Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) The House passes a budget resolution along party lines with one holdout, Massie:

… [A]fter a hard-fought battle, Speaker Mike Johnson secured the win thanks to a crucial boost from President Donald Trump. This victory paves the way for Republicans to advance Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending reductions over the next decade.

(2) Alarming article about surgical training these days:

One of my colleagues heads a surgical residency at an elite medical institution and has served as his certifying board’s examiner for nearly 20 years, overseeing the certification of young surgeons. He has noted two changes during this period. First, many candidates for certification complete their surgeries slowly—taking, for example, seven hours to complete an operation that should take at most four. The problem is so widespread that some insurers have put a cap on anesthesia reimbursement for cases that take too long, even though it is the surgeon, not the anesthesiologist, who determines the duration of the procedure.

Second, and relatedly, my colleague noted a rise in patients’ post-operative complications. This makes sense, since operating time is one of the determinants of surgical-complication rates. Additionally, he lamented that too many training programs fail to give residents adequate surgical experience. This has several potential causes: there may be too many residency positions for the available cases; some programs allow residents to list procedures that they merely observe as part of their surgical experience; and work hours for doctors in training have been reduced, giving them less time to learn.

Another reason why the quality of surgeons and of surgery has declined: DEI in our medical and educational institutions. I have spoken to program directors in residency programs who say that they are afraid to correct, hold back, or drop underperforming minority trainees for fear of being reprimanded, accused of bias, or even losing their jobs.

(3) The same left that cared not one whit who was running the show during the Biden administration – or that he skipped a whole year between meetings and then brought wife Jill to one – is upset that Musk has attended a Cabinet meeting.

(4) Jeff Bezos issued a new directive for the WaPo:

We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.

(5) Here’s an article trying to explain Mangione’s continuing popularity:

His fans embraced him as “our shooter.” The media made him a symbol of American rage towards a system that denies basic treatments with an eye toward the bottom line. Former Washington Post and New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz defended the celebrations of Thompson’s murder, writing that in a nation with “a barbaric healthcare system,” where “the people at the top…rake in millions while inflicting pain, suffering, and death on millions of innocent people,” “it’s natural to wish” that people like Brian Thompson “suffer the same fate.”

So, one reason is leftist propaganda about health care insurance as a right that should not be handled by a nefarious capitalist system. Fine, folks; go to the UK and experience their government healthcare system and see how much you like it. Pay particular attention to what’s covered there and what’s denied. And while you’re at it, interview Canadians crossing the border into the US in order to get healthcare here.

I also believe the author fails to sufficiently emphasize what I think is actually the most important element of all, although a shallow one: Mangione’s looks.

The Bibas family is laid to rest

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The Bibas family – mother Shiri, baby Kfir, toddler Ariel, and father Yarden – have become symbols of all the Israelis who have suffered at the hands of Gazans since October 7th or in all the violence that preceded it. Today the murdered mother and children are being laid to rest in a single casket, and Israel and much of the world mourns:

“They will remain together and close, just as Shiri enveloped the children, always, including on that accursed day,” said Carmit Palty Katzir, who acted as MC at the funeral.

She was referring to a haunting video clip of traumatized Shiri, clutching her boys to her chest, as a mob of terrorists dragged them from their home. The images became symbolic of the horror of the attack and seared their fate into the national conscience.

Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the boys’ father, was released from captivity only a few weeks ago. He eulogized his family eloquently. I was going to quote his speech, but I decided I didn’t want to excerpt it; please just go there and read the whole thing.

RIP. RIP. RIP.

I don’t want to overuse the word “heartbreaking,” but here’s an article about how a 5-year-old friend of Ariel’s has been struggling to deal with the disappearance, and then the murder of, his good friend friend. The child’s mother tells the story:

“My husband was holding the photo of Ariel Bibas,” Avital remembered. “Yoav, my 5-year-old son, saw the photo and said to him, ‘He isn’t my friend anymore. He’s dead,’ and then fell asleep on the couch. He couldn’t contain all the pain, as we all broke down in tears.”

She went on, “After it was all over, he looked at me in the dining room and screamed through tears, ‘Ariel isn’t dead!! He’s not dead, Mom, he’s alive, he’s in his room, and you just don’t know what the room number is!’”

Democrats for waste and fraud

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As far back as I can remember, people considered the federal government wasteful and inefficient when it wasn’t being actively intrusive and confiscatory, as well as subject to fraud and corruption. It was the sort of thing just about everyone knew, but most people shrugged it off for the most part because it was deemed an inevitable and inherent part of government.

Over the years it appeared to get worse. Democrats seemed to want more and more people dependent on the federal government, and although Republicans paid lip service to wanting to cut back, it rarely if ever happened. One reason was lack of will and energy to change things. Another was that many politicians benefited personally from the situation. Another was that, as the federal government grew larger, the task of “fixing” it – whatever that would look like – seemed insurmountable.

When Trump ran on a platform of “draining the swamp” in his first term, not all that much draining took place. He was just getting his feet wet in the swampy mud and laboriously learning how to walk there without getting sucked down by quicksand. Under constant attack, it took a great deal of his rather considerable energy merely to keep going.

I’m not sure what you expected in his second term, but I expected just a bit more swamp-draining and some mild reforms. But so far, we’re getting a lot more, and at a lightning clip. I think most people are gobsmacked at the pace and scope of what’s been happening. The left and most Democrats are horrified. The right is blinking in disbelief and wonder, and for the most part (with some caveats) stunned delight.

It also strikes me that years ago, before the widespread use of computers to keep records – governmental and otherwise – sweeping reform would have been even more difficult because getting the information would have been more labor-intensive. Now, though – well, you know what’s been going on with DOGE. Or with things like Tulsi Gabbard’s firing of the 100 intelligence workers who were discussing, on company time, the finer points of their sexual kinks. That certainly wouldn’t have been possible without a computer trail. Despite that evidence, those workers felt insulated from any consequences for their actions, and until now it made perfect sense to think so.

Maybe this won’t continue. Maybe the courts will stop it; there certainly will be plenty of courtroom challenges. But it’s an extraordinary effort which has uncovered not just the expected waste and fraud – probably greater in scope than most people would have thought, but nevertheless along the expected lines – but also the fact that, through USAID in particular, the taxpayers were footing the bill for a host of leftist projects and even appearing to fund some terrorists (see this).

The upshot is that the Democrats have to take the position of defending – or denying – fraud and waste in government. I don’t think most people are sympathetic to that argument. So Democrats are also emphasizing the plight of the laid-off. But when government workers fight ordinary standards of accountability and act as though their jobs are entitlements, they don’t engender much goodwill, either.

MSNBC fires people left and right …

The New Neo Posted on by

… but mostly left.

Because there’s no host there on the right to begin with.

Here’s the story of the firings and shufflings:

MSNBC host Jen Psaki will slide into a new primetime slot as part of a massive shakeup that includes the ouster of President Trump-bashing anchor Joy Reid, the embattled network confirmed Monday.

Psaki, the former press secretary for President Joe Biden, will take over the 9 p.m. duties Tuesdays through Fridays from current host Alex Wagner beginning in late April, the network said.

The overhaul at the left-leaning network by new president Rebecca Kutler also includes axing weekend shows hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin, Jonathan Capehart, Katie Phang and Jose Diaz-Balart.

I don’t think this will matter much, either to the leftism of the station or to its low ratings. Some people watch almost nothing but MSNBC, and they will probably continue to get their Rachel Maddow fix.

Kutler’s moves to shake up the network have angered some MSNBC insiders.

She is “canceling two hosts that made history. Alex Wagner is [the] first Asian-American primetime host and Joy Reid was the first black woman cable primetime host,” one source told The Post.

Typical highlighting of racial identities. I’m not sure what a “primetime host” on a cable news channel means, but Alex Wagner was eclipsed by this “Asian-American” news personality, although I suppose that’s ancient history:

Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (née Chung; born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. …

In 1993, she became the second woman to co-anchor a network newscast as part of CBS Evening News.

Not too shabby.

I never knew anything about Chung’s family, but this is worth mentioning:

The youngest of ten children, Chung was born in Washington, D.C., less than a year after her family emigrated from China, and was raised in Washington, D.C. Her father, William Ling Chung, was an intelligence officer in the Chinese Nationalist Government, and five of her siblings died during wartime.

I don’t recall Chung being especially partisan during her career. But even back then I didn’t watch much TV news and preferred to read the news instead.

Nasrallah’s useful idiots

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A group in New York City held a vigil for Nasrallah on the day of his funeral. Here are some quotes from the vigilistas:

On Sunday evening, multiple collegiate chapters for Students for Justice in Palestine held a vigil service for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah—who was killed in an Israeli air strike on September 27—in New York City’s Washington Square Park. The poster encouraged attendees to bring flags, flowers, and candles, and of course mask-wearing was “highly suggested.” The strangest thing about this vigil was not its lack of ceremony or prayer, but that very few of the 100 or so in attendance knew who Nasrallah was. …

Most of the people The Free Press spoke with said they supported Hamas and Hezbollah, even if they didn’t know who Nasrallah was. Haniya, a college-aged woman with a cheetah-print headscarf, said she showed up to “stand in solidarity with Hezbollah, Hamas, and the entire Resistance Axis in the Middle East.” When asked about the murders of the Bibas children, she said, “I don’t think any person from Palestine would celebrate a dead baby. That’s the difference between people with humanity and people without.”

Like so many, she’s got it backwards. And then there’s this:

Back on the other side of the barricades, a protester named Chucky wore a Palestinian flag around his neck like a cape, and a utility vest with a body camera. He was there to “keep the Zionists away,” he said, and was worried that a fight might break out. When asked about Nasrallah and Hezbollah, Chucky said, “I’m not going to speak on Nasrallah’s history. You can do your own research.”

Moments later, he admitted: “I don’t know much about Hezbollah.”

That last quote makes me think of this – a much happier song from happier days:

The anti-Trump Resistance resists …

The New Neo Posted on by

… with particular force because they see their entire edifice of power threatened.

I recall that, at the beginning of Trump’s first term, I started reading about the self-styled Resistance to Trump. The word was chosen for its Nazi-fighting associations: if they were the Resistance, who was Trump?

And when I say “at the beginning,” I mean the very beginning. I knew people who wanted him impeached before he’d done anything as president, and I first read an article about resistance [see *NOTE below] to Trump by government workers either prior to Trump’s first inauguration or shortly thereafter. That article was not an exposé by some reporter critical of the movement – it was a brag about how workers within the agencies were planning to sabotage and thwart whatever Trump was trying to do. They were extremely proud of themselves, and they were quite organized. I wish I could find the article today, but so far I haven’t located it.

The first time I wrote in depth about the movement was in this May 2017 post entitled “A slow-motion coup d’etat.” That was four months into Trump’s first administration. I didn’t invent the title; I took it from a Federalist article I was discussing that you can find here, and from which I will quote again. Looking at it now, almost exactly eight years later, I wouldn’t call the author a Trump supporter. But he is alarmed at the Resistance:

Arguably, what has been branded as “The Resistance” — but in actuality is the totalitarian might of the administrative state and their partisan allies — began with the Democratic Party’s scorched-earth campaign against the political nominations of the Trump White House. But beyond the partisan rancor of the legitimate and often frustrating nomination process, more sinister forces were at work.

Mother Jones, unwittingly, sheds light onto the mindset of the administrative state in a piece detailing the resistance of EPA bureaucrats. An anonymous and unelected government employee wrote to Mother Jones laying out a lengthy argument justifying his or her resistance to reforms by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and objection to directives from the White House [a lengthy quote from the letter follows] …

This is not the words of a dutiful civil servant but of a partisan tyrant who would see his own view, his own agenda, and his own lens of politics dominate over that of the elected government of the United States. In their minds they are but a guardian of the people, albeit one that must stand up to and ultimately negate the will of that very same people. …

Complicit with the authoritarian nature of the administrative state is factions within the United States intelligence community both inside and outside the White House. They have engaged in a campaign of selective leaks and plots to undermine the president of the United States and weave a media narrative of Russian influence, conspiracy, and now obstruction of justice. With their media allies, they have leaked information and intelligence that — while lacking any actual criminal element — has allowed a narrative to arise that casts a dark shadow over the White House and those who live and work in it.

A narrative comprised of the Russian government “hacking” the presidential election, collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and Trump being compromised by the Russian government dominated the media before the final votes of the election were even tallied. Skepticism was suspended for what can only be described as a concerted effort to undermine the elected president of the United States.

Shortly after the inauguration, this narrative escalated via select leaks …

It goes on for quite some time. And keep in mind that it was written eight years ago, and refers to efforts that began even before Trump’s inauguration.

If they felt threatened by Trump’s presidency then, imagine what they feel now. Well, you don’t have to imagine; in that very same periodical, The Federalist, Margot Cleveland wrote yesterday describing current efforts in the same direction by similar people.

And there’s this by Beth Brele, entitled “CNN: Deep State Bureaucrats Threaten To Sell State Secrets If Trump Isn’t Nice To Them.” It appeared in the Federalist yesterday, and says:

In the piece, CNN warned, “As the CIA weighs staff cuts, current and former intelligence officials say that mass firings could offer a rich recruitment opportunity for foreign intelligence services — like China or Russia — who may seek to exploit financially vulnerable or resentful former employees.”

The piece goes on.

“… on the CIA’s 7th floor — home to top leadership — some officers are also quietly discussing how mass firings and the buyouts already offered to staff risk creating a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service.” …

Is that a threat from the CIA? Is CNN reporting that Trump should keep everyone employed because, if he doesn’t, former CIA agents will spill U.S. secrets to our enemies? Apparently so.

But if that’s the case, these are exactly the employees who should be fired.

That seems pretty obvious.

There’s also this sort of thing:

They feel more threatened than ever. What’s next?

[*NOTE: The first use of the term “resistance” i can find in this blog to describe the anti-Trump crowd was on February 28, 2017, about a month after his inauguration: see this. But it wasn’t the first time I’d heard of it.]

First world problems

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s been so much big news every day since Trump’s inauguration that it’s hard to keep up. Today, though, I was further hampered by a new computer problem – this time a bum modem. I’ll skip the details, but let’s just say I’m too tired from struggling with that (and fixing it, I think) to write some of the larger posts I had planned for today, although I hope to get around to them tomorrow or the next day.

Meanwhile, I went out for a walk while it was still light out. I can’t wait till the clocks spring forward in just a couple of weeks!

Speaking of which, I saw this the other day:

German election results …

The New Neo Posted on by

… were pretty much as expected. That indicates that opinion polling still seem to work in Germany:

With vote counting finished, preliminary results show the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz and its sister Christian Social Union (CSU) won the election.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was projected to finish second … [having] nearly doubled its vote share.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), led by current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, recorded not only its worst result in a federal election but also its largest loss of votes compared to previous elections.

The neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose withdrawal from the coalition triggered the snap election, also suffered heavy losses. The party won’t enter the Bundestag after failing to meet the 5% threshold.

But Friedrich Merz, head of the CDU, has said he will not form a coalition with the AfD. Therefore, although by European and German standards the CDU is a conservative party, any coalition government that is formed will have to be with a party to the left, almost certainly the SPD, which has recorded terrible losses in this election. The gain is on the right, but because it’s the so-called “far right” that grew the most, paradoxically Merz has turned his back on a coalition of the right.

How “far-right” is the AfD? I tried to answer that question in this post of mine from a few days ago. My answer was that, as far as I can tell – and I’m no expert on the subject of Germany’s politics – the party does have some anti-Semitic elements. How large these elements loom I’m not sure, and in Germany the danger of this possibility, as well as the whole idea of a German nationalist party, engenders understandable concern. However, the opposite – in particular, a huge influx of unassimilated Muslims, as well as leftist policies on energy – have harmed both Germany and Europe.

[NOTE: I am almost certainly not the only one in whom the name ‘Friedrich Merz” conjures up fond memories.]

Dan Bongino is new FBI Deputy Director

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Dan Bongino has been named Deputy Director of the FBI, and the Hill coverage I just linked has an unintentionally humorous lede:

President Trump’s selection of Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director adds another conservative firebrand to the top of the agency, fueling concerns from Democrats the bureau will be politicized.

Ha ha – that’s a good one, Hill, a real knee-slapper: will be politicized. Tell me another one.

Actually, they’re afraid it will be politicized in the wrong direction. They were ecstatically happy when it was politicized in their favor and used to destroy those they considered their enemies.

Bongino is described in the headlines of many of these MSM articles as a talk show guy. For example, NPR uses this headline: “What to know about Dan Bongino, the media personality tapped as FBI deputy director.” The NY Times goes with this: “Right-Wing Commentator Named F.B.I. Deputy Director – The choice of Dan Bongino is a radical departure from the bureau’s history of having a veteran agent serve in the key role that oversees operations.” They know that the headlines are all that many people read, so headlines are important. And it’s not as though it’s untrue; Bongino is a “right-wing commentator.” But that’s not why he was chosen. And although the Times does say – not in the headline, but in the first paragraph – that Bongino also has been a NYC police officer and Secret Service agent, it’s clear from the headline what they wish to emphasize.

Plus this:

The role of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation, meaning two steadfast Trump loyalists will effectively be at the uppermost reaches of an agency known for its tradition of independence.

I wonder whether it was ever known for being politically independent. In the days of J. Edgar Hoover? I wouldn’t exactly describe it that way. But whatever independence it once had – whatever objective application of the law and its energies – ended when it turned its focus on Trump and the right. I’m not sure what date to give the beginning of that pivot, but it certainly was in place early in Trump’s first presidential term. But those who are either oblivious to that fact or who applaud it are of course upset at Patel and Bongino.

The Hill article quotes none other than that pillar of objectivity and fairness, Senator Adam Schiff:

Trump installs another loyalist who won’t say no to any immoral or unethical act. And our law enforcement agencies — and the public safety — are further degraded.

Further degraded? You and your party have degraded it so much that there’s almost nothing left.

A bit more on Bongino’s background, from Wiki:

Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent. In 2002 he left the New York Field Office to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. In 2006, he was assigned to the Presidential Protection Division during George W. Bush’s second term. He remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became president, leaving in May 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate.

Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme. His work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges. …

In May 2018, after Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy and some conservative legal experts challenged Trump’s claims that the FBI had spied on his 2016 presidential campaign, Bongino claimed Gowdy had been “fooled” by the Department of Justice. In February 2019, he accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of attempting a coup against Trump.

Bongino reportedly told the House Judiciary Committee during hearings on police brutality that efforts to reduce the funding of police departments were an “abomination” that should be dropped “before someone gets hurt”.

After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump refused to concede, Bongino backed his false claims of election fraud, and claimed that Democrats had rigged the election.

Bongino was a strong critic of face mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that face masks are largely ineffective and deriding them as “face diapers” on occasion.

Most of that seems correct, doesn’t it? Whether or not fraud occurred in 2020, or enough fraud to affect the results, there certainly was enough “rigging.”

I say let Patel and Bongino give it a try. Bongino wouldn’t have been my first choice or even second or third for this position. But perhaps he’ll do a good job in helping clean up the FBI. It certainly could use some cleaning up.