Wednesday: Hili dialogue

July 10, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to a Hump Day ( “ഹമ്പ് ദിവസം” in Malayalam): Wednesday July 10, 2024, and National Piña Colada Day.  This is one “sissy drink” I like, so long as there is ample rum (Wikipedia gives the recipe.)

User Barmix, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

It’s also Pick Blueberries Day, Don’t Step on a Bee Day, Teddy Bear Picnic Day (my favorite song as a young kid), National Kitten Day, Nikola Tesla Day (he was born on this day in 1856), and Statehood Day in Wyoming.

This is the song that pervaded my childhood. The only version I like is Rosemary Clooney’s (George Clooney is her nephew):

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

Da Nooz:

*Biden has garnered new support from Congress, which may stave off the resignation as candidate that many of us want. (See also this NYT article.)

President Biden won new support for his reelection bid Monday and headed off further defections among Democratic lawmakers as Congress returned to Capitol Hill, at least temporarily stemming a tide of dissent at the outset of what could be a pivotal week in his fight for political survival.

From influential liberals such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to figures such as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to erstwhile critics such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, a parade of Democrats embraced Biden’s reelection run, a sharp reversal after a stretch when every day seemed to bring another defection.

“He’s been the best president of my lifetime, and we have his back,” said Omar, who has blasted Biden’s Middle East policy. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a centrist, said Biden should remain the nominee, calling him “a president who has delivered for the American people in a significant way.”

Reps. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), chair and vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has 39 members, issued a statement that also appeared aimed at declaring support, saying, “We stand with President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

The 60-member CBC is a particularly pivotal group, given the importance of Black voters to the Democratic Party, and Biden phoned in to a virtual meeting of the group Monday evening. Many CBC members planned to convey to Biden that they would stick by him as they always have, according to people familiar with their thinking.

But House Democrats (and some in the Senate) are still worried. From the NYT:

House Democrats met privately on Capitol Hill for about two hours on Tuesday to discuss their concerns about President Biden’s candidacy, the start of a crucial day of meetings that could determine whether he has the backing in his own party to remain in the presidential race.

But as lawmakers emerged from the closed-door meeting, it appeared that they had not reached any consensus about Mr. Biden’s viability. Asked whether Democrats were leaving the discussion on the same page, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee replied: “We’re not even in the same book.”

I’m curious why “Squad” members like AOC and Ilhal Omar are so insistent that Biden stay. I can understand the Black Caucus, since blacks are always big supporters of Biden, but in both cases they’re supporting a guy who looks at this point like a loser. And if he’s got a progressive neurological disease, he’ll just go downhill after he’s elected and will have to be replaced—by “Mamala” Kamala Harris. Yes, she’s one-quarter black, but. . .     In any case, urging Biden to stay on is almost equivalent to urging the election of Trump.

*After Biden denied he’d been evaluated for Parkinson’s (and the NYT and other sources revealed that a Parkinson’s specialist from Walter Reed visited the White House nine times in the last eight months), the WaPo now says that he was indeed evaluated for the disease, but only three times. The other visits, they claim, were for White House staffers (do they have Parkinson’s?)

The White House confirmed Monday that a neurologist who is an expert in Parkinson’s disease has evaluated President Biden three times, saying that the tests were part of the president’s annual physical exams.

Kevin Cannard, a longtime neurologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, most recently evaluated the president ahead of his February physical, Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, wrote in a letter that the White House made public on Monday night.

That exam by Cannard resulted in “no findings” that would correlate with Parkinson’s or other neurological disorders.

“His findings have been made public each time I have released the results of the President’s annual physical,” O’Connor wrote. “President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical.”

The letter was released amid mounting questions over Cannard’s repeated visits to the White House; Cannard most recently visited on Jan. 17, according to White House visitor logs. He has also visited the White House at least seven other times since November 2022, according to the logs.

The White House said that Cannard’s visits were primarily for other staff on the White House campus, and that he was not selected for his role because of his expertise in Parkinson’s.

Cannard has been serving as an on-call neurologist for the White House since 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. Cannard visited the Obama White House at least 15 times between 2012 and 2013, according to a review of visitor logs; he was twice signed in by President Barack Obama’s personal physician.

This is all deeply confusing. If the neurologist is there during Biden’s annual physical, why has he been to the White House nine times in eight months? And why 15 times in two years during Obama’s tenure? The explanation above implies that Cannard visited the White House to treat “other staff on the White House campus”, but why would a doctor come to the President’s house to treat other staff so often? Now perhaps Biden is fine and has no neurological disorder, but all I can say is that it sure looks like it! As the Free Press newsletter said this morning:

If the explanation was so banal, why did Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refuse to give any further details about Cannard’s visits to the White House during Monday’s press briefing? (CBS)

*But it’s even worse, for, as the WSJ tells us, “How Biden’s inner circle worked to keep signs of aging under wraps.”

Senior White House advisers for more than a year have aggressively stage-managed President Biden’s schedule, movements and personal interactions, as they sought to minimize signs of how age has taken a toll on the oldest president in U.S. history.

The White House has limited Biden’s daily itinerary and shielded him from impromptu exchanges. Advisers have restricted news conferences and media appearances, twice declining Super Bowl halftime interviews—an easy way to reach millions of voters—and sought to make sure meetings with donors stuck to scripted pleasantries.

Senior aides dismissed travel suggestions over worries the president didn’t have the stamina for them, including an idea for Biden to make weekly cross-country trips in 2022 to tout the benefits of his infrastructure law.

All of this unfolded as Biden’s slips became increasingly obvious, and his top advisers were assuring everyone the president was fine.

Well, they clearly know that something’s wrong, no? There’s a lot more, but I’ll give only one excerpt:

Now, many donors and lawmakers say they feel misled by what they say is an effort to tamp down concerns, raised well before the debate, about whether Biden is fit for a second term. Some high-ranking Democrats said they worry that few in the party have the courage to tell Biden face-to-face that he needs to step aside.

News reports about the president’s mental acuity have triggered White House rebukes and denials from Biden’s allies. The offices of Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) alerted the White House earlier this year when The Wall Street Journal asked questions about Biden’s performance at a January meeting. The president spoke softly, paused for long periods, read from notes to make obvious points and closed his eyes, the Journal reported.

Murray told the Journal in April that she hadn’t seen a change in Biden’s acuity during her years of working with him. “He engages in a very personal way, asking questions,” she said. “He is listening and absorbing.”

On Monday, Murray said in a statement that Biden should consider his legacy in deciding whether to remain in the race: “We need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate on the campaign trail in the very near future in order for him to convince voters he is up to the job.”

*Of course I’m still a Democrat, but I am not going to tolerate those people who tell me to quit calling attention to Biden’s age because it will make people vote for Trump. If you’re one of those, keep it to yourself, for if Biden stays in, Trump is more than likely to win.  But I’ve always been a fan of the curmudgeonly, straight-talking James Carville, and he has a new NYT op-ed called “Biden won’t win. Democrats need a plan. Here’s one.”  I’ll bite, James!

Mark my words: Joe Biden is going to be out of the 2024 presidential race. Whether he is ready to admit it or not. His pleas on Monday to congressional Democrats for support will not unite the party behind him. Mr. Biden says he’s staying in the race, but it’s only a matter of time before Democratic pressure and public and private polling lead him to exit the race. The jig is up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better. We need to move forward.

But it can’t be by anointing Vice President Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive Democratic nominee. We’ve got to do it out in the open — the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do.

. . .We’re going to nominate a new ticket in a highly democratic and novel way, not in the backrooms of Washington, D.C., or Chicago.

We’re at the stage where we need constructive ideas for how to move forward. Representative Jim Clyburn and the Times Opinion columnist Ezra Klein have spoken about a Democratic mini-primary, and I want to build on that.

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I want to see the Democratic Party hold four historic town halls between now and the Democratic National Convention in August — one each in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. They may not represent every faction under our party’s big tent. But they care as much about our democracy as our nation’s first president, they understand what it takes to be president, and they know how to win.

Town halls — high-stakes job interviews for the toughest job in the world — would surely attract television and cable partners and generate record numbers of viewers. Think the Super Bowl with Taylor Swift in the stands. The young, the old and everyone in between will tune in to see history being made in real time.

How will potential nominees be chosen to participate in the town halls? There is no answer here that will satisfy everyone, but hard choices must be made, given the tight timetable, and I think leaning on the input of former presidents makes good sense. So I would advise Presidents 42 and 44 to select eight leading contenders out of the pool of those who choose to run, with Ms. Harris most definitely getting a well-earned invite.

. . . . To be clear, we have a lot more than eight Democrats who could beat the pants off Mr. Trump. But if we don’t limit the town halls to a manageable number of people, we’ll get sound bites, not substance.

Carville then trusts the eight candidates to be vetted at the Democratic National Convention, and he trusts them to nominate a candidate who will win.

There are three problems. The most important is that it’s getting kind of late, and Biden simply refuses to pull out. Second, do you trust Obama and Clinton to nominate the initial candidates? I don’t think those two should be The Deciders.  Finally, Carville thinks that Kamala Harris is a shoo-in to be one of the eight candidates. But though I’m not a big fan of Harris, I’m less worried if she has to flaunt her stuff against seven other candidates.

*Those (like Rebecca Watson) who claim that rape wasn’t part of Hamas’s strategy during the October 7 attack should take a look at this article in Palestinian Media Watch (h/t Malgorzata)  It absolutely contradicts the “no rape strategy narrative”, and gives photographic evidence from instructions to terrorists on that day:

Palestinian Media Watch attended a military intelligence briefing yesterday and we were shown several previously confidential documents. The documents included a language guide for the Hamas terrorists to use on October 7 when they invaded Israel. The terms found in the language guide render completely false the claim that Hamas did not deliberately plan to weaponize sexual violence. These terms include: “Take off your pants,” “Take off your clothes,” “Women here,” and “Raise your hands and spread your legs.”

The Hamas language guide had the terms written in Arabic and their Hebrew translation then transliterated back into Arabic characters (see below) so that the terrorists would know how to speak and pronounce commands to the abducted Israelis.

Here are two photographs:

Hamas put this language guide to use on October 7 when its terrorists committed atrocities—raping, torturing, kidnapping, and murdering close to 1,200 Israelis.

. . . Furthermore, a note found in the pocket of a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel on October 7 demonstrates that the particularly brutal and barbaric nature of the massacre was pre-planned and not spontaneous. The note instructed: “This enemy of yours is a disease that has no cure other than cutting off heads and cutting out hearts and livers.” [bolding theirs]

As time passes and we hear more denial of the atrocities that Hamas committed on October 7, even from public figures worldwide, this material becomes critically important. The world must be shown the true character of Israel’s enemies, and the free world must give 100% backing and support for Israel’s goal of completely eradicating Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Now that the UN itself has admitted that conflict-related rape of women occurred in at least three locations on October 7, it’s time for the denialists (whose denialism is surely based not on evidence but ideology) admit that they were wrong. Will they? I wouldn’t hold my breath. And seriously, “take off your clothes” and “raise your hands and spread your legs”? That’s written down as a strategic maneuver. Rape wasn’t simply, as the denialists claim, “something that just happens when men are at war.”

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili sniffs the flowers and freshly mowed grass:

Hili: Some smells are inspiring.
Andrzej: Definitely not all of them.
In Polish:
Hili: Niektóre zapachy są inspirujące.
Ja: Zdecydowanie nie wszystkie.

And Baby Kulka among the roses:

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

From Richard:

From Merilee:

From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:

From Masih: I was WAY too enthusiastic in applauding Iran’s election of a “reformist” President. As Masih warned us, he wasn’t reformist at all:

From Barry, who says, “About ‘Christian-hating Communists’? It sounds about right to me.”  I’m not so sure, though. . .

The official 2024 GOP platform makes a reference to “Christian-hating Communists” who the Republicans will keep from entering the country. Back in the early days of the America First movement, “Christian-hating Communists” would have just been a longer way of saying “Jews.”

[image or embed]

— Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social) Jul 8, 2024 at 5:01 PM

From Malcolm, the world’s most majestic cat:

Two from my feed. Sea otters are wonderful:

True cat love:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I posted:

Two tweets from Doctor Cobb. The first tweet heads a thread with all kinds of lessons about evolution using the SARS-CoV-2 (covid) virus:

CAT WINS! HOLY COW!

 

21 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. If you like piña coladas!

    Escape – Rupert Holmes (released 1979):
    youtu.be/FXG_I_tf_i4?si=_35sALduVe1RTjwN

    1. Wow. Even as inured as I am to horrors of the current war I find those videos deeply depressing. I like to be hopeful, but that’s clearly inappropriate here. Assuming these are official UNRWA schools then there needs to be a public outcry. Maybe Netanyahu can bring some visual aids to his talk at the US Congress….

  3. That is the worst picture of a Pina Colada ever. PC is a blended drink. Send it back if it comes over ice! Typical Wikipedia.

    I like the version of “Teddy Bears’ Picinic” by Henry Hall, which I think was the first recording of the song with the recently added lyrics.

  4. It’s remarkable that the Dems don’t have several obvious candidates that they think could be Trump. As for cranky-pants Carville, his punditry has always been best when the Dems are doing well, otherwise he’s nothing special.

  5. The Dems are in denial. Biden is OK(ish) at the moment, so the Dems (or at least yesterday’s vocal group) are hoping that they can keep him going through the election in November. Hiding him from view as much as possible and crowing in unison about how sharp he is will supposedly get him there, they calculate. If he wins in November, which is highly doubtful, he’ll carry on as long as they can keep him in hiding, and Harris will then succeed him.

    Hmmm. The Democrats whine about Trump being a conspiracy theorist and being influenced by conspiracy theorists. But the concerted effort to install Biden in the White House despite his cognitive condition seems to be an actual conspiracy.

    Cueball has the right idea, sans the part about Obama and Clinton. Just run some televised town halls and hash the rest out at the convention. Why are the Democrats so afraid to allow democracy to run its course? Aren’t they the ones who are clutching their pearls about the future of American democracy?

  6. The White House and most mainstream media outlets have actively engaged in a misinformation campaign to hide the truth and in fact have lied to us. As a result, President Biden won the Democratic Party primary. The fact that we were lied to is neither here nor there in terms of process. Voters voted based on the information they were provided so we need to abide by the results. What’s Carville mean by “We’ve got to do it out in the open — the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do”? Trump has nothing to do with the Democratic Party. It sounds like needless fearmongering.

    Regarding “Christian-hating Communists” being code for Republicans hating Jews, from what I see the only party that is firmly behind Israel’s right to self defense is the Republican party. Democrats are split; traditional (older) voters seem in support of Israel, while younger, progressive ones are anti-Zionists who demonize Jews.

    1. The DNC has no excuse to be so frantic and desperate. There are surely a large number of people who have regular contact with Biden, and have known for years that this was going to happen.
      The only excuse for their actions I can see is that they were betting that they could continue to hide it until after the election.
      So, they were gambling that they could get away with it at least until there was nothing the voters could do to interfere with their plans.

      Or, this could all be part of some kind of DNC strategy. The people who work with him every day have got to have known that the debate was going to be his undoing. Even when meeting a handful of supporters, he reads from a script with variable results. It would not surprise me to learn that there has been a war between internal factions going on, and agreeing to the debate was a move by one faction against the other.

      I agree about the “communists” quote. While many progressives have a tremendous dislike for Jews, they also realize that blatant antisemitism is a bad look. So the accuse conservatives of antisemitism at every opportunity.
      Beyond that, there are not a whole lot of Jews that hate Christians. If I were asked to point out a large group of “Christian-hating Communists”, I would look to either China or West Africa.

      1. I tend to agree with your first paragraph. If the debate had gone better, none of this talk of replacing him would be occurring, even though all the same evidence would be there and well known to the DNC, NYT, WaPo, etc. . News media would still be saying all is good and not reporting what they see, and we’d be hearing about cheap fakes being election interference from now through election day. All they needed was that one night to be a good one 🙁

    2. Most US Evangelicals are devoted to Israel, but devoted as in a BDSM relationship because the mostly liberal Jews in the US despise them anyway. I won’t question their love (a 2023 Pew survey showed a -40 difference when subtracting negative from positive ratings by Jews of Evangelicals, and a +39 difference for the reverse scenario: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/15/americans-feel-more-positive-than-negative-about-jews-mainline-protestants-catholics/). The Heritage foundation is also clearly pro-Israel (https://www.heritage.org/middle-east). Perhaps some Jews cannot believe their luck.

      The far-right is different. While some of them prefer to blame women rather than Jews for all the world’s ills, they all tend to resent Jews. But this is not based on religion, as they think of Christianity as little more than a weapon to fight Islam and various degenerates. Their main interest is the white race. Unlike the far-left, they do not care about Palestinians at all. They hate Israel mostly because it is an unapologetically Jewish state supported by those same Jews who deny them their birthright at home. That birthright is of course a white ethnostate that puts whites first and does not accept refugees.

  7. To the people who are unworried about the president’s mental acuity because Biden has a crackerjack team around him:

    “A Parkinson’s specialist visits the White House nine times in the last eight months, but only three of those were for Biden.”

    It appears “crackerjack” may be an inaccurate characterization of that team.

    1. If the president is a mere figurehead, that’s hardly a great argument against Trump. Supposedly I could have voted for him in 2016 in good conscience, knowing that his administration will be full of ordinary Republicans who can provide a competent government.

  8. “Raise your hands and spread your legs” is standard US police protocol for arresting someone.
    “Take off your clothes” is standard anti-terror police protocol for swiftly assuring a lack of hidden weapons.

    Hamas did rape (and worse) many women on 7th October last year but the translation guide does feel geared towards taking hostages and not anything to do with rape.

    1. I’m inclined to agree with you. Best not to over-state the case. Rape is a crime that doesn’t require a common language.

  10. I’m not denying that sexual violence occurred on the October 7 attacks, but I think some skepticism is warranted over claiming the language guide itself “render[s] completely false the claim that Hamas did not deliberately plan to weaponize sexual violence”. As Cederic notes above “spread your legs” and take “off your clothes” could easily be directed to men or women alike as standard weapons check of captives. And one could deceptively, selectively emphasize any of the phrases to spin their POV: “are you wounded?” “Lie down” “I want a doctor” “Treat him” – wow, such compassion!

    Again, I’m not in denial of October 7 rapes, but think this primary source is being spun into somthing more than it is by Palestinian Media Watch using loaded and biased language.

  11. Important question about “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic: how many of you remember the radio show “Big John and Sparky”?

  12. It is not necessarily relevant that the neurologist who visits Biden is a Parkinson’s specialist. A normal neurological examination tests things like basic reflexes, following a pen with your eyes, placing one foot before the other and remembering three words until the end of the examination. Unless Biden develops a resting tremor, a diagnosis of PD is probably not forthcoming.

  13. The Dems have done more damage to Biden than the Repubs by reinforcing the slanders of Republicans. But Biden can save us all: just resign from the presidency so Harris takes his place in the interim, and at election time they can have her as candidate or someone else….but at least it wont be Biden up there mumbling or shuffling with Trump. And Biden will come out looking good.

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