Welcome to a Hump Day (“Il giro di boa della settimana” in Italian): Wednesday, October 28, 2026 and National Chocolate Day. Here are some profiteroles from one of my favorite restaurants in Paris, filled with ice cream and topped with a warm and luscious chocolate sauce:
It’s also Plush Animal Lover’s Day (misplaced apostrophe), Wild Foods Day, and Separation of Church and State Day, which “commemorates the 1963 Supreme Court decision Abington School District v. Schempp, which ruled that school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional” [the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in this vote].
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 28 Wikipedia page.
Posting will be light today as I have to go to the retina doctor for a checkup on the results of laser treatment. All was well last time, so I’m optimistic.
Da Nooz:
*There are conflicting results in the Israel vote. The NYT reports that it’s neck and neck between Eisenkot and Netanyahu (“Bibi”), but It’s Noon in Israel says that Bibi’s bloc is leading (“Bibi hasn’t won, but the opposition has lost“. We won’t know who will be prime minister until there’s until a coalition puts one forward or the country has another election.
NYT:
Israelis were bracing on Wednesday for what could be weeks of political gridlock after exit polls showed no clear winner in a national election that many have described as a make-or-break moment for the country.
Turnout in Tuesday’s election, widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, was the highest in at least a quarter-century. It was the first election since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks ignited three years of war.
Exit polls — which have a spotty record in Israel — suggested that Mr. Netanyahu’s alliance was neck and neck with a bloc of opposition parties led by Gadi Eisenkot, leaving neither side positioned to form a government.
That uncertainty did not stop the leading candidates from making triumphant late-night speeches to their supporters.
Mr. Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff, struck a defiant tone toward Mr. Netanyahu, saying: “Tonight we got the answer: The public opted for change.”
It’s Noon in Israel:
It’s Wednesday, October 28, and with about 77 percent of the vote counted, Netanyahu’s coalition parties hold 54 seats to the change bloc’s 49. The Joint List has 11 and Ra’am six. Likud leads with 27 seats, followed by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar with 22 and Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad with 12. The Democrats have eight, while United Torah Judaism, Yisrael Beiteinu, Otzma Yehudit and Shas each have seven, and Religious Zionism, running with Zehut, has six. These numbers will still shift, and the double-envelope ballots, cast by soldiers and other special voters, have yet to be counted.
Last night, the exit polls told one story: Netanyahu had lost, but it wasn’t clear who on the other side had won. This morning, the results are telling another. Netanyahu hasn’t won yet, but the change bloc has clearly lost.
I’ve covered politics since the start of the century. I have never seen a camp organize for an election as impeccably, as efficiently and as energetically as the change bloc did. It signed model surplus-vote agreements, so that no leftover votes would go to waste, and ran an unprecedented operation flying Israelis home from abroad to vote. And by the actual count, it ended up with more or less the same number of seats as in the last election.
Demography beat energy, and the message also proved flawed and unsuccessful. The public wasn’t convinced that the war had been a total victory, as Netanyahu claimed, but it also refused to buy the opposition’s claim that it was a total failure. It was repelled by Haredi draft-dodging, but didn’t think the solution was a minority government propped up by draft refusers and anti-Zionists. It was disgusted when ultra-Orthodox protesters chanted “We do not believe in the rule of the Zionists,” but it was just as shocked when “Biladi, Biladi,” the Palestinian national anthem, was sung at the Joint List’s headquarters last night.
As Yiddish speakers in Israel might say, “Oy vey!”
Finally, here was a subheadline in the NYT last night. You can always count on them to get in a dig at Israel, but this is ridiculous:
*In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump can nullify a Biden-esque policy that allowed immigration judges to close out cases because of case volume, allowing immigrants to remain in the U.S. (article archived here).
Critics call the procedure, known as “administrative closure,” a form of backdoor amnesty.
After the first Trump administration tried to bar judges from using administrative closure, the Biden administration codified the practice in 2024.It hasbeen going on in some form for decades, with roughly 360,000 migrants granted administrative closure since 1990, according to government statistics.
The cases are closed, but not dismissed, so they could now be reopened.
When Trump returned to office last year, the administration announced it would no longer defend the Biden-era policy. Texas then challenged the rule in afederal court inthat state.
The Department of Justice told the judge it supported a judgment favoring Texas. The judge entered a permanent injunction blocking the policy allowingadministrative closure.
Three cities with large migrant populations — Baltimore; Columbus, Ohio; and New Haven, Connecticut — and an immigrant rights’ group sought to intervene in the case to defend the Biden rule and overturn the judgment. Courts denied those moves, giving way to their appeal to the Supreme Court.
I guess they vote on these unsigned opinions, and I further guess that the vote was 6-3. Will we ever find out (I doubt it) or get any written opinions? The decision seems ok insofar as some immigrants who should be deported are allowed to stay, but I doubt that many (or any) of the closed-out cases involve clearly deporation-worthy people.
*I love quizzes in the news, and the Wall Street Journal has one placing you as either very liberal, somewhat liberal, moderate, somewhat conservative, or very conservative.
The Wall Street Journal found broad areas of agreement when it asked 1,500 voters recently about some of the top policy ideas circulating in Congress and on the campaign trail.
Conservatives, liberals and moderates all backed a set of ideas to make healthcare and other expenses more affordable, as well as to curb illegal immigration. Yet some ideas were sharply polarizing and drew staunch opposition along ideological lines.
Take our poll to see how your views compare with the liberals, conservatives and moderates in our survey.
First you self-identify (I said I thought I was “somewhat liberal), then you’re asked how you feel about policies in the three areas of cost of living, healthcare, and immigration and the border. You have to say how you feel about four statements in each area, then you get a score. Here’s my outcome, which is disparate in the three areas, and I’m typed as a “moderate” overall. I guess that’s okay, though I just voted by mail, and my votes would, I think, type me as at least “somewhat liberal.”
*Over at his Substack site, Maarten Boudry argues that “Islamo-Leftism is not a conspiracy theory“, using evidence to show that the “red-green alliance” is very real and is coming for the West. (The article is free.) It started with this tweet, which you should read in full:
We will all soon know what it feels like to be Jewish. In France, they already do.
It will be our just deserts for having abandoned the Jews, ignored their warnings, turned against them, and even marched alongside their oppressors.
For three years, you useful idiots have been parading Palestinian flags, sporting keffiyehs, screaming “From the River to the Sea”, and recognizing a fictitious Palestinian state as a reward for Hamas’s October 7 massacre (looking at you, @EmmanuelMacron). You have boycotted the only Jewish state in the world, vilified the Jewish people’s right to self-determination (aka “Zionism”), and spread the “Gaza genocide” blood libel.
Did you really think that if you fed the crocodile enough Jewish flesh, it would eventually be satiated? All you have done is embolden the monster and whet its appetite.
So you were worried about “colonization”? Look around. The only thing being colonized here are our own Western cities. The Palestinian flag has become a victory banner, proudly waved amid the ruins of looted and vandalized historic buildings—a symbol of hatred for our civilization and everything it stands for.
It never ends with the Jews.
— Maarten Boudry (@mboudry) October 18, 2026
A few excerpts:
In its mainstream form, Islamo-leftism is simply the left’s love affair with Islam, which it regards as the religion of the downtrodden and oppressed. The bargain is straightforward: leftists coddle Muslims and give them preferential treatment, while Muslims respond by voting for left-wing parties. The perfect embodiment of this rapprochement is the concept of “Islamophobia”, which left-wing academics, journalists and intellectuals have brandished for decades to shield Islam from legitimate criticism, much to the delight of Islamists. Instead of contemplating the possibility that fear of Islam may be a rational response to certain Islamic doctrines (such as the death penalty for apostates) and to the attitudes of the many Muslims who endorse them, large swaths of the left have pretended that it is a form of mental illness, an irrational paranoia with no basis in fact.
,. . . Even progressives who don’t actively rally to Islam’s defense have often turned a blind eye to the homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism and violence against apostates that are rampant in Islam, while sternly condemning comparable tendencies among fundamentalist Christians. This double standard is in itself a passive form of Islamo-leftism: abandoning your own progressive values for the sake of one religion, because most of its adherents have a darker complexion and you’re afraid of being called racist.
. . . The most explicit form of the Red-Green alliance is plainly visible on the streets of every Western city. For years, radical-left and Islamist groups have marched shoulder to shoulder at demonstrations and rallies against their common enemies: Zionism and Western imperialism. This unholy alliance is now held together by the all-purpose Palestinian flag, which no longer represents a people or an aspiring country, but an avatar onto which all sorts of fantasies can be projected.
For Muslims, it stands for the religious struggle against both the Little Satan (Israel) and the Great Satan (the United States), and for the religious duty to reconquer every piece of land that was once under Islamic rule. For leftists, it is the one thread that will unravel the whole fabric of the despised world order. That is the only way to understand the Irish writer Sally Rooney’s bizarre claim that “the liberation of Palestine represents the liberation of the world”. Although both groups have their reasons for obsessing about Palestine, it is mostly the Muslims who lead and the leftists who follow. If your favorite victim group hates the
JewsZionists with such fervor, surely thoseJewsZionists must be uniquely diabolical.Still not explicit enough for you? In 2006, one of the most influential academics on the left, Judith Butler, has described Hamas and Hezbollah as “progressive” movements that are “on the left”. She also insisted that the October 7 attack was not a terrorist attack but “an act of armed resistance”.
Maarten has a book coming out soon: The Betrayal of the Enlightenment, and I hope it’s translated into English as soon as possible.
*Here’s an example of how economic leverage can turn someone into a liar. That person is soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé, the all-time World Cup goal scorer with 22, and already a multimillionaire. Does he need more money? Apparently so, for he apologized for telling the truth about Mao Zedong so he wouldn’t lose endoresements:
Soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologized for comments in which he apparently referred to Mao Zedong, the founding leader of Communist China, as a dictator, after facing backlash and losing brand deals with at least three different Chinese companies.
“My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world,” Mbappé said in a statement Tuesday.
“I apologize to everyone my words have upset,” he said. “This was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry.”
The incident is the latest in a string of cases where China leverages its economic clout to compel foreign companies and individuals to toe its political line. In 2019, Chinese state television ceased broadcasting NBA games after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.
. . .Beverage maker Dongpeng, dairy giant Mengniu and cheese maker Milkground said in similarly worded statements Tuesday that they were ending agreements with the soccer star, each saying they oppose “any words and actions that hurt national sentiment.”
The companies did not specify what prompted their decisions, but they released their statements after a clip that appeared to show Mbappé being interviewed ahead of going on the French online talk show “The Bridge” circulated on X.
The China Football Association said in a statement Tuesday that it has “lodged a stern protest” with Real Madrid and demanded that both the player and the football club “issue a public and formal apology.”
What did Mbappé say? Here’s Wikipedia’s report:
On 26 October 2026, during a French talk show The Bridge, Mbappé said that a meme “that makes me laugh the most…the one where there’s a video of a guy, I think it’s a Chinese dictator”, which refers to Mao Zedong, the founder and first leader of the People’s Republic of China. Mao’s portrait superimposed with Mbappé’s face appeared as he spoke.
I wouldn’t apologize, though I’m far, far poorer than Mbappé. And how many Chinese really would be offended if Mao were called a dictator, especially because he was? Here’s a video showing Mbappé at work:
*The NYT reports that an Australian murderer, jailed for life, lost his bid to have the odious but popular condiment Vegemite provided to him in prison. (Vegemite was first sold in 1923 and is euphemistically described by Wikipedia as having a “strong flavour.” I have had it several times, and it always makes me gag. It’s made from yeast left over from brewing.) Yet some Aussies, like this prisoner, are enamored of it.
An Australian man serving a life sentence for murder lost his legal effort to be able to eat Vegemite behind bars when a state supreme court on Monday upheld a prison ban on the country’s beloved spread.
For some, being spared the salty, yeasty condiment might seem like mercy. But Andre McKechnie argued that it was a violation of his human rights.
He filed suit last year in the Supreme Court of Victoria, arguing that the state’s ban on serving the pantry staple in prisons denied him his “culture as an Australian.” Prison officials, however, saw a security risk: The pungent spread could distract police dogs trained to sniff out contraband and could also be used by prisoners to brew alcohol.
The court ruled that Mr. McKechnie’s cultural rights had been curtailed but that the restriction was justified because of security concerns. In a 47-page judgment, Justice Claire Harris identified a fundamental justification for the ban.
“The limitation on Mr. McKechnie’s ability to enjoy Vegemite in community with other persons of Australian background is primarily that he is a prisoner, having been sentenced by a court to a term of imprisonment,” she wrote.
In his suit, Mr. McKechnie noted that neighboring New South Wales did not ban Vegemite from its prisons and claimed that not eating it made him feel “sad and disconnected from my family and community.”
Justice Harris was unconvinced.
“It is difficult to accept that the inability to consume Vegemite, rather than the fact of his imprisonment, is a material cause of his sadness and disconnection from his family and community,” she wrote.
. . .Vegemite was invented in Melbourne in the 1920s and can be found in more than 80 percent of Australian households today, according to the company’s website. Like Marmite, its British forebear, the spread inspires intense loyalty and equal distaste.
President Barack Obama called it “horrible.” But for many in Australia, it is a cherished national icon.
Barack Obama was right.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili feigns ignorance::
Hili: If my bowl is empty…
Me: It means somebody has eaten whatever I put in it.
Hili: Is it possible that somebody was me?
In Polish:
Hili: Jeśli moja miseczka jest pusta…
Ja: To znaczy, że ktoś zjadł to, co do niej włożyłem.
Hili: Czy to mogłam być ja?
*******************
From Shit Signs:
From Terrible Maps; what year it is in each country:
From Give Me a Sign; the world’s worst trick-or-treat:
Masih is quiet today, so let’s hear from Larry, who ain’t going nowhere:
Don’t worry, I’d stay
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) October 26, 2026
From Luana. I have to note that I was once an “entitled hippy bastard”:
An oldie but a goodie. In 1968 a bunch of entitled hippy bastards sent a letter detailing their specious demands to the Warden and Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford. This was their letter of reply, which speaks to how far the academy has since fallen. https://t.co/si8oxve85p
— Dominic Adler (@DomAdlerUK) October 25, 2026
From Malcolm; Wisdom has had another chick—at 74!
Wisdom just welcomed another chick at approximately seventy-four years of age.
The most elderly documented wild bird on Earth has been breeding offspring since the era of President Eisenhower. Biologists originally placed an identification band on the Laysan albatross back in 1956, a time when she had already reached maturity and was occupying a breeding nest. Almost seventy years after that moment, she arrived back at Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean alongside a different mate and produced another egg during the final months of 2024.
Her historic partner, Akeakamai, had gone missing for numerous consecutive seasons. Although these seabirds typically establish permanent, lifelong unions, they possess the ability to choose a replacement companion if their original mate vanishes.
Conservation officers successfully captured footage of Wisdom softly leaning her head against her current mate shortly before he took his place on top of their shared egg.
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 22, 2026
Two from my feed. First, the infamous Michigan campaign ad made by Cenk Uygur’s organization. He has said it’s “defamatory,” but it’s not. Van Jones says that El-Sayed should denounce it, but he hasn’t, as far as I know:
I have spoken out against anti-Muslim hate in the Michigan Senate race. I will speak out just as loudly when the target is Jewish people.
Let me state a little-known fact: ISRAEL GETS LESS THAN 0.1 PERCENT OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET. That’s less than one tenth of a percent!
But there is an ad running that tells voters they can’t afford groceries because the United States gives so much money to Israel. In reality, the United States spends money in and on countries all around the world – but this ad singles out the Jewish state. The ad is as dangerous as it is dishonest.
You can disagree with how the United States spends money abroad. But telling hungry families that the Jewish state is the reason they are suffering is wrong and shameful.
Blaming Jews for people’s problems is an old story. Anybody who has read the last century of history knows where it leads. It is a dark pathway.
This ad is anti-Jewish hate and should come down immediately. Abdul El-Sayed should denounce it today.
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) October 27, 2026
I love it when they twirl and flop their trunks about:
Baby elephants don’t learn to control their trunks until they’re about a year old.
https://t.co/HVk5hdh6ap— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) October 27, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Dutch Jewish boy was gassed to death as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz, probably with his mother. He was three years old, and would be 88 today had he lived.
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 28, 2026
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, apparent REM sleep in spiders. Do they dream?
🕷️💤 New paper in time for 🎃!Do #spiders really sleep? In our new study on #Portia fimbriata we tested all behavioural criteria of #sleep and found evidence for regulated, two-stage sleep with recurring REM-like stages. Out in @pnas.org!@roesslerdaniela.bsky.social 📄 tinyurl.com/3fky8ze7🧵1/9
— Nadja Geiger (@nadjageiger.bsky.social) 2026-10-26T21:13:38.380Z
Look how deep this crab it! I don’t think it could walk to that spot:
The #SamplingGap team recorded this wily crustacean more than 4,300 m beneath the ocean surface. During this expedition, scientists are documenting biodiversity along the Romanche Fracture Zone, an active transform fault that serves as a vital corridor between the eastern & western Atlantic basins.
— Schmidt Ocean Institute (@schmidtocean.bsky.social) 2026-10-23T16:01:08.812Z
It’s clear that the two great female vocalists of our time were Karen Carpenter and Barbra Streisand. It’s harder to choose best male vocalists, but surely near the top should be Johnny Mathis, who is 91. What a voice! Among his great songs is “It’s not for Me to Say,” recorded in 1957 and here performed live.
As is way too often the case these days, the nyt is pretty fucked up. For a more informative story from the source, In addition to Amit It’s Noon in Israel, I suggest the Times of Israel commentaries. Right now, there is a 20-minute video “daily briefing” in which they explain the breakdown between netanyahu block, opposition bloc, and unaligned mostly arab bloc. They discuss the unprecedented large turnout in arab cities and possible nuances of well to do arab professionals in a tel aviv suburb versus votes of more remote arab villages. Url at ToI site is
https://www.timesofisrael.com/daily-briefing-october-28-israel-voted-in-droves-what-comes-next/
Thanks for the Johnny Mathis clip.
I did not know that Mathis was still alive.