I began my 35-year career in journalism in news, shifted to sports for most of it, but ended up doubling down with sports and news columns for a time, both while late in my run as a full-timer and then as a free-lance writer in retirement.

I’m feeling the urge to combine the two subjects again. That means it’s time for an installment of news and views.

NEWS: The New York Rangers hammered the Penguins, 6-0, as both opened their NHL seasons last night.

VIEWS: Yes, the Rangers scored on their first shot, and two of their first three efforts vs. Tristan Jarry (AKA The Sieve). But, the good news is an apparent Rangers goal was disallowed by one of those pesky long-after-the-fact offside reviews. I mean, losing 6-0 is no big deal, but 7-0, now that’s embarrassing. Expect the Penguins to bounce back tonight at Detroit, whose once-formidable Red Wings haven’t made the Stanley Cup playoffs since the 2015-16 season. By way of comparison, the last postseason appearance for our lovable loser Pirates came in 2015.

NEWS: Inflation, both headline and core, has checked in higher than anticipated in the latest government data dump, and the initial jobless claims number has surged.

VIEWS: Never fear, the government will “revise” those numbers in the near future to some distant approximation. Recall the 850,000 or so jobs that were revised away? If only we could revise lower our grocery, utility or insurance costs.

NEWS: Donald Trump’s campaign has rented Madison Square Garden in New York City to hold a rally late in the race despite New York being an assured Democrat state for many decades.

VIEWS: As Trump noted, it’s hard to imagine a state being run worse by its Democratic politicians than New York. The former governor was driven from office by an onslaught of allegations of sexual harassment and since has been outed for very questionable management of the COVID-19 crisis. His successor has been exposed for having a Chinese secret agent as an aide. And the mayor of New York City has been indicted on five federal charges involving bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy, some involving foreign interests. But Kamala will carry the state. This is a different “New York State of Mind” than that lauded in the Billy Joel song.

NEWS: A professor at the University of Kansas lectured his class that men refusing to vote for Kamala Chameleon should be “lined up and shot.”

VIEWS: Ironically, his last name is Lowcock! You can’t make up this stuff. The school put him on administrative leave, likely with pay. Bet he’s voting for Kamala. Remember this guy, and prominent Dems such as Shrillary “Deplorables” Clinton, the overall efforts to make it easy for illegals to vote and to make it virtually impossible for Republicans to purge voting rolls of ineligible people – including those either dead or nonexistent – when Democrats break out those “We’re protecting Democracy” lies.

NEWS: Kamala Chameleon said during a recent stop on “The View” she’d do nothing different than Clueless Joe and later tried to insert herself into the Florida Hurricane Milton matter by whining that the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, was not taking her calls.

VIEWS: It must be exhausting for the Chameleon’s immediate staff and the extended group of lackeys in the lapdog media to continue to explain away her gaffes. But they try. The headline on the CNN report of the Biden comment on “The View” read there was “not much” she’d have done differently than Biden, Actually, Harris said on the show “not a thing” as correctly reported by a New York Post headline. DeSantis did a good job of rebutting the Chameleon, noting he has dealt with Biden and FEMA regarding Milton and the Chameleon never seemed interested in hurricanes as VP, only now that she’s running for president. Clueless Joe, to his credit, sided with DeSantis, but that’s more due to lingering resentment over that knife the Chameleon plunged into his back to get the nomination. Between the Chameleon, an empty pants suit we shall call The Lump, and her misspeaking running mate Tampon Tim, The Chump, we’re staring at a scary four years should the Democrats be able to engineer another “vote-enhancement” triumph.

Both Penn State and Pitt are unbeaten and the Pittsburgh Steelers lead their division as mid-October approaches.

What’s going on here? Glad you asked.

Penn State, at 5-0, is ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 poll. You’ve got to like the chances for the Nittany Lions to make this year’s expanded college football playoffs, with considerable nods to the schedule makers both in-house, and at the conference level.

Likely you have noticed the Big Ten has an influx of west coast members this year. The best of that bunch, No. 3 Oregon, does not appear on Penn State’s schedule. Pathetic UCLA and over-rated USC, do make the schedule.

Also absent from Penn State’s schedule is traditional nemesis Michigan. Although the Wolverines are nowhere near their national championship level of last season, based on past results would you really bet the house on Penn State if the two schools were playing this year?

That leaves Penn State with a game vs. No. 2 Ohio State as the only remaining ranked opposition. The Nittany Lions could suffer their customary loss to Ohio State and still make the postseason thanks to the rash of upsets that have littered the rankings with one-loss teams.

Penn State’s nonconference schedule was soft to say the least. Probably the best of the bunch was a mediocre West Virginia team. Bowling Green was surprisingly tough and Kent State had no business being on the schedule. We’ll talk more about Kent State later.

If Penn State coach James Franklin somehow botches this playoff chance he only bolsters his burgeoning reputation as perhaps the most over-rated, and overpaid coach in college football.

Penn State was expected to start well this year. Pitt, 5-0 for the first time since 1991, is more of a surprise and the Panthers finally have slipped into the Top 25 at No. 22.

Pitt hopes history won’t keep following the 1991 path. That team followed the 5-0 start with a four-game losing streak.

Next up for Pitt this year is California, a 3-2 conundrum of a team. Somehow, the Golden Bears led No. 8 Miami, 35-10 midway through the third quarter Saturday, and managed to lose, 39-38. This was a Cal home game.

In the previous game, Cal had been in Florida for an inexplicable loss to hapless Florida State (1-5).

Pitt’s delay in getting into the Top 25 despite an unbeaten record speaks to the great-escape nature of some of those wins, and the two easy victories coming against Youngstown State (2-4) and Kent State (0-5).

Any major college football team scheduling Kent State should be ashamed. Are you listening Penn State and Pitt? Kent State lost to Loretto’s St. Francis this year!

Pitt will not make the national championship playoffs, but it’s been a nice ride so far.

And then there are the Steelers who, despite losing two straight, share the lead in the AFC North with Baltimore, each at 3-2.

The loss to Indianapolis two games back was strange. Arguably, the loss to Dallas Sunday night was worse considering Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott tried his best to donate the game to the Steelers, with two interceptions and a fumble. Two of those turnovers came in the red zone, costing points.

The Cowboys also had a field-goal try blocked and committed 11 penalties for 87 yards. They came into the game with injuries to several key players, had more hurt in this game, and still pulled it out.

It was not a great moment for the Steelers.

Still, with the AFC looking weak in the extreme, the Steelers should at least make the playoff as one of three wild cards.

Legislating against that is a back-loaded schedule that includes the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day, two games with Baltimore, and one each vs. the surprisingly strong Washington Commanders and the Philadelphia Eagles.

That is punctuated with two games each against typically hapless Cleveland and surprisingly inept Cincinnati.

Before the tough games begin, the Steelers have a good chance to improve to 6-2 by virtue of games vs. the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets and New York Giants.

All in all, area football fans are having an enjoyable fall, one likely to continue along that path — at least for a time.

If only Kamala Harris had grown up in Johnstown, admiring neighbors’ lawns, ostensibly working at McDonalds, advancing through life unburdened by the past and honing her holistic approach to things, she’d have personal experience with natural disasters such as floods and, as a result, she and partner in political malfeasance Clueless Joe Biden wouldn’t be doing such a bad job helping victims in North Carolina, Georgia and other states.

Alas, Harris is a California girl, more into glitz than substance; rhetoric over results.

In her warped world, showing up for a 20-minute photo opportunity at the border more than offsets nearly four years of ignoring the problem and allowing upwards of half a million illegal immigrant criminals into the country to scatter to parts unknown and cause real harm to legitimate Americans.

Even worse, as evidenced by this crisis of flooding from Hurricane Helene, money that should be available for relief to U.S. citizens was spent on illegals. Those tax dollars were vaporized providing food, housing, cash vouchers, phones, trips to wherever Democratic vote enhancement was needed most, and maybe even a few sex change operations, all to illegal immigrants.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is claiming it’s broke after all that misguided spending. This means, if you’re still clinging to a tree on some North Carolina hillside waiting for help from your federal government, tough luck.

Kamala Chameleon made a stop somewhere near the flooded areas, not anywhere too hard hit you understand, and spoke of massive $750 payments from FEMA for people to get them over their problems.

I’m not sure about you, but my house, cars, and other various personal possessions, not to mention loved ones, are worth a bit more than $750. And the fact that the $750 wouldn’t cover what is spent on each illegal weekly, if not daily, only strengthens the tendency to gag.

It was pathetically obvious that Kamala Chameleon made this flood relief stop political, being careful to wear a jacket emblazoned with some sort of presidential seal. It was as tone deaf as wearing the $62,000 necklace on that ridiculous border visit.

Both gaffes recall the infamous 1988 photo opportunity of Michael Dukakis riding in an army tank. It was a chance for the tiny guy with a reputation of being soft to show how tough he was.

It didn’t work.

There are those who recall the assembled media laughing out loud. Back in 1988, you see, the LameStream media wasn’t a propaganda organ of the Democratic party. These were real journalists who recognized ridiculous performances and, more to the point, shared that view with their public.

Dukakis went on to suffer a thumping at the hands of George H.W. Bush in the presidential election, an electoral college landslide of 426-111.

But, in 2024, Kamala Chameleon’s absurd politicization of events, her tone-deaf approach to any and all matters, goes unchallenged except by the shrinking number of media members still trying to do their jobs the old-fashioned way.

I’m sure it’s only a coincidence that Kamala and Joe are ignoring victims in what are mostly rural areas Donald Trump could be expected to carry in the election.

And wouldn’t it be serendipitous if hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens could be flown in to replace the displaced flood victims, both as residents and Democratic voters!

Talk about your win-win outcomes for a couple of losers like Kamala and Joe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At times?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank God this is it, for about four years.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Me: I was born here.

Dean: Next question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well said, as usual, Elon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I saw this with my own two eyes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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