Monday: Hili dialogue

June 24, 2024 • 6:30 am

Welcome to, Monday, June 24, 2024, and National Pralines Day, celebrating a candy that, after all Indian confections, is the sweetest sweet in the world.  Here’s a short video of Loretta Harrison, The Praline Queen, from New Orleans, of course. Note that she puts the accent on the first syllable of “pralines”, so perhaps I’ve been wrong all these years.  I sure could use some of the candy now!

 

It’s also International Fairy Day, Swim a Lap Day, World UFO Day, Day of the Caboclo in Amazonas, Brazil, Inti Raymi, “a winter solstice festival and a New Year in the Andes of the Southern Hemisphere”, and   St John’s Day and the second day of the Midsummer celebrations (although this is not the astronomical summer solstice, a Catholic celebration.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 24 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Remember that the Biden-Trump debate is this Thursday. The NYT describes the risks and rewards of this debate, which is the most important one because it’s the first (people will get tired of watching them):

The debate between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump this week will be the highest-stakes moment of their rematch, plunging two presidents into an extraordinarily early confrontation before a divided and angry nation.

For Mr. Biden, the debate in Atlanta offers an opportunity to remind voters of the chaos of his predecessor’s leadership, his criminal convictions and to warn of an even darker future should he win a second term. For Mr. Trump, it’s a chance to make his case that America has grown more expensive, weaker and more dangerous under his successor.

But the face-off on Thursday also poses significant risks for the two men — both of them the oldest candidates ever to compete in a presidential race — who have been locked in a contentious rivalry defined by mutual hatred for more than four years. That animosity heightens the evening’s unpredictability. A notable misstep — a physical stumble, a mental lapse or a barrage of too-personal insults — could reverberate for months, because of the unusually long period until they meet again for the second debate in September.

September!  That’s nearly three months away! And that’s the last one! A measly two debates: what are these guys afraid of?

“This is a big inflection point,” said Karl Rove, a leading Republican strategist who guided George W. Bush’s two successful presidential runs. “Can Biden be consistently cogent, causing people to say, ‘Well, maybe the old guy is up to it?’ And is Trump going to be sufficiently restrained that people say, ‘You know what, it really is about us, not about him?’”

This presidential debate will be the earliest in the nation’s history and notably different from those familiar to many Americans. Hosted by CNN rather than a nonpartisan commission, it will be simulcast on more than five networks, without a live audience and without opening statements. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions, followed by one-minute rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals, and their microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak.

Did you learn much from that? I learned only the format, and I already knew a lot about that. I’ll watch, hoping it will be entertaining. Will Trump mutter and walk around the stage, like he did when looming over Hillary Clinton from behind. Will he try to talk over Biden even with a dead microphone? Will Biden freeze up?  Or will it be a snoozer?

*The latest news from Israel’s war is that whistleblowers have indicated that Hezbollah is storing weapons at the Beirut, Lebanon airport.

Lebanese whistleblowers have come forward with allegations that Hezbollah is using Lebanon’s international airport in Beirut to store large quantities of Iranian weapons, The Telegraph reports.

According to the report, the Iran-backed terror group is using the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport to store a variety of weapons, including ballistic missiles, unguided artillery rockets and laser-guided anti-tank guided missiles.

A highly explosive and toxic white powder known as RDX is also being stored at the airport, the whistleblowers say.

Lebanese whistleblowers have come forward with allegations that Hezbollah is using Lebanon’s international airport in Beirut to store large quantities of Iranian weapons, The Telegraph reports.

According to the report, the Iran-backed terror group is using the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport to store a variety of weapons, including ballistic missiles, unguided artillery rockets and laser-guided anti-tank guided missiles.

A highly explosive and toxic white powder known as RDX is also being stored at the airport, the whistleblowers say.

I would have expected that weapons coming from Iran would be shipped to the Beirut airport, but this seems to be confirmation. The question is whether the IDF will attack the airport, which it has every right to do. However, it’s also a civilian airport, so I’m not sure what the IDF will do.  Israel doesn’t, I think, have the wherewithal to pursue to wars at the same time, and many of us are worried about what a two-front campaign would do to Israel’s existence.

*According to Reuters, but not yet reported in other MSM as I write, the U.S. military ran a secret campaign in the Philippines to undermine Chinese attempts to curb Covid (h/t Tony).

t the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.

“COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” one typical tweet from July 2020 read in Tagalog. The words were next to a photo of a syringe beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections. Another post read: “From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.”

After Reuters asked X about the accounts, the social media company removed the profiles, determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data.

The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.

. . .“I don’t think it’s defensible,” said Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. “I’m extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to hear that the U.S. government would do that,” said Lucey, a former military physician who assisted in the response to the 2001 anthrax attacks.

No, it’s not defensible. Although the U.S. later supplied better vaccines to the Philippines, the Chinese vaccine was somewhat effective, and it’s possible that this campaign actually led to the deaths of Filipinos. Much of this occurred on Trump’s watch, but not the half a year after January 2021, which was during the Biden Administration.

*The way America works these days is if there is antisemitism on a campus, they are not going to investigate it without investigation “Islamophobia” at the same time.  Regardless of the truth, you have to look as if both kinds of hatred are occurring in equal amounts, which I don’t think is true. The NYT reports, in fact, that Stanford University has just conducted both kinds of investigations.

Stanford released on Thursday dueling reports — one on antisemitism and the other on anti-Muslim bias — that revealed mirroring images of campus life in recent months that may be impossible to reconcile.

One report found that antisemitism has been pervasive at the university in both overt and subtle ways, while the other stated that the school had stifled free speech among pro-Palestinian students and faculty. They were emblematic of the rift between Jewish and Muslim groups on campus, and showed that any kind of accord between the two groups and the university were distant.

The reports are among the first outcomes of universities’ reckonings with their handling of the flurry of protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and pro-Israel counterprotests, over the past academic year.

As students across the nation marched on campus, set up encampments and, in some cases, got arrested, universities were met with the difficult challenge of balancing students’ right to free speech and campus safety. At Stanford, 13 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested a few weeks ago after barricading themselves in the president’s office.

The report on antisemitism — by a university subcommittee on antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, consisting of faculty, students and an alumnus — found that acts of antisemitism have ranged from an anonymous threat on social media against a student journalist who had written about antisemitism to what students said was intimidation in the classroom and residence halls.

“Antisemitism exists today on the Stanford campus in ways that are widespread and pernicious,” the group wrote in the report. “We learned of instances where antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias reached a level of social injury that deeply affected people’s lives.”

Jewish students complained of being “tokenized,” or viewed as interchangeable representatives of the Jewish people, the report said, adding that many of the students who were targeted were critical of the Israeli government. They were pressured to “openly denounce Israel and renounce any ties to it,” the report said, noting that this was the most common form of antisemitism that students experienced.

. . .The other report — by Stanford’s Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities committee — described what it called “a rupture of trust” between students, staff and faculty. “These communities have felt afraid for their safety, unseen and unheard by university leadership,” it said.

According to this report, Stanford recorded more than 50 instances of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab bias between October 2023 and May 2024, including assault, battery and theft. That is a 900 percent increase over the two prior academic years, the report said.

I can’t be arsed to read either report, but the link to both of them is in “dueling reports” above, and it might be instructive to read both and see what they say. If you have the moxie to do this, please report below.

*I’ve been following the Official Website Artist Kelly Houle’s new Substack site,  Ut Pictura Poesis, and decided to subscribe after I read a marvelous post called “Sketchbook: Nature Everywhere You Look.” It’s about her family rescuing and tending a baby desert cottontail that fell into a pool, and named it James (“Bun. . . James Bun”).  (In the end, it was fine!) The tale is full of Kelly’s sketches as well as poems and her photographs along with her prose (sketches and photos in the excerpt below are Kelly’s):

Ken wrapped the little desert cottontail into a towel and held it close as we walked back home. Its body was rigid. It hardly moved.

I found a box in the garage and carried it upstairs with our new charge. I set the box on the floor and looked closely at the ratlike snout. I pulled the blanket back to reveal his giant ears. Suddenly, he was cute.

I talked to him and nudged him gently when he started to close his eyes. His heart was beating fast. We decided to let him rest and went into the kitchen to have some breakfast.

We’d been talking at the table for over an hour when Ken saw something dash past the doorway. “He’s up!”

For the next six hours we watched the bunny explore the cool, carpeted world into which he’d been teleported. He went into every room in the house. I followed close behind, coaxing him out and gently closing each door behind him. He loved being under any piece of furniture, but being under the couch was best. After a while it started to seem normal that there was a rabbit under the sofa and we tried to go about our day.

I got to work in the kitchen washing lettuce and slicing strawberries.

The good news is that James, released to the “wild” seems to be okay, and is seen from time to time. Here he is as a baby;

Go have a look for the rest of the story:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn,  Hili is a bit frightened:
Hili: I’m curious what this hawk is hunting.
A: Not you.
Hili: I know, I’m safe with you.
In Polish:
Hili: Ciekawa jestem na co ten jastrząb poluje?
Ja: Nie na ciebie.
Hili: Wiem, z tobą jestem bezpieczna.

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

From Cat Memes:

From Jesus of the Day; an Amazon review:

. . . and from Science Humor, a message for Intelligent Design promoters:

From Masih, who wasn’t allowed to enter the Iranian interest section in Washington, D.C. without a hijab (the interest section is part of the Pakistani Embassy but represents the interests of Iran (we have no Iranian embassy here and haven’t since 1979):

For some reason this post can’t be embedded, so here’s a screenshot (click to go to tweet). Trophy hunting is reprehensible. If you’re in the UK, you can sign a letter to party leaders to ban trophy hunting; just go here.

From Barry, a sheepdog stopping a stampede and a mouse taking a shower:

When I was in Amsterdam I posted about these “memory stones” in front of houses that once contained Jews who were removed and killed in the Holocaust. Now, in Germany of all places, they’re being defaced by Jew haters. How low can these people go?

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I posted:

From Dr. Cobb, soon to return from his hols. First, how did this kitten learn where to jump?

A 93-year-old lungfish who loves figs and is affectionate to humans—what’s not to like? Sound up.

 

30 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. On trophy hunting, I’m in two minds. I would never want to shoot an elephant myself, but places like Botswana are opposed to the ban.

    “elephant numbers in Botswana have almost tripled from 50,000 in 1984 to 130,000 in 2024 – causing “a lot of chaos”, with the animals in “constant conflict with humans”.” (e.g. link)

    “Currently, Botswana issues about 300 elephant hunting licenses per year, generating approximately $3 million for the country, separate from the other revenues the hunters generate.”

    Properly managed culling to keep populations in balance may be a sensible option, and while I personally find trophy hunting distasteful, if it brings in significant money to some poor regions, then I could accept it.

    1. I had the same thoughts. I understand some trophy hunting can generate serious cash than can be used for further conservation. If animals need to be culled, why shouldn’t people be allowed to hunt them? Hunting could be more inhumane than other culling methods, I guess. It seems complicated, at least in certain cases.

      1. The principle problem with using trophy hunting as a means of population control is precisely because the hunters are after trophies; the animal with the largest horns or biggest teeth or brightest colors. Very often what the hunter is after is what gives the animal its advantage. It’s why (probably) the average size of big horn sheep has declined; all the large males are now trophies. Same with Marlin and Bluefin Tuna.

        Animal populations can be controlled (if needed) but I feel it can be done properly, and that it should not be so that people can put an animals head on their walls.

    2. If human$ weren’t around, I wonder what mechanism(s) would keep populations in balance.

  2. I had mis-read “mouse taking a shower” as “moose taking a shower”, and became very confused!

  3. I saw that story about the C.I.A. and their pork vaccine rumor the other day. It reminded me of the rumor before the Indian Mutiny that cartridges for the new rifles that the Indian troops had been issue contained pork fat in the grease. (The loading drill required the solider to bite the end off the paper cartridge, then pour the power down the barrel.) This fed into fears by the Muslim sepoys that the British were trying to force them to convert. The C.I.A.’s use of such tactics is reprehensible, but I suppose it’s part and parcel for them.

  4. So according to Stanford it is “islamophobic” to stifle anti-semitic speech? I guess the termites were hungrier than Hitch knew.

  5. The “God did it” poster reminds me of how THE Creation Museum wins” evilution debates: Take a large number of your “volunteers” and train them to shout, ” How do you know, were you there???!!! ” in unison when the signal (applause sign or…) prompts you. My irony meter prompts me to ask a similar question in some discussions about the Book of RRevelations.

    1. I was listening to a priest on Catholic radio advising his congregation not to fall for the historical Jesus versus the Jesus of faith rubbish. He said he didn’t want to go into the details, but he assured his people that the Jesus of faith was the Jesus of history. And about miracles he said: don’t let them tell you that miracles didn’t happen; that Jesus didn’t walk on water; that he didn’t feed thousands with two fishes and a few loaves of bread. God created the universe out of nothing; he can make fish from fish! He said he didn’t want to go into too much detail about that either. That won him a lot of applause. Maybe someone should have asked him if he had been there.

      I don’t know whether he was joking because it sounded too stupid even by Catholic radio standards — implausibly stupid.

    2. I was listening to a priest on Catholic radio advising his congregation not to fall for the historical Jesus versus the Jesus of faith rubbish. He said he didn’t want to go into the details, but he assured his people that the Jesus of faith was the Jesus of history. And about miracles he said: don’t let them tell you that miracles didn’t happen; that Jesus didn’t walk on water; that he didn’t feed thousands with two fishes and a few loaves of bread. God created the universe out of nothing; he can make fish from fish! He said he didn’t want to go into too much detail about that either. That won him a lot of applause. Maybe someone should have asked him if he had been there.

      I don’t know whether he was joking because it sounded too stupid even by Catholic radio standards — implausibly stupid.

      1. Years ago, I picked up a book of questions and answers by a Catholic priest. One of the questions was “Have any stories in the Bible been proven?” He answered “Yes,” then listed “Stories That Have Been Proven by Archaeology:” The Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and so on. Unfortunately, he didn’t say how they had been proven; I wanted to know what the archaeological evidence for Cain and Abel was. Cain’s “Wanted” poster?

        1. I have a 1974 edition of Werner Keller’s The Bible as History, which includes the remarkable claim on the cover that “Archeology Confirms The Book Of Books”. It essentially takes archeological finds of ancient towns and cities in the Holy Land and finds references to them in the Bible. The conclusion: ‘these places spoken of in the Bible are now known to have existed therefore everything in the Bible is true’.

  6. Such a cute bunny!

    And, no, Israel does not want to fight wars on two fronts. But, with the war in Gaza winding down, Hezbollah will be firmly in the crosshairs. I hope that there can be a negotiated solution, but it looks like there will be significant conflict before a negotiated solution comes into focus—if it comes into focus at all.

    1. Israel has the forces, the weapons and the will to fight a war on two fronts.

      They have to be. They’ve been attacked on three fronts in the past, and can’t assume it won’t happen again.

      The military operation in Gaza will take months yet to complete, but already the IDF are able to reduce troop numbers there and attention is increasing on South Lebanon. It’s not coincidence that France is evacuating 45000 people from Lebanon.

  8. With regard to the Biden-Trump debate being the most important. One of Trump’s business partners suggested a good way to beat him. When he was pushing very stupid ideas, the partner suggested that he needed medication, and Trump went ballistic screaming, and banging on the table. Biden looks and acts a lot older than Trump, even though Trump seems to have lost his memory for facts and people, so Biden needs to bring out his crazy side to win the debate. When Trump says wrong, and stupid things, Biden needs to subtilty needle him with comments about memory medications etc. An angry, obviously crazy Trump will lose!

    1. We’re reduced to the point where each side’s best hope is that their man comes over as normal: Democrats will be hoping merely that Biden appears to be still alive, and Republicans will be hoping that Trump doesn’t appear to be utterly deranged.

  10. I grew up with a pronunciation of “praline” that has the stress on the first syllable, but a different vowel than Loretta from the video uses; and also evidently different from Jerry’s pronunciation, which he reports as having stress on the second syllable.

    At Dictionary.com, entry “praline” and American tab chosen, they offer three pronunciations:

    / ˈprɑ lin, ˈpreɪ-, prɑˈlin /

    These would be, in order, Loretta’s, mine, and Jerry’s. (For anyone not familiar with IPA conventions, a stress syllable is indicated by a superscript vertical stroke *preceding* the syllable being indicated.) So we’re all correct!

    The site also offers an alternative transcription in what they say is “Phonetic (Standard)” but relies on boldface type to indicate the stressed syllable. But here it is anyway, minus that bit of markup, as it may help show what vowels are involved:

    [prah-leen, prey-, prah-leen ]

    Switching to “British” tab, they show just one: / ˈprɑːliːn / (Loretta’s, with both vowels marked as extended) (and offer only this transcription system).

    There is also (on the American tab) an audio button — which gives the first pronunciation — in a male voice with what I cant help hearing as a British accent! If you would like to click the icon and listen for yourself, the direct URL to the entry is https://www.dictionary.com/browse/praline

    1. Here’s what Etymology Online says about the origin of the word:

      n.)
      1727, prawlin, “confection made of almonds stirred into boiling sugar and water,” from French praline (17c.), from the name of Marshal Duplessis-Praslin (1598-1675, pronounced “praline”), “whose cook invented this confection” [Klein]. Modern spelling in English from 1809. The name was transferred 19c. to other similar preparations.

      https://www.etymonline.com/word/praline#etymonline_v_18608

      1. I do love Etymonline! But it’s funny how calmly they write ‘pronounced “praline”’ without worrying what pronunciation that will convey to readers! 🙂

        1. I noticed that too. I didn’t realize it came from a French person’s name.

  11. There is only one real airport in Lebanon.
    The Israelis blow it up periodically. In the early 70s I think they blew up some M.E.A. planes, then in the 80s they did it again, then put it out of action for a month or so in 2006 (around my trip there). Once, in addition to a plane or two they destroyed a coke machine for some reason which I’ve never understood but respect as high comedy.

    I’m be surprised if Hezb isn’t holding explosives/weapons there, but probably less than other places in Sth Lebanon and Beqqa.

    If Israel “visits” the airport again it’ll be more to remind Lebanon that they can pretty much strangle the country with a few bombs as a motivation for the Lebanese Republic to reign in Hezb. Which they are incapable of even if they wanted to (some do).

    Nasrallah’s neighborhood is in the vicinity btw. It is in a Shia area.
    Just my opinion but I suspect the Israelis know under which building Nasrallah lives and have known for a long time. They don’t whack him because he’s better than whoever would take his place.

    For more, let me again plug my article:
    https://democracychronicles.org/the-coming-war-in-lebanon/

    Onwards Israeli heroes.

    D.A.
    NYC
    https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/

    1. Read your article yesterday, quite an eye opener regarding Palestinians history with Jordan and Lebanon. I just watched a YouTube video put out by The Apostate Prophet. He is from a Sunni background and he was interviewing a woman named Sana who grew up as Shia in Iran (now living in the USA) They spoke of growing up and hating the other denomination as evil, although they were both taught Jews were the worst. They were great in the video, very forthright and clear in their condemnation of Islam. Sana mentioned how she has arguments on Twitter with American leftists trying to tell her about the importance of being inclusive and not be Islamophobic. And she tells them that radical Islamists don’t care about “inclusivity, etc., and if they get a chance they will hang you.
      The video title is”Iranian ex muslim exposes Iran’s Islamic regime and warns the West with Sana Ebrahimi 6/20/2024

  12. I saw Methuselah the 93-year-old lungfish during a recent visit to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She was chilling in her tank, perhaps getting ready for bed (I was there on Thursday night, when the Academy is open from 6 to 10). The Academy also has an albino alligator, in addition to the other animals in its aquarium and rainforest, and is well worth a visit.

  13. Botswana is pretty good at the conservation of elephants to the point of them exceeding the carrying capacity so culling is really a thing there. Trophy is, therefore, a necessary source of income if, for nothing else, to fund more conservation.

    Here’s the very likeable president of the ex-colony lamenting how other countries are still making decisions for his country long after they said they’s stop.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT7t5MEi3oQ&w=1200&h=675%5D

  14. Regarding the entertainment potential of the presidential debates, I’m reminded of “infotainment.” (I don’t know if Neil Postman coined the term but remember that he wrote a tome entitled “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”)

    I don’t watch the news on TV (I’ll watch PBS News Hour occasionally but find myself debating with the hosts) because I’m sick to the back teeth of their trying to infotain me. So breathless and agitated. Get a splinter in your big toe and make the evening news. They need a Valium.

    The debate rules seem to be properly going in the direction of those that obtained in the Nixon-Kennedy debates. What purpose does it serve to have a braying “Whoop and Holler” crowd present and interrupting, hoping to see themselves on TV, reducing the time for questions and answers? Not having them there will at least reduce if not eliminate playing to the crowd. I don’t want to be entertained by the debate; I want to be informed and possibly enlightened, but I don’t hold my breath.

    Anyway, just because Trump’s microphone is off doesn’t mean he won’t interrupt. As much as he mouthed off in a courtroom he’ll surely no less and likely more will mouth off and interrupt in a debate. His rarefied and high-minded base will rejoice in that, wishing that they too could similarly get by with such behavior. Nion and Kennedy never interrupted each other. Interruption seems to be the conversational coin of the realm in the majority of 21st century podcasting.

    I’m reminded of omniscient noble media souls giving debate moderator Jim Lehrer grief for (allegedly) not sufficiently controlling presidential debaters. They offered no specific, positive solutions. Was he supposed to stuff a sock down their throats to stop their interrupting? There was a time in the dim past when one could reasonably count on debaters to have some self-awareness and situational awareness. Throw in decency and civility.

    I find myself imagining a debate between Trump and JFK. I’d be interested in Trump’s definition of happiness. More than once JFK offered his definition, quoting the ancient Greeks: “the full use of one’s powers along lines of excellence (with scope).” Which is not the Philistine “bread and circuses” crowd’s definition: maximizing one’s personal convenience and creature-comfort material wants.

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