Time is running out on another year, traditionally the signal to make personal resolutions for next year. Around here, we do the resolution bit with a twist: We make resolutions for others. No need to thank us.

• Johnstown’s Myopia 2025 should resolve to end it all a year early, having failed in various behind-the-scene maneuvers, not the least of which was to flood the area with Afghanistan refugees, the better to provide the Myopia elites with a source of relatively cheap labor for their various ventures.

• American citizenry needs to resolve to do more to lock the spinning turnstile that is our southern border before the nation’s identity is lost. Already many European countries are coming to the realization they need to do something to stop mass immigration by people not looking to assimilate, but rather to subjugate the natives.

• Clueless Joe Biden ought to resolve to attempt to go an entire month without doing or saying anything stupid.

• Democrats ought to stop trying to save democracy by legislating away the opportunity of opposing candidates to run for political office.

• Johnstown elites would do well to stop beating the tourism drum and admit publicly that stringing more lights along Main Street and paving Central Park is not the cure for the economic doldrums.

• Penn State football coach James Franklin, fresh off a bowl embarrassment, might want to resolve to start winning some big games. Failing that, stop whining, as he apparently did to the broadcast crew of this year’s bowl fiasco, that he doesn’t have good enough players. Isn’t that the responsibility of the head coach, to recruit the talent? Most teams had players opting not to play in bowl games and, last time I checked, Penn State had no opt-outs vs. Ohio State or Michigan.

• Our Pittsburgh Steelers, who find themselves needing the help of strangers in the final week of NFL play to slink into the playoffs, might resolve to do a better job next season of taking maximum advantage of a weak schedule and winning the apparent gift games.

• The citizenry in general ought to resolve to learn more about current events, politics, world issues and the history of this great land. It’s more important for them to know who their Senators are than to know Taylor Swift’s current boyfriend.

• Along that line, the citizenry might want to resolve to reacquaint itself with the ability to reason critically and stop believing the many absurd and blatant lies being spread by so many LameStream Media outlets.

• Our Clueless Commander in Chief might resolve either to get our forces out of the Middle East (land, sea and air) or to take the shackles off them and allow them to respond with disproportionate force against all the rebel forces currently taking potshots at them. If this leads to action in Iran, so be it.

• I’ll end with a final 2024 resolution for me, that being to buy more gold and silver (in physical or ETF form) as well as more precious metals mining stocks (individual or ETF) to help insulate me from the economic and social upset I see on our doorstep.

Now that Georgia has annihilated Florida State in the Orange Bowl, by an historic 63-3 margin, defenders of the college football playoff selection elites must be doing handstands.

In the words of college football guru Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.

There are many ways to view the Georgia landslide, and some of them continue to paint the selection people in an unfortunate light.

The supporters of these holier-than-thou types would point to the one-sided outcome of the Orange Bowl and congratulate them for correctly excluding unbeaten Florida State from the final four field playing for the national championship.

But, let’s spin the dial 360 degrees. Forget Florida State for the moment. Can these college football geniuses still feel Georgia, another playoff exclusion, is not one of the four best teams in college football?

We’re talking about the two-time defending national champions, whose lone loss in recent memory was a 27-24 setback to Alabama in the SEC title game. By virtue of that, Alabama, which earlier this season got thumped 34-24 by Texas, at home, got the nod for the playoff field.

Who in their right mind could say that Alabama clearly is better than Georgia? They were better by three points on one day in December. The moral of this story is lose early, as Georgia did, and give the aging playoff selectors time to forget.

Now, back to Florida State. We wrote recently about the sad state of the college bowl season, with teams having players simply opt not to play in these suddenly meaningless bowl games outside the national championship playoff.

The players sit for many reasons, including fear of injury ahead of the NFL draft, or because they already have committed to college football free agency – the transfer portal.

Florida State, according to a story on ESPN.com, played without 29 scholarship players vs. Georgia.

For reasons varying from injury, to opt-outs, to we’re not sure why, the Seminoles were without their top two quarterbacks, top two running backs, top two receivers, starting tight end, three defensive linemen, three starting linebackers and three starting defensive backs.

It was obvious that, stripped of the opportunity to play for a national title, these players said the heck with it.

Could Florida State at full-strength have beaten Georgia? Who knows. But congratulations to the selection people for interceding to help determine the degree of defeat, if not the entire outcome. They must be so proud.

My first inclination was to be a Grinch about this college football bowl season.

So much celebration over so little substance.

But, in the spirit of the holidays, I decided to accept it all as just another sign of our times.

Think of it as diversity, equity and inclusion for the sporting world, the sort of thing that gives us sanctimonious Harvard presidents who plagiarized their way to the top.

Football teams are famous for copying the work of others. But this state of the bowls is more a case of the everybody’s-a-winner mentality; trophies for all.

It’s only fitting that this concept should work its way to the top of college football, giving us mediocre teams battling for trophies, in bowls whose names you don’t know, and often in undesirable locales.

Where once bowl games were considered rewards for good seasons, now they have been reduced to rewarding teams still possessing a pulse at season’s end.

The college football playoff system is the curious opposite of all this. That playoff setup annually manages to exclude worthy teams, a lowlight being this year when UNBEATEN ACC CHAMPION FLORIDA STATE, was left on the outside looking in at the lucky four.

There is a fallout of the college playoff system, and that is to further minimize the import of all those other bowl games.

This has produced yet another trend that produces bowl mediocrity.

We often are sold the propaganda of football teams as bands of brothers, with individuals caring as much about teammates as themselves, willing to sacrifice massively for the greater good.

And this is true to a certain extent. But the star players, those aspiring to the more overt play-for-pay ranks, suddenly fear injury and so ‘opt out” of bowl games not part of the title playoff. That is to say they just don’t play in them, but sometimes do deign to show up for cameo sideline appearances.

For every player like the Kansas State red-shirt senior offensive lineman who played despite the “risk” and was giddy in the postgame victory celebration, there are plenty of teams gutted by this phenomenon.

Ohio State, which put on an embarrassing performance against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl, got a double whammy of this.

First off, superstar wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. sat out, avoiding injury and all that despite the junior having yet to declare for the NFL draft.

Also, the Buckeyes were hit by the transfer portal phenomenon — free agency for college players. Think of this the next time you are fed the BS about student-athletes playing for Old State U!

Formerly, transferring players had to sit out a season, which cooled their ardor for pursuit of greener pastures. Now, there is almost tacit NCAA encouragement, the better to fire up offseason publicity for the product and see it contribute to more television bucks and greater public attention.

This meant Ohio State’s starting quarterback was contemplating life at Syracuse instead of playing. His backup started and soon was injured, to be replaced by the third-stringer.

Not surprisingly, Ohio State managed but a field goal, ending a streak of 88 games scoring a touchdown, dating, ironically, to the 2016 Fiesta Bowl.

Missouri won, 14-3, in the video equivalent of Sominex that ensued.

At least we’re finally reaching the point of bowl season where the games have legitimate participants. We just had to suffer through a lot of everybody’s-a-winner preliminaries to get here.

Celebrating Christmas is such a full-time job, I wonder how I ever was able to get it all done before I retired.

Only now, a few days after C-Day, do I have a spare moment or two to scribble up a blog entry.

The only way to attempt to cover the bases is with an installment of News and Views.

NEWS: Various Lamestream media outlets report Democrats are unable to understand how the populace is unhappy with the economy despite the “great” numbers being disgorged almost daily, things like a low unemployment rate, rising GDP (gross domestic product) and moderating inflation. Bidenomics is a win, they proclaim, but the masses are just too stupid to comprehend this.

VIEWS: The answers are simple. First, the relatively low unemployment rate is as much a function of a shrinking number of people seeking jobs as it is robust job growth. Simply put, when you use a percentage against a declining base, the good numbers aren’t necessarily as good as you would think. Regarding GDP, the historic national debts we are running to support our out-of-control spending, as well as Zelenskyy’s Napoleon Complex, buys growth, but at what cost? As for inflation, yes it is going up at a slower rate. But prices still are increasing, up about 17.5 percent on an average basket of goods since Clueless Joe was shoved into the Oval Office. Wages, except for lucky auto workers, are not up that much. People feel poorer and rightly so. Calling them stupid for not buying the talking points is not a winning strategy.

NEWS: Our southern border is an out-of-control mess, leading Democratic mayors of northern sanctuary cities (Chicago, Denver, New York City, among others) to cry out for federal dollars to help them cope with the flood of illegal immigrants. But the federal budget already is paying a steep price for unfettered illegal immigration according to a study from the Center For Immigration Studies, as reported by Epoch Times. That study shows nearly 60 percent of households headed by illegal immigrants suck at the public welfare teat, as compared with 39 percent of households headed by people born in the (dis)United States.

VIEWS: Illegals propagate like rabbits, unfettered by the need to earn money to pay for the kids. But keep the gates open, Clueless One, as a source of more Democrat voters to elect and support additional proponents of leftist idiocy. It continues until enough Americans demand it stop. So far, the silence has been deafening.

NEWS: Pennsylvania’s Senatorial embarrassment, John Fetterman, has taken a break from hospitalizations, for issues both physical and mental, to lash out at long-time Democratic strategist James Carville, telling him just to shut the F up on the subject of Clueless Joe and diminishing re-election prospects. Fetterman, who already has made quite the Senate fashion statement with his hoodies and baggy shorts, rightly figures that since he was “elected” to the Senate while running a campaign in a catatonic state, including one abysmal debate, Clueless Joe is a shoo-in for a second term despite similar failings.

VIEWS: Fetterman probably is right. If Biden won once, I’m sure Democratic “vote enhancement” will get him over the finish line again. Never mind those polls that show Trump crushing Biden in key states. Fair elections in this country have gone the way of the affordable house, with both Fetterman and Biden as stumbling, bumbling evidence. But, it is amusing that Carville, described as looking like the grownup “Deliverance” love child, once got Bill Clinton elected on the mantra: It’s the economy, stupid. Is it still the economy, stupid or just who counts the votes, and how?

NEWS: Beer sales in the United States through the first nine months of 2023 were down 5 percent, the worst performance in the past 25 years. The decline was led by the Anheuser-Busch family of beers, who so famously decided to hitch their Bud Light wagon to a YouTube “trans-influencer.”

VIEWS: Dare we dream this is just one segment of the Get Woke, Go Broke backlash by the average American? Disney et al, take note.

The wife and I went Christmas shopping today (Friday Dec. 22) and how that brought back memories.

That’s an affliction of people my age. We find reminders of the past in the present. Sometimes they are refreshingly pleasant and today was such an example.

It was surprising on a positive note to see the crowds throughout today. I recall a time when people jammed stores virtually nonstop from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

As a child in Johnstown, the retail activity centered on the downtown, with Penn Traffic’s holiday window display much like the one portrayed in the movie “A Christmas Story.” Glosser Bros. department store also was festive back then, as were the many smaller retail outlets that dotted the downtown landscape and – get this – stayed open after five p.m., particularly during the holiday season.

Through the years the action migrated to the Richland area, with the strip of stores along Scalp Avenue and the late Richland Mall, formerly on the site of our current WalMart. During my early days working for the Tribune-Review, I recall needing to find an alternative way home from the Greensburg office during this time of year to miss the traffic tieup on Route 30 associated with Westmoreland Mall shoppers.

Those scenes had waned decidedly in recent years as a combination of online shopping and overhyped viruses had people observing holidays in relative isolation.

A maskhole or two was witnessed today, despite overwhelming evidence the masks do little more than encumber the wearer, both in terms of breathing and also in terms of giving wearers an unrealistically high level of confidence that infection can’t work it’s way through that cheap piece of cloth.

The majority of our fellow shoppers were unmasked and having a good time. My wife even had a mini-reunion with a cousin she had not seen in many years.

The shoppers were courteous for the most part and spending plenty as judging by their jammed shopping cart. Workers, who in past years had been limited to “Happy Holidays” greetings so as not to offend the Woke crowd, are back to saying “Merry Christmas.” A positive there.

The story was the same at Ollie’s along Scalp Avenue, at WalMart and satellite shops around it, and at the Galleria.

The Galleria was especially encouraging, considering that the last several times I’d been there the place had been virtually dead. Now there are smaller shops springing up. The once vacant food court has numerous dining options, and seemingly a good flow of pleased customers

A small train was offering children rides (for $6) in one common area and the engineer sang Christmas carols. I repeat, no canned soundtrack, the guy actually sang – quite well, I might add.

Families with small children stood in line nearby eagerly anticipating a moment with Santa and a photo opportunity.

No Galleria visit is complete without a stop at Boscov’s, which is sort of a combined Penn Traffic/Glosser’s. Again, the memories.

As we left the WalMart area to motor over to the Galleria, there were cars lined up on Theatre Drive. Coming back past that area to meet our son for dinner, the backups were even worse.

There was excitement in the air, the sort you don’t get sitting in front of your computer clicking a mouse to make purchases.

This reminds me of some of the commentary from Ed McMahon, the second banana to The Tonight Show headliner Johnny Carson for about three decades, beginning when I was seven years old. Back then, staying up that late was something that happened for me only this time of the year.

McMahon and Carson loved to chitchat about Christmas shopping. McMahon preferred to wait until the last minute and go dashing around up to and including on Christmas Eve to make his purchases. Carson was more of an early shopper. McMahon simply enjoyed the exciting atmosphere as Christmas neared.

About a week later each year, Carson and McMahon would host a New Year’s Eve show, cutting to Ben Grauer at Times Square for periodic updates and, finally the countdown to a New Year as the ball dropped.

This eventually gave way to over-the-top network celebrations, devoting hours and copious amounts of entertainment to the ringing in of a new year.

Somehow, I preferred the old way, just as I prefer seeing families out shopping in stores and making precious memories.

In this time of caring and sharing, let us extend a warm wish to the Democrats who find themselves increasingly despondent as they continue to fail miserably in their persecution of Donald Trump, toward the end of steering cadaver Joe Biden into another term as president.

Their plan seemed so simple. Even before Trump was elected to his first term, the lamestream media, justice department, and various agencies known by alphabet shorthand united in the attempt to assassinate Trump’s character with made-up indiscretions. Twist the rules, mangle the law if necessary. Just discredit the guy so Shillary could assume her ultimate rightful place as a no-talent rider of her husband’s coattails.

Shillary was writing her victory speech in February, but a funny thing happened come November. Thinking it was a lock, the Democrats did not employ their typical “vote enhancement” techniques and Trump won.

Horrified Democrats wailed, cried and made death vows to get rid of Trump.

Career bureaucrats and those aforementioned alphabet agencies redoubled their efforts, as did lamestream media. Partisan judges were sourced and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives went on a multi-year witchhunt vs. Trump.

Then came the 2020 election. This time Democrats would not be caught with their pants down – even if it did require massive efforts to keep private the list of frequent flyers on Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express.

Heaven and earth were moved to ensure the necessary “vote enhancement” would be achieved. If it took shutting down the economy in reaction to a virus only slightly more dangerous than the common cold, so be it.

If it took sending Republican poll observers home, then running countless ballots through scanners in their absence, so be it.

If it took outright rewriting election laws on the fly to allow mail-in votes to be cast in any questionable form or fashion, hey, we’re just saving democracy by predetermining our guy wins.

Biden claimed the win, but the Dems weren’t done. They would need to continue the persecution of Trump because, deep in their unethical hearts, they feared the public would catch on and no amount of “vote enhancement” could push the troubled Biden to victory again.

That last part is being reflected in polls. Each time the Democrats score what they perceive as a political/legal win vs. Trump, like barring him from Colorado ballots in what legal scholars widely regard as a vast, unconstitutional over-reach, Trump’s poll numbers go skyward.

Not only is Trump clobbering his supposed challengers for the Republican nomination, he’s also pounding on Biden in key battleground states, as well as general head-to-head matchup polls.

And so, we present Hail To The Trump, to be sung to the tune of Joy To The World.

Hail to the Trump, the Dems have found

They just can’t kill the Don

The orange man lives, he just won’t stop

And leftist hearts feel the dread

And leftist hearts feel the dread

And leftists, those leftists, they feel the dread

Oh, God, the polls, they do proclaim

That Trump is on a roll

Despite all our plans, the guy could win

And he’ll be out for blood

And he’ll be out for blood.

And he, and he’ll be out for blood

Karma’s a fate, that we must fear

We’ll pay a heavy price

Trump sure is mad, we can’t be glad

He’ll kick our thieving butts

He’ll kick our thieving butts.

He’ll kick, he’ll kick our thieving butts

There are strange, contradictory utterances emanating from the usual Federal Reserve suspects. We are left to wonder what it all means.

Begin with the big guy himself – not Santa, but Fed Chair Jerome “Jay” Powell. He’s the Mr. Rogers-looking guy trotted out monthly to make a statement, followed up half an hour later by a question-answer session, which ordinarily makes the biggest news.

Powell has positioned himself as a hawk (Fedspeak for someone intent on keeping interest rates high, monetary policy restrictive and generally acting like the guy taking away the punch bowl just when the party was getting started).

Interest rates have been raised from virtually zero to over 5 percent, and mere weeks before last week’s Fed meeting, Powell was talking hawkish about keeping rates high for a longer than expected time frame.

Investment markets have been trading like Powell was fibbing and would blink. The bet is Powell and his cohorts would cut rates early and often, having tamed inflation. Sure, inflation still is running much hotter than the self-identified 2 percent target for an annual rate. But it’s down from 9 percent and, in keeping with the spirit of our times, that’s close enough for government work.

But Powell shocked the investment world and sent stocks, bonds and commodities all racing upward when he indicated the past Wednesday that interest rate cuts were being discussed and might well unfold, many times, in 2024.

The so-called dot plots, the graph showing where Federal Reserve Board members see rates headed, took a marked turn downward with three or more interest rate cuts in the cards. The green lights started flashing in the minds of investors.

Perhaps taken aback by meteoric market rises Wednesday and Thursday last week, a former Fed official was trotted out Friday to pour cold water on it all, saying markets had misunderstood Powell. And so it has gone since then, with many Fed types jawboning markets – unsuccessfully – with talk of continued monetary tightness.

Some deeper thinkers have begun to ponder what exactly Powell and his Fed gang saw to precipitate their rate pivot last week, with easier money all but promised. Sure, they tried to walk that back since, but something changed quite quickly (a few weeks) between firmly targeting 2 percent inflation and vowing to hold the line until that goal was met, to promising rate cuts and 2 percent be damned.

Can they be fearing yet another, larger banking crisis rooted in the dramatic interest rate rise cycle the Fed instituted? Lots of loans need to be rolled over, at much higher rates. Our own Federal government, the world’s biggest borrower, has seen its debt service costs rise geometrically. Credit card borrowers are crying uncle. Would-be home owners are passing on buying with mortgage interest rates tickling 7 percent.

Countries, businesses and individuals cannot borrow themselves into prosperity, but they could maintain that illusion that all was well as long as interest rates were at or near zero. Despite that reality, investment markets are going crazy to the upside and those on the sideline are feeling the need to join the party, acting with their hearts, not minds.

And so we present Jay Powell’s First FOMO, (fear of missing out) to be sung to the tune of The First Noel.

The first FOMO the investors did say

Owed to Fed chief Jay Powell and the things he did say

Those things he did say, they did panic the sheep

And caused them to buy ‘spite being in deep

FOMO. FOMO. FOMO. FOMO

Powell leads us all to fiscal hell

They buy with borrowed funds, unable to pay

Just to be in the game for another day

In the end it all goes bust, that is the truth

But ’til then we party with gin and vermouth

FOMO. FOMO. FOMO. FOMO

How long it can go nobody can tell

As long as it seems that we are doing fine

‘Tis no need to worry ’bout credit lines

But in the end something pops, and the system does fail

Ending with many whimpers, moans and wails

FOMO. FOMO. FOMO. FOMO

We truly are headed to judgment day

This was the weekend the Steelers managed to jump out to a 13-0 lead at Indianapolis, only to surrender 30 unanswered points in absorbing yet another loss. At least this time it was to a team with a winning record.

Shortly after the Steelers had succumbed Saturday, the Penguins lost by a touchdown and PAT to Toronto, which is saying something considering the sport was hockey. It was the worst shutout loss for the Penguins since Sidney Crosby first pulled on the team sweater.

In the wake of yet another lost weekend for fans of pro sports in the ‘Burgh, we are left consider the historically unfamiliar state of affairs.

If the postseason began tomorrow in the NFL and NHL, it would begin without the Steelers or Penguins.

Of course, we almost always can count on the Pirates to miss the postseason. But the Steelers, who missed last season, as did the Penguins, are relative strangers to sustained postseason absences.

If both the Steelers and Penguins miss the postseason again this season, as presumably the Pirates will do once again in 2024, it would be historic hat track of shared futility among Pittsburgh pro franchises in terms of back-to-back seasons outside looking in to the playoffs.

All three franchises simultaneously missing the postseason for consecutive seasons had not happened since 1987 and 1988.

Let that sink in for a moment, For all the ongoing futility of the Pirates, and the periodic failures of the Steelers or Penguins, it’s been more than three decades since fans of Pittsburgh pro sports franchises have had to endure all three mired in back-to-back seasons outside the postseason.

At this point, the Steelers are a mere 7-7, among a gaggle of teams competing for an AFC wild-card spot. But that 7-7 record has been achieved with three consecutive losses and the Steelers clearly are a team on the decline.

Remaining games have the Steelers hosting a resurgent Cincinnati team, then making trips to Seattle and Baltimore. If the Steelers were a stock, you’d be selling.

The Penguins are another .500 team (13-13-3) but only a tad over one-third of the way through their season. They are tied for the third worst record in the Eastern Conference and have displayed both shaky goal tending and a very uncharacteristically unproductive power play.

There still is time for the Penguins to get it together – arguably for the Steelers, too.

But with each loss that time ticks away.

The Great Zelenskyy is making the rounds again, begging for more dollars to pour down the rathole that is Ukraine’s war with Russia.

That we keep forking over billions probably has nothing to do with the fact that Ukraine was and most likely is a hotbed of corruption, and our “Big Guy” has in the past seemed to be in it all up to his armpits.

Increasingly, the American public tires of seeing Zelenskyy show up in a T shirt and military-style clothing, shaking his begging bowl. And why does the guy always seem to be standing in a hole compared to all those who are near him?

Zelenskyy’s height is listed at 5-7, which is as big a stretch as his assertions that Ukraine is holding its own in the battle with Russia. Even Ukrainians are tiring of Zelenskyy’s propaganda on that front.

Zelenskyy looks more like Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the famed diminutive who made a name for herself as an unlikely sex therapist. Dr. Ruth’s height is listed as 4-foot, 7-inches. I can personally attest to her lack of stature, having met her at a Super Bowl commissioner’s party once upon a time.

If Zelenskyy is a full foot taller than the good doctor, I’m about 6-10. She also is better dressed and a whole lot more entertaining than Zelenskyy.

We salute Zelenskyy’s constant begging for money with updated lyrics to be sung to the tune of Little Drummer Boy.

Give me money

Pa rum pum pum pum

I have a war to win

Pa rum pum pum pum

This is my thing you see

Pa rum pum pum pum

To spend like I’m a king

Pa rum pum pum pum

Rum pum pum pum

Rum pum pum pum

So dig deep again

Pa rum pum pum pum

I’m never done

Me Zelenskyy

Pa rum pum pum pum

Ukraine’s my country

Pa rum pum pum pum

We fight a war for you

Pa rum pum pum pum

That we can’t win for you

Pa rum pum pum pum

Rum pum pum pum

Rum pum pum pum

The Russkies are too good

Pa rum pum pum pum

We’re on the run

Likely you have noticed disenchantment on college campuses regarding Israel.

Stopping just short of proclaiming Kill All Jews, these Hamas supporters as partakers of post-secondary education are pathetically uninformed. But what might one expect when the average college denizen cannot grasp that by definition a student loan is borrowed money that must be repaid?

They chant moronic slogans and wave their signs, many of them stupid in the extreme. These social justice warriors fall into such unlikely categories as Gays for Hamas and Jews for Hamas, neatly ignoring that Hamas would kill either on sight, due to general hatred.

With that in mind, we comment on such idiocy by updating lyrics to the standard We Three Kings of Orient Are.

Idiots on some college quads

Sing the praises of Hamas.

Morons, tools and troglodytes

All cannot see the light.

Why must we endure such crap

When we could just shut their yaps.

Oh, oh, this sad state of education

Bodes not well for our great nation.

Commie reading, leftward leaning

Our youth are just plain dumb.

These elites are so uninformed

Knowing little about the norm.

Backed by many usual suspects

We know now what to expect.

Oh, oh, hold your nose and watch the fools

Being used like useful tools.

Said to be our best and brightest

Instead they are just sad clowns.