Friday: Hili dialogue

July 3, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, July 3, 2024, and for most Americans the start of the three-day Fourth of July weekend. It’s American Redneck Day, although I don’t know why we’re celebrating a group (conventionally, poor Southern whites) whose members are stereotyped as ignorant and bigoted.  The site celebrates them this way:

. . . . the 1970s brought “Redneck chic.” This saw it as fashionable to be viewed as a redneck, and the connotations of race or class were not a part of it. Instead, it involved many people pretending to be rednecks, in areas such as their dress—by wearing western clothes—and in the music they listened to—by listening to country music, such as the Outlaw sounds of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. In the 1980s, there began to be more “upscale rednecks,” mirroring films such as Urban Cowboy, while at the same time there were still actual poor “rednecks.”

In the 1990s, the country music boom and the rise of blue collar-comedians such as Jeff Foxworthy brought the redneck aesthetic to an even wider audience, and like the “Redneck chic” of the 1970s and the upscale Urban Cowboys of the 1980s, it to had an underlying level of sophistication to it. For example, many of the country music stars and comedians of the time, and up to the present day, were college-educated and wealthy, while marketing their material to a working-class and non-college-educated audience.

As is apparent, there are many views of what “redneck” means and who is a redneck. Some embrace the term and see it as a symbol of pride, while some reject it. Regardless of your views on rednecks or redneck culture, today is a day to remember the impact it has had on America.

To me, cowboys and lovers of country music are not rednecks, and the term is not the same as “blue collar workers,” but so it goes.  Here’s Jeff Foxworthy, who’s made a comedy career by joking about rednecks.  Here Foxworthy expatiates on the defining traits of the species:

It’s also National Chocolate Wafer Day, National Eat Your Beans Day (I had some last night), National Fried Clam Day, and, appropriately given the horrible heat wave we’re having, National Stay out of the Sun Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 3 Wikipedia page.

There will be lighter posting tomorrow because it’s a HOLIDAY. Bear with me; I do my best.

Da Nooz:

*Footy News:In yesterday’s World Cup games, Switzerland beat Algeria 2-0, Portugal beat Croatia 2-1, and Spain beat Austria 3-0.  Let’s see the last game, which sees Spain going into the knockout round of 16:

Mikel Oyarzabal scored twice as Spain cruised into the World Cup round of 16 with a 3-0 win over Austria at SoFi Stadium on Thursday to extend their unbeaten streak to 34 games.

After an underwhelming group stage, which included a surprise draw with Cape Verde, Spain now head with fresh momentum toward a last-16 meeting with either Portugal or Croatia on Monday in Arlington, Texas.

“The great teams step up when it’s needed,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said. “We played a great match. We came close to perfection, but we must keep improving. There is always room for improvement, because every upcoming match will be very difficult.”

It also marked a significant hurdle overcome for one of the pretournament favorites, with Thursday’s result their first knockout win at the World Cup since they beat Netherlands in the 2010 final.

After Spain’s group stage exit in 2014 and failures at the first knockout hurdle in the past two tournaments, Oyarzabal became the first Spanish player to score a World Cup knockout goal since Andres Iniesta’s extra-time winner in the final in South Africa.

The Real Sociedad striker first found the net with a first-time finish in the 34th minute after fine buildup play involving Pedri and Marc Cucurella. And he put the cap on Spain’s dominant win after another cross from Cucurella and another cool finish past the Austria goalkeeper.

Here are the highlights, with Apain’s three goals (on the video) at 5:06, 8:34, and 12:15 (one Spanish goal was called back for interference with the goalkeeper).

*We now know that Trump made over $2 billion in the last year from his investments, though they’re managed by people he doesn’t talk to.  And we also know that much of that dosh came from investments in cryptocurrency, especially a meme coin associated with him called $TRUMP (second article archived here).

A large chunk of the $2 billion haul President Trump took in last year came as hundreds of thousands of his fans and other investors bet on a speculative cryptocurrency called $TRUMP, hoping its value would soar with his return to the White House.

But while Mr. Trump amassed an eye-popping $636 million from the cryptocurrency, known as a memecoin, many of his followers who heeded his call to purchase the coin came out losers.

That outcome, documented by an independent analysis of trades and fees paid out from $TRUMP token sales, is drawing renewed attention this week, as Mr. Trump for the first time has detailed the extraordinary $1.4 billion in revenue he secured just from the cryptocurrency industry since he returned to the White House.

The president’s 927-page financial disclosure showed how Mr. Trump and his family reaped huge financial rewards in 2025 through his money-losing Trump Media venture and a separate cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial, even as routine investors suffered vast losses.

He also amassed hundreds of millions through deals that involved foreign governments or corporations with agenda items pending before the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump dismissed questions about how much money he had made after returning to the White House, suggesting that he left personal financial decisions related to his investments to others.

“I don’t know if I had a better career in politics or business,” Mr. Trump said as he was about to board his new Air Force One jet donated by the government of Qatar with his two oldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., looking on. “But I had a great career in business. And you saw the cash.”

The memecoin, which features an image of Mr. Trump pumping his fist the way he did after a 2024 assassination attempt, has no intrinsic value itself. Instead, it was a bet on the aura around Mr. Trump and the idea that the coin’s fortunes would rise with his presidency.

In a way, Mr. Trump’s cryptocurrency windfall is a reflection of the speculative nature of the nascent industry, in which executives behind these often highly volatile ventures are at times able to generate huge profits at the expense of smaller investors, who often lose vast sums on experimental coins.

Former federal financial regulators said Mr. Trump has taken that to a new extreme, structuring his crypto ventures so he always made money on the front end, according to disclosures from the companies, no matter what happened to the business in the long run.

“It is hard to wrap your head around that the president of the United States would engage in this level of self-enrichment at the expense of so many of his supporters,” said Lee Reiners, a former Federal Reserve Bank examiner who now studies cryptocurrency issues at Duke University. “This is a president of the United States who has made more money off crypto since he took office than he made in any prior year in his entire business career.”

I’m not sure how they structured deal to ensure that Trump always profited, good times or bad, but it seems unethical, even if he doesn’t oversee what’s happening.  As for other investments, well, I’d be surprised that the people who oversee them don’t know Trump’s preference sand what he’s likely to do. All in all, it doesn’t seem like his portfolio is “neutral,” and so he makes a billion bucks per year.

*Remember Gaza? Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal summarizes his feelings after “1000 Days since October 7.”

My first visit to Gaza after October 7 showed a relatively intact city, hidden amidst plumes of smoke and sounds of battle. A year later, in November 2024, Jabalia was a massive pile of rubble, stretching from horizon to horizon, with packs of dogs roaming among the ruins and garbage. On the thousandth day of the war, nothing remained in the area. The once densely populated city looked desolate and quiet, like the surface of the moon. Engineering drills searched for tunnels below ground, with D9 bulldozers operating above. In the vast majority of Gaza, nothing remained, neither above ground nor below it.

This is the situation in all the territory controlled by Israel, which now makes up about two-thirds of the Strip’s territory. Rafah was wiped off the face of the earth, as were most of Khan Yunis and huge swaths of Gaza City. Ninety-two percent of the tunnels have been completely destroyed; the rest will soon follow.

Inside Hamas-controlled Gaza, there have been increasing reports of a resurgence, tunnel rehabilitation, training exercises, and an inevitable IDF operation. These reports should be viewed with intense skepticism. Hamas is failing to genuinely rearm after its smuggling routes in the air, on land, at sea, and underground were choked off. Three hundred sixty-two smuggling tunnels from Egypt were destroyed in Rafah. Training is conducted in hiding, reconstruction materials are not arriving, and the newly dug tunnels in the sand are barely shored up with whatever is available: sheet metal, wood scraps. Iran bends over backward to protect Hezbollah; for Hamas, it does not even pick up the phone. That is the consequence for a proxy that starts a war without permission and becomes a lost cause.

Perhaps this is why Hamas recently agreed to terms that include handing over all heavy weaponry, tunnel maps, production sites, and weapons caches. Its leaders agreed that the weapons would be surrendered to a committee, not to Israel. The multinational force that will subsequently deploy will serve as a buffer between Hamas and Israel, and will be responsible for the collection. Israel will withdraw only after Hamas is disarmed, the militias’ weapons are also collected, all government positions are handed over to a technocratic committee, and police officers who fail a security clearance are forced to retire. The agreements make no mention of small arms, which flood Gaza by the tens of thousands. How many are there? The divisions operating in Gaza used to transport rifles to the Israeli border, where bulldozers would run them over and crush them. At a certain point, they asked to stop collecting weapons because it had become their primary activity.

. . . looking back today, I can say this much—through victories and defeats, across a thousand days of heroism and sacrifice, Israel and her people have clawed their way back from the brink of despair.

There is a verse in Ezekiel that has taken on new meaning for me: “And when I passed by and saw you flailing in your blood, I said to you, though you were in your blood, Live! I said to you, though you were in your blood, Live!” Ezekiel is recounting God’s adoption of the Jewish people—his command to live is his first order to his new nation.

It is not a promise that the blood is wiped away, or that the wound stops being a wound. It is a command spoken over a body that has not yet answered—twice, because once was not enough to be believed. Israel, on the morning of October 7, was exactly that: flailing, exposed, drenched in its own blood, with no guarantee it would rise. What the thousand days since have shown is not that the wound healed, but that the command was heeded. Every hostage returned, every enemy brought low, every reservist who answered the call—all of it is the same word, spoken back, day after day: live.

If you’re not Israeli, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on in Gaza, but what’s above is better than I expected. No more tunnels, no large arms, and no weapons caches.  But Hamas “agreed to terms” before and didn’t abide by them. And I’m worried about why they don’t deal with small arms, as Hamas should have no arms.  Yes, Hamas certainly lost the conflict, but nevertheless it persists. When it no longer persists, then the serious rebuilding of Gaza can begin.

*I didn’t used to watch soccer until about 20 years ago, and then fell in love with “the beautiful game,” which is now my favorite sport (I still don’t watch any sport much). If you’re a novice, the NYT tells us “How to World Cup,” a title that irks me a bit (the article is archived here). There are tips about what to wear, who to root for, what to say, and so on.  I find that a bit ridiculous, but here are a few:

WHAT TO WEAR

The World Cup is not the time to be subtle. If you want to dress like your favorite Epcot pavilion, THIS IS YOUR TIME. When you go to an indie concert, you never want to wear the T-shirt of the band you’re seeing. This tournament is the opposite of that. Wear the colors of the nation you support in shameless fashion. Be full-on Timothée-Chalamet-courtside-at-a-Knicks-game brazen. The only other option is to dress like a large swath of traveling England fans and go shirt-off. If that is the case, be different from all those England fans and make sure you are wearing S.P.F. 60 sunscreen.

WHOM TO ROOT FOR [JAC: yes, they say “whom”!]

The United States, naturally, if you’re reading this in the United States. Our boys have thus far played swaggy, buccaneering soccer and coaxed from audiences the greatest of fan emotions: delusional hope. But the true joy of the World Cup is the chance for fans around the world to reconnect to their roots.

Nope, I’m rooting for Argentina as I want Messi to go out on a World Cup win.

WHAT TO TALK ABOUT [one example]

The smaller teams have roared.Cape Verde, population of around 525,000, an archipelagic nation consisting of 10 volcanic islands scattered across the central Atlantic Ocean, has charmed, becoming the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout rounds. The 40-year-old goalkeeper, known chummily as Vozinha (full name: Josimar José Évora Dias), saved seven shots to hold tournament favorite Spain to a goal-less tie. He now has over 17 million Instagram followers, more than Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama combined.

WHAT NEVER TO SAY

“Nothing can go wrong now” — never let these words escape your lips. Don’t tempt fate and call a game over. On Sunday, Canada made history by reaching the round of 16 for the first time, shocking South Africa with an exclamation-point 92nd-minute strike from Stephen Eustáquio, who instantly wove himself into his nation’s history alongside true greats like Alanis Morissette, Margaret Atwood and Barenaked Ladies. Japan’s dream of a first-ever knockout-stage win was dashed by Brazil roaring back from a goal down, stealing victory in the 96th minute.

Even the United States has not been immune. Our boys won back-to-back World Cup games for the first time in 96 years. We were on our way to being undefeated until the 98th minute of the game against Turkey, when Arda Guler nutmegged our hero Pulisic, a soccer humiliation akin to whipping off his shorts in public, helping his countryman Kaan Ayhan to net the winner with the last kick of the ball. This is soccer. A game in which, within the blink of an eye, both teams can soar and then feel their wax wings melting.

And a good story:

Perhaps my favorite World Cup story occurred in Lawrence, Kan., where the Algerian team set up camp at a local DoubleTree hotel. The town’s citizens quickly fell truly, madly, deeply for North African soccer and culture. When the Fennec Foxes clinched their place in the knockout rounds last weekend, the Lawrencians stood side by side with Algerian fans to welcome the team back in the early hours of the morning. Together they illuminated the Kansas night sky with a spectacular display of firework-fueled passion worthy of Algiers. This was the stuff of World Cup lore, the creation of stories that will be told and retold for generations to come, destined to become only bigger and more wild-eyed with each retelling.

Still, it’s a bit condescending to tell us what to do/say/wear, and so on.  But what else do you expect from a paper that turns “World Cup” into a verb?

*The Free Press reports on a letter sent by 170 faculty members (Jewish and non-Jewish) to Harvard students avowing solidarity but saying that antisemitism is not under control at Harvard. The article is written by a Harvard professor and a Harvard alumna.

From the editors:

According to officials at Harvard University, its antisemitism problem is under control. Reports of antisemitic incidents on campus are down after the numbers exploded in the wake of October 7, 2023. Today, 170 Jewish and non-Jewish Harvard faculty members will publish a letter stating that there is more to the story, and that while there’s less overt antisemitism at the university this past year, a more insidious form of Jew-hate has emerged. Jewish students are hiding their Star of David necklaces and scrubbing their CVs of references to Israel to self-protect. Two signatories to the letter explain what’s still not working—and what the school should do about it. —The Editors

The entire letter (the Presidential Task Force report they mention is here:

Earlier this spring, a group of Harvard faculty and staff published an open letter condemning theTitle VI lawsuit filed against Harvard by the Department of Justice in March. The DOJ claims that Harvard failed to enforce its rules to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassmentand discrimination, thereby denying them equal educational access. Their letter does notacknowledge any antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias on campus. Instead, it accuses the DOJ of“weaponizing antisemitism.”

We understand why colleagues question the merits and motives of the Title VI lawsuit. But ones hould not turn a blind eye to the fact that many Jewish and Israeli students have suffered harassment and discrimination over the last few years, degrading their Harvard experience. Ignoring students’ accounts is misleading and hurtful. There are many examples documented in the 300-page Presidential Task Force on Combatting Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias report and elsewhere, and these problems have been acknowledged by President Alan Garber.

Among the incidents reported to faculty, including members of the Task Force:

(1) Gay Jewish students were excluded from LGBTQ groups in the College and at HLS because they refused to renounce Zionism.

(2) An Israeli undergraduate student was told to leave a classroom by an instructor because her being Israeli made other students uncomfortable.

(3) A Jewish undergraduate student was harassed because of her identity, including in a social media post saying she “looks just as dumb as her nose is crooked.” We believe that the situation has improved to some extent recently, but challenges remain. Over the past year, Jews and Israelis at Harvard have reported hiding their identity including by wearing a baseball cap over their kippot, tucking in their Star of David, and scrubbing Jewish-sounding names or activities from their resumes.

We write in solidarity with all Jewish and Israeli students, especially those who have personally encountered bias. We see you. We hear you. We will continue to stand with you and stand up for you.

Then there are the signatures.  The FP article adds this:

Two notable observations about signatories to the faculty letter. First, many are not Jewish—support from allies is crucial. Second, a large proportion come from Harvard Medical School. Physicians are tasked with identifying and treating root causes and attending to both acute and chronic problems. We know that hate and discrimination of any form has absolutely no place in the delivery of healthcare. Moreover, the vast majority of medical students at Harvard will be directly involved in caring for patients who seek their skills and healing capacity; by definition in medicine, this involves providing impartial, empathic, evidence-based care to all, including Jewish and Israeli patients and their families.

There is more work to be done at Harvard. The 170 Jewish and non-Jewish faculty signatories to the letter stand with Jewish and Israeli students on campus, and with the aim that they are free to bring their full selves and identities everywhere on campus without fear of bias, harassment, bullying, or ostracization.

I asked a liberal but non-Jewish colleague at Harvard why he/she didn’t sign the letter, and was told that it might constitute evidence to Trump that Harvard is deeply antisemitic, resulting in the government withholding  more grant money from the school. And that, said my colleague, would hurt Jewish students more than the small degree of antisemitism that remains. Don’t ask me, as I’m not there.

*Finally, the WSJ reports that the U.S. is desperately trying to get the Strait of Hormuz back to its prewar state, but it ain’t happening.

The U.S. and Oman are looking for ways to break Iran’s insistence on charging tolls for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Their chief lever in indirect talks was a promise to unfreeze some of the $100 billion in Iranian funds held overseas.

So far, Tehran isn’t taking the bait. Its military leaders are responding with a fresh round of threats against ships passing through one of the world’s most trafficked waterways.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Doha this week to talk with Qatari mediators about how to break the impasse and settle the implementation of last month’s initial agreement to open the strait. Both the U.S. and Iranian teams discussed recent fighting in Lebanon with Qatari mediators, a conflict that has added another wrinkle to the process, people familiar with the discussions said.

The U.S. diplomats offered a trade-off to Iran, the people said: Relinquish its claim to control the strait and renounce toll payments in exchange for billions of dollars of unfrozen funds.

Under last month’s pact with the U.S., Iran was set to get access to part of the $100 billion of its funds frozen abroad. Iran’s economy is badly in need of a fresh injection of foreign currency amid rampant inflation driven by years of sanctions.

Talks had initially been progressing toward the release of $6 billion held in Qatar but Iran’s decision to block the strait has set back the release, the people said.

On Thursday, Iran signaled the reward wasn’t enough to change its position. Upon returning from Doha, Iran’s negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, insisted Hormuz is “under Iran’s command,” not the U.S.’s.

Tehran’s military doubled down later in the day, warning that any ship not passing through an Iran-approved route would face an “immediate and powerful” response.

I have a three-word response to this: bomb Kharg Island. It’s a good thing I’m not President, eh?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili objects to everything—but nothing in particular. She’s just objectionable.

Hili: I firmly object.
Andrzej: To what?
Hili: That calls for further investigation.

In Polish:

Hili: Stanowczo protestuję.
Ja: Przeciwko czemu?
Hili: To wymaga dalszego badania.

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

Another great medieval letter from TherionArms:

From Cheryl’s Amazingly Positive, No Politics Allowed, Interesting People Site, interpreting a sign:

From Allison, who says this is familar to all ailurophiles:

From Masih, two sort-of fatwas.  By the way, a hundred kilos of gold is at present worth over $13 million.

From Luana; Hakeem Jeffries congratulates a Democratic Socialist loon on her primary victory. Such is the coopting of the Democratic Party:

A video described in the Jerusalem Post, released by survivors of Oct. 7 on the 1000th day after the massacre. English translation:

For 1000 days, our family preferred to keep this recording to ourselves. This is the horrifying moment when my little brother confirms to us that Dad and Mom were murdered. Today, we decided to release it, to demand truth, justice, and accountability. Accountability must begin with taking responsibility – everyone who had a hand on the wheel must go home and take responsibility, suits and uniforms alike.

Nobody can resist the Number Ten Cat:

Two from my feed. First, a lovely woman rescues a deer stuck in a fence:

What is this mother doing?

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

And one from Dr. Cobb: Peter Lorre and Siamese cats. Why do celebrities have this breed so often?

Peter Lorre#Caturday

— J.A.Tallon (@tallon.bsky.social) 2026-06-27T17:46:47.062Z

 

One thought on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Iran bends over backward to protect Hezbollah; for Hamas, it does not even pick up the phone. That is the consequence for a proxy that starts a war without permission and becomes a lost cause.

    Interesting!

    And re. Cape Verde, until last month I always heard (approximately) Cape Vaerday. Now I keep hearing Cape Vurd, but not exclusively. What’s up with that?

    Reply

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