by John Walters

Tweet du Jour

Here’s Trump ranting about the fake news media while the Fox & Friends desperately try to get him to talk about something else. pic.twitter.com/yvWdfpeRc9

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 26, 2018

“Donald, let’s go to the zoo, okay?”

Starting Five

1. Caren Turner Overdrive

Watch a Port Authority commissioner/mom/over-entitled woman pull the “Do you know WHO I am?” card on a pair of Tenafly (N.J.) policemen who are having absolutely none of it. This was on Easter Sunday/Passover. For those unfamiliar, Tenafly is an affluent town just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan and a little bit north, along the Hudson.

Once this began going viral, Caren Turner was forced to resign. Meanwhile, you can imagine her daughter is like, “MOM, I’ll never be able to show my face in my MIT PhD. program seminar again!”

2. (THE SOUND OF SUSIE B. SHRIEKING CAN STILL BE HEARD)

It’s often overstating it to say that one man won a game or a series, but you watch what LeBron James did in the final few seconds of Game 5 last night and well, it’s not. With three seconds to play and the score knotted at 95, LeBron swatted away Victor Oladipo’s potential go-ahead layup and grabbed the board. On the ensuing inbound, he freestyled for a second or two and then calmly buried a 28-footer for the win.

LeBron finished with 44, 10 and 8. Gentlemen, start your narratives….

One last thing: Maybe the King got away with a little reigning in of Victor?

Oladipo Down Lane last play…interesting pic.twitter.com/eemCDJptpH

— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) April 26, 2018

3. Admiral, If Not Admirable

After allegations of drinking on the job, wrecking a government vehicle and handing out Percoset so profligately that staffers dubbed him “Candyman,” Dr. Ronny Jackson (no really, he’s white) withdrew his name as a candidate for Secretary of the Veterans’ Administration. It probably didn’t hurt that only yesterday the man who nominated him, Donald Trump, dog-whistled to reporters, “If I were him, I wouldn’t do it [seek the nomination].”

Doc, what’s the prescription for when the president throws you under the bus?

4. The Woman Who Stalked The Night Stalker

Yesterday police in California believe they finally nabbed the Golden State Killer, a.k.a., the Original Night Stalker, a.k.a. the East Area Rapist, whom they discredit with having committed at least 12 murders and 45 rapes dating back to 1976 (it’s a former police officer named James Joseph DeAngelo, who is 72). Much of the credit for this apprehension, though the cops publicly gave her none yesterday, belongs to the late Michelle McNamara, whose bestseller, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, included numerous details and evidence about the killer’s crimes and served as sort of a national “Three Billboards Outside Sacramento” for these crimes. The tome was released posthumously earlier this year with help from the McNamara’s late husband, comedian Patton Oswalt.

McNamara, a suburban Chicago native and Notre Dame alum, wrote for television but also  had a dogged fascination with unsolved crimes. In 2006 she started a True Crime Blog and then became somewhat obsessed with the Night Stalker (she renamed him the Golden State Killer). Almost two years ago to the day, McNamara died in her sleep after an accidental overdose of Adderall, Xanax and Fentanyl.

When asked yesterday if McNamara deserved any credit for assisting the police in their arrest, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said, ““It kept interest and tips coming in, but other than that there was no information extracted from that book that directly led to the apprehension.”

Replied Oswalt on Twitter: “[Michelle] didn’t care about getting any shine. She cared about the Golden State Killer being behind bars and the victims getting some relief.”

5. “Let’s Make Sure That We Keep This Confidential”

Sorry, Roger. The New York Times kept it Colinfidential, and if you read the story yesterday in which the tapes of last October’s NFL kneeling-protest summit are revealed, you see a room in which the players want to discuss the issue and the owners want to discuss spin and p.r.

Meanwhile, perhaps it’s only a coincidence, but San Francisco 49er defensive back Eric Reid was considered enough of a personage to be invited to the summit, but now six months later he is without a team and no one appears interested in signing him. Did Reid’s wearing a Kaepernick T-shirt over his dress shirt and tie to the meeting have anything to do with that?

Dig it: Fans who believe that players should keep politics off the field have a terrific point. But they should be consistent. The moment you put the flag and the national anthem onto the field you bring politics into the discussion. Contrary to what a lot of Americans believe, one of the wonderful things about being a United States citizen is that you are under no obligation to love the U.S.A. You are only obliged to obey its laws.

By playing the national anthem in public (plays don’t do this, movies don’t do this) at an entertainment event, owners (in all sports) are demanding a public show of loyalty from fans and players both. To not stand is to risk the opprobrium of those around you, and that’s fine. But that’s as far as the penalty should extend in a free society where people have First Amendment rights. Colin Kaepernick did not actually start this war: people who play the national anthem did.

Meanwhile, just a few hours after this story was released, Robert Kraft snapped at an NFL administrative assistant. He’d phoned in, presumably to speak with Roger, and was put on hold, during which time he heard a recording of the Eagles’ winning play in the last Super Bowl (52 was it?). When he finally got back through to a live voice, he was salty and mean. Surprised?

Music 101

A Little Respect

Before there was Daft Punk, there was the British synth-pop duo Erasure, i.e., singer Andy Bell and Vince Clarke. This 1988 single went to No. 14 on the Billboard charts. The openly gay Bell has helped to make the duo icons in the LGBT community, and they’ve been championing the cause long before anyone ever used those four letters together.

Remote Patrol

NFL Draft

Fox, ESPN, ESPN2

Four quarterbacks—two Joshes, one Sam and one Baker—and in what order they will be picked is anyone’s guess. Two players who will undisputedly be studs and Pro Bowlers: RB Saquon Nelson and OG Quenton Barkley, or is it the other way around? Cleveland with picks 1 and 4. Do they trade down on one. Do they secure Saquon or Quenton (or DE Bradley Chubb or DB Minkah Fitzpatrick) with a pick? The first 10 picks here are Must-See TV. By the way, we like Mike Mayock’s mock draft, though our gast is flabbered at the thought that Rosen would still be available at No. 15 (though he’d love playing for the Cardinals and they’d love him(.