The New Neo

Obama pontificates while passing the buck to all of us on Israel and Hamas

Posted on November 7, 2023 by neoNovember 7, 2023

Does Obama ever feel a particle of guilt? I don’t think so. But from his lofty perch, he tells us we’re all guilty:

Former President Obama said during an interview on Pod Save America that the U.S. had to admit that “all of us are complicit” in the Israel-Hamas conflict and added, “nobody’s hands are clean.”

What a meaningless statement; no one’s hands can ever be completely and utterly clean. But in this case, one side’s hands are far cleaner than the other side’s hands. And of course, Obama’s hands are very dirty indeed. He dissed Israel and empowered Iran, for starters, as well as helping to mess up Syria. Not only that, but he has not stopped trying to bring down his successor, the most Israel-friendly president ever, and the one who engineered the Abraham Accords.

Let’s have another roundup

Posted on November 7, 2023 by neoNovember 7, 2023

(1) The death of Paul Kessler, 69, has been ruled a homicide. Kessler was the pro-Israel demonstrator who died as a result of being struck in the head (reportedly with a megaphone), falling to the pavement, and hitting his head again. The perp was a pro-Hamas demonstrator. My guess is that, if they ever find the perp, he will be charged with battery and some form of manslaughter. I think these pro-Hamas crowds will become more violent at some point.

(2) Oops!:

She thought she was attacking an “Israel school” on behalf of “her people back in Palestine.” Instead, an Indiana woman backed her car into a building being used by a group that uses Jewish symbols while often engaging in antisemitic harassment.

That’s according to local news reports and Jewish leaders in Indianapolis, after police arrested Ruba Almaghtheh, 34, Saturday for her attack on a building belonging to a Hebrew Israelite sect, a Black nationalist group.

“Indiana woman” indeed.

(3) Alan Dershowitz on Trump’s testimony in the New York “fraud” trial. The segment begins at around 3:39, and in it he compares Trump’s tactics to those of the Chicago Seven in 1969, particularly Abie Hoffman. The idea was – and is – that the judge is so biased the guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion, and the defendant is trying to provoke the judge into making reversible errors. Also, Dershowitz defends Trump’s right to make political statements during the trial.

(4) Here’s a recommended video featuring the trio of John Anderson, Jordan Peterson, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. They tackle some big questions about the survival of Western culture.

(5) How Hamas exploits international law. For my own point of view on international law – written in 2006 – please see this post. And while we’re at it, please see this post, written around the same time, for my opinion on the calls for “proportionality” in Israel’s response.

Open thread 11/7/23

Posted on November 7, 2023 by neoNovember 6, 2023

Who are the pro-Hamas demonstrators and what is attracting them?

Posted on November 6, 2023 by neoNovember 7, 2023

I bet you’ve all seen those huge crowds of pro-Palestinian, and often pro-Hamas, protesters in many major cities. For example, here’s an article about today’s display on the Brooklyn Bridge.

They’re numerous, they’re mostly young, they’re loud and bold, and they’re organized. I don’t think for a moment that these are spontaneous. They probably represent a number of groups coming together and aided by social media connections, much as with the Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. One group is immigrants from Arab countries, who are the easiest to understand. And we know that colleges are rife with anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian academic instruction as well as activism. But I think there are other elements at work, too.

I don’t use TikTok, but I’ve heard that Palestinian propagandists are extremely active on it and that their output is especially influential on young people. I also think one of the appeals is the Romantic intensity of the supporters of the cause, something I wrote about long ago in this article. Plus there’s always the appeal of old-fashioned anti-Semitism, jack of all trades and everything to everybody.

We also have the same types who when I was a student were enamored of handsome Che and his beret. You might call the phenomenon “sympathy for the demonic,” which gets turned and twisted into a kind of bizzaro virtue-signaling. The 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of the Israeli athletes was shocking in its day, but you know what? It helped put the PLO on the map and the terrorists learned the lesson that brutality makes fans of a certain segment of the public, which considers the intensity of the terrorism a reflection of the intensity – and therefore the justness – of the cause.

There were no cellphones in 1972 and there was no social media to spread the word, but there was the next best thing – TV coverage at a worldwide event [emphasis mine]:

“From start to finish, it was the first time terrorists had hijacked a televised event and turned it into their own drama,” says Bruce Hoffman, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who has studied terrorism for decades.

In 1968, about 11 international terrorist groups were operating. A few years after the Munich massacre, that number was more than 50, Hoffman says. A large reason for that was the global attention the attack received.

“I think other aggrieved persons saw terrorism as a vehicle to attract attention to themselves and their cause and also coerce governments. I mean, you had these small nonstate actors … with limited weaponry and constrained capacity for violence, forcing governments to deal with them,” Hoffman says. …

“And these kinds of violent attacks actually succeed in putting the issue on the international agenda,” Elgindy says. From there, the PLO notched two diplomatic wins: 20 Arab League countries recognized the organization as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people” in October 1974. A month later, the United Nations gave the PLO observer status.

Young people have been most negatiely affected by the pandemic lockdowns and school closings, plus they probably know nothing of the relevant history of the Middle East, and the vacuum can be filled in with TikTok garbage. They were raised on a high level of pretend fantasy violence in video games, rap music, horror films, shows like Game of Thrones, and violent online porn. Does the news from October 7 even move them, or does it seem merely exciting?

The Nashville trans shooter apparently wanted to kill a bunch of white children

Posted on November 6, 2023 by neoNovember 6, 2023

If the leaked manifesto of the Nashville shooter is authentic, if provides the motive that has been covered up till now by the authorities who refused to release it:

Hale reportedly resented her devout Christian family and the fact that they wouldn’t affirm her “identity” as transgender. The anti-white racism is a new detail, though, and sheds more light on the motive behind the deadly attack.

To be more specific:

Wanna kill all you little c*******,” one page from the manifesto reads. “Bunch of little f****** w/ your white privlages f*** you f******.”

The shooter also referred to the prospective victims as “crackers.”

In addition to being disturbing it’s rather odd, because the perp was white herself and had attended the school when young. So, just as she had rejected being female, she seemed to be rejecting whiteness – with a vengeance.

But why – when the police and press are usually so eager to release the manifestos of most shooters – was this one so tightly suppressed? One answer immediately comes to mind, of course: because it was a case of someone in a protected class – trans – being full of murderous rage at white people. It has long been assumed that that was the reason.

The following also seems to have been part of the reason, at least the stated reason. But such concerns never seem to hold back the left and the press when they want to publicize a shooter’s motives for political advantage:

FOX 17 News reported in May that several Covenant parents did not want the manifesto to be released, citing the risk it could encourage copycat attacks and traumatize survivors.

“The parents seek to shield their children from further harm and trauma, including pain that would fester for the rest of their lives if the shooter, their assailant, is allowed to haunt them from beyond the grave,” an attorney for the parents wrote in a legal brief.

I assume at some point we’ll find out more.

ADDENDUM: Another source says that actually, Hale hated everyone.

Biden’s polls

Posted on November 6, 2023 by neoNovember 6, 2023

Just a quick post before I’m out the door —

I think it’s ironic that Biden is lower in the polls in key swing states than Trump is at the moment. Perhaps the reason Biden has fallen is because he did something at least somewhat right for a change: spoke some words of support for Israel. Apparently that’s a no-no with some of his supporters, even though he’s hedged on it and also talked about humanitarian pauses in the fighting and the like.

The thing I don’t quite get is why any Muslims in Michigan who are angry about Biden, or Jew-hating leftists who are angry about Biden, would throw their support to Trump instead. Trump is staunchly pro-Israel, but Trump’s polls have risen and so someone is probably making the switch. Could it be Israel-supporting Democrats who think that Biden has been insufficiently supportive of Israel? Or Democrats who have become aware that Biden’s gifts to the mullahs of Iran might have facilitated Hamas’ massacre? Or has Trump’s travesty kangaroo trial in New York increased Trump’s support still further?

Or is it all meaningless because polls are inaccurate? At any rate, whatever is going on, the dip for Biden might be fleeting. And of course, Biden might not even be the Democrats’ nominee by November of 2024.

Connectivity problems [UPDATE]

Posted on November 6, 2023 by neoNovember 6, 2023

I’ve been having server problems. Sorry if you’re having any problems getting to the blog at the moment. I’m working on getting it fixed, and hopefully that will happen soon. Meanwhile, I have a meeting for a few hours. I plan to put up some new posts tonight. Thanks for your patience.

UPDATE 3:23 PM: Problem solved by my host! But I had spent a couple of hours dealing with it, and now I’m going to be busy for a few more hours out in the real, non-virtual world. So please talk among yourselves in the meantime.

I plan to be back tonight with a few posts.

Open thread 11/6/23

Posted on November 6, 2023 by neoNovember 6, 2023

How high can a mouse jump?

Posted on November 4, 2023 by neoNovember 4, 2023

Very high indeed:

Average mice can jump anywhere up to about 13 inches without a running start and even higher when they’re already moving. The average 5-gallon bucket is about 12 inches tall, meaning it is not tall enough to contain a mouse. It will leap out without a lid on it. Of course, every mouse is different, and some of the worst jumpers have been recorded jumping about 10 inches high.

That is a powerful jump coming from such a small creature.

It’s no secret that I can’t stand mice. They’re okay in the wild, because they keep to themselves. But in the house? No, not on my watch. And yet it’s happened again.

The other evening I saw another one very late at night, out in the open in my living room near where I’ve seen them in the past. I have no idea how they get in, and no one has been able to figure it out. But this sort of weather, when it suddenly gets quite cold at night, is prime time. Traps are now set, and the wait begins.

But the reason I’m writing about this is that when I saw this particular mousie, I did what I usually do – made a lot of noise to scare it away. I stomped and I clapped. I must have really startled the mouse because it did what I’ve never before seen a mouse do – it leapt vertically in its fear, a jump that would do an NBA player proud pound for pound. I’d say this mouse jumped at least ten inches straight up from a non-running start. That startled me, to be sure.

NOTE: One of my very favorite poems:

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie! …

Evidence that Biden received payments traced to China

Posted on November 4, 2023 by neoNovember 4, 2023

He may have gotten a little bit sloppy:

The money trail begins in July 2017 when Hunter Biden demanded payment from his Chinese Communist Party (CCP) linked associate. On July 30, 2017, Hunter Biden sent a message to Raymond Zhao—a CEFC associate—demanding a $10 million dollar capital payment and claimed his father, Joe Biden, was sitting in the room. CEFC is a Chinese energy company linked to the CCP. The Bidens began working with CEFC when Joe Biden was Vice President.

On August 8, 2017, Northern International Capital, a Chinese company affiliated with CEFC, sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong. That same day, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to Owasco, P.C., an entity owned and controlled by Hunter Biden. On August 14, 2017, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by President Biden’s brother James and sister-in-law Sara Biden. On August 28, 2017, Sara Biden withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group. Later the same day, she deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account. On September 3, 2017, Sara Biden cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000 for a “loan repayment.”

Isn’t $40K ten percent of $400K? Ten percent for the big guy? At any rate, Comer points out that even if the $40 was a loan repayment, Sara and James Biden only got the funds to repay the loan through money from China, and that’s how Joe benefited.

A question of statistics: Jewish financial contributions to the Democrats?

Posted on November 4, 2023 by neoNovember 4, 2023

Commenter “huxley” wonders, as does commenter “Mike K”:

“The other day I read a number that I have trouble accepting. It was that 50% of Democrat contributions come from Jews.”

Mike K:

I saw that too and wondered. Dunno.

I do believe that 10/7 has changed the game with Americans and American Jews.

It’s too early to tell whether that last sentence is true, but I can certainly check on the first part.

It took almost no time at all to discover what I believe is its origin, in this Jerusalem Post article written in September of 2016, shortly before the 2016 Trump/Clinton election. The headline goes like this: “US Jews contribute half of all donations to the Democratic Party.” Sounds similar to what is referenced in the comment by huxley and the one by Mike K, but right off the bat I noticed one difference: not “Democrats” but “the Democratic Party.” A subtle difference but perhaps a meaningful one, because many donations are to candidates rather than the party. And does the claim mean half of the total money collected, or half of all the individuals who donate?

Right under the headline we have this startling statistic in a subheadline: “Jewish donors give 25% of the Republican National Convention’s cash.” Now, that’s interesting; it seems Jews in general donate a lot to politics (I’m pretty sure they donate a disproportionate amount to charity, as well). And then in this article I discovered that for that same election cycle:

In 2016, 22% of Democrats and Democratic leaners and 10% Republicans and Republican leaners reported making a donation, according to data from ANES. This marks the first election since at least 1992 when Democrats have been significantly more likely than Republicans to donate.

So that year there were lots more Democrat donors in general, at least by percentages. Also, higher-income and more educated people were more likely to make donations, and I’m pretty sure that Jews are somewhat over-represented among those groups.

Then there’s this rather contrary piece of information regarding the same year:

Just 158 families, along with companies they own or control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the campaign, a New York Times investigation found. Not since before Watergate have so few people and businesses provided so much early money in a campaign, most of it through channels legalized by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision five years ago. …

But regardless of industry, the families investing the most in presidential politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates …

It seems that 138 of the families gave to GOP candidates and 20 families gave to Democrats. There are no numbers for the total monetary amount given, but it’s a lot, as you can see by this:

The 158 families each contributed $250,000 or more in the campaign through June 30, according to the most recent available Federal Election Commission filings and other data, while an additional 200 families gave more than $100,000. Together, the two groups contributed well over half the money in the presidential election — the vast majority of it supporting Republicans.

It says “the presidential election” and the “Republicans” plural. Does this include the primaries? The whole thing is unclear, and it seems as though it might be separate from the other report which seems to concern DNC and RNC contributions.

Back to the text of the Jerusalem Post article:

… Jewish donors contribut[e] a whopping 50% of funds received by the Democratic Party and 25% to the Republican Party, [researcher] Troy says.

Although it’s still not clear, that may support the idea that these only involve contributions to the parties themselves, not to individual candidates. But now it’s time to go to Troy’s research itself, which can be found here. A relevant excerpt:

… Jews donate as much as 50 percent of the funds raised by Democrats and 25 percent of the funds raised by Republicans.

As much as – what on earth does that refer to? The document by Troy contains a long long history of the Jewish vote in the US, but it surprised me by being more of a history than a study. In fact, I couldn’t find the basis for remarks such as this, on which the 50% claim seems to be based:

In the 2016 presidential race the Jewish financial vote remains disproportionately important – with estimates that Jewish donors contribute 50 percent of the funds to the Democratic Party and 25 percent to the Republican Party.

“Estimates” by whom? Based on what? Donations to the parties? Or to candidates? Or to both?

I couldn’t find the answers to any of these questions. Later, on page 7, I found another reference to the supposed figure, but it added nothing:

… Jews donate as much as 50 percent of the funds raised by Democrats and 25 percent of the funds raised by Republicans.

“As much as”? What does that mean? Again, no answers, and no footnotes or source – just the bare statement. I see no reason to give it any credence, although of course it might be true. It does seem as though the Troy report is the source of the statistic that Mike K had cited and huxley mentioned. If you can find any other evidence about the ultimate source, be my guest. But in my experience it’s not unusual for these internet “truths” to be based on very little.

I also found this information about large individual donors in 2016 to Clinton or Trump:

According to the latest Federal Election Commission disclosure, American Jewish donors funneled more than $90 million into the presidential campaigns of Democratic nominee Clinton and her Republican opponent Trump. …

Making their contributions through campaign committees, joint fundraising entities and allied super-PACs, Clinton’s five biggest financial backers are Jewish, and so are Trump’s top two.

That’s close to the 2 to 1 ratio, but it involves a very small number of large donors:

The largest individual donor in this cycle has been Donald Sussman, a founding partner at the Paloma Partners hedge fund, based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Thus far, he’s given more than $20 million to Clinton’s campaign, mostly through a super PAC supporting her bid, Priorities USA Action.

Clinton’s four other top donors are JB and Mary Kathryn Pritzker, Haim and Cheryl Saban, George Soros and S. Daniel Abraham. Along with Sussman, they have collectively contributed $69.7 million to the campaign, according to an assessment by Bloomberg Politics.

No surprise that Pritzger and Soros were in there, Soros being a person of Jewish ethnicity who’s not just a secular Jews but by his own admission somewhat anti-Semitic.

Other prominent Jewish Americans who have poured money into Clinton’s bid are filmmaker Steven Spielberg, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and entertainment industry executive David Geffen.

No surprise there. As for Trump donors:

Trump’s largest funder is casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has a propensity to donate lavishly to Republican nominees and whose donation to Trump was $10.5 million. …

The New York Times reported late last month that the Las Vegas billionaire had given up hope Trump would prevail on November 8, and decided instead to focus on down-ballot races and on trying to secure a GOP majority in Congress.

I guess he was wrong about Trump that year.

[Adelson] remains the single largest overall contributor in the country for 2016, as his family has given two super PACs supporting Senate and House Republicans $20 million each.

Trump’s second biggest donor is Bernard Marcus, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who co-founded Home Depot. He’s given $7 million to the former reality television star.

None of this tells us what percentage of the candidates’ donations were from Jews, nor does it tell us that for each party’s candidates in general. And this article (with the same limitations) offers a list of the top 15 contributors for the 2020 election. Five of them gave a total of about $142 million to Republicans, while the others gave about $176.4 to Democrats. That’s not as wide a disparity as one might think. But again, that’s only large individual donations (in 2020) and it doesn’t tell us what proportion of the total that is, although I’m pretty sure it’s quite significant.

However, this article contains an estimate of total spending in that 2020 election, by all parties. I have no idea if it’s correct, but the estimate falls somewhere between $11 billion and $14 billion. Those large individual donations I just discussed would be only a tiny fraction of that.

So I haven’t been able to find any substantiation for that 50% claim that makes any sense or seems based on any evidence.

Gaza/Israel roundup

Posted on November 4, 2023 by neoNovember 4, 2023

(1) In researching the Constantinople/Istanbul song in this post, I came across this piece of information about the city’s fall to the Ottomans:

The Walls of Constantinople, especially the Theodosian Walls, were some of the most advanced defensive systems in the world at the time. For 800 years, the Theodosian Walls, regarded by historians as the strongest and most fortified walls in the ancient and medieval era, protected Constantinople from attack. However, these fortifications were overcome with the use of gunpowder, specifically from Ottoman cannons and bombards, heralding a change in siege warfare. The Ottoman cannons repeatedly fired massive cannon balls weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) over 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) which created gaps in the Theodosian Walls for the Ottoman siege.

Modern-day Israel had depended on the technology of its border wall to protect it. But the Hamas attack had surprise elements, both in numbers of invaders and techniques used, that overcame Israel’s previously-successful protection. Right now it’s my impression that Netanyahu and the people in his government who were in charge of defense are detested by most of the populace. That’s what I’m hearing, anyway. I believe that the problem was much deeper than Netanyahu; I think any previous leaders would have made the same error.

(2) I also think that the October 7 massacre was more successful than its planners thought it would be. By “successful,” I mean that the IDF was more disabled, and the terrorists had more time to commit murder and mayhem and kidnap more people than even they had expected. I recall reading that the same was true of 9/11; that al Qaeda was trying to inflict a very large blow, but did not expect the buildings to topple. Here’s the basis for the claim:

Osama bin Laden said he was the most optimistic of all his colleagues about the Sept. 11 attacks but not even he dared hope they would bring down the World Trade Center towers, according to a videotape released on Thursday that Washington says seals bin Laden’s guilt.

If this is true – and I happen to think it is – then I don’t believe that either Bin Laden or Hamas thought the response from the US and Israel, respectively, would be quite as extreme as it has been. The US declared war on Afghanistan and invaded the country. Israel has done the same in Gaza. I think that both al Qaeda and Hamas expected responses more in line with those countries’ responses to terrorism in the recent past prior to the attacks.

(3) No one on earth should be surprised by this:

As Israeli ground troops fight their way to the terrorist stronghold of Gaza city, Hamas is using the Biden administration-backed ‘humanitarian corridor’ to sneak terrorists to Egypt. “Hamas tried to smuggle out its people among wounded to Egypt,” the Jerusalem Post reported Saturday, citing an unnamed senior Biden White House official. …

The admission comes as Israeli military exposed that Hamas was using Gaza medical services to move terrorist and weapons across the battlefield. Israeli news website Ynet reported Saturday that “the IDF has information suggesting that the terrorist organization utilized the ambulance for transporting terrorists and weaponry.”

There would be no reason to think otherwise. Biden is placating his left flank while sacrificing Israel’s security.