White Pill Will

Good morning from our old favorite coffee shop. Once more the coffee this morning is very meh. Maybe we should hit the Dunkin down the road, or dare it be suggested [Dare, dare!-Ed]* Starbucks. The sat radio this morning sucks. Update, not sucking as much as it did before, 'So kiss me,...benath the milky twilight...'

Don't trust anything anyone says about Israel-Hamas negotiations. There seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around out there, planted by both sides. While various news outlets reported progress yesterday, today The Times of Israel says the Israelis are denying any progress made. But let's say these stories are accurate. Ceasefire terms went from two months to one month. We once again note that Bibi negotiates Knesset deals for breakfast. Center and left Israeli twitter accounts we follow agree with us that Bibi is playing games with Hamas negotiations. Related: Israel Radar thinks the IDF needs three weeks to take Khan Younis. 

Will's White Pill: Also via the Times of Israel, nothing but excellent polling news on American views about Israel and the war. Click over and read. All that pro-Gazan agitation and media bias against Israel has massively backfired against the agitators and the media. The ToI notes, 'These answers varied widely by age group, with younger Americans less favorable to Israel.' Is this a problem? Not in the long term. We sigh...okay....how many of those kids at Woodstock voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980? Hundreds of thousands, that's how many. Age brings maturity and perspective.**

Sports Illustrated: Back in the 80's and 90's Sports Illustrated promotional ads were ubiquitous on television, especially during football games. They offered a year subscription discounted off the cover price and a free gift. This was often a VHS tape about the NFL team of one's choice, or a bloopers reel, or some such. Sometimes Sports Illustrated gave away a sweatshirt and even a wall phone. Here's one from 1992 and very topical. Oh look, Michael Jordan, the Minnesota Twins, and Jeff Hostettler. Seeing the ad just now, we remember we had the Sports Almanac mentioned in the ad:

More White Pill for Will: We got our tax form from Amazon yesterday. One can talk about rankings and digital purchases vs KU streams. But at some point, sales come down to cash, bucks, (or quid for His Majesties' subjects burdened by a speech impediment). We happily learned that 2023 was our second-best year ever. For the record, 2021 was our best year ever. We checked former tax forms, and sales are double what they were five years ago and triple what they were a decade ago. Thank you expanding audience and backlist. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 1/22/24 (Supplemental): A War Night short story about an American city, say, Austin. Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are gone. What happens as you wait for the ICBM to hit you? Riots? Looting? Prayer? Evacuation? Resignation? Yes. The mayor is at his desk, trying to manage things. 

*Reference

**No we are not dismissing the massive Juden hass problem in the modern education system.  Further thought, if Israel is popular with the American public despite months of pro-Gazan and West Bank Person media bias, could Trump overcome same bias to win? We must dwell on this.