Welcome to Thursday, February 20, 2025 and National Cherry Pie Day, one of the Three Great Pies (pecan, blueberry, and cherry). Here is one of Malgorzata’s cherry pies from their own orchard.
It’s also National Muffin Day, National Love Your Pet Day, and The Great American Spit Out Day, calling awareness to the dangers of smokeless tobacco.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 20 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
In the previous post, I reported on the return of four dead Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. In return, Hamas got 1000 Palestinian prisoners back.
*Is there any improvement Trump won’t try to de-improve? I’m referring to the new “congestion pricing” to enter lower Manhattan, which by all accounts has been a big success. Trump doesn’t like it because, he says, it drives people away from the city, and of course it’s his city.
President Trump intends to revoke federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, fulfilling a campaign promise to reverse the policy that tolls drivers who enter Manhattan’s busiest streets to finance repairs to mass transit.
In a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday, the president’s transportation secretary outlined Mr. Trump’s objections to the program, the first of its kind in the United States, and said that federal officials would contact the state to “discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations.”
The letter did not indicate a specific date by which the federal government intended to end the program. The decision will almost certainly be challenged in court.
The letter from Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, cited the cost to working class motorists, the use of revenue from the tolls for transit upgrades rather than roads, and the scope of the plan compared to the federal legislation that authorized it as reasons for the decision.
The program started on Jan. 5 and charged most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, an area that includes some of the city’s most famous destinations like Times Square and the Empire State Building.
The plan aimed to discourage drivers from entering the congestion zone. It also hoped to clear pollution from Manhattan’s core while helping to raise $15 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs New York City’s transit system.
But Mr. Trump has said that he would end the tolls because he claimed that they were drawing visitors and businesses away from Manhattan. Observers have speculated that he would try to withdraw federal approval for the plan or threaten to withhold federal funding.
Now I haven’t been to Manhattan since this started, though I’ll be there in June, but this seems once again like revenge. “How dare you de-congest MY CITY? This is the worst thing that anybody’s done to a city in the history of the world!”
*The WSJ now reports not only that Trump is blaming Zelensky for the war in Ukraine, but also that Trump and Zelensky are starting to snipe at each other.
From the first article:
Europe is struggling to respond to a stunning about-face in U.S. foreign policy and President Trump’s broadsides against Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Trump late Tuesday essentially blamed Ukraine for the war, which started when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a large-scale invasion of his smaller neighbor three years ago. In a comment directed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said: “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
He said Ukraine should hold elections before a peace deal can be reached, saying, without basis, that Zelensky had very little support among voters.
The comments—and Europe’s lack of reaction—follow a meeting Tuesday in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Russian diplomats, who sketched out plans to negotiate over Ukraine. Zelensky said any talks that didn’t include his country were doomed.
And from the second:
President Trump stepped up attacks on Volodymyr Zelensky, calling the Ukrainian president a “Dictator without Elections” after Zelensky said Trump was repeating Russian propaganda points.
The comments marked a significant escalation in a feud that could complicate efforts to end the war. The exchange came one day after Trump accused Zelensky of starting the war in Ukraine, which began after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a large-scale invasion of the country three years ago.
Zelensky told reporters in Ukraine earlier Wednesday that Trump is “living in this disinformation space.” He added, “I want there to be more truth in Trump’s team.”
Trump responded with several accusations, saying Zelensky had misused U.S. aid and “done a terrible job” as president.
“Ignoramus” is about the mildest word I can apply to the American President here. If anybody is on the wrong side of history here, it’s Trump, who never seems to have met a despot he didn’t like. Well, the American people voted for him, and you didn’t have to be an expert to know that this is how the Orange Man rolls. I’d pin my hopes on the midterms, but even if both houses of Congress go Democrat (unlikely), it won’t affect much.
“He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle,’” Trump wrote in a social-media post on Wednesday. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Oy! Trump called Zelensky a dictator!
*And we might as well hear what the conservative National Review says about Trump/Putin/Zelenslky. Surprisingly, it’s not on Trump’s side (maybe I haven’t read it enough to see its political bent). From the article “The American betrayal of Ukraine begins“:
There’s still time for President Trump to turn it around. But so far in his second term, regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump has offered to Vladimir Putin that Ukraine will not retake all its annexed and occupied sovereign territory, that Ukraine will not join NATO, that there will be no U.S. troops on Ukrainian soil after the war, and that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Russia. And Trump might even throw in a withdrawal of the extra 20,000 U.S. troops that Joe Biden sent to NATO’s eastern flank after the invasion of Ukraine.
And in exchange, Putin offered . . . well, nothing, really.
Yesterday in Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. and Russian governments had agreed to four key principles, including an effort to “lay the groundwork for future cooperation on matters of mutual geopolitical interest and historic economic and investment opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine.”
What “mutual geopolitical interest” do we have with the regime that fired a missile into Kyiv’s main children’s hospital? (The intensive care, surgical, and oncology wards of Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital were severely damaged, and its toxicology department — where children receive dialysis — was destroyed. Reportedly, 27 civilians, including four children, were killed, and 117, including seven children, were injured.)
Russia has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, and more than 6 million Ukrainian citizens live under the brutal hand of occupying Russian forces, and our government is talking about “historic economic and investment opportunities” with them?
What exactly does Russia have to offer us that we want so badly? Grain? Oil? Natural gas? We already have that stuff; there is more than we need, and plenty is available for export. I thought the Trump plan was to build us into an energy production superpower. Why is the man who presciently warned Germany that it was becoming completely dependent on Russia for its energy now so eager to make it easier for people to buy Russian energy supplies?
Rubio also said, “We’re going to appoint a high-level team from our end to help negotiate and walk — work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine in a way that’s enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged.” What “end to the conflict” does he envision could be “enduring and acceptable to all the parties engaged”? How much stolen territory does he visualize Ukraine conceding to Putin?
Does Rubio envision Putin recognizing Ukraine as a legitimate and independent country? He has never done that. Down to the marrow in his bones, Putin sees Ukraine as part of Russia that can never be allowed to pursue its own separate path.
An apocryphal story goes that when Walter Cronkite described the Vietnam War on the air as a stalemate, Lyndon Johnson said “When we’ve lost Cronkite, we’ve lost America.” This story is an anecdote without real evidence, but the sentiments were true. But how would you finish this sentence: “When you’ve lost the National Review, you’ve lost _______”?
*A NYT article intriguingly called “Can this fish make you cry?” (archived here), tells the sad tale of a deep-ocean anglerfish (Melanocetus sp.) that, for some reason, swam up toward the surface and died. These fish live in total darkness, luring prey with a bioluminescent appendage on its head, which it consumes with a huge mouth a wicked teeth.
It is easy to believe that the black seadevil anglerfish, with its gaping maw of razor-like teeth, a bioluminescent rod sticking out of its head and lidless eyes used to scan the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, might make someone cry with fright.
It is perhaps less believable that such a creature, the kind so freakish it inspired a particularly scary scene in the children’s movie “Finding Nemo,” would move people to genuine, raw tears of emotional overwhelm.
On social media, a seadevil has done just that, becoming a folk hero in recent weeks after swimming great lengths from its typical home, some 200 to 2,000 meters deep in the ocean, to the surface. Some of the fish’s fans have turned the watery odyssey — which ended in death — into a poignant version of the hero’s journey.
“My first reaction was, ‘Oh my god, this fish is terrifying,’” said Hannah Backman, 29, who lives in Minneapolis and posted about the fish on TikTok. But, she said, she eventually succumbed to the poetry of a lone fish approaching the light: “This poor fish is just spending her literal last seconds trying to do something beautiful.”
“I did shed a few tears,” she added.
In late January, the seadevil made headlines when it was spotted near the surface by a group of researchers off the coast of Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. It was a rare event and “a dream come true,” said one photographer with the group who was able to capture the fish on camera. The team observed the fish, which was already injured when it was spotted, for several hours. The seadevil ultimately died.
Why did the seadevil decamp for the surface? We do not know for certain, although scientists have speculated that it might have had to do with illness or an unusual current. Weepy fans of the fish on TikTok, however, have woven a beautiful, and probably fanciful, narrative for the fish: a story of a creature in its final days, desperate to experience a source of light not generated by its own body.
Here’s a video of the poor fish before it died:
*The Free Press reports how, after two Australian nurses threatened to kill any Israeli patients they had (and implied that killing had already been done), a coalition of 50 Muslim groups rushed to defend the miscreants. (There’s no evidence that any Israelis were actually killed.) First, the short video in a tweet:
There needs to be an investigation immediately into these two Australian medical professionals who are saying they will kill Israeli patients – and suggesting that they already have. They are expressing criminal intent towards Jewish people, this must be stopped.
Antisemitism is… pic.twitter.com/YCX3w9YVcY— Sharren Haskel השכל שרן (@SharrenHaskel) February 11, 2025
tt was bad enough when two Australian nurses were caught on camera saying they wouldn’t treat Israeli patients and instead would “kill them.” But now 50 of Australia’s Muslim community groups have rushed to the nurses’ defense. If a couple of Aussie caregivers doing a throat-slitting gesture to a man from Israel was chilling, the fact that so many Muslim leaders are willing to stand up for them is outright terrifying.
This sordid story started a week ago with the release of a video showing two nurses at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney engaging in the most abhorrent Israelophobic chatter. They were talking with an Israeli TikToker, Max Veifer, after encountering him on a video chat site. He told them he was Israeli. One of the nurses drew his fingers across his throat to suggest Veifer deserved to die. He said he sends Israelis to Jahannam—the Muslim version of hell. The other nurse said she would never treat an Israeli. “I won’t treat them. I will kill them.”
The clip went viral and the nurses were suspended. Australian PM Anthony Albanese slammed their “antisemitic comments.” There was horror across Oz that these nurses seemed to have sacrificed the core moral principle of medicine—first do no harm—at the altar of their burning hatred for the Jewish state. Yet there’s a section of Aussie society that seems pretty blasé about the whole thing: self-appointed Muslim leaders.
A coalition of prominent Muslim groups has written an open letter criticizing the “selective outrage” over the nurses’ behavior. It says the nurses were just being “emotional and hyperbolic.” Nice try. We all get emotional at times but we don’t go around fantasizing about the deaths of people from the world’s only Jewish nation. Emotion is no excuse for violent-minded loathing for a whole national group.
. . . The letter says the nurses were raging against Israel, not Jews. They were expressing “frustration and anger” over Israel’s “violent and inhumane policies.” Apparently, the “hypocrites” who have called the nurses out—that would be most of Oz—are seeking to “weaponize accusations of antisemitism to silence dissent [on Israel].” This, the letter concludes, is “dishonest” and “dangerous.”
. . . Australia having nurses who passionately hate Israelis is deeply worrying. Australia having Muslim groups that are willing to defend those nurses is even more so. It exposes the depth of the moral rot under the ideology of multiculturalism. Israelophobia is an old hatred in new garb. It is the social malady that springs from our rejection of civilizational values. Tackling it is the great task of our time.
You can excuse any amount of hatred towards Jews now as hatred of “Israel” or “hatred of Zionism”, but given that the patients the nurses claimed to kill, or wanted to kill, were in fact Australian, it seems to me like good old-fashioned antisemitism.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s keeping a close watch for signs of Spring:
Hili: The birds have gone crazy.Andrzej: Why do you think so?Hili: They think it’s spring already.
Hili: Ptaki zwariowały.Ja: Czemu tak sądzisz?Hili: Myślą, że to już wiosna.
*******************
From The Dodo Pet:
From My Cat is an Asshole:
From Things With Faces: a wedding bouquet that looks like the Cookie Monster:
Masih is still very quiet so we’ll have a post from J.K.R.:
One day kids will learn about the time when intelligent liberals were too scared to say ‘women don’t have penises’ and they’ll roll around laughing. I’d find it quite funny myself if I could forget how much harm those people’s shameless cowardice and self-interest have enabled.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 16, 2025
From Malgorzata. I don’t know who this Israeli woman is, but she’s passionate and also discussing aspects of the last hostage handover that weren’t reported by the media:
Hamas turned the latest exchange into a dark spectacle—boastful posters, stolen IDF gear, and ominous “gifts” for hostages to bring back. While much of the media ignored it, we won’t look away. pic.twitter.com/W9jnEpXqJo
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 15, 2025
Two more from the magic thread:
9. this is crazy 😭 pic.twitter.com/2zZhpZm06u
— 𝐏𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐞 🧸✰ (@ThePadrepr) February 13, 2025
From Malcolm, who calls it “nearly”:
he’s smart pretending 😂 pic.twitter.com/Yrp6zPm5vb
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) February 3, 2025
From my feed. I put this up because it sounds like Kamala Harris!
“You are filled with wonder and awe.”
👁👄👁 pic.twitter.com/k3uXBG6H3n— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) February 18, 2025
From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I posted:
The gas chamber (low building) and crematorium at Auschwitz (located in the Birkenau part of the camp.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-02-20T11:16:19.962Z
Two posts from Dr. Cobb. A big beaver in Chicago, and not that far from me! What a chonk!
In lighter (heavier?) news, one particularly large beaver has been seen frequently along the Chicago River."Lori Heavyfoot, Southside Large Marge, Dam Ryan, Sufjan Beavens and Sigourney Beaver are some top contenders suggested by people on Reddit."blockclubchicago.org/2025/02/18/a…
— Katie O'Reilly (@drkatfish.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T15:31:56.914Z
A cartoon posted by Matthew:
Genuine lol from @privateeyenews.bsky.social
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T09:00:43.920Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. -Ansel Adams, photographer (20 Feb 1902-1984)
No love for the apple pie? I grew up on my mother’s scratch-made apple pies, and I respectfully submit that they were the best pies ever, especially with a scoop of Vanilla.
In case there’s a vote, I favour Southside Large Marge (for the Pee Wee reference).
Despite many months of trying to rationalize the anti-Israel outrage as being legitimate criticism of a government and its policies, we must accept the unthinkable reality that the hatred espoused around the world is really just old-fashioned antisemitism—updated for the 21st century. (Thank you, Jerry, for making this point, above.) Jews, especially, have wanted with all their hearts to believe the anti-Israelism fantasy, hoping against hope that the antisemitism alternative wasn’t, in fact, true. But it is true. Jews who have for decades participated in (and lavishly funded) progressive causes—and who continue to do in hope of acceptance—really need to pay closer attention to the company they keep. They really don’t want us.
That’s so sad, Norman. As a non-Jew who for many many years called myself a “Palestinian sympathizer”, I bought the separation. I really believed one could be against Israel without being against Jews. I have Jerry with this blog and all its many Jewish readers/contributors to thank for opening my eyes to the falseness of this. It was false in too many ways to list here. No country is blameless nor are its inhabitants (in their entirety), but one cannot wish for the demise of a country in its entirety without there simultaneously existing a hatred for its people. Particularly in the case of Israel whose whole reason for existence is the safety of one specific population whom much of the world silently witnessed the attempted extermination of. The Holocaust is not ancient history. That’s what blows my mind. My mother and father were in their twenties at that time. I was born just 15 years after its end. That’s yesterday in historical time. It’s crazy! Through reading WEIT I was introduced to many things, primary among them (with respect to Israel) being Dan Senor’s podcast “Call me back”. I will never think of Israel the same again. I’m not sure why I’m saying this. Maybe it’s an apology of sorts for my many years of ignorance and my lack curiosity, interest, and charity for the plight of the world’s Jews. I have a heavy heart about this.
Sad but true.
Two recommendations today.
Colin Wright’s excellent recent talk at GENSPECT
How “Trans” was defined. (30 min)
It is a good general overview. Send it to people less appraised of this topic for maximal understanding in a short time.
and from my own column this week
(I also put it below today’s Palestine outrage at WEIT lower.
Send to people of either less morals or less historical understanding of the issue)
https://democracychronicles.org/so-what-of-gaza-trumps-plan-and-some-context/
D.A.
NYC/Florida
Very good video.
Sexism: Women should do the dishes.
Equality: Both men and women should do the dishes.
Gender Ideology: Whoever is doing the dishes is the woman.
I think one reason the definition of “transgender” has now crept out to include gender nonconforming people (such as men who like to do the dishes) is to try to refute the above implication.
Sastra, that’s what’s always irked me about the trans movement. Back when it was just drag, flamboyant stereotypical behavior by men dressed as women was done tongue-in-cheek. Now, it seems the trans movement is more about normalizing stereotypes – for example, I remember the video of Mulvaney running from a bug or something and screaming. These people are not behaving as women – they have adopted stereotypes based on how they think a woman would act.
Cherry pie: They even wrote a song about it.
And now Orange Julius is a Marine Biologist. Freezes offshore wind farms as damaging to marine life.
National Review is not generally pro-Trump.
The official White House post on X, that Trump posted earlier on Truth Social, showing Trump with a crown: CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” LONG LIVE THE KING!”
Putin must have some great pictures of Trump’s Russian sexploitations. Maybe of Gabbard too. Nothing like Russian assets in top governmental positions.
And, I am so tired of the MSM not calling a lie a lie, and a liar a liar. They pussyfoot around using terms like “misinformation”, “inaccurate”, “claimed without evidence”, and so on. And some of us know what the San-Ti think about liars!
About what or whom can’t one purely speculate? (I suppose it’s a good thing that, AFAIK, Gabbard does not read/post here. Otherwise I reasonably assume that Da Roolz would kick in.)
I contemplate purely speculating that Gabbard secretly sabotaged the Nord Stream pipeline, inspired by Joe Biden’s ardent public declaration about and endorsement of the prospect. (But, doggone it, it gashes me that I can’t pin the My Lai massacre on her.)
I wonder if Quiet Skies federal air marshals are still surveilling her for her having the gall and intestinal fortitude not to keep her mouth shut and wilt like a salted snail and conform to every jot and tittle of the Washington Establishment Neocon Consensus.
But it’s fun, don’t you think? 😅
After all parroting of the Russian narratives that Gabbard has done, calling her Russian asset is not an insult but a statement of fact.
I don’t think so. No blackmail material they could have on Trump could compromise Trump remotely as much as his own public words do.
BTW, many Ukrainians are not surprised, because they are used to being betrayed by their Western “allies”. They point out that Trump wants a weak Europe (if railroaded by Russia, no big deal) and a happy Russia siding with him against China.
I don’t think so either; sarcasm doesn’t play too well here unless it’s labelled sarcasm – which kind of defeats the purpose. I believe that Trump admires Putin because of his nearly limitless power, and that is what Trump covets. He admires authoritarians of most any stripe. What Don-old, the Musk-rats and the complicit Congress and Supreme Court are doing to this country is reckless to say the least – elect criminals, expect crime.
The National Review, a conglomeration of different writers, is conservative but independent and has often criticized things Trump and other Republicans have done. It usually “call ’em as they sees ’em.” As someone on the political left, I consider the National Review an intelligent conservative magazine, and I read it to get intelligent conservative perspectives from the right.
As a right-leaning libertarian, I enjoy NR.
It’s not sensationalist cheerleading like Breitbart, as many of the staff writers were opposed to Trump, but not in the manner of the grifters at the Lincoln Project. NR seems more principled than almost any other outlet on either the right or left, in my opinion. They’ll give credit to D politicians if they do something that they (NR) agrees with, and will criticize R politicians if they do something they don’t.
Here’s an example from Charles Cooke writing about Trump’s call to remove congestion pricing in NYC: “Hochul’s argument — Hochul’s correct argument — was that Trump is not “a king,” and that the federal government’s involvement in what is very obviously a local concern represents an “attack” on its “sovereign identity” and on its “independence from Washington.”” I like the fact that NR usually stands on basic principles over party in their writing.
Note: I was a lefty in HS and college, but loved Buckley’s writing. I devoured his weekly newspaper columns even as my political views were diametrically opposed. I learned to improve my essays from that experience by studying his style. NR carries on much of that tradition.
Maybe one thing we can all learn from Trump is that we don’t need the federal government putting its nose into everything.
The federal government should do a small number of things, and do them well.
And, in another example, why were the feds handling the Mayor Adams case? I would have thought that bribery or whatever he was charged with would have been handled at the state level.
Maybe the Feds were involved with the Adams case because it involved foreign money or interstate commerce?
The National Review consistently warns about the dangers of Putin to both Russia and Ukraine. It also notes that China, North Korea, and others are watching our response. Some choice quotes below:
“This is a regime that has shown itself willing to use whatever it has against whoever it can. To leave it in place is to court disaster.” “The naysayers warn of chaos and cost, but the greater cost is inaction in the face of a clear and present danger.” “A victory here sends a message to every corner of the region: defiance of the free world has consequences.” “This is about more than one man; it’s about proving that liberty can take root where tyranny once reigned.” “Boldness in the face of evil is what history rewards; timidity only prolongs the inevitable.” “Walking away now would undo all we’ve sacrificed for—staying the course is the only path to victory.” “Will it be worth it? The removal of a dangerous regime answers yes, even if the aftermath will test our patience.”
Except these are not quotes about Ukraine. They are characterizations of the National Review’s consistent stance on the Iraq War, but any one of them would apply to their position on Ukraine. That they peddled the “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction” lies, that they pushed their lunacy of remaking the Middle East, that they smeared anyone who disagreed does not mean that they are wrong about Ukraine. But they do have a track record going back to Vietnam. I will grant that I find their position now more credible than that on Iraq, but I also wonder whether they are less concerned about helping the Ukrainian people than they are about hurting Russia and Putin—and quite willing to do so with Ukrainian lives. Stay the course.
Their rationale for military action—and the excuses for when it fails—are remarkably similar from one conflict to the next. One needn’t know a thing about history, culture, leadership personalities, relative balance of forces, importance of a given objective or territory to one side versus the other, competing interests and priorities, military operations, or a range of other pertinent matters. While these are all important, what matters more is that one must “show resolve,” “not allow the march of tyranny,” “never forget that others are watching,” “exercise strength to maintain credibility,” “defend freedom wherever it is threatened.” And equally important: no cost is so far sunk that it cannot be embraced. The mentality survives at places like the National Review not simply because it reflects a disposition that will always be with us. It survives because the writers and their fellow travelers in think tanks, policy, academia, the media, and other non-military positions almost never do the dying—and rarely even pay a career cost for being wrong.
To Jerry’s question. “When you’ve lost the National Review, you’ve lost the most consistent and unapologetic warmongers of my generation.”
Maybe the people at NR think that it is unwise to wait until America’s enemies become so strong that start launching murderous attacks on US soil.
As for Trump’s liaison with Putin, thumbs up for Bernie!