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The New Neo Posted on by

(1) How are you feeling, post-Christmas? Are you ready for 2024?

(2) The NY Times continues its trajectory as a pro-Palestinian pro-Hamas anti-Israel propaganda organ by publishing an op-ed by Gaza’s mayor. So much better than publishing something by Tom Cotton!

(3) Carol Swain – the black scholar from whom Claudine Gay plagiarized – weighs in in the NY Post:

I am fervently committed to advancing diversity, equal opportunity – not equity – and inclusion, resulting in a policy that can promote true integration and respect of individuals in American institutions and society. True diversity comes through the practice of nondiscrimination, outreach, and compliance with existing civil rights law and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Honoring the First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion can and should result in diversity of thought and goodwill among diverse groups of people. Institutions can and should abide by the First Amendment. Institutional leaders should encourage and promote the simple but enduring tenets of the Golden Rule: treat others how you would like them to treat you.

This approach truly does work. I speak as a person who started life in poverty, dropped out of middle school, married at age 16, and had three children before I turned 21. And yet I found success.

Maybe Swain could be elected president of Harvard. Ah, but there’s a problem – she’s not on the left.

(4) As if California didn’t already have enough money troubles, now Newsom has announced that “the last hole in universal [Medi-Cal] coverage, people aged 26-49, is being filled in the New Year, and the expansion is being aggressively marketed, Medi-Cal will soon be open to all, ‘papers or no papers.’” Medi-Cal is basically California’s Medicaid.

(5) Israel has killed a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard in a strike on Syria, and Iran “vows revenge.” Hasn’t Iran already vowed Israel’s destruction? Hasn’t it done so for about as long as the Iranian theocracy has been in power?

Comments

Roundup — 65 Comments

  1. 2) but he has a phd from bradford university, sarc, they weren’t even officially at war when they appointed him,

    3) as wesley yang points there is definitely a class dynamic involved against both roland fryer, who gay fired, and carol swain,

    5) as long as billions flow into Hamas coffers, as well as Iran’s you can’t consider it an idle threat, among those released was hezbollah’s money launderer alex saab, who seemed to do much the same for Maduro, or the one that actually runs venezuela being general cabello (whose first name is ironically translated as ‘god given’

  7. Golly! $68 billion deficit is the right time to roll out more health care entitlements? Definitely some solid Bidenomics there!

  9. }}} As if California didn’t already have enough money troubles, now Newsom has announced that “the last hole in universal [Medi-Cal] coverage, people aged 26-49, is being filled in the New Year, and the expansion is being aggressively marketed, Medi-Cal will soon be open to all, ‘papers or no papers.’” Medi-Cal is basically California’s Medicaid.

    Bad enough in itself, but “papers or no papers”. SMH.

    Remember this when they go bankrupt.

    MAKE THEM DEAL WITH IT.

    DON’T BAIL THEM OUT. >:-(

  10. miguel cervantes:

    I take Iran’s threats very seriously. My point was that their destructive intent towards Israel has been present from the start and is not the result of revenge for this recent bombing.

  11. Something along the lines of,
    “The Zionist apes and pigs have not yet allowed us to destroy them. Therefore, we must continue to seek their destruction…”

  12. “Medicaid is a state–federal partnership jointly funded by the states and federal government and administered by the states according to federal requirements to assist states in providing medical care to eligible people.”

    If you believe my quick Google search – illegals are not eligible based on federal requirements.

  13. thats the gist of it, now the regime, two witches and a warlock do everything to enable Iran Hamas and Qatar, a triumvirate, as they speed toward uranium enrichment’s zero barrier,

    the Times reaches its Duranty level, in putting a Hamas apparatchik who apparently looked the other way while his city became the launching pad for a genocidal attack, (I would say eizengruppen level) did they give this platform to the mayors of Kfar Zaa, or Netivot or Ashkelon (whose heart has been torn up by the actions of October 7th) rhetorical

  14. Tom Murin:

    This is Medi-Cal. It is the California equivalent of Medicaid, and it has given benefits to illegals for a long time; this is an extension of those benefits to a different age group. See this:

    Both lawfully present and not lawfully present individuals can apply through Covered California to see if they are eligible for a health plan through Covered California or Medi-Cal. There is no “waiting period” or “five-year bar.”

    Immigrants who are not lawfully present do not qualify for a health plan through Covered California; however, they may qualify for coverage through Medi-Cal if they are younger than 26 or are 50 or older, if they are a DACA recipient, if they are currently pregnant or were recently pregnant. Immigrants who are not lawfully present can also buy private health insurance on their own outside of Covered California. Additionally, some counties offer other health care options for immigrants who are not lawfully present.

    Now Newsom is saying that Medi-Cal will also cover that 26-50 gap for illegals.

  15. 1) 2024 will have many unpleasantries, personal and otherwise.
    2) NYT is despicable.
    3) She has said that she’s considering litigation.
    4) Will California eventually print its own currency and expect everyone to play along? It’s long since spent all of its US currency, and the next four generations’.
    5) Iran is evil and continues to proclaim it to anyone and everyone.

  16. 2) i’m reminded they gave an op ed to the taliban spokesman, or was that the visiting fellowship at yale, (it might have been both)

    4)maybe they are hoping for another stimulus like the one in 2021, golem might sign his john hancock to that

  17. 1. I have Scotch, but will need more for 2024. A lot more, but it is getting very expensive.
    2. Gaza and Chicago, interchangeable.
    3. Sue them into the ground.
    4. Soon to be coming to California of the Eastern Rockies – Colorado.

    Yesterday the US did an Airstrike in Iraq. Iraq complained – TS. My beef it that it was “proportionate”. Typical of the US these last few years. Me, I am thinking in Old Testament terms.
    The pro Palis mobs went to the homes of the Pentagon and NAS chiefs homes. And mobs in Manhattan. Isn’t it about time that the FBI find out who is funding and directing these groups? Oh wait, never going to happen.
    MTG swatted again. Saw that one previous swatter got all of 3 months in Jail. So far no one injured or killed, but it could happen. The Swatter attacked a sitting Member of Congress, isn’t that a Fed offense? We can imagine the sentence if someone swats a Dem can’t we.

    2024 is going to a Riot!

  19. we know who is funding them, probably the Qatari finance ministry directly, there were officials of their defense ministry who were funding the syrian militia, one errant prince protected Zarquawi, the previous butcher with a safehouse in anbar,

  22. (1) How are you feeling, post-Christmas? Are you ready for 2024?

    For me Christmas has always been an emotionally fraught holiday and I’m always relieved when it’s over. This year, to my amazement, I sailed through it. My devotion to French is part of it.

    For another, my friend Kiki, whom I met through neo’s blog, always puts on a great Christmas dinner gathering of conservative friends. Last night she made her fabulous Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon. I splurged on a bottle of claret and a good time was had by all.

    I guess I’ve reached my 70s and I’m letting a lot of stuff go. I’ve ordered my own copy of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

    But I’m not ready for 2024. I don’t believe anyone is.

  24. RE: UFOs and The “Galactic Federation”

    A couple of days ago I commented on another thread about the fact that, in a recent interview about the UFO Phenomenon, very prominent Harvard trained lawyer Danny Sheehan–who represents, among others, Lou Elizondo–very calmly and very matter of factly talked about his conviction—based on what he says he has seen and knows–that there are five or more species of NHIs visiting the Earth, and also about the existence of a “Galactic Federation,” which U.S. authorities have been in contact with.

    I had forgotten that, several years ago, Haim Eshed, the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Space Directorate for some 30 years, made exactly the same claims about the existence of a Galactic Federation, and U.S. contact with it in a book he wrote.*

    Then, of course, that very same assertion was also made by Paul Hellyer, former Member of the Canadian Parliament, and the former Canadian Minister of Defense.**

    Now why would two high level government officials from two entirely different countries—both of whom would presumably have been thoroughly briefed on important matters, and had access to all sorts of secret, high level intelligence that ordinary citizens of their countries would not, plus this prominent lawyer who was intimately involved in Lou Elizondo’s disclosure efforts—and presumably has learned a lot of inside information about the UFO Phenomenon in the process of his representation of Elizondo–all make the same seemingly crazy assertions?

    Why risk damaging your reputation by making these assertions, and in the public square, no less?

    Has each one of these three entirely separate and different, high level individuals, somehow become deluded–and about the exact same matters, have they all collectively gone crazy, or are these three men much more informed–in possession of special knowledge–and much more in the know than all of us may think we are?

    * See https://www.foxla.com/news/former-israeli-space-chief-says-us-in-contact-with-galactic-federation-of-aliens-and-trump-knows

    ** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFl29Uos9K8

  25. Why risk damaging your reputation by making these assertions, and in the public square, no less?

    Snow on Pine:

    I think you underestimate human needs for attention and income in the short term.

    Maybe the Galactic Federation is real. But people can and have become overly enthusiastic about far out claims.

    Consider Arthus Conan Doyle’s promotion of fairies:
    _______________________________

    The Cottingley Fairies: A Study In Deception
    Exploring two girls from West Yorkshire and one of the greatest hoaxes of the twentieth century.

    https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-cottingley-fairies-a-study-in-deception-leeds-university-library-galleries/lgVB6Ceti9WVAw?hl=en

  26. Neo, thank you for the clarification on Medi-Cal. California is free to spend its own money on this. I was concerned that HHS gave them some kind type of exemption from federal guidelines for Medicaid.

  27. After having several conversations on the topic recently, I’ve been wondering if anyone else’s family is still sitting down to a formal meal on a table set with china, silver, probably plated, or the new tableware, on a linen cloth, in a dining room.

    Or, something approximating that.

    Not that you would necessarily have to have the lights dimmed, candlesticks on the table, and serving platters and tureens right there either on the table or the sideboard, or server. But …

    It didn’t have to be prime rib or 2-300 bucks [ or much more] worth of standing rib roast to make it worthwhile. A simple turkey or ham would do fine.

    Ordinary working class people of the middle middle and lower middle income range once did this as a matter of course; as well as almost any family of any income level so far as their means allowed and they were not obviously dysfunctional.

    I must have lost track of “what other people are doing” because the typical middle American household seems to have adopted a “balance your plate on your belly shelf while watcning a game ensconsed in your recliner ” mode of enjoying their “Holiday Feast”

    Perhaps as well fed, and jaded as we are, a holiday meal has lost its status as something special, or even as any reason to put on underwear and replace your sweats with real clothing [ ok exaggerating there].

  28. Perhaps as well fed, and jaded as we are, a holiday meal has lost its status as something special,

    DNW:

    I’ve had many holiday meals solo. I am so grateful for the years I’ve had a place to go for a holiday meal and good company.

  29. @ Snow on Pine,

    Danny Sheehan might or might not be full of shit regarding UFO’s per se, but it spills out of his mouth as social justice obsession foam every few utterances.

    So factor that into your assessment of whether he might be engaging in motivated reasoning.

    Now that aside, suppose that you were an insider at an American aerospace company that had invested decades of research into trying with only limited success to reverse engineer an alien technology, which might, or might not be of epochal humanity transforming potential. Perhaps it could scoot you around the globe in minutes, but not get you to another galaxy.

    What possible obligation would you feel to share this knowledge with some crap bag like Biden or Obama, or the average morally deconstructed post modern nihilist. Patriotism?

    Give me a break. You have your own family and posterity’s future to look out for; and that would not include a sef-destructive commitment to a shared fate with what passes for over half of the America-hating American voters today.

  30. DNW,
    I do this for Thanksgiving and Christmas if it is at my house. Silver out of the safety deposit box, china out of the closet, Tiffany crystal candlesticks (wedding gift from best friend) and linen tablecloth and napkins.
    I am conflicted about using the Waterford crystal as I would never pay the $$ to replace anything broken. In the 30+ years since I got it it has quadrupled in price. But then what is the point of having it sit in a dark closet and never enjoyed?
    Torn.
    My mother started giving me silver place settings when I was in college. Got the china and crystal for wedding gifts.
    This is how I grew up and it is such a please to have special occasions like this.
    BUT! That’s not how it is for today’s generation. They say they move too often to have stuff like that. I could not give away my late mother in law’s beautiful china – none of the granddaughters wanted it.
    My best friend gave my daughter Waterford crystal champagne flutes for a wedding gift last spring – tradition! And there they are – sitting in my back closet – next to the Ballyshannon.

  31. RE: Old timey Big family Thanksgiving/Christmas dinners

    Many decades ago, when I was just a kid, my aunt used to host a big family dinner at her very large converted barn/estate—so big a home that the upstairs former hay loft had two full size tennis courts, with room for more.

    She hired a cook to help and someone to serve.

    A huge, long mahogany table sitting a dozen and, then, a smaller separate table for the kids.

    A long, blindingly white linen tablecloth, fine China, real solid silverware, candles, gravy boats, a great flowered centerpiece, and heavy carved glass salt containers with those little silver spoons.

    The sprawling house furnished with many almost glowing, hand made antique 18th century highboys and other furniture.

    A very large Christmas tree in their large living room with an almost walk-in sized crackling fireplace, all the family gathered around the piano singing carols, many comfortable couches and chairs, people comparing notes, presents presented and unwrapped.

    Alas, the grand house is long gone, all of those relatives are all now dead, and all that is left is a fond memory.

  32. … Perhaps as well fed, and jaded as we are, a holiday meal has lost its status as something special,

    DNW:

    I’ve had many holiday meals solo. I am so grateful for the years I’ve had a place to go for a holiday meal and good company.

    Glad to hear that. Sorry about the alone time.

    During my 2 plus years in Texas, I never established a domestic or couples relationship with a woman there.

    And so at holidays if I was not flying back “home”, I was generously ( in all seriousness) invited to spend the holiday mealtime with transplant yankee cousins at their house. Although it was way better than spending it cooped up in an apartment or in a bar, their fondness for alcohol ensured that each occasion wound up with what Seinfeld’s Mr. Costanza described as the ritual of airing grievances [against their in-laws.]

    Effen exhausting, no matter how many nubile and disinhibited 18 year old female friends of the daughters were wandering through the livingroom and across the patio as backdrop. 10 years too young for me even then.

    Then the Hurricane struck and destroyed my apartment complex and my own place with its two bedrooms, free cable, pool view, and apartment fireplace that was good for nothing like most apartment fireplaces were.

    I moved in with the cousin’s husband who I had recently sheltered after she kicked him out for serial adultery.

    Ok , coming to the point here.

    Despite our managing to snag one of those two-nearly-separate-living-spaces within one apartments to share, I had to just take a walk sometimes, or I would have beaten him to death.

    One especially trying day, it was Thanksgiving or Christmas, and after I had made plans to vacate within 60 days, I was walking through a nearby curving street subdivision of spacious midcentury ranches, tri levels, and colonials, at dusk. The houses were decorated and the lights were just going on inside.

    I thought of my family, in their similar house, the redhead I would not see [even though she was not quite divorced], and at 29 years of age, a full grown and more man, I almost broke down crying in the street. I prided myself on being harder than that.

    Yet it was all I could do not to walk up to a stranger’s front porch and ask to be allowed to sit in the corner of the living room because the house looked like one I had grown up in.

    I would have driven away right then if the drunk had not borrowed my car to take his girl friend to a J.P. the night before. An event that wound up in a breakup instead of the altar, his getting plastered, and my car returned to me with blown tires and broken tie rods.

    Neither he nor his pickup which I was supposed to have use of, were at the apartment that morning. Later I found out he was hiding out with my cousin, his estranged wife; who, had awakend me earlier that morning with a phone call that my car was being towed and that R. had “disappeared”. Or maybe I had called her thinking the pickup had been stolen, and she told me some of what had happened.

    That evening, after the walk through the subdivision, I almost hired a cab to drive me 1500 miles “home”.

    You and I are seldom on the same wavelength; but in this instance, I might feel some small measure of what you are expressing.

  33. DNW,
    I do this for Thanksgiving and Christmas if it is at my house. Silver out of the safety deposit box, china out of the closet, Tiffany crystal candlesticks (wedding gift from best friend) and linen tablecloth and napkins.
    I am conflicted about using the Waterford crystal as I would never pay the $$ to replace anything broken. In the 30+ years since I got it it has quadrupled in price. But then what is the point of having it sit in a dark closet and never enjoyed?

    I don’t think I even knew the difference between real silver and silverplate until recently.

    All those mahogany chests with a hundred some pieces I had to assign as the personal representative for the estate, were silver plate. I guess that is just what the default special occasion tableware was for unmonied families. Frankly I’d figure that should make one less cautious about setting it out.

    Apparently these chests are commonly found donated to Goodwill, and young hipsters buy and subject them to electrochemical processes to strip the minimal amount of actual silver.

    3 generations of middle class Moms’ cherished holiday tableware serving as scrap for the reclamation hobby of tatted-up men who wear knit caps indoors.

    I always did wonder why though, some “silver” stuff was so light. It was the real stuff.

    But hey, if it looks nice why not use it.

    At least as far as the utensils go you can always trot down to Goodwill and pick up an unused set for 20 bucks. If you can get there before the guys with the chemistry sets in their basements do.

  35. @ miguel “he is one of the nodes”

    He seems to be the Acme Poster Boy for anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Jews, anti-Western civilization — you name it, he’s against it, with the tweets and posts to prove it. Most of them are what you would expect; interesting that he lives up to his name so completely.

    No chance that he will be fired from any university position, as the Poisoned Ivy presidents made clear.

    Hatem Bazian is the founder of the anti-Israel organizations Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). As of March 2021, he served as AMP chairman.

    Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism, denied Jewish peoplehood and Jewish history and has compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

    Bazian has called for “intifada” in America, defended the Hamas terror group, expressed support for terrorists and fundraised for a Hamas-linked charity. He has politicized academic coursework and demonized Israel and Zionists.

    Bazian is also a leader within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

    As of March 2021, Bazian was a lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where he founded the Center for the Study of Documentation of Islamophobia in 2009.

    As of the same date, Bazian was the provost, co-founder and a faculty member of Zaytuna College for Muslim Studies (Zaytuna). As a graduate student, he reportedly headed the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UC Berkeley.

    Bazian is affiliated with IfNotNow (INN) and has spoken before Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

    Bazian writes prolifically against Israel, publishing his work on his personal website and other online sites including Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada.

    He is the author of a 2016 anti-Israel book titled “Palestine … it is something colonial”.

    His “rap sheet” goes on for pages, and years.
    Very few of his assertions are based in facts.

  36. We still have a sit down dinner at Thanksgiving, though not as fancy as we used to. Christmas is just a buffet with a spiral sliced ham and a few side dishes. Yes, we watched the local football team shit the bed while we ate.

  37. Here’s another good dissection of the Left, h/t Powerline.

    https://americanmind.org/salvo/wretched-of-the-university/
    Daniel J. Mahoney

    Postcolonialism rivals Jacobinism and Bolshevism in its systematic destruction of civil society.
    In the summer of 2020, decent Americans found themselves overcome by a torrent of propaganda besmirching the United States as a nation racist to its core, with “white privilege” making life intolerable for anyone but its immediate beneficiaries. A fanatical moralism demanded that all right-thinking people sign on to an anti-racist catechism that was as simplistic as it was absurd. And plead “guilty” untold numbers of people did, with a whiff of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the air.

    Civic courage was hardly to be found, and accommodation to ready-made lies provided a momentary reprieve for those, especially on the Left, afraid of being “cancelled” by their censorious peers utilizing social media as the weapon most ready-at-hand. The ritualistic self-loathing that had long been present, even institutionalized, on college campuses became the norm in journalism, the entertainment business, corporate culture, professional sports, and in many churches and synagogues, too. As Andrew Sullivan has strikingly observed on more than one occasion, we are all living on college campuses now.

    Naïve liberals and suburban housewives joined the hardened Marxists and Maoists (and grifters, too) of Black Lives Matter in demanding the radical revolutionary transformation of a country still largely free, decent, and self-critical. The police became targets of angry mobs (and Antifa terrorists), and pressure grew to withdraw police protection from the weak, aged, and vulnerable, especially in minority communities.

    The revolution was driven in large part by white progressives, trust fund babies, and the like who marched as they bandied about tired and stale revolutionary slogans. In the name of “anti-racism,” whole groups of people were stigmatized for belonging to the wrong race or “gender,” an ugly word that has become meaningless as it has been weaponized. Everything was racialized, and it became verboten to judge people by “the content of their character.” Those blacks, not a few in number, who wanted to think for themselves, who refused to define themselves as helpless victims and nothing else, were subject to endless vituperation. The loud, the angry, the uncivil, and the massively uninformed were lauded for their so-called courage and social consciousness. For months, the most “privileged” Americans playacted at revolution, as if any ideological revolution can ever end well.

    For all intents and purposes, America had gone mad. Grown-ups took their bearings from 18-year-olds repeating mindless and extremist slogans (and finding “systematic” violence and mass killings against black Americans where they didn’t exist). In their “socially constructed” world, an ideological Second Reality took the place of the common world where citizens debate and deliberate, sometimes contentiously but never violently, about matters of public import.

    Racialized woke activists did not believe in civic deliberation. Instead, they felt perfectly entitled to threaten, intimidate, and silence those who would not freely assent to their ideological nostrums. Notice how unpopular free speech is among those who have left the world of constitutional democracy behind. Like the totalitarians of old, they believe in fiat—binding commands—and “the triumph of the will” rather than the arts of republican persuasion. Lastly, their racial Manicheanism, their simplistic and arbitrary division of the world into evil exploiters and innocent victims, leaves no place for moral responsibility, civic reconciliation, and true justice, racial or otherwise.

    Since Hamas’s unbelievably cruel and sadistic attacks in southern Israel on October 7 we have seen yet another academic-induced outburst of ideological insanity, one that is truly bewildering to much of the public. In the summer of 2020, many decent Americans discovered for the first time (how could that be?) that their children had been indoctrinated for untold years in a cult of racialist victimization and recrimination that denied the very legitimacy of America’s founding principles and the nation’s capacity for civic and moral self-correction.

    RTWT

  39. Yikes… Should be “reining in” (a mistake that should not be made in this, raindeer season…)
    – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
    “…urgency…”

    It’s called the “weaponization of PEACE”
    (Kinda like the wildly popular weaponization of ‘human rights’…well, for SOME, anyway….)

    File under: “What do we want? To SAVE Hamas! When do we want it? NOW!!!”
    (To be sure, “To SAVE Hamas” is certainly translatable into something else…)

  40. Newsom and Co., come Jan 1, will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20/hr. Some 1000+ Pizza Hut drivers have been notified that they will no longer have jobs.
    Anything but a free market out here in socialist CA.

  41. AF, that Dyer post is a remarkable distillation of some very sinister stuff.
    But then anyone who can see knows that “Biden” is the epitome of sinister. Mega-sinister. Uber-sinister….

    (“He” kind of gave the game away, though, with that “So far, we have no indication that Iran was behind the Oct. 7 attack” codswallop…as though the game hadn’t already been away before that, as Dyer documents so cogently.)

    So thanks very much for placing the post “on the radar”.
    It’s something that should be read by everyone—but why do I suspect that it won’t be?

    (It also, alas, describes in great detail, along with quoting Caroline Glick, the already-known, nefarious activities of Israeli intelligence and military sectors…NO DOUBT with the active (if sub-rosa) encouragement of “Biden”‘s minions…)

    As mentioned, the ENTIRE post MUST be read; but two points from this amateur’s perspective (i.e., moi):
    (Well, three, since Dyer discusses the odious Robert Malley affair in some detail, pulling away the curtain from “Biden”‘s shady attempt at grand deception. But then what else is new…?)

    Dyer writes:
    “…On 24 February 2022, in the next move not related to Iran and the Middle East, Russia invaded eastern Ukraine, with a huge force massed across the border in Russia and Belarus, and a very large ground force actually participating in the invasion….”

    FWIW I have always believed that this “next move” was VERY MUCH “related to Iran and the Middle East”.

    And then there’s this more extended betrayal—with one caveat of mine, probably unnecessary, at the end (all emphasis mine; Barry M.)…
    ‘…On literally every policy front, Team Biden has accumulated no benefit-of-the-doubt merit points, but instead has been actively spending them down.

    ‘ In that regard, a brief (and relevant) summary of a deceptive series of events perpetrated by Team Biden is informative. Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has been following the story, and it’s a remarkably freighted one for how little attention it has received.

    ‘ Badran outlines here, from a Tablet article published 6 September 2023, the stealth manner by which the Biden foreign policy team has effectively undone President Trump’s 2019 recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. If you aren’t even aware it happened – that’s my point. Biden’s agencies act against U.S. interests, and take as much care as they can to do so undetectably or at least not explain it to the public.

    ‘ Please read the article for the particulars; the larger point is the undermining of a major policy milestone, but doing it deceptively and without declaring the reversal of policy or enunciating any reason for it.

    ‘ Biden has done this by inserting mundane language into routine policy instruments: language that effectively means the U.S. no longer recognizes Israeli sovereignty. The policy statements were scheduled to be made anyway (including renewal of the mandate for the UN monitoring mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, on 31 August 2023). So there’s no fanfare to herald them. It’s easy for Americans to miss that that’s what our government is doing.

    ‘ But Iran, Hezbollah, and the Assad government in Syria have no such blind spot. They see clearly what the Biden administration is doing. They’re invested in it.

    ‘ This is no way for the world’s nominal biggest superpower to conduct business. Skulking around subtly changing “sovereignty” to “control” in routinely-produced communications, and inserting gratuitous references to physical sites being “occupied” where there was no such language before, isn’t clever diplomacy. It’s the opposite of statesmanship, and it’s disgusting coming from American leadership….’

    WRT “This is no way for the world’s nominal biggest superpower to conduct business “…this is PRECISELY how Obama DOES business.
    The deceit and deception, the lying and concealment is PRECISELY his MO.
    (To be sure, this could be Dyer’s point…)

    In any event, read the whole spectacular, if alas worrisome, post.

    Thanks again, AF….
    And also for the equally essential Daniel Mahoney link…

  42. Oops, forgot to mention:
    Insofar as “…Biden’s agencies act against U.S. interests, and take as much care as they can to do so undetectably or at least not explain it to the public…” is the TRUTH for ALL “BIDEN” POLICY (foreign AND domestic), it is likewise, once again, precisely Obama’s MO.

    (Curious, though, why Dyer while saying that “Biden” was acting against US interests—though NOT against “Biden”‘s—didn’t stress that making Israel give up the Golan places Israel in dire—read, existential—danger, plays right into the hands of the Mullahs and elevates the risks of a total conflagration…which of course would be perfectly consistent with “Biden”‘s aims (especially since “he” will do “his” utmost to hogtie any military response by the Jewish State) especially with regard to the Alliance that Dare Not Speak Its Name…. OTOH, maybe this is so obvious that she didn’t have to…)

  43. DNW–RE: UFOs and a possible “Casablanca” Disclosure

    An interesting discussion last night on Richard Dolan’s Youtube channel with longtime UFO researcher Allan LaVigne, who had interesting takes on recent developments.

    LaVigne sees the passage of the Schumer Amendment—watered down though it be—as a warning from Senator Schumer and the Senate that Congress is pretty furious that elements of the DOD and the IC have withheld information from them, and moreover, have misappropriated funds that Congress appropriated for other programs.

    As LaVigne sees it, in effect, stealing money from the Congress is like stealing money from the Mafia; Congress will get satisfaction, and their money back.

    The great detail and specificity of the Senate passed version of the Schumer Amendment told the Secrecy faction within the DOD, the IC, and the the various aerospace contractors involved that—from what all sorts of whistle blowers have told them in testimony–Schumer and the Senate know, in granular detail, exactly what is going on, who runs what program and where, and who has what tucked away somewhere in a hanger.

    LaVigne believes that Disclosure is eminent–likely to happen some time in 2024–and he gave two possible scenarios.

    First, in a “Casablanca” move, the government raids one of these contractor’s “Program” locations, and announces to the world that they were astonished–astonished, I tell you–to find alien spacecraft and perhaps also alien remains, astonished to know that NHIs are real, and that “we were not alone,” throwing this contractor under the bus.

    Perhaps, then, they would produce a couple of relatively innocuous examples of what they found for public scrutiny, then announce that they had to subject the surprising things they found to intensive examination and research, and would report back to the American people when they understood what they had recovered.

    In the second scenario, Russia (or perhaps even China) would produce their own examples of downed UFOs, announce the presence of NHIs on Earth, and invite scientists from all over the world to come to Russia, and to study these astounding objects, thus gaining an immense propaganda coup, and advantage over the U.S. *

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAgFB8CvuWQ

  44. Tom Murin and neo – You can bet that after Biden is reelected, there will be a little-noticed “reinterpretation” of the statute that causes federal funds to flow to Medi-Cal for some pupose or another that, given the fungibility of money, will effectively fund Medicare for illegals.

  45. DNW—It is interesting that you talked about what if, some combination of government employees and aerospace contractors had in their possession downed UFOs and perhaps even the bodies of some NHI pilots, and were doing research on them, but they refused to notify our corrupt, self-serving government leadership of what they found.

    Long-time UFO historian and researcher Richard Dolan has speculated that what may have happened is that this very scenario may have come about.

    But that, in this case, these rogue government employees and contractors have not only not informed the government about what they have found, but they have used the immense financial benefits, power, and the scope for operations obtained from reverse engineering alien spacecraft –generation of immense amounts of power and it’s use, actual space and interstellar flight, and all sorts of other highly advanced scientific developments–to set up their own, increasingly divergent “Breakaway Civilization,” a civilization—what Senator Marco Rubio has warned would be “a government within the government”–which has its own objectives, it’s own “secret space program,” bases on the Moon, and elsewhere in our Solar system, etc.

  46. After having several conversations on the topic recently, I’ve been wondering if anyone else’s family is still sitting down to a formal meal on a table set with china, silver, probably plated, or the new tableware, on a linen cloth, in a dining room.
    ==
    My brother ring-mastered a dinner for 20, some of the cooking done by him and his daughters, the rest brought by the guests. Some friends, but mostly his in-laws (Italians, as you guessed). We have a nest of relations two hours down the road, some of whom piled into a van for a visit two days earlier. (The two adolescents with their noses stuck in their phones the whole time could have stayed home, IMO). Christmas dinner was roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. No plum pudding, as we don’t have any molds. No tablecloth, special china, or special silver. Just three of us.

  47. We have acquired over 55 yrs of Married life a number of things – 2 sets of China (one purchased while I was in the Navy and one in England for my Wife’s retirement), Crystal most of which is Factory Seconds, Silver Services and other bits and bobs. We have no children so it all be sold off at an Estate Sale. We have a nice formal Dining Room with nice furniture. We eat there every Sunday. On Holidays we use the China.

  48. More on that “three-front conflict” (discussed above)…
    “Gallant says Israel being attacked from seven sides, has hit back at six”—
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gallant-says-israel-fighting-multi-front-war-has-responded-to-threats-on-six-fronts/
    H/T Powerline blog.
    The more the merrier?
    Oh well. Three fronts, seven fronts, let’s call the whole thing off…

    But what’s in a number, anyway.
    (In other words, who’s counting??)
    “THE $6 BILLION MISUNDERSTANDING, CONT’D”—
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/12/the-6-billion-misunderstanding-contd-2.php

    If you like coverups, this one’s for YOU!
    But then so is the entire “Biden” immolation/conflagration/pyromanic lunacy….

  50. DNW,

    That Christmas tale was a great read, thanks for sharing!

    Not to exalt at your misfortune, but I imagine all of us have one or two similar Holidays in our history and, like yours, they help to increase and improve our appreciation for times when we are able to commune with loved ones.

    As a tangent, you probably should have walked up to one of those strangers’ homes and asked if you could share the Holiday with them. My guess is it wouldn’t have taken too many knocks to receive a sincere and heartfelt invitation.

  51. Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, my wife swaps out the everyday dinnerware with Spode Christmas china. We use it until the week after new year’s day. Family dinners on Christmas Eve and day are in the dinning room with holiday linens, silver plate cutlery and serving dishes and Spode Christmas glasses. For other holidays, our “wedding” china and crystal are used. My older sister was shocked that our young children were using the Spode and taking it to the dishwasher just like every day dinnerware. All three of our children have expressed interest in inheriting the Spode and Silver.

  53. Israel is not going to give up the Golan Heights, whatever our State Department may be doing.

    As Andrew Sullivan has strikingly observed on more than one occasion, we are all living on college campuses now.

    It does feel that way sometimes, especially in the larger metropolitan areas.

  57. @ Barry > “maybe this is so obvious that she didn’t have to”

    Already well-known to her readership.
    As was a lot of her analysis, of course, being the political junkies that we are, but she brings in reports and background that I usually haven’t seen, haven’t connected, or plain don’t have access to.

    IMO Abraxas is correct: Israel is going to have to ignore Biden Inc and get done what needs doing.
    Which may include bombing Iran’s nuke facilities sooner rather than later.

    “Gallant says Israel being attacked from seven sides, has hit back at six”
    He didn’t name the “missing” hit; Iran may be the one. I confess to having lost track of all the attacks and counter-attacks going on.

    I didn’t have Armageddon on my bingo card for this year.

  61. Yes, it would have to be Iran… the dog that didn’t bark—or rather the dog that doesn’t stop barking, but to whose threatening, sickening yelps “Biden” prefers to play deaf…because that’s “his” dog in this fight even if he’d rather not admit it…after all there’s an election to “win” in less than a year…and “he” needs “his” Jews to stay onside until then. (After that “he” can shaft ‘em…)

  62. Not sure of the current status, but for a long time Medi-Cal was provided to illegals on a county by county basis. And the county had to provide at least some of the funds. Mine has many farm workers & has done so for at least 30 years.

  64. Not “kapos,” more like comisars or political officers (from that other socialist totalitarian regieme); assigned to maintain ideological purity, compliance, and obediance to the Party.

  65. We have a neighbor who is recovering from a knee replacement. The woman who was staying with her for the first week had family Christmas time, so my wife filled in for about five days. Stayed over night and so forth.
    My wife had taken an ice spill when delivering meals on wheels, so I would occasionally visit to do what heavy lifting was necessary Cooked some entrees and had dinner with them.
    Christmas day, took an elderly woman in our church to Christmas services. Had lunch, dialed up Robert Shaw Chorale doing Christmas carols they way the should be done, got out a low-end bottle of wine and was grateful my wife and I had enough left that we could give something–drive, help, carry, mini home fixing, so forth.
    First time alone on Christmas in about…my whole life.
    But, as we used to say, if you have indoor plumbing, everything else is gravy.

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