Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Better Late Than Never

I’m an admitted Anglophile, writing the following gives me little pleasure. You are suddenly seeing items in the news about so-called “grooming gangs” in the U.K. and comments about somewhere called Rotheringham. If you don’t track news from the U.K. you may be wondering what that is about.

It concerned groups of Pakistani immigrant men sexually exploiting lower class white girls more or less en masse. We’re talking rapes, pimping, prostitution, beatings, coercion and more. All this while the Brit police (a) looked the other way for fear of being called “racist” while (b) actually persecuting white Brits who complained about the child abuse and police inaction.

The U.K. has no First Amendment right to free speech. The authorities feel free to declare mention of some topics - those that might stoke racial unrest - is criminal behavior.

Rotheringham was merely the first place it was noted, it actually happened in many places. British politicians are afraid of the large numbers of Muslim immigrants in their midst. I suppose they fear civil war, or something like it.

Understand, it wasn’t the daughters of the ruling or middle classes who were being raped, beaten, and rented out. The victims were poor white girls, many from one parent households where the one adult worked and couldn’t supervise their latchkey girls. 

Among the reasons the upper classes could look the other way is that there is a lot of downward class disdain in Britain, of the “they are mostly sluts and slatterns anyway” sort. Another factor is that pedophilia isn’t terribly rare in the U.K., again mostly involving poor kids.

Why is it finally becoming “news we can mention?” Because Elon Musk and J.K.Rowling are talking about it and they are so wealthy social opprobrium can’t shut them down. Cracking down on these gangs is long overdue, but also long needed. 

It may be time for a Nigel Farage-led government. The Tories did nothing and Labour is equally useless, if not more so. And their PMs don’t have the excuse of senility to fall back on. Labour should be the advocate for poor white girls but Labour depends on Paki immigrant votes … so no.

Nicknaming Hakeem J.

Instapundit Glenn Reynolds assigns a derogatory label to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He writes:

They don’t call him “Dollar Store Obama” for nothing.

It transpires that Trump isn't the only one coming up with smart mouth nicknames. "Dollar store" just screams "low rent."

Reminds me of a question I asked my mother when I was a college student. She was a lifelong FDR Democrat and I asked her how she'd avoided getting involved with politics. Her reply was interesting.

She said - I'm paraphrasing for it was long ago - something like "I know the local women who are active in Democratic politics but I don't like them. The ladies I do like are Republicans, so I socialize with them and act disinterested when they talk politics." As I look back, I believe she thought the Ds were "low rent." 

I teased her that maybe she was becoming a Republican. She would have none of it. Like many of her cohort, she was emotionally scarred by the depression, though she had fared better than most.

The Livelsberger Manifesto

Here is a link to a so-called "manifesto" that is supposedly by the LV suicide bomber - Livelsberger. It alleges a lot of fanciful things having to do with advanced technology supposedly known only to our and the Chinese governments related to the drone swarm.

It alleges we are approaching a mutually assured extermination conflict. And he claims the feds are following him. Paranoia anyone? Maybe, or maybe as an elite SF commando he has been on the periphery of weird stuff, as he claims. 

I copy his manifesto below, just to make it harder to "disappear." You decide if (a) he wrote it and (b) if he was crazy or sane.

❋In case I do not make it to my decision point or on to the Mexico border I am sending this now. Please do not release this until 1JAN and keep my identity private until then. 
❋First off I am not under duress or hostile influence or control. My first car was a 2006 Black Ford Mustang V6 for verification. 
❋What we have been seeing with "drones" is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US. Only we and China have this capability. Our OPEN location for this activity in the box is below. 
❋China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon for sigint and is, which are also part of the integrated comms system. There are dozens of those balloons in the air at any given time. 
❋The so what is because of the speed and stealth of these unmanned AC, they are the most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed. They basically have an unlimited payload capacity and can park it over the WH if they wanted. It's checkmate. 
❋USG needs to give the history of this, how we are employing it and weaponizing it, how China is employing them and what the way forward is. China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast.
❋I've been followed for over a week now from likely homeland or FBI, and they are looking to move on me and are unlikely going to let me cross into Mexico, but won't because they know I am armed and I have a massive VBIED. I've been trying to maintain a very visible profile and have kept my phone and they are definitely digitally tracking me. 
❋I have knowledge of this program and also war crimes that were covered up during airstrikes in Nimruz province Afghanistan in 2019 by the admin, DoD, DEA and CIA. I conducted targeting for these strikes of over 125 buildings (65 were struck because of CIVCAS) that killed hundreds of civilians in a single day. USFORA continued strikes after spotting civilians on initial IS, it was supposed to take 6 minutes and scramble all aircraft in CENTCOM. The UN basically called these war crimes, but the administration made them disappear. I was part of that cover-up with USFORA and Agent of the DEA. So I don't know if my abduction attempt is related to either. I worked with GEN Millers I0 staff on this as well as the response to Bala Murghab. AOB-S Commander at the time can validate this. 
❋You need to elevate this to the media so we avoid a world war because this is a mutually assured destruction situation.
❋For vetting my Linkedin is Matt Berg or Matthew Livelsberger, an active duty 18Z out of 1-10 my profile is public. I have an active TSSCI with UAP USAP.

More About the NOLA Killer

I wrote yesterday that we needed more info about Shamsud-Din Jabbar. A Houston TV station has assembled just that. 

Reading between the lines, it appears the name we have is the name he was given at birth. Like the perp/victim in Las Vegas, he appears to have been a veteran whose life was falling apart as he watched.

We are told he graduated from high school in Beaumont in 2001. It appears he later went into the Army where he served for ca. 10 years, including a year in Afghanistan. 

He then went to college on the GI Bill while serving 5 years in the Army reserves. He experienced 3 failed marriages, fathered 3 children, and was unsuccessful in civilian life since 2020. I’m not certain these dates add up, some may be wrong.

People who knew him from a decade or so ago were shocked by his recent actions, saying that wasn’t the guy they knew. PTSD maybe? 

I’m starting to see a pattern of would-be suicides deciding their death should “mean something larger.” Meanwhile we leave the mentally ill to their own delusional devices and are surprised when this sort of tragedy occurs. We shouldn't be surprised, it's us reaping what we've sown.

Later ... We now know the LV "stunt" was exactly what I described in the prior paragraph, as was the NOLA tragedy.;

Mike Johnson Reelected Speaker

After a minor amount of last minute drama, two of three holdouts changed their votes and Johnson got the 218 he needed to continue as Speaker. Some sources report President-elect Trump called the two who, having registered their reservations, finally voted for Johnson. 

If they’re smart, we’ll never know what Trump told them. A good chance it was something like what I wrote yesterday, or at least a hint thereof. 

Onward toward passing those parts of the Trump agenda which require actual legislation. This is a good start, a big disappointment for Democrats and the bureaucratic blob who hoped for gridlock.

Friday Snark

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics' Cartoons of the Week.

Coming Up Tomorrow

There is talk that House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn't have the votes to be reelected tomorrow. The Republicans need 218 votes for someone and only have 219 members. If more than one defects, Johnson doesn't get enough votes to be reelected. 

Trump should call the holdouts and threaten to go to their district and tell people who voted for him that you won't vote for his choice of Speaker. That he expects them to help you change your mind or, failing that, elect someone better in two years with his help. 

It needs to be clear to would-be holdouts that they have chosen this Speaker vote as the hill they will die on, politically.

Weird Nutritional Science

Some very good research news about preventing age-associated dementia. 

Highlights 

• In a prospective cohort study, we assessed effects of Vitamin D on dementia incidence in 12,388 participants from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center dataset. 
• Vitamin D exposure was associated with 40% lower dementia incidence versus no exposure. 
• Vitamin D effects were significantly greater in females versus males and in normal cognition versus mild cognitive impairment. 
• Vitamin D effects were significantly greater in apolipoprotein E ε4 non-carriers versus carriers. 
• Vitamin D has potential for dementia prevention, especially in the high-risk strata.

A "40% lower dementia incidence" is amazing, no question supplementing vitamin D is significant. We can all hope this finding holds up.  

The study is correlational so causation isn't proven, but it will be hard to justify not taking D. It is neither expensive nor difficult to source.

But What Is He?

Literally nobody is talking or writing about the ethnicity of Shamsud-Din Jabbar. At most, people describe him as American-born. In a variety of photos of him he mostly appears to be of African descent, but others have described him as Arabic, likely because of his name. People change names, especially when they change faiths.

I understand issues of ethnicity or race are "third-rail" don't touch matters in this society. OTOH, his ancestry might reflect on his motives. If he is an American black who converted to Islam, that's one thing and some have suggested this.

If he is of African/Middle Eastern parentage then he probably wasn't a convert but someone whose Muslim faith was "reawakened" or radicalized, maybe by the Palestinian Oct. 7 attack, maybe earlier.

The need for more information about his background is real. It will eventually come to light, I hope.

Later ... Reuters reports/Yahoo posts an FBI update on the New Orleans killer. He was born, raised in Beaumont TX. 

He acted alone, people thought to be his accomplices turned out to be passers-by who were caught on CCTV investigating coolers with bomb materials he had earlier left in two locations. He recorded a statement in which he swears allegiance to ISIS. 

FBI believes he had no connection with the Las Vegas bomber. Reuters has additional details but no answer to my question.

Denial … Not Just a River

Ruy Teixeira writes that his Democrats won’t recognize their cultural stances aren’t flying with much of the populace. Their pols are fearful of “the groups” - advocacy cheerleaders for the various victim cohorts - which unload on any Democrats who dares to say the party’s extreme cultural positions are a turn-off to the electorate.

As a Republican, I couldn’t be happier with this state of affairs. I won’t be even a little disappointed if it continues. In my long life I saw the Dims do this once before, in the McGovern era, and it was very helpful. A replay of that disconnect with the values of Joe and Jill Sixpack should be encouraged and abetted.

Update

The Daily Mail has a long article about the Army Special Forces sergeant on home leave from an assignment in Germany who rented a Tesla truck, drove it to Las Vegas and blew himself up in the valet parking area of a Trump hotel. Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger was married to a woman from Mexico who is a social worker with an anti-Trump presence online to which she hasn’t posted since 2016.

If this DM article is accurate, the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks may be independent of each other, and the timing a mere coincidence. Or not, it is still early days in these investigations and much is not yet known. 

Both men appear to have been suicidal, both wished to make a statement with their death, both had served at the former Fort Bragg, both had spent years in the U.S. Army, both used the same car rental app, described as an Airbnb for renting privately owned cars, to rent EV trucks.

On the other hand, their statements appear to have targeted different “enemies.” I decode the New Orleans “enemy” as U.S. society at large. The Las Vegas “enemy” at first blush seems to be the Trump-Musk political movement currently very much in the ascendant. 

It is hard to imagine a shared ideology or faith behind both acts, without positing generalized anarchism. A relatively high percentage of Army folk spend some time at Bragg, not much of a coincidence. And it isn’t clear how their respective Army MOSes would have brought them together.

I’d echo any number of fictional detectives who’ve disavowed “coincidence,” but in this case it might be just that.

More About the Vegas Truck Bomb

The driver of the truck that exploded at the Trump hotel in Las Vegas has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. He was a former Green Beret from Colorado Springs who served at the same Army base as the New Orleans killer, possibly at the same time. He died in the blast.

Obviously an attempt will be made to learn if the two knew each other there. They used the same car rental service. These are strange, murky waters.

More on Shamsud-Din Jabbar

It is reported that the perp in the New Orleans mass killing lived in a squalid Houston trailer park and had sheep and goats grazing in his yard. It is also reported that he “converted” to Islam sometime in the last few years. We also learn he made voice recordings of his tentative plans to gather his family and murder them - likely “honor killing.”

I interpret these facts as follows. He probably kept the animals for sacrifice (Qurban) of livestock on the Eid-al-Adha holiday. I’ve seen temporary pens of sheep for sale in Dakar, Senegal, in the run-up to Eid-al-Adha. They reminded me of Christmas tree lots, similar pop-up marketing associated with something needed once a year for a holiday.

As to his “conversion,” I’m guessing it’s more likely he was a lapsed Muslim. For reasons we’ll probably never know but maybe his divorce, he experienced what our evangelicals call a “revival” of faith. 

His current misery became a just punishment for his sins.  This was followed by a strong need to atone for his years of ignoring Allah’s teachings. That need made him a good suicide terrorist candidate, which someone evil recognized and took advantage of. We need to find that evil someone and charge them with murder one, or at least deport them.

Blast in Las Vegas

Also today, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Initially thought to be a malfunction, it is now being investigated as potential terror involving explosives or heavy duty fireworks. The driver was killed in the explosion.

The irony of using a Elon Musk product to attack a Trump hotel would appeal to a fair range of individuals. However, it could also be related to killings in New Orleans earlier this morning (noted in previous post). This source reports both this EV truck and the one in NOLA were rented from the same online source - Turo. Coincidence?

Islamist radicals could FAFO that the impulse that saw FDR round up and imprison thousands of ethnic Japanese might still arise in this country, with a new target. Anybody wanna bet Trump wouldn't do it? Or that we are now too nice for such crude measures? 

The Long War might be about to turn hot. It does so every few years or decades.

Mass Killing in NOLA

An apparent terrorism attack happened this a.m. in New Orleans on Bourbon Street. Initial reports suggest 15 killed and over 30 injured when Shamsud Din Jabbar, age 42 and a Houston resident, intentionally drove a rented EV pickup truck into a crowd of celebrants. He then got out and began shooting at bystanders including two police who returned fire. The perp died as a result.

There may have been as many 4-5 additional individuals involved in planting bombs near the attack site. The driver was armed with a pistol and a rifle. Explosive devices and a grenade plus an ISIS flag were reported found in the truck. FBI said to be investigating this as an act of terrorism.

The perp claimed to be U.S. born and have served in the Army. He has been working in real estate sales in Houston. Police and FBI are conducting a related raid this p.m. in Houston.

----------

Mainstream news is being less specific about details. I understand media caution. Some of the above may later be found to be rumor. 

If it later is shown the guy's wife just left him or he was recently fired by an employer or has a history of psychosis, whipping up anti-Islamic furor won't be a good look for those involved. And the existence of co-conspirators is, at the moment, hypothetical.

This much we've known since it happened in Nice in 2016, killing 80: a vehicle is a more effective terror weapon than a firearm. Vehicles are literally everywhere and the expertise to use them is widespread. 

The Sugar Bowl in NOLA has been postponed 24 hours. There is concern other such attacks may be planned or scheduled. Caution suggests avoiding crowds until the extent of this incident is determined. 

More bits and pieces here, from Power Line.