Category: Joe Guzzardi

Jackie Robinson Day Mask Disregard For Blacks

By Joe Guzzardi

Every April 15 since 2004, Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day. Robinson, the first black player to appear in a big-league game, debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15. In a stupefying display of hypocrisy, baseball officials play up JRD shamelessly even as they have actively worked to displace black Americans from baseball.

The most obvious and most meaningful way to honor Robinson’s legacy is not to assign every player Jackie’s old number 42, the current practice and an insult to the great Dodger, but to expand African Americans’ MLB presence. A bench warming Taiwanese national has no business wearing #42. Former Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter told USA Today, “This is supposed to be an honor, and just a handful of guys wearing the number. Now you’ve got entire teams doing it. I think we’re killing the meaning. It should be special wearing Jackie’s number, not just because it looks cool.”

Hall of Fame pitcher C. C. Sabathia echoed Hunter’s sentiment. “It kind of waters it down. I could see the Dodgers since that was his team, but not everyone else.” Another Hall of Fame great, Ken Griffey, opined “I didn’t know so many guys planned to wear the number. I sure wasn’t expecting whole teams to wear it,” As the years passed, JRD expanded to include coaches, managers and umpires who donned #42. Just to be sure fans didn’t miss the hype or the opportunity to purchase special Robinson related memorabilia, when teams opened on the road, JRD celebrations took place on days later than April 15

While Commissioners Rob Manfred and his predecessor Bud Selig bemoaned blacks’ shortage on the diamond, the truth is that they are omnipresent—Caribbean blacks, that is. The Society for American Baseball Research, SABR, published its study titled “Baseball Demographics, 1947-2016” which detailed the active players ethnicity by percentage of Americans, blacks, Latinos, and Asians. SABR’s findings: The percentage of African Americans grew steadily from Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947 until the early 1970s at which point it plateaued at around 16% to 19% for a quarter-century (1972-1996). Since then, the black share has plummeted to less than half that amount, 6.7%. Using the same quarter of a century time period, Latino participation spiked from 0.7% to 27%.

Repeating and to make my point crystal clear, MLB has consciously displaced or blocked potential American players. This is an inarguable fact. All MLB teams have multi-million-dollar Dominican Republic training facilities that cater to the prospects’ needs, not only on the field but also academically. Each year, 450-500 Caribbean-born players sign professional contracts and take advantage of training camp coaching, practice fields, gym, cafeteria and a dorm. Enrollment in a Dominican camp does not guarantee a ticket north but it gets him a step closer than the U.S. inner city kid who has nothing comparable where he can play baseball all day long. More importantly, MLB hasn’t shown the least interest in building similar stateside facilities to develop American kids.

Here’s a story that reflects how baseball’s process works today. At the end of the 2025 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates one-time MVP and American black Andrew McCutchen, age 39, announced that he hoped to end his productive career with the Buccos—.272, 2,270 hits, 333 HRs, and 1,156 RBI. McCutchen is a border-line HOF inductee who is  popular with writers, an edge that might land him in Cooperstown. The Pirates released McCutchen and he signed a $1.5 million minor league contract with the Texas Rangers. To replace McCutchen as DH, the Pirates signed Dominican veteran Marcell Ozuna, 35, to a one-year $12 million guaranteed contract. Normally, a general manager would say that he’s cutting a player to save payroll or to bring up someone younger. But in the McCutchen/Ozuna case, the GM dumped a fan favorite and paid $10 million extra to do it. Through April 15, Ozuna is hitting .118 while McCutchen, with limited game time, is hitting .222.

The point is that McCutchen is the most popular Pirates since Bill Mazeroski and possibly since Honus Wagner. He is beloved in the black community, especially among youths. No one in Pittsburgh cares about a journeyman Dominican playing out his baseball string.

Chances are that despite that JRD hoopla, few players could answer the most fundamental questions about Robinson’s personal or professional life. That’s a pity. All the teams travel to New York to play either the Yankees or the Mets. Show of hands, please. How many players have taken the time to visit the Jackie Robinson Museum in Manhattan? They have free time in the morning and early afternoon before the evening game when they could learn about the great Robinson’s life, a more meaningful experience than mindlessly putting on a #42 uniform.

I’m not going too far out on a limb when I answer my own question. Of the 780 players on current 26-man rosters, I guesstimate that fewer than 1% have stepped inside the Jackie Robinson Museum.

Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated columnist whose opinions have been published for more than 30 years. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

MSM Lies In Love Story Same As In Immigration

By Joe Guzzardi

On March 6, The New York Times published Daryl Hannah’s op-ed “How Can ‘Love Story’ Get Away with This?” Hannah was referring to the FX made-for-television series that focused on the whirlwind love affair and marriage between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, then a Calvin Klein employee. The couple and Bessette’s sister Lauren died in July 1999 when a small plane that Kennedy piloted crashed off Martha Vineyard’s coast.

Four decades have passed since I have given Hannah the least passing thought. With Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen, Hannah co-stared in the film 1987 “Wall Street” which I saw and, as a former Wall Streeter, enjoyed. My eye, however, caught Hannah’s question: how does the media, of which television is a prominent part, get away with gross misrepresentation which it presents as hard fact. Immigration enforcement advocates have been asking the same question for years.

Immigration enforcement advocates and Darryl Hanna make strange bedfellows. But both Hannah and Americans who endorse following congressionally approved and president-signed immigration law wonder why the media won’t give them a fair shake.

Hannah correctly complained that “Love Story” producers maliciously and for profit misrepresented her five-year romance with Kennedy, Jr. In the process of churning out salacious content, FX also slanderously misrepresented her character.

From her op-ed, Hannah countered FX’s portrayal with her side of the story:

“The character Daryl Hannah portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John. The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial. I have never planted any story in the press. I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s. It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”

Hanna continued:

“For decades, my work has focused on environmental advocacy, documentary filmmaking and animal-assisted therapy for seniors living with dementia and Alzheimer’s. My professional life is built on compassion and responsibility. Reputation is not about ego; it is about the ability to continue doing the meaningful work I love. Like any career, doing good work requires an intact reputation. This is why I am choosing to stand up for myself now.”

Comparing Hannah’s disgust with the media’s mischaracterization of her to the lies, both of omission and of commission, attributed to enforcement advocates may seem like a stretch to some. But only to those not engaged in the fray.

Around 2000, NumbersUSA assigned me to head its newly formed Media Standards Project (MSP). The task was straightforward—everyday I would read immigration stories, evaluate them against the fairness and balance standards that the Society for Professional Journalists set for reporters. SPJ has a code of ethics that emphasizes the importance of seeking truth and reporting it, respecting all individuals, of considering the potential effect of their reporting on subjects and engaging in open dialogue about their practices. By adhering to those principles, journalists can foster credibility and integrity in their work.

Over the three-year period that I analyzed immigration stories—I read about 1,500—only a small handful of reporters admitted that their stories could have been more balanced. Even considering the blatant one-sidedness like a San Francisco Chronicle page one homage to illegal immigration—eight quoted as pro; zero opposed— reporters would not back down, claiming that to include the enforcement perspective would be “another story” and not the one they wanted to tell.

Reporters told lies of commission like portraying congressional enforcement heroes like Senator Jeff Sessions and U.S. Representatives Tom Tancredo and Steve King as racists. Lies of omission included the failure to write about how illegal immigration, asylum fraud, refugee resettlement overwhelms schools, hospitals and communities. Out of 1,500 stories, the odds would favor that some stories would include the downside to open borders. The stories defied the odds; I never found true 50-50 balance.

During the 25 years since I concluded the MSP project, fairness and balance in the failing, fading legacy media immigration stories is still non-existent. In an indirect victory for enforcement advocates, the public’s trust in the media is at an all-time low, 28%. In other words, the media is still cranking out dishonest stories, but fewer and fewer readers believe them.

Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated columnist who has written about immigration and other social issues for more than 30 years. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

Tiger Flowers: Boxing’s Black Pioneer

By Joe Guzzardi

Tiger Flowers was a pioneering African American boxer who made history in 1926 when he became the world’s first black middleweight champion. Born Theodore Flowers on August 5, 1895, in Camilla, Georgia, he earned his nickname “Tiger” through his fierce, left-handed fighting style and relentless aggression in the ring. His world title belt came during an era of intense racial segregation and discrimination which made his accomplishment even more remarkable.

Flowers grew up in the Deep South during the Jim Crow-era when he faced racism’s harsh realities from an early age. He began his boxing career in the early 1920s after moving to Philadelphia, where he quickly developed a reputation as a skilled and determined fighter. Standing at 5’11” and fighting at around 160 pounds, he possessed an unusual combination of speed, power, and technical ability which made him a formidable opponent.

What set Flowers apart from many of his contemporaries was not just his boxing prowess but his character outside the ring. A deeply religious man who neither smoked nor drank, Flowers read the Bible before his fights. This earned him the additional moniker “The Georgia Deacon.” His clean living and moral conduct made him a role model in the African American community and helped challenge prevailing racial stereotypes of the time. Tiger fought with dignity and carried himself with grace, becoming an ambassador for sport and his race.

Flowers’ path to the championship was rocky and fraught with seemingly insurmountable roadblocks. Boxing’s color line remained an imposing barrier, and many white fighters and promoters were reluctant to give black boxers opportunities for title shots. Harry Wills, “The Black Panther,” was the three-times Black World Colored Champion and top-ranked challenger but never got his shot. Wills twice attempted to sue Jack Dempsey for breach of contract when the champion refused to fight him.

When Jack Johnson, a black, defeated Jim Jeffries in the “Fight of the Century,” waves of racial violence spread across the country in New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Omaha, Columbus, St. Louis, and Wilmington, Wilmington, Delaware. Johnson, Flowers and Beau Jack, the great two-time lightweight champion of the 1940s, fought in “Battle Royales,” a demeaning circus-like sideshow that often pitted ten or more blindfolded blacks in the same ring swinging against each other without a break—a free-for-all. Jack said that once he heard “the last kerplunk, I knew I had won.” The audience threw coins at the winner, his pittance that severed as a purse.

Despite racial obstacles, Flowers compiled an impressive record, defeating quality opponents and building an undeniable case for a championship opportunity. His persistence and undeniable skill eventually forced the boxing establishment to recognize his claim at a title shot. Tiger’s unprecedented 136 wins, 56 by knockout, in a career that spanned less than 10 years, proved to many skeptics that blacks could not only compete at the highest level but triumph.

On February 26, 1926, in New York City, Tiger Flowers faced Harry Greb for the middleweight championship of the world. Greb, known as “The Pittsburgh Windmill,” is one of the greatest fighters of any era and had never been knocked out. In a closely contested fifteen-round bout, Flowers won a controversial split decision to claim the title. During the fight, “The Fighting Deacon,” a steward in Atlanta’s Butler Black Methodist Church, recited a verse from the 144^th Psalm: “Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.” Many observers disputed the decision, but Flowers had achieved his goal. He became only the second black boxer to win a world title in the modern era, following Johnson’s heavyweight championship victory nearly two decades earlier.

Flowers defended his title successfully against Greb in a rematch later that year, this time winning more convincingly. He continued to fight frequently, as was common in that era, taking on all challengers and maintaining an active schedule that often included two fights a month. However, Flowers’ reign as champion would be brief. On December 3, 1926, he lost his title to Mickey Walker in Chicago, again by a controversial decision that many believed favored his white opponent.

Tragedy struck Flowers just weeks he lost his championship. On November 16, 1927, Flowers died at the age of 32 following what should have been a routine surgery to remove scar tissue from his face. The exact circumstances of his death remain mysterious, with some accounts suggesting complications from anesthesia while others point to possible medical negligence. His sudden and unexpected death shocked the boxing world and the African American community, which had embraced him as a hero.

Flowers’ legacy extends beyond his boxing record. He fought during an era when African American athletes faced enormous obstacles and discrimination. His success in the ring, combined with his dignified conduct outside of it, helped pave the way for future generations of black boxers like Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Archie Moore, Jersey Joe Walcott and Floyd Patterson.

Though his time as champion was relatively short, Flowers left an indelible mark on boxing history, and he deserves to be remembered along with other black groundbreakers like MLB’s Jackie Robinson, the NBA’s Earl Lloyd and the NFL’s Kenny Washington. Flowers, and the other more well-known black athletes, proved that talent, determination, and character could overcome even the most entrenched prejudicial barriers.

Joe Guzzardi is a syndicated national columnist who opinion op-eds have appeared in publications for more than 30 years.

Phil Rizzuto Was Cora’s Prince

By Joe Guzzardi

When New York Yankees’ Hall of Famer and long-time broadcaster died at age 90, his wife Cora said, “I’ve lost my beautiful prince.” The Rizzutos had been married for 64 gloriously happy years.

Rizzuto married Cora Anne Ellenborn on June 23, 1943; the two first met the previous year when Rizzuto substituted for Joe DiMaggio as a speaker at a Newark Holy Communion breakfast. “I fell in love so hard I didn’t go home”, Rizzuto recalled. “Scooter,” as Rizzuto was universally referred to, rented a nearby hotel room for a month to be as close as possible to his beloved Cora.

Cora was often part of Rizzuto’s patter. He often left the game early, and said over the air, “I’ll be home soon, Cora!” or “Cora, I gotta get over that bridge!” referring to the congested George Washington Bridge that Yankee fans had to cross to get to New Jersey.

In later years, Rizzuto would announce the first six innings of Yankee games; the TV director would often playfully show a shot of the bridge, which can be seen from the top of Yankee Stadium, after Rizzuto had departed. Rizzuto was also very phobic about lightning, and sometimes left the booth following violent thunderclaps.

During his post-playing career, Rizzuto broadcasted Yankees’ games for 40 years. Listeners heard not only about the on field action but assorted other subjects. His popular catchphrase was “Holy cow.” Rizzuto also became known for saying “Unbelievable!” or “Did you see that?” to describe a great play and would call somebody a “huckleberry” if he did something Rizzuto did not like. During game broadcasts, “Scooter” would frequently wish listeners a happy birthday or anniversary, give cooking lessons, send get-well wishes to fans in hospitals, and give good reviews to restaurants he liked, or hype the cannoli he ate between innings. His chatter sometimes distracted the speaker himself; Rizzuto devised the unique scoring notation “WW” for his scorecard; it stood for “Wasn’t Watching.”

Rizzuto’s peak as a player was 1949–50, when he was moved into the leadoff spot. In 1950, his MVP season, he hit .324 with 200 hits and 92 walks and scored 125 runs. While leading the league in fielding percentage, Rizzuto handled 238 consecutive chances without an error, setting the single-season record for shortstops. In all, Rizzuto played in five All-Star games, on 10 AL championship teams that appeared in seven World Series. Rizzuto ended up among the top 10 in World Series games played, at bats, runs scored and steals.

His broadcasting partners were Frank Messer and Bill White, a former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman and baseball’s first black play-by-play announcer. Rizzuto, who broke in with broadcasting legends Red Barber and Mel Allen, and later worked with Tom Seaver, Bobby Mercer, Joe Garagiola, and Whitey Ford, said that in 18 years working with White, a cross word was never exchanged between them. Their rain delay chatter was classic, analytic free, baseball-exclusive talk.

In 1995, at age 77, Rizzuto decided to retire to spend more time with the love of his life, Cora. He said, “I hadn’t been fair to my family. Fifty-seven, 58 years, I missed half of every year. All the things had accumulated. The Mantle thing [Mantle’s death that year] brought it to a head. I could see myself in the same position. I’m lucky to be as old as I am without anything happening to me.”

At the end of Rizzuto’s life, he was in an assisted living facility. Every day, his teammate Yogi Berra drove over to play cards and to hold Rizzuto’s hand until his friend fell asleep. Yogi and Cora sat by Scooter’s bed to comfort the dying Rizzuto until he passed. Both Hall of Famers played their entire careers with the Yankees. Cora died in 2010; Berra, in 2015. White, who served as National League president from 1989 to 1994, was instrumental in Rizzuto’s Hall of Fame election. Age 92, White lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

Birth Hotels For Chinese Could be Shuttered

By Joe Guzzardi

Peter Schweizer’s new best selling book, “The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon,”contained a bombshell exposé. Among the 750,000 to 1.5 million Chinese who have been granted birthright citizenship, illegally cross the southern border during the Biden non-enforcement era, or overstayed their F-1 student visas of which roughly 277,000 were admitted in 2023/2024, are potential 2030 voters.

Schweizer’s shocker came only to people who haven’t paid attention to how immigration has radically altered the nation during the last half of a century. Immigration advocates, NGOs, Congress, the legacy media, religious institutions have relentlessly pressed for and, by and large, successfully gained higher levels of new permanent lawful residents, refugees, asylees, and temporary visa holders. “Auto-Pen” Joe delivered the nearly fatal blow to enforcement advocates when he opened the border wide and admitted all comers including Venezuelan criminals, escaped mental patients, Tren de Aragua gangbangers, and Middle Eastern terrorists.

Nowhere, however, has the U.S. laid down more passively on immigration than it has to China, our nation’s most powerful and determined adversary. Several administrations have allowed China to buy up precious farmland—adjacent to military compounds, no less— commercial real estate, and build bio-labs right under our nose. Except for Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton’s common-sense suggestion that Chinese F-1 student visa holders be admitted to U.S. university only under the condition that they study the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, there’s been little pushback. Thomas Jefferson, yes; STEM, no.

Even when U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D) affair with infamous Chinese spy Fang Fang was made public, he only got a slap on the wrist. No one knows what secrets Fang Fang might have extracted from Swalwell during their pillow talk. A Chinese national chauffeured California Senator Diane Feinstein (D) for two decades. When the FBI exposed the scandal, the chauffer disappeared back to China and Feinstein—still in her lucid years—lamely said that she was as surprised as anyone that a spy was driving her around town and functioning as her gofer. At the time, Feinstein was Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Nowhere has the U.S. laid down so completely than on the in-your-face birth hotel scam. Starting about two decades ago, hundreds of Chinese mothers traveled to the U. S. while they were pregnant to give birth on American soil so that their kids became automatic citizens. When such children turn twenty-one, they can also apply for resident status for both of their parents. Of course, illegal aliens from China continue to cross the southern border as they have for years. A pregnant illegal alien comes across the border, has a baby, and suddenly not only that baby but the entire family comes to the country to stay. Since 2018, birth tourism has created anywhere from 150,000-250,000 U.S. citizens.

The Department of Homeland Security is passive on birth citizenship hotels, low hanging fruit that it could easily end. On a specific day, enforcement officers could target specific hotels in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, send personnel to the cities and demand to see the registered guests’ visas which will quickly be identified as fraudulent. The foreign nationals are not, as they declared, tourists but women in advanced pregnancy, present to give birth. Visa fraud is a federal felony, punishable by, in part, deportation. If a medical doctor declares the expectant scamsters medically eligible to travel, deport them. If their pregnancy is too advanced to risk travel, confine them under DHS supervision, and post-partum, deport them. Once the word gets out that DHS is cracking down on the birth hotel rip-off, business will soon dry up—bad news for the hotel operators who have been found in previous raids, guilty of sex trafficking and money laundering. The criminals immediately absconded.

During Trump 45, the federal government tried to limit birth tourism. The U.S. Department of State announced in January of 2020, “[T]he Department is amending its B nonimmigrant visa regulation to address birth tourism. Under this amended regulation, U.S. consular officers overseas will deny any B visa application from an applicant whom the consular officer has reason to believe is traveling for the primary purpose of giving birth in the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for their child.” This lame effort went nowhere, and now Trump 47 is trying to eliminate birthright citizenship as it is currently practiced through a Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court is moving at glacier speed to avoid hearing the sovereignty determining issue.

Without immediate America first action, Schweizer’s grim prediction that Chinese nationals will determine the 2030’s election fate will come true.

Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated columnist who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

Harmeet Dhillon Is Unsung Heroine

By Joe Guzzardi

One of the most determined and dedicated fraud fighters is the under-appreciated, unsung Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, a constitutional law expert and free speech advocate. Dhillon succeeds the controversial Kristen Clarke. The greatest controversy that swirled around Clarke focused on her attempt to cover up her arrest record during her Senate confirmation process that led to charges that she lied to Congress, a federal offense.

Dhillon has turned her office’s attention to ending voter fraud, a nationwide hoax that has tipped the scales in many municipal, state and federal elections. In December, just before Christmas, Fulton County, Georgia, admitted that approximately 315,000 early votes from the 2020 election were illegally certified but were nonetheless included in the election’s final tabulation that put the state in Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s camp. In the nation’s closest statewide presidential race, Biden narrowly won Georgia by a 49.47% plurality over Trump’s 49.24% vote share: a margin of 0.23% and 11,779 votes.

In Michigan, state lawmakers raised alarms over what they describe as large-scale voter registration irregularities including tens of thousands of new registrations flagged with phony Social Security numbers and a voter roll that reportedly exceeds the state’s adult population by roughly half a million names. In 2024, roughly 100,000 people registered to vote in Michigan last year, and about 36,000 applicants or 36% submitted invalid four-digit Social Security number matches yet were still allowed to complete registration and obviously to vote.

Continuing her mission to restore election integrity, Dhillon recently confirmed that over 260,000 dead people and thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote in U.S. elections. After a review of thirty states that worked voluntarily with the DOJ to clean their voter rolls, the agency invalidated the fraudulent registrations before the 2026 midterm elections.

In a December social media post, Dhillon updated the nation on her progress with the states to help them comply with the Help America vote act voter rolls with us so that we can help them comply with the Help America Vote Act, which requires states to maintain clean voter rolls. While four states complied voluntarily, in September Dhillon’s civil right division filed federal lawsuits against six states for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request: — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. California got sued twice. Two months later, DOJ filed federal lawsuits against six additional states — Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

California, predictably, is the most egregious offender. In May 2020, during his statewide COVIS shutdown, Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-64-20 2020 ordering every voter in the November General Election to Vote-By-Mail. And then, the following year, he made his EO permanent, claiming moral authority: “states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws,” Newsom said.

Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 37  sponsored by Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), permanently requiring a vote-by-mail ballot be mailed to every active registered voter in the state. AB 37 also gave California 30 days to prepare a certified statement of the results of the election—plenty of time to cook the books.

Today’s voting system is set up to facilitate if not encourage cheating. Returning to normal, honest elections is a multi-step process. End absentee voting. At least 36 states provide “no-excuse” absentee ballots to anyone who requests one. Follow the examples that Belgium, Mexico, Panama, Sweden, Italy, France, Jamica, the Dominican Republic set years ago by returning to paper ballots cast only on one election day, with voter ID and proof of citizenship, established during the voter registration process. Mail-in voting would be permissible only to citizens temporarily living abroad.

Only people determined to cheat are against rigid steps to protect voter integrity.

Barney Ross Was Ring Champ And WWII Hero

By Joe Guzzardi

Born Dov-Ber Rasofsky on December 23, 1909, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish immigrant parents, Barney Ross would become a world champion in three different weight divisions and a decorated World War II hero. His journey from Jewish enclaves to boxing’s elite tells of his determination and toughness that transcended his three world championship titles—welterweight, light welterweight, and lightweight.

Ross was one of several Jewish boxers who anglicized their names to fend off antisemitism, gain wider acceptance, and sell more tickets to boxing matches. Benjamin Leiner, also known as Benny Leonard and considered one of the best lightweights ever, became a dominant champion in the 1910s and 1920s. Vincent Morris Scheer adopted an Irish-sounding name, Mushy Callahan, and won the junior welterweight title in the 1920s.

Known in boxing circles as “The Pride of the Ghetto,” Ross spurned his family’s religious lifestyle and instead, during his troubled teen years, ran with gangsters like fellow Jew Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald’s murderer. The pair of young hoodlums did Al Capone’s bidding. Ross’s father, Isidore “Itchik” Rosofsky, was a Talmudic scholar who had emigrated to America from his native Brest-Litovsk after barely surviving a pogrom. After the family moved from New York to Chicago, Isidore became a rabbi and owner of a small vegetable shop in Chicago’s Maxwell Street neighborhood, a Jewish ghetto like 1920s New York’s Lower East Side.

Ross’s life changed forever when his father was murdered while resisting a robbery at his small grocery. Grief-stricken, his mother Sarah suffered a nervous breakdown, and his younger siblings—Ida, Sam, and George—were placed in an orphanage or farmed out to other members of the extended family. At age 14, Dov was left to his own devices and turned to boxing.

In his 81-bout professional career, Ross won 74—22 by knockout—against four losses and three draws. Remarkably, Ross, famous for his relentless pace, sharp footwork, ring savvy, and ability to absorb punishment while dishing out precise combinations, was never knocked out.

Retired from the ring at 32, Ross enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he eventually fought in the Pacific Theater’s Battle of Guadalcanal. During one battle, he and three fellow Marines were trapped under enemy fire. All four were wounded; Ross was the only one able to fight. Ross gathered his comrades’ rifles and grenades and single-handedly fought nearly two dozen Japanese soldiers over an entire night, killing them all by morning. He survived 30 shots that ricocheted off his helmet. “The ring is kid’s play compared to the battle out here—this is a finish fight with no holds barred and no referee to break up the clinches,” Ross said. His heroism earned Sergeant Ross, the Silver Star, and a Presidential Citation, which Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to him in the Rose Garden.

During his service in Guadalcanal, Ross began an enduring friendship with Catholic priest Frederic Gehring, a wartime chaplain. Gehring considered Ross a national treasure and the only soldier on Guadalcanal who could play the pipe organ. On Christmas Eve, before the Marines were about to go into battle, Gehring asked Ross to play “Silent Night” and other Christmas songs for the troops. After Ross played a Christmas carol medley, Gehring asked the champion for a Jewish song. Ross played “My Yiddishe Momme,” about a child’s love for his self-sacrificing mother. Many of the gathered Marines knew the song from Ross’s boxing days, when it came over the loudspeaker as he entered the ring. When the Marines heard Ross play the song, newspaper reports said that they all wept.

While recovering from malaria and his wounds suffered at Guadalcanal, Ross developed a dependency on morphine. Upon his return stateside, Ross replaced morphine with heroin, an addiction on which he spent $500 a day. Ross went to a recovery center and overcame his addiction. He gave lectures to high school students about the dangers of drug addiction. Ross’s struggle against morphine addiction, which he labeled his life’s toughest battle, is detailed in his autobiographical book, No Man Stands Alone.

In January 1967, after a long struggle with throat cancer, Ross passed away, a champion to Jews and Christians alike.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Congress Drops Bill to Cure TDS

By Joe Guzzardi

Within my immediate family, the Trump Derangement Syndrome team outnumbers the MAGAs by an 8–1 ratio. Some on the TDS squad resemble retiring U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi in their passionate anti-Trump rhetoric. After calling President Trump “a vile creature” and “the worst thing on the face of the Earth,” Pelosi told CNN host Anderson Cooper that she could have said “much worse.”

I can understand not liking Trump. He’s long-winded and pats himself on the back too often. On the other hand, Trump takes all the questions, even from the most hostile reporters who can barely hide their contempt for the president. Think fake news king and queen, Jim Acosta and Joy Reid. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, held the fewest press conferences of any president in modern history. No denying that Trump is, to use politicians’ favorite word, more “transparent” than Biden. For the TDS gang, the elusive Biden never existed; they choose not to mention him — -ever!

Given my family’s mixed history with its Trump opinions, I was struck by the possible TDS solution that Congress introduced: H.R. 3432, the TDS Research Act of 2025 by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH). The bill’s purpose is “to direct the Director of the National Institutes of Health to conduct or support research to advance the understanding of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and for other purposes.” The act defines TDS as “a behavioral or psychological phenomenon characterized by intense emotional or cognitive reactions to Donald J. Trump, his actions, or his public presence, as observed in individuals or groups.” Under the National Institutes of Health’s auspices, ongoing research will be conducted to advance the understanding of TDS, including its origins, manifestations, and long-term effects.

In his Wall Street Journal article, psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert wrote that about 75 percent his patients are afflicted with TDS. “Patients across the political spectrum have brought Donald Trump into therapy not to discuss policy but to process obsession, rage and dread. Their distress is symptomatic, not ideological.” Among the most common symptoms that Alpert encounters are persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation, impaired functioning, sleepless nights, compulsive news checking and physical agitation. In summary, Alpert called TDS an “obsessive political preoccupation” that strains marriages and has fractured friendships, outcomes that, based on my own family’s experiences, I can attest to.

The public reaction to Alpert’s diagnosis proved his point. After the WSJ published Alpert’s op-ed, he expanded his theme on a Fox News appearance and on his social media accounts. Alpert received a barrage of vulgar messages and death threats. Portions of his essay were taken out of context; he was accused of protecting a fascist. Voice mails wished him dead. The frightening messages were not sent by the fringe but rather by individuals who described themselves as compassionate and dedicated to mitigating mental health issues.

If TDS were limited to the area in and around Capitol Hill, the condition might be more understandable. Trump arrived in 2016 as an outsider and immediately disrupted the establishment apple cart. He’s not a Clinton, a Bush, a Biden or an Obama acolyte. No matter how hard the Swamp tried to rid itself of Trump, he refused to go away. In 2024, Trump delivered the cruelest blow to the D.C. institution: He won the presidential election in a landslide.

The most effective way for TDSers to gain credibility and reach a larger audience is to find something — anything — about Trump’s administration that’s praiseworthy, hail it, then dispassionately and without expletives express reservations about the president. The border is Trump’s biggest and most inarguable success. With his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Trump immediately ended the illegal immigration invasion that admitted countless millions of unvetted foreign nationals including criminals and terrorists. America could not withstand four more years of the Biden/Harris open border agenda that overcrowded schools and hospitals, strained social services, drove housing prices ever higher and contributed to soaring inner-city crime.

Give Trump credit where he’s earned it. By acknowledging the good Trump has done, the TDS victims give their never-Trump agenda more credibility.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Nazi-Tatted Socialist May Win Maine Senate Seat

By Joe Guzzardi

Maine, a summertime vacationer’s paradise with its 3,500 miles of tidal shoreline that attracts sailors, sea kayakers, and windjammers, will hold important 2026 elections that will determine whether the state drifts further left or maintains its shaky status quo. Also at stake is the Senate majority.

An extreme-left state that embraces sanctuary status immigration policies, Maine doesn’t receive as much publicity for its radicalism as its Northeast neighbor Massachusetts, under Governor Maura Healy, or Boston under Mayor Michelle Wu. In 2026, the results of Maine’s elections for U.S. Senator and governor could help bring the state back from the political abyss. Looking at the candidates, however, a recovery seems unlikely. The best hope is to stem further decline toward progressivism.

Many gubernatorial candidates shed their Democratic affiliation to run on the Independent ticket as they vie to replace termed-out Governor Janet Mills, age 77. Instead of fading into the sunset, Mills will run for U.S. Senator against five-term Republican Susan Collins.

Less well known for her extremism than California’s Gavin Newsom or Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker, Mills was tyrannical during COVID-19, ordering and maintaining shelter-in-place orders. Mills declared a civil emergency a mere three days after the first COVID-19 case was discovered, following that through the end of March with stricter gathering limits, closing businesses deemed nonessential, and issuing a stay-at-home order with exceptions for work and essential shopping. Overkill, to say the least. Mills’ COVID-19 advisory board consisted almost exclusively of her siblings: Dora, M.D., who served as MaineHealth’s chief improvement officer, as well as her brothers Peter and Paul.

In eight years, a bad governor can do major harm, and Mills did. Mills led the state deep into debt — nearly $1 billion — which will require severe cuts in services and state jobs. Maine’s projected 2024–25 shortfall was around $408 million, but it has more than doubled to $949 million. Mills’ costly red-carpet welcome of illegal aliens is a major contributor to the budget shortfall. Mills, in office since 2019, proposed to add 75,000 more illegal aliens by 2029 — a population larger than Maine’s biggest city, Portland — and in the process throw citizens further under the bus.

The vehicle that Mills will rely on to provide for the unlawfully present aliens is her newly developed Office of New Americans (ONA), created through the governor’s executive order. Mills’ plan would work toward “making Maine a home of opportunity for all, by welcoming and supporting immigrants to strengthen Maine’s workforce, enhance the vibrancy of Maine’s communities, and build a strong and inclusive economy.” To Mills, the illegal aliens are “New Mainers,” whose total will reach 300,000 once a spouse and an average of two children for each recruit arrives.

Mills has been a fixture in Maine politics since 1980, when she was the District Attorney of Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties. After 45 years, Mainers should be ready for a new face. Indeed, Mills may not survive her primary against her extremist challenger, Iraq veteran and oysterman Graham Platner. In various social media posts and random comments, Platner called himself a “communist,” called “all” police “bastards,” said rural white Americans “actually are” racist and stupid, minimized issues those in the military have in reporting sexual assault, and said those who are raped should “not get so f — -ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”

In his most aggressive rant yet, Platner called to abolish ICE and force agents to testify before Congress. His complete statement at a recent town hall:
“People need to go to prison. We need to have public hearings, public, frankly, probably trials down the road, because the American people deserve to know what the hell is going on right now, and how the people doing it can justify it to themselves. If I have my way, even if we can’t get anything to happen in the Justice Department immediately, I want to drag every single ICE agent that’s been wearing a mask in front of a Senate subcommittee, make them take their mask off, and explain to the American people what the hell they’ve been up to.”

As for Mainers who oppose Medicare-for-All, Platner recommends following them around in public, yelling at them with every step they take. “That’s real power,” Platner said.

In an earlier era, Platner’s blustering would automatically disqualify him from serious consideration, especially for the U.S. Senate. But politics are dramatically different today. Platner, Nazi tattoo and all, is campaigning as an everyday working man, a simple oysterman working on the people’s behalf to conquer the affordability crisis.

Early surveying shows that Platner’s message is resonating. Two newly released polls on Maine’s hotly contested 2026 U.S. Senate race returned very different outcomes: one shows Platner beating Mills in the Democratic primary and then besting Collins in a general election matchup. The second poll found that Platner would lose to Collins in a head-to-head race. No surprise, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsed Platner as Maine’s future.

The Republican National Committee never imagined that it would get behind Collins, whom it generously refers to as a moderate. Collins’ Senate voting record is mixed and includes nay on Amy Coney Barrett but yea on Ketanji Brown Jackson, and yes to convict Trump on his second impeachment trial.

Mills? Platner? Collins? The votes cast in the Maine senators’ offices affect Americans in the other 49 states. In Maine, polling means nothing. In 2020, when Collins trailed her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon in every poll for the entire summer, when the votes were counted, Collins won going away. Democrats shouldn’t discount Collins, Maine’s comeback kid.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

End the H-1B—Count the Reasons Why

By Joe Guzzardi

Since President Donald Trump told Fox Network television host Laura Ingraham —and reiterated multiple times—that the United States needed “certain talent,” a reference to H-1B employment visas, thousands of outraged words have been published defending U.S. tech workers.

The America First commentaries rightly scorned Trump for his dismissive opinion of U.S. tech workers’ skills and how the visa displaces thousands of employed Americans and poses an insurmountable roadblock for recent university graduates with science, technology, engineering, and math degrees. To add insult to the painful injury of job displacement, tech employers shamelessly fire existing staff, then cry to Congress that, to stave off financial ruin, they urgently need the annual H-1B lottery, which will yield 65,000 of the world’s “best and brightest.” In truth, the foreign nationals are mostly average-skilled workers from China and India.

While the annual arrival of 65,000 international workers coming to usurp Americans’ white-collar jobs is disgraceful and most directly and dramatically affects tech employees, that represents only a fraction of the harm caused by continuing the practice of welcoming foreign-born workers via a random visa lottery.

The H-1B is a dual intent visa, meaning that the guest worker can either return to his native country or remain in the U.S. after his employment document expires. He thereby gets in line for permanent residency and eventual citizenship. Such misplaced generosity means more pressure on already-bankrupt Medicare and Social Security programs and a further collapse of the failed K-12 public schools.

Birthright citizenship and chain migration make a bad situation worse. Guest workers who start new families or expand existing families before entering permanent residency will still benefit from birthright citizenship, an anchor that makes the child’s parents more difficult to deport when they lose their legally present status.

Chain migration allows the foreign-born petitioners to select America’s future population, regardless of talent or education. Once approved, a legal immigrant can bring his or her nuclear family, consisting of a spouse and minor children. After that, the chain begins. When the original immigrants and his or her spouse become U.S. citizens, they can bring in their parents, adult sons and daughters along with their spouses and children, and their adult siblings, creating a potentially never-ending chain—all possible from one immigrant.

Immigration, mostly through chain migration, is population growth’s main driver. Consider Frisco, Texas, an IT hub that has hired a large H-1B workforce. In 1990, the year Congress passed the Immigration Act, Frisco’s population was 6,100. Fast forward to 2025, and the town’s population soared to 243,300. The Census Bureau projects that by 2029 Frisco will have 275,800 residents. The dramatic population growth has significantly altered the town’s demographic composition. The Frisco Independent School District, for example, has a 65,000 enrollment; 43 percent are Asian, mostly H-1B workers’ children. Again, using 1990 as the benchmark, FISD enrollment that year was 1,500. Today, to accommodate the non-English speakers, FISD offers two sections of English as a Second Language classes. Immigration and, more specifically, the H-1B visas have converted Frisco from a quiet little Texas town into an unrecognizable diverse community that natives neither approved of nor wanted.

No H-1B investigation is complete without a reference to its illegitimate child, the H-4 EAD for spouses. Historically, the H-4 excluded work permission, but in 2015, the Obama administration via executive order authorized spousal employment. Unlike the H-1B holder who is tied to his visa-sponsoring employer, the H-4 EAD holder, predominantly women, can work anywhere. The Supreme Court recently refused to take up the H-4 EAD’s legality, which means that only congressional action or a regulatory change can end the Executive Branch’s ability to issue work authorization to nonimmigrant categories that are not statutorily authorized to work in the U.S.

In summary, all three government branches—Legislative, Judicial, and Executive—have demonstrated indifference to the harm the H-1B has inflicted on U.S. tech workers and sovereign America.

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Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org