Sunday: Hili dialogue

August 24, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Sunday, the sabbath for goyische cats. It’s August 24, 2025, and back to school time. It’s also National Waffle Day, which you can even have with chicken (I haven’t tried that.) Here are waffles with ice cream (the waffle itself dates back to the 14th century):

Simranjeet Sidhu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s also National Peach Pie Day, Vesuvius Day (the date of the Big Eruption in 79 AD is not known, though Aug. 24 is often mentioned), and Shooting Star Day. Here’s a video of a big meteor shower, which I’ve started in the middle to leave out the preliminary irrelevant stuff:

Last night I had a weird dream: I had to give a biology lecture, and Richard Dawkins was in the audience.  But I had to use the old-fashioned 35 mm slides, and the box of slides was all mixed up, and included irrelevant ones. I never have good dreams, but at least I got some sleep.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 24 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Remember Kilmar Armando Ábrego García? A Salvadoran immigrant to the U.S., he came here illegally but was protected by a judge from deportation because he feared gang violence if he went to his natal land, and he was allowed to stay here and work legally. He also had a spotless crime record and was complying with all legal requirements (he was married to an American, too). But he was illegally imprisoned (without trial) and then deported to the hideous Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center (the U.S. paid off Salvador for this). Now, accused of being a member of the MS-13 terrorist gang, and of engaging human smuggling, he was offered a plea deal that would deport him to Costa Rica if he pled guilty and served his sentence. He refused, and now they’re going to send him to Uganda instead.

Immigration officials said they intend to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.

The Costa Rica offer came late Thursday, after it was clear that the Salvadoran national would likely be released from a Tennessee jail the following day. Abrego Garcia declined to extend his stay in jail and was released on Friday to await trial in Maryland with his family. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security notified his attorneys that he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities on Monday.

His attorneys declined to comment on whether the plea offer had been formally rescinded. The brief they filed only said that Abrego Garcia had declined one part of the offer — to remain in jail — and that his attorneys would “communicate the government’s proposal to Mr. Abrego.”

Filed along with the brief was a letter from the Costa Rican government stating that Abrego Garcia would be welcomed to that country as a legal immigrant and wouldn’t face the possibility of detention. An additional benefit of the offer would be that Costa Rica is a Spanish-speaking country, like Abrego Garcia’s native El Salvador. Abrego Garcia would only be deported to Costa Rica after serving his sentence on the smuggling charges, according to the brief.

Abrego Garcia’s case became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, despite a judge’s earlier determination that he faced a “well-founded fear” of violence there. Facing a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, only to detain him on human smuggling charges.

Absolutely unbelievable. He was released from jail to await trial, having refused one deportation “offer,” and now they’re going to snatch him up again and send him to Africa. For crying out loud, at least give the man a trial for his accused crimes. If he’s not guilty, then let him live his life in America.  I was in favor of curbing immigration, but this is too damn far!

*Trump seems to have given up, at least temporarily, in his attempt to settle the war in Ukraine.

President Donald Trump is signaling that he would step back for now from efforts to reach a Ukraine peace deal, expressing frustration over rising casualties and the failure of the two sides to come closer to a peace agreement.

“I’m not happy about anything about that war. Nothing. Not happy at all,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

He added that he would make an important decision about the future of the conflict in “two weeks,” a phrase that he often uses not to specify a precise time frame, but to indicate that he wants to put off a decision for a while. After that time, he said, “We’ll know which way I’m going, because I’m going to go one way or the other.”

The comments amounted to a significant shift from a president who had projected great confidence over the past several weeks in his ability to obtain security guarantees for Ukraine and a swift meeting between the warring leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.x

During the course of this week, Trump has gone from boasting that he could bring a quick end to the war to expressing skepticism that he would be able even to bring the leaders together for a face-to-face conversation.

Trump has invested significant time and energy in efforts to bring about a quick end to the war, including a summit in Alaska with Putin just over a week ago, followed by meetings with Zelensky and European leaders at the White House on Monday.

For all the diplomatic pageantry, however, there’s been little sign of progress, with Moscow resisting any proposals to cease its attacks on Ukraine or accept anything short of its maximum goals for the war. Outside analysts have suggested the White House misunderstood Putin’s aims and may have been influenced by wishful thinking.

For now, Trump said, he would give Putin time to decide whether he would meet with Zelensky, as the president had requested.

Time is only on Russia’s side, for they’re slowly taking more and more territory beyond what they’ve got in the east.  And we all know that if there eventually is a peace, Putin won’t agree unless he gets to keep what he’s conquered. And Unless Europe steps in and does something drastic, I fear Ukraine is doomed to become part of a new U.S.S.R.

*As you’ve heard, California is trying to rebalance Texas’s pro-Republican gerrymandering with its own Democratic equivalent. According to the WSJ, “A partisan shot fired in Texas reverberates around the country,” and not necessarily to Democratic advantage.

Standing at the wooden lectern at the front of the state House chamber, Republican state Rep. Todd Hunter put the purpose of his legislation to redraw Texas’ congressional map in forthright terms. “The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward,” he said: “Improve Republican political performance.”

What might once have been considered a damning admission was embraced as an explicit rationale as the state House proceeded to pass the map on a party-line vote late Wednesday. Democrats charged that Republicans were shamelessly redrawing the lines ahead of the usual decennial schedule at the behest of President Trump to add five potential congressional seats for their party—and Republicans largely agreed.

The redistricting plan, which is expected to be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in the coming days, has set off a national partisan arms race, reshuffling the landscape for next year’s midterm elections and potentially permanently altering the parties’ electoral calculations. California has already begun a high-stakes gambit to redraw the massive blue state’s congressional lines in response, while other red states, egged on by the White House, are jockeying to follow Texas’ lead.

The upshot of the redistricting wars looks likely to benefit Republicans overall. And the episode seems fated to stand as yet another illustration of Trump’s willingness to use his stranglehold over his party to maximize his power, polarizing the national landscape and trampling long-held norms in the process, and leaving the opposition dazed.

. . . Yet the redistricting battle has forced Democrats, many of whom previously decried the age-old practice of gerrymandering as an affront to democracy, into the awkward position of pursuing it in one state even as they fight it in another. A bill backed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to change that state’s maps to add more Democratic seats was passed by the state legislature and signed by Newsom on Thursday. It sets a special election in November asking voters to approve a temporary suspension of the state’s independent redistricting commission.

. . . Nationally, some blue-state Republicans have expressed alarm at the multistate redistricting scramble that stands to put their seats at risk. But other red states, including Indiana, Florida and Missouri, are moving ahead with efforts of their own to draw more Republican districts. No such prospects appear realistic in other blue states ahead of the midterms, meaning the net effect of the national changes is likely to favor Republicans even if California’s gambit succeeds.

But the last paragraph underlines the real problem for Democrats:

“The president created the opportunity for it and he requested it, and as far as I can tell there is no downside to us as Republicans to complying with that request,” Rep. Mitch Little, a Dallas-area Republican, said in an interview. For all Democrats’ whining, he said, they still haven’t presented a viable alternative to GOP policies, he said.

“They don’t have an alternative that resonates with the average person trying to raise a family, buy a home and live their lives,” Little said. “In politics, like in the woods, you don’t have to outrun the bear—you just have to outrun your buddy.”

So who are the Democrats’ “buddies”? Gavin Newsom, J. B. Pritzker.  I can’t see these, as they’re too progressive for centrists.  We need a damn LEADER!

*If you’re a yogurt fan—and who isn’t?—you’ll want to read the NYT Wirecutter’s selection of the 11 best plain yogurts, each in its own class (they tasted 54 brands).  I’ll put them here; you can thank me later. Quotes are indented:

  1. Best traditional whole milk yogurt. The lusciously rich La Fermière Whole Milk Yogurt drew enthusiastic praise from testers. The addition of cream to the milk and cultures gives the yogurt a velvety texture that clings to the spoon and feels, as multiple tasters described it, “luxurious” to eat.
  2. Best everyday traditional whole milk yogurt. We tried several options from Trader Joe’s, and this Organic Plain Whole Milk Yogurt impressed us for its mild, milky-sweet flavor.
  3. Best budget traditional whole milk yogurt. Aldi’s Simply Nature Organic Whole Milk Yogurt evoked comparisons to clover and spring grass, with tartness coming through at the finish. The assertive milky flavor, reminiscent of sweet cream, set it apart from other yogurts in the category.
  4. Best lowfat traditional yogurt. Whole Foods 365 Organic Low-Fat Yogurt was smooth and a bit runny — on par, texture-wise, with several of the other low-fat traditional yogurts we tried, such as Nancy’s and Stonyfield. But it was more whey-forward, with multiple testers picking up on an acidic brightness lingering under the creamy base.
  5. Best nonfat traditional yogurt. We struggled to choose a pick in the nonfat traditional category. Many of the yogurts tasted similar to one another, and few of them wowed us. As one tester said, “If you’re going to go nonfat, go Greek.” The exception was Trader Joe’s European-Style Nonfat Yogurt.
  6. Best whole milk Greek yogurt. Our favorite Greek yogurts tended to land on the plush and lofty end of the spectrum, and Friendly Farms Whole Milk Greek Yogurt (from Aldi’s house brand) delivered on that front.
  7. Best ultra-thick whole milk Greek yogurt. The runaway thickest yogurt we tried was Fage Total 5% Whole Milk Greek Yogurt, a supermarket trailblazer. It was as dense and compact as clotted cream. [JAC: This would be the one I’d go for!]
  8. Best organic, silky-smooth whole milk Greek yogurt. Of the smoother Greek yogurts, Wallaby Organic Whole Milk Greek Yogurt was our favorite. It was velvety and rich — a textural dead ringer for sour cream. (365’s whole milk greek yogurt was a close second but not quite as smooth.)
  9. Best lowfat Greek yogurt. Fans of super-thick Greek yogurt should consider Fage Total 2% Reduced Fat Greek Yogurt. It was simultaneously push-back-against-the-spoon dense yet fluffy and airy enough to resemble whipped butter.
  10. Best nonfat Greek yogurt. We were pleasantly surprised by the luscious texture of many nonfat Greek yogurts we tasted. But Oikos Triple Zero Greek Yogurt (which stands for zero fat, zero added sugars, and zero artificial sweeteners — true for all the nonfat Greek yogurts we tested) was our favorite, with its mildly tart flavor and satisfying richness.
  11. Best budget nonfat Greek yogurt. [A tie!]: Our tasters were split on Aldi’s Friendly Farms Nonfat Greek Yogurt. Some found its tart cranberry undertones too astringent and its finish a bit starchy and mouth-drying. If you’re more likely to shop at Trader Joe’s than at Aldi, Trader Joe’s Greek Nonfat Yogurt performed nearly as well in our taste test as our nonfat Greek pick from Friendly Farms.

Note the number of Aldi’s brands. You should seek them out. I used to love Cabot’s whole-milk yogurt, but they no longer sell it in Chicago. The article also gives other yogurts worth considering. Also, heed this:

Greek yogurts are made much in the same way as traditional yogurts, with the primary difference being that they are strained of whey after incubation. The straining process results in a noticeably thick yogurt that typically contains twice the protein and half of the lactose (the natural sugar found in milk) of traditional yogurts.

*More persiflage: a Minnesota high school football team has to readjust its schedule after a pair of osprey nested in a stadium floodlight, and turning it off would cook the eggs and babies.  Well, they have to deal with that, and have done so the right way:

Turn off the lights. The Nesting Ospreys have defeated the Apple Valley Eagles in Minnesota high school football.

They haven’t actually played each other, but the ospreys took charge when they built a huge nest to raise their chicks, high up on a light pole at the Apple Valley High School football field. Because of it, the migratory raptors that are protected under state and federal law forced the school, known as the Eagles, to rearrange their football and soccer schedules, switching to day games instead of night.

Turning on the hot floodlights would have risked cooking the birds and starting a fire.

“When you tell someone this story of ‘Wow, we have to reschedule because there’s an osprey nest in our stadium,’ they’re like, ‘You can’t make this type of stuff up, right?’” said Cory Hanson, athletic director at the school in the Minneapolis suburbs

Working with the state Department of Natural Resources, the school has been sending up a drone twice a week to monitor the chicks so that once the young ospreys are old enough and fly off, crews can remove the nest and switch on the traditional Friday Night Lights.

Play on weekend days, for crying out loud! The ospreys are more important than night games, but at least the school and state realized it. I suspect (but don’t know) that it is illegal to touch or move the nest, and moving it would likely doom the babies.  Ironically, the football team is called The Apple Valley Eagles, and ospreys are often called “fish eagles.”

A video:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is again wheedling for food:

Hili: Are you heading to the shop?
Me: Yes.
Hili: Get salmon, we’ll share it fifty-fifty.

In Polish:

Hili: Jedziesz do sklepu?
Ja: Tak.
Hili: Kup łososia, podzielimy się pół na pół.

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

From Cat Lovers.  Watch out for this armored kitty!

From the 2025 Darwin Awards!!/Epic Fails:

From Things With Faces: a grimacing butterfly:

Oy gewalt! Masih has stopped tweeting; I guess she’s too busy podcasting.  I’d rather die than do that. Fortunately, we have her substitute, J. K. Rowling, who is also trying to improve women’s rights. Here’s a tweet.

From Malcolm. I love this one!

From Luana, who didn’t have kind words to say about this woman in Chicago:

Two from my feed. This first one got me so steamed that I tweeted it AT Burger King, and I rarely direct tweets towards companies:

Flamingo parade! Look how gracefully they walk:

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

This Hungarian Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was six. Had she lived, she'd be 81 today.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-08-24T10:45:20.247Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb, who is relaxing on holiday. Matthew and I both like this first one:

Good gag on FB:Doctor: I'm sorry, but we had to remove your colon.Me Why?

— Rónán Hession (@ronanhession.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T19:43:22.371Z

 

. . . and a beautiful egg:

Please enjoy the absolute perfection of the egg of the Common Ringed Plover

— Lev Parikian (@levparikian.bsky.social) 2025-08-22T19:52:48.367Z

21 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  3. The colon joke took me a few seconds 😁

    Euan, aka Sophie Molly, aka Sophie Sparkles, is a Pound Shop India Willoughby. He tried to stand in the last election. He was kicked out by the Scottish Greens [SGs]. I think he tried the SNP and eventually started his own party. He failed of course.

    He was kicked out of the SGs when he called J.K. Rowling a “torn-faced cow”? Ironically, after he had demanded “Respect and dignity”.

    He posted BDSM photographs of himself and then complained when people shared them. He’s quite pathetic.

    1. I’m familiar with this specimen Joolz, spending way too much time on X as I do.
      He is quite bonkers and seems kinda dangerous.
      D.A.
      NYC

      1. One of the partners in his ‘polycule’ is the one who had a photo taken of himself dilating at an airport, lying on a floor in a in a disabled toilet. All three of them are certainly mentally disabled, but I don’t think that warrants using spaces for disabled people who might need them.

  4. Any “best of” yogurt list that fails to mention Icelandic Skyr is suspect, in my opinion.

  5. I can’t get excited about the immigration troubles of El Salvador ne’er do wells.
    I’m more alert to terrorists like Algerian-“Palestinian” Colombia U.’s Khalil who, for reasons I can’t understand… is as yet un-deported. Despite organizing, endorsing terrorism at scale. If there was ever a human insult to our “peace and tranquility”…

    Amazing.

    Onwards Israeli heroes.

    DavidAnderson_JD_NYC
    @DavidandersonJd

  6. Gage 2% is my usual breakfast, with almonds, walnuts, or pecans, and a spoonful of honey or jam. I just put up 5 half-pint jars of peach jam to enjoy with my yogurt this winter. I sometimes feel like I’m indulging in late-Roman-empire style decadence to enjoy such a delicious breakfast while my country spirals into lunacy.

      1. Second order sanctions will be extremely harmful to the Russian economy. Sly oil (discounted) to India and China is a HUGE amount of Russia’s incoming money.
        Another factor is how incredibly Putin has leveraged Russia’s economy into the future. Like a debtor who piles up debts. This isn’t sustainable forever though it has gone on longer than anybody thought. Leveraged as hell.

        Every week I listen to the (Aussie) “Perun” podcast on youtube. He’s an expert on defense economics and the podcast (usually on UK/RU) is about the best out there – listened to by all the smartest people in the field.

        D.A.
        NYC

        1. Here is this week’s “Perun” podcast (“Long term costs of war, price of life, economics and casualties of Russia’s war”).

          If you want to know about “stuff”, anything really, only listen to the smartest people. (good for when you’re done reading my own column 😉

          Contrary to wide belief, reliable info and analysis about things like…say.. Israel, “trans” or even the Russian war is rarely found at NBC, NYTimes, and certainly not tiktok!

          D.A.
          NYC

      2. This kind of information is heartening, but I think Russia has a ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers that deliver oil under the flags of other countries.
        It’s old news, but Europe was found to have spent more $ on Russian oil than they had delivered to Ukraine in the war effort. That was embarrassing, and I hope its fixed!

        1. There was a recent report – maybe two wks ago – about Europe and iIRC in particular the Nordic countries aggressively going after the shadow fleet.

    2. Today there were two posts from Reporting from Ukraine, which is unusual. Usually it’s just one/day, and on Sunday it’s typically a roundup of the situation on the main fronts, which didn’t appear. One of the two os publicly available on YT, the other is in text form and only to subscribers like me. (Subscribers also get all the YT posts in text form as well, which is nice).

      Anyway, the YT is about the collapse of the Russian offense in the Sumy region, which is basically Kursk (if you simply Google Sumy Kursk, you’ll see how close they are and the hilarous 13h route between the two). As part of Ukraine’s actions, the convoy with the Russian General sent to turn things around was attacked, with the result that the general went back to Moscow and now is missing an arm and a leg.)

      The by-subscription report covers how freely Ukrainian drones are now able to operate, and the inferiority of the Chinese and Iranian drones that Russia now relies on, which the Ukrainians are jamming. It is all very encouraging.

  10. What is the basis for saying Kilmer Garcia should be allowed to stay in the United States? He entered the country illegally — that’s as far as one needs to read, really — but anyway the judge stayed his deportation because he said he feared gang violence in his native land, (which is not state persecution under the asylum convention. Probably everyone in Latin America fears gang violence). So what is wrong with deporting him to Uganda, which has agreed to take him?

    Do you just say to illegal aliens, Well if you keep your nose clean and evade the authorities long enough we’ll give you a Green Card or just not bother enforcing immigration law? That’s what most of them are counting on: amnesty. It’s why they sneak in. So you’re really saying you have open borders and will deport only those illegal aliens who commit serious crimes, and then only after they have been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, with the sanctuary state doing its best to stall prosecution of the state crime conviction* for which you the federal government are relying on to get a deportation upheld, and then only deport them instead of putting them in prison after having gone to the trouble of finding them seriously guilty in a trial.

    It sounds to me that the Government is making efforts to work with Mr. Garcia, offering him terms to get him to cooperate with being deported. That is what’s supposed to happen to illegal aliens when they finally get caught, no? Do we agree that that’s non-negotiable, that someone who sneaks in and has no asylum claim can’t stay when he’s caught? He has to go somewhere.

    (* There is a perverse incentive here. Canadian judges have been giving absolute discharges or absurdly short, suspended sentences to temporary visa holders upon conviction of offences that would normally cause their visas to be automatically revoked, explicitly in order that the convict won’t suffer a setback in his immigration ambitions. I can see American state judges and prosecutors similarly cooperating in saying, “Hey the feds won’t deport illegals unless they get convicted of serious crimes. We know exactly what to do then, don’t we!”)

  11. It’s late again here. A mixture of charming & heart-rending in the pst today, as per usual, I guess. Not much to say but yes, in the US, sure, if someone’s papers are not always in order & they keep a clean nose (as said above) and make positive contributions, amnesty my be quite worthwhile. Every place has a checkered history. Maybe ease up a bit.

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