Friday: Hili dialogue

June 21, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, June 21, 2024 (the first full day of Summer), and we’re all one week closer to death. It’s also National Smoothie Day; I drink them only when I visit a friend in Davis, California, who makes fruit smoothies for both of us at every breakfast.  Here’s a lovely kiwi smoothie from Wikipedia (beware of green ones, though, as they may have kale or other vegetables in them!):

rawpixel.com, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s Atheist Solidarity Day, World Giraffe Day (don’t listen to those who say that there’s more than one species), National Flip Flop Day (my summer footwear), National Wagyu Day, World Lambrusco Day,  International Yoga Day, National Aboriginal Day in Canada, International Surfing Day, World Humanist Day, and World Hydrography Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 21 Wikipedia page.

Oh, here’s a cartoon from reader Dom.  He calls it “my post-solstice apologies.” Can you guess what it shows? (Answer at the bottom.)

Da Nooz:

*The tension is escalating between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan (remember, China intimated it would take over the island within three years). Now the Chinese are becoming barbaric about it, going after allies of Taiwan and the U.S.:

The Chinese coast guard came in small boats with axes, long knives and spears.

They used the crude weapons to slash and puncture the Philippine military’s rubber craft. One Chinese boat rammed a Philippine boat at high speed, severing the thumb of a Filipino seaman who was holding on to the side of his ride.

During Monday’s frantic events in the South China Sea, the Chinese coast guard crew also boarded a Philippine boat, smashed its outboard motor and communications equipment, and grabbed the Filipino crew’s cellphones. They seized seven disassembled rifles that were packed in cases for delivery to a Philippine outpost, the Philippine military said.

“Only pirates do this,” said Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., the Philippine military’s chief of staff. “Only pirates board, steal, and destroy ships, equipment and belongings.”

The incident, described by the Philippine armed forces, marked a sharp escalation in China’s use of forceful tactics and intimidation against a U.S. ally in the South China Sea. Its coast guard had never wielded bladed weapons and spears in its previous sea confrontations with the Philippines.

While the Taiwan Strait is seen as the main flashpoint in the great-power rivalry between the U.S. and China, the turmoil in the South China Sea is raising a potentially nearer-term risk of conflict between the two countries.

The U.S. and the Philippines have a mutual defense treaty that extends to armed attacks on Filipino forces in the South China Sea. After Monday’s incident, the Pentagon called China’s behavior provocative, reckless and unnecessary, and said it could lead to something bigger and more violent. The U.S. stands with its ally, it said.

Unfortunately, although the U.S. and Taiwan (“The Republic of China”) had a mutual defense treaty, it expired some years ago, and apparently has not been replaced. But China’s increasing aggression in the Taiwan Strait is aimed not just at Taiwan, but at the U.S.  Biden, however, has said that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China.

*In the NYT, Pamela Paul kvetches in a piece called “Confessions of an anti-protestor.” Her point is that performative protests are useless; if you want to accomplish something, do it, don’t protest about it:

Don’t take it personally, but I don’t want to go to your protest. This isn’t a commentary about your particular movement or about the anti-Israel rallies this past academic year. I don’t care how foolish or noble the cause. When it comes to gathering in large groups and yelling, you can count me out.

I did try it once. My first and last protest was in my freshman year of college when some women I liked were organizing a pro-choice rally. The cause was solid, it seemed like a decent way to solidify the friendships, and I enjoy using Magic Markers.

But standing on the campus green of our overwhelmingly liberal university brandishing a broken hanger struck me as not only futile but also ridiculous. The only mind that was changed by that protest was mine — about participating in protests. After 40 minutes or so, I left to go to the bathroom. Later I signed up to escort patients at a local abortion clinic. There are better ways, I realized, to effect change.

She does mention protestors she doesn’t like much, clearly showing she’s not a big fan of the pro-Palestinian ones (see the links):

Color me an anti-fan of performative politics, particularly if it means I’d be part of the show that features bigots posing as bleeding hearts.

Plus, all that earnestness! It brings out my ironic and impish side, inclined to correct typos on signage or foment some kind of peripheral debate. Every time someone at one of those encampments cried out, “Free Palestine,” I’d be tempted to yell “From Hamas!” I’d surely get kicked out of the group that wants to kick other people out. They don’t want troublemakers.

. . .Still, plenty of boomers view protest through a nostalgic filter. Sure, there was some passionate shouting on the quad about wiping out Jews, they’ll say, but even the righteous antiwar movement had its Hanoi Janes and the Weather Underground. Is painting a Hamas symbol on a Jew’s door worse than settler-colonial oppression?

But no matter the context and whether it comes from the right or the left, antisemitism is a bad look.

From this I suspected that Paul was Jewish, and, sure enough, she’s of Jewish descent.  I hope she doesn’t get deplatformed!

*Speaking of Israel, the whole country is riled up because Admiral Daniel Hagari, the official spokesman for the IDF, has suggested that Hamas can never be eliminated. Of course given that this is the explicit aim of both Netanyahu and (supposedly) the IDF, it has caused caused big consternation.

IIDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari on Wednesday cast Israel’s war aim of eradicating the Hamas terror group as unattainable, appearing to underscore tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top defense officials over his handling of the war in Gaza.

“This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public,” Hagari told Channel 13 news in an interview.

“Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people — anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong,” he continued.

Hagari also warned that “if the government doesn’t find an alternative — [Hamas] will remain” in the Gaza Strip.

In response, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the security cabinet “has defined as one of the war goals the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.”

In response, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the security cabinet “has defined as one of the war goals the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.”

“The Israel Defense Forces is of course committed to this,” the statement added.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit subsequently issued a statement saying the military was committed to the government’s stated war goals, including destroying Hamas’s governing and military abilities, adding that Hagari had talked in the interview about “eradicating Hamas as an ideology and an idea.”

“Any claim otherwise is taking the remarks out of context,” the IDF added.

The thing is, what if Hagari is right?  Yes, he should have cleared his statement with the government before undercutting its war aims, but it’s possible that Hamas won’t go away, and that means that it has to be forced from power somehow. Given that Gazans really do love Hamas, I don’t see how that’s possible so long as it’s around. The only alternative is to find some other governance for Gaza. The PA is out, and of course Israel is, too.  I have no solution, and those like me who favor Israel find this infinitely depressing.

*Good news: an endangered cat is no longer labeled as endangered. (The animal, Lynx pardinus, is one of four extant lynx species.)

One of the world’s rarest cats, the Iberian lynx, is no longer classed as endangered, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

On Thursday the IUCN, which categorises species according to the level of risk they face in a “red list”, bumped the Iberian lynx from “endangered” to “vulnerable” after a significant surge in numbers.

Its population grew from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. While young and mature lynx combined now have an estimated population of more than 2,000, the IUCN reports.

As the name suggests, the wild cat species calls the Iberian region – Spain and Portugal – home.

According to the latest census data, there were a total of 14 clusters where the animals were stable and reproducing. Of those, 13 were located in Spain and one in Portugal.

The wild cat used to be common across the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, but from the 1960s its numbers plummeted.

Habitat loss, poaching and road accidents all helped to push the species to the brink of extinction.

Now, the cat is coming back.

The increase is largely thanks to conservation efforts that have focused on increasing the abundance of its main food source – the also endangered wild rabbit, known as European rabbit.

Programmes to free hundreds of captive lynxes and restoring scrublands and forests have also played an important role in ensuring the lynx is no longer endangered.

Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, a coordinator responsible for leading the conservation action, described it as the “greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation”.

Here’s a BBC video of the Iberian lynx, narrated by a woman who helped the BBC video story on this cat. What a magnificent animal. I love its “cheekburns”!

*From the AP’s ever-intriguing “oddities” section (the latest one also contains info about the rescue of a baby moose). Fresh cherries found at Mt. Vernon, bottled at George Washington’s behest!

George Washington never did cut down the cherry tree, despite the famous story to the contrary, but he did pack away quite a few bottles of the fruit at his Mount Vernon home.

Dozens of bottles of cherries and berries — impossibly preserved in storage pits uncovered from the cellar of his mansion on the banks of the Potomac River — were discovered during an archaeological dig connected to a restoration project.

Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon’s principal archaeologist, said the discovery of so much perfectly preserved food from more than 250 years ago is essentially unprecedented.

“Finding what is essentially fresh fruit, 250 years later, is pretty spectacular,” Boroughs said in an interview. “All the stars sort of have to align in the right manner for that to happen.”

AP correspondent Lisa Dwyer reports on a unique find at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate.

Whole pieces of fruit, recognizable as cherries, were found in some of the bottles. Other bottles held what appear to be gooseberries or currants, though testing is underway to confirm that.

Mount Vernon is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is conducting DNA testing on the fruit. They are also examining more than 50 cherry pits recovered from the bottles to see if any of them can be planted.

“It’s kind of a longshot,” said Benjamin Gutierrez, a USDA plant geneticist, of the chances of using a cherry pit to grow a tree. Seeds preserve best when they are dry, and most of the samples found at Mount Vernon were waterlogged. A couple of pits tested initially were not viable as seeds.

Still, he said the bottles are a remarkable find. In addition to DNA testing, he said chemical testing may be able to show if particular spices were used to preserve the fruits.

Records at Mount Vernon show that George and Martha Washington were fond of cherries, at least when mixed with brandy. Martha Washington’s recipe for a “cherry bounce” cocktail survives, and Washington wrote that he took a canteen of cherry bounce with him on a trip across the Alleghenies in 1784.

These cherries, though, were most likely bottled to be eaten simply as cherries, Boroughs said.

If they’re perfectly preserved, somebody should EAT ONE.  They seem to be testing the fruit rather than tasting it. I’d smell one, and if it smelled okay I’d eat it. Would you?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili gives us a rare view of her toe beans:

A: Are you resting?
Hili: No, I’m doing yoga.
In Polish:
Ja: Odpoczywasz?
Hili: Nie, uprawiam jogę.

And a picture of the loving Szaron:

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

From the Dodo Pet (I hear that people who spend the most time looking at new car ads are those who just bought a new car):

From Cat Memes:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs (I wonder if they also have fancy in-bread dogs there):

From Masih, who’s in Canada, praising the Canadian government:

From my feed. Such beautiful birds, and such a nice person:

Try this!

From Malgorzata; thse people at a French arms exposition had to sign a document swearing that they weren’t Israeli:

From Barry. Look at that warthog jump. (We’ll have a new movie and batch of videos of Ozy very soon.)

From the Auschwitz Memorial; one that I retweeted (I do it every morning):

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb, who’s on a week’s vacation with a bit of work. First, this isn’t rocket science, but people just won’t absorb it:

Patience and love tame a scared and aggressive moggy:

ANSWER TO DOM’S CARTOON:   “The knights are drawing inn.” (Get it?)

25 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

    2. Yes! I loved that story. The gal described so perfectly what it feels like to suddenly realize that one of our world’s wild, majestic creatures is calmly observing you and permitting you to share their space without feeling threatened by you when they could easily end your life. Each time it’s happened to me I’ve silently mouthed, “thank you” to them.

  2. 1. Is the “knights …” a song lyric? I like that … joke? What are those?

    2. That guy with chips could’ve been me – been there, done that – when the meal is an inconvenience, somehow, and you’re stuck.

    3. Amazing lynx story – cannot unsee that facial mane.

    1. 1. Less a joke, more a pun or a play on words. Yesterday was the solstice so from tonight the sun will set earlier which means that the nights are drawing in.

        1. It is a standard cliché here in Big Britain! At some point in the autumn usually, someone will say it when you go home & it is dark. My dad used it so at some point we would all say it as son as the June solstice was past. Sort of depends on how high your latitude is i suppose… ! 😉

  3. “I have no solution, and those like me who favor Israel find this infinitely depressing”.
    Yes. This is all so unsettling. Since 1948, Israel has won a continuous series of skirmishes and wars with her neighbors. It has never really stopped it seems. What is different now? Is it (here, in Ukraine, and the South China Sea) simply a loss of post-WW2 U.S. hegemony -the threat of “a big stick” in the background?

  4. Admiral Daniel Hagari definitely made a miss-step in his statement, a rare unforced error. He shouldn’t have started the fracas about eliminating Hamas as an ideology. Israel’s task is to eliminate the military and governance capabilities of Hamas. Those are the direct threats to Israel. Eliminating the “idea” of Hamas may or man not be possible, just as the idea of Naziism still crops up (Isis, too, is still around), but what really matters is reducing to negligible its impact on Israel. I don’t think that eliminating the “idea” should ever be a war aim, nor is it something that the IDF spokesman should talk about.

    After Israel eliminates Hamas’s ability to wage war and govern, it will still need to respond to attempts by Hamas to reconstitute or, if not reconstitute, to future violent acts for a long time to come. Conflict with Hamas remnants will be a long-term reality that Israel simply must be prepared for.

    Please, Admiral Hagari, up to now your statements have been pitch perfect. Stick to concrete matters of Hamas forces and Hamas governance—things you can destroy in defense of Israel. Don’t muddy the waters with talk about destroying “ideas.” Thank you for listening.

    2. +1

      The United States ran down the rabbit hole of “winning hearts and minds” in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a fool’s errand. Focus on the military command and capabilities. Changing attitudes is a multigenerational process of social evolution—we overestimate the degree to which we can direct it, one way or the other.

    3. You made the point I was going to make, but more eloquently than I would have.

      I think of it in the same way the KKK was eliminated. There are always going to be a couple of idiots in some trailer park who wear pointy hats and complain about miscegenation.
      As long as they have no political power, popular support, or the ability to commit organized acts of violence, then we can live with it.

  8. From the beginning I’ve thought that Netanyahu’s idea of “destroying” Hamas was rather naïve, so I agree with Admiral Hagari’s statement. Yes, the IDF can kill most of the adherents of that ideology, though some will undoubtedly remain. But that does not eliminate the ideology itself any more than the defeat of the Nazis eliminated that ideology. There are Nazis in many European and South American countries, as well as the U.S. They are not dominant, however, because they live in countries with better forms of government–something D.M. Gallant has urged Netanyahu to consider. Even though Isis and other ideologies may have been nearly eliminated, the basic ideology just pops up in a new form, which is what will happen in Gaza unless an alternative governing body agreeable to the Palestinians is devised.

  9. PS for those wondering about Jez, I really cannot get to the bottom of his disappearance from WEIT. I think he was perhaps TOO involved, then something tipped him away, but he is not answering texts or emails…

      1. Thanks. That is good to know. Perhaps he will decide to re-engage in the not-too-far future

      2. We all go through “stuff” and sometimes pressure from the outside just drives us further underground. He knows lots of people here care about him and that will have to suffice.

  10. That Hamas can’t be utterly destroyed as an idea doesn’t matter.
    That they be militarily defeated as a belligerent force is a proposition and it does matter. It can and must be done at any cost.

    Onwards Israeli heroes.

    D.A.
    NYC

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