NEWS OF THE WEEK

10 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS

The Assad regime's reign ended in Syria.  Those who are taking over are terrorists.  The good part is these terrorists are not friends with Iran.  These are Sunni Muslims while the Shia Muslims control Iran.  Iran has been using Syria for a pathway to send help to the Hezbollah, the Hamas, the Houthi, etc. and to inflict harm directly on Israel.    It's still a mess in the Middle East but we'll have to see how it all shakes out to see how it effects the U.S.  Right now Israel is intent on seeing that arms caches in Syria don't fall into the hands of terrorists. Can't blame them.

The College Football Playoffs start next Friday night.  The participants were named this week.  12 schools are in the tourney.  The top 4 have a bye next week.  The other eight play to reduce the field to the eight who will play the following week.  You get it?  The games of local interest are Indiana at Notre Dame on Friday and Tennessee at Ohio State on Saturday.   Can't wait.

The New York Mets gave a baseball player the largest contract in the history of sports.  Juan Soto is moving across town from the Yankees for a mere $765 million over 15 years.  Not bad for a 26 year-old. He got $75 m up front and the size of the contract could increase under certain conditions.  Baseball is being controlled by the big city teams on the east and west coasts.  Sad.

Taylor Swift finally ended her "ERAS" tour.  It grossed $2.2 billion.  A movie named "Moana 2" topped the box office take last weekend.  Youngsters control the movie and entertainment industries.

The murderer of the United Health Care CEO has been captured and will try to make a case for his motives.  He's sick.

President Biden followed up his pardon of his son with the pardon of 39 individuals convicted of non-violent crimes and the commutation of the sentences of 1500 others.  There's probably more to come.

Nancy Pelosi took a fall in Europe on a government-paid vacation and broke her hip.  President-elect Trump was named Time Magazine Person of the Year.  Does anyone still read Time Magazine? 

After two years, Kroger gave up fighting the government in order to acquire Albertsons - the merger was called off.  Now Albertson is suing Kroger for not trying harder.  

That's all for this week, Pookies.