Thursday: Hili dialogue

May 22, 2025 • 6:45 am

Posting will be light today, as I must spend much of the day supervising the cleaning of algae out of Botany Pond to ensure that Esther and her brood aren’t disturbed. This may also mean that tomorrow’s Hili dialogue will be truncated. Bear with me; I do my best. I’m quite nervous about this whole business.

Welcome to Thursday, May 22, 2025, and World Goth Day. Are there any goths still left that look like this? (photo from 2010). They are shopping at a Goth clothing store:

Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also Sherlock Holmes Day (Arthur Conan Doyle was born on this day in 1859), International Day for Biological Diversity, National Vanilla Pudding Day, World Paloma Day (it’s a tequila-based cocktail) and Harvey Milk Day, who was born on this day in 1930, and shot. along with Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.  He has become an icon for gay rights. A photo:

Ted Sahl, Kat Fitzgerald, Patrick Phonsakwa, Lawrence McCrorey, Darryl Pelletier, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The GOP appears ready to TRY to push Trump’s tax bill, which cuts things like Medicare and food stamps, through the Senate.  I say “try to” because Republicans in both the House and Senate aren’t on board with the heavy cuts in this measure:

House Republicans on Wednesday are set to try to push President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration package across the finish line, hoping to conquer internal divisions and tee up a vote that would send Trump’s sprawling agenda to the Senate.

The House Rules Committee worked through the night on the legislation, trying to push the bill past a procedural test that would allow for a final vote. Lawmakers were still debating its provisions Wednesday after a committee session that began at 1 a.m.

But the GOP’s narrow majority is far from unified around the proposal. And although Trump visited the U.S. Capitol for a conservative pep rally Tuesday, warring Republican factions on both sides dug in to oppose what is called the One Big Beautiful Bill. The House GOP’s narrow majority means leaders can afford to lose only a handful of votes — and for now, they don’t have the support they need to pass the measure.

The bill would extend tax cuts that Trump signed into law in 2017 that are otherwise due to expire at the end of this year, along with new changes to reflect Trump’s campaign promises — such as no taxes on tips and overtime wages — and would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on border security, the White House’s mass deportation campaign and funding for defense priorities and a “Golden Dome” continental missile defense system.

The Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers’ nonpartisan scorekeeper, projects that it will add $2.3 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. The national debt already exceeds $36.2 trillion.

Hard-line conservatives said Tuesday that the legislation did not sufficiently cut spending to pair with trillions of dollars of new tax cuts or extensions of current rates, and they angled for deeper budget reductions to Medicaid and federal benefits programs.

*Count on the WSJ op-ed site to report this one accurately (op-eds there are generally right-wing but today it’s one of the few American MSM sites to tell the truth about the food situation in Gaza).

Israel restored the flow of aid to Gaza on Monday with full knowledge that much of it will be stolen by Hamas. Some of the supplies will then be sold back to the people, financing Hamas’s war effort and the patronage that sustains its rule.

Israel facilitated the entry of 25,000 aid trucks during the cease-fire ending March 18. It was confident that Gaza had supplies for five to seven months, but after Hamas pilfered aid, shortages have already become imminent, only three months on.

What was the world to do—pressure Hamas to fork over what it has stolen or pressure Israel to let in more for Hamas to steal? The answer has always been the latter, even though it prolongs the war. Everyone knows Hamas would gladly let Gazans starve to score a win over Israel. President Trump doesn’t want that any more than President Biden did.

Mr. Biden promised on Oct. 18, 2023, that aid would stop if Hamas stole it, but he never kept his word. Mr. Trump backed the aid blockage in March but lately made clear that time is up.

The Journal reported in April, after a month without new aid, “A Depleted Hamas Is So Low on Cash That It Can’t Pay Its Fighters.” But now Israel is letting in a basic amount of aid as a bridge, it says, until a new mechanism can bring more to civilians but deprive Hamas.

That’s the goal of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S. initiative that Israel hopes to get off the ground within days. Led by Jake Wood, a founder of the Team Rubicon disaster-response group, the foundation will open distribution centers in areas of Gaza with IDF perimeter control rather than send trucks all across vulnerable territory. Private U.S. security contractors will handle the distribution from border crossings to Secure Distribution Sites, and a GHF spokesman says civilian teams will then distribute the aid directly to Gazans.

It should be in everyone’s interest to deny Hamas the aid, but readers won’t be shocked to learn that the United Nations and a complex of human-rights and aid groups have protested bitterly. They—and Hamas—are being sidelined by the new initiative.

Canada, the U.K. and France threatened Israel on Monday with “concrete actions” unless it halts military operations and facilitates more aid, which “must include engaging with the UN.” Hamas officially thanked the trio, knowing well how U.N. methods keep it in business.

I’m glad that there is a way to distribute food without it getting into the hands of Hamas. But of course that’s theoretical, and Hamas is very clever. I have little doubt that they’ll find a way to monopolize the food. All they have to do is note which civilians get the food and then threaten them.  Again, my solution is for the US to pressure Hamas through Qatar (which funnels a lot of money to Hama$) to surrender and give up the hostages.  After that, well, I still have no solution, but it is NOT a viable solution to leave Hamas in control of Gaza.

*Well, Trump has gotten his luxury jet from Qatar (a country that supports terrorism) to use as Air Force One (article archived here).  It’s ridiculous!

The United States has accepted a 747 jetliner as a gift from the government of Qatar, and the Air Force has now been asked to figure out a way to rapidly upgrade it so it can be put into use as a new Air Force One for President Trump, a Defense Department spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

“The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.”

The plane, which industry executives estimated is worth about $200 million, will require extensive work before it can be considered secure enough to carry Mr. Trump, Pentagon officials have acknowledged in recent days.

“Any civilian aircraft will take significant modifications to do so,” Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, said on Tuesday during Senate testimony. “We’re off looking at that right now what it’s going to take for that particular aircraft.”

. . . . “If President Trump insists on converting this plane to a hardened Air Force One before 2029, I worry about the pressures you may be under to cut corners on operational security,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, said as Mr. Meink was testifying.

The gift also has drawn questions from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who worry that Qatar may be trying to improperly influence Mr. Trump, or that the plane itself might have listening devices.

The WaPo adds this in another article:

Republicans are haggling over the details of how much to cut Medicaid and food stamps while also trying to give bigger tax breaks to the richest Americans. Meanwhile, the rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the United States’ perfect economic score for the first time, because of how much this bill could run up the national debt. Dana Milbank, James Hohmann and Natasha Sarin talk about whether the Republicans can get this legislation over the finish line and why America is suffering from “boy-who-called-wolf energy” when it comes to the federal debt.

Now they have to disassemble the whole plane  to look for listening devices, and that’s on top of all the security changes needed to make it into Air Force One.  I never understood why the present Air Force One (I think there are two of them) was insufficient, and always suspected that Trump just needed it to show who’s boss.

*The Free Press suggests, based on an interview with the father of Hadi Matar, the man who nearly killed Salman Rushdie, that Matar had help or training from Hezbollah. 

With Matar found guilty and behind bars, you might think most of the big questions about this case have been answered. But the story of Matar, and the issue of what motivated him to stab the British-American novelist and Booker Prize winner 15 times onstage at a literary festival in western New York in August 2022, is not over.

He faces a second trial on federal charges that he provided material support to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. If found guilty, he could spend life in prison. The question of what motivated Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, has broader ramifications. Was this attempted assassination the work of a lone wolf or was he coordinating with a foreign terror group?

That was the question at the heart of a joint investigation by The Free Press and the Center for Peace Communications. Our team retraced the 27-year-old’s travels to south Lebanon and his family home in the town of Yaroun, a Hezbollah stronghold on the border with Israel.

Villagers and religious leaders there provided us a dramatically different picture of Matar from the one initially painted by the Western media and U.S. law enforcement—that of a disillusioned twentysomething who hid in his mother’s basement and worked in a local clothing store. A New Yorker article, citing the owner of the boxing club Matar frequented, called him “the definition of a lone wolf” and a New York Post story referred to him as “a lone-wolf Islamic fanatic.”

. . .We were told that Matar and his father were closely associated with Hezbollah’s operatives and its affiliated mosques and religious centers in Yaroun. And Yaroun residents and religious leaders said Matar had been schooled on the importance of implementing the 1989 fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, issued by Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on the charge the writer blasphemed the prophet Muhammad in his novel The Satanic Verses.

“I know personally how close Hadi’s father and the Matar family, in general, are to Hezbollah—its political and military structure,” a Shiite religious leader in Yaroun, Sheikh Maytham Issa, told us. “I’m firmly convinced that Hadi carried out the attack on Salman Rushdie under the influence of Hezbollah’s ideology.”

Well, if the penultimate paragraph is true, then yes, it may have been promoted by terrorists from Hezbollah. But if that was the case, why was the attack so hamhanded? The guy had knives, not a gun, and could have been stopped easily if there were more security around?  We may never know what happened, but it looks as if, given the federal charges, we have a chance of knowing, and that Matar may spend the rest of his life in prison. Since he seems to me a danger of society, I have no compunction about that, though of course theoretically he could reform in prison. But how would you know that such a “reformation” was genuine?

*Finally, according to the reliably engaging AP “oddities section”, we learn that one of the men who helped steal the solid gold toilet in Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Winston Churchill) has been given a sentence that doesn’t include jail!

 A man who tried to help a burglar cash in from the theft of a golden toilet valued at 4.74 million pounds ($6.4 million) was spared jail on Monday after a British judge said he had been taken advantage of by the thieves.

Frederick Doe, 37, also known as Frederick Sines, was given a suspended sentence at Oxford Crown Court for his role in helping to sell the 18-carat gold fully functioning toilet which was taken in 2019 from Blenheim Palace — the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born.

“Those responsible for this audacious heist, five individuals could be seen on CCTV, were clearly intent on disposing of their ill-gotten gains quickly,” Judge Ian Pringle told Doe. “You foolishly agreed to assist.”

The toilet was part of a satirical art installation, titled “America,” by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $6.2 million at auction in New York.

The toilet weighed just over 215 pounds (98 kilograms). The value of the gold at the time was 2.8 million pounds and it was insured for 4.74 million pounds.

The piece that poked fun at excessive wealth had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum, in New York, which had offered the work to U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in office after he had asked to borrow a Van Gogh painting.

The theft of the toilet — which has never been recovered and is believed to have been cut up and sold — caused considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year.

Of the group who smashed a window to get into the palace before dawn on Sept. 14, 2019, only two have been charged and convicted

Here’s a tweet showing the golden throne:

I am not clear why Mr. Doe got off without jail with such a major heist, as I thought that all accomplices to such a theft were pretty much equally guilty. And what a shame that the toilet was broken up.  Will there ever be another one and, more important, if there is, would I be allowed to use it?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has developed self-serving scientific ambitions:

Hili: How do you apply for a grant?
A: Why do you ask?
Hili: I’m planning to study the place of cats in the social awareness of humans.
In Polish:
Hili: Jak się składa podania o granty?
Ja: Dlaczego pytasz?
Hili: Planuję badania nad miejscem kotów w świadomości społecznej ludzi.

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

From Cats that Have had Enough of Your Shit:

From Things With Faces, a happy d*g and a smiling sea lion:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

Masih is still recovering, but pinned an old 2021 tweet that shows her as a hijab-clad child:

From Luana, a victory for women’s sports, though I’m not sure I’d call Thomas guilty of “fraudulent conduct.”

From Bryan, a rare video in which Jim Morrison of The Doors plays a student rejected by Florida State University:

From Barry: More soup for you!

They're talking about "water based" cooking now. Cooking things in water instead of oils. It's soup. They're making soup.

— Elle (@elleisanisland.bsky.social) 2025-05-19T18:21:57.119Z

From Malcolm.  This cannot be real but is cool nonetheless:

One that I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

An Italian Jewish girl, born on this day 88 years ago, never got the chance to age because she was "selected" for gassing at age 6.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-22T09:15:46.310Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb, who is still abed with his nasty respiratory infection. He had to cancel a trip to Milan, poor lad! He says, though that he’s feeling better but has “some way to go”. Here’s a funny one:

I laughed.

— Esther Schindler (@estherschindler.bsky.social) 2025-05-20T22:00:20.000Z

A lovely moose:

Strike A Pose… Early morning. Mariah The Moose (Mama of Maverick and Marcus), showing me her best side, while foraging for snacks. So beautiful. 🫎📸🇨🇦#AlgonquinPark #Moose #Mammals#Wildlife #Nature #WildlifePhotography #Photography #OntarioParks #Canada

— Remy Michaels (@remyscameraeye.bsky.social) 2025-05-21T04:14:33.185Z

15 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
    I should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence. Even on this small stage we have our two sides, and something might be done by throwing all one’s weight on the scale of breadth, tolerance, charity, temperance, peace, and kindliness to man and beast. We can’t all strike very big blows, and even the little ones count for something. -Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (22 May 1859-1930)

  4. I’m afraid the One, Big, Beautiful Bill is an abortion. While it includes cuts to various programs, it increases spending overall, and the debt massively. The majority of spending cuts also aren’t scheduled to come into effect for several years. I think someone snookered Trump with the idea of a showpiece bill, but all that does is invite log-rolling. Of course, he naturally loves the idea of showpiece legislation. If the GOP were a true conservative party, after the corruption of the last eight years, we’d see entire Departments being abolished and a focus on not increasing the debt. Unfortunately, the GOP likes to spend money, too, and pretend that that will solve issues. They don’t want to make waves. Hopefully, at the midterms they will see the error of their ways.

    1. They haven’t been a “conservative” party for a long time Dr. B. Like the low IQ woke on the Dem side, MAGA are separate from their GoP values.

      Which way you, Dr. B.? Mit Romney/ Bush/ David Frum type acceptable, sane GoP or the low IQ MAGA cult?

      regards,

      D.A.
      NYC

  5. Water-based cooking. Such an innovation. I feel like I’ve been ahead of the time all these years!

    And, I’m all for feeding innocent Gazans so long as Hamas and its supporters don’t benefit. Hmmm. How many actually fall into the category of not Hamas and not Hamas supporters?

  7. On the shooting in DC it is worth remembering (I do though I was young), a generation ago, in the 80s (82?) the Israeli ambassador to the UK was similarly shot leaving a similar function in London. Israel began “Operation Peace for Galilee” invasion of Lebanon soon after as a result. They take these issues seriously.

    D.A.
    NYC

  8. Re: Mr. Matar, attempted assassin of Salman Rushdie.

    You can’t tell from google.maps (I spend a lot of time on it!) as they don’t seem to update much but Mr. Matar’s family village of Yaroun – which is within easy walking distance to the border – is not an ongoing concern as a town anymore. Thx IDF. 🙂
    Many such villages in that area south of the Litani River.

    Yaroun and close villages were part of a complex hardened underground network rivalling the “Gaza subway” tunnels, totally armed. The plan it was learned on inspection later by the IDF, was for Hezb to move south into Israel as Hamas moved out of Gaza north and East, meeting in the middle from Oct 7th onwards. It was upon learning this with the exploration of the tunnels that they whacked Nasrallah. He’d escaped his expected parameters at that point.

    Mr. Matar’s crime was before all this but it’ll be awhile before Sth Lebanon produces such people as him hopefully.

    D.A.
    NYC

  9. A few years ago (2022) I was involved in a very serious car crash (ambulances were needed). It took me roughly 30 seconds to reach the crash site. I was 11th person there. No one rushed to get their phones out to take pictures. In the end, we decided not to move the crash victim. Her car was not on fire, and we were worried about hurting her more, if we moved her. Her car was destroyed. My car was slightly damaged. Air bags may have saved her life.

  10. Roughly 4 years ago, I witnessed another car crash (I was not involved). Once again, no one rushed to get their phones out to take pictures. Some of the folks who were involved, seemed to suffer from concussions. They went to the hospital for further tests.

  11. Donald Trump has a very, very beautiful plan to counteract any possible listening devices implanted in in his new Air Force One. All confidential meetings will be held bathroom whilst the toilet is flushed continuously and the shower is running.

  12. The answer to your question about goths is a resounding yes. For evidence, visit Whitby in North Yorkshire on any weekend or holiday; you’ll see hundreds. If you go during the annual goth weekend, you’ll see thousands. I love Whitby, it’s a beautiful, historic coastal town (with fantastic fish and chips), but because of the association with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it’s also a mecca for goths.

    I learned just a few weeks ago that my hometown, Leeds, is the birthplace of the goth culture. I had no idea, I can’t believe I was so ignorant! Coincidentally, one of the key venues in goth’s development was The Refectory at the University of Leeds, where Jim Morrison played with The Doors in December 1969, eighteen months before he died.

  13. Under California law, assuming Mr. Doe agreed to participate after the toilet had already been stolen, he would be an accessory after the fact, and thus guilty of a lesser crime than the theft itself. Obviously, in the Blenheim toilet case, British law applies. However, the distinction between an accessory before and after the fact goes back to British common law.

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