I’m back after spending a week indulging in the escapism of local sports success, then taking another week away from writing for the blog just to savor the memories.

I’ve been jerked back to reality by many things, from Democrats attempting to gerrymander congressional districts in various blue states to make their representation edge even more overstated, to the blue-hair, nose-ring crowd continuing to support lawbreaking illegal immigrants, and, more recently, the give and take regarding President Trump’s attempts to end the fighting in Ukraine.

Radical leftists label it a waste of time. Far right types saw amazing success. Me? I saw a starting point, but it was history unfolding in real time and that captivated me.

I spent Friday watching coverage of the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska. Memorable moments include Putin’s reaction to the flyover of a stealth bomber and four support fighters. It came as Trump and Putin walked a red carpet, between parked fighter jets, a carefully staged scene. Watch replays and see Putin first notice the planes overhead and how he kept glancing at them, both as they were coming and going.

Critics say it was juvenile theater from Trump. I say it’s knowing your opponent. Again, watch the tape. Putin couldn’t look away. He understands displays of strength and power.

I’m just guessing here, but Putin very might have been thinking Trump has used these planes in anger vs. Iran and just might do it again, say, vs. Russia.

Also, the stealth bomber in motion is an impressive thing. This probably is as close as Putin has been to one. I recall a Super Bowl I covered in San Diego when a bomber did a pregame flyover. Impressive stuff, trust me.

There were other interesting theatrics to the welcoming. Trump tried to grab Putin and pull him in the for the handshake, but Putin was braced. My wife noted for a time Putin had his hand atop Trump’s, but I pointed out to her Trump quickly covered with his free hand.

After the talking was through for the day, Putin went first and rambled about history at a press conference, while Trump followed and was uncharacteristically brief. The Fox News reporterette covering the event saw unhappiness from Trump, but then had to retract that on-air when it was reported Trump had told Sean Hannity he gave the meeting a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.

It was amusing to hear that Shrillary Clinton had said she would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize . . . if he got a one-sided deal for Ukraine, then put on porkchop underwear and walked through a pack of German Shepherd guard dogs while also getting Putin to strip naked and walk back to Moscow with a Ukraine flag draped over his shoulders.

Perhaps if Trump could drum up a few billion of dollars in contributions to the sagging Clinton Foundation, too, that would motivate her further.

Spoiler alert: Clinton isn’t going to nominate Trump for a Nobel prize and it’s unlikely today’s meeting with enfant terrible Zelenskyy will produce any progress.

As stated here before, Zelenskyy reminds me of Smoky the feral cat who has taken up sometimes residence on my front porch. My wife feeds him and he has been known to turn up his nose if the fare is not to his liking

Along that line, my wife bought him an insulated house to help him make it through the winter, but when a neighbor put out an electric heating pad for him, Smoky moved right to her porch.

I understand Smoky, even scratch his ears at times. I do not, however, invite him into the house, much to the chagrin of the granddaughters.

Zelenskyy soiled the Oval Office carpet when last Trump let him inside the White House and I feel sure when his handlers remove him this time from the baby carseat he travels in, Zelenskyy will be similarly ill-mannered.

There are, however, rumors, he might actually dress for the occasion by wearing a business suit instead of his quasi-combat gear.

Zelsnskyy will show up with various European leaders to support him. They won’t give him actual arms and money – let the U.S. do that – but they love to give lip service anytime cameras are rolling.

These people, along with the Neo-con contingent from both U.S. political parties, want to keep the Ukraine carnage going. Zelenskyy seems to be similarly inclined, perhaps realizing if the war ends and elections resume, he’s headed back to his former role as B-list comedian.

If Zelenskyy forgets his manners again, I’m hoping JD Vance takes him out to the rose garden and goes all UFC on him.

Maybe Zelenskyy will act like an adult this time. But I’m still thinking the odds are about zero any progress toward peace is going to be made today.

Are you tired of winning yet, Johnstown? I didn’t think so. I know I’m not

What a weekend it has been for area diamond sports. Saturday night at Point Stadium, we had two Johnstown-based entries playing for the championship of the 80^th AAABA Tournament.

Mainline Pharmacy defeated Martella’s Pharmacy to take the title, in a huge night for baseball here. The weather was perfect, the crowd was substantial and the game was well-played on both sides.

One almost wished it could have gone on indefinitely.

Afterward, having the two teams gather with the corps of female tournament ambassadors for a group photo was a special moment.

But, that wasn’t the end of the weekend diamond success for our area.

Sunday in North Carolina, the West Suburban girls team won the Little League Softball World Series, the first Pennsylvania team to do so since 1978.

Reagan Bills tossed yet another shutout, and drove in the lone run as the Johnstown entry prevailed over a team from Indiana.

I watched some of the West Suburban girls’ games on TV and was impressed with their spirit, ability and confidence.

I’m pushing 70 years of age, and have been a sports fan here since I was a toddler, but I cannot recall a similar multi-headed sporting success for Greater Johnstown.

Truly, if you live long enough, you see things that amaze you. This is such a time.

Congratulations to all involved. You provided special memories for a lot of people in the area.

Now that Mainline Pharmacy has done the job and set up an all-Johnstown franchise final for the 80th AAABA Tournament championship, thoughts turn to other considerations.

If you are a Mainline fan, you could understandably be feeling both elated and frustrated at the same time after seeing your team come from behind to beat New Brunswick, 5-4, in the night game at Point Stadium Friday. Here’s why.

Mainline won the regular-season title over Martella’s and then won the best-of-5 championship series 3 games to 1.

Yet, Saturday night at Point Stadium, Martella’s needs to win just a single game against Mainline to render all that somehow irrelevant, capturing the tournament championship in the process

Simply put, single games are not the best judge of teams’ relative baseball ability. It is a game in which teams prove their worth over the long haul.

There is a reason Major League Baseball plays the longest regular season among major sports, and has corrected the mistake of one-game wild-card matchups, now going with best-of-3 series in that round.

No sport offers an underdog the greater ability to win a single game than baseball. A hot pitcher, or a standout pitcher having a bad night, can lead to the better team losing. Similarly, batters and fielders can have an off night, or a hot game, skewing the outcome in favor of the lesser team over the small sample of one game.

The AAABA Tournament’s move to pool play years back, besides guaranteeing teams three games here, also was billed as smoothing out the outcomes in separating the better teams from their lesser counterparts.

Once out of pool play, however, it becomes lose and leave.

This is not all that unfair considering most times the opposing teams don’t have a history between them, at least not to the degree that Martella’s and Mainline do. Some might argue it was tough that Mainline had to beat New Brunswick for the second time in a few days to advance. Mainline got it done; not without extreme effort.

Now, having Martella’s able to win the tournament championship with a single win over a Mainline team that has proven in the regular season and league playoffs to be the better unit, somehow offends the senses.

Since both teams are based here, a best-of-3 series would be more equitable test. It won’t happen, but maybe it should.

Johnstown is halfway to a guaranteed championship in the 80^th AAABA Tournament. Pause a moment to allow that to register.

Johntown fans of my generation grew up lamenting so what’s new, out in two, back when two losses meant elimination from the tournament. This year, we’re on the verge of getting two through — to the title game!

The current event, having gone to a pool play format years back, entered Friday with a AAABA final four that included both Johnstown entries. And now, after Martella’s pulled off a dramatic, 5-4 victory Friday afternoon over New Orleans at Point Stadium, Johnstown has two of the three teams remaining alive.

It’s up to Mainline Pharmacy, champions of the Johnstown league this year and thereby Johnstown-1, to take care of business vs. New Brunswick tonight and we’ll have a Johnstown-Johnstown matchup Saturday for the title. A guaranteed championship for the hosts. Be still, my heart.

To think of something similar, my mind races back to my senior year of high school, when our 1972-73 Johnstown High School basketball team of Don Maser, Pat Cummings, Jack Buchan, Ken Horoho, etc., was unbeaten and played Johnstown Vo-Tech for the District 6 championship at the War Memorial.

The entire Vo-Tech starting lineup was Johnstown kids, too. It was like an intra-squad game for the district title.

I understand that all the players on the “Johnstown” AAABA rosters aren’t Johnstown kids. We’ve come a long way from the time our Junior League rules had a 25-mile limit, which produced Tom Qualters of Somerset being ineligible to play for Johnstown and instead coming here with the Baltimore team, which won the 1976 tournament. To rub it in, Qualters was co-MVP of it all.

To people who lament the presence of so-called “outsiders” on the Johnstown AAABA teams, do they really think all the Steelers, Pirates or Penguins were born and raised in Pittsburgh?

Do they root for college teams like Pitt and Penn State that recruit players from other cities, states and even countries?

So, it doesn’t bother me that Martella’s has a player on the roster whose residence is listed as Novi, Michigan.

I’m a fan of the teams that I root for winning games and titles. That’s why I got a bit excited today.

I will admit I didn’t enter the game with high hopes. Yes, this is not, as some told me even today, your father’s New Orleans team. But, it’s still a name one can safely predict to do well tournament after tournament.

It didn’t help my mood when New Orleans hit the scoreboard with a three-spot in the first inning. Frankly, another two runs or so for New Orleans and I was going to start up the metaphorical bus and leave.

But, here is where a tip of the cap to Martella’s is in order. This is a franchise with an obvious winning culture. It didn’t win the Johnstown league playoffs, but still came into the tournament expecting to succeed, and it has.

Down 3-0 in an elimination game, the team dug in, fought back, and eventually took the lead, only to hold on by the fingernails.

It is the kind of spirit typified by a quote from the legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who is purported to have said his team didn’t lose, it just ran out of time.

Even if Martella’s had lost this game, it would have been a noble effort.

But Martella’s won, on a game-ending doubleplay with a New Orleans runner inexplicably diving into first base.

I once heard the quintessential explanation for why running through the base is faster. If diving was better, then all sprinters would faceplant reaching for the finish tape. They don’t and neither should baserunners headed to first, where one does not need to stop at the base.

It was one of several such dives by New Orleans players.

New Orleans now can head home to practice those headfirst dives.

Meanwhile, Mainline Pharmacy has a game to play tonight. A win would assure a Johnstown team has a date with destiny Saturday.

On a side note, I’m hoping a crowd comes out tonight to root home Mainline. This afternoon game had attendance that fell more into the intimate gathering category than being a crowd. That was the only disappointing aspect of it all.

The neighborhood Charlie Brown is at it again. While many in the town are enjoying AAABA week, Charlie is out videoing the neighbors and alleging misdeeds on their part.

As a bit of background, years back Charlie thought he could claim a so-called paper alley as his own and lost, repeatedly, in the attempt. Charlie believed he knew the law better than the judges. Predictably, they did not agree.

Charlie’s response to his legal beatdown was to become an even larger pain in the behind.

When your life’s work is to be a human hemorrhoid and you hit that goal, should you really be proud? Charlie seems to be.

Charlie likes to intimidate women and rush to social media to claim victimhood. Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?

His tools are profane language, a “planter” festooned with obscenities that he conveniently places across the street from people he does not like, and his ever-present video device.

Charlie once proudly boasted on social media that I was afraid to face him man to man. I showed up at a Southmont Borough council meeting to remedy that and to assure him there was no fear. Charlie had little to say face-to-face, other than I was a good writer.

That didn’t get posted online by video boy; imagine that.

Charlie also misstated some facts in a brief conversation we had at the meeting.

Charlie would fit well in the current Democrat party, always lining up on the 10- to 20-percent side of issues. He loudly cites his First Amendment rights, but fails to recognize others have rights, too.

These days, Charlie apparently is strolling the streets and alleys, trying to goad the upstanding citizens into disputes that he can video and post online, perhaps desperately seeking to procure a few bucks.

I’ve been made aware that one of these video postings from Charlie involved my house and a vehicle parked behind it under a car cover.

Charlie wondered aloud if it were a Corvette, if it were duly licensed and insured, and generally if it was violating borough ordinances by being parked there – on a gravel pull-off area, not in the grass, by the way.

So, Charlie, here are your answers: It is a Corvette, yes it is registered and insured, and no, I’m not violating borough ordinances by having it parked on my property under a car cover.

Now, Charlie, is the quasi-junkyard of vehicles parked around your family hovel all street legal?

I’m betting no on that, not that I expect you to be forthcoming with answers. Frankly, if I were you, I wouldn’t be admitting to reality, either.

But, I hope you do scrape together a few dollars with your online video gig, allowing you to buy some much-needed testosterone.

Opening night of the AAABA is a tradition in this family, much like it is for many other area clans.

My father took me, my mother and my brother to the games. I took my immediate family (when I wasn’t working covering the game). Now, I’m taking my son and granddaughters to the grand spectacle.

For those grandkids, ages six and seven, a big attraction is the pregame parade of AAABA Ambassadors in their formal gowns. A bonus this time was the younger girl found a ball in the stands before the game, perhaps from a Mill Rats contest.

Later, a friend took her down on the field to get signatures from the Mainline Pharmacy players, and she returned with two baseballs, both signed. I had bought two of the souvenir balls and display cases on the way in, at $10 a pop. But these latest balls caught the imagination of the one child, and aggravated the other.

I was able to beg another ball for the second granddaughter and things improved.

Alas, the girls were tuckered out and we had to leave with Johnstown trailing Cleveland 3-2, thereby missing the late-game rally that produced a 15-7 Johnstown victory.

My thoughts turned to another tradition of mine. Many years back I had written an A-to-Z reflection on the AAABA Tournament, updating it at least once.

Here is another refresh.

A: Arcurio. This is Johnstown’s first family of the event, with George Arcurio III carrying the torch for more than 50 years of association with the tournament. I made it a point to seek him out to say hello (and beg for that ball) Monday and was greeted in typical fashion, which is to say with a smile and warmth from a genuine people person.

B: Baseball. That’s the draw that brings us out year after year; a reported crowd of more than 6,000 for this opener.

C: Competition. Where once you could pencil in one of the so-called Big Four (Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans or Washington, D.C.) to win, now only New Orleans remains. We miss those loaded teams, but find solace in the reality that now any franchise can win it all

D: Dollars. The tournament continues to be a shot in the arm for a local economy that all these years later still can use any help it can get.

E: Electricity. Now that the balky lights have been upgraded through years of Point Stadium renovations, the notable, desirable electric aspect of opening night is the parade of players and ambassadors and the handing out of awards for the Johnstown Collegiate Baseball League season.

F: Fans. In this era of sports saturation on television, fans from Johnstown and the surrounding areas still turn out in droves to support this event. Give yourselves a hand. More importantly, keep it going.

G: Gridlock. All those convertibles ferrying in the ever-expanding number of tournament ambassadors to Point Stadium on opening night make the field look a lot like Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill Tunnels at rush hour.

H: Hopes. Teams from four different franchises have carted home one or more championships in the past eight tournaments. Others entertain legitimate hopes of joining that list.

I: Inclined Plane. The tourist attraction remains dark as lengthy repair work continues. It used to provide a marvelous sight beyond the right-field wall at night, seeing the Plane’s cars periodically ascending and descending the mountainside to Old Westmont.

J: Johnstown Oldtimers. Their year-round efforts keep this event going. It’s only getting tougher as the years pass.

K: Baseball scoresheet shorthand for a strikeout. I never saw him play, but tales still are told about Roger Bowman of Schenectady’s Amsterdam Rugmakers, who struck out 71 batters in 27 1/3 innings of work in 1945, the very first AAABA Tournament. You might not be surprised to hear his team won that championship.

L: Longevity. This is the 80^th edition of the AAABA Tournament. Thanks are in order to all, including many of whom now departed, who made this possible.

M: Memories. The precious list of them grows with each passing year.

N: Nomads. It was more noticeable in the former Point Stadium configuration. But even with this version of the Point it’s evident that at any given stage of play, hundreds, if not thousands, of fans are in motion on the walkways, seemingly oblivious to the ongoing events. Game? What game?

O: Ordnance. All these many years later the freelance bomb squad on the hillside adds to the ambiance. It’s amusing to see newcomers to the tournament jump at the first aerial explosion.

P: Pharmacies. Is it mere coincidence that the two Johnstown championship teams were sponsored by pharmacies, first Martellas and then Mainline? And both pharmacy sponsors have teams in this tournament. Come to think of it, both pharmacy names begin with M. Hmmmm.

Q: Quarrels. Watching managers and umpires go at it is a colorful part of baseball that seems to be going the way of the buggy whip.

R: Rain. The Weather Gods seem to be smiling on this tournament, with a perfect opening night and a forecast for more good weather, beyond smoke from Canadian wildfires. By way of contrast, the opening night of the 72^nd tournament taught us all never to trust the weather guy when he guarantees no rain. Torrential rain proved him wrong and soaked more than a few trusting fans. Many years before that, there was a night when a helicopter was brought in to fly over the grass playing surface and attempt to remove moisture with its rotor wash.

S: Stadium. The rebuilt Point Stadium lacks some of the rickety charm of its predecessor, but is a much more fan-friendly facility, albeit with a smaller capacity and no need for the ballboys to field fouls off the screen behind home plate.

T: Tension. It’s hard to match opening night before a packed house. Johnstown playing for a tournament title comes close, but somehow the attendance doesn’t match up.

U: Underdogs. Zanesville and Johnstown played for the championship of the 72^nd tournament in 2016. If you’d have predicted that 20 years before, a padded cell would have been your next destination. Johnstown teams have won the tournament twice, again something seemingly impossible in my younger days.

V: Victory. All 16 teams are victors or they wouldn’t be here. Sometimes that gets forgotten in the emotion of the moment.

W: Woy, as in Brian, has been the stadium PA announcer for pushing half a century. If you see Brian, ask him about the time his observations regarding a Baltimore bat girl went out over the stadium speakers.

X: Xylem. From the Greek for wood. I’m glad we’re back to using xylem bats in the tournament.

Y: Youth. I reiterate from the previous alphabetic rundown on this topic, these young players seem to play with more passion than the pros do.

Z: Zanesville. Tip your cap to the ultimate Rocky-esque champions, Zanesville’s Junior Pioneers, winners of the 2016 tournament.

I’m having Pete Axthelm experiences regarding sporting tickets. Allow me to explain.

Axthelm is the late, great sportswriter turned TV sports commentator and betting expert, who coined one of the most memorable descriptions of unattractive sporting events. He dubbed such contests as “smashed windshield games.”

Explained Axthelm, you could place two tickets to such games on the dashboard of your car, walk away, and when you came back, someone would have smashed the windshield and left two more tickets!

Already I’ve told you of the Johnstown Mill Rats phenomenon, in which free tickets fall from the skies like ducat manna. I’ve been to exactly two Mill Rats games during their tenure in town, which I fear is on life support.

Both times there were fireworks as an attraction. I noted following the first that my family seemed to be in the distinct minority that actually had paid for their tickets. More recently, I got in on a freebie from a friend.

He painted a memorable scene, standing in front of Point Stadium ticket windows trying to share his stash of free tickets.

If you are an area baseball fan, you know this is AAABA week, a festival of amateur baseball played for eight decades, mostly here.

As a youth this was a bittersweet moment, tending to come later in August back then. The baseball tournament was a reminder the summer was ending and a new school year was approaching.

Regardless, the games were savored and we dreamed someday that Johnstown would compete for titles, which has come to pass, admittedly as the overall quality of the tournament has diminished.

Opening night, with the Johnstown hosting at Point Stadium, always was a huge deal, with massive turnout. There were times they’d stop the game, in the middle of the seventh inning as I recall, to chance off a giveaway car. Your ticket also was a chance to the win the car.

Tickets always tended to be reasonably priced, and still are, at $5 each. The car giveaway long ago went the way of the dodo bird. My tickets this year refer to three $500 cash prizes. No car, but still worth winning.

The push this year is to have fans use their cell phones to bring with them to confirm purchase of a ticket for admission. I’ve seen worker and would-be fan trying to perform this cell mind meld at the most recent Mill Rats game (inexplicably he had actually purchased a ticket?) and it was not pleasant.

Looking to avoid this, I decided to buy physical tickets Sunday. I called Randy’s Bi-Lo because they have sold tickets in the past, and was told that if I came down there were two AAABA Ambassadors sitting outside at a table, selling tickets at half-price.

I drove down and bought five at $2.50 a pop, which is quite the deal.

I was able to bask in the glow of my bargain for less than 24 hours, which is the time it took for the wife to show up with four more free tickets, presumably given to someone, who passed them on to my wife.

I guess I’ll be the one standing around offering free tickets tonight.

But, it occurs to me the Axthelm reference is unkind, particularly in regard to the AAABA Tournament.

Instead of these being smashed windshield tickets, I shall christen these freebies as tribbles, the furry creatures from the Star Trek episode in which their prolific reproductive ways caused them to multiply quicker than rabbits and eat the grain shipment the Enterprise was carrying.

I suspect that if I leave two (tickets, not tribbles) on the dashboard of my car, I will come back and find no smashed windshield, but still two additional tickets.

I wonder if this trick works for bars of silver?

Lime green dildos are flying onto the courts during WNBA games and the mind races to comprehend.

We read that the gals of the league are as disgusted by this as they are by their pay levels.

Color me amused by it all. Let us count the reasons.

With Caitlin Clark sidelined with yet another injury, the flying dildos have become the most watchable aspect of the games.

From the conspiracy department, could Clark be the one behind this, feeling the need to serve up something for people to talk about while she recovers?

Since both dildos seemed to be the same garish green color, do we have a serial dildo thrower on our hands? Should dildos be banned from private ownership and should there be restrictions on their size?

One of the dildo throwers reportedly was caught and banned for a year. This seems like a reward to me. I’m surprised the guy didn’t beg for a liftime ban.

Are we sure these dildos didn’t just fall out of players’ shorts? Recall a similar event when an errant wig left a player’s head during the game, prompting her to retrieve it like a dead possum along the side of the road, and rush off court to the dressing room with the thing.

Is this an attempt by some benefactor to pay the players what they deserve, as asked for by those whiny T-shirts worn at the league All-Star game?

Why do the people removing these items from the playing surface treat them like a combination improvised explosive device/piece of dog crap? Check out the videos with people kicking them, prodding them with a broom, jumping away from them, and finally cradling them in towels for removal.

How long before a sports drink comes out with an ad using a green dildo and asking Is it in you?

Online gambling was providing betting action on the color of the next dildo to be thrown onto the court during a WNBA game, but green was off the board.

As amusing as the green dildos by themselves, is the hysterical over-reaction to it by the self-appointed PC types.

The poor young ladies, being forced to put up with this. Oh, the humanity! But, considering the population of lesbians in the league, this could be an educational experience for many players.

I had forgotten that dildos being thrown onto a sport’s playing area is something of a tradition among Buffalo Bills fans, when facing the New England Patriots. Hat tip to my cousin for reminding me, and providing a link.

Those NFL sex toys have been a more pedestrian caucasian skin tone, with one being mis-identified as a banana by CBS announcers.

I’m thinking the WNBA should embrace their green dildos — figuratively speaking, of course.

Pirates fans will recall legendary announcer Bob Prince, who collaborated with team trainer Danny Whelan to conjure up the Green Weenie during the 1966 season.

The original was a green rubber hot dog, supposedly getting its start when wielded by Whelan from the Pirates’ dugout to jinx an opposing relief pitcher.

Beginning the next year and running through 1974, a plastic rattle version was produced by a Pittsburgh plastics company, with a brief revival in 1989. I’m pretty sure I’ve got one of the 1989 versions in my sports memorabilia pile.

The lore was the Green Weenie could be pointed at the opposition to hex them, or at Pirates players to imbue them with mythical strength and abilities.

The Pirates did win a World Series title in 1971.

Perhaps WNBA players could wave green dildos at ownership and encourage them to show them the green – pay the help more. Just forget the unpleasant reality that the league loses money faster than a Stephen COAL BEAR late night talk show.

I’m headed to a Johnstown Mill Rats game tonight, a playoff tilt at Point Stadium, and it is going to be free admission, confirming a suspicion I had the previous – and only – time I went to a Mill Rats game.

Back then, the crowd was huge and there were postgame fireworks. My son and I took two granddaughters to the game and I ventured aloud then that we might have been among a handful of people who actually paid for their tickets. Not complaining, mind you. As I recall, said tickets were just $5 a head.

I had heard rumors then of the team papering the town with giveaway tickets. Fast-forward to Thursday night and a friend called inviting me to this game. Yes, he’d gotten free tickets – from a bank as I recall him saying.

The team web site lists a variety of places to scarf up free ticket “vouchers.”

While I am grateful for the free ticket, I’m not sure about the financial future of a franchise that feels compelled to give away tickets for a playoff game.

There has been a lot of similarly strange, often troubling news in recent days. To cover this, an edition of news and views is in order.

NEWS: The Pirates were sellers, as usual, at the trade deadline. Some of the national media types had speculated in advance of Thursday’s trade deadline that the Pirates might consider trading dominant pitcher Paul Skenes for a handful of players to boost the team’s many glaring weaknesses. But Skeenes remains.

VIEWS: To fully appreciate the pathetic ways of the Pirates, consider that Skenes has a microscopic 1.83 earned-run average, has struck out 146 in 133 innings, yet is a sub.-500 pitcher at 6-8 because the Pirates’ offense is weak. The Pirates would do Skenes a great favor by trading him to a team serious about winning. When do the Pirates begin to paper Pittsburgh with free tickets?

NEWS: This is the week the Federal Reserve again refused to lower interest rates, and the government job statistics again presented a confusing picture of soft numbers and re-stating previous reports.

VIEWS: This stuff is supposed to be apolitical. Yet, it is clear that Fed chief Jerome Powell has a personal vendetta against President Trump, sort of like the now outed deep state intelligence and law enforcement types showed with their Russia hoax. Keeping interest rates up is Powell’s Russia hoax, designed to penalize Trump and, by extension, the economy, hoping to swing the mid-term elections. Recall, Powell cut rates big just ahead of the past election, perhaps trying to do the impossible — usher Cackling Kamala into the Oval Office. While it is not clear if Trump can fire Powell, whose term is up in eight months or so, regardless, Trump can and did do something about the suspect job numbers. He fired the Biden appointee who has been producing the ridiculously arbitrary numbers.

NEWS: Kamala Harris has a book, “107 Days” and is making the rounds of sympathetic media hawking said tome that she allegedly wrote. This comes after a social media launch that, shall we say, painted Harris as still being a rather bizarre, out-of-touch human being.

VIEWS: The title should have been “How To Blow A Billion-Plus Bucks In 107 Days.” If you are thinking of buying me a copy for my September birthday, or Christmas, please refrain. Snippets, such as the Cackling One sharing with CoalBear she’s out of politics because the system is broken, tell me all I know about the book, that being Kamala still dwells in Denialville, unburdened by what has been.

NEWS: Responding to inflammatory statements from former Russia president Dmitry Medvedev, President Trump has ordered two nuclear submarines moved into position just in case the language morphs into action.

VIEWS: So, both the U.S. and Russia have ex-presidents from the recent past who are short on mental accuity. The problem is, where Joe Biden is walled off from power and spends his days traveling on trains, sniffing the hair of young children, eating ice cream cones, and giving ridiculous “insight” for speaking fees, Medvedev still has a role on the Russian security council. We also have other past presidents Barack Hussein Obama and Bubba Clinton, who seem to pop up in the spotlight way too often. Why can’t these guys slip quietly into private life obscurity, like George W. Bush did?

What’s wrong with President Trump? It is 11 a.m. Tuesday and he has yet to make a mammoth trade deal, broker peace somewhere on the planet, downsize the government, cut useless red tape, reduce taxation, or otherwise do something beyond solidifying our border that markedly improves our lives.

Slacker. Layabout. Charlatan.

Forgive my brief descent to the darkside of the Trump-hating, deranged left. I just wanted to try to understand their insanity. Alas, it feels too absurd and I cannot dwell there.

But, while Trump is taking a break from making history today – so far, but it is early — and being pilloried by the lunatic left for his efforts, there was plenty of other news.

ITEM: A man enters a New York City building housing, among others, the NFL, carrying an AR-type weapon, and opens fire, killing four, including an off-duty policeman. CNN predictably rushes to identify him as “possibly white.” And I remember when the same propaganda outlet tabbed George Zimmerman a “white Hispanic.” It fit their agenda. Zimmerman went to trial for shooting and killing black teenager Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was acquitted on grounds of self-defense. By the way, the NYC shooter was Hawaiian, not white. And I’m waiting for CNN to start referring to Barack Obama as a possibly white black. His mother was, after all, white. Oh, right, doesn’t fit their agenda.

ITEM: Back in our once great state of Pennsylvania, two portly “possibly white” gay guys are able to adodpt an infant son despite one of the gay blades reportedly being a convicted child sex offender. In typical fashion, it is further reported the two used crowdfunding to pay for it all. Perhaps my tax dollars will be found to be part of the process, or now supporting the duo turned trio? I’d vomit on the floor, but my wife would balk at cleaning it up, painting me as a “possibly white” male.

ITEM: Possibly white looking Zohran Mamdani, “Mamdani The Commie” as Trump calls him, has been doing what socialists do, spending other people’s money. Mamdani, leading candidate to be the next mayor of Beijing on the Hudson — New York City — was off to Uganda. There he celebrated recent nuptials in what is described as a “ritzy, secluded Ugandan compound.” Reportedly there were armed guards to keep out the riffraff, and a system to jam cell phones, presumably to prevent any reports from inside. To recap, possibly white Mamdani has rich parents who fund his lifestyle. He hates guns, but they are fine when used to protect his sorry butt. He hates wealth, except when it can provide a reinforced luxury site to celebrate his wedding. How long before Mamdani joins Bernie Sanders (who truly is possibly white) as a socialist with a portfolio of luxury real estate holdings?

ITEM: Possibly white Sydney Sweeney, apparently a prominent young actress of whom I was unaware, is in the public spotlight for an American Eagle jeans ad. Social media keyboard warriors are pounding away that Sweeney is promoting a Nazi agenda because the tag line for the commercial is “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.” She also wears a denim jacket with some buttons conveniently undone in the ad. What? She was wearing jeans? The navel-gazing crowd, with all that spare time on their hands that tends not to be available to people on the right who instead spend it earning a living, sees jeans as genes. It’s not just a clever play on words, say they, but more racist Nazi eugenics. Having seen images of the social media critics, who would look best with their jeans pulled over their faces, I’m all in favor of more possibly white Sydney Sweeney types.