Friday: Hili dialogue

November 6, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, November 6, 2026 and National Nachos Day. It’s time once again to learn where that name came from:

Nachos originated in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, across the Mexco-U.S. border from Eagle Pass, Texas.  In 1943, Ignacio Anaya was a maître d’ at a restaurant called the Victory Club, when a group of women whose husbands were officers stationed at the nearby U.S. Army base Fort Duncan, traveled across the border to eat there.  Seeking to serve food to them quickly, but unable to find the cook, he cut fried tortillas into triangles, added shredded Colby cheese and sliced pickled jalapeño peppers  and heated them. When asked what the dish was called, Anaya responded, “Well, I guess we can just call them Nacho’s Special”; Nacho is a common nickname for Ignacio.

Here is Ignacio Anaya, the man who will forever fuel televised football games:

And an elaborate version, labeled on Wikipedia as “Nachos with chicken, with salsa and jalapenos on the side”.  I’d deep-six the cilantro and replace the chicken with ground beef. (or no meat at all):

By c=VarunRajendran ; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license..

It’s also Fountain Pen Day,

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the November 6 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Although Trump (and Vance) blame the Republican’s huge midterm losses on the war with Iran, the AP reports that, as James Carville wrote on the wall at Clinton campaign headquarters in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And so it appears to be. (Of course many voters see the Iran war, or the war between Israel and Hamas, as responsible for higher prices.)

President Donald Trump was publicly humbled by inflation in the midterm elections, as rising prices provoked a blistering set of losses for Republicans in House, Senate and gubernatorial races.

Most voters said that Trump’s own policies had smothered growth and driven costs even higher, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of roughly 100,000 midterm voters. The president’s message that the fault lay with his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, didn’t land. Americans saw prices start to climb with Trump’s chaotic rash of tariffs last year, and energy costs spiked after he launched a war with Iran in February.

About two-thirds of voters said Trump’s own policies had fueled inflation. By contrast, only about half of 2022 midterm voters said this about Biden’s policies, according to AP VoteCast.

Voters in states from California to Mississippi were broadly in agreement that Trump’s taxes on foreign imports have done more harm than good.

The election results matched what voters had been telling pollsters for months, but Trump had campaigned with a decidedly deaf ear.

“I’ve done a great job,” Trump said at one of his final midterm rallies in Iowa. “Prices are coming way down.”

LOL. He knows that ain’t gonna happen.  More:

Democratic victories in Tuesday’s midterms signaled that most voters don’t believe the economy or Trump is working for them.

Consumer prices are up 3.7% over the past 12 months, compared to an inflation rate of 3% when Trump began his second term. The president told reporters on Wednesday that the Iran war “drove the gasoline up a little bit short-term,” but he felt the choice to fight Iran was worth it because of its push for nuclear weapons. “If I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again,” he said.

There is no guarantee that a House and Senate with a Democratic majority can fix an economy pestered by uncomfortably high inflation. Trump and Congress would likely need to work on a bipartisan basis, or simply keep the economy stable enough to allow the Federal Reserve to ratchet down inflation through its setting of interest rates.

Reread that last paragraph. Democrats have limited power so long as Trump is President, and we’re not sure who will be elected President in 2028. Here’s the breakdown from the AP by party affiliation.

*I am not politically savvy enough to know how Trump’s actions can be limited after January, when the new Democratic-majority Congress is seated. He has the veto, and can issue executive orders, but the specter of impeachment (see below) looms over his administration. The WSJ discusses these issues in a piece about “Trump’s tough new reality.”

If Trump wants to accomplish anything durable going forward, he will have to accept limits to his authority and compromise—things he’s shown little interest in doing during his political career.

Republicans who have long aligned themselves with him—including those in his administration with future political aspirations—will face enormous pressure to create more distance from him following a historic bipartisan rebuke from voters. Trump’s longtime advisers expect the backbiting and interpersonal squabbles that defined much of his first term in office could come roaring back.

Meanwhile, Trump faces two years of investigations from the newly ascendant Democrats. And while he’s said he is prepared to work with the opposing party, reaching compromise in an increasingly toxic political environment will be challenging.

. . .He will soon be reckoning with fallout from the election. The newly empowered Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill has promised investigations into the president, his family and his allies that could poison any hopes for cross-party collaboration.

“The next two years for him I think are going to be two of the most difficult years of his life,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who ran against Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential contests and briefly worked for him in the run-up to his first term.

But Trump and his advisers say the president still has the power of the federal government at his disposal—and won’t be afraid to use it. On Wednesday morning, the official White House X account posted an image of Trump looking defiant in the Oval Office with the caption: “PSA: TRUMP IS STILL YOUR PRESIDENT.”

Advisers are already drawing up plans to aggressively flex his executive authority, according to administration officials, and Trump has said he’s ready to veto legislation he opposes.

“Whatever the midterm results, President Trump remains the most powerful force in American politics,” said Danielle Alvarez, a White House spokeswoman.

He is also trying to leave a mark on Washington, increasingly conscious of how he’ll be remembered after he’s gone.

It’s that last line that worries me, for I don’t think Trump has any inkling of what people will remember. The article mentions, as do others, that personnel changes may be in order, including “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!

*What is the likely agenda of the Democrats after January? The WP notes that the party’s aims (beyond investigating corruption in the present administration) are vague, but gives a few hints.

With committee gavels in hand, Democrats will be empowered to investigate Trump — and many have already made clear they plan to probe all manner of alleged corruption by the president, his administration, his family and his corporate allies.

But Democrats also argue they cannot — and will not — only be the anti-Trump party when they take control of both chambers in January with majorities larger and more ideologically diverse than anticipated. They have repeatedly stated they must materially improve the lives of voters or risk quickly losing Congress again.

“The American people have chosen House Democrats because they want to see a dramatic change in direction,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who is likely to become the nation’s first Black speaker, said Wednesday at a news conference with his leadership team. “That’s exactly what House Democrats will deliver.”

The party’s policy agenda remains vague. Though Democrats pledged on the campaign trail to tackle affordability, they have been light on legislative specifics, floating broad plans to reverse Trump’s cuts to health care funding, roll back his sweeping tariff regime and block his ability to wage war in Iran.

As long as Trump is still in the White House, almost anything Democrats might hope to accomplish is dead on arrival without the president’s buy-in, setting the stage for an awkward dance in which Democratic leaders are stuck negotiating with the same man for whom they are publicly demanding accountability.

. . . Finding a balance could be challenging as Democrats face pressure from a liberal base thirsty for revenge. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California), the California Democrat who is expected to lead the House Oversight Committee that will be central to investigating Trump, captured the spirit of gleeful retribution in a short, all-caps statement after his party secured the House: “LAWYER UP.”

Remember that Trump still has a veto, and it’ll take 67 votes in the Senate to overturn legislation, with the Dems having only 54 seats (two more are unresolved). To override a veto, then, we’ll need bipartisan support. Also, a wave of impeachments (see articles below) may be in store, and that’ll take time and energy away from any Democratic agenda. Much as I despise Trump and think there are likely grounds for impeachment proceedings, I would prefer to see progress rather than a circus until 2028 when Trump, if he’s still alive, can just quietly fade away.

*The NYT has an article called, “On the Democrats’ agenda: Investigations of Trump and his family” (article archived here). It looks as if the Dems are getting ready for revengs.

A $1.4 billion cryptocurrency windfall. Well-timed stock trades. A wedding after-party bankrolled by a Kremlin-connected businessman.

For nearly two years, congressional Democrats were powerless to probe these potential scandals and conflicts looming over President Trump and his family businesses. But after pulling off a landslide midterm election victory that amounted to a sweeping rebuke of the president, they will soon seize control of Congress — and with it, the power to open investigations, hold hearings and issue subpoenas.

Representative Robert Garcia, the California Democrat poised to chair the House Oversight Committee, summed up the threat succinctly in a statement late Tuesday: “Lawyer up.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Garcia said that his warning was meant chiefly for people at the White House who “engaged in corruption” and enriched themselves. “The Trump crime family is the top of our investigative priorities,” he said.

Subpoenas, though, do not guarantee a fruitful investigation.

Some of the president’s business associates and allies are expected to fight some of the subpoenas in court, which could become a lengthy process. And even if the Democrats shed new light on moneymaking ventures, there is no indication that the Trump family violated the law — potentially complicating any effort to pursue impeachment proceedings against the president.

Still, Mr. Garcia and other congressional leaders believe they will find a target-rich environment.

After winning back the White House two years ago, Mr. Trump abandoned his first-term pledge to rein in his family’s deal making, enabling new ventures that enriched the president, his sons and some of his advisers. He shrugged off concerns about conflicts of interest, contending that he “found out that nobody cared.”

He turned out to be wrong. An AP exit poll found that government corruption was a crucial issue for many voters, and that roughly seven in 10 voters said Congress was doing “not enough” to provide checks and balances on the presidency.

But what if Trump issues advance pardons for anybody who might be accused of a federal crime? (Remember, the Prez can’t pardon people accused of state crimes.) That hasn’t yet been adjudicated by the Supreme Court.

*More on impeachment from the WaPo:

But Democrats sounded cool toward [a plan to impeach Trump] in the midterm campaign of 2018, too. (“For those who want impeachment . . . that’s not what our caucus is about,” said California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi.) They got over it. A little more than a year after those elections, a Democratic-controlled House voted to impeach Trump a first time. They may get over it again, as both the facts and political convenience lead them to impeach first the president’s subordinates, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and then the boss himself.

The Constitution gives Congress wide latitude over the matter. It has the power to impeach officials, including the president, when it judges them guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” What those are is a matter of debate. The Founders rejected the idea that running the executive branch badly was enough reason to remove a president. But James Madison suggested that abuses of power could be impeachable even when they don’t violate any federal statute. Such transgressions featured in each of the four presidential impeachments that have passed the House in U.S. history.

Because Congress has a broad power to exercise its judgment, and because Trump habitually disregards legal and moral constraints on his conduct, Democrats will have plenty of possible bases from which to launch an inquiry. Corruption, systematic misuse of the pardon power and launching a war without congressional authorization are all good candidates. Most voters aren’t eager for impeachment, according to a Wall Street Journal poll, but another survey from Politico found that 80 percent of Democratic voters would support it. A majority of all voters think Trump has committed impeachable offenses.

Democratic voters, happy to have won the midterms, will give their new representatives some leeway. But fast-forward a few months. If Trump decides to maintain his tariffs, continue the war in Iran or return to confrontational immigration enforcement, there’s no guarantee the Democratic Congress will be able to stop him. Given that so many pols spent their campaigns promising to “fight Trump,” how would they explain inaction on impeachment to voters? Such a posture would doubtless create an opportunity for Democratic presidential candidates to rebuke the Democratic Congress for cowardice.

I am not gung-ho about impeachment, but I am not dead set against it either. Remember, impeachment is just the charges themselves, brought by a majority vote of the House of Representatives, which the Democrats have. The trial itself takes place in the Senate, which needs a 2/3 vote to effect a conviction.  Three Presidents have been impeached (Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Trump [twice]) but none successfully. Nixon undoubtedly would have been convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors, but he resigned before a trial could take place.

*******************

From Give Me a Sign:

From Meow Incorporated:

From The Babylon Bee courtesy of reader Anna: Republican strategies to win the midterms (too late!):

From Masih, who got another well-deserved award. She’s dedicating it to Iranian women’s rights activist Mojgan Keshavarz, still in prison for her “crimes” though she was granted a five-day bailout in October.

The Number Ten Cat continues to denigrate Trump, as he has for years:

From Richard Dawkins via Luana. I didn’t know of this law, but you can find the Torygraph article archived here.

From Malcolm; cat vs. d*g:

Steam train! Translation from the French: “Turn up the sound; it’s magnificent!”

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

This Hungarian Jewih girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was one year old and would be 84 today had she lived.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T11:13:27.263Z

And two from Herr Doktor Professor Cobb.  First, a cat:

There's a YouTube channel called 'Ferrovia de Jardim' ("backyard railroad") owned by two model train enthusiasts, Daniel & Chico, in Barbacena, Brazil.They also have a cat named Titinho ("little uncle"?) who shares the space with occasionally hilarious results.😺🚂(www.youtube.com/@ferroviadej…)

— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T23:57:45.144Z

Bob Dylan and the Pope! But why is Dylan dressed like that?

The Great Lakes region contains multitudes, but these are two of its types of guy.

— Fuzzy Dunlop (@angrybingo.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T18:05:55.579Z

And since it’s Dylan, I’ll post one of my favorites, recorded and released in 1965.  Al Kooper is ion the organ and Mike Bloomfield on guitar.

Scam of the day

November 5, 2026 • 11:15 am

I’m putting some of these emails up so authors won’t be duped by this new rash of literary scams. The email came from “Shadrack Ben” with the address “contact.shadrack.prosehouse@gmail. com”

  Dear Jerry Coyne,

My name is Shedrack, and I represent Prose House as Head of Literary Partnerships. We connect authors and readers through thoughtful literary features that highlight books and the ideas that make them meaningful.

Your book, Faith Versus Fact, stood out for its direct examination of the relationship between scientific inquiry and religious belief. By exploring the differences between evidence-based reasoning and faith, it raises important questions about how people understand the world, evaluate claims, and distinguish scientific explanations from religious perspectives. Its arguments invite readers to engage critically with one of the most enduring debates about knowledge and belief.

Through Prose House Magazine, we offer selected digital magazine features designed to highlight their central themes and introduce their stories and ideas to readers in an engaging way.

I would love to share more about how we could present Faith Versus Fact in our magazine. Would you be open to hearing a little more about the feature?

Best regards,
Shedrack
Head of Literary Partnerships
Prose House

Clues that it’s fake:

a. gmail address, not a professional address. Note too the word “contact” as part of the gmail address.

b. email address has name “shadrack” while in the rest of the letter the crook uses “shedrack”

c. The Prose House Magazine exists but is only about six pages long

d.  A Google search for “Ben Shadrack Prose House” returns nothing

e. Pangram says it’s 100% written by AI if you leave out the salutation and signature:

I’m tempted to play along with this detestable man and his scheme to see how long it would take until they asked me for money, but I don’t have the time to waste. I just gave the guy a new fundament via email.

If you see something, say something.

Initiatives limiting women’s sports to biological women pass in all four states where they were on the ballot (two blue, one purple, and one red)

November 5, 2026 • 8:15 am

Over the past five years or so, polls have repeatedly shown that most Americans oppose allowing trans-identified males (“trans women” or “trans girls”) to compete in women’s sports. I’ve written about this a lot, emphasizing that allowing such competition is unfair to women, for trans-identified males have a pronounced sex-based advantage in just about any sport you can name. And I’ve emphasized that I reject the claim that such a principle is “transphobic”, especially not for those of us who favor trans people having nearly every right as everyone else, with no discrimination in housing, employment, or other areas where discrimination doesn’t clash with anyone else’s rights.

The polls that were taken invariably showed that over 60% of Americans opposed team sports competition between people of different sexes, favoring team membership by natal sex only. (Those favoring this coed competition were usually between 20% and 35%.) You can find polls like that here, here, here, and here. For politicos, it usually differs by party, with Democrats more often favoring biological men competing on women’s teams.

On Tuesday there were four states with ballot initiatives asking voters to approve laws or constitutional amendments banning biological men from competing in women’s sports, with two of these allowing coed competition if there were teams that were explicitly coed (I don’t know is any of these in American middle schools or above, but certainly have no objection to the existence of such teams so long as they compete with other coed teams.)

In all four cases, the vote was to ban natal males from competing against biological women. Here are the states:

ARIZONA: Proposition 318

Requires all schools and athletic associations to designate athletic teams as male, female or co-ed based on the sex of the athletes as recorded at birth. Bars students, athletes, employees and others from joining sports teams or from using school and athletic association facilities, including restrooms, that are not designated for their sex assigned at birth.

The results from the NYT (note: the ballots do not have an “undecided” box to tick):

COLORADO:  Proposition 134:

Requires student athletes to participate on teams that match their sex assigned at birth, and requires schools, colleges and athletic associations to designate sports teams as male, female or coeducational.

The NYT breakdown:

NEBRASKA:  Initiative 442 (constitutional amendment): 

Amends the State Constitution to require schools to designate sports teams as male, female or coeducational, and prohibits male participation on female teams.

The results:

WASHINGTON STATE: Initiative 638:  an indirect initiated state statute:

A “yes” vote supported:

  • requiring school districts and nonprofit organizations that regulate interscholastic activities to “prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students” in sports with separate team or individual competitions for male and female students; and
  • requiring students seeking to participate in athletic activities designated for female students to submit documentation from their healthcare provider verifying the student’s sex, defined by certain biological factors.

A “no” vote opposed the initiative, thereby keeping the current state law requiring that recreational and athletic activities “be offered to all students without regard for sex” and prohibiting public schools from discriminating based on sexual orientation including gender expression or identity.

The election results from Ballotpedia:

Arizona is regarded as a “purple” or “wing state” Washington and Colorado are blue states (Democratic), and Nebraska is a red state (Republican). As expected, red Nebraska had the highest votes for separating sports by birth sex, purple Arizona still a substantial margin (about 18%), and Colorado and Washington passed the initiatives by 5% and 13% respectively.  The votes were generally in line with polls taken previously, though the polls I cite above weren’t broken down by state.

Thusday: Hili dialogue

November 5, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Thursday, November 5, 2026. I am declaring it International Hili Day, for, as Andrzej wrote yesterday in answer to several of my questions:

Hili was born in early spring 2013, and Paulina and her sister brought her to us. Hili will be buried tomorrow, under the pear tree she loved to climb when she was little.

The Queen was buried this morning. Here’s another nice photo of her:

We’ll have shortened Hili dialogues (yes, I’m keeping the name) for a a few days, as today I go to the ophthalmologist for my checkup and tomorrow I have visitors from out of town. Plus I haven’t prepared this post in advance, as I usually do, as yesterday I went to get glasses (and a pumpkin pie) at Costco yesterday and still have not recovered from Hili’s crossing of the Rainbow Bridge. Bear with me; I do my best.

It’s also Basketball Day, National Nachos Day, and National Saxophone Day.  Here’s Stan Getz  playing “Body and Soul”.  I posted Coleman Hawkins’s version of this song not long ago.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the November 5 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*I’m sure people are up to their ears in post-election analysis, so I’ll just post a couple of short items. This is from the NYT’s daily newsletter by Adam Kushner and Even Gorelick:

Two parties remade:

Democrats. Tuesday’s result will send both moderates (such as Adam Hamilton of Kansas) and progressives (such as Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan) to Washington. The two factions fought bitterly in many primaries this fall, but candidates from both sides won Election Day victories. Progressives want the party to push bold, transformative ideas like Medicare for All. But Democrats can’t maintain their momentum in 2028 if they can’t persuade Trump voters to back them again. Which way will the party go? The argument between the camps will define the next two years.

Republicans. Trump pushes his allies to parrot his ideas — on war, government spending, the economy. He threatens apostates that he will back their opponents in primaries. But it hurt Republicans in this election to be seen as proxies for an unpopular president. Now that he’ll be a lame duck, Republicans may feel comfortable putting distance between themselves and Trump. It began yesterday, when Vice President JD Vance attributed the electoral drubbing to the war in Iran. After a defeat come the recriminations.

*Trump admitted yesterday that the U.S. war with Iran contributed to the Demoocratic landslide in the midterms,

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday blamed Republicans’ stunning midterm losses on the administration’s unpopular war with Iran, though Trump said he had no choice but to launch the conflict and would do it again.

“It’s largely true because it drove the gasoline [prices] up a little bit,” the president said Wednesday afternoon on the site of his half-finished White House ballroom, his first public appearance since voters handed Democrats significant majorities in the House and Senate.

“At the same time, if I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again,” Trump said of the war, before directing the attention of his aides and reporters to the helipad he had installed on the White House lawn in September. “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Though Trump himself made the decision to go to war with Iran — egged on by powerful outside advisers and some aides, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — Trump continued Wednesday to distance himself from the GOP’s losses. Late Tuesday, he insisted that “if I was on the ballot, we would have won.” On Wednesday, he noted that “thousands” of people packed his rallies in competitive states in the final month of the campaign.

Trump’s acknowledgment of the war’s role in Tuesday’s Democratic landslide came after Vance posted lengthy remarks on social media saying voters wanted Trump to end the war, focus on the cost of living and inflation, put America first and “change our relationship to Israel.”

“The reason we lost is the war,” said Vance, who opposed the conflict and is considering a run for president in two years.

Vance’s post echoed the recriminations among many other Republicans, who blamed Trump for their party’s historic midterm rout. In private calls and texts through the night and into the morning, Republicans lamented political strategies — like an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting gambit in southern states — that failed to make up for politically damaging actions by the president, including launching the war with Iran and dismissing popular anger over high gas prices.

But surely a lot of things contributed to the Republican rout, and surely the cost of living played a substantial role.  Although Trump said he’d work with Democrats, but he also said this:

“My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country,” he said.

The president said he plans to work with the opposing party, saying, “I know a lot of Democrats. I have total veto power and I’m sure we’ll be able to work things out.”

“I think they’re gonna want to work with me,” he said. “Otherwise I’d just veto everything and they’re not gonna want that.”

The president insisted that so many Republicans lost because he wasn’t on the ballot.

“I feel that I wasn’t on the ballot, and there was nothing that could be done about that,” he said. “If I was, we would have won.”

What he meant was “Congress damn well better do what I want, or I’ll kick their bills right back into the Capitol.”

*Over at “It’s Noon in Israel,” Amit Segal sees a bit of positivity for Israel in the U.S. slections, even though Democrats, mostly not friends of the Jewish state, took control of Congress.

It’s Thursday, November 5, and “There’s no question that the anti-Israel core in the House of Representatives has grown,” former Prime Minister Yair Lapid commented following the Democratic sweep in the midterms. But, he argues, there is still an opening with reasonable Democrats: “These people aren’t against Israel. They’re against extremist ministers who say crazy things.” Most importantly, he insists, “they’re against Netanyahu.”

Democratic congressman Brad Lander chose to stone rather than pick Lapid’s olive branch: “We aren’t starving for a barnstorming tour. We’re hungry to see respect for international law and human rights.”

New Michigan senator Abdul El-Sayed made sure to make his views on Israel clear in his victory speech: “We don’t want our money sent to do apartheid, or genocide, or war.” I’m certain Donald Trump’s announcement that the aid is coming to an end will now put El-Sayed’s mind at ease about the cost of bananas in Michigan.

What an odious, Jew-hating man!  Genocide and apartheid, indeed. This, of course, echoes Cenk’s infamous commercial blaming American problems on Israel and its “genocide and apartheid”—an arrant blood libel from Michigan’s Senator-in-Waiting. More:

But this blue tsunami has a silver lining. The blue wave raised all boats, and several strongly pro-Israel Democrats who were at risk are now safely sitting beside their significantly less friendly colleagues.

The fight to come will undoubtedly be over the source of the wave. The big winners of Tuesday were the Blue Dogs, the Problem Solvers and the New Dems. The DSA candidates were not the ones flipping R+15 seats. Still, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared in Michigan, “If we can win here, we can win anywhere.”

The fact that El-Sayed won by only six points, compared with Texas Senate winner James Talarico’s 12, will not stop them from proclaiming 2026 Year One of the revolution.

Their revolutionary plans face a challenge in a House majority of around 40 seats. That overwhelming majority means the 10 to 15 new DSA members won’t have the numbers to hold the caucus hostage on votes. Meanwhile the Democrats holding the key positions next Congress are pro-Israel.

. . .The more immediate question for Israelis is whether the wave washed away Trump’s appetite for war with Iran. Thankfully, the president appears to be unaffected. Despite the Vance wing seeing the Republican defeat as its chance to end the Iran war, Trump flatly stated he would launch the war again, because “long term, it’s the only answer.”

. . . With his domestic agenda dead on arrival and just a dash of Trump’s stubbornness, the greatest losers of the midterms may still be the ayatollahs.

From Stacy. This is true: just google the word:

From Melissa Steinberg on Facebook. All American Jews need this sign in their front yard:

From Cats That Have Had Enough of Your Shit:

From Masih; two of 12 young men who were hanged. One was put through a mock execution before he was actually hanged.

From the Number Ten Cat, whose dislike of Trump is frequently on display:

From Luana, and this approbation from a member of the Muslim Brotherhood appears to be true (El-Sayd has credibly denied that he has ties to the Muslim brotherhood). Note al-Dardiri’s blatant Islamism.

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

And an amazing video from Matthew Cobb:

Fire ants build a bridge using their own to cross the waterTag someone who needs to see this 🐜#ants #insects #nature

— Ants Life 🐜 (@antslife.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T14:09:59.881738Z

In memoriam: Hili

November 4, 2026 • 8:30 am

As most readers know by now, Hili—the beloved cat of Andrzej and Malgorzata, and then of Andrzej after Malgorzata passed away—died yesterday afternoon, or rather was “put to sleep” by the vet in Dobrzyn.  Hili had been under the weather for several days, and then stopped eating. On her first visit to the vet, she was suspected of having pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas. The vet started Hili on IV fluids with antibiotics and prescribed force feeding. But still Hili ate and drank very little, and was losing weight.

On the next visit, the vet said that, well, Hili might have liver or kidney disease and advised continuing the fluids.  Hili did not resume eating or drinking. Finally, on a third visit the vet took an X-ray and found a tumor on her liver, saying he suspected cancer all along. An operation was scheduled, and, when they opened Hili up, they found a tumor that had metastasized throughout her innards.  According to Andrzej’s wishes, Hili was not brought out of anesthesia, but was euthanized while still under.  It was a merciful death, and Andrzej’s only comfort is that Hili is no longer suffering.

What can I say about a cat I knew for over a decade, a cat that, along with Andrzej and Malgorzata, made me fly to Poland every year or two? I’ve written about Malgorzata and Andrzej, of course, and how their warm hospitality and strict work ethic provided the ideal place for me to chill out while working.  Andrzej and Malgorzata would sit at their computers all day writing Listy, while I would lie on the small green couch and try to lure Hili to sleep on my chest or lie beside me, like this:

Hili was her own cat, and she would come to you on her own terms.  When she was through sleeping with me in the bed, she’d go to the bedroom door and leave, most often to go sleep with Andrzej and Malgorzata. She would tolerate being picked up, but barely.  She was independent and opinionated, and that gave rise to the personality that Andrzej confected for her, a personality expressed in the daily dialogues on this site. In the pictures below you can see that she’s was sometimes opposed to being held.

After a few visits it became clear that I was greatly enamored of this cat—so enamored that I had Hiroko, in Japan, embroider Hili’s likeness on a shirt. It’s a precious garment:

Although she liked me, sometimes, she clearly loved Malgorzata and Andrzej. She would often sit on their laps or their desks as they worked:

Malgorzata didn’t often like her picture being taken, but Hili didn’t mind:

Hili slept with Andrzej and Malgorzata, but I believe she favored Malgorzata, who would complain because Hili slept on her face. Here they are in the morning:

Common scenes in the house:

Andrzej and Hili

Szaon, another stray, was tamed by Andrzej over a period of months and then learned to live inside. She was a very loving cat who became a fast friend of Hili.

Hili especially loved Cyrus, the adopted stray dog, and they often cuddled up together. During walkies to the river, Hili would follow Cyrus:

Here’s the whole happy family: Hili, Cyrus, Malgorzata, and Andrzej. I love this picture.  Alas, Cyrus passed away several years ago.

Hili showed up in the Spring of 2013, brought to Andrzej and Malgorzata’s doorstep by a little girl who was trying to give away the kittens in a litter.  Here’s Kitten Hili, sitting on the jar of coffee.  When she got bigger, she still sat in the same spot, but it took more jars to support her.

I loved the photo of Kitten Hili, and so made it into a mug which I gave Andrzej and Malgorzata.  I then took a picture of Hili drinking milk from the mug:

. . . and then I made a mug with the photo of Hili drinking milk from the mug:

There was one more mug to go, with the picture above on it. I believe Andrzej still has them.

Hili was a cat, not a person, but she knew her position in the household: she was The Queen. She would meow to go outside, but when she wanted in, she refused to meow at the door. She would jump onto the windowsill where Malgorzata and Andrzej could not avoid seeing her. One of them would then have to go outside and fetch her. But you couldn’t just call her and have her jump down and follow you inside through the door: you would have to pick her up off the windowsill and carry her inside in your arms.  She insisted on this throughout her life, though when she was left out on warm nights she’d curl up on the veranda before getting fetched.

Here she’s waiting, and, on another occasion, I went out to fetch her (picture by Andrzej):

Hili was always a climber, though she did less of it when she was older (and a bit heavier!):

Finally, a group of photos showing the many moods of Hili:

Basking in the sun on the outside windowsill:

 

Sleepy:

Formal portraits:

Her memory is a blessing, and we’ll miss her terribly: