I’m in NYC …

The New Neo Posted on by

… for the first time in five years. The last time I was here was for a niece’s wedding that took place a few months before COVID. And now I’m here for a different niece’s wedding. Last time I came in a car. This time no more driving in NYC; I’ve lot my nerve for that.

So I did something I haven’t done in about 55 years: I took the bus to the Port Authority Terminal.

The bus ride was fine. I was really wondering how the Port Authority Terminal would be faring after all those many years. I remember it as having always been seedy, full of drunks and crazy people and what used to be called vagrants but are now the un-housed. But when I got off the bus and entered the terminal, I immediately noticed that it’s been somewhat spiffied up in the intervening half-century. It’s cleaner, for one thing, and brighter – and it may be one of the few places in the US that now has fewer crazies and street people than before. That’s not to say it has none, of course. But it really did seem to be, if not a pleasant place, at least a less unpleasant place.

I’m planning to be in New York for a week. But don’t worry, I also plan to keep up with the blogging.

Those Dying Swans

The New Neo Posted on by

“The Dying Swan” is not my favorite dance – not by a longshot. It’s a schmaltzy little number that was choreographed by Fokine a hundred and twenty years ago as a concert piece to display the expressive talents of Anna Pavlova, who is said to have danced it four thousand times. Very little happens with the feet except the fast little fluttery movements on pointe known as bourrées; the dance is pretty much all arms, head, and face. Technically it’s simple, although not everyone does the same exact movements. Artistically it’s difficult.

Here’s the extraordinary Galina Ulanova performing it at the age of 46 in 1956. Note in particular the part that starts around 2:18 and goes to about 2:37, where Ulanova does something I haven’t seen in other videos of the dance: her swan struggles mightily to fly, flails and fails, and then a wild panic sets in. I’ve never seen anyone else convey that degree of animal fear in the role. And at the end, Ulanova doesn’t just gracefully fold herself down like so many other dancers. She really seems to die:

Here’s Pavlova, the original, in a blurry movie. It’s a very precious record of her style:

Here’s Plisetskaya of the magical arms, in 1959:

This last video is of Natalia Osipova from a few years ago. It holds no interest for me, although I am sure her technical skill is superlative. But there is not a single moment where she convinces me that she might be a swan rather than a ballet dancer emoting and making pretty pictures:

South Africa’s ambassador to the US is sent packing

The New Neo Posted on by

This doesn’t sound like diplomat-speak:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that South Africa’s ambassador to the United States “is no longer welcome” in the country, in the latest Trump administration move targeting the African nation.

Rubio, in a post on X, accused Ebrahim Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates President Donald Trump and declared him “persona non grata.”

Rubio linked to a Breitbart story about a talk Rasool gave during a South African think tank’s webinar.

Rasool, speaking by videoconference, talked about Trump ally Elon Musk’s outreach to far-right figures in Europe as a “dog whistle” in a global movement trying to rally people who see themselves as part of an “embattled white community.” …

It is highly unusual for the U.S. to expel a foreign ambassador, although lower-ranking diplomats are more frequently targeted with persona non grata status.

You may have noticed – as I did – that “Ebrahim Rasool” sounds like a Muslim name. Here’s some of Rasool’s background:

Ebrahim Rasool was born 15 July 1962 in District Six, Cape Town to a Muslim family of mixed English-Javanese-Dutch-Indian heritage. Since he was classified as Coloured by the apartheid system, when he was nine years old, he and his family were forcefully evicted from the area due to the government declaring the area a “Whites – only” residential suburb.

Rasool has had a long career in politics in South Africa, starting during the apartheid era. Here’s more of his history:

On 14 July 2008, Rasool was recalled from the position of premier by the National Executive Committee of the ANC, as the ANC leadership had disapproved of him giving preference to the large Muslim and Cape Coloured populations in the Western Cape.

At one time, race determined just about everything in South Africa. To a large extent, I think it still does.

It should come as no surprise whatsoever that Rasool also is Hamas-friendly:

In a Semafor report earlier this week, a South African cited Rasool’s strident criticism of Israel — with the news site describing him as one of the South African government’s “most ardent pro-Palestine voices” — as the reason for his struggle to secure meetings with US officials.

He has also appeared to express support for Hamas, posting a photo to Facebook in September 2023 of a scarf that he said was signed by the terror group’s then leader Ismail Haniyeh and which he received during an “ITI programme with Hamas to share strategic wisdom in the face of Arab ‘normalisation,’ further Israeli occupation , & US approval.”

NOTE: South Africa has long had a fairly large population of ethnic Indians, and I recall that Gandhi spent many years there – 21, to be exact. It was where he developed many of his political beliefs, and where he experienced the most prejudice compared to other places he had lived, such as London.

It’s hard to say goodbye to your MAGA friends but unfortunately they’re Nazis

The New Neo Posted on by

This is the sort of thing a lot of people are watching:

From the comments there, for example:

It’s so true. And it’s painful to deal with.

Yup! Thnx for your input about what we are all going through. It’s so friggin tragic ?

Yeah. I found that out in 2020.

I deleted every friend/ acquaintance I had. In this red state, they were all MAGAT. It was totally liberating!
I do feel a bit sad about only 1 of them of which I knew for 40 years. I do miss the person she used to be.
However I am better off without those toxic people.

Hi Cheri, it may seem harsh but it’s true and necessary.

I’ve lost 7 people who were once very dear to me because of MAGA. One, Mark S. became my BEST friend in 1965. I guess I never REALLY knew him at all.

Seems like the “loss” of those people was that commenter’s own choice – but he or she sees it as an inevitable outcome of their Nazi-esque political positions.

Reports of the demise of the Democrat Party: are they premature or not?

The New Neo Posted on by

Political fortunes are strange. A political party can go bankrupt of ideas slowly and then all at once. It certainly seems as though that’s happened to the Democrats.

Their formerly-appealing ideas – appealing to slightly over half the country for many years – went like this: Trump is a demon; Republicans are racist, xenophobic, homophobes who are out to hurt poor people and everyone except the GOP’s greedy fat-cat supporters; Democrats are the truth-tellers and all the rest is “without evidence.”

Somewhere along the line that message got stale. Maybe it was the naked injustice of the lawfare charges against Trump and the left’s relentless pursuit of them. Maybe it was four years of denial of the reality of a cognitively-challenged president. Maybe it was the preposterous insistence that biological men should be able to compete against women just by declaring themselves to be women. Maybe it was the wars that happened on Biden’s watch, or the ignominy of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Maybe it was that young people like to rebel, and after being force-fed so much leftism, supporting conservatives becomes rebelliousness.

And maybe it’s also the utter ridiculousness of the current crop of Democrats, such as this:

Tensions between prominent Democrat leaders grew Friday, as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked Senate Leader Chuck Schumer for caving on the Republican continuing resolution (CR). At the same time, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries refused to comment on his future as a leader.

The striking remarks by Pelosi (D-CA) and the lack of response by Jeffries (D-NY) speak volumes about how disappointed they are with Schumer’s actions. …

The remarkable level of disarray and infighting in the Democratic party has been simmering for a while, but Schumer’s offer to go along with the CR and temporarily keep the government open appears to have been a bridge too far for some.

The Democrats have long operated as though messaging is the key to victory – that, plus demographics and identity group voting. Both things did not work in 2024. Anyone who actually listened to Kamala Harris’ interviews could see that she was struggling to say anything of substance, and kept repeating memorized talking points that didn’t necessarily have much to do with the questions being asked. People knew that inflation was hurting them in the supermarkets, and no amount of pointing to figures that the rate of inflation had slowed could tell them there wasn’t a problem. Trump’s supporters had never deserted him, but in 2024 they got assistance even from some Black and Hispanic men, who decided that Trump would be a better bet. That in particular probably shook Democrat operatives to their cores.

Not all that long ago Democrats looked invincible. A lot of people on the right who believed the 2020 election was won by cheating also believed there never would be another Republican victory. It also looked as though Trump might be going to prison. But look what happened instead. The reversal – beginning, I believe, with Trump’s surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania – has been stunning. I don’t think the Democrats know what hit them.

But as I see it, Trump’s success in consolidating support during his term will depend on results. He certainly gets A for effort so far; it’s been a whirlwind. But in a way – and forgive the mixed metaphor – it’s a high-wire act. Almost everything Trump does has been high-risk. He will have to produce: for example,ceasefires that don’t offend either side too much; the reduction of inflation, fraud, and waste; the clean-up of agency partisanship and persecution of political enemies without unjustly persecuting his enemies; and the end of unchecked open borders and the deportation of criminal illegal aliens (he’s already made a good showing there).

How forgiving will the American people be if all those things don’t happen? How many people will want the pendulum to swing right back to the left? I don’t know the answer. I just know that I cheer for every good result he can accomplish, because I do not want to see the left regain power.

Happy pi day

The New Neo Posted on by

I just learned that today is pi day.

No, not that kind of pie. National Pie Day comes on January 23rd – and now that I’ve learned that, I plan to celebrate next year. Pie is one of my very favorite desserts.

Today is Pi Day – this kind of pi:

Pi Day is supposed to be a celebration of math. Good luck with that – it’s been my experience that people either like math or they don’t. My mother hated it, my father liked it, and I liked it to right up to some point in college where it suddenly became opaque to me. Perhaps that was because my professor at the time couldn’t speak English and therefore could explain nothing to us. Or perhaps I had simply reached my math ceiling, like the guy in the photo.

So, let’s celebrate!

On Dennis Prager

The New Neo Posted on by

Prager’s been on the right and in the public eye for decades. Roger L. Simon reports that Larry Elder has suggested that Prager should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Simon agrees:

Many people have their Dennis Prager stories, I among them. He doesn’t know it—I never told him, but I guess I am now— but his influence on me was as strong as anybody’s. Back in the 1990s, when I was still a Jewish liberal but, shall we say, questioning, I would listen to Dennis on the car radio on my way back from tennis, then and now my primary way of getting exercise.

At first I thought he was a bit too right-wing, too rigid, but he was clearly quite intelligent. Gradually, however, he won me over. Maybe it was that “Happiness Hour,” because in those days, like so many liberals, I had bouts with depression. His highly moral, Torah-based, way of thinking also had an impact. He was a man of principle and I admired that, even envied it.

Recently I’ve enjoyed Jordan Peterson’s series on Exodus, and Prager was an active participant in that. I also was aware that last November he suffered a catastrophic fall (at the age of 76) that left him paralyzed and on a respirator. From what I’ve heard, he has improved to the point of now being off the respirator and there is a possibility of some further improvement, and he is set to take up his radio show again.

I wish him all the best, and further healing.

Now it’s Putin’s turn

The New Neo Posted on by

Once Zelensky got onboard – which he sorta kinda is – the ball was in Putin’s court. So this could be the start of a big story or it could end up meaning nothing at all.

How’s that for clarity on my part? How’s that for going out on a limb with a prediction?

Here’s the news from earlier this afternoon:

In his first public remarks on the proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Russia is “for it” but that he wants his own security guarantees.

Putin raised questions regarding a 30-day ceasefire during a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, as President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff landed in the city to discuss the proposal.

“It seems to me, it would be very good for the Ukrainian side to reach a truce for at least 30 days. And we are for it. But there is a nuance,” Putin said, highlighting concerns regarding Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces pushed into last year in a surprise offensive but in recent weeks have seen Russian forces retake significant ground.

“If we stop the hostilities for 30 days, what does it mean? Does it mean that everyone who is there will leave without a fight?” Putin said. “Or the Ukrainian leadership will give them an order to lay down their arms and just surrender? How will it be? It is not clear.”

That’s what talks are for.

Witkoff certainly has his hands full, as of course does Trump.