Thursday: Hili dialogue

June 5, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Thursday, June 5, 2020, and National Gingerbread Day. I love the stuff, but it’s best when served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or, in a pinch, applesauce.  Here are some gingerbread angels at a fair I photographed in Katowice, Poland on December 7 of last year:

It’s also Sausage Roll Day, National Ketchup Day (Heinz is the only acceptable variety), National Moonshine Day, and National Veggie Burger Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 5 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*It looks as if the Trump/Musk lovefest is over, given Musk’s reaction to Trump’s “big beautiful budget bill”.  Musk called it a “disgusting abomination.”

Former White House cost-cutting czar Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending package a “disgusting abomination,” stepping up his criticism just as the Senate is trying to quickly pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.

Musk’s comments are his latest sharp words about the package, which includes tax cuts as well as reductions to spending on Medicaid and food assistance. Last month, he gave new fuel to GOP critics of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar agenda, saying that the current measure failed to reduce the federal deficit.

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.” He issued a warning on the midterm elections: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

“This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” he wrote in an overnight post.

Here’s his tweet (or “X emission”):

The bill narrowly passed the House last month by one vote. It is now in the hands of the Senate, where some fiscal hawks, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, have demanded deeper cuts.

The Senate is aiming to make changes to the bill and then send it back to the House. Backers can afford to lose no more than a handful of GOP votes in either chamber, with all Democrats expected to be opposed. Still, the White House and GOP leaders said that Musk’s statements didn’t shake their confidence in passing the measure.

Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

I don’t know what’s going to happen to this bill, but I for one would prefer that they don’t lower taxes on the very rich and ensure that those who need Medicaid get it.

*At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ll give a few excerpts from Colin Wright’s newest post, “Imane Khelif is male—and the evidence was always clear.” As I wrote recently, a test a few years ago revealed that Khelif had XY chromosomes, and thus was a biological male, though he was raised as a female. He won the welterweight gold medal in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics. Despite his indubitable maleness, he Khelif still has his defenders.  Wright:

Rather than accept the biological reality, Khelif and his team launched a carefully staged PR campaign after the Olympics, designed to portray him as hyper-feminine. Social media was flooded with images of Khelif in flowery dresses and heavy makeup, striking exaggeratedly feminine poses. It was a cringe-worthy attempt to sway public opinion with aesthetics rather than facts. But no amount of eyeliner can alter your chromosomes. Womanhood is not achieved through hairspray and posturing; it is a matter of biology.

Despite what should have been a straightforward matter, the media played a central role in confusing the public. Outlets like NPR referred to Khelif as a “female athlete.” The Associated Press described him as someone “assigned female at birth.” GLAAD called him a “cisgender woman,” and The Economic Times chalked up Khelif’s hormonal profile to “endogenous testosterone that is naturally produced.”

Let’s be clear: Khelif is not female. That’s the one fact that actually matters in a women’s sporting category. The other descriptors might be technically accurate within the bizarre framework of gender ideology, but they fail entirely to describe objective reality. If someone is born with XY chromosomes and internal testes due to a DSD like 5-ARD, then the sex recorded on their birth certificate is a clerical error—not a truth that must shape our sporting policies. Calling Khelif “cisgender” because he was misidentified at birth and identifies with that incorrect label is linguistic gymnastics that ignores the fundamental biological truth: Khelif is male.

Of all the distractions thrown up to obscure this reality, none were more absurd than the idea that Khelif’s disqualification in 2023 was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The theory went something like this: because IBA President Umar Kremlev has ties to Vladimir Putin, and because Khelif once beat a prized Russian boxer, the Kremlin retaliated by fabricating Khelif’s DNA test results. This theory ignores several inconvenient facts. First, the IBA allowed Khelif to appeal the ruling, and even offered to cover the costs. Second, the easiest way to discredit Russia would have been to publicly release new, independently verified test results. Instead, Khelif withdrew the appeal, and Algeria sent a legal threat demanding the results be sealed. That doesn’t sound like someone who was confident the test was wrong. It sounds like someone who knew the test was right.

Even more bizarrely, Khelif threatened lawsuits against J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk for spreading what he claimed were lies about his sex. But if those statements were truly false, the path to vindication was simple: release the medical records. Instead, Khelif’s team has fought to keep them hidden while trying to convince the public through press releases and staged photo ops. Meanwhile, everyone with an understanding of basic biology, or frankly just common sense, could already see the truth.

. . . . The lesson here is simple. Had we put truth before ideology from the beginning, this wouldn’t have been a controversy at all. The facts were always there. The science was always clear. If you understood how human sex works and followed the evidence, then this revelation was no revelation at all. It was merely the inevitable emergence of the truth, which has a funny way of eventually surfacing no matter how deep it’s buried.

Blame ideology and the media.  After all, if he thinks of himself as a woman (and he well might have, as he was raised as a female) doesn’t that make him a woman?  Here’s the document at issue:

As Richard Feynman said about the Challenger accident, ““For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”

*Mohamed Sabry Soliman, accused of committing the Boulder firebomb attacks on Jews peacefully calling attention to the hostages in Gaza (at least a dozen people were injured), has been taken into custody by ICE—along with his entire family.

Federal authorities said Tuesday that they had taken into custody the family of the man accused of injuring at least a dozen people at a Colorado demonstration to support Israeli hostages in Gaza and that they are expediting their deportation from the United States.

The White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said on social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s wife and five children two days after he allegedly used molotov cocktails to attack marchers in Boulder. Noem said the agency was investigating “to what extent his family knew about the heinous attack” and “if they provided support.”

On its X account, the White House wrote that the family had been placed in expedited removal proceedings and that “THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.”

Immigration and criminal defense lawyers struggled Tuesday to recall similar examples of entire families being detained for deportation proceedings immediately after a relative was charged with a crime. And some immigration experts questioned the legality of deporting Soliman’s family members under expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process created in 1996 that does not allow immigrants to have a hearing before an immigration judge. They are also not entitled to a lawyer.

“It’s not normal,” said Derege Demissie, who has been practicing law for nearly 30 years and is a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “I don’t remember a situation where family members who are not connected with any criminal activity are targeted by ICE because a close or related family member is charged in connection with a crime.”

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said Tuesday that the State Department had revoked the family’s visitor visas.

There are two questions here. First, if the guy committed terrorism and attempted murder, why are they deporting him rather than putting him on trial?  There’s little doubt of his guilt: there are videos and he was apprehended on the spot. Second, why are they deporting his family? If they entered illegally, well, yes, they can do that because they violated the law, but if they don’t have any evidence that the family was complicit in the attack—and how could they be with five children?—then they can get in line after the deported convicted criminals.  The lack of a trial for an accused attempted murderer baffles me.

*The last jailed member of the Manson Family (save Charles “Tex” Watson), Patricia Krenwinkel has been recommended for parole. She is 77, and was convicted of brutal stabbings in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Patricia Krenwinkel, a onetime follower of the cult leader Charles Manson who was convicted in the murders of seven people in the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles, should be released on parole, a panel of the California parole board recommended on Friday.

Ms. Krenwinkel, 77, the state’s longest-serving female inmate, is one of two Manson followers connected with the August 1969 murder spree who remain in prison.

She was sent to death row in 1971. After the state’s highest court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, Ms. Krenwinkel’s sentence was reduced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, as it was for all those convicted in the Manson group’s murders.

Ms. Krenwinkel, who has spent the last 54 years in the California Institution for Women in Chino, first became eligible for parole in 1976. This was her 16th appearance before the parole suitability panel.=

The provisional decision has to be reviewed by the legal division of the Board of Parole Hearings. That process can take up to four months, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

If the full board agrees with the panel’s recommendation, Gov. Gavin Newsom has 30 days to review its decision. He could reject it, or send it back for further review.

In 2022, the parole board panel recommended that Ms. Krenwinkel be paroled but Mr. Newsom reversed its decision, according to state records. Mr. Newsom wrote at the time that Ms. Krenwinkel “still poses an unreasonable danger to society if paroled at this time.”

And what she is in for (from Wikipedia):

Krenwinkel was a participant in the murders on August 9, 1969, at 10050 Cielo Drive, home of actress Sharon Tate and four others. After stabbing Abigail Folger, Krenwinkel went back inside and summoned Tex Watson, who also stabbed Folger. During her trial, Krenwinkel said, “I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her.”  When asked how it felt, Krenwinkel replied: “Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right.”

Krenwinkel participated willingly in more murders the following night. She recounted during her December 29, 2016, parole hearing the events of the night of August 10, 1969.[9] Along with Manson, Watson, Atkins, Clem Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian, she went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca where she, Watson, and Van Houten murdered the couple.

Here’s a photo of Krenwinkel from 1973:

Fitzgerald Whitney, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Well, if she’s no longer a danger to society, I think 50 years in jail is a sufficient deterrent to let her go.  I suspect she isn’t going to kill any more people.

*The whole world is baying for Israel’s blood after Hamas leveled an accusation that the IDF killed 30 Gazans as they approached a distribution center for humanitarian aid.  That is most likely false, a confection of the liars at Hamas, yet both the BBC and Washington Post bought the story. Now they  have both retracted their stories.  First, about the WaPo:

The Washington Post on Tuesday filed a correction to a recent article claiming the IDF killed over 30 people near an aid site in Gaza, naming the source as “health officials.”

The article, published Sunday and viewed over two million times before the correction, was changed because the Washington Post claimed it “didn’t meet Post fairness standards.”

According to a social media post on X/Twitter, the article “failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post.”

Although the original article included statements from Israel, including an initial inquiry indicating IDF soldiers did not fire at civilians at the aid centers, the newspaper admitted it didn’t “give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings.”

. . .The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center in Rafah denied on Sunday claims that the IDF attacked a food distribution point near Rafah, contradicting widely circulated Hamas reports.

Security camera footage from Sunday’s aid distribution site shows calm civilian activity, with no incidents reported. Aid was delivered without disruption, and the available evidence does not support claims of injuries or fatalities. While some media outlets have reported these allegations, others have contacted the organization to verify the facts, the GHF stated.

The WaPo’s tweet:

And the BBC (which denies that it changed its story):

On June 1, the BBC issued a breaking update claiming that “Israeli tanks” opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at an aid site, killing 26. The allegation was presented without confirmation, based solely on anonymous sources: “residents and medics” and a “local Palestinian journalist.” The details, according to the BBC’s own Middle East Editor Sebastian Usher, included bodies carted away by donkey, and “thousands” of civilians gathered near the U.S.-backed aid center in Rafah.

The story appeared as a major headline update to an already misleading and sympathetic headline about Hamas’ ceasefire rejection: “Hamas pledges to free 10 living hostages but seeks permanent ceasefire in response to US plan.”

That headline stayed live for much of the day. The claim of 26 dead later became 31, courtesy of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. And despite a firm denial from the GHF — stating unequivocally that reports of deaths and injuries were “false and fabricated” and warning that the lies were being “actively fomented by Hamas” — the BBC did not retract the story.

The headline:

The IDF denies firing at any civilians, and the retractions of two organizations that it did, along with the assurance of the Gaza Humanitarian foundation above, makes it nearly certain that the claims of Israel attacking Gazan civilians trying to get humanitarian aid was false. (And ask yourself: what would be the IDF’s interest in doing that?)  Here’s the IDF’s tweet:

But it’s too late: the world has laid another blood libel at the doorstep of Israel. Media like the WaPo and BBC will believe any lie from Hamas that demonizes Israel. It’s infuriating.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn,  Hili and Szaron want to rest:

Hili: He wants to make the bed.
Szaron: Tell him that we are still asleep.
In Polish:
Hili: On chce posłać łóżko.
Szaron: Powiedz mu, że jeszcze śpimy.

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

From Jesus of the Day via Adam Ziemann at Art is Art. Jesus is recharging at night:

From Now That’s Wild:

From Meow, mother and children (again, I hope this is real!):

Masih’s still recuperating, I guess, but here’s JKR responding to a nasty person. She loves to do this stuff.

From Luana; a performative gesture by Greta:

From Malcolm, Green peace:

Two from my feed:

Nautilus from @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 390 #visioningcoralsea #MarineLife

— Lisa (@tuexplorer1.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T03:05:57.375Z

Natasha fights for the truth on the Piers Morgan show.

One from the Auschwitz Memorial that I reposted:

A Dutch Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was nine.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T09:46:53.348Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. The first one is wonderful: flying foxes everywhere!

Just reached Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and was greeted by thousands of fruit bats flying over the city.

— Kory Evans Ph.D (@sternarchella.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T05:03:23.731Z

This bird got two free rides to a restaurant:

A female Western Gull was recorded riding 150km in a garbage truck from San Francisco to a compost facility in Central CA, probably to forage. TWICE. An innovator, an icon, a genius.This is one of my favorite @waterbirdsociety.bsky.social papers I've ever handled as managing editor #ornithology

— Paige Byerly, PhD (@paigebyerly.bsky.social) 2025-06-03T08:24:31.625Z

67 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  1. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
    What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? -Adam Smith, economist (5 Jun 1723-1790)

    1. Nothing to add except that: Unfortunately we only have control over two out of the three.

      1. There’s a rule of thumb, I heard it in the context of home improvement/renovation :

        there are three fundamental variables :

        Cost Time Quality

        The home owner can pick any two.

        So if the cost and time is to be optimized for the home owner to low and short, the quality will not optimize high.

        Cost and quality optimization (low, high) means the job will take years and years with the bathroom usable only if you balance on one foot and jobsite permamess.

        Etc.

        I think it checks out.

        1. Yup. Nasa had an Administrator some years ago who had the mantra “faster, better, cheaper”. Failure rate increased was first order response to pushing schedule and starving budgets.

          1. A software-development version is “On spec, on time, on budget; pick two”.

        2. At the rather young age of 19, I worked as an advocate on a domestic violence crisis line and during the training the head honcho taught us the origins of the expression, “rule of thumb”. You being you, Bryan, I’ll bet you already know what I’m going to say. Back then they were spreading the myth (lie?) that it referred to an old law or accepted custom (I’m not sure which), that allowed husbands to beat their wives so long as the stick was no wider than their (the husband’s) thumbnail. Being 19, I went around informing everyone of this “fact”. I thought I was so damn smart (as is the tendency when you’re 19). “Oh, you shouldn’t say that! Did you know…” What a pain in the ass, huh? I later discovered it wasn’t true, of course, but I still can’t read that expression without seeing myself in that training. That was in 1980 and I don’t know if the myth persists.

          2. “I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.” (Rob’t Zimmerman)

          3. It not only persists, it will not die. People believe what they want to believe.

    2. For some reason this morning, as I was getting ready for the day, the episode of “Gilligan’s Island” where they write the musical version of “Hamlet” (for Phil Silvers) came into my head, and now I have “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, do not forget stay out of debt” to the music of the Toreador song from “Carmen” going through my head.

      2. I loved Gilligan’s Island as a kid in the 70s. Still do. “Ginger” is (or was lately) still alive and lives in Manhattan.
        What a great series.

        D.A.
        NYC

      3. Well now that is an ear worm that might crush the damn Taylor Swift ear worm that I’ve got burrowing away right now.

      4. Yes, that is a very sticky earworm.

        Back in the 1980s I worked as the resident biologist at an oceanside private reserve in Costa Rica called Marenco. We often did a “three hour cruise” from our shore to visit Isla del Caño, a tiny forested white-sand island, with the forest consisting mainly of Brosimum utile, a tree much used by the now-long-gone indigenous people of the region. We went there to snorkel, because the water so far from any landmass was crystal clear and full of marine life. There were no permanent residents, but there were usually two or three Costa Rican rangers from their park service protecting the area. Llife was boring for them in this isolated place. On one visit I went to greet them and they were huddled around an old black and white TV jury-rigged to a car battery and DC-AC converted with what looked like home-made clamps. They were transfixed by a static-filled Spanish-dubbed episode of Gilligan’s Island! They probably learned some tricks from it.

      5. That episode was my introduction to Hamlet. I’ve read it many times, analyzed it, memorized soliloquies, seen numerous filmed and live performances, and it all began with Gilligan.

    3. Except that one can have perfect health, no debts and a clear conscience and still be wretchedly unhappy.

    4. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”

      Me and Bobby McGee
      Kris Kristofferson 1970
      Recorded by Janis Joplin
      Released 1971

      1. One of the most quotable lines from any song, ever. And, being a nerd and geek, I often follow up with a line from the comic book saga Daredevil: Born Again, in which the bad guy thinks, regretting his interactions with the hero, “I…I have shown him that a man without hope is a man without fear.”

  2. I assume they are looking to avoid the time, expense, and vagaries of a trial by simply deporting Soliman. As to his family, Tom Holman has made clear that the government’s priority is illegals who are violent criminals, but that they are not going to ignore illegals they encounter in pursuit of violent criminals. There is a clip that has surfaced that purports to show (I can’t vouch for the translation) Soliman saying “Jihad is more beloved to me than my mother, wife, and children.”

    1. The article doesn’t say that Soliman himself will be deported, only that his family might be. He’ll go to jail.

      Why would he do such an act, knowing full well that he would then spend the rest of his life in an American jail? There’s only one explanation: complete confidence that he will be greatly rewarded for eternity in heaven. This is everything to do with Islam.

      Now remind me why politicians think it’s a good idea to admit millions of Muslim migrants into Western countries?

  3. Article : “When asked how it felt, Krenwinkel replied: “Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right.” ”

    A vessel without a consciousness invites possession by a consciousness without a vessel.

    -Yuri Bezmenov’s Ghost on eXtwitter (@Ne_pas_couvrir)

    1. I would hate to be on that parole board and have to cast a vote yes or no. I mostly side with Prof. Coyne in believing that she has proved over half a century that she has learned her lesson, to put something so horrific in simple parenting terms. If I were one of the victims’ surviving family, I’d probably vote to keep her locked up for life. The Manson murders made quite an impression on my teenage self at the time they were committed, which I suppose is why the movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is so satisfying to me.

      1. I don’t know whether or not Krenwinkel has learned her lesson, but the fact that GAVIN NEWSOM, of all people, found her an unreasonable danger to society in 2022, gives me pause. That’s a high bar to meet.

        I loved Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, particularly the ending.

        1. Near the conclusion, Leonardo DiCaprio in the swimming pool: What the fuck!
          hahahaha

      2. That movie is probably my fav. of the Tarantino movies. No over-the-top violence for the first 99% of the flick, and then … 😳

  4. Colorado fire-terrorist’s family are here ILLEGALLY. They must be deported. I’m agnostic as to whether they should be charged with abetting terrorism (no evidence yet) but it isn’t out of the question.

    I damn hate this: media simping for the “poor relatives” of murderous terrorists. Particularly first level relatives like that Algerian Columbia Hamas organizer’s damn “poor wife and baby” (who are not being deported).
    Should we weep for Osama Bin Laden’s cute little son – 16 holding a machine gun – killed in the raid? Al-Baghdadi of ISIS – who used one of his many kids as a human shield – had LOTS of babies.
    Weep effin’ weep.

    Greta’s latest LARP cruise – as I wrote yesterday if she gets to Gaza they’ll almost certainly give her a “Palestine Passport” like they routinely do to other Eurotrash like Corbyn and Tony Blair’s deranged sister in law. My only hope is that Hamas’ PA’s passport issuing tech/printers went up in smoke lately but otherwise…. we’ll see.
    Those passports actually work in about 50 countries (not civilized ones) so they’re not just a novelty.

    Onwards Israeli heroes.

    D.A.
    NYC

      1. Greta Thunberg has always been precisely on target :

        “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution.”

        -Students for Democratic Socialism activist as quoted by David Horowitz in Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model
        2009

        “We cannot repeat too often that men do not lead the Revolution; it is the Revolution that uses men.”

        Joseph de Maistre
        Considerations on France
        1796

        (Bold added):
        “Such individuals had no consciousness of the general Idea they were unfolding, while prosecuting those aims of theirs; on the contrary, they were practical, political men. But at the same time they were thinking men, who had an insight into the requirements of the time — what was ripe for development. This was the very Truth for their age, for their world; the species next in order, so to speak, and which was already formed in the womb of time. It was theirs to know this nascent principle; the necessary, directly sequent step in progress, which their world was to take; to make this their aim, and to expend their energy in promoting it.
        [..]
        Their fellows, therefore, follow these soul-leaders; for they feel the irresistible power of their own inner Spirit thus embodied.”

        G.W.F. Hegel
        The Philosophy of History
        1837 (posth.)
        p.37 (modern print)

  5. What to do about Greta Thunberg when she and her compatriots arrive in Gaza? Welcome them! Escort them to one of the aid distribution centers, and put them to work.

  8. Looks like Musk is actually for reducing government spending and the national debt.

    This is why he’s an entrepreneur and not a politician, and would never succeed as a politician. He didn’t get the memo. Your not supposed to actually solve problems in government, Elon…you just promise to solve them to get elected! Step 2 after getting elected is to feather your nest and the nests those that helped you get elected.

    1. I admit to being really surprised that Musk had the integrity to go full-out against Trump just a couple of days after receiving his “Golden Key”. I may not agree with his ideas but I admire him following his conscience, unlike almost any other Republican in office today. This will undoubtedly hurt his and Tesla’s and X’s and Starlink’s future as pork recipients from the administration, and he must know that. Of course, as the richest person in the world, standing up to Trump is a little easier for him than for most. Still, admirable.

      1. Musk always has been an eccentric maverick and his own man, and, contrary to popular supposition, he’s not in it primarily for the money (that’s just incidental). If he were acting out of pure self-interest he’d be as a-political and inoffensive as possible, while toadying to and donating to both parties in private. That’s not his style.

          1. OMG, he’s now talking on Twitter about founding his own political party! 😨 one that “represents the middle 80% of America” 😳

          2. OMG, he’s just said on Twitter that Trump is in the Epstein files and that that’s the reason they’ve not been made public! 😳😳 Forget Putin vs Zelenskyy, this is escalating fast! 😱 🥺

          3. The Epstein part has been suspected by most of us, but I never expected Musk to say it! Amazing. What else is going to come out when these two start throwing sh*t at each other?? Pass the popcorn.

          4. Pleeeze oh pleeeze let the Epstein files be leaked. And the pee tape. Pleeeeeeeeze.

      2. “I may not agree with his ideas but I admire him following his conscience, unlike almost any other Republican in office today.”

        Senator Rand Paul, especially, but also Rick Scott, Ron Johnson, and Mike Lee have all been very vocal about opposition because of the growing debt. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley, and Thom Tillis have all spoken out strongly against the Medicaid cuts. Roger Marshall, Ted Cruz, and John Kennedy have all said that the bill needs significantly more spending cuts than the House version. John Curtis, Jerry Moran, and, I believe, Kevin Cramer have joined some of the above in opposing changes to the Clean Energy credits enacted under Biden. There are even unspecified reports of Mitch McConnell’s opposition—a man who as Senate majority leader not infrequently clashed swords with and opposed Trump.

        Setting aside McConnell, that is 14 of 53 Republican senators—over a quarter of them—who have publicly opposed elements of what Trump pushes as his signature legislation. Rand Paul has called the legislation “irresponsible.” Josh Hawley has called the Medicaid cuts “morally wrong.” Rick Scott has stated the obvious: it will not pass the Republican-led Senate in its current form. I challenge you to find a significant piece of legislation in which similar numbers of contemporary Senate Democrats extricated themselves from their seemingly-congenital groupthink and opposed their president publicly.

        Sometimes we need to deal with reality rather than outdated caricatures. So, let’s instead do what the media and the Democratic political establishment are fond of doing: portray Republican independence of thought and expression as dysfunctional, or fractured, or chaotic. Well, yes, it can appear to be so to people who praise “unity” on their side. But, in practice, they generally demand and receive uncritical conformity in every matter of importance to Democrats.

        1. You are right, there are now a significant number of Republican doubters about the bill. But when it counted, virtually all Republicans in the House voted for it, right? Republicans under Trump have shown much less independence than in the recent past. Most have gone along with his lies about Jan 6, abut the election being stolen, etc.

          Neither I nor most other normal people think that blind unity is a virtue. That’s a straw man.

          1. My apologies if I suggested that you do. I have no interest in getting into a ridiculous spat of this side versus that side. I despise them both, and we can cherry pick all day long the examples that paint one side or another in the worst possible light.

            On a lighter note, have you seen the latest Elon Musk post on X? The divorce with Trump is now final!

    1. I haven’t followed this story close enough to know much beyond the fact that she’s chromosomally male? Is that correct phrasing? I’ve read that she was raised by her parents as a girl and saw herself as one. I feel bad for the gyrations anyone born with ambiguous genitalia must certainly have experienced and I don’t agree with insulting people’s ways of dressing, etc. I also don’t think she should have been allowed to compete as a woman. Am I missing something major?

      1. “He’s male,” is the correct phrasing.

        And he’s known he’s male at least since the date of the chromosome test in 2023.
        While he may have had girl-appearing genitalia at birth, someone surely knew something was up when puberty didn’t go at all as expected. At the Olympics in 2024 he also surely knew he was a man getting into a boxing ring to punch women he could have gravely injured.

        Making fun of his clothing is mocking the PR campaign mounted to frighten his detractors into shutting up about his then-suspected maleness.

        1. This came to me, should it have gone to Leslie? Not sure whom you’re agreeing with. Anyway, where did you learn the most about this? I’d love a link if you happen to have one. I’m really not clear if this person was genuine in beliefs that “she” was/is a female. When people feel so impassioned on both sides it’s hard to find anything that just tells the story impartially. Thanks in advance if you’ve got a good source.

          1. No I was agreeing with you.

            The best writing on the subject is that Reality’s Last Stand site (linked). He’s had several articles on Khelif.

            Khelif was probably raised as female (she likely has 5-ARD like Caster Semenya).

            But 5-ARD people have male strength. Semenya was tested and released the results: XY with 5-ARD. As a result she/he was disqualified from further competing in the female category.

            Khelif is no doubt aware of Semenya’s fate and is determined to avoid it.

            Read about 5-ARD on Wikipedia.

          2. Jerry himself has covered this story extensively and even-handedly. Colin Wright in Reality’s Last Stand also. “One link” would risk being biased, especially if I sent you the wrong one, like from Helmut-I-think-his-name-is on Pharyngula.

          3. Thanks to both of you: Frau and Leslie. The thread ended so, hopefully you’ll both ser this. Appreciate it.

  10. Grok on Greta:

    Q: why is Greta Thunberg taking food to Gaza on a small boat?

    A: she is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s mission on the ship Madleen to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The boat carries a symbolic amount of supplies—such as medical equipment, flour, rice, baby formula, and sanitary products—to protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has caused severe food shortages and a humanitarian crisis. The small size of the boat reflects the coalition’s strategy of using non-violent, symbolic actions to draw global attention to the crisis, rather than delivering large-scale aid. The mission aims to challenge the blockade and raise awareness, with activists like Thunberg emphasizing moral obligation over practical impact. Israel has threatened to intercept the vessel, citing security concerns, and past flotilla attempts have faced military intervention.

    1. “Q: why is Greta Thunberg taking food to Gaza on a small boat?”

      Because Greta is an attention-seeking, narcissistic activist who follows the cameras rather than the cause.

      Alternative version: Because Greta didn’t need a bigger boat.

    3. “Raising awareness” is the leftist version of the equally stupid right wing “Thoughts and prayers”.

      It is a neat observation that p*sses everybody off.
      you’re welcome,

      D.A.
      NYC

  11. Edit: This was supposed to tag Coel way back there up at Comment #2. Excuse me.
    Glad you cleared that up. Don’t know where Jerry read that they were deporting the perp. You’ve really got to read at least three sources (and not three sources that say, “The Times reported…” or “Axios says…”) and then go do a fact check. I had to plow through four “official” looking websites to get the lowdown on this 1996 expedited deportation law people have been referring to. And here recently, even after finding what appears to be the actual settled law (or how Trump is applying it today), you’ve got to search for injunctions as, no doubt, someone’s lodged a suit against it. Sometimes it’s better to not read the news since 75% of it is bs anyway.

    1. I knew the Government couldn’t be deporting Mr. Soliman. Deportation isn’t a punishment. It’s simply an administrative correction of an error where someone is in the country who shouldn’t be. No way would the Government merely deport someone accused of serious state and federal crimes where there is a strong likelihood of conviction. If any victims die of their burns it will be murder. Think what it would say to the victims to just toss him back into Egypt a free man! (And what if he were to sneak back in to America?) No, he will stay in the U.S. to face punishment….and when he gets out, then you’ll deport him.

      (Of course if he were to be acquitted somehow, ICE would still grab him and deport him as he stood to leave the courtroom…unless The Resistance ⚔️™️ intervenes.)

      1. Indeed. What I was trying to get to the bottom of was the deportation of his family. Specifically, what’s the deal with this law from 1996. There is a wealth of information about that… when it can be used, under what restrictions (Obama used it the most of any president, interestingly). The magic “asylum” word can always be tried, though I find it laughable when people have been here illegally for years without requesting it and the instant they’re discovered they claim it. Trump has been pushing the envelope with it, of course, and I haven’t yet discovered if any injunctions have been issued.

        1. Most of President Trump’s deportation agenda has been temporarily enjoined by injunctions granted to various plaintiffs identified with The Resistance. One was just issued today against the plan to deport the Soliman family. My Edge Start feed is full of stories headed, “Trump dealt another devastating blow as court blocks effort to deport So-and-So. Could this be the end of his Presidency?” They seem to think it’s like if you get enough demerits against you for traffic violations you lose your driver’s licence. I don’t even read them now.

          I think all Western countries are going to have to rethink what they want their asylum obligations under international law to look like toward people who show up and claim persecution as a proxy for their “right” to live in whatever country they feel like. At least you can’t get to the United States (pretty much) or Canada in a Zodiac whose motor you throw overboard when the Coast Guard shows up. There are people in all countries who believe, apparently sincerely though, that everyone who wants to live here should be welcomed. They are the ones seeking the injunctions.

  12. Latest: (alleged) Rapist Andrew Tate comes out in support of Greta Thunberg’s LARP terrorism cruise.
    I wrote about this phenomenon once – I think readers here will enjoy:

    https://democracychronicles.org/palestine-and-the-company-you-keep/
    — (variously syndicated)

    Funny how the worst people/ countries/ groups all assort together. It works at every scale, from the individual to the international.

    D.A.
    NYC

  13. The first attempt at a gull getting a free ride on a refuse truck.
    “Lilly, put me down at the garbage dump. Swiftly.”
    “No! I am a gull-averse traveller!”

  14. I love the gull story. She still did an impressive amount of flying – 50 km to get to San Francisco and then 200 km to get home to SE Farallon Island, twice in 4 days.

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