News Vérité

In boxing there was once a fighter known as the Great White Hope. Now, were I to label Caitlin Clark as the WNBA’s “Great White Hope,” I would be labeled in various ways, certainly as a racist, a white supremacist, a far-right extremist, a Nazi, a Fascist, Herman Goering, you name it. All that aside, you can’t ignore the fact that once women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark — she being white — left college and joined the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the league’s viewership and game attendance both skyrocketed. In fact, ESPN telecasts of the NBA — the all-male version of professional basketball — and the WNBA are now neck and neck. The WNBA was pretty much a sideshow to the “real deal” in the men’s version since its inception under then-Commissioner David Stern. NBA teams would field WNBA counterparts, and then write them off on their taxes. Salaries rarely went above $50,000 a year. Players would have to take commercial flights, not chartered jets like their male counterparts. Now, post-Clark, WNBA players are not only flying on private jets, but are now eyeing a proposed players’ contract that amps up salaries and benefits big time. “This Collective Bargaining

I call them Demofiends for many reasons, and their will to eternal power through lies and corruption is one of the primary reasons. Nick Shirley, the 23-year-old freelance journalist who exposed the corrupt Demofiend machine that runs Minnesota, has now found an even juicier — in dollar terms — target in the Stolen State, ruled over by one Governor Grabbin’ Gruesome. What Shirley found in Minnesota is operating in California at 10 times the bang for the buck. While fraud in Minnesota is estimated at some $20 billion or so, in California it’s hovering more toward the $200 billion level. I know how the system works. I once worked for a teachers’ union in the Stolen State. The union would put out statements and ads, hold strikes and rallies, go on TV, and do anything to get what they wanted, which boiled down to two things — more power and more money for their constituents, the teachers who vote them into power. Once they win over the public, which they often do and still do, they funnel campaign contributions to the politicians who support them. Now, teachers’ unions face certain legal limits on the contributions — bribes — they can

President Trump dominated the daytime news yesterday with two events in the White House, both of which were capped by question-and-answer sessions with reporters. Iran and the Strait of Hormuz — and oil prices — naturally were dominant. But perhaps the most interesting Trump comment came when he said he wanted to “take” Cuba. “I think Cuba sees the end,” Trump said in the morning session. “All my life, I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll be the honor of — having the honor of taking Cuba.” He further elaborated: “Whether I free it, take it — I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.” This commentary led CNN into a frenzy, smacking of dictatorial longings to its reporters. Cuba, however, is already seeing the light of a takeover, or more likely, the fear of imminent economic collapse. Yesterday, it offered Cuban expats living in the U.S. — and others — the opportunity to invest in their homeland. “There are no limitations,” Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, who also heads