[Please SCROLL DOWN FOR NEW POSTS: this one has been bumped up] The Gerard Vanderleun book website is open and the book is ready for purchase

The New Neo Posted on by

Well, here goes – it’s book launch time for Gerard Vanderleun’s book of essays! The title is The Name In the Stone.

Please go to the book website VanderleunBooks, take a look around, and order a book or books. It’s published in a very handsome-looking paperback edition, if I do say so myself, and there are a couple of hardcovers available as well [NOTE: The hardcovers, which were a very limited edition, are already sold out, but I’m going to order another print run of hardcovers, and so you can order them now although there will be an estimated delay of about ten days in mailing the hardcovers out to customers]. Here’s a link to the description of the book.

You can communicate with me about the book either at my usual email address of jaybean33@yahoo.com or at the booksite’s email address, which is info@vanderleunbooks.com . I plan to add a page of reader testimonials at the website, and you can send a review that way if you’d like.

Trump has learned who his friends are – and who they’re not

The New Neo Posted on by

Trump had a bunch of handicaps first time around:

– The Democrats didn’t think he had a mandate, because of his failure to get the popular vote. Or just because.

– He knew very little about Washington and how it worked.

– Even people on the right didn’t know much about him and were hesitant to work for him.

– He had to rely on others to make recommendations for people to appoint, and their suggestions often involved establishment figures who weren’t onboard with Trump’s agenda. Some were even actively – or secretly – against it

– The “resistance” was out to undermine him and was powerful and quite successful at it, and I doubt he expected the strength of their resolve and the lengths to which they would go.

Now a lot has changed, and all to his advantage. He’s been president before and knows the ropes. Most world leaders already have had dealings with him. He won the popular vote. He has slightly more cooperative GOP leaders in Congress. He’s assembled an interesting group of iconoclastic and often-brilliant allies to help him – at least for now. He’s appointing people who support his agenda. He is seen as having more power. He know what the forces arrayed against him have been and what they’ve been willing to do. He’s older, perhaps wiser, and certainly tougher. The left is still be determined to undermine him, but for the moment they are demoralized and divided.

For the moment.

Laken Riley’s killer got a free ride for a while – but now has gotten a sentence of life imprisonment

The New Neo Posted on by

Jose Iberra has been convicted of murdering Laken Riley and sentenced to life imprisonment (which I suppose, in a way, is another sort of free ride, but a less pleasant one):

Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggard found Ibarra guilty of 10 total counts, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one count of aggravated battery, one count of hindering a 911 call, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of being a “peeping Tom.” Ibarra pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Haggard then sentenced Ibarra to life without the possibility of parole after Riley’s family read victim impact statements aloud before the court on Wednesday afternoon. Ibarra showed no emotion as a translator repeated Haggard’s sentencing to him in Spanish.

“Your honor, on February 22nd of 2024, our family and friends were given a life sentence without a chance of parole. Jose Ibarra took no pity on my scared, panicked and struggling child,” Riley’s mom, Allyson Philips said in a victim impact statement on Wednesday. “There is no end to the pain, suffering and loss that we have experienced or will continue to endure on that horrific day. My precious daughter was attacked, beaten and shown no mercy. She fought for her life and dignity and to save herself from being brutally raped. This sick, twisted and evil coward showed no regard for Laken or human life.”

This is what John Hinderaker of Powerline had to say two days ago on the subject of how Ibarra got to be in a position to murder Laken Riley:

Nor is it just prospective jurors: every sane American must be appalled by the Biden Administration policies that welcomed an illegal alien, a Venezuelan gang member, into the U.S.; disabled ICE from kicking him out, after he was apprehended; allowed him to roam freely within our country; and bought him a plane ticket to the destination of his choice, Athens, Georgia. In a sense, it is hard to blame Jose Ibarra for thinking he could get away with anything, and the crazy American authorities would only reward him.

Kamala Harris, Biden’s laughable “border czar,” would have continued these disastrous illegal immigration policies. Many factors contributed to Harris’s decisive defeat, but her identification with Biden’s anti-American immigration policies may have been the most important.

It comes across as madness by the Biden administration. Fools or knaves? I say: both.

There’s never any election fraud – except when there is

The New Neo Posted on by

This:

Hubbard County Auditor Kay Rave filed a complaint after she determined that she could not find completed registration forms among the ballots she received from Scouton’s jurisdiction.

This complaint led to an investigation by the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office.

Eventually, another judge who worked with Scouton on election night came forward and told police that Scouton explicitly ordered voters to not fill out the Minnesota Voter Registration Application.

A third judge said that Scouton simply told new voters to sign the back of a book rather than fill out any official forms.

At least 11 people voted illegally as a result of Scouton’s actions.

This seems somewhat in line with the recent attempt in Bucks County Pennsylvania to count flawed ballots, against an explicit law:

But that didn’t stop Bucks County Commissioners Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia. Not only did she and her fellow Democrat Bob Harvie vote to count the flawed ballots, she publicly acknowledged their decision was contrary to the law.

“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” she said after the fact. “People violate laws any time they want. So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”

A video of her admission made a hit on social media, garnering millions of views. Republicans claimed it confirmed their belief that Democrats are willing to manipulate the law to win elections. The fact that Ellis-Marseglia donated $600 to Casey’s campaign in September, and Casey had backed two Bucks County Democrats in previous elections, didn’t help.

Bucks County isn’t alone. Philadelphia, Centre, and Montgomery County Democrats are also defying both the state Supreme Court and Pennsylvania law by including mail ballots that have no date, or have the wrong date, in their county’s final count.

In both cases, there was defiance of the law that was relatively easy to see. How much goes on that’s difficult or impossible to see or to prove? That’s the problem; trust was broken when the laws were changed because some of the new laws were too lax. But trust is also broken when there is either the appearance or the fact of open defiance of laws. And after the fact, it’s often difficult or impossible to prove what happened and to know how it may have affected the results.

There was such a brouhaha about the Bucks Count Commisioners Chair’s statement that she’s issued this “apology”:

“The passion in my heart got the best of me and I apologize again for that,” Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said in front of a fiery crowd at a county meeting.

“I made a mistake, and because I am an elected official, I am held to a far higher standard than everybody else. So, to the citizens I serve, I apologize, and I will continue to work hard for you and endeavor to not make such a mistake again.”

“The passion in my heart” – isn’t that great? She’s so passionate, you see. And no, you’re not held to a far higher standard. You’re held to the exact same standard: follow the law.

She should be fired or resign.

Also, here’s an informative video on the subject of voting fraud, then and now:

Hegseth and the cross

The New Neo Posted on by

Ridiculous and yet typical of the left:

In a Thursday appearance on All in With Chris Hayes, the former NAACP lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill fired the first shot, declaring that Hegseth was a “known white supremacist.” While her remark might be dismissed as hysteria, it was followed up by a Friday report in the Associated Press and a Saturday report in The Washington Post confirming that Hegseth, while serving in the D.C. National Guard, had been flagged by his fellow troops and superior officers as an “insider threat” due to a “white supremacist” tattoo. So what was the tattoo—a swastika? A Sonnenrad? Neither: It was the phrase Deus Vult, Latin for “God wills it,” inked on Hegseth’s bicep. According to the Post, a naval intelligence officer discovered social media evidence of the tattoo in January 2021, and then distributed it to a chat of officers with the warning, apparently based on a brief Google search, that the phrase was affiliated with “the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and other extremist groups that participated in the siege at the Capitol.” Separately, according to the AP, the security manager of Hegseth’s unit flagged the tattoo to his superior officers …

Hegseth is an evangelical, not a Catholic, and the phrase, while it has been adopted by sections of the online far right, is also a generic Christian slogan popular among certain evangelical subcultures as well as among internet shitposters inspired by the Crusader Kings II video game.

Much more at the link.

I guess everyone on the right is a white supremacist. Even Larry Elder, the so-called black face of white supremacy. People making the okay sign. The Tea Party. And now Hegseth.

On the perception of aging in others and self

The New Neo Posted on by

Commenter “Brian E” notes:

I hope our perceptions of age become skewed, otherwise I’m going crazy. I’ve found myself seeing people that look exactly like the ones I knew from 30-40 years ago. Only it’s not them. I’ve had to remind myself it can’t be them, because they would look as old as I do if it was them.

Yes, yes, and yes! I experience this on a regular basis, complete with the awareness that it can’t be them. My hunch is that although we are all unique – yes, even identical twins – there nevertheless is a finite number of general “looks” for faces and that’s what we’re seeing – a variation on one of those themes.

In addition, some people change a great deal over time and become nearly unrecognizable. Sometimes it’s about weight gain and/or illness, but often it’s just sag and wrinkle and droopy eyelids. And yet there are others who defy time and look not just younger than the rest of the people their age, but very much like their younger selves with just a few droops here and there. It’s uncanny. I noticed it at my 50th (yes, 50th) high school reunion in particular – the variance in the rate of aging was phenomenal given that we were all roughly the same age.

And the board with the photos of the deceased was getting uncomfortably full.

Then there’s this observation by commenter “AesopFan”:

All of the pictures on our walls are of our family from at least 20 years ago or more, and sometimes when the boys are here, especially the ones I see infrequently, I have to consciously tell myself that all those pudgy, balding, and sometimes bearded old men were my little boys.

That reminds me of my mother’s reaction when my brother started to lose some hair (he’s not bald yet; just receding at a slow pace) and I went gray; she was somewhat dismayed. “Oh, no!” she said. I was a bit miffed, but I realized she was thinking of her own advancing age more than ours. Our appearance was just a reminder of the passage of time.

And then there was my own experience when I had cataract surgery:

A day or two after my cataract surgery I was looking at a relative and noticed he looked older. There were lines in his face I’d never seen before. It was alarming, because at first I thought there had been a sudden and abrupt aging process. But then I realized that it was just that I was seeing more clearly the details I hadn’t seen before, like when HDTV first came out.

Then the same thing happened with my own face in the mirror.

Initially I had figured it was because the surgery had been stressful. Then I thought it was because I wasn’t wearing eye makeup. Then I decided it was the extra-bright lighting in the bathroom that I was using as a guest.

Then I closed my left eye – the one with the new lens in it – and looked at myself in the mirror with my right eye. The lines disappeared, and I looked the way I had thought I looked all these years. Soft focus, lines blurred or erased.

Oh, well. It’s a small price to pay to be able to see better. But a disconcerting one.

I’m used to the sight of my own face in the mirror now. But if I ever want to go back in time, all I have to do is close my left eye, and the lines soften instantly when looking through the cataract in my right eye. A time machine!

Hush money trial: another pause in the proceedings

The New Neo Posted on by

Judge Merchan has paused the sentencing in the so-called hush money case against Trump, and the pause might be extended:

New York prosecutors told the judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday that his sentencing should be postponed while the president-elect’s lawyers file further legal arguments asking the case be dismissed.

The proposal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office would need to be signed off on by Judge Juan Merchan to become official. Merchan has agreed to previous requests from prosecutors seeking delays.

Prosecutors said they would challenge Trump’s efforts to dismiss the case, but agreed they’re in uncharted territory when it comes to sentencing a president, and acknowledged that his sentencing might need to take place after his term in office.

Yeah, right. They’ve been in uncharted territory the entire time, trying the leading GOP candidate for the presidency before a biased court shortly before the election, on ridiculous charges that are truly “unprecedented” (an overworked word but correct in this instance). The goal was to influence the electorate against him. Perhaps they should be found guilty of malicious prosecution:

A malicious prosecution occurs when a police officer or other government official causes criminal charges to be filed against a person when the official knows probable cause is lacking and the charges are filed because of personal animosity, bias, or some other reason outside the interests of justice. In such cases, the victim’s Fourteenth Amendment “right to liberty” has been violated.

It’s a very hard charge to prove, and it’s a tort rather than a criminal charge. I have no idea whether it would apply to a case like this – perhaps prosecutors are immune? – but something should apply, the offense is so egregious.

Also – why are the prosecutors not just dropping the case? Are they arguing amongst themselves as to what to do? Trying to figure out how he could have a prison White House? Or just embarrassed at this point? Do they ever feel that emotion? I doubt it.

Also:

“Given the need to balance competing constitutional interests, consideration must be given to various non-dismissal options that may address any concerns raised by the pendency of a post-trial criminal proceeding during the presidency, such as deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term,” the filing says.

The other thing is – unless I’m mistaken, the case can’t be appealed on the merits until they sentence Trump, although there are some procedural grounds for appeal based on the fact that the case wasn’t held in a federal court. So Merchan and the prosecutors may be leaving it dangling because they know they’d lose an appeal with such a terrible case. I’m not sure whether or not my legal reasoning is correct there, but here’s more on the legal issues.

Also, it seems to me that a pause of this nature would violate aspects of a defendant’s right to a speedy trial. Has sentencing ever been delayed for four years, when the trial is otherwise complete?

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) Russian ballet dancer, critic of Putin, falls to his death.

(2) Trump’s proposed FCC head says the administration will crack down on censorship online.

(3) Dana Carvey is so good at this:

(4) The Democrats are embracing the filibuster, now that it benefits them. Of course.

(5) The vote-counters in Bucks County PA say that rules and laws are for the little people, not for them. And yet we are supposed to trust them to be fair:

“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, said Thursday as she and other Democrats voted to reject a GOP-led challenge to ballots that should be disqualified.

“People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”

The court had already ruled against what she’s trying to do; her actions defy the statute that governs vote-counting in the state.

Do you feel the winds of change?

The New Neo Posted on by

Ever since the election there’s been a sea-change, an atmospheric something that’s a bit hard to describe but has the whiff of possibility. I think everyone feels it to a certain extent. The left dreads and fears it, and perhaps it will go sour not just for the left but for everyone. But right now, the feeling is of hope that, finally, America really is on the path to becoming Great Again.

And truth seems stranger than fiction. Donald Trump still seems an unlikely figure to spearhead this kind of renewal, even if we’ve gotten at least somewhat used to him occupying the Oval Office. A great many people would probably date the more recent change from July 13, 2024, when he survived an assassination attempt that came within an inch – literally – of killing him. That was followed by so many other events it could make a person dizzy: the removal of Biden and the temporary elevation of Harris, the campaign in which podcasts became tremendously important, the disgrace of Nancy Pelosi, the post-election grin of Biden, and in the Middle East exploding pagers and targeted assassinations proving that Israel knows exactly where its enemies hide and is newly determined to take them out. Now we have a government in which not only Trump, but Elon Musk and RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy will have a place.

And now, world leaders seem poised on the edge of the change, too, for better or for worse – for example, in Ukraine. Jack Smith’s day in the sun may be over. Javier Milei, the change agent of Argentina, visited Trump, who called him a “MAGA person” as in “Make Argentina Great Again.” The MSM has egg on its face, and now Joe and Mika (of all people) have also come to see president-elect Trump as MSNBC’s rating have dropped precipitously.

And maybe it’s time for a little Bee Gees:

Computers – love ’em, hate ’em

The New Neo Posted on by

Computers bring us so much. Just to take one obvious example, they bring this blog to you and your comments to me. They bring us the ability to bank online, get news from anywhere in the world, and buy just about anything without leaving home.

They bring us social media and its contagions, and an easier way for abusers to stalk and for criminals to bilk. They make it less likely that we get together in the real world, although that’s up to us.

And they bring us the kind of frustration I’ve been feeling in the last day or two, when my effort to diagnose and fix one problem with my computer by changing a single seemingly-innocuous setting caused a cascade of other problems that were far more serious and which wouldn’t be fixed even by getting a new computer. To explain what happened would be almost as tedious as going through it, so I’ll spare you unless I need to ask you all for help in the future. I think I’m on the way to fixing it; let’s just say it’s half-fixed. But that took about ten hours yesterday and additional time today.

It brought home to me once again – not that I needed reminding – how dependent we’ve become on computers.