July 31, 2023, was
the last Rink Rats published. Almost three years: Where have we been?
Multiple
factors contributed: family health issues, burnout from blogging, time needed
to reset, and adjusting to leadership challenges under both the current and
previous administrations. Plus, I admit, I have been lazy.
But we are back,
for as long as we can produce somewhat intellectual writing: two blogs per
month are scheduled, the second and fourth Monday of each month.
For those new to our distribution list, Rink
Rats is a collection of observations, commentary, historical review, sport
events, and general nonsense, from the perspective of an old gangster finance
professor, southern California transplant (Claremont) via Franklin, Michigan
and upstate New York.
Rink Rats is about
sports, politics, higher education, and pointing out the various narcissists
that surround all of us daily.
I am going to be a
bit rusty; I apologize in advance……
The
Management
LIGHT PHONING
Recently I have
been subscribing to the behavior of Light Phoning. My version of
reducing my social media footprint and maintaining my sanity. Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, out, only Instagram remains in my social media universe.
It sounds like I
am exploring the intersection of digital boundaries and social disconnecting.
While Social Media Avoidance is often a personal choice for mental
health. When these behaviors are "light" or subtle, they often
manifest as passive disengagement. In the context of narcissism or
difficult personality types, these can be used as tools for emotional distance
or control…..you sure this is Rink Rats writing????
Breaking Down the
Behaviors
- Social Media Avoidance: This can be a healthy boundary-setting
tactic to avoid "comparison traps." However, if used
manipulatively, it can be a way to remain "mysterious" or to
avoid accountability in social circles. One thing this writer enjoys is
avoiding accountability in social circles. Sigmund Freud, here I come.
COUNT ME IN
Population
growth is slowing in
most counties nationwide amid a big drop in immigration.
- The new data offers the best look yet at how
tighter immigration enforcement is affecting America's demographic makeup.
International migration fell in 9 out of 10 U.S. counties between
2024 and 2025 compared to the prior period, the Census Bureau says.
- Other counties stayed flat.
That drop is hitting populous areas
especially hard.
- Census Bureau demographer George M. Hayward said in a statement:
"The nation's largest counties ... are often international migration
hubs, gaining large numbers of international migrants and losing people
that move to other parts of the country via domestic migration."
- "With fewer gains from international migration,
these types of counties saw their population growth diminish or even turn
into loss."
The big picture: The U.S. overall still grew by 0.5% between
2024-25.
- But that's down from 1% over the previous
period.
Nationwide
natural change (births
minus deaths) held steady. International migration plummeted from around 2.8
million people to 1.3 million — about a 55% drop.
- Caveat: International migration includes
both foreigners and Americans coming home from abroad, including military
service members.
The other
side: The
fastest-growing metros overall in 2024-25 were Ocala, Fla. (+3.4%);
Myrtle Beach, S.C. (+3.2%) and Spartanburg, S.C. (+2.8%).
THE OLD BALL
GAME
With Opening Day
kicking off the season this past week, we look back on 150 years of the Major
Leagues.
The beginnings of
baseball are a little murky but this year marks the 150th
anniversary of the National League, which is still going. The first official
game of baseball in the U.S. took place in June 1846 in Hoboken, New Jersey. In
1857 the sport had its first governing body, although the teams were not
professional. In 1867 baseball barred participation by Black athletes until
1947. The first fully professional baseball team, The Cincinnati Red Stockings
came in 1869. The National League is the older of the two leagues constituting
Major League Baseball and was founded in 1876. There are thirty major league
baseball franchises in six divisions.
The Swami picks for the 2026 season:
AL East – Toronto
Blue Jays AL Central – Detroit Tigers AL West – Seattle Mariners
NL East – New York
Mets NL Central – Chicago
Cubs NL
West – Los Angeles Dodgers
World Series - Detroit Tigers vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Three Peat = Los Angeles Dodgers
MARKET WEEK
Stocks were redder
than the final act of a horror movie this past week. The Dow slid into
correction territory, and the S&P 500 ended its fifth-straight down
week—its worst losing streak since 2022—as investors grappled with rising
energy prices and the possibility of a prolonged war in Iran. Tech companies
had their worst week in nearly a year (more on that below), with Meta getting
hit not only by geopolitical jitters, but also its recent legal losses.
For three years,
tech behemoths have been fueling a bull market on the promise that AI
advancements will increase efficiency and profitability. But with investors
growing skeptical, and with the continued war in the Middle East, the Nasdaq is
now in correction territory after its worst week in nearly a year:
- The index is down 11% since it peaked
in October and is doing its best New York Giants impression with 10 weekly
losses over the past 11 weeks.
- Two of the biggest drains since
late-October are two of the biggest spenders in AI computing—Microsoft
(down 34%) and Meta (down 29%).
- Even Nvidia, the AI chipmaker that has
everyone throwing money at it like it’s in one of those windy cash booths,
is down nearly 20% from its October high.
- As a group, Magnificent Seven
(Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla) shares are down 8% since late October.
Microsoft is
having its worst quarter since
the 2008 global financial crisis. The stock is down 25% as
shareholders recoil from the company’s move to continue spending on AI
infrastructure. There are also fears that startups like OpenAI and Anthropic
will create agents that can replace products made by companies like Microsoft.
Tech’s slide is
in keeping with the market as a whole. Remember
when US Attorney General Pam Bondi let the world know the Dow was over 50,000
at a congressional hearing in February? After dropping nearly 800
points yesterday, it, too, fell into correction territory from its record high
on Feb. 11.
TACO is growing
stale
On Thursday,
President Trump extended the deadline for peace negotiations with Iran by 10
days. However, markets did not rebound like they had in similar situations
that have spurred the so-called TACO trade (an acronym for Trump Always
Chickens Out).
Instead, crude
prices soared to $110 per barrel Friday, stoking inflation fears. This could be
because, while Trump backed down, Israel threatened escalation, and
Iran has been resistant to peace talks. Analysts believe the TACO tactic is
carrying less weight due to the disconnect between the US and Iran.
But…Big Tech stocks could be viewed as a
relative bargain, and a resurgence would almost certainly translate
into good news for the markets overall.
Bill me - U.S. national debt crossed $39 trillion
last week, and a new survey says Americans are getting worried about the impact
on mortgages, credit cards, and auto loans.
AI, A CHEAP
DATE
Let’s start with
something positive: You. Why you? Because you are awesome, you’re wonderful,
your opinions are sound, your decisions are spot-on, you’re never on the wrong
side of an argument, and you’re just generally a solid citizen. Don’t take my
word for it. Just talk to your favorite AI for a while, and it will tell you
the same thing. You may have already noticed the obsequious fawning that
surfaces when you communicate with AI, but there’s a chance you’ve missed
it—since, you know, it’s simply stating an obvious core truth that lives at the
intersection of your rightness and righteousness. These Stuart Smalley-esque
daily affirmations are baked right into the products. I know, I know. AI is
known for its hallucinations, but it’s also known for being able to crunch
large amounts of data and come up with a clear summary of the facts, the
results of which are as follows: You deserve good things, you are entitled to
your share of happiness, you are fun to be with. Hell, even when you’re in the
wrong, you’re actually in the right.
“Stanford researchers tested 11 leading AI models and found they all exhibit
sycophancy — a fancy word for telling people what they want to hear (sounds
like some people I know). On average, these chatbots agreed with users 49% more
often than real humans did. Even when users described lying, manipulating
partners, or breaking the law, the AI endorsed their behavior 47% of the
time.” Stanford just proved your AI chatbot is flattering your into bad
decisions. “Here’s the part that should
worry everyone. Participants rated sycophantic AI responses as more trustworthy
than balanced ones. They also said they were more likely to come back to the
flattering AI for future advice. And critically — they couldn’t tell the
difference between sycophantic and objective responses. Both felt equally
‘neutral’ to them.”
“Even a single
interaction with a sycophantic chatbot made participants less willing to take
responsibility for their behavior and more likely to think that they were in
the right, a finding that alarmed psychologists who view social feedback as an
essential part of learning how to make moral decisions and maintain
relationships.” “Although affirmation may feel supportive, sycophancy can
undermine users’ capacity for self-correction and responsible decision-making.
Yet because it is preferred by users and drives engagement, there has been
little incentive for sycophancy to diminish”. (Don’t worry. If big tech
eventually does tone down the lickspittling, bootlicking, groveling, kowtowing
adulation and unctuously servile toadyism, you can always replace it by having
yourself a staff meeting.)
STATS
·
Current
USGA golf index: 12.8
·
Rink
Rats Investment Fund – 2026 YTD Total Return = +1.75%
Fund
Portfolio: Cash: 7%
Crypto: 10%
International
Markets: 16%
Gold: 17%
U.S. Stock
Market: 50%
·
S&P
500 – 2026 YTD Total Return = -6.96%
·
NASDAQ
Composite – 2026 YTD Total Return = -9.87%
·
Bitcoin
– 2026 YTD Total Return = -24.21%
·
Gold –
2026 YTD Total Return = +3.75%
·
U.S.
Dollar Index – 2026 YTD Total Return = +2.06%
·
10
Year U.S. Treasury Yield = +6.65%
·
U.S.
Consumer Price Index – YTD = +2.40%
·
Last
Year Detroit Red Wings in NHL Playoffs – 2016, lost 4 – 1 to Tampa Bay
·
Last
Year University of La Verne had an executable operating budget = 2010-2011
THE THING
This is all I have
to say about our current President.
Here is the text
of the poem by John Lithgow from his book Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a
Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age:
Trumpty Dumpty
wanted a crown, to make certain he never would have to step down. He wanted a
robe made of ermine and velvet, The Constitution? He wanted to shelve
it.
With impeachment
awash, his ambition had grown, He wanted an orb, a scepter, a throne. Six royal
palaces, six royal carriages, A church dispensation for six royal marriages.
Courtiers
installed on his own Supreme Court, And royal beheadings, if only for sport. He
craved the occasional royal procession, And the eventual royal succession.
Trumpty Dumpty
gets his way, Unless the public has something to say. If we let him have all of
his favorite things, we’ll have to endure the divine right of kings.
TIGER IN THE
ROUGH
Something is wrong
with Tiger Woods. I do not know the struggle’s precise shape, but it is there.
It has been there. The evidence is not subtle, and it is not new. That is the
sad and disconcerting thing, and until it is reckoned with honestly, everything
else is secondary.
The golf world has
organized its Tiger coverage around one persistent question for years: Can
he play? A reasonable question if you are a golf (sports) fan. It becomes
an incomplete one when the honest answer to a prior question – “Is this man
okay? – is visibly, and has for some time been, no.
We hope we are
wrong. Maybe there is an explanation for the refuse urine test that has nothing
to do with what it appears to suggest. Everyone is entitled to privacy, and no
one should be mocked for their trials. But privacy is a harder argument to make
when the struggle keeps arriving in public. On roadsides, in mugshots, in
sheriff’s press conferences. At some point, looking away is not discretion.
It’s something closer to abandonment.
But there is a
50-year-old man who has been in some form of pain, physical or otherwise, for
longer than most of his fans have been watching him. Who has been trying, by
every public account, to hold together a competitive life and an institutional
role and a comeback narrative and a body that has been asked to do more than
bodies are meant to do.
The golf can wait.
It has waited before. The difference now is that what’s at stake isn’t a green
jacket or a record or a comeback story. It’s him.
D-I COLLEGE
HOCKEY PLAYOFFS
For the current
2025-26 season, there are a total of 110 NCAA Division I college hockey teams
across the men’s and women’s divisions.
The University of
Wisconsin Women Badgers just recently won their ninth national championship,
beating Ohio State Women Buckeyes 3-2 in final.
Most of the 65
teams in the men’s D-1 compete in six primary conferences. Here are this year’s
conference winners:
Atlantic Hockey Association
– Bentley University Falcons
Big Ten (really
eighteen) – University of Michigan Wolverines
Central Collegiate
Hockey Association – Minnesota State University Mavericks
Eastern College
Athletic Conference - Dartmouth College Big Green
Hockey East –
Merrimack College Warriors
Northern
Collegiate Hockey Conference – University of Denver Pioneers
The Swami predicts the University of Michigan will
meet the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks in the NCAA final (Saturday
April 11) and win their tenth national title, their first since 1998.
SUTHERLAND CUP PLAYOFFS
The Greater
Ontario Hockey League, a development league for the Ontario Hockey League
(major Junior), is currently in their western and eastern conference
semi-finals.
Two teams
competing: Elmira Sugar Kings and St. Marys Lincolns, The Lincolns took game
one on Sunday March 29, 4-2. A couple of Rink Rats favorites are associated
with the two clubs: Kyle Rank (St. Lawrence ’06) is director of hockey
operations for the Sugar Kings and Scott Graham (St. Lawrence ’75) a member of
The Lincolns hockey alumni. There will be Molson’s on the line in this best of
seven semi-final.
RINK RATS
TRIVIA
Alex Ovechkin hit
a bit of a weird milestone earlier this week when he became the second player
to ever net 1,000 goals, regular season and playoffs combined. (Wayne Gretzky
has the record with 1,016.)
We don’t often
look at combined stats like this in the NHL. But our trivia today gets into
three players who highlight how different regular season and playoff production
can be:
Which player with
600-plus regular-season goals in their career has scored the fewest playoff
goals (only 21)?
Which two players
in the all-time top 10 in career playoff goals failed to get to the 500-goal
mark in the regular season?
Answers at the
bottom.
Warmest
welcome. LA’s iconic
Dodger Stadium is now officially called Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, as part
of the baseball team’s partnership with the Japanese fashion brand.
We assume these
announcements are only a matter of time:
- Zara (But Just the Kids’ Section)
Field at Fenway Park
- Cold Stone Creamery “Gotta Have It”
Restrooms at Yankee Stadium
- OpenAI Erotic Chats and Recipes Field
at San Francisco’s ChatGPT Stadium
THE SWAMI’S GAME OF THE WEEK –
Game of the Week –
NCAA Basketball National Semi-Final, Saturday April 4, 2026
|
v |
TBS |
Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN |
Line: MICH -1.5 O/U: 157.5 |
Line: MICH -1.5
O/U: 157.5
The Swami picks
the University of Michigan Wolverines 81 over the University of Arizona
Wildcats 70. Michigan will go on to the national final on Monday April 6 and
take the University of Connecticut Huskies, 75 – 70 to win their second NCAA
title.
That is BIG Blue national champs in hockey and basketball this
month of April.
Season to Date (0 - 0)
Next
Blog: Stanley Cup Playoffs
Until April 13, 2026, Adios.
Claremont, California
March 30, 2026
#XV-1-453
2,856 words, six-minute read
RATS TRIVIA
ANSWERS
The 600-goal
scorer with the fewest career playoff goals is Marcel Dionne who piled up
731 regular season goals but scored just 21 times in 49 postseason games.
(Jarome Iginla is second with 37 playoff goals.)
And the two top 10 playoff scorers who didn’t make it to the 500-goal
club? Glenn Anderson (498 regular-season goals and 92 in the
playoffs) and Claude Lemieux (379 and 80).
QUOTE
“One individual
came in one day and said”. “I shouldn’t be on the fourth line. Tell me why I’m
on the fourth line? I got a lot better skill set than you think I have”.
“And I said: Do
you know why you’re on the fourth line?” He said “No”. I said: “There’s no
fifth line”.
Mike Keenan,
St. Lawrence University ’72, Stanley Cup Champion Head Coach New York Rangers
1994
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