Doug Adler.

Does anyone reading this remember this guy or anything about him? Probably not – if you do, you are either a big tennis fan or you have an affinity for the collection of arcane information – like me.

How my mind made a connection between Doug Adler and James Mattis is a mystery I can’t explain – but there is a connection and it is relevant to our contemporary times- and likely a lesson for our future (if we are going to have one).

In January of 2017, Doug Adler’s career came to an end based on one word. Adler was serving, as the New York Post out it, “as a B-team analyst at the Australian Open”, live streaming a match between Venus Williams and Stefanie Voegele, when he issued the fatal comment that Williams was “putting on the guerrilla effect on, charging.”

It was a compliment. Guerrilla-style ambushes — poaching the net — is a common phrase to describe this tennis strategy. The word “guerrilla” means “small war” and came into common usage during the Peninsular War, fought in Spain in 1807 through 1814 and described the military tactic of using small groups of irregular combatants to harass a much larger, more powerful force through ambushes, sabotage and hit-and-run attacks.

But that is not what a sniveling little New York Times tennis reporter heard. Shortly after the comment, this NYT moron sent out a reckless, inaccurate and fatal tweet claiming that Adler, live on ESPN, had just called Venus Williams a “gorilla” and, of course, the only reason for such a comment was uncontrollable racism.

Of course, as things go in the Age of Maximum Wokeness, a shamefully silent tennis world and news media stood by as Adler’s defense (based on the clear context of the broadcast) fell on deaf ears. The tsunami was already on the way. Adler was summarily and unjustly fired, then “defamed and ruined, his many tennis gigs lost to this ridiculous but toxic claim, and little-to-no public support from the unreasonably frightened, gutless or uncaring sports media.

An innocent man was left to drown and at 59, Adler suffered a heart attack.

Adler sued ESPN for wrongful termination, stupidity and cowardice and after two years of his life was gone and his career was dead, he won a silent settlement from ESPN. No breathless tweets from the New York Times on that one.

I remember thinking at the time that this man was being fired due to the ignorance of others and that how that the Times reporter was either an imbecile or the most vindictive person in the world. Then I realized that it is impossible to be responsible for the ignorance and malice of others.

This was a harbinger of things to come where statements would be intentionally misunderstood and maliciously interpreted based on the pre-existing bias of political hacks and social justice warriors, none of whom are interested in facts and the truth, they just want to stoke division and anger to justify their own biases.

This is where James Mattis and his conveniently timed missive comes into play.

Yesterday, I wrote that I could respect Mattis if he defined his allegations rather than just making open ended statements that he knows will be interpreted purely along ideological lines. Too many of our politicians now traffic in throw-away comments and vacuous statements that are intentionally open-ended – essentially giving the impression of saying important things about important situations while actually saying nothing – and leaving it to the hearer or reader to define it for themselves.

Biden, the Democrats and the media do this all the time – Trump is destroying democracy, he’s tearing down the “guardrails of the Constitution”, he’s a dictator, he’s a racist – and every time, like the Doug Adler situation, the sheep on the left just go “Baaaaa! We agree! Baaaa!” without ever thinking for themselves. They just lap it up like pigs do slop.

See, it’s just easier if you let the smart people think for you.

Mattis needs to explain how and why Trump is a “threat to the Constitution”, not just throw red meat to the Democrats and NeverTrumpers if he wants people to respect his position – especially since Trump has acted within constitutional bounds and just because Trump’s enemies want to deny him the powers former presidents have wielded does not mean he is destroying the Constitution when Trump uses them.

Mattis needs to explain how “…Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people”. What evidence is there? Why is a Nazi reference relevant other than to backhandedly curry favor with people who already believe Trump is one?

Mattis fills the empty intellectual space in his letter with inaccurate assertions and conclusions about the Lafayette Park incident and platitudes like “We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics”, references to Lincoln’s “better angels” and devotes a several paragraphs to things with which we all agree – praise of our troops and the “Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country.”

Long story short – Mattis’ letter is nothing. The Lafayette Park incident seems to have sparked it and what he posted about that was wrong – as was his assertion that there were only “a small number of lawbreakers” – Mattis must only watch CNN – but we all know that when an argument is based on a false premise, everything that follows is also false.

Such was the case with Doug Adler and is the case with James Mattis.

There is no honor or good faith in what Mattis did. He has adopted the dishonest technique of practicing partisan politics while claiming not to be practicing politics. He is not a military officer any longer, he’s just another hack politician who hates this president.