Tuesday: Hili dialogue

February 10, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to The Cruelest Day: Tuesday, February 10, 2026, and Teddy Day.  If you have one, send me a photo and a bit of information about it. If we get ten, I’ll post them. But in the meantime, here’s mine: Toasty, a bear I got him day I was born and has been with me since (he’s in my office now). He’s battered and has lost a lot of fur, but, like me, he persists nevertheless. (My mother sewed his head back on and replaced the eyes several times.)

It’s also International Cribbage Day, “Have a Brownie” Day (why the scare quotes? Are we supposed to just pretend we had a brownie?), National Cream Cheese Brownie Day, National Flannel Day.

There is again a dearth of things that I’d like to write about, though readers are welcome to send me pieces they think would interest me (note that there’s no guarantee that I’ll write about them, but I do welcome submissions). Bear with me (like Toasty); I do my best.

There is another Google Doodle marking the Olympics today, this time highlighting ski jumping; it goes to a site telling you how the jumpers remain airborne. Click to read:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 10 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The Congressional talks on immigration appear to have stalled as Democrats have taken a hard position and apparently won’t budge, while Republicans haven’t offered a response. This may lead to a partial government shutdown.

As a Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security approaches, Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer on Sunday to a deal to keep the department running.

“If I had to say now, I probably would expect there is a shutdown,” said Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

In the wake of federal immigration officers’ killings of two American citizens in Minnesota last month, Democrats have demanded a host of new restrictions on immigration enforcement operations as a condition for a new spending bill.

They include barring immigration officers from wearing masks, requiring them to show visible identification and mandating the use of judicial warrants when they enter private property to make arrests.

“Dramatic changes are necessary to the manner in which the Department of Homeland Security officers are conducting themselves before any funding bill should move forward,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Republican leaders have rejected those proposals as an unrealistic wish list, calling the new restrictions overly burdensome to an immigration crackdown that they generally support.

“They are threatening the safety and security of our agents so that they can’t do their job,” Senator Bill Hagerty, Republican of Tennessee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is something we need to look at carefully. The request that we should put ICE agents in harm’s way is absolutely intolerable.”

Mr. Jeffries said Democrats had not heard a response to their proposals from the White House or Republican leaders in Congress. “The ball is in the court right now of the Republicans,” he said.

We discussed this not long ago, and a couple of readers suggested that masks might be okay to prevent doxxing, but badges with numbers should be prominently on display.  That might be a good compromise, as ICE agents have been doxxed, endangering themselves and their families.  But there should be body cameras given the history of ICE apprehensions. You can see the list of Democratic demands here.

*Now that Hong Kong is under the rule and law of the People’s Republic of China, suppression of dissent has intensified. The latest disturbing evidence of this is the sentencing of Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison.  Lai is 78 (and a British national), so this is a life sentence. Because there is no extradition to mainland China despite the PRC running the islands, Lau will serve his sentence in Hong Kong, where he’s being held now.  The charges: publishing seditious materials and collusion. It’s grossly unfair, as he is a political prisoner.

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul who spent decades as a defiant thorn in Beijing’s side, was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison, the harshest penalty ever handed down for a national security offense in the semiautonomous territory.

The landmark ruling completes a yearslong effort by Beijing to dismantle the influence of a man it blamed for masterminding Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

Mr. Lai, 78, smiled and waved at the public gallery after his sentencing. His wife, Teresa Lai, sat emotionless with her arms folded, and weeping could be heard in the back of the gallery.

His daughter, Claire Lai, said the sentence was “heartbreakingly cruel.” She added: “If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars.”

In December, Mr. Lai was found guilty of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” that stemmed from meetings he had held with politicians in the United States. He was also convicted of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, the now-shuttered Chinese-language pro-democracy newspaper he founded in 1995.

For decades, China has branded Mr. Lai a traitor seeking to undermine the Communist Party rule over Hong Kong and China. They have accused him of being the “black hand” behind the antigovernment protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019. Mr. Lai had taken part in some of the demonstrations and supported them through Apple Daily.

Even in a hyper-capitalistic city filled with self-made millionaires, Mr. Lai’s rags to riches story stood out. He fled a poverty stricken China as a stowaway when he was a boy and worked his way up the city’s garment factories. That led to the launching of his own brand of casual wear in 1981, which earned him his first fortune.

Western governments have joined Mr. Lai’s family in calling for the release of Mr. Lai, a British citizen, describing his trial as politically motivated.

Lau, who has health problems, has already been in solitary confinement for well over five years. And President Trump has promised to get him out, saying it would be “easy” to get Lau released ()and presumably moved to the US). It’s time for Trump to make good on his promises; perhaps that will require a prisoner exchange.

*The new article by Ann Bauer in The Free Press, “Mob rule comes for my yoga studio,” is one of many examples where “progressives” try to force themselves into spaces where they don’t belong. Bauer and her family moved from Boston to Minneapolis in 2014 and encountered this:

Yoga was one thing I’d managed to keep separate from politics. But when I returned, after they dropped Covid restrictions in 2022, the rules had changed.

“I know I’m not supposed to talk politics,” said one instructor after another, “but this is too important.” Then they would launch into a speech on Palestine or trans athletes or immigration, and welcome input. I could feel the sanctity of this place sliding away, just as it had at coffee shops, barbecues, business meetings, and libraries. Eventually, I’d have to lie or leave.

Instead, I spoke to leadership at CorePower, first the local studio managers and then the regional one. I asked them to abide by the policy of no politics in the studio and, in a nearly choreographed way, they shrugged and smiled their namaste smiles and gave me that side-eye that said I know what side you’re on and why you’re asking, and told me in kindergarten teacher voices that there was nothing they could do. These were unprecedented times. Excitement was high. People’s higher selves were in control.

Finally, I had my own reckoning with a teacher at the studio, who grilled me about my political leanings and didn’t like what she heard. It became one more obstacle in my life. She taught a ton of classes at my studio and refused to speak to me after. She couldn’t keep me from registering but she could make it unpleasant. Soon, when I entered, her colleagues at the desk would also turn stony and stop talking, disgustedly waving me through.

My husband, son, and I left a few months later, selling two houses and much of what we owned. We’d found a marvelous opportunity to start a new publishing platform in Kentucky. We were moving toward something. But we were also escaping Minnesota and thousands of things like CorePower that made life hard. We were just done, and desperate to get out.

Our new city is purple, leaning to the moderate side of blue. We live in multifamily housing and go to an office. I have a new yoga studio, coffee shop, and library. We’ve had only a handful of political conversations with the people we’ve met here over the months, and if we disagree, we do so pleasantly and without accusation. It is a wonder to live like this. We’re grateful, every single day.

It’s a tragedy the yoga studio I used to love has been ruined by shouted ideology and shunning, just like nearly every public space in the Twin Cities. But I have to admit I had a moment of pleasure, watching that scene, thinking Thank God. Thank God we got out.

But even a liberal can justifiably object to being propagandized with Lefist stuff when they just want to do yoga, and really, businesses and yoga studios should maintain institutional neutrality. All yoga-ites should be treated the same so long as they behave themselves. It seems to me, though I don’t have data, that this kind of personal propagandizing and virtue signaling comes more often from the Left than the Right. Democrats should stop doing this to a captive audience, like those who patronize businesses. It only turns people off on the Left, which means fewer Democrats when it comes to elections.

*If you’re contemplating sending your kid to college, the Washington Post has a long list of colleges with free tuition (article archived here). I had no idea there were any colleges that gave free tuition to all students (without an income threshold), but the paper has 87 pages of colleges offering free tuition—some without income requirements.  The first page is below:

The cost of higher education can be intimidating.

Americans are increasingly questioning whether college is worth the price, as student loan debt tops $1.6 trillion and the average tuition has doubled in the past 30 years. At the same time, new federal caps on how much parents can borrow for college could place higher education further out of reach for some families.

Against that backdrop, a growing number of schools are making college more affordable by providing free tuition to undergraduate students from low- and middle-income families. The movement dates back 20 years but has gained momentum in the past decade, largely fueled by state policies.

We set out to catalogue free tuition programs and found nearly 1,000 — in 45 states, at two-year colleges, four-year universities, vocational schools and elite private campuses. You can look up schools using the tool below. And if your school offers free tuition but is not on the list, let us know by filling out this submission form.

The University of Chicago offers free tuition to students coming from families making less than $125,000 per year “with typical assets” (whatever that means). Further, AI tells me this: “Furthermore, [University of Chicago] students from families with incomes under $60,000 (with typical assets) receive free tuition, fees, and standard room and board. This policy is part of their need-based, “no-loan” financial aid approach to increase accessibility.

And just to show you that not everything is horrible in the world, information.net has published a graphic (with links) to the Most Beautiful News of the Year 2025. Here’s the list (click to enlarge), and let’s look at the second one. (Links are at the original site, but click below to go there):

Trachoma is a dreadful and highly infectious disease caused by a bacterium, and a major cause of blindness. Once you’re blind from it there’s no cure, so this really is good news. The link at the second square gives the details:

The number of people requiring interventions against trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, has fallen below 100 million for the first time since global records began. There were 1.5 billion people estimated to be at risk in 2002, dropping to 97.1 million as of November 2025: a 94% reduction (as recently as 2011, 314 million people were estimated to be at risk and to require interventions).

This milestone reflects decades of sustained efforts by national health ministries, local communities, and international partners implementing the World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed SAFE strategy (Surgery to treat trachomatous trichiasis, the blinding stage of trachoma; Antibiotics to clear infection; and Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement to reduce transmission and sustain progress).

“The reduction of the population requiring interventions against trachoma to below 100 million is testament to strong country leadership and consistent implementation of the SAFE strategy,” said Dr Daniel Ngamije Madandi, Director of the Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases Department at WHO. “Progress across all trachoma-endemic WHO regions shows that SAFE is both effective and adaptable across contexts. WHO remains committed to supporting countries through the provision of technical assistance to achieve the global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem by 2030.”

Following the recent validation of Egypt and Fiji as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, the total number of countries validated by WHO now stands at 27 – including at least one country in every trachoma-endemic WHO region.

Global progress for trachoma has been supported by a diverse range of stakeholders, including implementing non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and donors, many of which collaborate through the International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC), as well as the donation of more than 1.1 billion doses of azithromycin by Pfizer Inc. through the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI). These partnerships have enabled health ministries to distribute valuable donated medicines efficiently and effectively, while strengthening community health systems.

We may not eliminate it, but humans have wiped out two diseases completely. Can you name them?

One more:

Once hunted almost to extinction, the group of humpback whales currently migrating down Australia’s east coast has bounced back — and then some.

In a preliminary report to the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, marine scientists estimate there were more than 50,000 eastern Australian humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in 2024.

That’s around 20,000 more individuals than the estimated pre-whaling population of the early 1900s.

So if you’re down about the state of the world, remember that, as a whole, things are better than they were 150 years ago, and a big part of that is human well-being: medical and economic issues in particular.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej speaks truth to felinity:

Hili: Did you see any positive news today?
Andrzej: No, the media do their best to avoid it, because it results in financial losses.

In Polish:

Hili: Widziałeś dziś jakieś pozytywne wiadomości?
Ja: Nie, wszystkie media starają się ich unikać, bo to przynosi straty.

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

From The Language Nerds: get it?

 

From This Cat is Guilty:

From Stacy:

From Masih, a very sad tweet about a murdered protestor and his dog. Do watch until the end, and have the sound on:

From Luana; Fetterman breaks ranks again. I can’t see any problem with showing an ID at the polls to verify that you are who you say you are when you get a ballot:

From Larry the Cat via Simon, who’s a Brit:

Some science from Emma’s husband via her:

One from my feed; look at those happy penguins!

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

This Hungarian Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was only three years old, and would have been 85 today had she lived.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T11:23:59.658Z

. . . and two from Dr. Cobb. First, a sheep’s brain on drugs:

And more Larry, who has a big anniversary coming up (he is 19 now: a Senior Cat):

Dominic Dyer: @number10cat.bsky.social Larry the Cat will have been in Downing Street 15 years next week, he is the most stable thing about British politics these days

— Laura Phillips (@lauraphillips.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T22:49:39.037Z

2 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

  2. Rumours are that Labour MPs want Starmer to go, but that he told them: “If you depose me then I’ll call a snap election and you’ll all lose your seats” (which they indeed would, with Labour at about 18% in the polls).

    Reply

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