Well there’s been another round of layoffs and outright dismissals at my company. To my knowledge only one of my bosses and bosses bosses over the last year will be with the company ten days from now but since that doesn’t seem to impress anybody in terms of just how bad things are let me put it another way.
Driving to mass today I was listening to sports radio and they were talking about the various free agent signings in the NFL. When the Patriots had Tom Brady getting free agents was never a problem because the chance of going to a Superbowl was 50-50 every year and at worst it meant that later in life you could say “I played with Tom Brady!” Even with Bill Belichick here there was a slight draw in the idea that you would be playing with one of the greatest tacticians and the one of the top 3 winningest coaches of all time.
But both Brady and Belichick are now gone and now when I turn on the radio I hear about the competitive disadvantage that the Patriots have in signing free agents. There are quite a few locations that don’t have a state income tax which means that you have to offer a minimum of 5-6% more as a baseline just to be even with the other guy, but with the Millionaire’s surtax added on suddenly the price of a good free agent goes up so much that another team can outbid you without even trying.
It’s not just the business people who flee, it’s the people who don’t bother to come in the first place.
But hey as always we get the government we deserve. Good and Hard.
The speed of cultural change in this country amazes me. A recently as 5-10 years ago and definitely 20 years ago a military operation that successfully recused civilians taken hostage unharmed that took only one casualty slightly wounded and killed multiple terrorists in the process would be universally hailed by both sides of the political aisle and lionized by the press.
Instead it has at best been ignored and at worst attacked by sitting members of congress as a “massacre”.
There have been quite a few national disgraces over the last few years. This is one of them.
Rand Paul did something yesterday that we don’t see much of. An old fashioned filibuster of the Ukraine Bill where people actually hold the floor and talk.
While I concede that the current cloister rules are what allowed the chances at SCOTUS which finally doomed Roe I approve of both the Filibuster and Paul’s use of it here and would bring it back if I could, HOWEVER I’d only approve of the real thing.
You see for the last few decades rather than actually holding the floor and making the face a filibuster was considered as read if enough senators indicated they were behind it. I’ve always felt that was lazy. If a bill is worth filibustering it’s worth doing it for real.
Because of a previous vote Paul’s filibuster is limited but he’s playing out the string like Jackie Robinson remaining on the field watching Bobby Thompson circling the based ready to protest if he missed any of them on his way around them in the excitement of the moment.
Agree or disagree on various issues he’s a man of principle. We need more of them in congress.
The difference between a good player and a great player is how they perform when the chips are down.
While Tom Brady will always have the edge on Patrick Mahomes because of their head to head record in the playoffs (favoring Brady 2-0) Mahomes with his 3rd Superbowl win proves he belongs in the GOAT conversation not just by the victory. But by the fact that TWICE in the same game he lead his team down the field to score the tying or winning points where failure would have meant defeat and did so with less than 30 seconds on the clock.
A lot of stat guys are not believers in “Clutch” performers. Mahomes as well as Brady proves such an assertion is nonsense. Having Mahomes follow Brady It’s like watching DiMaggio come after Ruth or Mantle after DiMaggio.
Oh and full marks to Brock Purdy the idea that a Mr. Irrelevant forced Mahomes in a situation where he had to do that is astounding
Law Professor Glenn Reynolds, the Blogfather has been worth reading for 23 years and if I actually had a bucket list lunch with him would be on it.
At substack yesterday he posted one of the best assessment of Joe Biden’s current situation that I’ve read. That something Reynolds has written is good is a given, but this is SO far above even his standard that you must read it. There are two bits that jump out at me:
As Time magazine reported shortly after the 2020 election, a “cabal” — Time’s word — of “left-wing activists and business titans” worked to get rid of Trump. It pushed mail-in voting. It moved to block election fraud suits brought by Trump and supporters. It employed social media censorship to mute pro-Trump arguments and amplify anti-Trump arguments. It sponsored protests.
Time called this a “conspiracy to save the election,” but in truth it was a conspiracy to save the election for the Democrats. The consequences in terms of lost faith in democracy have been severe, but the worst effect is that the winning ticket was never seriously vetted by the media or the campaign process.
As one of those who was muted by twitter and is still muted by Youtube for this reason that really strikes home. The second:
After noting the Democrats desperate to replace him he makes what I think is THE critical point:
But whatever the Democrats do about 2024, I would like to see some accountability for the election of 2020. A cabal of insiders colluded to control the outcome, through all sorts of underhanded tactics. (Tech companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story broken by The Post, and retired intelligence officials falsely claimed it was fake, Russian disinformation). The press allowed Biden to campaign from his basement, covering up the truth that he was already unfit for office.
Now we’re in a pickle. Whatever happens in this election, I would like to see some consequences for the games played with our democracy in 2020. Elections belong to the voters, not the insiders. Or at least they should.
To get that point across, we’re going to have to impose some costs on the folks who rigged the last one.
This states a basic truth that blue cities that were once the envy of the world and are now lawless places where police can be assaulted with impunity, where open air drug markets reign and business have fled. There have been people trying to steal elections for as long as there have been elections just has there have been thugs, drug deals and thieves in all of human history. They only get away with it when those whose job it is to stop them turn a blind eye for their own purposes and let them do it.
Unless there are consequences for these actions both for those who did it and those who allowed it, it will happen again until the people finally say ENOUGH!
I suspect if it reaches that point, ENOUGH will not be conveyed via an excellent essay on substack.
Finally as you might recall the WQPH 1st Annual Shrove Tuesday Brunch is scheduled to begin at 10:30 AM at Slattery’s Restaurant in Fitchburg. There have been a lot of small coincidences that have taken place to retard this event that seemed to be overcome. About 48 hours ago it appeared there was one that would not be, the projected storm that closed my place of work today with the potential of 13″ of snow falling fast right at the travel time. The restaurant mindful of the storm and scheduled to be closed on monday gave us till 4 PM on Sunday to cancel or reschedule. After discussion with the head of WQPH we decided to go ahead even if it meant half or less would show but dreaded that is was the wrong one. Yesterday I came home from Eucharist Adoration (cancelled today because of the potential storm) to a phone message from the owner who was there because of a funeral luncheon asking for one more confirmation one way or the other.
I called the head of the station again, our speaker coming down from NH and bringing a relic of the Crown of thorns was determined to come and give his talk on the feast of the Holy Face of Jesus. It was at this time I remembered General Patton’s famous weather prayer written by Fr James H. O’Neill a Catholic priest. I tweaked it and tweeted it out while sending a copy to the head of the station who email blasted it out to her prayer group. It reads:
“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain the immoderate weather due tomorrow with which we have to contend. Grant us fair weather for Spiritual Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.
We ask this through Christ our Lord Amen”
As of this moment (4:47 AM woke up coughing) the snow that two days ago was predicted to start at 1 AM and end at 3 PM has not yet started (although it’s predicted to do so shortly and is now scheduled to end at 1 PM with an 80% chance of 1-3″ in my area, a walk in the park for any New Englander.
The Biden admin not withstanding this is still a free country and if you wish to believe this is a coincidence you are welcome to do so. If you don’t and are one of the folks who prayed that prayer at our request, thanks much for making the prayer and thanks to he who answered it.
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.
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.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 