Only the best people, amiright?

An Afrikaner Refugee Has Thoughts About the Jews​

The Trump administration is clear: Antisemitism from brown people will not be tolerated.​

Jonathan V. Last
and
Will Sommer

1. White Genocide?
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Quick catchup: This week the State Department sent an official to Dulles International Airport to welcome a group of 59 white Afrikaner refugees from South Africa. At a moment when the Trump administration is limiting refugee status for people fleeing Afghanistan, Venezuela, and other countries, this was a notable case of the president and his team going out of their way to welcome new immigrants.

What was different about these Afrikaners? Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau explained that these refugees “could be assimilated easily into our country.”

It’s all very legal and very cool. After all, the law does give the secretary of state great discretion as to whom he chooses to allow into the country.

So meet one of our new refugees: Charl Kleinhaus.

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Mr. Kleinhaus was part of this initial tranche of 59 Afrikaners. He has two thumbs, a Twitter account, and a lot of opinions.

Most of his opinions are garden-variety MAGA. Despite being a South African citizen, about half of Kleinhaus’s tweets are about the greatness of Donald Trump; how awesome Teslas are; and the woke mind virus (he’s against it).1







But there’s also some . . . other stuff.

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2. The Jews
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In one case, Kleinhaus advocated for physical assault on an American citizen. Retweeting a story about a guy who had been given a citation for his part in a road-rage incident with another driver, Kleinhaus wrote, “He needs a beating urgently!” (Kleinhaus was upset because the other driver involved in the incident was driving a Tesla.)

But most importantly, Kleinhaus has also posted about Jews and Israel in the kind of way that might get someone who wasn’t a white South African deported—calling Jews “untrustworthy” and “dangerous.”

In April 2023, Kleinhaus responded to video of Christians scuffling with Israeli police on the way to the Church of the Nativity by saying Jews are naturally “untrustworthy.”



On October 7, 2023, Kleinhaus responded to the initial news of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel by posting a link to an Al Jazeera video, taken a few days earlier, of Orthodox Israelis spitting on Christians.



Five days after the October 7th attack, Kleinhaus posted a link to another video, hosted by a Facebook account called “Israel Is a Terrorist State,” that showed clashes between Christians and Israeli police. Kleinhaus wrote: “Jews attacking Christians!”

In a LinkedIn message to The Bulwark, Kleinhaus confirmed that this is his X account. Kleinhaus, who has resettled in Buffalo, said he was too busy filling out paperwork today to comment further. We also reached out to the State Department about this story but have not yet heard back. [Update (May 14, 2025, 5:00 p.m. EDT): In reply to our inquiries, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security comments: DHS “vets all refugee applicants. Any claims of misconduct are thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action will be taken as necessary. DHS does not comment on individual application status.”]

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What kind of treatment would the U.S. government give Kleinhaus if he weren’t an Afrikaner? Consider that the Department of Homeland Security announced last month that it would consider “antisemitic activity on social media” as grounds for denying an immigration request.

Or that Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued in court that Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil should be deported, even though his criticism of Israel was lawful, because “condoning anti-Semitic conduct” would undermine American foreign policy.

Maybe the difference is that Kleinhaus is ostentatiously Christian—his feed is full of retweeted Bible verses, Christian exhortations, and memes of Trump walking with angels.



Or maybe the difference is that he’s white. Who can say. It’s a mystery!

SOTE and I wish you bad tidings this joyous holiday season.

No one did more to hide Joe Biden’s decline than his wife, Jill, the first lady, according to a new book that details how she berated staff in private, defended his missteps in public, and sometimes helped him finish his thoughts in conversations.

It describes how her team of advisers became the most powerful in the White House and took extraordinary steps to protect the president from negative headlines.

And it suggests she was instrumental in hiding from her husband just how badly his re-election campaign was going as she tried to cling to power.

“Original Sin”, co-authored by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, will be published next week. It lifts the lid on how Mr Biden, the oldest president in history, struggled to keep up with the demands of the job.

In one episode it describes how the first lady pulled her husband away from a Democratic governor after he raised concerns about the re-election campaign.

Mr Biden met Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, days after his catastrophic debate performance, when the president appeared unable to keep up with his rival Donald Trump. His words ground to halt and he was pictured slack-jawed, mouth agape.

“So how do you think it’s going out there?” the president asked the governor when they sat with smoothies after a campaign event.

Mr Shapiro decided to “give it to him straight”, the book recounts. “Frankly, the governor didn’t know how much the president’s senior advisers were telling him about how bad things really were for him.”

The polling in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, was bad and the president had yet to convince voters the debate was an aberration, he continued.

That was enough for the first lady.

“Alright,” she said, standing up. “We gotta go.”

The book describes how much of Mr Biden’s top team was made up of people close to the first lady and how they took on unusual powers close to the first family.

It included Anthony Bernal, her senior adviser, and Annie Tomasini, deputy chief of staff. They had unusual access to the Bidens’ residential quarters, and were feared by junior officials.

“As Jill’s power rose, so did Bernal’s,” the authors reveal. “Biden aides would say that she was one of the most powerful first ladies in history, and as a result, he became one of the most influential people in the White House.”

Mrs Biden also took a position in the limelight, and was often the strongest defender of Mr Biden when allies in the Democratic Party started to realise that he was no longer the best person to run in 2024.

The book is based on interviews with more than 200 people, many of them Democratic insiders, and reveals just who knew what about the president’s fitness, and the tricks they used to hide the truth.

The rambling press conference​

On the eve of the president’s first year in office, Mr Biden gave a press conference that ran for almost two hours.

The president made his way through the whole list of journalists handed to him on a cheat sheet.

And then he went rogue, calling on James Rosen, of the hard-right NewsMax channel, to ask a question.

“Why do you suppose such large segments of the American electorate have come to harbour such profound concerns about your cognitive fitness?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” Mr Biden said.

His top team decamped afterwards to the Treaty Room for a debrief when suddenly the first lady appeared in the doorway.

“Why didn’t anyone stop that?” she demanded.

He was the president and could decide how and when a press conference ended, but Dr Biden, as she liked to be known because of her doctoral degree in education, was furious with his staff.

‘Terrible’ cabinet meetings​

Mr Biden relied on briefing cards in public settings and interactions with reporters. They would include names of people he was likely to encounter and talking points.

But he shocked insiders by using them in private settings, including cabinet meetings.

“Before these meetings, White House staff called the various departments and agencies to figure out what they were going to ask the president so that answers could be prepared,” the book says.

“The conversations were largely scripted, even after the press had left the room.”

Three former cabinet secretaries weighed in to describe their discomfort at the president’s performance.

“The cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable – and they were from the beginning,” said cabinet secretary number one.


“I don’t recall a great cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted.”

Aides shrugged off the issue. They said cabinet meetings were always a drain on time and that the president was better off in small groups. This “performative” stuff did not really matter, they said, so long as Mr Biden was in charge and making decisions.

But another key group thought differently. In this day and age, the performative issues mattered, and were important in showing that the president was president.

Failed to recognise George Clooney​

Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts held a record-breaking fundraiser with Mr Biden and Barack Obama, the former US president, ahead of the 2024 election.

“Mr Clooney felt a knot form in his stomach as the president approached him,” the book recounts.

“Mr Biden looked at him. ‘Thank you for being here,’ he said. ‘Thank you for being here.’”


An aide hurriedly stepped in to tell the president that he knew Mr Clooney, one of the most recognisable faces in the country.

The penny eventually dropped and Mr Biden chatted with the actor and director about his journey, but the damage was done. Mr Clooney would eventually become one of the highest-profile names to call for the Democratic candidate to exit the race after his stumbling debate performance.

“Mr Clooney was shaken to his core,” the book adds. “The president hadn’t recognised him. A man he had known for years.”

Biden’s staff discussed using a wheelchair​

Mr Biden’s deterioration was so bad in the year ahead of the election that advisers discussed whether he would have to use a wheelchair during a second term. It reflects the extent that his shuffling gait and spine problems had become news stories.

The book reveals how the White House issued slow-motion videos of the president walking around the White House to disguise just how his movement had become. And at times aides walked beside him to Marine One to hide his small stride in a crowd of legs or in case he needed a helping hand.


Things came to a head when he tripped over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy in June 2023.

He began using a shorter set of stairs to board Air Force One and staff plotted the shortest walking route at events.

Aides believed it was untenable to use a wheelchair when he was campaigning for re-election, the book reports, but that it might be necessary during a second term.

“Given Biden’s age, [his physician Dr Kevin] O’Connor also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,” it said.

Hunter’s troubles weighed heavily​

Perhaps the biggest factor in Mr Biden’s struggles was the way his son, Hunter, his addictions and prosecutions, became a huge story in the final year of his time in office.

“To understand Joe Biden’s deterioration, top aides told us, one has to know Hunter’s struggles,” the book says.


Hunter was three when he survived the car crash that killed his mother and sister. And his life spiralled into alcohol and drug abuse after his older brother, Beau, died from a brain tumour in 2015.

He was at the centre of allegations that Mr Biden’s family had used his connections to make money, joining the board of a Ukrainian energy company when his father was vice-president, for example.

He eventually pleaded guilty to failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 and 2019 in a case that laid out embarrassing details about his lifestyle, with tales of drugs, escorts and a sex club.

Months earlier, he was found guilty of lying about his drug use on a gun ownership form.

Again, evidence heard in court included deeply embarrassing details of his descent into crack addiction and his love affair with his brother’s widow.

“A fourth cabinet secretary with whom we spoke saw Hunter’s June 2024 trial and conviction as akin to a five-hundred-pound weight dropping on the president’s head,” the authors write.


The Bidens feared the legal trouble would trigger another relapse from which their son might never recover.

“It wore on the president’s soul,” the book says. “He lived in fear that he would lose a third child.”

As I've previously shared, I'll be in Council Bluffs this weekend for the 3SSB circuit. Several prospects that I know to be on Iowa's radar will be there, and I'll be watching/evaluating each of them.

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Joe Biden bald face lied to the American people during the 2020 debate.

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31 minutes ago

Little Marco is a gimp

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Oh US Taxpayer, you wanted receipts?

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Just reported by a few other outlets. Can confirm -- Seydou is in the portal.

Seems like most use phones and tablets now. Do you own a PERSONAL (not work) computer?

Yes I know PC and laptop are blanket terms. PC here just means tower desktop type.

For decades the White House has provided transcripts for all presidential remarks, including from press gaggles. Stenographers would type them up and provide them upon request, or put them on a website. Trump 1.0 did this. Trump 2.0 is not doing this. Instead they are only providing access to a small percentage of his comments, and research indicates that they are scrubbing away his senior moments, and most unhinged rants.
Classic Steven Cheung profanity laced response to the journalist's questions regarding this apparent attempt to hide Trump's slipping mental acuity.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-secret-transcripts_n_6824fe20e4b021b5064adc84

His solicitor, of course from the great state of Missouri, tells the Court that Trump can disregard opinions he disagrees with.

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I give up.

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Keep voting for Democrats though…

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Mrs. Wddt just informed me she's pregnant. Happy and healthy, I'll worry about the rest.

BREAKING NEWS: Producer Prices Unexpectedly Decline in April​

The Producer Price Index (PPI) fell 0.5% in April, defying expectations of a 0.2% increase, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, driven by the biggest drop in services since 2009. This follows a revised flat reading in March (-0.4% previously reported) and translates to an annual gain of 2.4%, below the consensus of 2.5% and significantly lower than the prior 3.4% (revised from 3.2%).

Excluding volatile food and energy components, core PPI declined 0.4% month-over-month, contrasting with expectations for a 0.3% rise and the prior 0.4% increase (revised from -0.1%). On a year-over-year basis, core PPI slowed to 3.1%, down from a revised 4% in March (previously reported as 3.3%), aligning with analyst projections of 3.1%.

April’s decline in the purchasing price index offers reassurance to those concerned about potential tariff-driven cost increases. This sharper-than-anticipated drop suggests potential relief in upstream pricing pressures, which could influence broader inflation trends and the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook.