Welcome to Thursday, April 2, 2026, and National Ferret Day. Here’s a video about ferrets, but I wouldn’t recommend you getting one as a pet: they’re cute but also stinky, and they bite.
It’s also Maundy Thursday (“maundy” refers to the Christian ceremony of washing people’s feet, as Jesus supposedly did on the day of the Last Supper. Some churches still ask people to wash each other’s feet), National Burrito Day, National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, and the first full day of Passover, which began yesterday at sundown and will last until sundown on April 9.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 2 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Yesterday Artemis II around-the-Moon mission, which will last ten days, took off successfully (or “nominally”, as they say) and, save for a glitch in the crew toilet, which was fixed, all is well. Here’s ten-minute video of the liftoff if you missed it:
*Here’s a summary of the war news (and Middle East news) from the NYT morning newsletter (with links):
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. . . and from It’s Noon in Israel:
The global price of oil has reached $100, down four percent since yesterday. Here are the latest developments while you were asleep:
- Ten people have been hospitalized following a missile impact in the city of Bnei Brak this morning. Two young children were badly injured—one critically, the other seriously. The mother of one and the father of the other are both being treated in moderate condition. Six additional children are undergoing medical evaluation.
- The United States has reportedly attacked the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, which had become a gathering point for Revolutionary Guards and Basij fighters. This is the same building in which 52 Americans were held by the regime for 444 days during the 1979 hostage crisis.
- Yesterday, Pakistan and China jointly published a five-point initiative to end the conflict in Iran, calling for an immediate ceasefire, the start of negotiations, a halt to attacks on civilian targets, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and a final peace agreement grounded in the UN Charter.
Let’s look at just the first one:
President Trump declared on Tuesday that he had already achieved one of the primary objectives of his attack on Iran, the elimination of its ability to build a nuclear weapon. But there is no evidence that the United States or Israel has removed or destroyed the country’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel.
“I had one goal,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office late in the afternoon. “They will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained.”
Several of Mr. Trump’s top aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have joined him in narrowing the war objectives in recent days, presumably to give the president space to declare victory and pull back from the conflict. When Mr. Rubio this week sketched out four major objectives — telling an interviewer to “write them down” — he made no mention at all of halting Iran’s nuclear program. (The State Department on Tuesday issued a video in which Mr. Rubio celebrated the smashing of the “shield” of missiles and drones that had protected the country’s nuclear infrastructure.)
But the country’s nuclear ambitions were the central argument for going to war when Mr. Trump announced the commencement of the military operation on Feb 28. In a speech to the nation that morning, Mr. Trump said he initiated “major combat operations” in part because Iran had “attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.”
Dropping the elimination of the nuclear program from the administration’s list of strategic goals, or declaring the problem solved when Iran retains control over its nuclear fuel, now poses a factual, political and rhetorical challenge.
Finally, in a speech to the American public yesterday, Trump estimated that the war would last about three weeks longer.
Indeed it does, as that was the main objective that Trump described when he announced the attack on Iran. If he’s going to just declare victory and get the hell out, then everything will go back to where it did before, and Iran will eventually have nukes. That is not what the sensible (i.e., non-terrorist) countries in the Middle East want.
*According to the WSJ, the United Arab Emirates, eager to open the Strait of Hormuz, has agreed to become a combatant in the war against Iran.
The United Arab Emirates is preparing to help the U.S. and other allies open the Strait of Hormuz by force, Arab officials said, a move that would make it the first Persian Gulf country to become a combatant, after being hit by Iranian attacks.
The U.A.E. is lobbying for a United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize such action, the officials said. Emirati diplomats have urged the U.S. and military powers in Europe and Asia to form a coalition to open the strait by force, the officials said. A U.A.E. official said the Iranian regime thinks it is fighting for its existence and is willing to bring the global economy down with it in a chokehold on the strait.
The U.A.E. official said the country had reviewed its capabilities to assist in securing the strait, including efforts to help clear it of mines and other support services.
The Gulf state has also said the U.S. should occupy islands in the strategic waterway including Abu Musa, which has been held by Iran for a half-century and is claimed by the U.A.E., other Arab officials said.Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are now turning against Iran’s regime and want the war to continue until it is disabled or toppled, Arab officials said, though they have stopped short of committing their military. Bahrain, a close U.S. ally that hosts the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is sponsoring the U.N. resolution, with a vote expected Thursday.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are now turning against Iran’s regime and want the war to continue until it is disabled or toppled, Arab officials said, though they have stopped short of committing their military. Bahrain, a close U.S. ally that hosts the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is sponsoring the U.N. resolution, with a vote expected Thursday.
I didn’t think the UAE had much of a military, but it turns out it does, and even has mandatory conscription. The military has 65,000 people on active duty, and there are 130,000 reservists, along with 139 fighter planes and a small navy with two minesweepers. It also has a decent air defense system. It’s not comparable to what Israel or the U.S. has brought to bear, but it’s heartening that other Middle Eastern countries are willing to help open the Strait, especially in view of Iran being willing to take on anybody who takes on this task.
*In their questioning about “birthright citizenship” today, “key justices” of the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Trump’s arguments that you are not always entitled to American citizenship if you were born here. Further, in an American first, Trump showed up at the oral arguments, no doubt trying to intimidate the Justices in a case he’ll almost surely lose.
A majority of the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of President Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship during arguments on Wednesday.
Key conservative justices raised doubts about the constitutionality of the president’s executive order that would end automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants and some temporary foreign visitors.
But in an argument that lasted more than two hours, several of the court’s conservative justices also asked tough questions of a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the legal challenge, making the outcome of the legally complicated and hugely consequential case not fully clear.
In an unprecedented move and a signal of the stakes of the landmark case, President Trump attended the first part of the argument, watching from a public gallery as his solicitor general defended the policy. Mr. Trump had been railing against the court on social media in the days leading up to the argument.
The case focuses on the constitutionality of an executive order signed by Mr. Trump last year that would end citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign visitors.
A ruling in favor of the Trump administration could redefine what it means to be an American. It could also have sweeping practical consequences, stripping citizenship from more than an estimated 200,000 babies born in the United States each year to undocumented immigrants.
The executive order, which was blocked by lower courts and has never gone into effect, would affect only babies born in the future. Opponents say a decision to uphold it would create chaos and uncertainty for newborns and their parents, and cast doubt over the status of millions of people who have already benefited from birthright citizenship.
I think Trump’s birthright ban was clearly unconstitutional, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Given that provision, he’s bucking the law. I was surprised to learn that birthright citizenship is far from universal. Here’s a map that Luana sent me of how countries relate birthplace to citizienship. She thought that Australia’s and the UK’s policy of requiring the parents being legal residents was more sensible than “automatic” citizenship. I was surprised that no European country adheres to the U.S. policy, and, indeed, the “parents must be legal residents” policy has things to say for it.
*For despairing folk of the Jewish persuasion, you might be heartened by Eli Lakes’s article in The Free Press: “Israel is unpopular. And it’s never had more friends.”
Israel’s public image is in the toilet. On the socialist left, the Jewish state is portrayed as a genocidal colony. On the populist right, Israel and its supporters in America are conniving courtiers who bullied President Donald Trump to launch a war against Iran on its behalf. The numbers back it up too. A Gallup poll released late last month found that more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than the Israelis for the first time in the quarter century that Gallup has been asking the question.
All of this might lead Zionists to despair for Israel’s future. In terms of soft power, Jerusalem is being pummeled by podcasts, protests, and social media. But that is only part of the picture. When it comes to hard power, the stuff of arms sales, diplomacy, and air space, Israel is on a generational run.
. . .In the recent past, American presidents have asked Israel to hold fire, fearing its participation in the previous Gulf wars against Iraq would poison cooperation with Arab allies. Under the old rules, Israel was the underdog, surrounded by enemies, protected and subsidized by America. Now Israel’s air force is helping shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at the Gulf States that once refused even to recognize its existence.
Nothing succeeds like success. Since the fall of 2024, Israel has demonstrated the ability to decapitate the leadership of its enemies from the air. The intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technology that made these air strikes possible is now the envy of its neighbors. The dreams of pro-Palestinian activists to persuade the world to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel look quaint when nearly every military would love to learn how Israel is able to assassinate terrorist leaders without committing ground forces.
Pollack said that Gulf Arab monarchies “are not going to tank their partnership because of what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. They need them for all these other reasons. It’s the ultimate triumph of Israel’s economic and military power.”
Beyond Israel’s military advances, the Jewish state has also been accumulating allies. Take Israel’s recent pact with Somaliland in January. Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Jewish Policy Center, contrasted the Somaliland agreement with past Israeli development projects in Africa. “This is not just a new water project,” she said. “This is a strategic asset on the Red Sea.” Israel may soon be able to project naval power in one of the most important waterways in the world.
Bryen said, “There is a tectonic shift going on generally. Countries are moving to align with what they consider to be a strategic power, Israel, in the Middle East, in Africa, and Europe.”
. . . Israel still has a steep hill to climb when it comes to its public image in America and Europe. But very few people have noticed that as Israel has lost the public relations war in the West, it has been winning a real war in the Middle East. And the countries that used to yell loudest about Israel’s perfidy are quietly cheering on its air force as it helps to dominate the skies and pulverize the regime in Iran.
One can hope. But that steep hill is still there, and my personal impression is that antisemitism is growing, at least in the West. A new Middle East is shaking out, and I hope I’m alive to see what happens in the next ten or fifteen years.
*When I visited Iceland for most of a week last August, I found it expensive, as does everyone else. Most stuff is imported, raising prices, and now they’re even higher because of the rising price of oil. Even the famous Icelandic hot dog, of which I had several, has shot up in price. You probably didn’t know that hot dogs are almost Iceland’s national dish, though they haven’t quite learned the right way to serve them yet.
Iceland is an expensive place to eat. This country in the North Atlantic depends on imported food, and inflation has been raging for years despite the government’s efforts to tame it.
But even though food prices are high, most Icelanders can still afford a hot dog.
“Everyone eats it, rich or poor,” said Gabriel Máni De Sousa, 16, fixing his hairnet behind the counter of Pylsubarinn, a decades-old hot-dog stand south of Reykjavik, where he works weekends.
Then he started making “one with everything,” the local way — with both raw and fried onions between the meat and the bun, and a healthy squirt of ketchup, sweet brown mustard and a rémoulade on top. Usually made with a blend of three meats — Icelandic lamb and beef as well as some imported pork — the dogs have a real snap, followed by a burst of juice that could shame their American peers.
If Iceland had a national dish, it would be the hot dog. It’s akin to the dollar slice, that emblem of affordable New York City eating: hot, reliable and better than it needs to be.
The dollar slice in NYC has gone the way of the Edsel, I’m afraid; a slice is three or four bucks now. Note that Icelanders PUT KETCHUP on the dog along with mustard, something that’s a capital offense in Chicago. A bit more:
But even Iceland’s hot dogs are not immune to inflation.
Prices vary depending on the stand and the toppings. But for the most part, a standard dog costs about 750 Icelandic krona, around $6. That is low for the Reykjavik area, where a kebab can cost $17 and dinner-plate-sized pizza can be $20. Consumer prices were 5.2 percent higher last month than in February 2025 — that’s more than twice that of the European Union. Hot dog prices have followed, steadily increasing at stands across the country.
Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur — the most famous hot dog shop in Iceland, whose name translates to “The Town’s Best Hot Dogs” — has been selling in downtown Reykjavik since at least the 1930s, and expanded rapidly in recent years from four to 14 locations.
Baldur Ingi Halldorsson, the chief executive, said he has raised prices more in the past few years than in the previous 20. In 2022, the price was 600 krona (about $4.80); now, it’s 880 krona, or just over $7. Inflation has increased ingredient costs and wages have gone up, so the cost of running a business is higher.
I actually got a dog and a Coke at the very location pictured in the NYT article, but really, you need at least two dogs to make a meal, and that’s getting up there in price.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili becomes a self-help cat:
Hili: Put your worries off until tomorrow.
Andrzej: They might grow old.
Hili: That’s the point.
In Polish:
Hili: Odłóż zmartwienia na jutro.
Ja: Mogą się zestarzeć.
Hili: I o to chodzi.
*******************
From Jesus of the Day, a big LOL:
From Give me a Sign:
From Luana:
*Masih has slowed down tweeting as she’s in Germany, but still asks us to remember those protestors who have been or will be executed:
⚠️ Say their names.
Their lives are in serious danger.
Mohammad Amin Biglari, Shahin Vahedparast Kalur, Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani, Amirhossein Hatami, and Ali Fahim. #DigitalBlackOutIran #Iran https://t.co/CPClX9TWtz pic.twitter.com/h9TG57hZhi— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 31, 2026
From Bryan; Steve Stewart-Williams has done the hard work of untangling what people mean when they make probabilitistic statements:
Ever wondered how people interpret phrases like “almost certainly,” “probably,” and “probably not”? Well, wonder no more. The graph below shows the probability estimates people give for these and various other terms and phrases.
[Link below.] pic.twitter.com/wUAoCzinDB
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) April 1, 2026
From Luana. This is distressing, but you remember Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was murdered on a train in North Carolina. A mural of her has been defaces in some places and, in Providence, Rhode Island, has been removed. You can read the story here. It’s complicated by the fact that some rumors say the murals were funded by Elon Musk. To me, they’re justified as a remembrance of a woman who fled to America to find safety, but instead was murdered. The “division” appears to be about race, as the killer was black (and also mentally ill).
Rep. David Morales justified the removal of the mural of Iryna Zarutska “to make sure that every community member who calls Providence home feels safe.” It appears that memorializing the murder of an innocent woman makes some feel unsafe… https://t.co/OULyFBKuWg
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 31, 2026
Three from my feed. This famous dog rescue is now memorialized with a statue on the site:
Ten years after a video shared millions of times, that moment of compassion has been cast in bronze. pic.twitter.com/18zCCkqKqs
— Sophia (@Sophiaapmo) March 31, 2026
Did this cat try to steal fruit?
What are they arguing about? 😅 pic.twitter.com/YwPiuRgL1q
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) April 1, 2026
These sentences sound like a cat doing the “ek ek ek ek” sound. Watch until the end:
Japanese seems fairly easy to learn. pic.twitter.com/y68NNyZLJM
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) March 31, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Dutch Jewish girl, along with her mother and two brothers, was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was about seven years old. https://t.co/9Lk5AaB26H
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) April 2, 2026
One from Dr. Cobb, on hols till tomorrow. This book might be worth looking into: it’s got 4.8 stars on Amazon out of 627 reviews.
I am excited that I have a new edition and new publisher for my book KAIBYO: THE SUPERNATURAL CATS OF JAPAN. I increased the text, added some new images, and basically fixed all the stuff that has been bugging me since it's first release 8 years ago.It's a banger.www.amazon.com/Kaibyo-Super…
— Zack Davisson (@zackdavisson.com) 2026-03-24T16:15:50.565Z
Thanks for Artemis coverage. Being an astronaut is not all glamour as one of the first jobs in orbit yesterday was to fix the toilet. It appears that the vehicle’s handling qualities were at least close to the simulator according to pilot comments as he maneuvered yesterday and they are currently orbiting in an ellipse with a highest altitude of around 40,000 miles (ISS space station is around 250 miles high). Tonight is a big event in which they thrust into a trans lunar orbit, which should position them to proceed around the moon and back to Earth. Trip to moon is around four days. Pretty good updates from Space.com at url
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-just-launched-artemis-2-what-happens-today-could-make-or-break-the-moon-mission
I’m finding it hard to get enthused by Artemis, it seems like a dead end, the last gasp of decades-old technology. So far it has cost $35 billion for two launches, and by the end of the decade it’ll be about $50 billion for about five launches (or about $10 billion each), after which it will be cancelled as too expensive. And it won’t have done much that Apollo didn’t do. I’d prefer that $50 billion to be spent on science missions and robotic exploration (which are currently being cut).
Am I being unfair? Want to try to persuade me that I’m wrong?
I don’t think you are being unfair. Apollo was all about cold war politics. The Soviet Union beat us with Sputnik and beat us with Gagarin. We needed something we could do before them in space. I think there are tough issues with life in low gravity and radiation that make long term life in space very difficult for humans. These will be a problem for the a Moon base and especially for Mars.
For both Mike and Coel: yes, as with Apollo, it ain’t about the science; it is about world political power and standing. (There is an excellent transcript of a recording of JFK explaining this to the NASA administrator in the Cabinet Room in the early 60’s) This administration has apparently felt a need to step up to China and whomever else may get off a shot to the moon in the current democratization of space access. And, as with Apollo, cost will be no issue as it takes on a wartime footing budget and bipartison support.
ISS gives us the human factors science, I think, with the past couple of decades of long term missions and repeat missions for individuals.
There are physicists that post on You Tube claiming insurmountable problems with humans visiting Mars. The enormous amounts of fuel look to be a deal breaker, but its the radiation during the long trip out and back that will put astronauts into an early grave.
I don’t know about a long term Lunar base either. That radiation issue is a huge factor. Maybe they can go underground, but how would they get underground?
Fear not. Robots will build the first Trump Intergalactic Hotel and Tower on the moon, complete with the requisite shielding.
Build it and they will come!
#humor
I’ve always thought the human psychology factor is the weak link in the chain even if we solve the tech issues. Lots of egs of teams turning on one and other (and themselves) in lesser environments. They’ll kill each other pretty fast I think.
Not that I think about outer space much (unless Jim here is talking…)!
D.A.
NYC
They are probably right (but that doesn’t apply to all physicists on YouTube—hon soit qui mal y pense). Those interested should read the book which I reviewed a while back: https://www.obsmag.org/issues/published/2024/08/1301_0210.pdf
Seems unlikely Boeing can screw up shovels.
We can’t have ferret day without mentioning ferret legging:
https://youtu.be/KPQ6TuvqX7w?si=xPZj5T2hdQmCCt9p
Thanks – I hadn’t seen that video before. The classic article about the sport was from Outside Magazine back in the 80s. It’s still online, but you’ll have to create a free account to read it:
https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/essays/ferret-legging-outside-classic/
The Japanese meme is correct: though that’s a pretty unusual sentence!
Agree totally with the Israel is doing great piece. The Somaliland recognition (coming after Taiwan recognized Somaliland but before we do – which is very possible soon) is a pretty big deal for both countries.
Consider Somaliland like Sth Korea, Somalia equivalent to North Korea. I wrote an article about its recognition.
https://democracychronicles.org/somaliland-a-north-south-korea-like-divide-in-africa/
The Gulf Co-operation Countries (KSA, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, UAE) routinely feature in the top 10 buyers of American (and Eur) arms. They… bristle.
D.A.
NYC
On probabilistic statements. The good news is that most people understand what those words mean pretty well.
And now I read that AOC wants to cut Israel completely off from all weapons, including defensive weapons: https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2026/04/dsa-forum-aoc-pledges-not-vote-any-military-aid-israel/412544/
“I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” Ocasio-Cortez said in response to a question about whether she would support an arms embargo. “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves,” she added.
“I wanted to clarify,” an NYC-DSA member asked in a follow-up question. “If the moment presents itself in Congress, will you commit to voting ‘no’ for any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called ‘defensive capabilities?’”
“Yes,” Ocasio-Cortez quickly answered.
Question: AOC, how about funding bills for weapons for the Palestinians?
So now I want to know where “pretty well” falls on the Perception of Probability scale. 😄
Costing 10s of billions of dollars, Artemis, and the Moon program are just publicity stunts, and wastes of time, which makes NASA look like a joke. Touted as a step to sending humans to Mars, an impossible task in the foreseeable future unless you leave them there to die, which would not go over well with the public. Simple physics shows that tens of tons of fuel would be require to escape Mars’ gravity well, and return living astronauts to Earth. This does not even consider exposure of humans to damaging radiation outside Earths’ magnetic shielding field. NASA should get out of the publicity business, and concentrate on robotic missions looking for life on the Jovian moons. The existence of life elsewhere is a much more important, and interesting question. Colonizing Mars is a dream for the ignorant, like Musk
In a pluralistic democracy the only way to get support for such a large expense is to emphasise aspects that have very wide appeal, such as a common enemy, patriotism, and national exceptionalism (involving mythic heroism, destiny, etc.). AIUI, one of the Mercury astronauts, annoyed at being considered as optional spam-in-a-can, reminded von Braun that “no Buck Rogers, no bucks.”
Personally I’m very happy to have Artemis. It reminds me of the good old days….
Astronaut: the man who steps up when the chimps are down.
Question for AOC: Would you support funding bills for weapons for the Palestinians?
She was never a serious politician, more active on instagram than in any congressional bodies or committees.
THEN.. older.. she started to solidify her stances on many issues, ‘tard Pal terrorism being a main one as well as higher taxes on… well me… and hatred for Israel/Jews.
And opposing – successfully and loudly – a proposed Amazon warehouse and thousands of jobs for NYers in Bronx.
B/c of capitalism or something…
This cycle I’ll be indulging in my new hobby of financing people against the Squad generally and her in particular.
D.A.
NYC
I do not understand why “nominally” is in scare quotes. It is necessary in engineering to specify a requirement in the form x+/-d, where x is the nominal value and d is the deviation from nominal that is tolerated and will still be acceptable. If the actual deviation from nominal is minimal, that implies that no correction need be considered.
I loved the clothing label.
I think I recognize the quotes around “nominal(ly)”. They are direct quotes, not scare quotes. During the glory years of the space program, when all three American networks pre-empted all their programming to cover each launch live starting hours before lift-off, (which was nearly always delayed), there was much dead air to fill. At one point someone in Mission Control or aboard a spacecraft was heard to say something like, “All readouts nominal”. One of the anchors explained for us that that was astronaut/engineer talk for gratifyingly satisfactory, better than “good enough”. In fact, the anchor ad libbed, if an astronaut’s wife asked him how he liked the coffee she’d made for him that morning, he would say it was “nominal”.
I’ll give odds that Jerry is recalling that, and not mocking the word. We all watched those broadcasts and couldn’t be pulled away from the TV. There was always something to learn, some expert being interviewed, some lingo to learn.
Thank you.
Trump’s speech clocked in at roughly 19 minutes, but it was still about three times longer than it needed to be. Some thoughts. His claim that “there is no inflation” will drive home to even many of his supporters that he just makes stuff up. But set that blatant and irrelevant falsehood aside. One thing that it is impossible to inflate is his characteristic exaggeration and hyperbole. In the best of situations, this can be funny or buffoonish, but it clashes markedly with the gravity of war. “I rebuilt our military in my first term.” “We were a dead country last year.” Comments like these autoplay from his mouth. But even they don’t undermine him as much as the “We already won the war; the war needs to go on” mashup we continually hear.
But to paraphrase a former US Secretary of Defense: you go to war with the president you have and not with the president you wish you had.
“you go to war with the president you have and not with the president you wish you had…”
That was from Rumsfeld and he said “the army you have, not the army you wish you had” when he was criticized for Humvee’s lacking armor and a lot of injuries/deaths due to that fact.
I don’t know how to interpret that quote with Trump substituting for “army” but it’s a lot different from the original context.
I don’t really know what Trump was trying to express during the 19 minutes since he said nothing new (but the best part of the speech was its brevity).
Japanese is very hard for English speakers to learn
Soo desu (“It is so”) Frank.
That said, that little dittie is a bit misrepresentative due to the artificiality of the weird sentence.
Learning Japanese is an amazing and very difficult lifelong learning effort.
D.A.
NYC
Nihongo wa muzukashii desu.
Yeah, that much I could still piece together but alas, most of it is gone. Don’t even know how many kanjis I’d still be able to recognize 😔
“I was surprised to learn that birthright citizenship is far from universal.”
It’s not a coincidence that most of America has it (the countries having been European colonies in recent times, thus needing a practical rule) and most of Europe doesn’t (and if so it is restricted).
In general, it doesn’t make sense. People would go to a country that is better and bear their child, who is then a citizen who doesn’t speak the language nor know the culture and who can collect benefits and maybe even be able to get their parents to come live with them. That is big business in some places.
In Germany, the parents being legal residents isn’t enough; at least one needs to a) have lived in Germany for five years and b) have a permanent residence permit.
https://x.com/Liz_Wheeler/status/2039407537196257449?s=20
I don’t know how much of that is true. There is certainly such a business, involving not just China, but there are also personal rather than political motives and I don’t know how many babies are involved.
Phillip the thing with these anchor babies and maternity tourism, mainly Chinese, is it is very, very small and would usually benefit people who’d be eligible to live here anyway.
I see it as a rounding error and statistically it pretty much is, despite how not in the spirit of the law, and how cheating-looking as it is.
D.A.
NYC
“If he’s going to just declare victory and get the hell out, then everything will go back to where it did before, and Iran will eventually have nukes.”
There’s a rumor — and I emphasize that practically all of the news about the Iran war is rumor — that one of our missile strikes buried all of their enriched uranium so as to place it beyond retrieval. If this proves true, then Trump should jolly well declare victory.