While all eyes are currently on what was one of the most dramatic and exciting Superbowl Games in the history of the sport the real prize of the day goes to the IDF, Shin Bet who managed to raid a location where two of their hostages were being held and rescued them at the cost of only one wounded while taking out quite a large number of Hamas.
That they were able to get hostages freed at all is incredible, that they managed to pull this off in only an hour is staggering, that they did so without Israeli causalities seems almost impossible.
The spike of the football, the raid took place in the city of Raffa which apparently the Biden Administration has been pressuring the Israeli government to leave alone. As Elder of Ziyon put it:
Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and the US have been pressuring Israel not to operate in Rafah. After seeing that hostages are kept there and Israel saved some, practically no Israelis will agree.
I’m presuming that Hamas will be smuggling any remaining living hostages out of the country but frankly if I’m Egypt I really don’t want to be seen as part of that operation. Then again:
That’s a lot of tanks just to make sure Gazans trapped in Hamas hell stay in Gaza. Probably a violation of the 1979 peace treaty as well. https://t.co/76oLLPENxv
Egypt has warned Hamas that it must agree to a hostages-for-ceasefire deal with Jerusalem within two weeks to avert an Israel Defense Forces operation in the terror group’s last stronghold in the Gaza Strip, the southernmost city of Rafah, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
This week, Israel will reportedly dispatch to Cairo negotiators to discuss a new hostage deal with U.S., Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Given that drawing Egypt into a war with Israel would be a big win for Hamas I’m betting they’re not going to listen to that advice.
The most interesting thing about Nikki Haley’s appearance on Saturday Night Live is this statement from sources concerning NBC via the Hollywood reporter:
NBC declined to comment, but sources told The Hollywood Reporter that NBC will comply with any equal time obligations for other presidential candidates across both parties.
If I’m Trump I jump all over this.
Bill Belichick took out of full page ad in the Sunday Boston Globe to thank Patriots fans for their support an excerpt:
“Nowhere in America are pro sports fans as passionate as in New England and for 24 years, I was blessed to feel your passion and power,” Belichick’s letter read. “The Patriots are the only NFL team representing SIX states but in reality, Patriots Nation knows no borders.
“You were undaunted by weather, attended scorching hot training camp practices and braved Foxborough’s coldest, wettest, snowiest, and windiest days.… Your thoughtful letters offered support, critique and creative play suggestions. You watched on TV, the internet and from your stadium seats.
It was a nice gesture that’s made easier by his lack of a coaching job.
It’s worth noting his son is still employed as a defensive coach on the Patriots but I suspect Kraft was just waiting for Bill to get hired but as he was not it will be interesting to see how much longer he lasts.
The telegraphing of the Biden administration of counterstrikes against Iran giving the enemy time to evacuate and remove any important material is a function of a person who needs to seem to do something when actually he is not.
It reminds me of the old movie the American President. Michael Douglas’ characters insists on hitting back at the command center at night to decrease causalities and cries over the janitor who will be killed instead of hitting at the time when the actual people who were in charge of the attack where there.
Basically that janitor dies so he can feel better about himself. The Biden admin is all about false appearances.
Speaking of appearances new figures from the Border are demonstrating that Texas’ approach to you know actually enforcing the law has results:
NEW: The large majority of illegal crossings at the southern border are now happening in AZ & CA, as a shift away from TX continues.
Per CBP sources, over the last week of January, Border Patrol apprehended 32,809 illegal immigrants.
Notably, the numbers in TX’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, have fallen off a cliff. In December, the sector saw days of 3,000-4,000 illegal crossings per day. Over the last week, it has averaged around just 200.
I know that California has no intention of enforcing the law the real question is what direction will New Mexico & Arizona go?
Finally while we still have one opening in our 1972 Dynasty League (Chicago Cubs if interested comment here) I have submitted my keeper list for our 1972 season. They are:
LHSP Ken Holtzman
LHSP Al Downing
RHSP Mike Torrez
RHRP Jerry Bell
CF Ken Berry
RF Pete Rose
LF Gene Giles
1b Ron Fairly
2B/3B Ron Hunt
There were some really tough calls. Darryl Porter will be a monster in 1973 and Jim Slanton has a huge future ahead of him but they are only part time this year, Likewise Dave Conception is a killer defensive outfielder that I carried for two years but I’m heavy in the OF so he’s the odd man out, Bob Miller is a solid reliever and Bill Parsons eats up innings as a starter but I can’t justify them over any of the keepers. Finally Mike Jorgenson was picked up in a trade because he has a long and solid future ahead of him and while he is a better first baseman than Fairly this year and will soon be one of the best defensive 1B available by 1973, Fairly is going to have a monster year next season and except against lefties is still solid.
Maybe these guys will be available later in the draft but what I need to pick up is:
3 RHSP at least one of Ace qualify
A solid power hitter (3B or C)
A starting shortstop
A Closer
2 Catchers
Middle Relief
Fortunately thanks to trades with the Mets (Daytraders), Orioles, and Royals I have 3 1st round picks and two picks in the 3rd, 5th and 6th rounds so filling those spots should be a tad easier.
On Friday afternoon, just blocks from Chicago’s City Hall, two students–Robert Boston and Monterio Williams–were shot to death on a crowded street outside Innovation High School. It was like a scene from the old Untouchables television show.
Yesterday on X, Chicago Progressive Staffers, which describes itself as a “coalition of progressive staffers from the Mayors [sic] Office and [the] City Council, posted this troubling message. “WOW! Thousands of @ChiPubSchools students are organizing a walk out on Tuesday in support of @AldermanLaSpata & @RossanaFor33’s Ceasefire resolution that’s being voted on Wednesday Jan 31. The youth will always lead us.”
Yes, “The youth will always lead us.” That’s the messaging that was drilled into Mrs. Marathon Pundit when she was a Young Pioneer in the Soviet Union.
Like Washington DC, Chicago is built on onetime swamp land. Think of the Chicago Progressive Staffers as part of the city’s Deep State. As for the two alderpersons mentioned in that X post–Daniel LaSpata and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez–the sponsors of the Gaza ceasefire resolution, both are members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Leftists nationwide, nearly to a person, are calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war because Hamas, which attacked the Jewish state on October 7, is losing.
And Gaza ceasefire resolution–or no ceasefire resolution–however Chicago’s City Council votes won’t make a difference. Just as the countless resolutions approved by the City Council condemning communism in Eastern Europe had no effect on America winning the Cold War.
Tuesday of course is a school day in Chicago, so essentially, Chicago Progressive Staffers, this anonymous group of city hall leftists, is cheering on students cutting class.
On the flipside, it’s easy to say that Chicago Public Schools students who play hooky on Tuesday won’t miss much. Not even one-quarter of them are proficient in reading or math at grade level. And nearly half of CPS students missed 18 days of class during the 2021-22 school year.
So, what’s one more day away from school, right?
Chicago might be a better place if the Chicago City Council plays hooky–indefinitely. Last month, Edward Burke, who was a Chicago alderperson for a record 54 years, was convicted on corruption charges. In the last five decades, 38 members of the Chicago City Council have been found guilty of federal crimes, which averages to one aldercritter heading to the House of Many Doors every 16 months.
Perhaps Hamas might reply, “Thanks, but no thanks” if the Chicago City Council’s Gaza ceasefire resolution passes. Hamas deservedly already has a very bad reputation.
But as bad as the Chicago Public Schools system is, its students belong in school on Tuesday. And the Chicago City Council needs work on improving life in the city.
I have a lot of little things to say but not enough for an under the Fedora Day so today we’re going to give Don Surber the sincerest from of flattery and imitate his Saturday Link Fest with a few other thoughts:
First at Stacy McCain’s site we have a story about how thanks to a family squabble an iconic business will close:
The litigation later forced the family to change the name of its original location to Tony and Nick’s Steaks in 2022. Anthony Jr.’s two sons — Anthony III and Michael, who were also employed at the sandwich empire — followed him out the door, taking copies of the company’s financial records with them and turned them over to federal investigators. Those documents revealed that Lucidonio Sr. and Nicholas Lucidonio hid the success of their business from tax collectors by keeping two sets of books almost from the day the sandwich shop opened.
While one might have an opinion of members of an Italian (Sicilian?) family turning in another member of their family to the feds may I humbly point out that if they weren’t cooking the books it wouldn’t be an issue.
As my Sicilian parents who owned business taught me young, “Always pay the government first because they’re the only ones who can take from you before you go to court.”
2nd: Was at the bank today figured it would be an easy time since I needed to convert three $20 bills into two 10’s six 5’s and ten ones so I can make change if people at St Cecilia’s church want to buy tickets to the WQPH 89.3 FM Shrove Tuesday Brunch on the 13th (Details here). I figured it would take about 30 seconds invoving:
Opening the draw
Counting the bills
Giving them to me
Not anymore. Now a machine is involved so instead the teller has to
Take the last four of my social
Feeding my bills into the reader
Do tons of typing into the computer
Wait for the machine to spit out the bills when the typing is done
Print a receipt for the bills
Give me the bills and receipt
Machines don’t make everything easier
3rd: Over at Pirates Cove Mr. Teach notices climate folks trying to link “climate change” to ancient plagues. to wit:
While modern medicine has advanced considerably since the time of the Romans, this data offers insights into how diseases might change in our own changing climate. “Within the scope of the current climate change it is of major importance to understand the links between climate and human health and we unfortunately do not understand these links as well as we would like,” Zonneveld said. “Investigating the resilience of ancient societies to past climate change and relationships between past climate change and the occurrence of infectious disease might give us better insight into these relationships and the climate change induced challenges we are facing today.
One would have thought that an empire that could conquer so much of the known world, invent formalized sanitation, arches, pioneered early medical tools, concrete, the first bound book, and so much more, would have known not to use fossil fuels, hair dryers, ice makers, and plastics
It never ceases to amaze me that tens of millions have absolute faith in the never ending predictions of doom to come in 30 years when my own local forecast for Sunday has changed three times in the last 72 hours.
4th: I’m told the Doctor that I’ve had for the last 30-40 years or so is about to retire. Baring a major accident/incident before July I will likely not see him again.
This means I will likely have to get a new doc who doesn’t know me or my family or my past. This is normal but I’m not looking forward to it. If there was one thing I had no doubt about with my old doc it’s that he cared if I lived or died. Given what we’ve seen from the medical profession the last few years it will be very hard to get that impression from a stranger.
Of course as I’m in the back nine it more a question of what do I want to die from because in the end I have to die of something.
5th: The New Neo has some thoughts about the Jean Carroll defamation case and the type of precedent it sets:
I don’t think lawsuits like this one should be actionable, whether they be against Trump or anyone else. It should not be legally actionable defamation to say your accuser is lying about you and that you’re not sexually attracted to her. Nor was Trump ever found criminally liable for raping her, because the statute of limitations had run out by the time she made her accusations. I doubt her rape case would have held up in a criminal court anyway – unless it was a court composed of jurors or a judge who hated the defendant.
I predict that once leftists and left leaning institutions like universities are charged with defamation for insisting on their innocence in cases and have judgements made against them the injustice of this will suddenly become clear to the left.
Unexpectedly of course.
6th: If anyone is interested we have some openings in both the 1972 and the 1997 league for Dynasty Baseball.
If you’re up to it and have an interest give me a shout because the window for all of this is closing.
7th: Since I quoted Don Surber for the title of this post it behooves me to mention an interesting twist to the old “learn to code” crowd:
ITEM 14: What the nation needs is coders who learn to mine.
CNBC reported last month, “The U.S. is running out of miners. More than half the nation’s mining workforce, about 221,000 workers, is expected to retire by 2029, according to the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, and the number of candidates willing to fill those slots is shrinking.”
Smart people are urging and/or putting their kids into trade schools where basic “manly” skills are taught as it’s becoming increasingly clear that the American left has basically evolved into the passengers of the B Ark of the Golgafrinchan fleet
8th: Since we mentioned the need for coal jobs it’s worth noting more layoffs of Journalists: First this week at the LA Times (Via Legal Insurrection):
As a general rule, most people are sympathetic when they hear about others who have lost their jobs due to layoffs, company closings, and the like.
But in the case of the now-former employees of the Los Angeles Times, that sympathy is in short supply among conservatives and others who were frequent targets of the paper’s agenda-driven news and opinion divisions.
On Sunday, Legal Insurrection reported that the left coast newspaper had announced that staff cutbacks were imminent, with around 100 people set to be let go. In response, unionized employees staged a one-day walkout and demanded, among other things, “to swap traditional seniority protections for those related to diversi
In an internal email this morning, Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng announced that the company is laying off 8% of its staff pic.twitter.com/VY6HIt7ktc
I look forward to the plethora of articles from those journalists remaining insisting that the economy is better than ever. Perhaps AI can write them at the LA Times and Business Insider.
The NFL league championships are this week and from the NFC we are guaranteed a great story of overcoming adversity no matter who wins, either Detroit FINALLY making it to the Superbowl with a rejected QB or San Francisco making it led by the very last pick in the draft born the year Brady was picked and drafted 63 places later than him (262nd).
In the east you have Lamar Jackson the pre-emptive MVP facing Patrick Mahomes who now has made the AFC title game in his first six seasons as a starter. Comparisons to Tom Brady and questions if he will beat Brady’s six titles and ten Superbowl appearances are already flying but in the end no matter what he achieves when people ask who was better the record will show that when facing Tom Brady in the AFC Championship game or the Superbowl he was 0-2 against a Tom Brady at age 40 or over.
10th and last at Elder of Ziyon which is a must visit during the Israel Hamas war they note a rather amazing phenom at the UN, collective memory loss:
Q: Given the UN’s big role in Gaza, UNRWA, has there ever been any indication to the UN that tunnels are being built under the city?
UN: Not to us. I mean… it seems to me that all this infrastructure was built in a highly secretive way. I mean, I see it just as an observer… To think that the UN had any understanding of what was… any information about those operations, I think, is… No is clearly the answer to that.
This is even though the UN has admitted in previous years that tunnels were found underneath their own schools.
In fact, former UNRWA Gaza director Matthias Schmale admitted that it is a “safe assumption” there were extensive tunnels under Gaza, in a 2021 interview:
If it wasn’t for the fact that Hogan’s Heroes was a fictional show I’d swear that the UN was recruiting heavily from descendants of the guards at Luft Stalag 13 for their uncanny ability to know nothing and see nothing.
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