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The New Neo Posted on by

Here we go; lots of news:

(1) Ex-hostage Edan Alexander says that the terrorists treated him better after Trump’s election:

Alexander’s aunt, Sharon Senyor, told the Ynet news site on Wednesday that “he said that since Trump took power his conditions improved. From the moment they started to talk about him, they gave him more food so that he would gain weight.”

Ynet also reported, citing conversations Alexander had with others since his release on Monday, that following Trump’s inauguration, the freed hostage was moved to a “VIP tunnel” with senior Hamas officials in order to both serve as a human shield and provide him with further protection due to his American citizenship.

2025. (Office of the Special Envoy to the Middle East/X)
Freed hostage Edan Alexander’s conditions in captivity improved following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January, according to a family member.

Alexander’s aunt, Sharon Senyor, told the Ynet news site on Wednesday that “he said that since Trump took power his conditions improved. From the moment they started to talk about him, they gave him more food so that he would gain weight.”

Ynet also reported, citing conversations Alexander had with others since his release on Monday, that following Trump’s inauguration, the freed hostage was moved to a “VIP tunnel” with senior Hamas officials in order to both serve as a human shield and provide him with further protection due to his American citizenship.

This echoes comments Alexander reportedly made during his phone conversation with Trump on Tuesday.

Fearing Trump’s anger and perhaps retaliation, they didn’t want him to look like a concentration camp inmate. So they fattened him up a tiny bit.

(2) Kash Patel says the FBI will be moving from the Hoover Building. Not just the building, but DC itself:

“Look, the FBI is 38,000 when we’re fully manned, which we’re not. In the national capital region, in the 50-mile radius around Washington, D.C., there were 11,000 FBI employees,” Patel said. “That’s like a third of the workforce. A third of the crime doesn’t happen here, so we’re taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out.”

“Every state’s getting a plus-up, and I think when we do things like that, we inspire folks in America to become intel analysts and agents and say, ‘we want to go work at the FBI because we want to go fight violent crime, and we want to get sent out into the country to do it,'” he added. “That’s what we’re doing in the next three, six, nine months we’re going to do that hard.”

(3) You know that Qatar airplane the left has made such a hue and cry about, as though it’s a gift for Trump? Well, now we learn the following from an interview with Senator Markwayne Mullin:

“What the media isn’t telling you and what no one’s talking to you about is this same 747 has been in negotiations for a year,” Mullin revealed. “The Biden administration is the one that started these conversations.”

“It didn’t start in the Trump administration. Why? Because we need a backup for Air Force One. Because right now, the President of the United States is flying around on a 40-year-old plane and there is no backup for it.”

Mullin reiterated his initial point.

“No one is discussing that part. They’re discussing that the deal ended with President Trump,” the senator continued. “Maybe the media doesn’t know.”

Yeah, maybe. Nor do they care to find out.

(4) Speaking of “not knowing,” that’s Comey’s claim about a tweet of his highlighting what appears to be a call to assassinate Trump:

Comey claims to have had no idea what the numbers meant. Why put it up, then? And if he’s really that ignorant – which I very much doubt – has he never heard of finding out?

More here on the subject.

(5) Trump’s budget bill fails to come to a vote in the House. The Budget Committee didn’t approve:

The committee vote failed with just 16 lawmakers in favor, and 21 voting against.

Several hard-liners signaled that they would derail the tax and budget measure over concerns that it adds to a bloated national debt. The holdouts — which include Republican Reps. Ralph Norman, Chip Roy and Andrew Clyde — threatened to prevent the package from advancing out of the House Budget Committee, which convened Friday morning.

And that’s what happened. I assume there will be more negotiating on this.

Comments

Roundup — 31 Comments

  1. I’ve desteted Comey at least since his infamous 2016 comments about Hillary’s email scandal. He is the examplar of everything that is wrong with the modern DC aparat. His blatant unapologetic protecting of corruption, undermining of the people’s will, and general perfidy combined with his insufferable veneer of self righteousness are saddly all too common in Washington DC. In a more decent world he would be rotting in jail. Not that I expect that such a thing will happen over this puerile incident, but one can hope.

  2. #5
    Comey used to know what those numbers mean.
    (That’s why he posted them—unless they were the first half of the winning lottery combination that his sources, still active, “planted” on the beach for him to “find”…)

    But he has since forgotten…or, more accurately, “can’t quite recall”….

  3. I don’t know how the Democrats kept their Caucus in line, with never a defection.
    The GOP leadership needs to take lessons.
    I would never advocate violence, but there is a procedure called ‘knee capping’. I am thinking in a virtual, political sense of course. Aren’t I?
    So, I suppose these holdouts would just as soon not see a budget–again, and do another series of CRs; which, by the way, guarantees increased spending.

  4. Maybe it’s just me, but the “8647” incident raises some questions.
    For one, if you wanted the President dead, or anyone else for that matter, would you advertise it ?
    If you did advertise it, would you do so using seashells on a beach ?
    If you saw the seashells on the beach, would you take a picture of them and post them online ?
    The whole thing reminds me of the infamous “pea tape”, in that it assumes that someone is doing something which no one that you’ve ever met has actually done.
    It may be coincidental that Comey was connected to both incidents.

  6. Oldflyer, it is remarkable how the Democrats are able to maintain discipline. This is regardless of their margin of victory. Here in California, in 2024, the Democrats stole three House seats from the Republicans by “ballot curing”. If you do not know what that is look it up. A thoroughly corrupt process. But the point is they only won by perhaps 100 votes out of 200,000 voters. Despite this they vote straight down the line with the other Democrats. President Trump has it right, the Republicans on the budget committee who voted with the Democrats are grandstanding.

  7. SC blocked Trump from deporting criminals under the Alien and Sedition Act. Only two supported him, guess which two.
    Just another reason why the Dems aren’t really concerned about things. They still get their way.

  8. #5

    All my lefty friends were celebrating the GOP holdouts on the bill, saying someone finally stood up to Trump. I had to remind them that these are the budget hawks who want deeper and faster cuts.

  9. The airplane…still, whatever the history of the negotiations, why should the US accept an airplane as a gift from Qatar? It certainly undercuts the critique of all the Qatar-funded universities.

    Nice to save the money, but…

  10. think of it like a bat signal, of course comey goes back as a saboteur in the 00s, against the Terrorist surveillance program, and most every major initiative, allowing at least one terror plot, the Madrid one, in 2004, ‘the bedside conference drama’ that alberto gonzalez still hasn’t figured out, of course he followed mueller the less said the better about him, the better

  11. @Oldflyer:So, I suppose these holdouts would just as soon not see a budget

    It’s the GOP leadership screwing conservatives over by demanding bloated budgets that fund Democratic priorities–they want their cronies to get paid and they have to buy off Dems to do that. And as usual, there are no friends to the Right, so we dump on the few actual conservatives in Congress. And then we wonder why nothing changes.

    Been the same thing since the Contract With America. The GOPe got rid of Gingrich and have spent like drunken sailors ever since.

    The main business of Congress is appropriations, not policy or culture issues or legislation. That is our biggest blind spot in the Right blogosphere that we almost never talk about appropriations or try to do anything about them. The GOPE kneecaps us on social issues, legislation, and policy so they can get the appropriations through.

    But we once did care. Remember PorkBusters? I’m guessing one reason it went away is the increasing monetization of the Right blogosphere but that’s only a guess.

  12. If he actually did not know that 86 can mean kill or incitement to violence, he needs to be sued and brought up on charges for defrauding the public for holding the FBI Director job while blatantly unqualified for the position and ignorant of necessary knowledge.

    Of course I don’t think that is actually the case. But I do think it shows how there is no good explanation for him with this. Even if I magically believed he did not make this display his decision to make a photo perfect snap of it and then to post it online (without anything like “This is insane, I saw this on my wall and it seems like people are talking about killing the President or getting rid of him”) should be taken as advocacy for and agreement with the message.

  13. I don’t agree Niketas. I believe this was Trump’s budget. The party should pass the President’s first budge. There used to be a term that would be appropriate in the GOP Caucus; K-A-&-T-N

    Why would Comey do such a silly stunt? Because he is an arrogant unmentionable he thinks he is above the law.

    I believe the SCOTUS just guaranteed the suspension of Habeas Corpus for at least certan classes of Illegals. At least I hope so. This farce has gone on long enough.

    Parenthetically, I don’t imagine Trump is too proud of his nominations, and wishes for a ‘do over’.

  14. I had no idea 86 meant to kill. I thought it was diner slang. I only ever heard it used to mean eject an unruly or undesirable customer from a bar.

  15. Re #4:I first heard 86 in the late 80s/early 90s and it meant cancel.
    Richf has some interesting questions. This is another distraction from discussing America’s clear and present dangers.

    I heard Moodys downgraded the USA. Probably should have been done in 2021, but wasn’t in order to not hurt Biden. Maybe that will help with #5 – it is beyond the time to cut spending. Here is the wake up call.

    I’m behind on my reading – has anyone mentioned Providence RI raising the palestinian flag over city hall today? Is that real?! https://www.christopherfountain.com/blog/2025/5/14/even-for-a-state-that-repeatedly-reelects-senator-whiteclub-this-is-shocking

  16. Bof – words and slang seem to change meanings very quickly these days. When I see a word in an unusual context, I check for a current definition of the word or a sequence of letters.

  17. Language changes for various reasons but mainly I think because newcomers—children and immigrants—learn our language imperfectly. And for some reason we are supposed to learn to speak like them instead of them learning to speak more like us.

  18. Josh Blackman, again:

    The past 24 hours have been something of a Rorschach Test for the Supreme Court. In the birthright citizenship case, the Court made clear that in emergencies, the judiciary must retain the power to enter universal injunctions, even if Article III does not otherwise permit such injunctions. And in A.A.R.P. v. Trump, the Court made clear that in emergencies, the court should certify a class without going through Rule 23, and grant an ex parte tro without considering any of the usual TRO factors.

    What lesson should lower court judges take away? In cases of perceived emergencies, forget all the rules and make stuff up. When the executive branch takes such actions we call it an autocracy. When the courts do it, they call it the “rule of law.”

    https://reason.com/volokh/2025/05/16/scotus-to-casa-to-a-a-r-p-in-case-of-perceived-emergency-ignore-the-rules-and-make-stuff-up/

  19. My understanding is that the budget bill provides immediate tax cuts, but its spending cuts don’t take effect for ~ 5 years, so I support the GOP dissenters. We need to start cutting new spending *today yesterday!*
    ……………………………………………….
    I heard on conservative AM radio that 86 47 has been used on left wing sites to mean “kill Trump”, but a quick web search didn’t corroborate that. According to Urban Dictionary, 86 could mean to kill, but that isn’t its primary meaning.
    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=86

  20. SCOTUS has chosen the illegal invasion as the hill to die on? Stunning! Seems unwise to say in an emergency it is constitution be damned when the other guy, the guy with the guns, might say message received.

  21. @ sdferr – a commenter on Blackman’s post linked to this one.

    https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/151-the-supreme-courts-alien-enemies

    I don’t presume to follow all the legal ins and outs, but I thought I would throw it into the discussion.

    Reason’s contributors are not all on the same page, which is interesting.
    https://reason.com/volokh/2025/05/15/some-reasons-to-be-skeptical-of-nationwide-injunctions/

    PS for those as nonplussed as I was, the A.A.R.P. of the case is NOT the American Association of Retired People. I think it’s the plaintiffs initials, but that is never really made clear in any of the posts I’ve seen, although Wikipedia clears up some of the confusion.
    “The case was originally brought on behalf of two detainees using the pseudonyms A.A.R.P. and W.M.M.[1] The court changed the case’s caption to W.M.M. v. Trump after the AARP sought to intervene, citing potential confusion with the lead plaintiff’s pseudonym and the retired adult advocacy organization.[2]”

  23. In re #4: Most of the posts I’ve read, including Neo’s link to Ace, point out that an FBI Director who had no knowledge that “86” could mean something more violent than showing someone the door was prima facie incompetent.

    However, Charlie Martin (and a few others) has, IMO, identified the true meaning of the absurd photo incident (clearly staged, not “encountered”).
    https://pjmedia.com/charlie-martin/2025/05/16/lets-86-the-86-thing-mkay-n4939868

    The problem, of course, is Comey’s now-deleted post with the numbers “8647”. The thing is, “86” is just not an explicit suggestion that Trump should be murdered. The code “86” means a lot of things: it can mean a server should know a certain menu item is not available; it can mean a brand of alcohol is not available in a bar; it can mean for the bouncer to throw out a difficult or obstreperous customer.

    But it doesn’t mean to then take the customer into the alley and cut his throat. Or her throat, not to be sexist about it. And the idea that it means “take them 8 miles out and put them 6 feet under” appears to be an urban legend, relatively recent back-formation from the slang meaning for 86 that dates to the ’30s.

    So, now it turns out that Comey actually has a book coming out in a few days about a Mary Sue main character who investigates, arrests, and apparently convicts a conservative radio talker of inciting a murder by dog-whistling. Coincidentally.

    Let’s assume that Comey was actually arrested, charged, all that stuff, and then came to trial. His defense: he didn’t say assassinate Trump. The “86” just means “throw the bum out.” As part of his defense, he brings up the people who were saying “8646” and “8645” and weren’t charged — and there were apparently many.

    I wouldn’t want to be the prosecutor trying to get a jury to conclude that Comey was proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, to have been calling for Trump’s assassination.

    So what comes of this? Comey has gotten lots of new attention, while swearing that he didn’t have sex with that woman, that he would never want to suggest violence, and that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Publicity that has gotten lots of attention for his upcoming Mary Sue about what he wishes he could do to Steve Bannon, publicity that is sure to lead to more sales and probably favorable reviews in Harper’s, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

    All while the legacy media points and laughs.

    Look, I really don’t think I can head off this moral panic at this point. I’m just saying, like Cassandra, that it’s going to be a disaster. And we could take a deep breath and avoid it.

    I would just as soon see him in jail, if only because he should have already been there.

    The Feds got Al Capone for tax evasion, not the much more heinous things he was undoubtedly guilty of.

  24. Ace is not happy with SCOTUS.
    https://ace.mu.nu/archives/414862.php

    Left-Wing Supreme Court Rules 7-2 That Trump Cannot Deport Terrorist Illegal Aliens Without a Cumbersome Lengthy Trial

    By what right are they here? They have zero legal right to be here, but the soon-to-be-ignored-and-chastened Supreme Court says we have to have trials to deport people who are illegal aliens with no right to even be present.

    Roberts and all of Trump’s liberal-leaning, Federalist-Society-certified saboteurs voted with the liberal bloc.

    When Republican AGs sued Biden over his illegal policy of ignoring the law and dissolving the border, the Supreme Court tossed out their lawsuit, ruling that the President had plenary power to conduct the foreign policy of the country (of which immigration enforcement is a part) and therefore the courts had no power to restrain him.

    Now that Trump is deporting these Undocumented Americans, the Court reverses itself and says “You bet the courts have power to overrule the President in his conduct of foreign policy.”

    Disgusting — and destabilizing.

    Just a guess, but the Justices may have decided that keeping people out is foreign policy, but kicking them out is not.
    I don’t agree in this particular situation, but it’s a possibility.

    And they could just be left-winging it.

    They obviously don’t follow the news as it affects The Little People.
    https://ace.mu.nu/archives/414848.php

    By the way: Completely unrelated, apropos of nothing, but murder rates in Denver and Aurora, Colorado are plummeting now that Tren de Aragua members have been deported.

  26. Neo, I came across this article about an assailant of salman rushdie recieving 25 years for stabbing him. Apparently Rushdie was blinded in one eye from this attack. I don’t remember having heard of this at all back in 2022 when it happened, just the threats earlier in time against him for writing the Satanic Verses. I did a little researching, and learned the fatwa that was issued against Rushdie by ayatollah khamenei happened back in 1989.

    The west has such a short cultural memory. Islamists don’t.

    https://redstate.com/beccalower/2025/05/16/would-be-assassin-of-author-free-speech-advocate-salman-rushdie-receives-max-prison-sentence-n2189201

  27. Regarding 5)
    A few things I didn’t know in here, but I rarely get into the nitty gritty of politics.

    Conservatives are right to warn about the bill’s weak spending reforms.

    https://archive.md/JkdZH

    The real problem is the so-called Republican moderates, who are running the party from the rump. These lawmakers don’t want to touch Medicaid, not that the concessions the moderates have been given so far have stopped false attacks from Democrats (or GOP Sen. Josh Hawley). The immoderate moderates also don’t want to touch Joe Biden’s green subsidies. The current House bill postpones some subsidies from phasing out until 2029.

  28. I’ve been hearing “86” and “86ed” since the early 60s… Not as a recipient as my behavior is always beyond reproach. I have never seen it understood as a death penalty or involved with bloodshed. I’ve been present for many discussions about where it started or what the reference to the numbers meant (some state’s penal code section, etc,— none survived rudimentary research). Again, nothing to imply violence other than figuratively grabbing the offender by the “butt plate and stacking swivel” and tossing him out.

    Overstating something like this not a good way for our team to move the ball down the field.

  29. #3 is incredibly funny. In fact I have trouble not laughing out loud when I hear about it! Really this plane is going to be AIR FORCE ONE. Do people really think that Trump gets to take it with him when he leaves office? A sane headline would be-“Qatar gives plane to America to be Air Force One”.
    What a bunch of maroons!

  31. Saw a picture of Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan governor, D. Had “86 45” in some kind of background. After seeing what Comey’s effort looks like, think Whitmer’s might have been shells.

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