Mike Skoczylas

Tax, Detroit Sports, Politics, and Israel

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@FarroYossi Now go wrap with Arn Tellem! @DetroitPistons

[Ahmed Al-Khalidi @khalidi79397]

I envy the Israeli left.

Not their politics. Their freedom.

They march through Tel Aviv calling their own country an apartheid state. They go on CNN and call the IDF war criminals. They write op-eds in Haaretz comparing Israel to the worst regimes in history. They join NGOs funded by hostile governments to produce reports designed to delegitimize the Jewish state.

And then they go home. Sleep in their beds. Send their kids to school the next morning. No one threatens their family. No one disappears them in the night. No one drags them from their home.

Zero consequences.

Now imagine, just imagine, if Iranians had 1% of that freedom. If an Egyptian columnist could criticize Sisi the way Gideon Levy criticizes Netanyahu. If a Palestinian in Ramallah could call Abbas corrupt on live TV and walk home safely. If someone in Gaza could have held a sign saying "Hamas does not speak for me" without being executed.

The Middle East would be unrecognizable.

The great irony is that the people who enjoy more political freedom than virtually anyone else in the region use that freedom to paint Israel as a tyranny while the actual tyrannies they're silent about would imprison or kill them for doing the same.

You're not brave. You're spoiled. You mistake comfort for conscience. You scream "genocide" into a microphone the state itself protects, then sleep soundly in a democracy you spend your days trying to destroy, while millions across this region would trade everything they have for five minutes of the freedom you use to spit on your own country.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@united UA1062... Captain just gave an update though. Was appreciated

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@united appreciate the concern for our safety, but communication regarding timing and possibilities would be more helpful. My United app still says my flight is on time and even expected to land early.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@ComicDaveSmith @scotthortonshow L)mmlmlmlmm)

[Mike Lee @BasedMikeLee]

Don’t let politicians cause inflation

And then be rewarded for it

Disqualify every member of Congress

Every time inflation exceeds 3%

Share if you agree

[Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر @emilykschrader]

Greta Thunberg was reportedly arrested at an anti-Israel protest in Denmark blocking the entrance to a Danish university which cooperates with Israel for the development of new green technology.

Not parody.

[Open Source Intel @Osint613]

Thank you for telling us to have our eyes on Rafah.

Your friends murdered the hostages.

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

When Haniyeh was assassinated there were screeches condemning Israel because of how this might impact ceasefire negotiations.

There isn’t a word from these same people about how Hamas murdering six innocent civilian hostages will impact these negotiations.

How interesting.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@RitchieTorres @united also refused to rebook me on a partner airline which was flying to Israel (Aegean). They would only fly me to Europe or Dubai on a united plane. I am out $$$$ because of this. It's antisemitism - pure and blatant.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@united totally disgusted with how you just threw your hands up on passengers to TLV. Not even booking us on partner airlines that are flying (Aegean, Ethiopian). Totally disgusting and unacceptable. Former platinum member that after this trip will not book United again!

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@yechields @JYuter That's standard Bar Mitzvah boy shoes now ...

[Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט @naftalibennett]

Some points regarding the overnight Iranian missile attack on Israel:

1. Contrary to what pundits are saying, this wasn’t designed merely as “bells and whistles” with no damage.

When you shoot 350 flying objects timed to hit Israel at the same moment,
when you use three fundamentally different weapon types—cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and UAVs,
you’re looking to penetrate Israel’s defenses and kill Israelis.

2. The US administration is telling us: “This is a victory, you’ve already won by thwarting the missiles.
No need for any further action.”
No, it’s NOT a victory.
Yes, it’s a remarkable success of Israel’s air defense systems, but it’s not a victory.

When a bully tries to hit you 350 times and only succeeds seven time, you’ve NOT won.

You don’t win wars just by intercepting your enemy’s hits, nor do you deter it.
Your enemy will just try harder with more and better weapons and methods next time.
How DO you deter?
By exacting a deeply painful price.

3. It’s incorrect to say “nobody got hurt”.
There’s a 7 year-old Israeli-Arab girl called Amina Elhasuny fighting for her life.
That’s who coward Khamenei hit.

4. The Islamic Republic of Iran made a big mistake.
For the past 30 years it’s been wreaking havoc on the region—through its proxies.
A terror-octopus whose head is Tehran, and its tentacles are in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Gaza.

How convenient.
The Mullahs send others to conduct horrendous terror attacks, and die for them.
Other people’s blood.

Israel’s strategic mistake for the past 30 years was to play along this strategy.
We always fought the Octopus’ arms, but hardly exacted a price from its Iranian head.
This should change now:
Hezbollah or Hamas shoots a rocket at Israel?
Tehran pays a price.

5. The enemy is the Iranian REGIME, not the wonderful Iranian people.
The Iranian regime reminds me of the Soviet regime in 1985: corrupt to the core, old, incompetent, despised by its own people, and destined to collapse.
The sooner the better.
The West can accelerate the regime’s inevitable collapse with a set of soft and clever actions, short of military force.
Remember, USSR collapsed without any need for a direct American attack.
Let’s do this.

6. Israel is fighting everybody’s war. In Gaza, Lebanon and Tehran.
We’re considered “the small satan” by radical Islam. America is the big one.

I’ll be clear: if these crazy fanatic Islamic terrorists get away with murder by hiding among civilians, this method will be adopted by terrorists worldwide.

We’re not asking anyone to fight for us. We’ll do the job.
But we do expect our allies to have our back, especially when it’s tough—and now it’s tough.

Be on the right side and help us defeat these horrible and savage regimes.

[Melissa Chapman-Mushnick מרים @MelissaSChapman]

*IMPORTANT TO READ*

How much money does every American citizen pay to Israel every year out of his taxpayer's money?

US population is approximately 300 million, or 0.3 billion people.

US government invests approximately $3.8 billion per year into Israel. Do the math: $3.8 / 0.3 = $12.6 — that’s more or less the price of a 2 x 6-pack of Budweiser in 16-oz cans, a year.

75% of the aid must be spent in the US, which means the purchase of US military technology.

HOWEVER, HERE COMES THE IMPORTANT PART TO READ AND SHARE BECAUSE YOU WON’T GET IT FROM JOURNALISTS.

1.) The aid money sent as coupons to be spent in the US returns to the US as wages. Wages to workers at various companies, who then purchase from local business in the US, food, goods, entertainment and other items and services. It comes with further strings attached preventing Israel competing with US firms and further enhancing US profits.

2.) The US in return gets billions a year in recommendations for improvements to that technology as the Israelis use it—some of those improvements are saving US lives in other places. (Israel gets weapons, do thousands of man-hours to upgrade it for the Americans.

Since often the opponents of Israel use Russian weapons, the US gets the intelligence on the capabilities of those Russian systems as to keep ahead of Russian technology that might be used against the US. Similarly the US gets the benefit of Israeli technology in missile defense, which has saved the US billions in development.

In other words, Israel is a significant test bed for US military hardware. For example, it was mostly Israeli-flown but US-built F-15 fighter jets that accrued the F-15’s enviable record.

Further, Israeli intelligence services augment the CIA and have been considered VASTLY superior to the CIA capabilities in our part of the world—saving the US billions.

Further Israel has been a tool for US policy, such as mobilizing to prevent the overthrow of Jordan’s government during a planned Syrian intervention in a civil war, and information to governments as to terrorist attacks and assassinations planned on friendly nations.

The US has no troops in Israel, like it does to protect allies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Germany, South Korea. The aid to Israel is cheaper, and no US soldiers are put in harms way.

(The cost of maintaining a US military presence in Germany and Japan, *very* wealthy nations which exist in much less volatile or strategic regions, is estimated to cost US taxpayers at least $20 billion per year for each nation. Israel is quite a bargain in comparison.)

BUT THAT’S NOT THE END.

3.) If America will stop the aid, the US military production will collapse. Tens of thousands of Americans (approx. 50,000) will loose their jobs, and US military will be required to use outdated military equipment because America doesn’t have wars and won’t create wars in order to test weapons.

For this purpose America has Israel, Ukraine, and other places including Colombia, Ethiopia.

4.) Note that Israel is a wealthy country. $3.8 billion of aid is about 1% of Israeli budget, and about 10% of Israeli defense budget. Without American taxpayer money, Israeli army would be almost as powerful as it is now. We don’t really have a powerful army because of an over-abundance of wealth from foreign aid.

We have a powerful army much because of an over-abundance of enemies.

Food for thought. So to all the “journalists” fearmongers who warn about some crisis between the states, not gonna happen. Chill. 🫵🏻

Send this to Kamala Harris and to pro-Hamas ISIS rioters and ignorants from New-York.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@DrunkDude36 @UtahRabbi Is being a jew political?

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

New York Times Patiently Awaiting Zoom Call From Hamas To See What They Should Print Today https://t.co/X4VqlvCrwR

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@SleeperHQ can we see FAAB bids from the league activity page and not just the chat? It's an odd choice to have it in one place and not the other.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@yourfavecpa Balancing tweet 3 with tweet 6 is the difficulty especially when media is doing tweet 2 :) keep up the good work.

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@Levijameshere We moved some accounts to Mercury over a year ago. I believe they solved the issue this week if one company per email addresses, that was a MAJOR holdup for us. Had 2 accounts with 2 email addresses. Also, customer service is not bad but much worse than refionals

[Mike Skoczylas @mskoch]

@Levijameshere I'm not sure on the Juniper Square... They all have issues but JS is 4x the price and it can't support all waterfalls....not a fan of it.