Monday: Hili dialogue

Welcome to another damn Monday: it’s March 23, 2026, and the temperature in Chicago is 31°F, just below freezing, but with the wind it feels like 15°F. My ducks! (Vashit didn’t show yesterday; I hope she’s not incubating eggs at this early date.) It’s also National Melba Toast Day. Why this thin rusk deserves celebrating is beyond me, but at least it’s in the same subspecies as Peach Melba (named after the same person):

It is named after Dame Nellie Melba, the stage name of Australian opera singer Helen Porter Mitchell. Its name is thought to date from 1897, when the singer was very ill and it became a staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by a chef who was also a fan of her, Auguste Escoffier, who also created the peach Melba dessert for her. The hotel proprietor César Ritz supposedly named it in a conversation with Escoffier

I’ve had it a few times, and it’s okay, but it’s best if you smother it with goodies, like this plate served with goat cheese and tomato jam:

It’s also Cuddly Kitten Day, National Chip and Dip Day, National Tamale Day, and World Meterological Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 23 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Former FBI director Robert Mueller died at 81.  Perhaps his biggest accomplishment was revitalizing the FBI, but he’s most famous for investigating claims that Russia (possibly with the cooperation of Trump) interfered with the 2016 Presidential election. (His report concluded that Russia did but Trump didn’t.)

Robert S. Mueller III, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 12 tumultuous years, brought politically explosive indictments as a special counsel examining Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election, and then concluded that he could neither absolve nor accuse President Trump of a crime, died on Friday. He was 81.

His family confirmed the death in a statement but did not say where he died or specify the cause. Last August, the family disclosed publicly that Mr. Mueller was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2021. The law firm WilmerHale, from which Mr. Mueller retired in 2022, said he died on Friday night in Charlottesville, Va.

A button-down, lockjawed, rock-ribbed exemplar of a vanishing caste, the liberal Republican, Mr. Mueller became the F.B.I. director just a week before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He went on to impose the most significant structural and cultural changes in the history of the F.B.I., seeking to transform the bureau into a 21st-century intelligence service that could protect both national security and civil liberties. And his counterterrorism agents were the first to blow the whistle on abuses at the secret prisons that the C.I.A. had established after 9/11 to detain, interrogate and, in some cases, torture terrorism suspects.

But he may be best remembered for what he did after he left the F.B.I., when he was summoned to investigate a sitting president.

The Justice Department named Mr. Mueller special counsel on May 17, 2017, eight days after Mr. Trump dismissed the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, who was investigating the interactions between the Trump campaign and a Russian covert operation to help him win the White House.

The president’s reason for dismissing Mr. Comey was no secret. The next day, in the Oval Office, he told the Russia foreign minister and the Russian ambassador: “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy.” Mr. Trump continued: “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

And here, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, and comrades, is Trump’s reaction from Truth Social:

Maybe some people can express glee at the death of a person, but it’s inappropriate for a U.S. President, and it’s inappropriate with respect to Robert Mueller. He was not, after all, like Jerry Falwell, whose death Christopher Hitchens celebrated. And of course Mueller had a family who is grieving, and the President makes a public pronouncment like this. It’s reprehensible.

*A reader told me of what looks like a good site for news from the Middle East, It’s Noon in Israel by Israeli journalist Amit Segal.  The reader touted it for its “solid facts and anlysis”, and that seems about right. Curious that Israeli sites often give more objective news than, say, the New York Times. A summary from yesterday.

• Last night Iranian ballistic missiles struck the southern cities of Dimona and Arad, injuring nearly 200 people—11 of them seriously—after Israeli air defenses failed to intercept two missiles. Iran said it was targeting Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, claiming the strikes were in retaliation for an alleged U.S. attack on Natanz, which the IDF denied. As a result of the attacks, in-person schooling—which had resumed in certain areas of the country—has been canceled for the next two days.
• Fifteen people were wounded—most lightly—in an Iranian missile strike on central Israel this morning. The ballistic missile carried a cluster bomb warhead, scattering bomblets across a wide area.
• Trump threatened last night to destroy Iran’s power plants “starting with the biggest one first” if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully opened within 48 hours. The ultimatum follows signs of growing international acceptance of Iran’s position. Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo News that Tehran has begun talks with Tokyo about possibly allowing Japanese-linked vessels through the strait. Meanwhile, Iran is reportedly considering a separate proposal to levy transit fees on ships passing through—an attempt to monetize its grip on the waterway.
• The Pentagon is deploying a second amphibious ready group to the Middle East in as many weeks—adding roughly 2,200 to 2,500 troops. This follows last week’s deployment of a 5,000-strong force based in Japan, bringing total U.S. troop levels in the region to approximately 50,000.
• Iran fired two ballistic missiles at the joint U.K.–U.S. base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean—and missed. One missile failed in flight; the other was intercepted by a U.S. warship. The attempted strike revealed something significant: the missiles traveled roughly 4,000 kilometers, double Iran’s previously declared self-imposed limit of 2,000 kilometers—putting most of Western Europe within range.

And some commentary:

The prime minister (or his avatar, if one is to believe the Iranians) believes that Trump needs many more achievements in this war than Israel does. Israel’s war aims are regional: nuclear capabilities, missiles, terror proxies. America’s war aims include severing the threat Iran waved around for decades and has now been pushed to use: closing the Strait of Hormuz and sending oil prices soaring. The Gulf states are pressing Trump to eliminate that threat once and for all. They do not trust a future regime not to extort the entire region and the world with the threat of shaking the energy market.

And so Israel finds itself helping the United States achieve that goal. The rationale, beyond returning a favor for a favor, is clear: every joint action against Iran frames the Middle East as a story of fundamentalists versus moderates, not Jews versus Muslims. The broader implications of the event are only beginning to emerge. For example, Qatar’s warnings to senior Hamas figures that the Palestinian issue is dropping off the agenda and that they must immediately choose which side to support. For example, the expanding IDF operation up to the Litani River. Is this a temporary, isolated event? Soldiers who went deeper into Lebanon this week should think again, and remember that IDF forces have now been on the summit of the Syrian Hermon since the end of 2024, with no expiration date.

The newsletter is giving a day-by-day account of the doings; what’s above is the report sent Sunday. I’d get a subscription to this news letter (some are free) if you want to follow the war without cant.

*Even if the Strait of Hormuz is secured, that doesn’t mean the danger to oil shipments is over, for there’s still the narrow Red Sea. The WSJ reports on the possibility that the Houthis could start attacking shipping there.

Iran has successfully strangled the Persian Gulf, the most critical maritime route for energy supplies in the world. It hasn’t yet prevented its foes from using a workaround that runs through the Red Sea.

That could change if the Houthis get involved.

The U.S. and its partners in the Middle East are keeping a close eye on the Yemeni militant group which—armed and funded by Iran—crippled shipping through the Red Sea for much of two years.

The Houthis have recently stepped up threatening rhetoric that has caught officials’ attention. While they haven’t started shooting yet, the militants are an important lever for Iran, if it decides to further squeeze the global economy or expand its targets to Saudi Arabia and nearby U.S. assets, such as a base in Djibouti.

“If the Houthis enter the conflict, it really raises the stakes,” said Adam Baron, a fellow at think tank New America who specializes in Yemen and the Gulf. “It pulls the Suez Canal and the Egyptians in, it brings Saudi further in.”

Iran has long cultivated militia allies across the Middle East as a way to project power and as a deterrent against attack. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq have jumped into the war to attack Israel and U.S. bases.

The Houthis are a notable holdout but have signaled they could jump in at any moment.

Here’s a digram from the region, showing the Strait of Hormuz at 3 o’clock (the passage with the pointy bit), and the Red Sea and Suez Canal to the left. The narrowest passage at the southern end is about 20 miles wide.

The Suez Canal is owned by Egypt, which makes billions of dollars per year from ships taking that short cut.  Closing it will bring Egypt into the conflict, when it’s already been dragged into the war between Israel and Hamas.  And if the Houthis start firing on ships, then the war with Iran will expand into Yemen.

*An article from the Los Angeles Times (archived link) describes the hasty dismantling of Cesar Chavez’s legacy after he was credibly accused of sexual predation on both adults and minors.

It took three decades of battles and lobbying for Cesar Chavez’s name and likeness to grace hundreds of buildings, roads, parks and schools.

 

It is taking just days for them to come down.

In the two days after allegations emerged that the famed farmworker rights leader and Chicano figure sexually assaulted minors and fellow labor icon Dolores Huerta, Chavez is being erased at an unprecedented rate. This is especially true in California, where his fight for agricultural workers’ rights was cemented in state history.

In San Fernando, a completely covered Chavez statue was pulled off its pedestal and put into storage. Murals depicting Chavez in Los Angeles were unceremoniously painted over. In Fresno, the City Council voted to strip his name from a major street — just three years after its controversial decision to rebrand it in his honor. Soon, the old street names — Kings Canyon Road, Ventura Street and California Avenue — will return to the nearly 10-mile-long corridor.

. . . On Thursday, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and members of the City Council announced they would abandon the holiday honoring Chavez’s birthday and instead rename it “Farm Workers Day” to honor laborers who toil in the fields.

. . . There has been talk within some communities to removed the Chavez name and replace it with a more generic honor for farmworkers and activists, placing the movement above any individual.

In an interview with Latino USA, Huerta said that streets named for Chavez should be renamed instead after the movement.

“Everything should be named for the martyrs of the Farm Workers Movement. Every street should be named after them,” Huerta said.

There has been a steady drumbeat to honor Chavez after his death in 1993. One of the first was renaming old Brooklyn Avenue on L.A.’s Eastside for Chavez. That faced some controversy from the community who argued the city was erasing their history and burdening them with the cost to change stationery. But over time, naming things after the labor leader became shorthand for honoring Latino civil rights and activism.

Historians and educators of history, including Gudis, said instead of zeroing in on one person to encapsulate a historical movement or event, there should be a greater effort to uplift lesser-known figures in the community who have contributed to a broader cause. These are people whom the community can actually resonate and connect with.

The Cesar Chavez Foundation and family said on Friday that it is aware of the city of Los Angeles’ intent to rename the holiday that once celebrated its namesake to instead honor farmworkers and supported it.

“The decision about how to commemorate the movement and its participants rests with the local communities who organize those recognitions, events and commemorations. That has always been the case,” the foundation’s statement said. “We support and respect whatever decision they ultimately make.”

Nobody is contesting the allegations or even arguing over them (at least I haven’t heard any criticisms of the cancellation): the evidence is too pervasive.  It’s being handled well, and they’re replacing Chavez as the symbol of the movement with the farmworkers as a group, as well as Dolores Huerta (now 90), a largely unrecognized force in the farmerworkers movement (she was also assaulted by Chavez and had two of his children).  Of all the cancellations I’ve seen, this is the one that most saddens me, as Chavez was a hero to me and many of my peers. I even boycotted grapes.

*The baseball season is about to begin, and with it is the advent of the robot umpire.  The NYT explains (free archived link.)

Ready or not, the robots are here … in … the … house. You can find them in a big-league batter’s box near you, fully locked and loaded to decide baseball’s most important question: What’s a strike?

Technically speaking, of course, they won’t be whizzing around the field like your Roomba, wooing batters, catchers and paying customers with their robotic charms. They’re actually invisible, lurking in the background, waiting for somebody to tap his cap, challenge and ask their opinions.

But this is not the latest “Star Wars” installment, and it’s not a laughing matter. Those robot umpires are here to stay.

MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike challenge system (ABS) is up and running this spring. And unlike last year, when this was just a fun experiment, this time that challenge system will remain once the real games start. It will be ball-striking away in every game, in all 30 parks, from Opening Day through the postseason and then (theoretically) …

The system is a series of cameras honed in on a player’s strike zone, which differs from player to player.  And it doesn’t call every pitch: each team gets two challenges of an umpire’s call in each game:

This is the easy part. The rules will be the same as the ones used in Triple A and in big-league spring training last season. Each team gets two challenges per game. If it gets a challenge right, it keeps that challenge. If it gets that challenge wrong, it loses a challenge.

Only hitters, catchers and pitchers have the power to challenge — and they need to do that within two seconds of the umpire’s call. They’re being told they have to both tap their head and verbally challenge so there’s no confusion. Hmm, think we’ll make it through a whole season with no confusion? Why do I think that answer is … no! 

Here’s a video showing it in action; note the pitcher challenging the umpire’s call by tapping his head and calling “challenge that!” as per the rules.

Here’s a called ball in the tweet: note that the ball is wholly outside the strike zone

We almost had today’s Blue Jays-Phillies game end on a robot-off!

Jays catcher Aaron Parker challenged this 1-2 pitch to Dante Nori that was called a ball.

So it would have been game over if it had even right. But…

Just a bit outside! pic.twitter.com/uMT0Q3Ce68

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) February 21, 2026

I used to watch a lot of baseball, both live and on television (my dad was a big fan).  I am not a huge fan of this, but we do have instant replays in football that can be reviewed by referees. But other changes in the game have upset me more, including having to vacate the stadium during double header and pay twice to see two games, as well as starting each half-inning with a man on second if a game is tied after the ninth inning. These rules were made to speed up the game, and probably at bottom involve revenue.  It’s not right to start with a man on second when he didn’t do anything to get on second.  And of course pitchers haven’t batted in years!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is angling for some pets, but Andrzej turns her request around:

Hili: Everyone enjoys a gentle stroke from time to time.
Andrzej: You can stroke me.

In Polish:

Hili: Każdy lubi być czasem pogłaskany.
Ja: Możesz mnie pogłaskać.

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

From The Language Nerds: Pay attention! There will be a quiz. “Enormity”, “nauseous,” and “peruse” are especially important.

From Things with Faces:

From Now That’s Wild:

From Masih: a disturbing look at how the families of executed Iranian protestors are treated:

Breaking: in this video, the mother of one of January’s killed protesters has exposed that she was threatened with gang rape. Now, it’s just come out that her husband has been arrested. First, they kill the child. Second, they threaten gang rape. Finally, they arrest the father.… pic.twitter.com/90N1j52ms2

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 21, 2026

Matt Ridley gave a lecture at the NIH defending his view that the SARS coronavirus was engineered in the Wuhan virus lab.  I haven’t followed this controversy, but it seems that scientific opinion is coalescing around  the “wet market” origin theory.  Matthew sent me a tweet about Ridley’s talk and discussion (see link below), and a virologist, who participated in the discussion below, also took apart Ridley’s arguments on a Bluesky thread. You can find the thread by clicking on the screenshot below, which leads to the rest of the comments:

Click on the screenshot below to see three evolutionary virologists vs. Ridley in an NIH-sponsored “Freedom from Science” lecture, all taking apart Ridley’s claims in real time (i;e., his lecture is sporadically interrupted and corrected; it’s a bit hectic). This annotated video was put up on virologist Angela Rasmussen‘s private Substack site, and you can see her and two colleagues take strong issue with not only Ridley’s claim of lab engineering, but also with similar claims by NIH director Jay Bhattacharya.  I have watched only part of the video as it’s 4½ hours long!

From Luana, public prayer in New York, promoted by Mayor Mamdani. It’s legal, of course, and should be, but I see it as a way to parade Islam in public. Group prayers in public are prohibited in some Muslim countries if they obstruct traffic or are a disruption, and in most of them group prayer is encouraged to take place in mosques, not in the streets.  I’ve always thought as Mamdani as an Islamist, and that impression has only been strengthened by his encouragement of public religious activities.  As I mentioned a few days ago, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has rebuked Mamdani for mixing religion with public business.

This is Washington Square Park, New York. One of the many locations that Muslims took over for their mass public prayers.

Again, NOBODY does this in Muslim countries. If they did this in Saudi Arabia or Dubai, they would be arrested!

Do you get it now?pic.twitter.com/KaLOgb8xMh

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) March 20, 2026

From Keith, a CatCam:

The owner wanted to use a surveillance camera to see what his cat was doing when he was not home

pic.twitter.com/9yESuKcrSf

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) March 20, 2026

One from my feed:  A young girl doing a lovely Iranian dance, but I wonder how she gets away with it. I thought public dancing by women was forbidden in Iran.

🇮🇷 An Iranian girl performing a traditional dance at the Rasht Fish Market, Gilan Province, Iran. (August 2025)

Video by Nafas Hoseini pic.twitter.com/IUc1p9tvNq

— MENA Visuals (@menavisualss) March 21, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Jewish boy, born in Tel Aviv and whose family moved to Paris, was transported to Auschwitz and gassed upon arrival, along with 90% of the people on his train. https://t.co/6OSkRm1uyZ

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) March 23, 2026

And two from Dr. Cobb (besides the one above). The first one is amazing, and not fake:

Doomscrolling break…A pantropical spotted dolphin about 15 feet / 4.5 metres in the airPhoto by Jessica McCordic, MSc around 2017, a research biologist for the Pacific Whale Foundation at the time – now working at NOAA fisheries monitoring marine acoustics

— Russell England (@russellengland.bsky.social) 2026-03-22T08:52:38.444Z

. . . and a graceful exit:

— Luke Knox (@lukeknox.me) 2026-03-20T23:26:16.965Z

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