Oregon will finally be purging its voter rolls of “inactive voters”

The New Neo Posted on by

The state is being sued about this, but that has nothing to do with the actions now being taken to clean up the rolls, says Oregon’s Secretary of State Tobias Read:

That process could lead to the cancellation of as many as 800,000 registrations. That’s the number of voters Read says are currently classified as “inactive” on the voter rolls. To be clear, inactive voters do not receive ballots, but their names remain on the rolls.

Who are these people? “Inactive” merely means the ballot mailed to the voter was returned as undeliverable. It doesn’t mean the voter hasn’t voted in years, it doesn’t mean the voter is dead, it doesn’t mean the voter doesn’t exist, it doesn’t mean the voter isn’t a citizen; it seems that any of those things could be the case and the voter will remain on the rolls and get a ballot in the mail without asking.

Why did this weeding out process take so long?:

Read, a Democrat elected in 2024, says he’s acting not in direct response to any of the lawsuits, but because he wants to increase voter trust in mail elections.

“There are many examples of people seeking to undermine confidence in our elections,” he says. “We want to do whatever we can to remove any reasons for doubt.”

Say, I’ve got an idea I’d like to share with Read: end universal mail-in ballots and have in-person voting, with the old-fashioned absentee ballot request system with its checks on fraud. But funny thing, that’s not even being considered.

In the comments at the link, here’s an interesting response in answer to another commenter’s query about what’s inherently suspicious about universal mail-in ballots:

1. Ballot secrecy.

In the home it is possible for dominant and potentially abusive family members to watch the marking of the ballot. This overlaps with a similar problem in such family environments of dictating the vote, or outright ballot theft.

Then when tallying, it is possible that the signed security envelope that contains the ballot can, as it is opened, be correlated with the ballot. In short, a malevolent actor can record who voted for whom/what. Not saying it happens or is likely, but it is much more possible than under the old ballot box system.
[EDIT: Anyone who is scared of Trump ought to be worried that in the future, with sufficient power, it could be covert policy for such “vote-peeping” to be used to identify his enemies. I’m not a conspiracy sorta guy, but this seems like a glaring threat.]

2. Selective release of early results.

Now I’m working from memory and could be wrong, but I believe that the votes are tallied as they arrive, if not tallied, then removed from the security envelopes at least, making it possible to tally early. I think it is unlawful to release the on-going count, nor do I think it has been done, but again, it’s possible where it is not possible with the ballot box method.

Related to this is a weird thing I discovered (or think I did, I could find it with some work) is that when the signed security envelopes come in, your name is marked as having voted. This is fine, but it looks to me like this information is released to both parties and based on the fact that your name is not marked as having voted they will call you and try to get you to vote for their issues/candidates. This OK as it is (although annoying), but the possibility exists that a favored party–depending on which has power–can suppress the information to the opposing party. Not possible in the ballot box method.

3. “Stolen” votes in the household.

This relates to #1. The ballots come to the home and if there is an abusive situation the actual ballot may be taken from the abused person and filled out by the forceful head of house.

Related to this but much less abusive is the situation that happened while my daughter was away at college, out-of-state. For the entire 4 years a ballot came for her to our house that she was never present to fill out. If I had wanted to open it and fill it out, then forge her signature–easy enough since I had examples at home–I have little doubt that I could have gotten away with it.

4. Miscounting.

This has actually happened at least once, and we know this because it was detected, but any undetected instances would pass.

In the old ballot box version, the vast bulk of votes were taken from the precincts to the tallying sites on the same day. There is an old tradition of partisan observers being present when the votes are counted–figuratively looking over the shoulders of the of vote counters. Now, since the votes are counted as they come in (if they are), is much harder for partisan observers to view the entire process, leaving many more of the votes to be tallied with no observers present. It is at such a time when the sole detected cheating was done: a GOP lady who was counting altered at least one ballot and was caught. She shamefacedly admitted to it and was given a light penalty.

There is no excuse for having such a bad system, subject to manipulation. Once it is in place, however, it is almost impossible to go back. The left depends on the system.

The world is waiting for Trump to act

The New Neo Posted on by

Or at the very least, the Iranian people are certainly waiting.

Or perhaps action has already begun?:

Friday we reported the assassination of IRCG commander Mahmoud Haqiqat in Iranshahr.

Now, in a Livestream, TousiTV is reporting the assassination of other IRCG officials …

Israeli agents? The US? Locals with their help?

“Reza Kasab, head of a ballistic missile unit in Kashan, this was a professional hit. He was assassinated by a suicide drone attack.”

“There are a lot of operatives on the ground carrying out these attacks.”

“Multiple generals have been killed in Iran.”

He notes that Israel’s strikes last year killed multiple senior IRGC officials, so now the replacement leaders are being killed.

“Islamic State TV in Iran have confirmed that IRCG have lost hundreds of their personnel in leadership.” My suspicion is that the IRCG have lost hundreds, but not all in leadership.

Reports of Mossad agents on the ground helping the revolution. This is the sort of thing that both sides in the conflict would say to help shore up resolve in their respective bases, but the drone attack suggests it’s true. (Could also be IDF special forces, CIA, or U.S. special forces.)

But it carries more weight when it comes from Mossad’s official Farsi Twitter account. “Go out together into the streets. The time has come. We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.”

Trump says this:

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown targeting demonstrators there, a move coming as activists said the death toll in protests rose to at least 544.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump was asked whether the regime has crossed his red line, given that he has pledged to target the Islamic Republic if it kills protesters.

“They’re starting to [cross it]. It looks like [it]. There seem to be some people killed that aren’t supposed to be killed… They rule through violence,” he responded.

“We’re looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options. We’ll make a determination,” he said, adding that he is receiving hourly updates on developments at the protests.

Not much to go on there.

Meanwhile, the left doesn’t seem to care:

There have been no demonstrations in support of the embattled protesters. People who screamed falsehoods about Israel’s “massacres” of women and children in Gaza have been struck totally dumb about the carnage of civilians being deliberately wrought in Iran.

Most Western media initially ignored the Iranian insurrection, then downplayed it as mere “cost of living” protests, and then began to amplify regime propaganda claims.

An old story; the left ♥ the mullahs.

I keep checking the news on Iran …

The New Neo Posted on by

… but it’s hard to know what’s really happening and hard to predict what will happen. It’s potentially transformative, though. A whole lot of dominoes could fall if Iran fell; Iran has been an enormous driver of terrorism and turmoil.

What seems to be true at the moment:

The mullahtocracy has blacked out the internet for three full days.

The regime is issuing threats to the US and Israel. The threats are not empty, but they don’t intimidate the way they once did because of the events of last summer.

A massacre is feared.

Some mosques are burning:

The people of Iran have reportedly set fire to dozens of mosques in the last 14 days. How to explain to them that this is an act of… what’s the word… decolonization. How to explain to them that it is not Islamophobic to burn down a mosque, because mosques are not places of worship in this case, but places for state apparatus to commit acts of suppression. How to explain to them that the women of Iran are burning their hijabs and lighting the Supreme Leader’s face on fire, using the flame to ignite their cigarettes, because they have been mandated to constrict themselves against their will. How to explain to Mamdani’s core that being sworn in on a Quran to a democratic position gives Khameini and the Islamist regime the last laugh, because the Quran justifies brutalizing your wife and sex trafficking children. How to explain to them that they don’t stand for human rights at all, but for the violators of freedom itself.

Lots of photos at the link of young women lighting cigarettes with burning photos of the Iranian leaders.

I’m old enough to remember (and I remember it well) how in the buildup to the 1979 takeover by the mullahs, young women of the left – the grandmothers of today’s Iranian hijab-burners? – marched wearing the covered-up religious garb and declared that to be a sign of liberation. It puzzled me greatly at the time. These days the marriage of leftists and Islamofascism is a given.

It’s said that the regime has called in reinforcements from its satellites, such as Hezbollah, to crack down on its own people:

As anti-regime protests spread across Iran for a 12th straight day, the Islamic Republic has reportedly turned to foreign militias for support, with two independent sources confirming that roughly 850 Hezbollah, Iraqi militia and Quds Force-linked fighters crossed into Iran to bolster the regime’s security forces.

The reported movement marks a significant escalation in the regime’s response, signaling a willingness to rely on allied foreign militias with combat experience to help suppress domestic dissent.

“This is nothing new for the regime. It is the logical extension of a playbook the ruling clerics have used since 1979 to outsource repression to ideologically loyal militias and then integrate them into the state’s coercive infrastructure,” Iran expert Lisa Daftari told Fox News Digital.

And the world waits to see what, if anything, Trump will do:

Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP

NOTE: I’ve written many many previous posts on Iran’s history. I especially suggest these, and in particular this, this, this, this, and this.

The 10 greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th Century

The New Neo Posted on by

I thought this ballet video purporting to show the ten greatest male dancers of the 20th century would be bad, but it’s kind of okay in many ways. However, one way it is annoying is that it can’t be embedded, so you’ll need to follow the link. Drat.

For starters, I thought it would leave out Fernando Bujones and I was prepared to criticize that. But there he is at #10. On the other hand, the clip used isn’t of Bujones at his best.

Peter Martins, #9, was a good dancer but I wouldn’t put him in the top 10. Whatever; he’s #9 here. Note something I’ve long noticed, which is that his head is large in proportion to his body. And yet the total effect is pleasing.

Massine, #8? I certainly don’t think so. Plus the AI voice (I think it’s AI; not certain) mispronounces “Russe” in “Ballet Russe.” Massine was better known for his choreography at the time, but even that isn’t performed all that much in more recent years. However, the film The Red Shoes is his most lasting work; he dances in the film, too, and you can see his eccentric style.

#7, Serge Lifar? No way.

#6 is another choreographer, Anthony Tudor. Why is he on a list of great dancers?

#5 Vladimir Vasiliev. Good choice; I wrote about him here, with videos that show his gifts better than the “10 greatest” clip does.

#4 Erik Bruhn, good choice but again the video clip isn’t the best.

#3 Vaslav Nijinsky. There are no films of him; the few seconds of movement in this video is AI. And the mispronunciations continue.

#2 Nureyev. Of course. Not one of my personal favorites, but he absolutely belongs high on the list.

#1 It was inevitable that Baryshnikov would be #1, and rightly so. Plus, he is one of my personal favorites.

If the video is considering choreographers too – which it certainly is – the absence of Balanchine is a glaring error.

Also, I would substitute Anthony Dowell of the Royal Ballet for Lifar. And why not Edward Villella for Peter Martins?

And the short compilation of clips at the very end shows off some of the dancers better than the main segments do.

A new policy for immigrants on welfare

The New Neo Posted on by

It used to be that immigrants who came here legally had to make their own way. There were charities – often religious or ethnic-based – that helped somewhat. But immigrants had to work very very hard to make it out of the crowded tenements and sweatshops, and to learn English. If they sent money back home to relatives – and they did – it was money they earned by the sweat of their brow.

There are still plenty of immigrants who do that. But for decades there have been plenty who are on the dole, and yet they send money back, too. Now there will be some limits:

In an appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Bessent revealed the administration will now require those on public assistance to identify their welfare status when visiting “money service businesses” with the intention of wiring money to other countries.

BESSENT: From now on, anyone who wires money out, from one of these money service businesses, has to check a box saying whether they are on public assistance. And, if you are on public assistance, we’re going to start pushing that you cannot wire money out of the country.

More here:

FinCEN also issued a geographic order increasing scrutiny on banks and money transmitters in Minnesota’s Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which will require firms to report additional information on funds transferred outside of the U.S., including FinCEN reports on transactions above $3,000.

Asked if this would have a chilling effect on legitimate remittances made by migrants to families overseas, Bessent said, “No, it shouldn’t. Anyone who can prove where the money has come from … is fine,” in an interview after touring the Minneapolis-area engineering lab of RV and boat maker Winnebago Industries. …

“You cannot send welfare money from the people of Minnesota to Somalia, right? Like, that just means you’re getting too much, or you can’t send stolen money.”

Intermittent fasting – not so great?

The New Neo Posted on by

Intermittent fasting on various schedules is touted as being an effective weight loss tool, but it didn’t do a thing for me. Here’s some recent research:

The findings suggest it may be calorie reduction rather than time-restricted eating itself that boosts key indicators of health inside the body, although it’s important to bear in mind this was a relatively small-scale, short-term study.

In addition to the study’s modest reductions in body weight, researchers observed changes in participants’ body clocks. The timing of their circadian rhythms, including those that nudge the body towards sleep, was shifted based on the TRE schedule.

And yet the intermittent fasting approach is very popular for weight loss. Here’s another study, this time from 2020, that isn’t exactly a recommendation:

The currently popular diet of intermittent fasting that restricts eating to eight hours per day, separated by 16 hours of fasting, is not effective on its own as a means of either losing weight or for improving key metabolic health markers, according to a new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco.

While time-restricted feeding has been shown to prevent weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet and reduces weight and metabolic outcomes in already obese mice, most of the reported benefits of such fasting in humans has had limited scientific testing.

Have you ever tried it?

Is the Iranian government in its death throes or not?

The New Neo Posted on by

There are reports of more protests and greater crackdowns on the protestors. Who will win this time?:

As protests against Iran’s government swelled significantly in size on Thursday night, the regime responded in many places by opening fire. A Tehran doctor told TIME on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protester deaths, “most by live ammunition.”

The death count, if confirmed, would signal a feared crackdown presaged by the regime’s near-total shutdown of the nation’s Internet and phone connections since Thursday night. It would also constitute a direct challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier in the day warned that the regime would “pay hell” if it killed protesters who have taken to the streets in growing numbers since Dec. 28.
…

Human rights groups on Friday reported much lower death tolls than the physician, though the discrepancy might be explained by differing reporting standards. The D.C.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency, which tallies only victims who have been identified, reported at least 63 deaths since the start of the protests, including 49 civilians.

TIME has been unable to independently verify these figures.

And I certainly haven’t a clue.

More:

Interviewed before Thursday night’s bloodletting, analysts named several wild cards in how the protests—and the regime’s response—might evolve. One is whether even larger numbers of middle- and upper- class Iranians and minority ethnic groups continue to join the demonstrations despite the growing threat of a violent response. Many chanted support for Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the Shah, or King, deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the clerics to power. Pahlavi, who lives in the United States, had called for a massive showing on both Thursday and Friday nights. He has promised to return to Iran and usher in a secular democracy.

Most of the Iranian people have been shut off from the internet, except for Starlink.

And Trump has re-issued a threat:

“I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots… we’re going to hit them very hard,” Trump said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.

Trump had warned last month that the regime would face consequences if the government shot protesters.

When Hewitt mentioned that dozens have already been killed in the protests, Trump said some were due to stampedes and not necessarily caused by law enforcement.

“I’m not sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that, but … they’ve been told very strongly — even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now — that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” Trump says.

How many shot is enough? And will he really do anything, and if so what?

It would be a wonderful thing if the regime of the mullahs finally fell after all these years.

NOTE: I’ve written a great deal about Iran over the years. I suggest reading this post.

Minnesota, hub of the left

The New Neo Posted on by

So much news about Minnesota and especially Minneapolis these days. When I was younger, Minnesota wasn’t in the news all that much, and when it was it was either because of Hubert Humphrey or weather that could freeze you in ten minutes flat.

But now we have:

(1) Nick Shirley has released another video. This one is about medical transport scams:

David Hoch, co-founder of Minnesotans for Responsible Government, joined him on the ground in Minneapolis, revealing an insane truth: this fraud hits hundreds of billions nationwide. Minnesota’s slice? At least $80 billion. Layers of shell companies obscure the cash trail, including 1,200 medical transport outfits in the area that do nothing while collecting taxpayer dollars.

Hoch swears by his evidence. “I have been to many of these transportation companies, and I’ve been time-stamping my photographs for a whole year at one facility in Minneapolis, and those vans in that parking lot had not moved one inch in an entire year. They’re all still sitting there.”

What’s the population of Minnesota? About 5.8 million. Divide that by 1,200 and you get 4,833. One medical transport van company for each 4,833 people in the state, including of course all the healthy children and adults? Seems rather odd on the face of it, like so many things in Minnesota these days.

(2) And then there’s ballot harvesting, something we already know is very liberally allowed in Minnesota. From the same video:

Hoch also revealed a widespread ballot-harvesting operation tied to Somali communities in Minnesota, claiming the scale of the activity is “way beyond anybody’s imagination,” adding that “the state doesn’t even know” and “the feds don’t even know.”

Shirley asked Hoch why a judge would allegedly defer to what he described as the “head of the Somali mafia.” Hoch responded that the influence stems from raw political power. He described the Somali community as a unified voting bloc that has effectively held Minnesota Democrats hostage. “What they say is if you do something to go against our community, we’re gonna vote for, and they all vote together, and there’s ballot harvesting, I’ve seen them do it, that, “We’re gonna vote for your opponent, unless you do what we tell you to do.” …

Hoch also described how he claims the voting process works within the bloc. He alleged that a single individual collects ballots for large numbers of residents, with little oversight. “They’ll have one person go there and collect all the ballots and nobody tracks,” Hoch said. He added that apartments can claim inflated numbers of residents: “They could say they have nine people living in an apartment. They’re gonna send them nine ballots,” which are then gathered by a designated collector.

(3) The Ruthless podcast guys are on it, with perhaps the best summary of the entire situation. They don’t think it’s limited to Minnesota, and why would it be?:

(4) Biden’s had a role, too:

The Biden administration didn’t require verification that kids were attending child care centers before sending them as much as $19 billion in federal funding, a stunning oversight the Trump administration is trying to reverse.

Trump Health and Human Services officials announced Monday it would restore “attendance-based billing” and reverse a Biden-era practice of states paying the child care centers without proper checks …

(5) And then we have the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, not far from where George Floyd met his end. There’s so much news about this it’s hard to know where to start, but I guess I’ll go with this video of the incident:

Renee can be seen behind the driver’s seat of the plum-colored Honda Pilot, while her wife, Rebecca, stands in the street next to the car. A dog is also sitting in the back seat, peering out an open window.

As Ross records the interaction, Renee says to him, “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you” before her spouse starts jawing at the federal officer as whistles and sirens can be heard in the background.

“It’s OK, we don’t change our [license] plates every morning, just so you know,” Rebecca said. “It’ll be the same plate when you talk to us later, that’s fine, US citizens.”

“You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead,” Rebecca sneers at Ross while filming on her own phone outside the car.

Rebecca then tries to get back into the passenger side, as an agent orders, “Get out of the f–king car” and Renee backs up.

As the car is in motion, Rebecca, who is still out of the car, can be heard shouting, “drive, baby, drive, drive” before Renee peels off and clips Ross, prompting him to open fire.

No wonder Rebecca – Good’s spouse – later blamed herself for Good’s death:

“I made her come down here; it’s my fault,” Rebecca said, her face covered in blood after having attempted to help Renee. “They just shot my wife.”

“They shot her in the head. I have a 6-year-old in school,” Rebecca said.

The couple was allegedly part of a group that had been “stalking and impeding” ICE officers throughout the day, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Meanwhile, Vance says:

“If you want to say this woman’s death is a tragedy, that we should pray for her soul as Christians and Americans, then I agree with you,” he said. “But the media dishonesty about this officer is an all-time moment in shameless press propaganda.”

Vance went on to cite nuanced points that the press had no interest in addressing when it came to their coverage of the shooting.

“Does this law enforcement officer have a family? Yes. Did he get seriously injured by a vehicle just six months ago? Yes. Did he have reason to fear for his life? Yes. Does he have every right to safety while he’s doing his job? Yes,” he observed. …

“I want our law enforcement officers to do their jobs and come home safely to their family. If you don’t like the immigration policy of the Trump administration, attack me. Leave our law enforcement alone,” Vance concluded. “And it’s time for the press to finally tell the truth about this story.”

It’s time for the press to finally tell the truth – period. But they don’t.

Some New Yorkers are trying to out-Minneapolis Minneapolis:

NOW: “Kristi Noem will Hang!” Huge crowd chants in Foley Square NYC, also “Save a life, kill an ICE” as they gather to protest the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Oh, and let’s stroll down memory lane – to 2007:

The trade deficit is reduced

The New Neo Posted on by

From Forbes:

The trade deficit—a measurement by which the cost of a country’s imports is worth more than its exports—shrank to $29.4 billion in October, the narrowest gap since June 2009 and a 39% decrease from September ($48.1 billion), the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported.

This is how CBS spins it:

The figures underscore how Mr. Trump’s volatile and sweeping tariff policies have influenced trade flows. When the president unveiled wide-ranging tariffs on imports from dozens of trading partners, U.S. businesses rushed to stock up on inventory, front-loading imports ahead of planned tariff hikes.

This has allowed many firms to avoid passing on the full cost of tariffs to consumers, keeping price hikes on goods relatively tame.

As U.S. households grapple with an affordability crisis, Mr. Trump has more recently expanded the range of goods exempt from tariffs, including key agricultural imports.

Did CBS think there was an “affordability crisis” under Biden? When I Googled “CBS affordability crisis Biden” just now, the results all seemed to be post-Trump.