Monday: Hili dialogue

July 13, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to another damn week: it’s Monday, July 13, 2026 and National Beans ‘n’ Franks Day. It’s a good emergency meal, but I like to have it over rice with a fried egg on top. Hemingway also liked canned beans, and here’s a notable passage from a short story published in 1925.  Do you know the author? (Go here to see.)

Nick went over to the pack and found, with his fingers, a long nail in a paper sack of nails, in the bottom of the pack. He drove it into the pine tree, holding it close and hitting it gently with the flat of the ax. He hung the pack up on the nail. All his supplies were in the pack. They were off the ground and sheltered now.

Nick was hungry. He did not believe he had ever been hungrier. He opened and emptied a can of pork and beans and a can of spaghetti into the frying pan.

“I’ve got a right to eat this kind of stuff, if I’m willing to carry it,” Nick said. His voice sounded strange in the darkening woods. He did not speak again.

If you didn’t guess correctly, you’re not reading enough literature! I once made this meal, which PBS calls it “Papa’s Special,” and gives a slightly gussied up recipe here.

It’s also Barbershop Music Appreciation Day, National Beef Tallow Day, and National French Fry Day. Here’s George Harrison’s “Something” sung barbershop-quartet style, but by a single person, Julien Neel. Not bad!

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 13 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Since there’s no footy news, let’s look at Argentina’s victory over Switzerland on Friday.  I’m still rooting for Argentina.

Perhaps it is in Argentina’s character that the reigning World Cup champion always finds a way to win.

Perhaps it is simply its ability to suffer.

Whether it was tiny Cape Verde taking them to extra time, or Egypt burying them in a two-goal hole late in their match, Lionel Messi and La Albiceleste have always been able to survive. And that was the case once more on Saturday night, when Julián Alvarez’s long-range strike in the 112th minute and Lautaro Martínez’s finish later in extra time sent them back to the semifinals with a thrilling 3-1 victory over Switzerland at raucous Arrowhead Stadium.

“We’re among the best four,” Alvarez said, “so we’re meeting our objectives, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The whole match was hard, and we would have loved to have the win earlier, but we tried to get the win however we could.”

“It seems like if there’s no suffering, it doesn’t count,” Argentina’s Leandro Paredes added, “but as long as the results come through.”

Alexis Mac Allister had the other goal off a corner kick from Messi for La Albiceleste, helping to send them into a showdown with England on Wednesday in Atlanta. The Three Lions beat Norway 2-1 earlier in the day.

Messi’s nine-game World Cup scoring streak ended, but his pursuit of a second World Cup title continues. With Argentina and England joining France and Spain in the semifinals, it’s the first time the top four teams in the FIFA rankings have advanced that far.

And the video, with goal-scoring plays at 1:13, 6:23 (Switzerland), 14:17 (a great goal by Alvarez), and 15:42

*Like me, you may not agree with many of the late Lindsey Graham’s politics, but he was far more bipartisan than MAGA-ite Senators. In yesterday’s It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal’s piece is called “Israel loses its greatest friend on Capitol Hill“. (Well, perhaps greatest Republican friend, as there’s always John Fetterman. . .)

[Graham] had returned from Kyiv on Friday, where he met Volodymyr Zelensky, and was booked on Meet the Press for this very morning. Israel has lost its greatest friend on Capitol Hill.

That isn’t an exaggeration; it’s the consensus of the Israeli opposition and coalition, who rose in unison this morning to eulogize the beloved senator.

. . .Sander Gerber, his partner on the Taylor Force Act, once quipped that the senator was “more pro-Israel than AIPAC,” while Christians United for Israel counted him among Israel’s most stalwart allies in Congress. His evangelical base—a pillar of both South Carolina politics and American Zionism—wasn’t a constituency he courted so much as one he belonged to.

Addressing AIPAC’s annual dinner on March 22, 2010, he told the room the evening was about “our best friend in the world, the State of Israel”—and had every member of Congress present stand while he pledged that Congress had Israel’s back and would not let it down. In the same speech, he declared Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel and the eternal home of the Jewish faith, said it was sometimes better to go to war than to allow a second Holocaust to develop, and closed with “never again.”

He more than lived up to the commitment. From Obama’s JCPOA—which he fought—to Donald Trump’s short-lived rapprochement with Tehran this past month, through the Taylor Force Act, the anti-BDS legislation, the embassy move and the Golan recognition he personally championed, Graham operated on a single axiom, the one the Hebrew press identified this morning as his signature line: Israel’s security is America’s security. He applied it without exception. In 2013, he threatened to sink Chuck Hagel’s nomination as the most anti-Israel defense secretary in American history; in December 2014, standing in Jerusalem beside Netanyahu, he promised on Iran sanctions that “the Congress will follow your lead”—a sentence no other American senator would say to a foreign leader, and Graham said it on camera.

When Israel launched Operation Rising Lion on June 13, 2025, his reaction was five words: “Game on. Pray for Israel.” The tweet drew fury from all directions—including from Meghan McCain, his late best friend’s daughter, who informed him it was not a game—but it was, in its way, the most honest sentence of the war: the fight he had demanded since at least 2010 had finally arrived, and he was not going to pretend otherwise. By August, he was telling South Carolina Republicans that if America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us. By 2026, per The Wall Street Journal, he was shuttling to Jerusalem to coach Netanyahu on making the case for war to Trump.

In January, no sooner had he disembarked than he posted: “I just landed in Israel, the one and only Jewish State, and America’s strongest ally and friend since its founding.” He returned once more in February 2026—Netanyahu, Defense Minister Katz, the General Staff—the final visit of several dozen across the decades. In March, amid the MAGA backlash over the Iran war, he gave the line that now reads as a valediction: “I will be with Israel until our dying day.”

Far too soon, that day arrived. It found him the same as always: back from an ally’s capital, stalwartly defending a country’s right to freedom and safety,

Liberals can fault Graham for many things, but you can’t fault him jurt for supporting Israel,—unless you’re a “progressive” Democrat of the “I hate Zionists” stripe.

*Now that Lindsey Graham is dead, what will happen to his Senate seat? The Washington Post considers the options.

There could be a replacement for Graham soon. Under South Carolina law, the governor can appoint someone to serve out the remainder of Graham’s term at any time. A spokesperson for Gov. Henry McMaster did not immediately respond to questions about his timeline for filling the position. In a statement, McMaster called Graham “irreplaceable” and “the fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America.”

A special election will take place quickly.Graham won the Republican Senate primary last month and was the heavy favorite to win November’s general election in conservative South Carolina. Now the party must find a new candidate through a special election, according to state law.

The filing period will open the second Tuesday after Graham’s death, which falls on July 21. Candidates will then have one week, through July 28, to declare their interest in filling his seat. A special primary will take place two weeks later, on Aug. 4. If no candidate wins outright, a runoff will take place two weeks after that, on Aug. 18.

It is likely to be highly competitive. In the end, Trump may have the decisive voice in Graham’s replacement, given the outsize weight his endorsement carries in the Republican Party.

Senate Republicans will miss Graham’s vote. When the Senate returns this week from recess, Republicans will be down two members. In addition to Graham, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has been hospitalized since last month, with little clarity about his condition.

Now the GOP will have only the barest majority to pursue its agenda, including the confirmation of Trump’s controversial nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, who is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday. Despite holding a 53-47 edge, the GOP has increasingly struggled to keep its caucus together on key votes due to ideological clashes between Trump and more moderate Republicans.

They left off one fact: Graham’s replacement, when he or she is elected, is very likely to be a Republican. South Carolina is a deep-red state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate since 1964 (except for Jimmy Carter, who was from Georgia). I would bet money that whoever wins Graham’s seat will be in the GOP.  When someone tells me they’re glad that Graham is dead (and they have), I respond that his elected Republican replacement could be worse, for he was far more bipartisan that many MAGA Republicans.

*S. J.. Murray, “a professor of great texts and creative writing at Baylor UniveHow rsity,” tells us “There’s an ancient solution to our modern crisis of attention. It comes from  the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca (4 B.C. to 65 A.D.). And, as you expect, it’s not a solution for everyone.

About 2,000 years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca warned of a crisis of attention. The problem wasn’t caused by smartphones or TikTok; it was because papyrus had become more widely available. As a result, scrolls became plentiful and wealthy readers had access to more texts than ever before.

Seneca observed that the minds of those who read too many scrolls too quickly became restless and unsteady. This kind of mind was less able, he noted, to “stay in one place and spend time with itself.”

The lesson then was no less true than it is now, in our perpetually distracted, screen-addled, multitasking age. When we allow ideas to come and go in rapid succession, we keep our minds too busy and wear them out. Nothing sticks. “One who is everywhere is nowhere,” Seneca cautioned.

. . .How exactly do you do this? Seneca had some practical advice, which he outlined in his “Letters From a Stoic”: Devote your attention to one idea a day.

For the past 20 years, I’ve practiced a simple discipline inspired by this advice. First thing in the morning, I forage in a book for my one idea. Typically, it takes about three to four pages (less than 10 minutes) to find one. I’m not looking for a memorable quotation or aphorism; I’m looking for a passage that challenges or better illuminates how I see the world.

Recently, for example, I was struck by a tragic realization near the end of Tolstoy’s novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” On the brink of death, Ivan cannot escape the feeling that life has passed him by. And yet he had achieved all the “right” things — the good job, the nice house, the fancy friends. It’s a sobering reminder that social standing and worldly goods are fleeting. Friendship, love, a deep sense of purpose beyond oneself, a connection to the transcendent: These are what matter in the end.

Having found my idea, I took the next step Seneca advises: “to ponder that day and digest.” So I took Ivan’s realization with me while I drank my morning coffee. Three sips in, I began auditing my own priorities. I found myself wondering: How was I nurturing the relationships that sustain me? Learning to love people better was a challenge I needed to face. I committed to reaching out that week to three friends with whom I’d fallen out of touch.

At lunchtime and again during my afternoon coffee break, I pondered Ivan’s question and directed my attention to the life around me. Walking my dog later, I stopped on a bridge over the Colorado River and listened to the birds sing. By bedtime, I wasn’t fretting about the messages piled up in my inbox.

This is an academic’s solution, someone who can think constantly and deeply about one issue. Although I’m an academic, too, the suggestion doesn’t interest me, though I’m not addicted to devices (well, there’s email . . .)  And there’s a touch of the braggart in this advice: “See how great I am”:

By anchoring each day in a single idea, I’ve spent 20 years trying to avoid the Autodidact’s hollow fate. I no longer chase the endlessly receding horizon of staying informed. I’ve traded the anxiety of the shallows for the untapped wisdom of deep waters.

*This is definite clickbait from the Free Press: “How Wikipedia turned a World Cup controversy into an antisemitic conspiracy theory.” This is a wild one, involving FIFA, Leonel Messi, the referee of the Egypt/Argentina game, Netanyahu, Mossad, and, of course, Wikipedia. I wonder if it jibes with Shermer’s view on why conspiracy theories arise.

It involves that one World Cup game, which Argentina won:

Within hours of the final whistle, an antisemitic conspiracy theory was born. The idea that began galloping across the internet was that a cabal including Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad, Lionel Messi, Argentine president Javier Milei, and FIFA conspired to rig the game for the Argentine team. The “evidence” consisted of nothing more than photos of Messi posing with Israeli officials and praying at the Western Wall more than a decade ago, plus a few pictures of Milei with Netanyahu.

Even among the conspiratorially minded, this was pretty thin stuff. What the theory lacked was a FIFA component, something that would link the nebulous Israel-Argentina connection to the game itself. So, just like that, one was invented: a baseless claim that the game’s referee, François Letexier, was Jewish.

In many ways, the conspiracy bore all the signs of a classic digital influence operation. But it was also subtly different. Just a handful of edits on Wikipedia leveraged structural and chronic vulnerabilities in our information ecosystem to fabricate “truth” in broad daylight—and exposed serious problems with an information environment that is on the brink of collapse.

. . .Like many effective influence campaigns, this one began with a grievance. With Egypt leading 1–0, winger Mostafa Ziko appeared to score again, but the goal was overturned after a review by the match’s video assistant referee. Egypt eventually scored again, extending its lead to 2–0 and putting it even closer to a colossal upset.

Argentina then scored three times in 15 minutes. But before the third goal, a player for Argentina appeared to foul Egyptian star Mohamed Salah. This time, there was no review. Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan crossed his arms—the FIFA signal for racist abuse—leading Letexier to censure the coach for misusing the signal.

The chance that such a provocative moment would not leap from the soccer field into the digital world was infinitesimally small. When an Argentine fan waved an Israeli flag at the end of the match, Hassan, who unfurled a Palestinian flag after Egypt’s earlier win over Australia, became irate. The coach confronted a FIFA photographer who was snapping a shot of him on the way out.

The online reaction less resembled an energetic spam of anger than a choreographed campaign. At 2:10 p.m. Eastern time, just two minutes before the game’s official end, an account called Bassem Youssef Commentary posted on X: “The Zionists are used to stealing everything.” (The account is not connected to the Egyptian American influencer and comedian Bassem Youssef.)

Little more than 30 minutes later, an X account with 177,000 followers posted a video showing Milei, Messi, and FIFA officials in photos with Israeli politicians. The account, whose owner describes himself as an “unapologetic Muslim Palestinian,” was suspended in March for posting misinformation about the U.S.-Iran war, including the lie that the Port of Haifa “burnt to the ground.”

Then Wikipedia was edited to say that one referee of the match was born an Orthodox Jew whose ancestors fought with the Free French. None of this was true,

At 10:27 a.m. on Wednesday, the day after the game, Bassem Youssef Commentary posted that Letexier, who refereed the Egypt-Argentina match, “is Jewish.” The post displayed a screenshot of a Wikipedia page, including an “Early life and background” section claiming that Letexier was born “into an Orthodox Jewish family.” The Wikipedia page also claimed that Letexier’s grandfather fled the Nazis and fought alongside “Free French Forces” under Charles de Gaulle. The post eventually racked up more than 354,000 views. It got onto Grok and social media before it was removed.

In the context of the World Cup, which has engrossed soccer fans and nonfans alike around the world, an antisemitic conspiracy theory about a controversial referee might not seem like a big deal. But it is. The vulnerability that was exploited by [the Wikipedia tweaker] Maqaumat is structural, and it can enable anyone to anonymously edit the world’s online encyclopedia, which billions of people around the world regard as ground truth.

Yes, but there are Wikipedia police who evewntually fixed the blatant error. The sad part is that the lie made its way ten times around the world before the truth put on its shoes. Why would someone want to start an antisemitic rumo about Jews affecting a World Cup match? Because they really, really hate Jews and given that the world is tinder for that view, it’s easy to light the match.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s been reading her Darwin:

Hili: I’m considering a long trip.
Andrzej: Where to?
Hili: To the entangled bank

In Polish:

Hili: Rozważam daleką wycieczkę.
Ja: Dokąd?
Hili: Do splątanego brzegu.

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

From Things with Faces; a judgmental rock:

From Kitty Litterposting:

From Bad Spelling or Grammar on Signs and Notices.  Notice that some grammar Nazi (I would have done it) put an “x” through the grocer’s apostrophe:

Masih is quiet, but here’s Jeff Maurer with a Substack post:

From the Number Ten Cat via Simon:

From Luana (the thread gives more stickers from Amsterdam:

Two from my feed. First, this mother opossum got herself badly stuck, but she and her whole family was rescued:

The Norwegians lost to England, but they still celebrated how far they went.  I didn’t know that “rowing” was a thing:

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

Two from Dr. Cobb. The frenetic stoat I may have posted before:

Had to delay going out into the garden this morning as I didn't want to interrupt this lunatic's frolicking #stoat #salopobs

— Tom Lowe (@saloplarus.bsky.social) 2026-07-11T13:13:55.688Z

. . . and Janet Browne has condensed her two-volume Darwin biography into one volume. If you didn’t read the first version, do read this one. The original bio was not only well researched, but extremely well written.

Tfw Janet Browne has produced a one-volume biography of Darwin so you don’t have to. (My publisher suggested the idea to me; I wasn’t keen as JB’s 2-vol bio is definitive. Now she has abridged and revised them into 1 vol!) Thanks to @princetonupress.bsky.social for the comp copy!

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-07-11T10:02:30.191Z

34 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Re. “The frenetic stoat I may have posted before…”

    You can post that video every day for the rest of the life of WEIT as far as I’m concerned.

    Reply

  2. To add something to the conspiracy theory about Argentina in the World Cup: normally a player gets a one match ban for a red card. An English defender got a red card and would miss out on the quarterfinal of his country. But he got one match extra ban because England would very likely play Argentina in the semifinal.

    I am not buying it but if you believe the conspiracy this extra match ban is only to be expected.

    Reply

  3. I have that Seneca quote in my notes. It is about reading – I’m not sure he meant more than that :

    “Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady.
    You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere.
    When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner. Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; no wound will heal when one salve is tried after another; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong.”

    -Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD)
    Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius)
    Letter 2, often titled “On Discursiveness in Reading”

    … I think it’s really good! But extending it … is … a stretch… IMHO…

    Another notion comes to mind :

    You can never do just one thing

    ^^^feel free to read about that “quote” – I have not accumulated much on it – I gather it’s from an ecological systems biologist…

    Reply

      1. Woah – talk about the Iron Law of Woke Projection, Mr. Aquinas!

        Ferrea Lex Proiectionis Experrectus

        (Latin grammar pros’ corrections appreciated)

        Reply

  4. ‘Since there’s no footy news…’ And there won’t be much at all after the 19th. The bash will end soon. I expect France and England to win their games this week.

    I just learned that Sepp Blatter is still alive!

    Reply

    1. I only know of Lindsey Graham from his support of Ukraine from within the Republican party such as it is.
      This morning I’ve read comments rubbishing the guy all the way to hell. Mainly for his lack of support and dismissal of the injured and those who died, for whatever reasons, on Capitol Hill on the 6th Jan.
      They went on bagging him no end. I’d had enough and moved on.
      I hope Ukraine get what he started and I’m noyt holding my breath.

      Reply

  5. I am torn between the UK and Argentina (I have close ties to both). However, I think Argentina will win (it all).

    Reply

  6. Speaking of the deaths of politicians, here in the UK, we have had the shocking murder of the former politician Anne Widdecombe who was a controversial figure with whom I disagreed with about most things. Like her, I was brought up as an Anglican, but unlike her, I abandoned religion while still at school. She would become dissatisfied with her church and converted to Roman Catholicism which gave her the certainty that she required. That faith would inform her politics which were strongly conservative, although, unusually for conservatives, she was an animal lover opposed to fox hunting.
    Today, I was watching a discussion on the BBC about her. There were two politicians who offered appropriate thoughts, but the third person was a black LBGT woman who while expressing her shock at the way she died also disagreed quite forcefully with her opinions. The politicians were shocked at this arguing that it was inappropriate.
    But was it? Anne Widdecombe herself was a strong believer in freedom of speech. If she disagreed with someone, she would argue why they were wrong, but she would not try to shut them up. It seems in keeping with her memory to allow her critics to have their say. And of course, people like Christopher Hitchens have not been reticent about giving their opinions on their opponents after they died.

    Reply

    1. The responses to her murder have ranged from misogynistic to downright vile.
      A Sky news discussed if she died a virgin. Really if one is murdered your sex life is up for debate. Shocking and disgusting.

      https://x.com/alexarmstrong/status/2075620565021581548?s=46

      Not to mention the be Kind and inclusive mob reacted as per normal. As you would expect he is an academic, from Aberdeen University.

      https://x.com/kevlondon4/status/2076237934160748689?s=46

      She was a woman of principles and not everyone would agree with her perspectives but it is still an admirable quality to abide by, sadly very few politicians today possess that tenet.

      Reply

    2. I trust that Widdecombe’s murderer will be brought to justice in a timely manner.

      I remember a video of Widdecombe and Hitchens debating, just the two of them. The video ended with Hitchens making his goodbyes and heading out the door. IIRC, in another video Widdecombe et al and Hitchens et al were debating whether Salman Rushdie deserved to be bestowed the title Order of the British Empire. Widdecombe was opposed. IIRC her opposition was on account of Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses.” Don’t dare disrespect religion of whatever kind, eh?

      Regarding that Apotheosis of South Carolina Civility and Congeniality Lindsey Graham, no doubt his demise will somewhat take the wind out of Bill Maher’s comedic sails.

      Reply

  7. Sometimes a conspiracy theory need not find its source in Michael Shermer’s “proportionality bias.” As I mentioned the other day, sometimes a conspiracy theory is spun up simply to provoke. How to explain Argentina beating Egypt in the World Cup? The hidden yet all-encompassing power of the international Jew.

    Reply

  9. Love the juxtaposition of Seneca’s wise advice on deliberately ignoring distractions to concentrate on what is truly important, with the quintessentially meaningless idiocy of the FAFA anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

    Well played, sir!

    Reply

  10. When I read the word ‘entangled,’ the first thing I think of is quantum physics. Maybe Hili is reading her Hawkings.

    Is that grey cat with an orange tail real? I’ve seen grey/orange chimerical cats that are split laterally, but never any cat that is split medially.

    Reply

    1. Hili has been reading her Darwin. The Entangled Bank comes from the final paragraph of the Origin of Species. Borrowed also by Carl Zimmer for his book, The Tangled Bank.

      Reply

    2. “oh what an entangled web we weave
      when first we practice to perceive.” – Niels Bohr.

      (With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.)

      Reply

      1. Very nice, but the scansion is a little off. I suggest “Oh what entangled webs we weave….”

        Reply

          1. Thank you for your gracious acceptance of my butting in.
            (I think we can stop now. 🙂)

        2. “Oh, what an entangled web we weave”
          The scansion’s off. Oh! Softly grieve.
          Tetrameter lines with feet bound tight
          ‘Twill save you from this butt-in plight

          Reply

  11. Re the men’s World Cup, I’m a casual viewer, but it seems to me that Argentina got some very favorable calls.

    I first was for the Netherlands, then when they lost, Norway, and now that they lost, France.

    I hope Mbappe wins the Golden Boot, too.

    I think France will win it all. Now maybe I’ve jinxed them…

    Reply

    1. Tyche and the Fates have retired to the old gods home. We’re on our own.
      (No relation to Bennie and the Jets.)

      Reply

  13. Lindsey Graham bi-partisan? Yes, once. 2016 changed that. Before Trump he was good friends with Biden, worked across the aisle on immigration (to no avail, of course) and predicted that if Trump won the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination he would destroy the Republican Party. He also said (paraphrase) make America great again by telling Trump to go to hell. But once Trump was in power, Graham shape shifted into a MAGA sycophant and never looked back (except for a few minutes after Jan. 6). Having power came first for him and he sought it relentlessly wherever it could be found. An unfortunate and too common a trait for those in high office.

    I don’t want to diminish his energy, commitment and work ethic, which was formidable. I also acknowledge his stalwart stance on Israel’s importance. Though he was too hawkish for my taste.

    I don’t know what he did for SC, not living there or knowing anyone who has, but the state’s electorate obviously liked him.

    Anyway, it was a shocking death, and I feel bad for his family and friends.

    Reply

  15. HA! I was just thinking… the WEIT message board is like twitter/X….. but for smart people. 🙂

    D.A.
    NYC

    Reply

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