I suppose you’ve heard …

The New Neo Posted on by

… about this:

The U.S. Senate staffer who filmed himself having sex with his boyfriend inside a Capitol Building meeting room has been fired. That news was delivered in a statement put out by Sen. Ben Cardin’s office, the Democrat who employed the staffer.

As RedState reported, the saga first came to light on Friday afternoon, with the only real details being that the staffer was a member of Cardin’s office. Shortly after, the staffer was identified as Aidan Maese-Czeropski, and the video he produced was obtained and publicized. I won’t go into detail describing it except to say it was the hardcore variety.

Cardin’s announcement that Maese-Czeropski was fired could not been less informative.

More here. And here’s a post in which John Hinderaker goes into Maese-Czeropski’s sort-of-denial.

Apparently this incident hasn’t been covered much if at all in the MSM. I’m not inclined to say much about it either, although probably for different reasons. My reason is that it gives me a sense of exhaustion. These days, I find that many stories that are the sensation du jour fill me with that same feeling.

This story puts me in mind of that old saying variously attributed to many different well-known people: “I don’t care what anybody does, so long as they don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” Posting this video online is the equivalent, I suppose, of “doing it in the street.” As for horses, I don’t think they’re watching the internet, nor are they in Congress. Yet.

Hamas knows Israelis care about children. And so they set a trap for the IDF.

The New Neo Posted on by

It didn’t work:

Israeli soldiers foiled “an elaborate Hamas ambush” that used dolls and children’s backpacks rigged with speakers playing sounds of crying to lure them into a terrorist tunnel in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.

Footage released by the IDF showed the alley where the ambush would have been staged. …

The forces subsequently found children’s dolls and backpacks with speakers to imitate crying sounds and songs, the footage showed.

“The goal is to draw us in to look for, to see these things … they play voices in Hebrew so we’ll think there are hostages and missing persons here. In order to draw us into the area that’s rigged with explosives,” the soldier explained while gesturing at the pile of troubling objects.

In 2014 I wrote a post about the use – and sacrifice – of children by terrorists. In that post, I also go into how the approach was employed by the enemy in Vietnam.

It’s interesting to go back and read that post of mine, which quotes heavily from this contemporaneous article by Caroline Glick. At the time, Israel was engaged in trying to destroy some of the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. Here’s Glick on the role of the Obama administration:

As Israel has uncovered the scope of Hamas’s infrastructure of murder and terror, the US has acted with the UN, Turkey and Qatar to pressure Israel (and Egypt) to agree to a cease-fire and so end IDF operations against Hamas before the mission is completed.

To advance this goal, US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo on Monday night with an aggressive plan to force on Israel a cease-fire Hamas and its state sponsors will accept. …

Rather than notice that Qatar and Turkey are playing a double game, and treat them with suspicion, the Obama administration has embraced them.

Chances that Kerry will secure a cease-fire in the near future are small. In all likelihood, the government will be able to buy the time necessary to complete the mission in whole or large part. But the fact that the US has chosen at this juncture in the operation – with Israel enjoying unprecedented support from the most important Sunni states in the region – to side with Hamas and its state sponsors in their demand for an immediate cease-fire speaks volumes about the transformation of US foreign policy under Obama’s leadership.

Glick’s essay has aged well, unfortunately. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Sunsets

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s not the shortest day of the year yet, but we’ve already had the earliest sunset. Sunsets are getting later now, day by day, which brings me joy.

Israeli hostages killed by friendly fire

The New Neo Posted on by

This is terrible and heartbreaking. And yet inevitable:

The IDF cleared for publication on Friday evening that, during combat in Shejaiya, the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed.

During searches and checks in the area in which the incident occurred, a suspicion arose over the identities of the deceased. Their bodies were transferred to Israeli territory for examination, after which it was confirmed that they were three Israeli hostages. …

The IDF believes that the three hostages who were accidentally shot either escaped from captivity or were abandoned by the terrorists who were holding them because of the fighting, but the incident is still being investigated.

“The IDF began reviewing the incident immediately. The IDF emphasizes that this is an active combat zone in which ongoing fighting over the last few days has occurred. Immediate lessons from the event have been learned, which have been passed on to all IDF troops in the field,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

Under such terrible conditions, errors of this sort will be happening. It is horrible for everyone involved (except Hamas, of course), especially the families of the three hostages and also the troops who made the error. For the hostages to have survived this long, and to have been so close to being liberated, and then to be killed this way … words fail. RIP.

Reforming American colleges

The New Neo Posted on by

I agree with this:

The issues in Academia go well beyond anti-Semitism; they go directly to the heart of what it means to be educated rather than indoctrinated. For the last several decades, progressive activists have transformed the former into the latter and imposed tribalism via DEI. That has created an environment on most campuses of extreme intolerance to differing points of view, and created leadership that quashes debate and dissent from the progressive-woke orthodoxy.

The proper approach is to defund Academia entirely, at least at the federal level. The federal government had no business goosing Academia’s business model in the first place, and the six-decade experiment has utterly failed. It has not improved education, but contributed to its destruction. The federalized loan program has turned at least two generations into debt paupers, and incentivized “debt forgiveness” at the expense of taxpayers who pay their own bills. And the tuition-support flood has created a massive administration class that operates politically rather than scholastically.

American education has become, for the most part, leftist indoctrination. That must change. Enormous damage has already been done to several generations, and it has consequences we’ve already seen. The hour is very very late. Those of us who’ve been writing about this for over a decade are happy to see the problem getting more attention, but until more is done it will remain a huge danger.

Caring about how Jews vote?

The New Neo Posted on by

In almost every article or post on the right that deals with the war in Gaza, the terrorist attacks on Israel, anti-Semitism on US campuses, and the like, I see many comments to the effect of: “And yet Jews vote Democrat, and nothing will make them change.” Just to take one of countless examples, see the first few comments here.

Progressive Jews are ethnic Jews. Most know little to nothing about Judaism and are often actively hostile to both religion and Israel. They are typical of progressives everywhere, who tend to be urban and well-educated. Jews fit that profile. The vast majority of Jews in the US live in New York or Los Angeles, and vote more or less like other groups in those places – except for black people, who vote in far greater percentages for the left.

Also, although the Jews of Israel have their share of leftists, as a whole in recent years they’ve voted for the right, although the parliamentary system sometimes has allowed coalitions that put leftists in power.

But back to the US and its Jewish voters. The following was written after the 2022 midterms:

The Republican party increased its share of the national Jewish vote to a new high not seen in a generation, according to results of a midterm election exit poll conducted Tuesday by Fox News.

According to the data, 33% of Jewish voters polled voted Republican in the 2022 midterm election, up from 30% in 2020 and 24% in 2016. …

Markstein said Tuesday’s election saw “a record-smashing level of support in Florida, at 45% of the Jewish vote.”

In New York’s hotly contested gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin won between 85-95% in Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhoods in Borough Park and Williamsburg where voter turnout averaged 50%, according to New York city polls, despite being ultimately defeated by Democratic incumbent challenger Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“Jews” are not unitary. They vote very differently from each other, depending on many things, but especially on how religious they are, with religious Jews voting on the right. Also important is where they live. They vote Democrat in higher percentages in blue states, much like just about everyone else in blue states and especially blue urban areas.

Jews are also a tiny tiny percentage of the voting public, and usually their vote doesn’t matter at all because they are concentrated in blue states where even without them, Democrats would be winning. Jewish donors are a different story – they are more influential, and lately quite a few of them have been pulling back from supporting Democrats.

NOTE: For a typical example of what I’m talking about, see many of the comments here.

Open thread 12/15/23

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t know the year, but I estimate this to have been filmed about 100 years ago. Pavlova had a poor turnout and weak ankles; her technique would be utterly unacceptable in a professional ballet dancer today. But she sure could dance, although in a very different style:

Still time to order Christmas gifts from Amazon

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s the last night of Chanukah, but there’s still time to order Christmas gifts from Amazon and have them arrive before December 25. If you’re like me, you’ve probably postponed your shopping – I just did some of mine last night. If you use Amazon, please click on the Amazon portal on the right sidebar on desktops and laptops, and towards the bottom of the site as it displays on cellphones and the like. I get a small percentage from every purchase. The Amazon graphic may not display if you don’t disable your ad-blocker. Thanks very much!

Those Hamas leaders – are they still in Qatar?

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s an Israeli comedy bit about them:

But is it outdated? Have they left sunny Qatar for parts unknown? Your guess is as good as mine, but here’s the story:

Several Hamas leaders recently left Qatar together with their entourages, cutting off communications including cellphones.

The leaders left for Algeria, Lebanon, Iran and other countries, according to sources cited by Kan News’s Arabic channel. …

They live a life of luxury in the Gulf state even as most Arabs in Gaza live in abject poverty.

The article goes on to say that the number two man of Hamas, who ordinarily lives in Lebanon, has moved to Turkey.

SCOTUS will be hearing a J6 case

The New Neo Posted on by

This is good news – I think:

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case about an obstruction law that over 300 January 6 defendants have been charged with by the DOJ.

The case is Fischer v. U.S. The statute is 18 U.S. Code 1512(c)(2):

“Whoever corruptly…otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

The law came into effect due to the 2002 Enron scandal.

It was never meant to apply to anything like J6, and no attempt had previously been made to apply it to a demonstration. But prosecutors took it out, dusted it off, and made it oh-so-useful. The SCOTUS ruling will not only impact many of the J6 defendants, but president Trump himself. The law is, among other things, confusing for vagueness and much too general.

More here [emphasis mine]:

Defense attorneys say the government is using the power of law enforcement to misinterpret, and even weaponize, nebulous language in the legal code.

In three separate motions filed on Oct. 23, Trump’s lawyers repeatedly raised objections based on the “vagueness” factor of the four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 criminal indictment against Trump. Those four charges are: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct, conspiracy against rights, and obstruction of an official proceeding. …

[Among the J6 defendants] Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” was the first protester charged for obstruction of an official proceeding, on Jan. 11, 2021.

Some of the accused never entered the Capitol or went inside after Congress recessed. Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, was in a Baltimore hotel on Jan. 6 following court orders to stay out of the nation’s capital. Trump himself never set foot on Capitol Hill that day.

The same cannot be said for Thomas Robertson, a Virginia police sergeant at the time. (He was immediately fired from his job.) The government indicted Robertson, a former Army Ranger with no criminal record, on six federal crimes including 1512(c)(2). Despite Robertson’s facing no charge related to assaulting a police officer or vandalizing property – and being inside the building for roughly 20 minutes – U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper revoked Robertson’s bond in July 2021.

Before his April 2022 trial, Robertson filed a motion to dismiss the charge related to 1512(c)(2). Robertson argued, as others have in similar dismissal motions, that Congress’ work on Jan. 6 was outside the fundamental scope of the law. “The electoral count is a ceremonial and administrative event that is not an ‘official proceeding’ contemplated in §1512; it is not an adjudicative proceeding involving witness testimony and evidence,” his lawyer wrote.

These J6 obstruction cases are examples of what one might call the Beria approach to prosecution: “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” I’d like to believe that SCOTUS will do the right thing and rule that the law is being misapplied here, and is so vague as to make it possible to charge people for almost any protest. And I tend to think that’s the way it will go, although it’s impossible to tell and we’ve been disappointed by the Court many many times.

SCOTUS may also rule on an issue connected with another Trump case:

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan paused almost all proceedings concerning former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in D.C. as the courts above her decide on his claim that he has presidential immunity.

… Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity.

This one only affects Trump’s case, of course, rather than the J6 defendants. And at the very least, it will probably delay the Jack Smith court case.

Roundup on Israel/Palestine

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) There’s a certain inconsistency in the message the Biden administration is giving out regarding Israel. It’s almost certainly based on the fact that Democrat voters are split on the subject, and the administration is faced with the dilemma of trying to placate both the pro-Israel and pro-Hamas wing of the party in an election year.

The bobbing and weaving tends to take the general form of Blinken = somewhat good cop and Biden = somewhat bad cop, but each man also is inconsistent within his own utterances and moves back and forth between the two stances.

(2) The Times of Isreal has a heartbreaking series on each of the people who were murdered by Hamas on October 7. It reminds me somewhat of the series the NY Times had on the dead of 9/11. So many beautiful young people, seemingly with their lives ahead of them. In Israel, however, you have the added horror of instances of many members of families being killed, and it was done up close and personal with extreme savagery. On 9/11, a fairly small number of terrorists were able to kill large number of people en masse in four airplanes, but in Israel there were thousands of perpetrators who killed their victims one by one.

(3) Switzerland’s lower house of parliament has voted to cut off the country’s funding of UNRWA. Switzerland has been UNRWA’s ninth-largest donor. How about it, US?

(4) Speaking of Europe:

Several Hamas-linked terrorists were arrested in a series of raids in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, the European media reported Thursday.

(5) As though things weren’t bad enough in crime-ridden Oakland, California, there’s this:

A large menorah erected at Lake Merritt’s amphitheater was torn apart and thrown into the water early this morning by vandals who, according to Jewish leaders, also spray painted anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti on the sidewalk nearby.

This morning, a crew of city workers recovered the menorah’s metal parts while police waited nearby for local Jewish leaders to arrive.

“I feel afraid,” said Rabbi Dovid Labkowski, of the Chabad Center of Oakland, which set up the large outdoor display. “It makes me feel angry that this would happen in Oakland, a place with so much diversity.

That statement seems ironic to me, since “diversity” probably contributes to the problem.