Met Gala fashion

The New Neo Posted on by

I thought I’d do a light little number on the usual over-the-top fashions at the Met Gala, but I ran into the fact that the following story has taken over and dominated everything else. I think it’s a tale for our times, very emblematic of the changes that have gone on in our culture in general.

Some actress I’ve never heard of wore what looks like a jacket, panties (as in “underwear”), and pantihose as her ensemble. But that’s not quite it – as if that weren’t enough. The real news – and what created controversy even among many people who ordinarily wouldn’t be shocked by that sort of thing – was a portrait embedded in the lower part (see how delicately I put that?) of the panties.

Here:

That’s what it’s come down to, although I must admit I might have looked at that outfit and completely missed the Rosa Parks reference if it hadn’t been the talk of “X”.

The theme of the entire Gala was this:

In support of this year’s exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the Met Gala 2025’s dress code was Tailored for You, a concept inspired by the show’s focus on menswear and suiting.

Follow that link and scroll down and you’ll find lots of photos. A few of the outfits are even quite attractive, such as Zendaya all in white (it’s very hard to duplicate the photos here, so you’ll have to go there). Demi Moore resembles a leftover extra from the Ascot scene in the movie My Fair Lady, Al Sharpton (so thin now!) seems to be sporting a vaguely Captain Hook-ish ruffled cuff look, Jeff Goldblum channels Count Dracula, someone named Colman Domingo resembles a royal blue lampshade with an antimacassar on top, and Diana Ross is – well – Diana Ross.

The FBI misled the public on the 2017 baseball practice shooting of Republican members of Congress

The New Neo Posted on by

I guess this is news, but it seems to me that we (the right, that is) already knew it and so should have any sentient being following the story:

The FBI “misled the public” for years in claiming a sniper’s attempt to kill Republican congressmen at a June 2017 baseball practice was “suicide by cop”, when it was in fact domestic terrorism, according to a new congressional report released Tuesday.

The 27-page House Intelligence Committee report concludes “the FBI’s bottom line – ‘the FBI does not believe there is a nexus to terrorism’ – was based upon falsehoods, half-truths, and manipulations of the known facts.”

So I guess maybe the news is that it was a deliberate coverup rather than stupidity on the part of the FBI? I think we also knew that already. Plus, “suicide by cop” and “domestic terrorism against Republicans” are hardly mutually exclusive.

What’s going on with Senator Tillis saying he probably won’t back Trump’s nominee for U.S. Attorney for D.C.?

The New Neo Posted on by

Tillis, Republican senator from North Carolina who is on the Judiciary Committee, is saying that he will oppose Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee for the powerful position of U.S. Attorney for D.C.. Here’s his “reasoning”:

I met with Mr. Martin. He seems like a good man. Most of my concerns related to January 6 and he built a compelling case on some of the 1,512 prosecutions that were probably key to the moment, bad decisions. But where we probably have a difference is I think anybody that reached the perimeter should have been in prison for some period of time, whether it’s 30 days or three years is debatable. But I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on January the 6th, and that’s probably where most of the friction was. …

I have to say that Mr. Martin did a good job of explaining how there were people that probably got caught up in it, but they made the stupid decision to come through a building that had been breached and that the police officers and others were saying, stay away. So the difference wasn’t that they should be charged. In my estimation, it’s by how much? That’s an argument I’m willing to have, but we have to be very clear that what happened on January the 6th was wrong. …

… [I]f Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. Attorney for any district except the district where January 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support them, but not in this district.

I think you can see why I put the word reasoning in scare quotes. Does Tillis know how our legal system works, or is supposed to work? Does he agree that in an adversarial system, even the most vicious criminals need a defense and that lawyers argue certain things as part of a defense that they don’t always even agree with? Does he understand that many many J6 defendants were not being told by police officers to “stay away” – au contraire?

Does he know anything about that day?

His vote is especially important, by the way, because there’s a deadline on the nomination which is coming soon, and if the position isn’t filled by that time then The Great and Powerful Boasberg gets to appoint someone to fill the position.

So, what’s going on with Tillis? Some possibilities:

(1) He craves attention and this is getting him quite a bit.
(2) He actually is extremely ignorant of how the legal system works and/or how J6 went down.
(3) He is virtue-signaling.
(4) He is going to capitulate at some point, but he wants something in exchange for his vote.

I see the following from Tillis’ Wiki page:

Tillis initially opposed President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to divert funding to a border wall but voted for it after pressure from his party.

That’s interesting.

Other interesting tidbits – which may or may not be relevant – are these two:

By the time he was 17, his family had moved 20 times, living in New Orleans and Nashville, among other places; Tillis never attended the same school in consecutive years. …

Tillis, his father, and his two brothers are all named Thomas Tillis.

A bit confusing, perhaps?

Tillis doesn’t have a law degree; he’s got a BA from the University of Maryland in technology management. Not sure why he’s on the Judiciary Committee.

There’s also this:

After the release of the Access Hollywood tape during the 2016 United States presidential election, Tillis called Trump’s comments “indefensible”. According to Politico, he “began the Trump era by negotiating with Democrats on immigration and co-authoring legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller” but has increasingly aligned himself with the president due to pressure from his party. While occasionally criticizing Trump’s tone, Tillis said in 2017 that he had “not deviated once from any nomination or any vote that the president happens to be supportive of” and has voted with Trump’s stated positions 90% of the time as of January 2021.

He also was against the Hegseth confirmation before he was for it.

And I assume he’s currently undergoing a bit more of that familiar “pressure from his party” – at least, I hope so.

Peace in Rwanda and Congo?

The New Neo Posted on by

Can we even begin to trust this good news? It’s mostly being covered by the press in Europe rather than the US, but it caught my eye [my emphasis]:

Congo and Rwanda have submitted a draft peace proposal as part of a process meant to end fighting in eastern Congo and attract billions of dollars of Western investment, U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa said on Monday.

It is the latest step in an ambitious bid by the Trump administration to end a decades-long conflict in a region rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium. …

The two countries’ foreign ministers agreed last month, at a ceremony in Washington alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to submit the draft proposal by May 2.

But neither Kinshasa nor Kigali has publicly confirmed doing so, and Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on Saturday on X that the two sides’ contributions “have not yet been consolidated.”

Massad Boulos, who is Trump’s senior adviser for Africa and the Middle East, said on X on Monday that he welcomed “the draft text on a peace proposal received from both DRC and Rwanda,” describing it as “an important step” towards peace. …

The hope is that all three agreements can be signed in about two months, and on the same day, at a ceremony attended by Trump, Boulos said.

Those minerals again.

The two countries have a long, tragic, and bloody history. Here’s a portion of it.

The Trump administration has been very busy indeed, hasn’t it?

The very definition of a power couple

The New Neo Posted on by

Love finds a way, despite hardships:

Who are they? Why, 39-year-old Alexander Soros and 49-year-old Huma Abedin. If your memory needs refreshing, he’s the extremely rich scion of George Soros and is now head of the Soros empire, and Abedin was once Hillary Clinton’s top aide and is also the ex-wife of Anthony Weiner. Abedin is of half-Pakistani and half-Indian descent, was born here but raised in Saudi Arabia where her parents were teaching, and is a practicing Muslim.

I had missed their engagement, but apparently they’re due to marry next month.

Nice view; nice digs.

Giving illegal aliens a bonus … for leaving

The New Neo Posted on by

This is certainly creative:

From Kristi Noem:

If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App. This is the safest option for our law enforcement, aliens and is a 70% savings for US taxpayers. Download the CBP Home App TODAY and self-deport.

And from one of the comments there:

Let’s see some federal judge say they can’t do this.

Could be.

I have no idea how many people will take the government up on the offer.

NOTE: The first time I can recall hearing the phrase “self-deport” was in 2012, when Romney had a plan for it. Remember?

Israel is planning to do what it must: occupy Gaza militarily

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s the report:

During the discussion, the Chief of Staff said: “We are on the path to defeating Hamas, and this will also contribute to the effort to bring back the hostages.” According to the source, the plan includes conquering the Gaza Strip, maintaining a military presence, relocating the civilian population in Gaza southward for its own safety, crippling Hamas’ ability to distribute humanitarian aid, and delivering powerful blows [against the] terrorist organization, measures aimed at breaking its hold on the Strip.

The difference is the “maintaining a military presence” part – that is, holding territory. Apparently the ill-fated decade-and-a-half-plus experiment in Gazan independence is over for now.

There is also this: “The prime minister added that he is continuing to promote the Trump Plan to allow for the voluntary emigration of Gazans, and that discussions on the issue are underway with several countries.” No one wants the truculent, trouble-making Gazans, although they might express rhetorical sympathy. Palestinians have sowed discord and destabilization in the countries to which they’ve emigrated in large groups previously.

In the past I’ve featured many videos by Caroline Glick. A couple of months ago, however, she stopped putting out those videos and took a position with Netanyahu’s government as International Affairs Advisor. It is in that position that she spoke a few weeks ago to JNS, and I was struck by the resolve she expressed that is in line with the policy I just described. Here’s her speech; it’s not very long and I’ve cued up what I consider the heart of her message:

I don’t think any of this would be happening if Kamala Harris had been elected.

Sequel: the chicken and dumplings visuals

The New Neo Posted on by

For those who followed my chicken and dumplings saga over the weekend, commenter “Chuck” has thoughtfully provided this link to a photo purporting to be of the items in question.

I’m searching my memory banks; it was a long time ago, probably about fifteen years ago, that I tried to eat that particular dish. The dumplings and gravy looked a great deal like that although I only remember getting one dumpling, sitting monumentally in its own dish and its own gravy and the size of a large grapefruit. Was my tasteless chicken in another dish, or in the same one and lurking under the massive dumpling? A minor quibble, if so.

Several people pointed out in the comments that many cuisines around the world have dumplings. Very true. But many such dumplings are of the noodlesque variety, which usually makes them far far far more tasty than the Tad’s variety (of course, nearly everything edible is tastier than the Tad’s variety). But large doughy masses of leaden aspect? No, no, a thousand times no. I will not eat them, Sam I Am.

Laughter

The New Neo Posted on by

Did you notice on that Dave Barry Substack article I discussed yesterday that on the map of Florida he likens to the male reproductive system, he had labeled the body of water below it the “Gulf of Canada,” and also put a note underneath the map that said, “Source: Harvard University School of Medicine and Geography.” So funny. I hadn’t noticed the labels on my first go-round.

Also, for those interested in Barry’s history, please see this. Apparently, Barry has been writing these Substack pieces since January. I read quite a few of them last night and laughed and laughed.

Also, that piece I just linked starts like this:

When people hear that I’m starting a Substack, the question they always ask is: “Dave Barry? Isn’t he dead?”

I’m delighted to report that the answer is: Not yet! I’m still alive, and along with an estimated 85 percent of the Earth’s population, I have a Substack, which I invite you to subscribe to.

This other piece of Barry’s tapped into something that has long bothered me – secretly, because I thought it was just me. But I”m happy to see I’m not the only one who has the difficulty he describes, although I may be an extreme case. As a nightowl, many times when I’ve been in a hotel, I’ve gone to take a shower in the wee hours of the morning and spent at least an hour trying to figure the thing out before I’ve either given up or reluctantly woken my sleeping companion to help crack the code. My husband used to be very very good at that, but perhaps it’s a facility that declines with age. Barry writes:

Hotel shower controls are so complex that they could represent a serious threat to America’s national security, and yet untrained civilians who — we repeat — maybe had a couple of vodkas the night before are expected to somehow know how to operate them. …

Anyway, the good news is that I finally did figure out how to operate that particular hotel shower. Unfortunately, I’ll probably never be in that hotel again, and whatever future hotel showers I encounter will be completely different, thanks to the strict Hotel Shower Manufacturers Official Code of Ethics, which states: “No two hotel showers, even in the same hotel, shall have the same controls.” They’re working on a new wrinkle where the shower controls in your room will actually control the shower in another guest’s room, and vice versa.

Yes, it’s an exciting time for the hotel-shower industry.

I didn’t realize I’d missed Dave Barry, but apparently I did. I’m glad he’s back. We need humor these days, perhaps more than ever.

Speaking of humor, the other day I was describing to a friend the time Gerard and I ate at this restaurant near the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. The restaurant is now defunct, so I won’t be sued for libel (I don’t think) for what I’m about to write, but despite glowing reviews I can say it was probably the worst meal I’ve ever been served in a restaurant. Both Gerard and I ordered the specialty and we had high hopes:

The general rule is the smart diner never went wrong ordering the specialty of the house. And the rule holds true here, with the original chicken ‘n dumplins ($14.50). Enough food to feed two (or one, today and tomorrow), the meal starts with your choice of soup or salad and includes chicken, dumplings and green beans. The vegetables are forgettable, but the chicken is a feast of skinless dark and white meat stewed until fork-tender; the two enormous dumplings, each larger than our fist, are shot through with rich chicken flavor; and the chicken gravy, thanks to its secret ingredient, is pure umami.

It was ghastly, and it was big. Really really big, the dumplings much bigger than my fist and even considerably bigger than Gerard’s fist, and swimming in the most tasteless and gluggy gravy imaginable. The dumplings were dense as neutron stars and even more tasteless than the gravy. The whole thing was so awful I could not eat it and neither could he, and we were not picky eaters ordinarily.

All around us, people were happily chowing down with gusto, and the restaurant was full. We couldn’t understand it at all, but the upshot was that we started to laugh and became nearly helpless with laughter. When a waiter came over and asked how we liked the food, I had to pretend to be having a coughing fit. We paid and left without eating, and got into the car and laughed for about fifteen minutes before we could drive away.

After that, all it ever took for both of us to erupt into gales of laughter was to mention that restaurant.

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

I keep having to resort to these roundups. Too much news; hard to choose! And so we have the following:

(1) The left suddenly wonders whether John Fetterman is cognitively impaired. But of course, he used to be a lot more impaired when he ran for the Senate, and they were just fine with that because they felt he would always side with the left. Same with a bout of serious depression for which he was treated early in his term. But as his mind and emotions improved, he started taking maverick-y positions, especially on Israel and the border. Therefore he is now the target of this sort of hit piece.

(2) There is a crisis in Israel concerning Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet, the rough equivalent of our FBI. The whole thing mirrors the attacks on Trump from Comey and company during Trump’s first term, although in a way it’s even worse, in part because the country is at war. The Israeli media is much like our media, almost entirely on the left. If you want to get up to speed on what I consider a fascinating story with fascinating parallels, please watch the first half or so (or even less, if you don’t have that kind of time) of this. I’ve cued it up to begin where they discuss Ronen Bar:

(3) China is in trouble, it seems, in the fallout from Trump’s tariffs:

From the cramped streets of Sichuan in the southwest to the cold outskirts of Inner Mongolia in the northeast, furious workers are demanding back pay and protesting mass layoffs as factories shutter under pressure from Trump’s tariffs. …

The wave of unrest follows a brutal plunge in China’s export orders, now at their lowest since the COVID lockdowns. Goldman Sachs estimates up to 16 million Chinese jobs could vanish as Trump’s tariffs bite deeper into the regime’s weak underbelly.

Trump said the tariffs placed on China are having their intended effect.

“They were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off,” he stated. “They’re not doing that anymore.”

Chinese authorities have no reluctance to be harsh with its protesting people. The more basic question is – at least, from the US-centric point of view – what will they do about the tariffs?

(4) This news is potentially very big and perhaps deserves a thread of its own. Here’s Margot Cleveland on the ruling:

HUGE win from Trump Administration and D.C. Circuit enters stay of lower court injunction. Lower court barred Trump Administration from managing Voice of America. D.C. Circuit stayed decision allowing Trump to move forward w/ firings/grant terminations. …

Court of Appeals decision is based on fundamental issue of “jurisdiction.” This conclusion should have wide-spread ramifications because many of challenges to Trump Administration are about employment decisions which CONGRESS said are NOT for district courts to decide.

That second paragraph is the heart of the matter.

More:

The Court of Appeals decision is also significant because it addresses the “wholesale” “dismantling” argument being presented in several cases (such as USAID cases). The Administrative Procedures Act is NOT for such claims either & Congress did not waive such immunity! …

In sum, this opinion is a HUGE win for Trump because it establishes 3 key principles that apply to many of the other cases being brought against Trump Administration: a) no jurisdiction over firings; b) no jurisdiction over grant terminations; c) you can’t get around Congress limiting district court jurisdiction by creative pleading of claims under other theories; d) with no bond harm to government will outweigh other harm; e) public has interest in Article III obey Article I.

(5) As Canada goes, so goes Australia, as the left wins the election.