Dear Sen. Marco Rubio:

So I see where you came after me on Twitter. I’m flattered. Never knew you cared.

“This well known national writer,” you tweeted about my last column, “states very clearly that the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump are haters who should not be heard from or engaged in dialogue. It’s a view widely held by many elites on left, but very few of them so openly admit to it.”

It fascinates me how you Republicans have repurposed “elites,” which means well above average, into an all-purpose pejorative. I mean, sure, call me an elite, if you insist. But I’d point out that as a U.S. senator, hobnobbing with presidents and potentates while pulling down $174,000 per annum, you are hardly Joe Lunchbucket yourself.

As to your claim that I said Trump voters “should not be heard from,” while I know distortion and exaggeration are tools of your trade, I can’t allow them to stand unchallenged here. What I actually said is that I, personally, will not engage with Trump supporters. Reasoning with them is like reasoning with rocks.

Let’s cut to the chase, senator. Donald Trump is unfit to be president, period, full stop.

Presidents don’t condemn continents and countries as “s---holes.”

Presidents don’t undermine their own Cabinet officers.

Presidents don’t give aid and comfort to neo-Nazis.

Presidents don’t give aid and comfort to geopolitical foes.

Presidents don’t spill classified secrets to geopolitical foes.

Presidents don’t support accused child molesters.

Presidents don’t put themselves above the country they serve.

Ordinarily, that is. This guy has done all that and more.

And here’s the thing: You know this. You’re not an idiot, so you absolutely know what a dangerous outlier Trump is. Yet because it is politically expedient, you, who once called him “dangerous” and a “con man” unqualified to have access to the nuclear codes, now ask us to believe that you believe he has somehow magically become fit for the job. All while he scales new heights of incompetence every day.

It leaves me wondering: Who are you, really? What, if anything, do you stand for or believe? Because you exhibit a spinal flexibility only Plastic Man could love.

Meantime, America faces a season of division and acrimony almost unparalleled in its history. And it is largely because people of your political ilk chose to embrace “alternative facts” upon which to build an alternative reality, because you taught people to embrace homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and ignorance and to call them righteousness.

I am not unmindful of the troubling implications of writing off Trump supporters. When we can no longer talk to each other, what’s left? How can we be a country? But the point is, we’re already there. Indeed, given our prolonged and worsening state of estrangement, it would not surprise me if, within the next decade or two, the United States as we know it ceased to exist. Yes, I’m serious. I don’t predict it, and surely don’t desire it, but no, I would not be shocked.

And if that fate is averted, it will not be because the rest of us continued trying to reason with people who have neither the capacity nor the interest. It will be, rather, because we resisted — and voted as if our national life depended on it. Which it does.

History is watching us, senator. It will not remember kindly those who failed to look beyond their own ambition and self-interest in this fraught moment. Some of us are fighting for our country here.

You should try it sometime.

Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.

I am writing, albeit in vain, to defend Sandy Police Chief Kevin Thacker. It has been my pleasure to call him a friend and neighbor for the past 20 years.

I have never known a more decent, kind and caring individual. A good man’s life has been destroyed and for what?

Because he is a “hugger”?

Because he cares for those who work under him and he shows his care and concern for them?

Mayor Kurt Bradburn has done this man and the city a great injustice.

If there had been one inclination of criminal misconduct or any evidence in the released report, I could understand the actions taken. Since nothing criminal should come of this, then why the public humiliation? Why the firing?

Bradburn tells us of his struggle and then tells us he thinks of his wife and daughters and can’t let them be subjected to this monster who hugs. If Bradburn has any sense of civic duty, he would apologize to Thacker, reinstate him and then resign as mayor. If the mayor doesn’t have the decency to resign, the council should impeach him and, failing that, the citizens of Sandy should vote him out of office.

Bill Juszcak, West Jordan

How carefully do your headline writers read the articles they caption? “Disgraced LDS leader is pulled in swift move” described how the LDS Church acted swiftly and, according to Peggy Fletcher Stack’s sources, appropriately to deal with a sexual predator in an incident that took place more than four years ago.

So why “is pulled” as if it happened last night? Why not “was pulled” or simply “pulled”? Does it just depend on what the meaning of “is” is?

N. Dean Meservy, Sandy

I recently read a few articles about the health benefits from exercise. Also mentioned in some were references to a phenomenon known as “runner’s high.” It is suggested that during periods of long, continuous workouts, the body releases ß-endorphins that not only produce euphoric feelings, but also act as an analgesic that can mitigate or mask pain.

This gives me cause to wonder if Gov. Gary Herbert might consider opposing jogging until “more and better research” is done.

Scott Dangerfield, Magna

There has been much public discussion of the newly proposed inland port, advertised as bringing jobs and growth to the northwest quadrant of Salt Lake City.

We’ve all read about the controversial takeover of the port proposals from Salt Lake City by the state Legislature during the last days of the session. Gov. Gary Herbert has weighed in, saying he will call a special session to resolve the issues between the state and city.

Legislators, Gov. Herbert, what about all the other counties that will be affected by this massive development project?

The port is supposed to bring jobs. Where will the workers live? From where will they commute? Where will their children go to school? Where will they obtain health care?

The port will also bring significant train and truck traffic. Counties that have a railroad or an interstate will bear this increased traffic, polluting the air, increasing the noise environment and lengthening workers’ commutes.

The port will inevitably add pollution to our beautiful and unique Great Salt Lake. The Great Salt Lake is an environmental treasure and a significant economic resource for Utah.

We, as Davis County residents, know that our county certainly will feel significant effects. Anyone who drives I-15 during rush hours knows that Davis residents don’t all work in Davis County and that Davis businesses are staffed from many neighboring counties. Davis County schools are overcrowded, and most of our cities are struggling to address needs for affordable housing and transportation options. We are concerned about the possibility of increased Legacy Highway traffic between the Freeport Center and the new port. Air polluted in Salt Lake County is not contained by the county boundary.

Take note, Utah. This project will affect almost every county in our state. Our state government has taken a short-term, myopic view of its impact. Tell your legislators and Gov. Herbert to slow down, give the public a chance to weigh in, and consider the costs as well as the benefits of the proposed inland port.

Nicola Nelson, Kathy Stockel and Ann Johnson, Members of the board of the League of Women Voters of Davis County

Here’s a sentence I never expected to write: “American Idol” is more entertaining — more watchable — than it’s been in many years.

And ABC is doing something really smart starting Sunday. It’s acknowledging the existence of the Mountain time zone, which doesn’t happen very often.

For three consecutive Sundays, two-hour “Idol” episodes will air live across the continental United States. Viewers here in the Salt Lake television market can tune in from 6 to 8 p.m. MDT, at exactly the same time as the folks in New York (8-10 p.m. EDT), Chicago (7-9 p.m. CDT) and Los Angeles (5-7 p.m. PDT).

And that matters because local “Idol” fans can vote for their favorites via text, online (AmericanIdol.com/vote) or on the “American Idol” app during the show; their votes will be tallied with those from the Eastern, Central and Pacific time zones; and the results will be announced at the end of the episode.

“As we head into the next phase of the ‘American Idol’ competition, it only makes sense to let every viewer from coast to coast experience the magic of live television and have the ability to vote for America’s next superstar,” said ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey.

That makes enormous sense. Which makes it a highly unusual move for a TV network.

The way these things usually go is that viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones get to vote; the rest of us don’t really get to play along. This way, only Alaska and Hawaii don’t get to play along.

Fox never did this when it had the show for 15 seasons, but it almost never aired episodes on Sundays.

I get it. Clearly, this has a lot more to do with the West Coast than the Rocky Mountains. Our time zone has only about 5 percent of the U.S. population; the Pacific Time Zone has about 14 percent.

But, still, it’s nice to be included instead of ignored.

Utah doesn’t represent • Lots of Utahns have made it to the “American Idol” finals — but not this year. Only one local, Cesley Parrish of Highland, made it to Hollywood Week, and she barely appeared on camera before being eliminated.

So … Utahns can vote along with everybody else, but there are no Utahns to vote for.

It’s fun to watch • Maybe if ABC could get some of the people who used to watch “Idol” to give this edition a chance, the ratings would be better. Thanks largely to the presence of Katy Perry on the judging panel, it’s been fun to watch.

Whether that remains true as the focus shifts more to the contestants … well, we’ll see.

As the ratings go • Not surprisingly, ABC is trying to convince us that the ratings for “Idol” are great. Just this week, the network issued a news release trumpeting that it won this past Sunday by 71 percent (in viewers 18-49), and it grew “by double digits” over the previous week, producing “huge time-slot gains.” And that “Idol” did 155 percent better than the corresponding Sunday in 2017, when ABC aired “Once Upon a Time” and “Match Game.”

All true.

But keep in mind that, to date, “Idol” is averaging about 7 million viewers this season, That’s about 23 million fewer than the show averaged at its peak (2006-07); it’s even down a couple million from the “final season” on Fox in 2016.

ABC also isn’t talking about whether it’s making any money on “American Idol” at these viewership levels. Other networks were offered the show and turned it down because, just to break even, they would need numbers much higher than what ABC is getting.

The question is — how much is ABC losing on “Idol”?

Sometimes, when Jean Woodruff hears the Big Band music that has been the soundtrack of her life, she remembers when she learned to dance. She remembers falling in love at age 22 with her sharp-dressed dance instructor at the Arthur Miller dance studio on Salt Lake City’s State Street.

In 1947, those classes felt like freedom for the young nursing student, fresh from Ohio, where she had been raised in a Protestant family that frowned on dancing. As a Protestant, she could drink coffee, she jokes. After she moved to a Mormon city to attend a Catholic nursing school, she could dance.

In 1948, Jean married that dance partner, who famously loved wingtip shoes. And throughout their 62-year-marriage, Jean and Bill Woodruff went ballroom dancing whenever they got the chance.

They raised four great kids and worked day jobs, he as a chemical engineer, she as a hospital nurse. But on evenings and weekends, they danced, teaching the waltz and samba at the studio in their Holladay home.

She has memories of years and years of dancing and teaching all over the state, at the Hotel Utah, at Lagoon and on the famous dance floor out at Saltair. “We just went everywhere,” Woodruff says. “We were awfully busy people. We had an exciting life. And when things weren’t going quite so well at home, you dress up and you dance your feet off, and you solve a lot of problems.”

But the music stopped for Jean when her husband and dance partner suffered a stroke, and then 12 years later, in 2011, he died.

A couple of years ago, it was a whim that brought her to Ballroom Utah, Martin Skupinski’s Main Street dance studio, thanks to an invitation from her daughter’s friend.

Woodruff was planning to watch. She didn’t have a partner, and she’d had her toes stepped on too many times dancing with beginners over the years. But the music changed her mind. “It does wonderful things for me,” she says.

With a dear friend, Molly Kimball, another retired nurse, Woodruff began taking weekly dance lessons and dancing her feet off at the studio’s Friday night socials. On May 5, she’ll don her new lime green sparkling formal to celebrate her 93rd birthday at the studio’s Great Gatsby party.

About three years ago, she and Skupinski began entering competitions and winning medals. Her vigor, and her core strength, impresses just about everyone. Last year on a weekend road trip to a Colorado competition, she competed in 16 dances. That’s a schedule that might tire out 18-year-olds, says Skupinski, who is himself approaching a milestone 50th birthday.

Woodruff’s beautiful posture, elastic movements and liquid elegance set her dancing apart, Skupinski says. At the studio’s weekly social dance night, she outdances just about everyone, dancing to 50 numbers over two hours in a variety of styles. “She is probably the most fun person to dance with, because she follows,” the instructor says.

The way she moves on the dance floor, Woodruff simply doesn’t look a day over 70, friends and family say — and they’re joking, but not really. “Everything you watch on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ she can do better,” Skupinski says.

Dancing and competitions bring back scores of memories for Woodruff. Through the years, she and her husband taught dance to just about everybody in Utah, it seems, from teens at church in their neighborhood to kids who came from around the world to Salt Lake City to perform at dance festivals that filled the University of Utah’s football stadium.

“We taught a lot of people,” is how Jean understates it, as the couple served for three decades in various dance callings for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including on the General Board Dance Committee.

Their soundtrack played on the family’s fabulous jukebox, as Bill’s record collection was packed with ballroom and Latin dance records. “Somewhere My Love” was one of her parents’ favorites, says daughter Sally Ostler.

In the 1970s, when Donny and Marie Osmond were popular, the Woodruffs hoped their children would become ballroom dance kids, but that didn’t happen. Ostler was more interested in disco music and tap and jazz dance; her parents’ Viennese waltz steps seemed old-fashioned.

More than dance steps, Ostler came to realize years later, her parents were teaching people to feel good.

Woodruff says she’s grateful for the genes that have helped her feel good, although she has worked hard to stay active. She retired from hospital nursing at 62, and again from her part-time job as a nurse at a doctor’s office at age 84.

She wishes insurance wellness programs recognized what good exercise ballroom dance can be, she says, admitting, modestly, she doesn’t know anyone her own age who dances at her level. “I’m grateful every day I can get out of the house,” she says, to do her own yardwork or to drive her friends to doctor appointments or to continue reading the books she loves.

And then there’s dance. Sometimes Woodruff worries she’s losing the strength in her legs, but then “I get on the dance floor and hear that music, and I can do anything.”

Ballroom Utah Dance Studio<br>3030 S. Main St., Suites 200 and 300, South Salt Lake<br>801-916-4716.

Tokyo • The South Korean government is trying to keep up the momentum in diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear question, announcing Sunday that the North would dismantle its main nuclear test site next month and that its leader, Kim Jong Un, was prepared to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The South’s presidential Blue House also revealed a symbolic step of goodwill from the North Korean leader: It would move its clock forward half an hour to return to the same time zone as Seoul and Tokyo.

This came two days after the historic summit between South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and Kim, which resulted in a joint statement containing a vague agreement to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Kim pledged to dismantle its nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, in the north of the country, in May, a Blue House spokesman said Sunday.

“Some say that we are terminating facilities that are not functioning, but you will see that we have two more tunnels that are bigger than the existing ones and that they are in good condition,” Moon’s chief press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, quoted Kim as saying.

There have been reports that the test site, buried under Mount Mantap, was suffering from “tired mountain syndrome” and was unusable after September’s huge test, which caused an earthquake so big that satellites caught images of the mountain above the site actually moving.

But numerous nuclear experts have cast doubt on that theory, and Kim apparently did, too.

Kim said he would invite security experts and journalists to the North to observe the closure of the site, Yoon said.

In Washington, National Security Adviser John Bolton said the Trump admnistration isn’t “starry-eyed” about Kim’s promises. The United States, he said on “Fox News Sunday,” isn’t ready to ease sanctions or offer other concessions to North Korea before Pyongyang fully commits to denuclearization.

The White House, though, continues to prepare for an upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim, and Bolton said Sunday that the details are being negotiated.

“We need to agree on a place, and that remains an issue,” he said. “But if, in fact, Kim has made a strategic decision to give up his entire nuclear weapons program, then I think deciding on the place and the date should be fairly easy.”

There are other issues, Bolton said, that the administration wants to press, if not immediately, soon: “ballistic missiles, chemical and biological weapons, the American hostages, the Japanese abductees.”

Secretary of States Mike Pompeo, in an interview with ABC Sunday, also brought up the issue of three Americans who are being held by North Korea. Pompeo, who secretly met with Kim in North Korea in March, said while on a visit to Israel Sunday that Kim would not be alarmed about American intentions even if the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

This is not the first time North Korea has invited outside experts to witness the shutting down of some aspect of its nuclear program. In 2008 Pyongyang invited international journalists to film the destruction of the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, from which it had been harvesting plutonium to make its first bombs.

All the while, it turned out North Korea was building a separate uranium enrichment facility so it could continue to produce fissile material even without Yongbyon.

Kim reportedly said while meeting with Moon that he had no intention of using his nuclear weapons against neighboring countries.

“Although I am inherently resistant toward America, people will see that I am not the kind of person who fires nukes at South Korea, the Pacific or America,” Kim said during the summit, Yoon told reporters in Seoul Sunday.

“Why would we keep nuclear weapons and live in a difficult condition if we often meet with Americans to build trust and they promise us to end the war and not to invade us?” Yoon quoted Kim as saying.

That will certainly be viewed as disingenuous, to say the least, given that Kim’s representatives and state media outlets repeatedly threatened last year to fire nuclear-tipped missiles at the United States and to detonate a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific.

But this is a new year, and Kim, in a strong position having obtained demonstrably functional nuclear weapons and missiles, appears ready to deal.

Kim also said he would turn the clocks forward in North Korea to put them back in sync with South Korea and Japan, Yoon said.

In 2015, on Aug. 15 — the day the Koreas mark their independence from Japan’s colonial rule — the Kim regime put the clocks back half an hour to create the “Pyongyang Time” time zone. It framed the decision as a rebuke to Japan.

South Korea’s progressive president wants to use his summit with Kim as a springboard to improve Pyongyang’s relations with Tokyo and, particularly, with Washington.

Moon and President Donald Trump spoke on the phone for 75 minutes on Saturday night Seoul time, and agreed that South Korea and the United States should continue to closely coordinate “so that the planned U.S.-North Korea summit generates an agreement on concrete measures to realize complete denuclearization,” the Blue House spokesman said.

Trump tweeted afterward that he “had a long and very good talk with President Moon of South Korea.”

“Things are going very well, time and location of meeting with North Korea is being set,” Trump said. “Also spoke to Prime Minister Abe of Japan to inform him of the ongoing negotiations.”

Moon also spoke with Abe over the weekend and “offered to lay a bridge between North Korea and Japan,” another Blue House spokesman said.

Moon and Chinese premier Li Keqiang are expected to meet in Tokyo for a trilateral meeting with Abe — itself a significant breakthrough in the frosty relations in the region — on May 9.

Moon will then travel to Washington for a meeting with Trump about the latter’s summit with Kim, expected to take place at the end of May or beginning of June.

Influential members of Congress expressed some doubts Sunday about relations with North Korea.

“A lot of what they are agreeing to now they have agreed to in the past. And as it has turned out, they have something very different in mind when they talk about denuclearization,” said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, during an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week.”

Speaking on CNN, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said he would not have described Kim as “honorable,” as Trump did last week after months of mocking the North Korean leader.

“I think (Trump) is better to be able to just call him ‘rocket man’ and to be able to stick with that than honorable just because he is a ruthless dictator that does public executions of anyone who disagrees,” Lankford, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told “State of the Union.”

The Washington Post’s Tony Romm in Washington and Carol Morello in Tel Aviv contributed reporting.

Congratulations, Avengers. You’re the new modern box-office champ.

Disney/Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” had a domestic debut of $250 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, as published by the industry tracking site Box Office Mojo.

That tops the $247.9 million North American opening of 2015′s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” before adjusting for inflation. (Worth noting: Final numbers are due Monday, which could yet shrink or increase the Marvel movie’s gap.)

In February, Disney/Marvel’s “The Black Panther” opened to $202 million.

Disney, which owns the Star Wars franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is the distributor of five of the only six films to debut domestically north of $200 million, including “The Avengers” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” The only non-Disney film on the list is Universal’s “Jurassic World.”

“Infinity War’s” worldwide opening of $630 million is the biggest ever (not adjusted for inflation), easily outdistancing “The Fate of the Furious’” opening global take ($542 million) last year.

New York • T-Mobile and Sprint announced an agreement Sunday to combine into a new company, a deal that would reshape the U.S. wireless landscape by reducing it to three major cellphone providers.

The big unknown is whether the combination will win the necessary approval from the Trump administration’s antitrust regulators.

The merger would help the companies slash costs and could make them a stronger competitor to larger AT&T and Verizon. But consumers might see higher prices because there would be fewer competitors in the industry.

The proposed all-stock deal values Sprint at about $59 billion and the combined company at $146 billion, including debt.

It comes after Sprint dropped its bid for T-Mobile more than three years ago following concerns by the Obama administration about wireless competition. The two were also poised to combine in October, but that deal was called off, too.

The supersized company would have nearly as many wireless subscribers as Verizon and AT&T. T-Mobile and Sprint could save money by merging their networks and closing stores.

The deal will have to be reviewed by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.

National carriers had not been able to get a deal through under President Barack Obama. But the FCC in September deemed the wireless market “competitive” for the first time since 2009, which some analysts say could make it easier to present a deal.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, President Donald Trump’s appointee, has not criticized the idea of just three national carriers, as his Democratic predecessor did.

Sprint and its owner, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, have long been looking for a deal as the company struggles to compete on its own.

Sprint has a lot of debt and has posted a string of annual losses. It has cut costs and made itself more attractive to customers, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk said, but it hasn’t invested enough in its network and doesn’t have enough airwave rights for quality service in rural areas.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, has been on a yearslong streak of adding customers. After the government nixed AT&T’s attempt to buy the company in 2011, T-Mobile led the way in many consumer-friendly changes, such as ditching two-year contracts and bringing back unlimited data plans. Consumers are paying less for cellphone service thanks to T-Mobile’s influence on the industry and the resulting price wars.

“T-Mobile does not need a merger with Sprint to succeed, but Sprint might need one to survive,” Piecyk wrote in a research note.

But MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said T-Mobile’s momentum is slowing, which may explain why the company and its parent, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, “have warmed to the idea of a merger sooner rather than later.”

The Communications Workers of America, a union for the telecommunication industry, said the merger will cost at least 20,000 U.S. jobs and reduce competition in wireless, bringing higher prices.

But the cost savings could help the combined company build infrastructure and buy rights to the airwaves needed for faster 5G service that is expected to be up in running within the next few years.

The combined company still wouldn’t be able to fully compete as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast morph into communications-and-content giants.

Verizon and AT&T have been expanding their video-content businesses, while cable companies have been moving into wireless. That allows a single company to combine home and wireless internet and use content to support the communications businesses.

Comcast, the cable giant that finished buying NBCUniversal in 2013, offers customers wireless service by reselling access to Verizon’s network. So does another dominant cable company, Charter.

T-Mobile’s chief finance officer suggested last year that a deal in which Sprint and T-Mobile worked with Comcast and Charter would be “very, very exciting.” The cable companies could resell service from the combined company, perhaps getting better terms than the Verizon arrangement. That could lead to more customers getting a wireless and home internet bill from the same company.

AT&T and Verizon, meanwhile, are becoming more like media and cable companies. They are both testing a type of home wireless that could be as fast as or faster than cable.

AT&T, the country’s biggest TV provider since its purchase of DirecTV, is facing a lawsuit from the Justice Department related to antitrust concerns over its deal for Time Warner, parent company of HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. movie studio. To lure wireless customers, AT&T offers discounts on DirecTV and could soon do so with HBO.

Houston • Sunday afternoon went about as expected for the Utah Jazz.

Transitioning from an emotional, bruising six-game series against the Oklahoma City Thunder was never going to be easy. Doing it without starting point guard Ricky Rubio made the task harder. Add in having 38 hours to fly to Houston and piece together a game plan against the best team in the NBA this season? Yeah, Game 1 looked all but impossible for the Jazz on paper.

So, nobody should be surprised at Houston’s 110-96 win before a sellout crowd at the Toyota Center. And nobody should be shocked at the manner in which the Rockets took the Jazz out, as Houston was able to build a 27-point lead over a fatigued Jazz team in the first half, and cruised from there.

“We came out and dug ourselves a hole,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “We did that, and then we’re playing uphill for the rest of the game. I think we improved, but, obviously we didn’t improve enough to win the game.”

Part of this is the Rockets are really good. They didn’t win 65 games this season for nothing. They’ve been the one team that held a mastery over the Jazz this season, winning all four regular-season matchups by double digits.

Sunday continued the trend. The Rockets shot 17 of 32 from 3-point range. Houston superstar James Harden scored a game-high 41 points on a lethal balance of stepback 3s, efficient drives to the basket and the ability to get to the free-throw line 11 times. As hard as it was for the Jazz to guard OKC star Russell Westbrook, guarding Harden is even harder.

With Rubio out for at least a week with a strained hamstring, the Jazz struggled with Houston’s pressure defense for much of the game. Star center Rudy Gobert, who thrives offensively off playing with Rubio on the pick-and-roll, didn’t attempt a shot until the fourth quarter. The Jazz shot 31 percent from 3-point range, missed nine free-throws and had 18 turnovers.

For Utah, playing Houston was like taking a punch from Mike Tyson: You can talk about what it’s like, but you don’t feel what it’s like until you get on the court.

“It was definitely a shock and an adjustment, but we knew what was coming,” Jazz forward Jae Crowder said. “I thought it took us a bit to get adjusted to the game.”

Without much time to prepare for a new series, Snyder took Sunday mostly to experiment with different lineups to see what works and what could be effective going forward.

The Jazz played Raul Neto rotation minutes for the first time in the postseason, and he responded with four points and a plus-8 net rating in a little over seven minutes. After having success in the previous round with Gobert and Derrick Favors playing heavy minutes together as a post duo, Utah went with small lineups for much of the second half. And Dante Exum played well for the first time in a while in his reserve role, scoring nine points in 15 minutes.

Utah showed resilience through the fatigue, playing a much better second half, and cutting the deficit to 11 points on multiple occasions. Crowder had a 3-pointer with eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter that, had it gone in, would have cut the deficit to single digits. And the Jazz generally looked more confident in outscoring the Rockets 57-46 after halftime.

“We let them get a bit more comfortable in the second half than they were in the first half,” Houston forward Trevor Ariza said. “But, luckily, we had that big lead. They went on a run, and we were able to hit a few shots and stop it.”

Crowder and Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with 21 points each. Joe Ingles scored 15 points and Gobert had 11 points and nine rebounds. But Gobert failed to block a shot for the first time during the playoffs and had problems with Houston’s Clint Capela, who scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

The Jazz have a lot to work on before Wednesday night’s Game 2, and they will have to improve significantly. If not, the second round this season could mirror last season’s second round, a four-game sweep of Utah by Golden State on the way to a NBA championship.

The LDS Church on Sunday said it has temporarily reassigned volunteers serving in Turkey “due to a prolonged period of heightened political tensions.”

Twenty men, four women and five senior couples will shift to other regions in Europe, Asia and North America, according a church news release. Four other volunteers — or missionaries — nearing the end of their service will return home.

“The safety of our volunteers is a primary concern for the Church, and we work diligently to monitor conditions and make adjustments as needed in an effort to promote their safety,” the release stated.

Political tensions continue to rise in Turkey ahead of a June 24 presidential election. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces multiple challengers, who allege he moved up the elections from November 2019 to obtain more power. He has said the change was necessary because of uncertainties over Syria.

Erdogan last year won a referendum to change Turkey’s government to an executive presidency, abolishing the office of the prime minister. He has said the new system will make Turkey stronger; critics have argued it will lead to a one-man rule. The change will take effect after the presidential election.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last pulled volunteers from Turkey in July 2016, citing unstable conditions — including a violent attempted coup against Erdogan — in the country.

According to Mormon Newsroom, the church in Turkey includes 547 Latter-day Saints among eight congregations.

The church on Sunday also released the name for its Bulgaria Sofia Mission and Central Eurasion Mission merger, which was first announced in February. Headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, the Bulgaria/Central Eurasion Mission includes Turkey.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

San Diego • A group of Central Americans who journeyed in a caravan to the U.S. border resolved to turn themselves in and ask for asylum Sunday in a direct challenge to the Trump administration — only to have U.S. immigration officials announce that the San Diego crossing was already at capacity.

Nearly 200 migrants, many traveling with children, had decided to apply for protection at the nation’s busiest border crossing after many fled violence in their home countries, organizers said. The caravan got attention after President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet called it a threat to the United States.

Shortly before the migrants were expected to arrive, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing would not immediately be able to handle more asylum seekers. It can hold about 300 people at a time, and officials had been warning that it might fill up.

“At this time, we have reached capacity at the San Ysidro port of entry for CBP officers to be able to bring additional persons traveling without appropriate entry documentation into the port of entry for processing,” Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a statement. “Those individuals may need to wait in Mexico as CBP officers work to process those already within our facilities.”

He said the crossing could take in additional people as space and resources become available. Despite the news, about 200 migrants still started walking toward the port.

Rodulfo Figueroa, the top Mexican immigration official in Baja California state, told caravan organizers to send in an initial group of 20 migrants to see if U.S. border inspectors would entertain their request for asylum.

Figueroa said he doesn’t know if they would be allowed in and had not received word from U.S. immigration officials.

Nicole Ramos, an attorney working on behalf of caravan members, expressed disbelief that U.S. authorities cannot process more asylum seekers until its backlog eases.

“They have been well aware that a caravan is going to arrive at the border,” she said at a news conference. “The failure to prepare and failure to get sufficient agents and resources is not the fault of the most vulnerable among us. We can build a base in Iraq in under a week. We can’t process 200 refugees. I don’t believe it.”

The migrants had made their way north by foot, freight train and bus over the past month, many of them saying they feared for their lives in their home countries.

The Trump administration has been tracking the caravan since it started in Mexico on March 25 near the Guatemala border. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called the caravan “a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system.”

Administration officials have railed against what they call America’s “catch and release” policies that allow people requesting asylum to be released from custody into the U.S. while their claims make their way through the courts, a process that can last a year.

Wendi Yaneri Garcia said she is confident she will be released while her asylum case is pending because she is traveling alone with her 2-year-old son, who has been sick.

“All I want is a place where I can work and raise my son,” the 36-year-old said.

She said that police in her hometown of Atlantida, Honduras, jailed her for protesting construction of a hydroelectric plant and that she received death threats after being released.

Nefi Hernandez, 24, said a gang in his hometown of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, threatened to kill him and his family if he did not sell drugs. He intended to seek asylum with his wife and baby daughter, who was born on the journey through Mexico.

Jose Cazares, 31, said he faced death threats in the Honduran city of Yoro because a gang member suspected of killing the mother of his children learned one of his sons reported the crime to police.

Earlier Sunday, the migrants boarded five old school buses to attend a rally at a Pacific Ocean beach, with supporters gathering on both sides of the border fence and some climbing the barrier to sit or to wave signs.

The travelers face an uncertain future if they ask for asylum. U.S. immigration lawyers warned them that they face possible separation from their children and detention for many months.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said asylum claims will be resolved “efficiently and expeditiously.” But she warned that any asylum seekers making false claims could be prosecuted, as could anyone who assists the migrants in doing so.

Administration officials and their allies claim that asylum fraud is growing and that many who seek it are coached on how to do so.

Asylum seekers are typically held for up to three days at the border and then turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If they pass an asylum officer’s initial screening, they may be detained or released into the U.S. with ankle monitors.

Maria de Los Angeles, 17, said she felt confident after speaking with an attorney that U.S. authorities would release her while her case moves through the courts because she was traveling alone with her 1-year-old son. She hoped to move in with a sister in San Francisco.

“I’m fired up to go because I believe in God and I believe everything will work out,” she said.

She said she fled her home in Jutiapa, Honduras, because the father of her son threatened to kill her and their child.

We have long advocated for more diversity on Utah’s bench. A glance into the life of Raymond Uno illustrates the complexity of experiences that diversification brings.

Uno was the first ethnic minority to become a Utah judge. Born in Ogden in 1930, as a young Japanese-American boy he was imprisoned with his family during World War II at the Heart Mountain Wyoming Relocation Center, where his father died.

In high school Uno worked as a dishwasher, farm laborer and railroad tracklayer. Despite his confinement in the interment camp, Uno volunteered for the U.S. Army and became a special agent in the 441^st Counterintelligence Corps.

As a veteran of the Korean War, Uno attended the University of Utah and received four degrees – a bachelor’s in political science; a bachelor’s of laws; a master’s of social work; and a juris doctorate. Appropriately, the university is honoring him with an honorary doctorate at this week’s graduation.

With his law degree, Uno set to work championing the cause of civil rights. He worked as as a referee of the juvenile court, deputy Salt Lake County attorney, assistant attorney general of Utah and in private practice before he became a judge. He served as a judge for almost 25 years, and was known for being thorough, fair and approachable.

You can’t imagine up a history like that. His legacy tread the path for young attorneys of color who see few people around them that look like them.

In honor of this legacy, the U’s J. Willard Marriott Library has started a new special-collections archive to preserve a collection of Uno’s papers, photographs, films, audio tapes, diaries and correspondence. About the new collection, Uno said it “is kind of humbling.”

The collection is just a start to a new effort to tell the stories of Utah’s immigrant and ethnic communities. Tony Semerad for The Tribune reported that “the immigrant-focused special collection is meant to convey an intimate and more personal side of history to future scholars and students.”

Utah’s bench is predominantly male and overwhelmingly white. But Utah’s population is becoming more diverse. Minorities now account for 21 percent of Utah’s population, compared with 19 percent in 2010. It may not seem like a lot, but minority populations are growing faster (20.3 percent) than the white population (8 percent).

Our bench needs to resemble our population, and Raymond Uno is the best example of why it matters.

Houston • As tends to happen in the NBA playoffs, the reality of moving to another level jolted the Jazz when the next series unfolded Sunday.

“Like jumping into ice-cold water,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder suggested after a 110-96 loss to Houston at the Toyota Center.

So here they are a year later, with the same question surfacing after Game 1 near the Texas Gulf Coast as arose last spring in the San Francisco Bay Area: Can the Jazz win even once in the Western Conference semifinals?

During a run late in the first half, Houston’s P.J. Tucker drilled consecutive 3-pointers from the left corner. The home crowd joined in a “De-fense” chant and roundly booed an out-of-bounds call in the Jazz’s favor. At the time, the Rockets led by 25 points.

After the dramatic twists and turns of the Jazz’s first-round series vs. Oklahoma City, only the contortionist act at halftime altered Houston’s relentless theme. The Jazz deserve credit for battling to the end and making the Rockets agonize mildly in the fourth quarter. The flaw of the Jazz’s resilience is it led Houston coach Mike D’Antoni to say, “We can play a lot better than this.”

So the ending of Game 1 should be either reassuring or frightening to the Jazz.

Nothing the Jazz do in this series could diminish the achievement of beating OKC. The only trouble with advancing is the reward resembles punishment. The Jazz could show their growth by lasting a game or two longer than they did in the West semis last May, but even that achievement seemed ambitious by the look and feel of things Sunday.

The conclusion from Game 1 is for the Jazz to break through, Houston’s James Harden (41 points) will have to cooperate by missing a bunch of shots and Jazz center Rudy Gobert must become more of a factor earlier. Gobert’s strong finish, once the outcome was decided, gave him 11 points and nine rebounds.

The opportunity exists for the Jazz to regroup and improve in Wednesday’s Game 2 and beyond, although only the 21 points of Donovan Mitchell and a determined effort by Jae Crowder (21 points of his own) and other reserves created much hope for the rest of the series.

“We got some momentum in the second half,” Crowder said, “trying to figure out what we can and can’t do on both ends of the court.”

With the asterisk of guard Ricky Rubio’s injury absence, this series will be another reminder that for all the Jazz have done this season, they have a long way to go to challenge the NBA’s elite. Utah is in a class with Houston and Golden State, but the truth is those teams are in their own league.

If the Jazz thought Oklahoma City was a star-driven, powerful offensive team, Houston is another force entirely. The Jazz’s challenge in Game 1 was to immediately summon more drive like the emotional effort that eliminated the Thunder.

“As proud as I am of our team,” Snyder said before the game, “we’re not stuck back there mentally.”

Physically, though? This was a demanding turnaround in 36 hours, yet some of the Jazz’s franchise history reduces that excuse. In 2010, for instance, the Jazz went from eliminating Denver to facing the No. 1 seed Los Angeles Lakers in the same time frame, and they led Game 1 with four minutes to play.

This episode was nothing like that game, the irony being that the Jazz were swept in that series even after their strong showing in the opener. Will this series play out like that one, as a repeat of Golden State’s sweep last season? That element, if nothing else, will make this thing worth watching.

Houston • Partly because of his foul trouble during a critical stretch of a game the Jazz eventually lost, Utah center Rudy Gobert may have been the unofficial MVP of the team’s first-round playoff series vs. Oklahoma City, even given Donovan Mitchell’s exploits.

But Gobert was far less effective Sunday in the Jazz’s 110-96 loss to Houston in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Gobert finished with 11 points and nine rebounds in 35 minutes. Yet those numbers were aided considerably by a fourth-quarter push of nine points and four rebounds, when Houston led comfortably, and he didn’t block any shots. In the previous series against Oklahoma City, Gobert averaged 14.0 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

Through three quarters Sunday, Gobert did not have a field-goal attempt. Explanations exist for his reduced statistics, but the Jazz need more from him offensively and defensively in upcoming games.

His teammates’ play is part of the story behind Gobert’s reduced impact for much of the game, according to coach Quin Snyder, and so is that Houston’s offense is built around 3-point shooting. In the Jazz’s switching scheme, Gobert often found himself outside, guarding James Harden or Chris Paul with mixed results.

Snyder pointed to the Jazz’s perimeter defense as an initial cause of some problems, with Harden driving to the basket and forcing Gobert to make choices. If Gobert helped, Harden passed the ball. Gobert also found himself out of rebounding position at times, because of others’ mistakes.

That’s partly why Houston center Clint Capela was able to statistically outplay Gobert, with 16 points and 12 rebounds — including four offensive boards. Capela had missed the Rockets’ last regular-season victory over the Jazz in late February with an injury.

“We were breaking down at one point in that chain too frequently,” Snyder said.

Offensively, the absence of point guard Ricky Rubio due to a hamstring injury was noticeable early in the game. Other players had trouble creating opportunities for Gobert, who finished well around the rim against Oklahoma City.

“We weren’t making the right decision,” Snyder said, “and we were too slow in making whatever decision we were making.”

As Gobert likes to say, “Every game is different.” The Jazz hope that’s true for him in Wednesday’s Game 2.

Houston • Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder calls it “the blender.”

When his offense is at its best, it whirls the defense into confusion, creating panicking double-teams and miscommunications that lead to open shots.

Without Ricky Rubio, the Utah Jazz had a hard time turning the blender on.

The Jazz were able to make a 110-96 Game 1 loss to the Rockets seem a little closer than it was for much of the game. But replacing Rubio, who is expected to miss several games of the series with a hamstring injury, at point guard remains as daunting a challenge as ever.

The Jazz attacked it in a variety of ways: Giving Donovan Mitchell ball-handling duties. Giving Joe Ingles ball-handling duties. Playing Dante Exum and Raul Neto for the most minutes they’ve gotten this postseason. None of them screamed as a particularly strong solution, but Utah hopes they can continue to warm up as the series progresses.

“It’s a little different playing without him, but we’ve done it before,” Ingles said. “We just gotta adjust, get everybody involved. Me and Donovan have to do a good job, especially early, of getting us into our stuff.”

It was not good early: The Jazz had trouble generating the catch-and-shoot 3-point looks that form a chunk of their offense. Most of Utah’s first-quarter shots came on individual drives or pull-ups off the dribble. Ball movement was tentative.

Even when they scored, like a Mitchell runner from along the baseline, the looks were tough for the Jazz. Eventually that found its way into the deficit: The Rockets led 64-39 at halftime, and the Jazz were shooting 40 percent from the field to that point.

While Mitchell and Ingles combined for 18 points at intermission, they combined for four assists to that point. The rest of the starting lineup had five points, and the team had eight turnovers against the Rockets’ long-limbed, switch-happy defense.

“We kind of got stagnant with the ball,” Mitchell said. “They started switching and we really didn’t figure it out until the second half. And I think obviously we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for that.”

It did help, however, that Neto and Exum had some moments: After not playing in the second half of Game 6 against the Thunder despite Rubio’s injury, Exum got the nod again Sunday with 15 minutes, and he had nine points (with three turnovers). Neto checked in late in the third quarter and during his eight-minute stint, the Jazz outscored the Rockets by eight points.

The best thing Exum and Neto helped facilitate was the transition game, which was a reason Utah outscored the Rockets 20-13 in fast-break points.

“When we get a rebound and run into space, I think we can do a lot of good stuff,” Neto said. “That’s what we did, that’s how we got back in the game. And I think that’s how we gotta think in the next couple games.”

Rubio, his hair tied in his signature manbun and wearing a hooded sweatshirt under his blazer, could be seen on the bench having several animated conversations. He remains a resource for the Jazz, even though they no longer have his on-court production for now.

The most important quality Snyder wants from his group is decisiveness. A split second of hesitation could be the difference between getting the points or getting buried in Game 2.

“We weren’t making the right decisions, and we were too slow in making whatever decisions we were making, particularly early in the game,” he said. “You have to make quick decisions. And you have to know where you’re going with the ball, or at least have an idea.”

Cleveland • LeBron James wasn't ready to go home or to Philadelphia or Los Angeles.

He's heading to Toronto, bringing a Cavaliers team that isn't done yet.

Unwilling to sit despite battling leg cramps in the second half, James scored 45 points and got some much-needed help from his teammates in Game 7 to stay unbeaten in the opening round of the NBA playoffs, leading the Cavaliers to a 105-101 win on Sunday over the Indiana Pacers, who pushed the game's best player to the breaking point.

Following the game, an exhausted James said the series took a physical toll.

"I'm burnt right now," he said. "I'm not thinking about Toronto right now until tomorrow. I'm ready to go home. Can we? I'm tired. I want to go home."

James added nine rebounds, seven assists and played over 43 minutes while improving to 13-0 in the first round. He kept Cleveland's strange season alive — for the time being — but it took everything the 33-year-old and the Cavs had to hold off the Pacers, who came in confident after a 34-point win in Game 6.

But James, who at times seemed to be playing the Pacers by himself in the series, pulled the Cavs back from the brink of elimination and at least delayed any more talk about impending free agency.

"Amazing," Indiana's Victor Oladipo said of James. "He did what he always does. It's not really shocking. He's the best in the world, and that's what the best does and now I gotta work to get on that level."

The Cavs will open the conference semifinals on Tuesday at top-seeded Toronto.

Early in the game, James looked at agent Rich Paul sitting courtside and told him he wasn't coming out. James then played the first 35 minutes before heading to the locker room with one minute left in the third to be treated for what he said was "a little minor injury." James said he was urged to get IV fluids but turned them down.

Nothing was going to keep James off the floor in what some Cleveland fans feared could have been his last game with the franchise.

He fought through the fatigue. He had no choice.

"It felt like a Game 7," he said. "It was like, your mind is thinking like, 'OK, besides the two I played in the Finals, you start thinking like, is this it? Could this be it?' That's just human nature. And then the other side of my brain was like, 'Let's go make something happen. Let's go, that's what you here for. You're here to make plays, you're the leader.'"

The Cavs got a huge lift from Tristan Thompson, who played just 24 minutes in the first six games but made a rare start as Cavs coach Tyronn Lue used his 34th different starting lineup this season. Thompson added 15 points and 10 rebounds, Kevin Love made four 3-pointers, and George Hill returned after missing three games with back spasms to score 11 in 19 second-half minutes.

"Five guys in double figures," said Lue, who has taken heat for some decisions in the series. "But I'm just happy Tristan, because he's been here with us for so long and been through all of the things we've been through over the course of the last four years, and to step in and play the way he did, I'm just so happy for him."

Oladipo scored 30 and Darren Collison had 23 for the Pacers, who were still within four in the final minute before a cutting James scored on a bullet pass from Kyle Korver with 30 seconds left.

"Best receiver in the NBA," Korver said of James. "Just got to put it up there for him."

Oladipo hit a 3 at the horn and was immediately embraced by James, who had never played a first-round Game 7 and was in jeopardy of seeing an eighth trip to the Finals end quickly.

"Honestly, I think we were the better team, and they had the best player in the world," Pacers forward Trevor Booker said.

It was the first Game 7 in Quicken Loans Arena history, and Cleveland fans were on edge from the start.

A loss would not only have ended the Cavs' season earlier than expected and their reign as three-time conference champs, but it would have pushed James closer to free agency. He's expected to opt out of his contract in July to test the market, and there's already a line of teams stretching from Philly to L.A. looking to sign the three-time champion.

His stay in Cleveland isn't quite complete.

TRUST FACTOR

After the Cavs were rocked in Game 6, Lue knew he needed to shake things up, so he started players he trusts most. Korver got the nod along with James, Love, Smith and Thompson — the four holdovers from the three Finals teams.

"I just think in Game 7, go with the guys who've been here, who've been through it all and know what it takes," Lue said.

PROUD PACERS

Despite the loss, the Pacers felt great about their season.

"If y'all don't respect the Indiana Pacers now, I have no respect for you," Oladipo said. "Nobody thought we would be here."

Lance Stephenson, an eight-year pro in his second tour with Indiana, was especially impressed with the team's young players.

"This team was amazing," he said. "We brought it every night. There was no drama all season and everybody kept a positive attitude at all times. The future is bright."

TIP-INS

Pacers: Both Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis fouled out. ... Stephenson picked up his second technical of the series when he hit James in the head on a first-quarter drive. ... Dropped to 3-6 in Game 7s, with all of the losses coming on the road.

Cavaliers: James won his fifth straight Game 7. ... By picking off a pass midway through the second quarter, James became the career playoff leader in steals. He entered the game tied with Scottie Pippen (395) for the most postseason thefts. ... Celebrated the 42nd anniversary of the "Miracle at Richfield" in 1976, when the Cavs defeated the Washington Bullets in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. Cleveland's fans stormed the court and tore down both baskets.

UP NEXT

Pacers: Head into an offseason with optimism after their strong showing.

Cavaliers: Will meet the Raptors for the third straight postseason.

___

More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball

After missing a filing deadline in a federal lawsuit by 18 minutes, a Salt Lake City lawyer, who also is a Utah Jazz fan, threw himself on the mercy of the court.

In a motion filed Thursday, Brian King asked U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins in a medical benefits case for a deadline extension based on “foreseeable, but unwished for, circumstances, together with unforeseen emotional impact” involving a 107-99 Jazz loss that prevented him from finishing his work on time.

King said he had taken a break at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday from writing the memo to watch the Jazz play the Oklahoma Thunder in Game 5 in the first round of the NBA playoffs. About 9:15 p.m., in the third quarter of the game, the Utah team held a 25-point lead but then disaster struck, he said.

The problem came “in the form of bad officiating, Jazz turnovers and poor shot selection, the absence of the best defense player in the league, and [Russell] Westbrook,” King wrote, adding that until then, prospects were excellent for a timely submission of the memo, which was due at midnight but was filed at 12:18 a.m. Thursday.

“But the emotional effect of an eventual Jazz loss (which began at approximately 10:00 p.m.) was, to say the least, dispiriting,” King wrote. “The pallor cast on counsel’s mind eventually led to submission of a written product that was twice as long and half as strong as it would have been had the Jazz emerged victorious. As well as eighteen minutes tardy.”

King, who is minority leader of the Utah House of Representatives, said the attorney for the opposing party in the case, despite being from Minneapolis, did not object to the motion asking for the deadline extension.

“For purposes of this playoff series, he’s a Jazz fan, too,” King said, adding in a footnote that “Jazz team chemistry and the quality of play from, among others, Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles, and Derrick Favors have won the hearts of people across the country.”

In another footnote, King said his emotional setback was temporary. He also predicted that the Jazz would be victorious Friday over the Thunder and proceed to play the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals.

Friday must have been King’s lucky day. Not only did Jenkins grant King’s motion, ruling that there was “good cause” for the delay, but the Utah Jazz defeated the Thunder 96-91 as King predicted.

On Sunday, the Jazz faced off against the Houston Rockets in Texas in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals and lost 110-96.

The teams will play Game 2 in Houston on Wednesday night.

Washington • One of the many costs of the Trump era is the dumbing down of our political discourse. The incoherent spoken and tweeted outpourings from President Trump and the daily outrages of his administration leave little time for serious debate about policy or meaningful dialogue about our larger purposes.

In a normal environment, the Republican Congress’ assault on food-stamp recipients, the administration’s waivers allowing states to erode Medicaid coverage, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s proposed rent increases for some of the country’s poorest people would be front and center in the news.

But poor people lack the media cache of Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen or a president who rants uncontrollably over the telephone to his favorite Fox News show.

News outlets are entirely justified in lavishing coverage on the sensational and the personal, since developments in these areas are a part of a bigger story that could undermine the Trump presidency all together. Nonetheless, the circus that Trump has brought to town is nearly as much of a threat to a well-ordered political system as is Trump himself.

Nothing is significant for long, everything is episodic, and old scandals are regularly knocked out of the headlines by new ones. It’s a truly novel approach to damage control.

And governing? It seems almost beside the point. Thus does the unraveling of regulatory protections for workers, the environment and the users of financial services rush forward with little notice.

This is where the Trumpian circus benefits the Trumpian project. If there are too many scandals for any one of them to seize our attention for long, all of them taken together allow what are potentially very unpopular policies to take root without much scrutiny.

Yes, good journalists are on top of what’s happening. But their stories usually get buried beneath reports about the latest presidential statement contradicting an earlier presidential statement.

Also consider this: Budget Director Mick Mulvaney last week made a brash admission about his time in Congress. “If you were a lobbyist who never gave us money,” he said to an audience of banking executives, “I didn’t talk to you.”

In a more innocent age, this confession would have provoked sustained indignation over how our political money system fundamentally corrupts our politics. (And imagine if Hillary Clinton had said such a thing.) But Mulvaney’s words just seemed to slide by.

Mulvaney should write thank-you notes to Trump, Cohen and Daniels. Also to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who had to justify his unjustifiable uses of public money before Congress, and Ronny Jackson, who withdrew from consideration to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs after allegations (which he denies) related to, among other things, his improperly dispensing drugs and his own use of alcohol.

But if the severity of every abuse is relativized, something less tangible but at least as important is lost as well. We are ignoring the imperative of shoring up the philosophical underpinnings of liberal democracy.

Intellectual confusion and ambivalence now haunt the West. Older and once vital systems of thought — in Europe, Christian democracy and social democracy; in the United States, New Dealism and free market conservatism — have an ever-weaker hold on the popular imagination.

This vacuum is filled by strange concepts that hark back to the irrationalism of the 1930s. They include what to supporters of liberal democracy are oxymoronic ideas such as “illiberal democracy” or “authoritarian democracy.”

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has the intellectual courage to raise the specter that lurks behind these terms in her new book, “Fascism: A Warning.” She notes that fascism arose at “a time of intellectual liveliness and resurgent nationalism coupled with widespread disappointment at the failure of representative parliaments to keep pace with a technology-driven Industrial Revolution.”

In the wake of World War I and the Great Depression, she adds, “the promises inherent in the Enlightenment and the French and American Revolutions had become hollow.”

Albright is not a catastrophist (and neither am I). But she doesn’t mind being called an alarmist. She notes “that for freedom to survive, it must be defended, and that if lies are to stop, they must be exposed.” We can’t just “close our eyes and wait for the worst to pass.”

Yet at a moment when we need politics to be thoughtful and engaging, we have a government whose profound swampiness only further deepens public doubts about democracy and encourages us to view public life as mere spectacle. It’s a very bad time to be distracted by a circus.

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.