Wednesday: Hili dialogue

May 21, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to a Hump Day (“ruz tapeh” in Dari), May 21, 2025 and National Strawberries and Cream Day, which means everything will be peachy today.

Micolo J from Shrewsbury, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also National Juice Slush Day, International Tea Day, and National Waiters and Waitresses Day.

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

Da Nooz:

*The UK, France, and Canada have threatened to impose sanctions on Israel if it doesn’t end the war (h/t Malgorzata).

The leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada issued a joint statement Monday condemning Israel’s handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and calling on the Jewish state to immediately halt military action in the enclave and allow in more aid, threatening “further concrete actions in response” if Jerusalem refuses.

The three leaders — Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Mark Carney — called Israel’s announcement Sunday to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza “wholly inadequate” and said the country’s failure to assist the Gazan civilian population “is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law.”

Netanyahu hit back in a statement, saying London, Paris and Ottawa were “offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.”

The earlier statement from the three Western countries called on Israel to engage with the United Nations “to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles.”

Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday for the first time since March 1, when Israel halted the assistance to pressure the terror group to release dozens of hostages it is holding. Israel argued that a sufficient amount of goods entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas has been stealing much of that aid. In recent weeks, though, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political leadership that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the immediate resumption of “basic” humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, making a highly unpopular decision among his right-wing circles in light of mounting pressure from Washington to end the blockade.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are a few problems with this scenario. First, these countries, and the UN, by asking for a cease-fire without any concessions from Hamas, are promoting the continuance of the terror group as the leaders of Gaza. Note that there is no call for Hamas to surrender militarily as well as give up the hostages. Second, Israel has tried to collaborate with the UN to deliver food to Gazan civilians, but the UN won’t have any part of Israel’s plan, which involves the IDF guarding the food but with the UN (who doesn’t care if the food goes to Hamas) standing by. (Presumably the UN doesn’t want its people shot at.) And yes, there’s ample evidence that Hamas has been stealing much of the food aid, which is still enough to last several weeks.  What the world should be doing now is pressuring Hamas to surrender and release the hostages, and that is eminently possible since Qatar is the home of many rich Hamas leaders and funnels plenty of financial support to Hamas.  The UK, France, and Canada (and the US and the rest of Europe) should be demanding that Qatar cut off all aid to Hamas, arrest its leaders, and that the US should threaten to remove its military base from Qatar.  Why is the world not pressuring Hamas (via Qatar) instead of Israel?

*Speaking of Qatar, the NYT reports that no, that country didn’t just offer Trump a luxury jet out of the blue to serve as Air Force One. No, the Trump administration had its eye on the plane and apparently negotiated its acquisition for a considerable time. (story archived here):

President Trump wanted a quick solution to his Air Force One problem.

The United States signed a $3.9 billion contract with Boeing in 2018 for two jets to be used as Air Force One, but a series of delays had slowed the work far past the 2024 delivery deadline, possibly beyond Mr. Trump’s second term.

Now Mr. Trump had to fly around in the same old planes that transported President George H.W. Bush 35 years ago. It wasn’t just a vanity project. Those planes, which are no longer in production, require extensive servicing and frequent repairs, and officials from both parties, reaching back a decade or more, had been pressing for replacements.

Mr. Trump, though, wanted a new plane while he was still in office. But how?

“We’re the United States of America,” Mr. Trump said this month. “I believe that we should have the most impressive plane.”\

The story of how the Trump administration decided that it would accept a free luxury Boeing 747-8 from Qatar to serve as Air Force One involved weeks of secret coordination between Washington and Doha. The Pentagon and the White House’s military office swung into action, and Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, played a key role.

Soon after Mr. Trump took office, military officials started to discuss how the United States could buy a temporary plane for Mr. Trump to use while Boeing’s work creaked along, an investigation by The New York Times found. But by May 11, when the president announced on social media that Qatar would be providing the plane to the United States, he characterized it as “a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE.”

There are lingering questions about how much financial sense the still-unsigned deal would make, given the costs of refitting the plane for presidential use and operating it over the long run — or even whether the plane could be ready for Mr. Trump to use before the end of his second term.

The outlines of the arrangement that emerged have also drawn condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, as well as ethics lawyers, who said it looked either like Mr. Trump himself was taking the gift or that the Qataris were using it to curry favor with the administration.

And it remains unclear exactly how a plan that Pentagon officials and others inside the administration initially assumed would involve buying the plane from Qatar morphed into a proposed gift by the Middle Eastern nation.

About that U.S. air base:

What is clear is that the ties between the United States and Qatar are already extremely close, in large part because of the sprawling air base there, where the United States has one of its largest operations in the Middle East. And it is a relationship that involves major spending on both sides.

Well, as I said, Trump might help end the war in Gaza by threatening to sever the close ties between the U.S. and Qatar, including that military base, which Qatar wants badly but the U.S. doesn’t need all that much.  Qatar’s dual role as friend of US and Hamas-helper means that we have leverage over it, as do EU countries. As for the damn plane, well, Air Force One is not obsolete yet; it’s just that Trump wants a fancy plane. And one that would need to be fully disassembled and inspected for suspicious devices.

*In an unexplained emergency decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a large number of Venezuelan immigrants no longer enjoy temporary protection from deportation put in place as a humanitarian decision by the Biden administration.

The Supreme Court said Monday that the Trump administration can cancel temporary protections for up to 350,000 Venezuelans — a major undoing of a Biden administration decision that allowed those migrants to live and work in the United States for humanitarian reasons.

Immigrant advocates said the move could have devastating effects on large communities of Venezuelans, some of whom have lived in the U.S. for many years. Advocates said they thought deportation efforts could begin immediately, or in the next few weeks.

As is typical when they act on emergency requests, the justices did not explain their decision, which will remain in effect while a legal fight over rescinding protected statusplays out in the lower courts. The court, which ruled against Trump in two other recent emergency cases that involved summary deportations without due process, said some Venezuelans who lose protected status might initiate their own legal challenges if the government tries to deport them.

JusticeKetanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to say she would have kept in place a lower-court decision that blocked the Trump administration from removing protected status while litigation continued.

The Biden administration created protected status for Venezuelans — and extended it shortly before he left office — because officials felt the political and economic turmoil under the regime of President Nicolás Maduro made it too risky to deport migrants to their home country.

. . .Monday’s ruling directly affects Venezuelan migrants granted protected status in 2023. Protection for another group of approximately 250,000 Venezuelans, granted in 2021, expires in September.

Trump is also seeking to roll back other Biden-era protections that have allowed millions of immigrants to remain in the United States while their immigration cases play out, including temporary protected status for migrants from Afghanistan, Haiti and Cameroon.

It seems, though it’s unclear,even to lawyers, whether the U.S. can start deporting Venezuelans immediately, even without a due-process hearing. And I’m not sure about the meaning of the Supremes’ ruling that “some Venezuelans who lose protected status might initiate their own legal challenges if the government tries to deport them”. Which ones? Ones with money? And Afghanistan? Don’t the immigrants include those who helped the U.S. Army in their country and had to flee lest they fall into the hands of the Taliban?

*Oliver Wiseman at The Free Press, in an article called “The Joe Biden Cover-Up“, summarizes the findings of  a new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson: Original Sin:President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. (Article is archived here.)

Joe Biden couldn’t remember the name of Jake Sullivan, his top national security aide. He stared at people he had known for decades, including George Clooney, like he’d never seen them before. His top advisers hid him from his own staff. Cabinet members realized that the president could not be relied upon to respond to an emergency that came at an inconvenient hour.

Original Sin, the new book by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, is all Washington can talk about right now. Although its official release isn’t until Tuesday, there have been enough previews and excerpts for everyone to know what it says: that the decision by Biden’s top aides to keep his cognitive decline a secret was an enormous scandal. Perhaps even the biggest political scandal of the 21st century.

The book provides jaw-dropping details about our slack-jawed former president and the people who tried—and failed—to deliver for him another four years in office, even though he was obviously incapable of doing the job. Yet these are bombshell revelations of a strange sort. They are vivid and enraging, but fundamentally unsurprising.

That’s because they confirm what most normal Americans—and indeed everyone who has ever known an elderly person—instinctively understood was happening behind closed doors. They could see with their own eyes that the president was losing his mental faculties.

Anyone who still doubts that should listen to the audio from Biden’s October 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, which Axios published on Friday. It makes Hur’s assessment of Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” seem generous.

. . .Taken together, the book and the audio are a reminder that for 2023 and most of 2024, an elaborate play was staged for the American people. The production was brought to you by some of the most powerful people in the country. The First Lady and senior White House aides wrote the script.

Cabinet members and governors and senators and the legacy press all dutifully played their parts. Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg made it as slick a show as possible. Steven Spielberg helped with the lighting.

. . . “The original sin of Election 2024 was Biden’s decision to run for re-election,” write Tapper and Thompson, but reading their book one is left angry not at Biden but at self-serving aides, cowardly Democratic elites, and—especially—a media who conveniently forgot their role in the democratic process.

. . .The specter of Donald Trump explains so much of this bad behavior. Time and again, Trump was invoked as the justification for quashing dissent, rewriting the primary rules, or silencing inconvenient voices.

The Democrats were frozen in panic at the prospect of a second Trump term. They couldn’t do what any sane party would do and move on from Biden when there was still time to do so properly. And that inaction led to exactly the outcome they so feared.

And don’t forget Kamala Harris, who assured us all that Biden was fine. He wasn’t. This is something that anybody knew who possessed two neurons to rub together, and it’s unfortunate that the book is coming out right when Biden was diagnosed with serious prostate cancer. But blame for this coverup falls largely on the liberal media and the Democratic Party. Had people been honest, we might have had a Democratic President now. That may be wishful thinking, but, as Wiseman says, “the party’s historically low favorability ratings won’t get very far” without a reckoning about the scandal. And that means Democrats have to own up to their behavior around Biden. (That would be hard to do right now!)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is loving the Spring:

Hili: I’m looking with admiration.
A: What do you admire?
Hili: The charms of the spring.
In Polish:
Hili: Podziwiam.
Ja: Co podziwiasz?
Hili: Uroki wiosny.
And a picture of Szaron.

 

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

From Richard; Pope Francis arrives in Heaven:

From Meow:

From Jesus of the Day:

Masih spoke at a dinner the other day so she must be recovering, but she’s still not posting. We’ll have a tweet from her stand-in:

From Malcolm, and I find it heartwarming even if there is a d*g:

From Simon, and this rings true:

— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T15:04:19.571Z

Two from my feed. Cats and fawns first:

Is this whale really responding to the sound? I like to think so.

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A French Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arrival at Auschwitz. ("The selection" is a horrible euphemism.) Had she lived, she'd be 87 years old today.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-21T09:52:47.126Z

From Matthew:

First, a wonky statement from Beth Shapiro, scientific head of the “de-extincting” company colossal:

And two responses from critics of Colossal’s hype: (Herridge is a mammoth expert and Hone a dino experts; both are friends of Matthew):

Still, never thought I’d see the day that some ancient DNA peeps would so whole-heartedly embrace (a somewhat iffy version of) the morphological species concept.

— Tori Herridge (@toriherridge.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T19:08:10.443Z

This is the sort of thing any informed journalist should have queried them on. So you are sequencing the DNA, manipulating the DNA, but to determine whether or not you succeeded, you're looking to soft tissue anatomy and behaviour on a [checks notes] animal known from skeletons.

— Dr Dave Hone (@davehone.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T19:41:57.646Z

31 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
    A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. -Alexander Pope, poet (21 May 1688-1744)

  2. A lot of interesting speculation about Biden’s cancer, including that he had it when he was elected and that the frequent trips to Delaware were for treatment.

    2. Does it matter? – or rather did it then, Dr. B.?
      What if it were melanomas burned off his scalp now and again?

      To make the case I think you’re trying to here you need the fact that prostate cancer treatment would have interfered with his judgement and… presidenting.
      I’m not sure that is so.
      Respectfully,

      D.A.
      NYC

      1. The question is more about whether it was covered up, and particularly whether this was known at the time when Biden was running for a second term.

      2. Testosterone blockers can cause fatigue, depression, irritability, or emotional instability. Those seem relevant to the guy who has the nuke codes.

  3. Canada is behaving shamefully here. Its new Prime Minister is trying to pivot away from the United States (because Trump) and suck up to failing European countries with whom he hopes to develop competing trade and defence arrangements. (As if it’ll carry its weight with faraway Europe when it doesn’t with its only next-door neighbour.). Canada doesn’t absolutely need to appease its dangerous Muslim population the way Britain and France do, so throwing Israel under the bus is an abjectly cynical move by Canada to curry foreign favour. But as long as it’s “Elbows up!” against President Trump, older Canadians dependent on free health care are all for it.

    Tariff the hell out of us, I say.

    The Walk with Israel is this Sunday in Toronto. Everyone needs to come out. The war is not won as long as Hamas hasn’t capitulated and given up the hostages alive or dead. No ceasefire until then.

  4. Beth Shapiro (Colossal Biosciences):

    “Species concepts are human classification systems, and everybody can disagree and everyone can be right,”

    Scientific Gnosticism

    We did not ask for the classification system we use, it is a socially constructed prison, and if you recognize the divine spark within – scientific gnosis – science will be liberated once we smash the demiurgic prison which incarcerated us all so give me money.

  5. It seems that people are either oblivious to or unconcerned with the fact that the rest of the world cares more about the wellbeing of the Palestinians than Hamas does. They likewise seem to be utterly oblivious to the fact that Israel is not the only party driving this conflict, and that Hamas has the ability to end the conflict TODAY if it wanted to. Where is the corresponding international opprobrium and pressure on Hamas to do so?

    1. Nobody asks these cretins “What does paradise look like to you? What if you all get what you want?”
      Do they not know that an actual Pal state would look JUST LIKE IT DID between 2005-2023 in Gaza (Judenfrei!) but even more militarized and warlike? That it’d be ISIS-land or Talibanistan? All – but all – evidence suggests this.

      This amazes me along with general ignorance of how happy and free Muslim Arab citizens of Israel (who generally DON’T explode) have life.

      Nor that the Islamosphere has been poor and at war in some part all our lives and (absent Haiti and a few commie hells) nearly all “failed states” are Islamic?

      Nor will they know while lefty and Arab paid media/journos are driving this idiocy.
      More people need to read my column! hehehe

      D.A.
      NYC

  6. In reality, the Biden family, Democrats and the news media are the real threats to democracy.

    How the Bidens and their inner circle could allow Joe to become president for a second term is unspeakable. His decline was accelerating and it put the nation’s security at risk. In 2020, I feared Joe Biden would defeat Trump, and I think he would have done it again in 2024.

    It’s clear Democrats lied to the nation regarding Biden’s mental and physical ability to lead.

    And it’s clear…although not to Jake Tapper…that legacy media has picked a side. Not good for democracy.

    1. You think lying makes a politician and a political party a threat to democracy? Captain Obvious applauds your observation, but that cuts both ways. I don’t believe you’ll find another person more prone to lying and a political party most aligned with fantasies, often cruel and pointless, than the orange toddler, his staff and the party that supports him.

      Life today, in the midst of what is now the unstoppable death of our republic, is like watching a slow train wreck; it’s fascinating and horrifying in equal measure.

    2. Um, I gotta think that lying to your supporters about “massive election fraud” and thereby inciting an insurrection for the purpose of trying remain in office despite your election loss is the clearest, most outrageous threat to democracy this country has seen since the Revolutionary War. Recall that Trump was specifically advised by both is his Attorney General (William Barr) and his election security czar (Christopher Krebs) that there was NO evidence of material fraud, that his claims of fraud were rejected in over 60 different cases (by both Democratic and Republican judges), and that several of Trump’s lawyers actually faced sanctions (including disbarment) for filing these cases. There is absolutely no doubt that Trump knew his claims were bogus, but he knew from experience that if he says it, his minions will believe it, without regard to the facts. The fact that Trump is once again our president despite his ruthless, self-interested dishonesty is simply unfathomable.

    3. Lies are one thing. No headway can generally be made on that front.

      Paltering, demoralization, and setting terms for what lies and truths are – that is a dark art.

      I just got this :

      Political Ponerology – Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes
      Andrzej Łobaczewski
      Red Pill Press
      2007

      From the back cover :

      “The original manuscript of this book went into the furnace minutes before a secret police raid in Communist Poland. [..]

      In 1984, the third and final copy was written from memory by the last survivor of the original researchers: Andrew Lobaczewski.
      […]

      After half a century of suppression, this book is finally available.
      […]
      Political Ponerology is a study of the founders and supporters of oppressive political regimes. “

  7. When I read news of that joint statement from Canada, France, and the UK on Tuesday, a chill went up my spine. It struck me as a completely unjustified effort to pressure Israel to rescind its right to self defense. A couple of days having passed I can’t tell if the threat is real or performative. News that the UK has ended free trade talks with Israel leads me to be concerned that the threat may be real.

    Everyone decries civilian deaths—indeed, the BBC daily publishes photographs of distressed Palestinians along with misleading Israel-bashing headlines—but Hamas can immediately end civilian death by releasing the hostages and surrendering. Hamas does not want the death to end. Now that its rockets have been destroyed, and its tunnels have been destroyed, and its leadership has been destroyed, civilian death remains its only weapon. The ultimatum put to Israel from Canada, France, and the UK is sad proof of how effective Hamas’s strategy really is.

    2. I’m disappointed in Canada too. One thing I’ve noticed is that left-liberals are far more pro-Palestine than conservatives.

      This is why Canada is taking this position (the Liberals won the election) not because of anything to do with Trump.

  9. France, UK and Canada can go jump in the lake. Or….. with their various threats to disengage with Israel – they’ll forego vital intel on Islamic terrorists in their countries (which are INFESTED!), Israeli co-operation on other intel and most importantly tech transfers and investments. No more waze software, spying software etc. for you froggie, teacups and poutine. These three stoogers of “virtue” will be shooting themselves in their dumb flat feet.

    On recognition of the Islamic Caliphate of ISIS-Palestine:
    Other irrelevant virtue signalers like Iraq and Chad recognize Pawestine a nation (about 50 countries): but who cares? Only Israeli recognition matters and that is never…. never EVER… gonna happen. Damnit it isn’t even noon and I’m annoyed already.

    Shalom and onwards Israeli heroes.

    D.A.
    NYC

  10. We keep looking for large, predictable, geostrategic or socioeconomic forces behind the unrolling of History. But we keep being reminded how consequential the childish vanity of a small number of people can be. In this case, pretenses by Joe and Jill Biden (and a few presidential staffers) determined the outcome of the 2024 US election. In another case, the bloated ego of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin determined, via his lightning “special military operation” in Ukraine, immense death and ruination in Eurasia.

    History’s endless tragicomedy often seems to be the output of random, trivial personal defects. Is this something like the the roles of random mutation and genetic drift in evolution?
    If only History included a non-random element comparable to Selection….

  11. Commenting on the lighter side of things, that list of “10 reasons why a Cat is better than a MAN” is a damn lie, especially points 1, 2, 3, and 9.

    1) Cats sneaking into bed want scritches or food, and they’ll wake you up to get either one.*

    2) My cat hides under the bed in our room almost the entire time my parents come to visit, and is very skittish when he does come out to eat.

    3) Ha! Ask my daughter. Her one cat straight up misses the litter box half the time, leaving his back end hanging out and pooping on the floor. And cats in general have a tendency to fling litter in a 5 ft radius of the litter box, not to mention dragging it all over the house in their paws.

    9) See the litter box examples above. I’ve also got friends who have had to shave their cat’s backside, because otherwise his fur was constantly matted with stuff you didn’t exactly want him dragging around the house.

    *Okay, our cat does spend 9/10 of the night just sleeping with us. But the first 30 minutes or so is him poking his face into ours looking for attention.

      1. When family members gathered at my aunt’s, they would refer to her “alleged cat.”

        1. Re: Oliver Wiseman’s ” . . . .our slack-jawed former president . . . .”

          No doubt Andrew “ambulating cadaver” Sullivan views that congenial descriptor with approbation.

    2. My (indoor only) cat taught himself to use the human toilet 3 years ago. One day he simply waited until I had finished, and then hopped up…

      After the first time, I left his litter tray for a week, unused, then I removed it. He has never looked back. I’ve saved a fortune in kitty litter!

      Only conflict is when his and my needs coincide, and, guess who has to dance around waiting for him to finish?

  12. “and it’s unfortunate that the book is coming out right when Biden was diagnosed with serious prostate cancer. “

    It is unfortunate that Biden has prostate cancer but it is not unfortunate (as in unlucky) that his diagnosis was revealed now. That revelation is one part of the coverup.

    1. I don’t think these countries are in the least bit interested in ending the war, if they were they would be pushing hamas to release all the remaining hostages. I am sick of their crocodile tears and faux concern for the plight of the gazans.

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