Wednesday: Hili dialogue

January 10, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Wednesday, January 10, 2024, a Hump Day (“Ngày bướu” in Vietnamese), and it’s National Bittersweet Chocolate Day. Aldi’s sells excellent but inexpensive Moser Roth dark chocolate at either 70% or 85% cocoa content. The chocolate is German, and you won’t be disappointed.  Here’s their selection (I’ve added arrows for the dark stuff):

Moser Roth Chocolate” by krossbow is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

It’s also Houseplant Appreciation Day, Save the Eagles Day, National Oysters Rockefeller Day, Majority Rule Day in the Bahamas, marking “the day the Bahamian government gained majority rule for the first time, on this day in 1967”, and, in the Falkland Islands, Margaret Thatcher Day.

Here’s a photo of Margaret Thatcher commemorating her with both a road (“Thatcher Drive”) and a statue.  I took this in November, 2019 in Port Stanley, the capital of the Falklands. They love Thatcher there because she was PM when the Brits defeated the Argentinians in the Falklands War of 1982.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the January 10 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The federal trial accusing Trump of fomenting insurrection on January 6, 2021 has begun in Washington, D.C., and three appeals-court judges cast doubt on his claim that he’s immune from prosecution because what he did happened when he was still president.

Federal prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith have charged former president Donald Trump with four counts related to conspiring to obstruct the 2020 election results.

Trump’s team has argued that the federal election obstruction case in D.C. should be dismissed, saying he was president at the time of the actions laid out in the indictment. His lawyers have also argued that prosecuting him would constitute double jeopardy, since he was already impeached and acquitted by Congress for his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The paper has four “takeaways from the hearing”, which I condense (their words):

1. The judges seemed skeptical that presidential immunity extends as far as Trump’s lawyers claim it does.

Trump attorney D. John Sauer argued that presidential immunity means that a president cannot be prosecuted for any actions that fall under his presidential duties — unless the House first votes to impeach him and the Senate then convicts him.

Judge Florence Y. Pan, an appointee of President Biden, asked Sauer if a president could be criminally prosecuted if he ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival. Such a scenario — ordering the military to do something — would fall under presidential duties. But having a rival murderedwould also be a clear violation of the law.

2. The judges’ ruling could rely on their reading of the impeachment clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Lawyers for both sides and the judges spent a chunk of oral arguments debating the Constitution’s impeachment clause. Under Trump attorneys’ reading of the clause, a president can only be criminally prosecuted once Congress has voted to both impeach and convict him.

. . . Prosecutor James Pearce said he disagreed with Trump’s interpretation and warned there would be little accountability for a president who could only be prosecuted if the Senate first convicts him. That would violate the separation of powers, he said.

3. The judges questioned whether Trump’s actions around the Jan 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol qualified as his official presidential duties — and whether the appeals court should even decide this.

Sauer said Trump’s actions around Jan. 6 — including meeting with the Justice Department and members of Congress about his belief that the election was stolen — were part of his presidential duties.

. . . In a notable exchange, Judge Karen Henderson,an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, seemed skeptical of that claim, saying: “I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care [that] the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate federal laws.”

4. Trump attended the hearing in person, suggesting he believes his criminal prosecutions could boost his presidential bid.

Trump attended the hearing, sitting at the far right side of the appellate table.

Trump was not required to be present, and defendants do not typically attend appeals arguments in their case. But his decision to attend the hearing instead of spending more time in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses is yet another suggestion that he plans on blending his criminal defense with his campaign messages.

This is going to the Supreme Court for sure!  I have no idea what they’d do.

*Once again Anthony Blinken is telling Israel how to run their war. (Well, I suppose they have the right to weigh in since they’re supporting Israel and giving them weapons, but I think they’re sticking their nose a bit too far into the tent.)  This is WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW, as they say:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on Israel to take greater steps to protect civilians, allow more aid into Gaza and work with moderate Palestinian leaders, saying regional countries would only invest in the reconstruction of Gaza if there is a “pathway to a Palestinian state.”

He also said he was “crystal clear” that Palestinians must be able to return to their homes “as soon as conditions allow” and said the U.S. rejects any proposal for settling them outside the territory — something far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition have called for.

He also dismissed a case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice accusing it of genocide, calling the allegations “meritless” and saying they distract from efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. He said it was “particularly galling” as Hamas and other groups attacking Israel call for its annihilation.

Blinken said he had promises from four Arab nations and Turkey to help rebuild Gaza after the war. But those nations also want to see an end to the fighting in Gaza and concrete steps toward the eventual creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, something Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow.

The U.S. and Israel also remain deeply divided over how Gaza will be run when — and if — its current Hamas rulers are defeated. American officials have called for the Palestinian Authority, which currently governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take the reins in Gaza. Israeli leaders have rejected that idea but have not put forward a concrete plan beyond saying they will maintain open-ended military control over the territory.

The suggestion of a two-state solution is, for now, dead, for any Palestinian territory abutting on Egypt will foment continued terrorism, especially if run by the Palestinian Authority, which, like Hamas fosters terrorism. (They run the “pay for slay” program that rewards Palestinians for killing Jews.) And, of course, the abutting state will have a lot of people taught to hate Jews from the moment they start school. I swear, sometimes I think Blinken has no idea about what’s going on in Palestine or about the consequences of his suggestions.

Anybody who thinks that a “Palestinian state alongside Israel” will bring peace is, quite frankly, delusional. October 7 ended that dream, and it will be at least two generations, when young Palestinians are taught to hate and kill Jews, before the dream is within grasp.  For more, see reader David Anderson’s article in The Moderate Voice, “The suicidal stupidity of a “two state solution’.”  And here’s Douglas Murray’s take on the situation; he calls the Blinken plan “a complete fantasy”. As always, Murray’s arguments make a lot of sense.

*One more article from the NYT whose title attracted me: “How to fix America’s immigration crisis,” by Stephen Rattner and Maureen White. The problem and the solution:

We have an underfunded immigration apparatus that is swaddled in bureaucracy, complicated beyond imagination, bound by decades-old international agreements, paralyzed by divisive politics and barely functional under the best of circumstances.

Now we face the terrible consequences. In fiscal year 2023 alone (from October 2022 to September 2023), the United States had two and a half million “encounters” along its 2,000-mile border with Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That is over two and a half times the number just four years ago, overwhelming the ability of governmental bodies — border patrol, immigration courts, human services agencies — to manage the flow.

Here’s their solution:

Broadly speaking, Democrats want more money to process the backlog while Republicans want to substantially narrow the grounds on which migrants would be permitted to remain in the United States (along with building more of the wall that Donald Trump has been urging). We need lots of the former and a bit of the latter.

The Democratic push for more funding is correct. The country’s immediate need is to unclog the immigration court system that has allowed millions of asylum seekers to float around the country, unable to work for the first six months after entry and then potentially remain in limbo for years. During the 2023 fiscal year, just 670,000 cases were resolved in the courts.

So, yes to money for more border agents, processing staff, asylum review officers and judges.

But that’s not enough. We must reduce the flow to the border, which will require making immigrating into the U.S. by such means more difficult. As Republicans have long demanded and Democrats are coming to see as necessary, our obligation under international law to provide asylum need not create chaos.

For starters, we should require asylum seekers to apply in Mexico or other countries, including their home countries, before they reach the U.S., reducing the incentive to travel here to gain entry during drawn-out proceedings. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have tried to accomplish this, but these changes have been mired in legal challenges and strained negotiations with Latin American countries. For this to succeed, the United States needs to work with Mexico to make conditions there safe for asylum seekers in waiting.

Next, we need to tighten the asylum criteria.

For example, we should make a greater distinction in the asylum process between those who followed established procedures and entered the country through an established port of entry and those who crossed along our border between ports of entry.

Tightening the asylum criteria, and ensuring that asylum is granted for people who fear persecution, not simply for those who come to America for jobs, is indeed “substantially narrow[ing] the grounds on which migrants would be permitted to remain in the United States,” because right now they’re treating economic gain the same way they treat genuine persecution.  So all of this sounds like a good solution, but the distinction between legal and illegal immigration needs to be enforced, which is not happening. That is, we need a hybrid between the GOP and Democratic solutions, not “a little of the former and a lot of the latter.” Resolving cases quickly must mean applying the written law as it stands.

*The Alaska Airlines plane whose “plugged” emergency exit blew open, has caused a grounding of all Boeing 737 Max jets, and loose bolts were found in of “door plugs” of some of them (only United and Alaska Airlines uses that plane).  That’s old news now, and lots of UA and AA flights have been canceled but there’s new news as well: the decompression incident caused the cockpit doors to open. And that’s a problem:

After an emergency exit-sized hole opened in the side of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at 16,000 feet, a separate chaotic episode erupted when the cockpit door mysteriously flew open.

That meant the pilots were subjected to the deafening wind and noise from the back of the plane—and also made the cockpit accessible to anyone inclined to try to force their way in.

What the flight crew didn’t know at the time, federal investigators said Monday, was that it was supposed to happen that way.

 had designed the cockpit door to open during a rapid decompression incident, they said. The company just hadn’t said so in the manual.

Even veteran aviation-safety experts and former regulators said they weren’t aware of this design feature. Some said it appears to expose a security flaw that now must be addressed.

“There was a lot of energy put into getting those doors secured so they only open from the pilots’ side,” said Ray White, a former regional director of the Transportation Security Administration. “To find out that they blow out in an emergency, boy that is a vulnerability.”

Boeing is going to correct the manual, but not necessarily the feature, which is supposed to be there, for, as the article says, “An exception was developed where in very rare cases of extreme and rapid depressurization of either the cockpit or cabin, the cockpit door would open to allow enough air to flow between the two areas of the aircraft.”

And that’s reasonable, but the pilots didn’t know it! The worry, of course, is that if people know about this, they may try to force the plugged door open as a way to get into the cockpit to hijack a plane. The solution to that is to ensure that those blocked emergency exits are sealed as tight as a drum, and that no emergency exit can be opened unless the plane is on the ground. I think the latter is already true, but I’m not sure.

EXPLODING TOILET: a quickie from the AP’s “Oddities” section, but OY!:

A customer has filed a negligence lawsuit against Dunkin’, claiming he was injured by an exploding toilet at one of the coffee chain’s locations in central Florida.

Paul Kerouac is seeking more than $100,000 in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court in Orlando, claiming he suffered “severe and long term injuries” following the explosion of a toilet in the men’s room of a Dunkin’ location in Winter Park, Florida, a year ago.

After the explosion left Kerouac covered in human feces, urine and debris, he walked out of the men’s room seeking help from workers and the store’s manager, according to the lawsuit. An employee told him that they were aware of the “problem with the toilet” since there had been previous incidents, the lawsuit says, without diving into further details about the explosion.

I think that’s worth at least a million bucks in damages!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is looking at a new can of cat food (one of her favorite brands) that has a cat picture on it.

Hili: This intrigues me.
A: What?
Hili: This little tin with a picture of a cat.
In Polish:
Hili: To mnie intryguje.
Ja: Co?
Hili: Ta mała puszka z wizerunkiem kota.
And a picture of Baby Kulka:

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

From Stephen:

From Stash Krod: a Far Side cartoon telling you what really happened in Gettysburg:

From the Absurd Sign Project 2.0. Would you eat this?

From Masih, an Iranian singer Mehdi Yarrahi, whose arrest is also explained on his Wikipedia page. 2.5 years in prison for singing about women showing their hair. . . . .

From Simon, who says “Drosophila have nothing on these”:

From Barry. The poor duck thinks it killed the capybara!

From Simon, the latest New Yorker cover, which doesn’t pull any punches:

From Malcolm. Every subway turnstile should have a cat to get petted or, in some cases, to catch miscreants:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a 17-year-old Czech Jewish girl becomes another victim of the camp:

Tweets from Dr. Cobb. Fortunately, this paper has been withdrawn:

This was a real biography about a real woman.

38 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A problem with the cockpit door opening that’s probably a little more serious than the threat of terrorism is that a lot of the pilots’ checklists were blown out of the cockpit just when they really needed them and also, the first officer’s headset was blown off.

    Reply

    1. So I think the three canonical areas to investigate are design; manufacturing; and operations…and of course interactions between these three (“off-diagonal terms” to the systems matrix guys and gals). While loose bolts may appear to be simply operational, the operational problem may stem from faulty design and/or manufacturing error. So this is one reason why this incident investigation, and analysis, though at first blush may appear to be simple, will take some time, expertise, and labor. Let’s be patient.

      Reply

      1. These exit “plugs” are passenger facing – and you do get told by the flight crew not to fiddle with them. Which implies that there is a history of passengers fiddling with them and possibly opening them mid-flight. They’re also not normally passed by flight crew on a regular basis after take-off.
        So you have to expect that they will receive inappropriate contact, and probably frequently. As the old saying goes “the problem with making something foolproof is that fools are so ingenious”.

        Reply

    2. The likely outcome of the door not opening under a particular total aftwards load would be that the door rips off it’s hinges, or rips out structural elements of the cockpit/ nose structure to which it is attached.
      In our marine situation, potentially isolated parts of the H60 (“habitable for 60 minutes in specified fire”) “shipping containers” were required to have ventilation hole(s) between sections such that even with the ventilation fans on full (4 air changes/ hour) the pressure difference was less than 5mm of water – which can still result in ~100kg forces on the door, depending on size. Therefore, handle strengths to suit.
      Putting Order-of(100kg) lateral force on a structural member not originally designed for that, in an airframe. That sounds like a really bad idea to me.
      We didn’t specify those details in the manuals for the laboratories either – but they were in the “notes for engineers” when there was an inspection due from one of the certifying bodies – because we’d previously had staff deliberately plugging those holes which were there for a purpose.
      Calling the things in the over-wing exits “plugs” sounds a bit harsh. But compared to the “descend to ground”, and “liferaft” equipment that is built into the forward and aft doors, they probably do need a different name. Those probably have much more demanding maintenance schedules. But it does sound as if someone(s) has been slack on the inspection of the “plugs” too. That, or passengers function them on a very frequent basis, loosening the bolts.
      I never took a tape measure to one (never knew I was going to get that seat before I boarded), but I wonder if they’re a common part across aircraft manufacturers? Or – more likely – the passenger-facing parts have specified sizes, forces needed to activate, and weight of the assembly (because you’re meant to throw the “plug” out of the hole so people don’t trip over it as they evacuate over the wing).

      Reply

      1. The damn plane was only delivered a couple of months ago, so the passengers must have been busy quickly. You’d think that a non-functional exit would be better protected. I guess the problem comes from having one basic design with too many optional internal configurations?

        Reply

  2. On this day:
    49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war.

    1430 – Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, establishes the Order of the Golden Fleece, the most prestigious, exclusive, and expensive order of chivalry in the world.

    1475 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

    1645 – Archbishop William Laud is beheaded for treason at the Tower of London.

    1776 – American Revolution: Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.

    1812 – The first steamboat on the Ohio River or the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans, 82 days after departing from Pittsburgh.

    1863 – The Metropolitan Railway, the world’s oldest underground railway, opens between Paddington and Farringdon, marking the beginning of the London Underground.

    1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

    1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.

    1917 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party were rescued after being stranded for several months.

    1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I for all combatant nations except the United States.

    1927 – Fritz Lang’s futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.

    1946 – The first General Assembly of the United Nations assembles in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Fifty-one nations are represented.

    1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

    1980 – The New England Journal of Medicine publishes the letter Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics, which is later misused to downplay the general risk of addiction to opioids.

    1984 – Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-establish full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning the United States Congress’s 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.

    1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

    1990 – Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.

    2019 – A 13-year-old American girl, Jayme Closs, is found alive in Gordon, Wisconsin, having been kidnapped 88 days earlier from her parents’ home whilst they were murdered.

    Births:
    1776 – George Birkbeck, English physician and academic, founded Birkbeck, University of London (d. 1841).

    1827 – Amanda Cajander, Finnish medical reformer (d. 1871).

    1842 – Luigi Pigorini, Italian paleontologist, archaeologist, and ethnographer (d. 1925).

    1898 – Katharine Burr Blodgett, American physicist and engineer (d. 1979). [Known for her work on surface chemistry, in particular her invention of “invisible” or nonreflective glass while working at General Electric. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge, in 1926.]

    1900 – Violette Cordery, English racing driver (d. 1983).

    1903 – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975).

    1904 – Ray Bolger, American actor and dancer (d. 1987). [Altogether now: “If I only had a brain!”]

    1912 – Della H. Raney, American Army Air Corps officer (d. 1987). [The first African American nurse to report for duty in World War II and the first to be appointed chief nurse. In 1944, she became the first black nurse affiliated with the Army Air Corps promoted to captain, and she was later promoted to major in 1946.]

    1917 – Jerry Wexler, American journalist and producer (d. 2008).

    1927 – Johnnie Ray, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1990). [He has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music, and his animated stage personality. Tony Bennett called Ray the “father of rock and roll”, and historians have noted him as a pioneering figure in the development of the genre.]

    1930 – Roy E. Disney, American businessman (d. 2009).

    1935 – Ronnie Hawkins, American rockabilly singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2022).

    1936 – Robert Woodrow Wilson, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate.

    1943 – Jim Croce, American singer-songwriter (d. 1973).

    1945 – Rod Stewart, British singer-songwriter.

    1948 – Donald Fagen, American singer-songwriter and musician.

    1949 – George Foreman, American boxer, actor, and businessman.

    1949 – Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress and activist (d. 2002).

    1953 – Pat Benatar, American singer-songwriter.

    1955 – Michael Schenker, German musician and songwriter.

    1962 – Kathryn S. McKinley, American computer scientist and academic.

    1981 – Jared Kushner, American real estate investor and political figure.

    Just like the poles of a magnet, some people are drawn to death and others are repulsed by it, but we all have to deal with it. (James Hetfield):
    1552 – Johann Cochlaeus, German humanist and controversialist (b. 1479).

    1654 – Nicholas Culpeper, English botanist, physician, and astrologer (b. 1616).

    1754 – Edward Cave, English publisher, founded The Gentleman’s Magazine (b. 1691).

    1778 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist and physician (b. 1707).

    1855 – Mary Russell Mitford, English author and playwright (b. 1787).

    1917 – Buffalo Bill, American soldier and hunter (b. 1846).

    1951 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885).

    1957 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889).

    1961 – Dashiell Hammett, American detective novelist and screenwriter (b. 1894).

    1971 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer, founded Chanel (b. 1883). [Don’t mention the war…]

    1976 – Howlin’ Wolf, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1910).

    1978 – Hannah Gluckstein, British painter (b. 1895).

    2000 – Sam Jaffe, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1901). [Successfully represented several stars and directors of the era, including Humphrey Bogart, Fritz Lang, Raoul Walsh, Stanley Kubrick, Lauren Bacall, David Niven, Zero Mostel, Richard Burton, Mary Astor, Barbara Stanwyck, Lee J. Cobb, and Jennifer Jones. In the late 1940s, his business was negatively affected by the investigations of many of his clients by the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations into Hollywood.]

    2013 – Claude Nobs, Swiss businessman, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival (b. 1936).

    2016 – David Bowie, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (b. 1947). [It was the anniversary of his birth on Monday.]

    2017 – Clare Hollingworth, English journalist (b. 1911). [The first war correspondent to report the outbreak of World War II, described as “the scoop of the century”. As a rookie reporter for The Daily Telegraph in 1939, while travelling from Poland to Germany, she spotted and reported German forces massed on the Polish border; the headline read: “1,000 tanks massed on Polish border”; three days later she was the first to report the German invasion of Poland.]

    2023 – Jeff Beck, English guitarist and songwriter (b. 1944).

    Reply

  3. What a strange comment on Fanny Burney, a novelist and playwright not taken seriously during her lifetime, but worth seeking out. Perhaps one day, she will be recognised fully, as happened with “Mrs Gaskell” who became properly known as “Elizabeth Gaskell” once she was appreciated.
    Anyway, the position of patron saint of urinary disorders is already occupied by St Vitalis of Assissi.

    Reply

  4. Regarding the Trump cartoon, those aren’t the only two options. One would be “Why did Trump make everyone go nuts?”

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  5. The problem with any proposed solution to the problem of illegal immigrants is that it is not an “immigration” problem. The Biden Administration has made it their policy to let as many people in as possible, encouraging and abetting millions of illegal aliens coming into the country under the guise of refugees. They could stop this tomorrow, if they wanted to. But Mayorkas was asked by Congress last week, if he were given more money, would he use it to stem the flow of illegal aliens, and he said “no.” As to why they want to do this, there is much speculation, but Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) said this week “And when I hear colleagues talk about the doors of the inn being closed, no room at the inn, I’m saying I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.”

    Reply

    1. A partial solution has materialized, in the city of New York (please verify this independently and correct if necessary ) :

      As champions of inclusivity, students stay home from the James Madison High School building, with the optional updated remote learning model that was developed in November 2023. The bravery, grit, and resilience of this community is commendable.

      That creates a bit of safe space to equitably distribute among diverse groups met by adversity who need it more.

      But clearly, we need a solution that benefits us all.

      Reply

  8. Yes. Yes I would.

    “The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex, and picnics.”

    -Christopher Hitchens (unverified quote).

    Don’t ask me what that means.

    Reply

    1. “You should try everything once, except incest and folk dancing.” (Attributed to many people, including George Bernard Shaw and Sir Thomas Beecham, but originally from the largely forgotten composer Sir Arnold Bax. Possibly).

      Reply

  9. “right now they’re treating economic gain the same way they treat genuine persecution.”

    A desire for economic gain is not incompatible with genuine persecution. I remember when we were living in Boston in the late 1980s and my S.O. was teaching at a Russian/English bilingual school in Brookline. The students were virtually all Soviet Jewish refugees. There were some odd things about them, however, perhaps most important here the fact that they initially went to Italy, and decided not to stay there, and instead came to the U.S. When my S.O. asked why they came to the U.S., the kids gleefully shouted “Rolex!” It was clear that the economic opportunities were better in the U.S., and since most of our own recent ancestors came to the U.S. for the same reason, it’s hard to be critical of that motivation.

    Reply

    1. I know. It’s a perfectly legitimate motive.

      When we think about immigration by looking at the refugees themselves, considering each story on its own merits, we want to let virtually all refugees in because we can imagine ourselves or our ancestors in that situation. If we were standing in front of a chorus line of hopeful immigrants who each talked about their lives and explained why they wanted to immigrate, we’d give them all the part. Who are we to point the finger at any of them and say they’re not worthy?

      But stand back and it’s a different story because we’ve added a lot more characters and brought in a lot of relevant statistics. I wish we had the freedom to choose which perspective we prefer when making public policy, but it probably has to be the second one.

      Reply

    2. The difference between asylum claimants and economic immigrants is this:
      1). A country must hear the claims of persecution and requests for asylum from all persons who arrive unannounced at its borders. This is an obligation under international law that goes back to Biblical times. It doesn’t have to accept all claims but it must hear them, and allow the claimant entry and refuge until the claim is rejected under a process. Asylum should be “safe, legal, and rare”, emphasis on “rare”. Rare because most cost more to feed than they are worth and they rapidly overwhelm the asylum hearing process if they become at all numerous, or they disappear into the underground economy.

      Canada finesses this obligation by not granting air visas to “tourists” from countries with a track record of making asylum claims at our airports, and by barring entrants from the United States from making asylum claims, instead turning them back into the U.S. This gambit doesn’t work at your southern border for geographic reasons.

      2). A country may grant entry to anyone it chooses. The people you want to admit are normally those who will benefit your economy more than they cost you in crime, welfare and Social Security costs. However there is nothing to stop you from admitting millions of unskilled, unvetted paupers who don’t speak English and who might hate the American way of life for all you know, if that’s what you really want to do.

      These days, asylum claimants around the world are mostly people with economic motivation who have little chance of being accepted as economic immigrants so they try their luck on the asylum game. Most countries are indeed shit-holes as someone said, so on its face it is hard to reject a claim of persecution outright.

      Reply

  10. “This is going to the Supreme Court for sure!”

    I don’t think so. This will be a unanimous decision that so strongly rejects an absurd argument that the supremes will let it stand.

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  11. I come to the immigration issue as an American of Mexican descent who lives in a border state and as a Navy veteran. I would gladly trade the Department of Veterans Affairs (put it under the Defense Department) for a Department of Immigration. Unfortunately, immigration always boils down to open borders in the name of humanitarianism versus border security in the name of national sovereignty. It’s also a demographic and economic component that could address the United States’ workforce deficiencies in STEM fields and in unskilled (manual) labor. We also need basic goals of how many and where should new immigrants settle. The immigration courts should also be part of this department. It shouldn’t take years to come to the U.S. and every immigrant should do so legally. This isn’t rocket science, it’s basic governance.

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  12. The photo of the chocolate bars is as pretty as the bars are delicious. I’m lucky–we have both an Aldi and a Lidl so that if one store runs out of 70 or 85 percent, I can nip over to the other one to restock my supply. Both make a great finish to a meal.

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  13. Re: NYer Trump.
    “people looking at this cover 70 years from now and thinking either 1) I’m glad they stopped him or 2) Why didn’t they stop him”

    Question #2. Well, I’m already there, what is it going to take? Woke tactic erasure looks inviting? Containment to a rest home for the criminally political? Give him the dark side of the moon to rule, take his deranged “it was stolen” followers with him, no charge and with a golf course…

    Reply

    1. 3) Many people will be elated that Trump was recognized back then as the stern, decorated, fearless leader that they always wanted and needed.

      And why not? His supporters (and probably trump!) aren’t going to cease to exist or change their mind whether T wins or loses.

      Reply

  15. “Parents’ supernatural beliefs on causes of birth defects…. from Islamic perspective.”
    I never realized ‘we’ was here for pre-eternity (makes sense I suppose) but what the hell is posteternity…

    …hmmm, is that why the took it down, misinformation on the duration of the afterlife?
    STEADY now, don’t go there.

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  16. As for Israel hating “kill-the-Boer” South Africa, they don’t even have any electricity.

    For decades I’ve been thinking about “failed states”- and what exactly makes for one. I’ve finally decided: No electricity, you’ve failed.
    Failed South Africa.*

    D.A.

    *apologies to our South African doctor friend who posts here regularly. 🙂

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    1. No electricity is bad, but what I think is worse is no fresh water, in-door plumbing/sewer system. If a state doesn’t have what the ancient Romans had, failed state.

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      1. Modern water doesn’t exist without electricity, so you are both right. It has to be treated and pumped and the sewage that it carries away has to be treated once population density per sq mile exceeds some quite low value that individual septic fields can cope with. If the electricity fails, the nights become immediately unsafe but waterborne disease will soon break out. You can manage not to treat your sewage as long as you can constrain it and as long as those living downstream from you are less powerful and warlike.

        Edit: I don’t think it’s the absence of electricity or water per se that defines a failed state. It’s the failure to maintain them in a society that used to have them and has come to depend on them. Withdraw them through revolution or other incompetence and you have failure.

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        1. I was talking about ancient water dynamics. Gravity (if your engineers are adept, and we know the ancient world had adept engineers) can do most of the work of water distribution, irrigation, plumbing, sanitation, etc. No need for electricity, but I’m sure the ancients would have loved it, it’s the best! Yes, modern water doesn’t exist w/o electricity. Point taken. Either way, as Mr. Anderson noted, he’s spent considerable time thinking about the subject, I haven’t. I thought it an interesting thought experiment and controlling water was the first challenge that came to mind. Controlling fire is another…control, control, control; the human mantra.

          I agree with your point: maintenance is monumental. Something the Russians learned the hard way when their early Ukrainian invasion halted in part from thousands of compromised tires. Can’t blitzkrieg without momentum. And this failure happened to the tires, esp. the “high-tech” tires, because? Wait for it…years of poor maintenance, or no maintenance at all. Entropy was ignored or assumed it was being handled. I’m sure Putin understands the problem, he just doesn’t seem to have trustworthy maintenance maestros. Let’s hope it stays that way.

          Sorry about the segue, I’m just hoping Russia becomes a failed state soon.

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  17. The plight of poor Paul Kerouac reminded me of something by his namesake Jack:

    In 1942 I was the star in one of the filthiest dramas of all time. I was a seaman, and went to the Imperial Café on Scollay Square in Boston to drink; I drank sixty glasses of beer and retired to the toilet, where I wrapped myself around the toilet bowl and went to sleep. During the night at least a hundred seamen and assorted civilians came in and cast their sentient debouchements on me till I was unrecognizably caked. What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what’s heaven? what’s earth? All in the mind.

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