Sunday: Hili dialogue

April 28, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Sabbath for goyische cats: Sunday, April 28, 2024, and National Blueberry Pie Day, one of America’s finest pie (I haven’t seen it elsewhere). The finest specimen I’ve had is at Helen’s, in Machias, Maine, made with a mixture of cooked and uncooked lowbush blueberries (the wild kind). Here’s a short video showing it. Now, don’t you want some? If you get to Machias, as I once did when collecting flies, be sure to stop at Helen’s for lunch and PIE:

It’s also National Superhero Day, Great Poetry Day, National Kiss Your Mate Day, and Workers’ Memorial Day and World Day for Safety and Health at Work, while in Canada the version celebrated is theNational Day of Mourning.

One of our readers, Pliny the in Between, used to do cartoons with me as Angry Cat Man; specimen below but, sadly, they have stopped coming:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 28 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Although the U.S. slapped a slew of new sanctions on Russia after the sudden death of dissident Alexei Navalny in a gulag, it now turns out that, contrary to what everyone thought, his death may not have occurred under orders from Putin.

Alexei Navalny’s February death in an Arctic penal colony prompted a new wave of sanctions targeting Russia’s economy, upended delicate negotiations to exchange prisoners between Russia and the West, and left Russia’s limited opposition in disarray.

Russian President Vladimir Putin might not have planned for it to happen when it did.

U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Putin likely didn’t order Navalny to be killed at the notoriously brutal prison camp in February, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that deepens the mystery about the circumstances of his death.

The assessment doesn’t dispute Putin’s culpability for Navalny’s death, but rather finds he probably didn’t order it at that moment. The finding is broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department’s intelligence unit, the people said.

. . .Some European intelligence agencies have been told of the U.S. view. Certain countries remain skeptical that Putin wouldn’t have had a direct hand in Navalny’s death, according to security officials from several European capitals. In a system as tightly controlled as Putin’s Russia, it is doubtful that harm could have come to Navalny without the president’s prior awareness, those European officials said.

President Biden and other world leaders have held Putin ultimately at fault based on years of the Kremlin’s targeting Navalny, including by allegedly attempting to assassinate him in 2020 and sending him to a remote gulag. “Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” Biden said after the world learned of the death.

But the U.S. now believes the timing of his demise wasn’t intended by Putin.

But Putin is still culpable directly, but certainly Navalny’s poisoning in Europe, and his arrest after returning to Russia, must be placed at Putin’s door. The sanctions, then, might still have been a proper response.

*Hamas has released two videos of what it says are two still-living hostages, and that has energized much of the Israeli public to demand the return of hostages, even at the risk of allowing Hamas to win the war. (They also want new elections to depose Netanyahu, which I don’t oppose.) I can understand their concern and desire to get their loved ones home, but this may be shortsighted: a way of Israel committing suicide:

After Hamas released a video of two hostages in the Gaza Strip, families of captives say the government has a choice between hostages or war.

In a statement to the media, families charge that military pressure, which the government has said would bring their loved ones home, has failed.

“The State of Israel must choose: hostages or war. Entering Rafah will bring more murdered hostages in captivity, or their deaths in the war. Entering Rafah will be another way for the abductees to die. Israel must choose to return the hostages,” the statement says.

The families also call on war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and observer Gadi Eisenkot to work to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since their efforts to influence the government to reach a deal have so far failed.

There’s a bit more at the Jerusalem Post. However, my Hebrew-speaking contacts tell me, as they have before, that only two or three families of hostages favor this move, with their support coming from other people who want Netanyahu gone.  Right now well over 70% of the Israeli public favor an invasion of Rafah, and a sizable majority remain opposed to Tom “I am stupid” Friedman’s “two state non-solution.” The calculus would show, I suspect, that if Hamas remained as the rulers of Gaza, in the long run far more Israelis would die than if Rafah were invaded, even at the risk of the death of some hostages.

*Speaking of Hamas, the WaPo presents a poll suggesting that Gazans are getting fed up with their terrorist leaders. Now I don’t know whether to believe it given the interview method of asking people in Gaza (seriously?), and the sample size of “more than a dozen people” (OY!), but here’s what they say, for what it’s worth:

More than six months into the war in Gaza and with dimming hopes for a cease-fire deal, Palestinians there are growing more critical of Hamas, which some of them blame for the months-long conflict that has destroyed the territory — and their lives.

The war has displaced most of the Gaza Strip’s population, killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the enclave toward famine, its infrastructure in ruins. The Israeli military waged a punishing campaign to eliminate Hamas after the group, which ruled Gaza for 17 years, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people and abducting more than 250.

But while the majority of Palestinians in Gaza blame Israel for their suffering, according to polling conducted in March, they also appear to be turning their ire toward the militants. In interviews with more than a dozen residents of Gaza, people said they resent Hamas for the attacks in Israel and — war-weary and desperate to fulfill their basic needs — just want to see peace as soon as possible.

If Hamas wanted to start a war, “they should have secured people first — secured a place of refuge for them, not thrown them into suffering that no one can bear,” said Salma El-Qadomi, 33, a freelance journalist who has been displaced 11 times since the conflict started.

Palestinians want leaders “who won’t drag people into a war like this,” she said. “Almost everyone around me shares the same thoughts: We want this waterfall of blood to stop. Seventeen years of destruction and wars are enough.”

Well, yes, they’re correct that they should blame their trouble on Hamas, not Israel, but hey, come on! “More than a dozen people” result in a WaPo headline story? They’d still vote for Hamas if they were running against Fatah!

*The video below is of Khymani James, a member of the Columbia for Hamas Encampment and, in fact, one of its leaders. This video was, I think, recorded during a disciplinary hearing, and he says some pretty dreadful things about Jews and killing. He himself recorded and posted this video on Istagram. I think he regrets it now, for, as the NYT reports, he says that his comments were “wrong”.

From the NYT (as we all know now, “Zionists” is a euphemism for “Jews”:

Columbia University announced on Friday that it had barred from its campus a leader in the pro-Palestinian student protest encampment who declared on video in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Video of the incendiary comments resurfaced online Thursday evening, forcing the school to again confront an issue at the core of the conflict rippling across campuses nationwide: the tension between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.

The student, Khymani James, made the comments during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators that he recorded and then posted on Instagram.

The hearing, conducted by an administrator of the university’s Center for Student Success and Intervention, was focused on an earlier comment he shared on social media, in which he discussed fighting a Zionist. “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” he wrote.

A Columbia administrator asked, “Do you see why that is problematic in any way?”

Mr. James replied, “No.”

He also compared Zionists to white supremacists and Nazis. “These are all the same people,” he said. “The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”

Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing.  The latest news about the conflict.

And, Mr. James said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

In announcing their decision to bar Mr. James from campus, the university did not make clear if he had been suspended or permanently expelled.

Should he have been barred from campus? In general, I think that’s a violation of freedom of speech, but there are arguments to be made on the other side. He was the leader of an illegal encampment and bears responsibility for creating a climate hostile to Jews, including expelling them from the “enclave.” The buck stops with him. And, of course, unlike my school, Columbia doesn’t operate according to First Amendment construals of free speech. This would be a tough decision for me. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make it.

*Harvey Weinstein’s guilty verdict in New York may have been overturned, but he’s not free yet, since he still has 16 years to serve in California, where he’ll be transferred. And they may try him again in New York. But given his age and condition (he’s 60 and in terrible health), he’s not going to ever go free. The AP reports that after he left court, he was taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.

Attorney Arthur Aidala said Weinstein was moved to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan after his arrival on Friday to city jails.

“They examined him and sent him to Bellevue. It seems like he needs a lot of help, physically. He’s got a lot of problems. He’s getting all kinds of tests. He’s somewhat of a train wreck health wise,” Aidala said.

A message left with the hospital was not immediately returned Saturday.

Frank Dwyer, a spokesperson with the New York City Department of Correction, said only that Weinstein remains in custody at Bellevue. Thomas Mailey, a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said Weinstein was turned over to the city’s Department of Correction pursuant to the appeals ruling. Weinstein had been housed at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Albany.

On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals vacated his conviction after concluding that a trial judge permitted jurors to see and hear too much evidence not directly related to the charges he faced. It also erased his 23-year prison sentence and ordered a retrial.

Prosecutors said they intend to retry him on charges that he forcibly performed oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013.

Weinstein remained in custody after the appeals ruling because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

For some time, Weinstein has been ailing with a variety of afflictions, including cardiac issues, diabetes, sleep apnea and eye problems.

Oy, what a wreck! And after he gets out of Bellevue he’s going to Rikers Island, a hellhole if ever there was one.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej and Hili have a chinwag:

Hili: Look how the grass has grown.
A: I see it but why are you telling me this?
Hili: We have to talk about something.
In Polish:
Hili: Patrz jak ta trawa urosła.
Ja: Widzę, ale dlaczego mi to mówisz?
Hili: O czymś musimy rozmawiać.
And a photo of Baby Kulka:

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From The Dodo Pet:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Masih, the assassination of an Iraqi blogger for being “too racy”. Note the Cadillac. It’s not clear who did this, or whether the government was involved, but you can read the WaPo account here.

From Muffy; cat versus duck. Though the cat gets some good licks in, in the end the verdict is, as Harry Caray would say, “Holy cow! DUCK WINS! DUCK WINS!”

Here’s the Israeli COGAT’s Ministry rebutting some lies from the The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs about delays in aid delivery to Gaza (h/t Malgorzata):

From Malcolm; first responders rescue six ducklings that fell through a sewer grate (this is not uncommon). It has a happy ending, which is why this is my favorite kind of video.

I believe this woman is in “Devil’s Pool” near the edge of Victoria Falls. It’s pretty safe with a guide, but I wouldn’t do it!

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I reposted:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a panoply of thirsty wildlife. The skunk is definitely on alert, and does his threat display about 30 seconds in:

Sharks and fish, including remoras, all seek the protection of the large manta ray below:

35 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. [ TV announcer voice ]

    Khymani James’ Deep Thoughts were brought to you today – and then discarded – by the letters D, E, and I, and the number 17 – see how “DEI” and Hermetic alchemy can bring you and your team to the End of History today!

    [ paid for by the Critical Hegelian Foundation for Emancipation by Dialectic ]

    Reply

      2. Ordinarily unspoken/unspecified descriptors – one might say private – to the person themselves and a person interacting with them – private thought ;

        “… the positive transcendence of private property as human self-estrangement, and therefore as the real appropriation of the human essence by and for man;”

        “… the complete return of man to himself as a social (i.e., human) being”

        “species-being”

        … with a single, universal mind. “At-One-Ment”.

        I’ll leave it to the reader who/where those quotes come from – and what they define – but if the author was alive today, they’d have been on Oprah numerous times by now pushing their world-making New Age religion.

        The last two quotes are bonuses… akshually I have to dig up “world-making”…

        Reply

      3. I might be wrong, but I suspect Khymani James might be the kind of person Palestinians would push off the roof of a building.

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        1. The Houthis executed 14 men a few months ago for homosexuality and the Iraqi government just increased penalties for the “crime” from 10-15 years in jail.
          On the west bank last year a gay guy was beheaded for his sins.
          Religion of Peace.
          D.A.
          NYC

          Reply

          1. And yet the hipsters keep chanting in support of the perpetrators of these atrocities.

  3. On this day:
    1503 – The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as one of the first European battles in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.

    1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.

    1869 – Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First transcontinental railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.

    1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.

    1923 – Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium.

    1937 – South African medical researcher Max Theiler develops the yellow fever vaccine at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.

    1944 – World War II: Nine German E-boats attacked US and UK units during Exercise Tiger, the rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killing 946.

    1945 – Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance movement.

    1945 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany carries out its final use of gas chambers to execute 33 Upper Austrian socialist and communist leaders in Mauthausen concentration camp.

    1947 – Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

    1948 – Igor Stravinsky conducted the premiere of his American ballet, Orpheus at the New York City Center.

    1952 – The Treaty of San Francisco comes into effect, restoring Japanese sovereignty and ending its state of war with most of the Allies of World War II.

    1967 – Vietnam War: Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license.

    1973 – The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, recorded in Abbey Road Studios, goes to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run.

    1977 – The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.

    1986 – High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at a nuclear power plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident.

    1996 – Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.

    2004 – CBS News released evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The photographs show rape and abuse from the American troops over Iraqi detainees.

    Births:
    1761 – Marie Harel, French cheesemaker (d. 1844). [Along with Abbot Charles-Jean Bonvoust, she invented Camembert cheese, according to local legend.]

    1765 – Sylvestre François Lacroix, French mathematician and academic (d. 1834).

    1854 – Hertha Marks Ayrton, Polish-British engineer, mathematician, and physicist. (d. 1923). [She was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripple marks in sand and water.]

    1865 – Charles W. Woodworth, American entomologist and academic (d. 1940). [The first person to breed the model organism Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) in captivity and to suggest to early genetic researchers at Harvard its use for scientific research.]

    1868 – Lucy Booth, English composer (d. 1953).

    1900 – Alice Berry, Australian activist (d. 1978).

    1900 – Jan Oort, Dutch astronomer and academic (d. 1992).

    1908 – Oskar Schindler, Czech-German businessman (d. 1974). [In a 1983 television documentary, Schindler is quoted as saying: “I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them; there was no choice”.]

    1912 – Odette Hallowes, French soldier and spy (d. 1995). [Today’s Woman of the Day, see next post below.]

    1916 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, created Lamborghini (d. 1993).

    1924 – Kenneth Kaunda, Zambian educator and politician, first president of Zambia (d. 2021).

    1926 – Harper Lee, American novelist (d. 2016).

    1928 – Yves Klein, French painter (d. 1962).

    1928 – Eugene Merle Shoemaker, American geologist and astronomer (d. 1997).

    1937 – Saddam Hussein, Iraqi general and politician, 5th President of Iraq (d. 2006).

    1948 – Terry Pratchett, English journalist, author, and screenwriter (d. 2015).

    1953 – Roberto Bolaño, Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist (d. 2003).

    1956 – Jimmy Barnes, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist. [Barnes has achieved 15 solo number-one albums in Australia, more than any other artist. Additionally, Barnes achieved five more as the lead singer of Cold Chisel, bringing his combined sum to 20 number-one albums in Australia, comfortably eclipsing the Beatles (with 14), Madonna and Taylor Swift (12), Eminem and U2 (11).]

    1960 – Ian Rankin, Scottish author.

    1974 – Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress and producer.

    1978 – Lauren Laverne, English singer and television and radio host.

    The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? (Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial):
    1813 – Mikhail Kutuzov, Russian field marshal (b. 1745).

    1865 – Samuel Cunard, Canadian-English businessman, founded Cunard Line (b. 1787).

    1883 – John Russell, English hunter and dog breeder (b. 1795). [Developed the Jack Russell Terrier.]

    1903 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American scientist (b. 1839). [Made significant theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in transforming physical chemistry into a rigorous deductive science.]

    1928 – May Jordan McConnel, Australian trade unionist and suffragist (b. 1860).

    1939 – Anne Walter Fearn, American physician (b. 1867).

    1954 – Léon Jouhaux, French union leader, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879). [During the war, he was arrested and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp, later moved to the Castle Itter before being freed by American and German troops in the 1945 battle there. He was awarded the 1951 Nobel Peace Prize and his work was instrumental in setting up the International Labour Organisation.]

    1992 – Francis Bacon, Irish painter (b. 1909).

    1993 – Diva Diniz Corrêa, Brazilian zoologist (b. 1918).

    1997 – Ann Petry, American novelist (b. 1908). [Her 1946 debut novel The Street became the first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million copies.]

    1999 – Alf Ramsey, English footballer and manager (b. 1920). [Saw the England squad to victory in the 1966 World Cup.]

    2014 – Barbara Fiske Calhoun, American cartoonist and painter (b. 1919). [One of the few female creators from the Golden Age of Comic Books.]

    2021 – Michael Collins, American astronaut (b. 1930).

    Reply

    1. Woman of the Day:
      [Text adapted from Wikipedia]

      Odette Marie Léonie Céline Hallowes, GC, MBE (née Brailly; born on this day in 1912, died 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Sansom, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom’s clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during the Second World War. She was the first woman to be awarded the George Cross by the United Kingdom and was awarded the Légion d’honneur by France. The following information relating to her war service uses ‘Sansom’ as this was her surname during this period.

      The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

      Sansom arrived in France on 2 November 1942 and worked as a courier with the Spindle network (or circuit) of SOE headed by Peter Churchill (whom she later married). In January 1943, to evade arrest, Churchill and Sansom moved their operations to near Annecy in the French Alps. She and Churchill were arrested there on 16 April 1943 by spy-hunter Hugo Bleicher.

      At Fresnes prison, near Paris, Sansom was interrogated by the Gestapo fourteen times. She was subjected to torture. Her back was scorched with a red-hot poker and all of her toenails were pulled out. She refused to disclose the whereabouts of Rabinovitch and another British agent, stuck to her fabricated cover story that Churchill was the nephew of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that she was his wife, and that he knew nothing of her activities. The hope was that, in this way, their treatment would be mitigated. The British had calculated that, if the Germans thought she was related to the British Prime Minister, they would want to keep her alive as a possible bargaining tool.

      Sansom succeeded in diverting attention from Churchill, who was subject to only two interrogations, and protected the identities of the two officers whose locations were known only to her. Bleicher occasionally appeared and suggested that they might go to concerts and visit restaurants together in Paris, in return for which he hoped she could be induced to talk. Sansom rejected the overtures.

      In June 1943, Sansom was condemned to death on two counts, to which she responded, “Then you will have to make up your mind on what count I am to be executed, because I can only die once.” Infuriated, Bleicher sent her to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she spent the rest of the war.

      Her wartime experiences and endurance of a brutal interrogation and imprisonment, which were chronicled in books and a motion picture, made her one of the most celebrated members of the SOE and one of the few to survive Nazi imprisonment.

      She died on 13 March 1995 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, aged 82.

      On 23 February 2012, the Royal Mail released a postage stamp featuring Hallowes as part of its “Britons of Distinction” series.

      On 6 March 2020 Great Western Railway named a Class 800 train after her; the ceremony in Odette’s honour was held at Paddington Station in London and attended by Anne, Princess Royal.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odette_Hallowes

      Reply

        1. You’re very welcome.

          Yes, despite the torture she was one of the lucky ones. Of SOE’s 41 (or 39 in some estimates) female agents serving in Section F (France) sixteen did not survive with twelve killed or executed in Nazi concentration camps. Overall, of 119 SOE agents captured by the Germans and deported to concentration camps in Germany, only 23 men and three women survived.

          Reply

      2. Thanks for this! I also had not heard of her. I wish I had known when I was at a meeting in Annecy long ago.

        Reply

    2. 1869: Ten miles of track completed by hand (and horse) in one day is a prodigious feat, well worth commemorating. The Canadian Pacific Railway (now CPKCS) claims a record of 6.38 miles on Jul 28, 1883, driving west toward Calgary. Also a one-off stunt, this was counted on a surveyed but unfinished grade, which meant the gravel had to be levelled ahead of the tracklayers with horse-drawn graders before the ties could be laid, and counted in the distance made. The 10-Mile Day was achieved on roadbed prepared in advance for a contest, ready for laying ties.

      Both efforts are especially impressive when you consider the rail had not only to be spiked to the ties, but the 13-yard rails had to be bolted (“fished”) together on site using three-foot long wrenches, instead of being welded together into quarter-mile lengths at remote fabrication centres and shipped in long trains to the job site as today. Despite the frenetic pace, the alignment of each rail had to be carefully gauged and adjusted behind the spikers to eliminate kinks before the job could be called finished.

      This is described in The Last Spike by Pierre Burton, p.228, citing contemporary newspaper accounts. The Central Pacific’s achievement is better documented in the public record.

      Reply

  4. I have questions. Does Angry Cat Man have super powers? Why angry? Did the real ACM ever have flowing locks?

    Reply

          1. The label of ‘AngryCatMan’ came from a comment our host posted where the author had referred to him as that angry cat man. His primary superpower is the ability to rapidly and efficiently cut through bullshit. His main vulnerability is a weakness for laser pointers. The issue of capes has already been addressed.

          2. Edna Mode, fashion diva.

            And this enhances – creates, even – her credibility, how?
            I know that name from somewhere – isn’t she one of the characters in that … oh, silly sitcom thing. Not Corrie, or … oh, thingy. Plays opposite Purdy Lumley.

  5. Scarier than the girl stretched out at the edge of the falls is that there was someone standing beside her, peering over the edge making a video of it all.

    Reply

  6. Hamas is releasing proof-of-life videos to stoke internal discord in Israel over whether the Netanyahu government is doing enough to save the hostages. To many in Israel, the hostages are Israel’s first priority, and the proof-of-life videos are a tactical move by Hamas to pressure Netanyahu into accepting a cease fire.

    But what should the priority of the Israeli government be: the hostages or the survival of the State of Israel? If that seems like a false choice, then what about this one: the hostages or the outcome of the war? Or what about this one: the hostages or a future of October 7ths over and over until Israel is no more?

    I want the hostages to be reunited with their families; I want to see the tearful videos of the families being reunited in loving arms on Israeli soil. But the Israeli leadership has responsibilities that extend beyond the hostages. They know this and are doing their best to save both the hostages and the State of Israel. That is their challenge.

    Reply

    1. I think most people understand that Hamas uses its hostages in a variety of cynical ways to frustrate and undermine Israel’s efforts against it. At both rallies I attended in Toronto, one in a synagogue and one at Christie Pits, applause was muted when rabbis called for Israel’s top priority to be the safe return of the hostages. (And this was when it was a reasonable assumption that most were still alive.) All know it can’t be.

      Reply

  8. When Navalny was killed, at the time I did wonder if it was more likely an underling acting on their own. They threw everything at Navalny and the day before he was murdered he was smiling and joking with the prosecutor. Well, that was probably too much for the kind of toadies around Putin. Nothing gets those people more incensed that to see people they don’t like happy. Just like the morality police in Iran when they see a woman freely walking without a hijab. Or Hamas when they see Israelis dancing.

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  9. To be fair, if I were living in Gaza I too would be claiming I support Hamas – for the same reason everybody in Nazi Germany claimed to love Hitler, everybody in the USSR to love Stalin, etc.

    Reply

    1. This might be the case as long as Hamas is in control – which they no longer are. Germany was arguably less devastated at the end of the war than Gaza is currently. Yet Germany surrendered while Hamas is committed to its genocidal aims still.

      So why are Gazans not siding with the IDF over Hamas in droves, now that they could do so?

      Reply

  10. So apparently Khymani James got away with his BS — at a disciplinary hearing! Columbia is only retroactively concerned with it now.

    I’ve heard speculation that the term “banned from campus” may just mean that he has to attend classes via Zoom.

    Reply

  11. I have had blueberry pie at Helen’s in Machias. It has been on the list of places to stop on US 1 coming south from New Brunswick for many years, back before I-95 was completed to the Canadian border farther north. (I was born in the border town of St. Stephen.) From my recollection it was very good, using the small wild blueberries that grow up in burnt-over forests all over northern New England and Canada’s maritime provinces.. (Watch for bears!) Whipped cream as depicted is better than ice cream on blueberry pie. The essential desideratum for a two-crust pie is that the piecrust be perfect….and we all have our own definition of perfection. If you’re going to eat that many calories you’d better enjoy them.

    My recollection was that it was in town. They have been through several owners (and one fire) and it is now (since 1983) out on US 1 at the east edge of town, not far since Machias is not a big town. I haven’t been east in a long time so I may well have indeed eaten at the original location.

    Cultural note: Pie is definitely a breakfast food, especially on a road trip.

    Reply

  12. Brief comment on Putin/Navalny
    Used to belong to a motorcycle club. Family club, no outlaws, just friends who liked to ride, very often. A certain internationally known club asked for a closer, financially beneficial relationship. Not really a situation where “no” was an option.
    We had no fears of members of the club coercing us into respecting the request, but we knew that their hangers on or support clubs would attempt to gain favor by acting on their behalf, without necessarily being asked to. Folded the club we belonged to soon after, but still ride a lot (15k- 20k miles/year) but with out a name, dues, or features that would identify us as an organized group. My take was that they had intellectual rights to the image, and structure of an organized MC club, and that we could satisfy our needs while they protected their “copyright rights”. Many people went one way to ingratiate themselves to the club and almost all eventually gave up their bikes. A small core of us just ride with friends and that works fine. Perhaps Putin didn’t say the words, but others knew what would gain his favor. Thanks for listening.

    Reply

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