Thoughts on yesterday’s election

The New Neo Posted on by

One problem I see is when races that really are not competitive for Republicans are covered in the media as though they are, it sets up high expectations that lead to depression if they’re not met. That’s part of what happened in yesterday’s elections, especially in Virginia – home of the federal worker – and New Jersey.

I didn’t expect wins. But nevertheless the magnitude of the losses distress. Even the sadistic fantasizer Jay Jones won, if not in a landslide, certainly in a race that turned out to not even be close. And here’s what supposedly is in store for Virginia:

We lost 13 House seats. No Republican won outside deep-red districts. …

So, what happens now? When the General Assembly convenes in January, Democrats will have full control. Here’s what we can expect:
•Gun Control: Restrictions on semi-automatic rifles, bans on magazines holding more than 10 rounds, and limits on concealed carry reciprocity with other states.
•Right-to-Work: Expect attempts to abolish Virginia’s right-to-work protections, paving the way for mandatory union membership and higher local taxes through collective bargaining mandates.
•Taxes: New taxes on services like dry cleaning, handyman repairs, and digital services.
•Energy Costs: Re-entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), meaning higher power bills for Virginia families.
•Transportation: Re-adoption of California’s vehicle standards — by 2035, only electric cars can be sold new in Virginia.
•Elections: A new redistricting amendment that will let Democrats redraw congressional lines — creating 10 blue districts and just one red.
•Education & Culture: Full reinstatement of transgender bathroom and sports policies in public schools.
•Immigration: Virginia will move toward sanctuary-state status by reversing cooperation with ICE.
•Criminal Justice: Passage of “Second Look” laws allowing violent felons serving life sentences to seek release after 15 years.

Democrats will treat last night’s results as a mandate to advance this entire agenda — and much more.

That’s just Virginia. You can say many of the GOP candidates were less than stellar, you can say it’s an off year, you can say the shutdown and the federal layoffs mattered, but the trend everywhere was in the wrong direction. That will encourage the Democrats’ leftward trend – not that leftists need such encouragement. But they’ve gotten it. Will that backfire nationally? Perhaps.

I’m going to write a separate post on the New York mayor’s race.

In Minneapolis, a tiny bright spot – although “bright” isn’t really the correct word. It was a mayor’s race that featured leftist versus corrupt third-world-aligned even more leftist, and the leftist incumbent won. I submit it was because Omar Fateh, the loser, is not nearly as telegenic and charismatic as New York’s Mamdani.

The four years of the Biden administration were very difficult, but in July of 2024 things seemed to start turning, with the assassination attempt on Trump that failed. Trump won handily in 2024, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into much of anything for 2025 and beyond. In September of this year when Kirk was assassinated, I felt it was like a mirror-image bookend to the failed attempt on Trump. It seemed to auger something bad. Whether this perception is correct in the long run remains to be seen.

In closing, I agree with this from Gad Saad. He’s written books on the subject:

The ethos of a society is rooted in its shared and agreed upon values. American exceptionalism embodies a set of foundational values. These are going to be erased in 1-3 generations as a result of the policies rooted in Suicidal Empathy.

I’m not sure where this chart came from, although I’ve seen it in a couple of places. So I present it with that caveat. But I think the general trends are true:

Election results: blue states remain blue

The New Neo Posted on by

In Virginia, all the Democrat candidates – including Jay Jones – have been been declared victors. Jones’ contest for AG was the closest, probably due to the revelations of his venomous statements about Republicans, but not enough voters cared. Then again, many people in Virginia voted early and before the news of Jones’ texts came out, so perhaps if voting had all occurred on Election Day it might have gone differently.

Virginia’s results were said to have been affected by the fact that many federal workers live there, and they’re not happy about Trump’s cost-cutting layoffs as well as the shutdown (although why they wouldn’t blame the latter on Democrats is beyond me). Current Republican Governor Youngkin’s victory in 2021 was in part because of backlash about trans issues, but that ship has sailed and no longer motivates voters there (he was term-limited and couldn’t run again, at least not for consecutive terms). And Donald Trump lost there in 2024 by about six points.

In New Jersey, Sherill the Democrat has been projected as the winner. Trump also lost there in 2024 by about six points.

Not good news, and I certainly don’t expect the NYC news to be good, either. The polls there closed at 9 PM.

UPDATE 9:25 PM: Mamdani seems on track to win, as expected.

I didn’t anticipate good news tonight, except perhaps in the Virginia AG race. And I didn’t get any.

Fuentes and power

The New Neo Posted on by

People you may not have heard much about until a few days ago, like Nick Fuentes (and perhaps Candace Owens, although I’ve certainly written about her before) are now the focus of tremendous attention. It doesn’t really do them justice to call them bigots, conspiracy theorists, anti-Semites, or crazy people. They’re all that and more, and suddenly an especially bright spotlight is shining on Fuentes, mostly because of his interview with Tucker Carlson and then the own goal committed by Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation.

The problem is that there are a lot of young people who follow Fuentes and subscribe to his viewpoints, which makes him and them a sort of mirror image of the Jew-hating, America-hating, race-is-everything left.

It’s hard to convey how awful Fuentes is, like a caricature of a neo-Nazi crossed with a vicious provocateur who will say anything for attention. How many of his followers are real people? I don’t know, and although I bet that a goodly portion are either bots, paid operatives, or even leftists wanting to swell the ranks of his followers in order to make the right look bad, I also believe that a great many are real.

If you want a compendium of some of Fuentes’ “greatest hits” just to get a flavor of what’s meant when he’s described as a vile bigot, you’d do well to watch the portion of this Ben Shapiro video that I’ve cued up. It’s about nine minutes long, and it’s very very disturbing. If you look at Fuente’s affect, you might think he’s joking, because his demeanor is often so light. But his followers take him very seriously, and there seem to be lots of them in the comments to that video:

Fuentes – and Tucker Carlson’s softball interview with him – are the greatest gifts the left could possible receive. They validate every stereotype the left has about the racist, evil, Nazi-esque right. Plenty of people on the right have condemned him most vociferously, but he nevertheless taints the right at this point.

What’s his motive? The best explanation I’ve seen so far is in this comment at Legal Insurrection:

There is something seriously “off” about Fuentes. Before watching the interview I assumed he was a neo-Nazi, as so many people do. But neo-Nazis walk a far steadier path than this guy.

My best guess is this: Fuentes wants complete control over MAGA, the Trump movement, post-2015 conservativism, whatever you want to call it. *Total control.*

That means he wants to control Donald Trump, too. …

If Fuentes can’t get total control, he’ll settle for total destruction, of everybody and everything that he wants to control and can’t. He’ll try to destroy Trump, too.

We’re looking at a man who will say anything and adopt any disguise in his quest for power. He never raised his voice or uttered a real threat during the interview, And he scared the hell out of me.

I have no idea whether Nick Fuentes hates Jews as such. What he hates is people who stand in his way. Some of them are Jews (to hear him tell it, his first pissing contest was with Ben Shapiro). To push other people out of his way, he will cloak himself as anti-these or anti-those.

You can’t expect a man like this to be consistent in his hates. *Everyone* ought to be very afraid of Nick Fuentes.

Fuentes was at war with Turning Point and Charlie Kirk, too. You may recall that, before Tyler Robinson was identified as Kirk’s probable killer, the left was saying that the killer was a groyper – a term for a follower of Fuentes – who hated Kirk. At the time that seemed an absurd notion to me, but after watching a lot of Fuentes I can see why it would be very plausible, although it turns out to have been untrue.

Dick Cheney dies at 84

The New Neo Posted on by

His was one of those lives that really does merit the description “controversial.” Cheney was a former House member when Bush II chose him as VP. Cheney served during 9/11 and during the Afghan and Iraq war years, during which time he was hated by the left. In his last few years he ended up a NeverTrumper who defended his daughter and endorsed Kamala Harris – an act I doubt helped her.

He had such serious heart problems even as a youngish man (starting at age 37) that I never thought he’d make it through Bush’s presidency. Yet he made it to 84, courtesy of a 2012 heart transplant along the way.

RIP.

It’s Election Day here and there

The New Neo Posted on by

[UPDATE: I put up this post for the results.]

New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia are the highlights – or perhaps lowlights.

Predictions? Reflections? I’ve already written a great deal about the NYC race, so I won’t belabor that prospective train wreck any more. In New Jersey, it seems like the Republican might have a chance, although it’s been a blue state for quite some time. And in Virginia, the polls aren’t looking good for the Republican Earle-Sears in the governor’s race, whereas Republican AG Jason Miyares has a chance against the abominable Jay Jones.

I always pay attention to polls, but for quite a few years now I’ve wondered why. Perhaps it’s because, deeply flawed though they may be, they’re the only predictive instruments we’ve got.

A great big THANK YOU!

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve unpinned the post asking for donations. Once again, I offer a huge “thank you!” to every single person who has contributed so far, and to all those who contribute at other times of year. I am so very grateful to you all, and to all the readers and commenters here. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be doing this.

Just a reminder for the rest of the year: if anyone wants to contribute to thenewneo, click on the “Donate” button either to the right or at the bottom of the page, depending on what sort of device you use when reading the blog. If the Donate button isn’t showing, disable your adblocker and that should make it visible. You can make a single payment or regular monthly payments, as you wish. You can use a Paypal account or a credit card.

And of course there’s also the Amazon portal below it, which can be used for Amazon purchases. The season is upon us.

The march of time – and my neo photo

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been seven-plus years since I put up my present neo-apple photo. That makes it outdated, although I like to think I haven’t changed that much (although the apple has; but that can be replaced).

And so I’ve recently taken a bunch of apple selfies in order to come up with an acceptable one for the blog. You’d be surprised how hard it is, and strangely enough, selfies are the only way it can be done. That’s because I have to be able to see what I’m taking as I’m taking it. It’s surprisingly difficult to get all the elements in place. The apple has to be held just so: non-blemished side forward, not crooked, the right distance from the face and covering more or less the same features as previous photos, and the hand at least somewhat relaxed rather than a tense claw. There are many outtakes, but there would be even more of them if I had someone else take them. And who would have the patience?

Oh, and there’s the lighting, too, which has to be decent. It doesn’t really work well outdoors – I’ve tried – and indoors I don’t have the right kind of lighting. But I make do. And one can adjust the lighting with editing, although I don’t do much other editing except getting rid of the background if necessary and substituting something simple instead. For the photo that’s been on the blog since 2018, I did adjust the lighting (darkened it), but I think the new one will be more natural in lighting. The camera on my phone is better.

You might be amused by some unpublished outtakes from previous efforts. This one is from 2022:

And here’s one from 2017:

John Brennan gets physical

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve previously written several posts about John Brennan and his history; this one is about his Communist vote, this is about some of his offenses, and more background on Brennan can be found here.

I saw the following video yesterday. It’s quite an extraordinary moment, and Brennan’s actions speak louder than words to tell us what an arrogant thug he is. This is a man who doesn’t think he should ever have to answer for anything. And isn’t what he’s doing to this guy a battery? The situation was as follows:

After the conference on Thursday I confronted former CIA Director Brennan directly regarding his signing the 51 Intelligence Officers Memo knowing that the Hunter Biden laptop was real and not Russian disinformation. Watch his response.

Brennan’s also a weasel. He knew exactly what the effect of “has all the earmarks of a Russian information operation” would be, and the phrase was carefully crafted to maintain deniability.

One more video of Brennan at that same venue, being asked a question:

His demeanor is that of someone accustomed to being able to shut down anyone who might question him. Class act.

I did some more research last night on what really happened with that letter from the 51 former intelligence officers, and I discovered an astounding amount of very disturbing information. It’s not that I hadn’t covered the story before, when it was happening. But I hadn’t followed up in depth, and when I did I found it’s one of the best examples of what the government did to Trump – and how it protected Biden. And it’s one of the best-documented, although relatively few people have probably read the full story.

And so I plan to write one or two more posts on that subject. Not today, though!

The SNAP shutdown

The New Neo Posted on by

The SNAP program is what used to be known as food stamps. Now it’s done with EBT cards, which work like this:

Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits. When a participant shops at a SNAP authorized retail store, their SNAP EBT account is debited to reimburse the store for food that was purchased. EBT is in use in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. EBT has been the sole method of SNAP issuance in all states since June of 2004.

It’s been clear for years that there’s a lot of fraud in the system. From the same site:

EBT fraud, including the use of card skimming to steal benefits, is on the rise. Modernizing EBT, including the introduction of chip cards for SNAP EBT, is an important step to ensure that SNAP benefits are protected.

That’s certainly not the only form of fraud to which the system is subject.

And what of non-citizens? See this:

Only U.S. citizens and certain lawfully present noncitizens may receive SNAP benefits. Some lawfully present noncitizens must wait 5 years before getting SNAP benefits. You can find more information about whether you can get SNAP as a noncitizen at www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility/non-citizen.

However, that link only leads to a page that says the information is being updated. But generally, illegal immigrants are not supposed to be covered:

Undocumented immigrants, including DACA holders, are ineligible to receive most federal public benefits, including means-tested benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, sometimes referred to as food stamps), regular Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and are prohibited from purchasing unsubsidized health coverage on ACA exchanges. Undocumented immigrants may be eligible for a handful of benefits that are deemed necessary to protect life or guarantee safety in dire situations, such as emergency Medicaid, access to treatment in hospital emergency rooms, or access to healthcare and nutrition programs under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Of course, many initially illegal aliens end up getting legal status through the asylum process. However, although some are valid asylum-seekers, some are not.

The reason we’re talking about this today is that the shutdown would ordinarily mean that EBT cards are no longer funded as of November 1.

Some statistics here on illegal immigrants and welfare programs:

Of households headed by illegal immigrants, CIS estimated that 59 percent use one or more welfare programs — cash, food assistance, Medicaid, or housing.

Illegal immigrant households have especially high use of food programs, with 48 percent enrolled in one or more of these programs — SNAP, WIC, or school lunch/breakfast.

In particular, our analysis found that 17 percent of illegal immigrant households used SNAP.

In addition to food programs, 18 percent of illegal immigrant households were enrolled in one of the cash programs; 4 percent were using a housing program; and 39 percent used Medicaid.

Illegal immigrants often receive welfare on behalf of U.S.-born children, and illegal immigrant children can receive school lunch/breakfast and WIC directly. Some states provide Medicaid to illegal immigrants, and a few offer SNAP. Several million illegal immigrants also have been issued Social Security numbers allowing them to receive cash payments from the earned income tax credit if they work.

Many immigrants have modest levels of education and low incomes, so suspension of WIC and SNAP will impact a large share of this population. But this situation raises important policy questions, including whether it makes sense to have an immigration system that allows in so many people who turn to taxpayers to support their children.

I wouldn’t doubt I’ve missed some of the finer points; it’s a complex system and it’s hard to get quickly up to speed on it. But birthright citizenship and the fact that many illegal immigrants have citizen children (born here) are the reasons the numbers are so very high, I believe.

The Democrats could end the shutdown any time, but they’d rather sacrifice the SNAP program and blame that on the Republicans.

Today’s news on the benefits:

The Trump administration will provide partial food stamp benefits this month as the government shutdown approaches a record length, officials told a federal judge Monday.

The administration indicated it will not tap other funds to fill the gap, meaning the more than 40 million people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are set to receive reduced benefits. Administration officials have warned those recalculations could spur significant delays before November payments reach households.

On Friday, two federal judges ruled the Trump administration must empty a multi-billion dollar emergency fund before cutting off SNAP. The administration says the fund has $4.65 billion available for households. …

Democratic-led states, cities and private groups sued the administration last week as it warned that SNAP benefits would expire in November as shutdown negotiations remained at a stalemate.

So two judges have said the administration must cover for the Democrat shutdown, and blue states and cities sued the feds for what the Democrats themselves are doing.