Surprise!!! Surprise!!! Surprise!!! Skubal is Now a Dodger

Yesterday afternoon, I went to Quincy to meet up with my friend Gary to have our annual lunch at Cathay Pacific. 

Despite the fact that I do not follow baseball with the same fervor that I once did, we still discussed it. Our first topic of discussion was Tarik Skubal. I told Gary that Skubal would probably end up with the Dodgers even if the Milwaukee Brewers were prepared to give up their entire farm system for him.

Just about 12 hours later, as I was awaiting to see a midnight screening of The Doors at the Somerville Theatre, I learned that Skubal was heading to the Dodgers. In return, the Tigers receive three top prospects - outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith. Skubal is expected to make his Dodgers debut on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs.

Of course, Skubal has won back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards with the Tigers. However, Skubal was sidelined in early May as he required arthroscopic surgery to remove loose chips in his pitching elbow. Remarkably, Skubal was back on the mound in only five weeks.

After making the post-season in both 2024 and 2025, the Tigers struggled following Skubal's injury losing 21 of their next 25 games. However, given the weak state of the AL this season, the Tigers rebounded sufficiently to be a plausible contender for the third AL Wild Card berth. 

As of this writing, the Tigers are only 2½ games behind their AL Central rival Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins for the third AL Wild Card berth. Alas, the Tigers decided it would be best to part ways with Skubal who is headed for free agency and unlikely to remain in Detroit and think beyond 2026. Of course, in 2024, the Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline only to earn a post-season berth. Perhaps they hope lightning will strike twice. 

Skubal's final appearance in a Tigers uniform was on Wednesday when he notched his 1,000th career strikeout but would not be involved in the decision as the Tigers lost 10-9 to the Baltimore Orioles in 12 innings.

When Skubal makes his debut for the Dodgers, he will join a rotation anchored by 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Justin Wrobleski who each have 11 wins not to mention Shohei Ohtani. Did I mention that Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are waiting in the wings?

With the best record in MLB, the Dodgers have a chance to become the first NL team to win three consecutive World Series titles. The acquisition of Skubal made the possibility a lot more probable.

Stevens Calls Out El-Sayed's Anti-Semitism But It Might Be Too Little, Too Late

In Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, Congresswoman Haley Stevens finally took the gloves off against Abdul El-Sayed on Friday morning.  

In a post on X responding to a video of El-Sayed stating that AIPAC "picked the least capable candidate in America", Stevens responded in part by stating, "Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans."

I wish Stevens had said this to El-Sayed's face during their debates.

Alas, it is probably too little, too late. Most polls taken since Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the race have El Sayed leading Stevens by double digits although a single poll conducted by the Detroit News had Stevens up by 7 points. Most likely this poll was an outlier. Indeed, what the polls indicate and what the actual outcome is are not necessarily the same thing.

Nevertheless, I think Stevens sees the writing on the wall. In the post, she also writes, "You lost by over twenty points to Gretchen Whitmer and you will lose to Mike Rogers by talking like this." For all intents and purposes, she it tacitly acknowledging she will not prevail against El-Sayed but that El- Sayed will not prevail against Republican Mike Rogers.

For his part, El-Sayed claimed, "At the end of the day, I love and revere Judaism and the Jewish people."

I do not believe him. In fact, I believe El-Sayed loves Jewish people about as much as I believe President Trump loves Haitians.

If El-Sayed truly loves the Jewish people, then he would have condemned the terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township earlier this year without equivocation.

Instead, El Sayed made excuses for the attacker whose brother was a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon claiming, "Hurt people hurt people." In so doing, El-Sayed made it clear that he views synagogues as legitimate targets for "hurt people."

So yes, Stevens is correct to say that El-Sayed wishes to blame Jewish Americans for all of our problems. Unfortunately for Stevens, a majority of Michigan Democrats may very well agree with El-Sayed come this Tuesday.

Dana Nessel, Michigan's Democratic Attorney General, Doesn't Feel Safe Among Fellow Democrats Due to Anti-Semitism

During a roundtable discussion yesterday with Jewish leaders and community members Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel disclosed she will not attend next month's state Democratic Party Convention on account of fearing for her safety due to anti-Semitism within the party:

I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.

I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan, that some things have changed. This cannot continue, and the fact of the matter is, we have to be able to be a society where we can have intelligent discourse and debate about ideas without people being threatened, and certainly without people carrying out those threats.

This statement is remarkable for several reasons.

For starters, Nessel has served two terms as Michigan's top-ranking law enforcement official. When a state Attorney General says it is unsafe for her to be somewhere on the basis of her religious faith then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

It is also worth noting that Nessel is openly gay. That she faces more danger as a Jew than as someone who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community tells you how serious anti-Semitism has become in Michigan and across the country particularly in supposedly liberal enclaves of tolerance. 

While I understand Nessel's desire to be free from harassment and hatred, this also emboldens anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party. If they can intimidate the sitting Attorney General from attending her own party's convention, then it is only a matter of time before they go after the Governor be it Gretchen Whitmer (for endorsing Haley Stevens over Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary) or her possible successor Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's current Secretary of State.

At some point, some Democrat is going to have to go to a party convention and will have to stand up to their delegates and tell them to stop their nonsense and to stop helping Trump and MAGA. The first person who comes to mind is Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, but he is on the verge of switching parties due to its anti-Israel posturing and acceptance of anti-Semitism. Perhaps NY Congressman Ritchie Torres. Perhaps he could challenge Mamdani come 2029 but he would likely need to do so as an independent. 

Nevertheless, if it is too dangerous for Jews to participate in Democratic Party politics how long will it be before it is too dangerous for Jews to participate in American civil society altogether?

Why Should Anyone Believe Trump When He Says Hamas Will Disarm?

(YouTube screenshot)

This afternoon, President Trump declared on Truth Social:

Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.

I do not believe him.

Israel certainly doesn't believe him. Why should it? It had no say in the matter as the U.S. negotiated with Turkey, Egypt and Qatar. The Turkish and Qatari regimes have long enabled Hamas.

Hamas has reportedly agreed to disarm. Yet I am no more inclined to believe them than I am to believe Trump.

After all, the Lebanese government agreed to disarm Hezbollah in their 2024 ceasefire agreement with Israel, and it has not come to pass.

By their very nature, Hamas and Hezbollah seek the destruction of Israel by way of violence. To disarm voluntarily and abandon that mission is to cease to exist. Hamas and Hezbollah use ceasefires to buy time to re-arm and replenish. The only circumstances under which I see Hamas and Hezbollah ever disarming is if they are bombarded with overwhelming force or collapse from within.

As for Trump, I no more believe him when he says Hamas will disarm than when he calls upon the Iranian people to take back their government only to say he never wanted regime change or has a new free trade agreement only to impose new tariffs in a matter of months as it did with Indonesia.

With perhaps the possible exception of deporting as many non-citizens as possible (i.e. Haitian migrants with TPS), I do not take President Trump at his word.

Dr. Fauci Should Have Stood Up For Himself Instead of Pleading The Fifth

I don't understand why Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during his testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

After all, he did receive a pardon from former President Biden. A pardon which I thought was a mistake because it made Fauci look guilty. The fact that Fauci's counsel would see fit to advise him to plead the Fifth indicates he doesn't have much faith in Biden's pardon. But pleading the fifth over and over again conveys the message that you did something wrong or are covering up for someone who did wrong.

Yes, I realize that this was a clown show. Rand Paul is and always will be a buffoon. That the Trumpified CBS News would describe Fauci and Paul as "both medical doctors" is utterly laughable. Fauci is an immunologist while Paul is an eye doctor. Mind you, an eye doctor who is not board certified. 

But even if that wasn't an issue Paul is not a peer to Fauci on the question of viruses. To suggest that an eye doctor has equivalent expertise to an immunologist on the spread of a virus is like suggesting an intellectual property attorney has equivalent expertise to a trust and estates attorney where it concerns last wills and testaments.

If we want to consider credibility, consider Paul's reaction to Dr. Fauci when he stated the United States could soon face 100,000 COVID cases a day. Paul accused Dr. Fauci of causing "undue fear" adding, "We just need more optimism." More optimism isn't exactly an informed medical opinion. Four months later, Dr. Fauci's prognosis proved correct. 

Needless to say, I don't take Paul seriously when it comes to COVID. Aside from being a fake eye doctor, he refused to quarantine when he was diagnosed with COVID and refused to get vaccinated. This was nothing more than gas lighting and grandstanding whether it was Paul having Fauci's attorney ejected from the proceedings or Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno swearing at Fauci. Some role models.

Given the utter lack of intelligence amongst Republican Senators, Fauci should have given 100% and stood up for himself and gone after President Trump instead of pleading the Fifth. If the DoJ charges Fauci on Paul's advice, then let them. It will only demonstrate that Trump follows the motto, "For my friends everything. For my enemies the law."

In which case, better that Fauci die standing than to live on his knees.

Besides, the only reason Republicans are going after Dr. Fauci is protect the real villain of COVID - President Trump who was the one who insisted on downplaying COVID, who wanted to slow down COVID testing to keep the numbers down and thought it would be a great idea for people to inject themselves with bleach only to claim he was being sarcastic. Why would the President of the United States engage in sarcasm amid a global pandemic? Because it's Trump, of course.

Then again, despite all this, we freely chose to elect him again and Trump has at various times linked Tylenol to autism and is pushing HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. to cut vaccines amid dubious claims of links to autism.

This is what we have chosen for ourselves. It is all the more reason that Dr. Fauci should have stood up for himself today. 

Hating Jews is Never Nice

Last month, Austin Franco, a student from Cornell University made waves he told a prospective employer who had offered him a job, "Not interested in working for a jew (sic). Thanks."

The prospective employer posted Franco's response on X.

Alas, Franco was unrepentant stating in reply:

My experiences with Jews have not been pleasant … this is not to say I havent (sic) had positive experiences, but on the aggregate that is not the case. Given that I have been doxed and intim[id]ated (sic) by your community including having my personal life investigated for no other reason than a single comment I cant (sic) imagine any reasonable person not coming to a similar conclusion.

What exactly did Franco expect when he said he wasn't interested in working for a Jew?

What exactly did Franco expect when he then made a point of saying he had unpleasant experiences with Jews?

Why was it unreasonable for the prospective employer not to have reacted in the manner in which he did?

Would Franco have declined an offer of employment on the basis his boss might be African American, a Muslim and/or a woman?

For his part, Gabe Einhorn, the prospective employer, stated in response, “He’s just a student, he might not know any better — it could be people in his environment, or on social media he saw something about Jewish people and he is just following the wave.” 

Based on what Franco said and how he said it, he has a deep-seated antagonism towards Jews and is unafraid to say so. Indeed, Franco commented on the situation earlier this week indicating that Cornell has taken no disciplinary action against him. In view of the present state of affairs, I suspect that if Franco had directed his comments towards African Americans, Muslims, women or any group other than Jews then Cornell would have disciplined him by now.

Then there is also the fact that Franco has received more than $20,000 primarily from a white supremacist YouTuber named Lord Miles who wants to see a Hitler to rise to power in America by 2039. Perhaps Franco is the future Hitler than Lord Miles is seeking. Whatever the case, Franco has thus far been rewarded instead of being shunned for his anti-Semitic views.

What I find remarkable is Franco's lack of self-awareness:

I mean I thought I was being nice. Saying this is why I don’t want to work for you. Most employers are just like, ‘Sorry, we can’t hire you.’ They don’t give you a reason. At least you know, right?

Well, there's nothing nice about hating Jews. Not now, not ever. Where is the kindness in telling someone that you don't want to associate with them solely on the basis of their faith? 

If Franco wanted to be nice, then all he needed to say was a simple no thank you and left it at that. 

Clearly, Franco wanted to tell a Jew he didn't want to work for him because he is a Jew.

As to Franco's complaint about employers not letting him know why he wasn't hired, it is a matter of federal law that an employer cannot deny someone employment on the basis of religion, race, sex and national origin.

The only favor Franco did here was to enable this employer (and possibly other prospective employers) to dodge a bullet. 

Unfortunately, I suspect there are not only a lot more Austin Francos out there, but they will make themselves known. Especially if they are rewarded for engaging in such behavior.

Kyle Kuzma Dunks on Mamdani

 

The most interesting take I've read on NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's video diatribe against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which resulted in a knife wielding attack on the Upper West Side on a Jewish target is from Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma.

Yesterday, Kuzma, who turned 31 on Friday, took to X and wrote:

This is 2026. People cosplaying as things they don’t have the authority, the talent, or the track record to actually be. Just for content. A mayor playing president. A founder playing operator. A content creator playing one-on-one thinking he’s a pro. A 25yr old with a ring light playing economist. Everyone auditioning. Nobody building. Were raising a generation that learning the reward isn’t in doing the thing it’s in looking like you did the thing. The clip is the career. The pose is the product. The soundbite is the substitute for a life’s work. Don't fall for distractions.

Kuzma just dunked on Mamdani.

If nothing else, Kuzma's response is quite the contrast from San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama and Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks the latter of whom is well known for his hatred of Jews.

Kuzma's observations of Mamdani are quite perceptive. Mamdani was elected to be Mayor of New York not to be a mouthpiece for Hamas. Although perhaps Mamdani would be better suited going to Gaza and leading Hamas.

I can only hope other public figures will be as bold as Kuzma in taking Mamdani to task for his mendacity.