The art of the EU deal – and the art of reporting about it

The New Neo Posted on by

Trump says it’s great:

“It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said Sunday alongside von der Leyen [of the EU].

The agreement imposes a flat 15% tariff on most European imports to the U.S., including automobiles—significantly lower than the 30% Trump had previously threatened, but still far tougher than the 10% baseline the EU hoped for. In return, the EU will buy $750 billion in American energy and invest an additional $600 billion into the U.S. economy.

“We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,” Trump said. …

“It is about rebalancing,” von der Leyen said as she sat next to Trump. “You can call it fairness, you can call it rebalancing. We have a surplus and the United States has a deficit, and we have to rebalance it.”

Sounds good to me. But how does CNN Business spin it? With this headline: “Trump’s EU deal averts disaster. But few are cheering.” The NY Times has this more interesting take of very reluctant semi-praise: “For Trump, E.U. Trade Deal was Badly Needed: After a lot of big talk on trade, the Trump administration needed a big win. It appears to have just gotten one.” Here’s another CNN approach: “Trump lands another big win with EU trade deal, but he can’t dodge the Epstein saga.”

He can’t dodge it if CNN has anything to say about it.

The NY Post, as you might expect, has a more enthusiastic attitude as reflected in this headline: “Eu-reka! Trump strikes ‘biggest deal ever made’ with EU as prez announces Europeans will invest trillions in US, pay tariffs.”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Medical update

The New Neo Posted on by

The story on my ex’s medical travails isn’t good, unfortunately. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but the basic situation is that he currently has delirium, presumably caused by an infection that so far has been resistant to antibiotic treatment. I’m very much hoping that they will find something that will zap the bug sufficiently to bring him back from the brink of whatever is going on with him. He’s very miserable, and as far as I’m concerned it’s been a nightmare to see him this way. He’s had a number of medical troubles in recent years, but they’ve mostly been nasty but not too nasty. This present situation is far more difficult.

I very much appreciate your prayers and good wishes.

He’s not a young man but until the last few years he was very active and still quite athletic. Parkinson’s has been part of the picture starting about five years ago, and he seems to have dropped off a cliff with that recently, too.

We separated twenty-five years ago, and so you might imagine it took us a while to become friends again. But we’ve been friends again for at least fifteen years, he’s the father of my child and the grandfather of my grandchildren, and what’s happening now is very difficult.

It’s especially difficult, of course, having lost Gerard two and a half years ago. I know this is part of getting older, but I was hoping to stave it off for many more years. I’m trying to be optimistic because I know it’s possible that some sort of treatment will help, but this is definitely a low time for me. I think blogging is helpful, because (except for posts like this) it gets my mind onto other things.

Wish I had better news. I hope that soon I will.

Epstein and Maxwell: trafficking

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve seen many comments around the blogosphere to the effect of this: “Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of trafficking. So of course other clients were serviced in addition to Epstein.”

However, that’s a misunderstanding of the case. As I read it, as far as I can tell, the only client involved in the verdict was Epstein himself.

Here’s the legal document:

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLANE MAXWELL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States Circuit Judge Alison J. Nathan to 240 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade. MAXWELL was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor. …

In the later phase, from approximately 2001 until at least approximately 2004, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit Epstein’s Palm Beach Residence to engage in sex acts with Epstein, after which Epstein, MAXWELL, or another employee of Epstein’s would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash. MAXWELL and Epstein encouraged one or more of those victims to travel with Epstein with the intention that the victim engage in sex acts with Epstein. Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, MAXWELL and Epstein also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. In this way, MAXWELL and Epstein created a network of underage victims for Epstein to sexually exploit.

You’ll find more at the link, but it’s all in that vein: Epstein, Epstein, Epstein.

The evidence against “clients” other than Epstein rests on the testimony of 2 women, one a proven liar (Giuffre), who sued in civil court to get lots of money mostly through settlements (like the one with Prince Andrew). Alan Dershowitz – who was one of the accused – fought back and won. I’ve written about this several times on the blog – for example, see these posts.

Now, it’s certainly possible there were such other clients, but I’ve seen no convincing evidence of it. Maxwell was convicted of trafficking, procuring girls who traveled across state lines to have sex with Epstein, not with anyone else. Maxwell is apparently giving testimony in connection with a Congressional investigation, and it’s certainly possible she will talk about other clients. If she does, it will be the equivalent of a jailhouse snitch trying to curry favors – unless, of course, she can come up with evidence other than her own statements. I would never say never about the existence of other clients. But I would have to see something fairly convincing and so far there’s been nothing of the sort.

The left relies on the public’s ignorance of history

The New Neo Posted on by

For the left, failing to teach history – or teaching the leftist version of history – is a feature rather than a bug. A big, big feature. It makes it easier to fill in the blanks with utter claptrap.

To wit:

In what alternate universe would that be believable? In the universe created by abysmal ignorance of history.

I’m not saying that Clapper, Brennan, and Comey are themselves ignorant of the actual history. I suppose that could be the case, but I very very very much doubt it. I think they rely on the public’s ignorance, particularly that of people under fifty.

Macron seems to think it would be just great to reward the Palestinians by giving them a state

The New Neo Posted on by

Once again, no surprise here:

True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine.

I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next September.

The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population.

Peace is possible.

There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza. Finally, it is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East.

There is no alternative.

I think the UN General Assembly is the perfect venue for Macron’s perfidy. And France is just the country to do it. Recall that it was French media who spread the al-Durah hoax around the world, making way for the carnage of the Second Intifada.

It reminds me that Arafat and the Palestinian cause got a huge boost from their massacre of the Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972; after which Arafat addressed the UN in 1974. Terrorism pays.

Why did the Russia Hoax co-conspirators use emails to document their plans?

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve seen speculation about that – for example, here.

It is indeed a puzzlement. I don’t think they were stupid people, so I reject that notion. I have a one-word answer – which of course, being a blogger, I’ll expand on – and that is:

Hubris.

They felt protected by firewalls of “classified” labels.

They had spent their lives conniving and plotting and had only been promoted and acquired more and more power.

They thought they’d be successful in stopping Trump, because they had a host of ways and a host of powerful allies in the cause. And, if successful, the right would never come to power, certainly not in their lifetimes.

They knew the left would certainly never tell or investigate, nor would the press. The left and the press would back them up and/or cover up whatever they did.

But in addition, they thought the right would never get access to those emails, and if they did, the press and the left would be able to deflect them. More importantly, the right would never prosecute. That last remains to be seen.

And if the right did prosecute, the right wouldn’t win the cases. That also remains to be seen.

On those last two points, I think that this article is relevant. Despite the left’s demonizing of the right as power-mad fascists, until now in the US in recent years the right – for the most part – was reluctant to play hardball to the extent the left does. From the piece:

… merely being in office is not enough. Conservatives (or those labelling themselves as such) also need to have a will to be in power and not just to be in office. The power truly to change things can be found not just in the realm of politics but also in culture, education, and entertainment. The Left fights wars—cultural, ideological, total—while conservatives content themselves with fighting single-issue battles. The Left controls culture, media, education—it is, essentially, always in power. Conservatives, meanwhile, take office now and again, but rarely shape the culture.

This time around for the Trump administration, I see some of that happening. But in the case of the Russia Hoax, the willingness to use legal power is especially important too. However, there can be danger of abuse of power in employing the law to try and to convict the opposition; after all, that is what the left has been trying to do to Trump and anyone who would work for him, the approach known as lawfare which culminated on the four legal cases against Trump in which the law was stretched to the breaking point to manufacture novel ways to “get” him. The right has an understandable reluctance to do that, and I share that reluctance.

But what if people such as Clapper and Brennan really are guilty? And of what? I’ve discussed that before, and I plan to discuss it again. But if people really are guilty of the sort of things of which the Russiagate co-conspirators are accused, they need to be prosecuted.

Of course, those who thought – and still think – Trump was guilty and should have been imprisoned will not be changing their minds on that, and they will see the prosecution of the Russia Hoaxers as a terrible and vengeful miscarriage of justice. And I believe that group of people may consist of half the country.

Russiagate: a house built on sand

The New Neo Posted on by

Why would anyone ever believe Putin wanted Trump to be president? It never made sense – except to those who believe Trump admired a fellow dictator, and vice-versa, and that Trump had promised him favors. But it was a way the left saw to undermine Trump, something to which they’ve dedicated their lives for the last ten years and counting.

From Matt Taibbi:

The January 6, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “developed a clear preference” for Donald Trump and “aspired to help his chances of victory” is revealed in a report released this morning by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to have been based on four pieces of evidence. One was the Steele Dossier. The surprise is that the other three were even less credible, each included over objections of the report’s CIA authors.

The first item was a “scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment” of one sentence that the report’s five CIA authors read “five ways” and initially left out, only to have Director John Brennan order it back in. The second item was an email with “no date, no identified sender, no clear recipient, and no classification.” The third was supposedly backed by “liaison,” diplomatic, and press reporting, as well as signals intelligence (SIGINT), except the “SIGINT” didn’t mention Trump, the “liaison reporting” didn’t mention Trump and was from 2014, and the “diplomatic and media” reporting was a post-election review by a U.S. Ambassador citing a Russian pundit who said Putin and Trump should “work together like businessmen.” This was “evidence” that Putin “developed a clear preference” for Trump.

All three reports weren’t just unsourced and unreliable, but discarded fictions pulled out of the CIA’s trash heap. …

The Assessment was written by just five CIA analysts hand-picked by Brennan, but even these most favored lieutenants couldn’t accept the key pieces of evidence. Two of the five went to Brennan to say, “We don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected,” only to be overruled. The same thing happened when members of the group objected to the Steele material, saying it didn’t meet even “basic tradecraft standards.” When confronted on this point, Brennan reportedly said, “Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?”

It served A Higher Truth, much like the Rathergate memo.

The report on which this was based was written eight years ago but Taibbi notes that it was “locked at Langley ever since” and only released at Trump’s behest, to be studied by Gabbard’s group. “Langley” refers to CIA headquarters. When the intelligence community does shady things, it can hide them by classifying them.

And of course on Taibbi’s X thread we get some predictable responses such as this:

Matt why are you covering this instead of Epstein?

The Democrats have their talking point.

RIP, Hulk Hogan and Chuck Mangione

The New Neo Posted on by

Two entertainers from two different arenas.

Hogan was a character in every sense of the word. Even his name was a character – and what a great name it was! Who could forget someone named “Hulk Hogan” (real name: Terry Bollea)?

“WWE is saddened to learn WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan has passed away,” the company wrote. “One of pop culture’s most recognizable figures, Hogan helped WWE achieve global recognition in the 1980s. …

Hogan was set to join former pro wrestling executive Eric Bischoff in a new venture called Real American Freestyle. It was a fresh attempt at putting freestyle wrestling on the map. Hogan also dipped his toe into the political waters. He stumped for President Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention and at a Madison Square Garden rally last year.

Mangione was a jazz trumpeter; he was 84 years old, which no longer sounds old to me:

Mangione was best known for his hits in the 1970s, such as “Feels So Good.” The 1977 track reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, per ABC News, and earned a nomination for Record of the Year at the 1979 Grammys.

“I think ‘Feels So Good’ was such a hit because of the Bee Gees,” he said in an interview with the Celebrity Cafe. “ ‘Saturday Night Fever’ had saturated radio; I think the top six out of 10 hits were from that album. Radio programmers couldn’t figure out what to put on instead and when somebody edited ‘Feels So Good’ from nine minutes down to three, they instantly started playing it as an alternative to what were the current top songs.” …

The artist was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and grew up surrounded by music. He and his brother Gap would listen to their father’s jazz records and eventually formed the group, the Jazz Brothers.

On weekends, Mangione and his family would drive into New York City to watch Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan perform.

The artist’s parents were jazz buffs, which led to many meals with some of the genre’s biggest stars. …

“Their father would invite these amazing artists to come home with them for a good home-cooked Italian meal,” a biography on Mangione’s website reads. “Of course, they were more than happy to eat home cooking after being on the road. Chuck grew up thinking everyone had Carmen McRae and Art Blakey over for dinner.”

Sounds like a great family.

And here’s “Feels So Good”:

RIP.

RIP.