Open thread 5/19/23
This has long been one of my favorite photos of myself. It was taken at summer camp when I was fourteen years old. I like it because I am concentrating so intensely on the painting that I had no idea it was being taken. I also like the fact that I’d somehow gotten paint on my bare leg and foot.
Why would anyone live in a blue city or state? https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/05/chicago-rip.php
Why did some Jews stay in Germany too long? When hate-filled, deranged people keep winning elections and keep embracing crazier and crazier policies, the hope that the city or state will somehow stop from hurling itself off the cliff is worse than naive.
Trying to piece it all together….
https://twitter.com/PatrickByrne/status/1658472682378371081?cxt=HHwWkoDR7cOHioQuAAAA
https://twitter.com/FOOL_NELSON/status/1658227788350996481
https://twitter.com/themarketswork/status/1658600798375538691?cxt=HHwWhsDTte6oxIQuAAAA
H/T Jeff Carlson Twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/themarketswork
Every time I read a Michael Barone column these days, I get a little bit sadder. https://jewishworldreview.com/michael/barone051923.php3
He was once a smart man. Smart enough to finally figure out (after two decades of working as a Democrat operative) that much of what the Democrats said they believed were lies. That most Dem policies made the world worse, especially for the poor.
Alas, he seems to have lost his ability to reason. Apparently, it has never occurred to him that the same criminal minds that created the Russia collusion scam to try to steal the 2016 election and the laptop lie in 2020 might also have followed the long, sordid Democrat tradition of stealing elections in 2020.
stan
I am amazed you asked that question.
1. The USA , Canada, Australia, and the UK were governed by men who did not want Jewish immigrants
2. There was no State of Israel.
Neo
There is something about Black and White photos (and films) that is very appealing.
Neo, very nice pic. I know it’s just my age, but I really miss those style of clothes and hair for girls back then.
One of my favorite places growing up was the Denver Museum of Natural History. Many great exhibits including full scale dioramas of animals, etc. In the late 70s they opened an exhibition hall where they had redone much of the Native American displays with the help of the local tribes. Well now, even though that hall had approval from the local tribes when built, it has now been deemed to “harmful”, and they are closing down along with an apology of the “hurt they have caused”.
There is no end to this madness.
Adding on to BrooklynBoy @ 1057:
3. Even today, with full knowledge of the Holocaust and the subsequent attempts to destroy Israel, a plurality of American and Israeli Jews continue to vote for people and parties who support more of the same, Again!
Some people are too smart for their own good.
I have read, in other contexts, that intelligence is a lethal mutation, as an explanation for why we have not been contacted by other civilizations. Like us, when their technological development advances to the point that cross-galaxy communication becomes possible, they all develop other technology that results in their destruction.
Left-handed, so we have that in common.
If I may be so bold, I think I see what Gerald saw, that delicious mix of the sublime and the ridiculous. This photograph truly touched my heart.
You are so very good, so very generous, in putting out content for us readers to ponder and enjoy. I am old, with a slow brain, and so don’t often comment. It just takes so long it seems to come up with something pithy and pertinent. Of course, having worked as a writer for decades doesn’t help – getting the words to sing just right takes more time than the Internet allows.
So I just want to say thank you for this blog and particularly for the dance postings. I would never have encountered those otherwise, and they are so very interesting, so very beautiful. As much as you care for us readers, I do hope you take plenty of time to care for yourself. Healing from loss takes much time, and comes in fits and starts, so absence from posting for a time is fully understandable and warranted. Again, to be bold, I wish you well.
That’s a rather mature look for a 14 year old. At least from the waist up. In particular the hair reminds me of my mother’s around that date. Though her’s was a little shorter.
Where are the curls?
Neo:
Exact opposite of me. I paint in oils in realism and am constantly cleaning my brushes. I’m sure I’ve gotten paint on my hands but even that isn’t a distinct memory.
A couple of years ago a young friend of mine asked if she could take an old cover painting I was going to recycle (paint over) to play paint on.
Sure.
After I got my paint smeared/toothpaste squashed tubes back she got a lecture. Took about a half an hour to clean things up.
Still care for her though. Good kid.
Stylish.
The government is stopping release of more J6 video, says Michael Shlenberger, because they would sho too many Stasi informants.
Excerpt from Slaynews report via Elon Musk:
Elon Musk has dropped a bombshell on Twitter as evidence mounts up against the FBI regarding the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Musk called attention to a new report from investigative reporter Michael Shellenberger on Twitter.
Shellenberger’s report states: “FBI says it won’t release Jan 6 surveillance video because it would show too many undercover government agents and informants.”
“The FBI & Democrats say the whistleblowers who testified today are ‘a threat to our national security,’ but they’re not,” Shellenberger wrote.
“Rather they are honorable public servants who are being attacked for exposing abuses of power related to January 6.
“The FBI whistleblowers who testified before Congress today are not actually whistleblowers, say the FBI and Democrats.
“Rather, they are disloyal Americans who undermined investigations into the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.”
Shellenberger quoted Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), the ranking member of the House weaponization subcommittee, who said:
“My [Republican] colleagues have brought in these former agents, men who lost their security clearances because they were a threat to our national security.”
“Who out of malice or ignorance or both have put partisan agenda above the oath they swore to serve this country.”
“But there is no evidence that any of the FBI whistleblowers are or were ever a threat to national security,” Shellenberger notes.
“One of them, Marcus Allen, won two medals fighting in Iraq and Kuwait,” he explains.
“Another, Garret O’Boyle, served in the Army in Iraq, worked as a police officer, and graduated with honors in criminology and law…
MORE AT LINK
https://slaynews.com/news/elon-musk-drops-bombshell-fbi-wont-release-jan-6-video-because-it-would-show-too-many-undercover-government-agents-and-informants/
stan:
neo wrote a few posts about the Jews leaving and not leaving Germany. Like most things in life, it is complicated.
Another Lefty here!
Er…
The Democrats and the FBI are getting their lies confused if they are really alleging that the J6 videos show too many agents and informers in the crowd.
@Tommy Jay at 11:47:
Maybe she looks mature because she was mature! 🙂
Some people are born more mature than others, I do believe. I am a few years older than neo. I worked, as I could, from about age 13 on. I had just turned 16 when I did an adult chambermaid’s job in cabins at a Cape Cod inn owned by church friends of my parents. No a.c., lugging canister vacuums and heavy clean cotton sheets around, washing dishes by hand in the evening (pre-electric dishwashers), etc. Earned a very few hundred dollars, June-Aug. Never thought to complain. I had agreed to the job and carried it through. Actually went back as a “waitress” for the summer 3 years later.
My first-born son was highly verbal from about age 1 and could carry on a conversation from about that age. Pretty much taught himself to read as soon as I explained sounding out the letters (phonics). He has always been mature and self-directed. For which I am thankful.
My younger sister made a career of teaching art in NYS; is now retired and participating in state and national “exhibitions” (watercolors) with some recognition. She would relate to the photo, I’m sure.
Yes, I have photos from that era. Kind of bittersweet at this point.
For what it is worth, the “homeless veterans are being booted from NY hotels so that illegal aliens can be housed” story is being called false by a strongly sourced article in the Albany TIMES-UNION:
https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/unhoused-veterans-displaced-migrants-fake-18107182.php
Wow… that brought back some old memories of summer camps – and projects out on the lawn, then down to the lake, back for lunch, horseback riding lessons in the afternoon, camper plays and skits after dinner….. Thanks, Neo
I am amazed you asked that question. 1. The USA , Canada, Australia, and the UK were governed by men who did not want Jewish immigrants 2. There was no State of Israel.
==
I’m sure you fancy this makes some sort of sense.
Alliance defending freedom won a significant victory in California against the state bureaucrats and Planned Parenthood. They forced the state to back down their mandate for religious institutions to offer abortion in their health insurance coverage for employees. The taxpayers had to pay attorneys’ fees of about $1.5 million. During discovery they found communications between Planned Parenthood and the state bureaucrats about forcing coverage. Consider a donation to alliance defending freedom.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/05/19/california-officials-to-pay-churches-1-4-million-for-unconstitutional-abortion-coverage-mandate/
Great photograph! Your teenage self strikes me as very appealing to what would have been my then-contemporary teenage self. (Of course, we’re familiar, through your writings, with your present mature self — and needless to say, we approve.)
I’m a little surprised that out of 22 comments so far, no one’s remarked on how the green apple’s not there. Well, I’m pleased to be treated to this sideways glimpse of teenage neo, sans apple.
Take care / be well . . .
Thanks for the compliments! To answer the question about the curls, my hair was somewhat straighter then, just naturally, but I also set it on huge rollers to make it even straighter.
I have put up this post on the Jews leaving Germany and other countries in Europe prior to or during WWII. Please read, all those who commented in this thread about it, plus all who are interested in getting some facts that might challenge some preconceptions they have.
Abolish the FBI, and Replace It With … Nothing
https://stream.org/the-brew-abolish-the-fbi-and-replace-it-with-nothing/
Beautiful photo, neo. Thanks for sharing!
Unposed photos can capture so much more that posed. Also, I agree with the others who state that black and white has a wonderful quality. A good, black and white portrait seems to convey more of the person’s personality, even his or her soul, than color does.
The biggest story that almost no one ever talks about.
https://singjupost.com/the-epidemic-that-dare-not-speak-its-name-stephen-j-shaw-transcript/?singlepage=1&utm_source=upward&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-global-crisis-of-plunging-birth-rates
It will have tremendous impacts on the future yet western politicians do not want focus on it because it is an “inconvenient truth” that goes against their apocalyptic scenarios* they use to corral votes through fear.
* It may also well trend towards an apocalypse**, just not the kind they benefit from.
** I’m guardedly optimistic. We humans are clever, little monkeys.
Also, for those who say I look older in the photo – yes, I looked quite grownup as a young teenager. I hit puberty and was full-grown at the age of 10. I
The Kari Lake second trial mandated by the Arizona SC regarding signature verification is taking place this week. I’ve seen little coverage of the trial other than Just the News.
Testimony by witnesses for Lake indicate they spent far more hours verifying signatures during the primary than the general election.
There were no advocates watching the process. They were in the area but not watching the actual signatures being verified. In addition, the Maricopa system would allow employees to access the system from home.
This report says that an expert witness for Lake said 70,000 signatures were verified in two seconds– something that would be physically impossible. A county employee said that exact matches can be processed in a “second or two”.
Until an audit is allowed to determine what the rejection rate should have been for mail-in ballots, we’re just dancing around the problem. The courts have to allow that or we will never be able to trust the election process.
“Regarding the speed at which signatures appeared to be reviewed, Speckin said, “There were about 70,000 instances … that were lightning quick.”
Lake’s legal counsel, Kurt Olsen, asked Speckin, “So roughly 70,000 signatures were processed in less than two seconds?”
Speckin corrected Olsen, specifying that he would say “compared,” rather than “processed,” then answered “yes” to 70,000 signatures being compared in less than two seconds, according to data he examined from Maricopa County.
He added that there were seven users, or signature reviewers, who “had over 1,000 instances” of reviewing signatures in less than two seconds that “had 100%” approval rates, meaning that the signatures matched.
When asked by Olsen whether comparing signatures in less than three seconds is physically possible, Speckin replied, “I don’t believe it can be done.”
After Lake’s team rested their case, county Elections Director Ray Valenzuela, a defendant in the case, testified later on Thursday as the defendants’ only witness. The previous day and earlier Thursday he testified as one of the witnesses for the plaintiff.
Valenzuela, who has done signature review in the county for 20 years, explained that there were 155 signature verifiers who participated in the 2022 general election.
While level 1 signature reviewers have three signatures on a voter’s file to compare a ballot signature to, Valenzuela testified that the reviewers are “not required” to compare a ballot signature to all three signatures.
If a ballot signature is an “exact match” to the first signature on the voter file, “then that can take one to two seconds.””
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/lake-trial-day-2-focuses-whether-ballot-signatures-can-be-compared-few
I think looking at two signatures which are obviously almost identical and making a decision can take very little time.
There are two other issues, one is whether the two are actually identical or even close, and the other is how long it takes to replace those two with the next two when the first two are done.
In addition, I’d not want to compare my signature(s) at any time. Different pens–move more or less easily–different paper, different posture and hand rest. And on the computer….forget it.
That might leave the official looking for common indications–period after “Jr.”?, Connect the capital A for middle initial to capital A for last name? Which would take some time. More than three seconds.
And how much leeway does the official provide for signatures not identical?
Neo: “I hit puberty and was full-grown at the age of 10. I”
Heh. My daughter was always short. I heard “When will I get boobs?” until she was fifteen. To this day she looks a solid decade younger than she is.
Richard Aubrey, I have wondered about signature comparisons. I first registered to vote in this county in 1993. Does my signature look the same, thirty years later?
My question was — Why did ‘some’ Jews wait too long? Some clearly did.
I have read some bios/history where someone related that they had family members who stayed too long. That there was serious argument between grown family members about the urgency of the threat. The early ones got out.
Can’t remember the books or the source. Just my recollection.
The point is that we know that today in the USA in blue cities we can defend ourselves in full accord with the law of self-defense and find ourselves in prison for life. If we are the wrong color and sex, the facts and the law no longer matter. We have no constitution to protect us. No rule of law. Especially if it becomes known that we don’t vote correctly.
I don’t see any reason to go to places where my rights are not protected. Where I can go to prison for life if someone threatens my wife or kids.
Lovely, Neo. Just lovely!
What an absolutely charming picture!