Remember when 2025 was brand new?
Does Hamas think this is a good look for them?
I suppose to their followers it looks like a show of strength. But to anyone the least bit objective, it looks like a pack of larping bullies lording it over a slight young woman:
Welcome home, Agam Berger – the woman in the video – as well as Arbel Yahoud, similar but slightly different optics:
Also 80-year-old Gadi Mozes comes home:
Another hearing: Tulsi Gabbard
Here are some of her remarks:
?Tulsi's opening statement at Confirmation Hearing
Example after example of how the Deep State has operated in the past years. pic.twitter.com/lEhYsNJis3
— The New American (@NewAmericanMag) January 30, 2025
Gabbard is another example of someone who was the victim of persecution, this time by the intelligence community, who now has a good chance of attaining a position of leadership over that community.
At hearing, Kash Patel vows to stop political prosecutions/persecutions if he become FBI head
Having been the victim of government overreach and a weaponized system of justice and law enforcement, I know what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States Government barreling down on you, and as the Biden inspector general determined, those activities by the FBI and DOJ were wholly improper and not predicated upon law and facts. …
I will ensure, if confirmed, that no American is subjected to that kind of torment, to that kind of cost, financially and personally, and most importantly, I will make sure that no American is subjected to death threats like I was, and subjected to moving the residences like I was because of government overreach, because of leaks of information about my personal status.
The FBI and DOJ should never be the conduits for political prosecutions. But of course they were, by the left charging the right in recent years. And although what happened recently was not the only time it’s happened, it represented an enormous increase in the scope of such persecutions and their targets on the right. Patel is determined to stop it and I applaud him.
Of course, at least a third of America and up to half of America probably thinks such prosecutions/persecutions were fully justified. And still another half probably thinks it’s time to turn the tables. The problem is figuring out how to make sure there are negative consequences for those people who did the persecuting while at the same time refraining from purely political prosecutions of the left by the right. Some on the right would say it’s payback time, but it doesn’t seem like Patel is saying that.
Here’s Megyn Kelly on the subject:
The lawfare in general was the biggest turning point.
The lawfare was a catastrophic mistake by the Democrats. Trying to criminalize a political battle, trying to go after one’s political opponent with criminal charges. And on top of that, civil cases that could ruin a man trying to put him in jail was a bridge too far.
The electorate rejected it out of hand as too much.
It made the Democrats look radical. It made the Democrats look like they were the ones who were anti-democratic. It undermined their core argument against Trump On January 6th. They shot themselves in the foot.
It was a before and after moment that we now cannot get back. Now we’ve crossed the Rubicon and anything’s possible. If Adam Schiff or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden winds up facing criminal charges under a Trump administration, I can tell you there are very few Republican voters who will feel sorry for them.
They brought it upon themselves. We had never done this before.
I wouldn’t feel sorry for them. But I don’t recommend prosecuting them unless the charges are completely egregious and their guilt completely clear. Otherwise, it’s enough to investigate and publicize the wrongdoing. Many many people – most people? – on the right will disagree with me. But I happen to think that prosecuting political opponents is a minefield, and if you’re going to stand against doing it you have to be willing to let some offenses go. It’s a difficult decision, but I think it’s necessary, and it sounds to me as though Patel would agree with me, although I’m not sure.
Air collision above the Potomac
The first major US air disaster in sixteen years occurred last night in Washington DC: an Army helicopter on a training flight with three crew members collided with an American airlines flight from Wichita carrying 64 souls on board. Both planes plunged into the frigid waters in the darkness, and although rescue crews tried their best, there are apparently no survivors and 28 bodies have been recovered.
It will take some time before the exact cause is known, but human error or errors seem obviously to be the reason this happened. Could be pilot error – almost certainly of the helicopter – could be controller error, could be both.
For those who were around in the 1980s, the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 almost inevitably comes to mind. It was also bitterly cold that day, and the cold was part of the reason for the crash because the pilots didn’t follow the proper de-icing procedures. The plane hit a bridge and plummeted into the icy Potomac, but the fact that it happened in daylight helped. Still, there were only five survivors, one saved by the heroic efforts of passer-by Lenny Skutnik, who plunged into the icy water to save a woman.
As I said, no survivors for last night’s crash, and perhaps no possibility of survivors even if it had occurred in broad daylight. RIP. Some of the dead were up-and-coming figure skaters, their coaches, and families – fourteen in all. They included six people from the skating club of Boston: two teenage skaters, two mothers, and two coaches who had been the 1994 World Champions in the pairs competition. I’m old enough to remember the horrible plane crash in 1961 in which the entire US figure skating team was killed. It made a deep impression on me as a child.
President Trump made some remarks today about last night’s crash, for which he blamed DEI. You can see some of the exchanges here. Does he know something we don’t? Possibly. But whether that’s the case or not, in my opinion his remarks were premature and inappropriate for the day after. There’s plenty of time to blame DEI if and when more information comes in that indicates that DEI was a factor.
Open thread 1/30/2025
Hurry up and wait
Curmudgeon here, checking in.
My hamstring pull is slowly improving, but because it was almost healed about ten days ago when I re-injured it, I decided to ask for some physical therapy to see if it could be helped along to heal completely without another setback.
First, although technically self-referral to a physical therapist is possible, I couldn’t find one who didn’t require a referral from a doctor. Fine – except that meant a delay while I waited for a doctor appointment. And it also meant more expense for insurance.
Then I was fortunate enough to get a quick PT appointment, but only because of a cancellation. I saw the physical therapist today. She was friendly and generally knowledgeable, although a bit stumped. My orthopedic history is byzantine, and although I first went to that office in the early 1990s and have gone quite a few times since, they no longer have my old records and so they haven’t a clue about that history except the summary version I tell them.
And then for followup appointments she could see me in six weeks, which is absurd for an injury. That’s the way it is these days, and it’s by no means the longest wait. They said there are always cancellations and so I guess it will all work out.
But just try to get an appointment with a neurologist these days – six months is considered a short wait. And good luck if you have to cancel an appointment with your regular PCP and reschedule in a timely fashion – long waits there, too.
It’s ordinarily much easier to see a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant. Even then the waits can be long, and sometimes – not always by any means – the care is substandard.
What’s this all about? Is there just a higher ratio of patients to medical people? What’s going on? Why is it so much worse than it used to be? It’s not my imagination, is it?
Caroline Glick explains the current lawfare against Netanyahu, and it will sound familiar to you
The lawfare against Netanyahu has been revved up, and it resembles what happened to Trump. But it actually seems even worse than what happened to Trump, because it’s going on during a war in which Israel is fighting for its continued existence. I’ve cued up the relevant segment, which lasts about nine minutes:
Roundup
(1) RFK Jr. is having his Congressional hearing, and apparently the Democrats are extremely angry with him: see this. They didn’t even like him very much when he was a Democrat, but once he supported Trump he because truly hated.
Also, this attack on RFK Jr. from his cousin Caroline Kennedy is just terribly sad. There is no question that both of them have known intense tragedy – having a father assassinated when they were young, growing up in the Kennedy spotlight, having siblings die as well – and that the family as a whole has known tremendous problems. Whatever complaints Caroline had about RFK Jr., she kept them quiet as far as I know until he left the Democrat reservation, and now it’s time to try to destroy him.
(2) The DOJ ends its case against Trump’s co-defendants in the documents matter. Good.
(3) The administration has rescinded the Office of Management and Budget memo that initiated the freeze that has been temporarily halted by a DC federal judge. The rescinding of the OMB memo seems to be merely a procedural thing that doesn’t represent a change in the administration’s intent regarding a funding freeze.
(4) New press secretary Karoline Leavitt did very well in her debut in the role. She’s the youngest presidential press secretary ever. Here’s an excerpt:
Zeke Miller of the Associated Press … asked whether Leavitt saw her role as purely an advocate for the president or whether she would provide “the unvarnished truth.” Replied the new press secretary, “I commit to telling the truth from this podium every single day.”
“But,” Leavitt continued, striking a tone that was less confrontational than business-like, “we ask that all of you hold yourselves to that same standard.”
“We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family. And we will not accept that. We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House,” she continued. “So, yes, I will hold myself to the truth, and I expect everyone in this room to do the same.”
(5) In another test for the courts, Kristi Noem has attempted to take away the Temporary Protected Status of 600K Venezuelans who entered illegally and were given that protection by the outgoing Biden administration in its very last days, on January 17.
Open thread 1/29/2025
Update on the funding freeze
As could be predicted, a federal judge in DC freezes the freeze (or is it unfreezes the freeze?):
A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s plan to freeze federal aid minutes before it was set to go into effect late Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said she was granting a “brief administrative stay” that preserves federal disbursements at least until Monday at 5 p.m. EST after a group of nonprofit and public health organizations filed a lawsuit.
The judge will hold another hearing Monday on whether to grant a longer pause.
AliKhan, an appointee of former President Biden who was randomly assigned to the case, issued the order at the conclusion of a hastily scheduled video conference Tuesday that began just an hour before the freeze.
It’s no surprise that this was a judge in DC appointed by Biden and company. However, I don’t object to a temporary freeze on the freeze in order to assess what’s what. I doubt the assessment will be objective, however. But we’ll see.
This will almost certainly be the pattern for a great many of Trump’s moves: a big hue and cry from Democrats, and then immediate lawsuits leading to decisions from left-leaning judges imposing a temporary halt on whatever he’s ordered. Some of these cases will be going to SCOTUS. Some of the cases will ultimately be decided in his favor and some won’t, and for some issues Congress will try to pass statutes on the subject.
And about the military
It is the policy of my Administration that the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security with regard to the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and every element of the Armed Forces should operate free from any preference based on race or sex.
There’s a ton more at the link, but the goal is to rid the military of the policy of DEI Uber Alles. It started to be implemented during the Obama administration, to the best of my recollection, and picked up enormous steam during the Biden administration. It is deeply entrenched now. Good luck getting rid of it.