Breaking news: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted in Florida on 998 charges of illegally removing those irritating tags on mattresses and pillows.

Several Trump associates also face charges for conspiracy to remove the tags.

In announcing the indictments, special prosecutor Ima Hack, the 712^th of her kind to be appointed to look into Trump misdeeds, said there was no choice but to prosecute Trump due to the undeniable fact that the tags explicitly say removing them is illegal and the egomaniacal Trump must be shown that no one is above the law.

Hack, responding to media inquiries, emphasized this is a blatant crime, not the petty examples being bandied about by Republicans concerning the Bidens; things like influence peddling, tax cheating, drug use, illegal gun possession, mishandling classified documents and speaking falsehoods to the public, Congress and judicial figures in general.

Make no mistake, removing these tags is an existential threat to our democratic system of government, Hack emphasized. If the public (sheep) cannot be expected to follow blindly such dictates, social order as we know it will break down and, (gasp), people might begin to make decisions on their own.

If this genie of blind submission escapes the lamp, the hoi polloi might again insist on fair and accurate elections, up to and including removing all the loopholes that enable the ginning up of just enough ballots to win key states in national elections, or key seats in Congressional races.

If scofflaws such as Trump, who not only blatantly removes mattress and pillow tags, but also has the temerity to deny election results, can be allowed to walk around as a free man, our nation is doomed.

Hack repeatedly stressed that Trump’s background as an election denier makes him open to any and all charges that might be rooted out by a never-ending stream of special prosecutors. These investigators, she noted, should not be confused with the puppets Democrats appoint to investigate their alleged wrongs.

Those special prosecutors are there only to provide political cover and to serve as procedural roadblocks to those who are making legitimate inquires about apparent wrongdoing.

As for election denying, Hack bristled when one media member opined that perhaps Democratic luminaries such as Al Gore (2000) and Hillary Clinton (2016) soon will find themselves facing Trump-like scrutiny.

After all, Gore had to be dragged kicking and screaming to conceding his election to George W. Bush, and since has whined long and loud – between inhaling donuts and predicting the environmental end of Earth – about his loss not being a loss at all.

Similarly, Hillary Clinton still was making public appearances in 2019 saying Trump had “stolen” the election from her.

Given what is happening to Trump, is it just a bit surprising that no one is looking into Gore’s climate hypocrisy and his cashing in on it?

Might Hillary, as an avowed election denier, be open to further inquiry into her and Bill’s foundation, her mishandling of classified information, and cashing in on Biden-like name branding?

Hack dismissed such speculation as petty political misdirection. She stated such allegations cannot be confused with the righteousness of the left and its patron saint, Lavrentiy Beria, former head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police, who boasted of his ability to convict the innocent: “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

Hack and leftists have massaged that to “Show me the Republican and I’ll show you the crime.”

Alas, Beria eventually found himself on the other end of these politically motivated inquiries, and was executed for treason after Nikita Khrushchev seized power over the Soviet Union in a 1953 coup.

The world is awash in spin, distortions and outright lies from formerly trustworthy sources like, say, media and government.

It produces a sense of strident discord between what we observe firsthand, and what the narrative makers insist is the truth. In effect, we are told that we cannot believe our lyin’ eyes.

I mention this because, even as I scribble this blog post, the wife is out shopping.

She will return home within a few hours and regale me with tales about how everything – or almost everything – she has bought now costs more than it did days, weeks, or months ago.

But, wait, didn’t our government overlords just announce today that price inflation is slowing to a mere crawl at 3.2 percent above July 2022, and up a mere two-tenths of a percent from June 2023’s numbers?

Why, yes, they did.

Based on past experience, I strongly suspect the wife’s higher figures for today’s purchases will indicate more than a trifling three percent increase, give or take.

Allow me to explain how this could be so.

I learned long ago that any resemblances between official inflation figures and my personal experience were no more then coincidental.

The folks who calculate inflation used to be limited by a basket of goods and services and if those things increased in price, inflation was reported.

Along the way, they’ve added substitution principle to the calculation. If steak is up in price, they substitute lower cost chicken or hamburger, presuming most consumers will do that and it makes it all more real world.

More cunning is the application of something called hedonic adjustments. Yes, it’s based on the same Greek word meaning related to pleasure, which gives us hedonists.

In hedonic inflation calculating – or masking – relative value is used to help wipe out the effect of cost increases on inflation numbers. For example, you buy a new computer with a faster processing speed. Even though it costs more, that increase will be formulaically reduced for inflation purposes because of presumed increases in pleasure and efficiency.

These keepers of the inflation flame will scoff at your personal experiences with vastly increased prices and ridicule them as merely anecdotal. You don’t have hedonics. You’re a mere heathen.

Another slight of hand the inflation people use, when it suits their narrative, is to emphasize core inflation. The overall inflation number often is referred to as “headline” inflation, an attempt to equate the number with the gaudy, sensational headlines one might see on the rag publications sold at checkout stations.

Core inflation excludes “volatile food and energy prices” and so often is lower than headline inflation. Apparently, there is no utility in factoring in the price of rising luxury items such as food or gasoline.

Alas, for July that typical slight of hand didn’t work. The “headline” rate was 3.2 percent, while “core” was 4.7 percent. Whoops. Better get food and energy back in the mix. Pronto.

Funny, I didn’t hear a single media or government type stress today how that core inflation number was the truth. No, they went all giddy about the headline number, both year-over-year and month-over-month.

This legerdemain continues to be practiced for one basic reason: It works.

Too many sheeple blindly accept the statistical distortions as they rush to participate in what cynics refer to as the Barbie, Beyonce and Taylor Swift economy, a triumph of splash and gratification over value and utility.

But, make no mistake, things are costing more and the government numbers don’t fully capture those increases.

Late last week, a video made the rounds of man in Stockton, Calif., brazenly attempting to shoplift tobacco products from a convenience store, then finding himself on the wrong end of a stick wielded by a clerk.

And I told my wife at the time as I watched the video, in California the police will be going after the guys who stopped the robbery, not the would-be thief. I was correct.

As reported in an editorial by The Modesto Bee (BeeSsss?) headlined “Stockton 7-11 Clerks Went Too Far In Viciously Beating Brazen Shoplifter,” the newspaper’s gutlessly anonymous “editorial board” parrots a TV report that workers are “being investigated” by the local police and sounds off that the two clerks “went too far.”

To recap for those who have not watched the video, although you can easily find it by doing a search for “Stockton 7-11 robber beat with stick,” a partially masked man is captured on video by a spectator in the store. The attempted shoplifter is pushing a huge, wheeled garbage can up and down a row of tobacco products, knocking them into the trash for the purpose of moving them out the door without paying.

The man also makes what one report regarding the video took to be oral as well as physical indications that he was armed. Later, the video catches part of something being pulled from his waistband by the attempted thief and then put back. Perhaps a knife?

Whether this guy had a weapon or not is immaterial in the civilized world. It is a common tenet of law that if you give anyone an indication during a robbery that you have a weapon, it is armed robbery, even if it’s found to be just your finger or a pencil being used to simulate a gun or knife.

All the time that the spectator is filming, he provides running commentary, mostly to the effect that the workers should just let Old Smoky walk out with his swag because that’s the way it is in California and, besides, they probably have insurance that will cover it.

In the last paragraph of the newspaper editorial, it finally gets around to mentioning reports that the man allegedly had robbed the store previously and, here’s the kicker, the store sits “JUST ACROSS THE STREET” from a Stockton police station.

Perhaps this is why people are fleeing California in droves.

One clerk grabbed the tobacco harvester while the other guy came into view with a stick. That second clerk wore a turban typical of Sikh’s and thrashed on the thief with said stick.

The story on zerohedge.com about police investigating the clerks included a reference to reports that the same guy had been in the store three times that same evening, each time threatening clerks and stealing from them.

And now the clerks are the ones confronting possible legal action.

Coming soon to a town near you if Biden and his liberal stooges continue to be successful in warping the nation’s sense of right and wrong.

We observed two surprising sports outcomes over a 12-hour period of Saturday evening into Sunday morning, one local and the other international, from the other side of the planet. Both results beg for some perspective beyond the final scores.

First off, a Johnstown entry, Mainline Pharmacy, won the AAABA Tournament title by besting traditional champion New Orleans, 3-2, in the Saturday night championship game at Point Stadium.

It was the 78^th AAABA Tournament and only the second time a Johnstown entry had prevailed. The other title had come in 2018.

I’m one of many local fans who went from young to old rooting for Johnstown teams that couldn’t win this tournament. As a writer for the local newspaper, I covered many tournaments.

As a AAABA Hall of Fame inductee in 2015, I recall wishing aloud during my acceptance speech that a Johnstown team would win the thing once before I died.

It finally happened in 2018, but that – and Saturday’s win — don’t paint an accurate picture, at least regarding recent Johnstown strength.

There has been a Johnstown entry participating in six of the past seven title contests.

This year, two of the tournament’s final four teams standing were Johnstown entries.

How have we gone from being perennial also-rans to being arguably the most dominant league in the AAABA?

Are we that much better with our local league? Or has the tournament quality declined? Is it a case of not raising the bridge, but lowering the river?

The AAABA is not exactly flourishing. This year, it required two entries each from Johnstown, Altoona and Brooklyn to flesh out the 16-team tournament field.

Look at the history of this event and you will see domination by Baltimore (29 titles), New Orleans (18), Washington (10) and Detroit (7).

Only New Orleans keeps showing up, with the others long ago losing interest.

Part of the AAABA lore is the list of players who went on to play in the Major Leagues. For Johnstown, AAABA records indicate the last alumni to make it to the show from the host franchise were Michael Ryan (Sani-Dairy, 1995) and Mike Holtz and Keith Williams, who both played for the 1990 Pepsi-Cola team.

Going further back, Shawon Dunston, who is listed as playing here for Brooklyn in 1981, was the first overall pick by the Chicago Cubs in the next year’s amateur baseball draft. I can’t imagine the AAABA ever again will be able to claim that level of alumni draft success.

These tournaments used to be frequented by numerous scouts for pro teams. Today, not so much.

Growing up dreaming of a Johnstown title, I imagined a city that would be captivated by the quest. But official attendance figures for the showcase Johnstown games this year paint a different story.

Turnout declined from the traditional opener, part baseball and part social event, which claimed 6,444 paying customers. That was almost cut in half the next night, to 3,445 despite a Johnstown win Monday night.

By the title game Saturday evening, the crowd was reported at just 2,528.

A differing phenomenon was on display as our much-ballyhooed U.S. Women’s National Soccer team crashed and burned in the round of 16 of the World Cup, being hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

This, after we’d been bombarded by promotional ads in recent months how the U.S. women are unstoppable, how the world quivers at their mere mention, and how they epitomize all that is right and fair about sports.

Group play gave an early indication this U.S. team was more bark than bite. There was an unimpressive win over Vietnam, which is to international women’s soccer what Jamaica is to Olympic bobsledding. There also were ties with the Netherlands and Portugal, the latter a near loss when a late Portugal shot bounced off a goalpost.

And then the U.S. women went out in the first round of knockout play at the hands of Sweden, 5-4 on penalty kicks, after scoreless regulation and overtime.

Pockets of cheering were observed online. This U.S. team had more than one political opportunist player, mistaking some degree of athletic skill for the competence to lecture others on societal issues.

Chief among them, Megan Rapinoe, played a central role in the loss by blowing a penalty kick, missing the gaping goal entirely.

Between the politicization of the team, and the overwhelming social justice warriorism in and around it, the loss and the prospect of being spared more lecturing on matters beyond the sport, was a breath of fresh air.

Another aspect of the loss by the U.S. women, overlooked in the bombastic promotion, is that other nations now are taking women’s soccer seriously. This means that, unlike the AAABA, the competition is getting tougher.

I am reminded of the success in women’s basketball by tiny Immaculata College from eastern Pennsylvania, which won three consecutive national titles in women’s basketball in 1972, 1973 and 1974. These were the first national titles contested in the women’s sport.

What changed? Title IX, which passed in 1972, required the big schools to get on board with women’s sports.

UConn, the school with the record 11 national titles in Division I women’s basketball, didn’t field its first team until 1974-75.

Just offering some perspective.

I’m in the mood for some news and views to cover the chaotic events unfolding seemingly daily.

NEWS: The Washington Post finally got around to awarding Joe Biden four Pinocchios, their fact-checking falsehood label, for insisting son Hunter never took money from China. The Post apparently was moved to brand Joe a fibber after Hunter admitted taking money from the Chi-coms during court testimony last week.

VIEWS: Dare we dream the Post will have an epiphany regarding outing other lies from the left and become once again a legitimate newspaper, rather than a Democratic house organ? Toward that end, the Washington Post better warm up the Pinocchio machine now that Biden is trying to blame the government’s credit downgrade on Donald Trump, who’s been out of office for more than two and a half years and is in no way responsible for the federal deficit’s breathtaking ascent under Biden.

NEWS: Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer, professor and expert on Constitutional law, was on Larry Kudlow’s Fox News show Wednesday afternoon equating the latest Trump indictments to a laughable hash of legal persecution and abridging of rights such as free speech.

VIEWS: And yet, if the witch hunt succeeds in having a far-left judge preside over resulting trials, Trump is likely to face convictions on these and other charges that never would have been brought had he been a loyal Democratic operative.

NEWS: Bill Maher, formerly a reliable voice for all things leftist, is sounding more and more rational these days, including outing the hypocritical left for the illegal immigrant crisis. Maher pointed out that the limousine liberals are all for migrants, until they show up in their neighborhoods. I hear this and think of the outraged Martha’s Vineyard elites and how they howled when a busload or two of illegals were shipped to their area.

VIEWS: Alas, Maher is the exception. Most leftists will not blink in the face of facts that prove them wrong, and instead double down to suppress any opposing viewpoints using their unholy lapdog triumvirate of fake news, big tech and biased social media censorship.

NEWS: The Biden regime is pushing for extension of a law enabling U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on citizens in this once-great land.

VIEWS: Once again, it’s all about stripping basic freedoms from the populace, a favorite pastime of Biden and his pals.

NEWS: The LeBron James-affiliated “I Promise” School in Akron, Ohio, hasn’t had a single eighth grade student pass a state math test since the group was in third grade.

VIEWS: The school is funded in part by contributions from a James foundation. The typical excuses have been trotted out to explain this incredible failure. No one got around to noting that instilling individual discipline and accountability matter, regardless of how much money is thrown at a problem.

NEWS: Joe Biden’s job approval rating in his 10^th quarter (30 months or so) in office is lower at this point than any post-World War II president except Jimmy Carter according to a Gallup poll. It would be even worse if not for the 86 percent of ideologically blind Democrats who like what Biden’s doing.

VIEWS: Carter’s low ranking had to do with roaring inflation and an ongoing energy crisis that had poll respondents waiting in long lines to buy gasoline. But, even Carter’s political opponents, while decrying his policies and uneven leadership, recognized him as a decent man. Biden? Not so much.

Events of Tuesday, the first of August 2023, typify the pathetic, dysfunctional state of our nation.

It was a day that saw former president Donald Trump indicted on what seem to be, by comparison to the legal treatment of others, trumped up charges.

It was a day that saw yet another person – this a former Hunter Biden business partner, Devon Archer – testify before Congress that Clueless Joe, often referred to by Hunter in these business things as “The Big Guy,” reportedly has been less than truthful through the years maintaining he never discussed business with Hunter. Or, presumably, the two also never chatted about illegal drugs and guns, unpaid taxes, strippers, or bastard children/grandchildren.

It was a day that saw the credit rating of the United States reduced by the Fitch agency in advance of needing to borrow another trillion dollars or so over the next three months. Can’t pay your bills, just borrow more! Or send Treasury Secretary Janet “Mother” Hubbard to that empty cupboard to rummage around for a bone, or a trillion bucks.

It was a day we read of the first husband of DOCTOR JILL BIDEN !!!!!!!!, a guy named Bill Stevenson, going public with claims the Big Guy’s family threatened and persecuted him to get DOCTOR JILL !!!!!!!! a better divorce settlement, including saddling this ex-husband with a tax beef when he didn’t comply.

According to that report regarding Stevenson, while Hunter recently got two misdemeanor charges for $2.2 million in unpaid taxes, Stevenson and his brother were hit with felony charges due to $8,000 in unpaid taxes.

The Stevenson story sounds particularly familiar as far as the uneven workings of our justice system.

The FBI fabricated evidence to get warrants to spy on Trump, yet no one’s doing hard time. Meanwhile, Trump and several members of his political inner circle have been and are being, hounded with threatened punishment including jail time.

Trump had classified documents and there are attempts to draw and quarter him over that. Clueless Joe had classified materials at numerous locations. No big deal.

Hillary Clinton, during her cameo as Secretary of State, despite specific warnings not to do so, had classified material on an unsecured private email computer server. Again, no big deal. Stuff happens. Move on. Look, a squirrel!

Trump is alleged to have spread false election information regarding the 2020 charade and must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Yet, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign is alleged to have drummed up and distributed the false Russian dossier regarding Trump to media and justice/intelligence circles, a production which was doubtful in the extreme even at the time. There was a report of a $113,000 amount paid by Hillary and the Democrats to settle violations of campaign finance law. Money paid to accumulate the Russian hoax had been mis-stated on campaign records as legal services fees.

Hillary skated away from this mess unscathed, as free as Nancy Kerrigan — before the kneecapping incident. Holy Shane Stant.

The fake media and people in the FBI, supposedly unbiased sources, ignored the stench of the Russian dossier and eagerly ran with it because it fit their agenda.

Are they facing consequences? Why no, they are not.

It’s the sort of stuff that shouldn’t happen, like maybe a couple of extra-marital FBI lovers shouldn’t be texting about how they would do whatever to save the world from a Trump presidency, in the unlikely event he actually got elected.

Is Trump totally pure? No way.

Is Biden, or his clan? Really?

Hillary or Bill? LOL.

But if we’re going to clean house, let’s use the same broom on everyone. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that.

It has been suggested that the credit downgrade for the United States stems as much from the political circus unfolding in Washington, D.C., as any hard-and-fast financial assessment.

But, make no mistake, beyond all this political, legal hypocrisy, the U.S. is in a deep fiscal mess, the sort of monetary blackhole from which there, inevitably, is no escape.

For reference, recall the 2009-14 Euro crisis. The worst offenders then were derisively labeled the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain).

All still are stumbling and bumbling fiscally. Yet, the United States, with a governmental debt that is 121.3 percent of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP is the value put on goods and services produced by an entire country over a given period, in this case one year) could fit right in with the PIGS.

The latest debt-to-GDP figures of the PIGS are: Greece, 175.7 percent; Italy, 143.5: Portugal, 113.8: and Spain, 113.

The United States is a fiscal house of cards, and the political weaponization of the justice system is undermining the foundation of this supposed rule-of-law nation and adding to the fragility of the whole system.

There’s something about the lure of getting something for nothing, or maybe a lot for the investment of a little bit of money as in a lottery, that makes too many of us a little bit crazy.

Decades back, I was in Cleveland, covering a Steelers preseason game on a Saturday night that coincided with the drawing of one of the first huge lottery prizes in that state that had captured national attention.

Yes, I bought a ticket or two. What amazed me was the number of Steelers players and coaches either buying tickets in advance of the game, or asking media members to purchase tickets for them due to the long lines to purchase those tickets.

Early on in the evening, either before the game or in the early moments (my memory is a bit hazy) the winning numbers were announced and the groans from thousands of fans sounded like the home team had lost the Super Bowl on the final play – not that Cleveland ever has or ever will have a Super Bowl team.

To say the game was rendered an afterthought is an understatement.

In the early days of our state’s Lotto, when you needed to pick 6 of 40 numbers to win, my wife hit upon a set of numbers based on birthdays. And until that format ended, I lived in horror that since I knew the numbers, some day they would hit and we would not have gotten around to buying a ticket.

Occasionally, I buy tickets when the lottery pots are astronomical, but not all the time even then. I recognize it for what it is, fool’s gold.

My approach to obtaining financial freedom has been to work hard, save money, and invest those savings to, as they say, let the money work for me. It’s not as exciting as winning the lottery or the Johnstown Moneyman promotion, which I understand has touched off a wave of controversy on social media.

It is, however, much more of a sure thing. I’m far from being on par with a lottery winner financially, but I was able to retire at the ripe old age of 53 ½ years of age. I don’t sit around lamenting how I’m going to pay the utility bills, either.

I also don’t participate in longshot promotions in search of a pot of gold.

But if others choose to do so, have at it. Just don’t be surprised when dreams fail to come true.

What concerns me is that Johnstown, once a town mostly populated by people who were willing to work hard and try to provide for themselves and their families, now has devolved into what seems to be a majority of those looking to get lucky, or just resorting to some degree of grifting to live off the hard work and sweat of others, either directly or through the helping hand of the government.

It’s an unseemly sight. Yet, in many cases, this has become a family “business” of sorts.

Just tonight, the wife was trying to go shopping at Aldi’s, the store with the 25-cent shopping cart deposit. Most people, my wife included, simply pass on the carts to other shoppers. But tonight, just as I’ve noticed in the rare occasions when I do the shopping, there are those who pounce on the quarters like vultures.

In this example, a kid grabbed a cart and wouldn’t let my wife have it until she had given him a quarter. The mother, or at least some pathetic sort who looked to hold that title, thought it was all very amusing. It’s probably a blessing I had stayed at home.

I’ve seen teams of teens doing the same thing at the same place, grubbing quarters! When I was a young man in this town, at the height of the baby boomer population explosion, part-time jobs were hard to get for kids. All those fellow classmates jammed into classrooms, or counterparts in other schools, were out there competing.

These days, it’s difficult to find a business that isn’t advertising for the kind of help that a teenager could provide. But it seems they’d rather stay on the government dole, play video games, and scuffle for quarters at Aldi’s.

What they, and those like them elsewhere, are learning through all this should scare anyone concerned about the future of this country. We need people to do key work, to hold down crucial jobs. Further, we need people who don’t think the government – as financed by those who do produce – or private individuals, owe them a living, no matter how unmotivated they are.

Eventually, too many people are leaning on the oars and too few people are rowing. The producers join the slackers, and it all collapses.

At this rate, we’re nearing that point sooner than many would expect.

We’re back, after a hiatus attending to family matters, with a round of 20 questions.

As explained in a previous edition, in our version of 20 questions we think we already know the answers, but are just provoking thought by asking.

1. Since anytime the nation experiences a heat wave we are told the grid is in peril and we should cut back on energy consumption, have any of our enviro geniuses stopped to think about the demand if the majority of people were driving electric cars?
2. If your name is Hunter Biden, are you immune from any legal jeopardy, no matter your actions?
3. If your name is Donald Trump, are you subject to prosecution for crimes real or imagined, ranging from jaywalking to being abrasive?
4. Why are so many of the same names in the Johnstown area involved with begging for money, manning political offices, manipulating officeholders as behind-the-scenes puppeteers, and/or collecting big paychecks from nonprofits and not-for-profit vehicles?
5. Why are so many of our elected federal officeholders – Joe Biden, Dianne Feinstein, John Fetterman and now Mitch McConnell – subject to freezing while speaking, generally being incoherent, and seemingly lacking the mental facility to do their jobs?
6. Is anyone else disappointed that Jason Aldean and handlers, apparently bowing to Woke outcries, have edited out Black Lives Matter protest images from the video for his song “Try That In A Small Town”?
7. If you are not worried about our $32 trillion national debt, can you come up with a cogent explanation for your lack of concern?
8. Can Mitt Romney have the decency to stop identifying as a Republican after this serial disappointer now has gone on record as approving governmental censorship of social media in cahoots with big tech firms?
9. Does anyone else find it sickening that Bud Light’s parent company, after getting an economic wakeup call following a full-Woke commercial, is trying to bamboozle the buying public with a return to patriotic themed advertising?
10. When are we going to have heterosexual pride day, week, month or year?
11. Should we be surprised that the Pittsburgh Pirates, despite misplaced optimism earlier in the season, are sellers yet again at the trade deadline?
12. Should we be outraged that the partisan federal justice system is not going to pursue campaign finance violation charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, who shipped most of his campaign donations to – surprise – Democrats?
13. Should hate crime charges be filed against black woman Carlethia Russell, who has admitted to making up a story about being kidnapped in Alabama by a white man with orange hair (Trump reference?) and fueling a flood of kneejerk reactions from the media so eager to play the race card when it benefits them?
14. Has anyone else noticed breathless updates from Ukraine haven’t been so positive lately and thinks maybe Zelenskyy and his backers might be in over their heads?
15. Is there a better entertainment value than the $12 admission fee to the Bedford Fair, which includes all rides, shows and grandstand attractions?
16. Are you surprised to hear that the military coup in Niger could be the 11^th in any West African nation since 2008 that has been led by U.S.-trained troops?
17. Was I a fool to pay for life, health, car and homeowners, insurance through the years instead of just depending on the GoFundMe route to bail me out should adversity hit?
18. Is there a greater sign of Democratic voter idiocy than the fact that polls indicate a majority of them do not want Biden to run for re-election, yet would vote for him again?
19. Are these ideologically blind people aware that, despite a full-fledged media campaign to assassinate his character, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is a viable alternative for these left-leaning donkeys?
20. Does writing for The Washington Post, even if using crayons like Jennifer Rubin, mean you never have to admit you’re sorry, or wrong?

As a followup to the previous car-oriented post, here’s a primer for dealing with online sellers, specifically on Facebook Marketplace.

I’ve written about this in the past, but it warrants updating. And, for those who are familiar with my stated detachment from social media, allow me to reiterate that I use my son’s account for my car searches and interactions, all with his knowledge and approval.

Craigslist once upon a time was a good resource, but has deteriorated badly through the years.

Facebook Marketplace seems to be following that same path. But, I’ve been able to purchase three of my current fleet of five cars through Facebook — two hobby Mustangs and my wife’s daily driver, a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix acquired with 14,000 original miles.

My son also purchased a Chevrolet Equinox I’d identified from a Facebook posting.

Those experiences were great, with forthright, honorable, reliable people who provided information and did what they said they would do. But I’ve encountered a lot of other types of sellers.

Just last week I got to make a 120-mile, totally fruitless, roundtrip to Apollo, Pa., to look at a Pontiac Fiero. The owner wasn’t there, having had his work schedule changed the night before. But, did he call me as he promised he would do should something come up? Why, no. No, he didn’t.

This jackass – and I use the term with all due respect – actually messaged me later through Facebook wanting me to come back another day. I kept it clean in my response, since it wasn’t my account, but I did tell him after this outrage I wouldn’t cross the street to look at his car. I also suggested his lame excuse of forgetting about his promise to me, or even having participated in the call, spoke volumes about him in terms of mental illness.

On a side note, one of those countless YouTube “influencers,” this one specializing in cars, made a salient point in a video I watched – never buy a car if you don’t like the owner. Commit that to memory and refer to it often if you want to buy cars from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist or the like.

Now, here are some familiar ad themes and how to deal with them.

What they say: Don’t ask me a lot of silly questions.

What they mean: I don’t want to go on the record having to deny the vehicle’s existing problems of which I am knowledgeable.

What you should say: How would you define a silly question?

What they say: Don’t try to lowball me. I know what I have.

What they mean: Actually, I have an inflated idea of what this car is worth, which demonstrates my generally loose association with reality.

What you should say: I think I will pass on your vehicle.

What they say: I’m not necessarily looking to sell, just testing the waters.

What they mean: I’m playing hard to get. But if you offer me a ridiculously high amount for my piece of garbage, I’d gladly unload it on you.

What you should say: Get back to me when you are looking to sell.

What they say: No joyrides. Cash in hand only.

What they mean: I’m putting the pressure on you to buy a car without thoroughly test-driving it and maybe even setting you up for robbery of your “cash in hand.”

What you should say: I don’t travel hundreds of miles to get my jollies driving someone else’s car. I could just rent a Mustang GT if I wanted that. But, since I’m being asked to trust you without verifying the state of the car, perhaps you can return the favor and I can just have the title transferred to my name and drive it home if I promise, maybe double pinky swear, to send you the money sometime down the line.

What they say: I wouldn’t be afraid to hop in this car and drive it to California tomorrow.

What they mean: By extension, you should have absolute faith in this car I’m trying to sell you.

What you should say: Your confidence in expecting to get in a perhaps decades-old, high-mileage car and drive it cross-country without incident suggests you are a tad delusional.

What they say: The car is not currently inspected, but it will sail right through.

What they mean: And if it doesn’t, well, tough luck. Buyer beware.

What you should say: Since there will be no inspection expense beyond the base fees, how about you get it inspected and emissions checked and I’ll bump the sales price by $150?

What they say: Don’t ask if it’s available. If it’s listed it’s available. If you ask if it’s still available, you will be ignored.

What they mean: It’s available. Its available. It’s available. It’s available.

What you should ask them: Is it still available?

Like many Baby Boomers, I’m addicted to cars.

This addiction includes lusting after the cars of my youth, plus the cars of my adult years that I couldn’t justify owning when they were new due to the priorities of raising a family.

My first car was a 1967 Mustang coupe, purchased for me by my dad in 1972. It was just a straight 6-cylinder, three-speed manual transmission, but I always had loved Mustangs and I was hooked. The Noble Blue Steed, a friend used to call it.

Three of my cousins owned Mustangs at one time or another, as did one of my uncles.

By 1979, I’d graduated to a new Jeep CJ-7 hardtop as my daily driver, but I also acquired a 1967 Mustang Fastback that year as a hobby car, sending my brother to Schellsburg with my money to check it out and purchase it, because I needed to go to work that night.

It was a 289-cubic-inch V8, stick, nonstock chocolate brown paint with white rocker panel stripes, the ubiquitous slotted dish mag wheels and white letter tires of the time, hood pins and, a black interior with highback front bucket seats from a 1970 Mustang. Most important, it originally was a Georgia car that the current owner only used in good weather. That meant the traditional rust cancer that ate through the bodies of northern Mustangs, including my ’67 coupe, did not affect this car.

If you’ve ever seen the movie “Bullitt,” Steve McQueen drove a 1968 Mustang fastback, the exact same body style as the ’67. The more recent remake of “Gone In 60 Seconds” has a feature car, Eleanor, that is a heavily modified example of that ’67 Mustang fastback body style.

I’d desperately wanted one of these Mustang fastbacks since watching that “Bullitt” movie and seeing one on Jacoby Street as I played basketball on the Maple Park School playground, probably in 1967. That was a red example, with, inexplicably, some of the faux vinyl woodgrain used on station wagons of the time inserted into the concave taillight panel at the rear.

My brother locked up my 1967 Mustang fastback 12 years later and I owned it until 2000, foolishly just about giving it away to a guy I know who turned it into a Shelby clone and now wants $75,000 or so for it.

I can’t really justify the money needed currently to acquire a top-of-the-line Mustang vintage 1965 through 1970, so I’ve readjusted my sights to covet 2005 through 2014 examples, the nostalgic look cars that combine styling cues from 1967 through 1970.

When I first saw the Mustang show car on which the 2005 model would be based, I loved it and felt almost sure it never would make it to production in that form. I was wrong.

I got to drive one of these 2005 nostalgia look Mustangs during a trip to cover Penn State football at Illinois when the airport didn’t have my reserved econobox and upgraded me to a Mustang. That was only the V6, and an automatic, but I loved it, calling my wife to tell her the interior made me feel like I was back sitting in my ’67 fastback.

It took until June 2020 for me to buy one of these 2005 Mustangs, a redfire metallic convertible, V6 automatic, medium parchment leather interior, tan top, with just 41,800 miles at purchase time. It was originally a Florida car, only used in good weather up north, and was being sold because the owner was entering a nursing home.

Still wanting the V8 experience, a few months later in 2020 I picked up a 69,000-mile 2004 GT coupe, the last of the so-called New Edge Mustangs. This has the 4.6 liter modular V8 engine and a five-speed stick. It’s competition orange in color with tinted windows, black leather interior, Bullitt-style wheels, and one-of-a-kind Mustang GT rocker panel decals based on the logo for the Mustang equipment company.

The previous owner was a heavy equipment operator and got a sign shop to produce GT decals to match the Mustang logo examples he had procured.

I’m not done with acquisitions. I still dream of one day owning either a Shelby Mustang, a California Special, or one of the various tuner version Mustangs put out by Saleen or Roush. All of these would be most desirable with the 5.0-liter Coyote engine.

Also, in an affront to my Mustang loyalty, I’ve been doing a serious search for a C4 Corvette, years 1984 through 1996. I’ve looked at plenty, test-driven a few, but can’t find the right car.

Just keep that between us.