Tuesday: Hili dialogue

Welcome to The Cruelest Day:  it’s Tuesday, March 11, 2025, and I am weary and lower than a snake’s belly. But it’s also National “Eat Your Noodles” Day, with the scare quotes implying that you only have to pretend that you ate noodles. But I would eat these!

It’s also Debunking Day, Johnny Appleseed Day (he supposedly died on this day in 1845), and Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 11 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*A Palestinian who, as a former student at Columbia, engaged in considerable activism, has been snatched up by ICE and is being held in Louisiana.  But he also has a green card, and I think this detention is one more illegal act of the Trump administration:

U.S. immigration agents arrested a Palestinian graduate student who has played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at New York’s Columbia University as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on some anti-Israel activists.

Mahmoud Khalil, a student at the university’s School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents at his university residence on Saturday evening, the Student Workers of Columbia labor union said in a statement.

His wife is a U.S. citizen, eight months pregnant, according to news reports, and he holds a U.S. permanent residency green card, the union said. His arrest was condemned by civil rights groups as an attack on protected political speech.

In an interview with Reuters hours before his arrest on Saturday about Trump’s criticism of student protesters, Khalil said he was concerned that he was being targeted by the government for speaking to the media.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a news report of Khalil’s arrest on social media on Sunday, adding the comment: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” He did not elaborate and spokespeople for Rubio did not respond to questions.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a social media post that it had arrested Khalil because he has “led activities aligned to Hamas,” without elaborating. DHS spokespeople did not respond to Reuters questions.

U.S. law forbids providing “material support or resources” to groups the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations, including Hamas, the Palestinian-nationalist Islamist group that governs Gaza and controls the territory’s militant wing. That law does not define or prohibit “activities aligned to” these groups, and DHS spokespeople did not respond to questions about their accusation.

. . . . Khalil’s detention is one of the first efforts by Trump, a Republican who returned to the White House in January, to fulfill his promise to seek the deportation of some foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which he has called antisemitic. The Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and subsequent U.S.-supported Israeli assault on Gaza have led to months of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests that have roiled college campuses in the U.S. and overseas.

Well, if they can find any evidence (I don’t think there is any) that Khalil has actually given any support to Hamas, that’s one thing, but what we seem to have here is someone with permission to live in the U.S.–a green card is about as close as you can get to being a citizen–being detained for speech. Much as I deplore Khalil’s speech and sentiments, and much as I deplore the pro-Palestinians’ desire to dismantle America, what ICE did seems to me a Constitutional violation of the First Amendment. In fact, a 2023 article notes that ICE itself has two memos warning against this kind of stuff (h/t Jean):

 Constitutional Considerations Relating to Proposed Enhanced Vetting of Aliens in the United States for Counterterrorism Purposes analyzes the constitutional frameworks that constrain government agencies’ “counterterrorism vetting” programs. Significantly, the memo recognizes that non-U.S. persons in the United States have due process rights and “can invoke protections under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause.”

Inadmissibility Based on Endorsing or Espousing Terrorist Activity: First Amendment Concerns

A relevant tweet claiming he’s pro-Hamas:  https://x.com/EFischberger/status/1898953421048193345

*Anybody interested in women’s issues, and especially in the “MeToo” movement, knows about Gloria Allred, a lawyer who has represented many women who accused men, prominent or other wise, of sexual assault or harassment. The WSJ, however, has a new article showing that Allred isn’t the figure of consolation everybody seems to know, a piece called, “The high-pressure tactics Gloria Allred uses—on her own clients ”

For decades, Allred has hugged and comforted her clients while they give tearful accounts of their alleged abuse at press conferences. But that public image is often at odds with the lawyer’s behavior behind the scenes. There, clients said, Allred and her firm ignored their wishes and pushed them to agree to confidential settlements.

Some clients said they were shocked at the disconnect between Allred’s image as an advocate who empowers women and gives them choices and her private approach. They said they contacted her firm at the worst moments of their lives, when they felt vulnerable and alone. They now question whether retaining the firm was in their best interest, both emotionally and financially, and whether decisions were made primarily to benefit Allred and her firm.

Few details are public about what happens between Allred and her clients, mostly women, without the cameras. The reason: Clients are told to keep discussions secret and are required to sign agreements that bar them from suing the firm in court or publicizing disputes with their lawyers.

This account is based on audio recordings, documents and interviews with more than four dozen people, including women who have approached Allred for her services, former clients who have retained her firm, people in whom clients confided during their experiences and lawyers who have worked both alongside and against the firm.

The people said that while Allred consoles women on camera, in private she scolds and intimidates them and threatens to drop them as clients if they disobey her. Some said the firm’s lawyers repeatedly conveyed the idea that the women were lucky to be talking to them. And even though Allred publicly says she wants women to speak out about injustice, some were told to delete text and video evidence, and several said her firm pressured them to sign nondisclosure agreements that protect predators.

. . . . More than a dozen women described similar interactions with the law firm, which included having their requests dismissed, being limited from speaking about their experiences—publicly but also with family, other victims or therapists—or being made to fear interactions with the media without Allred. Some questioned whether their payouts were as high as they could be, or whether they received justice through the process.

Lest you think this will stop the flow of clients to Allred, think again. She has a reputation (and makes $1200 an hour), and that reputation alone may prompt those accused to settle. So it goes.

*Since I’ve lived in Chicago, a number of mayors, aldermen, and state and Federal Representatives have gone to jail. This includes one governor (who also served as a U.S. Repersentative for six years), the infamous Rod Blagojevich. “Blago,” as he was called, was convicted in 2009 of, among other things, trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat, and was sentenced to 14 years in stir, which he began serving in 2012. However, President Trump, in his first term, commuted Blago’s sentence in 2020. That effaced the sentence but not the felony conviction. Last month, however, Trump gave the corrupt governor a full and unconditional pardon.

Now, in the Free Press, Blago has announced Big Ambitions in an article called “Jailed. Pardoned. Now Rod Blagojevich wants to be a ‘Trumpcrat‘.”

Blago has never admitted fault, despite the fact that he was caught on a federal wiretap speaking to an adviser, calling the opportunity to fill Obama’s seat “fucking golden.”

Within five minutes of meeting the governor at his home late last month, he told me: “I didn’t do it”—before I even had a chance to ask. For 16 years, he’s been beating this drum—to other reporters, juries, judges, anyone who will listen.

No one believed him, he said, except Trump.

Betting on Trump has been the best decision Blago has ever made. That became clear five days after Trump’s inauguration this past January.

A pardon for an already free man is a mostly symbolic act—unless you’re a politician. For Blagojevich, it now means that at 68 years old, he can run for office again. Though he is barred from running for state office, he could throw his hat in the ring to be mayor of Chicago—or even president of the United States. What’s more, not all races require him to declare what seems obvious: that he is no longer a Democrat.

“If you’re running for the mayor of Chicago, you don’t have to declare a party,” he told me. He added that even in deep-blue Chicago, voters “would be open to somebody like me.”

Meanwhile, Roger Stone, the longtime Trump adviser, is publicly encouraging Blagojevich to run for mayor of Chicago on X. Blago told me that multiple donors, local businessmen, and even a former Chicago politician have all called to ask him if he has given running for mayor “a thought.”

Sweet Ceiling Cat on a bike! A convicted felon running for mayor of Chicago?  Well, if any place would vote a miscreant like Blago back into office, it would be Chicago. But I would hope that my fellow residents are not that dumb.

*We’re not having politics today as I find it depressing. Besides, a friend just called me and told me this story, and I didn’t believe it was real–or even possible. But it is! Texas is angry that a small group of people bought ALL THE TICKETS, and, after taxes, won $25 million. I would have thought that that couldn’t be true because the expenditure on all tickets would exceed the payout. I still don’t know how it worked, but it did. (Article archived here.)

The unusual circumstances surrounding two of the largest Lottery jackpots in Texas history have touched off a furious debate about the unorthodox methods used to snag the prizes and have led the governor and attorney general to announce investigations.

On April 22, 2023, someone won a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot by spending $25 million to buy nearly every possible number combination in the draw. The winner, identified only as a business entity called Rook TX, of Scotch Plains, N.J., ended up claiming the lump-sum payment of $57,804,000 before taxes.

I won’t describe the other clever trick; just this one:

In early 2023, as the jackpot in Lotto Texas ballooned over months without a winner, someone figured out a way to almost guarantee a win, according to Ryan Mindell, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission.

In the run-up to the drawing, the person or persons — it is not clear how many were involved — worked with four retailers in Texas to order a “significant” number of lottery terminals, enough to pump out roughly 25 million tickets and cover nearly every possible number combination, Mr. Mindell said.

Then, in the three days leading up to the drawing, people went to the stores and entered millions of number combinations using QR codes that had been loaded onto iPads, Mr. Mindell said. The Texas Lottery app allows customers to generate QR codes that can be scanned at participating retailers to generate tickets.

The operation caused a giant spike in sales, with about 27 million tickets sold in less than 72 hours, compared to about 2 million in a typical Lotto Texas drawing, Mr. Mindell said.

“I remember waking up that Thursday morning and seeing the sales numbers and thinking, ‘What the hell is happening?’” he said.

One of the tickets contained the winning combination — 3-5-18-29-30-52 — for the $95 million jackpot, the third-largest in Lotto Texas history. Officials have not disclosed who was behind Rook TX, the entity that claimed the prize. Texas law allows those who claim Lottery prizes of $1 million or more to remain anonymous.

. . . . “This is probably the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the State of Texas by any group,” Senator Paul Bettencourt said at the hearing. “We gave up, probably on a fraudulent win, $57.7 million.”

Mr. Mindell said that the Lottery had taken steps to thwart similar “bulk-buying” operations by limiting the number of terminals that retailers could order in a short period and capping the number of tickets each terminal can print per drawing.

This is NOT A FRAUD. It was clever, but clearly legal, and the winners get to keep their money. But of course they’re putting procedures into place to prevent it from happening again.

*I hate getting stuff dry-cleaned, and thus I was glad to see the NYT piece, “All the things you don’t need to dry clean, even if the label says you do.” Save money! Here are a few.

Cashmere. Cashmere is frequently thought of as a material that must be dry-cleaned. However, the experts we spoke to for our guide to washing cashmere insisted that hand-washing is actually better for your garment in the long run, because dry-cleaning typically involves harsh chemicals that can damage cashmere fibers.

You also needn’t hand-wash your cashmere that frequently. We recommend against doing it after every wear; instead, we suggest washing it after every seven to 10 wears and then again before storing it away at the start of summer as added protection against moths.

Washing cashmere properly requires a sink or basin large enough to fully submerge the garment and either a drying rack that allows the garment to lay completely flat (like this mesh one from OXO) or a white bath towel that’s large enough for the garment to lay flat upon. (Avoid using colored bath towels, which could transfer dye onto cashmere.) You’ll also need a gentle soap, such as baby shampoo, or a hand-washing detergent, like our pick, Soak (which doesn’t need to be rinsed out).

I use baby shampoo (unscented) as I do for silk

Silk (high quality or lightly colored).Believe it or not, the more expensive a silk garment is, the better a candidate it probably is for hand-washing over dry-cleaning. Although price doesn’t always correspond to quality, water can generally make cheaper silks lose their shape in the long run, either by stretching them out or shrinking them.

To quickly determine if your silk is a good candidate for hand-washing, gently scrunch it up into a ball and then let it go. If it opens up smoothly, it’s likely okay to wash by hand. If it instead stays creased and shows wrinkles, it probably should be dry-cleaned.

You should also consider your silk’s color and pattern. The darker the color, the better off it is at the dry cleaners. The same goes for silks that feature colorful patterns or dark-light contrasts, as darker dye can leak into the lighter parts during hand-washing.

Once you’ve determined that hand-washing your silk is the way to go, you can get the job done in a sink with a detergent designed for delicates,

Wool sweaters, blankets, and suits (after you check the lining). Dry-cleaning chemicals can be overly abrasive on finer wools. Most modern wool garments (including the base layers and wool blanket we recommend) have been treated, so they can be machine-washed without shrinking. The same can’t be said about vintage wool items, however, so make sure to check the manufacturer’s care instructions before cleaning.

Though you may already know that laundering wool in the coldest water possible is key, here’s another hot tip: Make sure to use your machine’s gentlest setting, because heavy agitation and severe spin cycles are also culprits when it comes to shrinking wool.

Your suit can also probably skip the trip to the cleaners. The best way to tackle any dirt on a suit is usually with spot-cleaning.

If your wool suit or coat is more wrinkled than it is dirty, you can have your suit steam-pressed, instead of dry-cleaned, to restore its crispness.

Down comforters, vests, jackets, and sleeping bags. Down is another material that can be damaged by dry-cleaning chemicals—yet frustratingly, we’ve found that machine-washing down items might void their warranties in some cases. As we wrote in our guide to the best comforters, “We’ve machine-washed the dry-clean-only Brooklinen (one of our picks for the best down comforter) for testing purposes and it worked beautifully, but Brooklinen does not advise doing this.”

The best way to machine-wash a down comforter is in a front-loading washer with a mild detergent on a cold, gentle setting. Then run it again on a shorter cycle with no soap, to make sure all detergents are gone, since they can also shorten down’s lifespan.

For more best practices on washing and drying down at home, see the “Care and maintenance” sections of our comforter guide or our insulated jacket guide.

I wash my with Nikwax Down Wash, a special down detergent, and dry it on low using a dozen clean tennis balls to plump up the down. It’s the only way to go.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili makes a riposte:

Hili: This sofa remembers better times.

A: A sofa remembers nothing, only living creatures remember.

Hili: And computers.

Hili: Ta sofa pamięta lepsze czasy.

Ja: Sofa niczego nie pamięta, pamiętają istoty żywe.

Hili: I komputery.

And a photo of a sleepy or sad Baby Kulka:

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

From Stacy, a diagram that the FFRF needs to put on their webpage:

From Cats Make Me Happy:

From Cats Without Gods:

X still seems to be down a bit, as I’ve lost the ability to directly embed tweets. I will use screenshots or URLs until the feature returns:

From Masih, who’s eager to testify against her accused Iranian-funded assassins. Click on screenshot, with sound up.

From Simon, who says, “I’d laugh, but it’s almost plausible”:

America lost an hour this morning due to the President's attempt to put a tariff on time.

— God (@skeetofgod.bsky.social) 2025-03-09T15:17:01.022Z

From Malgorzata: anti-Semitism in Israel:

Two from my feed; I didn’t know that Israeli women were banned from the Woman’s March, but it wouldn’t be the first time:

Sound up to hear this happy penguin (click on screenshot to go to video tweet):

From Malcolm; cats eating (on FB). Sound up!

One from the Auschwitz Memorial that I retweeted. A Czech Jewish girl murdered by cyanide gas upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was ten.

10 March 1934 | A Dutch Jewish girl, Carla Bromet, was born in The Hague.On 26 February 1944 she was deported from Westerbork to the Theresienstadt ghetto. She arrived at #Auschwitz on 6 October 1944 in a transport of 1,500 Jews. She was murdered in a gas chamber.

— Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T21:00:30.284Z

Two from Matthew. First, a lovely leatherback sea turtle:

Leatherback sea turtles can grow up to 1.8 metres long and weigh up to 450 kilograms. That’s heavier than a grand piano 🐢😲🎥: ausmashmash

— Lewis Pugh Foundation (@lewispughfdn.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T09:04:06.094Z

I wish somebody would take that copepod off!

Another great parasitic copepod on a rattail! These dives haven't disappointed in the parasite department. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 803 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife

— Lisa (@tuexplorer1.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T02:03:07.448Z