rush is on to share memories, some of them personal. Allow me to join the crowd.

I was a young reporter, working nights at the local Woke Gazette, back when it still was a legitimate newspaper, and the night managing editor decided to give me a learning experience. Jimmy Carter (I presume it was his Johnstown stop during primary season of 1976, but my memory is unclear on this point) was landing at the Johnstown airport and I was told to accompany a veteran reporter to greet Carter, just to see how such things were done.

I still recall the veteran griping on the car ride to the airport about having been sent to interview the “Peanut Farmer from Georgia.”

This veteran reporter was a Democrat and a liberal, which at the time meant he was a lot of things populist Republicans are today, not some far left supporter of illegal immigrants, transsexuals and the general demise of the nation. He kept lamenting the fact that our political writer, typical for the time, worked daylight Monday through Friday, and couldn’t be budged from his home even to report on the arrival of a guy who would go on to be president.

As an aside, this same absent political reporter was a bit of an egomaniac. Years later, when the sports column format began running the names of the writers in huge, 48-point type, this guy went to management and griped to get his name larger, too, on his political columns! As long as he didn’t have to work nights and weekends, as sports columnists did.

Back to our Carter story. We reached the airport and waited. Carter’s plane landed and, in those less paranoid security times, we walked to fence to await him. My veteran reporter mentor still was griping, presuming – correctly – that Carter would identify us as media and rush to talk to us.

Carter flashed his famous toothy grin and indeed rushed to the fence. As I recall, we both shook his hand, there was a brief interview and I was quickly hustled to the car by my guide, who wanted to get back to the office, write something and be done with it all before heading to Brownie’s, the Kernville establishment favored by nightside news people.

Through the years it was determined that Carter, while a decent man, was a bust as president. Ronald Reagan sent Carter back to Plains, Georgia, in a 1980 landslide win. Carter presided over high energy prices, high inflation and the decline of the American image abroad. The populace couldn’t wait to get rid of him. Sound familiar?

In later years, I developed a friendship with Dr. Robert Hartnett, who was active in local sports, including running for years the local Junior Baseball League, which provided the Johnstown team or teams for the AAABA Tournament.

Dr. Hartnett knew that I fished, but did not fly fish and he was determined to change that. It was like the night news reporter who insisted I try golf. We went to Richand Greens, hit a bucket of balls at the range, then I shot some high number for nine holes. I never again played golf.

Dr. Hartnett owned a “cottage” on Spruce Creek, which is to say probably a $200,000 house. One of Doc’s selling points was this was the creek frequented by Carter as a fly fisherman. I drove over to the cottage one afternoon. I fly fished at or near where Carter had fished – me unsuccessfully – and came home. Like my golf experience, I never again picked up a fly rod.

But it was entertaining to see the “trained trout” rise as the caretaker threw pellets of food into the creek after we were done fishing. I am confident Jimmy did better on his fishing trips to Spruce Creek.

RIP, James Earl Carter.

A snowstorm has hit Washington, D.C., on January 6 no less, and rumors are flying that Jamie Raskin is about to allege insurrection – by Mother Nature.

Jack Frost, Suzy Snowflake, Elsa and Anna of Frozen fame, are among the countless expected to be charged, too. They are just so much right-wing filth to be locked away in prison and forgotten even as illegal immigrants run rampant, at least for a few more weeks.

Prominent Democrats will rush to microphones to proclaim that democracy will not die, despite their efforts to stab it in the back with election rigging, running a coup on a sitting president on their ticket for re-election, and ginning up (pun intended) a replacement for that would-be candidate largely by finding someone who checked several DEI boxes.

AOC will claim to have trauma from yet another incident she witnessed from afar.

The FBI and Department of Justice will move prosecution of the insurrection case to Manhattan, because that’s a jurisdiction that has a proven way to twist and distort. It is in Manhattan that Jesus would have been convicted for paying hush money to Mary Magdalene and/or committing fraud by claiming to have fed 5,000 with just five loaves of bread and two fish.

I mean, the guy was a carpenter, which is almost a builder, which is a quick hop, skip and a jump from being a real estate developer. Guilt by association.

Of course federal offices were closed Jan. 6 due to the snow. That’s largely inexplicable since almost all federal employees now work from home and need not travel. Presumably their phones and computer connections still are up and they might do the nation’s business from the comfort of their homes.

As I write this, we are little more than an hour away from Trump being certified in Congress as our next president.

Unless some clueless Democrat pulls a fire alarm “trying to open a door,” or a member of the Capitol police shoots an unarmed protester, just because, by late this afternoon Trump will be certified and Democrats can move to impeach Trump and prosecute Mother Nature.

Think of it as a left-wing daily double.