Man arrested on suspicion of having set the Palisades fire

The New Neo Posted on by

Some men just want to see the world burn.

And this man may be one of them [hat tip: commenter “Kate”]:

The suspect, 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, was arrested at his home in Melbourne, Florida, on Tuesday, officials said during a press conference Wednesday. He will make an initial appearance in Orlando on Wednesday.

Officials accuse Rinderknecht, also known as Jonathan Rinder, of starting the Lachman Fire just after midnight on New Year’s Day that “maliciously damaged and destroyed, by means of fire, specifically, the fire known as the Lachman Fire and Palisades Fire,” a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News said.

While the Lachman Fire was quickly suppressed, officials said it continued burning underground until winds ignited what became the Palisades Fire.

I’m a bit confused by that. How does a fire burn underground and then get ignited by winds?

I know several people who’d lived in Pacific Palisades for about fifty years and lost their homes in that fire.

More:

Rinderknecht was an Uber driver, and he was described by two passengers as “agitated and angry” the night he was accused of starting the fire, according to the complaint.

Officials said during the presser that he was a resident of Palisades and was familiar with the neighborhood he is accused of starting the fire in.

The complaint said Rinderknecht allegedly said that he grew up in France and that he played a French rap song during his rides. The music video for the song “Un Zder, Un The” by the French artist Josman depicts fire scenes.

So, an Uber driver with a fascination with fire? How reassuring. There also seems to have been some anger at the rich as a possible motive:

Prosecutors also allege Rinderknecht used ChatGPT to create images of a “dystopian painting” of a city being burned on one side while “hundreds of thousands of people in poverty are trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it.”

He’s being charged federally with destruction of property by means of fire – despite the fact that twelve people died in the fire. The charge carries a possible penalty of five to twenty years.

I wonder what other evidence they have against him, if any. A surveillance video would be good, because some angry words to Uber passengers and the creation of an AI painting aren’t very strong grounds for conviction even though he might indeed be guilty.

ADDENDUM: I see that there is cellphone evidence that places him in the vicinity of where the fire was set, at about the right time.

So, why Bari Weiss?

The New Neo Posted on by

Yesterday the rumors that have been circulating for weeks became official, and it was announced that Bari Weiss has become the new editor-in-chief of CBS News:

“We are thrilled to welcome Bari and The Free Press to Paramount and CBS News. Bari is a proven champion of independent, principled journalism, and I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News. This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects – directly and passionately – to audiences around the world,” [David Ellison, new owner of Paramount] said in a statement.

“This is an important initiative for our company and Bari will report directly to me – leading the work of The Free Press and collaborating with our CBS News team in the pursuit of making it the most trusted name in news,” Ellison added. “We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home.”

I long for such news that is balanced and fact-based, you may long for such news that is balanced and fact-based, but do the majority of people long for it or do they want news that confirms their biases? And can Weiss be the one to deliver news that is balanced and fact-based? Certainly not by herself.

I guess if you’re looking for a relatively centrist newsperson, Weiss could be that person or at least close to it. It’s not that easy to find one. If so, how on earth will she tackle CBS? Seems to me that firing most of the people there would be a good start, but is that either practical or possible, and will she even have the power to do it? And where would she find new hires who are truly unbiased?

I’m familiar with some of Weiss’ work as a reporter and podcast interviewer. As such, she’s calm, personable, and intelligent. After her dismissal from The New York Times (as far as I could tell, her main offense there was being pro-Israel and in favor of what used to be old-fashioned reporting values) she refused to go quietly. She wrote about what happened to her and ultimately became the head of the Free Press. That took some courage, and for that I admire her.

How many Bari Weisses does it take to change the bias of CBS? Probably more Bari Weisses than we’ve got.

I’m pretty sure that this was the first post I ever wrote about Weiss, right after she resigned (was pushed out of) her Times gig in 2020. An excerpt:

Journalist Bari Weiss resigned today from The New York Times. She may ultimately become more damaging to the Times as a voice on the outside than she ever was when she was on the inside. In other words, the Times may end up regretting not having heeded the words of the inimitable LBJ: “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”

Weiss was one of the few remaining sort-of-centrist voices left at the Times. Therefore, of course, the tumbrels came for her. She is not going gentle into that good night; here’s her scorching resignation letter:

“But the lessons that ought to have followed the [2016] election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.” …

I wish Weiss well. I think she will find another place to write, although I’m not sure where it will be.

I still wish her well. And she seems to have found another place to write.

A subsequent post of mine about Weiss was this; in it, I discuss her Trump-hatred. It’s what I consider her biggest and most important blind spot, and as far as I know that hasn’t changed. I titled that October 2020 post “Hatred of Trump leads to liberal confusion about what to do: Bari Weiss gets it, and she also doesn’t.” I would guess that’s still the case.

Here’s what Weiss is now saying are the core principles she wants to implement as head of CBS:

1. Journalism that reports on the world as it actually is.
2. Journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual.
3. Journalism that respects our audience enough to tell the truth plainly — wherever it leads.
4. Journalism that makes sense of a noisy, confusing world.
5. Journalism that explains things clearly, without pretension or jargon.
6. Journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.
7. Journalism that embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.
8. Journalism that rushes toward the most interesting and important stories, regardless of their unpopularity.
9. Journalism that uses all of the tools of the digital era.
10. Journalism that understands that the best way to serve America is to endeavor to present the public with the facts, first and foremost.

Bravo and good luck. It’s one thing to say it and another to do it. But one of her pluses is that she has both traditional reporting experience (although not TV news experience) and experience with alternate and newer media.

And what does the staff at CBS think? Some say they’re “freaking out.” Here’s a more restrained take on it:

According to one source, staff in the news division are more confused than anything by the hire: Weiss does not have TV experience (though her digital chops may be the more important skill given the trajectory of TV news right now), and her positioning of editor-in-chief is a perplexing one, with TV news organizations typically using a different organizational structure than newspapers or magazines where the title is more frequently found. …

Also perplexing some staff is how she will engage with Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, who remains in his role. That structure leads one high-level news executive outside of CBS to wonder whether Weiss will end up having more direct impact than some people think on CBS News’ output, or significantly less impact than people think.

The argument for her asserting control over CBS News: A powerful title and a direct line to the CEO (effectively bypassing all other executives in the CBS structure) could enable her to do things that Cibrowski can’t, or make moves that senior news executives or producers could otherwise block.

The argument against it: She is effectively cleaved off from the main CBS News org chart. The anchors and executive producers of CBS News programming report into Cibrowski, who reports into Paramount TV chief George Cheeks, who reports to Ellison and Jeff Shell. It may be hard to have meaningful influence on programming unless she can find a way into that reporting structure.

In other words, will she have a big title but not much influence?

ADDENDUM: See also this for more reactions to Weiss.

The two-year anniversary of October 7: on the cusp of peace?

The New Neo Posted on by

The horrific and sickening events of the October 7 invasion of Israel have led to so many unforeseen things: the worldwide increase in expressions of Jew-hatred – a hatred that I submit was already there but more concealed rather than overt; the decimation of many of Israel’s enemies, including those that initially had seemed strongest; and now a possible peace plan unlike any other peace plan that had previously been proposed in the region.

That’s a lot in two years. It’s hard to assimilate all the changes and impossible to predict the future. But I think the following is an interesting discussion of the situation as it stands today, and what the future might hold. You can watch a little of it or a lot.

It’s a basically optimistic take. Are they correct? Who knows? Can the two seemingly contradictory goals of the war be met: bringing the hostages home and the end of Hamas? And if so, what might replace Hamas?

Mamdani wants to limit New York City’s gifted and talented program

The New Neo Posted on by

Of course he does. Of course he does.

This is a recurrent dream of the left, and de Blasio shared it. After all, one can’t have smart kids getting special treatment; they must be sacrificed to the average. It reminds me of the educational equivalent of this observation of Thatcher’s in the economic realm:

I used the word “limit” in the title of the post, rather than “end.” It’s hard to understand exactly what Mamdani is proposing; I can virtually guarantee he’d like to end the whole thing, but as best I can tell he seems to be saying it should start in third grade rather than kindergarten:

Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral opponents ridiculed his plan to phase out the city’s gifted program for public school kindergartners.

Mamdani, the New York City Democratic mayoral nominee, would embrace former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2021 plan to phase out the gifted program for elementary schools if elected this November, according to The New York Times. …

Adams has expanded the elementary Gifted & Talented program during his tenure, a reversal of de Blasio’s plan to phase out the program and stop testing 4-year-olds.

“The era of judging 4-year-olds based on a single test is over,” de Blasio proclaimed at the time, likening the gifted program to “the segregation of students if they’re labeled as ‘gifted.’” …

But Mamdani told The New York Times that he would renew de Blasio’s plan, which sought to eliminate the Gifted & Talented test, opting for a universal test in second grade.

Adams is out of the race, but he has an opinion:

But Adams rejected [Mamdani’s] notion in a statement on Thursday, arguing it “gave thousands of Black and Brown kids a real shot to excel.”

New York City doesn’t have all that many white children in the public schools anymore. Here’s the demographic breakdown:

The student body at the schools served by New York City Public Schools is 14.2% white, 23.8% Black, 16% Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander, 41.5% Hispanic/Latino, 1.2% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.4% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. In addition, 2.8% of students are two or more races …

My guess is that there’s a high proportion of Asian students in those gifted and talented classes. Can’t have them excelling.

Oh, and Mamdani himself went to the Bronx High School of Science, a public exam school in the Bronx for the gifted and talented in science. Before that, he went to the Bank Street School, an expensive private school.

More on Mamdani’s background:

… [Mamdani is the] son of a tenured Columbia professor and an Oscar-nominated filmmaker.

In 2016, he told the oral history podcast “Encompassed – Bronx Science Stories” that, in eighth grade, while he was deciding which tony private school would have the pleasure of his enrollment for the next four years, he sat for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test on a whim.

He had developed “a small idea of maybe Stuyvesant” — an even more selective and prestigious public high school than Bronx Science. “And then, when I didn’t get in, I was like, ‘Nah, I ain’t going to public school.’ ”

Among the many private schools Mamdani visited that fall, he slummed a trip to Bronx Science [a public school], and found himself impressed because “when I walked in there was a jazz band playing and students just killing it and that hadn’t happened at any of the private schools, and the jazz band wasn’t all white, which was also different from all the private schools I had visited.”

I’d love to see him debate the brilliant Thatcher, otherwise known as “the grocer’s daughter.” Alas, that’s not to be.

A personal note: I attended New York City public schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. In those days, the gifted and talented program was called the program for intellectually gifted children; apparently they didn’t care all that much about “talented.” The gifted program saved me from constant boredom, and although it had its flaws it was fairly rigorous and we learned a lot. I didn’t like school, but without that program it would have been far far worse. Gifted children need desperately to be challenged, and we need to at least try to help gifted children reach their full potential.

What Palestinians and trans people have in common

The New Neo Posted on by

Several people in one of yesterday’s threads mentioned this essay by Eve Barlow. When I read it, I was struck by her explanation of why so many trans activists seem to be pro-Palestinian – when most Palestinians would hate their guts and if they moved to Gaza they wouldn’t be long for this world. It’s more than a red-green alliance between leftists and jihadists, something that’s been in evidence since 1979 in Iran, when the two groups united to overthrow the Shah and then the jihadists executed the leftists in short order. No, this trans-jihadist alliance is even stranger.

Here’s what Barlow has written:

… [T]rans ideology has not only normalized lying, it has made it socially acceptable – and attempted to make it legally enforceable. Trans activists can change the facts about their identity at whim and people must comply. It figures that some who fight that culture war can also recognize that after Israel was established, there were certain Arabs who “self-ID’d”, if you like, as “Palestinians” post 1948 under the influence of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and that they have lied for years in order to remove Israel from the map and claim it as their own homeland. The Nakba is a propagandist lie. Every war Israel has fought has been in defense of her security against insurgents. There’s a clear alliance between trans ideologues and pro Pals: a false claim to victimhood and enforced compliance via manipulation and lying.

She is correct in saying “trans activists,” because many trans people are well aware that they haven’t really changed sexes and don’t demand that the world recognize them that way; they just want to quietly live their lives presenting as the opposite sex. But trans activists certainly do make those demands, and many do so even when they obviously look nothing like the sex they claim to be.

Barlow is correct that both Palestinians and trans activists share a denial of truth and history, although one denies a truth and history that is more individual (the sex of a person), and another denies a truth and history that is more national in terms of who they are and who the Israelis are, and who’s been aggressively wishing to obliterate who.

However, you could argue that the Palestinians’ “claim to victimhood” is not utterly false. They are victims of a sort, although not victims of the Jews they blame. They are victims of the propaganda they’ve been fed and the promises their leaders have made, and victims of their leaders’ thievery and willingness to use them as human shields. At this point, of course, many if not most Palestinians are willing victims, having also been taught that Jews are almost literally devils and that it is great to die a martyr if you die in the act of killing them or if your death can be used as propaganda to harm them.

And you might rightly say that many trans people are victims, too – victims of propaganda at a young age, of groomers who are sexually drawn to the idea of convincing kids to mutilate themselves, of drug companies, of unscrupulous doctors and therapists, and of various forms of mental illness such as autism and body dysmorphia.

In other words, as with the Palestinians, they are actually victims of those who pretend to champion them.

Proof that progress is not an illusion

The New Neo Posted on by

I recently had to buy a spool of blue thread to repair a shirt I have, and so I went to Walmart. I purchased a large spool for $2.44, which I think you’ll agree is a bargain in this day and age.

But what really caught my eye was another spool of blueish thread. This was just as large and even cheaper, selling for $1.94. But what fascinated me was that it was labeled as thread for mending denim. Now, I’ve mended plenty of denim in my time, but I’ve always used blue thread, which is good enough but not completely great for the purpose. But then again, I had never in my life thought, “Oh, if only they made denim thread!” And yet here it was, and I couldn’t resist.

Reader, I purchased it:

I may have to rip some jeans in order to try it out.

Poetry, and dapper Gerard

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m finished editing Gerard’s poetry book, and the cover’s being designed as well. What’s left? Printing it and distributing it, and there are decisions to be made about those things, too. Last time a friend did the mailings, but that was a huge task for her and this time I think I’ll farm it out to a company.

Anyway, the point is that I’m close to finished with it. I also believe that fewer people will be interested in a poetry book than in the essay book, simply because fewer people are interested in poetry in general. Do you agree?

I was going through some very old photos on my computer, and found this one of Gerard from around 2008 or so. I took it in an airport parking lot; I think he was leaving for home but from where I don’t know. We went on quite a few trips. My cellphone camera was a rather primitive one compared to today’s, so it’s somewhat blurry. But I’m quite fond of it because it captures Gerard in the first couple of years of when I first knew him. He had left New York City in 2002, after living there for many decades, and he still had his city clothes and looked quite dapper; he used to say that in New York when he lived there, your overcoat was like your car in California in that it was the way you presented yourself to the world.

All those New York clothes were lost in the Paradise fire, of course. But Gerard continued to believe it was a good idea not to look like a slob when you went out.

Anyway, here’s the airport photo:

Have a great weekend!

ADDENDUM:

Commenter “RigelDog” suggested I try using a program to blur the photo’s background. And so I did. Here’s the result:

Once I got going with that, I started playing around with programs that make photos look like artwork, such as this effect called “pastel”:

And this, which is high contrast and looks like an Edward Hopper painting to me:

The Art of the Middle East Deal

The New Neo Posted on by

Roger L. Simon says pretty much what I’ve been thinking about the current Middle East deal, so I’ll just quote him:

Breaking for the whole world today is the news that Hamas is agreeing to some of President Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the Gaza War, most notably the release of all hostages, living and dead.

Does this mean genuine peace or a hudna?

That is indeed the question.

More:

Hudna is an Arabic term for “calm” or “quiet.” But as our sometime friends at Grok point out, “In contemporary politics, it’s notably used by groups like Hamas to describe extended ceasefires in conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian one, as a tactical pause rather than a permanent peace.”

That’s a polite definition. I’ve seen hudna defined as a deliberate deception designed to lull the enemy into complacency, especially in times of great danger, as Hamas is in at this moment from an impending Israeli attack that President Trump would have given his imprimatur.

Yes, but then again, Israel’s first goal is to get the hostages back. After that, if the Palestinians fail to live up to the terms …

More from Simon:

That strategy is to make everybody feel good for now in the hopes that it will continue to pay off and grow, so that Hamas can be maneuvered. It’s the Art of the Middle East Deal. …

We shall see what transpires. That is what President Trump, beneath all his hosannas, was saying subtextually. This is a test. And I suspect, if Hamas fails, he is prepared to act.

Who is the naive one here? I don’t think it’s either party. That is, I don’t think it’s any of the many parties, because other Middle Eastern countries are involved in this deal. As far as I can tell, dhimmi Western Europe is not.

And will the hostages actually be returned? I’m not optimistic even on that, but I could be wrong and I hope I’m wrong.

Claiming to be trans isn’t exactly a Get Out of Jail Free card, but it’s close enough: the case of Nicholas “Sophie” Roske, would-be assassin

The New Neo Posted on by

If you want to kill a SCOTUS justice, and get close enough to be charged with attempting to kill or kidnap a SCOTUS justice and have to plead guilty, it’s worth your while (if you’re a man, that is) to claim to be a woman.

That’s what would-be SCOTUS assassin Nicholas Roske did. To refresh your memory, he was the man (yes, man) who was arrested in 2022 outside of Justice Kavanaugh’s house by federal marshals who were there guarding it.

This was after the Dobbs draft had been leaked, but before the official decision was handed down. Roske’s goal was to kill three of the conservative justices on the Court, allowing Biden or Biden’s autopen to nominate leftist justices in their place and therefore change the course of SCOTUS history and decisions. You might call his plan an insurrection of sorts, and he did more than just write about it or talk about it. He did turn himself in, but apparently only because those marshals were there.

Prosecutors wanted him to get thirty years. Instead, he got eight – far fewer than many of the J6 defendants got. But it’s the reason for his lenient sentence that is so infuriating:

In a more than hour-long speech justifying the light sentence, [Judge] Boardman said “Ms. Roske came out to herself as transgender in 2020 but kept it secret. Ms. Roske’s sister came out as gay two years prior but Ms. Roske saw that their parents struggled to reconcile her sexuality with their religious beliefs.”

“I am heartened that this terrible infraction has helped the Roske family… accept their daughter for who she is,” Judge Boardman said. …

Boardman said “Any prison time is punishment for her. The length doesn’t need to be particularly long… unduly harsh conditions make a difference, too.” The judge continued, “She will be imprisoned in a male facility even though she is a transgender prisoner, pursuant to an executive order from the president. Before the executive order, that wasn’t the case.”

Gotta be sure to get those pronouns right. Roske, by the way, is not just a biological man; he looks like a man, sounds like a man, and has all the equipment of a man. It’s only because of Trump’s order that he will be incarcerated in a men’s facility, which the Biden-appointed judge apparently considers akin to cruel and unusual punishment.

Note that the judge was appointed by Biden. That is significant, because not only is she obviously on the left, but it was in order to get judges such as Boardman appointed to SCOTUS that Koske had planned to assassinate Kavanaugh et al. in the first place. Perhaps if he’d succeeded, Boardman would have been a SCOTUS candidate. She’s certainly seems to be no Trump lover:

Earlier in the hearing, Boardman lashed out at prosecutors and President Donald Trump, saying “Let’s not hide the fact that President Trump issued an executive order saying transgender inmates would be assigned to prisons with their biological sex.” The prosecutor replied that there was an injunction holding up much of the enforcement of that executive order, and the judge later state[d] that Roske could, in fact, get hormone replacement in prison, at least while the injunction was in effect.

And while we’re at it, here’s some further background on Boardman:

Boardman was born in 1974 in Silver Spring, Maryland, and grew up in Frederick, Maryland. She has been described as being of Palestinian descent on her mother’s side. She graduated summa cum laude from Villanova University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts. From 1996 to 1997, Boardman was a Fulbright Scholar in Amman, Jordan. She then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was an editor of the Virginia Law Review.

The Senate vote to confirm her was narrow.

Also:

On August 24, 2023, Boardman denied a request for a preliminary injunction seeking to reinstate a Montgomery County School Board policy that allowed parents to remove their children from lessons involving books featuring LGBTQ characters. Plaintiffs claimed exposure to these books contradicted “their sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage, human sexuality, and gender” and that the lack of an opt-out policy violated their children’s First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. Boardman reasoned that “mere exposure in public school to ideas that contradict religious beliefs does not burden the religious exercise of students or parents”. The Fourth Circuit affirmed her decision by a 2–1 vote on May 14, 2024. On June 27, 2025, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling, stating that the government burdens parents’ religious exercise when it requires their children to participate in instruction that violates the families’ religious beliefs.

I’d like to know how it was that Boardman was assigned the Koske case. Kavanaugh lived in Maryland at the time (and for all I know he still does), and so of course the offense occurred there. Maryland is deep blue, so perhaps any judge there who might have gotten the case would have had a similar profile.

NOTE: The “I’m a woman!” claim by male defendants and/or prisoners reminds me of the “I’m a woman!” claim by male athletes. It confers obvious benefits. You don’t see biological females claiming to be males in order to do sports, as far as I know, for obvious reasons, even though the female-to-male trans rate is far higher. Same for prisoners. For a woman to claim to be a man in order to get into a male prison (which, prior to Trump’s order, would have been possible) either never happens or is vanishingly rare, again for obvious reasons.