The Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium was a dramatic tournament this year‚ with the tough and persistent and courageous Danielle Collins riding a low seed — was she seeded at all? — all the way to the win‚ her first and likely her last Masters 1000‚ unless she revises her plan to retire at the end of this season. The pride of St. Petersburg always wanted this one‚ and she certainly earned it. She is one of the most hard-working‚ never-quit‚ gritty American girls‚ with a powerful game from the baseline‚ and she was deservedly the crowd fave and said really classy things when presented with the trophy‚ thanking not only her team and the sponsors but the security officials and the medics who spring from the sidelines in response to sprains and cramps. READ MORE from Roger Kaplan: It’s a Win for Sinner and Woke Rejection at the Australian Open On the men’s side‚ you could say the same about hard work rewarded for finalist Grigor Dimitrov‚ with the caveat that he did not quite make it. Also‚ he has more than a baseline game; Dimitrov is aggressive at the net‚ has a gorgeous one-handed backhand‚ and hustles like crazy on every point. He had a fantastic‚ inspiring run‚ but this year seems to belong to Jannik Sinner‚ who knocked him out in the final‚ 6–3‚ 6–1. It’s a bit early to speak of the whole year‚ of course‚ but still it was astonishing how the Australian Open winner breezed through the draw and beat Dimitrov handily. Dimitrov had got past the mighty Hubert Hurkacz (three sets)‚ world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (two sets)‚ and fourth seed Alexander Zverev (three sets). Dimitrov has been on a gorgeous mid-career resurgence after some tough years with injuries‚ which proves you should never say quit. But Sinner‚ who beat both Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev on the way to the Australian Open trophy‚ is just too good at the moment. The six-two Tyrolean with the form‚ the feet‚ the forehand‚ the impossible down-the-line backhand‚ the grace — well‚ you get the picture. His court sense‚ aka strategic and tactical intelligence‚ has overwhelmed everybody this year. Alcaraz put it very well: He said Sinner made him feel as though he was 13‚ flummoxed by Sinner’s game. The shot choices‚ the placement‚ require impeccable movement‚ and it is not irrelevant that‚ like Djokovic and Roger Federer‚ Sinner was a passionate skier as a teen‚ a juniors champ.  Skiing develops the feet‚ the knees‚ the “foundation” — abs and lower back — so essential to match play. American youth sports teams and organizations spend far too much money on secondary items‚ such as fancy facilities and paraphernalia. There probably are too many school district and athletic associations administrators‚ too. The focus should be on physical training‚ learning different sports‚ getting a grounding in how to think about sports‚ sports history‚ chess‚ and academic subjects. In America we are addicted to throwing money at everything except the basics‚ and that is why we are on our heels against the barbarians who threaten Judeo-Christian civilization. Meanwhile the New York Yankees had a great opening series against Houston‚ and they are in first place and unbeaten going into the second week‚ so take that‚ Boston. However — not to get off the point but to stay focused on fair and accurate reporting — anyone interested in Boston ought to forget about the travails of Harvard University’s poor show lately and consider a superb Boston novel‚ an American novel‚ a great story of our country and our history‚ Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day‚ which I am sure I or one of my pals here at The American Spectator will account for one of these days. In other tennis news‚ the wonderful‚ unseeded‚ all American women’s doubles team of the irresistible Bethanie Mattek-Sands and the pugnacious‚ determined Sofia Kenin took the doubles at Miami in a thriller‚ while the wonderful class-act Aussie-Indian team of Matt Ebden and Rohan Bopanna continued their dream run since winning the Australian Open‚ also a thriller. Thrill is in the eyes of the observer‚ you may say‚ but objectively and going by the old fair-and-accurate‚ in doubles if you need at least one tie-break and a third set super-tiebreak (first to ten with two-point spread)‚ as both the women and men’s winning teams did‚ I think it’s fair and accurate to use the term without risking drama inflation. Baseball season did not start so well for the Dodgers — I always said they never should have left Brooklyn — with a betting scandal involving their Babe Ruth lookalike from Japan‚ Shohei Ohtani. Babe Ruth‚ I should note‚ has an important role in The Given Day; whether it is accurate historically I cannot say‚ but it does get the Babe right.  However‚ this gambling matter is embarrassing. I don’t care much for gambling‚ but a man — or even a woman — can throw his money away in a free country. The problem is that‚ in sports‚ obviously‚ it’s one of those areas where the possibility of corruption is high — point shaving‚ throwing games‚ tanking‚ faking injuries‚ and so on; you have read too many stories‚ real and fictional‚ to be able to pretend it ain’t so. In this appalling case — the Dodgers have something like $1 billion now invested in its team’s payroll and the team still can’t get its act together to be a credible Series contender — the investigation(s) are still on‚ so I dasn’t comment. But it ain’t pretty. What this country needs is a serious moral revival‚ no less than a basic downsizing of government. Anyway‚ the Iowa star Caitlin Clark led the Hawkeyes over Louisiana State University Monday night in the girls’ NCAA; they go up against UConn next. On the boys’ side‚ Purdue–North Carolina State is coming up on the weekend. And the clay court season in tennis begins; baseball heroics continue despite the cash avalanche; the shows go on. Don’t pay any mind to my gratuitous advice‚ but I’d say catch some of the basketball‚ stay focused on your own workout schedule‚ drink water and tea‚ give a low priority to IRS deadlines — I mean‚ obviously‚ request a delay if you need it and pay up later‚ they’re only going to throw your money away — and read The Given Day‚ as well as The Voice on the Back Porch and The Adventures of Augie March. Also the Federalist Papers. And a good week to all. Image: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. The post Every Spring Sport Has Its Glories — And Its Shame appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

A controversy arose this week that is simultaneously a little-bitty nothing and a hornet’s nest of grand magnitude — because a little bit of truth and reality needs to be shouted from as high a rooftop as possible. And the subject is … women’s basketball. RELATED: Every Spring Sport Has Its Glories — And Its Shame Not one of my preferred subjects. But as my alma mater‚ Louisiana State University‚ is the defending national champion in the sport — and as the LSU Tigers on Monday night played Iowa in front of a women’s record audience of 12 million people — the controversy that emerged from that game is actually somewhat relevant to our national discussion. Iowa won the game‚ by the way‚ which is something that Kate Kruse‚ the producer of The Spectacle podcast and an Iowa native‚ was very keen to reinforce to me on Tuesday when we recorded this week’s episodes. Iowa is a great team‚ and Caitlin Clark‚ the team’s star player who poured in 41 points to beat LSU‚ is to women’s basketball what Pete Maravich was to the men’s game. Clark has a little more about her than Maravich had‚ which is why it’s easy to see Iowa winning the national championship next week. But the game isn’t the controversy. The controversy is over the fact that LSU’s team wasn’t present on the court for the playing of the National Anthem: LSU Women’s Basketball Team skipped the National Anthem Iowa stood proud LSU just got their ass beat With the entire stadium cheering against them Season over Let this be a lesson to all players: the cringy‚ selfish woke athlete moment is OVER pic.twitter.com/ctskb0GXIC — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 2‚ 2024 I’m a Benny Johnson fan‚ and I’m cognizant of the fact that his being from Iowa makes this an emotionally charged issue for him. And Benny Johnson is anything but alone in sounding off with this kind of rhetoric about the pre-game occurrences at Monday night’s contest. But he’s wrong. He’s way off. And he ought to apologize. Here’s the truth about this stupid controversy‚ in a few easily digestible little factoids: First‚ LSU did not conduct a protest of the National Anthem on Monday night. The team just wasn’t on the court for it. Iowa was‚ which created some clunky optics for LSU’s program‚ but this had more to do with routines and logistics than a lack of patriotism. Second‚ LSU Coach Kim Mulkey‚ who is one of the best coaches — if not the best — in the women’s game (the job she’s done in three years rebuilding LSU’s program — including a Sweet Sixteen appearance‚ a national title‚ and an Elite Eight appearance — after building a dominant program at Baylor speaks to this)‚ is anything but a woke leftist who fosters poor patriotism among her players. Believe me. If you’re a conservative‚ Mulkey is about as friendly to you as you’re going to get. There’s a reason woke journos at the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have trashed her in the past week‚ and it’s not because she aligns too closely with them culturally and politically. Third‚ the presence of the teams on the court for the playing of the National Anthem at basketball games is a very on-and-off thing‚ and it’s often the product of decisions by the event managers. For example‚ at last year’s national championship women’s hoops contest featuring these same two teams‚ a game LSU won over Iowa‚ neither team was on the floor for the National Anthem. And if my information is correct‚ neither team was on the floor for the National Anthem during Monday night’s second game between Connecticut and Southern California. Fourth‚ LSU’s pre-game routine calls for a trip back to the locker room 12 minutes before tipoff. So what we have here is a massively overblown‚ stupid controversy that is fueled by a great deal of ignorance — not to mention the more than a little bit of market positioning that the mainstream media has performed on LSU’s team. It’s been presented as the Bad Girl of women’s college basketball largely because LSU’s star player‚ Angel Reese‚ talks a lot‚ and a few of the team’s other stars have a similar swagger. That and the media covering women’s basketball have hated Mulkey ever since she offered tepid‚ at best‚ support for the rather imperfectly patriotic Brittney Griner‚ her former star player at Baylor who trashed the country on her way to moonlighting as a pro player in Russia‚ only to find herself in one of the country’s prisons. All of this is utterly idiotic. Basketball games aren’t all-day affairs as football games are‚ and event management for basketball is a lot more compressed. It isn’t all that standard for a team to be on the floor for the National Anthem in men’s or women’s basketball; the Anthem is for the fans. Still‚ the reality now is that Mulkey is going to have to change her pre-game routine because of the toxic optics and blown-up controversy this has created. And while nobody seems to get this‚ Louisiana’s new governor‚ Jeff Landry‚ just did her a big favor by weighing in on this: My mother coached women’s high school basketball during the height of desegregation‚ no one has a greater respect for the sport and for Coach Mulkey. However‚ above respect for that game is a deeper respect for those that serve to protect us and unite us under one flag ! It is… — Jeff Landry (@JeffLandry) April 2‚ 2024 Landry could have sat this one out‚ but what he’s done is pretty smart and an interesting little lesson in red-state governance. Whether or not he understood the logistical nature of LSU’s absence on the court‚ he’s taken this thing out of Mulkey’s hands. She’s got to have her team on the court for the National Anthem from now on‚ simply because if not they’ll turn her into an anti-American villain. But with Landry stepping in to mandate not just her team’s presence for the National Anthem but that of all the teams at all of Louisiana’s public colleges‚ it’s out of her hands‚ and she’s now removed from the controversy. Then he went further and applied this to the individual players. No kneeling‚ period. That’s the part that really matters here‚ though it doesn’t apply to Mulkey’s players‚ none of whom have kneeled or even expressed a desire to kneel (at least‚ not to my knowledge). But it ends any further potential for this issue to poison college sports in the Bayou State because nobody on any team — whether at LSU‚ Louisiana Tech‚ the University of New Orleans‚ McNeese State‚ Grambling State University‚ or any of the others — really wants to put his or her scholarship in jeopardy over kneeling during the National Anthem. It’s a bit of opportunism‚ but it’s also a way to fix a problem that has been irritating people for going on a decade now. And he’s doing it while protecting the coaches of those teams‚ who‚ regardless of their own political affiliations‚ might have to recruit players from heavily Democrat families: “Well‚ it’s state policy that we stand for the National Anthem‚ so we all do it and that’s that.” Either way‚ we need to put this dumb controversy to bed before the friendly fire gets out of control. Image: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. The post Those Bashing LSU for ‘Woke’ Loss Are in the Wrong appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

“A prophet is not without honor‚ save in his own country.” These familiar words of Jesus have been applied to many political situations down through the centuries. Perhaps no such application was more apt than the admonition offered to the Democratic Party at the outset of the New Deal and sadly ignored in subsequent decades. READ MORE: The Case for the Eisenhower Doctrine for East Asia On the eve of the 1932 election‚ in a New York Times lead article‚ John W. Davis wrote “Why I Am a Democrat.” As the Democratic presidential nominee in 1924‚ Davis was still a leading party figure in 1932 and had authored the 1932 party platform. In this article‚ Davis confidently wrote‚ “If the Democratic party is successful [in the 1932 election]‚ it will balance the budget; it will lop off useless bureaus‚ which those who created them are naturally reluctant to destroy … and it will take the strait jacket off the trade and commerce of the nation.” He added‚ “Instead of striving to give every man a share of governmental help‚ borrowing from impoverished Peter to pay poverty-stricken Paul‚ it will aim to make it possible for every man to help himself.” Again‚ on March 5‚ 1933‚ the day after President Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration‚ Davis took to the pages of the New York Times in a lengthy feature article entitled “The Torch Democracy Keeps Alight.” He declared‚ “Policies come and go‚ but principles remain‚” seeking to anchor the new administration to the Democratic Party’s historic principles first laid out by Thomas Jefferson. Davis reminded his fellow Democrats: The chief aim of all government is to preserve the freedom of the citizen. His control over his person‚ his property‚ his movements‚ his business should be restrained only so far as the public welfare imperatively demands. The world is in more danger of being governed too much than too little. Davis warned the government to refrain from any activity that “private initiative is willing and able to conduct.” He then extolled the importance of local self-governance as “indispensable to liberty.” “A centralized and distant bureaucracy‚” he wrote‚ “is the worst of all tyranny.” Davis next turned to taxation and the need for government restraint. He set forth the traditional Democratic principle of taxation: “To tax one person‚ class‚ or section for the benefit of another is none the less robbery because done under the form of law and called taxation.” He exhorted the incoming administration to exercise “the courage to refuse and the willingness to forego expenditures which‚ even though desired by many people‚ are not demanded by absolute justice and necessity.” Davis saw the undergirding principle of his party as constitutionalism. He observed‚ “Since men do not lose their frailties by being chosen for office‚ Constitutions are necessary to prevent the exercise of arbitrary power.” In the face of receiving an overwhelming electoral mandate in the 1932 election‚ Davis warned his fellow Democrats that “[n]o majority‚ however large‚ and no argument‚ however plausible‚ can justify depriving a single citizen of any right guaranteed to him by the Constitution.”  Finally‚ Davis sought to focus his party on the “pole star by which the Democrat must steer.” All the foregoing principles point in one direction: the worth and dignity of the individual. “This regard for the individual‚ his powers‚ his rights‚ his opportunities‚” Davis wrote‚ “lies at the very root of the Democratic creed.” Traditional Democrats should reject any notion that the state is “the distributor of special grants of money or of privilege to chosen persons or selected classes.” The end of this story is the sad validation of Jesus’ words. Davis was indeed “a prophet … not without honor‚” save in his own party. The ink was hardly dry on his March 1933 New York Times article before it became apparent that Roosevelt had no intention of honoring the 1932 Democratic Party platform. A balanced budget‚ tax reduction‚ and bureaucratic restraint were all abandoned. As the senior partner of Davis‚ Polk‚ and Wardwell‚ a top-drawer Wall Street law firm‚ Davis went on to become the “lawyers’ lawyer‚” arguing more cases (141 in total) before the Supreme Court than any American save Daniel Webster. In 1936‚ Davis backed Alf Landon’s candidacy against FDR. From that point on until his death in 1955‚ Davis never endorsed another Democrat nationally. He became the leading advocate of conservative causes before the Supreme Court and was labeled by Roosvelt as “Public Enemy No.1.” Asked by a reporter shortly before his death if he was still a Democrat‚ Davis responded‚ “Yes. Damn still.” Since his death‚ the Democratic Party has steadily moved to the left‚ showing no inclination to return to the Jeffersonian principles so dear to John W. Davis. His prophetic warning continues to fall on deaf ears: The genuine Democrat is a traditional liberal‚ with a liberal’s outlook on life: loving freedom for freedom’s sake; believing in the wholesome virtue of self-help; hating privilege in whatever form; wishing nothing for himself from the government that his neighbor cannot enjoy; willing to think of the rights and interests of other men equally with his own. Sadly‚ his was a prophetic voice crying out in the wilderness. Garland S. Tucker III‚ retired Founder/CEO‚ Triangle Capital Corporation‚ and author of The High Tide of American Conservatism: The 1924 Election and Conservative Heroes: Fourteen Leaders Who Shaped America—Jefferson to Reagan. The post A Prophet Without Honor: The Legacy of John W. Davis appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Does The New York Times Actually Care About Mass Shootings?

by Cullen Linebarger‚ The Gateway Pundit: A world-leading virologist has issued a shocking warning to the American public that a “massive tsunami” of death will soon destroy the global COVID-19 vaccinated population. As Slay News reported‚ the bone-chilling warning was issued by Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche‚ a respected Belgian virologist‚ during an appearance on the KunstlerCast […]

from NEM721: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

from Revolver News: NBC News: Wisconsin voters on Tuesday approved a pair of Republican-backed constitutional amendments that will change how elections are run in the critical battleground state‚ according to projections from the Associated Press. The first measure‚ labeled on the ballot as Question 1‚ will ban the use of private funds in election administration […]