Confessions of a former DSA organizer

The New Neo Posted on by

If you watch only one video on the DSA, I strongly suggest this one. It’s an interview with a former member from back when the organization was advocating more of a European-style welfare state. He watched it morph almost overnight into the extreme left-wing group it is now, and dates the change to around 2014-2015. He is very angry, and has dedicated himself to fighting DSA, even to the point of supporting its opponents on the right such as Michigan’s Mike Rogers.

It’s definitely worth a listen, IMHO:

Trump seems to have decided to take the economic pressure route on Iran for now

The New Neo Posted on by

At least, that’s what he’s saying at the moment:

“We are low-keying it,” Trump said during a brief phone call.

“We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

He stressed that Iran “is in very bad shape” economically and has no money to pay its troops. The U.S. naval blockade has exacerbated the Iranian regime’s economic crisis, Trump said.

At the same time, Trump said that with oil down to slightly over $75 a barrel, U.S. consumers are feeling less pain from the war.

“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump said of the back-and-forth with Iran.

I had long thought that it was the Iranians (Persians) who invented chess, but that’s not exactly true:

The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia, where it was modified in terms of shapes and rules and developed into shatranj. Following the Arab invasion and conquest of Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Europe via Spain (Al Andalus) and Italy (Emirate of Sicily). The game evolved roughly into its current form by about 1500 CE.

How is Iran actually doing economically and politically?

U.S. officials also say there are growing disagreements inside the Iranian regime. One camp, led by President Masoud Pezeshkian, is extremely worried about an economic collapse and believes Iran needs to reach a deal with the U.S. Another led by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ahmad Vahidi, rejects any concessions.

“Good cop, bad cop”? I very much doubt that either is actually a good cop.

I don’t especially trust any predictions on Iran, so I’ll skip them.

There’s also this:

After months of conflict, Iranian officials decided the United States should compensate them for damages tied to the war. …

[Trump replied]:

“It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,” Trump countered.

He went on to mention the USS Cole bombing from nearly 26 years ago and suggested compensation to America should include consideration of “thousands of others killed in combat.”

“Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months,” he added.

Trump said he has instructed his representatives to include the compensation demand into “any, and all, future negotiations.”

I don’t think negotiations have much of a future. But then, I never did think so.

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) From what I can tell, the Irish civil war threat over “migrants” from an entity called the “New IRA” comes from a single source. I’m not convinced it has much if any meaning:

The New IRA is planning a violent campaign aimed at driving migrants out of Ireland, intelligence officials have warned.

Security bosses fear the republican group, which succeeded the Real IRA, has been exploiting “tensions” on both sides of the Irish border. …

A video appeared last week on social media in which an unidentified man issued threats against migrants on behalf of the IRA.

“They will take control, and they will give an ultimatum, not to politicians but to the illegal migrants who are in the country,” he says.

The man claimed the British Army had “respected” the IRA during the Troubles for their effectiveness and “professionalism”.

(2) Netanyahu says no to the 15-point Gaza plan:

“I want to clarify this: Israel rejects the 15-point document. I have heard people saying, ‘You didn’t say that.’ So here I am saying it again,” he told a Cabinet meeting, referring to the peace plan set out by Trump last year. “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed,” he added. …

The peace plan called for a phased withdrawal of Israel’s troops from Gaza alongside the disarmament of Hamas, but Netanyahu said Israeli forces are not going anywhere until Hamas completely disarms first.

“When I say Hamas must be disarmed, I mean heavy weapons, lighter weapons, all weapons. We are talking about genuine disarmament, not a fictitious one,” Netanyahu said Sunday.

Hamas had last month said that it would disarm, but only after Israel withdraws completely and stops all hostilities.

It sounds as though Gaza had rejected it first. And of course Israel wasn’t going to withdraw before any disarmament: been there; done that, and 10/7 was the result. Israel may have been asleep at the wheel that day, but Netanyahu is not planning a repeat, if he can help it.

(3) The WNBA is a travesty. The racial tensions are vast:

But that’s not the only problem. Another one is that they’re trying to figure out what the “W” in WNBA stands for, now that a few men have figured out they can declare themselves women, do nothing to change anything about themselves other than that, and qualify to play in the league. It’s a clever way to point out the insanity of the point we’ve reached on trans sports issues:

Former NBA player Royce White plans to declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft — the second former pro to test the league’s policy on trans athletes.

White, 35, a Republican candidate for US Senate who only played three games in his short NBA career, made the announcement on Friday on the heels of former first round draft pick and Knicks center Enes Kanter Freedom’s declaration earlier in the day.

“I’m transgender. I’m a woman… I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of… professional basketball,” White told Fox News.

Oopsies, says the WNBA. Time to define “woman”? More:

White said the move challenges the league to define parameters clearly and indicated he would pursue the declaration regardless, stating he does not want to be discriminated against.

“I think the WNBA could come out and make a definitive statement about guys with a pair of balls playing in the Women’s Association,” White told Fox. …

The Women’s National Basketball Players Association issued a statement on Friday addressing the broader debate:

“We embrace justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change. Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”

You’ve already inserted yourself into politics and chosen sides.

(4) More brilliance from DSA:

Here’s more about the exchange. Also, more on Dr. Gill, who is “a resident physician in psychiatry at Los Angeles General Medical Center.” Wow, just wow:

According to watchdog reports from Canary Mission, Gill has been active with the DSA since at least 2019, boasting on social media back in June 2020 that her medical school class group chat was “blowing up with people talking about why they support defunding the police!” Today, she is licensed to practice psychiatry and neurology in California while sitting on the DSA’s 2025–2027 National Political Committee.

Idiocracy is here.

(5) On the much brighter side – remember that 16-year old lifeguard whose successful rescue of a 10-year-old boy was caught on video that went viral? Here’s a fascinating breakdown of what the lifeguard was doing during the rescue:

Cohan and Cagney

The New Neo Posted on by

Most of you have probably seen the movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy” starring James Cagney as George M. Cohan. I watched it on TV many times as a child, and loved it.

A while back I read that Cagney’s stiff-legged dancing in that film was an imitation of Cohan’s idiosyncratic dance style, and I started to wonder whether there was any film of Cohan dancing or singing. He died in 1942, so there should be something of the sort.

Not much, as it turns out. But a bit.

First, here’s Cohan singing “Over There” in 1936, when he was 58 years old:

And here’s Cagney singing the same song in the movie. He only sings a small part of the song, but gives it the same high energy. The movie was released in June, 1942 (Cohan died in November of that year, but apparently saw the movie). That was well -into WWII, although “Over There” was a song from WWI. But you can see why it meant so much at the time.

The following is the only footage I could find of Cohan dancing (it’s Cagney singing in the background, though). It’s about a minute long:

This is Cagney doing much the same number in the film “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” They’re both playing FDR, by the way, wearing a top hat:

I think you can see how well Cagney captured Cohan’s style. There were quite a few similarities between them: both had backgrounds in vaudeville, both were of Irish ethnicity (Cagney mostly, anyway), and both were relatively short (5’6″ for Cohan and 5’4″ for Cagney).

You can feel the playfulness and energy practically blast off the screen in both versions. Those were different times, weren’t they?

A wedding at Notre Dame

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s a feel-good story:

A carpenter who helped restore Notre-Dame after the devastating 2019 fire was granted permission to marry inside the cathedral, becoming part of its first wedding ceremony in 30 years.

A remarkable exception was made when 29-year-old master carpenter Martin Lorentz was allowed to marry his fiancée, Jade, inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Lorentz had spent three years hand-carving the massive oak beams used to rebuild “the Forest”—the cathedral’s intricate medieval roof structure, which was destroyed in the devastating 2019 fire. Because Notre-Dame is classified as a national monument rather than a parish church, private weddings have been prohibited for decades, making theirs the first ceremony held there since 1995.

In recognition of Lorentz’s dedication to the cathedral’s restoration, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich personally granted the rare permission. Around 500 guests attended the ceremony, including family, friends, and many of the craftsmen who helped bring Notre-Dame back to life. As the newlyweds left the cathedral, Lorentz’s fellow carpenters formed a traditional guard of honor, raising their axes overhead in a moving tribute to the man who helped rebuild one of France’s most treasured landmarks.

Hand-carving oak beams for three years.

Card-carrying DSA members: more Michigan news

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve previously written about the quandary faced by far-leftist DSA members/supporters in the general election. After winning the primary as radicals, how do they convincingly tack at least a bit towards the middle?

Here’s how one candidate for the US House of Representatives from Michigan’s 7th District, William Lawrence, dealt with it (the clip is about two and a half minutes long):

William Lawrence’s life story resembles so many other DSA member profiles, although it doesn’t include immigrant parents or having been born in another country. Lawrence was born in Madison, Wisconsin, a deep blue university community, but was raised in East Lansing, Michigan (another university community), son of two law professors at Michigan State University. He graduated from Swarthmore (sociology and anthropolgy degree) – a deeply leftist college – and was a climate activist there and ever since, as well as having been trained in community organizing. And of course, he says Israel has committed genocide.

In that clip of Lawrence explaining his DSA membership lapse, he looks a bit like a deer in the headlights. And yet he managed, in a fairly purple district, to defeat two formidable (and fairly moderate) rival Democrats: Ambassador Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam. Brink was an ambassador to Ukraine appointed by Biden, and in her mid-50s as opposed to Lawrence’s 36.

If you look at the primary results, you can see a familiar pattern. Lawrence got less than half: 43.7%, to be exact. But his two opponents split the difference fairly evenly: 28.8% for Brink and 27.6% for Maasdam. What would have happened had one of them dropped out? I can’t say, but there’s certainly a good chance the remaining candidate might have gotten nearly all the other’s votes and beaten Lawrence.

That didn’t happen. Lawrence will go up against Tom Barrett, the GOP incumbent, but it’s considered a swing district.

More Arday fallout: some students want their money back

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t blame them; his professorship was a scam for which the university is responsible. It showed a mindboggling absence of due diligence.

Apparently Arday was a tough grader, too:

A number of Mr Arday’s former students have complained that they received lower grades than expected after “inadequate” supervision by the professor. In one case, a student who asked to change supervisor was accused of being racist.

Separately, Prof Deborah Prentice, the university’s vice-chancellor, is facing demands to refund the tuition fees of students who were taught by Mr Arday after they were “deceived about the nature of their education”.

A mass refund or large-scale retrospective grade changes would be unprecedented in the university’s 800-year history.

I would be nice if they had to give refunds out of their own salaries, but that will never happen. I actually don’t think any refunds will happen, although every student Arday taught should get a pro-rated one. If not, his former students should sue the university for some cause of action involving fraud.

It would be a fitting logical consequence if Cambridge was made to pay, but although that probably will not happen in the monetary sense, I think it’s already happened in terms of the school’s reputation. Also, not only Arday should be losing a job over this. It could start with these two ladies:

Prof Prentice is also facing criticism for failing to grip the crisis engulfing the university, which has damaged its reputation on the international stage. The academics have accused the £507,000-a-year leader of the university of “inaction”, having made no public comments since The Telegraph first reported on the plagiarism row around Mr Arday a fortnight ago. He has now resigned.

It has also emerged that when Cambridge was sent fresh evidence of Mr Arday’s alleged plagiarism last year – having first been alerted to it in 2023 – the “responsible person” allocated to the case was Prof Hilary Cremin, the head of Mr Arday’s faculty who had told him he was “the best in the world” when he was hired.

Were they DEI hires as well? Both are white women; Prentice seems to have a conventional background in social psychology, whereas Cremin seems profoundly granola-esque.

Ann Coulter has pointed out the prevalence of women among Arday’s champions, boosters, and helpers:

All the people promoting Arday seem to be women – agents, editors, co-authors, professors:

Arday’s book editors—Dawn Davis and Kris Doyle

Eve Claxton – co-wrote the book with Arday

Jennifer Gates – Arday’s book agent

Prof. Hilary Cremlin – called Arday’s research, “the best in the world”

So his memoir was “co-written.” Interesting. The book supposedly got an advance of 1.4 million dollars (I wrote “supposedly” because, as far as I can tell, that’s based on Arday’s own report; and we know how reliable that is). Guess what? It’s going to be released anyway; my guess is that it may sell even better because of the notoriety:

Despite allegations against Arday, Simon & Schuster said earlier this week it was planning to go ahead with the publication of his memoir on 11 August in the US and 27 August in the UK. Simon & Schuster US told the Guardian on Thursday night it was “proceeding with the publication of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday as planned”.

In a previous interview with the Guardian, Arday said Simon & Schuster had offered 1.4m for the book in a “pre-empt”, a type of deal in which a publisher is so keen on a book they put in a high offer to take it off the table before it can go to auction. Arday did not specify whether the 1.4m figure was in pound sterling or US dollars. Simon & Schuster did not respond to a request to comment on the sum. …

One senior publisher said it was an utterly mad number, but that “madness sometimes happens”, so it was conceivable.

It seems that “madness” is happening more and more as time goes on.

The book’s title is Great and Unfortunate Things, which I think is nearly perfect as a description of the entire debacle – not that the book goes into that; I’m going to assume it does not. There’s also this great promotional material:

In comments reported by the Bookseller in April, Kris Doyle, the nonfiction publisher at Simon & Schuster UK, said: “I can promise you’ve never read a story like this – even the viral news headlines don’t do it justice.”

Arday’s lies were entirely egregious, and it doesn’t seem as though the simplest checks were brought to bear. There was totally and complete trust, a willingness to believe that was fervently intense, and a self-congratulatory glow for having done so.

Some of the Cambridge faculty seem to be angry and want an independent investigation:

The signatories want an independent investigation into the circumstances of Arday’s appointment, and any risk assessment made by the university’s management “when crafting a media narrative focusing on his youth, his race, and his transformative potential”.

It also wants details of the university’s handling of allegations of academic misconduct against Arday, including whether the university was involved in efforts to deter journalists from reporting on the allegations.

The university has denied supporting Arday’s efforts to stop publication of critical coverage in the Times Higher magazine last year, or funding his use of lawyers.

The signatories also call for an evaluation of the “enormous damage this episode has done to people of colour within and beyond the Cambridge academic community, and what can be done immediately to reassure them – and the wider public – that anti-racism and academic integrity at Cambridge are both essential and mutually reinforcing.”

It seems to me they want to have their cake and eat it too. Are “anti-racism and academic integrity both essential and mutually reinforcing”? Yes – if and only if the anti-racism is based on equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome.

Lastly, the more I think about the Arday case – and I’ve though about it a great deal – the more I think he wasn’t a DEI hire because of race alone. That was an element, of course. But I think the even-greater element in his story was his supposed profound autism and recovery to ascend the heights of intellectual thought. The two had a synergistic (shall we say intersectional?) effect, making him the perfect candidate for a university position based on sympathy, virtue-signaling, and wishful thinking.

[ADDENDUM: Some details on the complaints of some of Arday’s students:

Former Cambridge students who contacted The Telegraph complained that Mr Arday gave them minimal supervision, telling some they did not need supervision because they were so outstanding, only for them to get lower grades than predicted.

Interesting.]

News roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) The International Red Cross made an animated movie about a refugee from Afghanistan whom they considered a very sympathetic character. But he’s been arrested for murder in Greece, the country that took him in.

The case looks strong, and it was his American wife who gave police much of the evidence. From the Daily Mail:

The Red Cross has deleted a film tracking the journey of an Afghan migrant who is now accused of killing a British woman and hiding her body in a suitcase in Greece.

Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, was arrested on Monday over the murder of Scottish Christian Elisabeth-Jane Ross, in Athens.

Ahmadzai, a professional boxer who arrived in Greece on a small boat in 2016, is accused of killing Ms Ross before stuffing her body into a suitcase and ditching it in a derelict building.

The 38-year-old’s body was found by a homeless man on July 18, three days after she is believed to have been killed. …

Officers started probing Ahmadzai after his wife allegedly reported her husband had been behaving suspiciously on July 30.

She allegedly said she woke to find him missing on the evening of July 15 and checked his shared location which showed him at Ms Ross’s apartment.

Ahmadzai’s wife grew suspicious when it was announced Ms Ross’s body had been found. She left the family home with their baby and stayed in a hotel.

Ahmadzai gave her the sum of 2,550 euros and a new Apple iPhone 17 Pro but she refused them.

He used the dead woman’s credit cards. There’s much more to the story; you can read it at the link if you’re interested, but his excuse is that the woman was already dead when he arrived, and he panicked and stuffed her into a suitcase.

Sure thing.

(2) There’s no love lost between the NYC police and Mayor Mamdani:

Mamdani attempted to address about 3,500 residents and families attending the New York Police Department’s 43rd Patrol Borough National Night Out Against Crime event on Tuesday. His remarks, however, lasted less than a minute as loud boos, jeers and chants of “get out of here” and “nobody wants you” drowned out his voice.

The mayor attempted to continue speaking for a short time, but the jeers drowned him out. After the boos continued, Mamdani thanked the crowd with his signature hand-over-his-heart gesture, waved and walked offstage smiling. As he exited, the crowd continued to berate him, with some yelling expletives. An organizer attempted to regain control of the event, but the crowd persisted, booing and shaking their fists at Mamdani.

To be fair, the event occurred on Staten Island, a NY borough that is Republican and has been for quite some time. It is also the home of many NY police and firefighters, and lost a disproportionate number of residents on 9/11. For example, the borough has about 5.6% of New York City’s population but a quarter of the deceased firefighters lived there:

On Staten Island, 274 residents were killed, including 72 people who resided within two adjacent ZIP codes, 10312 and 10314.

The island has long been known as a blue-collar borough, home to first responders and office workers who enjoyed a quick commute to Lower Manhattan by the ferry.

“For Staten Island, 9/11 is a visceral part of our historical record,” said City Councilmember Joe Borelli, who was a 19-year-old Marist College student on Sept. 11, 2001.

Staten Island has a multitude of reasons to detest Mamdani.

(3) I don’t really think that praising Hasan Piker in any way is a good look for Democrats in Michigan. Debbie Dingell faces that quandary:

Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI-06) is one of the more well-known establishment Democrats in Michigan. A year or so ago, she warned against a looming “proxy battle” between the Democrat candidates over the issue of the Israel-Hamas war, something that ended up playing out throughout the primary between El-Sayed, Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

Though Dingell didn’t endorse in the Senate primary, one got the impression that she wasn’t a fan of El-Sayed’s campaign, perhaps because she’s fond of reminding people that Michigan is a purple state, and far-left candidates like El-Sayed are not exactly what one would describe as “purple state material.”

But now we have this effort from Dingell. Although she is practically stuttering here and saying she doesn’t agree with Piker, she emphasizes how popular he is on social media::

If you don’t get X, she’s saying to Greta Von Susteren, among other things: “I guess he [Hasan Piker] works out and when he works out he looks really good and some people follow him for that. Not you or me.”

Democrats, and especially Democrats of Michigan, have some decisions to make about whether or not to support El-Sayed. I think almost all of them will fall in line behind him, and that may involve trying to explain away his closeness to the abominable Piker.

(4) Meanwhile, Democrats such as Julian Epstein are saying no to El-Sayed and casting their lot with his opponent Mike Rogers. They’re also putting their money where their mouths are. He wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Post entitled, “I’m a longtime Democrat — fighting for GOP’s Mike Rogers, and my party’s soul, in Michigan.” An excerpt:

President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address, may have said it best: “In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

It was a warning to those who tolerate the rise of authoritarian communism that they will inevitably end up next on the dinner menu.

Michigan Democrats, in nominating Abdul El-Sayed for Senate on Tuesday, seem to be riding the back of that tiger.

That’s an interesting JFK quote. It puts me in mind of the red-green alliance, which I first noticed in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The leftists in that country thought they could ride the Islamist tiger. How’d that work out for them?

(5) Does Palestine have a distinct culture? Yes, violence:

There is no nation called “Palestine” and no “Palestinian” language, but there is a Palestinian culture. It was forged mostly by Yasser Arafat, the PLO’s leader for five decades, and is singularly defined by violence. Unique among all other Arab cultures and national identities, Palestinian culture and the Palestinian identity are predicated on a single political goal – the unceasing desire to destroy an existing country, in this case Israel.

Take away the resistance, and there’s nothing left of a distinctly Palestinian culture.

Cultures take centuries or millennia to form organically, but Palestinian culture, or “Palestinianism,” sprang into being quickly and artificially.

Historians might not agree on the precise date of the new Palestinian identity and its concomitant culture, but no serious scholar claims it to be much more than a century old.

Their violence is not limited to Israel as a target. They’ve wreaked havoc in every country that has taken them in in significant numbers.

Together at last

The New Neo Posted on by

A change of pace.

Who is this power couple? No, the photo’s not for a perfume ad. They’ve been dating for about a year.

Hint, hint, a quote from the woman:

‘I am very in love. And actually, that show was after I met the love of my life and so I felt very anchored by that because I’m a little bit like a rainbow kite.’

The pair were first romantically linked in July 2025 before going Instagram official in December.

Why, it’s Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau.

Trump gives limiting birthright citizenship another try

The New Neo Posted on by

If at first you don’t succeed, try try:

President Trump is signing two Executive Orders to protect the meaning and value of American citizenship after Trump v. Barbara:

The executive orders,Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship and Ending Birth Tourism, limit the scope, targeting future births in four categories:

– Either parent of that person is an alien enemy, defined to include any member of a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
– Either parent is a foreign government employee working on behalf of a foreign government.
– Person is born in a territory or territorial waters of the United States where citizenship is not conferred by Federal statute.
– The entry of any foreign national into the United States via a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil or any effort by any foreign national to facilitate the entry of any foreign national into the United States via a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil.

I haven’t a clue how this would fare in a Court challenge. Legislation would do better, I think, but is probably impossible to pass at this point. Jonathan Turley gives his opinion here:

I will add that I believe that part of the goal is to simply discourage birth tourism, to maker it an iffier, more difficult, and more costly process. This might make the numbers go down significantly.