Wednesday: Hili dialogue

June 11, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Wednesday, June 11, 2025, and a Hump Day (“Siku ra Hump” in Tsonga). It’s also National German Chocolate Cake Day, a great dessert named after its inventor, Samuel German,—so it’s not a cake from Germany. From Wikipedia:

German chocolate cake, originally German’s chocolate cake, is a layered chocolate cake filled and topped with a coconut-pecan frosting. Originating in the United States, it was named after English-American chocolate maker Samuel German, who developed a formulation of dark baking chocolate that came to be used in the cake recipe.

Here’s one; a slice would be very good with coffee for breakfast:

Tracy Hunter from Kabul, AfghanistanTracy Hunter from Kabul, Afghanistan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also Corn on the Cob Day and Pizza Margherita Day, celebrating the pie topped with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese.

Here’s some unusual corncobs: glass gem corn, a heirloom variety. These specimens were sent to me by a friend.  The stuff is edible, and can be popped, but I save it because it’s lovely:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The Marines have arrived—in Los Angeles.  Fortunately, the violence seems to have abated there. While protests have spread to other cities, fortunately they’re (mostly) peaceful:

After a night of small and mostly peaceful protests in Los Angeles, 700 Marines deployed by the Trump administration arrived in the Los Angeles area alongside about 4,000 National Guard troops. The moves enraged Democratic leaders in California, who say city and state law enforcement departments have been able to handle the unrest, which has resulted in some property damage and injuries.

On Capitol Hill, Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, a top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, sharply criticized the decision to deploy troops, calling it “premature” and “downright escalatory.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the deployments, saying in his testimony to the committee that “we ought to be able to enforce immigration law in this country.”

On Tuesday morning, streets in downtown Los Angeles were quiet. Some of the protests in Los Angeles over the last four days, including a rally on Monday afternoon, centered on a group of federal buildings downtown. National Guard troops have been stationed there but have largely stayed in the background of the protests.

The Marines would protect federal law enforcement officers and property in greater Los Angeles, the U.S. military’s Northern Command said in a statement.

The use of military force on domestic soil is rare and is usually reserved for the most extreme situations. The state of California sued to block the use of National Guard troops on Monday. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said that he would sue to prevent the Marines’ deployment.

. . . Protests have spread to other cities, including San Francisco, where Mayor Daniel Lurie said a protest on Monday involving thousands of people was larger and “significantly calmer” than the demonstrations a day earlier, when violent clashes took place. In Santa Ana, Calif., officials said that federal agents used tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets against protesters who threw bottles and rocks.

*Speaking of the above, we now know that some undocumented immigrants picked up in L.A. have already been deported, and in pretty dire ways. I’ve put the scary part in bold:

 Less than 48 hours after Juan Fernando was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at his job at a clothing factory, he was transported back to the country he had left behind.

The 23-year-old member of Mexico’s Indigenous Zapotec community had been living as an undocumented immigrant in the United States with his parents for four years. His arrest at Ambiance Apparel in Los Angeles on Friday and subsequent removal happened so quickly that his parents said they didn’t have time to get an attorney.

On Sunday, federal authorities dropped him off at an international bridge and told him to cross back to Mexico, his family recounted in an interview with The Washington Post. He told them he thought he had signed a consent to a coronavirus test but may have inadvertently signed off on his deportation instead.

“The way they deported him wasn’t right,” said his father, Javier, 42, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he does not have legal immigration status. He said his son does not have a criminal record. “He is a calm, working man. We are asking for justice because they violated his rights.”

As protests over workplace raids in California’s largest city continued Monday and the Pentagon announced it would be sending 700 Marines to backstop National Guard troops, immigration lawyers, advocates and relatives were scrambling to find information about those detained. Mexico’s foreign minister said four immigrants detained in the raid had already been removed from the United States, a speed that some advocates said was unusual.

The Trump administration has not released a total count of how many immigrants have been picked up in the raids that sparked a wave of unrest in Los Angeles and demonstrations around the country. But as the protests continued, a picture of who was detained was slowly coming together.

The Department of Homeland Security released information on 16 people who they said had criminal histories that included charges or convictions of crimes including robbery, sexual battery and drug possession, according to the agency. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News on Monday that those picked up in the raids represent the “worst of the worst.” But immigrant advocacy groups say they have collected information indicating that more than 200 people were detained and that many do not have criminal records.

Now I’m not sure what “rights” an undocumented immigrant has, but surely they include a right to a hearing before they dump someone onto an international bridge.  And that holds even if the person has a criminal record. We are a country of laws, and even if one enters illegally, that has to be established before you boot someone out.  Most Americans would agree that undocumented immigrants with criminal records should be deported pronto, but I stand by my claim that there should be hearings for all. As for the Marines, I doubt they need them to preserve order, but remember that it’s the crowds who became violent, and blaming that violence on the presence of law officers is not on.

*This is rich (and dangerous): RFK Jr. has removed every member of a CDC panel charged with giving advice on vaccines:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all the members of a key committee that recommends vaccines, and when and how often adults and children should get them.

Kennedy wrote Monday in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that he would do a “clean sweep” of the panel’s 17 members, all of whom were appointed during the administration of former President Joe Biden.

The panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director about which vaccines children and adults should get. Current members include infectious-disease doctors, pediatricians and epidemiologists.

“The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas,” Kennedy said in a subsequent statement, arguing that the change would help restore public trust in science.

Kennedy had earlier been collecting names for potential new members of the panel.

Public-health leaders, and Democrats, decried the move.

“Unilaterally removing an entire panel of experts is reckless, shortsighted and severely harmful,” said Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

ACIP members undergo conflict-of-interest screening and are required to recuse themselves from decisions that could present a conflict.

“It isn’t a rubber stamp,” said Kathy Edwards, a vaccine researcher who previously served on the ACIP. “All of these things are meticulously evaluated.”

I believe Edwards.  Vaccination is too serious a matter to make the accusation that these people, who have been vetted, are just giving advice to Big Pharma.

*Greta Thunberg and her companions refused to watch the video of the October 7 massacre (described by the BBC in quotations as a “massacre”), a viewing prescribed by the IDF. I guess they just don’t want to know what happened.  (I’m told they simply closed their eyes during the presentation, which I find odious and reprehensible.) Four of the crew, including Greta, voluntarily left Israel on a plane, while eight others refuse to leave and will be deported:

Activists of the protest flotilla were brought to Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday morning, ready to depart from Israel. According to the Foreign Ministry, some of the activists will be deported in the coming hours.

“Anyone who refuses to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial body in accordance with Israeli law, in order to approve the deportation,” the Foreign Ministry clarified.

Four of the activists are departing the country, including Greta Thunberg. However, eight have refused to leave and will be transferred to Givon detention facility.

The activists were given the option to sign a voluntary departure form or face arrest after 96 hours. Among those refusing to leave is French MEP Rima Hassan

Hassan has previously drawn wide criticism for her denial that the Bibas family, excluding Yarden Bibas, were murdered, her claim that the October 7 massacre was “legitimate”  and her insistence that Palestinians in Europe should be allowed to join the “resistance.”
The German ambassador to Israel confirmed that a representative spoke with Yasemin Acar, a German national, ahead of the deportation. The German activist has previously made headlines for celebrating Iran’s attacks against Israel and for expressing solidarity with Hamas, according to KAN

French officials said that six French nationals were aboard the vessel, and one has voluntarily agreed to leave the country, while the remaining will be deported following a judge’s order in the coming days.

Israeli authorities screened footage of Hamas’s October 7 atrocities to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian flotilla participants upon their arrival in Ashdod on Monday, shortly after the IDF intercepted their ship, the Madleen, in international waters.

According to Defense Minister Israel Katz, the activists refused to continue watching the film after seeing the brutality of the attacks.

“These antisemitic flotilla activists closed their eyes to the truth and once again proved they prefer the murderers over the victims,” Katz said. “They continue to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas against Jewish and Israeli women, the elderly, and children.”

From the Times of Israel:

“I do more good outside of Israel than if I am forced to stay here for a few weeks,” Thunberg told her lawyers, according to Zedan. “If we choose to stay here against the will of the Israeli authorities and are arrested for a few weeks, it will harm our cause.”

A photo of Greta on the plane, waiting to go home:

*From the AP’s reliable “oddities” section: an endangered loggerhead turtle, rehabbed after one of her flippers was amputated, was released back into the ocean:

An adolescent loggerhead sea turtle named Dilly Dally crawled into the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday morning, months after having a front flipper amputated at a Florida turtle hospital.

The turtle was brought to Loggerhead Marinelife Center in January suffering from predator wounds to the front flipper. The veterinary crew at the Juno Beach facility assisted in Dilly Dally’s rehabilitation and care.

“Every time we can release a turtle back into the wild is special and not just for us but for all the interns and volunteers and everyone that puts an effort to getting these turtles back out there. It’s always a really special day,” said Marika Weber, a veterinary technician at the center.

Stormy weather on Wednesday almost caused Dilly Dally’s release to be postponed. But they packed the turtle up and drove the short distance to the beach. A crowd of beachgoers cheered as the turtle made its way to the ocean.

A satellite tracking device attached to Dilly Dally’s shell will allow the center and the public to follow her journey.

The center partnered with the Smithsonian to get the satellite tag, which was attached on Tuesday.

Here’s a video of the release. The turtle doesn’t look as if can get around very well. I guess someone made the decision that the turtle would have a better life as a tripod in the ocean than in an aquarium. I hope so, but the satellite tag will tell if Dilly behaves normally.  Remember, when she lays eggs she has to haul herself up on the beach and dig an egg-hole with her flippers:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s doing entomology again:

Hili: There are ants coming out of this tree stump.
A: And what are they doing?
Hili: They are sunbathing.
In Polish:
Hili: Z tego pnia wychodzą mrówki.
Ja: I co robią?
Hili: Opalają się.

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

From Things With Faces, cut up lotus root:

From Meow, a special cattuccino:

From CinEmma, an essential item:

Cunk on Islam (30 seconds; h/t Phil):

Masih and Titania are quiet today, but here’s a trans-identified man explaining why he took selfies in the bathroom at Disney world (retweeted by JKR):

Apparently a lot of Jews in the UK are contemplating “Aliyah“: the immigration of Jews of the diaspora to Israel (h/t Malgorzata):

From Malcolm; this kid made $10K by sinking 4 shots, and the last one is a corker:

Two from my feed. A Greta meme, and yes, I think the Israelis gave her a pastrami sandwich!

This must have been taken with a drone:

One I reposted from the Auschwitz memorial:

An Italian Jewish boy, only two years old, was gassed together with his brother and mother upon arriving at Auschwitz.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-11T09:42:27.835Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, via Tori Herridge. There’s a thread of five posts:

Bubble rings blown by whales in an apparent attempt to interact or communicate with humans (as just heard on Radio 4 Today) (a thread with thoughts) 1/5

— Rowan Hooper (@rowhoop.bsky.social) 2025-06-10T06:54:09.860Z

. . .  and a groaner of a science joke:

#booksky

— Bookshelfie (@bookshelfie.bsky.social) 2025-06-09T16:21:25.344Z

27 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. The Everest shot was taken with an extendable selfie stick. Software edits the stick out of the video. You can the see climber retracting it.

    1. Thanks for that keen observation and information, Glenn. Mars helicopter technology can handle air density at 29,000 ft (i think that for Earth atmospheric testing, Nasa drops potential Mars atmospheric flight vehicles at 100,000 ft), but the winds and effect of cold soak on batteries at top of Everest may prove to be too big an obstacle…but maybe not as drone technology seems to grow by leaps and bounds these days. Maybe somebody more up to date knows?…

      1. Was not aware of that – Speaking of drones – did everyone see the … what I’d call a drone obstacle course race?

        I saw a 5 second clip of it. Seems not AI….

    2. My thought too, Glenn. I have one of those ‘360 degree’ cameras (more accurately, a 4 pi steradian camera) and a one-meter selfie stick, and I can make videos similar to this, although this one may have used a 3-meter stick. Cool shot, regardless.

  2. British Jews hoping to make Aliyah. Foolish “activists” functioning as useful idiots for Hamas. Then I see that touching photo of Renata D’Angeli’s children. Your morning posts usually leave me feeling depressed by the current rise of antisemitism, but today is somehow especially sobering. Nevertheless, thank you for calling attention to what matters.

  3. I wish the Israeli government would share with the world the 30 minute video that they tried to show Greta. Perhaps it might shock people into see Hamas as what they truly are.

  4. The fellow who was deported across the bridge may have already had a deportation order. People who do seem to be a target group for ICE.

    1. You’re not swayed by the character reference provided by his illegal-alien father, I gather.
      (/sarc)

      I don’t see what the issue is here. Guy is found not to have legal status. (Maybe there already was a deportation order, maybe not. Sounds like ICE knew whom they were looking for in any event. They didn’t grab the father, too.) Guy agrees to be deported without fuss, so signs. (Canada does this, too. If the alien agrees to self-deport, and does, it saves us having to wheedle travel documents out of his home country, which otherwise might pretend it nevah hoiduv’im. Under these self-deportations the alien gets himself to the bridge, or the airport, and then goes wherever he wants at his own expense when he gets back home as a free man. We can’t be bothered to track how many self-deportees actually do.). All the Americans did here was give him a ride to the border to make sure he followed through with his undertaking, and then bid him adios. Even under an expanded concept of due process I don’t see what ICE should have done differently. There was clearly some sort of process going on between Friday and Sunday, which we know nothing about. (David Anderson says it takes 15 minutes tops, presumably less if there is already a deportation order. Right guy? Check.)

      When I hear criticism of process, I still want to know if the victim was deprived of rights he actually had, or only of rights the speaker thinks he should have, but doesn’t actually. This is an important, if annoying, distinction. If the first, there should be immediate remedy from the Courts. [Crickets.] If the second, the only remedy is to elect a kinder, more indulgent Executive next time or get Congress to amend the relevant law to constrain the discretion of the Executive to enforce it.

      The masked federal agent question is like this. The opinions were all over the map but all one had to do was look up if law or policy says agents have to show their faces. Answer from CNN: they don’t. Case closed.

      Maybe Mr. Fernando plans to be back in the U.S. next week, and figured the less fuss and detention the better.

      1. Hehe, no, his father-in-law’s testimonial didn’t sway me. But it reminded my of a video that came out several months ago, of a latino man saying how worried he was for his mother-in-law, who was illegal, and that she lived at an address he gave, and was at home times he specified. Yes, he was worried she might be deported. . . .

  5. Someone should go to the top of Everest with a garbage bag. I mean, c’mon, leave it better than you found it.

    1. “Pack it in/carry it out” was the golden rule in my backpacking days in the 70’s.

      1. Leave No Trace

        Scouting principle … not sure what year it was implemented – but not 1911 – I checked my copy of Boy Scouts Handbook from 1911 – the original.

        It’s a memorable directive.

  6. “I’m told they simply closed their eyes during the presentation, which I find odious and reprehensible.”

    Why is this so odious and reprehensible? Why are they morally obligated to watch something so horrible? I don’t get the disapproval.

    1. Because one would think that they need to see the arguments of the other side a la John Stuart Mill. It’s like going to a talk by a politician you oppose and stopping your ears. They are not morally obligated to watch “something so horrible” (don’t you think they need to see what happened?) but they are intellectually obligated to do so.

    2. It’s fundamentally dishonest for them to turn a blind eye. Not only are they accusing the Israelis of war crimes, they are acting in support of some of the worst atrocities committed in recent times, all based on no personal knowledge of what the Palestinians did to provoke this war. It is reprehensible to support Hamas and condemn Israel while refusing to see what their heroes did.

      It shows exactly who these people are; they are beneath contempt.

      1. I disagree: they are thoroughly deserving of contempt, the more the better.

        And, re ““Anyone who refuses to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial body in accordance with Israeli law, in order to approve the deportation” — <Yiddish accent> so, Rima Hassan would rather be immediately and righteously pushed off a tall building?

      2. I disagree: they are thoroughly deserving of contempt, the more the better.

        And, re ““Anyone who refuses to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial body in accordance with Israeli law, in order to approve the deportation” — <Yiddish accent> so, Rima Hassan would rather be immediately and righteously pushed off a tall building?

        And, re “If we choose to stay here against the will of the Israeli authorities and are arrested for a few weeks, it will harm our cause” — that’s actually true, losing weeks of opportunity for other performative BS.

        [Sorry about the duplicate first part]

      3. And, re closing their eyes (“See no evil”?) — I am uncomfortably reminded of a scene in A Clockwork Orange; maybe they would actually prefer to be thrown off a building.

    3. Greta initially became known for using science and pointing out that the evidence for global warming vastly outweighed the evidence against.

      Now she is doing the opposite by closing her eyes and mind and ignoring evidence that contradicts ideas she wants to believe in.

  7. Greta’s Med vacation is driving me bonkers and you all know it is.

    But… and hear me out… musing here… I wonder what the “deportation protocol” is in the Hamas (or P.A.) manual?

    Like… if you try to run their blockade or otherwise insult their state or actually endanger it… do you think there’s a set of legalities and protections for defendants? Are all their rights respected, sandwiches, plane trip home… given out do y’think?

    Pity the severed heads and late night corpse burials in Gaza can’t talk or they’d tell us. As would the living (some American!) hostages… remember them?
    (Yahia Sinwar was known as the Butcher of Khan Younis, he was swift with his machete).

    It is this asymmetry friends… consider that.

    And if you fall for it you — work for the UN, are a “useful idiot” (see USSR), Eurotrash or an American Socialist fool and I have a bridge (Brooklyn, barely used!) to sell you.

    D.A.
    NYC

  8. Re blaming violence on the presence of law officers not being appropriate — apparently so in LA so far; but also consider Chicago, Mayor Daley¹, police riot, Kerner Commission Report. And again, the whole world is watching….

    . . . . .
    ¹ Fill in the blank: “The police are not here to create disorder, they’re here to ________ disorder”. Freudian?

  9. Re “The [vaccine advisory] Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas”; it will now be for nut-bar conspiracy agendas.

  10. When we were kids we called those colorful cobs of corn “Indian corn”. It’s gorgeous stuff. I have an elderly Syrian friend in town here who grew all her own produce in her yard for years. For some reason, she never planted tomatoes, but one year this Jack and the Beanstalk sized tomato vine popped up and it produced the weirdest, most delicious tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. Heirloom, I guess. They were huge, oddly shapen, and almost lpurple. It grew over her roof and put out incredible quantities of fruit. Poor Nuha developed dementia when she turned 80 and no longer recognizes me. She quit gardening, too. Makes me sad. So glad I had the chance to know her.

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