I got most of my Super Bowl picks correct – unfortunately.

Kansas City prevailed, 25-22, in overtime. I’d picked the underdog Chiefs to win outright in a Sunday post here, while noting I’d prefer it if San Francisco won.

I also identified proposition bet picks of Taylor Swift being shown more than six times during the broadcast (she was shown 12 times by count of the Houston Chronicle) and Swift arriving from an Asian concert in time for kickoff (she did.)

My only miss was taking the bet that Swift would be wearing a Travis Kelce jersey. She wasn’t.

Still that’s 3-1 on picks, a rebound from going 0-2 in conference championship games two weeks back.

As for the game, it was competitive and went to overtime. It was not, however, a well-played contest.

Kansas City was far from sharp and prevailed largely on the basis of San Francisco beating itself.

Most notably, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan added to his choking legacy. The common thread is Shanahan can’t seem to understand how to manage leads and run the ball, both to wear out opposing defenses and to drain the clock.

He was offensive coordinator when the Atlanta Falcons blew a 28-3 third-quarter lead to lose in overtime to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.

More recently, Shanahan twice has blown 10-point Super Bowl leads as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in losses to Kansas City. The second came Sunday.

And, as before, it largely was because Shanahan forgot to call any running plays when it would have mattered. Only after Kansas City had taken the lead in the second half did Shanahan rediscover his run calls and mix them with passes.

Still, when it mattered most in overtime, Shanahan tried a ridiculous play-action pass on a key third down – Kansas City’s defense had for some time been ignoring run fakes and racing straight at quarterback Brock Purdy. The pass thrown under duress was incomplete and the 49ers settled for a field goal and 3-point lead. But Kansas City would get a possession.

The Chiefs then marched promptly down the field to a winning touchdown and Shanahan had cemented his label as a playcalling choke artist when it counted.

It was legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel who said “Most ball games are lost, not won.”

Winners capitalize on outright mistakes of the opponents, or the failure of opponents to maximize opportunities.

I was screaming loud and long even when San Francisco led in the first half that the 49ers would lose the game due to their inability to build a bigger lead when they were dominant and Kansas City was stumbling.

Missing a second-half PAT didn’t help, nor did Shanahan’s again questionable playcalling.

Kansas City fans will celebrate back-to-back Super Bowl wins. But, make no mistake, the 49ers lost it. Shanahan’s name should go on the Lombardi Trophy as a contributor to the KC cause.

The Roman Empire had its bread and circuses, highlighted by the annual festival Saturnalia, to honor the god Saturn.

Our current American Empire has bread (welfare, SNAP, earned income tax credits, various heavy-handed governmental handouts based on perceived inequality), and circuses (assorted sports, general low-brow entertainment in movie and song, all-encompassing social media) climaxing with our annual Super Bowl celebration, in which the majority of the country’s populace gathers to watch football and commercials.

This is a moment in history exhibiting a particularly great need for distractions from the unpleasant realities of day-to-day existence. And so the elites took it upon themselves to meld football and pop culture.

There are those who think it is no coincidence that broadcasts of Kansas City Chiefs contests have devolved into unending shots of Taylor Swift in some private box observing the play.

Getting Swift – and the Chiefs – to the Super Bowl has been a coup for those desperate to have you lose focus on your personal plight.

Recall, Swift endorsed Clueless Joe Biden the last election, thereby unleashing her legions of Not-So-Swift brain donor fans to vote early and often for Joe. She is expected to do the same this time around, standing squarely behind a guy, who in the tradition of Super Bowl proposition bets, is about a 50-50 pick to know which two teams are playing in this most publicized sporting event.

I imagine broadcasters would collapse in orgasmic pleasure if only Mr. Taylor Swift would bend knee and propose on the field following the final whistle, that to be followed by the couple endorsing Biden and the cackling hen who serves as his vice president for four more years in office.

Or maybe Swift can commandeer the halftime show to indicate she’s ridin’ with Biden, which would rank in terms of memorability with Janet Jackson’s pierced breast nipple “accidentally” being exposed in a Super Bowl halftime extravaganza 20 years back.

For the average logic-impaired voter, this would be more than enough to allow them to forget day-to-day inconveniences such as inflation, heavy-handed government regulations, double standards in justice and the inability of otherwise learned individuals to discern whether an individual is a man or woman.

In recent days, we’ve been told that Biden, like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, mishandled classified information. But, like Hillary, Joe will get a pass because he’s an addle-brained old guy who can’t remember things and likely would be acquitted by a sympathetic jury. This is not my take, but that of the report from the special prosecutor assigned to investigate this Biden foible.

An outraged Biden held a press conference to dispute he is impaired mentally, and managed during this short time to provide further evidence by confusing Egypt and Mexico and freezing when delivering a line about where the rosary he has on him daily to honor a deceased son originated. Etc. Etc. Etc.

A study, based on a survey that had about 1 in 5 respondents ADMIT they have committed fraud in submitting their 2020 mail-in ballots, indicated Trump most likely actually won the election if only legitimate ballots had been counted.

The Federal Reserve, the quasi-governmental bank of banks that manipulates the money supply and sets interest rates, managed to lose a record $114.53 billion in 2023.

These are the same Fed people who helped cause the inflation with which we have suffered for years due to their unreasonably loose monetary policy.

And if you have the willingness to contemplate existential issues, know that we are one misguided act away from being involved not in proxy wars around the globe, but in actual combat with our military vs. counterparts from Russia, China or Iran.

If you think there is no risk to what is transpiring regarding Ukraine, the Middle East, or Taiwan, enjoy your blissful ignorance as long as you can.

Vote for Biden, again and again.

Let us forget reality for a few hours and lose ourselves in a football game and lose our money as a result of the availability of a seemingly never-ending supply of so-called proposition bets.

Take the yes for Taylor Swift arriving before kickoff. Take the over on Swift being shown on camera more than six times during the broadcast. Bet yes on Swift wearing a Travis Kelce jersey.

One prop bet I’d take, that I haven’t seen offered, is that Kelce and Swift no longer will be a couple at next year’s Super Bowl, but she will have used the experience to write yet another breakup song.

As for the game, (this from a guy who was 0-2 on the conference championship games) I’d love to see San Francisco win, but I’d eagerly take the two points and bet on Kansas City to win outright

Late on this watershed day that saw President Joe Biden judged to have been guilty of mishandling classified information, but given a pass on prosecution due to his diminished capacity, I decided to partake of some cable news.

The experience was all too predictable.

First, on Fox News, the panelists noted a man too diminished mentally to be prosecuted probably isn’t fit to be president, either now or down the line. Makes sense to me.

The Fox talking heads also thought it to be beyond the purview of a special prosecutor to decide not to bring charges because he thought a sympathetic jury might give the accused a pass due to age and some measure of likeability.

In addition, the Fox folks pointed out the hypocrisy of attempting to crucify Donald Trump on similar classified lapses, with that former president facing 37 felony counts. They highlighted that not only has Biden mishandled classified documents as president, but also, according to the report, he has done it while he was vice president and a senator.

Biden has been given some leniency for “cooperating” with prosecutors, but Trump’s lack of cooperation centered on him claiming – correctly – that a president can de-classify documents. A vice president or senator cannot do so.

And, the coup de grace was the recapping of Biden’s press conference Thursday night, when he alternated between expressing outrage at the special prosecutor questioning his mental acuity, then providing further evidence of same by confusing Mexico and Egypt and seeming to forget where he got the rosary he said he wears daily in remembrance of his late son, Beau.

It was a PR disaster for Biden to the extent that the cynics suggested it might have been just another attempt by the Deep State to get rid of Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, and perhaps replacing him on the ballot with Michelle Obama, or any warm body other than Kamala Harris.

To get the deranged left view, I switched to MSNBC and that analysis lived down to my expectations.

The female host of the 11 p.m. hour show kept hurling loaded questions at some guy from the New York Times and he failed to foam at the mouth on command. One telling camera shot, just before cutting away, showed said host throwing her head downward into her palms in disgust because this dog had not howled on command.

A couple of female panelists – forgive me if I got the gender identification wrong – were more amenable to the host’s leading inquiries.

During a few tortured minutes they either noted Donald Trump makes just as many speaking gaffes as does Biden – clearly that’s a whopper – or questioned the need for the special prosecutor to go political in pointing out Biden’s problems with dates, times, and assorted other facts during his interviews on the subject of mishandling classified documents.

One of these partisan hacks went so far as to be enthused at the combative way Biden went after the press, particularly those asking for a response to the fact that the public is doubting his mental fitness for the job. Why this Biden testiness pleased her, I’m not sure. He came off as an angry old man, trying to dispute facts with bluster and outrage.

This is vintage Biden. When in the past people have called him out on mistakes, outright lies (recall his “Lying, dog-faced pony soldier” and “you’re a damn liar” and “fat” shouts at such people) or just inconsistencies, Biden has been vintage insecurity, lashing out with ad hominem attacks instead of rationally explaining his positions.

Biden also played the blame game, blaming his staff for the classified problem, just as he had blamed generals for blowing the Afghan pullout and has blamed Trump and Trump’s supporters for all existing problems in this country despite Biden being in his fourth year on the job.

I’m sure the majority of Republicans thought this day to be a crucial moment in undermining Biden’s re-election chances.

I’m sure the majority of Democrats thought this was no big deal and will blindly vote for Biden again, as many times as necessary.

That speaks to the dysfunctional state of the United States. Where once people could acknowledge truth even when it conflicted with their party’s narrative, now the facts can’t be allowed to get in the way of narrative.

If you think this sealed Biden’s defeat this fall, you are only kidding yourself. If he runs, he almost assuredly will win. And if the Democrats do toss him overboard, it only means they have another figurehead candidate lined up to present a more palatable face for their behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

Never underestimate what Democratic operatives are willing to do to get and keep power.

Joe Biden, nominal president of these United States and would-be spiritualist, is at it again.

Biden seems to be living a variation – or imagining he is doing so — of the 1999 cinematic thriller “The Sixth Sense,” in which the Haley Joel Osment character very famously confides to the Bruce Willis character “I see dead people.” Osment’s character also talks with the deceased.

And so it is that Biden flits about recounting supposed recent interactions and conversations with long-dead leaders from other countries. Sometimes, just to add a little bit of spice, Biden jumbles up which of those dead people with whom he speaks represent which countries.

Ha, ha, ha. That’s just old Joe! Harmless and doddering.

Now, spiritualism and the White House are nothing new. From Mary Todd Lincoln trying to communicate with a deceased child via mediums, to Nancy Reagan’s fascination with astrologers, to Hillary Clinton ostensibly channeling Eleanor Roosevelt for guidance, attempting to interact with the deceased has something of a track record in Washington, D.C.

The difference – a notable one – is that while Clinton, Reagan and Lincoln presumably knew they are attempting to reach out to the dead, Biden seems to believe these interactions are with the still living.

This is a significant distinction, I would suggest.

But the delusion and confusion of the aptly nicknamed Clueless Joe Biden appears to have little downside and substantial benefit.

Consider that the man is purported to have won the presidency while in a veritable witness protection program, garnering a record number of votes in the process.

When Biden did venture forth to offer some ridiculous statement such as he was running for Senate, not president, it didn’t harm his vote totals one bit. Perhaps this is a credit to those doing the counting, but I digress.

Just today, Biden’s lack of mental faculties has been invoked by a special prosecutor to explain why no charges will be forthcoming for Biden illegally possessing classified information.

You might recall a full-on SWAT raid of Donald Trump’s estate and no fewer than 37 felony charges filed against Trump for – wait for it – illegally possessing classified information.

The difference seems to be mental state, as in Biden is too cognitively impaired to be aware he was breaking the law. He is not too cognitively impaired, though, to serve as president.

Perhaps Trump should begin shaking hands with imaginary people, needing to be escorted off stages, freezing in mid-sentence during addresses, and being unable to recall any significant details of anything without the use of note cards and teleprompters.

I can’t wait to hear the Biden apologists try to explain away this latest bit of selective law enforcement. But, make no mistake, they will make some feeble attempt which, considering Biden’s mental state, is fitting.

Last October I wrote a blog entry on the travails of being a Republican. Events of today suggest an update is in order.

The oddly rhythmic knock at my door came around midday; a man seeking signatures on nominating petitions.

He went one-for-two with me, failing to get me to sign up for a Republican candidate to oust Frank Burns from the state House. The man shared that I was not the only person so inclined on my street and he didn’t bother to suggest that we were wrong.

What followed was a good discussion of what ails the Republican Party, on a local, state and national basis.

In an obtuse way, Burns is an example of that. Among Burns’ many accomplishments in office has been the outing of the Myopia 2025 closed-door elites’ secret plan to ship unvetted Afghan refugees into the area.

It failed when the light of publicity was shone upon the plan, sunshine being a great disinfectant.

Understand that in so doing, Burns, a Democrat, aided greatly the public he represents, but also angered elites of both political stripes. Think of him as a smaller scale Donald Trump, who now must defeat interests both in his party and the supposed opposition party in order to retain office.

Make no mistake, the knives are out for Burns, who had the temerity to buck the behind-the-scenes puppetmasters.

I’m a registered Republican, but I have voted for Burns in the past and will do so again, particularly as long as Republicans offer up as candidates people from the cabal of non-profits, not-for-profits, foundations and various other nominal charitable organizations that have taken control of area politics.

There’s a reason why Johnstown and Cambria County seem to be mired in unescapable third-class economic status. Shaking the begging bowl for federal largesse and distributing it among the politically favored isn’t going to change that, just as stringing more lights above Main Street won’t solve any problems.

The petition man recognized me from my days as a local sports columnist, and we spoke of some common acquaintances from Windber. We talked sports briefly, but then went back to politics and the sad state of the Republican party. Again, he seemed to agree.

It was after he had left that more evidence of this came to light.

First, four gutless Republicans in the U.S. House failed to vote for impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has presided over turning our southern border into a particularly porous sieve.

Next came reports that Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is going to quit soon. Good riddance.

Under McDaniel, Republicans have failed to deliver a concise, clear message and so have squandered opportunities to win elections against a wounded Democratic Party. It is instructive that Trump’s 2016 presidential win came with the Republican establishment only being dragged kicking and screaming late to backing the winner.

As I told my afternoon visitor, Republicans have to take off the gloves and understand that those on the left mostly hate us and would have us confined in concentration camps if they could. George W. Bush and his compassionate conservative pap set back the party despite his presidential wins.

Give the Democrats credit, they almost always can be counted upon to line up and march in lockstep fashion spouting the party line, no matter how bizarre, fringe or anti-American it might be.

Meanwhile, Republicans try to find middle ground and shrink from the fight.

Emboldened Democrats smell weakness and run roughshod, at all levels.

Impeaching Mayorkas would have been a start. Showing McDaniel the door also would be a positive step.

But it’s going to take much more than that and I’m not sure Republican leadership – beyond Trump – has the stomach to do what needs to be done.

If we can’t find quality Republican candidates, an intelligent person votes for a Democrat like Burns, who at least isn’t drinking his party’s far-left Kool-Aid.

This is the day Punxsy Phil didn’t see his shadow, government estimators came out with another surprisingly large increase in the job report (no doubt subject to downward revision in coming months as is almost always the case), Clueless Joe met protesters at each stop of his journey, and the military heat was turned up in the Middle East.

It is a backdrop for contemplation, best expressed in the form of questions.

When do white men get to play the race/victim card, joining various racial minorities, women, gender-confused types and other protected groups in calling for unfair advantages from society?

When do whistleblowers implicating Democrats for wrongdoing get their fair hearing and protection from retaliatory witch hunts against them?

Why does a Democratic staffer who videoed and posted online a gay sexual encounter in a Senate meeting room, escape punishment while ordinary citizens – presumably Republicans – are jailed and otherwise penalized for being in The Capitol on Jan. 6?

Why do investment markets react so strongly in kneejerk fashion to government statistics that are mere estimates and frequently prove to be incorrect?

Why are illegal immigrants both here and abroad able to commit crimes with impunity, escaping punishment even as their liberal apologists labor to explain away those misdeeds?

Where is the outrage over alleged serial indiscretions by Atlanta Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has been accused of hiring a married lover to prosecute/persecute Donald Trump and now is said to have fired a whistleblower for alleging a misuse by Willis’ office of Federal grant money?

Why is Nimarata (Nikki) Randhawa (Haley) still hanging around in the chase for the Republican presidential nomination?

Is she a Quisling?

Is she a stalking horse?

When do traditional Americans, from either major political party, say enough to the ongoing bastardization of our laws, traditions and customs of this once-great nation?

Does anyone think it is mere coincidence that most of the major U.S. cities facing mounting crime, declining quality of life and massive impending commercial real estate crises are led by Democratic administrations?

If you are sleeping well at night you aren’t paying enough attention to domestic and/or world events.

Life as we know it is perched on the precipice of catastrophic change.

Begin with the so-called “Doomsday Clock” as shared by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, said to be a mere 90 seconds from striking midnight. Midnight in this case is much worse than Cinderella’s carriage turning back into a pumpkin, her horses to mice and her ball gown to tattered rags.

Think military armageddon with financial and societal collapse thrown into the stew.

We live in a world with ongoing wars in Europe, the Middle East, and possibly in these United States if Clueless Joe Biden decides to continue to pick a fight with Texas due to his goal of keeping our southern border with Mexico wide-open – the better to restock the voting pool with blindly Democratic voters, be they legitimate or not.

Yet stock markets are at or near all-time highs, consumer confidence reportedly is high and optimism abounds. We are said to be in a so-called Goldilocks moment, with everything just right.

All this is the perceived status even though on Tuesday earlier this week, according to many reports, a U.S. Naval destroyer operating in the Red Sea had a cruise missile, said to have been fired by Houthi rebels, come within a mile of the ship. It had to be shot down by the ship’s “close-in weapons system” – machine guns. This is not supposed to happen in these high-tech times.

We came so very close to that ship possibly being sunk and a crew of perhaps 300 being killed or injured. Then what?

And you probably heard of this only in passing, if at all.

That speaks to the perilous times in which we live and the general ignorance of same.

Do yourself a favor, start paying attention.

Note hundreds of farmers protesting outside the European Union Parliament building Thursday to protest the Green agenda putting them out of business in pursuit of dealing with so-called climate emergencies. These protesters were shot with rubber bullets and water cannons because they want to grow food and raise livestock, as they have for decades.

European nations have sacrificed their individual sovereignty to these draconian bureaucrats in Brussels and are finding the price for their indifference to that takeover to be very high, indeed.

Other countries are witnessing similar demonstrations by unhappy citizenry, and it likely is only the beginning.

Consider the next looming financial crisis — over-leveraged commercial real estate — and the unhappy reality of owners having to re-finance those monstrous debts at much higher interest rates. Remember how the subprime housing debacle tanked financial markets in 2008/2009? This has the potential to be that exercise on steroids.

It already is causing banking cracks to form in China, Japan, Europe and the United States, which helped explain Wednesday’s massive stock market declines.

A similar concern is all the U.S. government debt, being refinanced at higher interest rates and taking an ever large slice of tax revenues to pay for it all, even as our politicians continue to borrow and spend at a breakneck pace.

As so-called “Bond King” Jeffrey Gundlach observed on a Wednesday cable business news appearance, all the Goldilocks talk makes him nervous and he expects a recession this year.

Gundlach also noted that while the cracks in the financial system have been evident for some time, it can take longer than one expects for the eventual breakdown. But, the breakdown eventually comes.

When superstar tech company Apple reports disappointing earnings, as happened Thursday, that’s another crack in the accepted Goldilocks narrative.

But don’t worry, the Democrats will save us. That’s the party of Clueless Joe (Brandon, The Big Guy) as well as having 75 percent of its membership in the U.S. House vote AGAINST deporting illegal immigrants and foreign aliens who commit Social Security fraud.

That’s the same party that’s going to kill democracy to save it, lionizes DEI types who plagiarize their way to the top, wants gender-confused males beating up on your biological daughters in sporting events, looks daily for ways to diminish your rights from free speech to privacy to gun ownership, and just basically should operate under a party flag of a raised middle finger toward anyone not in their Ivy League-educated elite club.

If Punxsutawney Phil really wanted to show his prognosticator chops, he’d emerge from his burrow Friday morning and predict all this unchecked insanity is going to have an unpleasant ending, one far worse than a few more weeks of winter.

Back in the days of my youth, when the AAABA Tournament still fielded representatives from power franchises such as Baltimore, Washington, Detroit, et al, and the format was double-defeat elimination, the catch phrase for the Johnstown entries was So what’s new, out in two.

Our guys regrettably tended to show up, lose twice, and move on with their lives.

Expectations were low among the fan base, and too often met. This was particularly true in the 1960s when, during a 10-year period, Johnstown entries went 0-2 five times, 1-2 three others, and managed their best years, a pair of break-even 2-2 tournament records, in 1964 (Kiwanis Club) and 1960 (Hahn Packing).

After today’s NFL conference championship games, I’m feeling like those 1960s vintage Johnstown AAABA entries. So what’s new, I lost two.

Having San Francisco play like garbage for the first half, rally to cover the spread late, then concede an excuse-me touchdown to set the 34-31 final, was disappointing. Yes, San Francisco won and is headed to the Super Bowl, but those of us picking the 49ers to win by more than seven points were losers just like the Detroit Lions.

Fortunately, I don’t risk any coin on these picks. They really are, to borrow a disclaimer from the illegal betting pools of my younger days, for amusement only.

The missed pick Sunday that really gripes me is taking Baltimore and giving 3.5 points against Kansas City. Long-time readers of this blog know I have little confidence in Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson to come through in big games based on his track record.

But, after he had performed well in a regular-season showdown vs. San Francisco (49ers QB Brock Purdy had melted down in that one with four interceptions), and also in view of how Jackson had looked precise in a divisional round playoff victory vs. Texas, I thought maybe this time was different.

It wasn’t. Jackson was his usual clueless self, experimenting with different passing motions either to have those passes swatted down or flutter incomplete. On one occasion, Jackson actually caught a pass from himself that had been batted into the air by a defender.

More to the point, Jackson displayed his customary lack of pocket awareness, surrendering a strip sack, and also threw one of his wish heaves into triple coverage to end the game with an interception.

That helped the Chiefs to a 17-10 win as 3.5-point underdogs.

It didn’t help that KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes was razor sharp – until the Ravens coaching staff finally decided to pressure him instead of allowing him to continue to carve them up after a near-perfect first half.

Be right and sit tight is the investment advice oft-quoted from the book “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.”

I was right about Jackson’s ongoing inability to perform in the clutch, but I lost my resolve due to a couple of outlier results, and because of that, lost the pick.

Again, no money was lost; merely pride.

Your wait in breathless anticipation is over – my picks for the NFL’s conference championship games are here.

They come at the end of a week that began with a shirtless member of the Kelce posse flaunting an ample, naked chest through the window of the family’s stadium suite in Buffalo.

No, it wasn’t Travis Kelce’s gal pal Taylor Swift, but instead his brother Jason. Several days later, it was Taylor flashing, so to speak. She made quite the stir when her fake, said to be AI-generated explicit photos, hit social media Friday and were promptly taken down by the powers that be.

Reuters reported Friday that the White House was “alarmed” by those fake images, one of which the New York Times reported was viewed 47 million times before the account on X (Twitter) was suspended. Alas, I missed the show, but I hope Bill Clinton got a peek.

Understand, it takes a lot to alarm Clueless Joe Biden and, by extension, the White House. A pathetic war monger from Ukraine, threatening with each escalation to draw the U.S. into direct conflict with Russia, does not alarm the White House.

Similarly, the U.S. fumbling around the edges of another Middle East conflict, with implications for potential direct conflict with Iran, and possibly Russia and China, doesn’t seem to alarm the White House.

Millions of illegal immigrants pouring into the United States through our porous southern border also does not alarm the White House.

Inflation, a weaponized Department of Justice, street crime, crippling deficits, and the oxymoron of Democrats attempting to preserve democracy by killing it, all do not alarm the White House.

But a few fake skin pics of Taylor Swift on social media, now that’s alarmingly intolerable.

Biden must be envious of the popularity given to this strange, symbiotic relationship between a popular culture idol and the most popular pro sport in these United States.

It is the modern equivalent of the Roman bread and circuses. Then, a declining empire sought to distract and placate the masses by giving them free food and lavish spectacles

As for the current U.S., a web post by Pew Research put the number of SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) recipients the past April at 42 million people give or take. That’s only the tip of the iceberg, with SNAP being just one of 16 governmental programs designed to provide free food.

While the government can’t take direct credit for the NFL, it does share in the league’s popularity due to the ongoing anti-trust exemption granted to the NFL, NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball in regards to negotiating broadcasting rights collectively, the better to allow the masses to watch the games.

Fold in an overdose of Swift in each broadcast, viewed by a lot of people snacking on government handout food, and all seems almost well. Just ignore those barbarians racing across the Rio Grande.

You can find distraction from all the unpleasant reality again this Sunday.

Kansas City, Team Swift, is in Baltimore to play the Ravens in the AFC Championship contest. The Ravens, despite lacking a Swift-like presence dating one of the team’s players, have been installed as a 3.5-point favorite.

I correctly took the underdog Chiefs to win outright last week at Buffalo, an outcome achieved in large part due to an injury-depleted Buffalo defense, augmented by traditional Bills ineptitude – faking a punt for no apparent reason and yet another wide-right miss of a field goal.

Baltimore is better both offensively and defensively than Buffalo and placekicker Justin Tucker, the most accurate of his type in NFL history, isn’t likely to choke on a critical kick late.

Baltimore wins outright and covers the spread.

Later Sunday, Detroit is at San Francisco in the NFL title game, looking to earn a first-ever Super Bowl appearance with a win. San Francisco is favored by seven points.

Simply put, Detroit runs the ball well and the 49ers don’t stop the run particularly well. But San Francisco’s passing attack will be facing an especially poor pass defense from the Lions.

Despite winning in the previous round, San Francisco did not cover the spread, thereby giving me the only other pick I was correct about last weekend.

This week, benefiting from a wake-up call from Green Bay, and having supposedly healthy wide receiver Deebo Samuel back, the 49ers not only figure to win, but they will cover that seven-point spread.

In a bonus pick, take the over on calls that will be made by the NFL, CBS executives and Swift fans to suicide prevention hotlines if the Chiefs succumb as predicted.

I often wonder how these scam telephone solicitors sleep at night.

They are not offering a worthwhile good or service and they know that. Yet, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, they strap on a headset and try to trick people into parting with their hard-earned money.

If you’re like me, you get repeated calls from these people; an unnecessary annoyance that never is going to be quelled by do-not-call lists. Those lists are, by definition, only effective when the company is reputable, sort of like how stringent gun legislation only tends to restrict the law-abiding while giving criminals free rein

To repeat, the telephone scammers are pitching garbage and they know it. They do not have plausible deniability. They are fully aware that they are crooks and charlatans, and yet they keep doing it, seemingly without remorse

Along a similar line, how can working class people, the traditional bedrock of the Democratic Party, continue to support what their party has become; this current amalgamation of elitists, fringe crazies and outright socialists whose wet dream is to destroy the U.S. morally and economically?

Democrats these days profess to be trying to protect democracy. How do they propose to do that?

By trying to get Donald Trump barred from appearing on ballots for the fall’s presidential election.

By having many of their deep-pocketed donors, people who have made money in capitalism and now profess to abhor it, funding pathetic Trump Republican challengers such as Nikki (Nimarata Randhawa) Haley

By crossing party lines in primaries to vote for Trump opposition.

By lining up like sheep to support cadaver Joe Biden, yet having the temerity to suggest Trump is losing his mental faculties due to age.

By projecting all their obvious failings – lying, cheating, stealing, for example – onto their opponents.

By acting like things are great, both domestically and internationally, and only would get better with four more years of Biden.

By going with the obviously insane supposition that cackling VP Kamala Harris is up to the challenge of taking over in the likely event Biden can’t make it through this term, or another.

By screaming Russia, Russia, Russia, insurrection, insurrection, insurrection, but being perfectly OK with the Biden family’s foreign entanglements, not to mention the foibles of minor league artist Hunter.

The Republican hierarchy isn’t much better. Perhaps you have read how Arizona’s state GOP chair has resigned after Trump ally Kari Lake came forth with recordings of how the guy tried to bribe her to stay out of politics for two years because “there are very powerful people who want to keep you out.”

Lake went public and the chairman left the scene. Why do “powerful people” want Lake out of the spotlight? Perhaps because, like Trump, she calls it as she sees it and that doesn’t make the elitists on either side comfortable.

This is one of the things about Trump that appeals to me, how he takes on Republican and Democratic elites with equal gusto and because of that is disliked by both in a large measure.

His 2016 win was arguably the greatest victory in U.S. politics because he beat his own party as well as the opposition. If Trump can repeat that in 2024, it would be an even greater shocker.

Trump was, and is, right about the Washington Swamp, a mishmash of bipartisan types and unelected bureaucrats sharing power and putting it to the American populace along the way.

There are good Republicans, likely a larger percentage than good Democrats, but there are far too many bad apples in each barrel.

And you are right to wonder how these disingenuous types — in both parties — sleep at night knowing what they are.