E. Jean Carroll is Trump's Latest Target for Retribution as DoJ Launches Criminal Probe Against Her

I suppose that it should come as no surprise that President Trump's DoJ would launch a criminal probe against E. Jean Carroll.

After all, the DoJ has gone after NY Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey not once, but twice not to mention former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell without success thus far.

Trump wants a scalp and he has 88 million reasons to go after Carroll who won $5 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023 and an additional $83 million in 2024 for additional defamation of her by Trump. But none of those 88 million reasons will prove that E. Jean Carroll committed perjury or any other crime.

That Trump is appealing the case isn't enough. He wants retribution against Carroll by launching a criminal investigation against her. 

One can only hope the courts will see through this investigation as they have with James. Comey and Powell and either not proceed with any charges or have the charges dismissed. But it won't stop Trump from trying.

And even if E. Jean Carroll is never charged with a crime Trump will always have some other target for his never-ending campaign of retribution.

Mark Bailey is the 3rd Member of the 1986 Houston Astros to Pass Away This Year

Former MLB catcher Mark Bailey, who played parts of seven seasons with the Houston Astros and the San Francisco Giants, passed away yesterday of cancer. He was 64.

Born and raised in the heart of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri, Bailey would play college baseball at Missouri State University. The Astros would select Bailey in the 6th round of the 1982 MLB Draft.

Bailey would reach the majors in 1984 and would supplant Alan Ashby as the Astros' number one catcher. His best season would come in 1985 when he hit .265 with 10 HR and 45 RBI.

Although Bailey would be part of the 1986 NL West champions, he struggled at the plate and lost his starting job back to Ashby and spend time back in the minors.

Early in the 1988 season, the Astros dealt Bailey to the Montreal Expos in exchange for utility player Casey Candaele. However, Bailey would never wear an Expos uniform as he played with their Triple-AAA affiliate in Indianapolis. In 1989, the Expos sent Bailey to the New York Mets, and he would spend the entire season with the Triple-AAA Tidewater Tides.

In 1990, Bailey would join the Giants organization and spend most of the next three seasons with the Triple-AAA Phoenix Firebirds though he did have brief stints in the majors in both 1990 and 1992. After not playing professional ball in 1993, Bailey would play in the independent Texas-Louisiana League in 1994 and 1995.

In parts of 7 MLB seasons, Bailey played in 340 games collecting 209 hits for a lifetime batting average of .220 with 24 HR and 101 RBI. 

In 1998, Bailey would rejoin the Astros as a minor league coach. In 2002, Bailey would return to the big leagues as the Astros bullpen coach, a role he would enjoy for 8 seasons including 2005 when the team won the NL pennant. Bailey would then spend his last decade with the Astros as their minor league catching coordinator before retiring in 2020. 

Sadly, Bailey is the third member of the 1986 Astros to pass away this season after Davey Lopes and Phil Garner (whom he would later serve as bullpen coach) both died days apart last month. R.I.P.

Paxton vs. Talarico or Why I'm Glad I'm Not a Texas Voter

Well, I'm sure glad I'm not a voter in Texas.

Because if I were I don't think I could bring myself to cast a ballot for either candidate in the U.S. Senate race - Republican Ken Paxton (who last night ousted four term incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary) vs. Democrat James Talarico.

If were to look up corruption in the dictionary, one could very well find a picture of Paxton. This is man who has, among other things, failed to disclose his investments, indicted on securities fraud charges, engaged in bribery, unlawfully fired whistleblowers and committed mortgage fraud. If you throw in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, willingness to protect neo-Nazis and serial infidelities, it is no surprise that Paxton is beloved by President Trump and MAGA as he bested Cornyn by more than 27 points.

Yet I am equally troubled by Talarico, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, who defines his progressivism by saying he won't take money from AIPAC and decrying Israel at every opportunity while saying nothing about Hamas. When someone makes a point of publicly singling out Jews for the whole world's bad deeds, I get chills down my spine. I could not in good conscience support Talarico.

If I were living in Texas, I would write in a candidate on my ballot. Of course, I know that Texas voters will choose one candidate or the other come November. Still, it would be a matter of principle.

With that being said, while Democrats are hopeful about Talarico's chances, I cannot see Texans voting for a guy who claimed there are six genders. Yes, Talarico is telling people he has a legislative record while Paxton has a criminal record. Well, Donald Trump has a criminal record, too. And look where he lives today.

Cubs Have Lost 10 in a Row Following Two 10 Game Winning Streaks

The Chicago Cubs have had a wild season and we're not even at the end of May.

Between April 14th and 24th, the Cubs won 10 games in a row.

Following three consecutive losses, the Cubs would win 10 games in a row again between April 28th and May 8th. 

However, in the intervening 18 days since, the Cubs have gone 2-14 including a 10-game losing streak which happened today following a 12-1 shellacking at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates. During this losing streak, the Cubs have been outscored 65-25.

In the space of 18 days, the Cubs have gone from leading the NL Central by 3½ games to being back in a tie for last place with the aforementioned Bucs by 4½ games. That's a seven-game swing in 2½ weeks.

Still, despite going from first to being tied for worst in the NL Central, the Cubs still have a winning record of 29-26 and can certainly rebound from this setback.

Well, no one can accuse the 2026 Cubs of being dull.

Bob Horner Was Big League Ready

Former MLB slugger Bob Horner, who played the bulk of his career with the Atlanta Braves, has passed away at the age of 68.

Born in Kansas but raised in Arizona, Horner was born to play baseball and hit homeruns. 

Horner attained stardom at the collegiate level at Arizona State leading the Sun Devils to a College World Series title in 1977 where he would earn MVP honors. 

The following year, Horner was the number one pick in the MLB draft by the Atlanta Braves. 

Ten days later, Horner (without any minor league seasoning) would make his big-league debut.

In his third big league at bat, Horner hit his first career HR off future Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven.

In only 89 games played in 1978, Horner would smash 23 HR and drive in 63 runs. This was good enough to earn NL Rookie of the Year honors besting future Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith.

In 1979, Horner attained career highs in batting average (.314) and RBI (98) along with 33 HR. While his batting average would slip to .268 in 1980, he did hit a career high 35 HR along with 89 RBI while finishing 9th in NL MVP balloting.

During the strike-shortened 1981 season, Horner would hit his 100th career HR doing so against future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. He reached this feat in only his 390th game tying with Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Famer Chuck Klein. At the time, only Pittsburgh Pirates legend Ralph Kiner had done it in fewer games (376 games). This feat has since been eclipsed by Ryan Howard (325 games), Pete Alonso (347 games), Gary Sanchez (355 games), Fernando Tatis, Jr. (362 games), Aaron Judge (371 games), Yordan Alvarez (372 games), Joey Gallo (377 games) and Ronald Acuna, Jr. (385 games). 

In 1982, Horner would earn his only NL All-Star Team selection. One would be forgiven for thinking that Horner would have received more selections. Alas, Horner played third base and as good as Horner was, Mike Schmidt was that much better. Still, Horner's 32 HR and 97 RBI were key in earning the Braves a NL West crown.

A season ending broken right wrist injury would limit Horner to 104 games in 1983, but he did manage to hit .303 with 20 HR and 68 RBI. In 1984, Horner would break his left wrist which limited him to only 32 games.

Fortunately, Horner would rebound in 1985 and 1986 hitting 27 HR in both campaigns. During that 1986 season, Horner would have the most memorable game of his career on July 6th when he belted 4 HR along with 6 RBI in a losing effort against the Montreal Expos. Three of his four HR came off of Expos starter Andy McGaffigan with the fourth off Expos closer Jeff Reardon.

Sadly, Horner would become a victim of collusion as the Braves did not make a serious effort to re-sign him while no other MLB teams made him an offer. Instead, Horner would go to Japan and play the 1987 season with the Yakult Swallows where he hit 31 HR. 

In 1988, Horner would return to MLB when he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. However, a lingering shoulder injury would limit him to 60 games belting only 3 HR. 

Horner's MLB career would be over at the age of 30. In 1,020 games played over 10 seasons, Horner collected 1,047 hits for a lifetime batting average of .277 with 218 HR and 685 RBI.

Perhaps most astonishingly, Horner never struck out more than 75 times in a season. Quite remarkable given his propensity for homeruns. 

Although Horner would not receive a single vote on the 1994 BBWAA Ballot, he would become an inaugural member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Horner would also get a large measure of justice when he was rewarded over $7 million plus interest in compensation due to collusion by MLB owners.

This has been a tough month to be an Atlanta Braves fan with the successive passings of Ted Turner on May 6th, of Bobby Cox on May 9th, of Buzz Capra on May 11th and now Bob Horner. 

While Bob Horner's big-league career may have been cut short, the fact is he was big-league ready. He was not intimidated by anyone. Consider the Hall of Fame pitchers who surrendered HRs to Horner - Don Sutton (5), Tom Seaver (4), Nolan Ryan (4), Steve Carlton (3), Bert Blyleven (3) not to mention dingers off Jim Kaat, Rollie Fingers, Ferguson Jenkins, Lee Smith and Dennis Eckersley. This accounts for more than 10% of his career HR total.

Horner never led the NL in any offensive category. And yet Horner struck fear in the heart of pitchers. I'm sure the pitchers who had to face Horner have never forgotten. R.I.P.

Imai, Okert & Santa Get 5th Combined No-Hitter in History of Houston Astros

(AP: From left to right - Alimber Sanchez, catcher Christian Vazquez, Tatsuya Imai and Steven Okert)

On Monday night, three Houston Astros pitchers - Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert and Alimber Santa - combined for a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers prevailing 9-0.

Imai pitched six innings with Okert pitching an inning with Santa pitching the final two innings in his major league debut. 

It marks the first no-hitter in MLB since September 2024 when Chicago Cubs pitchers Shota Imanaga, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge threw a combined no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It is the 18th no-hitter in Astros history. The last Astros no-hitter took place in April 2024 when Ronel Blanco tossed one against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Of further note, this is the fifth combined no-hitter in Astros history which is by far the most in MLB history. In 2003, six Astros pitchers (Roy Oswalt, Peter Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, the late Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner) combined for a no-hitter against the New York Yankees. In 2019, four Astros hurlers (Aaron Sanchez, Will Harris, Joe Biagini and Chris Devenski) combined for a no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners.

Two more combined no-hitters would follow in 2022. In a case of déjà vu all over again, the Astros would use multiple pitchers to no-hit the Yankees. This time they only needed three pitchers (Cristian Javier, Hector Neris and Ryan Pressly) to pull it off. Then Javier and Pressly would be involved in a second combined no-hitter along with Bryan Abreu and Rafael Montero. Only this time it was in Game 4 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. It should also be noted that Christian Vazquez who caught tonight's combined no-hitter also caught the combined World Series no-hitter.

Although the Astros have a subpar 24-31 record thus far in 2026, the no-no gives them four straight wins and victories in 7 of their last 10 games. Despite their record, the Astros are only 3½ games back of the Athletics who are leading the AL West with a .500 record. Perhaps this combined no-hitter will further their momentum in the AL West.

Danielle Smith's Disingenuous Alberta Independence Referendum Question

 

Last Thursday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced  the province would vote on if they wanted to have a referendum on whether to remain in Canada or become independent.

The vote is set for October 19th.

The problem, of course, is the deliberate ambiguity of the question:

Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

Now let's compare that question to one of the other questions on the referendum ballot:

Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King's Bench and Appeal courts?

The latter question is a singular question which will elicit a yes or no response. On this question, Albertans will either say want the Canadian Constitution amended to allow the provinces to select justices to the provincial courts or they will say no.

As to the question of independence, however, there are two questions being asked. The first question asks if Alberta should remain a province of Canada while the second asks if Alberta should hold a province wide referendum regarding separation. But Albertans are being asked to give a single yes or no answer to two separate and distinct questions.

If Smith was being honest, then she would have cut the portion which reads "Should Alberta remain a province of Canada". But this is Danielle Smith we are talking about. The last thing she wants is a clear question. 

For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called it "a very dangerous bluff" likening the situation to Brexit. Of course, Carney has a first-hand account of Brexit as he was Governor of the Bank of England at the time of the vote.

As I pointed out over a year ago after Carney became Prime Minister, Smith is claiming to be pro-Canada, yet she is the one raising the notion of an independent Alberta while leading the charge to allow the conditions for independence to come to pass. Smith is playing a dangerous game and could utterly care less. Indeed, a provincial court deemed Smith's referendum plans null and void as they failed to consult First Nations as it would violate their Treaty rights. Clearly, this ruling means nothing to her.

What could further complicate matters is the Quebec election which due to take place two weeks before the Alberta referendum. Currently, the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois is running neck and neck with the Liberals with the governing Coalition Avenir Quebec running a distant third. Should the PQ be elected then we could see the specter of another Quebec referendum which might also encourage a similar vote in Alberta and possibly other provinces such as Saskatchewan. This could prove to be Carney's bête noire. 

At a time when Canada needs to stand strong against Trump's tariffs and his desire for a 51st state, the last thing Canada needs is a bunch of provincial independence referendums. These separatist movements play right into Trump's hands while weakening Canada in the process. Nothing good can come of it for Canadians.