Vance Gives Israel The Zelensky Treatment

 

In defending in the so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Iranian regime, Vice-President Vance castigated Israel in harsh, patronizing terms:

You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet, who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States.

Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower.

If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.

The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland, have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.

The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump. And anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.

For all intents and purposes, Vance basically gave the Israeli government the Zelensky treatment. He all but asked, "Have you said thank you once?" 

But why would the Israeli government thank the Trump Administration for having sold it down the river? Iran is no more committed to giving up its nuclear program than it did with President Obama a decade ago. But the Trump Administration is lifting sanctions, will provide a reconstruction fund of at least $300 billion and protection for Iranian proxies in Lebanon namely Hezbollah. They have resuscitated the Iranian regime, the world's largest sponsor of terrorism. 

Yet according to Vance, President Trump is above criticism. With friends like Trump and Vance who needs enemies? Unfortunately, Israel is surrounded by enemies, and the Trump Administration is handing them the ammunition necessary to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.

While it is true that Israel has few friends, Vance is simply lying when he says that Trump is his only friend. Israel has support from the likes of Indian PM Narendra Modi and Argentinian President Javier Milei.

It is also rich when Vance claims, "You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”

Last I checked, it was U.S. forces that killed over 100 schoolgirls. I don't think it was intentional. Yet Vance's commentary would strongly imply that Israel deliberately seeks to kill civilians. Aside from being defamatory, Vance is throwing rocks in a glass house.

Nothing Vance said today was helpful to anyone but the Iranian regime. Shame on him!!!

The Noteworthy Career of Al Worthington

 

Former MLB pitcher and coach Al Worthington has passed away at the age of 97. 

At the time of his death, Worthington was the fourth oldest former living player. Only Bill Greason, Bobby Shantz and Bob Ross (not the one you're thinking of) who are 101, 100 and 97, respectively, ranked higher in longevity.

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, he pitched at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. After a stint pitching with Nashville in the Southern Association, he would be signed by the New York Giants in 1953. 

Later that year, he made a spectacular debut with the Giants throwing back-to-back complete game shutouts against the Philadelphia Phillies and the Brooklyn Dodgers, respectively. But then Worthington came back down to Earth losing eight consecutive decisions before earning back-to-back wins in consecutive starts against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Worthington spent most of the 1954 season in the minors with their Triple-AAA affiliate in Minneapolis but did make 10 appearances for a Giants club that would win its first World Series title since 1933. Alas, Worthington would spend all of 1955 pitching in Minneapolis before returning to the starting rotation in 1956. 

In 1957, Worthington transitioned into a relief pitcher although he would toss his third and final big-league shutout against the Phillies. Worthington would follow the Giants from the Polo Grounds to Candlestick Park. However, Worthington would have a falling out with the Giants over stealing signs. Worthington would pitch for both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox in 1960 leaving the Chisox over issues concerning sign stealing once more. He objected to sign stealing on religious grounds and briefly walked away from baseball.

However, his retirement was short-lived and Worthington would remain with the White Sox organization but pitched in Triple-AAA in both 1961 and 1962. He would return to the big leagues in 1963 when the Cincinnati Reds purchased his contract via the Rule 5 Draft. Worthington would post 10 saves with the Reds in 1963 but struggled early in the 1964 season with the Reds sold him to the Minnesota Twins.

When Worthington put on a Twins uniform, he was 35 years old. But Worthington would embark upon his most successful period as a major league pitcher. In 1965, Worthington went 10-7 with a 2.13 ERA recording a career high 21 saves for a Twins team that would win the AL pennant. Worthington would make appearances in Game 4 and in Game 7 as the Twins fell short against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

His tenure with the Twins would last the rest of the decade as he would lead the AL in saves with 18 in 1968 and would pitch on the 1969 Twins team that was the inaugural winner of the AL West Division. Worthington would pitch in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles but would be knocked out of the game on a RBI single by future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the O's swept the Twins to win the AL pennant. 

As it turned out, it was the last pitch Worthington would throw in the big leagues. Over 14 seasons, Worthington made 602 appearances (533 out of the bullpen) and had a record of 75-82 with a 3.39 ERA along with 111 career saves. Of those 111 career saves. 88 of them came in a Twins uniform.

Worthington would return to the Twins in 1972 as the team's pitching coach serving in that role for two seasons first under Bill Rigney (for whom he had pitched under while with the Giants) and later Frank Quilici. Following the 1973 season, Worthington would leave the Twins to become the baseball coach at Liberty University (then known as Lynchburg Baptist College), a role he would serve in for the next 12 seasons before being succeeded by another former big leaguer, Bobby Richardson. Worthington also served as the school's athletic director for several years before retiring in 1989.

In 2011, Worthington was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Worthington practiced what he preached. R.I.P.

World Cup 2026: Palestinian Flags Allowed While Israeli Flag Confiscated

 

During a World Cup matchup today between Iran and New Zealand in Los Angeles, security personnel confiscated an Israeli flag while allowing Palestinian flags to be flown.

FIFA rules do indicate the only flags which can be flown at matches are the two countries playing each other on the field.

So why were Palestinian flags allowed to be flown?

Does FIFA consider Gaza to be part of Iran?

Given Hamas deep ties to the Iranian regime perhaps they are perceived as one in the same. 

After all, the raison d'etre of the Iranian regime and Hamas is to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth while killing as many Jews as possible.

The man with the Israeli flag made the understatement of the century when he said, "It seems like a little anti-Semitism is playing a part here."

Trump's Stupid Suggestion That Israel Stand Down & Let Syria Take On Hezbollah

President Trump says a great many stupid things.

I'm sure you can name a few off the top of your head. Injecting bleach, deploying nuclear weapons against hurricanes and raking forests to stop the wildfires in California.

But perhaps his idea that Israel should stand down and let Syria take on Hezbollah has to be amongst the stupidest ideas he has uttered in quite a while.

While meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamada Al Thani during the G-7 Summit in France, Trump stated:

Israel's fighting Hezbollah for too long, and too many people are being killed. You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody because there's a lot of people in those apartment houses and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.

I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah, because to be honest with you, I think they'd do a better job of doing it.

On what basis does Trump believe that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa would do a better job than Israel of fighting Hezbollah?

For his part, Trump says that al-Sharaa "has pulled that country together very quickly, he's very capable, and he's very good for me."

Ah, so that's it. Trump thinks al-Sharaa is more capable of handling Hezbollah than Israel because "he's been very good for me." In other words, al-Sharaa knows how to flatter Trump. 

And, at the moment, Trump is upset with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and frozen Israel out of the ceasefire agreement and proposed peace negotiations with Iran.

In other words, Trump is being guided by his temper rather than reality. What makes Trump think that al-Sharaa has any interest in fighting Hezbollah? He has no desire to engage in any activity which might benefit Israel even if indirectly. There is also the practical argument that Syria's new government is in a rebuilding stage and stands little to gain by partaking in a military action in Lebanon. I also cannot imagine that Lebanon, whatever antipathy they have for Hezbollah, would welcome Syrian involvement given their virtual occupation during the Assad years. 

But let's says that Syria does embark on a military mission to rid Lebanon of Hezbollah. What reason is there to believe that it wouldn't result in the same level if not more civilian casualties than have arisen as a result of Israeli military operations?

Now it would be one thing if Trump were to covertly encourage Syria to fight Hezbollah. But to utter it as a verbal excretion out of anger towards Israel is not only stupid but it is reckless, irresponsible and unhelpful. Defeating Hezbollah requires careful and meticulous planning while being able to adapt to changing conditions on the ground not by throwing shit at the wall during an international summit to see what sticks.

Graham Platner is as Bad a Person as President Trump

 

It's no secret that I don't think much of Graham Platner, the man whom Maine Democrats have nominated to challenge Republican Susan Collins for the U.S. Senate seat in November.

I don't like the Nazi tattoo nor his lies about it.

I don't like his physically abusive behavior toward women.

Nor I do like the fact that he encouraged a woman to commit suicide.

Platner, using the handle P-hustle, reacted to a post on Reddit concerning students preventing a girl from committing suicide by writing, "Someone clearly isn't trying hard enough."

Platner used the same P-hustle handle to praise Hamas.

Now, I have no doubt Platner's supporters would say this was 14 years ago. 

Well, it was only 7 years ago that Platner used the P-hustle handle to say that a U.S. soldier who was shot multiple times by the Taliban "didn't deserve to live."

At what point is Graham Platner, whether he hides behind P-hustle or not, responsible for his own behavior?

When a person chooses to make it known that he wished a girl would take her own life or that a brave U.S. soldier doesn't deserve to live or praises a terrorist organization like Hamas, he is telling you that he is a bad person.

It is no different than when President Trump told the world he was glad that Robert Mueller had died. When Trump said that (among far too many other things) he is telling us that he is a bad person.

I don't believe we ought to entrust bad people to positions of public responsibility. 

Because when we entrust bad people to positions of public responsibility bad things happen.

It is bad enough that the American people have twice elected a bad person to the White House.

I can only hope the people of Maine don't make matters worse by electing a bad person to the Senate.

Nothing Good Can Come From the U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Extension

Yesterday came the announcement from Pakistan that the U.S. & Iran agreed to extend their ceasefire for another 60 days with nuclear talks to follow.

A signing ceremony is scheduled to take place in Switzerland on Thursday.

I don't see anything good coming from this state of affairs.

As with the previous ceasefire which came after Trump made an empty threat that "a whole civilization will die tonight", this extension only strengthens the Iranian regime. 

The Strait of Hormuz is essentially Iranian territory despite Trump's empty pledge to make it "permanently toll-free" as if it were a phone sex line.

The Iranian regime gets up to $300 billion in reconstruction monies mainly from the very Gulf Arab states they bombed earlier this year.

The ceasefire also applies to Hezbollah in Lebanon rendering Israel a sitting duck. The same can be said for Iranian dissidents now at the mercy of a regime which killed more than 30,000 people earlier this year protesting for their most basic needs - food, fuel, water and any semblance of freedom.

I knew deep down that the Trump Administration's military intervention would not result in regime change. Trump's preposterous claims there had been regime change on the basis of "the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with". As I noted at the time, "Oh, there might be some new faces, but the regime is exactly as it was before."

With both the Trump Administration and the Iranian regime being unreliable actors, one can only hope this ceasefire will soon crumble and somehow allow for space necessary to topple the Iranian regime from within.

Carolina Hurricanes Win 1st Stanley Cup in 20 Years With (You Guessed It) a Little Help From Danhausen

Danhausen strikes again!!!

Scarcely 24 hours after the New York Knicks won their first NBA championship since 1973, the Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup in 20 years shutting out the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in Game 6 of their series.

As with the Knicks, the Canes got a little help from WWE Superstar Danhausen who cursed the Golden Knights prior to Game 4. Previously, Danhausen had cursed the Canes prior to Game 3 resulting in a Vegas victory, the last one they would earn.

Of course, the Hurricanes did the heavy lifting, and I am happy to learn that Jordan Staal, who is from my hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, earned the Conn Smythe Trophy scoring six goals during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Nevertheless, things work in mysterious ways. The Knicks seem to understand this and have invited Danhausen to participate in their ticker parade in New York this coming Thursday. Would the Canes also extend an invitation?

I would not be surprised if the Hurricanes held their parade on the same day as the Knicks. Then again if anyone could figure out how to be in two places at once, it would be Danhausen.