School shooting in Bend, Oregon

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s been another horrific school shooting, with three young children and a teacher dead. The killer shot his way into a locked area, but was ultimately stopped by the armed father of a student, who saw him enter and followed him in.

The killer was 16-year-old John J. Griffin, who had once attended the school:

John J. Griffin II, 16, was armed with his mom’s pump-action shotgun when he opened fire inside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend – killing three kids, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher, law enforcement sources said.

The shooter also critically injured another student, 7, and teacher, 54, before a brave bystander and dad of two little girls at the school shot him dead — before police even arrived at the scene. …

The killer’s parents are cooperating with authorities, who executed a search warrant on the family’s home, taking computers and other electronic devices to sift through for possible clues to a motive behind the carnage, sources told The Post.

If the parents left the shotgun loaded and unlocked, they could be in trouble themselves. Of course, they are also dealing with the fact that their own child was a killer, and is now dead.

The armed bystander who shot the perpetrator was Kaylub Giamanco (I think “Kaylub” is an eccentric spelling of “Caleb”):

… a carpenter and father of two girls who attend Silver Rail Elementary, [who] was driving home from his break on Thursday when he heard gunfire, his brother, Kyle Giamanco, told NBC News.

Kaylub Giamanco, 36, who owns a concealed weapon, bravely pursued teen gunman John J. Griffin II into the school building’s special education room and fatally shot him, his brother described.

There’s a great deal of discussion online about restrictive gun laws in Oregon and the fact that the school was a no-gun zone. But I don’t actually think Giamanco will get into trouble in this instance, although one can’t be sure (it’s Oregon, after all).

The case illustrates, among other things, the fact that locks on doors don’t deter shootings. Locks and/or windows near or in locked doors have been shot out before; I’m thinking, for example, of the Sandy Hook shooter who was not stopped by locks.

RIP to the victims.

NOTE: I will add that I know Bend, Oregon, very well. It’s a town in the heart of what’s known as the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, or U.S. Route 97. I’ve traveled on it many a time with Gerard, and we stayed in Bend many times as well. It’s a beautiful although touristy town in a fascinating setting for those of us who are interested in volcanos. I am one of those people.

Obama goes to Belfast and reveals himself

The New Neo Posted on by

Actually, it’s not as though his anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian sympathies were previously unknown. But now that such attitudes have become the norm – even the required norm – among Democrats, Obama can be more open about it:

According to Irish media, Obama – speaking about the Israel-Palestinian conflict at an event in Belfast – said it was “undeniable” that Jews who settled in Palestine to escape persecution “took land off people and they were excessive. And those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back.’”

Read those words again, and consider who spoke them. The problem is not merely that Obama said it. It is that countless people will believe it precisely because Obama said it.

This was not some 5th grader history student speaking. This was a two-term president of the United States, a man who remains one of the most influential figures on the planet …

His influence is actually less now than when he was president, but he still is respected by many. However, I doubt his saying this persuaded those who were previously unpersuaded; Obama is very much preaching to the choir and what he said is now a standard belief among Democrats (and many people on the right, as well). Many are ignorant of history, but is Obama? Does it even matter?:

In one fell swoop, Obama, either knowingly or through astonishing ignorance, peddled one of the most pernicious myths about Jews and Zionism – a myth which perhaps more than any other has been responsible for a century of conflict, tens of thousands of Jews killed, and many more times that of Arabs. All because of this false claim that the Jews stole the land.

If this is what Obama truly believes, then, in my view, he is an antisemitism superspreader

And if he says it without believing it, then he is even worse – a knowing, evil antisemitism superspreader.

More:

It is not “undeniable” that Jews “took land off people”. It is, in fact, very deniable, because it is quite simply untrue. You do not need to be a professor of Middle Eastern history to understand that the Jewish people have maintained a connection with the Land of Israel for more than 3,000 years. We are not strangers who have appeared here out of nowhere. Jews who more recently settled in waves of aliyah did not steal the land, as you inferred, but bought it legally from Arabs, even paying exorbitant prices. Don’t take my word for it – you can check for yourself in Ottoman and British documents.

And what exactly was it “excessive” that, according to you, the Jews did? Flee from gas chambers? Were my own parents “excessive” when they escaped to Palestine in 1932 because Hitler was round the corner? They bought their own home, by the way.

“Excessive” is just one of the words du jour about Israel. I doubt Obama sits around thinking about the details of that “excessiveness.” It is like the word “disproportionate” to discuss the war; people use the word without even knowing what it means in terms of a war.

You can read a deeper analysis of Obama’s remarks here.

I am heartily sick of this man, who has done so much damage to the nation and the world and who became president based on a masquerade about his intentions, which were always far more leftist and transformative than he initially let on. Yes, he spoke of “hope and change” – but he didn’t specify what the change would be. He just let his sonorous voice do the talking and let the listeners fill in the blanks with whatever they imagined to be his goals.

And he knows it. He’s long known it and used it: “In the prologue to the second of his autobiographies, The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama said: ‘I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.'”

NOTE: By the way, Belfast is in Northern Ireland, not Ireland proper. Ireland itself is probably the most anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and pro-Palestinian country in Europe – which is saying a lot. Northern Ireland is more mixed.

If you want to hear about what’s going on in Ireland vis a vis Israel, watch some of this:

We have become too dependent on computers for just about everything

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s seemed that way for quite some time. Years ago, I remember going to a supermarket when its computers were down. Things pretty much came to a standstill. Among other things, the cashiers didn’t know how to do basic math.

Now we have this:

Hackers targeted hundreds of French supermarkets in a cyberattack that reportedly caused refrigerators and freezers to overheat, spoiling food and sparking fires.

Fridges at French supermarket chains Carrefour, Monoprix, the Les Mousquetaires-owned Intermarché, and Coopérative U, among others, all saw fridges heat up to as much as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, Reuters reported Monday.

Coopérative U’s CEO, Dominique Schelcher, confirmed that cyberattacks had affected “refrigeration production facilities of several stores.”

“Attacking equipment that is essential to the preservation of fresh products and the food supply of the French people is extremely serious and unprecedented. It is unacceptable,” Schelcher said in a LinkedIn post.

I love that word “unacceptable.” Just what are you going to do about it, Schelcher?

What is the motivation of a hacker? For some, it could just be the fun of “watching the world burn”:

For others, it’s a political statement much like Luigi Mangione’s deciding to kill the United Healthcare CEO. I think the common denominator is the attraction of having power at a distance, and I don’t just mean electricity. I mean power over a large swath of things, just because you figured out how to hack into a system and control it. Prior to computers, I don’t think there was any way to do this on a large scale.

The great flatware reunion

The New Neo Posted on by

I spent several hours today getting rid of things in my ex’s place. That simple statement doesn’t even begin to express what it feels like to do this. My ex was very sentimental about things and nostalgic about time, and he saved almost everything. I knew that, if he predeceased me, I’d have to be part of the dismantling of his precious things (only a few actually worth anything in dollars, but all of which meant a great great deal to him).

It feels like a betrayal, although I know it’s not.

But I thought our son would be more involved. Although he tried to be – he came here for a week – he came down with the flu and was very sick the whole time he was here. One other family member came for a few hours. And next week my brother and sister-in-law will come for two days. I’m grateful for any help at all, but this is such a huge task that I would need a lot more help than that to even make a dent in it.

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve hired a friend who does this for a living. But there’s only so much she can do, and she can’t go through papers. Only I can do that, and the amount of paper is overwhelming. Boxes and boxes, shelves and shelves, and many suitcases full. I started today on the paper and got an immediate headache. I’m not going through each piece, but even a general perusal takes time.

I found, for example, a cache of my credit cards from the 1980s. Old medical records from the 1950s. The blueprints for the house we bought as a married couple, which was built in the 1930s. And on and on and on.

But one thing that made me happy was opening a drawer and seeing the flatware. I knew it was there, of course. When we separated about twenty-five years ago, we divided the flatware into two halves and each got six place settings. It was beautiful, heavy flatware (we never got silver) and I always loved it. And now – opening that drawer made me gasp, because I realized the set would be together again.

And so it is. It seems symbolic to me. Our divorce was always a sorrowful thing, necessary but tragic. Suffice to say I never stopped loving my ex-husband, although the love changed.

NOTE: The flatware, in case you’re interested, is called Lauffer Magnum and it was made in Norway. Later it got taken over by other companies and an inferior version was made. Google AI has this to say:

Lauffer Magnum is an original mid-century modern stainless steel pattern designed with a satin finish.

Key Details

• Material and Finish: 18/8 stainless steel with a sleek satin finish.
• Design Style: Bold, minimalist mid-century modern aesthetic.
• Collector Sentiment: Most users on Reddit agree that the original Norwegian-made sets are more desirable and higher quality compared to later or alternative regional productions (such as those from Japan or Korea).

It’s not really about the flatware, though. Not at all.

News roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) I think this is the right decision:

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the execution of the terrorist-traitor Army Maj. Nidal Hasan will not be live-streamed. Trump’s order overrides Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s earlier decision to make the death-by-firing-squad viewable by the public.

I already weighed in on the idea of livestreaming the execution, in this post. I was not in favor.

(2) It seems it’s okay to say abusive and racist things about white people, and of course about Jews. I hear it all the time, especially about white people – and often said by white people. Apparently these virtue-signalers feel they’ll get extra virtue points from trashing themselves.

(3) Democrats apparently don’t want Kamala Harris as their candidate in 2028. But did they ever want her as their candidate? She certainly didn’t do well in the 2020 primaries. And in 2024 she was foisted on the party after it was caught in a Biden dilemma of its own making. The amazing thing is that she came as close to winning as she did. Most Democrats and Trump-haters either held their noses and voted for her, or thought she was perfectly okay. The latter group contained many people who didn’t watch her interviews.

(4) Banks discriminated against conservatives. No surprise there:

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its Debanking Review on Wednesday. Miranda Devine first broke the story in the New York Post. The 47-page report, titled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” draws on a hundred thousand complaints and fifty thousand internal bank records from 2020 through 2025. It names JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank, and BMO Bank.

Every one of them hid behind the same excuse: “reputation risk.”

What did these banks fear? Bad press, protests, attacks from activist outfits like the Southern Poverty Law Center, and retaliation from regulators and politicians. So they purged anyone who might draw that heat. Christian organizations lost service over their views on abortion, LGBT issues, and traditional family values. Gun makers and retailers, Arctic oil and gas, coal, detention facilities, tobacco, and e-cigarette companies all saw financing dry up.

And it will happen again if Democrats regain control.

(5) Democrats talk about affordability but won’t be delivering it. Anyone who’s been paying attention should know that. But a great many people don’t pay attention. “Affordability” is therefore a smart campaign strategy.

Getting up to speed on the proceedings against Ilhan Omar

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s a roundup.

From Ace. An excerpt:

She lied about being 17 when she applied for citizenship, because the law stated that a minor could piggyback off a naturalized parent’s citizenship but an adult couldn’t.

So she changed her actual age, 18 or 19, to 17.

Then her staffers changed her Wikipedia entry, which had shown her real birthdate, to her fraudulent birthdate, so that it would agree with her fraudulent immigration paperwork.

That last part isn’t illegal. It just shows she knows she was lying all along.

Powerline has been writing about Omar for many years, and they are (unsurprisingly) covering the current developments fairly thoroughly. A sampler can be found here and here.

From Legal Insurrection:

Speaking on Fox News’ “America Reports,” Pirro said her office was examining Omar’s financial disclosures, which previously showed that the reported value of businesses tied to her husband, Tim Mynett, had surged from as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024.

—

The original filings, examined by Fox News Digital earlier this year, showed millions of dollars in newly reported assets associated with two of Mynett’s business ventures — a California-based winery and a Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm.

More on Omar’s father and her citizenship application can be found here.

Jonathan Turley summarizes here:

The midterms: is the US even slightly sane these days?

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m with Kruiser on this:

In my four-plus decades of political activism, I have never seen a party that is supposed to steamroll an election be in the kind of disarray that the 2026 Democrats are in. Their candidate slate is a motley collection of communists and buffoons. They’re embroiled in a power struggle between the young, loud and proud commies, and the establishment, more subtle commies.

And their only clear policy position is that they are pro-criminal and anti-law enforcement.

Seriously, in an even slightly sane world, the Republicans should be able to dominate these midterms without candidates even having to get out of bed. Sadly, “even slightly sane” has been in the rearview mirror for too many miles now.

Well, they do have one more clear policy position, probably their over-arching one: anything Trump is for they are against.

I am gobsmacked at the idea that the current Democrat Party is poised to do very well in November. How can this be? Are we that far gone? Maybe; probably. If so, I am convinced it is because of our educational system, which has been churning out historically (and otherwise) ignorant pro-leftists for decades. That group has finally reached a critical mass. Many of them are also ruled by envy; it’s not for nothing that one of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not covet.”

Now might be the time for me to post the results of some polls for the midterms, but I have come to distrust polls more than ever. So I’ll skip it.

It’s bots all the way down

The New Neo Posted on by

Not quite all the way down. But bots seem to be a major part of the traffic of certain people:

Of course Russia would do everything it can to drive the traffic up for Carlson and MacGregor, who have been supporting Russia for years. Carlson is more well-known, but MacGregor is a font of Russian disinformation and I’ve written about him before, in this post from April of 2022.

How much of internet traffic is smoke and mirrors? It depends who you are and what you support. My traffic is pretty real, I believe, but then my traffic is relatively modest. It’s also been rather stable for many years

News roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) It’s a tale everyone seems to be covering, although I don’t find it especially interesting. But if you want to discuss it, here’s the Kimberly Guilfoyle grift-and-resignation story.

(2) Now Andy Burnham says that yes, the men apprehended (briefly) concerning the Fairford base incident were probably connected with Iranian terrorism:

A suspected plot to attack a U.S.-run military air base in England was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday.

Burnham previously said there are strong indications Iran was linked to the apparent plan last month to attack the RAF Fairford air base, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran in the ongoing war.

Police have arrested seven men in the investigation into the alleged plot, but all suspects have been released on bail and no one has been charged so far.

Why were they released? Either it’s the utter incompetence of the British authorities, or they’re being tracked and monitored very closely in order to lead authorities to the higher-ups. One can hope.

(3) There’s nothing magical about ten thousand steps:

But according to a recent Lancet Public Health study, which analyzed data from more than 110,000 people, taking 7,000 steps offered the same health benefits as 10,000 steps, including a lower risk of all-cause mortality, reduced cardiovascular risk, and even a decreased risk of developing dementia. …

As it turns out, the 10,000-step benchmark wasn’t based on science. It originated in Japan in the 1960s, when a pedometer company called Yamasa created a product named “manpo-kei,” which translates to “10,000-step meter.” The catchy number stuck — and so did the idea that 10,000 was the gold standard.

Walking is good for you – at least, I certainly hope so, because I’ve been doing it almost every day for about forty years. I’ve never counted steps, but I try to walk at a brisk pace for 45 minutes. Strength training is supposed to be very very good, too, but when I try to add that my old injuries kick up.

(4) About Russia’s plague labs.

(5) Fetterman presents a dilemma for the Democrats. They would dearly love to be rid of him, but the trick is to replace him with another, far less independent, Democrat. The state he represents is Pennsylvania, and so that’s not a given. At any rate, they’re stuck with him until the 2028 election. And if they annoy him too much, he can always go over to the dark (GOP) side.

The Democrat tent is big, but only on its left wing. The right wing is practically non-existent.