Denaturalization

The New Neo Posted on by

Once a person gets US citizenship, it’s hard to lose it no matter what that person does. However, one reason it can happen is if the person committed fraud in order to obtain his or her citizenship, or committed terrorist acts or acts in support of terrorism.

And so we have this:

The DOJ is expected to announce on Friday that it is filing denaturalizing actions against 12 individuals, originally from Iraq, Colombia, Morocco, Somalia, Gambia, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Kenya, India, China and Nigeria.

Ali Yousif Ahmed, a native of Iraq, is one of the individuals the DOJ says they are taking action against. Ahmed came to the U.S. in 2009, claiming his family was attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. Ten years later, Iraq asked the U.S. to extradite Ahmed to Iraq, claiming he was facing criminal charges for the premeditated murder of two Iraqi police officers in 2006.

“Upon further investigation, United States learned that, in 2015, Ahmed illegally procured his naturalization, which warrants his denaturalization, because he lied under oath about his criminal and family history when he sought admission to the United States and naturalized as a U.S. citizen,” a document on the denaturalization process and shared with the Caller read.

More at the link.

The Trump administration has been stepping up investigations for this sort of thing. Sounds like a good idea to me.
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In case you missed this: on the Carlson interview

The New Neo Posted on by

In the open thread the other day I posted a video by Ami Kozak satirizing Tucker Carlson . But afterward, reading the comments, I realized that unless someone’s been watching a lot of Carlson lately, there wouldn’t be much context for it. I provided some background in a comment on the thread, but most people probably didn’t see it, so I’m highlighting it here.

Carlson gave an interview to the NY Times, and it was that interview in particular that was being satirized. It was probably one of the very first times he wasn’t in the driver’s seat, either spewing out a monologue or interviewing someone hand-picked by none other than Carlson himself. As the interviewer, he can softball or hardball as he wishes, depending on how simpatico he is with the subject matter. As interviewee, he seemed flummoxed by any follow-up questions challenging him on his wild assertions, and he fell back on stark denial combined with claims of ignorance.

Here are four excerpts from the interview:

And this is the spoof video:

NOTE: For some reason, I’m having trouble finding the full NY Times interview. Is it only behind the Times’ paywall? But there are many many excerpts on YouTube.

Starmer is in trouble after local elections

The New Neo Posted on by

More good news:

The United Kingdom’s ruling Labour Party is on track to suffer a major defeat in Thursday’s local elections as Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK surges in support, prompting calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign.

British local elections are widely viewed as a functional referendum on the popularity of the ruling party and its head. With Labour having already suffered a net loss of nearly 500 local council seats with just over half of the councils called, multiple Labour MPs are saying that Starmer must agree to a timeline for his exit from office.

He should, but must he? Not really – not so far, anyway.

Not only did Starmer’s Labour Party do poorly, but the Conservatives continued to do poorly as well. The results seem to indicate a major sea change, with the Greens and Reform in the ascendance – Reform more than the Greens:

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital, “The era of two-party politics is definitively over with Reform UK’s stunning national success and the Green Party’s more localized wins. The two traditional parties of government, Labour and the Conservatives, have been routed nationally and in some cases have ceased to exist as a meaningful force in whole swathes of the country. By backing Reform across much of the political landscape and the Greens in pockets, British people are indicating they’ve had enough of the politics of the past and are ready to embrace different ideas.”

As I said, good news.

The Virginia Supreme Court comes through on redistricting

The New Neo Posted on by

Well, well, well:

Democrats in Virginia looked to pick up four congressional seats by a partisan gerrymandered map that passed the legislature and went to a referendum where it passed by a couple of points. Now the Virginia Supreme Court has stricken the referendum as not having followed Virginia constitutional requirements.

From the Opinion:

On March 6, 2026, the General Assembly of Virginia submitted to Virginia voters a proposed constitutional amendment that authorizes partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts in the Commonwealth. We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia. This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.

Gerrymandering for political reasons is legal, but violating the procedural requirements in the state constitution is not. The Virginia Court did not base the ruling on the deficiencies in the wording of the referendum, which had been another possibility.

The upshot of the entire redistricting effort in Virginia is that the Democrats spent oodles of money – reported as eighty million dollars – on this, all to no avail. Between this and the recent SCOTUS decision on racial gerrymandering, the Democrats are not happy campers.

Although it seems to me that the procedural violations were egregious and obvious, the ruling was only 4-3. But we’ll take it.

This result could have been handed down prior to the election, but the Virginia Supreme Court decided to let the referendum proceed and rule on it after that. I had thought this meant there was a good chance that they wouldn’t have the courage to overrule it after it passed, but I’m happy to report that was not the case. The GOP was ready post-referendum to fight it, and they prevailed.

Young versus old: the politics of generational envy

The New Neo Posted on by

[Hat tip: commenter “AesopFan.”]

I’ve seen it for years and years and years online: the idea that the Boomer generation has screwed the younger ones. It’s often advanced by 40-somethings or younger, who feel insufficiently flush with cash and that the world hasn’t rewarded them in the manner they think they deserve. The idea that previous generations struggled and that many still struggle (I have friends my age with little savings, for example) is brushed aside. And the opinions of older people are shrugged off with the dismissive, “Okay, Boomer.”

It’s not unusual to wish that the Boomers would die already. Just shuffle off this mortal coil so that the young can get the spoils. And this is usually said with no sense of shame whatsoever.

I’ve seen most of this in the comments sections of blogs and MSM articles, as well as on social media of many kinds. It’s said not with humorous tolerance but powerful hatred and envy. But envy has now become perfectly okay, a kind of badge of virtue with “microlooters” and the like.

Now the New York Times is getting into the act:

The New York Times on old people:

“It is not ageist to ask whether older people should be required to give more to younger Americans… Older Americans favor restrictions on immigration… there is a correlation between age and resistance to policies to halt the overheating of the planet… impose age ceilings on political offices… Older Americans own much of the most desirable real estate… It is not ageist, finally, to impose policies to transfer jobs, houses and wealth down the generational chain.”

Yale law professor Samuel Moyn, whom I interviewed once, always seemed generous and reasonable, even when our politics differed. But unless it’s an elaborate meta-joke, the above column and forthcoming book Gerontocracy in America: How the Old are Hoarding Wealth and Power in America advance some of the most intellectually vicious ideas I’ve ever seen. The Godwin’s Law factor alone is a shocker.

Moyn observes that people of years have accumulated money and influence and contrives to end the “tyranny of the old” by having “the elderly divested of political power, wealth, and property,” because reasons. The title of the Times piece, “Older Americans Are Hoarding America’s Potential,” carries the obscene lefty connotation that no one really owns anything and the elderly, by dint of living too long to begin with, and having a generally shitty quality of life compared to the young, and voting incorrectly/selfishly (hilarious, in the context of open scheming to seize their savings) and wasting resources “playing for time” for “another day, month, or year among loved ones” makes them lousy stewards of what the author unironically calls “our inheritance,” i.e. their homes and bank accounts.

That’s by Matt Taibbi, who is 56 years old. Young to me, but not young.

Moyn’s work doesn’t surprise me at all – there’s a huge market for this sort of thing, based on the ideas I’ve seen widely disseminated online. Taibbi is absolutely correct that this is part of an attack on private property, based on the idea that one can decide who should own what and how much, and act accordingly by confiscating the goods of the supposedly non-virtuous.

NOTE: I’ve written on this topic of inter-generational rage before, but at the moment I can’t find the piece. But this post is somewhat relevant to the topic.

NOTE II: I saw the movie Zorba the Greek in a movie theater when it first came out in 1964. I was young, and I didn’t like it and have never looked at it again. But various scenes have stuck with me, and not in a good way. So, this one comes to mind. Of course, the people confiscating the dead woman’s goods here actually are dirt-poor, and they are of all ages and not just young. The deceased woman wasn’t exactly what you’d call rich, either. So the parallel isn’t very good, although the envy impulse is there. Here’s the scene, and watching it now it seems even more chilling than I recall:

Gavin Newsom gave taxpayer money to CAIR

The New Neo Posted on by

This is quite something:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presents itself as an innocuous Muslim civil rights group—a reputation it reinforces with litigation and claims of anti-Muslim bigotry. But the group finds itself under increasing scrutiny for alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot, Hamas. Last November, Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR a terrorist organization. The following month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis followed suit, citing CAIR’s being listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in a major terrorism financing case.

But as other states move to sideline CAIR, California is embracing this alleged terror front. CAIR-CA, the organization’s largest statewide affiliate, is flush with taxpayer cash. In the last five years, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has rubberstamped at least $41 million in funding to the group. The vast majority of that money, it turns out, comes from the federal government. These federal dollars are flowing into CAIR-CA’s coffers even after it was the target of a recent Department of Justice investigation.

The article goes on to describe the evidence that CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood front. I’ve read about it before and find the argument quite compelling. I remember first hearing about CAIR after 9/11, raising the “Islamophobia” charge in order to somehow turn the whole thing into a defense of Muslims in the US.

More:

“You can’t look at what CAIR is doing today in isolation,” Burns said. “The government established the fact [during the trial] that a conspiracy existed among these organizations, including CAIR, to support Hamas, and that acts were taken in furtherance of that conspiracy. . . . CAIR’s role was to operate an entity out of Washington, D.C. that would serve to defend the interests of the rest of the network—against scrutiny from the media, against scrutiny from law enforcement. . . . In my opinion, the executive director, Nihad Awad, and other components of CAIR that were a part of this original infrastructure, are still operating CAIR in furtherance of an agenda to support Hamas.” …

One would think that CAIR’s ties to an Islamist terror group would make government agencies pause before providing it with public funds. But under Governor Gavin Newsom, California’s state government has seemingly never met a “marginalized group” it did not want to shower with other people’s money. CAIR-CA is rolling in tax dollars.

NOTE: I seem to be writing a lot about California today.

California dreaming: have the voters had enough of the left for now?

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve just started following the race for LA mayor, which features a rather unusual candidate named Spencer Pratt, whose previous work experience seems to be on reality TV. That doesn’t exactly sound like a recommendation, but there was a debate yesterday in which he acquitted himself quite well. It helps that he doesn’t really talk a lot of politician-speak, but sounds like a real person speaking common sense:

This particular exchange especially illustrates what I mean:

I’m not naive enough to think someone like Pratt will necessarily win. I hope he does, but the entrenched leftism of a place like LA is formidable. But I wish him luck. I’ve known LA well over the last fifty-plus years, and I’ve seen some of what’s happened to it.

Some of Pratt’s appeal comes from a series of campaign ads that have gone viral; not all of them are made by his actual campaign:


There’s also the California governor’s race. Could a Republican have a chance? It’s hard to believe, but there’s an outside possibility (the accent doesn’t hurt):

Indiana RINOs go down in primaries

The New Neo Posted on by

Remember when the Indiana Republicans refused to play the redistricting game that’s all the rage now? The MSM covered it this way at the time (December, 2025):

Indiana Republicans withstood immense pressure from President Donald Trump, ignoring anonymous threats on their lives as they defeated his plan to redraw the state’s congressional map and dealt him one of his most significant political setbacks since his return to the White House.

The GOP-controlled state Senate on Thursday voted down 31 to 19 the map that would have gerrymandered two more safe red seats, imperiling the party’s chances at holding control of Congress next November.

What heroes, standing up bravely against the arm-twisting meanie Trump – who happens to want the GOP to win in November of 2026, unlike these members of the Indiana GOP. Were they resisting because they hate Trump, the vulgarian? Probably [emphasis mine]:

“The forces that define (the) vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have been gradually and now very blatantly infiltrat(ing) the political affairs in Indiana,” Indiana state Sen. Greg Goode, a Republican, said in his floor speech before voting against the measure. “Misinformation. Cruel social media posts over the top pressure from within the state house and outside, threats of primaries, threats of violence, acts of violence. Friends, we’re better than this.” …

Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign manager and adviser to Fair Maps Indiana, a dark money group that blitzed the state with ads in recent weeks, threatened retribution to Senate Republicans who voted against the bill.

“You have a state full of MAGA Republicans run by Republican MAGA haters,” LaCivita said in a pre-vote interview, mentioning Bray, former Gov. Mitch Daniels and Vice President Mike Pence. “If you don’t defend a political movement from those that stand in the way — then it’s not a movement at all — a handful of politicians in Indiana will now know what standing in the way really means.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better statement of why GOP voters have turned to Trump: he fights, and people like the aptly-named Goode don’t, and in the current atmosphere fighting is necessary.

Five and perhaps six of those who voted with Goode have now been primaried out, although Goode himself is the only one still standing:

Just one of the seven Indiana GOP state senators who faced primary challengers backed by President Trump over their opposition to redistricting has won his Republican primary, according to Decision Desk HQ. One race has yet to be called as of Tuesday evening. …

Incumbent Sen. Greg Goode, who represents the 38th District, is the only incumbent, so far, who has fended off a challenger supported by the president.

Both when it first happened, and now, the MSM frames the battle as Trump versus the Republican senators who bravely defied him. So do the ousted legislators themselves, such as state senator Travis Holdman, defeated by 20 points in this primary:

Well, I have one lesson for people: revenge and retribution is not a Christian value. And that’s what this is all about. And I’m not bitter about it, it’s just a fact. And there’s life after serving in the Indiana Senate, and I’m going to find out what that’s like.

Pundit Chris Cillizaa’s reaction is highly typical:

Here’s s the story of the night: Donald Trump remains the king of the Republican Party.

If he wants you gone, he gets rid of you.

Just ask the 6 Indiana Republican state senators who just lost because they didn’t support Trump’s desire to redistrict the state.

That’s the story all right, as told by the media. It’s highly insulting to the GOP voters of Indiana, who were the ones who actually went to the polls and are being considered by the likes of Cillizza as programmed robots who obey the commands of the Leader.

No, the people actually felt betrayed by their own representatives and decided to turn them out. Yes, Trump agreed with the people and was vocal about it, but the people themselves had had enough of the defeatist voting of the Pence/RINO wing. That shouldn’t be so hard to understand, but it doesn’t fit the MSM narrative.

Today’s worthless news on Iran

The New Neo Posted on by

It hardly worth it to read the news on Iran these days. On this, though, I can hardly blame the reporters, because Trump bobs and weaves – purposely – in a way that’s pretty much impossible to predict as far as outcome goes.

And yet, this is where we are at the moment, at least verbally:

President Trump threatened Iran on Wednesday with “higher level” military strikes if it doesn’t accept a peace deal, but he says it’s “too soon” for new direct talks with Iranian officials in Pakistan after reporting “great progress” in negotiations to end the war.
Iran has yet to react publicly to President Trump’s announcement of a pause in the brief Project Freedom mission to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which prompted the first Iranian attacks on vessels in the strait and against U.S. Gulf allies in almost a month.
Mr. Trump put Project Freedom on pause Tuesday night, saying it was to see if “a Complete and Final Agreement” to end the war with Iran could be nailed down amid what he called “great progress” in negotiations brokered by Pakistan.

I read all sorts of alarming things about the possible deal in the works. I won’t even link to them because, if previous experience is any guide, they are meaningless.

I also note that fuel prices are high, but not as high as in 2022 (Biden administration):

Gasoline prices across the U.S. surged to an average of $4.54 a gallon on Wednesday, the highest since July 2022, according to AAA data.

The price of regular gas has jumped 52%, or $1.56 per gallon, since the start of the Iran war in late February, as disruptions to oil flows in the Middle East drive up costs for motorists. The cost is approaching the highest-ever gas price, when it reached $5.02 a gallon in June 2022 during a pandemic-era spike in inflation.

But who can remember back that far? So hey, let’s elect Democrats because they’re so good at holding down gas prices!

Lenient plea deal for man responsible for the death of Paul Kessler during an anti-Israel demonstration

The New Neo Posted on by

You may recall the death of Paul Kessler two years ago, in which the 69-year-old Jewish man was struck with a megaphone by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator, fell, hit his head, and died. Now the perpetrator has been offered a plea deal rather than going to trial. The trial had been scheduled for next week, so the plea deal is very timely. But he has agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a one-year sentence followed by probation.

The perp’s name is Loay Alnaji, described here as “a Moorpark resident” (Moorpark is an LA suburb in Ventura County). Alnaji is a naturalized citizen originally from Jordan, something the yahoo article neglects to mention, but which is noted in this Legal Insurrection piece. He also is (or perhaps was) a professor of computer science at a community college in Moorpark.

The case wasn’t one of murder, but nevertheless the low penalty is disturbing, plus now we will never get a hearing on the facts of the case. Alnaji’s counsel states the swiping with the megaphone was accidental, but whether or not that is true, or whether this was more sinister, will never be heard in a court of law. What’s more strange – to me, at least – is that the judge made this deal over the prosecution’s objections:

Senior Deputy District Attorney David Russell said both the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office and Kessler’s family opposed the judge’s offer and instead requested the maximum possible sentence of four years in state prison.

“This is over the people’s objection,” Russell told [Judge] Malan.

It’s my impression that this is highly unusual. Ordinarily it’s the prosecution offering the deal, and it’s the judge rubber-stamping it. In fact, in a search just now I can’t find a similar case, although perhaps they exist.

My guess is that the judge wanted this case to go away. The defense attorney has claimed that the judge said it was a situation in which “two old guys had a dispute and an accident happened.” Wow. Wouldn’t that be something to determine after the evidence has come out in a trial?