You think Swalwell was bad? Look who replaced him.

The New Neo Posted on by

Aisha Wahab will be replacing Swalwell until the November election, due to the results of a special election to determine the disgraced Swalwell’s successor. As you can probably tell from the name, Wahab is the US-born child of Muslim immigrants (in her case, her parents are from Afghanistan) and a DSA-supported candidate:

Far-left Afghan American California state Sen. Aisha Wahab (D) defeated establishment-backed Democrat candidate and Bay Area Rapid Transit Board member Melissa Hernandez, 53.1% to 46.9%. …

The result was far closer than expected. Wahab and Hernandez were the top two finishers in the June special primary, with Wahab taking 42.8% of the vote to Hernandez’s 16.8%.

Once again, we have a low-turnout primary in which the more extreme candidate won, and then in the election itself – featuring two Democrats, because they were the two top vote-getters – the more extreme candidate won but not by as much (then again, a runoff eliminates the rest of the vote-getting opposition compared to the primary). In this case, the more “establishment” wing of the Democrat Party tried to stop Wahab but could not:

Millions poured into the race from AIPAC and other political action committees determined to keep another radical candidate from winning a seat in Congress.

They failed.

There’s a general election in November. It’s a kind of do-over, with Republican voters will be added to the mix – not that there are so many in California’s District 14. But there will be more voters, period, and Wahab may lose her seat to Hernandez in November. There will be no Republican opponent because of the aforementioned primary rules in California.

Oh, you mean that Karmelo Anthony

The New Neo Posted on by

It was clear almost from the start that Karmelo Anthony, who murdered Austin Metcalf at a Texas high school track meet, was seeking violent confrontation. He provoked the entire incident, had brought a knife to a venue where they were banned, and stabbed Metcalf quickly and readily. The blow was obviously of the type and in a place that ran a high probability of killing his victim.

Anthony was found guilty. But many people wanted to paint him as just having defended himself. It was always obvious this was not the case.

But now more has come out, and it paints an even worse picture of Anthony. Why is this emerging now? Anthony’s lawyers are seeking a new trial, plus the case is being used politically in the Senate race in Texas. Here’s Jonathan Turley on the matter:

The [original] criminal case was not a difficult one for the prosecution with overwhelming witness and video evidence of the stabbing. Anthony’s motion for a new trial is extremely weak, in my view, because it focuses on his decision not to testify (despite a record showing he made that decision knowingly and freely). At the same time, the case is now becoming a political issue with Democratic senatorial nominee James Talarico declaring that the case “prove[s] this system is not working for black Texans.”

More [my emphasis]:

New messages have surfaced showing that Anthony was threatening his former girlfriend and expressing violent ideations just hours before killing Metcalf.

Text messages allegedly include a picture of the knife he used in Metcalf’s killing. Anthony’s girlfriend, Valeria, went to the school on the morning of April 2, 2025, before he stabbed Metcalf. She reportedly told school officials that Anthony was stalking her after she broke up with him.

The evidence shows Anthony told her, “I’m low key on the verge” and “When I stab somebody I’m gonna lick their blood off the blade,” prosecutors alleged.

It seems that Anthony was planning something of the sort, and reveling in it. Literal bloodthirstiness. It also seem that this would have been admissible in the trial as evidence for mens rea (intent). Why was it left out? It seems this was the reason:

New information also raises questions about the victim, who was accused of spray-painting racist messages and engaging in threatening conduct. The jury never heard this information about both individuals due to a “gentleman’s agreement” between the prosecution and the defense.

Turley doesn’t dwell on that, but I will. It also seems to me that the alleged racist past of Metcalf would not have been admissible because Anthony had no reason to be aware of it and also it did not involve anything that happened between them the day of the killing. None of the many many witnesses have alleged anything of the sort from Metcalf that day, and that’s all that matters. However, the prosecution probably felt (and correctly so) that making sure that evidence about Metcalf never reached the public was important because it could prejudice the jury, and the prosecution was willing to exclude Anthony’s bloodthirstiness in exchange, considering that they had plenty of evidence to convict him without it.

As for Talarico:

In [Talarico’s] appearance on the New York radio show The Breakfast Club, he discussed how he nodded along as a town hall attendee who called Anthony’s conviction a “tragedy.”

He added: “I’m not an expert on this particular case, but I know that there were no black members of the jury, and to me, that’s, that’s the only evidence you need to, to really prove this system is not working for black Texans.” …

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees trial by an impartial jury, not a particular racial makeup. The Equal Protection Clause also protects after discrimination in jury selection.

Under Batson v. Kentucky, the defense can challenge the use of peremptory challenges by the prosecution on the issue of race. However, the issue is not simply the result of the challenges but the motivation behind such challenges.

In the case of James Kirkland Batson … the Supreme Court and held that, while a defendant is not entitled to have jurors who meet certain racial criteria, the state is not permitted to use its peremptory challenges to automatically exclude potential members of the jury because of their race.

In the Anthony case, challenges to black prospective jurors [were] … because they were educators and the crime occurred on school grounds. The ultimate jury was not “all-White” as commonly claimed. It included Asian, Indian, and Hispanic members.

More on Anthony’s state of mind:

In a 75-page filing, prosecutors also note that Karmelo Anthony had earlier been accused of taking his girlfriend’s phone and, in October 2024, drafted a “to-do” list instructing her how to handle quote “weirdos,” which included the line “say sum slick like my bf kill people.”

Text exchanges further reveal that he admitted on at least two occasions to punching girls in the face.

Prosecutors located 2021 messages between Karmelo Anthony and another student discussing robbing someone for $300.

Other texts show Karmelo Anthony recounting a fight and punching someone “so hard he had to stop fighting.”

In 2023, prosecutors say Karmelo Anthony told a friend he planned to vandalize a house in Austin, Texas, writing, “I just feel like it, I gotta grudge.”

In 2021, Karmelo Anthony informed a friend he had been suspended for three days after fighting, adding, “they said next time I do sum I get recommended for expulsion,” court papers show. …

Prosecutors add that Karmelo Anthony repeatedly threatened to murder his girlfriend in texts, including lines such as “how many bullets u want coming out of ur chest” and “I’m going to get you (expletive).”

More at the link.

It seems as though all of this was left out of the trial, due to the agreement. But Anthony’s lawyers want a new trial, and the prosecution seems ready for it. Of course, a great deal depends on the judge and what he or she would allow in. Conveniently, the judge from the old trial has been replaced:

His new attorneys argued Wednesday that a retrial was warranted in part because state District Judge John Roach, who presided over Anthony’s murder trial in June, enforced overly strict courtroom rules and gave an interview after the murder trial ended. …

A new judge will be assigned for Thursday’s hearing on the retrial request.

The defense argued Roach compromised his impartiality by speaking publicly about the case after the verdict. In one interview, Roach agreed with the assessment that the jury “got it right.”

Anthony’s attorneys also challenged Roach’s decisions to limit cameras and public access during the trial.

It seems they are not alleging actual bias on the part of the original judge, just the appearance of bias. Their only defense, really, is to play the race card. And play it they will.

The British finally decide that maybe newcomers need some instructions on quaint British customs

The New Neo Posted on by

There has been a great deal of internet mockery of a nine-page pamphlet released by the British Home Office to instruct newcomers on local mores. It contains helpful hints such as this:

More:

The Conservatives said any asylum seekers breaking UK law should be deported and Reform said the publication showed the government “knows that they are a menace”.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the government had “a very clear principle that if you break UK law, you will be removed from the country”.

He said the number of removals of illegal immigrants from the UK “are significantly up” and that he was working to ensure that foreign national offenders are removed from the prison system.

He added: “It follows that if we’re taking this approach, it’s made explicitly clear what the UK law is and what the societal norms of the UK are and that’s why this approach is being taken.”

A section on gender explains that women in the UK have equal rights to men, and do not need the permission from a husband, father, brother or any other man to do things like work, study, travel, or make decisions. …

And a section headed Respect in Public outlines how it is not acceptable to whistle or make kissing noises at people on the street, nor “make sexual comments to someone, even if you think it is a compliment

On the one hand, it actually is a step up, although a baby step. Did the British never impress these facts on newcomers before? At any rate, they’re doing it now. At the very least, that indicates that the authorities are setting up some sort of behavioral expectations.

But on the other hand, that is unlikely to make much of a dent in cultural customs and beliefs that run deep.

And furthermore: why has the British government been so eager to take in so many people with cultures that clash so violently (literally) with British life? That’s somewhat of a rhetorical question, because we know many answers. One for the left is that the left ultimately gains voters. Another (motivating both left and right) is for cheap labor. For some who support the policy, the reason is virtue-signaling. Still another reason is suicidal empathy. One more is a sense of being unable to do much to prevent it. And again, for the left, there are those who have wanted the peace of England’s previous high-trust society to be destroyed.

Hormuz again

The New Neo Posted on by

Open? Closed? Half-open?

You be the judge. See this:

The U.S. military has quietly established a shipping corridor in and out of the Strait of Hormuz to transport millions of barrels of oil each day — a notable success even as the broader war remains at a stalemate, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Under the operation, which has been underway for the last several weeks, 15–20 tankers have entered and exited the strait each night through a southern channel along the coast of Oman.

About 10 million barrels of oil a day — roughly half the pre-war volume — are being transported out of the strait and injected into the global energy market, the officials said.

And there’s this:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already enacted numerous sanctions and economic punishments against the Islamic Republic of Iran as the conflict with the U.S. grinds on, but President Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday evening to announce he’s taking things to a whole new level.

Using his trademark all-caps style, he promised to unleash an “ECONOMIC D-DAY” that will be the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!” He also warned other nations that if they throw any lifelines to the mullahs, they will pay a steep cost courtesy of the U.S.

Seems to me we’ve heard this before.

Sinema the homewrecker

The New Neo Posted on by

Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema is currently embroiled in a rather odd – and somewhat archaic – lawsuit. It turns out that Sinema (who was considered the first “out” bisexual senator) had an affair with her bodyguard Matthew Ammel, who was married and the father of two.

Hazard of the bodyguard trade, it seems. After all, it’s an intimate relationship of sorts, just not ordinarily that sort.

Ammel’s ex-wife is suing Sinema for “alienation of affection.” Boy, does that phrase evoke memories. When I was in law school a long time ago, it was one of a host of terms often involved back then in divorce law, such as “loss of consortium” and “condonation” and “collusion.” In particular, “alienation of affection” always seemed an odd offense to me. After all, it’s the spouse who makes the promise to be faithful, and if he or she strays I think the responsibility is wholly with that person rather than the paramour.

The idea of the nearly irresistible “homewrecker,” however, is apparently still alive and well and living in North Carolina:

Ammel’s now-ex-wife sued Sinema, 50, last year alleging “alienation of affection,” taking advantage of North Carolina’s “homewrecker law,” which permits women to seek damages from their ex-spouse’s lovers.

Heather Ammel is asking for more than $75,000 in compensation.

But Sinema, the first openly bisexual member of congress, claimed in court that she had no romantic feelings [for] Matthew during the final months of her political career in 2024.

“I’m not like that,” Sinema told her attorney, Steven Epstein, when asked under oath about the tone of her conversations with her bodyguard..

“When the opportunity presented itself, and when Mr. Ammel approached me, we had sex,” she added flatly.

Wow, that’s cold.

And the ex-wife is asking only $75K? That seems rather archaic, too.

But it’s the term “homewrecker” that brings up really ancient memories for me. When I was a kid, I loved the movie “Damn Yankees.” Saw it many times. I hadn’t thought of it in ages, but since I’m one of those odd people who remembers song lyrics to just about every Broadway musical from the 1940s through the 1960s, I recall that Ray Walston as the Devil says to Gwen Verdon as his sexy assistant Lola in the intro to one of the songs, “There isn’t a homewrecker on my staff better than you, Lola. But this fellow is stubborn.”

Verdon wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she was exceptionally charming and a fabulous dancer. She played the role of Lola (“Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets”) with a tongue-in-cheek humor and lightness. Anyway, here’s the “homewrecker” scene. When I was a child, I loved the lavender decor, too:

Rich socialists as champions of the working class

The New Neo Posted on by

But the working class in the US doesn’t seem to think so; they don’t vote for the DSA candidates, for the most part. The DSA gets its support from the dissatisfied and yet well-educated scions of the comfortable and wealthy.

Here’s a DSA leader:

Gustavo Gordillo, the 38-year-old co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, is peddling his anti-capitalist lefty agenda while enjoying the life in the two-story, nearly 2,000-square-foot row home on a gentrifying tree-lined block in Bed-Stuy. …

The Ivy League [Yale] radical’s converted single-family home was bought in 2019 by his mommy and daddy through a dummy corporation, Chucuito LLC, for just under $1 million, property records show.

Since then, it has undergone a major facelift, with renovations done to its entire front facade, the planting of lush landscaping, the revamping of the interior and the addition a pair of decks on the roof as well as near the front door, according to plans filed with the borough in 2023. …

“My son and my other son both live there,” Gordillo’s father said …

Here are some of Gordillo’s plans for landlords. Somehow I think that he might give his own parents a pass on this, considering that he’s the beneficiary of their property-holding. Then again, he’s probably not paying them anything to live in the building, and perhaps his goal is to confiscate the property from his selfish (Boomer?) parents and take it for himself:

Gordillo and his DSA comrades have meanwhile railed against property ownership, calling for a redistribution of land “from landowners to the landless.” …

“We don’t think that anybody should have the constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment,” he said.

For years he claimed to be an electrician, but his history in that arena was unclear until the NY Post uncovered the following:

Former Yale University liberal arts student Gustavo Gordillo, 38, was fired from his apprenticeship program in March after ghosting his employer for months, meaning he never made it as a fully-credentialed electrician, the IBEW Local 3 union confirmed Wednesday.

“After learning of Mr. Gordillo’s prolonged absence from and failure to participate in required work and classes, the trustees of the Joint Apprentice Training Committee terminated Mr. Gordillo from the program,” the IBEW said in a statement.

A source close to the union said “he didn’t have a strong work record to begin with” and took the job “just for show,” while hogging “a slot from someone who probably really needed the opportunity.”

Absolutely perfect.

And to top it all off, the DSA now pays him $95K a year with benefits.

Has he ever paid his own rent? Plus, it turns out he didn’t graduate from Yale after all, although he “attended”:

The Yale registrars’ office confirmed to The Post on Wednesday that he studied literature there between 2006-10, but did not earn a degree. He also studied sculpture at Yale’s graduate School of Art a couple of years later, records show.

Gordillo’s dad admitted Tuesday that he paid his son’s $2,600 a month rent on the Lower East Side, through a dummy corporation, Chucuito LLC, until 2019.

I think there’s a certain logic to someone from this sort of background becoming a socialist. For them, the connection between earning money and buying things isn’t necessarily part of their “lived experience.” That does not mean that all or most people from such backgrounds become socialists; plenty do not. But a significant number of socialists do seem to have that sort of background. Perhaps becoming socialists is the only way they can feel virtuous without actually refusing their parents’ money.

NOTE: It’s not a new phenomenon, either; one can see this sort of thing among some prominent socialists and Communists of the past. Take Che Guevara, for example. He was raised by very financially comfortable leftist parents, and he earned a medical degree before becoming a revolutionary. He had Mangione’s stylish looks and a similar willingness to kill, and like Mangione he attracted quite a following among US leftists (in Guevara’s case, mostly after his death).

Florida: Vindman down, Nixon up

The New Neo Posted on by

We’ve got another DSA member winning a Democrat primary, this time in Florida for the US Senate. The outcome was considered an upset:

Progressive state Rep. Angie Nixon scored a major upset over former National Security Council aide Alex Vindman in the Florida Democratic Senate primary, NBC News projects, setting up a general election race against Republican Sen. Ashley Moody.

Vindman, a retired lieutenant colonel and Iraq War veteran who rose to prominence as a witness during President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment hearings, was viewed as a heavy favorite against Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, heading into Tuesday’s contest.

Vindman isn’t exactly a fountain of charisma, but a DSA member is an odd choice for a basically red state such as Florida. And how is it the polls were so wrong – again? Most of the other polls have overestimated the DSA candidates’ leads, but in this race polls seem to have done the opposite.

Odd, but perhaps all the polls are way off because the number of “undecideds” has been large in each race. For example, a July poll said this:

A recent poll released in July by Democratic Party sponsor Change Research showed Vindman leading Nixon in the Aug. 18 primary election 34% to 24%, with 41% of primary voters still undecided.

That’s a huge number of undecided people.

Another problem for Vindman was that he hadn’t lived in Florida long. And Nixon voiced the right (that is, the current leftist) stance on Israel:

Nixon is an advocate for cutting U.S. aid to Israel, a controversial position in a state with the country’s third-largest Jewish population. Her stance put her at odds with members of her own party at times and was in contrast to Vindman, a Jewish immigrant born in Soviet Ukraine.

Hopefully, it’ll be moot in November because hopefully, GOP candidate Ashley Moody will win. But I take nothing for granted. The seat they’re all vying for is Rubio’s, by the way. He vacated it when he was appointed SOS by Trump, and Moody was chosen by DeSantis to take his place until the 2026 election, which will be to fill in the remaining two years.

Spent many hours today …

The New Neo Posted on by

… with my ex in the local emergency room. He’s basically okay. They found something relatively minor.

Growing old is no joke. Nor was the ER, which has degenerated in recent years: short-staffed, very long waits, extremely depressing group of sick people sitting there for hours and hours and hours.

I finally left him there when he was somewhat better, but now I’m about to leave to pick him up. I’ll probably post more in late afternoon or perhaps not till the evening.

News roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s been one of those days.

(1) Speaking of Bin Laden … which some of you were, in this thread from yesterday –

I am reminded that I had seen a comment that appeared at Instapundit the other day about him. Here’s the part that caught my attention:

Beyond the obvious that he was a mass murderer, Bin Laden was a piece of sh*t con man. Bin Ladin was basically an Arab Luigi, only he had a lot more money and was not quite as retarded as Luigi. He was a rich kid poser, who grew up in one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia living in absolute luxury that allowed him to indulge in every sort of luxury belief, in Bin Laden’s case whack job Muslim Brotherhood theology rather the usual Marxism. Then when it came time to act on those beliefs, Bin Laden was happy to let other people fly planes into buildings while he ran for his life and hide out in Pakistan. Real brave guy. Certainly someone whose thoughts on world affairs everyone needs to hear.

The comparison to Luigi and the DSA rich-kid lefties is quite apt, actually. Bin Laden became an active jihadi during the Russian-Afghan War, when he was in his mid-20s (he was born in 1957). But he was raised in great wealth and had inherited a great deal of money when he was very young, and was also highly educated.

(2) That entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in today’s youth. For example:

Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that the leader of a cocaine-trafficking ring involving Penn State University students and two student fraternities surrendered Tuesday morning.

Agostino Abbatiello, 24, was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker on numerous felonies, including multiple counts of possession with intent to deliver (cocaine), and conspiracy. …

Thirteen of the charged defendants were Penn State University students at or around the time of the alleged conduct, in 2023 and 2024. According to the investigation and a grand jury presentment, Abbatiello and Thomas Robinson were the main suppliers for the criminal organization, making”> regular trips to Philadelphia and New York for large quantities of cocaine.

Well, tuition is high these days.

(3) What a novel idea – the Census Bureau checked voting records against citizenship records for 128 million 2020 voters, and has found 24K noncitizens who voted. Fancy that.

The left will say it’s not so many; nothing much to be concerned about

(4) There was a massive earthquake in Indonesia yesterday, an area of frequent earthquakes. RIP to the victims.

(5) “Fauci’s Partner-in-Crime David Morens Pleads Guilty to Illegal Evasion of Federal Records Laws (to Cover Up His Complicity in Covid).”

I guess Biden or Biden’s autopen forgot to pardon him.