Get Better - Get Paid

Apparently, players in the Women's National Basketball Association are being too hard on one Caitlin Clark, point guard for the league's Indiana Fever. ESPN host Stephen A. Smith wants something done about it, going so far as to suggest that President Trump intercede on Clark's behalf. Mr Smith fails to realize that the MAGA crowd is not exactly enamoured with WNBA basketball - consider it "Kinderspiel" or child's play.  

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Note: Recently, there has been a spate of sex toys (dildos) being thrown onto the WNBA courts while the women are playing. Trump, perhaps wishing to join in on the fun, tossed a dildo from the White House roof onto the grounds below and laughed. Are you sure you want to enlist this guy's help, Stephen A.? 

Just Win, Baby

Smith suggests that other players in the WNBA abuse Clark because they resent her instant and immense celebrity. He calls her a "cash cow"; advises the others that it is Clark's celebrity that promises to enrich them all, so... cool it. 

I bet most, if not all of the women who have taken Clark down, reject Smith's claim of resentment, outright, rather insisting that "...if you put Clark, or any woman in front of me, ehm bustin' her butt!" That is competition. You cannot worry about keeping an opponent upright, no matter what value she might hold. You bust her today, and if she blocks your path to victory, you bust her tomorrow. 

It is the purity of passion that ensures the integrity of the game. It happens in football, hockey; it occurs when a pitcher throws a 95 mph fastball up and inside, just to put a power-hitter on his ass. NFL coach, Herm Edwards, said it best: "We play to win the game!" 

Besides, like all officially-sanctioned sports, Clark is protected by referees, rules, and penalties for flagrant fouls. She has teammates and coaches, as well, to protect her; she has the ability and responsibility to protect herself. This is an athletic competition, not "pitty-pat." 

Ultimately, Smith claims he wants to "see these ladies get paid." He should want to see them get better. The WNBA players are not particularly big, they are not particularly fast, and most of all, they are earthbound; they can't jump.  

We tell our boys in high school: "If you want to get paid for playing ball, you will have to play better." Emotions aside, the same rationale must apply to women, as well. Today, the WNBA players are wearing t-shirts proclaiming to the league: "Pay us what you owe us." No one owes you anything. Play better, and you will get paid. That is the natural order. Smith should know this. 

Time for Mr. Smith to back away from his customary bombast and hyperbole, and get serious. He has a megaphone. That comes with a responsibility to tell the truth: Money is not the measure, man. Excellence is."  

Bully, Bully...

America is twisting arms on the world stage, similar to how school-yard bullies twisted arms to coerce smaller kids into giving up their cookies. It was shameful then when kids did it. It is worse when it is adults. We, Americans, should certainly be ashamed, considering Trump does this arm-twisting in our name. 

He levies crippling tariffs on whomever he chooses, for whatever reason. He forces nations to invest billions into America - countries like the E.U., Japan, South Korea, et al - billions they would rather be investing in their own nations, their own people, except America must be sated, whether those nations want to sate America, or not.

Why do we squeeze so - people who have less than we have? Trump declares: "To make America rich again!" 

Actually, Trump, America is poorer already, for your arm-twisting, and becoming more poor with each ratcheting.  

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On the celebration of America's 250th anniversary, "Smerconish" asked his CNN show if America could endure another 250 years. Many of his respondents said, "No." Smerconish, himself, decided that America could survive if only the people would reconnect. The problem, he says, is our "disconnectedness." 

No, Smerconish. That is just a 2025 word that means little. Our biggest obstacle to survival is greed... and cowardice, and cruelty, and sloth. (And, don't forget immorality, which existed in spades throughout the first 250 years - with the treatment of slaves, Native Americans, Asians, etc.) But, wait, that did not preclude us from seeing that "250" through to this day, where America stands as the preeminent nation on Earth. So...

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The Inca sacrificed children for the sake of the survival of their community. It was considered an honor to be thus sacrificed. The method used: strangulation, being beaten over the head with a blunt object, or being buried alive. 

Just keep thinking: "What a great honor!"