Welcome to a Hump Day (“Andro Hump” in Malagasy): July 5, 2025, and National Root Beer Float Day. (This is also known as a “Black Cow”.)  Here’s one, and here’s an audio version with great electronic piano and trumpet solos:

It’s also National Fresh Breath Day, Farmworker Appreciation Day, and Hiroshima Day, marking the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima at 8:45 a.m. on this day in 1945. Video of the explosion is below, and let’s hope that the two bombs dropped in Japan will be the last (who knows?):

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*For reasons I don’t understand, the U.S. has slapped neutral Switzerland with huge tariffs of 39%. The Swiss president is hightailing it to the U.S. to stave this off.

The Swiss president is heading to the U.S. in a last-ditch effort to head off punishing tariffs that threaten to cripple key sectors of the country’s export-reliant economy.

President Trump’s recent decision to impose a 39% levy—one of the highest in the world—stunned the Alpine nation and upended months of negotiations in which Swiss officials believed they were on the verge of securing a favorable deal.

The aim of President Karin Keller-Sutter’s trip Tuesday is to “facilitate meetings with the U.S. authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland,” the Swiss government said.

The tariff tiff presents a test for Switzerland’s export model and an example of how vulnerable even staunch U.S. allies are to abrupt shifts in U.S. policy in the new era of transactional, deficit-focused negotiations under Trump.

Keller-Sutter, whose delegation also includes Economy Minister Guy Parmelin, aims to present “a more attractive offer to the United States in a bid to lower the level of reciprocal tariffs for Swiss exports, taking U.S. concerns into account,” the government said. It is unclear whether Keller-Sutter will meet with Trump or what is included in her new offer.

Chief among those concerns is the fact that Switzerland has one of the largest trade deficits in goods with the U.S., at $48 billion this year through June. Around a fifth of Swiss exports such as watches, chocolate, pharmaceuticals and machine tools go to the U.S., its largest market. “That’s a big deficit,” Trump said last week after the Swiss tariffs announcement.

Switzerland’s government said its trade surplus wasn’t the result of any “unfair trade practices.” The country unilaterally scrapped all tariffs on industrial goods as of Jan. 1, 2024, meaning more than 99% of U.S. goods enter Switzerland tariff-free, it said. It is now the sixth-largest foreign investor in the U.S. and major companies such as Nestlé, Roche and Novartis support some 400,000 American jobs, according to Swiss business organization Economiesuisse.

So if Switzerland imposes no tariffs on U.S. goods, what possible rationale can there be for us to impost nearly 40% tariffs on their goods? As one Swiss official said, ““Switzerland is not a threat to U.S. national security,” said Jan Atteslander, member of the executive board at Swiss business organization Economiesuisse. “Our chocolate and watches don’t endanger U.S. manufacturing.”

Can someone explain this to me?

*Even Trump can’t stop the Republicans from trying to get their hands on the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein. The House Republicans just issued a subpoena for those files, but also files on Bill and Hillary Clinton, and a bunch of other people.

The Republican-led House issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, potentially setting up a contentious standoff between Congress and the Trump administration over an issue that has sparked major headaches for President Donald Trump.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Kentucky) formally issued the subpoena Tuesday, nearly two weeks after one of the panel’s subcommittees — with some GOP support — voted to compel the Justice Department to release the files. Under House rules, Comer was obligated to issue the subpoenas and no full House vote was required. Along with a demand for the Epstein documents, the chairman also issued subpoenas for several high-profile figures, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and former FBI director and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

In all, Comer issued 11 subpoenas for documents and testimony spanning over two decades and including a slew of former attorneys general under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Comer set an Aug. 19 deadline for records to be released from the Justice Department related to Epstein and his imprisoned associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“While the Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell.” Comer wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“The Committee may use the results of this investigation to inform legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations. Documents related to the Department’s investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell are relevant to the Committee’s investigation.”

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

Well, all this kerfuffle has made me very curious to see what is in the records. Now that Epstein is dead, why not release them (names of people who should be hidden can be redacted)? You’ve probably heard that Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence at a federal medium-security prison, has been transferred to the same minimum-security prison as white-collar prisoners like Elizabeth Holmes. But it’s not normal for felons to be in that type of prison. And I’m infuriated that Trump is making noises about a possible pardon for Maxwell.  She was convicted of conspiracy to sexually abuse minors, and if Trump pardons her soon for that, well, it’s just wrong!

*Over at Commentary, in an article called, “When the narrative collapses,” author Seth Mandel discusses the New York Times’s misleading use of a sick Gazan child to buttress the paper’s narrative of starvation in Gaza.

it turns out that New York Times editors tried desperately to avoid using a photo of a child with preexisting conditions precisely because they understood it to be unethical. Semafor relates some of the behind-the-scenes discussions at the Times:

“Last Thursday at 3 pm, the Times was preparing to run images of Youssef Matar, a young child in Gaza with cerebral palsy who was suffering from lack of nourishment, alongside its July 24 story that cited doctors in Gaza finding ‘an increasing number of their patients are suffering and dying — from starvation.’

“But the Times’ topmost editors wanted to err on the side of caution. After viewing the gutting photo, according to communications viewed by Semafor, they worried that it might inadvertently call into question the paper’s reporting, which said that many of the children suffering from hunger did not have preexisting health issues.”

According to Semafor, the Times‘ managing editor Marc Lacey asked why they would use a misleading picture “when there is presumably no shortage of images of children who were not malnourished before the war and currently are?” Executive editor Joe Kahn, per internal communications seen by Semafor, put it simply: “The story isn’t framed around people with special needs and the lead art really should not do that, either.”

Absolutely correct, as anyone who has worked in news reporting would know.

So the idea that it would be fine to use the picture knowing the boy had cerebral palsy has been obliterated: The Times had already changed its prospective front page to avoid that very mistake.

But there’s more to learn from the Times’ internal communications. Notice that the editors tell the staff that the story is specifically supposed to make the point that children in Gaza without preexisting conditions are suffering from malnutrition. If the reports of such widespread hunger are true, they explained, there should be plenty of photos that show exactly that. And therefore the Times must reject its first proposed front-page photo, which did not meet those criteria.

And yet, the photo they replaced it with also did not meet that criteria. It must be very easy to find proof that Israel is deliberately starving otherwise healthy children, they said—our reporting makes that claim! And then they proceeded to fail to find a usable example of such a case. They hadn’t realized, they say, that this child also had cerebral palsy, just like the first child they considered using.

You can see it slowly dawning on them that there’s something else entirely going on here, that the trend is not what they believe it to be. You can even sense the frustration creeping into their communication: You reporters, they explain, are saying one thing and then showing us another—and then after we corrected you on it, you did it again!

The unspoken next thought is: Perhaps it isn’t so easy to prove this claim about Israel.

It’s almost completely taboo to say that Gaza is not subject to widespread starvation. But before the West buys into that, we need data, and not data provided by Hamas or its Gazan Health ministry, nor by the UN nor even the NY Times.  People won’t accept what Israel has to say, so how do we determine what the truth is? The article concludes:

This conversation echoes what Israel’s defenders have been saying for some time. When Israel’s defenders say it, though, they are accused of pushing hasbara, of spinning for atrocities.

The apologies owed won’t be coming any time soon. That’s because the people accusing Israel supporters of cruelty are themselves the very definition of propagandists: They will defend the printing of terrorist propaganda even knowing its falsity. That is worth keeping in front of mind, because they will soon do it again.

But, as I’ve said, Israel should send enough food into Gaza to stuff everyone—so long as it can be guaranteed that none of that food goes to Hamas. You tell me how to do that.

*In a related article, the Times of Israel reports that, as of September, Canada will join France and the UK in recognizing a Palestinian state.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that Canada will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, in a fresh diplomatic blow to Israel as it faces increasingly intensifying international criticism over the war in Gaza.

He said the move was “predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” including elections in 2026, anti-corruption measures, and a demilitarized Palestinian state. Carney stressed he was “not in any way or shape minimizing that scale of that task.”

“Clearly that’s not a possibility in the near term,” the prime minister said, adding that Canada has joined the efforts of other states to “preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.”

“Much has to happen before a democratic, viable state is established,” he added.

Canada had long stated it would only recognize a Palestinian state at the conclusion of peace talks with Israel. But Carney said the reality on the ground, including the mounting hunger crisis in Gaza, meant “the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes.”

Among the reasons, he said, were “the pervasive threat of Hamas terrorism to Israel,” accelerated settlement construction and a vote by the Knesset calling for the annexation of the West Bank.

“Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza,” he said.

Recognizing a Palestinian state now, a state without a non-terrorist candidate leader and including Gaza, run by an explicitly terroristic and genocidal state, would be a huge mistake: it would give Hamas exactly what it wants, a sovereign state from which it can go after Israel (and of course it will). Now I don’t think that any of this recognition is going to produce a Paletinian state, though I’m not opposed to such a state under the right conditions. But rewarding Hamas for helping engineer the starvation of its own people is an absolutely stupid thing to do. For more reasons why, read the Quillette article “Against Palestinian statehood.”

Previous efforts to create a sovereign Palestinian entity failed to address even the most basic requirements of statehood, such as that the prospective state have a permanent and precisely defined territorial contour; and possess a functional government capable of maintaining law and order over such territory. That deficiency persists to this day: the main reason why Israel remains militarily engaged in Gaza is that no competent government-in-waiting exists, as Hamas (which is classified as a terrorist organisation by both the European Union and Canada) has spent the last two decades dismantling all forms of civil society lying outside its direct control. Nurturing an alternative government in this kind of politically stunted society will be the work of generations. It can’t be summoned into existence by Western leaders seeking to appease domestic constituencies.

The reader who sent me this link commented astutely, “How can the hostages survive this? It only emboldens Hamas and buys them more time to buy more time. This is a slap in the face.”

*Colossal Biosciences continues to push back on critics of its de-extinction program. Now they say they’re going to de-extinct several species of moas! Nature reprises the brouhaha without, of course, taking any stand on the issue. Perhaps they shouldn’t, but any fool knows that Colossal has not brought back the dire wolf. Rather, they created a gray wolf with 15 tweaks in its DNA.  The article? “This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started.” (Link goes to archived version; h/t Matthew). I’ll give a few back-and-forth quotes:

The company’s announcement of the [dire wolf] pups in April, which described them as dire wolves, set off a media maelstrom. The ensuing debates over the nature of the animals — and the advisability of doing such work — have opened a chasm between Colossal’s team and other scientists.

“I don’t think they de-extincted anything,” says Jeanne Loring, a stem-cell biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She and many others say that the hype surrounding Colossal’s announcement has the potential to confuse the public about what de-extinction technologies can achieve.

Colossal, meanwhile, has taken an increasingly combative tone in addressing criticisms, issuing rapid rebuttals to researchers and conservationists who have publicly questioned the company’s work. The firm has also been accused of taking part in a campaign to undermine the credibility of some critics. The company denies having played any part in this.

Colossal stands by its claims and insists that it is listening to dissenters and seeking advice from them. “We have had this attitude of running towards critics, not away,” says Ben Lamm, a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the company.

No, Colossal is running away from its critics. Remember when its head scientific officer, Beth Shapiro, said that no, they didn’t produce real dire wolves, but then did a 180-degree turn, declared that they were dire wolves because they looked like dire wolves (were the originals white?), and rejected any kind of biological species definition.  But wait! There’s more! Here’s Shapiro buying into Colossal’s hype:

. . . .Shapiro argued in her 2015 book that forming a wild population is a requirement for successful de-extinction. She nevertheless considers the dire wolves to be an example of de-extinction, and says that creating them will have conservation benefits for wolves and other species.

Many scientists disagree. A group of experts on canids that advises the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) issued a statement in mid-April rejecting Colossal’s claim that gene-edited wolves could be considered dire wolves, or even proxies for the extinct species. The statement cites a 2016 IUCN definition for de-extinction that emphasizes that the animal must fill an ecological niche. The work, the group said, “may demonstrate technical capabilities, but it does not contribute to conservation”. Colossal has disputed this on the social-media platform X (formerly Twitter) saying that the dire-wolf project “develops vital conservation technologies and provides an ideal platform for the next stage of this research”.

. . . [Evolutionary geneticist Tom] Gilbert, who was a co-author of a preprint describing the ancient dire-wolf genomes², says he is concerned that Colossal is not being sufficiently clear to the public about what it has done. “It’s a dog with 20 edits,” he says. “If you’re putting out descriptions that are going to be so easily falsified, the risk is you do damage to science’s reputation.”

Here’s Shapiro backing off her earlier claim:

But [Shapiro] and Colossal were quick to respond. “Some of y’all are real mad about this,” she began in a video posted on X in April. “You can call these animals proxy dire wolves or Colossal’s dire wolves. All of that would be correct. We chose to call them dire wolves because they look like dire wolves and reflect the key traits we found by sequencing their genome.”

Key traits my tuchas!. What about behavioral traits? They made fifteen edits to the wolf genome based on dire wolf DNA. A wolf with 20 DNA bases changed is not a dire wolf.  Finally,

. . . . the company remains bullish on its other efforts, predicting that mammoth-like elephants could arrive as early as 2028. Some critics are becoming concerned about how the company will conduct its work in the future, and what the impacts of that might be. In a 2021 opinion piece in Nature³, Herridge, who had previously turned down an invitation to serve as a scientific adviser to Colossal, wrote that she felt the company’s founders were “driven by a real desire to help the world”. But after the dire-wolf roll-out, she’s concerned about Colossal’s approach and its priorities.

“We have a company that is only listening to people who agree with them, who is pushing forward with statements that they aren’t backing down from,” she says. This “is not really where we want to be with a technology that has the potential to change the way our world will look”.

I’ve written about my feelings about Colossal: they have great power to make technical advances in changing genomes, but I don’t think they’re going to de-extinct stuff in our lifetime (read my Boston Globe piece on their efforts).  They are not behaving like scientists, but rather more like P. T. Barnum. Well, let’s see if they get a herd of mammoths in Siberial within three years.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Szaron is speaking with Hili, but their words are still somewhat opaque:

Szaron: I see light at the end of the tunnel.
Hili: That might be a train heading this way, or just a lamp that’s not moving.
Sure, it could also mean we’re near the exit and about to resurface. Just don’t get ahead of yourself.
Szaron: You always have to jinx it.

In Polish:

Szaron: Widzę światło w tunelu.
Hili: To może być nadjeżdżający pociąg, albo stacjonarna latarnia.
Tak, może to być również  koniec tunelu i powrót na powierzchnię. Nie ciesz się przedwcześnie.
Szaron: Ty zawsze musisz krakać.

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

From Jesus of the Day (read the description):

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Cats That Have Had Enough of Your Shit:

From Masih: English translation by Grok. Both men are alive but in prison as political detainees. What did they do? Criticized the government, especially after the death of Masah Amini:

#Hassan_Ronaghi and #Hossein_Ronaghi, dear brothers, as long as they were with us, fought without any discrimination for freedom and a better future for all walks of life, with their pens, with their words, peacefully and honorably. Now it is our turn to be the voice of these two brothers whose throats have been silenced. For freedom of expression, for all the prisoners in chains, for a brighter tomorrow, for our beloved Iran.

#حسن_رونقی و #حسین_رونقی عزیز، تا وقتی بودند بدون هیچ تبعیضی برای آزادی و آینده‌ای بهتر، برای تمام اقشار مبارزه کردند، با قلمشان، با کلامشان، صلح‌آمیز و شرافت‌مندانه.
حالا نوبتِ ماست که صدای گلوهای اسیر شده‌ی این دو برادر باشیم.
برای آزادی بیان، برای تمام زندانیانِ در بند، برای… https://t.co/trQTb5UIsm

— توماج صالحی🌋 (@OfficialToomaj) August 4, 2025

From Luana:

Breaking via @AmichaiStein1:

Hamas official Ghazi Hamad just said that “The initiative by several countries to recognize a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7.”

Great job, Europe and Canada — you’ve done more to incentivize terror than you can possibly imagine. pic.twitter.com/ZpTX2CH90p

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 2, 2025

From Malcolm: I love this  one!

same pic.twitter.com/XCK7YmbvAI

— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) July 17, 2025

And another from Malcolm; a thread of the world’s most beautiful place:

1. Mauritius is home to an incredible aerial illusion of an underwater “waterfall.”

The flow of sand & silt on the seabed gives the mesmerizing appearance of a vast, swirling vortex pulling the island downward.
pic.twitter.com/2vn1BhTjUe

— Raghu (@IndiaTales7) April 19, 2025

From my feed, interspecific love:

this is my new favorite video on the internet pic.twitter.com/BhTHEZYiC3

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 5, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial; this is the anniversary of the gassing of 2,514 Jews

5/6 of these Polish Jews were gassed upon arriving at Auschwitz. About a sixth were put into the camp, most to die subsequently. https://t.co/kUOMg7tq2p

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) August 6, 2025

Two from Dr. Cobb. First one unethical:

Last month, 140,000 Danes found out that their genetic data was being used in a massive research project– without their consent. I unpacked how this happened, and why it matters for @science.org http://www.science.org/content/arti…

— Annika Inampudi (@annikainampudi.bsky.social) 2025-08-04T15:57:51.557Z

How sad that we can recycle Soviet-era jokes now, and they make sense!

— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) 2025-08-03T00:48:02.039Z

Top o’ the morning to you on Thursday, June 12, 2025, and National Red Rose Day.  Here are some roses I photographed at the flower market in Bogotá, Colombia in 2020 (the U.S. gets many of its flowers, and nearly all its roses, from Colombia).

It’s also Clean Your Teeth Day, as I have a dentist appointment downtown this morning for my biannual cleaning. Posting may be very light today, even limited to this post. Bear with me; I do my best.

It’s also National Jerky Day, National Peanut Butter Cookie Day, International Cachaça Day (celebrating the spirit distilled from sugarcane used in making the famous Brazilian cocktail caipirinha), International Falafel Day, and Loving Day, celebrating the legal end to the ban of mixed-race marriage that occurred in the case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967(!).   Here are Mildred and Richard Loving, plaintiffs in the case, photographed in 1967:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 12 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*A few pieces of nooz about the protests about arresting immigrants. First, the protests are spreading, and we even had some in Chicago on Tuesday.

The streets of Los Angeles were quiet on Wednesday morning after an overnight curfew imposed by the mayor in the city’s downtown. Cities across the country prepared for more demonstrations later in the day.

The curfew in Los Angeles, which lifted at 6 a.m. local time, brought calm to the area, where five days of protests over the federal immigration raids have occasionally turned violent. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California blamed President Trump for unrest that began with federal deportation raids on Friday.

*There are already 15 detained “terrorists” in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. a tactic for avoiding American legal jurisdiction. Fifteen prisoners remain, some convicted and some in legal limbo. Now Trump is preparing to send detained immigrants there.

The Trump administration is preparing to begin the transfer of potentially thousands of foreigners who are in the United States illegally to the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, starting as early as this week, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The foreign nationals under consideration hail from a range of countries. They include hundreds from friendly European nations, including Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine, but also other parts of the world, including many from Haiti. Officials shared the plans with The Washington Post, including some documents, on the condition of anonymity because the matter is considered highly sensitive.

The administration is unlikely to inform the foreigners’ home governments about the impending transfers to the infamous military facility, including close U.S. allies such as Britain, Germany and France, the officials said.

The plans, which are subject to change, come as immigration hard-liners inside President Donald Trump’s Cabinet push for more deportations and arrests of undocumented migrants.

The preparations include medical screening for 9,000 individuals to determine whether they are healthy enough to be sent to Guantánamo, notorious for its history as a prison for suspected terrorists and others captured on battlefields in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some of these details were reported earlier by Politico.

It is far from clear whether the facilities there can accommodate 9,000 new detainees, an influx that would amount to a massive increase from the several hundred migrants moved to and from the base earlier this year.

But Trump administration officials say the plan is necessary to free up capacity at domestic detention facilities, which have become overcrowded amid Trump’s pledge to implement the biggest deportation of undocumented migrants in American history. A document reviewed by The Post said that “GTMO,” the government acronym for the base, “is not at capacity.”

Another bad move. First—and I’m not sure about this—does being at Guantánamo mean that incarcerated foreigners aren’t subject to all the provisions of the U.S. legal system? They do have the right of habeas corpus, according to the Supreme Court, but the Trump administration has been notably unwilling to provide justification for holding undocumented immigrants. Second, if the foreign governments aren’t informed, then they can provide no legal assistance to their citizens, something that should be done.  Third, we all know the sordid history of suspected terrorists held in that place, and it isn’t pretty. Now it’s not clear that this will happen, but it’s a bad idea as well as an inhumane one,

*The WSJ reports that California governor Gavin Newsom is using his opposition to Trump’s anti-immigration actions in California as a way to advance his own political career.

Gavin Newsom is, once again, in the eye of a tempest. “It is a profoundly important moment,” the California governor said in an interview Monday evening as protesters massed in the streets and U.S. Marines made their way to the state on the president’s orders.

It is also an important moment for Newsom, widely seen as a top potential Democratic presidential candidate, who has leaned into the conflict to position himself as the leader of the opposition. “Seven hundred brave men and women are being used as pawns in Trump’s war on the Constitution,” he told The Wall Street Journal of the Marine deployment, speaking from the Los Angeles County emergency operations center where he has been holed up helping coordinate the protest response. “Our Founding Fathers didn’t live and die for this.”

Newsom traveled to Los Angeles on Sunday to try to quell sometimes-violent protests there, prompted by the Trump administration’s mass immigration arrests. On Monday, President Trump said Newsom should be arrested, calling him grossly incompetent. Newsom, in turn, accused Trump of “authoritarian overreach” and insisted the rule of law itself was at stake.

It is a moment of both opportunity and political peril for the two-term leader of the nation’s most-populous state, whom Trump has singled out to blame for the violence and rioting he says local officials have failed to control. Newsom’s pugilistic response to Trump’s provocations has gladdened the hearts of Democrats hungry for a crusader. But at a time when Newsom has attempted to moderate his image, playing to the Democratic base runs the risk of cementing his profile as a left-coast progressive and associating him with images of urban unrest.

Asked about his presidential aspirations, Newsom, who will leave office next year, didn’t deny he might seek higher office. “I’m not thinking about running, but it’s a path that I could see unfold,” he told the Journal. The 57-year-old said it was too early to make a decision and he would wait to see if the moment felt right.

I’ll bet he’s gonna run, as the credible competition is very thin.  Now people are saying that he’s got no chance since he leads California, seen as a progressive state. In today’s Free Press there is in fact an article called “Why Gavin Newsom will never be president.” I’m not sure about his candidacy, but remember that Americans in general want illegal immigration cut way back. Whether Trump’s way of doing that will redound to his credibility with Republicans remains to be seen, but I have a feeling that the Right won’t care that much about Trump calling in the National Guard or the Marines. I suspect the bottom line in 2028 will be whether people feel they’re better off economically.

*Charlotte Allen joins nearly the whole world in panning the new Disney version of “Snow White” (at Quillette): “It’s no longer 1937. . . “.  A few excerpts:

The Disney company’s 2025 live-action version of Snow White is just as terrible as nearly everyone says it is. The film has attained an abysmal score of 1.7 on IMDb from 360k ratings and 2.2k reviews (although the site warns, “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title.”) At Rotten Tomatoes, meanwhile, the film has racked up a more generous audience score of 71 percent and a critics’ score of forty percent (although many of the positive reviews are of the “not quite as terrible as you have heard” variety). The upshot has been an eye-wateringly expensive box-office flop as well as a critical disaster. Disney’s animated 1937 adaptation of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale—the first animated feature film ever made—remains a beloved classic (7.1 on IMDb nearly ninety years after it was released, and no unusual voting activity flagged). So how did Disney manage to take a bankable property and produce something this bad?

The new Snow White is bad because, while its 24-year-old lead, Rachel Zegler, is a decent singer, she can’t act very well and she’s been woefully miscast—probably because she is half-Latina and thus qualified the movie for post-#OscarsSoWhite “representation and inclusion” points. (With a Peruvian mother, I’m half-Latina myself, so why didn’t someone ask me to play Snow White?) In Disney’s animated 1937 version (titled Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), our heroine was a sweet and cheery innocent, but Zegler’s character has been rewritten as a Mary Sue girlboss who shows off what a smartypants she is by reciting all the dwarfs’ names in reverse alphabetical order upon being introduced to them. And instead of cleaning their house in return for their hospitality, she makes them do their own cleanup. It’s “Whistle While You Work” for thee, but not for me. If you found yourself hoping that this obnoxious know-it-all would remain dead after biting into the poisoned apple, you were not alone.

I don’t care at all if she’s a Hispanic cast as a “snow white” character, but I do care about Ziegler’s modification of the film into some kind of woke fantasy, and I especially don’t like the seven dwarves being P.C.’ed into computer-generated characters called “magical creatures” (see below). That took jobs away from real dwarves, who wanted those roles!

The new Snow White is bad because the seven dwarfs are crudely rendered CGI motion-capture creations. They look less like the Doc, Grumpy, and co. we fondly remember than what one critic described as “garden gnomes.” Unlike the 1937 cartoon originals with their seven distinctive comic personalities, the new uncanny-valley dwarfs are difficult to tell apart, except for Dopey, who looks like Alfred E. Neuman in a medieval hat. (The new Snow White, by the way, won’t even let Dopey be Dopey; he has to have a lugubrious back story in which he doesn’t speak because he’s “afraid.”)

And the new Snow White is bad because it gets rid of the handsome prince. Why? At Disney’s D23 Expo in September 2022, Zegler bragged that she and her fellow cast members were bringing a “modern edge” to the story. Asked by Variety to elaborate, Zegler enthused: “I just mean that it’s no longer 1937. … [Snow White] is not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love; she’s going to be dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.” Well, OK—but try telling that to the 99 percent double-X chromosome Hallmark Christmas-movie-binge demographic, for whom “Someday My Prince Will Come” is the whole point. . . .

The girlboss heroine, the anonymous CGI dwarfs, and the substitution of romance with ambition are all bad and depressing things, but they are not the worst thing about the new film. The worst thing is its failure to recreate or even understand the story it is trying to tell or the power that story has exerted over generations of readers and re-tellers. Snow White cost US$270 million, making it one of the most expensive movies Disney has ever produced—a fortune in shoots and re-shoots as the project floundered amid delays, antagonistic media reports, and Zegler’s running social-media commentary about feminism, Trump, the Americans who voted for Trump, and Israel’s Gaza war. Disney selected Marc Webb to helm the project, a top-rated fantasy director who had previously made The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and its sequel.No fewer than seven writers pitched in on the screenplay, but only Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train, 2016) received a screen credit. (Greta Gerwig is reported to have been called in on a script-rescue mission mid-shoot, and since she has a track record of turning preadolescent girlhood favourites like Little Women and Barbie dolls into instruments of feminist consciousness-raising, it is possible that she tanked the new Snow White single-handedly.)

The review goes on, and it’s snarky for sure, but I ain’t gonna see this movie, and I doubt that many here have, either. The movie has apparently gone beyond the point of where ideology trumps entertainment, and the public doesn’t like that. Here’s the trailer:

*Harvey Weinstein is serving a 48-year sentence in California for sex crimes, and was convicted in New York, but a New York case, in which he was convicted of rape and sexual assault, was thrown out because of issues with the judge. Now, in the retrial, all hell is breaking loose in the jury room:

Jury deliberations in Harvey Weinstein’ sex crimes retrial teetered Wednesday as the foreperson again requested to speak to the judge about “a situation” he found troubling.

The man — who complained Monday that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges — was being questioned in private, at his request.

While the jury was in court to hear the answer to an earlier request to re-hear the text of a rape law, the foreperson signaled to Judge Curtis Farber that he wanted to talk.

“He said words to the effect of ‘I can’t go back in there with the other jurors,’” Farber explained later. The foreperson was sent to wait in a separate room, where he penned a note saying, “I need to talk to you about a situation.”

When briefly brought into court, the foreperson said he wanted to speak in private. He, the judge, prosecutors and Weinstein’s lawyers then went behind closed doors.

The discussion was closed to the press and public, but Farber later said the foreperson had expressed that he didn’t want to change his position — whatever it may be — and was being bullied.

“He did indicate that at least one other juror made comments to the effect of ‘I’ll meet you outside one day,’ and there’s yelling and screaming,” the judge said.

Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala characterized the foreperson’s concerns more severely, saying that the man had said he was concerned for his safety after his fellow panelist talked about meeting him outside and added, “you don’t know me.”

“I don’t think the court is protecting this juror. Period,” Aidala said, going on to ask for a mistrial.

Apparently the foreperson is stubborn and said nothing would make him change his mind. That’s not a good thing to say, even if you’re thinking it!

The episode was the latest sign of strain among the jurors. On Friday, one of them asked to be excused because he felt another member of the group was being treated unfairly.

Weinstein’s lawyers asked unsuccessfully for a mistrial then, and again after the foreperson expressed his concerns Monday. The jury kept deliberating and went through Tuesday without sending any more messages about interpersonal tensions.

The seven female and five male jurors started their fifth day of deliberations Wednesday by re-hearing accuser Jessica Mann’s testimony that he raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. The group wrapped up Tuesday’s deliberations by asking to revisit that testimony.

Well, it doesn’t matter much, does it—even if Weinstein is found not guilty. He’s 73 and serving 48 years in California, so he’ll die in prison no matter what happens.

I’ve never been on a jury; I’ve been in the pool several times, but was never selected. In fact, I’ve never even been questioned; I just sit in the jury pool and they fill the jury with people before they get to me, Now, I guess, I’m too old to fulfill this civic duty, as Illinois has age limits.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron are on the beat:

Szaron: Where are you going?

Hili: To check what this sunbeam is landing on.

Szaron: Gdzie idziesz?

Hili: Sprawdzić na co świeci ten promień.

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

From Jay, who gives this a progressive headline:

From The Language Nerds (click to enlarge); what happens in different countries of Europe when you try to speak their language.  I think France is wrong, at least in my experience,

From Stacy:

From Masih, another Iranian woman missing an eye. The English translation:

We are the daughters of White Wednesdays and stealthy freedoms, the voice of protest of the #Woman/Life/Freedom generation; Campaigns led by the courage of dear Masih Alinejad against compulsory hijab and in the direction of overthrowing The Islamic Republic was formed. We proudly stand in the front line against compulsory hijab. There is a sea of ​​blood between us, the subversives, and the scoundrel Faezeh Hashemi. Certainly, a prince who defends his father’s crimes and a bloodthirsty government is a cursed person, but we are ordinary people and we gave our lives for it. Reformist, conservative, the whole story is over. No to compulsory hijab. #Woman/Life/Freedom

ما دختران چهارشنبه‌های سفید و آزادی‌های یواشکی، صدای اعتراض نسل #زن_زندگی_آزادی هستیم؛
کمپین‌هایی که با شجاعت مسیح علی‌نژاد عزیز علیه حجاب اجباری و در راستای براندازی
جمهوری اسلامی شکل گرفتند.
ما با افتخار در صف اول نه به حجاب اجباری ایستاده‌ایم.
بین ما براندازان و فائزه هاشمی… pic.twitter.com/DYGIIvOFj5

— Kosar Eftekhari (@kosareftekharii) June 10, 2025

From Luana, a Big Lie in USA Today:

This is a real paragraph published in this @USATODAY piece. Does anyone believe this? pic.twitter.com/Bfdi4a23oI

— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 7, 2025

From Malcolm. LOOK AT THIS CAT!

The Norwegian Forest Cat is a breed of domestic cat originating in Northern Europe and it’s one of the oldest, as it’s believed to have been brought to Norway about 1000 CE by the Vikings.

[📹 bhelga9700]pic.twitter.com/6nNDhsFFVw

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 3, 2025

Two from my feed:

Hamas filmed every terrible thing they did to our family. They broadcast it live to Tsachi’s wife’s social media. It was how many of us found out what horrors were happening.

We didn’t get the choice not to see. #GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/bsP9tYZHYO

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) June 11, 2025

A polychaete worm with a weird body:

Fancy footwork from a Swima polychaete #OkeanosExplorer ex1711 dive 11 #MarineLife

— Lisa (@tuexplorer1.bsky.social) 2025-06-11T13:04:45.395Z

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

This Polish baker lived but two months in the camp before he perished.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-12T09:54:31.253Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb.  First, life can live nearly everywhere on Earth, even boiling hot springs—or on a PVC windowsill:

Weird sigil-like lichen growing on a PVC window-sill

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-06-11T11:34:23.131Z

And if you’re teaching evolution, you may want to read this:

Its here! Finally published. http://www.tes.com/magazine/tea…

— EvoNerdette (@bethmorillo-hall.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T05:04:38.835Z

Welcome to CaturSaturday, June 7, 2025 and shabbos for Jewish cats. It’s National Black Bear Day,  Here are some Ursus americanus cubs being human-raised until they’re ready to be released into the wild:

And it’s Graduation Day at the University of Chicago. I’m locked in my building but have access to Botany Pond, so the ducks won’t go hungry. Yesterday they had their “montiversary,” as they hatched on May 6 and hit the water on May 7. (I guess today is “First Swim Day”.)

It’s also National Fun Day, Metric System Day (will we ever join?), Sweet Potato Day, National Beer Day, National Coffee Cake Day, and International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, in which at least half a million Tutsi, and members of other groups, were slaughtered.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 7 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*In a telling sign of enmity, the PA daily—the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority—has urged Hamas members in Gaza to kill their leaders, release all the hostages, and then commit suicide! (The PA and Hamas have never liked each other.) This is from Palestinian Media Watch, with the PA daily quotes doubly indented:

While the Palestinian Authority has spent months leveraging the civilian suffering in Gaza to criticize its political rival, Hamas, today the official PA daily took things a step further. The paper called on Hamas leaders to emerge from their tunnels in Gaza armed with two bullets: one to be used on the Hamas political leadership living in luxury in Qatar, and the other on themselves—arguing that suicide would be preferable to the disgrace they should feel for the countless Palestinian deaths they have caused.

“Leave [the tunnels] with your handgun, with two bullets in its magazines… and then admit your crime. Then aim it [the gun] at the heads of your admired [Hamas] politicians, in [foreign] capitals… Ask yourselves what benefit this gun has, and the answer will come to you from the last bullet, since your suicide is better than disgrace.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 5, 2025]

Hamas should unconditionally release all Israeli hostages, the PA daily continues, because Israel is killing three times the number of hostages every day.

“Enough, Hamas leaders. Release them [Israeli hostages] now. Unconditionally remove the handcuffs of death from more than two million [Gazan] hostages who are still alive, and from twenty [Israeli hostages] who you are still haggling over.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 5, 2025]

This reflects the ongoing messaging from the Palestinian Authority, which continues to defend the horrific atrocities committed against Jews on October 7 as “legitimate resistance,” while simultaneously criticizing Hamas for enabling Israel’s reentry into Gaza and its subsequent counteroffensive. In doing so, the PA seeks to bolster its popular support by defending the October 7 massacre—an event widely celebrated among Palestinians—while also shifting responsibility for the claimed 55,000 deaths in Gaza onto Hamas.

Despite this, recent polls indicate that Hamas remains significantly more popular than Fatah, especially since the October 7 attack elevated Hamas terrorists to the status of Palestinian icons. According to surveys conducted in May 2025, 59% of West Bank Palestinians still believe that the October 7 assault on Israel was the “correct decision” [PSR]. In the hate-saturated Palestinian consciousness, their one day of glory, in which they raped, tortured, burned families alive, and murdered nearly 1200 Jews, was worth the cost of 55,000 Gazans lives.

This enmity is one reason why there can’t be a two-state solution now. It can’t be run by Hamas because they’re terrorists, and it can’t be run by the PA because they’re less popular than Hamas, even though the PA also fosters terrorism, as in their “pay for slay” program that rewards Jew-killing. So who runs the “Palestinian state”?

*The WaPo, in yesterday’s morning announcement, says: “What happened? Their alliance publicly imploded. Musk used X to fire off memes, put-downs and explosive allegations against the president. You can scroll through every insult here.” The Epstein accusation by Musk is particularly nasty:

Here are a few if the back-and-forth tweets between Musk and Trump in chronological order: the Battle of the Narcissists:

*As usual, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly and snarky news column in the Free Press, called this week “TGIF:  The real housewives of Pennsylvania Avenue.”

→ Biden press sec turning on Biden: Speaking of trashy, the Dems are turning on each other all over the place. Some are announcing they’re not even Dems. That’s what former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has done. Karine has declared herself an Independent Voter and announced a new tell-all about Biden, positioning herself as a lone, brave voice of truth. Her book is called Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines. Which is strange, because she spent two years viciously enforcing those party lines and lashing out at anyone who dared challenge the acuity of her boss. She was the press secretary in charge of the biggest press-driven cover-up of a president in history. She promoted the term cheap fakes to describe real videos of an obviously confused old man wandering deliriously through the world. And now Karine wants to claim independence and make it her whole thing, like she’s a Free Press columnist or something.

But here’s my real issue: Only now that Biden’s down does Karine Jean-Pierre have the guts to kick him. Biden’s out of power. He’s done. He’s dying. So now the knives can come out! Now for the unveiling of how bad it always was. Where was all this independent-minded reporting when Biden was powerful? Crickets. I guess we need these Biden takedowns for the historical record. But I reserve my admiration for folks who kicked Biden while he was president. Which is why I admire only myself. Just keeps it cleaner.

→ Dyke March bans me, specifically: Organizers of the New York Dyke March—the special lesbian event at New York Pride weekend—banned Zionists from participating. So now, to participate, you need to believe that the country of Israel should be disbanded and all Jews should be expelled from that land, and also be into home renovations and motorcycles. Right. Well. I’m fine, thanks for asking. See, every time I go for a walk, it’s a Dyke March. I don’t need a special flag. My Tevas say enough. My many children. My tactical clothing. It’s all that’s required.

In other news, Ana Kasparian, executive producer and host of the popular online leftist news show The Young Turks, is toying around with blaming Jews for 9/11. She wrote: “I’m old enough to remember the ‘dancing Israelis,’ who happened to be Mossad agents filming and celebrating as the planes hit the World Trade towers.” There’s nothing people won’t blame on the Jews. Except for good things. Ana will never give us credit for anything good.

Meanwhile, over at the University of Michigan, in a botanical garden, hundreds of blooming peonies were destroyed, and signs were added that read: PLANT LIVES DON’T MATTER. HUMAN LIVES DO. This will surely win people over to the cause of the Palestinians. Then in Toronto, outside a pizza shop, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy was doing one of his on-camera pizza reviews when someone screamed at him “Fuck the Jews.” We’re entering the stage of antisemitism when many great and highly differentiated people start to get one very specific word hurled at them.

Ana Kasparian? Seriously?

→ Something new in the trans sports battles: A leaked medical report from 2023 appears to indicate that Imane Khelif, a boxer who competed in and won women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, is a biological male.

Doraine Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, told Newsweek: “The IOC would not revoke medals won by athletes who were eligible according to the rules it set for the boxing competition in Paris. . . . those rules did not require competitors to be biologically female.” If you have XY chromosomes but a ponytail? You, too, can win women’s boxing. Are you a male who wants to (legally!) punch women in the face, and are you okay being called Paula for two (2) days? I’ve got just the sport for you.

Now something interesting is happening. Around the company, women are balking. In Washington State, audience members booed when a male handily won the girls 400-meter dash. Which, to be clear, I think is mean and people shouldn’t do—the teenager should never have been put in that position—but it’s interesting to note that the taboo around this is falling and frustration is mounting. When a male won the girls’ high jump at Oregon’s state track and field championships last week, two teens stepped off the podium in protest. This kind of broad pushback is new.

I do think that there’s been a sea change in the boosterism heaped upon trans women competing in sports against biological women, so I predict that women’s sports, which have been changing their rules to prohibit this, will increasingly do so. I’m not sure what the Olympic women’s boxing rules are now.

*Here’s a mystery: a lot of large balloons in the water around the North Korean warship that capsized upon launching.

North Korea confirmed Friday its capsized warship was upright and stable, but a layer of intrigue lingers around the salvage work: Why the armada of massive balloons?

Who knows? But I’m pretty sure that whoever The Great Leader deems responsible for the capsized ship will be executed. Four of them have already been arrested.

*Transgender U.S. military troops faced a deadline yesterday to leave the service. If they do so now, they get some money, but the gutsy ones are staying to fight in court.

As transgender service members face a deadline to leave the U.S. military, hundreds are taking the financial bonus to depart voluntarily. But others say they will stay and fight.

For many, it is a wrenching decision to end a career they love, and leave units they have led or worked with for years. And they are angry they are being forced out by the Trump administration’s renewed ban on transgender troops.

Active duty service members had until Friday to identify themselves and begin to leave the military voluntarily, while the National Guard and Reserve have until July 7. Then the military will begin involuntary separations.

Friday’s deadline comes during Pride Month and as the Trump administration targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying it’s aiming to scrub the military of “wokeness” and reestablishing a “warrior ethos.”

Warrior ethos my tuchas! These troops were doing satisfactory service, and are being deep-sixed because of their chosen gender presentation. I still see no big problem with transgender troops, and I have heard no reports of trans womn attacking biological women in the service. This order should be rescinded, but it won’t be.  More:

“They’re tired of the rollercoaster. They just want to go,” said one transgender service member, who plans to retire. ”It’s exhausting.”

For others, it’s a call to arms.

“I’m choosing to stay in and fight,” a noncommissioned officer in the Air Force said. “My service is based on merit, and I’ve earned that merit.”

The troops, who mainly spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear reprisals, said being forced to decide is frustrating. They say it’s a personal choice based on individual and family situations, including whether they would get an infusion of cash or possibly wind up owing the government money.

“I’m very disappointed,” a transgender Marine said. “I’ve outperformed, I have a spotless record. I’m at the top of every fitness report. I’m being pushed out while I know others are barely scraping by.”

That Marine makes my point.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is, I’m told, really waiting for a miracle.

Andrzej: Are you waiting for somebody to open the door for you?

Hili: No, I’m waiting for a miracle.

Ja: Czekasz aż ktoś ci otworzy drzwi?

Hili: NIe, czekam na cud.

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

From CinEmma:

From The Dodo Pet:

From Meow:

Masih is still quiet, so we have JKR explaining why a lot of people are misinterpreting the UK Supreme Court’s decision on sex (i.e., you can’t legally change your natal sex by getting a certificate):

The misrepresentation in certain sections of the media of what the UK Supreme Court’s recent ruling actually means is outrageous.

The ruling clarified that women and girls have sex-based rights under British law, and that those rights haven’t changed since women gained them.…

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2025

It’s good to see Obama again, and a bit of rationality (note, though, that his administration deported several million undocumented immigrants):

Obama: “Imagine if I did ANY of this”

pic.twitter.com/Q3wAmOUUHU

— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) June 3, 2025

From Luana. The authors resisted publishing this study, and you can see why. But, thank Ceiling Cat, it’s now published:

🚨 The long-suppressed Olson-Kennedy puberty blocker study is finally out.

After 2 years on blockers, youth showed no significant improvement in depression, emotional health, or parent-reported behavior.

Once again, the Dutch study results failed to replicate. pic.twitter.com/WWC3yzhhFa

— Genspect (@genspect) June 5, 2025

Greta is sailing motoring to Gaza with enough supplies for a dozen people. Isn’t it hypocritical of her to use gasoline instead of the wind? (For more on this train wreck of a mission, see here; h/t Norman).

Greta Thunberg and a handful of other privileged activists are sailing to Gaza on a tiny boat to “deliver aid.”

At best, they’ve got enough supplies for maybe a dozen people. It’s not humanitarian—it’s the most pathetic, performative stunt imaginable.pic.twitter.com/D7fWeIcR9K

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) June 3, 2025

From Simon, a post by a comedian:

Starting to really regret my DOGE tattoo

— Brent Terhune (@brentterhune.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T23:05:22.862Z

From Malcolm, some kitty amusement:

Kitten playing with mom tail pic.twitter.com/C9PMu5FCwG

— Cats with pawerful aura (@AuraWithCat) May 18, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A French Jewish boy was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. He was ten years old, and had he lived, he'd be 93 today.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-07T09:40:35.903Z

One post from Dr. Cobb. Now what is Satan knitting?

Good one 😆

— Nina Willburger (@drnwillburger.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T17:47:12.094Z

Welcome to Thursday, June 5, 2020, and National Gingerbread Day. I love the stuff, but it’s best when served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or, in a pinch, applesauce.  Here are some gingerbread angels at a fair I photographed in Katowice, Poland on December 7 of last year:

It’s also Sausage Roll Day, National Ketchup Day (Heinz is the only acceptable variety), National Moonshine Day, and National Veggie Burger Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 5 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*It looks as if the Trump/Musk lovefest is over, given Musk’s reaction to Trump’s “big beautiful budget bill”.  Musk called it a “disgusting abomination.”

Former White House cost-cutting czar Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending package a “disgusting abomination,” stepping up his criticism just as the Senate is trying to quickly pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.

Musk’s comments are his latest sharp words about the package, which includes tax cuts as well as reductions to spending on Medicaid and food assistance. Last month, he gave new fuel to GOP critics of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar agenda, saying that the current measure failed to reduce the federal deficit.

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.” He issued a warning on the midterm elections: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

“This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” he wrote in an overnight post.

Here’s his tweet (or “X emission”):

I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.

This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.

Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025

The bill narrowly passed the House last month by one vote. It is now in the hands of the Senate, where some fiscal hawks, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, have demanded deeper cuts.

The Senate is aiming to make changes to the bill and then send it back to the House. Backers can afford to lose no more than a handful of GOP votes in either chamber, with all Democrats expected to be opposed. Still, the White House and GOP leaders said that Musk’s statements didn’t shake their confidence in passing the measure.

Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

I don’t know what’s going to happen to this bill, but I for one would prefer that they don’t lower taxes on the very rich and ensure that those who need Medicaid get it.

*At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ll give a few excerpts from Colin Wright’s newest post, “Imane Khelif is male—and the evidence was always clear.” As I wrote recently, a test a few years ago revealed that Khelif had XY chromosomes, and thus was a biological male, though he was raised as a female. He won the welterweight gold medal in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics. Despite his indubitable maleness, he Khelif still has his defenders.  Wright:

Rather than accept the biological reality, Khelif and his team launched a carefully staged PR campaign after the Olympics, designed to portray him as hyper-feminine. Social media was flooded with images of Khelif in flowery dresses and heavy makeup, striking exaggeratedly feminine poses. It was a cringe-worthy attempt to sway public opinion with aesthetics rather than facts. But no amount of eyeliner can alter your chromosomes. Womanhood is not achieved through hairspray and posturing; it is a matter of biology.

Despite what should have been a straightforward matter, the media played a central role in confusing the public. Outlets like NPR referred to Khelif as a “female athlete.” The Associated Press described him as someone “assigned female at birth.” GLAAD called him a “cisgender woman,” and The Economic Times chalked up Khelif’s hormonal profile to “endogenous testosterone that is naturally produced.”

Let’s be clear: Khelif is not female. That’s the one fact that actually matters in a women’s sporting category. The other descriptors might be technically accurate within the bizarre framework of gender ideology, but they fail entirely to describe objective reality. If someone is born with XY chromosomes and internal testes due to a DSD like 5-ARD, then the sex recorded on their birth certificate is a clerical error—not a truth that must shape our sporting policies. Calling Khelif “cisgender” because he was misidentified at birth and identifies with that incorrect label is linguistic gymnastics that ignores the fundamental biological truth: Khelif is male.

Of all the distractions thrown up to obscure this reality, none were more absurd than the idea that Khelif’s disqualification in 2023 was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The theory went something like this: because IBA President Umar Kremlev has ties to Vladimir Putin, and because Khelif once beat a prized Russian boxer, the Kremlin retaliated by fabricating Khelif’s DNA test results. This theory ignores several inconvenient facts. First, the IBA allowed Khelif to appeal the ruling, and even offered to cover the costs. Second, the easiest way to discredit Russia would have been to publicly release new, independently verified test results. Instead, Khelif withdrew the appeal, and Algeria sent a legal threat demanding the results be sealed. That doesn’t sound like someone who was confident the test was wrong. It sounds like someone who knew the test was right.

Even more bizarrely, Khelif threatened lawsuits against J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk for spreading what he claimed were lies about his sex. But if those statements were truly false, the path to vindication was simple: release the medical records. Instead, Khelif’s team has fought to keep them hidden while trying to convince the public through press releases and staged photo ops. Meanwhile, everyone with an understanding of basic biology, or frankly just common sense, could already see the truth.

. . . . The lesson here is simple. Had we put truth before ideology from the beginning, this wouldn’t have been a controversy at all. The facts were always there. The science was always clear. If you understood how human sex works and followed the evidence, then this revelation was no revelation at all. It was merely the inevitable emergence of the truth, which has a funny way of eventually surfacing no matter how deep it’s buried.

Blame ideology and the media.  After all, if he thinks of himself as a woman (and he well might have, as he was raised as a female) doesn’t that make him a woman?  Here’s the document at issue:

As Richard Feynman said about the Challenger accident, ““For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”

*Mohamed Sabry Soliman, accused of committing the Boulder firebomb attacks on Jews peacefully calling attention to the hostages in Gaza (at least a dozen people were injured), has been taken into custody by ICE—along with his entire family.

Federal authorities said Tuesday that they had taken into custody the family of the man accused of injuring at least a dozen people at a Colorado demonstration to support Israeli hostages in Gaza and that they are expediting their deportation from the United States.

The White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said on social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s wife and five children two days after he allegedly used molotov cocktails to attack marchers in Boulder. Noem said the agency was investigating “to what extent his family knew about the heinous attack” and “if they provided support.”

On its X account, the White House wrote that the family had been placed in expedited removal proceedings and that “THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.”

Immigration and criminal defense lawyers struggled Tuesday to recall similar examples of entire families being detained for deportation proceedings immediately after a relative was charged with a crime. And some immigration experts questioned the legality of deporting Soliman’s family members under expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process created in 1996 that does not allow immigrants to have a hearing before an immigration judge. They are also not entitled to a lawyer.

“It’s not normal,” said Derege Demissie, who has been practicing law for nearly 30 years and is a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “I don’t remember a situation where family members who are not connected with any criminal activity are targeted by ICE because a close or related family member is charged in connection with a crime.”

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said Tuesday that the State Department had revoked the family’s visitor visas.

There are two questions here. First, if the guy committed terrorism and attempted murder, why are they deporting him rather than putting him on trial?  There’s little doubt of his guilt: there are videos and he was apprehended on the spot. Second, why are they deporting his family? If they entered illegally, well, yes, they can do that because they violated the law, but if they don’t have any evidence that the family was complicit in the attack—and how could they be with five children?—then they can get in line after the deported convicted criminals.  The lack of a trial for an accused attempted murderer baffles me.

*The last jailed member of the Manson Family (save Charles “Tex” Watson), Patricia Krenwinkel has been recommended for parole. She is 77, and was convicted of brutal stabbings in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Patricia Krenwinkel, a onetime follower of the cult leader Charles Manson who was convicted in the murders of seven people in the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles, should be released on parole, a panel of the California parole board recommended on Friday.

Ms. Krenwinkel, 77, the state’s longest-serving female inmate, is one of two Manson followers connected with the August 1969 murder spree who remain in prison.

She was sent to death row in 1971. After the state’s highest court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, Ms. Krenwinkel’s sentence was reduced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, as it was for all those convicted in the Manson group’s murders.

Ms. Krenwinkel, who has spent the last 54 years in the California Institution for Women in Chino, first became eligible for parole in 1976. This was her 16th appearance before the parole suitability panel.=

The provisional decision has to be reviewed by the legal division of the Board of Parole Hearings. That process can take up to four months, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

If the full board agrees with the panel’s recommendation, Gov. Gavin Newsom has 30 days to review its decision. He could reject it, or send it back for further review.

In 2022, the parole board panel recommended that Ms. Krenwinkel be paroled but Mr. Newsom reversed its decision, according to state records. Mr. Newsom wrote at the time that Ms. Krenwinkel “still poses an unreasonable danger to society if paroled at this time.”

And what she is in for (from Wikipedia):

Krenwinkel was a participant in the murders on August 9, 1969, at 10050 Cielo Drive, home of actress Sharon Tate and four others. After stabbing Abigail Folger, Krenwinkel went back inside and summoned Tex Watson, who also stabbed Folger. During her trial, Krenwinkel said, “I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her.”  When asked how it felt, Krenwinkel replied: “Nothing, I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right.”

Krenwinkel participated willingly in more murders the following night. She recounted during her December 29, 2016, parole hearing the events of the night of August 10, 1969.^[9] Along with Manson, Watson, Atkins, Clem Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian, she went to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca where she, Watson, and Van Houten murdered the couple.

Here’s a photo of Krenwinkel from 1973:

Well, if she’s no longer a danger to society, I think 50 years in jail is a sufficient deterrent to let her go.  I suspect she isn’t going to kill any more people.

*The whole world is baying for Israel’s blood after Hamas leveled an accusation that the IDF killed 30 Gazans as they approached a distribution center for humanitarian aid.  That is most likely false, a confection of the liars at Hamas, yet both the BBC and Washington Post bought the story. Now they  have both retracted their stories.  First, about the WaPo:

The Washington Post on Tuesday filed a correction to a recent article claiming the IDF killed over 30 people near an aid site in Gaza, naming the source as “health officials.”

The article, published Sunday and viewed over two million times before the correction, was changed because the Washington Post claimed it “didn’t meet Post fairness standards.”

According to a social media post on X/Twitter, the article “failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post.”

Although the original article included statements from Israel, including an initial inquiry indicating IDF soldiers did not fire at civilians at the aid centers, the newspaper admitted it didn’t “give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings.”

. . .The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center in Rafah denied on Sunday claims that the IDF attacked a food distribution point near Rafah, contradicting widely circulated Hamas reports.

Security camera footage from Sunday’s aid distribution site shows calm civilian activity, with no incidents reported. Aid was delivered without disruption, and the available evidence does not support claims of injuries or fatalities. While some media outlets have reported these allegations, others have contacted the organization to verify the facts, the GHF stated.

The WaPo’s tweet:

Correction: We’ve deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.

The background: Early versions of the article on Sunday stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, with the… pic.twitter.com/KseRXgJn6A

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 3, 2025

And the BBC (which denies that it changed its story):

On June 1, the BBC issued a breaking update claiming that “Israeli tanks” opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at an aid site, killing 26. The allegation was presented without confirmation, based solely on anonymous sources: “residents and medics” and a “local Palestinian journalist.” The details, according to the BBC’s own Middle East Editor Sebastian Usher, included bodies carted away by donkey, and “thousands” of civilians gathered near the U.S.-backed aid center in Rafah.

The story appeared as a major headline update to an already misleading and sympathetic headline about Hamas’ ceasefire rejection: “Hamas pledges to free 10 living hostages but seeks permanent ceasefire in response to US plan.”

That headline stayed live for much of the day. The claim of 26 dead later became 31, courtesy of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. And despite a firm denial from the GHF — stating unequivocally that reports of deaths and injuries were “false and fabricated” and warning that the lies were being “actively fomented by Hamas” — the BBC did not retract the story.

The headline:

The IDF denies firing at any civilians, and the retractions of two organizations that it did, along with the assurance of the Gaza Humanitarian foundation above, makes it nearly certain that the claims of Israel attacking Gazan civilians trying to get humanitarian aid was false. (And ask yourself: what would be the IDF’s interest in doing that?)  Here’s the IDF’s tweet:

False reports have been spread In recent hours, including serious allegations against the IDF regarding fire toward Gazan residents in the area of the humanitarian aid distribution site in Gaza.

Findings from an initial inquiry indicate that 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗗𝗙 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 1, 2025

But it’s too late: the world has laid another blood libel at the doorstep of Israel. Media like the WaPo and BBC will believe any lie from Hamas that demonizes Israel. It’s infuriating.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn,  Hili and Szaron want to rest:

Hili: He wants to make the bed.

Szaron: Tell him that we are still asleep.

Hili: On chce posłać łóżko.

Szaron: Powiedz mu, że jeszcze śpimy.

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

From Jesus of the Day via Adam Ziemann at Art is Art. Jesus is recharging at night:

From Now That’s Wild:

From Meow, mother and children (again, I hope this is real!):

Masih’s still recuperating, I guess, but here’s JKR responding to a nasty person. She loves to do this stuff.

He’s asleep on the sofa beside me with a West Highland Terrier lying on his chest, but I’ll pass on your sympathy when he wakes up👍 pic.twitter.com/ysV9VznUxT

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 3, 2025

From Luana; a performative gesture by Greta:

Greta Thunberg and a handful of other privileged activists are sailing to Gaza on a tiny boat to “deliver aid.”

At best, they’ve got enough supplies for maybe a dozen people. It’s not humanitarian—it’s the most pathetic, performative stunt imaginable.pic.twitter.com/D7fWeIcR9K

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) June 3, 2025

From Malcolm, Green peace:

inner peace , inner peace 😌 pic.twitter.com/WE4FVz9qDC

— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) May 18, 2025

Two from my feed:

Nautilus from @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 390 #visioningcoralsea #MarineLife

— Lisa (@tuexplorer1.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T03:05:57.375Z

Natasha fights for the truth on the Piers Morgan show.

For too long comedians, influencers and conspiracy theorists have perpetuated the conflict with circus act “entertainment” that means innocent people continue to suffer. pic.twitter.com/7WZqwBodBy

— Natasha Hausdorff (@HausdorffMedia) June 4, 2025

One from the Auschwitz Memorial that I reposted:

A Dutch Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was nine.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T09:46:53.348Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. The first one is wonderful: flying foxes everywhere!

Just reached Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and was greeted by thousands of fruit bats flying over the city.

— Kory Evans Ph.D (@sternarchella.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T05:03:23.731Z

This bird got two free rides to a restaurant:

A female Western Gull was recorded riding 150km in a garbage truck from San Francisco to a compost facility in Central CA, probably to forage. TWICE. An innovator, an icon, a genius.This is one of my favorite @waterbirdsociety.bsky.social papers I've ever handled as managing editor #ornithology

— Paige Byerly, PhD (@paigebyerly.bsky.social) 2025-06-03T08:24:31.625Z

Welcome to a Hump Day (“ថ្ងៃ Hump” in Khmer), Wednesday, June 4, 2025, and National Cheese Day. Here’s a long video about how my very favorite cheese (Comté, preferably aged over two years) is made. The meal shown at the end is fantastic.

It’s also Global Running Day, Hug Your Cat Day (don’t forget to kiss the belly!), and National Cognac Day.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 4 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The negotiations between the U.S. and Iran about de-nuking the latter country appear to have reached an impasse.  According to the Jerusalem Post, Iran is now making preparations for attacks by Israel and the U.S.

Iran is strengthening its air defense systems amid preparations for the possibility of an American or Israeli attack on the country’s nuclear infrastructure should nuclear negotiations fail, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

“We are witnessing an impressive improvement in the capabilities and competence of the country’s air defense system,” Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Baqeri reportedly said in May, adding that Iran’s military has seen a “multi-fold increase in investments.”

“The enemies of the Iranian nation should understand that any violation of our airspace will cause them significant harm,” he added.

According to Western intelligence assessments and security analysts’ investigation of satellite imagery, Iran appears to have relocated several anti-aircraft missile launchers to positions close to key nuclear sites like Natanz and Fordow, the report says.

A significant portion of Iran’s most advanced anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems – including its long-range Russian S-300 systems – were destroyed or damaged during Israeli air strikes on the country in October and April 2024, the FT states.

. . .”Israel currently has almost complete air superiority over Iran,” Robert Tolast, a researcher at the British RUSI Institute, told the FT. “But such an attack would require waves upon waves of aircraft for hours. Crew fatigue comes into play – the longer they are over Iran, the greater the chance that something will go wrong.”

“From the Iranian side, this effort is trying to recreate the success story of Iran’s ballistic missile development program,” Fabian Hintz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Britain, said to the FT.

Dealing with this defense system would not be easy for Israel, John Alterman, chairman of the Global Security and Geopolitical Strategy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the FT. “But is it beyond Israel’s capabilities? No, of course not. The Israelis have been training for exactly this scenario for decades.”

Talks between Washington and Tehran over the future of Iran’s nuclear program are ongoing. Most recently, the US presented a proposal for a new nuclear deal to Iran on Saturday via Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating nuclear talks between Iran and the US.

However, a senior diplomat close to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team said on Monday that Iran is poised to reject the proposal, slamming it as a “non-starter” that fails to address Tehran’s interests and leaves Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment unchanged.

Of course Iran wants tacit approval to enrich uranium, but it will do it even if it agrees otherwise.  I somewhat welcome this impasse, as it gives Israel, which has “been training for exactly this scenario for decades.”  It there is indeed a breakdown of these talks between U.S. and Iranian negotiators, I don’t think Trump would stand in the way of an Israeli attack, and might even give help. But even more than that I wish the oppressed people of Iran would rise up against the theocratic regime, for the country has great potential for development.

*The WaPo reports on the Egyptian “flame-thrower” terrorist, who apparently planned his attack on supporters of Israel—actually, people peacefully reminding us of the hostages still in captivity—for a year.

The man accused of using a flamethrower to attack a demonstration voicing support for Israeli hostages in Gaza told investigators he planned the assault for a year and wanted to “kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” according to court documents released Monday.

Twelve people were injured in Sunday’s attack, which sent another ripple of unease through the American Jewish community.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, who has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges of attempted murder, appeared in court on Monday afternoon in an orange jumpsuit and with a bandage around his head. Authorities said Soliman had more than a dozen unused molotov cocktails and are investigating the incident as an act of terrorism.

The horror of the attack — many of the victims, including a Holocaust survivor, were senior citizens — was magnified by repeated violent incidents targeting American Jews since 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel, setting off Israel’s current war in Gaza.

A young couple were gunned down last month as they exited a Jewish museum in D.C. and the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, was set on fire in April by a man blaming him for Middle East violence against Palestinians.

Although incidents of antisemitism have been rising in the United States since 2016, groups that monitor hate crimes say the numbers have exploded since Oct. 7, 2023.

The high-profile nature of attacks over the past few weeks and the intense political debate about the causes of the war in Gaza has left some U.S. Jews feeling more vulnerable.

“It’s definitely not the same. Every Jew in America is feeling this and thinking about it differently. Many of us lived open, engaged active Jewish lives and never felt antisemitism as a threat in any meaningful way and I don’t know anyone who thinks that now,” said Hadar Susskind, president of the progressive advocacy group New Jewish Narrative.

Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” as he used a flamethrower and tossed an incendiary device into the crowd at a Colorado pedestrian mall, where the local chapter of a pro-Israeli group, Run for Their Lives, was hosting an event calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, law enforcement officials have said. Soliman learned about the group from an online search and specifically targeted them, according to court documents.

I am a secular Jew, which of course doesn’t save me from this kind of stuff, as I’m still typed as a “Zio” and I do sympathize with Israel. Still, never in my life did I think I’d see the kind of Jew hatred spreading across the West that I see now. Practically no Western country is not replete with antisemitism, and there’s attack after attack. Does anybody even notice that Jews themselves don’t engage in the kind of terrorism and illegal demonstrations that we regularly see from Palestinians?  Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? Nothing that Jews or Israel do could ever be met with approbation.

*The Free Press document’s the UK’s abysmal freedom of expression in an article called “The British mother serving time for a tweet.” An excerpt:

Lucy Connolly is Britain’s foremost political prisoner. Connolly, a 41-year-old childminder and the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, is currently serving a 31-month sentence for “stirring up racial hatred” in a single tweet that she deleted less than four hours after posting. On May 20, a court rejected Connolly’s application to appeal.

Connolly’s case is the latest in a series revealing the decline of free speech in Britain and the rise of a “two-tier” justice system that treats ordinary people like enemies of the state.

Before we get into the legal technicalities, let’s review what happened:

On July 29, 2024, Axel Rudakubana, the 17-year-old son of Rwandan immigrants to Britain, went on a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift–themed children’s party in Southport, northern England. Rudakubana murdered three girls—ages 6, 7, and 9— and critically wounded six children and two adults.

Inaccurate claims on social media said the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. In response, the police described the man they had arrested as having been born in Cardiff, Wales. Locals, however, knew something of his background, and that fed the online rumor mill.

Rudakubana was not identified until he appeared in court on August 1, 2024. He was charged with murder, attempted murder, and knife possession (and later with possession of homemade ricin and an al-Qaeda manual). By then, protests and rioting had erupted in Southport, where a crowd attacked police officers and the local mosque.

The rioting spread across England and Northern Ireland—the worst outbreak of disorder in Britain in more than a decade. It devastated the official image of Britain as a multicultural, multiracial success story, forced open a long-suppressed debate on immigration and crime—and, through the Lucy Connolly case, raised serious questions about whether or not the police and justice systemtreat crimes differently depending on the identity of the perpetrator.

Connolly, who suffers from PTSD after losing her 19-month-old son to failures in medical care in 2011, issued her tweet before the rioting began. At 8:30 p.m. on the day of the killings, enraged by what she had read and seen online, she tweeted:

And here’s the tweet from itvX (you can fill in the “f” word and “b” word for yourself.

There is little doubt that Connolly’s statement broke British law. Under Section 19 of the Public Order Act (1986), anyone who “publishes or distributes written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting” is liable to prosecution and up to seven years in prison.

There is, however, growing doubt that Connolly’s punishment fit her crime. Plenty of more serious offenders escape prison terms. In 2023, the year before Connolly’s tweet, the UK government’s National Crime Agency found that eight in 10 of those convicted of possessing child abuse pornography in Britain avoided prison.

First of all, this would not be a violation of free speech in America. Even though it’s a call for violence, it’s not likely to incite “imminent and predictable lawless action,” the criterion for violating the First Amendment. Rather, these are the lucubrations of a disturbed mother overreacting to the murder of three young girls. Is it hateful? Of course! I would never publish such a thing. Is it racist? Well, yes, in that she demonizes a whole group. Should she serve 2½ years in jail for it? No, not one day, especially when she has PTSD, had lost a child, deleted the tweet within four hours, and because 80% of those convicted of child pornography do no jail time.  In fact, she’d serve no jail time in the U.S.  And I’d say the same thing if she were talking about Jews instead of (presumably) African immigrants or blacks.  You know what the UK needs? A First Amendment.

*Wire Sports leaked what appears to be the first page of the chromosome test of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who woman a gold medal in women’s welterweight category in last year’s summer Olympics. Observers noted that Khelif had an extraordinarily powerful punch on top of what looked like a male phenotype, though Khelif claimed vociferously the sex of a biological women.  Wikipedia says this, which probably needs correction if the document below is true:

Unsubstantiated claims that Khelif is male were fueled by Khelif’s disqualification from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships, organised by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA) after she allegedly failed unspecified gender eligibility tests.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its Paris Boxing Unit stated Khelif was eligible to compete in the Olympics and criticized the IBA’s previous disqualification as “sudden and arbitrary” and taken “without any due process”. Khelif was born female,and no medical evidence that she has XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone has been published.

I’ve put a box around the relevant part, which apparently shows that Khelif has XY chromosomes.  Khelif was raised as a woman, probably because he had ambiguous or female-like genitalia and thus a disorder (also called “difference”) of sex determination, as evidenced by physiognamy and performance. Because Khelif was raised as a woman, his/her claims probably don’t involve duplicity, but simple misidentification of biological sex.  Based on the test below, though, Khelif should have been investigated further by the Olympics (the box around the chromosome result is mine).

Wire Sports adds this:

World Boxing has since banned Khelif from competition until the athlete takes another sex test. This will probably involve a cheek swab, which is highly accurate (though not 100% perfect) in detecting the SRY gene, whose sequence is nearly perfectly correlated with the type of reproductive system indicating male or female sex.  The story adds this, which I can’t verify:

Last October, in an account that built on what I wrote from Paris, a French outlet, citing a June 2023 medical report, reported that Khelif has a difference in sexual development – formally called 5-alpha reductase type-2 deficiency – with XY chromosomes, internal testes and a “micropenis.”

A hormone test showed a “male-type testosterone level of 14.7,” the French story said, “while the female gender does not exceed the maximum level of 3.”

Here’s the 46-second bout between Khelif and Italy’s Angela Carini that raised all the questions.  Carini withdrew, saying that she had never felt a punch that hard:

*If you’re in Amsterdam, you may want to go to the Rijksmuseum, even if you’ve been, for there’s an unusual new item to see:

The Netherlands’ national museum has a new object on display that merges art with Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District: a nearly 200-year-old condom, emblazoned with erotic art.

The Rijksmuseum said in a statement that the playful prophylactic, believed to be made around 1830 from a sheep’s appendix, “depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health.”

It is part of an exhibition called “Safe Sex?” about 19th century sex work that opened on Tuesday.

The condom, possibly a souvenir from a brothel, is decorated with an erotic image of a nun and three clergymen.

The phrase “This is my choice” is written along the sheath in French. According to the museum, this is a reference to the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting “The Judgment of Paris,” which depicts the Trojan prince Paris judging a beauty contest between three goddesses.

The condom is on display until the end of November.

You can see it easily at this CNN site, and, lo and behold, it’s made of a sheep’s appendix. I have wondered how they prevented pregnancy in the old days.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is scatterbrained:

Hili: There are some things we have to discuss.

A: What things?

Hili: I’m just trying to remember them.

Hili: Jest kilka spraw, które musimy przedyskutować.

Ja: Jakie?

Hili: Właśnie próbuję sobie przypomnieć.

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

From Merilee, a semi-salacious post from The Rogue Chef II (it looks more like a goose):

From Jesus of the Day:

From Cravomgs:

Masih is still quiet (perhaps she’s still recuperating from surgery), so here’s JKR commenting on the Khelif boxing kerfuffle (see above):

A raft of people in sports media publicly cheered on men beating up women in the name of entertainment and not one of them will lose their job. No demographic other than women could be treated this egregiously without consequences. Naked misogyny.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 3, 2025

From Luana. Brianna Wu, a trans woman, was the person who was most supportive of my stand when I went on the Piers Morgan show to talk about the KeFFRFle (go to the video and see her at 31:10). I like her:

You can laugh at this, but it’s actually a fundamental moral failing that the LGBT community betrayed the Jews that helped us win our rights to stan the terrorists that want to slaughter them. https://t.co/M268gkUiRR

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) June 2, 2025

From Barry. My answer is, “Yes: all the time.”

Do you ever just feel

— ugh weevil ✨ (@ugh-imhere.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T18:08:54.000Z

From Simon, who says he’s glad “the expert class is in charge”:

(Reuters) – FEMA staff left baffled after the disaster agency’s head said during a briefing that he hadn’t been aware the US has a hurricane season. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fema-staff-confused-after-head-said-he-was-unaware-us-hurricane-season-sources-2025-06-02/

— Steve Herman (@w7voa.journa.host.ap.brid.gy) 2025-06-02T21:04:05.000Z

From Malcolm: a military cat giving a snappy salute:

Reporting for duty!🫡 pic.twitter.com/Bf6qPmWaen

— smol silly cat (@Catsillyness) May 18, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

A Belgian Jewish boy was gassed immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. He was one year old.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T09:11:58.866Z

Two posts from Professor Cobb, who, after getting better, is down with yet another microbe. The first post he calls “Spiderhenge”:

A 12-shot stack of the curious silkhenge spider egg sac (more info here: http://www.rainforestexpeditions.com/we-solved-an…). This is currently being studied by brilliant arachnologists, including the amazing @henriquesbio.bsky.social. It's still not clear what type of spider builds this structure.

— Marc A. Milne (@forthespiders.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T20:52:46.001Z

And a velvet worm (an onycophoran):

!. Look at this astonishing animal. My velvet worm friend lives on moss in the rainforest. He is ANCIENT. WAY older than dinosaurs, lobopods like him even make an appearance in the Cambrian- when multicellular life became trendy.You can find him today on a tree at Wildsumaco, in Ecuador 🙂

— Nathan Harness (@nathanharness.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T12:50:42.743Z

Welcome to CaturSaturday,  shabbos for Jewish cats, and we’re nearly into June. as it’s May 31, 2025.  It’s National Macaroon Day, and don’t mistake the American brand—soft, chewy, and tasty coconut cookies—for the frou-frou French macarons, which are overpriced and not that great.

Here are the real ones:

And the overpriced macarons, which seem to have become a culinary fad.

It’s also World Parrot Day and National Meditation Day

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 31 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*According to the Times of Israel, Hamas and Israel may be close to reaching an accord that will be accompanied by a cease-fire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostages’ families that he principally approves of US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s latest proposal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, media outlets reported Thursday, while two sources told The Times of Israel that Hamas is leaning toward accepting the deal, with some reservations.

Accordingly, the deal is not yet final, and negotiations are likely to drag out for at least several more days, the sources said.

According to a copy of Witkoff’s latest proposal, the authenticity of which was confirmed to The Times of Israel by two sources familiar with the negotiations, Hamas would release 10 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza and return the bodies of 18 deceased hostages during a 60-day ceasefire.

In return, Israel would release 125 Palestinian terror convicts serving life sentences, 1,111 Gazans detained since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and 180 bodies of Palestinians currently held by Israel.

The IDF would also pull back from some areas where troops are currently deployed; the parameters of the pullback would be finalized “during proximity negotiations.”

Netanyahu told hostages’ families during a meeting on Thursday that he was prepared to move forward with the proposal, the Axios news site reported, while Channel 12 reported that he told the families he “principally accepts” the document. However, the TV report also quoted him saying he was “not ready to end the war without eliminating Hamas.”

Meanwhile, right-wing ministers and some hawkish hostage families came out in opposition to the proposed deal, arguing that Hamas was weakened and that now was the time to pile pressure on the terrorist organization to surrender. A decision to accept the proposal would have to be approved by the Israeli cabinet.

This is a lousy deal, as all Israel gets is ten living hostages out of the estimated 20-30 left, plus dead bodies. Hamas gets lots of murderous terrorists released from Israeli prisons, and Israel has to leave part of Gaza. This will still leave Hamas in charge of the territory, and I thought that eliminating Hamas was Israel’s main aim.  Is it still? Remember, Hamas will still have around ten hostages if any ceasefire ends, so there would have to be another deal. All the while the world turns more and more against Israel. I have to say that Hamas played its cards well (taking hostages was very smart of them), but I agree that there can be no peace in Gaza so long as Hamas does not surrender itself as well as all of its hostages. A two-state solution? Not in the offing now.

*We learn from The Free Press that the Democratic Socialists of America are split about whether to condemn the murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, gunned down in cold blood by a pro-Palestinian radical in front of Washington, D.C.’s Jewish Museum (see Nellie’s comment about one caucus of the DSA below).

Last Wednesday, a 31-year-old progressive activist allegedly shot and killed two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., in cold blood. As one of them, Sarah Milgrim, a 26-year-old Jew from Kansas, tried to crawl away, the gunman continued shooting at her.

“Free, free Palestine,” he shouted as police took him into custody.

You would think that this would be easy to condemn. Yet when the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America said in a statement released last Thursday that they “reject the violence of last night’s fatal shooting,” some members of the political organization revolted.

Almost immediately, a debate broke out in the national DSA’s internal message board for dues-paying members over how to respond to the killings outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

“Is it good to condemn violence against a genocidal apartheid state?” a DSA member with the username “SebastianFG” said in a post. Other members responded to the post with emojis of a heart and applause.

Other DSA members called the statement “horrific,” “hurtful,” and “irresponsible.”

The Democratic Socialists of America is not just a fringe activist organization. Its national membership has skyrocketed in recent years to more than 90,000, riding the wave of Bernie Sanders’s nearly successful primary challenge of Hillary Clinton in 2016. The political organization has since boasted major electoral success with politicians in Congress’s progressive “Squad,” including Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and New York City’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The far-left group unendorsed Ocasio-Cortez last year after the congresswoman voted in favor of a resolution affirming Israel’s “right to exist.”

The radical group is deeply fractured over how to respond to last week’s killings of Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. (The alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez, was charged with murder of foreign officials, first-degree murder, and other crimes.)

On one side of the fight within the DSA is the group’s so-called “right wing,” as its critics call it, which believes that the DSA should avoid any association with violence—and either condemn the act or not speak of it at all. This camp includes members who described themselves as a 69-year-old “radical,” a union member from Virginia, and a travel writer based in Louisiana, according to messages reviewed by The Free Press.

Then there are the DSA extremists, some of whom argue violence is necessary for revolution and others who openly celebrate it.

Well, AOC got booted out of the DSA because she wasn’t hard enough on Israel. Note, though, that Rashida Tlaib, who’s beyond redemption, is still a member, and Bernie Sanders, who identifies as a democratic socialist, has been endorsed by the DSA.  Regardless, given this behavior, both should resign from that organization. For crying out loud, nobody deserves to be murdered because they work for the Israeli embassy in Washington!

*And at Quillette, Graham Deseler reviews Ross Douthat’s new book, tendentiously called Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious (it was issued by a religious publisher).

. . . religion has been making something of a comeback lately. According to a recent Pew survey, the number of people who identify as Christians—a figure that had been declining for decades—appears to have levelled off, at least for the moment. It hovered around 63 percent in 2019, and that’s approximately where it stands now. In England, church attendance has actually increased among Generation Z. Rather than turning to the Church of England, younger congregants have been joining showier denominations like Catholicism and Pentecostalism. The rise of wokeness and the cult of personality that sprang up around Donald Trump have led some people to speculate that there’s a “God-shaped hole” in contemporary culture. “As religion has receded from people’s lives,” sociologist Jonathan Haidt has explained, “they’re hungrier. As I see it, politics has really taken the place [of religion].”

One of the loudest cheerleaders for the current religious revival is opinion columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative and a Catholic, who for years has used his perch at the New York Times to sing the praises of faith. Douthat has a new bestseller out titled Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, in which he argues that belief in God is not only socially beneficial and emotionally fulfilling—as Thompson, Rauch, and Ali contend—but also scientifically sound. “It is the religious perspective that grounds both intellectual rigor and moral idealism,” he writes. “And more important, it is the religious perspective that has the better case by far for being true.”

Douthat is an intelligent man, and he’s written several well-reasoned books—on the Republican Party, on the decadence of modern society, and on his own harrowing battle with Lyme disease. This is not one of them. He blows past entire branches of science and philosophy in just a few paragraphs, behaving as if he’s solved puzzles that, in fact, he’s barely touched. For instance, the question of why a benevolent personal God would allow good people to suffer has been perplexing thinkers since the Book of Job. But Douthat believes he has that problem licked:

After recounting what he sees as Douthat’s strongest argument (“fine-tuning”, which isn’t that strong), Deseler takes apart more of Douthat’s evidence for God:

Douthat also wonders about consciousness. Scientists have learned an enormous amount about the workings of the brain, he writes, but they are no closer to explaining how consciousness emerges: “Redescribe as you will, reduce as you may, nobody has any idea how or why the physical inputs that go into conscious experience, the stimuli from particular chemicals or light waves or exchanges between neurons, yield the actual experiences themselves.” On top of this mystery, Douthat layers others: “How,” he asks, “can light be both a wave and a particle? How can particles remain somehow ‘entangled’ even when separated by a great distance? And above all—how can human observation be the only thing that transforms quantum contingency into definite reality, wave into particle, probability into certainty?” Douthat’s answer to these rhetorical questions is that mind and matter are entwined because mind precedes matter.

It doesn’t take a degree in either neuroscience or quantum physics to see that Douthat is simply swapping one mystery for another. The hard problem of consciousness has stumped scientists for years, but invoking a divine creator does not provide a satisfactory answer. Douthat could just as well use the word magic to explain the emergence of consciousness. That, at least, would provide a more parsimonious explanation of cause and effect. After all, if conscious minds need a conscious creator, the next obvious question is who created the creator? The same goes for wave-particle duality. Saying the existence of God explains how light can be either a particle or a wave, depending on how it’s observed, is simply a way of dumping the conundrum on the Almighty. Douthat, in short, is postulating a “God of the gaps,” squeezing Him into the crevices that scientific knowledge has yet to fill. In the past, religious apologists have generally been wary of resorting to such arguments because they recognise that the gaps have been shrinking over time as we learn more about material reality. A God of the gaps is, by definition, a God of diminishing importance.

And you may remember this fatuous claim of Douthat:

Midway through the book, he states that the world’s religions are not incompatible with one another. Human history is filled with episodes of religious conflict and bloodshed precisely because they aren’t compatible. The New Testament, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon can’t all be the final revelation. If Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are real, Allah can’t be the one and only God. To pretend otherwise is not an empirical position, based on evidence. Nor is it a rational one, based on logic. It’s an act of faith.

Indeed, but Douthat would likely say that it’s better to have any faith rather than none. The man is delusional, making a post facto case to justify what he wants to believe, and it’s embarrassing that he’s allowed to publish this stuff in the New York Times.

*The National Spelling Bee was won with a tough French word (the article is archived here). I bet you can’t spell that word!

After coming in as runner-up during last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee and bungling an earlier chance to win on Thursday night, Faizan Zaki was given a word that, if spelled correctly, would let him finally win it all: “éclaircissement.”

He smiled and, without hesitation, stated each letter easily, then collapsed on the floor amid a shower of confetti. The 13-year-old of Plano, Texas, didn’t even need to ask for the word’s meaning, “a clearing up of something obscure.”

The stunning win capped a surprising run that took down six finalists and momentarily left the bee’s winner in doubt.

Here are five takeaways from the competition.

The nine finalists were unflappable

Sarv stole the spotlight

The competition almost ended in the eighth round

Mary Brooks had the hardest job of the night [a judge, she had to ring the bell when a contestant misspelled a word]

Faizan finally gets his win [he finished second last year]

Here’s a video of the winning moment.  If you look at the photo in the NYT piece, you’ll see that all the contestants but one appear to be East Asian, which I think is the usual situation.

*As always, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly snark-and-news column in the Free Press, called this week: “TGIF: Scammander in Chief.”

→ The continued reckoning: A postmortem on Kamala Harris’s campaign cited a “perception gap” as one of the reasons she lost, saying voters believed she held positions that she didn’t. “Over 80% of swing voters who chose Trump believed Harris held positions she didn’t campaign on in 2024, including supporting taxpayer funding for transgender surgeries for undocumented immigrants (83%), mandatory electric vehicles by 2035 (82%), decriminalizing border crossings (77%), and defunding the police (72%).” But Harris had, in fact, supported all of these positions. Like, she is on record supporting each of those positions (here, here, here, and here). So it’s not really a perception problem so much as a reception problem, like these ideas are not popular even though I support them. There’s a sense among Dems that people should simply ignore the things that are unpopular and that referencing them is fake news. Like, how dare you talk about the surge of migrants coming through our new open borders thanks to swift changes from the Biden admin. Yes, it’s technically true, but it’s disinformation-coded.

→ Leave Bruce alone: A bar in New Jersey canceled a performance by a Bruce Springsteen tribute band after the real Springsteen called Trump “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous” while on tour in England. Citing the bar’s MAGA clientele, the bar owner said that a Springsteen cover band would be “too risky at the moment.” And: “Whenever the national anthem plays, my bar stands and is in total silence, that’s our clientele. Toms River is red and won’t stand for his bull—.”

My conclusion: All political groups can be snowflake babies. All men yearn to see blood in the streets. See, I absolutely love Bruce Springsteen, and sure, I find his photo shoots and podcasts with Obama to be a little cringe, as the kids say, but I also don’t care. Politics shouldn’t get in the way of enjoying “Tunnel of Love,” a goddamn masterpiece. I take my neutrality seriously. We’re blasting the new Ye banger in our house right now. Art knows no borders! (Weird, I have no idea why the preschool teachers just requested an urgent meeting.)

→ Things that are not antisemitism: The Democratic Socialists of America “Liberation Caucus” has announced its support for Elias Rodriguez, the suspect arrested for slaughtering two Israeli Embassy staffers outside D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum last week. Here’s the statement signed by the DSA Liberation folks and a bunch of others: “As imperialism has made the entire world its battlefield, it is justified to fight it, by any means necessary, without regard for geography.” And: “[T]here must be consequences for genocidal [Z]ionist imperialism, and those consequences are righteous.” Chants of resistance is justified are the new cool thing in Chicago. And the major anti-Zionist protest group Unity of Fields is officially transitioning into “A MILITANT FRONT AGAINST THE US-NATO-ZIONIST AXIS OF IMPERIALISM.” Militant means their plan is to kill more. So, anyone who has ever said the Passover prayer that ends with Next year in Jerusalem, well, we’re all fair game. The killings are anti-Zionism, though, not antisemitism, write mainstream lefty thinkers. It just happens to be that Judaism keeps bringing up Israel. Have you considered not saying prayers? And a leader of the Palestine Writes festival is posting about how there is no such thing as the Jewish people. You learn new things every day.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is tired of being Editor-in-Chief of Listy and would rather rest:

Hili: We have to make a careful plan.

A; What plan?

Hili: How to break away from work.

Hili: Musimy to starannie zaplanować.

Ja: Co zaplanować?

Hili: Jak się oderwać od pracy.

And a photo of Szaron:

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

Frim CinEmma:

From The Dodo Pet:

From Meow:

Masih is still quiet, but JKR is reliably vocal. Here she points out the phenomenon of lesbians who are demonized for not wanting to hook up with transwomen who say they are lesbians:

‘I’m a straight man who dresses as a woman and I’m angry lesbians won’t sleep with me.’

What’s truly unbelievable is that some of those who tweeted #MeToo and #RapeCulture a few years back will take this man’s side. pic.twitter.com/9PhyqzC6b7

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 29, 2025

From Michael: BIG CAT HUG!

Bro got the hug everyone wants

🎥: robert via ig pic.twitter.com/i5GNDk4Hua

— Wholesome Side of 𝕏 (@itsme_urstruly) May 30, 2025

From Jez: a Jewish MIT grad offended by a blatantly anti-Jewish graduation speech (this moronic speaker doesn’t seem to realize that Hamas is the truly genocidal organization). The kids can’t help themselves!

Today should have been a happy day.

I finally got my PhD from @MIT, with my 5-year-old twins, my 2-year-old and my parents (children of Holocaust survivors) traveling halfway around the world just to be there.

Instead, MIT’s student commencement speaker decided it was… https://t.co/TLVDdqpF7i pic.twitter.com/qmtVs8IOlX

— Guy Zyskind enc/acc (@GuyZys) May 30, 2025

And here’s the offensive speech. The speaker certainly helped Gaza (LOL)!

That @MIT trains woke minds that fail to see the only genocidal entity in Gaza is Hamas is known.

But to ignore warnings & allow the class president to deliver hateful & dividing speech with no response from President Kornbluth who followed, shows the gravity of the situation!… pic.twitter.com/yFiEm6Ql1o

— Retsef Levi (@RetsefL) May 29, 2025

From Malcolm, a pensive cat (sound up):

Overthinking pic.twitter.com/M4MziWwfBc

— We don’t deserve cats 😺 (@catsareblessing) May 15, 2025

One I reposted from the Auschwitz Memorial:

Gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz, this Dutch girl was only seven.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T09:46:03.709Z

Two posts from Dr. Cobb. About the first one he simply says, “True”:

The only thing flat earthers fear is sphere itself!🌎 😆🤙

— Photography by Douglas 🍁 (@darkwaterphotos.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T12:21:31.494Z

The article notes that these are a white-fronted goose and a Canada goose, which have mated and produced eggs.  There were six eggs, two of which hatched, but no goslings could be found. The other four were duds.

“These are two totally different species of goose. But for some reason, they paired up – and they even produced eggs.”

— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T04:06:10.013Z