I don’t see any reduction in TDS (plus, MSNBC rebrands itself)

The New Neo Posted on by

Miranda Devine sees a reduction, though:

But as Trump chalks up wins against the odds, and as more people become aware of the Hillary-Obama origins of Russiagate and all the other attempts to sabotage his first term, bankrupt and jail him, character-assassinate him and then really kill him, irrational Trump hatred seems to be dissipating.

Liberal media outfits around the world have been doling out grudging praise to the president for his Middle East peace efforts.

Chris Cuomo and C-Span, to their own surprise, have been fielding calls from Democrats applauding Trump — not just for the Gaza deal but for his tough stance on immigration and the fact their 401(k)s haven’t collapsed like they feared. …

One sign was Brandi Kruse, a social media “citizen journalist” invited to the recent Antifa roundtable at the White House, who described herself as a recovered TDS sufferer.

Covering left-wing riots in Seattle the past five years had flipped her.

I see zero evidence of this change among people I know. A mind is not only a difficult thing to change, but it’s even more difficult on highly emotional issues such as TDS. What’s the different between someone who merely disagrees with Trump’s policies and someone who hates his guts and even might wish him dead, although not prepared to personally assassinate him? I submit that it’s the person’s degree of emotional involvement in politics.

Also, being an MSNBC watcher helps to foster the most intense TDS. By the way, did you hear that MSNBC is re-branding? They probably paid a pretty penny for this:

Later this year, MSNBC will take on a new name: My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW).

This name further underscores our mission: to serve as your destination for breaking news and thoughtful analysis and remain the home for the perspectives that you’ve relied on for nearly 30 years.

“MS NOW”? That conjures up the idea of promoting multiple sclerosis, or perhaps pushing the old feminist rag MS – and yes, that ancient periodical is still being published.

The present-day nihilists of Antifa and the nihilists of a half-century ago

The New Neo Posted on by

Commenter “huxley” draws our attention to an interview with a former Antifa member. Please see this comment and the following two: this and this. The link to the interview is here.

I haven’t watched it, but huxley’s comments give a summary of what is said. I’m not surprised by the content; it conforms with my previous statements that nihilism explains a lot of the impulse behind Antifa. In fact, I wrote a post about that just about a month ago, here.

I’ll add a few thoughts. I believe that there’s always a certain percentage of the population that trends toward sociopathy, but a society can nudge them along in that path or discourage them. Our current society seems to breed a lot of aimlessness and anger, and young men are especially prone to that although women are hardly exempt.

There’s a lot of mockery going around right now about the “No Kings” demonstrations. The crowds seem to be skewed to the elderly, otherwise known as “smelly old hippies/Boomers” But I know a lot of you are, like me, Boomers, and as such you remember the 60s and early 70s. It was a frightening time as far as I was concerned. Riots, assassinations (including of police), enormous societal changes, wars, and even terrorism.

Some of that terrorism was international in nature, as well, and some of it had Israel as its target. To refresh your memory, the 1972 Olympics massacre happened in Munich. And the 1972 Lod Airport massacre (now Ben Gurion Airport) featured an international cast of terrorist characters [my emphasis]:

The Lod Airport massacre was a terrorist attack that occurred on 30 May 1972. Three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacked Lod Airport … near Tel Aviv, killing 26 people and injuring 80 others. Two of the attackers were killed, while a third, K?z? Okamoto, was captured after being wounded.

The dead comprised 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, a Canadian citizen, and eight Israelis …

Because airport security was focused on the possibility of a Palestinian attack, the use of Japanese attackers took the guards by surprise. The attack has often been described as a suicide mission, but it has also been asserted that it was the outcome of an unpublicized larger operation that went awry. The three perpetrators — Kozo Okamoto, Tsuyoshi Okudaira, and Yasuyuki Yasuda — had been trained in Baalbek, Lebanon; the actual planning was handled by Wadie Haddad (a.k.a. Abu Hani), head of PFLP External Operations, with some input from Okamoto. In the immediate aftermath, Der Spiegel speculated that funding had been provided by some of the $5 million ransom paid by the West German government in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 649 in February 1972.

There was no internet back then, of course. But although that didn’t stop them from coordinating things, it helped make it more difficult. Nowadays it’s much easier to organize and to use propaganda and social media to stir up the requisite anger and stoke both the nihilistic impulses and the sympathy for supposed “causes” that the perps know little to nothing about. It’s not as though those Japanese terrorists had any special beef with the Israelis. Their actual motives? I bet you can guess [emphasis mine]:

The Japanese public initially reacted with disbelief to initial reports that the perpetrators of the massacre were Japanese until a Japanese embassy official sent to the hospital confirmed that Okamoto was a Japanese national. Okamoto told the diplomat that he had nothing personal against the Israeli people, but that he had to do what he did because “It was my duty as a soldier of the revolution.”

The other two were dead, so they weren’t talking. But I strongly suspect their motives were the same.

Oh, and speaking of “the same”:

Okamoto was tried by an Israeli military tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1972. Okamoto served only 13 years of his prison sentence. He was released in 1985 with more than 1,000 other prisoners in an exchange for captured Israeli soldiers. He settled in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. He was arrested in 1997 for passport forgery and visa violations, but in 2000 was granted political refugee status in Lebanon. He is still wanted by the Japanese government as of 2021. Four other JRA members arrested at the same time were extradited to Japan.

It is thought that Okamoto is still alive and living in Lebanon; if so, he’d be 77 years old, which makes him the quintessential Boomer. His older brother was a terrorist, too. A few more details about Okamoto:

The name in Okamoto’s forged passport was Daisuke Namba, Crown Prince Hirohito’s would be assassin. …

In his final statement [at his trial] Okamoto told the court: “When I was a child, I was told that when people died they became stars…We three Red Army soldiers wanted to become Orion when we died”.

During the incarceration, he requested to convert to Judaism and tried to circumcise himself with nail clippers. He stated that he was tortured during his imprisonment, being “forced to eat like a dog” and emerged from imprisonment emaciated.

And what of the Japanese Red Army? According to this Wiki entry, it disbanded in 2001, but its stated goal was as follows: “to overthrow the Japanese government and the monarchy, as well as to start a world revolution.”

This particular group was hardly the only instance of international terrorism. I’m just mentioning them because they are good examples of how long ago this international nihilist impulse was wreaking havoc.

The Trump administration has recently designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization:

Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law. It uses illegal means to organize and execute a campaign of violence and terrorism nationwide to accomplish these goals. This campaign involves coordinated efforts to obstruct enforcement of Federal laws through armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violent assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers, and routine doxing of and other threats against political figures and activists. Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity, then employs elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives, conceal its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement, and recruit additional members. Individuals associated with and acting on behalf of Antifa further coordinate with other organizations and entities for the purpose of spreading, fomenting, and advancing political violence and suppressing lawful political speech. This organized effort designed to achieve policy objectives by coercion and intimidation is domestic terrorism.

What is meant by “organization” has been disputed, but although Antifa doesn’t have a webpage with a president, VP, secretary, and treasurer, there is some emerging evidence to support Antifa’s organizational nature, particular in its funding; you can find some details at the link.

Mark Twain is said to have uttered the phrase “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Whether or not Twain actually said it, it seem quite true, and there’s a lot of rhyming going on these days. We Boomers are well-positioned to notice that.

NOTE: The Manson family were another good example of nihilism from that era. You may recall that, through the horrific murders they committed in 1969, they wanted to ignite a race war they called “Helter Skelter.” Basically, extremely violent nihilists, helped along by drugs.

No doubt you’d love to hear about my root canal

The New Neo Posted on by

A couple of weeks ago it was decided – after some sort of panoramic dental X-ray on a machine that played “Fur Elise” in beeping digital sounds – that I needed to have a root canal performed on an upper back molar.

“You need a root canal” is a phrase that no one wants to hear. I had it done on Tuesday, and it was an “interesting” experience.

For one thing, the initially rather chirpy and perky endodontist worked in utter silence. I prefer dentists who give some sort of running account – not constant chatter, but just general intermittent guidance as to what’s happening and how far along in the process I might be. This dentist, a woman who came highly recommended, maintained a strict policy of no talking. I had no problem observing the rules myself, since she’d placed some sort of large rubber boot in my mouth, one that made me feel very grateful that we have noses and nostrils.

The noxious tuneless muzak played on, the dentist drilled and scraped and picked at my tooth, and the whole thing seemed to go on for a longer time than I had expected. Perhaps an hour and forty-five minutes? I keep telling myself, “don’t be a wimp,” but my efforts to relax were about as effective as my Lamaze breathing had been during labor many a long year ago – which is to say, not very.

I also kept hearing her sigh. Why is she sighing? I wondered. At the end, she told me that it had been a very difficult process and I’d have to return in two weeks for more. Why so difficult? Apparently my beleaguered tooth had thrown up barriers, surrounding the nerve roots with some sort of extra bony layer that took forty minutes (and lots of strength) to drill through rather than five. Plus, one of the roots seemed to have gone into hiding.

Please wish me luck.

The ceasefire and hostage release are challenges for the left – but they’re up to it

The New Neo Posted on by

The ceasefire is what they screamed that they wanted, for so long. But what they wanted far far more was for Trump to fail – hopefully, with a large dose of humiliation. So now they’re either ignoring the ceasefire, pivoting to how it will fail, or giving Blinken and Biden credit for it.

It’s not the first time they’ve had to be creative.

Tariffs were going to sink us immediately. Maybe they still will – the jury remains out on that. But it must be hard for the left to wait patiently in eager anticipation of catastrophe.

Many district judges have been ruling the left’s way, but appeals haven’t been going all that well for them.

Their own lawfare against Trump and those close to him has made their subsequent outraged cries of “Trump is weaponizing the justice system!” ring hollow to anyone who remembers the last few years. Fortunately, leftists are able to do that mind trick Orwell wrote about so well, where O’Brien counseled Winston on how to forget what the party doesn’t want him to remember.

With all the assassination attempts against Trump, Scalise and GOP members of Congress, and SCOTUS justices, only one attempt worked – that of Charlie Kirk – and he’s become more well-known and his videos have gotten more popular.

No new stars on the horizon except Mamdani, who’s only winning because New York is so deeply blue and perhaps because he has two opponents rather than one. I don’t think he’d work on the national level; at least, I sincerely hope not. AOC has big ambitions, but I don’t think she’d work on the national level, either.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

NOTE: I haven’t yet talked to any of my Democrat friends about the hostage deal, and not one has mentioned it to me, either. Interesting,no?

The feminization of everything

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s been a lot of buzz about this article. An excerpt:

This cancellation was feminine, the essay argued, because all cancellations are feminine. Cancel culture is simply what women do whenever there are enough of them in a given organization or field. That is the Great Feminization thesis, which the same author later elaborated upon at book length: Everything you think of as “wokeness” is simply an epiphenomenon of demographic feminization.

Not everything. Many cultures have some form of shunning and some institutions have some type of ostracizing process, and both men and women participate. But I think there’s little doubt that women – and the fact that women now form the majority in so many fields in which that previously wasn’t the case – are key in the process. In particular, women tend to initiate canceling for petty reasons or idiosyncratic personal reasons. Yes, “mean girls” are a thing, and so are mean women.

Initially, when women were a minority in so many professions, women played by men’s rules. But, helped greatly by affirmative action and DEA, once they’ve become majorities or close to majorities the rules change more to women’s rules. I’m a women (I”m even a heterosexual woman, of all things) but I’ve noticed the problem with women’s workplaces for a long time and I’ve had my own difficulties in some of those environments; I’ve been targeted, and my sense is that it’s because of my unwillingness to play by those women’s rules.

I say I noticed the problem in workplaces. But actually, the first time I noticed the problem was in an all-female summer camp. When I was about ten years old and in a cabin with other girls for two entire months, they tried to pick on me. I had grown up in a harsher, more male environment than they, and so I fought back and they left me alone after that. But there was a more gentle soul among my cabinmates who became their natural target. Her persecution by them was an awful thing to watch, and I spent as much time as I possibly could elsewhere. I even tried to coach her in defying them. But she never could summon up the requisite defiance – she cared too much – and so finally I blew the whistle on them and told the higher-ups.

So I suppose I’ve long thought it’s obvious that female-dominated professions will have the problems inherent in female groups. It’s not that male groups don’t have problems – they certainly do – but they’re different problems.

In addition, it’s not just that we now have so many female-dominated groups, it’s that the females in them so often ascribe to leftism and its propensity to get rid of opposing points of view.

The essay goes on to track the process by which different professions became female-dominant. Law school, for example, something to which I can attest. When I entered law school my class was seven percent female, but within just a few years entering classes were nearly 50/50.

From the essay:

The field that frightens me most is the law. All of us depend on a functioning legal system, and, to be blunt, the rule of law will not survive the legal profession becoming majority female. The rule of law is not just about writing rules down. It means following them even when they yield an outcome that tugs at your heartstrings or runs contrary to your gut sense of which party is more sympathetic.

It’s not so much women who are valuing feelings over rules – it’s leftist women. I think that’s quite clear if you look at judges. I’m not sure which is more important – the “women” part or the “leftist” part. I suspect they’re intertwined, as women are more likely than men to vote on the left these days. But I really don’t see any difference in the decisions of leftist female judges and leftist male judges.

NOTE: The author begins with a discussion of how Larry Summers lost his position as Harvard president back in 2005. I wrote on that at the time it happened, in this post.

On a personal note – you know why I originally put up a picture of myself on the blog? Because when I was first blogging and didn’t have a photo on the website, everyone assumed I was a man.

It’s donation time! [I’ll be bumping this up for about a week, so scroll down for new posts]

The New Neo Posted on by

Ah yes, here we go again.

It’s been awhile since I’ve asked for donations. In the meantime, many readers have donated anyway, and I thank you all profusely. Some of you even have a setup whereby you make a monthly payment, which is also great. I appreciate it so very much, and it helps to keep this blog going.

If anyone wants to contribute to thenewneo, please 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 is not showing, disable your adblocker and that should make it visible.

I thank everyone in advance. If it weren’t for you readers and commenters, I’d probably be doing something other than this in my dotage.

Middle East pessimists versus Middle East optimists

The New Neo Posted on by

The Middle East pessimists have certain things in common with each other, and a prominent one is that they think Trump is a gullible fool.

I don’t see evidence for that description, although I know a lot of people believe it. It seems absurd to me that Trump didn’t expect what just about every blogger and commenter on the right expected – which is that Hamas would not comply with the deal and disarm, and probably would not cooperate in myriad other ways. I think it was always part of Trump’s expectation.

But the deal accomplished three very important things:

(a) It got some other Middle Eastern countries to commit to backing it. And they might end up being in non-compliance, too, although they have some economic incentives to fulfill their part of the deal.

(b) It got the hostages back at the outset. That was vitally important to untie Israel’s hands.

(c) It gave the world notice that it’s the Israelis who are willing to “give peace a chance.” It throws the spotlight on the continuing violence of Hamas, and if and when Israel has to go back to dealing with them harshly, Israel’s justification will be clear – not that most of the world will ever give them credit. I’ll add that the NeverNetayahu crowd in Israel will never give Bibi credit, either.

None of these things mean the deal will work out. But it’s part of the plan’s brilliance that it accomplishes these three things at once. Neither Trump, Kushner, Rubio, or Witcoff are naive enough to not understand the perils and risks, which are obvious. I doubt they are without a plan for contingincies, although they’re not telegraphing exactly what it is.

In other words, as this article says, “No one is under any illusions.” From the piece [emphasis mine]:

A total of 154 of the 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences or lengthy terms who were freed in the first stage of the hostage deal and the end of the war were transferred through the Rafah Crossing to Cairo. They are currently under Egyptian supervision in a hotel, in coordination with Israeli security officials. These prisoners, classified as deportees, are undergoing medical checks and receiving humanitarian support under the oversight of Red Cross representatives.

Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence continues to monitor those who have returned to their homes in the West Bank. “The terrorists understand that the situation has changed, but no one is under any illusion—they are not lovers of Zion,” a senior security official said. …

Palestinian sources estimate that some of the released prisoners may eventually settle in Turkey, Qatar, or other Arab states, while others are expected to remain in Egypt and rebuild their lives there. The 154 exiles are staying in a Cairo hotel under Egyptian security supervision, undergoing medical checks and humanitarian processing.

Turkey and Qatar have both expressed willingness to receive some of the released prisoners, though no official announcements have been made. Each prisoner’s destination was preapproved by Israel and included in the release agreement, and permission to remain in Cairo depends on the Egyptian authorities. …

Alongside the operational deployment, the IDF continues real-time intelligence collection and sensitive outreach to the families of released prisoners to prevent potential friction or violent incidents. Monitoring of the prisoners and their relatives will continue closely, with increased military presence in certain areas.

And that’s just what’s being reported. I’m going to assume there’s a lot more going on.

On many websites I’ve seen jokes about equipping the released prisoners with beepers. No, that’s not happened. But I wouldn’t underestimate the Israeli authorities and their creativity.

I repeat: all of this doesn’t mean everything will be as rosy as the rhetoric has been. But I don’t think that either the Israelis or Trump and his negotiators are naive about the nature of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Bolton’s been indicted

The New Neo Posted on by

We knew this was coming:

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-adversary, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland.

He now faces 18 charges: eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.

Prosecutors wrote in the indictment that during the time he was national security adviser to Trump, Bolton shared “more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” with two unauthorized individuals. Both of those people were related to Bolton and didn’t have the authority to access classified information, prosecutors said.

He pleads persecution and Trump-vengeance, of course. But why should he not be subject to the rules? Did he violate them or not? I don’t know the answer, but I certainly don’t assume he didn’t. I find it fascinating that he claims this as evidence that he did nothing wrong [my emphasis]:

He said that his book, “The Room Where It Happened,” was reviewed and approved by “the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials” and that the FBI was made fully aware of his email hack in 2021. In the four years of the prior administration, he said, no charges were filed against him.

You mean, when Bolton was dumping on Trump, Biden’s FBI and Biden’s DOJ didn’t indict him for anything? Well then, since we know how very evenhanded they were, that must mean Bolton is innocent.

Bolton goes on to add:

“Then came Trump 2 who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime,’” Bolton said.

Funny thing, we used to say that about Trump’s prosecutors/persecutors. And what did Bolton say about them? Well, let’s see what Bolton said back in August of 2022 about the FBI’s search of Mar-al-Lago for classified documents:

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday said the Department of Justice (DOJ) is “overwhelmingly” professional, pushing back against claims the agency conducted a politically motivated search of former President Trump’s Florida estate this week.

On CNN’s “New Day,” Bolton told hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar he’s had “long experience” with the DOJ and believes in the integrity of the department.

“Overwhelmingly, they are professional in carrying out of their duties,” he said. “I don’t recognize a lot of the criticisms that are being made of these institutions.”

I guess he “recognizes” those criticisms now.

Also, in February, 2024, Bolton had a curious evaluation of Trump’s pursuit of the presidency, in light of the fines levied on him through lawfare:

In an interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said the former president’s growing debt amid his legal cases makes him vulnerable to foreign influence and unfit for office. …

“I think this is one of the demonstrations why Trump is really not fit for office because he is consumed by these troubles, his family is consumed by them, and I think foreigners will try to take advantage of it one way or another. They may be doing it already.”

Bolton added that the financial impact will affect Trump as he could see the former president needing to liquidate some of his properties.

Unfit for office because ridiculous and vindictive lawsuits in deep blue venues might bankrupt Trump. Sounds like justice, right?

Senator John Fetterman …

The New Neo Posted on by

… makes me nostalgic for a time when the sort of reasonable opinions he expresses about the opposition were commonplace in Democrats. Back then, I was a Democrat, too.

It’s ironic that it’s Fetterman who’s not on the “Republicans are evil fascists” bandwagon, because when he was elected no one would have predicted this; at least, I certainly didn’t predict it. In addition, his physical health seems to have improved far more than expected. So, color me surprised.

Here’s the latest from Fetterman:

Fetterman made several comments during NewsNation’s live town hall at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday that demonstrate why he is considered a maverick among Democrats in the Senate.

“I follow country, then party,” he explained. …

“You don’t hold the government hostage,” Fetterman added, noting that the Schumer shutdown is “what the Democratic Party wants to do.” …

“It’s the wrong thing for the country, and in a period of chaos, I refuse to shut our government down,” he said. …

“I know and I love people who voted for President Trump. But they are not fascists, they’re not Nazis, they’re not trying to destroy the Constitution and those things,” he insisted. “I refuse to call people Nazis or fascists. I would never compare anybody — anybody to Hitler.” …

“Let people grieve [Charlie Kirk] — give people the space. I’m not going to use that terrible thing and that tragic assassination to make my argument and try to put out my views,” he told a now-hushed crowd.

Fetterman went on to point out that the country was almost plunged into utter chaos when President Trump narrowly avoided a bullet in Butler.

“It’s like, my God, he’s a father that had his neck blown out by a bullet. And now people have forgotten President Trump was — in my state — was shot in the head. Could you imagine where our nation would be if he were hit in the same way with Kirk?” he asked.

“We’ve really got to turn the temperature down.”

I read those words and felt a sense of relief that at least one prominent Democrat was saying them. Yes, Fetterman votes with the Democrats on policy. But he seems to be a very decent human being who’s not afraid to express sentiments that used to be expected of all politicians, and used to be demonstrated by many. No more.

I said that Fetterman is with his party on policy – but that’s not completely true, because he’s probably its most pro-Israel member. That’s another stance of his that’s a throwback to an earlier time, when both parties agreed on strong support for Israel.

The apparent result of Fetterman’s outspoken disagreements with the current party line is that Democrats are planning to primary him. Can’t have that sort of kindness extended to the GOP enemy, or to the genocidal Israel:

According to a Thursday report in Axios, Democrats are in active recruitment mode in their efforts to take out Fetterman.

-Potential Democratic challengers are already bashing Fetterman — and each other — years ahead of schedule.
-Some Democratic officials are openly contemplating running against Fetterman or keeping the door open to a Senate bid in the event he retires.

Some names being bandied about to take on Fetterman in the primary include current Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio and former Rep. Conor Lamb.

It’ll be a long wait. Fetterman was elected to the Senate in 2022 and therefore doesn’t go up for re-election until 2028. Meanwhile, he may continue to be a thorn in Democrats’ side. His political future really depends on which path the Democrats choose to take, and at present they seem determined to go ever and ever leftward.