Mass shooting at Sydney beach, mass shooting at Brown University [scroll down for UPDATES]
Two gunmen opened fire on a crowd at Sydney’s Bondi Beach celebrating the beginning of Chanukah, killing an unknown number of people (presently reported as sixteen) and wounding many more. This is the embodiment of “globalize the intifada.”
One of the gunmen was killed by police and the other wounded and taken into custody, but they had free rein for many minutes before they were taken down. It’s not hard to guess at the background of the shooters, only one of whom has been officially named so far:
One of the gunmen who opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach has been named as Naveed Akram. …
The 24-year-old suspect, who was shot dead by police, was a bricklayer who had recently been laid off. …
Social media posts from an Islamic centre in Australia show Akram completed religious studies in 2022, raising questions about possible radicalisation and extremist networks operating in the country. Adam Ismail, the head of the Al-Murad Islamic Institute, where Akram studied, declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph. …
Israeli authorities said they were examining responsibility for the attack amid concerns it may have been orchestrated by a foreign state or militant organisations. The shooting occurred against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Australia and Iran, following a series of suspected Iranian-directed attacks on Jewish targets in the country.
Note what’s missing: Akram’s country of origin (I’ve read Pakistan, but just as a rumor), was he a citizen or not, and what were his ties to the other shooter (I’ve read a rumor he was from Lebanon, but have read nothing official)? How did they obtain their weapons in a country like Australia, which has very strict gun control (I have no doubt criminals and terrorists can do it)? Why did it take so long for police to shoot the perps? What was the police presence at this event, an outdoor Jewish celebration that would obviously leave people highly vulnerable?
And then there’s the Brown University shooting, which we know even less about although it occurred slightly earlier. Two students were killed and about nine injured, and a “person of interest” is in custody. The police are being very tight-lipped, but there’s this:
At approximately 4:05 p.m. EST on December 13, 2025, a shooting occurred inside Room 166 on the first floor of the Brown University School of Engineering’s Barus and Holley Building, which also houses the university’s physics department and MacMillan Hall. The room had a capacity of 186 people according to Brown University’s website. At the time of the shooting, a review session for an introductory economics class was being held by a teaching assistant for Teaching Professor of Economics Rachel Friedberg.The building was unlocked, since it was the second day of the school’s final examinations for the fall semester.
Who is Rachel Friedberg, and what kind of economics does she teach? This kind:
Her research centers on the economic outcomes of immigrants in the United States and Israel, and on immigration’s impact on the labor market of the receiving country. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and participated in Israeli Knesset committee deliberations on immigration policy and reform. A faculty affiliate of the Program in Judaic Studies, she is currently studying the demography and economics of the American Jewish community.
I suppose all of this could be a coincidence. But I would bet not.
One bright spot is that the Bondi attack featured a hero named Ahmed al Ahmed:
Video verified by the BBC showed Mr Ahmed run at the gunman and seize his weapon, before turning the gun round on him, forcing his retreat.
Mr Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, remains in hospital, where he has undergone surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family told 7News Australia.
RIP to the victims.
UPDATE 4 PM:
The Sydney shooters were father and son:
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon says that they believe there were only two shooters involved — a father and son who are ages 50 and 24.
The father was a licensed gun owner, Lanyon says at a press conference, saying that they believe all his firearms have been recovered.
The father has been killed and his son, earlier identified as Naveed Akram, 24, is “in critical but stable condition,” Lanyon says.
I know that gun ownership is extremely restricted in Australia. How was this guy a licensed gun owner? Seems very odd.
UPDATE 4:20 PM:
Footage of Ahmed al Ahmed wrestling the gun away can be found here. Ahmed was apparently shot in the hand by the other gunman afterwards. Note that he sneaks up on the shooter from behind; seems the shooter neither saw nor heard him. Amazing footage.
UPDATE 8:30 PM:
A person of interest in the Brown shooting has been identified as Benjamin Erickson. There’s a lot of information about him here, but nothing that would immediately suggest a motive except for a possible mental health history. He may have become a Brown student in the fall of 2025, but that’s not clear.
UPDATE 10:50 PM
This is probably totally unrelated to the rest of the news in this post, but Rob Reiner and his wife have been found murdered in their Brentwood, LA home:
On Sunday, Dec. 14, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) was called to the home at around 3:30 p.m. local time to provide medical aid, and upon arrival, they found a man and a woman dead, the LAFD confirmed to PEOPLE.
Rob and Michele were found dead by apparent homicide inside their home, TMZ reported. According to the outlet, they suffered wounds consistent with a knife attack.
Terrible news. RIP.
UPDATE 12:20 AM 12/15/2025:
Now it’s been announced that Reiner and his wife were killed by their son Nick, who has a lengthy history of drug addiction and homelessness although in recent years was said to have been doing better. Horrific.
Progress on the poetry book
I’m happy to report that I finally found a printer that can put out a version with which I’m satisfied, and I gave them the go-ahead. I originally thought the book would be available around Thanksgiving time, but that obviously never happened. But it should be ready around December 18, if there are no more glitches.
A preview of the cover:
Roundup
(1) Chanukah begins tomorrow evening. In honor of the holiday, Israel has released a video they found that Hamas had made in December of 2023 for propaganda purposes but never made public, of the six hostages whom they later foully murdered, lighting Chanukah candles:
Weak and emaciated hostages pray and sing as they light the festive candles, a video aired by Israeli TV channel Keshet 12 reveals. The footage originally recorded by Hamas for propaganda purposes showed hostages giving each other hope as they celebrated Hanukkah. Another video showed them marking New Year’s Eve 2024.
RIP.
(2) Many states – nearly all of them blue – have refused to hand over their voter roll data for inspection, and the DOJ is suing.
(3) The GOP has proposed a new law that attempts to deal with the Obamacare subsidies which are due to expire soon. Part of the proposal:
Under the legislation, groups or associations of employers could band together to offer health insurance regardless of industry, provided they:
– Existed for at least two years for purposes other than providing insurance
– Establish formal governance with employer-controlled boards
– Cover at least 51 employees total
– Offer coverage to all employees of member employers
– Self-employed individuals could join as both employers and employees if they work at least 10 hours weekly or 40 hours monthly in their business, with at least 20 self-employed members needed to form a group.
The bill includes protections requiring plans to follow ACA nondiscrimination rules …
Much more at the link.
(4) More on the Minnesota fraud:
“Most of that $500 million hasn’t served a single meal, and some of the simple things are if they would have just gone to the facilities, you know, you hear of the thousands of people being served out of an apartment twice a day, all they would have to do is show up and look at it,” Minnesota Republican state Sen. Mark Koran told Fox News Digital about the fraud that was hiding in plain sight in Minneapolis.
“There was a legislative auditor report that showed that 30 property owners where these businesses claim to operate out of, contacted the Department of Education who manage it, who managed that program, and they told them one, the businesses don’t exist in their facilities, so they don’t exist, period, and one of them I think was a city park,” Koran said.
“And so the Department of Education gave that complaint to the nonprofit Feeding Our Future to address those issues, and the Department of Education continued to pay millions to those thirty with a blatant, simple process of ‘We’ve been notified they don’t exist’ and they rejected and ignored it.”
(5) A large percentage of Somalis in Minnesota are on some form of welfare:
– More than half (52 percent) of children in Somali immigrant homes in Minnesota live in poverty, while only 8 percent of children in native-headed homes are in poverty.
– One in eight children in poverty in Minnesota lives in a Somali immigrant home.
– About 39 percent of working-age Somalis have no high school diploma, compared to just 5 percent of natives.
– Among working-age adult Somalis who have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, half still cannot speak English “very well”.
– About 54 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps, and 73 percent of Somali households have at least one member on Medicaid. The comparable figures for native households are 7 percent and 18 percent.
– Nearly every Somali household with children (89 percent) receives some form of welfare.
An Animal Farm for our times
Originally conceived by George Orwell as a satirical allegory for the Russian Revolution and the subsequent struggles of the USSR under the rule of Joseph Stalin, Animal Farm’s political ire is redirected in this lively CG-animated adaptation directed by Andy Serkis. Rather than Stalinism, Serkis takes aim at greed, rapacious consumerism and corporate corruption and malfeasance. There’s also a timely dig at populist political movements.
I’ll fix that for you: “Originally a satirical allegory for the evils and lies of Communism, the Russian Revolution, and the subsequent struggles of the USSR under the rule of Joseph Stalin, Animal Farm’s political ire is perverted in this lively CG-animated adaptation directed by Andy Serkis. Rather than Stalinism, Serkis takes aim at its opposite, capitalism, emphasizing the greed, consumerism and corporate corruption that can accompany it. There’s also a dig at populist political movements such as Trump’s.”
More from the review:
But while it may struggle to satisfy diehard Orwell purists, the film still takes a political stance and delivers an emphatic message celebrating equality and the power of the collective – albeit one which permits us a little more hope than was present in Orwell’s 1945 novella.
I’ll fix that for you: “But while it should outrage those who’ve read the Orwell original, the film still takes a political stance and delivers an emphatic message celebrating equality and the power of the collective, things the original work mocked as propagandist lies that the left always betrays. This gives present-day leftists a little more hope than was present in Orwell’s 1945 novella.”
ADDENDUM: there’s an odd contradiction in Orwell, because he was a lifelong socialist and yet he criticized Communism, which is a form of socialism. I wrote about that in this post.
Time marches on
Notice any changes?
Open thread 12/13/2025
Tucker Carlson and the art of the Big Lie
This video is a discussion of an especially egregious lie told recently by Tucker Carlson. The part I’ve cued up is only about ten minutes long, and you don’t even have to watch it all to get the picture, although it really is worth watching the whole thing. Carlson’s lie is not a subtle one, but he seems for the most part to be getting away with lies this blatant:
Here’s a summary of the provisions of the Ugandan law Carlson is misrepresenting [my emphasis]:
The act prescribes life imprisonment for sex between two people of the same biological sex and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. The latter offence includes “serial offenders”, same-sex rape, sex in a position of authority or procured by intimidation, sex with persons older than seventy-five, sex with the disabled and mentally ill, and homosexual acts committed by a person with a previous conviction of homosexuality. Further, under its provisions, the promotion (including normalisation) of homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment for up to 20 years and fines.
The bill is highly popular within Uganda according to polls, and was voted for nearly unanimously by Parliament. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the European Union, and several local and international NGOs have condemned it.
Tucker is a vicious liar. In this case he’s especially targeting Ted Cruz, whom he almost certainly hates because Cruz is one of those Christian Zionists whom Carlson has said he hates “more than anybody.” In the clip, Carlson also implies that Cruz’s objection to the Uganda law in question is racist.
If you don’t want to take the YouTuber’s word, or mine, for the fact that Carlson is flagrantly lying, you can check the text of the Ugandan law itself here.
Which makes Tucker’s lie especially fascinating and subtly pernicious is that he invites people to check out the law even though it contradicts his description of it. My guess is that he assumes – correctly, in most cases – that the mere fact that he suggests that people check it out means that the vast majority never will. After all, wouldn’t most people assume that Carlson would never have said to look at it for themselves if he wasn’t telling the truth about it? Among other things, he’s relying on his reputation from the past as a regular newsperson who does his research, in order to gain people’s trust for his lies now.
NOTE: Carlson has recently said he’s planning to buy some real estate in Doha, in order to prove what a free-thinking American he is.
Is MTG Plotting to Destroy the GOP?
That’s the headline of this piece by Matt Margolis at PJ Media. My first thought on reading the title was: well, join the club. If that’s her goal, she’s got plenty of company on the right – or the former right.
There’s a history to this sort of thing, although the details vary. We’re all familiar with erstwhile conservatives Bill Kristol, and the Cheneys. They didn’t just leave the fold, they decided to turn on it and unite with their former opponents on the left and far left. Two more recent examples are Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, pundits who at least for a while seemed to be solidly on the right and now are in flagrant “tear it down, ha-ha-ha” mode, and although they haven’t joined with the far left they are certainly helping it along by being every bit as awful as the left always claims the right is.
From the Margolis article about MTG:
Greene’s final weeks in Congress have been nothing short of bizarre. The once-fiery Trump loyalist has spent recent days cozying up to liberal media outlets and apologizing to Democrats for her past conduct. She recently appeared on CNN to trash President Trump and the GOP. This is the same woman who spent years trolling progressives and championing conservative causes without apology. Now she’s doing a liberal media blitz and trashing the GOP on her way out. She even participated in a photo op with Code Pink, a left-wing anti-war group.
Despite the alleged effort to oust Johnson, sources say that the plan is likely to fail and that she may not even introduce the motion. However, if it were to succeed, it would be a political disaster for the GOP as we head into the midterms.
And then we have the infuriatingly destructive behavior of a great many Republicans in the Indiana Senate. I don’t pretend to have my finger on the pulse of Indiana, but WTF is this?:
The Indy Star reports:
The Indiana Senate rejected mid-decade redistricting today, capping off a bitter state fight for control of Congress that has divided the GOP, spurred violent threats and dramatically changed the political landscape ahead of the midterm elections.
The failure will likely be seen by President Donald Trump and his allies as a rebuke of his vision for cementing a congressional majority at all costs. Several groups have promised to spend top dollar on unseating those who oppose redistricting, setting the stage for a messy primary if the Senate did not pass the bill.
If it had succeeded, Indiana will join a handful of other states who have changed their maps mid-decade for political goals, likely eliminating Indiana’s two Democratic congressional seats and fracturing Indianapolis in the process.
This was an own goal, something in which the GOP seems to specialize.
J. D. Vance tweeted:
Rod Bray, the Senate leader in Indiana, has consistently told us he wouldn’t fight redistricting while simultaneously whipping his members against it. That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded, and the Indiana GOP needs to choose a side.
The Indiana Senate is controlled by the GOP, the bill had passed the Indiana House, and it should have passed the Senate easily. I’ve read that Rod Bray has TDS, and that it’s a spite thing, but I have no idea whether that’s true. His Wiki entry offers few hints, except that he’s from a family that’s been active in Indiana GOP politics for a long time.
Trump seems to think it’s Bray who’s the culprit:
“Unfortunately, Indiana Senate ‘Leader’ Rod Bray enjoys being the only person in the United States of America who is against Republicans picking up extra seats, in Indiana’s case, two of them. He is putting every ounce of his limited strength into asking his soon to be very vulnerable friends to vote with him.” …
“Bray doesn’t care,” Trump said. “He’s either a bad guy, or a very stupid one!”
The Time article goes into the supposed reasons for the rejection by the Indiana GOP:
But some local officials have said redistricting close to the 2026 primary will “create chaos,” citing huge expenses in ensuring that voter registration systems are updated to reflect the redrawn maps and that voters are duly informed of the changes. “It would put a great deal of stress on the election system,” Kate Sweeney Bell, clerk of Marion County, said, according to Axios. “That pushes away poll workers, causes longer lines at polling locations, frustrates voters, and ultimately sows distrust in the process.”
It’s also not as if Indiana voters want Republicans to redistrict mid-decade. An August poll found that a majority of them oppose it, and some voters have expressed concern that the new map also diminishes their representation as lawmakers would have to cover a wider, more varied geography. Another poll released in November found that many Indiana voters would instead want state lawmakers to focus on voter issues like property taxes and energy bills.
There’s also concern that the new maps would be “a dilution of Black votes,” given that Carson [a black Democrat member] may lose his U.S. congressional seat after redistricting.
One analyst wrote for the Indiana Capital Chronicle that even with Trump and Republican Gov. Mike Braun pushing for redistricting, state lawmakers may find their political careers in jeopardy if they go ahead with the plan, which would be “breaking faith with Hoosier voters.”
What I glean from that is that they think it would be too much work, and they’re afraid of being called racists. That’s in addition to whatever TDS may exist among the group, and the desire to spite Trump.
There’s this sort of thing:
To state senator Mike Bohacek, there’s also a personal element: his vote against redistricting came in response to Trump’s use of the word “retarded” to describe Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the President’s Thanksgiving message. Bohacek, whose daughter has Down syndrome, is an advocate for persons with intellectual disabilities, and posted on Facebook that Trump’s “choice of words have consequences.”
Bohacek doesn’t seem to be the least bit perturbed at the idea that the consequence of his anger at Trump’s use of the word “retarded” may be the Democrat left winning control the US House of Representatives in 2026 and not only frustrating the entire agenda of the right but replacing it with their own. I think that Bohacek’s vote really says a lot about so much of the Trump opposition being an issue of style rather than substance, an attempt to show that “we’re not crass like Trump.” Who is the petty one here?
Open thread 12/12/2025
Spambot of the day
This bot has a way with words:
His answers circle the question like it’s on fire.
“Affordability”: Democrats and Republicans
“Affordability” is the word du jour, fastened on by the left and considered by them to be a winning approach in the wake of Mamdani’s victory. To the right, that’s puzzling, because it seems quite clear that the Biden administration made things worse in that regard, and it’s been getting at least somewhat better under Trump.
But “somewhat better” isn’t “all better,” even though to expect the latter would be unrealistic.
Here’s a good discussion of this issue, and why it is that people don’t seem to see that electing Democrats isn’t the solution. They discuss it for about 37 minutes, but there’s no need to watch for that long to get the gist of it (and these guys are always entertaining, too):
Then again, the solution to “affordability” means something different to left and right. To the right, it means getting inflation under control and getting wages up. To the left, it means “we give the virtuous among you subsidies,” and “virtue” is defined by the identity group to which you belong.
NOTE: David Foster of Chicago Boyz deals with the issue of “affordability” here.