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Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

I keep having to resort to these roundups. Too much news; hard to choose! And so we have the following:

(1) The left suddenly wonders whether John Fetterman is cognitively impaired. But of course, he used to be a lot more impaired when he ran for the Senate, and they were just fine with that because they felt he would always side with the left. Same with a bout of serious depression for which he was treated early in his term. But as his mind and emotions improved, he started taking maverick-y positions, especially on Israel and the border. Therefore he is now the target of this sort of hit piece.

(2) There is a crisis in Israel concerning Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet, the rough equivalent of our FBI. The whole thing mirrors the attacks on Trump from Comey and company during Trump’s first term, although in a way it’s even worse, in part because the country is at war. The Israeli media is much like our media, almost entirely on the left. If you want to get up to speed on what I consider a fascinating story with fascinating parallels, please watch the first half or so (or even less, if you don’t have that kind of time) of this. I’ve cued it up to begin where they discuss Ronen Bar:

(3) China is in trouble, it seems, in the fallout from Trump’s tariffs:

From the cramped streets of Sichuan in the southwest to the cold outskirts of Inner Mongolia in the northeast, furious workers are demanding back pay and protesting mass layoffs as factories shutter under pressure from Trump’s tariffs. …

The wave of unrest follows a brutal plunge in China’s export orders, now at their lowest since the COVID lockdowns. Goldman Sachs estimates up to 16 million Chinese jobs could vanish as Trump’s tariffs bite deeper into the regime’s weak underbelly.

Trump said the tariffs placed on China are having their intended effect.

“They were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off,” he stated. “They’re not doing that anymore.”

Chinese authorities have no reluctance to be harsh with its protesting people. The more basic question is – at least, from the US-centric point of view – what will they do about the tariffs?

(4) This news is potentially very big and perhaps deserves a thread of its own. Here’s Margot Cleveland on the ruling:

HUGE win from Trump Administration and D.C. Circuit enters stay of lower court injunction. Lower court barred Trump Administration from managing Voice of America. D.C. Circuit stayed decision allowing Trump to move forward w/ firings/grant terminations. …

Court of Appeals decision is based on fundamental issue of “jurisdiction.” This conclusion should have wide-spread ramifications because many of challenges to Trump Administration are about employment decisions which CONGRESS said are NOT for district courts to decide.

That second paragraph is the heart of the matter.

More:

The Court of Appeals decision is also significant because it addresses the “wholesale” “dismantling” argument being presented in several cases (such as USAID cases). The Administrative Procedures Act is NOT for such claims either & Congress did not waive such immunity! …

In sum, this opinion is a HUGE win for Trump because it establishes 3 key principles that apply to many of the other cases being brought against Trump Administration: a) no jurisdiction over firings; b) no jurisdiction over grant terminations; c) you can’t get around Congress limiting district court jurisdiction by creative pleading of claims under other theories; d) with no bond harm to government will outweigh other harm; e) public has interest in Article III obey Article I.

(5) As Canada goes, so goes Australia, as the left wins the election.

Comments

Roundup — 28 Comments

  2. Many many parallels between Trump and Bibi’s battles against the Deep State. Unfortunately Israel does not have a Constitution.

    The Ronen Bar fiasco is part of a larger story that includes weaponizing the Attorney General/Inspector General office together with the Supreme Court. This is one of several fronts in the attempt at a slow-motion coup – or at least trying to stymie and stalemate the current administration.

    This clip gets it mostly correct. As they describe around 14:00 there have been damaging leaks by Secret Service agents frustrated with this attempted coup.

    The Israeli public has lost confidence and patience with the kernel of hard-core Lefties that control the upper echelons – especially since October 7. They don’t understand that the public will not be as tolerant of their attempts to roll back the election as they tried to do before October 7. They recently revived the tactic of having retired airmen and others declare their support for a cease-fire. It fell flat.

    The question is how much damage they will do before they are turned out of their positions of power. Bibi made a big mistake when he kept these generals on after the October 7 massacre.

  3. Israel declared its independence 77 years ago. Isn’t it about time for them to hold a Constitutional Convention?

  5. Re (3) the riots in China … I read the article, which buries the fact of the employers in question not paying workers since January … doesn’t sound like tariff issues to me … sounds more like creative journolisting

  7. Nobody Atall:

    I had the same thought – and that’s why I wrote “it seems.” However, I think it’s probably a combination of something that already was happening and then an acceleration as a result of the tariffs and tariff fears.

  8. Fetterman’s staff attacking him, then he should fire them.
    China is in trouble, actually has been for a long time. They are bypassing “Guns and Butter” to go just for Guns. If they can’t sell to the US, other countries can’t pick up the slack.

  9. At some point they’ll declare Fetterman non compos mentis.

    (Of course, Decent Joe was perfectly fine—or rather he, um, merely “stuttered”…)

    OTOH, at some point Fetterman may well decide to cross the aisle…

  11. My worry is that the economic collapse of China will precipitate the breakup of the country into another “Warring States” period but with nuclear weapons.

    I’ll be glad to see the CCP go but the chaos will spread throughout the globe.

  13. Boy… won’t be much fun in the Liberal Party room this week. Dutton even lost his seat. Bye Felicia.
    The Coalition took a shellacking. So Australia voted for 10 years of deficit budgets, more spending than a carrier battle group crew on shore leave, and giveaways to the privileged youth…
    Hmm… could get complicated.

  14. My worry is that the economic collapse of China will precipitate the breakup of the country into another “Warring States” period but with nuclear weapons.
    ==
    Do you mean the period of competing power centers (1911-49) during the last century?
    ==
    China is so populous and so large geographically, radical decentralization with a spare central authority is one might guess the only pathway to congenial government for the country.

  16. Nobodyatall

    Not being paid since January is one thing. But, presumably, pay is eventually forthcoming. Likely happened before or there’d be no workers. Until the news of the tariffs, in which case there is no prospect. Different kettle.

  19. ST: good website if only because it rec’s some of my choices

    To more serious matters. Why is the United States still fooling around with Iran? It is past time to take out their uranium enriching facilities and their oil export ports. No matter how much bluster from the United States, Iran will not blink.

    Watch: Ballistic Missile Hits Near Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Major Escalation Expected

    Ben Gurion Airport was shut down after a Houthi ballistic missile made it through air defenses and struck the perimeter. Situated near the center of Israel, the airport is a major international thoroughfare. Videos of the aftermath showed smoke billowing while people rushed for cover, not knowing if more strikes were on the way. 

    Serious incident in #Israel today. A #Houthismissile hit near the main terminal at Ben Gurion Airport. The Houthis would not be able to fire this missile with this precision without #Iran regime assistance. In recent months some Israeli officials have been calling for Israel to hit Iran’s regime directly over the Houthis attacks, including the Mossad Director. I suspect after today’s attack, those calls will grow.

    https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/05/04/watch-ballistic-missle-hits-near-ben-gurion-airport-in-israel-major-escalation-expected-n2188667

  20. Because there are many sites many nearly inpenetrable because they could close off the straits of hormuz and we have emptied our strategic reserves thats just three points to consider

  21. There’s no such thing as an impenetrable site. Remains to be seen whether Iran can shut down the straits of Hormuz and for how long. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pipelines to circumvent the straits The United States, Canada and Mexico and other non-Arab countries have oil pumping capacity that could be brought online for temporary disruptions. It is better to hit Iran now than after Iran produces nuclear weapons.

  22. we see in microcosm with the yemen campaign (what did they call it Operation Blowfish) of course a cohort of Israelis as with Americans probably blame Bibi rather than the Houthis, because thats what the Qatari op, that involved Khashoggi fils, was about, and that went into high gear when Malley was installed in Foggy Bottom (its funny how little is said of him) Now Bibi through operation beeper managed to put a crimp in the Hezbollah forward campaign, Iran has more advanced missiles than the ones they lent the Houthis,

    they say well why didn’t bibi preemptively strike gaza, if he had iron clad proof of an operation, well first of all thats rarely true, second you have the deep staters that enabled
    Al Aqsa flood, throuwing up chaff to the usual sources, the Foreign
    Ministry mandarins who wanted to give Hamas more operating space, can you imagine that, then you have so called allies in the UK and the US, like the ones Melanie Phillios has written about,

    https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-commons-foreign-affairs-hanging

  23. To more serious matters. Why is the United States still fooling around with Iran? It is past time to take out their uranium enriching facilities and their oil export ports. No matter how much bluster from the United States, Iran will not blink.

    Bob Wilson:

    I agree. My understanding is Israel is more than ready to go. But it comes down to Trump and it will be the most serious decision he has ever made. I imagine he wants to demonstrate as much good faith as possible that he prefers a negotiation, before giving the GO.

    The full repercussions are impossible to calculate. It could go very bad.

    I worry about all the Islamic sleeper cells which have slipped in during Biden’s open borders insanity.

  24. Iran is giving hi-tech strategic weapons to terrorists. Regime change and at least 20 years of no missiles, drones or other strategic weapons. And no nukes ever. They unleash Islamic sleeper cells, they are ended as a nation state.

  26. Re. Islamic sleeper cells. See the book The Attack by Kurt Schlichter about an October 7 style attack on the United States.

    IMO realistic and therefore scary as hell

  27. how many of these cells are out there, look at effendi mawdawi, who was sprung by a local judge, when there is a phone book of evidence that shows he doesn’t deserve to be in this
    country, at the very least,

    its rather striking how quickly this story dissapeared, even from right of center sites,

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