Big Gambles All Around

Craig Collins remains in for Greg Corombos, and he notices a big mafia story arrives, just in time to honor his Italian heritage. Craig and Jim applaud some new Trump administration decisions on Ukraine, lament the fact that Zohran Mamdani looks like a shoo in to be the next mayor of New York City, and marvel at a big sports gambling scandal that led to the arrest of an NBA player and coach.

First, Craig and Jim note that while it’s been a long time coming, the Trump administration is hitting Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil with new sanctions, cutting off the Russian firms from American banking systems and financial institutions, essentially barring them from operating in U.S. dollars. Trump is finally getting wise to the fact that all of his seemingly good conversations with Vladimir Putin never seem to results in Putin’s policies.

Next, President Trump doesn’t see any way that anyone can beat Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race, and there’s not a lot of evidence to counter the president’s conclusion. In a year where a lot has gone right for the GOP, a major frustration is that no argument about Mamdani’s extremism on everything from economics to policing to geopolitics has seemed to get traction.

Finally, the Portland Trail Blazers face a tough lineup of opponents this year – the Warriors, the Lakers, and the FBI. The Bureau announced that it had arrested Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier as part of a pair of wide-ranging investigations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia. Jim and Craig acknowledge that while sports gambling is wildly popular, particularly among young men, the temptations and dangers of widespread legal sports gambling were predictable.