The Supergrandma athlete of YouTube

The New Neo Posted on by

YouTube thought I’d really enjoy this video:

I very quickly smelled an AI rat. First of all, I don’t think women ever compete on the pommel horse. But secondly, although there are some 75-year-olds who do remarkable things, this “Marha Stillman’s” feats just didn’t seem real.

And they’re not. If you go to the video’s channel it becomes even more clear, because not only is Stillman a whiz at the pommel horse, she can do just about everything – the world’s most versatile athlete.

From the comments, it seems that these videos dupe a lot of people even though the channel site admits to being AI. The following message appears there, although you have to click to see the whole thing:

Official AI-generated sports highlights featuring 75-year-old athlete Marta Stillman — competing at world championships, setting records, and delivering unreal moments with realistic broadcast presentation.

Full TV-style coverage, professional commentary, authentic camera angles, and high-energy action — all created with advanced AI.

The creators even have her physique change somewhat in line with the demands of the different events, as well as her hairdos, outfits, and makeup. For example, she’s slim for most, but here she’s somewhat bulked-up and de-glammed for the shotput:

O brave new world, that has such AI people in it.

Khamenei says Trump made him do it

The New Neo Posted on by

Rather predictably, Khamenei says it’s all Trump’s fault:

Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the US for the mass demonstrations they have called “riots” and “terrorist” operations. Trump had threatened to strike Iran if it did not stop killing protesters, but starting Wednesday sounded a more conciliatory tone, saying he was assured the killings would stop.

In a speech broadcast by state television to mark a religious holiday, Khamenei on Saturday said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead — the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began December 28.

“In this revolt, the US president made remarks in person, encouraged seditious people to go ahead and said: ‘We do support you, we do support you militarily,’” said Khamenei.

“We do consider the US president a criminal, because of casualties and damages, because of accusations against the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said. He described the protesters as “foot soldiers” of the United States and said they had destroyed mosques and educational centers.

We still don’t know whether Trump will be doing more to help the Iranian people; perhaps he will. But if he doesn’t, then this will have been one of his worst moves – to encourage the uprising, promise help, and then fail to give it. Don’t promise if you can’t deliver.

But no, Trump’s not responsible for their deaths. The mullahs are fully and utterly responsible.

I’m pretty much with Roger L. Simon on this:

What comes to mind immediately are those clichés, “déja vu all over again” and “rinse and repeat.” Negotiating with the mullahs has always been a fool’s game. Whether for reasons of extremist theology or old-fashioned stonewalling or—most likely—because they play the long game, much longer than we could ever do, they can negotiate into oblivion, and nothing ever happens. The Islamic Republic remains the monster that it is.

Meanwhile, we are being inundated with contradictory news about what President Trump is planning. …

What may be at the root of all this presidential indecision, if that’s what this is, is the old saw “When you strike at a king, you must kill him,” popularized by Ralph Waldo Emerson and more recently on cable’s The Wire. Trump knows there is no room for bungling when it comes to finishing off the mullahs. They must be destroyed once and for all, or the mission could well backfire with negative ramifications not only for him, but for what’s left of the Western world.

More at the link.

There’s another socialist mayor in the US who just took office

The New Neo Posted on by

Somehow, Mamdani got all the coverage, but there’s also a new socialist mayor in Seattle. That Overton Window sure has moved, especially with the younger generation:

Mayor Katie Wilson has been less specific in her proposals than Mamdani, but she also emphasizes that warm collective spirit, and talks about what Democrats see as their best topic: “affordability.”

She wants to tackle homelessness with different tactics:

During her campaign, Wilson criticized the previous administration’s “Unified Care Team,” saying it “chases them around the city at great expense to all of us.” She pointed to the JustCARE partnership, which “resolved” large encampments during the COVID emergency by providing shelter and wraparound services. Wilson pledged to restore and scale up that model.

Good luck with that. In the many years I used to spend a lot of time in Seattle (when Gerard lived there: 2006 to 20014, and then visits every few years after that), I saw the homelessness problem in that city grow enormously. Now I read that there’s been a 26 percent increase in homelessness in Seattle since 2022. And, because Seattle has been run by Democrats for over fifty years (the last Republican mayor left office in 1969), you better believe that the previous “solutions” came from the liberal side.

Now the socialists will get a chance.

NOTE: I don’t know whether you agree with me, but it seems that Seattle’s socialist Katie Wilson and New York’s socialist Cea Weaver somewhat resemble each other. Here’s Wilson and here’s Weaver.

On Iran’s future

The New Neo Posted on by

Sometimes Trump is very clear about what he’s doing and why. But sometimes he’s using misdirection to provide cover for some other plan. He can be unpredictable and somewhat unreadable, or he can say what he means and mean what he says.

In the case of the present Iran crisis, it seems to me that not following though on threats would be a bad thing. Trump threatened something big if the mullahs killed a lot of demonstrators. They did, but he doesn’t seem to have done much in response.

However, being flexible and reactive to circumstances is good. What are the circumstances right now? Is something in the works? Does that something involve Israel?:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally asked US President Donald Trump to hold off on a US military attack on Iran, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous senior US official.

The two leaders reportedly held a call on Wednesday. The White House confirmed that a call took place after The Jerusalem Post asked for comment. …

Notably, that same day, Trump claimed that he had received information from “very important sources on the other side,” that Iran had stopped killing dissidents.

Is some action forthcoming from Israel? That country almost certainly has formidable intelligence sources in Iran. Are they using misdirection, or are they saying conditions just aren’t right for intervention at present? We simply don’t know.

These statements from Trump on Reza Pahlavi seem very careful:

“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump said. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet.

“I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”

Meanwhile, the news from Iran is terrible; please see this. The Times of Israel has a lot of coverage of Iran, all of which I find depressing. For example, there’s this (from someone who admittedly thinks very little of Trump):

The theocratic regime, which has ruled the country since the 1979 revolution, has been shaken to its core, but – like on several occasions in the past 25 years – appears to have survived yet another nationwide wave of protest and dissent from a population that overwhelmingly rejects its oppressive governance. …

While Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the other Gulf States benefit from a weakened Iranian regime, they do not want one which collapses without an obvious successor.

Paradoxically, they also know that US military intervention could strengthen the Iranian leadership. Since 1999, the regime has relied on the portrayal of its opponents as American and Israeli agents. An American attack strengthens that narrative. …

For all the scale and potential of the protests, the opposition does not have the organization for its political, social and economic ambitions. The regime has seen to that with its decapitation strategy, imprisoning prominent activists from all spheres of Iranian society. How can protesters and the opposition be supported in developing that organization?

But what revolt ever has a certain outcome? If certainty were the requirement, no such movement could ever be supported.

I guess it’s the old “time will tell.”

Replacing Obamacare: Trump’s health insurance plan

The New Neo Posted on by

With all the more violent news going on, you may have missed the fact that the administration has unveiled a proposal to replace Obamacare.

Some key elements:

The Great Healthcare Plan calls for codifying the Trump Administration’s Most-Favored-Nation deals to get Americans the same low prices for prescription drugs that people in other countries pay. …

The Great Healthcare Plan makes more verified safe pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase. …

The Great Healthcare Plan stops sending big insurance companies billions in extra taxpayer-funded subsidy payments and instead send that money directly to eligible Americans to allow them to buy the health insurance of their choice.

The Great Healthcare Plan funds a cost-sharing reduction program for healthcare plans which would save taxpayers at least $36 billion and reduce the most common Obamacare plan premiums by over 10% according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Great Healthcare Plan will end the kickbacks paid by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to the large brokerage middlemen that deceptively raise the cost of health insurance.

Would Congress pass this? And would it actually help the situation? I’ve long been pessimistic about solutions to the problem of high health care costs (plus rampant fraud, apparently). But that doesn’t mean a switch from Obamacare couldn’t make things at least somewhat better. I don’t have the economics chops to figure out whether this would help, and at the moment I can’t find an analysis I trust. If you have one, please put a link in the comments.

This Reuters article (a news outlet hardly sympatico with Trump) mentions the following criticism:

Critics say replacing subsidies with direct payments could force lower-income Americans to shift toward less comprehensive plans sold outside of former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act. That law sought to put all Americans – both healthy and sick – in one marketplace to keep premiums down.

Yes, that was the stated idea. But premiums haven’t been kept down.

Another roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) VDH is recovering from his surgery and explains quite a bit here, including the fact that his lung cancer was of a rare type that’s difficult to diagnose and often mimics infection/inflammation on scans. That explains a lot.

The cancer doesn’t seem to have metastasized, which is excellent news.

(2) How Communists think, with director of Mamdani’s “Office to Protect Tenants” Cea Weaver as an example. The quotes are from 2021, when she was already a prominent tenants’ rights activist, and indicate very little understanding of the interface between renting and home-owning, as well as the distinction between home-owning and being a landlord owning multiple units. It’s slogans all the way down.

(3) It seems like it’s a good idea to know what a woman is, if you’re going to be a SCOTUS justice. Here’s why:

Oral argument took place on January 13, 2026, in two cases involving state law attempts to protect girls sports – in Idaho and West Virginia.

… Alito, who’s tied with Thomas for the best Justice on the court asked a question, and we don’t have video, but you know he had an ear-to-ear grin. He asked the attorney for the girls to give him the definition of what it means to be a girl or a boy. And she said, well, we don’t have that definition, which harkened back to Katanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, where she was asked, give me the definition of a woman. And she said, well, I can’t, ’cause I’m not a biologist. …

… Most of the argument today surrounded levels of review. A lot of words like heightened scrutiny and strict scrutiny. So a lot of it was kind of court sort of jargon as to what can we do to review this.

But when you get down to it, we are literally in the Supreme Court arguing whether a school district can protect girls’ sports or not.

Girls’ sports exist for a reason, and the reason is rooted in biology.

(4) Ann Althouse wonders what to call Reza Pahlavi:

I know he’s not the Shah. Not yet. Just testing the concept on you after Meade called him the Shah. I said he’s not the Shah, and Meade said it was like addressing a nun as “Sister” when you’re not Catholic. I said: “You mean like using someone’s preferred pronouns?” It doesn’t matter what you think the person really is, you’re showing respect.

Is it wrong to call Reza Pahlavi the “Shah”? Does it help him garner support or not? He’s not in power, not yet anyway, but is there good reason to refer to him as the Shah?

I suppose if I were to address him personally I might call him Shah. But I think I can safely say that it’s highly unlikely that I ever will be addressing him personally. In the meantime, there are lots of other perfectly good terms to use to refer to him: “heir apparent,” “would-be Shah,” or “Crown Prince.”

From his Wiki entry:

Born in Tehran, Iran, Reza Pahlavi was officially named crown prince of Iran at the time of his father’s coronation in 1967.
…

… In 1980, following the death of his father in exile in Cairo, Egypt, Reza Pahlavi declared himself shah of Iran, styling himself “Reza Shah II”, and actively participated in political activities opposing the Islamic Republic from abroad.

So for approximately 45 years he’s been referring to himself as the Shah.

(5) DeSantis is not Walz:

Jennifer Cruz was arrested outside Mi Pueblo, a Mexican grocery store and meat market in Jacksonville, Tuesday morning after she allegedly jumped out of her car and punched a state trooper in the face while officers were working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents …

Another shocking video shared on X appeared to show Cruz kicking and screaming as officers struggled to get her into a squad car, laughing and taunting police and calling one officer a “weak-ass motherf–ker.”

Footage shows her lying in the back seat before suddenly popping up and kicking the officer who was trying to restrain her.

“Don’t you dare start kicking me!” one officer is heard warning her.

Cruz was then tased …

“This is not Minneapolis. This is not going to end well for you in Florida,” DeSantis vowed.

“You have a right to go out there and criticize government policy. You can go out there and protest within respected zones, but the idea that you’re going to assault one of our troopers is unacceptable, and you are going to face consequences as a result of that.”

One would think that would be very basic. These days, not so much.

The main activity at the Minneapolis airport seems to have been …

The New Neo Posted on by

… the transport of money to Somalia.

Okay
@DataRepublican, and I did some general numbers on the SomaliFraud cash going through Minneapolis airport.

According to reports, over 2 years, they moved roughly $700MM through the airport. …

That would essentially mean that the Somalis were taking a $1 million dollar duffle bag through the airport — EVERY SINGLE DAY — for two years.

Further, we can assume that this is only the money that was flagged.

And there are only something like 107,000 Somalis in Minnesota. All the money going to Somalia through the airport is not just from Minnesota, however.

But apparently a great many of the Somalis of Minnesota work at the airport:

Well, after some quick discussing with regular travelers of the MN airports.

The Somalis run the airport.
They’re the ground crews.
They’re the airport staff.
They’re friggin TSA.

I have noticed something of the sort, although not as extreme, in airports such as Logan in Boston. There seems to be a large Somali or at least Muslim (head scarves, etc.) presence in the TSA ranks there.

Here’s the original John Solomon report:

“It was like a cash ATM draining American dollars and moving them overseas, and nobody in the Biden administration seemed to think anything of it,” one official with direct knowledge told Just the News, speaking on condition of anonymity. “These couriers were openly flaunting what they’ve doing by legally declaring the cash they were taking out.”

Minneapolis travelers alone had $342.37 million in their luggage in 2024 and $349.4 million in 2025, and the totals nationwide are likely to be much higher, the officials told Just the News.

The flow of the Somali couriers’ cash out of Minneapolis was 99 percent larger than the foreign cash detected or declared in 2025 moving in luggage from the airports in Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta or John F. Kennedy International in New York City, the officials said. And it was 90% larger than the amounts that left Seattle, a major hub for Asian travelers. …

Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., told the Just the News, No Noise television show on Tuesday night that he believes the current Minnesota fraud scandal will embolden Congress to make changes to the law to give federal authorities more power to investigate the exodus of U.S. money to foreign countries, especially from illegal aliens.

I wonder whether such a bill would get bipartisan support from anyone but John Fetterman – maybe not even from him.

Walz the insurrectionist

The New Neo Posted on by

What a nasty piece of work Walz is. Now that he’s not running again for office, the mask is totally off:

I think Walz loves being in the spotlight again and fancies himself a leftist hero. Just a week or two ago he was in the spotlight for winking at and enabling – and perhaps benefiting from – rampant fraud in his state. Now he gets to change the channel and defy the evil ICE agents.

I can attest to the fact that many people I know buy the story that he’s selling. Some are people who lead with their emotions, but some are very rational. From what they see and hear, ICE is a bunch of violent thugs harming innocent people.