Three men have been announced as tomorrow’s hostage releases.
One is dual American/Israeli citizen Keith Seigel, 65 years old. His wife had also been taken hostage but was released in the first round of exchanges in the fall of 2023.
Another is Ofer Calderon, age 54. Two of his children had originally been kidnapped but were released in the fall 2023 exchange.
There is also Yarden Bibas, who is 35 years old. It is wonderful that he is coming back, but also very ominous that his wife and two small children, also kidnapped, have not yet been returned. In fact, it was already ominous that they had not been returned long ago with the other children in the fall of 2023. At that time, Hamas announced that they are dead – and of course blamed it on Israel – but Israel has not confirmed the deaths. I would be very surprised if they are alive. Yarden, the father, was already told of their deaths in a harrowing and sadistic video Hamas released back in November of 2023:
The footage, which the group released as a sick propaganda video, shows Yarden Bibas, 34, sobbing and visibly shaken as his captors inform him that his children, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and 4-year-old Ariel, have been killed along with his wife and wife, Shiri Silverman-Bibas, 32.
A distressed Babis then begs to have their bodies returned to Israel and blames Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their deaths — repeating similar condemnation of Israel’s government in previous hostage videos ripped as propaganda.
Hamas had claimed that the Bibas family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip but did not offer proof and the fate of the family has not been verified.
I actually don’t think there’s much question that they are dead. But Hamas is tricky and you can’t be 100% sure. They are reportedly on the list of 33 to be returned in this phase, but Hamas has not yet said whether they are dead or alive. But bodies can contain evidence of who actually killed them, and it could have been Hamas or some of their confederates.
Yarden Bibas has a long long road ahead of him, and I wish him help and healing. There are other relatives of his who say that they “are facing very complex days” ahead. Indeed.
Keep focused on the need to look out for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaire donors and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working class Americans across the country with the bill.
That’s not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. And we’re going to fight it in the streets. Thank you, everyone.
Insurrection, anyone?
The Democrats have been doing this sort of thing for quite a while, and especially in the summer of 2020.
When I read the Jeffries quote, it conjured this up in my Boomer memory:
Diversity hiring is indeed a thing in the FAA. What it had to do with the collision over the Potomac – if anything – is unknown at present. But the following may have been factors:
The FAA has already stated that there weren’t the usual number of controllers on duty that night. In fact:
That left one air traffic controller (ATC) to handle both helicopters and planes, a job that two controllers typically handled.
Not only is the workload doubled for the controller, but the ATC would also use different radio frequencies to talk to the helicopter and the plane. “While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other,” reports the New York Times.
The staffing shortages are nothing new at Reagan or any other air traffic control tower in the U.S. The job is brutal, with a workload of up to ten hours a day, six days a week. Turnover is high.
The tower at Reagan National is roughly 30% understaffed. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said airports lost air traffic control staffing nationwide by 9% from 2011 to 2023, while flights increased during that same time period.
Meanwhile, the number of flights has increased, in part because Congress members wanted more convenient flights for themselves, although they were aware that it’s a crowded air corridor. In fact, the commercial flight involved in the crash – although almost certainly not responsible for it – was lobbied for by Kansas Senator Moran, and instituted one year ago:
“I know that flight, I’ve flown it many times myself,” Moran said in a press conference on Wednesday night. “I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to DCA. That flight has been in existence for about a year… this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response.”
And of course the area has a great many helicopters as well.
Plus this, which is where DEI might come in [emphasis mine]:
Years before Wednesday’s fatal collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, critics warned that the Obama and Biden administrations had jeopardized safety by prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion at the Federal Aviation Administration. …
Critics warned that the FAA’s focus on DEI diverted time and resources from air travel safety. It hobbled the agency as it grappled with air traffic controller shortages, antiquated monitoring equipment and an increase in near misses on crowded airport runways, they said. …
Air safety concerns prompted 11 Republican attorneys general to write to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker last year to question the administration’s hiring practices and priorities. …
Diversity goals at the FAA ramped up during the Obama administration, were largely dropped under Mr. Trump’s first term and resumed under President Biden.
During the Obama and Biden administrations, the FAA prioritized hiring more minorities and those with disabilities for key positions, including those in air traffic control. …
In 2013, the FAA started using a “biographical assessment” to increase the hiring of preferred minority racial groups at air traffic control centers. The assessment asked applicants about their participation in school sports and the age at which they started earning money.
The assessment disqualified more experienced, qualified applicants, many of whom were Air Traffic Collegiate Training graduates or had other critical experience, such as a pilot’s license.
More than 3,000 rejected applicants filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination. The FAA dropped the biographical assessment in 2018 after Congress enacted a law banning its use. …
As late as last year, the FAA was recruiting those with targeted disabilities, including “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”
The Democrats and the press are focusing – of course – on Trump’s remarks about diversity hiring. As I said yesterday, I think he should have kept his mouth shut on that until strong evidence exists that it’s a factor. Or, if he had to mention it, explain in a logical manner how DEI hiring has helped create a shortage of air controllers.
Why should anyone care about the race of an air controller? Doesn’t everyone simple want the best people, whether white or black or Hispanic or whatever? Apparently not.
Should a traffic controller have a hearing or vision disability? Or an intellectual disability, severe or not? Sorry, but I don’t think so. And what is this bit about “psychiatric disability”? The only “psychiatric disability” I can think of offhand that might be okay in an air traffic controller would be Asperger’s – and even then, if the person has been labeled “disabled” because of it, that does’t sound like the intensely stressful job of an air traffic controller would be a good fit.
ADDENDUM:
Meanwhile, J. D. Vance does a better job of explaining:
I suppose to their followers it looks like a show of strength. But to anyone the least bit objective, it looks like a pack of larping bullies lording it over a slight young woman:
Welcome home, Agam Berger – the woman in the video – as well as Arbel Yahoud, similar but slightly different optics:
Gabbard is another example of someone who was the victim of persecution, this time by the intelligence community, who now has a good chance of attaining a position of leadership over that community.
Having been the victim of government overreach and a weaponized system of justice and law enforcement, I know what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States Government barreling down on you, and as the Biden inspector general determined, those activities by the FBI and DOJ were wholly improper and not predicated upon law and facts. …
I will ensure, if confirmed, that no American is subjected to that kind of torment, to that kind of cost, financially and personally, and most importantly, I will make sure that no American is subjected to death threats like I was, and subjected to moving the residences like I was because of government overreach, because of leaks of information about my personal status.
The FBI and DOJ should never be the conduits for political prosecutions. But of course they were, by the left charging the right in recent years. And although what happened recently was not the only time it’s happened, it represented an enormous increase in the scope of such persecutions and their targets on the right. Patel is determined to stop it and I applaud him.
Of course, at least a third of America and up to half of America probably thinks such prosecutions/persecutions were fully justified. And still another half probably thinks it’s time to turn the tables. The problem is figuring out how to make sure there are negative consequences for those people who did the persecuting while at the same time refraining from purely political prosecutions of the left by the right. Some on the right would say it’s payback time, but it doesn’t seem like Patel is saying that.
The lawfare in general was the biggest turning point.
The lawfare was a catastrophic mistake by the Democrats. Trying to criminalize a political battle, trying to go after one’s political opponent with criminal charges. And on top of that, civil cases that could ruin a man trying to put him in jail was a bridge too far.
The electorate rejected it out of hand as too much.
It made the Democrats look radical. It made the Democrats look like they were the ones who were anti-democratic. It undermined their core argument against Trump On January 6th. They shot themselves in the foot.
It was a before and after moment that we now cannot get back. Now we’ve crossed the Rubicon and anything’s possible. If Adam Schiff or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden winds up facing criminal charges under a Trump administration, I can tell you there are very few Republican voters who will feel sorry for them.
They brought it upon themselves. We had never done this before.
I wouldn’t feel sorry for them. But I don’t recommend prosecuting them unless the charges are completely egregious and their guilt completely clear. Otherwise, it’s enough to investigate and publicize the wrongdoing. Many many people – most people? – on the right will disagree with me. But I happen to think that prosecuting political opponents is a minefield, and if you’re going to stand against doing it you have to be willing to let some offenses go. It’s a difficult decision, but I think it’s necessary, and it sounds to me as though Patel would agree with me, although I’m not sure.
The first major US air disaster in sixteen years occurred last night in Washington DC: an Army helicopter on a training flight with three crew members collided with an American airlines flight from Wichita carrying 64 souls on board. Both planes plunged into the frigid waters in the darkness, and although rescue crews tried their best, there are apparently no survivors and 28 bodies have been recovered.
It will take some time before the exact cause is known, but human error or errors seem obviously to be the reason this happened. Could be pilot error – almost certainly of the helicopter – could be controller error, could be both.
For those who were around in the 1980s, the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 almost inevitably comes to mind. It was also bitterly cold that day, and the cold was part of the reason for the crash because the pilots didn’t follow the proper de-icing procedures. The plane hit a bridge and plummeted into the icy Potomac, but the fact that it happened in daylight helped. Still, there were only five survivors, one saved by the heroic efforts of passer-by Lenny Skutnik, who plunged into the icy water to save a woman.
As I said, no survivors for last night’s crash, and perhaps no possibility of survivors even if it had occurred in broad daylight. RIP. Some of the dead were up-and-coming figure skaters, their coaches, and families – fourteen in all. They included six people from the skating club of Boston: two teenage skaters, two mothers, and two coaches who had been the 1994 World Champions in the pairs competition. I’m old enough to remember the horrible plane crash in 1961 in which the entire US figure skating team was killed. It made a deep impression on me as a child.
President Trump made some remarks today about last night’s crash, for which he blamed DEI. You can see some of the exchanges here. Does he know something we don’t? Possibly. But whether that’s the case or not, in my opinion his remarks were premature and inappropriate for the day after. There’s plenty of time to blame DEI if and when more information comes in that indicates that DEI was a factor.
My hamstring pull is slowly improving, but because it was almost healed about ten days ago when I re-injured it, I decided to ask for some physical therapy to see if it could be helped along to heal completely without another setback.
First, although technically self-referral to a physical therapist is possible, I couldn’t find one who didn’t require a referral from a doctor. Fine – except that meant a delay while I waited for a doctor appointment. And it also meant more expense for insurance.
Then I was fortunate enough to get a quick PT appointment, but only because of a cancellation. I saw the physical therapist today. She was friendly and generally knowledgeable, although a bit stumped. My orthopedic history is byzantine, and although I first went to that office in the early 1990s and have gone quite a few times since, they no longer have my old records and so they haven’t a clue about that history except the summary version I tell them.
And then for followup appointments she could see me in six weeks, which is absurd for an injury. That’s the way it is these days, and it’s by no means the longest wait. They said there are always cancellations and so I guess it will all work out.
But just try to get an appointment with a neurologist these days – six months is considered a short wait. And good luck if you have to cancel an appointment with your regular PCP and reschedule in a timely fashion – long waits there, too.
It’s ordinarily much easier to see a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant. Even then the waits can be long, and sometimes – not always by any means – the care is substandard.
What’s this all about? Is there just a higher ratio of patients to medical people? What’s going on? Why is it so much worse than it used to be? It’s not my imagination, is it?
The lawfare against Netanyahu has been revved up, and it resembles what happened to Trump. But it actually seems even worse than what happened to Trump, because it’s going on during a war in which Israel is fighting for its continued existence. I’ve cued up the relevant segment, which lasts about nine minutes:
(1) RFK Jr. is having his Congressional hearing, and apparently the Democrats are extremely angry with him: see this. They didn’t even like him very much when he was a Democrat, but once he supported Trump he because truly hated.
Also, this attack on RFK Jr. from his cousin Caroline Kennedy is just terribly sad. There is no question that both of them have known intense tragedy – having a father assassinated when they were young, growing up in the Kennedy spotlight, having siblings die as well – and that the family as a whole has known tremendous problems. Whatever complaints Caroline had about RFK Jr., she kept them quiet as far as I know until he left the Democrat reservation, and now it’s time to try to destroy him.
(2) The DOJ ends its case against Trump’s co-defendants in the documents matter. Good.
(3) The administration has rescinded the Office of Management and Budget memo that initiated the freeze that has been temporarily halted by a DC federal judge. The rescinding of the OMB memo seems to be merely a procedural thing that doesn’t represent a change in the administration’s intent regarding a funding freeze.
(4) New press secretary Karoline Leavitt did very well in her debut in the role. She’s the youngest presidential press secretary ever. Here’s an excerpt:
Zeke Miller of the Associated Press … asked whether Leavitt saw her role as purely an advocate for the president or whether she would provide “the unvarnished truth.” Replied the new press secretary, “I commit to telling the truth from this podium every single day.”
“But,” Leavitt continued, striking a tone that was less confrontational than business-like, “we ask that all of you hold yourselves to that same standard.”
“We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family. And we will not accept that. We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House,” she continued. “So, yes, I will hold myself to the truth, and I expect everyone in this room to do the same.”
(5) In another test for the courts, Kristi Noem has attempted to take away the Temporary Protected Status of 600K Venezuelans who entered illegally and were given that protection by the outgoing Biden administration in its very last days, on January 17.
