Another college president …

The New Neo Posted on by

… says “buh-bye.”

This time it’s Cornell’s Martha Pollack. From Professor William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell and the creator of the blog Legal Insurrection:

Martha Pollack was the architect of Cornell’s disastrous race-focused DEI initiative that balkanized the campus, and inevitably led to targeting of Jewish and pro-Israel students. While I wish her well in her personal life, it is time for the Cornell Trustees to turn the ship around, to eliminate DEI programming as is taking place elsewhere, and to refocus the campus on the inherent dignity of each individual without regard to group-identity.

Way past time for Cornell and every other misguided university to return campuses to the pursuit of actual learning and fair debate governed by respect for individuals rather than leftist identity politics.

Hostage deals, Rafah, Biden, and more

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s another informative video that offers in-depth commentary it’s hard to find elsewhere. If you’re impatient with podcasts, just go to “settings” and listen at higher speed:

And then there’s this (hat tip: commenter “miguel cervantes”):

Biden’s betrayal: “But for Michigan?”

The New Neo Posted on by

Biden’s betrayal of Israel has so many dimensions, so many heinous ill effects, that’s it’s hard to contemplate them without falling into fury. One of the many aspects of it is his own naked ambition and lack of principle, which has always been his hallmark during his long life in the public arena.

And by the way, I continue to disagree with everyone who says he doesn’t know what he’s doing and merely recites the words of others. I have long said that although it’s very clear that Joe Biden is very cognitively challenged compared to just a few years ago, he still has plenty of agency and his brain is not so far gone that he’s unaware. Plus, he was Obama’s VP from 2009 to 2017, in full possession of whatever were his native faculties, and he did Obama’s bidding on this and on just about every other topic.

So this is not some recent thing nor is it the result of his age-related cognitive problems. It’s a result of who he is: a corrupt and ambitious viper – or weasel, if you prefer – who would sell out anyone for a dime or for career advancement.

Which brings us to a famous exchange from A Man For All Seasons. No, it’s not the one I often post here, about “cutting down” the laws. It’s this one:

That’s where I got the idea for the title of this post. Biden has betrayed Israel, the Jews, the US, the West, and Congress to win the presidency (he thinks) by winning the votes of the Muslims in Michigan who would dearly love to see Israel and the Jews destroyed, and the US and the West in their current forms as well.

But as I already wrote, this is nothing new for Biden; he earlier acquiesced to Obama’s anti-Israel and pro-Iran and anti-American policies and has been intent on implementing them in his own presidency. And yes, he’s got a lot of help and advice from both Obama and major players in the State Department and in both administrations. But I don’t let Joe off the hook; not at all.

Here’s a good summary [hat tip: commenter “sdferr”) of just how pernicious Biden’s current position on Israel/Hamas is. You might call his policy “stupid” also – and it is – but Biden and company are both knaves and fools. Some excerpts:

Biden says he wants a hostages-for-prisoners deal/ceasefire. But by pressuring Israel he emboldens Hamas to make unrealistic demands.

Biden says he wants a two-state solution with a “revitalized”Palestinian Authority (PA) in charge of Gaza. But by saving Hamas he ensures it will block Fatah (the ruling party in the PA) from gaining a foothold in Gaza. …

Biden says he wants to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip but by precluding a ceasefire deal and emboldening Hamas, he prolongs the war and therefore the suffering. …

Biden says he wants to free the hostages (some of whom are Americans) but his strengthening of Hamas’s negotiating hand ensures that Hamas will demand more in return for each hostage — at every step of the way. …

Biden says he wants to stop the Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, but by emboldening Hamas he emboldens the Houthis.

Biden says he wants to end the Israel-Hezbollah war, but his reduced support for Israel emboldens Hezbollah. …

Biden wants Tehran to help prevent a regional war, but by emboldening all elements of the “Resistance Axis,” his policy has the effect of widening the war. …

Biden says he stands against antisemitism, but by, in effect, accusing Israel of inexcusable brutality against innocent woman and children, he places the authority of his office behind the blood libel of the age.

Biden says he wants normalization between Israel and the Saudis, but by weakening Israel he makes it less attractive as a partner. …

… [Biden’s] personalized attacks on PM Netanyahu encourage the opposition to try to bring him down.

I would add that Biden’s betrayal of an ally in a time of great need undermines any remaining faith in America as an ally.

And Biden’s refusal to give Israel wartime aid that Congress has authorized is grounds for impeachment. Remember? And of course Ukraine wasn’t at war back then, nor was the pause permanent (see this):

Interestingly enough, even Newsweek has published an opinion piece claiming that Joe’s refusal to arm Israel at this point is impeachable:

The Biden administration has put a hold on a shipment of military aid to Israel in a nakedly political attempt to win votes in key swing states. Presidents have been impeached for far less.

The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA) governs the control of funds appropriated by Congress. It was enacted to reassert Congress’ power of the purse and prevent the president from simply substituting their own funding decisions for those of Congress. While it was once an obscure rule on governing spending, the masses may remember it for its brief starring role in the first impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. As the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry report explained:

President Trump ordered the suspension of $391 million in vital military assistance urgently needed by Ukraine, a strategic partner, to resist Russian aggression. Because the aid was appropriated by Congress, on a bipartisan basis, and signed into law by the president, its expenditure was required by law. Acting directly and through his subordinates within the U.S. government, the president withheld from Ukraine this military assistance without any legitimate foreign policy, national security, or anticorruption justification. The president did so despite the longstanding bipartisan support of Congress, uniform support across federal departments and agencies for the provision to Ukraine of the military assistance, and his obligations under the Impoundment Control Act.

And of course, as I already said, the Ukraine war hadn’t started (although there had been ongoing hostilities for years) and the pause was quite temporary. Biden’s behavior is far worse.

I doubt he’ll be impeached and if impeached I strongly doubt he’ll be removed – unless the Democrats want to be rid of him. I think many dearly would love to be rid of him if they could swing it, and if they could find a replacement they thought would garner more votes in November. Short of that, Joe’s staying – and doing more and more damage with every passing day.

RFK Jr. and vaccines: searching

The New Neo Posted on by

I noticed a discussion in the comments about whether RFK Jr. was against vaccines more generally, or just the newer technologies (the latter of which I assume refers to mRNA vaccines like COVID). I’m highlighting my answer in this separate post because I want to point out something that some of you may not know about doing online searches.

If you’re researching a question like that – involving the past – in a regular search of course you’re going to get recent articles for the most part, and they will discuss the COVID shot. But you can do a custom search for earlier dates in order to filter the recent pieces out. In Google, this is done under “tools,” and in DuckDuckGo you’ll see an option that says “any time” and under that you’ll see you can do a custom search.

When I search between the year 2000 and January of 2019 for “RFK Jr. and vaccines,” plenty of articles pop up that seem relevant. Here’s one of them, for example. It’s from October of 2015, and it’s entitled, “Robert Kennedy Jr. warns of vaccine-linked ‘holocaust’.” An excerpt [emphasis mine]:

With lawmakers [in California] preparing to vote on a bill blocking parents from skipping vaccinations for their children, prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrived at the Sacramento screening of a film linking autism to the vaccine preservative thimerosal and warned that public health officials cannot be trusted.

“They can put anything they want in that vaccine and they have no accountability for it,” said Kennedy, who walked onto and left a Crest Theater stage to standing ovations, of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wednesday afternoon will see the first hearing for a bill eliminating the personal belief exemption parents can cite in order to avoid vaccinating their kids. Senate Bill 277 was prompted by soaring exemption rates in some schools districts and outbreaks of long-dormant diseases like measles and whooping cough.

Kennedy has credited the film Trace Amounts with helping to persuade lawmakers to halt a vaccination measure in Oregon. Advocates offered free Trace Amounts tickets to every California lawmaker, visiting offices in the State Capitol on Monday to drop them off. Three rows cordoned off for lawmakers sat empty on Wednesday evening, though some staff members attended.

The overwhelming scientific consensus supports vaccine use and dismisses any serious side effects. Multiple studies have rejected any link between the mercury-containing chemical thimerosal and autism. Nevertheless, vaccine manufacturers have removed thimerosal from nearly all childhood vaccines (some influenza vaccines are the exception) and a California bill further barred thimerosal content. In light of those facts, SB 277’s author called Kennedy’s continued activism disingenuous.

“I think it is dangerous that he is spreading misinformation about something that’s very important for public health,” Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, a pediatrician, said in an interview. “Autism rates have continued to rise even though we are not using thimerosal in vaccines for children,” he added. “We still haven’t figured out exactly what causes autism. We do know it’s not vaccines.”

The vaccine/autism connection is bogus. I have written several posts on the subject of autism; for example this one on the vaccine connection and this one on the rising number of diagnoses of autism and why this might be happening.

What can you say about RFK’s worm-eaten brain?

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s what he said:

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. experienced a series of health issues in recent years, including an abnormality that he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and then died, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

In 2010, Kennedy, now 70, experienced severe memory loss and mental fog, he said in a deposition two years later. According to the Times, he consulted top neurologists familiar with the medical history of his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had died of brain cancer in 2009. A New York doctor, after reviewing a scan of his brain, told him that his health issues could be “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy said in the 2012 deposition, which concerned a divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. Robert Kennedy said at the time that his earning power had been negatively affected by the cognitive issues, the Times reported.

So he said this during his divorce proceedings. Now he’s saying he’s fine.

And here’s more than you probably want to know about the brainworm situation:

But, speaking generally, [Dr.] Hotez said people with pork tapeworm infections in their brains — a condition known as neurocysticercosis — more commonly experience seizures and sometimes need to be on anti-seizure medication for a long time because when the worms die, they form a calcified cyst in the brain that can cause the brain to release inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.

The connection to memory problems and dementia is under study, Hotez said. Those symptoms are also associated with mercury poisoning, and Kennedy told the Times that at the time he was diagnosed with that ailment, he was consuming high quantities of tuna and perch.

“Yeah, the worms are not feeding the brain. They are living in the brain,” Dr. Hotez said. The worms get nutrients from the body, but they are not eating the brain tissue, he said.

I’ve never thought that RFK Jr. was playing with a full deck. But I doubt this worm thing has much to do with it.

On Israel: Biden, the backstabbing viper

The New Neo Posted on by

I know; vipers don’t have hands and can’t stab you in the back, so it’s a mixed metaphor. But Biden – or his controllers – and the State Department are indeed backstabbing vipers.

You can find articles on the subject of what’s been going on with the fake “hostage deal” that Hamas says it agreed to: this gives many details, and this describes the Biden administration’s role. From the latter article:

[Biden] is doing everything he can, including threats of cutting off certain military weapons, diplomatic maneuvers at the United Nations and duplicitous efforts to push through an agreement with the terrorist group, to save Hamas from defeat just when Israel put it on the ropes.

Biden has essentially been playing a double game on the war with Hamas since Oct. 7. …

he’s put the full force of American influence behind an effort to broker a ceasefire deal with Hamas that will essentially hand the terror group a victory in the war it started.

The terms of the proposed deals that Washington has backed are appalling. They call for the release of some hostages, but only a percentage of those Hamas is still holding under who knows what horrible conditions. And the pressure that Washington has exerted on Netanyahu to take a deal on virtually any terms and conditions—along with the way it has coordinated this with Hamas’s ally, Qatar—has given the terrorists all the leverage. That’s why Hamas continues to turn down even the most lopsided of agreements; its leaders are convinced that Biden will not let them be defeated. That means they think they can hold out for a deal that will end the war and return the situation to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo in Gaza and still not give up all the hostages, let alone be held accountable for mass murder.

Even when it comes to the surge in antisemitism in the United States, the gap between Biden’s Holocaust speech rhetoric and the reality of his policies grows wider every day. He may have chided the pro-Hamas protests for their violence, rule-breaking and antisemitism. But the only people trying to hold the universities accountable are his Republican opponents.

As for the bogus “deal” and the negotiations around it, We have these competing claims:

Israeli officials claim the Biden administration knew about the changes during the negotiations process but didn’t brief Israel before Hamas announced it accepted it on Monday.

A senior U.S. official pushed back saying “American diplomats have been engaged with Israeli counterparts. There have been no surprises.”

I know which source I find more trustworthy.

And Caroline Glick has much to say, all of it worth listening to:

Meanwhile, the Rafah offensive begins. And the Biden administration continues to withhold arm shipments (probably unconstitutionally, since Congress voted to send them), acting as though Israel is the US’s wayward child needing guidance from the holier-than-thou Americans – who have had a higher civilian-to-military kill ratio in the US’s wars against jihadis than the Israelis do in this highly challenging war against Hamas.

The whole thing makes me think of the famous 1975 headline about Ford and NYC: “Biden to Israel: Drop Dead.” I would go further and say: “The world to Israel: Drop Dead.”

On Trump’s NY show trial

The New Neo Posted on by

There are so many things wrong with this trial that it’s hard to know where to start. But here, Dershowitz focuses on the latest developments:

Donald Trump writes, in his own inimitable fashion:

It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want. It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time. This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!. Judges Engoron and Kaplan, also of New York, are equally Corrupt, only in different ways. What these THUGS are doing is AN ATTACK ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND OUR ONCE GREAT NATION ITSELF. OUR FIRST AMENDMENT MUST STAND, FREE AND STRONG. ‘GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!'”

Some people would no doubt like to oblige, and give him death rather than liberty. Others are perfectly fine with cutting down all the laws in the US to get after the Orange Devil, Trump.

Are the Democrats determined to martyr Trump? Or to highlight him as a hero defending liberty? Do they actually plan to jail him for contempt, or imprison him on – excuse me – trumped-up charges?

Mayor Adams says Riker’s Island is ready for Trump

The New Neo Posted on by

See this.

Or alternatively, Devil’s Island will do.

If Trump actually were to be sent to Riker’s, I wonder if the inmates would greet him with cheers and applause.

I also wonder how many people realize how terrible Bragg’s case is, or if they understand that Trump would be sent to Riker’s for exercising his right to speak about the kangaroo trial in which he is a defendant.

Or whether they understand what a prior restraint is.

Alan Dershowitz understands:

And I think the judge understands. He just thinks he can get away with it – and maybe he can. He’s certainly gotten away with it so far, and every day he can silence and/or punish Trump is a day for celebration on the left.

Way too many people believe the ends justify the means and are not even interested in hearing about the danger connected with the means being used.